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Hey, I’m going to invite you to Genesis chapter 24 together. Genesis chapter 24 together. And we are about to engage in the longest chapter in the book of Genesis 67 verses. All right. And I want you to know offhand, I am not reading all 67 verses. We’re going to look at the first 20 verses. We’re going to look at the last 5 or 6 verses. And in the in between, you’re going to have to read that on your own. All right. I’ll tell you the the idea of what the in-between is about. But just know if you’re a fan of nose rings, verse 47 is your verse. All right. So Genesis 24 is a great chapter of the Bible. And it’s dealing with the idea of marriage. Right. So last week we talked about death. And today we’re going to be talking more about life. And we’re going to look at Isaac finding his his mate, his spouse Rebecca, and the idea of marriage. Right. And and so today specifically, we’re going to we’re going to look at what characteristics, three characteristics should you be looking for when you’re seeking a mate. And I know for some of you, as soon as you hear a title like that, you’re like, I’m already married or I’m cooked and done right, like wherever you’re at in life, you might be looking. I’m not looking for for a mate. I’ve got a mate. Right. Like, so what is the title like this have to do with you? Well, I would say a few things.
One is if you’ve got a child, right, they they’re going to be making a decision. That decision can impact generations starting with your family right now. So so learning learning from this text could be important. If you’re looking obviously looking for someone you maybe long to be married, it’s an important title. Um, if you know someone that’s about to be married or might be looking for someone, you can encourage their lives through this, right? Or share this sermon with them, whatever. Or or get this. When we look at the three characteristics that to to seek after in, in a marital relationship or for someone that you could potentially marry, um, we’re going to be talking about characteristics that are just healthy in general. It doesn’t matter if you get married or not. These are just healthy characteristics. And for those that find themselves married today, these are characteristics that you can continue to go back and sharpen yourself on. This helps improve your relationship by by challenging yourself and the kind of person that you are. So even though the title, you may not feel like specifically relevant to where you are in life, it definitely can apply to all of us, no matter where we are. And when you think about Genesis 24 being the longest chapter dealing with Isaac finding Rebecca, right, you may ask yourself, why is this the longest chapter out of all the chapters in Genesis? Why is this one the longest chapter like? There is some crazy things in Genesis that I think maybe they can take a little bit more to explain to us.
Like who in the world are the sons of God and the daughters of men, that if you were there for that, that could be all sorts of different things there. Theologians have marveled over that for years. When you just get a few verses on that or, or like worldwide floods, like, you know, you got the Noah Flood, how many you could certainly that that might take, I don’t know, a lot of chapters or how about just creation of everything. Right. But the longest chapter is, is the idea of of marriage and why? Well, let me give you just a thought regarding that. I think as a, as a person, the two most important questions that you can ask and answer in your life. Who is your God? And who will you marry? Now, obviously the second one is only if you do get married. Right? But the two most important questions I think you can answer in your life. Who is your God and who are you? Marry because what you worship you will ultimately become. I think there’s there’s some people in life that they profess to follow a particular god. But then when you look at their life, you’re like, you may say that, but that’s not your God.
The evidence of your life is demonstrated by what you’re doing, right? And you may verbally give praise to a God, but you’re demonstrating what you really worship by what you do. And so who is your God? One of the most important defining questions of who you are. Because who you are is determined by whose you are. You’re made as a worship being. You will worship something to find your worth and value in this world. What is your purpose? It’s based on what you worship. Who is your God? Second most important question who will you marry? When you think about those two the questions put together who is your God that that matters for eternity? And who will you? Who will you marry that that impacts generations? Both of those. Those questions have paramount significance in how you choose to respond to them and live those out. So how do you find that spouse? Three things to look for when seeking a spouse. How do you find that that right spouse, that one that God has for you? Well, can I just start off by by saying to you as we dive into this text, there is no such thing as a soulmate, all right? And I know, like, we want to romanticize those things in the movies, and you want to find that person that you connect to. You really care and love one another. I think that’s important.
