If you have a Bible,
Genesis Chapter 24 is where we're going to be for
this weekend and the next four weekends as well. The six weeks from-- that kicked off, really,
Valentine's Day week. It's going to end the Sunday
after St. Patrick's Day. And so if you're going
to do a series that goes from St. Patrick's to
Valentine's Day, what better could you call it
than "Lucky in Love?" So that's what we did. Thank you, while you were
sleeping, for a great sermon series. He said, you've never
been very, very lucky when it comes to cards, but
you have been lucky in love. And I want to challenge
you to believe that there is something much
better than luck when it comes to your romantic
relationships and to all of your relationships,
and that is Providence-- Providence, God's Providence,
God's leading in your love life and in your relationships. If you have a Bible,
like I said, Genesis 24. The title of this message is
"Four Keys to Avoiding Relation Shipwreck"-- "Four Keys to Avoiding
Relation Shipwreck." When I got my first Bible-- I mean, I had an illustrated
Bible that was an adventure Bible that I read till
both covers were gone, and pages were falling out. But when I got my
first Bible that was like imitation
leather, and I remember I got to choose to
emblazon something on it, to engrave something on
it, at the bookstore. And they said, what do
you want to put on it? And I picked my name, but then
I also picked a Bible verse, because they said you
could-- there's two lines. You could put
something under it. And I knew exactly what
I wanted to put on it. I put Proverbs 3,
5, and 6 on it. These have been some of my
favorite verses in scripture that have marked my whole
Christian life following Jesus, have marked for sure
my relationship life and marriage and ministry
and have been one of the two or three, I guess you could say,
verses that have just really, out of all the verses
in the Bible, really meant a lot to and marked
my spiritual journey. If you've ever gotten
a book signed by me, chances are I've written one
of these three references. And the one that I
probably go to second most often is
Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, which says, "Trust in the
Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your
own understanding. Acknowledge Him in
all of your ways." And He will direct your paths." And alongside Genesis 24 through
26, for the next several weeks I want to challenge
you to believe that you don't need to be lucky
or think you're unlucky when it comes to love-- that
you really can trust in God with your whole heart
and watch on the back end Him direct your steps. That is what Providence is all
about-- believing that there is a good God who has good
things in mind for you, who is working behind the
scenes to orchestrate wonderful things that are
going to bring Him glory and bring you amazing
fullness of life. Let's read the text
together, starting in verse 1 of Genesis 24, and
we'll explain and give context. And we don't have
to be in a hurry and feel the need to articulate
all that is contained here because we will have
weeks and weeks to unpack these scriptures that
we're going to begin today. And you will want to be
here and make the commitment to be here week after
week, whether that's to be here with your
headphones on after the fact, but to not miss out on
these moments together. Verse 1, Genesis 24-- it says, "Now, Abraham was old." And in case that
wasn't clear enough, he doubles down and says,
"well advanced in age," as though to say-- Moses, by the way. He wrote this, as though
to say, man, this dude wasn't just a little bit old. He was old. And we're like,
well, how old was he? Homie was advanced
in age, all right? So superlatives here. But notice-- "And the Lord
had blessed Abraham"-- in how many things? In all things. Put it in the chat--
in all things. That's what we want, right? "So Abraham said to the
oldest servant of his house"-- so everybody's old
that we've met so far. Abraham's super old. The servant that's
picked here is the oldest of all
the servants, "who ruled over all that he had." "He said to him, 'Please,
put your hand under my thigh'"-- we'll
explain that-- "'and I will make you
swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and
the God of the Earth, that you will not take a wife
for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites
among whom I dwell. But you shall go to my country
and to my family and take a wife for my son Isaac.' And the servant said to
him, 'Perhaps the woman will not be willing to
follow me to this land. Must I take your son back to
the land from which you came?' But Abraham said to him,
'Beware that you do not take my son back there. The Lord God of heaven, who
took me from my father's house and from the land of my
family, and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying,
to your descendants, I will give this land-- He will send His
angel before you. And you shall take a wife
for my son from there. And if the woman is not
willing to follow you, then you will be
released from this oath. Only do not take
my son back there.' So the servant put his
hand under the thigh of Abraham, his
master, and swore to him concerning this matter." I've only been in one
shipwreck in my whole life. And it's very generous
to call the story that I'm about to tell
you a "shipwreck," but it was as close to it
as I ever really want to be. But we were a few of us in
a boat, a little ski boat. And I was driving. And there was a couple
other people in the boat, including someone who was
a professional athlete, who at the time was generating
a lot of publicity and changing contracts
with sponsors, and so as a result was in the
news pretty regularly. And had just met him. And anyhow, he was
in the boat, too. And I said, trying to
be kind, like, hey, you should drive this boat. You know? You drive. And he's like, I
don't really want to. And I was like, oh,
you for sure should. Just here, take it. And so he reluctantly
got behind the wheel and kind of got into it. And it wasn't too long
into the boat ride that we hit a submerged rock
in the lake that none of us knew was there. And in this ski boat-- I mean, it's an absolute
miracle no one got hurt, because when, of course, you
hit a rock, you're moving-- I don't need to be Isaac
Newton to understand that things in
motion stay in motion unless acted upon by
a rock under the boat. You know? That's, I think, what
Isaac Newton said. And so, of course,
everybody flies forward. And luckily, where
we ended up-- where everybody lurched out and
shot across the boat-- nobody got injured. I don't know how. There must have been. I'm sure when we get
to Heaven and watch the DVR on the
playback, we're going to see massive supernatural
involvement here. But now we've got
another problem, because once you get all
disoriented or reoriented, we have to get back. And this propeller, which
has just hit this rock, is all bent up and
not working anymore. And the engine's
sort of sputtering. And I'm just thinking to myself,
do we have enough life jackets? What's going to happen here? Are we going to make
it back to safety? And then I'm just
thinking, I'm going to go down in history
as the person who took this NBA player out. And I'm just going to-- I'm never going to recover. Is going to be an asterisk on
my ministry for my entire life? And so the moral of a story-- a day can just go from
absolutely wonderful, and it's sunny, and
how great is this? And it's all smiles-- to completely the opposite,
so, so, so quickly. And so it is in life when it
comes to our relationships, especially the forces of love,
