Responding to God

READ: Genesis 24:22

CHALLENGE: Praise God for All That He Has Done

This story is profoundly powerful.  God leads the servant back to the place where Abraham’s family came from.  To exactly where he needed to be.  Where Abraham wanted him to be.  Where God wanted him to be.  The response of the servant is spontaneous praise! 

Have you ever just pondered all the things you have to be thankful for?  It’s truly amazing.  What do you have to be happy about?  What are you smiling about? 

  1. PRAISE GOD for HIS PROVIDENCE

Vv22-27When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels. 23 Then he asked, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?” 24 She answered him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son that Milkah bore to Nahor.” 25 And she added, “We have plenty of straw and fodder, as well as room for you to spend the night.” 26 Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord, 27 saying, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”

  • Providential Answers to Prayer

When does the praise begin?  Shortly after the prayer is answered.  Specifically, the man waited until “the camels had finished drinking”.  A thirsty camel can be known to drink 30 gallons of water in a couple of minutes.  There were 10 camels.  10 camels could mean she fetched 300 gallons of water.  In a five gallon container – that’s sixty trips back to the well.  If the containers were 10 gallons, that’s 30 trips.  She was working and this answer to prayer is extraordinary just for the work it required.  Labor for a complete stranger.

Have you had any great answers to prayer lately?  When you do, it’s moving and humbling to think that something good came about as a direct answer to your prayer.

  • Providential Precision

The servant asks, “Whose daughter are you”?  Please tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night”?  Who is the first woman he meets?  Not who is the first woman to water the camels.  Who is the first woman he even saw?  It’s the exact one.  The fact that she’s first on the scene is God’s providence. 

Rebekah was Lot’s sister’s boy!  Who was married to Abraham’s brother.  That’s about as close a relationship as you can get.  She’s a first cousin to Isaac, one generation removed. 

Abraham said, “Go back to my family” and he finds them on this first stop.  Why?  The first stop was the right stop!  It saves a lot of time when the first stop in the right stop.  Who guided his steps?  God.  The angel of the Lord is mentioned as well. 

When he hears how she’s related to Abraham, it’s confirmation that he’s exactly where he needed to be.  There’s no way that he could have known that on his own.  God has divinely directed his steps to the exact right place.

Proverbs 16:9In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.

May God direct our steps to the exact place we need to be!  The servant knows that he’s basically seen a miracle at this point, right?  It’s so divine that you cannot deny it! 

  • Providential Provision

He also wanted to know about lodging.  She told him that they had plenty of straw and fodder for the animals and the room for lodging.  God also took him to a place where there was plenty of what he needed.  Couldn’t this be seen as extra confirmation of God’s will?  He sees the family ties and also that there is room for them. 

Sometimes we talk about desires and circumstances as confirming your decision or that where you are is where God wants you to be.  Is it a small thing that there’s plenty of room?  In traveling through Canada, lodging was tough.  I think it’s important and especially if towards evening. 

If you’re going to where God wants you, shouldn’t there be room there?  You ever go to a restaurant with no tables?  Sometimes you have to keep going because there is no place.  If Jesus was supposed to be born in the inn, there would have been room.  God provides for us as we’re in his will. 

I think God wants me to fish here – but if there are no fish and the riverbed is dry, I’d say, that’s not where he sent you. 

Let’s look at the opposite.  What if they get all the way out there but there’s no room for them?  Or that they are not welcome.  That’s a sign, right.  And perhaps the welcome is more telling than anything else.  They were received into Rebekah’s family home.  Their plan was accepted there.  If they were not.  If they were chased off.  I’d have to assume that was not the will of God. 

When God is in it, there is welcome.  I was just reading in the New Testament where Jesus ate with sinners.  Part of God’s provision is that he loves sinners.  God accepts the seeker and so should we. 

God’s ultimate mission is saving the lost.  This is why Jesus was with sinners and why they were welcome at his table.  That’s his mission, so there’s always room!  I heard a preacher say to those who say the church is full of hypocrites – there’s always room for one more.  They were welcome. 

As many as have received Jesus have the right to become the children of God.

