Genesis 24:33-51 NKJV Food was set before him to eat, but he said, “I will not eat until I have told about my errand.” And he said, “Speak on.” (34) So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. (35) The LORD has blessed my master greatly, and he has become great; and He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys. (36) And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and to him he has given all that he has. (37) Now my master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell; (38) but you shall go to my father’s house and to my family, and take a wife for my son.’ (39) And I said to my master, ‘Perhaps the woman will not follow me.’ (40) But he said to me, ‘The LORD, before whom I walk, will send His angel with you and prosper your way; and you shall take a wife for my son from my family and from my father’s house. (41) You will be clear from this oath when you arrive among my family; for if they will not give her to you, then you will be released from my oath.’ (42) “And this day I came to the well and said, ‘O LORD God of my master Abraham, if You will now prosper the way in which I go, (43) behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes out to draw water, and I say to her, “Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,” (44) and she says to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also,”—let her be the woman whom the LORD has appointed for my master’s son.’ (45) “But before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah, coming out with her pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down to the well and drew water. And I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ (46) And she made haste and let her pitcher down from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels a drink also.’ So I drank, and she gave the camels a drink also. (47) Then I asked her, and said, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ And she said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the nose ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists. (48) And I bowed my head and worshiped the LORD, and blessed the LORD God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the way of truth to take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son. (49) Now if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. And if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.” (50) Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The thing comes from the LORD; we cannot speak to you either bad or good. (51) Here is Rebekah before you; take her and go, and let her be your master’s son’s wife, as the LORD has spoken.”
This is the Word of the Lord, Amen?
- Well church, welcome back to our series on “How to Be a Good and Faithful Servant” where we take a look at the actions of Abraham’s servant and apply it to our lives as Christians… because one day we will see Jesus face to face and we all hope to hear Him say those marvelous words “Well done my good and faithful servant”.
- As I studied these verses I found that there were 10 attributes that Abraham’s servant exuded and as such, each message in this series goes over two of these attributes, let’s take a look at where we have been, where we are at, and where we are going with this series:
- So, the sermon title this morning is simply
- Obey and Testify… A Good Servant Honors his Master’s Will and a God Servant Tells the Testimony… a Good and Faithful servant is someone who Obey’s and Testifies!
Point One – A Good Servant Honors his Master’s Will
Genesis 24:33a NKJV Food was set before him to eat, but he said, “I will not eat until I have told about my errand.”…
- Let me start by asking a question… why did the servant refuse the food that was offered to him?
- I mean that is kind of rude, isn’t it? Rebekah just spent hours watering his camels, now a meal is set before him, and he says “No, there is something more important”
- “This food looks delicious… and honestly I am very hungry from my journey… but listen… it is not my will, but my masters will that needs to be done”.
- “I am not here for me… I am not here to fill my belly… I am here on behalf of my master… and before I could even think about feeding myself, we need to deal with my masters business.
- Jesus said a thing or two along these lines Himself, didn’t He?
John 4:34 NKJV Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
Luke 22:42 NKJV saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
- “My flesh want’s food… my desire is for food… my flesh wants comfort… my flesh wants warmth and stability… my flesh doesn’t want to step out on faith… my flesh thinks this is all too risky… my flesh is YELLING at me right now… but I am not here to satisfy my flesh!
- NOT MY WILL BUT MY MASTER’S WILL BE DONE.
- Because if I was here for my own will, then I would eat, and I would drink, and God forbid I might get distract with the cares and the comforts of this life and forget about the will of my master.
- Therefore, NOT MY WILL BUT MY MASTER’S WILL BE DONE.
- Not my will but God’s will be done.
- I was sent for a purpose and I am going to do what I was sent to do FIRST… then I will eat and enjoy the fruit of my labor.
- And as we read through scripture, we can see the wisdom of this good and faithful servant by contrasting it with foolish servants who stopped to eat, and drink and be marry, instead of obeying the will of their master.
- One such time happens in 1 Kings 13. God sends a prophet from Judah to prophesy against the altar at Bethel, where King Jeroboam was promoting false worship.
- The prophet delivers his message, as God commanded, then God miraculously destroys splitting it apart.