But there’s no biblical basis for a soulmate. The Bible does tell us that two become one flesh. So you want to certainly develop in the beauty of a relationship, walking in one mind together for the purpose of what God wants to accomplish through you and in you like that. That certainly is good. But there’s there’s no such thing as a soulmate. And let me tell you why. It’s because you’re sinful and they’re sinful. And when you get two sinners under the same roof, um, it’s not, it’s it’s messy sometimes. Right? There are things that in a marital relationship, God created marriage as a gift, and it’s intended to be a blessing. And through the the health of a home, it can bless a society and not just a society generations to come. So you certainly want the health of that relationship. But it’s also important to recognize that just because that’s what you want isn’t what you always get, that all great things require effort and all great things. There’s there’s tension that is often involved. Great things work that way. And marriage in being a gift, one of the greatest gifts of marriage. It’s a it’s an incredible refiner to your own soul, because we all think we’re pretty great when we’re doing life solo. Right? Like, not that you’re perfect. Even then you see your shortcomings, but it tends to be. You might overestimate how patient, loving and gentle you might be until you get under a roof with someone else 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and all of a sudden you discover, I may not be quite as patient as I thought I was, right? Especially when kids come into the picture.
I’m not always as loving as I thought I could be, and I don’t always look as great as when they see me. When I walk out of the house, you know, like there is some. There’s something hidden under here. But but marriage has this way of drawing it out of you. And there’s there’s a way that you can respond to that that’s healthy in a way that’s unhealthy. Unhealthy way is you point and blame. It’s their fault. The healthy way is you begin to realize when there’s tension boiling up that is identifying something in you that needs worked on. And I know in marriage it’s it’s, you know, rarely 5050 when something bad happens. But there’s there’s always there’s always responsibility that we can take. And that marital relationship has, has this sweet way in the Lord of helping us understand where our own shortcomings might be. And so there’s there’s no such thing as a, as a soulmate. But marriage is also an incredible gift and blessing. And in making that decision is important because quite honestly, sometimes it’s better to be single and happy than married and miserable, right? Like you, when you make that kind of a decision, it’s a it’s a, you know, it could be decades of a decision.
You want to make that decision wisely. And looking at a text like this, 67 verses, there are so many things I could point out. There are a lot of things in this text that we could infer about the example of Isaac and Rebecca in what helps set the precedent for a healthy marriage. Like what? How is that foundation established? I mean, in Isaac, Isaac is walking with the Lord before he gets married. Isaac has a a career to provide for his family. He doesn’t cohabitate with his his future spouse before they’re married. He marries someone that he can share his faith with, that they can desire to walk with the Lord together. Uh, Isaac honors Rebecca just as a person. Meaning he’s not just he’s not interested in what he he gets from her, but rather he he honors and acknowledges the beauty of who she is. You’ll see that at the very end of of Genesis chapter 24. And then Isaac, he he sees love as more than a feeling, but rather it’s a decision of the will. I think that’s incredibly important for our culture. Love has become such a junk drawer word that we more define it as an infatuation in the way that we feel, than a decision of the will and how you want to give your life. I mean, you know, the biblical word for love is agape, unconditional, sacrificial love.
And when First Corinthians 13 describes that, it says, love never fails. So it’s a complete dedication of who you are to help someone else become who God has called them to be. It’s surrendering your life for their well-being. And when two people do that together, it creates an incredible relationship. Always putting one another before their own interests to bless one another. That they may become together what God has has called them to be. But as you look at this text, as you look at these, these this passage, we’re going to look at three direct points that this passage talks about. For those that may be seeking a spouse. And as you look at these characteristics again this is healthy characteristics that apply really to all of us in all walks of life, but as magnified in the marital relationship. And as you look at this text, I think it’s important to, in these first couple of verses to establish the fact that not every family that you come from is is perfect. In fact, some are crazy and you may think of your own. Yeah, we got some good and some crazy in our in our family. And the same thing is true in Genesis 24. It starts off verse one. It looks great. Verse two, it gets weird. Look at this. Genesis one, chapter 24, verse one and two. And we can probably retitle this. How do you seek a mate when your family might be a little crazy? That’s that might be a better fit.