John 1:12Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

The provision is a sign that the servant has not made up his own path.  Sometimes we may come into times of want because we’re not following God’s path, we’re following our own.  If there is no provision and no welcome, I’d say you’re in the wrong place.

My Dad stepped out on faith to study for ministry and there was a journey through college.  He was a full-time student my junior and senior years of high school.  Lean times but God provided.  God used the family, as everyone worked to help out.  Provision was confirmation.  But then he also provided my dad a church. 

If you’re running up to someone to shove spiritual information at them and they say, hey, I’m not interested.  Might be in the wrong place.  We need to look for the places where God is working. 

Some of the circumstances I look for determining God’s will is in the voices of others.  God has so often directed me through the people who talk to me.  He’s right there with them all as well.  I believe God speaks in unity through the Holy Spirit.  So when many are telling you the same thing and it’s consistent with the truth, listen. 

  • Providential People

She said, we have plenty of straw and fodder, as well as room for you to spend the night.  She doesn’t know the mission yet.  Doesn’t know how much her life is about to change.  She’s just helping someone out of the goodness of her heart.

Isn’t it cool that sometimes we’re just helping someone and doing what God has called us to do.  More importantly perhaps, being who God called us to be.  What about our being?

This woman just watered ten thirsty camels.  Look at the beautiful purity of motivation.  She doesn’t even know this person.  She owes them nothing.  She does it out of the goodness of her heart and it doesn’t get any purer than that.

When you’re at Lake Superior you can see the rocks deep below the surface of the water.  Why?  Because there’s not a bunch of junk in the water.  It’s cleaner and clearer than Lake Erie.  We have more run off and more algae as each lake pours into the next, it gets worse.  We will never be as clean.

What are our motivations?  How clean is the motive?  What else is in there?  Can you see right through to goodness, or is there pride and the desire for admiration? 

Who you are drives what you do.  Her kindness is the extension of her heart.  At the moment she’s doing it, she’s not thinking about the financial benefit behind it.  It’s altruistic completely.  Pure character.  Purely about others.  Is this our heart? 

Psalm 19:14May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Philippians 2:3-4Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Who am I really?  Do we go out of our way?  We have coaches and teachers and volunteers and small group leaders and workers of all kinds.  It’s just to help out.

Yet, as I look at Rebekah, I wonder at times if I’m as unselfish as I should be?  I know we guys love our hero points.  We do one thing and we want the attention of a Super Bowl Champion!  Confetti!  But seriously, do we go out of our way? 

One thing that helped me not all that long ago was reminding myself that if it only takes a minute just do it.  Getting water for your spouse.  Putting something a way.  You’ll minute by minute yourself to accomplish a lot because you didn’t put it off.

Rebekah didn’t put off serving until a more convenient time.  She got after it right then and there. And that’s service – and heart.  God uses you to bless others!

Give thanks for those who do go above and beyond.  I want to challenge myself to be a camel waterer.  To be someone who is willing to go above and beyond.  To do the things that need to be done and especially at home!

God does provide!  Who are the people that we’re thankful for in life?  The people who God has put in your life?  Probably those who went out of their way to help us.  Those who have gone above and beyond.

I’m thankful for family.  I’m thankful for Zeke.  I’m thankful for friends who make life better.  I’m thankful for my church family. 

  • PRAISE GOD FOR WHAT HE’S DONE

26 Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord,

He bowed down and worshipped.  He is so happy because he immediately connects what happened with God above.  That’s worship.  When I’m praising God because He has supplied! 

What do I note about the worship?  Worship is spontaneous, not necessarily scheduled.  It’s being grateful for things along the way that come from God’s hand.

Worship acknowledges God.  When we see something great, we can praise God for it and that praise is worship.  We often tie worship to singing but praising isn’t always singing.  Life is not a musical and not all of us can sing.  But we can all give thanks!

How often do we just sit down and ponder the work of the Lord?  There’s so much to be grateful for. 

Job 1:20-21 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

He worshipped even in disaster.  Why?  God is still the same all the time.  In good times and in bad times we can thank God.

