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All right, take your Bibles and let's go to Genesis 24. Genesis 24. If you guys can just be praying for me as I preach. Honestly, I just have a pounding headache. I want to do the best I can for you guys this morning. But Genesis 24. Now this is a very long chapter. A very long chapter that we've seen here in the book of Genesis. And it's a very simple story. It's a very simple story of Abraham sending his most loyal or his oldest servants. The one that he has, you know, the servant that has basically looked up his entire house. And he asked him, look, can you please go to my family? Can you go to my household and find a wife for Isaac? Find a wife for Isaac. And so he goes. He asks the Lord for some leading. He's able to find a lady at the, you know, that was taking water out of the well. He announces his reasons for being there. That he was looking for a wife unto Isaac. And she agrees to return back and to be Isaac's wife. It's a very simple story, but it's a very long chapter. And there's a lot of repetition in the chapter. Now when you see this happen in the Bible, you should pause and ask yourself, why does God want us to focus on this chapter? Why is there so much repetition? Why is it so long? Why is it so detailed? Okay, you know, why is it that we're seeing this story of finding a wife here? Whereas we don't really have any information about the other men, how they found their wives. We have a little bit in Genesis 2 with Abraham and Eve. I mean, sorry, Adam and Eve, of course. And we don't really have any other stories until we get to Genesis 24 about how one ought to find a wife. And so when we pause and think about the many, you know, this long chapter and the detail that God gives us, I can't help but think God has given us, you know, instruction of how to find a wife. So for the title, the title for the sermon this morning is, Preparing for Marriage. Preparing for marriage. We see a lot of information here, how what a man should be seeking for when it comes to a wife and how a woman should be preparing herself for marriage. Okay, so I'm not going to read this chapter in the same way that I would normally go for a chapter where I go from, you know, verse number one to the end of the chapter. We're going to be breaking up this chapter and just putting some of these thoughts together. So the title, once again, is Preparing for Marriage. Preparing for marriage. Look at verse number one, Genesis 24 verse one. And Abraham was old and well stricken in age and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said unto his eldest servants of his house that ruled over all that he had, put I pray thee thy hand under my thigh and I will make thee swear by the Lord the God of heaven and the God of the earth that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell. But thou shalt go unto my country and to my kindred to take a wife unto my son Isaac. The first thought that I have here, you know, if you're someone that is single, someone that is preparing to get married, or even the children here, one day you'll be preparing to marry. The first thought that I want you to notice here is that you should, point number one, is that you should involve your parents. Your parents should be involved in giving you good advice, giving you good godly counsel as to who you should be thinking about when it comes to marriage. You know, your father, your mother has a lot of wisdom. You know, they've lived life longer than you have. They know, especially fathers, they know how to spot, you know, a wicked man. You know, they know they can look at a young man and say, you know what, this young man will either love my daughter or he's going to just use her and take advantage of that situation. Many times, young ladies, you can't see that. You know, you have those feelings, wow, this boy is interested in me, but you need the guidance of your father. You need the guidance of your father to help you make the right decisions. And so we see Abraham making a decision, sending this servant, this loyal servant, to go find a wife for his son. And I truly believe, parents, that you should be on the lookout for godly men or godly ladies that you can, you know, point your children in the right direction. Now you can't force it upon your child. You know, when it comes to, you know, there are some cultures that have arranged marriages, that, you know, as a child is young and small, they've already made a decision with parents of another child that they're going to be married. You see some of that in India. You know, I don't believe in arranged marriage in that sense where you're forcing your children. In fact, you'll see in this chapter that no one is forcing anybody, okay? But I do believe in sort of parents getting involved in it, not just leaving it up to the children. Again, we see Abraham making that conscious decision to find a wife for his son. Drop down to verse 49, please. Verse number 49. Again, the point here was involve the parents. Involve the parents. Verse number 49. It says here, and now if you will do kindly and truly with my master tell me, and if not tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left. So what we've done here when we got into verse number 49, we have the servant go into the family of Rebecca and ask him, can you tell me whether you'd be willing for Rebecca to come and marry my master's son? Verse number 50. Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, the thing proceeded from the Lord. We cannot speak unto thee, bad or good. Now the reason I wanted to read these passages here now is that Laban, first of all, was the brother of Rebecca. We don't know exactly what happened to her father. Her father's not mentioned in this story. It's possible that he's passed away. It's possible. Or maybe they're separated. They're not living together. But for whatever reason, we see that Laban steps up as her brother and he's involved in making the decision about his sister. And Bethuel, that's her mother, okay? So we do see even not only Abraham when it comes to Isaac being involved, but we see the family of the bride or the family of the young lady also involved in making these decisions. Look at verse number 51. Behold, Rebecca is before thee. Take her and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as the Lord hath spoken. And it came to pass that when Abraham's servant heard their words, he worshipped the Lord, bowing himself to the earth. So what I want you to notice there is that the family of Rebecca has given their go-ahead in order for Rebecca to get married to Isaac. They've given her the go-ahead. And this would be the example of a young man, you know, going to the father of that lady and asking permission to marry her. And I believe that that's not just a cultural thing, you know, that something in the past that had been done in the past where a young man would go to the father. I