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

We're in Genesis chapter 24 and it's a long chapter and it's a pretty cool interesting story that is right after Sarah's death. We had left that part in Genesis chapter 23. And so now Abraham's also very old as the Bible describes him and he wants his son to have a wife and specifically a wife of the children that are from the same family that is of Abraham. So it's basically the same kindred, the same family and it's kind of to illustrate a spiritual truth as well. The fact that Christians are supposed to marry other Christians and that we're not supposed to marry under the heathen. But there's a lot of other cool symbolism that's in Genesis chapter 24 and I want to read a few verses here and then we're going to kind of look at some of the symbolism. Look at verse one it says, and Abraham was old and well stricken in age and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. Abraham said unto the eldest servant 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 thou shalt go into my country into my kindred and take a wife unto my son Isaac. Servant said unto him paired venture the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land must I need to bring my son again unto the land from whence thou camest? Abraham said unto him beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again 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 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 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 so we have an interesting story here of Abraham he's talking to his servant and he's trying to instruct his servant to go into the area that he's from originally where Abraham's originally from Mesopotamia or of the Chaldees as described in other places and to try to locate some of his old family his brother's family and to end up getting a wife for Isaac. Now what's interesting about this I believe this is a foreshadowing that the Bible is constantly going to reiterate not just through Genesis but really the whole Old Testament leading up to Christ and the gospel because you know the whole Bible is about Jesus Christ it's all about the gospel and in fact it's also a lot about us specifically in the Gentiles. The Bible you know is tells us in second Corinthians that these things are written for our admonition they're they're an example unto us and so a lot of these stories you have to realize they're about you they're about me and they're about Christ and so we kind of think about the elements here we can start to unravel some of the foreshadowing here now who would Abraham represent in this story none other than God the Father God the Father be represented by Abraham and he's seeking a wife for his son now who is that son that son is Isaac which would be the Lord Jesus Christ okay and so we kind of have a couple elements here then we also have the servant who would the servant be well the servant is a picture of the messenger of the gospel or basically the saved Christian and how our job is to go out and to seek for the wife unto Isaac now when we're going out and preaching the gospel when we get someone saved they in turn are part of the bride of Christ or part of who is going to be joined unto the Lord Jesus Christ and so we're seeking for those who are going to be reconciled unto Isaac in a sense and it's really the loss of the gentiles that are represented by Rebecca and going out and finding her and what's interesting is that they're not going to find Rebecca in the promised land you know it's not that they're going to find her in you know the land of Israel or the land of Judah or Jerusalem but in fact he's going to go out to the gentiles as it were go out into where you know it's Syria or Mesopotamia in a sense and that is where he's going to locate Rachel and so it's again it's a picture of how after the gospel they had to go out of Israel go out of Judah and they were really redeeming the gentiles they were getting them saved and what's interesting about Rebecca when you think about her is even though she's dwelling in you know a quote-unquote gentile area as you study the geography of the bible but she herself is still truly of the same kindred which kind of illustrates another deeper truth about how the fact that the gentiles who believe on Christ are actually Israel on the inside and so Rebecca even though she is the real deal she's kind of living out far and then she's reconciled she's going to be brought near unto Christ and even though she's the true lineage and that's another picture of how she's of Israel or she's you know a picture of how gentiles are really of Israel and so you know just right off the bat you just get a lot of just cool pictures here and this is just a constant story that you just have just over and over and over again we're going to see the same story of Christ redeeming the gentiles bringing the gospel just constantly reiterated how Israel is going to be replaced and how you have to go unto them to bring the gospel but go to Matthew 22 there's a parable that Jesus Christ gives that is basically the same story when you think about it and it's because Christ and God constantly give the same stories and it's kind of this constant reverb echoing of the truth constantly throughout the bible and it's woven consistently through but Matthew 22 Jesus Christ gives a parable that's reminiscent of this exact story it's really similar concepts look at Matthew 22 verse 1 and Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables and said the kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son and sent for the servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would not come again he sent forth other servants saying tell them which are bidden behold i have prepared my dinner my ox and my fatlings are killed and all things are ready come unto the marriage but they made light of it and went their ways one to his farm and other merchandise and the remnant took his servants and entreated them spitefully and slew them but when the king heard thereof he was wroth and sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers and burnt up their city then sayeth he to his servants the wedding is ready but they which were bidden were not worthy go ye therefore into the highways and as many as he shall find bid to the marriage so those servants went out into the highways and gathered together as many as they found both bad and good and the wedding was furnished with guests and when the king came in to see the guests he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment and he say then and friend how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment and he was speechless then said the king to the servants bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many are called but few are chosen again this parable brings up a few extra elements but it has a lot of the same similarities to our story here with abraham his servant and rebecca seeking a wife unto isaac and in this parable we have a king basically looking for a marriage for his son looking for a wife unto his son or you know this is where he's inviting people to come to the wedding the wife's already been you know found in this parable but again similar concepts similar ideas and they're bringing people under this marriage okay and that's the same thing when we go out and we preach the gospel we're bringing people unto the marriage innocence we're bringing people unto christ and we're trying to bid them to the wedding now those that mocked and ridiculed and and basically made light of it they didn't care about it that is the jews that is those that are around them and they didn't care they didn't want to enter the marriage so they end up getting rejected and then he has to go out into the highways and hedges and just compel anybody just bring anybody in so again it's kind of similar in the sense that they're not invited they're not looking for a wife among them they have to go far out and they have to try and find somebody that's willing to go now what's interesting about both of these scenarios is when he's explaining it he's saying that the woman has to be willing in order to come unto the marriage she has to be she has to choose to want to basically be joined unto isaac she has that free will option and that's what the bible teaches is that everyone has the opportunity to come to the marriage but at the end of the day you have to choose you have to decide that you want to believe on the lord jesus christ to be saved no one's going to force you to come to the wedding god doesn't want a bunch of slaves to show up at the wedding he wants a bunch of guests he wants a bunch of servants he wants people to choose to believe on the lord jesus christ and you know there's false doctrines like the calvinists bring in where they claim people are just chosen against their will as it were but you know or there's other people that would teach that to be saved you have to kind of do some kind of a work you