Connect with Skip - Skip Heitzig

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Connect with skip Heidzig and we're so glad
you've joined us for today's program. Connect with skip Heidzig
is all about connecting you to the never changing truth
of God's Word through verse by verse teaching. That's why
we make messages like this one today available to you
and others. Before we get started with the program, we
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(00:21):
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Sign up today at connectiskip dot com. That's connect with
skip dot com. Now let's get started with today's message

(00:43):
from pastor's Skip Heitzig.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
The land that I bring you into is a land
of hills and valleys that drinks in the water from
the rain of Heaven. And if you obey me and
trust me, I will give you the early rain as
well as the latter rain, the whole winter season at
the early part and the latter part what they call

(01:06):
in Hebrew the yore and the mal kush, the early
and the latter rain. I'll bless you with that. So
to be in the land of Canaan was a place
of faith. You couldn't just go down to the river
and pump the water into your vegetable garden. You had
to trust that the Lord was going to bring it
from heaven. Well, it hadn't rained for a long time.
There's a famine in the land. What do you do?

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Do?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
What Dad did? Dad went down to Egypt. He survived.
But Egypt is always seen as a negative move in
the Bible. It would be sort of like equating it
to the world, going back to the world to get
your provision, rather than trusting the Lord in your new place,
the new life. Looking through the world. Now, unfortunately a

(01:52):
lot of us believers begin the Christian life with these
unrealistic expectations and leave the prayer room, and we think
what they told us was happily ever after. Well true,
ultimately that is true. But in the meantime there's hills

(02:12):
and valleys and places of trust and places of blessing
and places of famine. But because they have the happily
ever after a white picket fence, everything is going to
be perfect. I'll never struggle ever ever again. The first
struggle that happens in their life, they want to run
back to Egypt. This isn't what I expected. This is hard. Oh,

(02:37):
that's good enough reason to sort of to bag the
whole Christian thing and go back to what the path
to Hell. Not a good idea, but that's how a
lot of us think. So it brings up this question.
If there's famine and the Promised Land, why if that's
the land God said I'll bless you in, why would

(02:58):
God allow there to be a fan in the land
God told them to go to hear God telling them
to go to this land as soon as they get
their famine, and then later on more famine and now
more famine. Why. Well, the answer is pretty easy, because
your faith in God is really worthless unless it's tested.
How do you know if your faith is really valuable,

(03:19):
if it really works. Do you think your faith only
grows by a steady diet of blessing after blessing after blessing.
I'm under the spout where the glory comes out twenty
four to seven. That's the Christian life. Your best life
now takes no faith for that. I'll tell you what

(03:40):
takes faith is when you look at your cupboards and
there's nothing in them. In your bank account and there's
boy nothing there in fact negative balance, And you say
as you close it. God is good all the time.
He'll take care of me no matter what. This is
the land he brought me into. If I die, I die,
what's the worst that can happen? I die, I lose
a few or I die and I go to heaven.

(04:04):
God'sy dwell in this land, and I will be with
you and bless you, for to you and your descendants,
I give all of these lands, and I will perform
the oath which I swore to Abraham, your father. Stay
in the land. Now he was in Gharar. That's where
God stopped him. Gharar is where the Philistines, the early

(04:27):
Philistine encampments settled in Garar before it became known as
Felistia later on in David's time. But this is really
in the land of Canaan, but on the border that
threshold as you go down to Egypt. God tells him
to stay. God tells him he would bless him. And
look at verse four, and I will make your descendants.

(04:48):
Now listen, how this sounds so much like the promise
God gave to Abraham. It's a reiteration of it. I
will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven.
I will give to your descendants all these lands, and
in your seed all the nations of the earth shall

(05:09):
be blessed. Because you're such a wonderful person, because you're
such a man of faith. And I couldn't resist you. No,
because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments,
my statutes, and my laws. This blows my mind. I

(05:35):
got to tell you why. Here's a disobedient patriarch like
Father likes him, going down to Gharar, actually going down
to Egypt. God stops him. And when God appears to
him and speaks to him. Notice what God doesn't say.
He doesn't say, what is the deal with you stupid patriarchs?

(05:55):
Every time there's a famine, you go rushing down to Egypt.
I'm sick of this. Know what God does is pronounce
a blessing upon him, a blessing upon him, the disobedient patriarch.
God reiterates the grand blessing that he gave to Abraham.

