Can People Tell That God is With You?

Genesis 21:22-34 NKJV  And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do.  (23)  Now therefore, swear to me by God that you will not deal falsely with me, with my offspring, or with my posterity; but that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land in which you have dwelt.”  (24)  And Abraham said, “I will swear.”  (25)  Then Abraham rebuked Abimelech because of a well of water which Abimelech’s servants had seized.  (26)  And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, nor had I heard of it until today.”  (27)  So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.  (28)  And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.  (29)  Then Abimelech asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves?”  (30)  And he said, “You will take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that they may be my witness that I have dug this well.”  (31)  Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because the two of them swore an oath there.  (32)  Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba. So Abimelech rose with Phichol, the commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines.  (33)  Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.  (34)  And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines many days. 

• Abraham is prospering. 

• God is blessing Abraham in every which way. 

• His health and the health of his wife… I mean Sarah had a baby at 90 years old! 

• His wealth, Abrahams servants and flocks had continued to grow, he was becoming a nation of his own, even though his sons were only 13 and 3! 

• Even in his failures, he was blessed! As we saw in his last encounter with Abimelech, where Abraham lied, but repented… and God turned the whole thing into a huge blessing for Abraham, Sarah, and Even Abimelech and his servants. 

• It seems as though everything Abraham did, everywhere Abraham went… he was blessed and highly favored! 

• Now listen, we are not a health and wealth kind of church. God want’s so much more for your life than for you just to be financially and physically prosperous… 

• But, God is the giver of good and perfect gifts, isn’t He? 

Psalms 84:11 NKJV  For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly. 

• You know, yesterdays prayer focus for our 21 days of prayer and fasting was “Outrageous Obedience”… and according to Psalm 84:11, the result of obedience to God, the result of walking uprightly, is EVERY GOOD THING. 

• That has to include, to some level, health and wealth right? 

• The reason I share that is because I want you to think of sermons calling us to obedience as sermons calling us to blessings! 

• Even if no blessings were there, I would still obey, because Jesus is my Lord, but the fact is, God promises blessings to those who walk uprightly. 

• And that is exactly what Abraham sees in Genesis his life… blessings upon blessings. 

• But Abraham wasn’t the only one to see it… Abimelech has taken notice too… that is what we read about in our key verses… Abraham was so God focused, so God oriented, so blessed by God that King Abimelech had to take notice! 

Genesis 21:22 NKJV  And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do.” 

• Abimelech said “God is with you” 

• And I want to show you what this looks like in Hebrew, because, well, it is going to set up the rest of our sermon. 

• “Em Attah El” Em meaning with, attah meaning you, El meaning God. “Em Attah El” God is with you… but if you change the attah, the word that means “you” to the Hebrew word for “us” añu, then you get a different sentence, one maybe you recognize…  

• “Em añu El”… Emanuel, God with us… You see, if you knew that the name “Emanuel” means God with us… then congratulations, you know some Hebrew, in fact you know a whole Hebrew sentence, Em Añu El! God is with us. 

• That is so strikingly similar to what Abimelech told Abraham “Em Attah El” God is with you… Em añu El, God is with us… 

Isaiah 7:14 NKJV  Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. 

Matthew 1:23 NKJV  “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD, AND BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which is translated, “God with us.” 

Genesis 21:22 NKJV  And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do.” 

• Now, is this a reference to Christ? 

• It could be, I mean just two chapters before Abraham was walking with Christ, right before Abraham went to see Abimelech the first time… so it is very possible that this is a prophetic nod to the coming messiah. 

• At the same time, the full translation is not exactly “Em-Yattah-El” because of the way you congigate the word “yattah” with the surrounding context… so it doesn’t even quite sound like Em añu El in context of the full sentence that Abemilech was speaking…  

• But I do think this is at the very least. a happy coincidence. 

• Now here is something that I know… for all the born again Christians in this room, Im-Añu-El!  

• Im-Añu-El! God is with us! 

• If you are born again then Im-Attah-El! God is WITH YOU! 

• Which to me, as a preacher of the living Word of God in the year 2025… to me that says that this passage speaks to us as well… because as much as God was with Abraham, how much more is Im-Añu-El‽ How much more is God with us, the God whom lives in us and through us!  

• But the question of todays sermon is not “Is God with you?” Because if you are a born again Christian then we know that God is with you! We know that im-attah-El! But the question of today’s sermon is: Can People Tell That God is With You. 