sex, and dating and marriage. These things can
at the same time bring such pleasure,
such blessing. When relationships are going
well, it causes all of life, even in difficult
times, to be going well. And similarly, when
relationships are off, and when you're not
in good relationships, and when you're not
in a good space, and when you get broken up with,
and when this person that you like doesn't like you
back, it is amazing how the same day can all
of a sudden look gray. And the Bible says that
"As it goes in the heart, so it's going to go in the life. Keep your heart with all
diligence, for out of it flows the issues of life." And the point is
that verse is saying is that as it goes in
your relationships, as it goes in your love life,
as it's going in your heart, so it's going to be going
in all of your life. And so I think it's
so important for us to examine what
are the things that can help us get
to where God wants us to go in our relationships? Because it's clear from
this passage and so many others-- and I want you
to hear this so clearly. And this is really
going to be an emphasis throughout the series. God cares about your love story. I want you to believe that. I want you to believe
it in a way that's not just me talking
about your neighbor, not just talking about the
other person in the chat, not just talking about the
other people in your life. God doesn't just care about the
love life of the people that are in your Fresh Life
group or your Zoom group that you get on with
once a week and encourage each other or pray
with each other. God cares about your love story. God cares about your heart. God cares about your marriage. God cares about your family. And I can prove it to you. This passage, which is a
part of the Book of Genesis, is a significant passage
for a lot of reasons. But let me first set
it up by telling you that the Book of Genesis
is a book about beginnings. It literally just
means "beginning." It's the start of something. The "genesis" of something
would be a synonym for how something starts out. What's the origin story? How did this begin? We listen to podcasts like
How I Built This by Guy Raz to hear how Peloton, which
is a billion-dollar company, started out as this idea which
was so small at one point. We love genesis stories
or origin stories. We love hearing that Steve Jobs
and Bill Gates both started out in a garage. It inspires us as entrepreneurs. That's why we love
shows like Shark Tank. It's the genesis of
something that could be big-- that could get huge. And we love hearing, man,
it started out small. It's inspiring to our faith. I love always thinking back
to-- as Fresh Life Church, it's amazing what
we've gotten to see God do in all these years. We're in this now going on
our 15th year of ministry. It's like, man, God's
done huge things. But especially when I'm talking
to church planners or couples who are praying about
planning a church, it's, hey, it starts small. It starts with little things. It starts with little faith. And almost every
week, Jennie or I are in some
interview or podcast. And it almost always comes up. Well, how did this
whole thing start? What were those early days like? And going back
there in your mind, going back there in your
heart-- it just inspires faith. And honestly, what I think back
to the beginning of Fresh Life and what all along the way
has been the secret sauce, so to speak, it's been this
power of an invitation. It's been the power of,
hey, we invite people. Hey, come and see
what God's done. Come and see what God's done. Love to have you come. Pulling through
drive-throughs, meeting people, inviting friends, talking
to family, saying, hey, would you log on? That's a great point to say. Click the share button
right there on YouTube. Click the Share
button on Facebook. Next week, invite
someone in your life who's in a jacked-up
relationship, in a tough spot, has gone through
a breakup, or is in a relationship where they're
considering getting married. Hey, come with me. This is what has
caused it to grow. It's not just random. It's not just elves. It's not just God blew
on it or something. I mean, all of that is-- except for elves. There's factors at
play, of course, that we can't take credit for. But what God has
blessed in our efforts has been the constant
willingness to invite people. And we've always said the
invitation starts now, and that is at the
heart of this gospel-- that it's too good
to keep to ourselves. And so as I think about
our origins or our genesis as a church, I'm inspired when
I see the genesis of everything in this world in
the Book of Genesis. And it's God speaking. It was just a small gesture
of Him opening up his mouth. "Let there be light." We find the beginnings
of everything. But that's not the only
thing in the Book of Genesis, because after the event
of Creation or God making the world, there are
three other events and then four people. So that's the really
simple outline to understand in
the Book of Genesis. It's about four
events, and then it's about for people, the events
being the Creation, the Fall, the Flood, and then
the Tower of Babel, where God confused
the languages. And we find different
ethnic groups of people showing up
around the world after that and different languages as well. And then you find four people. And those four people are
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. And the book of
the Bible Genesis ends with Joseph
showing up in Egypt, living there, and inviting
his family to come down. And then it sets the
stage for Exodus to begin, which is the people being
led-- "exodus" means exit. And so they exit
Egypt to go back to the promised
land, where Abraham was established as a people. Now, I tell you
all of that simply to have you note there's some
important stuff going down in the Book of Genesis, right? Like significant stuff. Like you've got to
know how we began. What are our origins? That's what Genesis tells us. And why is there sin,
brokenness, pain, death, and evil? Well, that's in the
book of Genesis, too. If you take out Genesis 3,
there's a bunch of stuff that we see in our own
hearts and in the world that we live in that
we have no answer for, we have no account for. Why is there such evil? Why is there such wickedness? Why do we read these stories in
the news that break our hearts? Oh, hey, Genesis 3-- FYI. There's this thing called
sin, and it's brought death. There's this thing called sin,
and, hey, it's brought war. Hey, there's this
thing called sin. And that's why there's
cancer and crime and division and hatred and jealousy
and all of this brokenness. It goes back to
Genesis, Chapter 3. But you also have the
promise in that same moment, in the Fall, of God promising
to bring forth a Savior, promising to bring forth a son. And that's what the four
people are all about. The four people-- Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph-- is God keeping his
promise he made to Eve in the Garden of Eden,
that through her seed, meaning when it eventually
happened, it would be a unique situation, where
there's only a woman involved. There would be God bringing
a Savior to this world. And so the nation of
Israel is what that is. But before it was a
nation, it was a family. And the family began with a man. And the man was named Abraham. And he not only was going to
be the progenitor of the people of Israel that would be the
vehicle by which God would bring forth the Savior into the
world-- the ultimate avenger, who's going to be like Captain
America, Thor, and Hulk, and all of them all