believe that's what every young man should be striving to do, you know? The father has the authority over that young lady. And you need to go to that father and say, look, are you willing to give her hand in marriage to me? You know, I believe before you go and ask the young lady for her hand in marriage, you should first go to her father. Or here we have, we see the family. We see the family being involved in making that decision. They say, yeah, all right. We can see the Lord is involved in this decision as we've gone through the story. Look at verse 53. And the servant brought forth jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment and gave them to Rebecca. He gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things. And they did eat and drink. He and the men that were with him and tarried all night. And they rose up in the morning and said, send me away unto my master. And her brother and her mother said, let the damsel abide with us a few days and at the least ten. After that she shall go. And he said unto them, hinder me not seeing the Lord have prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master. And they said, we will call the damsel and inquire at her mouth. So here we see that even though the family have approved of the decision for Rebecca to get married to be given as a wife to Isaac, we still see them going to the damsel, going to Rebecca and asking, well, what do you think, Rebecca? You know, are you happy with this situation? And it's verse number 58. And they called Rebecca and said unto her, will thou go with this man? And she said, I will go. So and verse number 59, they sent away Rebecca, their sister and her nurse and Abraham's servants and his men. So we see once again, the family are happy to give Rebecca away as a wife, but they still seek Rebecca. You know, they still say, look, Rebecca, what do you want to do? And she says, yes, I will go with this man. And so you see that it's not forcing, they're not forcing Rebecca to get married. Yes, they agree, but they've gone to Rebecca. What do you think, Rebecca? And she says, Yep, you know what, I'm happy to go with this man. I'm happy to go and get married unto Isaac. And that's the key thing that I see here in this chapter. They're not forcing anybody. Okay, they're not forcing anybody. But you do see the servant coming, taking the, you know, asking for her hand in marriage. And she approved of that decision as well. Okay, so parents, I do believe you should be involved. Okay, you should be involved. And if the father's passed away or whatever, maybe the older brother or the family should be involved in being part of that decision. Again, I feel sorry for my, for Isabel, you know, with her seven brothers. Do they all have to approve? I don't know, right? I guess right now I can approve, right? But if I'm gone, there's like another seven brothers to go through and seek their approval. Now, anyway, you know, but we see obviously the brothers here, you know, having the best interest for his sister there. Okay, so point number one was involve the parents or involve the family when it comes to making a decision about marriage, all right? Now, look at verse number 15, Genesis 24 verse 15. The second thing, the second point that I have here when it comes to preparing for marriage is things that a young woman should strive for. So we have Rebecca in this story. We learn a lot about the type of person, the type of character that Rebecca is. And if you're a young lady, please pay attention to these next passages. But Genesis 24 verse 15, Genesis 24 verse 15, the Bible says, and it came to pass before he had done speaking that behold Rebecca came out who was born to Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder, okay? So the first thing I want you to notice is that she's a member of Abraham's brother Nahor's family. And if you remember when we saw Abraham's desire to find a wife, he told the servant, don't go to the ladies of Canaan. They were living in Canaan, all right? But the Canaanites, they did not have faith in the God of Abraham. They had their false gods, that they were not believers in what I'm trying to say. And so Abraham's very careful, please don't take a wife from the Canaanites, okay? But please go to my family and go seek out a wife there. Now look, I don't know how faithful this family was. I don't know how much, you know, the Bible doesn't make it very clear of how much they, if they had the faith in the God of Abraham or not, or if they had some other false gods, it's not very clear. But as you read through this story and as the servant explains that God has led him to this family, they seem to respond to that. Yes, the Lord has led you here. So it appears that there was, there is definitely some faith in the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, okay? That does seem that way. So I think it's safe to say that they were believers to some extent of the God of Abraham. And again, if you remember, before Abraham left the Ur of the Chaldees, that the Lord had called him when he was still living there with his family. In other words, he was saved before he even left the place. So it's possible that he passed on the knowledge, his faith, you know, maybe preached the gospel unto his family and they too became saved at some points. We don't really, really have that information there before us. But one thing that I do want to strive, if we can take a spiritual lesson here, is that young men, young men need to be marrying a girl that's of the household of faith. You know, a lady who is saved. You know, my mom used to drive home this to me all the time. He says, you know, my mom used to say, you know, Kevin, whatever, whoever you marry, make sure that she's saved. You know, make sure you don't marry just a woman of this world. Make sure she's a believer. My mom would tell me that and I didn't even have an interest in girls. You know, I was just a young man at the time. You know, I'm not interested in getting married. My mom would say, make sure you marry, you know, a girl of faith. And I appreciate that from my mom because that's something that just stayed in the back of my mind. I've got to marry, you know, a godly woman. Make sure that she's a sister in Christ. The Bible tells us in Galatians 6 10, you don't have to turn there. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. You see, if you're saved, even though you're not part of the same family, we all are. We all do live together in that household of faith. We're all children, brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible tells us in Ephesians 2 19, now therefore ye are no more strangers than foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. So when it comes to marrying your sister, you know, we take the spiritual lesson here. You need to make sure you marry a believer and young ladies, you need to make sure you marry a believer. And again, young ladies, I've seen this many times, you know, we're seeing believing girls, young girls in the faith and they fall in love with an ungodly man. Again, it's very easy for the hearts of young ladies, you know, to feel like, wow, this boy is interested in me. And many times they don't have the best intentions when it comes to those outside of the household of faith. Please make sure that your desire, make sure, you know, that you follow the example here that you marry someone of faith, you know, a brother or sister in the faith. Look at verse number 16, verse number 16. And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin. Neither had any man known her and she went down to the well and filled her pitcher and came up. So what I want you to notice in verse number 16, it says, and the damsel was very fair to look upon. What the Bible is saying is that Rebekah was a beautiful lady, you know, beautiful young lady. Not only was she beautiful on the outside, hey, but she was someone of good character. She was a virgin. She had not, you know, played the harlot. She had not committed fornication. Not only was she beautiful on the outside, but she was a lady of reputation on the inside. And so what I want to say to you, to you young ladies is, look, there's nothing wrong with trying to look fair. You know, look after your appearance, both on the outside and on the inside. And the only person you should be concerned about when it comes to, you know, someone that you want to look fair for is your future husband. Is your future husband. And this will dictate the way you dress yourself. This will dictate how you present yourself in public. Because ladies, it's not hard for you to find the attention from a man. It's actually very easy. And if you dress like the world, you know, if you dress, you know, looking, you know, provocative, you're going to draw the attention of many men. But is that what you want? Do you want many men to be interested in you? Or are you looking for just that one man, my husband, to be fair to? And that's what you should be aiming to do. The way you dress or to show what kind of lady you are, and whether you're looking for that one man, a husband, or if you're looking for the interest of many men in the world, okay? Be mindful about the way you look. And I know this is something that, again, ladies, you struggle with a lot. You know, it's difficult for a lady to live in this world because, you know, you see, you know, the magazines, the models, the supermodels, these kinds of pictures on TV and magazines, on the internet. And there's always this sort of push, like that's the standard. Like the supermodels, that's like the standard. And that's what you should be trying to aim to look like. No, not at all. I mean, those supermodels are so thin. They're so disgusting. I mean, I look at some of that, and I'm like, that's not even attractive. That's not even fair to look upon. All right, so please, you know, try to look, yeah, look after your parents. Nothing wrong with that. But don't set what the world sets as a standard, as your standard, okay? These skinny supermodels that everyone's trying to be like, you know why they put them as a standard? You know why? Because does it surprise you that this world hates children? And here's the thing. If you under eat, if you don't look after your body and you under eat and you try to be as skinny as you can, you're going to make it very difficult for your body to one day have children. And if you overeat, if you eat too much, again, you need to make sure you look after your health. Under eating, overeating will destroy your body. It'll make it very difficult for you to fall pregnant, okay? Please, when it comes to being fair, it's not about how skinny you can be. It's not trying to imitate some supermodel in a magazine. No, it's just taking care of yourself. You know, eat, all right? You know, I think most men, you know, like a lady, you know, that's not completely, I mean, I'm telling you how I feel. I look at those skinny supermodels not interested at all. I don't want that woman. I'm not interested in that. The other thing you need to realize is if you have children, that's going to have an impact on your body as well. You know, that's going to have an impact. You know, my wife, now pregnant with number 11, I don't expect her to look exactly the way, you know, she looked when I first met her. You know, but is she beautiful to me? Absolutely. Is she fair to look upon for me? Absolutely. So please, you know, only aim for your husband to be someone that can look fairly upon you rather than, you know, following after the world. The Bible tells us in Psalm 139 verse 14, I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. You don't need to look like somebody else. You don't need to, you know, compare yourself to another lady because God has made you to be fearfully and wonderful, okay? He has created you just the way you are. Please strive to be healthy, ladies. Please strive to look after your bodies because one day you get married, you know, you're going to get pregnant and you're going to have to carry that child with you and it's best to have your body in the best condition you can in order for you to carry that child. So please, yeah, don't compare yourself to other women or otherwise it will destroy your self-confidence. It will destroy your self-confidence, all right? Look at verse number 17. And the servant ran to meet her and said, let me, I pray thee, drink a little water for thy pitcher. And she said, drink my Lord. And she hasted and let down her pitcher upon her hand and gave him drink. And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also until they have done drinking. So what do we see about Rebecca? That she's a working or a productive woman, all right? She goes out there to the world to get water for her family or to her household, but when she sees the stranger, she's also willing to go and serve the stranger. And so what you need to be working for ladies is to be productive with your hands. You know, use your hands skillfully. Be someone that serves the family. Be someone that serves the visitors. Start working and looking after the needs for your family. Look at verse number 20. And she hasted and emptied her pitcher into the troll and ran again onto the well to draw water and drew for all his camels. And the man wondering at her held his peace to wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. And it came to pass as the camels had done drinking that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight and two bracelets for her hands of 10 shekels weight of gold and said, whose daughter art thou? Tell me, I pray thee, is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in? And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethel, the son of Milka, which she bear unto Nahor. She said, moreover, unto him, we have both straw and provender enough and room to lodge in. So what's