(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen. This morning I'm going to be preaching about this story in Genesis where Isaac gets his wife Rebecca. And as I go through the story, obviously these are real events that actually happen and there's a lot to be learned from those events themselves, but there are also a lot of allegorical interpretations when we read the Old Testament. And that's what I'm going to be focusing on this morning, more the symbolism of what's going on here. Now when we're looking at something like this, obviously I can only scratch the surface in an hour of preaching that I'm not even going to be able to come close to drawing out everything. And I'm not going to go through all the verses again. So hopefully you were paying attention when the whole chapter was read. But the idea here is that Abraham wants his servant to get a wife for Isaac that is not from the Canaanites and from those heathen, but rather from the relatives back in Syria. And so he's sending his servant to go get a wife for Isaac. And let's pick up the story there in verse number four. The Bible reads, But thou shalt go into my country and to my kindred and take a wife unto my son Isaac. And the servant said unto him, Peradventure, the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land. bring thy son again into the land from whence thou camest. And Abraham said unto him, Beware that thou bring not my son thither again. So the thing that's so interesting about this story is that the woman who's going to marry Isaac has to marry him sight unseen. So Isaac is not going to Syria to get the wife himself, but rather the servant is just going and telling her about Isaac. And then she has to marry the guy without even seeing him. And keep in mind, back then, of course, they didn't have the technology of showing a photograph or something. Hey, let me check out his profile on social media really quick. Let's check out his Instagram or whatever. So it's totally sight unseen. It's just all on the word of the servant that is telling her. And so this is a great picture of people receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, because we also have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ sight unseen. None of us here has ever seen Jesus. We did not see him die on the cross. We did not see him after he rose again from the dead. But yet we believe those things based upon the word of God. So the servant here represents the preacher of God's word, that man, woman, boy or girl who brings the gospel to the lost and tells them about Jesus and expects them to believe on Jesus and receive Jesus Christ as Savior, sight unseen, just as Rebekah had to marry Isaac, sight unseen. But not only that, the next thing I want to draw from what we just saw there is that if people are not willing to receive Christ based upon the word of God, they're not going to be persuaded at the second coming of Christ, okay? So remember, the servant says, well, what if she doesn't believe me? What if she doesn't listen? What if she's not willing to come? Should I take Isaac over there again? And notice the word again. It says at the end of verse 5, must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest and Abraham said unto him, beware that thou bring not my son thither again. So the idea here is that if she doesn't obey or if she doesn't believe or if she doesn't consent to be Isaac's wife, then it's not like, okay, well then Isaac will show up and present himself and then she'll come. No, that's not the way it works. She has to believe. She has to go based on what is being said by the servant. Go if you would to Luke chapter 16. I'm going to show you a few scriptures on this because it's important in light of the fact that there is a fiction that is being taught in a lot of Baptist churches that at the second coming of Christ, the Jews are going to en masse get saved. They're going to en masse receive Christ as Savior. The nation of Israel over there in the Middle East is just going to become Christian at the second coming of Christ. This is a fiction and a fraud, okay? And that's why I'm going to spend a little time on this point. We must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ based upon his word, okay? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Faith doesn't come by seeing. Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. Now the reason why I believe this fiction is so prevalent about how, oh, when Christ returns the second time, the Jews are all going to believe in him is that there's another person coming called the Antichrist who is a fake Jesus Christ, an imposter. He comes pretending to be Jesus Christ. He's pretending to be the second coming of Christ and guess what? The Jews are all going to receive him. And when the Jews all receive the Antichrist, this is what people are going to say, isn't this great? The Jews are finally believing in Jesus. And so that's clearly what is going on here. It isn't true. It isn't going to happen. By the way, the dispensationalists who've been preaching this fiction claimed that God brought them into the land in 1947, 1948 to become a nation that God, quote, brought them in the land in unbelief and that they would then later get saved. Well here we are in the year 2024 and guess what? That generation is gone and they did not get saved. And in fact, Christianity is less prevalent now in the land of Israel and Palestine than it was 10 years ago or 20 years ago or 30 years ago. It is on a decline. Christianity is continually going down in that region. And so what the dispensationalists predicted is false. It didn't happen. And this should come as no surprise to us because if people don't get saved when they're given a clear presentation of the Gospel, they're not going to get saved at the second coming of Christ. And let me prove it to you from the Bible. First of all, we have Luke chapter 16 is a great place to start. This is the rich man in hell. It says in verse 23, And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. Of course, Abraham doesn't do that. But then it says in verse 27, Then he said, I pray therefore, Father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house. So he's saying, Look, if I can't get a drink of water, if I can't get