(06:18):
This is called mercy, And oh how we love it.
The merciful, Great God Okay, I know we're in Genesis
twenty six barely, but I want to direct your attention
one more time, if you don't mind, to Psalm one
hundred and three. Psalm one hundred and three is David's

(06:40):
synopsis of the history of his people, going all the
way back through Moses up to the present time, and
it's all about how God dealt with them. And I
want you to get this under your belt tonight because
you just may be in a place where you need
to experience God's mercy and favor and grace. I'm one
hundred and three. I could just read it, but you

(07:03):
know it was fun a couple of weeks ago when
on a Sunday we did a responsive reading. Do you
remember that. So I'm going to read verse one and
the odd numbered verses, and then you out loud read
verse two and the even numbered verses, and you go
down to verse ten, and I'll close with verse eleven.
Got it. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all

(07:26):
that is within me. Bless his holy name, who forgives
all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who satisfies

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your mouth with good things, so that your youth is
renewed like the eagles. He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the children of Israel. He will not

(08:08):
always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever.
Whereas the heavens are high above the earth. So great
is his mercy toward those who fear him, isn't that great?

(08:29):
That's where we stop. Now, here's the point our faults,
and there's a lot of those, right. Our faults are
like a grain of sand next to the high mountain
of God's mercy. That's how those last few verses render.

(08:50):
If I were to spin it in a poetic kind
of a spin, it's like a grain of sand next
to the mountain of God's mercy. Paul and Ephesians too,
said God, who is rich in mercy. Jeremiah was looking
at the destruction of Jerusalem, but the saving of a few,
and he said in Lamentations three, it's through the Lord's

(09:12):
mercies that we are not consumed his mercy because his
compassions they fail not. He went on to say, they
are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. So don't
be too surprised when you find people like Isaac doing
all of the stupid things that one does as they

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fumble and bumble their way on the pathway of their
journey of faith. Don't be surprised when God, who is merciful,
blesses again, not because of Isaac, but because God made
a promise to Abraham, as he said in verse twenty six,
verse five, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge,
my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Okay, now verse six,

(10:00):
So Isaac dwelt in garar. Now, wow, here's the second failure,
the second sin. And the men of the place asked
about his wife. Now you remember Rebecca, right, Remember when
in chapter twenty four Abraham's servants saw Rebecca at the
well and he noticed she's a knockout. That's my rendering.

(10:24):
She was beautiful. The Bible says she was noteworthy. She
was gorgeous, and her beauty is noted a few times
in the Bible, as it will be in a moment.
And so the men of the place asked about his wife,
and he said she is my sister, just like dad twice,
for he was afraid to say she is my wife

(10:44):
because he thought less. The men of the place kill
me for Rebecca, because she is beautiful to behold came
to pass when he had been there a long time,
that a Bimelech looked through the window and saw there
was Isaac showing endearment to Rebecca, his wife. Okay, back up.

(11:06):
Do you find it a bit amazing that immediately after
God pronounces a blessing and appears to him pronouncing a blessing,
that immediately after he degenerates to lying about his wife.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig before we return
to Skip's teaching. If you've ever wondered what the Bible
has to say about some of our culture's big issues,
we have a great resource for you. When you give
a gift of fifty dollars or more this month to
support the ministry of Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send
you God Speaks Biblical answers for today's issues. This special

(11:41):
resource bundle contains six of Pastor Skiff's booklets that address
topics like suicide, why the Truth matters, Heaven and Hell,
and the Church's response to racism. You'll gain valuable insight
into what God's Word says about the big questions in
our culture and get equipped to stand for the timeless
truth of God. Scripture go to connect with Skip dot

(12:02):
com slash offer, or call eight hundred and ninety two
to eighteen eighty eight and request your copy when you
give fifty dollars or more. Now let's get back to
Skip for more of today's teaching.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Wouldn't you think that if God appeared to you physically,
you saw something, you heard him, that that would like
motivate you to be really spiritual at least for a while,
at least for a week immediately after this great blessing.
He's afraid. Now, why should he be afraid that God

(12:39):
would somehow preserve his life when God just said I'm
going to bless you and your descendants. You got to
have descendants and you got to live to see that
blessing for that to happen. Why would he get all
freaked out that God wouldn't preserve his life after God
just said he had nothing to worry about, I'm going
to bless you and gave that same promise. It's amazing,

(13:01):
isn't it. Sort Of? It's amazing only theologically. It is
not amazing personally, because we all know we're prone to that,
We're prone to hear, We're prone to hear God's promises.
We're prone to see great things God has done and
then quickly degenerate into an old pattern of sinfulness. I
think of Peter. Peter was never higher in his spiritual

(13:24):
career than when they were up north at Cesarea, Philippi,
and when Jesus asked the question, who do men say
that I am? And they bantered back and forth with
different answers. Who was Peter? Who said? You are the Christ,
the son of the Living God. Now Jesus turned to Peter,
How would this feel to you if you were Peter?
And he said, blessed are you Simon's son of Jonah.

