Amen, thank you, brother, for leading us in worship, for testifying. The scripture says, our illustration of the woman at the well this morning, Jesus told the lady, the Samaritan, who left her water pot there at the well to go tell everyone who she seen. He said, God is searching for such that will worship him in spirit and in truth. See the worship, God, as a lifestyle. Worship is much more than us just gathering together to worship. That's what we do when we gather. If we don't live a lifestyle of worship, what we bring before the Lord when we gather is dung before Him. It's rubbish. It's empty. It's lifeless. We see that picture in the book of Isaiah chapter 66. The scripture says that God is not looking for somebody to build Him something. He's not looking for a temple. Matter of fact, He says there's earth of His footstool. And He says that this is the person that He looks upon, the one that worships Him in spirit and truth. He says those who are of a poor and contrite spirit And that trembles at my word. Trembles at His word. He says that's the worshiper that I look upon. Those who are emptied of themselves in a position to welcome and receive from Him that is moved and affected by the Word of God that God speaks. And He says that's the one that I look upon. And he says, matter of fact, when we're not humble and live a lifestyle of worship, he says, when a man brings an offering to him, God sees it totally different than how the man sees it. And God went through the required offerings that he had established for his people from a bull to a lamb to incense offering to a grain offering. He covered everybody. Because you know, not everybody has 1,000 acres to plow a field. Not everybody has a bull. Not everybody has a calf. Not everybody has a lamb. But even those that don't have those things can actually buy some grain, and those that couldn't even get any grain could go get some incense and bring before the Lord. See, God doesn't exclude anybody from coming before Him and offering what they have. But if they don't come before, if we don't come before Him, in a poor and contrite, broken spirit, ready to respond in whatever he speaks over us, God says, I see that offering totally different than how you see it. He said, I see when a man offers a bull, I see if it's he broke a man's neck, he murdered a man. Matter of fact, y'all gotta look at this. Turn to Isaiah 66, Isaiah 66. But Tim, I love the Word, I love worship, and I believe this message is an act of worship. I present before the Lord to you, but my time with the Lord this morning and seeking His face was an act of worship before Him. My drive over here with my beautiful bride, and Brother John, most everybody across the country knows her as Honey. That's what everybody knows her as, Honey Holden. And when we go places and people see her, they don't even know her name's Stephanie. They just think her name's Honey. So that's what the grandkids started calling her, and now everybody calls her that. Isaiah 66. I want you to think about this for a moment. How many have ever been on a roller coaster before? Raise your hand. How many of y'all like roller coasters? Raise both hands. How many have ever been sick on a roller coaster? Just hold your head down like this. oftentimes our quote-unquote gathering together worship service is a very similar to a roller coaster. Sometimes they can go real fast and in some places that's the whole point to get in to get out. That's a sad commentary on America's churches. They come to leave. They're more concerned about getting out of here on time than they are really encountering. Oh, holy God, are you with me? I mean, they're looking, hey, preacher, you got your time, get it done. If you can't get it done in that time, I can't meet with God, so get it done. But a roller coaster normally goes real fast. There's a lot of ups and downs, a lot of curves in it. It twists and turns. Some people, you lose your stomach. And it's just exciting with all the ins and outs of it. But you know what? You get off right where you got on. And that's how a lot of church services are, like a roller coaster. People come in and they leave just like they came. They get off the worship service no different than being in an amusement park. They leave the same way as they entered in the gates. And that shouldn't be, amen? We should be renewed in our mind and therefore growing in the grace of the Lord Jesus, being freed up from lies and deception that we were holding on to before we ever entered in this place because we've lived in such a way that we encounter the Lord in His favor and presence wherever we may be. Because we want to live that kind of life. Isaiah 66, look if you would in verse number one. Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build me? And where is the place of my rest? For all these things my hands have made and all those things already exist. I'm not looking for that. That's not what my eye is looking for, says the Lord. But on this one will I look, give my attention, my delight, my pleasure on him who is of a poor and contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. Verse three says, if we come any other way than that, he who kills a bull as if he slays a man, and he who sacrifices a lamb as if he broke a dog's neck, and he who offers a grain offering as if he offers swine's blood and he who burns incense as if he blesses an idol. Just as they have chosen their own way, that is simply pride has entered in and they felt like they can alter the way God prescribed life for them. They felt like they had the liberty to do it their way because their way was better than God's way. And even though they came into worship with what God required of them, God didn't accept their heart. And if God doesn't accept our heart, He don't accept anything we offer. Matter of fact, He sees it differently. He says, because they chose their own way and their soul delighted in their abominations. Notice what God said He'll do, verse four. So will I choose their delusions. I will bring their fears upon them, because when I called, they didn't answer, and when I spoke, they didn't move. They didn't hear, they didn't affect them, but they did evil, bad, fallen things, worthless things before my eyes, and chose that in which I do not delight. Now, that ought to grip our hearts, amen, to think that God sees my life entirely different than how I perceive it when I don't live for His glory and for His presence and His wisdom to be operating in my life. I know this may be a foreign thought to you, But what we do in life and how God views what we do in life can often be entirely different. Matter of fact, the whole world we live in who feels like their life is okay the way it is, kind of like that rich man Luke chapter 16 y'all know that rich man and Lazarus y'all remember him? Lazarus and a rich man and the scripture says the poor beggar died and the angels came and carried him into the presence of God but the rich man died and he went to Hades and while in Hades he was in torment and he cried out to Abraham God gives us a picture of the other realm and he says can you send back Lazarus to my brothers. I've got five brothers in my father's house and I do not want them to come to this place of torment. He wasn't concerned about I want them to live for the glory of God. I want them to live in the presence of God. I want them to give their entirety to the life of what God done for them. I want them to trust God's word. No, he was more concerned about the torment that he was going through and he didn't want his brothers to come there but it had nothing to do with the glory of God. You see, that's how a world around us that is eating right now and celebrating and marrying and giving in marriage as when the days of Noah, they did all those things. They planted their fields, they ate their food, they drank their wine, and they celebrated life with one another until Noah went into the ark. and God sealed the door, and the floods began to fall upon this earth. And then it was everlasting too late. What I have to realize in my own journey is that either I am gonna choose what God delights in, or I'm gonna choose what I delight in, but the consequences of that is devastating if I choose my way over His way. You take the Older Testament judge and prophet Eli. Y'all, that name sound familiar to you, Eli. Remember, Eli had two sons, and Eli's sons were like Tim and I when we were young. We were just doing things our own way, you know, like your mama blessed you with, you got your three boys. Well, I was one of those heathens as well and did life my way. Well, Eli's sons felt like they could treat the things of God however they chose to treat them, that it was up to them and not what God required of them. And God approached them and he says this, why are you kicking at my sacrifices? Why are you kicking at my sacrifices like you would kick an old mangy dog off of you? Have you ever had an old mangy dog come up on you before? Nobody wants an old mangy dog rubbing all up on them. What do you do? You shoo that dog off. You kick it off. You don't want it near you. And that's how they was treating the very sacrifices, the act of worship before God. kicking at it because they chose to do what they wanted to do. They didn't see themselves as kicking at it, but that's how God saw it. And the scripture says, Eli talked to his boys, but their hearts had already been so far bent and so far gone that the scripture says they would not listen to what their father said because God desired to kill those boys. Yes, God desired to kill them. And it didn't matter who stood in the gap for him. It didn't matter if Eli finally rose up and said, boys, you can't be doing this. It didn't, that was regardless. God was gonna kill those sons because they had chose in life to do life their way and therefore God chose their delusions. And we don't wanna be in this position when it comes to worship. I tell you, when we get up in the morning and we seek the face of the Lord, and we get in his presence because I tell you that's the best time to meet with the Lord, amen. First thing in the morning when you don't have all this other stuff coming at you and God can fill you up and God can give you a fresh word for the day and God can give you something to walk in and walk for and give you a purpose and a mission and assignment for the day, very similar. That's how Jesus lived. Jesus lived in such a way, the scripture says, that the Father woke him up from morning to morning and gave him a tongue of the learned and gave him an ear to hear and a word for the weary. God gave him a word for the weary. And I want to tell you, being in Christ, God wants to give us a word to bless people, a word that we can cling to and a promise that we can hold. Why? So I'd live life God's way and not our way. See, living life our way