But verse one now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And look at this. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And I hope when I’m like 170 like Abraham is, or really old like he is in this passage, I don’t want to plan. I don’t plan to live that. I don’t want to live that long. But but however long I live that I’ll live the kind of life that the Lord he blesses, right? And it’s not to say like, I’m not out of God’s blessing now, that just being a follower of Jesus, I experienced the the blessing of what it is to know Christ and to walk with Christ, the fullness of blessing. It tells us in Ephesians, and I have in the Lord. But I also want to walk in such a way that I experience that right. And and so my life surrendered to him, gives me that platform to experience the hand of his blessing. And Abraham has done that. What a what a beautiful goal. And then and then it gets weird, right? Here it is, verse two. And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, and this is probably Eliezer. And he says this, who is in charge of all that he had? Put your hand under my thigh.
Right. And and you see in verse nine and ten, Eliezer does this. So this is apparently customary in this day. But I never want to be in this kind of situation. Right. I would say to my future spouse, what kind of family am I marrying to? This is this is bizarre how you guys communicate. Does this happen all the time? Could you I mean, if I were another servant in Abraham’s household and and I’m like, Abraham’s walking around with his leg out again. Like I’m just like, okay, Eliezer, let’s just shut them in and do their thing, and I’m just going to move on. I’m not touching that hairy leg. Right? Like, this is weird. And this is what happens in this passage. But then verse three, and Abraham says, why that I may make your make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanite, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my my son Isaac. So dealing with this, this thigh thing I get when I read, you know, ancient documents, I could be dealing with a culture and customs that are foreign to my experience, and to best appreciate that, I need to understand what’s happening to the people group at the time and place that this is existing.
And so just reading through some commentaries, they explain this. This is what one commentary said in just a sentence. He said the thigh indicates the procreative power and heritage of the patriarchs position as the source of the family. Right. This is my position as the source of the family. Grab that. That’s what they say. And which, you know, reading that commentary, it’s good to know that. But my question is still is. But why? Because you can just say that, right? You can just said to his servant as the source of the position to my family, you know, he could have just verbally said that. So I just chalked it up to, I don’t get it. I don’t get why this is necessary. But in their culture and custom, this is what they did. And perhaps when reading this passage, you begin to realize that this isn’t real common, that this is actually a rare occurrence. And and when it does happen, it grabs even the people in that culture. Sure it grabs their attention to the significance of what’s about to take place. And, you know, being able to see this culture or not, it should say to you the significance of what’s about to take place, how important that relationship is when you seek a spouse and Abraham is showing his concern for his son. So three things to look for when seeking a spouse. This leads us to point number one look for wise counsel.
Look for wise counsel. This is a characteristic that is true for really all things. You want to be able to be in a position in life where people can speak into your life, especially when you know there are people that are for you, that desire God’s best for you and will be honest with you. Right? This is not like your best friend whose biggest decision of the day is going to be. Should I watch the Kardashians or The Bachelor? Right? That’s when it comes to marital relationship. That’s that’s not like the top of the pecking order that you probably need to be seeking that wise counsel from, but rather maybe look for someone who, in their own marriage, demonstrates the goodness and sweetness of of the Lord. And maybe someone that’s got years of experience in that, and you’ve come to appreciate that and and maybe just seeking from them. What does it take to get where you are, knowing it’s not always perfect and likely in every relationship there’s some sort of tension and conflict to work through. But if you carry that kind of agape love for one another, what does it what does it take like seek wise counsel. Important no matter where you are in life? In fact, if you’re in any kind of position at all, where you’re hiding and you’re trying to keep something secret and you don’t want people to know, it reveals a position of shame.
And it just kind of asks you the question. Or you should ask the question, why am I responding this way? Right? I mean, there are some things that are just good to not blare to everyone, right? But you need to have people that are comfortable to speak truth into your life, people that don’t have to feel like that. They’re going to have to walk on eggshells to say something to you. And it doesn’t mean that you need to invite everyone into giving you an opinion. In fact, that’s terrible. That would be a terrible thing to do, like being a pastor and the position that I have in life. I can tell you if I said, everyone here give me your opinion, I could never get anything done right. That’s just way too many opinions to hear from in order to do anything. In fact, my job is not to hear your opinions, right? It’s it’s to honor the Lord and encourage people to do that, that we can walk life together and glorifying Jesus. There’s all kinds of different ways and opinions about how that should look. And if you’ve got one, I’ve got a delete on my email. Right. Like I just I’m kidding, I’m kidding. But but you need to have certain people in your life. That fill the open door to speak truth to you, especially if they genuinely care about you. Wise people. If your life isn’t surrounded by that, it’s important to invite that in.