a drop of water to cool my tongue, then please, Abraham, I beg of you, send Lazarus to my father's house. For I have five brethren, verse 28, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Look at verse 29, Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. You've got to hear the word of God to be saved. Let them hear Moses and the prophets. And he said, Nay, my father Abraham. But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. And of course this is prophetic about the fact that Jesus Christ did rise from the dead and most of the Jews still did not believe in him. He came unto his own and his own received him not. Flip over if you would to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. If they don't believe based upon hearing the gospel, hearing the word of God, the preaching of God's word, well then someone returning from the dead, some kind of a great miracle isn't going to convince them either because there were all kinds of people in Christ's day who rejected the gospel, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and Jesus did miracles before them in many cases and they still didn't believe in him. They still rejected him. I mean when Lazarus was resurrected from the dead, there were people who were there present when Lazarus walked out of the grave that went and took counsel about how they might destroy Jesus. And he said, what are we going to do to stop this guy? I mean, why? Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, it's not based upon seeing signs and wonders. In fact, Jesus Christ in his ministry mainly did signs and wonders in front of people who already believed in him. And when he would show up at a place where people didn't believe in him, he didn't do a lot of mighty miracles there because of their unbelief. And even after Christ rose from the dead, when it talks about who he appeared unto, he typically didn't go around appearing to unsaved people, 99% he's appearing to people that are already saved. He's appearing to 500 brethren, okay? That wasn't just a big family, 500 brethren is saying that they're brethren because they're believers, they're brethren in Christ. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2 and we're going to look at a verse that's specifically about the end times here because Luke chapter 16 is just a general principle that it's God's word that saves Moses and the prophets. If they don't hear that, they're not going to be persuaded though one rose from the dead. But 2 Thessalonians 2 is specifically about the end times and it says in verse number 8, then shall that wicked be revealed, and we're talking about the antichrist, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. And why do they perish? Because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned to believe not the truth but at pleasure in unrighteousness. Here's what the Bible is saying. People that did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ when it was preached unto them, when they heard the Gospel, when they had the opportunity to become a Christian, when the end times comes and the antichrist shows up with the power of Satan doing all kinds of lying signs and wonders, the Bible says God will send the people who did not receive the love of the truth, who did not believe in Jesus, who did not accept the Gospel when it was presented to them, he will send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned to believe not the truth but at pleasure in unrighteousness. Meaning that in the end times when the antichrist shows up, you're not going to have this mass conversion to Christianity because people are saying, oh wow, this is the antichrist, it's all happening like it's said in the Bible, quick, get saved. That's not what's going on my friend. No what's going to happen is people are going to be sucked in by it, people are going to be deceived by it because on the one hand you have the antichrist being empowered by Satan and then on the other hand you have God sending people a strong delusion so that they will believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but at pleasure in unrighteousness. Here's the moral to the story, get saved now, get saved today before that strong delusion comes upon the earth, get saved when someone takes the Bible and shows you today that Jesus Christ died for your sins and was buried and rose again, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation, don't wait until the end times start happening because then it just might be too late for you because this idea of mass conversion to Christ surrounding the second coming is not real, it's not biblical. You need to get saved now while the word of God is being preached. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, 1 Corinthians chapter number 1. So we saw Luke 16, we saw 2 Thessalonians 2 which is very relevant since it's specific to the end times but look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, again specifically about the Jews because the story is that the Jews are all just going to get saved en masse, then why aren't they getting saved now? You know if they're all going to get saved en masse in the end times, why aren't they getting saved now? Why are they unreceptive to the gospel now? Why would they just be unreceptive, unreceptive, unreceptive, unreceptive, unreceptive, unreceptive, ah they're all getting saved! It's the same people, it's the same crew. Do we believe in free will or not? I'm not a Calvinist, I don't believe that God will just make people get saved, no. People make the personal decision to get saved or not and so it doesn't make any sense and again it's 2024, a little late for their prophecy to come true at this point. Because even if they got saved now, that's not the people that he brought back to the land because they're all dead, it's a different generation. It's like their grandparents, literally. But 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 21 says this, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So what does God use to save those who believe? He uses preaching, right? Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God, how shall they hear without a preacher? That's what the Bible says and so God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That's not just me behind a pulpit preaching, that could be you also preaching the gospel to a friend, preaching the gospel to a loved one, preaching the gospel door to door. This is evangelizing, witnessing, soul winning, that's what we're talking about here in addition to preaching behind a pulpit, right? We're all out there hopefully preaching the gospel to people that we come into contact with. God chose the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Verse 22, for the Jews require a sign. What do the Jews want to see? They want to see a sign, they want to see a miracle. What they say to Jesus, show us a sign. And the Greeks seek after wisdom. So the Greeks, they want to philosophize and they want to rationalize everything and they want it all to be perfectly logical, to match up with their humanistic wisdom and understanding. And the Bible is not saying here, well the Jews require a sign so God's going to give them one. The Greeks require wisdom so God's going to just hyper-philosophize with them. No, what it actually says is the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Not signs, not wisdom, but preaching, okay? They want signs, no, they're getting preaching. They want wisdom, no, they're getting preaching. We preach Christ crucified. Under the Jews, a stumbling block. Under the Greeks, foolishness, right? Go down to the university or something and some people will find the gospel to be foolishness. They're kind of the Greeks of this world, right? Where they want philosophy and worldly wisdom. Under the Jews, it's a stumbling block. But does that mean that we change the method or change the message? No, we preach Christ crucified. Under the Jews, a stumbling block in general. Under the Greeks, foolishness in general. But under them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. So with that in mind, go back to Genesis 24. That was a little bit of a rabbit trail but I wanted to cover that because I think it's a great truth that's foreshadowed in Genesis 24 where she has to believe on this marriage. She has to consent to be Isaac's bride, sight unseen. And if she rejects, Isaac doesn't go to her but rather, you know, she just has to believe sight unseen. It's the only way it's going to work out. You know, Jesus told the Jews, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall no sign be given it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matthew 16 again, four chapters later. A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonah and he left them and departed. And so God is not just going to accommodate every atheist by showing them physical proof of his existence. God's not going to accommodate the Jews by showing them miracles so that they might see and believe. That's what they said to Jesus when he was on the cross. Hey, if you're the Messiah, come down from the cross so that we might see and believe. That's not the way it works, my friend. It's hear and believe, it's not see and believe. Genesis 24 verse 7. So again, Abraham's giving the instructions to his servant to go find the bride for Isaac. It says, the Lord God of heaven which took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred and which spake unto me and that swear unto me saying unto thy seed while I give this land, he shall send his angel before thee and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence. The next thing I want to point out is that God goes before us and prepares our way when we go soul winning. If we go out soul winning, we go out knocking doors, God goes before us. The Holy Spirit goes before us and softens the hearts of people. Maybe he puts circumstances in their lives that would cause them to be receptive to the Gospel. Maybe he allows them to hear the seed of the word of God planted at some point or someone else is able to water that seed so that when we get there, we are entering into other men's labors when we get there and win someone to Christ. They've often heard the Gospel before. They've heard Bible verses before. God has already been working in their heart through circumstances, through friends, through loved ones, prayers of others and so we enter into that just as the servant has this difficult job of going to a far country and convincing a woman to marry a man that she's never seen before, that she's never heard about until today. It seems kind of crazy, right? I mean, how many of you girls are thinking like, I'd do it. You know, it's like, well, wait a minute, you know, you don't, you don't want to get there and the guy's super gross or something, right? And so it seems like kind of a difficult mission that he's being given. But then Abraham explains to him, look, here's why it's doable because the Lord is going to send his angel before you, right? And so we also have the Holy Spirit going before us and preparing the hearts so that when we go out soul winning, we are successful. Now obviously we're not going to be successful 100% of the time as far as every day or every week or even every month. But in general, he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. We are in the long run going to be successful at winning people to Christ if we go out and try. Why? Because the power of God is working through us. The angel of the Lord is going before us and we are led by the Holy Spirit to people that are already being worked on. We don't just show up and do it all ourself. We don't just show up to somebody and, and nothing has happened in that person's life to this point to prepare them and we just take them all the way. First base, second base, third base, home run salvation. That's typically not the way it works. My friend, when we go out there and preach to someone, sometimes we're the one just planting a seed, just kind of getting them to first base as it were. Other times we're showing up and somebody's already been worked on. God's already gone before us and prepared the way other Christians have gone before us and done a work and we're just there to finish what's already been started. We've entered into other men's labors. And so the angel being set before signifies that. And then look at the next verse, it says in verse eight, and if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath, only bring not my son thither again. So he's saying like, look, God's