• Can people tell Im-Attah-El?  

• You know as I read through today’s scriptures in preparation for this sermon I thought to myself “How am I possibly going to get a sermon out of this? It is just this pretty bland interaction between Abraham and Abimelech… 

• Then I studies these verses and thought… How am I possibly going to get a sermon out of this… it is just this bland interaction between Abraham and Abimelech… 

• But as I prayed over all I read and studied, and God showed me this beautiful parallel between these verses and the Gospel, well, I went from not having enough for one sermon to having too much to fit into one sermon… so this morning is going to be part one of a two part series… through the whole series we will have four points, we will go over the first two today. 

Can People Tell that God is With You? Part 1: 

• Point One – People Should Know that God is With You 

• Point Two – Seek The Company of Those Whom God is With 

Can People Tell that God is With You? Part 2: 

• Point One – God is With You, Behave Like it! 

• Point Two – Leave Reminders that God is with You 

• So let’s dive right in with point one: People Should Know Im-Attah-El… people should know that God is with You. 

Point One – People Should Know that God is With You 

Genesis 21:22 NKJV  And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do.  

• Abraham was so blessed, Abraham was so Holy, Abraham was so God focused that a King of a neighboring territory could come to no other conclusion then that God was with him. 

• Does that describe you? Are you so blessed, are you so holy, are you so God focused that everyone around you can only come to the simple conclusion that God is with you? 

• Does that describe you? Because we know that Im-Attah-El describes you, if you are a born again Christian, we know that God is with you. 

John 14:23 NKJV  Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 

1 Corinthians 3:16 NKJV  Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 

• There are many other verses like this one that teach us Im-Añu-El, God is with us… literally living inside of us. 

• If you are a born again Christian, if you are truly born again, one of the marks of salvation is that God lives in you. 

• So again, the question this morning is not “Is God with You” instead it is “Can people Tell That God is With You”? 

• And point one this morning is just this firm statement “People should know that God is with you”. 

• I have heard this question stated this way “If you were arrested for being a Christian… would there be enough evidence to convict you”. 

• And you say “Well pastor, I am in church aren’t I?” 

• But going to church has never been evidence of Christianity. Yes, Christians must go to church, we are not allowed to forsake the gathering of the brethren… 

• But lots of people go to church, even people who are not Christians. 

• In fact, in Nazi Germany, true Christianity was illegal… yet the churches remained opened, they just had to change what they taught… and many people kept going to Christless churches. 

• In China, being a true born again Christian is illegal… yet many “Christian” churches remain… but they have to change what they teach to fall in line with the government. China has no issue with you being a Christless Christian and going to a Christless church. 

• If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? 

• Would there be a line of witnesses to testify against you. Person after person taking the stand “Yes judge, he prayed for me and I was healed”. 

• “Yes your honor, he kept telling me about Jesus” 

• “I saw this man on his knees praying for a miracle in the hospital your honor!” 

• “I saw him outside of planned parenthood praying for it’s downfall!” 

• Would there be doctors who took the stand saying “I saw the charts, he had cancer and then the next week he didn’t… I aske him how and he claimed it was Jesus!” 

• Would someone from your bank show up and say “Sometimes money just shows up in this guys account when he needs it… he told me it was because God always provides for him”. 

• If you were arrested for being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you, would there be enough testify against you… 

• Or would the jury simply conclude “Yeah he went to church every once in a while… but that doesn’t make him a Christian… that just makes him an Iowan… everyone in Iowa does that”. 

Romans 1:16 NKJV  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 

• When you go to the store and the teller asks you “Any plans weekend?” 

• Don’t say “nothing”… man that is a lay up! “I am going to worship the King of Kings! Jesus saved me and I can’t wait to worship him with other Christians. Want to come with me? Here is a card!” 

• When you ask someone “How are you doing” and they say “Fine” don’t just ignore that, God is giving you a freebee! “Hey, is there anything I can pray for you so you can be better than just fine?” 

• When people ask how you are doing do you say “I’m good” or do you say “I am blessed and highly favored, I am a child of the King! You can be too!” 

Psalms 96:2-3 NKJV  Sing to the LORD, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.  (3)  Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. 

• How about this: When God gives you a blessing do you testify about it? 

• If God fixes your car, tell people about it. 

• If He heals your body, tell people about it. 

• If He breaks your addiction, tell people about it. 

• If He saved your soul from eternal destruction… TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT. 