have to be kind of good but i love this phrase that we find here in verse 10 it says uh and gathered together as many as they found both bad and good notice that he's saying hey you know who's going to be filled up in the kingdom of heaven bad people and good people you say well bad people go to heaven yeah you know why because they believed on christ and you say well how did the good people get in it was it because they were good nope it was because they believed on christ and you know admittedly some people are better than others you know some people try to live a more clean life or they live a more godly of a life or they try to do right for the majority of their life or they haven't committed horrible sins and then there's other people that have committed horrible sins and lived a really wicked life but at the end of the day if they both believe in christ they're headed to the same destination and the person who lives a really bad life and has screwed up a whole bunch and done wicked things and believes in christ is going to heaven and the guy that lived a pretty good life and never believed in christ is going to hell is the only thing that determines if you go to heaven or hell is if you put your trust in christ one time but you know what i can't make that decision for you your parents cannot make that decision for you no one can make that decision for you but yourself and so that's why we compel people that's why we try to persuade them to say hey you will one day stand before god i'd rather stand on his side than on the other side i'd rather stand amongst the the sheep than the goats i'd rather stand there with christ as my advocate than to have to answer for myself and so that's why we believe on the lord jesus christ and knowing that everyone will stand before god that's why we're compelled to go out and to try and preach the gospel to people and to get them to come in and get them to be saved so why would you have so many stories emphasizing soul winning in every single basic book of the bible because it's the main purpose of our life after you get saved your life is stolen your life is trying to compel people to come in trying to persuade people to also join themselves under the marriage to show up to be joined into christ to believe on christ and you know what praise the lord it's such a simple easy thing to do because if it took 10 years to try and get someone saved how in the world could we reach everyone with the gospel you know that's not a very effective method if it's going to take a 10-year process that's why it's so nice that when you go out it takes 10-15 minutes to show someone the gospel and then they're right there they're at the door they have an opportunity to walk through they have an opportunity to believe on christ and it's not about not being bad or not being good it's if they just want to show up and when they show up if they believe in christ christ is going to clothe them with his clothing they're going to put on that wedding garment and they're going to look like they belong even though you know they didn't do anything to deserve that garment but the guy that shows up in his own garment is going to be like hey where's where'd you get that how did you get in here without a wedding garment now it's a parable okay no one's actually sneaking into heaven okay but you could look at it as maybe the great white throne judgment those people are going to be standing before god literally and they're not going to have the wedding garment on and what is he going to do he's going to like hey what happened and then they're going to get tossed into what the lake of fire for all of eternity that's why it's important to be clothed with christ righteousness and not your own to have your clothing washed in the blood of christ don't be went back to genesis chapter 24 so we have so much great doctrine and symbolism and foreshadowing just right off the bat in genesis chapter 24 and i believe that when you study the bible you're going to find jesus everywhere you're going to find the gospel you're going to find these messages just constantly hit and hammered all the way throughout and so you know i believe god did that on purpose so that we'd only have to find one or two just to be reminded you know and as we study and read the bible we're constantly encouraged to say you know what i'm on the right path if every single chapter the bible is telling you do the same thing over and over and over and over again it seems like god's trying to send a message to you hey keep preaching the gospel hey keep going so winning hey it's all about the gospel hey it's all about the loss it's all about going out of there and winning uh souls to christ and a lot of people will try to get you off of that tell you what you're doing isn't important tell you what you're doing doesn't really work tell you that you're not on the right uh mission or that well where are they all they're at home being lazy being bad and you're like oh you still think they're going to heaven yeah bad and good hey the good people that showed up at church that believed in christ they're going to heaven and all the bad people that won't touch a church with a 10-foot pole if they believe in christ they're still going to heaven too and you know what i'd rather them go to heaven and have never served god than to never serve god and go to hell praise the lord there's a free gift okay a lot of people like a free gift very few actually want to serve christ actually are thankful and there's a lot of other stories for that but i believe that god's telling us this story to remind the good people the people that are on the right path stick with the right path keep going verse 9 and the servant put his hand under the thigh of abraham his master and swear to him concerning the matter that matter now is this servant he's taking what he's been commissioned with very seriously isn't he he's making a promise to saying you know what i am going to do this and you know wouldn't god people would get serious about serving god with their life they wouldn't just try christianity on like a new jacket or something and say well if it rips a little bit i'll just trade it out for a different one or i'll just get rid of it or you know if i get too hot i'll just take it off or you know if i get a little uncomfortable it gets a little itchy or whatever rather than just saying you know what it's on and i'm gonna wear it hey this is my life i've decided this is my goal this is my purpose and i'm going to do it and you say when can you quit when you've given the gospel to everyone i mean that's kind of his commission it's like once he says no and you you've exhausted all options now you can be done now it's over okay but here's the thing we're not there yet you're not there yet and so we got a lot a lot of work to do look at verse 10 and the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master and departed for all the goods of his master were in his hand and he rose and went to mesopotamia under the city of nahor now again this is interesting just because if you think about mesopotamia and again i don't necessarily can't paint an exact picture for you from the bible on a map but if you just kind of look at general maps of where mesopotamia is kind of the northern part above israel okay and it kind of goes along the tigris and euphrates rivers that would be modern day syria okay a lot of that especially directly north some to the east is a little bit different but if you think about in the new testament where are they kind of going where they first called christians in antioc and antioc's basically in that same region in that same area it almost seems like no coincidence that when he's going to get a wife that's kind of where christianity gets its spearhead that's where it kind of gets started and you have those gentiles again i think it's just a little bit of a foreshadowing there verse 11 the bible says 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 oh lord god of my master abraham i pray thee send me good speed this day and show kindness unto my master abraham the old i stand here by the well of water and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water 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 i will give thy camels drink also let the same be she that thou is 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 and the damsel is 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 and the servant ran to meet her and said let me i pray thee drink a little water of thy pitcher she said drink my lord and she hated 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 the camels also until they have done drinking and she hated and emptied her pitcher into the trough and ran again under the well to draw water and drew for all his camels the man wondering at her held his peace to it whether the lord had made his journey prosperous or not it came to pass that the camels had done drinking but the man took a golden earring of a 