is no different than what Eve did in the garden. And when the enemy came to Eve and whispered in her ear that God surely didn't say, and you won't die in the day that you eat of these things, and the scripture says, what once was not good, all of a sudden became good to her. That fruit she saw on that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, she saw it as edible fruit, but God didn't say it was edible fruit. He told him to stay away from that tree, to leave that tree alone. That's the only tree, that's the only forbidden thing in the garden. Everything else was available to her and Adam, but once the suggestions of the enemy came to her and he whispered in her ear, surely you shall not die. But I wanna tell you, the enemy never gives disclaimers. that he doesn't have the final word. You and I, we don't have the final word, amen? This world we live in doesn't have the final word. No matter if they tell us it's okay to live for this world and have a little religion while you're living in it, they don't have the final word on that. I wanna tell you, the only one that has the final word is my God, amen? And whatever he says is final, we can trust him on it. But what Eve did, the first act of Eve, acting independent of God, led to what? Death, deception, and destruction. And I wanna tell you folks, the scripture said about Adam, it wasn't good that Adam should be alone. So what did God create for Adam? A helpmeet, amen. Have y'all ever recognized when you've been reading through the Word of God that the Bible refers to wisdom in a feminine sense? It always mentioned, but John, you've seen this all through Proverbs, even in the New Testament. It's always in the feminine. It refers to her as a her and she. And I think it's much more than just poetical. It has a point. It takes us back to Adam and Eve in the garden. It wasn't good that man shall be alone. And it's not good that man shall be without wisdom. We need the wisdom of God to know how to take the next step with the Lord. Because if I don't have the wisdom of God, I don't perceive life right. And when I don't perceive life right, I'm out of line with him and everything I do and all that I offer him is out of line and he sees it different. That's why we need to abide in the presence of God. that we are awestruck in His presence so that the fear of the Lord is at work in us that we give place and priority to Him in everything we do. So that when the brethren come and gather together and lift up holy hands before God without any animosity and any anxiety in our heart that God fills this place up with His presence. Why? Because we didn't come to consume. No, we came to give Him the glory. And God rests on a place when His glory is being lifted up. Amen. Because it's what he does in our life. The problem is, is that sometimes we find ourselves living, trying to live life in the gutter and expecting to grow while we live in there. Have you ever noticed that? How many of y'all have gutters on your house? Have you ever noticed in an old gutter or a gutter that you kind of neglected after a season, you hadn't done much with it? Have you ever seen a pine tree start growing in a gutter? I'm telling you, a tree will seed out in a gutter and it will get on up and start growing, but if it doesn't get through that gutter and find some good soil down there, it won't grow. You can plant a seed in the gutter, but you can't grow it there. You've got to get it out. You've got to get it in some deep soil. go down and I believe that God sends us out and we find people in the gutters of life and we plant seed there but that seed can't grow in that gutter it's got to come out of the gutter and find good soil and that's what it's like when us gathering and being part of the brethren that we can help one another grow and mature in the glory of the Lord, amen. Go to Genesis 26 where we mentioned this morning and look, we're gonna see a man who was most likely the single most blessed man on the planet in that day. But because he was operating in a mindset that was in the gutter, we see him stunted, we see him misrepresenting the God for whom he belonged to, and as a result, the world that he lived in was squeezing him out and the favor of God was not upon his life at that time. We're talking about Abraham's son, Isaac. Look, if you would, in the first few verses here, I want you to notice a couple words as we go through it. There's gonna be some words like live and dwell or dwelt. And we're going to talk about them. They look like they fit together. They're the same thing, but they're a little different. And it's going to tell us a mindset about Isaac and where he was at. So verse 1 of Genesis 26 says, There was a famine in the land beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. just a historical reference. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines in Gerar. Verse 2 says, then the Lord appeared to him and said, do not go down to Egypt. That was what he, because of the famine, he didn't want him to go to Egypt. He says, live in the land which I will tell you, dwell in this land and I will be with you and bless you for to you Isaac and to your descendants I give all these lands and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants, Isaac, multiply as the stars of heaven. Will give to your descendants all these lands and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed I'm doing it on behalf of your father That we can substitute this for Jesus because of Jesus God does what he does in our life because of Abraham who obeyed my voice and kept my charge and my commandments, my statutes and my laws. So Isaac dwelt in this land. Now, let's go back and just look at a moment, these couple words. In verse number two, he says, then the Lord appeared to him and said, do not go down to Egypt, live. The word live here, the word goes along with the idea of dwelt, means to lodge, just to take rest, just to take rest. Verse three says dwell in this land. The word dwell means to sojourn through it. You're gonna take rest in it. You're gonna sojourn in it. But then we get over into the following verses and we see something that Isaac does. In verse number six. So Isaac dwelt. The word dwelt there means to settle down, to settle in. God never told him to settle in the land of the Philistines. He told him to take lodging there because there was a famine and God was gonna meet a need there for him. God told him to lodge there and sojourn through it. Don't make it a permanent dwelling place. But Isaac, when he got down there, he began to operate in unbelief. Now God just reaffirmed his covenant to him. And I wanna tell you, anytime we are abiding under the wings of the shadow of the Almighty, we're in the safest place in all the world. Whether we're over in Iraq or we're headed to Kuwait, or I got a son-in-law that's in the army and they fixing to fly out to Hawaii. I served nearly 10 years with the Navy and was in the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. At those times, I didn't belong to the Lord, but I'm thankful God had a plan for me, amen. But no matter where we are in the world, when we are under the watchful eye of the God of all glory and grace and we abide under the shadow of His wings, that's simply saying that He has us in His nest right where He wants us, being in the will of God, doing what God calls us to do, that is the single most safest or the best place in all the world to be. It doesn't matter how hostile the territory is, it doesn't matter how hostile your job is, it doesn't matter how hostile the land is, whether you are down in South America or you down in some foreign place where people hate believers or they hate foreigners coming in and they're out to harm you and hurt you, and matter of fact, they may just kill you. Dying for Jesus ain't the worst thing in the world, amen. And all God's people said, There's been many a people that died for the name of Jesus. You know what the Bible tells us? That the weapons that are formed against us shall not prosper to the intent that the enemy intended it to be. It never works out for the enemy the way it seems. He never gives us a disclaimer that he has the final word, but what he intends to do to us or how he intends to harm us never goes as planned when we are serving the Lord Jesus Christ. God always works everything, even the bad things and the good things, he works everything for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose, amen? But if we're not careful, And I really believe this, that the single most blessed people on the planet today are the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's not anybody on the face of the earth. Matter of fact, the Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews that the world is not worthy of the believers living in this world. You know those testimonies of Hebrews 11 when it talks about those who were sown asunder and those who lost their lives, those who gave everything for the call of the Lord and followed Him and went and told the prophets that stood before Baals and the men of God and the women of God who gave their lives in the defense of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know the revelation of God's Word says the world is not worthy? that is not worthy of such people that we above all the people in the world are the single most blessed people because we have the very favor and the blessings and the presence of God and His gospel at work in our life. You cannot supersede that in any kind of way. those angels that are before the throne of God, Brother Tim, that are worshiping him day in and day out, singing holy, holy, holy before the Lord Almighty, or that great sunset that we've seen today with those clouds after that storm. You know, it takes an atmosphere like that of storms to produce them beautiful clouds like that that comes following. But that sun and that moon in all creation, you know what the psalmist says, that the heavens declare what? The glory of God, His faithfulness from day to day, those angels and the creation that we live in, none of that is superior to the worship and praise of God's people. Psalm 148 says this, that let all heaven and everything in it and all that is on the earth and all that is in the sea praise God and bless His name. But it closes out like this, that God has elevated or exalted the praises of His saints above it all. Why is that? You know that the creation we live in, definitely the trees lift their branches in praise, the sun declares His glory, and the firmament, His handiwork day on the day, but you know, none of those can describe the God for whom we love and serve and gave His life for us on the cross of Calvary. You know, they declare His glory, but they cannot describe or declare His gospel. That's what we get to do, amen. And nothing in all creation other than the people