- After seeing this sign, King Jeroboam believed… let’s pick up at verse 7.
1 Kings 13:7-10 NKJV Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” (8) But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. (9) For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’ ” (10) So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel.”
- So, just like Abraham’s servant, this Servant of God says “I will not eat or drink until I am finished!”
- But this time it was not out of prudence, but by God’s command… but what happens next is the interesting part… as this prophet was on his way back… a false prophet approaches…
1 Kings 13:15-19 NKJV Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” (16) And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. (17) For I have been told by the word of the LORD, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’ ” (18) He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (He was lying to him.) (19) So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.
- Now, the man of God should have seen through this lie. God does not change, and God does not change His mind… not like this at least. God does not go back on His Word!
- But, let me tell you, when someone comes and “prophesies” exactly what your flesh wants to hear… it is very easy to listen to that false prophet… there is a sermon in there somewhere…
- So the man of God hears the false prophet, now hungrier than ever… “Yeah…. YEAH… I could eat… and I mean, if God told you… Yeah… let’s get some grub”.
- Well… how did that turn out.
1 Kings 13:23-24 NKJV So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. (24) When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse.
- My brothers and sisters in Christ… disobedience can cost you your life.
- And sometimes that disobedience is as simple as a little fleshly comfort.
- A little delay… a little food, a little drink, a little folding of the hands and resting of the eyes.
Proverbs 6:9-11 NKJV How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? (10) A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep— (11) So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, And your need like an armed man.
- But this of course is not how the Good and Faithful servant acts… The good and faithful servant is LASER FOCUSED on obeying the will of his master.
- Not even the servants own needs and desires will come in the way of obeying the masters will.
- Oh church… how many blessings have we missed… how many curses have we stumbled into because we ignored our masters will for just a moment… for just a meal… for just a little fleshly satisfaction.
- What Kingdom goodness have we missed because we were focused on a little worldly distraction… a little fling with sin and comfort…
- What have we missed out on because we were not laser focused on obeying the will of our master?
- I am preaching to somebody today… somebody who has heard the will of God for their life… but has been so distracted by the things of this world, the comforts of the flesh, the pride of life, the lusts of the flesh.
1 John 2:15-17 NKJV Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (16) For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. (17) And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
- A Good and Faithful servant honors his masters will, and a good and faithful servant will abide forever… Amen‽
- Praise God, let’s move on to point two this morning: A Good Servant Tells the Testimony.
Point Two – A Good Servant Tells the Testimony
Genesis 24:33 NKJV Food was set before him to eat, but he said, “I will not eat until I have told about my errand.” And he said, “Speak on.”
Genesis 24:42-46 NKJV “And this day I came to the well and said, ‘O LORD God of my master Abraham, if You will now prosper the way in which I go, (43) behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes out to draw water, and I say to her, “Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,” (44) and she says to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also,”—let her be the woman whom the LORD has appointed for my master’s son.’ (45) “But before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah, coming out with her pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down to the well and drew water. And I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ (46) And she made haste and let her pitcher down from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels a drink also.’ So I drank, and she gave the camels a drink also.
Genesis 24:48 NKJV And I bowed my head and worshiped the LORD, and blessed the LORD God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the way of truth to take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son.
- The servant now has a challenge, a difficult task ahead of him.
- These people don’t know this servant from Adam.
- Sure they know of Abraham, Abraham is family… but who is this guy… he says he is Abraham’s servant… but how will they know.
- The servant now has to convince Rebekah’s family to let her come with him…
- Now I don’t know about you, but I am not sending my daughter off just the first strange guy to show up with camels and gold!
- So this servant of Abraham has a challenge… “How do I convince them to let Rebekah come with me”… He has this challenge, and how does he overcome this challenge? He overcomes by the word of his testimony.
Revelation 12:11 NKJV And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
- A good and faithful servant tells the testimony…
- And would you look at that, the Faithful Servant did not love his life even enough to stop and eat! The will of his Master was more important… but we already talked about that…
- Back to telling the testimony… a Good Servant Tells the testimony.
- Do you know what a testimony is?
- A testimony is a telling of what YOU KNOW happened because YOU WERE THERE.