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 my father's house for us to lodge him she said unto him i am the daughter of bethuel the son of milka which she bear unto nahor she said moreover under him we have both straw and provender enough and room to lodge him and the man bowed down his head and worshiped the lord and he said blessed be the lord god of my master abraham who hath 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 now a lot of things are happening here but what i want to point out i want to point out a few things about this passage and and what's really interesting about this story is how specific this servant is as far as who he wants to meet i mean he's bringing out a really crazy hypothetical he's like god if if if this is the woman if you if you really bless my journey you know i want a girl to come out offer me water and then offer the camels the water and be the exact girl i'm looking for and you know he's just like kind of praying within himself it sounds like because he's just kind of sitting there talking he's praying and it's like before he's even done it says before he had done speaking so before he's done praying or whatever it's already happening this girl's like already kind of like coming upon him and then does exactly what he said now that's crazy when you think about it but let's let's just think about what's happening you know god is obviously knowing what he's going to pray beforehand to some degree because this woman is already on her way right now some people would say well how did he have this idea or how did you have this prayer i believe that it's in tandem with his free will when you study the bible god gives us complete free will but what's cool is that even though we have free will god will sometimes come alongside our free will and he'll still order our steps as it were or he'll still guide our path or direct our way and he'll work with our free will and accomplishing his goals because he was of the servant's free will to do all of these things you know abraham just gave him a broad overarching statement you know go back and get a wife exactly how you do that was up to the servant's discretion how many camels where he's going to go what he's going to do now what i like about the servant is the servant's not stupid okay the servant's not making bad decisions he's making really good decisions what did he decide to do i'm going to go to a well where i know a bunch of girls are going to show up okay so you know it's like god give me a wife i'm going to go to a dungeon a dungeons and dragons tournament and i'm really hoping to meet you know this girl or whatever and it's like that's probably not the place to go you know he's not being very practical in his decision making he's saying hey i'm going to go to the well where i know there's a bunch of women i know there's a bunch of girls and lord you know i pray that she's a woman who's a servant right a woman who cares about other people and not just you know to get favor with me she just genuinely cares because she's going to even help my camels you know she cares about the camels she cares about me she's humble she's someone who's actually proactive a little bit because notice he's not even asking for this she's just on her own offering up all this stuff she's a picture of a godly woman a woman who's a servant a woman who wants to do good things and notice that's the type of woman he's looking for the servant isn't looking for a bossy woman or a woman that's going to go tell him what to do or say hey why don't you give me some water no she's the servant she's the one trying to help and so the servant when you think about it he's making a lot of practical decisions and a lot of good decisions i'm going to go to the well where a lot of women are and then i'm going to look for a woman who's a servant who's thinking about other people so he's identified good character attributes in a woman and that's what he's looking for and now once he's found her he's going to pursue her with everything he's got okay and that's this is actually just good dating advice for young men out there okay you need to try and find the well where all the women are hanging out and you identify the good attributes of a woman and then once you find her don't let her escape don't let her get away from you okay pursue her with all that you have and in fact he's offering gold you know he's offering silver and you know if you really want to tie down a woman you're supposed to offer a ring and i it surprises me it actually astounds me how many guys in the new ifb tell me that they're engaged and i say oh when did you propose why didn't i like when'd you get a ring and they're like i don't have one and i'm like what in the world that's kind of an that's kind of embarrassing in my opinion that you would like you're going to tell that you want this woman to be your help me for your life and it's like where's the down payment nothing we were just hanging out and just like want to get married sure what's up sure well no problem you know it's like that's weak you know you better come with the goods you better show up and say hey i'm willing to put it down a down payment an earnest payment i want you i'm willing to spend it all i'm willing to put it on a line you know i like that tradition of buying an engagement ring you know and typically it's you're supposed to have three months salary that's hefty i mean if you're making four or five thousand dollars a month we're talking about a fifteen thousand dollar ring and you say oh man i don't you're really having to i'm saying if you really like a girl why don't you woo her over why don't you impress her why don't you say hey i'm willing to actually put something on the line you're important to me you're special to me that'll make her say yes you know if you want her to say yes pursue her you know if you want her to be like kind of half in half out just be half in half out you know just be kind of awkward about it but look we're getting some good advice if you want to find a wife you know put it on the line you know look for and again if you find her you don't want to let that thing go because a godly woman like this is so hard to find so if you find a girl and you know i typically say this if you know if you can find a girl that's saved or get her saved and then get her to start coming to a church like ours you pretty much hit the jackpot at that point i mean you pretty much at that point you can get anything you know you can get her to you can convince her of about anything so you might as well just go ahead and go all in at that point but this is what they'll typically be like well but does she like asian food you know or you know how does she cook or you know does she have the right fashion sense or you know does she does she want 37 kids or you know it's like don't start there start with one build up you know build up to these expectations high lofty expectations that you have how about you just start with talking to a girl first before you give me your list of demands you know it's like you can't can't really negotiate when you have no one to negotiate with so you start lowering those those expectations and and making a prayer you know don't sit there and just get in your closet and hide and pray that god's gonna send you an angel from heaven you know get on your call of duty night and be like man i just can't wait for a girl to fall into my lap it's like go to the well you know start making some moves start going around you know i i'm in this world and i see young people all the time i see all kinds of young people you know this is my advice to young men this is what i tell them talk to every girl that you're attracted to every girl that you see that you have attraction to just go and talk to her and if it doesn't work out it doesn't work out who cares move on you know what you're never going to get anywhere by not doing anything you got to actually make some moves who so findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtain a favor of the lord you know you don't want the woman that finds you typically that's typically a bad sign you want to find her and you want to pursue her and chase after her and we need to bring back some traditionalism in this in this world okay now that's just that's free information for you okay take it take it or leave it but what i also like about this is the fact that god works with our free will and when it comes to god's commandments god is not going to get overly specific as far as how to fulfill his commandments you know he just gives you commandments like be fruitful and multiply but he's not going to give you a detailed strategic plan to accomplish that he's expecting you to figure that one out you know he's giving us the guidelines and the parameters of how to run a church but he's not going to say hey show up at wednesday night at seven you know that's for us to decide that's for the leadership that's for us to do hey for the soul winning times we decide