going to make you successful, but if you do get there and she doesn't consent to come with you, then you're off the hook because he's making the servant swear that he will go do this job. You know, put your hand under my thigh and swear to me that you're going to, you know, go over there and get my son, a wife from there and it, well, what if she won't come with me? He says, well, look, first of all, God's going to send his angel before you to make your way prosperous. But if you go and do what you're supposed to do and she doesn't come, well then you're off the hook. You know, and that's the way it is with soloing. If we go out and preach the gospel and they don't get saved, it's not our fault. We're off the hook. Don't take it personally. You know, it's funny, I'll be out soloing with someone and I'll be the silent partner and they'll be doing the talking and they will present the gospel to someone and the person will not get saved. And then we'll walk away from the door and, and, uh, the person that I'm with will say something to me like, you know, is there something I should have done differently or, you know, do you have any tips or, you know, uh, what did I do wrong? And I'm just saying, you did nothing wrong. You did a great job. You presented the gospel. They just didn't get saved. It's not that you did something wrong. It's that they just aren't ready or they're just not receptive or they're just not going to get saved today. Maybe they're not going to get saved ever, but it's not our job to be perfect. And no matter how perfect you are, you can't make someone get saved. That's a personal decision that they have to make. Man, I wish I could just go out and just, and just save people and just make them get saved. It doesn't work that way. All I can do is preach the gospel. They have to make that decision. God has to do a work in their heart and then they have to actually believe, you know, and that's a choice. That's a decision that they have to make. And so if they don't get saved, we're off the hook as long as we deliver the message. Now, if we don't deliver the message, well then it's our fault that people are damned because we're not preaching the gospel. What was done to me if I preach not the gospel? If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. And so we are responsible for warning people, but if we warn them and they don't get saved, we can't beat ourselves up about it because it isn't our decision. It's ultimately between them and God. The transaction ultimately takes place between them and God. We're just a messenger. The Bible says in verse number 12, he said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day. So now the servant is in Padan Aram and he is ready to carry out the mission. He's ready to go find a bride for Isaac and he starts to pray and he prays and says to God, give me good speed this day and show kindness unto my master Abraham. Verse 13, behold, I stand here by the well of water and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw and let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say, let down my pitcher I pray thee that I may drink and she shall say drink and I will give thy camels drink also. Let the same be she that thou has appointed for thy servant Isaac and thereby shall I know that thou has showed kindness unto my master and it came to pass before he had done speaking that behold, Rebecca came out who was born to Bethuel son of Milka, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother with her pitcher upon her shoulder. So again, the servant is sent out by Abraham. He goes to the far country. He goes to find the bride, but before he does, he prays to God and he asked for God's help and what's cool about this is that immediately upon praying, the Bible says before he had done speaking, the answer is there. I mean, she already comes. I was talking to Pastor Jimenez about this and he was saying that, you know, prayer is a great time saver and I was thinking about the fact that many times I'll be struggling to put together a sermon or struggling to figure out what I'm going to preach and, and just agonizing and, and trying to figure and then I'll pray and then boom, you know, and I'm just like, man, I should have done that sooner because God answers prayer. Now obviously answers to prayer don't always come that fast, but in general, prayer does save time. A lot of people think like, well, I'm not going to pray cause I'm too busy. I don't have time. I have too much going on. I can't pray. But here's the thing. Prayer is in the long run a time saver. And so if you're super busy and don't have any time, that's all the more reason to take that step to pray because ultimately it's going to save time when God jumps in and helps you out with whatever you're dealing with. And I am a strong believer of praying when we go out sowing that God will lead us to the people that are going to be receptive to the gospel. When I go out sowing, I pray and say, God, please help me not to get sucked into any waste of time kind of conversations. Please just help the bozos who want to argue with me to just not be home. You know, let them be detained somehow. And please just allow the people that are likely to listen and are likely to get saved, help them to be home, help them to be ready, you know, lead us, direct us. And that's why I believe that we are successful when we go out sowing is because I do believe God's leading us and he's, he's putting certain people on our path. And sometimes that's obvious and sometimes it's not that obvious. Every once in a while it's obvious cause you'll knock on somebody's door and you'll win them to Christ. And then they say, Oh man, wait till my uncle hears about this. He's been trying to convert me for years. He's been trying to get me saved for years. My Baptist uncle has been preaching this to me all the time. And then you realize like, Hey, you're answering that guy's prayer. God has led you here to answer uncle so-and-so's prayer. Other times it's not as obvious, but it's still going on behind the scenes whether you know it or not. God is directing us. God has answered. If we pray anything according to God's will, we know that he hears us. And if we know that he hears