rolled up into one, more powerful than any of them-- the ultimate Messiah figure. But He would save us by
dying for us and dying as us. So that's what the four
people were all about-- this covenant that
God made to Abraham, that he was going to by
faith obtain these promises. And then by extension,
anybody in the entire world who puts their faith
in God, believing that in the person of Jesus,
He did exactly what he said he would do to
remedy the situation caused by sin that
started out in Genesis 3-- that we would then become
descendants of Abraham, thus fulfilling the promise
that Abraham would have more kids than stars in the sky. And every person from that
moment till this moment and on until Jesus's return
who trusts that Jesus died on the cross for their sins,
that Jesus rose from the dead, is saved and is then, in God's
eyes, a child of Abraham, who is the father of faith. So a lot of big stuff is
in the book of Genesis. All right, now I want
you to understand that the passage that we've
started with, Genesis 24-- and we're going to be
studying along with 25 and 26. And so please, on your own, be
reading through these things. Come in white-hot, ready to go,
having read them ahead of time. This chapter in
particular, Genesis 24, is the longest chapter
in the entirety of the Book of Genesis-- a chapter given over
completely to the love story of Isaac and Rebecca. It's the longest
chapter in a book that has some pretty
important stuff that Moses needed to get out. He spent more time addressing
this love story, by the way. It's the second-longest
narrative in the entire book. After the Flood, no
story gets more ink than the love story
of Isaac and Rebecca. And in the Pentateuch, which
is the first five books of the Bible that Moses wrote-- in the whole Pentateuch,
it's literally one of the longest in the
entirety of those five chapters. More attention is given to
Isaac and Rebecca's romance than is given to
the Exodus itself, when the nation of Israel
leaves Egypt and heads out to the promised land. So what does that tell you? That tells you God
cares about human love. God cares about love story--
about your love story. He cares about Isaac and
Rebecca's love story. And it also tells us just
how significant it is when a promise has been given,
and someone's received it, for it to not end
with that person, but to go on to the
next generation-- that what started with
Abraham and Sarah-- how vital, how essential
it was that that did not end with them, but
that it continued on. And that this
covenant promise, this promise that you would get to
be a part of, this great plan of the Gospel, this
plan of redemption, that what you've received,
that it doesn't stop with you. Otherwise, it would
never have led to the stars of the
sky being fulfilled-- that it had to cross
over generational lines. So mom and dad, hear
that-- that your faith-- it's vital that you pray for
nothing more and work harder at nothing than seeing
the love for Jesus on to the next generation,
on to your sons and daughters and your sons and daughters. And that we then
as a church then wouldn't keep this
Gospel to ourselves, but we would desire that we
would be a part of it, going from Abraham to Isaac-- that one
generation would tell another. That we would not be content
being saved alone or saved by ourselves, but
want other people to know this Jesus who's
touched us as well. [APPLAUSE] And I love that
such detail is given about Isaac and Rebecca
and their love story, because out of all
the four people that we said that the Book kind
of shifts its attention to-- and there are other
people that come up, but it's really following the
story of Abraham, Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, Jacob to Joseph. It's their love story that,
to me, is the most helpful in us making decisions when
it comes to love, sex, dating, and marriage in our lives. Their love story is precious and
tender and powerful and perhaps one of the most positive
examples of marriage, certainly in the
Book of Genesis. Just simply the fact
that Isaac and Rebecca-- that their marriage is the only
marriage of the four that-- in the flow that we follow,
this is the only one that's-- well, just to put it
delicately-- not polygamist. I mean, so that's a great start. You know? It's like Abraham
and Jacob and-- I mean, there's so many-- right? It's like Isaac-- like,
I just want one wife. It's like, well, we
can cheer for that. You know what I'm saying? And so a lot of amazing
things that we're going to learn from it. But we're given permission. Of course, when we read
stuff from the Old Testament, one of the things
that we want to do is-- and we'll do this at
some point in this message and every message-- is see what
it's telling us about Jesus. And that's always
an amazing exercise because Jesus said
that everything written in the Old Testament
ultimately has to do with Him. And so no matter what
passage of scripture, we want to find Jesus in
it and believe that it shows us something about Him. But we're also told
in the Book of Romans that whatever has been
written before is also written for our learning. And so we, through
learning what they did and what they did wrong,
that we can learn something to apply to our lives. And I think it's a really
important point to make-- that when we read
stories, for example, of Abraham's polygamist mistake
that he made with Hagar and/or we read about Jacob
having multiple wives, the Bible's telling these
details isn't prescriptive. It's descriptive. It's not condoning. It's simply recording the
facts for us to understand. And so we can learn both
through things that go right and things that go wrong. And one thing I would
challenge you to do is take a look at Jacob
with his two wives. And we look at that and
go, oh, how terrible. It's like, well, in our
culture, in our day, it's not at all abnormal for
someone to have two wives. They just usually spread
it out over a lifetime. At that time, they just did
it at the same time, right? But when you look
at Jacob's life, and then you compare it
to Isaac and Rebecca, I would just ask
you, which of the two have a more complicated
situation on their hands? One marriage--
hard enough, right? You have multiple marriages,
multiple Christmases, multiple situations. God can work in all
of these things. But just which is
more complicated? And the Bible-- oh,
God's saying it's OK. You know, God's just telling
you what this person did and leaving it to you
to learn from what they did with what they were given. And so Isaac and Rebecca's
marriage is powerful. And so for us to avoid
Relation Shipwreck-- that's not the ship
we want to be in. We don't want to be in the
ship that's going down. So what ship do
we want to be in? Here's four for you. Jot them down as we get to them. The first is we want to make
sure we're under leadership. Leadership-- we got to
have that knowledge. We don't want to
be in a shipwreck. We want to have good
leadership in our lives. Abraham is the one who the story
starts out by talking about, which is interesting, because
this is a chapter, like I said, all about Isaac and Rebecca
getting married, falling in love. It's the beginning of
this beautiful love story that's to be celebrated. And yet interestingly
enough, the story starts out telling us,
here's what Abraham did. Here's what Abraham
was doing here. Now this is noteworthy
because Isaac at this point, most people agree, is
about 40 years old, which is a beautiful
thing by the way that he wasn't in a hurry. We'll meet him later on. And when we meet him, I want
you to notice and pay attention to-- we'll get there in a while. This is not a guy who's worried. This is not a guy