that where we're going to go we decide that hey what kind of bibles you know we're going to buy or what kind of materials we're going to buy where we're going to get our cards where we're going to get our check you know all the practical things that come into our life that's for us to decide but we use god's guiding principles we use his commandments to ensure that we're following the right path but the exact details of that that's for us to decide but what i like about the story is notice god cares about those details and so it's important to pray you know when we're going to go soul winning we can pray and say lord lead me on this path you know i hope that the doors that i'm going to that there's going to be somewhere in there that you've already ordained it that our paths are going to collide and then i'd open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel with them and look i believe god is constantly setting up divine appointments for those who are praying and seeking his will and following his commandments we just have to do we just have to do the details we figured out and the better we are at creating practical plans good plans good details i believe the more god's going to bless us you know if we say hey let's find the richest neighborhood this week and try to go soul winning we probably won't have as much success right if we don't go two by two or if we don't plan or prepare or have invitations or we're not studying the bible we're not memorizing scripture when we go out you know we may not have opportunity if we say hey you know the best person trying to give the gospel to is a mormon that's the attribute of the person you're looking for as soon as you find a mormon go all in you know don't let them go you know put your foot in the door look that would be bad advice wouldn't it what would be good advice is saying hey someone that's interested someone that's receptive let's try to really compel them let's really go after them and try to get them safe when someone's not interested move on right so all these practical things that we're thinking about and praying about and studying god is going to pay attention to and god's going to bless meaning that god gave you a brain for a reason god didn't give you a brain to end up drawing a flat earth map god didn't give you a brain to be as stupid as possible no god gave you a brain to actually put it to use and and use the practical god-given skills and talents and attributes he gave you and use some critical thinking and to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves to go out there into the highways and hedges and hey put that brain use put the the stuff that god gave you and the best vehicle you can and get out there and do some work you know and whenever you do that god will bless you now i want to show you a lot of verses on this go to psalm one psalm one and i want to look at a lot of these things when you take god's guiding principles and you follow them the bible teaches that god will bless your your your way that god will prosper you psalm chapter number one look at verse one blessed is the man that walketh not in the council of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in a season his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doest shall prosper notice one of the promises of god he's saying hey when you start following my commandments when you delight in the law of god when you're reading the bible and studying the word of god and going to church and and seeking the lord's will and singing praises unto his name and every decision you make in your life you're thinking about the bible and you're trying to to fulfill the bible the best of your ability the bible says you will be prosperous god will give you success you know this servant's kind of like what happens when i fail and it's like quit worrying about that just do what i told you and notice god's gonna end up blessing him and prospering him and what he has asked him to do go to matthew 28 go to matthew 28 you know in joshua one it says be strong and of a good courage for under this people shall thou divide for an inheritance the land which i swear unto their fathers to give them only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do all to do according to all the law which moses my servant commanded thee turn not from it to the right hand or the left that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success so god's telling joshua look you're already going to succeed you've already prospered you're already going to win the battle what you have to do is you have to be strong and courageous and just do it just go out there i'm going to defeat them i'm going to give you the victory i'm going to win the battles for you but you have to go you have to just step out in faith you have to walk out on the battlefield and basically show up and it's silly to me when i think about soul winning how so many people could be successful by just showing up because we need silent partners it's like how are we going to win the battle show up just have a heartbeat you know just by having a heartbeat and just by showing up and going out with another soul winner you don't even have to open your mouth you say well i don't even know what to say don't worry just show up and you know what most of the time our soul winning times are filled with talkers i mean i would say 90 of our soul winning times it's all talkers it's all people that are ready to go and if we had more people just showing up physically even if you're a talker and you just don't feel like talking you just say i don't even want to feel like talking today but i just i'm just going to literally be a warm body you can double our efforts and we can get even more done and god will give us the victory when you just show up and get the job done and you say well that was joshua you know joshua is going to be successful and that was psalms okay well how about in matthew 28 when christ is giving us the great commission look what it says and jesus came and spake unto them saying all power is given unto me and heaven and earth go thee therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and the holy ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i've commanded you and lo i am with you always even under the end of the world amen and i love that latter phrase you know why because all the apostles are dead and we're not even at the end of the world yet you know why he said that because he's with us too and just like he said hey that angel that i'm talking to you about my servant he's gonna go before you and hey that angel joshua he's gonna go before you and then christ says hey when you go out i'm with you always even under the end of the world and so the same victory that all of them had with christ going before them is the same victory opportunity we have if we'll just go christ will go out there with us christ will go before us christ will smite the enemy christ will give us the victory christ will lead us all the way but we just have to go we just have to be willing to say you know what i'm going to be bold i'm going to be courageous i'm going to be strong i'm going to go out to the battle go to psalms 73 for a moment go to psalms 73 for a moment now when i'm talking about prospering you know what i'm talking about i'm talking about prospering and spiritual things i'm talking about prospering and preaching the gospel i'm talking about being filled with the spirit of god i'm talking about being filled with the revelations and the knowledge of god i'm talking about winning people to christ and getting them baptized i'm talking about getting people converted into serving the lord and becoming a soul winner making disciples you know training people up sending out preachers starting churches you know that's the type of prospering i'm talking about that's the type of success that i'm talking about but you know what i'm not talking about is your bank account being loaded with cash look what the bible says in psalm 73 verse 12 behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world they increase in riches so notice there's a different kind of prospering that the bible is differentiating in your mind he's saying hey you're going to be prosperous but i'm not telling you that your bank account is going to look like bill gates hey if you follow every commandment in the bible you're not going to look like bill gates and jeff bezos and all these other guys but you know what you're going to have success what kind of success success that god gives you through his commandments of raising a godly family what's the price tag on that worth anyways what's the price tag on having a whole bunch of children that love the lord and are serving god it's not a price tag on that what's the price tag on having a happy marriage i mean the celebrities can't buy that typically they they do a prenup because they already know they're going to fail before they even start that's like the worst thing the best thing you can