It’s curious to me that people will go ahead and trust God until there is something they don’t like.  Is God’s will determined by what you like?  God gets us to where we need to be.  You can’t have faith if you don’t trust God with hard things too.  You can talk a good game but if you come apart in times of trouble, then how small is your faith.

Proverbs 24:10If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength!

Job saw God’s hand in hardship.  The servant sees God’s hand in blessing.  But praise remains positive either way.  We need worship to keep us centered in

Living with a thankful heart is powerful.  Worshipping God is powerful. 

  • PRAISE GOD FOR HIS CHARACTER

27 saying, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”

  1. God’s Kindness

He has not abandoned me.  Perhaps it was a rough trip but he was not abandoned.  That’s a beautiful thing too.  He will never abandon us.  Never leave us.  He’s not going to forget about us. There may have been a time or two when you wondered.

What things may get abandoned?  I’ve seen houses that are abandoned.  I’ve seen cars abandoned behind old houses with the woods grown up around them.  And when it’s abandoned it becomes a ruin.  God never leaves behind his kindness or his faithfulness.  God is kind!! 

Where is God’s loving kindness showing up in your life?  Kindness is when you find that place you couldn’t get to without God.  Or strength to make it.

Sometimes the kindness is just the kind words of others.  I’ve seen God put things in my life that are positive just when I need them to be.  I appreciate God’s work in this way. 

Kindness in deeds.  In blessings along the way as we need them.  I truly don’t know what I would do without the kindness of God.  Would I even be here apart from his kindness?  Where has God gone above and beyond?

  • God’s Faithfulness

Let’s talk about that.  When he sees her and finds out who she is.  God has not abandoned his faithfulness to us.  His reliability. 

It’s new every morning.  Even in the hardest of times you can find faithfulness.  Little reminders that God is still there and still present.  It’s truly amazing. 

Lamentations 3:2223Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Where would we be without the faithfulness of God?  He’s amazing.  Faithfulness is dependability.  Reliability.

I was thinking about Jeri and I do appreciate that she’s always there for me.  She has to hear about issues.  She takes things in the church at heart.  She’s there when I do weddings and there when I do funerals.  She’s there when I’m traveling.  She’s always there.

And we guys, typically, don’t have a better defender than our wives.  They are like German Shepherds in protection of people who lash out.  I’ve often thought that she takes it far worse than I take it. 

  • God’s Leading

As for me, God has led me. How is God leading us today?  God leads us through the Word of God.

George Muller said that he’s not going by impulse.  He’s going by the Word of God.  When God speaks, it’s consistent with Scripture.  And if it’s the opposite of Scripture, God didn’t say to do it.

There have been times where I’ve asked about things and God has brought a verse to my mind and the verse becomes the answer.  Are we into His word?  Are we seeking to know it better so that we have that spiritual resource?  God has given us something so awesome and powerful.  It’s incredible really.  Amazing really.  Thank you God. 

CONCLUSION: David Jones had to hike 30 miles to walk his daughter down the aisle.  “You have to understand – my daughter’s getting married at 11 this morning, and I’m going to walk her down the aisle,” Jones recalled telling a Tennessee state trooper whom he encountered about nine hours before the ceremony.

The trooper had told Jones he could not go further because the roads were impassable, including the major interstate providing the most direct route to the wedding in Johnson City, Tennessee. But Jones, who has prior experience running marathons, estimated he was within 30 miles of his destination. So he decided he could walk there, with only his cellphone light to illuminate his way.

The ensuing journey was, to say the least, precarious. He had to climb over or crawl under piles of debris as tall as 7ft, including fences and trees felled by Helene’s life-threatening flooding.

At one point, he became trapped in knee-deep mud and was almost run over by a backhoe being used by a crew to clear the roadway. Yet he managed to free himself in the nick of time, though he had to later work to retrieve a shoe that remained stuck in the mud,.”

Elizabeth Marquez said “That’s so emotionally moving [to know] that my dad loves me that much, that he’ll come and go through all of that to get to my wedding and be there on time.”

In his dramatic interview with the news outlet, Jones maintained he only did “what any dad would do”.

That’s God – doing what any dad would do … except that He sent His son!