the next thing that I want you to notice about Rebecca? Is that she's a hospitable person, okay? And ladies, what you need to develop in your life, preparing for marriage, is to develop a hospitable character. Start thinking about the needs of other people. Not only is she hospitable with the water and to provide for his camels, but she says, you know what? You can stay with my family. We do have room sufficient for you. And she's someone that is looking out for the needs of a stranger. And we might apply that, these days, stranger danger. It's unlikely that if a stranger's walking down my road that someone's gonna go, Israel's gonna go, hey, come into the house. We don't even know who this person is, right? But we can apply this to the church. We can apply this to the brethren. We are commanded to be hospitable. We are commanded to serve one another. And that's a great character to strive for. And I'm saying, yes, we're looking at ladies preparing to get married. But I'm just saying, ladies in general, even if you are married already, are you striving to be that hospitable person that's striving to serve the brethren in the church? You know, please don't be that person that has the attitude, well, why me? Why do I have to do that? You know, why can't someone else do that? Well, you know what? If you want to earn rewards in heaven, the best thing for you to do is, yeah, why not me? I'll do it. I'll step in there. I'll serve the brethren. I'll do it. Why? Because if you serve the brethren, the Bible tells us you're serving the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, that's the greatest thing you could possibly achieve in your life is to serve the God of the universe. And by doing that, you just serve the brethren in the church. Praise God for that. All right, so please, you know, strive to develop a hospitable character. You know, love and serve the brethren that you have here in this church. Look at verse number 28. Genesis 24 verse 28. And the damsel ran and told them of her mother's house, sorry, told them of her mother's house these things. And Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban. And Laban ran out unto the man, unto the world. So what I want you to notice is not only did she welcome this stranger to her house, but now she goes back to her family and tells them about the situation. Hey, there's this man that wants to stay in the house, and now her brother Laban comes out. Verse number 30. And it came to pass when he saw the earring and bracelets upon his sister's hands. And when he heard the words of Rebekah, his sister saying, Thus spake the man unto me that he came unto the man, and behold, he stood by the camels at the well. And he said, Come in, thou blessed of the Lord. So you see, this family, they have and acknowledge, they realize that, you know, the God of Abraham, you know, they realize that this servant is blessed of the Lord. He says, Wherefore standest thou without? For I have prepared the house and room for the camels. And the man came into the house and he ungirded his camels and gave straw and provender for the camels and water to wash his feet and the men's feet that were with him. So the next thing I want you to notice about Rebekah is that she honors her family or she respects her family. Yes, she said, Yes, we can house you. We can look after you. But she goes back to her family to make sure that's fine. She makes, she goes back and she's not someone, you know, she makes sure that her brother goes out and greets this man. That her brother makes that official welcome, you know, into his house. You know, it'd be a bit inappropriate, let's put it that way, if Rebekah is the one that's bringing this servant to the house. So she goes and gets her brother to do that. And the brother Laban says, Hey, we prepared the house. You know, so they've listened to Rebekah and said, Yeah, of course, we can welcome this stranger. They prepare the house. They prepare the things that are needed for him and they bring him into the household. And so she honors her family. It's not just her decision. Again, she goes back and she checks with her brother and with her mother to see if it's okay for this family to be invited into or the servant and the other men to be invited into her house. Verse number 60, drop down to verse number 60. Verse number 60. And this is after Rebekah decides to get married. Verse number 60. And they blessed Rebekah and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions. Wow. And let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them. Man, what a culture back then. Could you imagine someone today, you know, giving their daughter away from marriage and saying, you know, be their mother of thousands of millions. That's not the advice you get today. The advice you get today from the world is, Hey, don't have kids. Put it off. What's the rush? Why? No, no, no. You can see the her desire and the culture that she's come from, which is a biblical culture, is that her desire is to be a mother. So young ladies, again, preparing to get married. Yes, you're preparing to have a husband, but you also ought to be someone that desires to be a mother one day. And not just a mother, but a mother of thousands of millions. Man, I got a lot to catch up. All right. In fact, actually, Rebekah, if you remember, do you remember how many kids she had at the end, by the end of it? She only had two kids. She had twins, and that was Jacob and Esau. But even though she only had the two, you know, this blessing did come upon her because those two became great nations. You know, Esau became the progenitor to the Edomites, and Jacob, of course, you know, he would be the progenitor, or he became Israel. He became known as Israel, and the Israelites and children of Israel would come from Jacob. So she did become a mother of thousands of millions eventually. Okay, but hey, you know, this is a great desire to have, a desire to be a mother. And once again, I've said this before when I've gone to the series on the family, that God has put that in the hearts of the little girls, put that in the hearts of young ladies, a desire to be a mother. You know, I've said how, you know, my little girls, you know, Liliana and Emilia, you know, they love picking up their dolls and pretend they're feeding the baby, pretend they're changing the nappy, pretend they're putting them into bed. We never taught them to do that. You know, we never sat down with them and say, okay, little girls, you've got to learn how to play with dolls. It never happened. It just, they just picked them up and started to play, and be motherly to them. It's just part of what God has instilled in the hearts of ladies. And again, we have a society that's trying to tell ladies, look, that's not worth it. You know, that's not important for you. You know, go and, you know, try to aim for other achievements in life. You know, put off from having children. And so, yes, it