do is buy a really fancy engagement ring the worst thing you can do is ask them to sign a prenup that's like really you know like will you marry me but i just want to have this sign just in case i mean that's like saying i'm not really that into you i'm already ready to get out of this thing okay and look following god's commandments can come with financial blessings they can come with physical blessings and it's not like god is just going to forsake you okay go if you would to first timothy chapter number six for a second actually just go to psalms 37 and i'm going to read for you but the bible says perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness from such withdrawal thyself but godliness with contentment is great gain so some people think that when they get a lot of money god is basically rewarding them for their good behavior or something like basically they're so godly and the evidence of their godliness is the fact they have money and look this is what the majority of big churches teach they won't say it like that because they know that's like in direct you know violation of the word of god but they'll basically teach you hey you start coming to our church you start tithing and you start giving us money and god's going to give you so much more money and then you start giving that more money and then he's gonna give you more money and then you give all that money he's gonna give you more money and then they'll be like they'll bring it brother so and so come up here and give us testify and then someone to come up and be like i gave all my money i gave my house and then i won the lottery guys you know and now i'm loaded and i got all kinds of money give now there's a kiosk over here and over here and you can give now and it's like they suppose that gain is godliness they think getting a truck getting a house getting an inheritance getting winning the lottery all this is just evidence of how godly they are and following god's commandments look sometimes it's god's will for you to lose money lose money sometimes god's will for you to get fired you're thrown in jail perhaps something negative happened here you know what even through those negative consequences if you're following god's commandments you'll prosper spiritually you'll draw closer to the lord you'll understand the bible better you'll be a partaker of his sufferings more people get saved more people be emboldened to serve christ and you'll end up seeing actually they can't do anything to stop me hey everything they did to paul failed on their end and was a prosper was a success on paul's account hey you throw them in jail more people are bold now hey you kill stephen more people are serving god it's like you cannot stop godly christians when they're serving god everything you do to them every time you try to afflict them they just more they multiply and grow and basically succeed and prosper and so there's no point in attacking god's people but what i'm not teaching you is that you're going to have a lot of money not teaching you you're going to have a lot of prosperity according to the world's prosperity that you will according to god's prosperity that's the only prosperity you should care about look at psalms 37 and i don't want to spend a little time on this psalm because it's just it really emphasizes what we're talking about but look at verse 22 for such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off the steps of a good man are ordered by the lord and he delighted and his way so notice god cares about your steps that's the smallest increment that we could talk about when you're walking i mean if you're walking what's the smallest measurement that you could really quantify it's a it's a step but notice he's saying hey those steps are ordered by the lord meaning god cares about every single step that you take he's there with you he's walking with you he's guiding you he's trying to lead you you know the bible gives us cool promises and romans talking about all things work together for good to them that love god to them that are the called according to his purpose you know and if you love god you're going to follow his commandments you're going to keep my commandments is what he said and so when you're on the right path when you're loving god when you're following his commandments when you're doing good the bible says the steps of a good man are ordered by the lord and you know what and the servant is being faithful unto abraham look at how much detail god cares about answering his prayers don't you want that kind of detail don't you want to be able to make specific prayers to god like that and he just answers them exactly like that just all the way to the detail exactly what you're wanting exactly what you're looking for you know the question is not so much sometimes am i praying for the right thing are you walking on the right path you know are you trying to follow those commandments and do good because god will prosper you maybe you're not praying for the right thing but if you're praying for the right thing you know god's going to order your steps look at verse 24 though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the lord upholdeth him with his hand i have been young and now i'm old yet have i not seen the righteous forsaken nor a seed begging bread now again i i said that you're not going to see your account look like jeff beezus or bill gates but what the bible does teach is when you serve serve god and you're following his commandments he's not going to just let you be destitute he's not going to notice he says i've never seen it you say well what about me am i the exception no he's saying look if you're following god you're on the right path nothing is going to get you all the way down to where you're just like i would serve god but i have no food now you know if god has to he'll bring you food from ravens it will multiply it he'll just turn rocks into food or something i mean god will do anything god could give you food is like such a small thing to worry about everybody's freaking out they're like oh they're going to destroy all the food through gmos and pesticides and blah blah blah well you know what god will just you know have a bird come bring me some food from all the organic food that the the president is eating or whatever you know i mean i i'm not that worried about it they can destroy the whole world the whole world can go to hell i mean the whole world is starving to death but elijah's doing good elijah's fine he doesn't even have to worry about it just delivered to him it's like grubhub you know it's just i mean they should start a raven service you know where it just comes in it just drops off the food you know raven to the door you know whatever it don't worry about those things god told us not to worry about those things what we should worry about is if we're actually in line with god's commandments right and he says this in verse 25 i have been young and i've been old yet i have not seen the righteous forsaken nor is he begging bread he is ever merciful and linda and his seed is blessed apart from evil and do good and dwell forevermore he says for the lord love of judgment now there's a verse for your liberal christians out there and forsaketh not his saints they are preserved forever but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off the righteous shall inherit the land and dwell therein forever mouth of the righteous speak of wisdom and his tongue talketh of judgment there's another verse for you not only does the lord love judgment but notice the righteous person he talks of judgment oh you're so judgmental i'm just trying to be righteous verse 31 the law of his god is in his heart none of his steps shall slide the wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh the slam so notice you're serving god you're doing right you're talking about god's law you're talking about god's judgment and then notice what the wicked they're sitting there looking at you and hating you and just hoping you die hoping some evil happens to you what the bible is saying he says in verse 33 the lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged wait on the lord and keep his way and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land when the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it i have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay tree this is what you call the new world order right i've seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay tree and people freak out oh man they're in control of everything verse 36 yet he passed away oops and lo he was not yeah i sought him but he could not be found look there has been some super wicked evil people in our history that have been in control of everything everything was under the control no one could say anything they were complete slaves and now we don't even know who they are you can't even find them we know nothing about them we don't care about them no one cares about them they're burning in