In fact, for certain people in my life, not everyone, but I leave this question on the table for them. If you were me, what would you do differently? Because I realize even I can have blind spots and I want to honor the Lord with my life. And so to to not people, to not make people feel uncomfortable, to approach me right. To not feel like I’m just going to get defensive or I could blow up and they need to be concerned, but they feel safe and being able to respond in that kind of an answer, especially when it deals with important decisions in life. I met a person recently about to make a business decision that’s going to initially cost them about a quarter of $1 million to start, and it just so happened they were getting ready to start. There was someone who was an expert in that field that came to them and said, I’m available just to give you some counsel and and some wisdom in this decision if you want. And and I remember I asked this person, are you going to seek that out? I mean, that’s incredible. Like people would beg for this. Are you going to talk to this person? And they said to me, no, I said, why? Why would you not do that? And their response was, they were afraid that this person would advise them not to do it.
I’m like, you’re an idiot, right? I’m like, even if they say no and you disagree with that, at least you listen to that kind of counsel. How important it is in your life to have have that spoken to you. And when you see this kind of heart with Abraham in the story, he knows the significance of this decision and his desire is saying, grab my thigh. And although that’s weird, it’s speaking to the importance of this moment for, for the sake of, of his son. And then he even goes on further and it says in verse seven, he’s speaking to Eleazar, who has some questions about about going and finding Isaac a mate. And Abraham responds this way, the Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me to your offspring, I will give this land. He will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. And so he’s saying, look, our heart has been for the Lord and all of this, and we will follow after the Lord. And God has been faithful. And I know this is a big ask, but we’re trusting in the Lord in all of this. And so you see the genuineness of Abraham’s heart for the well being of his son and future generations. I mean, that’s the kind of heart and someone that you want to seek for.
In fact, some may ask the question, why does he want to just make sure this young lady comes from his homeland? Why is that so important? Why can’t he just pick a lady you know, in their backyard? Because I’m sure there’s ladies around there that are are eligible to be to to marry. Right. And, and I think the reasons a couple and it’s because Abraham wants to honor the Lord. If Abraham were to, uh, find a lady in that area, it could create all sorts of complications of what God desires to do. One, it could lead into idol worship because there’s all the people around them are worshiping false gods and having that temptation there and families intertwined, it could lead to idolatry. Two it’s become obvious that God wants to do something new in this land. And so rather than confuse that, Abraham is saying, let’s bring someone from the outside, because what God desires to do is is new. And so he goes to where he’s familiar, where he knows his son can lead his family in a godly way. And so Abraham’s heart is very, very much thinking for the success of his family. And so then it tells us that the servant then moves on to, to accomplish this purpose, to find this young woman. It says, then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed. And so when you think about this, he’s taking these, these camels to load up this young lady’s possessions and bring back, I mean, how many possessions you got to have as a young lady in order to fill up ten camels? She’s got a lot of shoes, right? Like this.
This. He takes ten camels and he departs, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master. And he rose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. And he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of the water. At the time of the evening, the time when women go out to draw water. And he said, oh, Lord God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. Behold, I’m standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of men of the city are coming out to draw water. Let the young woman to whom I shall say, please let down your jar, that I may drink. And who shall say, drink, and I will. I will water your camels. Let her be the the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master. So not only do you see Abraham’s care. But here in these verses we just read, you see the servant even praying for Isaac’s well-being. And you know, his motivation can be a little bit more than just Isaac. But he’s seeking the Lord for the benefit of Isaac.