and the saints of God have been commissioned to go tell the world of who this God is, what He's created, who He's created, what He's done on behalf of rebellion and hostile and enemies that are against him that in spite of us, regardless of us, he laid his life down to be a ransom and a pardon for us. Not only was he God's sacrifice before us, but he became my substitute and he took my wrath upon him so that God could grant to me his very righteousness. That today as I stand before you, I am as righteous as I'll ever be. because my righteousness is not dependent upon me. My righteousness is not what I've done or what I will do. My righteousness is covered in the lifeblood of the Lamb of God. And when God sees me, he sees his son. When God loves me, he loves me the way he loved his son. When he deals with me, he deals with me how he dealt with his son. And I am as righteous as I'll ever be because my righteousness is the righteousness of Christ. And folks, that deserves an amen, amen. Now what I am. in Christ, God wants to work out of me. He wants that to be a representation of him upon this earth, that as I live, I declare and I define and I describe and I defend the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as a result of that, God has elevated the praise of his saints to be superior to all of the worship Even the angels who cannot but worship Him and describe His uniqueness and His separation and His holiness, God still sees our praise as superior. Man, that ought to do something in us, amen. To live on the platform of obedience, to just bring Him glory and praise. You see, Isaac had all this. God just reaffirmed him, I will, I am, this is what I'm doing. And I'm not doing it based on you or your character, I'm doing it based on the relationship that I had with your father, Abraham. And because of Abraham's obedience, I am crediting that over to you and I will be faithful to you and I will help you, I will protect you, I'll provide for you, I'll do that for you. No different than he does that on our behalf because of Jesus. But Isaac got it in his mind, started operating not in the promises of God, but he started operating in unbelief, in self began to manifest because he said, I'm afraid to lose my life If I follow through with this thing down here in the Philistines, my wife is a beautiful thing and men are going to want her and they are going to kill me if they think that she is my wife. So I'm gonna lie and misrepresent my relationship with her. I'm gonna misrepresent my relationship with God. And I'm gonna settle down in this world that he told me simply to sojourn through because I'm just passing through it. I'm to take lodging in it temporarily, but it's not to be my permanent place. Well, let's keep reading what happened. And I think this happens to us. I think this is prophetic of what can happen to us. He says in verse number seven, and the man of this place asked about his wife and he said, she is my sister for he was afraid to say she is my wife because he thought in his mind You see, we don't ever say something without normally thinking about what we're going to say in advance. He thought about this. He spoke it. Least the men of this place kill me for Rebecca, because she is a beautiful to behold. Verse 8 says, Now it came to pass when he had been there for how long? A long time. Now when the Bible tells you a long time, he means a long time. Amen? How long of a time, we're not sure. Isaac is up in age at this point. He's at least 75 years old or older, and he's acting like this with the faithfulness of God all over his life. He said he'd been there a long time, and Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked through a window, and he saw, and there was Isaac sporting or showing endearment to Rebekah, his wife. So Abimelech called Isaac to himself and he said, quite obviously, she is your wife. So how could you say, how could you do this? She is my sister. And Isaac said to him, he confessed. He got it right. Because I said, for fear I die on account to her. And Abimelech said, What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us. So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. Then, then, after all this was clarified, Isaac got it right, he confessed, he come clean before Bimelech and before God, the scripture says, he sowed in that land and he reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the Lord did what? Blessed him. The man began to prosper, and he continued prospering, and he became so prosperous, for he had many possessions of flocks, and possessions of herds, and great numbers of servants. So the Philistines envied him, and the Philistines had stopped up all the wells that his father Abraham, who visited it before, had dug, and they filled it up with dirt, with earth. Verse 16 says, and Abimelech said to Isaac, go away from us, for you are much minor than we. And then Isaac departed, and he pitched his tent. Isaac dug a well, and we see that he dug these wells, and he kept on going. Just jump down, if you would, to verse 25. Verse 25 says, ho, what did he do? He built an altar there, and he called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there, and there Isaac's servants dug a well. There's something characteristic about Abraham and about Isaac and about Jacob. The Bible tells us historically what these men did as a pattern of life. When they came into the promised land, for an example, Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, when he followed God in obedience, didn't know where he was going, just trusted the Lord by faith. The scripture says everywhere Abraham went, he built altars and he pitched his tents. He built his altars, and he simply pinched the tent. You see, pinching a tent means that I'm not staying in a place very long. My tent is easy to pick up and move on, but I'm gonna put the permanence while I'm dwelling in this tent to just move out of here. I'm gonna make the permanence not in my dwelling, but in my worship. I'm gonna build an altar. He built his altars, Lifestyle worship, and simply pitch these tents. We get it reversed in our day. We build our tents, our homes, and we pitch our altars wherever we want. Because worship is something that we do temporary, but we plan it in this old world. But I wanna tell you, God's called us to be sojourners, pilgrims, passing what? through this world, not to get caught up in this world, but make lifestyle worship part of who we are. And when we live that away, you know what God does? Man, God blesses. He blesses. He blessed Abraham richly. He blessed Isaac richly. He blessed Jacob richly when they were what? Building their altars and pitching their tents. You know there's only two times that Abraham didn't build an altar and pitch a tent? Only twice. And you know when that was? When Abraham went down to the Philistines and he went to Egypt. And when he went to Egypt and he went to the Philistines, Abraham did this twice. Y'all remember that story? Remember when Abraham told his wife, told Sarah, said, look, please, tell the men of this place that you're my sister. Because you're beautiful, they're gonna want you, and if they want you, They're gonna kill me for you being the husband. That's the only way to have you. But if I'm your brother, they're gonna come to me, and they're gonna ask me if they can have you. Well, one of these kings brought Abraham all kind of camels and all kind of goods, and Abraham received it as a brother. You know how the New Testament says in 1 Peter that Sarah called Abraham Lord? Y'all recall that? You know why she called him Lord? That's not how she operated in everyday life. As her husband, she trusted God enough and put Abraham in God's hand and referred to Abraham as her Lord, meaning her brother who had authority over her as a protection over her that kept her safe, him safe. She didn't agree with Abraham on these things. The scripture says she committed to God. You know what God did on behalf of Sarah's faith? Not only did he protect her, but he protected Abraham as well. But while he was with the Philistines and while he was in Egypt, he did this twice. Isaac's following in his footsteps. Abraham did not build an altar and he didn't pitch his tent. It's the only time he gets out of order of things. And the scripture says a man that was to be a blessing to all the nations, you know what started happening to the people around him? God put a curse on him because of Abraham's disobedience. and he closed up the wombs of the women and none of them could give birth while he was there. Why? Because the man who was to operate under the shadow of the wings of the Almighty, the one who was to trust God with his life, not Pharaoh, not Abimelech, not with their protection, but with God's protection, and when he misrepresented God and wasn't living a lifestyle of worship, and he was building his house and he was just pitching his altars, what happened is God shut the favor off and the blessings off. just like he did with Isaac. The single most blessed man on the planet is unfruitful and unfaithful. And he has a private romance behind the scenes so nobody can see what he's doing with his wife. You know, there's a lot of preachers out there and there's a lot of servants out there that are fearful that if they stand on the Word of God and stand up and proclaim, thus saith the Lord, that they may lose, quote, end quote, their job. So they have this private romance with the word and they burden and they loving on the word of God or with God behind the scenes, but they would never stand on it in front of people because they're afraid they'll lose their job or lose something. Many people do this on the job. They're afraid they'll lose their job if they took a stand for the gospel and they proclaimed and they love people the way God loved people, that people would see them differently and they'll lose their job. And that's what's going on in our country right now. People that are blessed and favored by God, but hiding that behind the scenes, why? Because they're letting the world squeeze them and mold them, and the world is just throwing dirt on top of a well that the Father has dug, and there's no flow of Jesus coming out. And what revival is is somebody helping them move the dirt and the debris and the pride and the unbelief off the well so that Jesus can flow. and that God's people can rejoice before Him and be proud of who they are and what they are in Him and trust Him, whether they take our lives or whether they fire us or whether they mock us, whether they spit on us, that's regardless. You know, the New Testament talks about it like this. Paul asked the church at Galatia, he says, who has bewitched you? You see, that's dirt on a well. Who's bewitched you and told you that you need to be in a performance factor when God's done all that He's done in grace? You didn't