Making Faith a Way of Life Genesis 26:24-25

Making Fait= h a Way of Life

Genesis 26:= 19-25

19 Isaac's servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water the= re. 20 But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herd= smen and said, "The water is ours!" So he named the well Esek (“dispute”), because they disputed with him. = 21 Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he na= med it Sitnah (“opposition”). 22 He moved = on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth (“room”), saying, "Now the LORD has given us room= and we will flourish in the land."

23 From there he went up to Beers= heba. 24 That night the LORD appeared to him and said, &= quot;I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I w= ill bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of = my servant Abraham." 25 Isaac built an alt= ar there and called on the name of the LORD. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a = well.

We are “Making Our Way through Troubled Times,&#= 8221; but with the full awareness that we are not the first group of people to do so. Isaac certainly encounter= ed some tough situations as he was forced to move from place to place and dig = new wells until he finally was allowed to settle down in a place he called Reho= both (Room!).

Chances are you don’t know a lot about Isaac. We often hear God referred to as “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” but we’re told far more about Abraham and Jacob than we are about Isaac. The Bible just tells us about that= unusual journey to find him a wife, our text last week, and the passage before us today.

By way of contrast, Abraham’s story requires 13 chapters of Genesis and Jacob’s story takes ten chapters—yet Isaac’s life is quite significant as the child of Abraham and Sarah’s old age and as the one who would continue the lineage of God’s people, a lineage that would culminate in the birth of Jesus Christ.

Today, we share the Lord’s Supper together as we remember Christ’s death for us. It is a meal of symbols, the bread representing our Lord’s bro= ken body and the cup, His shed blood. The bread and juice are real--yet they point us to spiritual truths which are more important than food and drink.

In the same way, I want us to consider three physical quantities mentioned in Isaac’s story which can direct our thoughts to deeper spiritual realities. W= e find all three of these in just one verse, Genesis 26:25—“Isaac buil= t an altar there and called on the name of the LORD. There he pitched his tent, and ther= e his servants dug a well.”

1. First= , ISAAC BUILT AN ALTAR. This was a ti= me of great difficulty for Isaac. God had blessed him in the land of the Philisti= nes where he was living.

The Bible says (verse 13): “(Isaac) began to pro= sper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servan= ts. So the Philistines envied him.”

These could have been good times, but Isaac was viewed as an alien in the l= and, and the locals decided to take deportation into their own hands. They filled in all of Isaac’= s wells, and their king, Abimelech, said to Isaac: “Go away from us, for you a= re much mightier than we.” So he begins moving from place to place, encountering opposition and conflict everywhere he goes, until finally he comes to Beersheba.

None of this was easy. Times were hard. Isaac= was a victim of his own success. Al= l this moving about and settling down in new places and digging new wells was exhausting.

So when Isaac finally arrives at a place he can call h= ome, God speaks to him: “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear,= for I am with you. I will bless y= ou and multiply your descendants for my servant Abraham’s sake.” (v. 2= 4)

In response to God’s promise, Isaac builds an altar. You recall that Isaac knows all ab= out altars. This is the same pers= on who as a young boy was carried up Mount Moriah by his father Abraham and was laid across, of all things, an altar.

The Lord was testing Abraham--would he be obedient, committed to the Lord even to the point of sacrificing his son? And the ans= wer the Lord received was a resounding YES.

An altar speaks of commitment and sacrifice. No one understood this better than = Isaac and his father, Abraham. But = by the providence of God, Isaac was still around to remember this event and to ref= lect upon its significance.

It was two thousand years later that the Heavenly Fath= er watched His own Son being nailed to an altar of sacrifice. We call that altar “the cros= s!”

For the rest of the world, it’s a place of horri= ble execution; but for Christians, it’s the altar where our loving Heaven= ly Father allowed His own Son to be sacrificed to atone for our sin.

Today, in Baptist life, we have an “altar call.” It’s a tim= e set aside in every service of worship for us to publicly give our lives to Chri= st and to renew our commitment to Him. I grew up singing the old Gospel song:

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“Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid? Your heart, does = the Spirit control? You can only = be blest and have peace and s= weet rest, As you yield him your body and soul.”

And that’s still true, friends. When we hold something back from t= he Lord’s control, we forfeit His blessing of peace. = 1) When we stand before this altar, we’re saying, “My life is your= s, God.”

