FROM SERVICE TO SADNESS - THE LIFE OF ISAAC

Genesis 26

Pastor Rick Jackson

The story of Isaac is not necessarily a pretty one. Overshadowed by his father, his youngest son, and his next to the youngest grandson Isaac doesn't really stand out but on occasion. He lived longer than Abraham, Jacob or Joseph but he seemed to live less. He never committed what we would consider great sins but he never exemplified the victorious Christian life except for a few instances. When he submitted to Abraham, when he prayed for his wife to bear children, when he had blessed his sons and saw the hand of God even in the midst of his wife's coniving. What happened? Look first at:

I. THE SLIDE OF A BELIEVER [v. 1-10]

1. TURNING TO THE WORLD [v. 1]

2. TEMPTED TO LEAVE THE KNOWN WILL OF GOD [v. 2]

3. TIMID ABOUT FOLLOWING THE PATTERN HIS FATHER SET [v. 3-5]

4. TAKING HIS FATHER'S FAILURE A STEP FURTHER [v. 6-7]

5. THINKING OTHERS WEREN'T OPEN TO RIGHTEOUSNESS [v. 8-10]

II. THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD [v. 11-13]

1. GOD BLESSED HIM INDIRECTLY [v. 11]

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

2. GOD BLESSED HIM DIRECTLY [v. 12]

3. GOD BLESSED HIM UNDESERVEDLY [v. 12-13] Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Psalm 103:8-14 The LORD [is] merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep [his anger] for everHe hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, [so] great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, [so] far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth [his] children, [so] the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we [are] dust.

III. THE FRIENDSHIP OF THE WORLD [v. 14-35]

1. DOESN'T LAST [v. 14-16] Lot learned that the hard way.

John 15:18-24 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.

2. DOESN'T BEHAVE [v. 17-21]

3. DOESN'T COMPARE [v. 22-25]

4. DOESN'T COMPREHEND [v. 26-33]

Proverbs 16:7 When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

5. DOESN'T COME CHEAPLY [v. 34-35]