And then more than that, because this servant knows whoever Isaac chooses is going to become his new leader, and it’s going to impact not only his family now, but also generations to come. And so he’s very well vested in this because he knows this matters. Same is true in family relationship. Your child finds a spouse. I mean, you’re talking reunions and vacations and generations. All that in between. That decision impacts the people around you and years to come. And so having the open door for opportunity to discuss is is important. Getting others involved. You know, it may not be a popular idea, but it’s interesting when you study cultures that have arranged marriages versus cultures that are that are categorized as choice based marriages, not to say arranged marriages. There aren’t any choices in that. I think there are certainly choices with arranged marriages, but it tends to be the two ways that categorize arranged marriages choice based marriages. Do you know, in studying those that that statistics say that arranged marriages are more than ten times more likely to endure than choice based marriages? And there could be all kinds of reasons for that culture could play a part of that. But but I think it’s important to recognize that in arranged marriages, there is more than one person involved in that decision. And there’s there’s there’s wisdom to that. Even in American history, though, we’ve always been more of a choice based society.
There was more of a time in our history when, when there was a young man interested in the young, young lady, that young man just couldn’t go grab that young lady and take her wherever he wanted. He had to go meet the family first, and the family had to interact with him to give their approval. And if they were unsure about that interaction, then that interaction just lasted longer until they got to a place of certainty before they would give their permission to date their daughter. And so there was this way of engaging the family for the well-being of a young lady and that relationship. And I know for us sitting here, we might look at that and be like, well, that’s kind of old man. You’re like a stick in the mud, right? A little archaic. I would just argue that the way that we pursue dating today is not healthier. Right. Like now for for young ladies, it’s like swipe left, swipe right. And eventually when you swipe right to the right one, you set up a date. Who knows where you’re going and how safe that’s going to be. Good luck to you. Like, that’s way better, right? I mean, like you think about how important this decision is. And with the the heart of Abraham and Eleazar, you see the the well being communicated, finding someone to speak into their lives to encourage them.
And and it’s not to leave Rebecca in the lurch. Even Rebecca is involved. They bring, uh, Eleazar the the servant goes to Rebecca’s family, talks to her family. Her family brings her over and asks her what she thinks about it. And in verse 57 it says this. They said, let us call the young woman and ask her. And they called Rebecca in verse eight and said to her, Will you go with this man? And she said, I will go. And so they went away, Rebecca, their sister and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant, and his men. And they blessed Rebecca and said to her, our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands, and may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate him. So even her family cares about her well-being. They they bless her as she’s leaving and Rebecca says she will go right, which which many look at this verse and actually say, Rebecca is the second Abraham. She’s the female Abraham because she responds in faith the way that Abraham did. Abraham was called by God to go to a foreign place outside of all the things he was familiar with, because he saw the faithful hand of the Lord. And so Rebecca is doing the same. She follows after the Lord. You know, when it comes to any relationship, there’s there’s always risk of getting hurt because we’re sinful people. Right? But what’s important is, is the foundation there that indicates things can move forward in a healthy way.
You don’t know the kind of person someone might be ten, 20 years from now, but you do want to see the kind of foundation that gives you something healthy to build upon. And so Rebecca, she sees that, and then she takes this step of faith, becoming like Abraham in that sense. And what Rebecca does, I would say, may even be of greater faith in Abraham, because in Rebecca’s day, the the way the customs were when a young lady was to when she got married, customarily she would stay near her family. And the reason is, is because of the laws during that day that if a young lady was not able to produce offspring, the laws during that time said that the young man could divorce. First that young lady because she could not produce a lineage for their family. And when that would happen to a young lady, she could become vulnerable to the society and being taken advantage of. And so for her to make the decision to move away from her family. And I’m not saying those customs are right or good or honoring to the Lord, but to move away from her family was an extreme trust in who God was. And so therefore, to make that kind of decision, a wise counsel is important. Um, parents, can I just encourage you in a model of this, how important it is that you be praying for your children? And just like Abraham’s concern in seeking after the Lord here, just like the servant’s concern and praying for Isaac, how important it is for you to pray for your children, and not this kind of prayer where you’re like God, they need help.
Lord, give them a mate that’s going to fix them, right? Like that’s your job, right? That’s your job to parent your children. Um, but rather, God help them find someone to walk in unity to glorify you. Right. And that’s a that’s a beautiful way to be involved and invite them over. Right. Invite them over and get get to know point point number two in your notes then is this look for the servant hearted. Look for the servant hearted. Um, when I say servant hearted, I don’t just mean someone who does something nice every once in a while, I mean someone whose characteristic in their life is to put others before themselves. Someone who walks in life to. To seek to bless. Not to just get blessed, right. The demeanor of their life is to care for those around them. There are those that do good things just to get the pat on the back, to feel better about themselves, and they just do it every once in a while to kind of cover up all the bad. You know, they try to do the yin and the yang thing, but we’re talking about someone with a genuine heart of serving.