who's in a hurry. This is not a guy
who is stressed out. This is not a guy
who's like, oh, my God. I'm 40. I'm over the hill. I don't have a wife yet. Ah! Right? You'll see. I mean, it's
absolutely remarkable. And yet, he's not the one
even here doing these things. It's Abraham, which goes to
show you, of course, two things, and one is that there was a
different culture in that day than we're in. Of course, it was
normal in that day for there to be
arranged marriages and for dads and moms
to make negotiations. All right, you give me
a go and that whole deal of promising their child in
marriage-- different culture, of course, than we're in now. But again, this is not
something that Abraham's old and advanced-in-years state-- he could push on
Isaac without Isaac being willing to
concede in that regard. Isaac clearly had a say. In fact, Abraham is
not long for the Earth. The last of Chapter
23 is his mom dying. So you have an
old dad, and a mom who has now gone to be
with the Lord in Heaven. And Isaac, who has
a father doing this, is very clearly honoring the
wishes of his father here. And I would even take
it a step further-- trusting his dad's wisdom
in this whole situation. So what am I trying
to get you to see? I'm trying to get
you to see that where Jacob and his trainwreck of
decisions did not involve Isaac's wishes. In fact, Jacob spent most of
his time deceiving his dad. And even Abraham's other son,
Isaac's half-brother, Ishmael-- his decisions not
involving Abraham's wisdom. And then you look at Esau, who's
Isaac's other son, because he had twins. He actually married to
spite his parents' wishes and to cause his parents-- you
see him marrying out of almost like rage, like rage marriage. Like, I'll get you
back, and I'll do this. I'm going to marry the exact
opposite person that you would want me to marry. And that's just Esau,
though-- impulsive to a T. And you see Isaac here,
who's of an age where he doesn't have to do
anything that Abraham wants. And yet he clearly-- a different culture, but
is leaning into the wisdom of a wise voice in his life. And I told you a few weeks
ago, how can we ever expect to get to the right
places if we're not listening to the right voices? In fact, the Book of
Proverbs puts it this way. "The way of a fool is
right in his own eyes. But he who heeds
counsel is wise." And the very fact
that this chapter begins with Abraham speaking
and doing these things shows that Isaac valued
Abraham's wisdom. He could go out and
get married tomorrow, and what could dad
do to stop him? In fact, he could have
done it 10 times over, and yet he's choosing to
listen to Abraham's voice. Why would he do that? Well, I think the answer
is clearly in Verse 1-- that Abraham was a person-- look
at it one more time with me-- not only old and
advanced in age. That's great. But look, "The Lord had
blessed Abraham in all things." In my opinion, that should
be the grounds for which we listen to wise voices-- that we see people who
are blessed and walking in God's blessing. I would challenge you, before
you listen to someone's advice, before you allow someone
to speak into your life, I would ask you this question. Are they walking a life
that I want to emulate? Because if I listen to
what they're saying, I'm going to end up doing what
they're doing and receiving what they're receiving. So the big question is, are
they receiving and walking in God's blessing? What does it look like to have
God's blessing on your life? I'm not being so naive
as to think that it means you're immune from hardships. There's going to be plenty
of that along the way. But are they walking
in God's blessing? Do they have His peace? Do they have His presence? Are they exhibiting
His character? Are they like Christ? Are they kind? Are they loving? Are they Kingdom-minded, right? Hebrews 13, Verse 7-- this
has been a key verse for me when it comes and pertains
to who I put into my life that I want to lead me. "Whose faith you follow,
considering"-- notice-- "the outcome of their faith." Before I listen to
you, I want to watch what God's doing through you. And so to be very careful that
not every person who criticizes you, not everyone who has
an opinion on how you should be living their life, if you
actually look at their life, it's like, there's
someone who doesn't like how I lead the church. Tell me how you're
leading your church? I don't want that, right? How are you living? What's your marriage like? What's the outcome? Are you walking
in God's blessing? So let me ask you, what is
the criteria by which you allow someone to
speak into your life? Well, this person is my cousin. That's not enough. There's plenty of
blood-connected idiots out there, right? Well, this person is
my friend from work. This person is whatever. This person, I don't even know,
but they're an influencer, and they have a bunch of--
they have a blue checkmark. Oh, that is a wonderful not
important thing in life at all. But people who love
Jesus, are following Jesus, people who
are under authority, people who are a walking
planet in the house-- that's the criteria. You want people
around you, people who you're allowing
to encourage you, who believe the same things you
do-- walking in God's blessing. Isaac clearly had put himself
under Abraham's leadership-- had put himself in a place
to listen to a wise voice. So when it comes to
the person you like, who are you speaking--
letting speak into that? Are you texting a friend
from your Fresh Life group? Are you are you asking
someone who is over the team that you're in? Are you even connected
ahead of time to have those
relationships in place? That is so, so, so,
so, so, important. One of the very
first things that I did when I began to
have feelings for Jennie was to ask someone whose
faith I respected-- to ask someone who-- we were part of the same church,
under the same authority. And this was the person
heading where I'm heading. I'm watching their faith
lead them somewhere that I want to go. And so I said, could
I take you to lunch? And I bought, by the way, right? You don't want free advice. And it was random,
though, because we went to a Middle Eastern place. And just when I got
the courage to tell him that I liked Jennie and
was about to tell him, a belly dancer came out
and started belly dancing all around us. And it was so
distracting and horrible. And I was like, oh, no. And this is-- there was like
this belly in my-- side of my-- and I was like, stop it! No, no, we don't want that. And so she went away. And I don't think I
ever told you that. And it was a
respectable restaurant. It was just Middle Eastern food. And whatever
reason, that Tuesday it was like belly dancing
at the business lunch day. Right? We weren't in a
Hooters, all right? So I told him I liked Jennie. And I thought it was going
to be a big surprise. And he said, Levi, a deaf,
dumb, blind monkey who's only been around
you for five minutes would know you like Jennie. I was like, that obvious? He goes, for sure. I said, what do you think? He goes, I think it's amazing. I think-- and he
encouraged and spoke life over her character
and my character, gave me some cautions,
gave me some advice, was able to pray
for me about it. The point is, I wanted that. I cared about that relationship
and whatever it would become, whether she would end up as my
wife or someone else's wife, too much to not have it
under that leadership-- to have it under that wisdom
and to have him tell me what he thought about that. All right, secondly--
citizenship. It's all over this passage. If you don't want to