us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. God's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. We want people to get saved. God wants people to get saved. That's the kind of prayer that God's really listening to and answering and working with us. And so even if we go out and have what we think was an unsuccessful bout of soul winning and we were preaching to a lot of people and they're not getting saved, we don't really know if maybe some of those people we preach to that didn't get saved, maybe later they're going to get saved. And God had us there to plant that seed or to water that seed. We don't really know what we're accomplishing until we get to heaven. But we really know the result of what we're accomplishing when we're out there evangelizing. And so we should pray for God to lead us to those who are receptive, those whose hearts have been prepared. So of course right away he finds Rebecca and she fits this criteria that he has set of not only giving him water, but offering to give the camels water also, which is kind of a tall order that he's asking for. Don't quote me on these statistics because I might have this wrong, but I want to say that a camel can drink like 25 gallons in 10 minutes or something. So it's kind of an incredible amount of water. Like 25 gallons, it can drink 10 minutes and then it can just go on that without needing to drink water for a long time, which is why camels are so useful in the desert. And so it's a lot of water. It's a little difference between give me a drink, which is I'm going to drink maybe a pint or two of water. Give the camels a drink, they might drink like 25 gallons each. So this girl is really on the ball as far as serving this guy and filling up the trough with water. And so he ends up following her back to her house and getting to know her family and talking to her brother Laban and Bethuel. And as he explains the whole story to them, we already read it before the service, but as he explains this to them, it says in verse 50, then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, the thing proceeded from the Lord. We cannot speak unto thee bad or good. Behold Rebecca is before thee. Take her and go and let her be thy master's son's wife as the Lord had spoken. So the family consents to this union. They basically say, it's fine with us, yeah, great, sounds good. But they also try to delay Rebecca from going with Isaac. So they consent to it in principle, but then they try to kind of slow things down and delay the process. In verse number 55, it says, her brother and her mother said, let the damsel abide with us a few days, at least 10. It's funny how it goes from like a few days to 10. That's not really a few, that's kind of a long time. Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at least 10. After that, she shall go. And he said unto them, hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way. Send me a way that I may go to my master. And so the idea here is that now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation, because remember her going and becoming Isaac's bride is a picture of receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as savior being saved. And so the idea here is get saved now. Don't delay. And maybe people around you might try to tell you, hey, just wait, just think about it. It's not urgent. You're young. You have your whole life to figure this out. But the reality of the situation is that the younger you are, the more likely you are to get saved. Look, folks, we go soul winning around here. We have been preaching the gospel to people door to door, people that we run into in public, friends, family, loved ones. We've been doing it for years around here. Some of us have been doing it for decades. And we all know one thing to be true, that in general, the younger someone is, the more likely they are to get saved. Who are the most unreceptive people out there? People that are 70 years old, 60 years old, 50 years old, the younger you get, 40 is more receptive than 50, 30 is more receptive than 40, 20 is more receptive than 30, and children and teenagers are the most receptive of all. I mean, when we're out soul winning and we can preach the gospel to a group of teenagers, we love that because that's a receptive crowd. And why do you think that a lot of people from our church have had so much success soul winning on university campuses? Why? Because of the fact that younger people are more receptive. You know, we often talk about rich people not being receptive and poor people being receptive. And there's obviously truth to that. It's biblical, the Bible talks about that. But part of the reason why those rich neighborhoods aren't receptive, it's not because they're rich, it's because they're old. Because it usually takes time to get that kind of money and to get those kind of possessions. And so when you go to those rich neighborhoods, sometimes you'll get somebody saved. A teenager or a 20 year old or something, occasionally the child of those rich people, the grandchild of those rich people. Because in general, not only are poor people more receptive than rich people, but young people are more receptive than the elderly. Why is that? Well, the reason that poor people are more receptive than rich people is that rich people typically could be filled with pride. And that is the one thing that's going to stop you from getting saved more than anything. Because getting saved is all about realizing that there's nothing you can do to earn your way to heaven, that you're a sinner, that you deserve hell, and fully trusting in what Christ has done for you. Fully relying on Jesus Christ to save you. It's easier for a poor person who's used to relying on other people and they're used to failing and maybe screwing up in life a little bit to realize, yeah, I'm a screw up. I've screwed up. I've sinned. I deserve hell. And fully trusting Christ to be their savior. Whereas a rich person might think, you know, I picked myself up by my own bootstraps and I've accomplished all this and I'm winning at life and making all this money. And so it's harder for them to humble themselves and say, hey, even though I'm winning financially, spiritually, I'm doomed. It's harder for them to come to terms with that. The Bible says, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God? They're