receive Him because you were good. You didn't receive Him because you were right. You didn't receive Him because you performed the law. God poured out His favor on you by grace. You didn't do anything to deserve it. Matter of fact, He lavished His mercy upon you in Christ Jesus. But you letting someone bewitch you and tell you that you've got to do this, and you've got to do that, and you've got to perform here and perform there. You're not doing anything to please God. You're trying to please men. See, that's dirt thrown on a well that the Father's dug that's keeping that flow. He says it over in the book of Colossians. He says, don't let this world cheat you. He uses the word cheat there. Cheat you with philosophy. Philosophy just means to be fond of this world. And he says, vain and empty deceit. He says, that won't get you anywhere with Christ. He says, as you receive Christ and you receive him by grace, through faith, you receive him by the word, putting your faith in his word. As you receive him, walk in him. Don't let anybody cheat you. Don't let them throw any dirt on the well. And you become fond of this world we live in. God's left you in this world to be a difference maker, to be a disciple maker, to be a gospel preacher. He's left you in this world to be a stranger in here, sanctified by the Spirit, walking in the selection and the favor of God, relishing in the living hope that we have in the resurrection, that nothing can kill you. Matter of fact, if God's ready to take you home, ain't nothing gonna stop it, amen? You're indestructible. until God's ready to take you home. There's nothing that's gonna take you out of here accidentally. There's nothing that's gonna remove you from this earth because it wanted to take you out. I wanna tell you, when you belong to Jesus and you walking with him, you are under the sovereign care of the Almighty, not one hair on your head falls without him noticing it, amen? And we can trust him and walk with him. But because Isaac feared loss, because Isaac feared for his life, he operated out of self-centered interest, and it prevented him from being fruitful, it prevented him from being faithful, it prevented him from fearing God and putting God first in his life. And that affected his harvest, that affected his worship, that affected everything in his life. But you know what? of coming clean and honest before the people that he was around and before the God that had called him, soon as he come in agreement and confession with God. You know what the scriptures teach us? He planted a seed and the man reaped a harvest, which tells us previously he was there for a long time and he wasn't fruitful nor was he faithful. But when he got things right with God, When he got things right with the people in his life, when his representation as an ambassador of the glory of heaven was accurate, God blessed the man. And I believe that's what we need. Just come and claim before him, amen. God's not threatened by anything. And all God's people say it. There's not anything in your past, there's not anything going on in your life right now that He doesn't already have an answer for. He's not threatened. God's wisdom is not threatened by anything. That's why wisdom rests in the heart of those who have understanding. That's why wisdom is approachable, why wisdom is easy. That's why wisdom is gentle and kind because wisdom is never in a defensive mode. When people are defensive and they're threatened by something, They brussel up and they are resistive and they're unapproachable and they're unaccessible, but wisdom is never that away. Why? Because there's not one thing in this world that threatens the wisdom of God. And God says, I want to give you my wisdom. I want to pour out my wisdom upon you, but I won't pour my wisdom out upon you unless you are upright with me." And that simply means we just getting honest with Him, trusting Him, depending on Him, Not being filled with pride or philosophy or cheated by the law or anything that we can do, but we are poor in spirit. That means we're deflated of ourselves and God has all access to fill us up with himself. And when we in that place, what he does, he fills or revives us for his work, for his missions, his assignments. And we get to do it with a glad heart. We get to do it with thankfulness. We get to do it rejoicing in our spirit. And we walk with a new step. Our priorities are different than what they were before we've gotten honest with him. And we just clear the air before the Lord and say, God, you are who you say you are, and I'm at your mercy. Do with me what you feel necessary you need to do. I am ready for you. And what God does is something that we really, man, can't explain. He begins to do a work of peace in us that goes beyond our understanding. And He lets us celebrate life. He lets us celebrate grace. He allows us to celebrate one another. And we begin to enter into the herd of other people because we're not threatened by what they're going through because we know God has an answer. If He had an answer for me and what I was going through, I know He's got an answer for them. and what they're going through and he's going to help me love people. He's going to help me live to bless people and I'm not going to be a taker who is always taken from everybody. I become that giver who pours out my life. I become a waterer for the Lord, as Proverbs 11, 25 says, he who water shall be watered