end up in a shipwreck, make sure that you're
getting in the right boat. What boat? The boat of citizenship, where
the first point tells us, enlist wise voices
to be accountable to. This one tells us, remember that
you are just passing through. Remember, you're
just passing through. And so make sure that
your relationships, your friendships, your
romance here on this Earth is indicative of the fact that
you're headed somewhere else-- that Heaven is your home. Now, Heaven's eventually going
to come back to this Earth. But this Earth, this life,
currently, as it presently now is, is something that you're
just passing through on the way to Eternal Life. It's so important. Philippians 3: 20 says,
"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also
eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." The day you gave
your life to Jesus, praying that prayer,
whether it was a Fresh Life broadcast or some other moment,
or praying with your mom or dad as a child-- the day you asked
Jesus to come into your heart, He made you a citizen of Heaven. And this life, this
temporary life, which if it's 70
years or 80 years, or if you have five
more years to live or somewhere in
between, is not forever. You're going to live
forever with God. And so this life should not be
where you store all your eggs. It should not be the sum
total of your affections and your passion. To do so would be foolish. To do so would be like moving
into a hotel room for a weekend and upgrading the art and buying
a bigger TV for the hotel room. Why would you care so much
about something you're only going to live temporarily in? I don't like this couch. I'm going to go down to
IKEA and get a new couch. Like, yeah, but you
know you're checking out on Sunday afternoon if
you get a late check-out? Otherwise, they force you out of
those suckers at like 11:00 AM, right? That's an early check-out. You can't check in sometimes
till like 2, 3, or even 4 o'clock. But you've got to get out
of there at 11, right? So why would you put
all of this attention and focus into something
that you should be enjoying? And it's a cool hotel room. I mean, this is amazing. Oh, look. They upgraded me, and I got
a good view this not looking into the back alley of
this other building. That's great. Enjoy it. That's a fantastic place
to be for a little while. But just remind yourself,
this isn't my true home. I'm just here for a little bit. Yo, this life is not your home. It's a hotel room. This life is a
temporary pilgrimage. You're just passing through. And you're not going
to be well-suited for the relationship
God wants you to be in if you live like
this Earth is your home or if you marry
someone who does, which is key here,
because Abraham says to this servant, the oldest
servant of his house-- what does he tell him? He says, don't get my son
a wife from around here because I live somewhere else. And I had to come out. I had to come out
by faith from-- and it's a big part of
Abraham and Sarah's story. They lived in the
Ur of the Chaldees. They lived in this place. And God randomly one day
spoke to them and said, I'm the God who made
the world and the stars. And I've got a plan
for you, Abraham. But I want you to
go out to a country. And he said, where
am I going to go? He said, I'll show you
when you get there. He didn't get a plan,
didn't get a map. He didn't get anything,
not even a Google map pin. He just had to go. And him and Sarah did. And that began this
family of faith. That began this people. That began what would
ultimately eventually become salvation for anybody who
believes in Jesus Christ. But it started with his
willingness to come out. And so as that was passed
on to the next generation, it was important for that
DNA to be in the makeup-- for both Isaac had to
choose-- and since he's 40 and didn't need to stay there,
he had to choose to stay in this land of promise-- to stay in this
place that eventually would be known as Israel. But it was important
that he had a bride who had a spiritual similar
makeup and that she then was a person, a kind of person,
willing to step out in faith-- willing to do the
exact same thing, to repeat the steps of
Abraham and of Sarah-- that she was someone
who had come out by faith to live
in a place not her, and to live there in this place. So citizenship was huge. Where was she a citizen of? Don't get my son a
wife from around here. I need someone who's got
the spiritual DNA of faith-- that she's willing to come out. And don't bring Isaac there. She needs to be
willing to come here. Don't have him go backwards. She needs to be willing
to go forwards in order for her to be the right person. And so what are we
to make of this? We're to make of this
that as we make-- not friendship
decisions because we're willing to be
friends with anybody. Jesus's-- one of his most
special titles was the Friend of Sinners and that He
was friends with anybody. But as we make
relationships that are going to deeply impact
the course of our life, people who we're letting
speak into our life, people who essentially
we're allowing to put a hand on the
steering wheel of our life, and none so critical
as the person that you choose to marry-- this needs to be a person
that you don't go backwards in your faith journey
in order to be with, but someone who
similarly to your story has come forward
from the land that represented idolatry
and living like there is no God-- willing to come out
and to follow, moving forward to Jesus. That you both are
on the same page spiritually when it comes
to your citizenship. Are you both citizens of Heaven? Or are you living for Heaven,
but there's someone focused only on this Earth, only on
here and now, only on money in the bank? How frustrating would it be to
want to live for the Kingdom and to live to fill
Heaven and to live to walk in the destiny
and the promise of God and to live that uncharted
life in the wild blue yonder, spiritually speaking,
believing God's got a plan every day, but
then to do that connected in the most deep way to someone
who has blinders on and can only see the hotel room? Who only really ultimately
cares about how big the boat is and what vacations
that we're going to get and how much is
in the 401k-- that only has their sights set on
this life-- what would that be like? It would be like two oxen
who are connected together with a wooden yoke. And one's super fit
and strong, and one's tiny and skinny and scrawny. How can they pull equally at
the same pace if one of them doesn't have the
muscles to pull? It's going to go
around and around and around and around in
circles, which is why Paul gave the famous wisdom in 1-- in 2 Corinthians 6-- "Do not be unequally yoked
together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has
righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has
light with darkness?" It's like Tim and Debbie-- Demi last week, so powerful. I almost always
call her "Debbie" because Tim Tebow
married Demi Tebow. And I always want
to call her Debbie. But Tim and Demi so
powerfully last week communicated this idea that
having things in common is not enough, but having a
purpose deep down in your soul. And that's what this
verse is talking about. Having things in common is
great in a hotel room, right? But you want to have a
purpose bigger-- a homeland, citizenship, forever, eternal,
Christ and His kingdom, that you have a bigger picture. Otherwise, it's light trying
to be chained to darkness. And what's going to happen? You're going to go
around and around and around and around and
around and around in circles. And so that frustration