And you see this in Rebecca in verse 15, before the servant had finished speaking, he was praying, behold, Rebecca, who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother came out with her water, her water jar on her shoulder. The young woman was very attractive in appearance, and a maiden whom no man had known. She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. Then the servant ran out to meet her and said, please give me a little water to drink from your jar. And she said, drink, my lord. And she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, I will draw water for your camels also until they have finished drinking. So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw water. And she drew for all his camels. And this is what a servant heart. She doesn’t know this person. This person is a stranger to her, and yet she cares for him. I looked up, what is the average camel drink when it’s thirsty, right? Do you know, according to like, every Google article that popped up in front of me, it’s somewhere between 20 to 30 gallons. 20 to 30 gallons. That would have been like, I’m here for one camel, you know, like I care for you.
One camel deep. That’s that’s a this girl doesn’t even know them. And she’s she’s watering not only the people, but also ten camels. And she’s not in this to get anything. She has no idea what they might offer to her. What? She finds a bracelet and a nose ring here in a minute. But. But she just. She has the genuine heart of a servant interested in in the well-being of others. Do you know this is exactly what Jesus communicated for his followers? Have this mind in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who became the form of a servant in Philippians chapter two, verse five. Um, Jesus and the night he was betrayed, I would man, on the night I am betrayed, I would sulk and tell everyone my petty story. Jesus didn’t. Jesus loved his own until the end. His mind was always on blessing others to the point that when Jesus is about to die, he washes the feet of his disciples. The position of the servant of servants in the home was the one who washed the feet. And Jesus took time. In the night he was being betrayed to wash the feet of his disciples and not just the disciples. He washed Judas’s feet. You know, I often say it’s in John 13, but I often say like, God is more interested in his people taking towels rather than titles. Titles come and go. If you find someone that’s just so into their position, their authority, their title, what they have, rather than how God can use them to bless.
That’s all kinds of warning signs. But God’s interested in the heart of of a servant. Now the question is, how do you find someone like that? Because when you start to date someone, they’re always putting their best foot forward because they’re there to impress you. They’re there to get something from you, right? Like they want you to think the best of them. So how how do you find that person? Well, I think the answer is easy. See how they treat people in which they have nothing to gain from. How do they treat the most unpopular person in the circle? How do they respond when they get upset? How do they treat the people around them? How do they react to the grocery store clerk and the waiter or waitress that serves them? How do they treat their own mother and their grandmother? How do they treat the people around them? Because while they’re putting their best foot forward while they’re dating you, I can promise you in about a year or two, the way they treat them will be exactly the way they treat you. You want to find someone with a servant heart. See how they treat someone that they have nothing to gain from. And this is exactly what Rebecca is doing in this story. She’s. She’s laying down her life.
If you run into someone that is always interested in winning you to their side. They’ve always got problems. But it’s always those people. Their life is just a revolving cul de sac. They never have this position of humility. They’ve never apologized. And everything’s always level ten problem. And they can change. They certainly can change. But don’t enter in that relationship with the wishful thinking that they’re going to all of a sudden because you’re there. Let them change first, right? And before you attach your heart. Um, well, I should just end this point. Look for the servant heart. There we go. I can go on forever, but let’s just stop there. Look for the servant heart. And you see this, Rebecca. And then point number three. Then look for pure devotion. You see this in a couple of ways at the in the life of Rebecca here and here. In the end, we’ll look at a verse with, with Isaac, but look for pure devotion. And one of the ways you see this in Rebecca, it tells you in verse 16. Uh, she was a woman, was very attractive in appearance, and a maiden who had known no man. The way that they identify her pure devotion is through her virginity. She has taken the kind of steps in life where she has revered her future spouse by remaining a virgin, which communicates really devotion and trust to her future spouse. And she has a desire to give herself to that person that the Lord has for her.