relying upon themselves, relying on their money, relying on their resources. They're not used to being in a position where they need absolute help and salvation. And that's where we are spiritually. They don't get it. Why are younger people more receptive than older people? Part of the reason in the United States is that we have the gospel so much in the United States. It's out there so much. I mean, literally this week, you know, I had people not come and try to evangelize me, but I walked by a group of people that were trying to evangelize someone else, evangelical Christians trying to evangelize some random person on the street. And I've had people come to my door and try to get me saved. I've had people approach me at the gym and try to get me saved multiple times. And I told them I'm already saved, you know, but it was great to have people come and try to evangelize me. I mean, look, I'm 42 years old and I've just randomly had a whole bunch of people try to witness to me over the years of my life. So chances are, if that's what I've been experiencing, I'm already saved. Probably the average person is here in Bible verses. They're hearing the gospel. They know Christians. They have Christian cousins, aunt, uncle, friend, classmate, coworker, and maybe somebody knocks their door. I mean, look at all the doors we're knocking. Other churches are knocking doors. I mean, a lot of times, by the time somebody gets to be 70 in the USA, they've either already gotten saved or they've already rejected the gospel a bunch of times and they're not interested. They've already kind of made their choice one way or the other. That's why I feel like sometimes when we go to other countries, soul winning, elderly people will sometimes be more likely to get saved. I've gotten more elderly people saved in Mexico than in the United States because they're not as saturated with the real gospel down there. It's a bunch of Catholicism and pagan worshiping Mary and idolatry down there. I mean, there's a lot of evangelical Christianity down there as well, but not as much as up here. USA is pretty saturated. Thank God. Let's saturate it more. It's not enough for my taste. I want people to hear the gospel in this country so many times that they're all sick of it because I want as many people to get saved as possible. And so let's saturate it even more. But that's part of why I think a lot of old people aren't receptive. But not only that, it's just as people get older, they just get more disillusioned with life. They get more jaded and they just get more hardened. Their heart gets hardened as they go through life. Whereas the young person has a softer, more tender heart and is often going to be more receptive to the gospel. And frankly, Satan is out there lying to people every day and using the media and using all kinds of religious institutions, educational institutions, media institutions to deceive this whole world. Well, the longer you're in that brainwashing, you know, you might just get so screwed up where you're just not ready to hear the gospel anymore, whereas a young person might not be as tainted by all that. And so they're more likely to get saved. So what's the moral of the story? Get saved sooner rather than later. Don't say, well, I'm going to wait to get saved. No, the younger you are, the more likely you are to get saved. And if you don't, if you understand the gospel and hear it and don't get saved, the next time you hear it, you're probably less likely to get saved, not more likely to get saved. So once it clicks, once you get it, once you understand, man, pull the trigger. Don't wait. Get saved before it is eternally too late. Now that means that when we're out soul winning, we should try to encourage people to get saved before it's too late. Now, what we don't want to do is try to force people. We can't force people. And the servant isn't just basically grabbing her, throwing her over the camel and saying, you said you're coming. You're coming now. We didn't say 10 days is now. You know, he's not grabbing her and she's kicking and screaming and he's riding off on a horse and she's over the, over the saddle behind him, you know, yeehaw. He's not abducting her. But what does he say though? He doesn't just say, yeah, 10 days. Let's make it, let's make it a month. No, no, no. Here's what he says. He says, no, no, no. Let's do this now. Let's go now. And that's what we should do when we're out soul winning. Obviously we shouldn't be too pushy because that's not going to accomplish any, accomplish anything, you know, forcing someone to say they believe something that they don't really believe or pray something that they don't really mean. That's not going to accomplish anything. That's counterproductive. It's foolish. But if people are on the fence, we should try to persuade them. You know, uh, can you represent almost out persuadest me to be a Christian? The Bible says that we should go out into the highways and edges and compel them to come in that God's house may be full. We should try to talk people into getting saved. We shouldn't just be like, well, I mean, you know, if you want to get saved, you can get saved. If not, whatever. You know, it's like, it's up to you, man, whatever. Is that really how you feel? Do you really not care if people get saved or not? Because I care and so I want to pull people out of the fire. And so I want to try to talk people into getting saved and I want to try to talk people into getting saved today. And again, obviously it's a fine line because you don't want to be pushing people to do something that they don't really believe. I mean, if somebody says, I don't believe this or I'm not sure if I believe this or not or I need to look into this more, you know, then a lot of times that it just is what it is at that point. You say, okay, well, then you just encourage them to actually do look in that. And if somebody says that to me, like, I'm not ready to receive this today, but you know, I'm going to think about it. Then what I'll typically try to do is say, well, look, while you're thinking about it, watch this video or while you're thinking about it, read the gospel of John. I'll give him a new Testament and show them, Hey, why don't you start reading the