Psalms 96:2-3 NKJV  Sing to the LORD, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.  (3)  Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. 

• How about this one… do you love other Christians so much that people can’t help but conclude that you are a disciple of Christ? 

John 13:35 NKJV  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

• It is why I will never understand churches that close on Christmas. 

• “We just want to give people a break. Give them time to be with their families” 

• WHAT‽ MY FAMILY IS HERE! This is where my family is. 

• And if my blood relatives have a problem with that, fine… let them know where they are in the pecking order… these are the people I love, these are the people I want to be with. 

• And if my relatives want to say “Ugh… he always has to be at church” yes I do! This is where the people I love are… And you better believe I am going to invite my relatives too… and if they don’t want to come, OK, that is their choice… 

• Man, it is why I say “I love you” so much… that is not a phrase I take lightly, but it is a phrase I reserve for my Christian family… I LOVE YOU GUYS! 

• Now that doesn’t mean I don’t love my relatives… but if they don’t know Christ, then it is a different kind of love… and my desire for them is to be saved. 

Luke 8:20-21 NKJV  And it was told Him by some, who said, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You.”  (21)  But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” 

• “Ughhhh… but pastor I don’t want to be THAT kind of Christian… I just want to keep my faith to myself and live a peaceful life”. 

• What you are telling me is that you would rather be like Lot than be like Abraham. 

• And sure that is an option… you can go live with one foot in the world and one foot in Christ… living as a secret Christians surrounded by people hate Christians. 

• You can seek the company of the Sodomites and Gomarites… but eventually everything an everyone you love will be destroyed. 

• You will make it to heaven, sure, but you might smell like smoke when you get there. 

• I would rather be like Abraham… so blessed, so favored, so holy, so single-mindedly focused on God that others can’t help but notice and say “Em-Attah-El”, surely God is with you. 

Acts 4:13-14 NKJV  Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.  (14)  And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. 

• Now that brings us to our final point this morning: Seek the Company of Those With God 

Point Two – Seek the Company of Those Whom God is With 

Genesis 21:22-24 NKJV  And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do.  (23)  Now therefore, swear to me by God that you will not deal falsely with me, with my offspring, or with my posterity; but that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land in which you have dwelt.”  (24)  And Abraham said, “I will swear.” 

• Abimelech not only recognized that God was with Abraham, but Abimelech wanted a piece of that action! 

• He wanted to have a covenant with Abraham, he wanted to dwell in the land with Abraham. 

• He wanted the blessings of Abraham to flow over his house, over his children, over his generations. 

• Moreover, he probably did not want to get on the bad side of Abraham, because God was with Abraham, and Abimelech had not interest in messing with God. 

• Now here is my question church… can y’all at least be as smart as Abimelech? 

• Abimelech saw the blessings and the favor of heaven on Abraham… and he said “I want that for my children, and my children’s children… in fact I want that for my land!” 

• You know what I want for my children? I want them to have the favor of God on their lives… so they don’t get to have friends who are not favored by the Lord. 

• You know what I want for my nation? I want it to be favored by God… so I vote for born again Christians… for people who are favored by the Lord. Because I want God’s favorites to be running our nation… I know that is a pipe dream, but I will keep fighting for it. 

• You know what I want from my life? I want the favor of the Lord to be on my life… so I am going to spend time with people who are blessed and highly favored. 

• Listen church… if you want to be fit, hang out with fit people… 

• Because they are not going to invite you to Taco Bell… 

• Instead they are going to be like “Hey who wants to run a half marathon with me”? 

• NO ONE JIM! NO ONE! 

• Yet there are people running a half marathon with Jim… because Jim is fit people do fit people stuff. 

• Church, if you want to be wealthy… find some people who are wealthy and spend time with them, hang out with them… learn from their success. 

• It is sure to rub off on you. 

• And if you want to be favored by God… find people who are more favored by God than you and spend time with them… THIS IS CALLED DISCIPLESHIP! Ask them to disciple you, if you must. Be their friend… enter into covenant with them… surround yourself by people who you can say of them “Em-Attah-El”… it is clear that God is with you! 

• And I say all of this and yet I know that many in this church are going to go out this week to hang out with the world… 

• People are going to jump on their Xbox to play with people who don’t love Jesus and cuss so much it would make a sailor blush. 

• People are going to go out on dates with people who are not born again. 

• People are going to go to see movies, and sit in a book club, or ask for advice from people of the world instead of people from God. 