happens. You know, ladies, instead of having children at a younger age and desiring to be a mother, they seek the career, they seek to make a name for themselves in the world, they seek to travel the world, and they put an affront that they're happy. They put an affront that this is their enjoying life, but they're not. They're not because they know they're missing out on the key thing that they should be striving to do, and that's become a mother. And, you know, their bodies are designed, I mean, scientifically, to fall pregnant, right? And carry children for nine months. It's an amazing miracle that a lady is able to, you know, bring forth a child, you know, have a child in her womb, and deliver that child. I mean, it's just an amazing thing. It's an amazing thing that God has put, you know, in the ladies. So, her desire ought to be a mother. So, just those points once again, ladies, you know, preparing yourself to get married. Well, we said that she ought to be a sister in Christ, you know, to look after your parents, you know, to be a working or productive woman, to be someone of a hospitable character, to honor your family, and for your desire to be a mother. Understand that when you get married, you're going to fall pregnant as long as everything, you know, goes smoothly. That's a desire, you know, you will fall pregnant. You will become a mother of children. So, the third point that I have, the third point that I have, go to Genesis 24, verse 33. Genesis 24, verse 33. And now I want to talk to the men that are preparing to get married. Look at Genesis 24, verse 33. And there was set meat before him. This is before the servant. So, he comes into the house. They offer him food. And he said, I will not eat until I have told mine errand. And he said, speak on. And he said, I am Abraham's servants. Look at this, verse 35, the memory verse. And the Lord have blessed my master greatly. And he has become great. And he have given him flocks and herds and silver and gold and men servants and maid servants and camels and asses. And so what we see here is the servants explaining to this family that Abraham has been made rich. You know, he's a wealthy man that God has bestowed these great riches, these great possessions unto Abraham. And look at verse number 36. And Sarah, my master's wife, bear a son to my master when she was old. And unto him, that's unto Isaac, have he given all that he hath. Okay, so what are we saying? The servant saying, look, not only has God given all this possession unto Abraham, but now all of that is going to be given, or has been given to Isaac. And the third point that I have here, and this is for the young men, is that you need to demonstrate that you are able to provide for a wife. The reason this servant points it out is so they know, hey, if Rebecca comes with me, if Rebecca comes and gets married to Isaac, Isaac can provide her needs. He's got wealth, he's got possessions, he's able to provide not just for himself and his servants, he's able to provide for his wife. And men, what I'm trying to say, if you have a desire to be married, you're preparing to get married, you need to make sure that you're working a job, that you're able to provide for yourself, not just provide for yourself, but you're able to provide for a wife, okay? And we've seen this with Adam and Eve. Again, before Adam, before God gave Adam, you know, his wife Eve, God gave Adam a job. He says, look, you've got to till the ground. I'm putting you in the Garden of Eden, you know, your job is to till the ground. He was given work before he was given a wife. And I truly believe that, you know, you know, you're probably not going to find a wife if you're not able to provide for her. Now, why would God send a, you know, one of his daughters in the Lord, why would he send one of the daughters that he has to you to marry if he knows you're not in a position to provide for a wife? I mean, as a father, I would not want my daughter to be married to a man who can't provide for her, all right? Why, why, why would you do that? You know, why would you want to give your daughter over to a man that can't provide for her? You know, you need to strive to be someone that can provide you work hard, provide for yourself, provide for a wife. And once you're able to do that, don't be surprised when God sends you some suitors, okay? Because that's the proper order. And the servant's making sure they understand, hey, he's got more than enough. He's able to provide for Rebecca. Look at verse number 37. And my master made me swear, saying, thou shalt not take a wife to my son or the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I dwell, but thou shalt go unto my father's house and to my kindred and take a wife unto my son. So Abraham was very clear. You know, I don't want Isaac to leave the land of Canaan, okay? I don't want him to find a wife here in the land of Canaan, but I don't want him to leave the land, okay? And this reminds me of what we've read with Abraham. Remember when the famine came on the land of Canaan, what did Abraham do? He left the land, even though that's where the Lord called him. He left the land and went onto Egypt and found himself in a lot of problems. And he says, look, I want my son Isaac to remain there in the land of Canaan. This is why he sends the servant instead to find a wife. And so the point that I'm trying to say is that not only should you be a provider for her living costs and her, you know, just the living arrangements, but you need to be someone that is able to provide spiritually. You know, be that spiritual leader. Be someone that can provide her spiritual needs, okay? And Proverbs 18 verse 22 says, Whoso findeth a wife, findeth a good thing, and obtain a favor of the Lord. Obtain a favor of the Lord, okay? You need to be someone when you find a wife, you realize, look, God's favor has come upon me and God has given me this wife. You need to look after that woman, okay? Not only with her physical needs, but her spiritual needs. And as long as Isaac remained there living on the land of Canaan, he was exactly where God's will was for his life. That's where he needs to stay. He needs to stay, right? Was on the land of Canaan. That's where the Lord had called them sojourn on the land. They were in the middle of God's will. They were in the middle of God's will. And young men, you need to learn to not just provide for her physically, but provide for her spiritually. Look at Genesis 24 verse 5. Genesis 24 verse 5. And the servant said unto him, the servant said unto Abraham, Peradventure, the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land. Must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest? So he's asking the question, do you want me to send Isaac back to the land? And Abraham said unto him, beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again. Now the point that I want to bring up there in verse number 5 is the