hell he says verse 37 mark the perfect man and behold the upright i love this for the end of that man is peace you know some people look at you and they think like oh you're really on a road to destruction you know calling people out and judging people and saying these things no not necessarily because you know what god can preserve the righteous through all manner of destruction all manner of evil he saved lot didn't he lot made it all the way through one of the worst destructions ever you got jeremiah i mean everybody's destined to death there jeremiah makes it out and then the enemy even gives them money china might even make me a ruler or something after it takes over i'm joking okay don't take that too far but look don't don't look at that guy and say like oh i don't want to be like him why not verse 38 but the transgressors shall be destroyed together the end of the wicked shall be cut off but the salvation of the righteous is of the lord he is their strength in the time of trouble the lord shall help them and deliver them he shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him notice who god preserves is the people that are taking a bold stand the people that are going out and judging the people that are living a righteous life and you know what yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evils what the bible says yeah you have a lot of cowards today you have a lot of christians today that say you know what i'm gonna hide till jesus comes i heard a a baptist pastor say that he's like we're just gonna hide we're gonna turn all of our sermons off and we're not gonna tell anybody what we believe and we're just gonna you know basically wait it out and i'm like you know what eliza's just loud and and out there and preaching the word of god and crying i don't remember what happened all those prophets hiding in the cave starving to death i'd rather have the ravens bringing my food than waiting in a cave hoping that the taliban are next to me or something okay i mean it's it's silly you know what you should do is just be bold and and stand with god and and follow his commandments and you say well isn't sometimes christians martyrs sure they are but you know what if you're serving god you're either going to be a martyr for his sake or you're going to make it to the bitter end well both of those actually sound like a great opportunity than starving to death than being punished or something you know and think about it god preserved think about this and the end times the very very end don't a large number of christians end up getting caught together with christ meaning what they completely escaped there are literally people that are going to go through the worst persecution ever known to man the most extreme evil horrible things happening everybody's trying to kill them on purpose they can't buy or sell i mean they're literally public enemy number one two three four five six seven eight nine ten i mean you think the terrorists are being sought out these christians are like super sought out they still make it why because you'd rather be on god's team than anybody else's you'd rather be serving god and following his commandments and being bold and you know what if you get beheaded that's about probably the best way you could die anyways all right go if you would back to genesis 24 say why i don't even know if you feel it think about every other way to die doesn't it just look so painful i mean dying of cancer or or just people just dying from all kinds of diseases and illness being shot and and bleeding out for hours or being burned or being drowned or you know i mean getting in a car accident or i mean there's horrible things that are happening people people are dying in horrible ways all the time and all this will die so if you're like hey roll the dice on dying one of those ways you just mentioned or take the guillotine it's like guillotine yeah because i'm gonna die some way everybody wants this die in my sleep you know but that's not necessarily the option for everybody okay you're like raptured or die in my sleep you know guillotine's a great one too and i'm saying if you're bold you're basically rolling the dice on guillotine or raptured it's like that's a great option you know i like these two you know it might be scary for a few seconds you might blink a couple times but then you're out of there you know verse 28 it says in the damsel ran and told them of her mother's house these things and rebecca had a brother and his name was laban and laban ran out unto the man under the well it came to pass when he saw the earring and bracelets upon his sister's hands and when he heard the words of rebecca's sister saying thus spake the man unto me that he came unto the man and behold he stood by the camels of the well and he said come in thou blessed of the lord wherefore then is thou without for i prepared the house and room for the camels and the man came into the house and he unguarded his camels and gave strong provender for the camels and water to wash his feet and the men's feet that were with him and there was set meat before him to eat and he said i will not eat until i have told my naring and he said speak on and he said i am abraham's servant and the lord has blessed my master greatly and he has become great and hath given him flocks and herds and silver and gold and men servants maidservants and camels and asses and sarah my master's wife bare a son of my master when she was old and unto him had he given all that he had now just a quick note but think about kind of our parable that i i mentioned earlier they have this parable of god the father and the son everything what is he asking rebecca to do forsake all that she has because there's untold riches back with abraham and isaac and notice all the riches that abraham have are isaac's meaning all the inheritance of the father is given unto the son and then whenever rebecca becomes his wife she's a joint heir and all of those goods all of that inheritance and we too when we believe on christ are a joint heir with christ of untold riches so what's what's the meaning get a looser grip on the things in this world because who cares you got to forsake it all and leave it all behind and say it doesn't matter because i have untold riches that await me with christ just like her at this point having to say you got to forsake everything and look this is everything that she's ever known and i'm not talking about just physical possessions we're talking about precious possessions family right isn't she saying bye to mom dad brother all other family members potentially cousins uncles aunts whatever siblings you know she's she's just saying bye to everyone she knows everything that she has and going with a strange man unto meet price and look this is a picture of salvation because think about it she's willing to marry a man that she's never seen some of you ladies be terrified of that right if i said hey i got a guy who wants to marry you foreigner you can't see him he'd be like no thanks right but at least let me see a picture you know does he look like prince william or something no but at the end of the day like isn't that how salvation is we don't get to see christ yet we just choose to believe on him we choose to take him by what by faith don't we and the same as a picture with her she's by faith willing to go out and marry this man and to be his wife just like we by faith become the children of god by believing on jesus christ and so we have a lot of cool pictures here and really again the emphasis is just get a looser grip on the things of this world right verse 37 my master made me swear saying thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the daughters of the cananites and whose land i dwell thou shalt go into my father's house and my kindred and take a wife into my son and i said unto my master pay adventure the woman will not follow me 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 thou shall be clear from this my oath when thou comest to my kindred and if they give not the one thou shall be clear from my oath now what's interesting is you have to think about this abraham's not saying that he's not going to succeed he says you're going to succeed it's going to happen but hypothetically if it didn't here's what you would do and you have to understand that when you read the bible sometimes god gives these scenarios but he's not saying like this is a good option or this is what's going to happen you know like god will give provision for hey if you end up having a second wife here's how you handle it or here's what you do in a divorce situation or whatever and then some people like oh it's justification for divorce it's like no there was no justification for divorce he wasn't telling you that as if you should act on it he's just letting you know what would happen but he's also saying but you're for sure going to get you're going to for sure find her you know you're going to for sure uh have this woman and you know when it