And so this pure devotion is is demonstrated this way. And I know in our culture, the idea of virginity is not a popular thing. But I can I tell you, uh, the greatest person to ever live who was doing pretty good right now lived a life of a virgin from beginning to end. His name is Jesus. So it’s impossible to to live that lifestyle and completely have a fulfilled life. And that’s certainly what Jesus demonstrated in, in his own life. But but here’s the reason I want to bring this up. I’m not bringing this up to guilt, anyone to talk about your past or anything like that, but but I want you to see in Scripture how important your body is in connection to your soul. And the Bible is very clear. It describes those things as independent from or unique to one another. But but also it’s intertwined with each other, meaning what you do with your body impacts your soul. Those things aren’t unrelated. You can’t separate them. And in fact, there are books of the Bible written about that where there were certain religions that came along that try to teach that saying, there’s the spiritual side of you, there’s this physical side of you. It’s Gnosticism. Uh, first John is written against that. And they would say, it doesn’t matter what you do with your body because, well, you have the spiritual side.
So you honor God with your spiritual side and you do what you want with your body because, well, it’s your body and whatever makes you happy. That’s what you need to pursue, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. And can I just tell you that’s not biblical at all? When God created everything, everything he created belongs to him, including you. And everything created gives you an opportunity to honor the Lord in giving it back, as God has given all of himself for you. So you have the opportunity to show your love for the Lord by giving him all of yourself in return. And that includes everything of who you are, your gifts, your talents, your body, your resources, all of that. You can honor the Lord in the way that you use it. In fact, Paul writes in first Corinthians chapter six, he says this. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never. Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, the two will become one flesh. Your body belongs to the Lord. So? So he’s saying this passage, look, what you do physically is connected to your life spiritually, and you can scar that like there’s damage. It doesn’t mean it’s irredeemable or God doesn’t care.
The grace of God can’t be made known, but it’s to be mindful of those decisions that it does impact. In fact, if you look at the digital notes today in the sermon, if you download our app and you click on sermon notes, I had a link to a resource on the digital app. It’s not in your printed bulletin on the digital app about an article that was written by a secular author, articles published on the Gospel Coalition. It’s called Sex Liberation has Failed Women and the author. This. This article is commenting on a book written by a secular author, not even a Christian. And the book is called Case Against the Sexual Revolution. And this lady talks about the impact that the sexual revolution has had on the state of women, where women think it’s liberating. But actually it’s not only become destructive for them, but it’s impacted children and generations. And then she gets to the conclusion, having done all this research and study, she gets to the conclusion, what’s the healthiest thing that women can do? And she said, people aren’t going to like my answer. It’s clunky. It’s going to sound archaic, but it’s monogamous marriage. And she, not even a Christian, lays out the framework of why that’s important. I will tell you, if you read the article, it’s a little bit shocking in some of the ways this lady speaks, because she’s not coming from a Christian perspective, but it’s very eye opening that even the secular world acknowledges this.
What you do physically impacts you spiritually. You even see this as a church and I got to go faster. But let me just say this when we worship music, we sing verbally to connect our souls spiritually. When we want to hear from God, you open the Word of God to to look at the words of God right when you partake in communion or baptism. They’re all physical things that we do that connect our soul to worship. And even the last part of this verse, verse, verse 18, it says flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. You were bought with a price. Glorify God with your bodies. Let me tell you what this is saying. When God told Moses how to build the tabernacle, very specific in particular, and how God wanted to meet with his people and everything in that tabernacle or that temple God Israel only ever had one temple, but everything in it demonstrates what Christ would ultimately fulfill. Now, in this world, now, today, let me say it like this. Today we no longer go to a physical temple because when Jesus died on the cross, the veil was torn.