servant says, what if Rebecca, what if the woman does not want to get married to Isaac? What if she doesn't want to come back? You know? And so the fourth point that I have here when it comes to getting prepared for marriage, and again this usually comes with the man, is expect rejection. Expect rejection. The first lady that you're interested in may not be your wife, all right? When you reach out and ask, you know, for the father's, you know, for the father and her hand in marriage, he might say no. She might say no. She might say, you know what? I appreciate you, you know, have an interest in me, but I don't have a desire to marry you. And this is what the servant's trying to preempt, is what if she doesn't want to come back and get married? You know, expect rejection. This is, and I see young men, and sometimes they have a desire for a young lady, and they approach her, they get rejected. Man, they're caught up about it. And it's like, I'm never going to get married. Man, you got to expect rejection, all right? It's just like finding a job. You know, you apply for a whole bunch of jobs. You're expecting to be rejected. But does that mean you don't go for the next interview, and the interview after that, and the interview after that? Man, anybody that's tried to look for a job has been rejected. Do you just give up? No, you try again. You keep searching. You keep looking. You know, what I'm trying to say to you guys is expect rejection. Don't let it stop you from finding a wife. Verse number seven. 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 will I give this land, he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence. So Abraham had a lot of confidence. He goes, look, you're probably going to find a wife, because God's promised me the sea. God's promised me that we're going to be a great nation. So of course, Isaac's going to get married one day. He's expecting that. Verse number eight. But then he says, and if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shall be clear from this my oath, only bring not my son thither again. And the servant put his hand under the fire of Abraham his master, and swear to him concerning the matter. So again, even Abraham expecting that, you know, I mean, Isaac's definitely going to get married. Like he's expecting this nation, the promises of God to come through, through him and his seed. But again, he's also saying to the servant, look, I mean, if she doesn't want to come with you, she doesn't follow, then, you know, you're released from the oath. You don't have to, you know, continue on this journey for my son. And so even Abraham was expecting, it's possible that there would be rejection from that end. Okay. So please be open to the possibility of rejection. You know, if you've only approached one young lady in your life, and she said no, don't let that stop you. You've got to try again. You've got to try again for, you know, and start looking for some otherwise. Verse number 39. Verse number 39. Drop down to verse number 39. And I said unto my master, peradventure, the woman will not follow me. Again, what if she doesn't come? What if she doesn't follow me? Verse number 40. And he said unto me, the Lord before whom I walk will send his angel with thee and prosper thy way, and thou shalt take a wife for my son of my kindred and of my father's house. Then shalt thou be clear from this my oath, when thou comest to my kindred, and if they give not thee one, thou shalt be clear from my oath. Okay. And now just quickly go to Genesis 25. Just one chapter over. Verse number 20. Genesis 25 verse 20. Genesis 25 verse 20. It says here, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to wife. How old was Isaac when he got married? He was 40 years old. Okay. Now the Bible doesn't tell us a lot as to how often he tried to find a wife. Abraham was very clear, son, you're not marrying a woman from this land. Okay. Now he's 40 years old and he's still, they're still in a search for a wife. And again, you know some people might reach the age of 40, not find a wife and give up. No. We have a great example here. Now look, the Bible often talks about getting married at a young age. Now 40 is pretty old to get married. Okay. But here's the thing. You might not find a wife in your young age. Okay. Isaac's 40 years old. You know, please don't give up. Keep searching. You know, if you get rejected, we'll try again. Keep going. All right. He probably tried to find a wife many times at 40 years old. It just wasn't working out for him. Finally, at the age of 40, he's able to find a wife. And please have faith. Have the faith of Abraham. He says, look, an angel is going to go before you and prosper your ways. You know, God's plan for a man is to get married. God's plan for a man is to find a wife. Have a family. Have children. Don't give up. Have the faith of Abraham. Please. You know, have the faith. Provide. Make sure you can provide for a wife. Don't give up. You know, you put these things into place. I'm sure you're going to be able to find a wife. This is the reason God gives us chapters like this. So we can read it. We can learn and grow in faith. Okay. Go to verse number 10 now. Genesis 24 verse 10. And this is probably the most important part. Okay. Genesis 24 verse 10. And the servant took 10 camels of the camels of his master and departed. And all the goods of his master were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia unto the city of Nahor. And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water. And he said, look what the servant does. He said, look what the servant does. And he said, Oh Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day and show kindness unto my master Abraham. So what does this servant do? Does he just go look for a wife? No, he prays to the Lord. He seeks the Lord's guidance. That's point number five. Ask for the Lord's guidance in your search for a wife. Not only should you be providing, not only should you, you know, understand that you're going to be rejected, not only should you not give up, you need to make sure you put the Lord's center of your search for a wife. But did he just pray? No, he went looking for one. He went looking and he prayed. He had those two things together. Verse number 12. Sorry, verse number 13. Behold, I stand here by the well of water and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water. This is a prayer to God. This is what he's saying to God. And let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say, let down thy 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. So not only does he pray, God, please send a wife to my master's son, but he prays a very specific prayer. He says, let it be the woman that when I ask for a drink, she also brings drink to my camels also. Very specific prayer requests. And I believe that it's important for us when we're looking for a wife to pray very specifically for the Lord. You know, this will help you understand if God has opened the doors, if God is showing you a wife to marry. Look at verse number 26. Verse number 26. Verse number 26. So after this happens, after he prays this prayer and Rebecca does those very same things that he asked for, that very specific prayer. Verse number 26. And the man bowed down his head and worshiped the Lord. So once the Lord answers his prayer, man, he's just full of thanksgiving. He goes and worships God. We need to be people, you know, that when God answers our prayers that we're thankful toward him, that we seek to worship him. Verse number 27. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who have not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth. I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren. So we see the servant full of faith worshiping the Lord, blessing the Lord for the answered prayer that he received. Look at verse number 42. Verse number 42. And here he's repeating the story to Rebecca's family. And I came this day unto the well and said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go, behold, I stand by the well of water, and it shall come to pass that when the virgin cometh forth to draw water, I say to her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher to drink. And she shall say to me, Both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy camels. Let the same be the woman whom the Lord have appointed out of my master's son. And behold, and before I had done speaking in my heart, behold, Rebecca came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder, and she went down unto the well and drew water, and I said unto her, Let me drink, I pray thee. So what we have here is he's repeating the prayer that he gave to God and now he's telling Rebecca's family. And this is the way we should be when the Lord answers our prayers, not only we should be full of thanksgiving, but we should testify of those things that God has answered. You know, be thankful to God. Tell other people about how God has answered this prayer and he's reinforcing this family. Look, God has answered the prayer. You know, it's very, very unusual, very specific prayer. And Rebecca came and did these things as I had asked from the Lord. Verse number 46, And she made haste and let down her pitcher from her shoulder and said, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also. So I drank and she made the camels drink also. And I asked her and said, Whose daughter art thou? And she said, The daughter of Bephiel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bare unto him. And I put the earring upon her face and the bracelets upon her hands. And I bowed down my head and worshiped the Lord and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way to take my master's brother's daughter unto his son. And so very specific prayer. And this reminds me about my experience with my wife. And I know I've shared this before, but when I started dating Christina, one mistake that I made when I started dating Christina is she was unsaved. Even though I had my mom saying to me, Kevin, make sure you only date, you know, believers, you only marry a saved girl. You know, Christina was a Catholic, a Roman Catholic. And I was dating her. She was unsaved. So that was wrong, you know. But I believe the Lord blessed me in my mistakes anyway. All right. And you know, I was trying to give her the gospel though. The very first time we went out, I was constantly trying to give her the gospel. I wanted to see her saved. And Christina became the very first soul that I was able to see come to the Lord. And I praise God for that. And but I remember before she got saved, I was going to, I knew it was wrong for me to be dating her. And I was going to break off the relationship. I had gotten to a point, I said, Lord, I'm so sorry. I'm going to end this relationship. I know you don't want me dating a non-believer. And I said to the Lord, I prayed a very specific prayer. And I don't know if I read this from this chapter, but it was just a very specific prayer. And I said to the Lord, we didn't have mobile phones back then. You know, it's just the phones that you had at home, the house phone. And I said to the Lord, Lord, but if you want me, I'm going to break off this relationship, but if you want me to keep, you know, seeing her, like just giving her the gospel, can you just get her to call me tomorrow morning? And I said to the Lord before 12 p.m., just in the morning, get her to call me in the morning and get her to just ask me about the Bible. Ask me about the gospel. Ask me about these things. Because I was trying to show her that the Roman Catholic Church, you know, had another Jesus Christ. You know, a Jesus that could not save her. You know, a gospel of works rather than a gospel of grace through faith. And I prayed that prayer. I wasn't expecting her to call me. Honestly, I wasn't expecting her. And I remember just waking up early and saying, okay, Lord, I pray this prayer. If she doesn't call me, I'm just going to end the relationship. I'm not going to see her again. You know, and I was just waiting. I was just seeing the time tick away. 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 11.30. I'm like, uh-oh. Looks like I'm going to have to end this relationship, right? You know, 11.45, she still hasn't called. 11.50, the phone calls. I think it was like really close. Like it was like 11.55 or something. It was super close to noon. The phone rings. My dad picks up. Kevin, it's Christina. I pick up the phone. Literally, the first words out of her mouth. You know, in the Bible, it says this. I can't remember what it was now, but what does that mean? And she got saved like a few days after. I can't remember. Maybe a week later or something like that. She got saved. And I just prayed. That was a specific prayer that I asked the Lord. I wasn't expecting that, you know? And I usually don't pray like that. I was young. I didn't know how to pray. I didn't know how to manage my situation. And the Lord came through, answered that prayer. She got saved. I feel a lot better now. A saved lady. And one that I was able to lead to the Lord. How good is that, you know? And the point I'm trying to say here as well is that maybe if there aren't enough godly women out there, saved women, you may just have to get out there, preach the gospel, see someone saved, and the Lord may very well allow that person, that young lady to become the wife of the soul winner, okay? Another example that I once heard in church was this was, I don't know. I might not remember the story clearly, but it was a visiting missionary that came to our church. And he was given his story. He got married very late in life as well. And he gave his story of how he met his wife. And so he met this young lady, his wife, this lady that would become his wife. And he was invited to her family's house for dinner. And he felt like, man, this lady could