himself. Isaiah 12, 3 says that in the day of grace, he says, with joy you shall draw water from the wells of salvation. You see, when God's working us in his grace, what we're doing is tapping our bucket, we're throwing our bucket in other people's wells that he's dug, and we're pulling out living water, and we water in someone else, and you're walking through this life being watered by God and watering other people, and I wanna tell you, that's a man and a woman or a boy or a girl that's making a difference in this life. They're not being squeezed out by this world. They're not threatened by what they're around or who they're with. No, they're walking under the wings of the shadow of the Almighty. They know who they serve. They know what they're doing. and they are intentional in their worship, intentional in their witness, intentional in their celebration, because they know they've given glory to Jesus. That's a blessed place to live, amen. Confidence, compassion, courage, Conviction becomes words that characterize that person in the assignment that God has given them. Courageous. I've never met a man in my life that was courageous for something that didn't understand they were accountable and responsible for what they was courageous in. You become accountable. and responsible before God in the assignment He's given you, you'll have the courage to embrace whatever you have to embrace for His glory. If you're not accountable and responsible to Him, you will cower down. in whatever comes your way. But you become accountable and responsible as He told Joshua. Joshua, do not be afraid nor dismayed. Be strong and courageous. Why? Because God had outlined His accountability and His responsibility to Him. And when you have those, you can be strong and courageous in the Lord, amen. How many of you feel like me and my own walk in the past that you've let this old world throw a little dirt on that well that the Father's dug in you? And you've been blessed when people come along and noticed and they helped you, they was an encourager, they took the shovel out and they started uncovering that well. And before you know it, life begin to flow in you again and flow out of you and you begin to You celebrate and you begin to serve other people and you laid your life down for the glory of God. Oh, there's so much about these patches that we're talking about. I spent quite a few years studying them and preparing them and teaching them. But John, what we used to do at one of our first pastorate When we commissioned all our missionaries who went out for the glory of God, we used these principles out of Genesis 26 and Isaac's life of when he was right with God, God would use him to go dig wells and uncover wells that the father was already at work doing. Not reinventing the wheel, he didn't rename these wells, he named them what his father had named them. He just got the dirt off of them so that they can have life again. And what a well will do, a well will supply water, not just to you, not just to your family, but a small community. And you know the neat thing about the work of the Spirit of God? God says not only will you have a well in you, but He's put a river in you, amen? You see, a well will supply water for a few in a community, but a river will supply water for a country. And the scripture says a river will dwell up in us called the Holy Spirit of God and flow out of us when we write and field with him, amen? But we'd take little shovels and we would present them to those missionaries going out and give it to them and just remind them that, hey, we're well diggers. We're out uncovering wells. I wanna tell y'all tonight, if you belong to Jesus, you've been commissioned to be a well digger. You uncovering wells. What a beautiful picture of revival. It's what it is. And I pray tonight that we'll commit to it. Understand our accountability and responsibility and be courageous to start this night, because it's the only night we have. It's the only time we have to bless the Lord. It's more than far gone and more hadn't come yet right now. It's all we got to bless the Lord and prepare our hearts to go uncover some wells for his glory. Amen. Amen. Father, we thank you tonight. We bless you. I pray that you are pleased with what we have lifted up in song, I pray that you are pleased with our hearts, not because we are good people, not because we have done all the right things, but because of what you've done in us, because of your grace, grace that has prepared a future for us, grace that has prepared us for fellowship with you. I pray over this church tonight. I pray for each one that is here. Some are still in need of the work of your redeeming grace in their life. They need to be born again. We know they can't be born again unless you draw them, unless you're at work doing something in them. And I believe you're at work in them right now, drawing them unto Jesus. I pray that you compel them by the sacrifice of His love and those that belong to you. I pray that you're removing some dirt from their life, removing it from my heart, that I can pour forth the beauty and the blessings of what you have dug in my life. I love you, I thank you, I praise you right now and just ask you to work in this invitation. I believe some need to come clean before you like Isaac. I think some need to come in agreement with you, and they just submit themselves to you. Thank you for your mercy, in Jesus' name, amen.