• YOU ADULTUROUS PEOPLE! Don’t you know that being friends with the world makes you an enemy of God! 

• “Well pastor that was harsh” THOSE AREN’T MY WORDS! THOSE ARE THE WORD OF GOD! 

James 4:4 ESV  You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 

• We should have acquaintances in the world, people we know and who we are brining to Christ… 

• But these are acquaintances. We show them kindness and hospitality. We have them over for dinner. We want them to be saved! 

• But they are not the people I call friends. 

• Not the people I cry with, not the people I war with, not the people I celebrate with. 

• They are not who I turn to for advice, not who I seek in times of need. 

• I still love them as Christ loves them, but my desire for them is for them to be saved. 

• No, the people I surround myself with are people I look up to in the faith. People I know I can trust. 

• People who are faithful to their wives, faithful to their God, and clearly highly favored. 

• And that goes for the media I consume as well, the music I listen too, the videos I watch… 

• I mean I like a stupid meme video as much as anyone… 

• But more and more I find my YouTube suggestions to be sermons, and prophetic words, and worship songs. 

• And the sermons I listen to are generally not from big name preachers… I listen to preachers who I personally know… who I know for a fact, first hand, that God is with them. 

• Because there are a lot of people who can put on a good show and act like God is with them… even AI can do that. 

• Listen I asked AI some questions about grammar for my sermon, because grammar is not my strong suit… and when I was done I said thank you, and the AI said, and I quote “You’re very welcome! I’m glad I could help. 😊 Keep up the great work on your sermon—it’s clear you’re putting a lot of thought and heart into it. If you need any more assistance or inspiration, don’t hesitate to reach out. Have a blessed and fulfilling day! 🙏✨” 

• Man AI is less ashamed of Christ then some of yall are in everyday language… and if AI can sound Christian, then you know that there are celebrities out there who can sound Christian… so I generally don’t listen to pastors I don’t personally know… 

• Instead I listen to Pastor Matt Krachunis, and Pastor John Butcher, and Pastor John Cantu, and Pastor Harris Holsapple, and Bishop Raymond Burch, and Pastor Jeremy Seaward. 

• Men I personally know and can personally testify of them “Em-Attah-El”! 

• I know God is with them, I have seen it, not just in the way they talk, AI can do that, but in the way they treat me… in the way they treat their families, in the way they treat their wives… I have personally experienced the anointing they have over their lives, I have been blessed by knowing them and spending time with them. 

• These are the kinds of men I listen too, these are the kinds of men I spend time with. 

• Because I want that favor on my life too! 

• Church seek the company of those whom are with God. 

• It takes effort, it takes time, it takes getting to know people. 

• It takes staying late after church, or arriving early, or both… 

• It takes going to church events… it takes transparency and vulnerability. 

• It takes steps of faith, it takes inviting people out to coffee or lunch, or over to your home for a meal and prayer. 

• But it results in blessings and favor, for yourself, your children, your grandchildren, and your land. 

• Ok church… let’s conclude this message, if the worship team wants to come up… 

Conclusion 

Genesis 21:22-24 NKJV  And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do.  (23)  Now therefore, swear to me by God that you will not deal falsely with me, with my offspring, or with my posterity; but that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land in which you have dwelt.”  (24)  And Abraham said, “I will swear.” 

• In this seemingly dull passage of a meeting between Abraham and Abimelech we see the very first use of the phrase “God is with you”, Im-Attah-El… we won’t see this phrase again until Dueteronomy 20:1 

Deuteronomy 20:1 NKJV  “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. 

• Man that will preach a sermon in itself! 

• But this morning, the encouragement is clear… live a life that shows that God is with you. 

• Live a life so full of God’s blessings, and hope, and glory, and favor… live a life so solely focused on God that people will say of you Im-Attah-El 

• And surround yourself by such people, thus surrounding yourself with the favor of God. 

• But if you are not a Christian then I can not say that God is with you… but I know that He want’s to be with you this morning. 

• He wants to change everything for you, turn your life around, make you a new creation… He wants to live in you and with you all the days of your life… and He wants to be with you in heaven forever… but for that to happen the Bible says you must be borna again. 

Join us this Sunday at either 8:30AM or 10:30AM for worship followed by this message from the Word of God.
Christian Life Church of Cedar Rapids.
2808 Schaeffer DR SW
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
www.CedarRapidsChurch.com