and that difficulty and that despondency that
eventually will sink in will cause you ultimately to
either be constantly frustrated or to quench your zeal and
to allow their luke-- that influence to have a lukewarm
impact on your faith to cause you to tone down and
tame down the vivaciousness of what Jesus has called you to. So you don't need
to make-- of course, God can work if you're
in that situation. Of course, we don't
give up, and we believe with you for the
Salvation of your husband and Salvation of your wife
if you're in that decision. This isn't about making
you feel bad for that. But is about-- listen
to me, young people-- hearing the most important thing
that can be said of the person that you date, that you get
engaged to, that you marry this person, that you're going
to hopefully blazed a trail for the Kingdom of God to do all
the things that He's called you to do in business and in
ministry and in every regard, to raise kids with, is that
you both have this in common-- that you're both citizens of
Heaven with your heart set on eternity wanting
to do all that Jesus has called you both to do. And then that will become
multiplied exponentially more powerful as you do it together. Hey, Levi and Jennie Lusko here. And we are so excited about
our 2021 summer internship at Fresh Life
Church and the fact that the application
window is open right now. Right now, up until March 31. So you have a window
of time to sign up. But don't procrastinate. Sign up now. Don't be like me. I would probably
wait till March 31. But do it now. Do be like Jennie who did an
internship and met a Levi. So we can't promise you're
going to meet that Mr. Right or that Mrs. Right, but
we can't say it won't happen. And we can't say-- or maybe we can say that there
have been multiple interns who have met their-- Dozens, dozens of people
have paired off as a result. But that's-- That's not what we
want you to come for. It just could happen. Listen, we would
love to have you spend your summer serving God at
our church, exploring Montana. It's accredited. If you want college
credits for the internship, you can get that. But we would love you to
come move out and hang out with us here and serve
God at Fresh Life Church, so apply now. Third thing-- what ship
do we not want to be in? The shipwreck. What ship do we want to be in? The stewardship--
the stewardship. Stewardship comes in because
we're told here that-- verse 2-- the oldest servant,
who may be Eliezer of Damascus, who-- Abraham despaired when he
said, I don't have a son. You said I was
going to have a son. Because God gave him the
promise, and then 25 years went by without a kid. Crazy, right? Imagine that-- 75 years old. You're going to
have a kid one day. All right, two and
a half decades-- my SpongeBob voice-- two and
a half decades later, right? Some of you are like,
well, where's the promise? I thought I had it. It's coming. It's coming. Are you going to get offended? Jesus said, "Blessed
are those who are not offended on behalf of me." He loves to give
promises and then just-- the tracking number just
says "pending," you know? What the heck, right? Pending, pending. Are you going to trust me? You going to follow me? When God gives a
dream, He oftentimes makes it look like
it's not going to happen to see whether you're
following Him or the dream. And that's what
he did to Abraham. And the Bible says in
the Book of Romans, "God waited until Abraham's
body was as good as dead." Angels were like,
what the heck, God? Are you going to send the baby? He's like, he's not
shriveled enough yet. God, he looks half-dead. Perfect, now is the time. Right? His body is as good as dead. Amazing. Egg timer goes off in Heaven. Alexa's like, you
told me to remind you when Abraham's body
was as good as dead. I don't think he's got
much left in the tank. All right, let's
send a baby now. Barry Manilow just starts
playing in their tent. Stewardship. All right, so
Eliezer was the one that Abraham said
when God wasn't keeping His promise as
he thought He would, I don't have a child. And Eliezer, my
oldest servant, is the one who's going to end up
with all my stuff after I die. So it's possible it's him that
he talks about in verse 2. And he says, "the
oldest servant, who ruled over all that he had." That is to say,
Eliezer got to make all the financial decisions
for Abraham's estate and run all the things
as though they were his, but they weren't his. Everything that he managed he
managed on behalf of Abraham. He had unlimited
authority when it comes to how these
things are going and what investments to
make and what cows to buy and what cows to sell. But he did so for Abraham,
as proxy for Abraham. He was a steward, managing over
something that was not his. Which the Bible says, you
and I, as Jesus' people, are to see our entire lives
and everything in them as a stewardship-- something we
manage on behalf of the owner. And that we're one
day going to give an account for what we
did with what was His while it was in our hand. And so we find in 1
Corinthians 6 this exact truth and the impact it should have
on our sexual, romantic, dating, marriage decisions. "Flee sexual immorality." Run away from the
cultural opportunity to do whatever you want
with your sexual appetites because "every sin a man
does is outside the body, but he who commits
sexual immorality sins against his own body." We'll talk about that
more in coming weeks. "Or do you not know
that your body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God? And you are not your own." So what should we do
in our love lives? You were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in
your body and in your spirit, which are God's. What a wonderful thought. Like this oldest servant, who
managed all this money, managed all these things,
and even now, was going to be trusted with
this ultimate opportunity of selecting a bride for
his master's son, Isaac. But he was doing so knowing
that none of it was his. He was doing so with the
light touch of someone who knew that everything
he was dealing with belonged to someone else. And he was going to stand
accountable for what he did with what was his. And so you and I, when
it comes to our love lives and every
part of our lives, we should have a
light touch about it. And the best way to have
a light touch about it is to remember it's not ours. That our lives are not ours,
our breath is not ours, and that the moment we
die and stand before God, we're going to get the chance
to give an account for what we did with what is His. And if He gave us this life,
it's our opportunity and job to glorify Him in how
we do it-- translation, that the way we
live our lives out, He's going to be
proud about that. That the way we handle
our sexual desires and our romantic lives
and the way we date, the way we date and treat
young girls and young men who are dating, what we choose to
do with the unlimited authority that we have-- we're stewards. We can do anything we want. We have proxy. We get the choice. And He's not going
to stand in the way. He's going to allow us. And then we're
going to get to give an account to Him of what we
did while we had an opportunity. So if we're clear on the
whole stewardship thing, then what we need to do
is get real clear on what we're not willing to do. And for this servant,
that meant understanding with his stewardship, what
does Abraham not want me to do? So he clearly said, well, if
I go and do all this for you, and she's not willing to go,
should I bring Isaac there? And he goes, under
no circumstances are you to bring him there. You can trust-- and we'll