comes to marriage you can choose to just love them no matter what they do and you say who would want to marry someone realizing that if they do whatever they want you still have to be married to them it's well that's what christ did to you christ said hey you know what i'll never leave thee nor forsake thee he said hey once you believe on me you have everlasting life you're sealed under the day of redemption he's already put down the earnest payment and you're like well what if i'm a really crappy christian and don't walk in the spirit they'll go into heaven christ is still going to redeem you christ is still going to be there for you he's going to be a little ashamed of you he's gonna be a little mad about it you know i don't want to stand at the judgment seat of christ and have said like i've made it for free you know like i didn't do anything you know i just wanted to make romans four or five be a true verse you know but to him that worketh not it's like you don't want to be that guy you want to be the guy that sold out you want to be like abraham you know his friend someone that had great works to go along with his salvation and when it comes to serving god and when it comes to following the commandments you will have the success you know it says let's read a few more verses here he says what verse am i in yeah 41 42 and it came to pass under the well and said oh lord god of my master abraham if now thou do prosper the way which i go behold i stand by the well and it shall come to pass when that when the virgin cometh forth to draw water i say unto 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 hath appointed out for my master's son and before i had done speaking mine heart be old rebecca came forth with her pitcher and on her shoulder and she went down to the well and drew water and i said unto her let me drink i pray thee 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 camel's drink also and i asked her and said whose daughter out there art thou she said the daughter of bethuel nayor's son whom melka bear unto him and i will put the earring upon her face and the braces upon her hands and i bowed down my head and worship the lord and bless 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 now if he will deal 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 and laban and bethel answered and said the thing proceeded from the lord we cannot speak unto thee bad or good behold rebecca's before thee take her and go and let her be thy master's son's wife as the lord has spoken and it came to pass that when abraham's servant heard their words he worshipped the lord bowing himself to the earth and the servant brought forth jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raman and gave them to rebecca he gave also to her brother and her mother precious things now again the bible tells us seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you notice even though she's forsaking everything she's not going empty-handed notice he's still going to provide her all kinds of goods all kinds of money food clothing and riches that she gets to still enjoy on her way to serving god and here's the thing you serve god and you do right and you work hard many times god will still give you all the blessings that you wanted all the stuff that you really wanted he ends up giving you a lot of that anyways he still gives you a nice house or gives you the family or the car the things that you want it's not like god can't bless you financially while serving him he just doesn't want your heart to be turned to those things he doesn't want your heart to be seeking them first he wants you to be constantly seeking him first and his righteousness and then he'll give you all those things and even if you don't get it in this life you'll get in the next for sure verse 54 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 he said send me away to my master and a brother and mother said let the damsel abide with us a few days at the least 10 after that she shall go and he said unto them hinder me not seeing the lord hath 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 and they called rebecca and said unto her wilt thou go with this man and she said i will go and they sent away rebecca their sister and her nurse and aram servant and his men and they blessed rebecca and said unto her thou art our sister be thou the mother of thousands of millions and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them now again i think that you know taking our parable about soul winning can be a little similar in the sense that when we are done preaching the gospel we have to kind of compel them to make a decision don't we and you know i i really try to make it clear that this is a decision that they need to make i say look you know i ask them questions about if they believe what i showed them and i say do you want to believe on the christ now and accept salvation you know and if they say yes then i try to pray with them and help them accept that gift of salvation i don't typically like it when we just force them into a prayer though you know sometimes people do this and i'm not saying it's like horrible but i'm just saying to me i like to kind of still give them the choice and you say well i just don't want them to not pray yeah but i don't want them to pray by force and i actually mean it that's why i set them up for all the reasons why they should and i try to be really compelling but then i say ultimately you know it's do you want to go and look of all the information he gave you'd be like a fool not to go all the information all the story that he gave all the example and that's kind of like after you gave someone so much compelling evidence from the bible about the gospel and how they believe different and how they were wrong and how they need to change their mind it should be like all right i'm going to do it you know it should be a compelling enough decision if they don't want to make it it's for a reason probably because they probably just didn't get it and you don't want to leave on a good foot you know i still compel them a little bit further go if you went to genesis 22 for a second go to genesis 22 i'll give them like luke chapter 8 which talks about people who you know receive the word in their heart but they didn't believe so they weren't saved and i'll say hey the devil's going to try and take the gospel the seed that i just sewed your heart away from you convince you not to pray distract you or cause you to forget it and if you end up forgetting it never even believing or dying soon before you believe you'll go to hell and so if you already believe what i showed you let's just settle it now and go you know don't say give me 10 days to think about it it's like no now is the day of salvation and get the king james version now not today it's now it's like oh later today i'll pray no no no now now is the day of salvation now is the accepted time now we're gonna pray that's what the king james bible says because i don't even like today we're not even promised today but you have now i mean you're still breathing it looks like you're still alive right this second let's go ahead and settle it you know because that's the only thing we got to bank on right now now what's also cool in this story though is it talks about her being a mother of thousands of millions now if you do math on that what's a thousand millions billions that's an interesting number human history has not had billions i mean we don't know what happened before the flood exactly probably wasn't billions before the flood but not until like recent history have we eclipsed a billion now after eclipsing a billion i think it was in 1800s maybe the late 1800s or something after clipping a billion it's like just billions keep getting added a lot quicker now around seven billion something people in the world and that's an interesting number because you could not predict back then that billions of people would even exist like you couldn't know that for sure you wouldn't know and if you look at the georgia guide stones you'd think people don't want that to exist okay but notice he's saying hey i want you to be a person who has billions saved and you know what i think that's a reasonable number when you think about all of history i mean i don't quote me on this just off the top of my head i think that there's estimates that there's somewhere but to about 15 to 20 billion people that have maybe lived you know according to chronology of timeline about half of the people that have existed exist today and the other half have existed throughout history that's pretty interesting to think about too about 50 of the people that have ever lived are living right now and then the other 6 000 years of history where the other 50 of the people that lived in the world that sounds like a great harvest if you ask me you know what i mean but notice the number and you know what would to god we would get billions saved or billions of people would end up choosing to