The Spirit of God no longer dwells in the temple, but rather you have become the temple. You think how important it was in the Old Testament for that temple, the details of that temple to be set up, and the way God desires to meet with him. The same is true for your body. Connecting to the Lord. Now, I’m not telling you all this to make you feel guilty or bad about decisions, but. But rather you can choose this day how to respond. I mean, the grace of God is new every morning for your life. And and also, not only does it give you the platform to say, Lord, I love you and I’m giving my life to you, but it’s also saying, Lord, if you’ve got a future mate for me, I get the opportunity now to honour that relationship through purity, through devotion and trust is essential for the health of relationships. And if you don’t have trust, it’s difficult to build. So establishing that trust and any time you have conflict in relationship, it wants to tear from that trust. And so it’s important to drive to it for the sake of one another. And point number three. Move on. Point number three. Oh, no, I already gave you that point. Point number three is look for devotion. That’s good. We’re getting to the end. I thought I was going to run out of time, body and soul being connected.
But here in the end, you see how Isaac responds. Verse 62. Now Isaac had returned from burial. Hey, Roy, I think it says it definitely says that and was dwelling in the negeb. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening, and he lifted up his eyes and saw, behold, there were camels coming. And Rebecca lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel. Pause right there and say, real quick, you think how beautiful this is. The first time she lays her eyes on her future husband, and he’s praying before the Lord, acknowledging that not only does he have authority in his in his home, but he’s also under authority. He knows he’s accountable in what he does and especially how he treats his spouse. Pure devotion Rebecca sees and she dismounted from the camel in verse 65 and said to the servant, who is the man walking in the field to meet us? And the servant said, it is my master. So she took her veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. And then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah, his mother, and took Rebecca, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death. And here you see this young lady observing her customs and the way she chooses to honor her relationship. Right. She covers herself and symbolic of, you know, this, this wedding that’s about to take place.
And and then they get to enjoy that relationship together. And she has prepared herself for this. And now she has the beauty of walking in this. Both of them have prepared themselves for this, and now they have the beautiful privilege of walking. And it’s not perfect, but they have established a platform of health for that relationship to move forward in a beautiful way. Now, guys, I know when you talk about relationships like this, especially dealing with with marriage, that we come into a message with all sorts of battle scars, sometimes things that we wish had gone different, that didn’t. Things that we wish that we could change but we can’t. Um, we have relationships aren’t. They’re not easy. Right. And so so if you’re acknowledging that, if you say to yourself, look, I’ve messed up, I haven’t done this in my own life, I feel terrible. What can I do? I want you to know that’s not where God wants you to be. God is for for you. God desires to transform your life. God desires to renew your heart. God wants you to walk with him. Jesus died on the cross for your sins so you could experience that newness. So what do you do? How do you do that? And how do you right now make the decision to move forward in a healthy way? You can’t you can’t undo the past, but you can right now.
Right now, choose to take that healthy step forward. How do you do that? What can I tell you the answer very easily. Is to dive deeper into Jesus. To move into Jesus because of God’s heart for you. And you see, that is communicated beautifully in Ephesians five. And this last verse will be done. But Ephesians five, it says, as husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church. And you might say, husband, okay, what does that look like? And it’s this. And he gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. And by the way, this answer works for single people too. If you remain single your entire life, this is. This is the answer for all of us. But here’s what he’s saying. Husbands, love your wives like this. And what is? What does that look like? How am I to love my wife? He doesn’t say love your wife when she makes herself lovable, but rather what he says is love your wife unconditionally, sacrificially. Because when you love her that way, it transforms her more and more into the image that he desires. This is what is saying about you and Jesus. Jesus knows you’re not perfect.
That’s why his grace and love is made new to you every morning. And when you come to him in that place, his love transforms your life and it molds you every time you’re coming to the Lord. It transforms your life as you continue to surrender all that you are to him. And the more you’re surrendered and walking in Jesus every day, you grow in that grace and he’s washing you and renewing you and transforming your life in him. That’s why I say that the answer is, God knows you’re not perfect, but lean into that. Husbands, the way you love your wife. You don’t wait for her to be more lovable. Your love is what transforms her. And the more you use that love to lavish upon her, it gives her the opportunity to to thrive in that kind of environment. By the way, ladies, it’s the same in for you as well. It talks about respect more in this passage for women, but it’s the same. And so it becomes this beautiful, beautiful place for us. When you think about your life and you say, man, I have messed up, I’m not where I should be. I haven’t done what I should have done, man. Lord knows that’s what he died for. And also he’s got incredible plans for your life. But the answer is, will you surrender to him? And in so doing, Jesus does his beautiful work in you.