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Flesh and blood. Didn't reveal this to you, but my father,
who is in heaven. You'd feel pretty good if Jesus
said that about you, Blessed are you? You're right on.
You had the right answer. You kind of at least
be tempted to go, I am a little more spiritual
than John or Andrew, just a wee bit. He didn't
say that to them, but he said it to me.

(14:07):
He was at the very peak of his career. It
was like the high point spiritually. But immediately after that
he took it upon himself to rebuke the Lord when
Jesus talked about the cross and going to Jerusalem to die,
and then our Lord had to turn to Peter and say,
get behind me, Satan from blessed you, Simon soon of Jonah,

(14:28):
to you talk him from the devil. Dude also very
prone to do that. Isaac was very prone to do that.
He was so afraid. This is what I want to
talk about tonight, because I do run into believers, precious
saints of God, some of you who are so fearful

(14:52):
about your future. You have nothing to be afraid of, nothing,
because you have a shepherd. David said, the Lord is
my shepherd. I shall not want Now. If we were
in Israel, and if we lived two to four thousand
years ago, and I referred to you as a bunch

(15:12):
of sheep, you might not take that as a compliment,
because sheep were stupid. Sheep couldn't think for themselves. They
perpetually get lost, they perpetually get into trouble. They need
to be led by a shepherd. So you could either
take that as an insult. The Lord is my shepherd,
and your gods sheep, and he should be your shepherd,

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or you take it as a point for bragging rights
because you're saying, Hey, I don't know who your shepherd is,
but let me tell you who my shepherd is. The
Lord is my shepherd. Here's the analogy I often like
to think about at that particular juncture of scripture. Have

(15:53):
you ever met a dog owner who so pampers the
animal that it's as if the animal is in the family.
Little sweaters are knit for the puppy, and she goes, oh,
I know what he's thinking when he looks like that,
he's really thinking because he's not. He's a dog. He's
not thinking that at all. He's not thinking at all.

(16:13):
He's living in a whole different But oh no, no,
you don't understand. And they pamper this little one and
little booties for the wintertime, and you think it's pathetic.
You know, the doghouse says Fido, but it's spelt in
the euroway p h y d e a u x

(16:36):
thy do. And again you go, this is over the top, crazy, pathetic.
But of all of the dogs in your neighborhood, if
you had to be one dog, would you want to
be the dog that has never walked and barks in
the backyard or the dog who is pampered. You'd say,
I'll take them. I'll be that dog. Here's David. The

(16:59):
Lord is my shepherd. Look who my shepherd is? Yahweh
the Lord, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads
me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He
leads me in paths of righteousness for my name's sake.
Now you know this verse very well. Yeay, though I

(17:20):
walk through the valley of the shadow of Death, I
will fear no evil, for you are with me. For
your rod and staff they comfort me. Why is it
then that we are afraid of the valleys? Oh no, Lord,
I can't face that. Don't let me go through that valley.
I like the mountaintop experiences. In fact, I would love it, Lord,

(17:43):
if in my life you could just airlift me from
mountain peak to mountain peak to mountain peak. That's the
victorious Christian life. Do you know that? In the Middle East,
when a shepherd leads the sheep down into the ravines,
and by the way, you know why they do it.
In the summertime, it's very hot, and the wool, even
if it's shorn it's still very hot on that animal,

(18:05):
and so the shepherd to cool down his sheep, will
move the sheep into the cooler, dark ravines where the
shadows are, and it's just better for him to hang out.
But sheep hate going down into valleys. They hate ravines.
They can't see very well, it's dark, it's unpredictable. So
the shepherd has to lead them through the valley. But

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at the very bottom of the ravine, guess what's there
water that's where the rain water. They call them in
Israel waddies. And if you're going from Jericho to Jerusalem
and it's barren, there's this little waddy celt and I
always see shepherds leading sheep around there. But at the
bottom of that waddy celt, at the bottom of that ravine,

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there's flowers growing. There's vegetation growing because the rain water
or the springs are down at the bottom of the valley.
So often it is the dark valley that you hate.
The post that is the very path of God's blessing
and green pastures. God saying I'm trying to lead you
to green pack. I don't want to go, yeah, but