talk about in a moment-- that God's going to
take care of your fear-- this whole idea of, if
she's not willing to come, but under no circumstances
are you to bring him there. If she's not willing,
then you're released. And just don't bring him there. So he was clear, in
Abraham's mind, what to do and what not to do. And so we should do the same. When it comes to--
listen, single people. Listen, those of you who
are not dating right now. Take some time and think
about, with this life I have, with this heart that I
have, with these desires to have a boyfriend, have a
girlfriend, to have a husband, to have a wife, to
have a family one day, what am I not willing
to do to get there? What am I not
willing to concede? What am I not
willing to give up? What am I not willing to do
in this dating relationship so that this person, who if
they end up not being my wife, that I'm proud to bump into
them around town some day with my wife, with their
future husband, and say, hi? And feel like I took
nothing from you that didn't belong to me. I was a steward of
this opportunity. Would I do things
with this person that I would
probably go to prison for if you did to my daughter? Would I do this
to someone that I would probably--
that any one of you would get into a
fight for if someone did to your little sister? What are we doing
with the stewardship that is our love lives? And are we clear in
our heart ahead of time on what the Master
or what the Owner or the One who filled us with
His Spirit gave us this life, gave us these bodies, has
it in His heart for us to do to glorify Him with what
is His that we've been given the opportunity to manage? Proverbs 7-- "Don't let
your heart stray toward her. Don't wander down
her wayward path," the author of the
Book of Proverbs says his dad told him when
it comes to love life. Well, if you're
not going to date that girl, don't even the walk
down the path where she lives, the point is. Make some decisions. I'm not going to
go down that road. I'm not going to have that-- I'm not going to
be on that side. I'm making some
decisions ahead of time. Not only am I not
being with that person, I'm not going to even walk down
the street where they live. Daniel, Chapter 1, Verse 8-- Daniel purposed in
his heart he would not defile himself in the future. He had made a commitment
ahead of time. You don't wait till you're
dating to decide what you're going to do sexually. You make those
decisions ahead of time. You remember, I'm a
steward, not the owner. I want to honor God. I'm choosing right here,
right now, in my heart. I want to honor and
glorify God in my body and in my spirit, which are His. Fourth and final ship--
we're almost done. Not really, we got weeks to go. This isn't like a
big, dramatic ending. It's just a to-be-continued. It's going to be
a great journey. Make sure you're
in the ownership. Don't want to be in the
shipwreck, but, man, I do want to be
in the ownership. What do I want to own
and take ownership of? God's promises to me. We see God's promises
being held tight-- light touch on life for
Abraham, but hard grip on God's promises. Eliezer or whoever the
servant is has this big fear. And of course, it's the same
fear that many of us have. What if that person out there
isn't willing to marry me? What if no one's
willing to marry me? What if they'll never love me? Does she love me? Does she love me not, right? He goes, well, what
if I find this girl, but she's not
willing to come back? I love Abraham's answer. It's just to point to something
he had a firm grip on-- he had to learn to have
a firm grip on-- God's promises. Whatever objection
is raised, the answer is always to have a firm grip on
what God's given to us to own, and that is the promises
that He's given. I see it in Verse 7. What if she's not willing? He says, "The Lord God of
Heaven, who spoke to me, saying, to your descendants,
I give this land." So he's appealing to the promise
that God originally gave him when he called him out. Go to the land I will show
you when you get there. He will send His
Angel before you. Don't you love the idea
that God has already sent His Angel ahead of the servant? He will send His
Angel ahead of you. When you get there, God's
already going to be there. He's already working. He promised me a land,
so you don't have to worry whether she's willing. You don't have to worry
whether he'll be willing. God has already sent His
Angel into your future, so you don't need to
worry in your present. An Angel will figure mightily
in the events of the Exodus. The Angel will figure mightily
in the events playing out in the Book of Joshua-- crossing the river, taking on-- the Angel will be also
called "the Hornet" that will go into battles
ahead of God's people. They never had to
worry about what they were going to get--
they were always worried about whether the
person would be willing, or they would be up
for the challenge. And God was always
reminding, I'm going to send My
Angel ahead of you. I'm going to send the
Hornet ahead of you. I'm going to send my powerful
Right Arm out ahead of you. When you get there, you will
watch what I have already done. So just hold on to my promises. I said I'm going to
give you the land. I said I'm for you,
not against you. I said you could trust
in Me with all your heart and lean not on
your understanding. And in all your
ways, acknowledge Me, and I would direct your paths. Church, I dare you to believe
that when it comes to your love life, it's never
a mistake to trust your future to God
because He's already sent His Angel out ahead of you. [APPLAUSE] And I don't know
if you caught it, but I told you that
what we're studying, the longest chapter in
the book of Genesis, is all about the love
relationship of Isaac and Rebecca. But not one time have we
seen Isaac and Rebecca in the passage that
we've considered. They're nowhere to be seen here. All we have is Abraham and his
servant and a conversation. But this is, in fact, the
beginning of their love story. And they're nowhere
to be mentioned. What is the takeaway from that? God is working behind the
scenes to set things up, so when they do meet,
this whole interaction, this whole conversation that
they don't really even know anything about, other than the
fact that it's clear Isaac gave his dad the go-ahead,
and then went back to work doing what he was
doing in his normal day. God was working, and
they weren't aware of it. But when they walked
in the promises and discovered these
things, it would be because of these
things that were happening behind the scenes
that they were happening. So what am I trying
to get you to see? I'm not trying to get you
to see you should delegate the choice of who you're going
to get married to your dad. What I am saying is that you
should trust your Heavenly Father. And in the meantime,
instead of worrying about the other person, trying
to find the other person, instead, focus on the one
thing that you can do today that's constructive, that
will bless you in the future. Focus on becoming
the right person. And believe that
God, outside of time, has already worked
together exactly what He wants for you to experience. And you're going to
see it come to pass. So in the meantime, just take
ownership of His promises. And then be about what
He's called you to do, focusing on His Kingdom, as
He works behind the scenes. Let me close by saying that
Jennie and I have lived this out. This isn't me just telling
you this from Scripture. This is what we lived
out and walked out. Because when I met Jennie in
church, serving in church, we met. And I knew almost
the moment I saw her that there was something