believe on christ now assuming it's 20 okay assuming it's 20 billion that have lived or 15 a billion would be about five percent now when you think about it when we go out so i think it's around about five percent that even seems safe and that's probably about the number five to ten percent's probably a realistic number but when you think about that still billions of people that would be in heaven with us that's a lot of people and so we should be encouraged now look what it says in genesis 22 verse 17 that in blessing i will bless thee and multiplying i will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven of the heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies now notice we're going to possess the gate okay it said earlier that they were going to possess the gate of them which hate them revelation 21 go to revelation 21 let me show you an example here but how are we going to possess the gate well well here's the thing we will inherit the earth if you think about it and obviously we have the lake of fire but if you think about hell right what kind of keeps people trapped in hell wouldn't it be the earth wouldn't it be the bars of the earth you know as going around they're compassed about keeping people trapped and i mean what does a gate do it kind of keeps people trapped in and so i think it's just in coordination is saying look the meek shall inherit the earth we're going to literally rule and reign on the earth and we're standing on the gates that are keeping all the damned in hell in a sense obviously we have the lake of fire and that's different there's new heavens and new earth but i'm just saying that would be one aspect or one picture of how we literally possess the gates of our enemies revelation 21 verse 14 blessed are they that do his commandments and that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city for without our dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth to make it life there's also a time in the millennial reign of christ in which christ will literally rule and reign on the earth and the only people that are gonna be able to enter into the city where christ is are the saved they're gonna possess that and the people that are not are not gonna be able to enter it in they're not going to be able to come into that house and i believe all the saved will be able to enter in you know as you study the bible this is talking about even later in the bible and when it talks about without our dogs you know i don't believe there will be any unsaved people on the earth after the new heavens and the new earth okay so it's just saying look everybody that's not saved is in hell everybody that's not saved is without they're in the lake of fire they're not going to be entering in they're not going to be some people have tried to twist this verse and say like only the like really good christians get to go to a special place on the heaven earth i actually don't believe that i believe that every every saved person has the right to enter into the into the city as it were but the people that will never enter in are the unsaved the unsaved are never going in we literally possess the gates in the millennial reign they're not entering and then once they're all thrown in the cast lake of fire obviously they're not entering in go back and we'll finish this chapter real quick and it's kind of a longer chapter i usually preach along anyways but so you're used to it but uh i just want to finish real quick verse 61 rebecca rose in her damsels and they rode upon the camels and followed the man and the servant took rebecca and went his way and isaac came from the way of the well of the highroy where he dwelt in the south country and isaac went out to meditate in the field at even time eventide and he lifted up his eyes and saw and behold the camels were coming 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 the servant had said it is my master therefore she took a veil and covered herself and the servant told isaac all things that he had done and isaac brought her into his mother's serious tent and took her back and she became his wife and he loved her and isaac was comforted after his mother's death so again we have another interesting picture here and we kind of can stay with our parable right what is rebecca picture pictures the loss coming to christ and she puts on a veil until she becomes his wife and i think this is just illustrating the fact that you know when we when the gospel being preached and we're getting people saved they're not going to be able to see christ in the flesh you know we walk by faith not by sight and not until the marriage essentially not until the rapture as it were not until that day will we actually see christ and be with them in his presence there's kind of this veil in a sense there's kind of this mystery as it were and so just like she can't see isaac until the wedding day or until the revealing day another picture of us and you know you think about a lot of people in traditional weddings have that where the bride literally comes with a veil and is not see uh you know a lot of people won't see each other on the day of their wedding and they have the veil and they come down and then the veil is revealed typically it's actually revealed when you kiss the bride or whatever if you're growing true tradition as it were in a wedding ceremony a lot of people don't wear a veil what is all that symbolism it's again the symbolism of how we don't see christ we kind of have the veil in a sense we see darkly you know through a glass darkly but then we'll see face to face there is coming a day when we'll see christ face to face and we'll be with them and so we have that cool symbolism you know everything's about christ even weddings okay and so that's kind of a cool thing um also another cool thing is just this story okay and i'm gonna finish i'm done nowhere else to turn i just want to recap because as we go to chapter 25 it's gonna change we've kind of had this story from genesis 12 all the way up to genesis 24 and it's been kind of this mini story of abraham and i believe that this mini story again is another picture of that gospel that we've been talking about okay because we have and and really it's like the whole foreshadowing of the of the old testament in christ because the bible just constantly echoes and re-echoes the same theme the same plots and the same stories over and over but we have him promised going to the promised land abraham right which is going to be picture of the children of israel being the promised land then they go into egypt abraham goes in egypt the children of israel go into egypt don't they then he returns back to the promised land doesn't he and the children of israel return back to the promised land then they have a physical child who's the physical child ishmael who's the physical child the physical jews the physical children of israel that are in the land okay then they have the long awaited spiritual child think about it a long awaited i mean really old picturing what how you're going to go through the old testament for a really long time until you get to who isaac under the waited promised child unto christ coming unto his people so you had ishmael for a while then you finally get to isaac okay then you get to chapter 22 what's it all about it's all about isaac's death okay and sacrifice the cross then you have the burning which is a picture of hell then you have what in chapter number 23 you have the burial of sarah so you have the death you have hell you have the burial and then you finally cap off with 24 which is what basically new life preaching the gospel the marriage and so you have a full picture of the whole story of the entire bible kind of a mini story taught to you from genesis 12 all the way on to genesis 24 and then as you get through the bio as we keep going through genesis you're going to keep having the same echo and the same reverb and this constant reiteration of the same story over and over and over again like the parallels of the bible are just mind-boggling incredible how much the bible just has all this intertwined fabric that just of the gospel and these stories and these pictures and these foreshadows this is not a man-made book you can't do that and you know what makes great literature is being able to do that let's close in prayer thank you heavenly father for this great chapter and the these stories that you've given us of abraham and isaac and rebecca and sarah and all these characters that we could see the pictures of the gospel we could see ultimately how it's about your son and how it's about jesus christ and what he did for us and the sacrifice and how we one day we'll get to be reunited with christ we'll actually see him face to face and we thank you that we get an opportunity to join heirs with christ and we get to inherit the earth and we'll possess the gates of our enemies and of them that hate us and we'll ultimately get the victory through christ and in jesus name we pray amen