be my wife. And he prayed to the Lord and said, Lord, this was, I mean, how specific is this? He goes, Lord, if you want her to be my wife, can you, I don't know why he said this, but he says, can you show me a orange golf ball? I don't know. Can you show me an orange? Yeah, look, this guy's getting older. I think he was like in his 40s or something like that. He wanted to get married. He doesn't know like, God, just show me. Is this the woman you want me to marry? Anyway, he was invited to the family's house. He sat down having dinner and he looked toward one of the cabinets and on top of the cabinet was an orange golf ball. I don't know. That's what he said, right? And he goes, man, what an answer to prayer. And he knew this would be the lady that I would marry. And yes, it definitely happened. So I don't think there's anything wrong with these specific prayers, especially when it comes to finding a wife. Cause you want to make sure you're making the right decision. You want to make sure that the Lord is leading you. And when you have these unusual prayer requests being answered, it's like, yes, Lord, I guess this is you're pointing me in the right direction. And so please involve the Lord God as well in your search for a wife. You know, pray to the Lord. And when he answers your prayers, give him worship, give him thanksgiving. Look at verse number 62, Genesis 24 verse 62. The camels were coming. So Isaac's at this well, La Hoyeroi. Does that ring a bell to any of you guys? That one? Go to Genesis 16, Genesis 16 verse 13. Genesis 16 verse 13. You remember the story of Hagar when Hagar was being treated badly by Sarah and she ran away and she was brought before a well. And look at Genesis 16 verse 13. And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her. Thou God seest me, for she said, Have I also he looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore the well was called, Beer La Hoyeroi. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bereth. And so when we see Isaac at this well, I think it's fitting to see that he's at the same well as Hagar. Hagar who ran away, Hagar who had concerns for her son Ishmael. You know, she thought that the world was against her, the Lord was against her, but the Lord sends an angel and blesses her and says, look, your son Ishmael is going to be a man of multitudes, a man of a great nation. And she's able to see and say, well, the Lord seest me. The Lord has seen me and the Lord's had mercy upon me. And she's at this well La Hoyeroi. And so again, we see Isaac at the same well. And I think it's fitting because not only is he there, but it says in verse number 63 that Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide. And when the Bible talks about meditation, we're not talking about Eastern religion, you know, crossing your legs, putting your hands out, that's not the meditation. When it comes to meditation, I'll just read a few verses to you. Joshua 1.8, the Bible says, the book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shall meditate therein day and night. The Bible says that we ought to meditate in God's words. You know, read God's word, meditate, think about it. How can we apply this to our lives? Psalm 63 verse 6 says, when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches. So we see the Psalmist saying, God, I'm going to meditate on just you, on just who you are. You know, the God of all things, my father, you know, the one who's come to redeem me, he just meditates on who God is. Psalm 77 verse 12 says, I will meditate also of all thy work and talk of thy doings. You know, three things that we see in the Bible that you can meditate on is on just who God is. You can meditate in his word and you can meditate on the work of his hands, the great works that God has done. And so we see Isaac go into this world and I think it's very fitting, but he's also meditating there on the Lord. Okay, he's a man of faith. And again, so we see that he's there. You know, I don't know what he's praying for. I don't know what he's meditating on. It wouldn't surprise me if he's just contemplating and asking the Lord about his wife. You know, Lord, are you going to send me my wife? I'm 40 years old now, Lord. Is it going to happen for me? You know, look at verse number 64, Genesis 24 verse 64. This is the conclusion now. And Rebecca lifted up her eyes and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel for she had said unto the servant, what man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, it is my master. Therefore, she took a veil and cut off herself. And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done. And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent and took Rebecca and she became his wife. And he loved her. And Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. And I think the moral of the story here, the conclusion of the story is that we see Isaac and Rebecca married, but it says in verse number 67, and he loved her, you know? And I think, you know, the greatest opportunity, the greatest foundation in which your married life can have great love is if you look at this story and apply these principles as best as you can, okay? We see that this husband and wife did the right things. They did the right things. They involved their family, okay? And Isaac's there meditating on the Lord. We see that the Lord was leading them in this union, okay? We see that Rebecca was a lady that was preparing herself to be married. And we see that Isaac was a man who was able to provide for his wife. You know, all these things come together. And I believe that's going to give you the best foundation to have a loving married life. And you might say, well, you know what? I can't, I don't have all these things. Well, I'm married and I wasn't able to apply these things. Well, look, you can still take the lessons and apply them as best as you can when it comes to your children. You know, you'd be involved if your family wasn't, weren't involved. You can be involved in your family, okay? Is your marriage, you know, is it one that you can say, I love my wife? You know, our marriage is full of love. If not, you know, ask the Lord to help you to grow in love for one another. All these things, you can still apply to your married life today. You can apply to these things. You can still meditate on the Lord today, right? You can still do all these things. You know, ladies, you can still strive to be that hospitable, you know, have that godly character about you. Even if you didn't learn that before you got married, you can still strive to learn that today. We can still, each of us, take the lessons here. But I really want to talk to the young men, to the children, one day you're going to grow up, one day you're going to desire to get married, okay? And I hope you think about this sermon, you think about this chapter, and take these great principles and apply them to your life. Let's pray.