2) When we place our offerings on the altar, we’= re saying, “My heart is yours,” for as Jesus said, “Where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also.” 3) When we ordain deacons, or comm= ission Sunday School teachers or a Mission Team before this altar, those gathered = here are testifying that they are giving their lives in service to God.

The apostle Paul pleads with us in ROMANS 12:1, “= ;I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present yo= ur bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable servi= ce.”

Paul tells us that before we receive the Lord’s Supper, we should exa= mine our lives. What are we holding back? What is there about us = that has yet to be placed on the altar before God?

Christ Jesus placed His all on the altar for you and m= e. He expects us to place our all on = the altar for Him. Have we?

2. In Isaac’s story, there is an altar, a symbol= of commitment and sacrifice; and next we find a TENT. There in Beersheba, our test says, ISAAC “= PITCHED A TENT...”

Isaac heard the voice of the Lord in Beersheba - he met God there, and so he pitched his tent in this place where the Lord’s presence had been so = real to him. If God is speaking to= us, that’s where we should want to be!

Interesting thing, though, Isaac didn’t build a = house. He pitched a tent. Okay, so that was pretty standard = stuff in that day, and Isaac had been run out of town several times already—= ;so a tent just made good sense. =

But for us, tents represent the most basic living arrangement we can imagine. O= h, we may choose to live in a tent for a few days—we call that camping; or = in the case of some natural disaster, there are tent cities that spring up to provide temporary shelter—we call that necessity. Whatever the reason for it, living= in a tent is pretty basic and not usually permanent.

The reason Isaac pitched his tent in Beersheba is because this was where God= was speaking. God had brought him= there, but if God’s presence should lead him elsewhere, Isaac was ready to g= o.

This is not faith tacked on as some small part of life, friends. This is “faith= as a way of life.” IsaacR= 17;s “house” was not some fixed structure crammed full of possessions—he was ̶= 0;camping out” and ready for his home to be wherever God led.

Who knows where this economic crisis we’re in wi= ll take us. Maybe we’ll be forc= ed to trim life down a bit—closer to the basics—and that may not be a= ll bad. It’s interesting h= ow Jesus talked in such basic terms. “Give us this day our daily bread.”

That’s not asking a lot—daily bread!

And when Jesus instituted his memorial meal, the Lord’s Supper, he used some bread—perhaps a bit more than these little wafers we have today, but not much more. And it was unleavened bread, so it wasn’t any better either!

Bread is basic, and it travels well. We share the Lord’s Supper together here, but I’ve also shared it on youth camp outs, on mission trips in Vermont and Guatemala, and during a Furman Singers Ambassadors for Friendship Tour in Romania, when that nation was still behind the “ir= on curtain” of communism. =

Faith in Christ is as basic to our spirit as bread is = to our body. And we can take it with= us anywhere we go—wherever God may lead; and if faith is truly a way of life, that could be just about anywhere!

Isaac shared his father’s faith-as-a-way-of-life perspective. He “built an altar…he pitched his tent…and…”

3. ISAAC= DUG A WELL. You didn’t live l= ong in that part of the world unless you had access to water. So wherever Isaac went, he had his servants dig wells--lots of them!

Like bread, water is necessary for life. Isaac and his servants could either= DIG or DIE! Maybe in this time of prolonged drought, we’re becoming increasingly aware of this—ju= st how dependent we are on water!

The Lord’s Supper reminds us of how dependent we= are on Christ and His sacrifice for us on the cross. As the bread symbolizes Jesus̵= 7; broken body, the cup symbolizes His shed blood. We are totally dependent on His de= ath for our life.

“Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in t= he death of Christ, my God; all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.” (Is= aac Watts)

“What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.= 221; (Robert Lowry)

Is faith a way of life for you, not just here in this = place, but in every place life takes you? And do you acknowledge and confess this day your total dependency on Christ’s atoning death for your life, your salvation, your eternity?<= /p>

As we prepare to receive this sacred meal, may we exam= ine our hearts, our convictions, our priorities, our faith. May we see with fresh eyes this al= tar, the bread and cup, the body and blood of Christ Jesus—His all…on the altar…for us.

And then, let’s take an honest look at our lives= and ask, <= /span>“What are we placing on the altar of sacrifice for Him?”