special about her. And what I loved
about her wasn't just how beautiful she was
or how kind she was. I loved how
Kingdom-focused she was, how much she wanted to see
Heaven, touch Earth, and touch people, and her love for
God and love for people. That, to me, was
what drew me to her. And I think she would-- I don't want to speak for
her, but drew her to me. And so I didn't have to try. I mean, I remember where I
was standing when I first had a conversation with her-- next to the light switch
in the youth ministry. We were setting up
chairs and just serving, both of us serving. Someone else was
going to be preaching. She was serving. I was serving. And we had this
little conversation. And we weren't
looking for each other or trying to get
into a relationship. I had just gotten out
of a relationship. And she had made the decision
not to get in a relationship. So neither of us were
working or trying. But this beautiful love
story-- that this April, we'll celebrate 17 years of God
working through our marriage and through our family
and through our ministry. [APPLAUSE] It came to us when we
weren't looking for it. But God ahead of
time is-- and then now, as we deconstructed
the story and looked at it, God had done so many things to
bring us to that light switch, standing there in that room. God did so many things
and so many amazing things that we celebrate. God sent out the
servant on the mission. As many people will
agree, in this story, the oldest servant
represents a picture of what the Holy Spirit
does in the world. The Holy Spirit
sent out-- what has the Spirit been sent out to do? He's been sent out to get
a bride for God's Son. God the Father has sent
the Spirit into the world to get a bride for the Son. Now, that's true in
the ultimate marriage of Jesus and the church. But it's also true when
it comes to your marriage. You can trust that the Spirit
is working behind the scenes to bring that person. So today, focus on
hearing his voice. Today, focus on your
nearness with the Son, which the Spirit wants to do-- today, listen. The best thing you can do
for your future marriage or your present
marriage is get better at listening to the
voice of the Holy Spirit. So at some point this week,
whether it's with a friend or with a small group, I want to
ask you to ponder this question and certainly to do so in
your time with Jesus alone. What is the Holy Spirit
saying to you right now? And Father, we thank
you for this time. And we thank you that
there's always a tension when we preach on relationships. And that tension
is that I always want to preach like I wish
someone had preached to me when I was 13. But I also always want
to preach understanding I'm preaching to some
people who are 43 and who wish someone had told
them this when they were 13. Or perhaps someone did, and
they just didn't listen. And so my heart is heavy, God,
both for the teenager, who has all of their sexual
and romantic decisions still in front of
them to be made. But I'm also aware there's
some heartbroken people, who have been through some
stuff and given up some stuff along the way. And I thank you, Jesus, that
You never shame us for our past. You always work to
redeem our future, to heal us from the
wounds of the past, to bandage us in the
present, and to prepare us for what we don't need
to be worried about. So regardless of
which state you're in, whichever camp you're in-- your life's wet cement,
or you on your worst day feel like damaged goods. If you today from this day
forward will want to honor God and believe that His Angel has
gone before you in your love life, and you want to
get off that relation shipwreck of just doing
things based on how you feel. You want to walk in the promises
of citizenship and stewardship and ownership, walking in the
power and the promises of God and leaning into the
amazing leadership that come from wise voices in your life. If that's that you
I'm describing, and you would just
respond to what God's speaking to
you in this sermon, both in redemption
and in consecration. Because I just ask
that right now, you would just put
a hand in the air. I just believe there's
power in nailing down a commitment like that. You're saying, God, I want
you to work in my marriage. I want you to work in my
dating life, in my friendships. Just raise the hand up. Just raise the hand up. God sees your hands. God sees every
single one of you. Thank you for your love. You can put your hands down. Thank you for your
kindness, God. And thank you that
it's that kindness that leads us to repentance. I believe in this moment
there's the precious, fleeting opportunity for people
to trust Christ. The Bible says that today
is the day of salvation, so call on Him
before night comes. In this moment, as we're
gathered together in faith, in the name of Jesus,
salvation is here, as He stands at your
heart and knocks. And if you open the
door, He will come in. There might be a
lot of work that needs to happen in your
relationship or in your life, but the most important
decision-- the decision that begins the change
in all the other ways is the one where you bow
your knee to Christ, where you allow Him to come in
and forgive you and save you and heal you. I believe for some of
you, it's precisely for this moment that you've come
here today, logged on today, clicked this link today. And God's speaking to you. Yes, there's tens of
thousands of others who are going to listen. But God uniquely
is speaking to you. I know the day I gave
my life to Christ, there were other people
around, but I thought that whole thing was for me. And what unique,
beautiful, special love-- that God does love
you uniquely enough to speak to you
through His Spirit. The technology is just a vessel. God's talking to you. So if you're ready
to trust Jesus or to rededicate
your life to Him, I want you to pray this
prayer with me out loud, believing in your heart
that Jesus died for you and rose from the dead,
confessing with your mouth that you're a sinner, but
turning your heart over to Him, thus becoming a
citizen of Heaven. Say this. Church, pray it with us. Dear God-- Dear God. I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I'm a sinner. I can't fix myself. I can't fix myself. I can't even come
to You on my own. I can't even come
to You on my own. But You've been knocking. You've been knocking. You've been calling. You've been calling. So I open my heart to You. So I open my heart to You. Please come in, Jesus. Please come in, Jesus. Forgive me and change me. Thank you for new life. I give you mine. In Jesus' name, I pray. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen, come on, let's celebrate
with those making that decision all across the church, all
across the country and world, even. And we would be so honored and
thrilled to get to talk to you and walk with you through this. And what are the next steps? And how can we pray for you? And what does water
baptism look like? And all of the things. And so would you
please grab your phone and send a text
message to 97000. Put the word "Fresh
Life" in the text-- the word "Fresh
Life" in the text, so we could dialogue with you
and talk to you about that. Do that right now,
even if you're watching this or listening
to it on a podcast days later or weeks later, years
later, and you're saying, this happened. There's probably someone on
the other end of that line. If it's 2,500 years
in the future, and you came across
this, I can't promise it. Send it in faith. Who knows? God bless it anyway. So do that. Come on, let's celebrate with
those making that decision today. [APPLAUSE]