gospel of John? And instead of just saying like, Oh, well, I'll think about it. And then you just go about your life and forget about it and you're not actually thinking about it. No, no. If you actually want to think about it, then go to the book, the book of John and start reading the gospel or, you know, watch these videos of preaching or the gospel being presented or something like that. You know, if someone truly does need to think about it and they're not ready, then we would like to try to maybe point them toward some things that could help get them ready to help water that seed. But sometimes people will just be kind of like, Oh, I don't know. You know, and we can continue to preach to them and try to get them over the finish line right then and there. And so we do want, don't be afraid to try to talk somebody into getting saved. Don't just have this really laid back like, Hey, just whatever you can do to try to talk people into it. Don't force people to do something that's not real. That's just stupid. But we do want to try to persuade, compel, pull them out of the fire, do what we can. Why? Because there should be an urgency about the gospel, right? That's what it means to preach the gospel. You know, if you ever heard someone being kind of preachy, we need to be a little preachy. Now a lot of times people are saying that it's a negative thing like, Oh man, he's kind of preachy. Why? Thank you. That's what I do for a living. But you know, even before I was a preacher, I was preachy. You know, I'd be preaching to people and I'd be, you know, at the, working at a pizza place preaching to people, you know, and I was being preachy. Why? Because I'm not just kind of like, well, you know, here's what's out there. I'm like, no man, you need to get saved. And that's the message that we need to preach is like, you need to get saved. And I remember this one guy, I was witnessing this guy, you know, this popped into my mind because I'm talking about the pizza place, Roundtable Pizza. This message has been brought to you in part by Roundtable, but I was working at Roundtable Pizza and I was giving this guy the gospel and he was kind of like, Oh, I don't know. And he wasn't sure. And he was hemming and hawing. And I talked to him one night at work and he's like, yeah, I'm still thinking about it. And I just told him, I said, I said, look, man, I said, you've been thinking about this for too long. And I said, you could get in your car tonight and drive home and get hit by some drunk driver. You could die tonight. And if you die tonight, you're going to hell. I said, you know, you know that this is true. You've seen the gospel, you've seen the word of God, you know, God's working on you. You need to just get saved right now. And he said, okay, let's do it. And he got saved right then and there. He got saved. He came to church with me a few times and he got baptized. But then what happened was he had some he had some relatives that were Presbyterians. Of course, they didn't win him to Christ, of course. But then once they heard that he got saved, they were all excited. So then they, you know, recruited him to their church and got him to go to their church and so forth. So unfortunately, he didn't join a Baptist church, but he did receive Christ as savior. He did get saved. And you know, I did kind of just hit him kind of hard with it that night. That's what I'm talking about. I felt like it was appropriate because he'd already heard it all. He'd already understood it. And he's just kind of delaying for no reason. And that's when I got preachy with him and he got saved and it worked. And and, you know, he was he was definitely even outwardly even transformed. You're not always going to see that outward transformation. Obviously, salvation is always an inward transformation. But it's nice when we can also get to see that outward transformation as well. And so now's the time. Don't let people delay you from getting saved if you're not safe. And if you're witnessing to people, you know, preach the message with urgency. So it says in verse number 56, he said to them, hinder me not seeing that the Lord has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master. And they said, we will call the damsel and inquire her mouth. Verse 58. And they called Rebecca and said to her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go. See, ultimately, it has to be their decision to get saved. Each person has to make a decision. You know, Bethuel can't make the decision for her. Lavin can't make the decision for her. Ultimately, it's will you go with this man? Are you are you going to go with this guy? Which they were acting like, oh, yeah, for sure it's going to happen. Just give us 10 days. But in reality, it wasn't for sure going to happen because notice they don't say like, hey, are you okay with going now? Or would you rather wait 10 days? It's just like, are you do you want to go with this guy? Because the 10 days was maybe so that they could have a cool down period because maybe they weren't even really sure. And whatever. And that's the thing. People who say I'm going to get saved later. Are they though? I hope so. But we don't know, do we? So ultimately, she has to make a personal decision to go with this guy sight unseen and go marry Isaac. And she simply says, I will go. No one can make the decision for her. She has to do it herself. Now if you would flip over to Hebrews chapter, I'll actually you don't have to turn it I'll just read it for you. It's such a famous verse. The Bible says, but without faith, it is impossible to please him talking about God, without faith is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So ultimately to be saved, you have to sight unseen believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, was buried and rose again, and you have to fully trust him to be your personal savior. This is what it means to be saved and it requires faith and without faith it's impossible to please him because he that cometh to God must believe that he is, must believe that God even exists and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Why should I believe that? Now think about this. Why did Rebecca believe this? Why I mean, who is this guy that just shows up randomly and says, you