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I'm talking about refreshment. No I don't want to be refreshed.
He just got to know who your shepherd is. Well,
he's freaked out, he's scared, doesn't want to go through
this valley. He's afraid about his wife, so he says,
she's my sister. Now came to pass. We're not making
very good time, are we. He came to pass when
he had been there a long time. A Bimelec, the

(19:31):
king of the Philistines, looked through the window and saw
there was Isaac showing endearment to Rebecca, his wife. King
James's sporting with her. Flirting with her would be the idea.
And a Bimelek called Isaac and said, quite obviously she
is your wife. So how could you say she is
my sister? Isaac said to him, because I said, lest

(19:54):
I die on account of her. And Abimelech said, what
is this that you have done to us? One of
the people might soon have lain with your wife, and
you would have brought guilt upon us. Now, just a
little historical note on the name a Bimelek. The name

(20:17):
Abimelech means my father is king, avi Melech, my father
is king. It is thought that that is either a
family name that is this obviously not the same Abimelech
when Abraham was around. It's a different one, or it's
a dynastic name. It's either a throne name or a

(20:38):
dynastic name. A throne name like Pharaoh, or a dynastic
name like the Herod family. You'd have several herods, but
they're all different people. So it's one of the relatives
of the Abymelech with Abraham, but a completely different person.
Now what's sad in verse eleven, Well, let's finish off versus,

(21:00):
and so Abimelech charged all his people, saying, Hugh touches
this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. Boy,
it's a sad day when the world rebukes the believer.
That's a very, very, very sad day when the testimony

(21:20):
gets so low that the world is rebuking the believer.
Jesus said, let your light so shine among men, that
they may see your good deeds and glorify your father,
which is in heaven. Isaac isn't doing much of that
these days. The irony of this story is that the

(21:42):
pagan king of Gharrar seems to have better morals than
the man of God. The patriarch Isaac, this man of
the world understands that men and women of God should
be honest, faithful, have lives filled with integrity. And so
here is the unbelieving king rebuking this man of God.

(22:08):
It's sort of similar to the prophet Nathan after David sinned.
You remember the story Second Samuel, when Nathan came in
after David committed adultery with Bethsheba, said you are the man.
But then he said, because you have done this thing,
you have given great occasion for the enemies of the

(22:29):
Lord to blaspheme or literally show utter contempt. You've given
unbelievers fuel for them to mock the believer because you've
done this David, and I would say the same thing
for this man, Isaac. So a Bimelech charged all his people.

(22:50):
I read that now verse twelve. Then Isaac sewed in
that land and reaped in the same year one hundredfold.
Now again, watch this, and the Lord blessed him. I'm baffled.
He blows it once. God says, I'm gonna bless you.
Here's the promise of Abraham. He blows it again, God,

(23:14):
one hundredfold. Now it's one thing to get a hundred
times what you expect in a harvest. It's another thing
to get it in a place where it's a border
land where you don't get very much moisture at all.
It's arid, its desert, and there's not much water. And
obviously the blessing of God is upon him. The man

(23:35):
began to prosper and continued prospering until he became very prosperous.
For he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds,
and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.
God blessed him once. God blessed him twice. God did
not bless him because he was mister Wonderful, but because

(23:59):
he made a promise us to Abraham. Now listen carefully.
God doesn't bless you because you're mister or missus Wonderful.
Though you might be a wonderful person, but that's not
why he would ever bless you. God knows the truth
about you and I, but he blesses you because of
his wonderful son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the covenant

(24:19):
that has been made through his blood that allows us
to become children of God. That's the reason. It's not
our merits, it's his merit alone. Because of that covenant,
God has blessed us.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember
that when you give fifty dollars or more to help
reach more people with the Gospel through connect with Skip Heitzig,
we'll send you God Speaks Biblical Answers for Today's Issues,
which contain six of Pastor Skip's booklets to help you
understand what the Bible says about big issues like racism,
the importance of truth, suicide, and Heaven and Hell. To

(24:59):
request your copy of God Speaks Biblical Answers for Today's Issues,
call eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight. That's
eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight, or visit
connect Withskip dot com slash donate for more from Skip.
Be sure to check out the many resources available at
connectiskip dot com slash store. Come back next time for

(25:23):
more verse by verse teaching of God's Word. Here on
connect with Skip Heidzig, make it.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
Connect, make a Connect, The cross chats songs, Make.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
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Speaker 1 (25:49):
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