know, hey, give me to drink. I'm just going to just follow this guy to some far country to marry some dude that I've never seen. Here's the thing, the faith that she puts in him is not totally unfounded because the guy does show up with a whole bunch of loot and he's got all kinds of riches and all kinds of treasures that are with him showing that the guy is not just some random human trafficker or something that's trying to trick her. You know, he shows up with at least some sign of who he is. And here's the thing, you know, when we show up and we preach the gospel, we're giving people a taste of what's available because as we preach them the word of God, the Holy Spirit moves upon them and the Holy Spirit uses God's word in a powerful way. And so how do we know that the word of God is even real or how do we know that Jesus really died for us is because of the power of God's word and because the Holy Spirit works in our hearts. So there's that taste, right? There's that little foreshadowing of what's to come with the Lord. And so just like that wealth is kind of a foreshadowing where he shows up and he's got a bunch of loot on his camels, then that kind of shows her like, okay, there's some legitimacy. Look why do people believe the word of God? Because you know, this is a treasure right here. You know, this is powerful stuff right here. This is amazing stuff. It's not like we're just showing them nothing, just, hey, believe in Jesus because we said so. No, no. I mean, we have the word of God. This is kind of like the gold earring here and the, and the, the, the bracelets and you know, the loot on the back of the camel, right? Now although no illustrations ever going to be perfect, this story is a great illustration about winning people to Christ. No picture is ever perfect. I mean, think about how many Old Testament characters picture Jesus. None of them picture Jesus perfectly because they're all sinners and Jesus is not a sinner. So every illustration is going to fall apart or break down at some point, but there are a lot of powerful truths here that we can glean from this story. We're the servant, we're offering good news. Rebecca has offered a huge amount of wealth, right? Because it's not just that she's going to marry Isaac, she's going to marry Isaac and Isaac's a rich dude and here's some of the treasure. You can see it for yourself. Well guess what? We're offering something way better than a rich husband. We're offering forgiveness of sins, eternal life, a home in heaven, and purpose, meaning and guidance even in this present world right now. We're also offering a more excellent way of life right now, a meaningful life now, but most importantly we're offering forgiveness, home in heaven, salvation, etc. If people reject it, that's their problem. But it's our job to get out there and be preaching this message to as many people as possible. It's not just my job as the pastor of the church. Long before I was the pastor of the church, I was compelling some round table worker to be saved. And all of us should be witnessing in our personal lives, in our everyday lives, people that we come into contact with, friends, loved ones, co-workers. Obviously we've got to be appropriate. I'm not saying like, hey, let's stop the assembly line and I'm going to preach to everybody. But obviously we do have those chances even in our job where we're driving in the work truck together or where we're sitting down to lunch together or whatever when it could be a good time for you to present the gospel. Loved ones, family, friends, and how about just getting out there door to door and just going out there and just preaching the gospel to random people or just walking down the street and just stopping someone and randomly giving them the gospel. You say, no, no, no, I'm just going to stick to friends and loved ones. You know, the problem with that is we just don't have enough friends and loved ones and a lot of people aren't receptive. So you're going to burn through your friends and loved ones and some of them are going to be receptive. Some of them aren't. You know, we want to be, we want to win 30 people to the Lord, want to win 60 people to the Lord, want to win 100 people to the Lord. I don't want, I don't want to just win one person, the Lord or five people to the Lord. You know, I want to get as many people saved as I can. I want to be a really fruitful Christian. And so the way to do that is you got to go beyond just your close circle and just get out there into the highways and hedges and just start preaching the gospel to people that you don't know. And by the way, the servant didn't know Rebecca and yet he approached a stranger and said, give me a drink. She gave him a drink. She gave the camel's drink. Next thing you know, he's, you know, putting an earring in her ear and saying, you're going to marry my master's son and she's like, huh? Or if you're reading the NIV, he puts a nose ring in her nose. But anyway, that's real by the way. And so we need to be out there preaching the gospel, getting as many people saved as we can. And you know, it's, we, we can't force them. It's gotta be their personal decision. And don't take it. If they say no, don't, don't take it personally. Just realize, Hey, my work here is done. I'm off the hook, but at least try and when appropriate, sometimes you want to give them a little bit of a nudge and, and get a little preachy with them as well. If appropriate, because we just want people to get saved and we have a great message. It's not like we're offering people something stupid. It's not like we're trying to sell Amway or something, selling people some inferior product that they don't need. Sorry, I hate Amway, so screw it. But anyway, the point is that we're offering the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the greatest gift ever given. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. Let's get it out there. Let's get excited about it. Let's tell people about it. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you so much for this great story, Lord, and we thank you for how many valuable truths it illuminates, Lord. Help us to be out there faithfully preaching your word and giving the gospel to the lost and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.