- A testimony is not you telling someone else’s story, it is you telling YOUR story. You were there, you saw it happen, you heard the words, you did the things, YOU KNOW THE FACTS.
- So here we see the servant overcoming the challenge set before him by telling the facts.
- He doesn’t try to impress Rebekah’s family with gold.
- He doesn’t try to sway them with convincing logic or argument.
- He has no need to threaten them, nor any need to beg them.
- He simply shares the testimony…
- “All I know is that God called me to this well, HE LED me to this well… and as I was praying, in my heart… not even out loud… as I was praying “Let it be the woman who offers me a drink and my camels a drink also… let her be the woman…”
- “I WASN’T EVEN DONE PRAYING when Rebekah offered me a drink and then, wouldn’t you know it, just like I prayed… She offered my camels a drink also!”
1 Peter 3:15 NKJV But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
- Always be ready to give a defense…
- You know, I always thought this verse was about apologetics… after all, the word translated as defense here is the Greek word ἀπολογία (apologia). So I thought it was about learning and studying scripture so that you can easily defend the faith if some atheist challenges you or your knowledge of the Bible using cold logic and scientific fact.
- But facts can be disputed… facts can be interpreted in a variety of ways… logic can be twisted and even outright dismissed… But you know what makes for an AMAZING defense? EYE WITNESS TESTIMONY.
- In fact, some of the most powerful moments in a courtroom don’t come from lawyers quoting laws or arguing logic. instead they come from someone simply telling what they saw.
- I’ll give you an example…. Back in the 1950s, there was a famous murder trial… it was the case of Dr. Sam Sheppard.
- Dr. Sheppard was accused of killing his wife in their home. The prosecution built what looked like a very strong case. They Circumstantial evidence. They had Motive. There was no sign of forced entry. And best of all for the prosecution… the media had already painted Dr. Sheppard guilty!
- As such, Dr. Sam Sheppard was found guilty of brutally murdering his wife… and was sent to prison. The only problem? He didn’t do it.
- But years later, new eyewitness testimony turned everything upside down. These new witnesses came forward with evidence the original court never heard. And that testimony dismantled the prosecution’s story. It didn’t necessarily prove who did it — it simply showed that the accepted narrative wasn’t true. Sam Sheppard was acquitted after twelve years in prison. Why? Because people who saw the events go done finally decided to testify… and that eye witness testimony was the best defense.
- Now hear me: your testimony may not have a degree attached to it. It may not silence every critic. But when you say: “I was blind and now I see…” no one can take that from you.
- They can argue theology. They can twist logic. But they can’t deny the hope they see in you… they can’t argue WHAT YOU SAW AND EXPERIENCED YOURSELF. They have two choices, call you a liar, or admit that God really did something in your life.
- So when Peter says, “Be ready to give a defense,” don’t think that only means debate. Sometimes, the strongest defense of the gospel is you standing up and saying: “Here’s what Jesus did for me.”
- Just this week I had a young lady in my office with me and Pastor Amanda, and she had a lot of questions about the Bible and different aspects of Christianity. One of her questions was “Do you ever have doubts?”
- “What kind of doubts?” I asked.
- “You know, doubts that God is real… doubts that He exists”
- “No, I don’t have those doubts anymore”
- “Really? Why not” she asked
- And you know how I answered that?
- I said “Well you see back in 393AD in the council of Hippo and then again in 397 AD in the council of Carthage biblical scholars gathered together to canonize…”
- NO! I didn’t say any of that… I said “Listen, I have seen blind eyes opened… literally, I prayed for a blind man and he began to see, immediately… and I have prayed for man with such bad arthritis that his hands and feet were shriveled… and I watched them be healed immediately… I watched as a paralyzed girl got up in the name of Jesus…”
- I just went on and on sharing the miracles that I was an eye witness to… I shared these testimonies…
- Then I laid out how they happened exactly like the Bible said they would…
- And it is because of those things… and how I talk to God and He talks to me… and how He promises and prophesies… and it always comes true… THAT IS WHY I DON’T HAVE DOUBTS ANY MORE.
- I overcame doubt in my own life by the Word of my testimony!
- I think this is what we see Abrahams servant doing…
- He has to convince the family to let Rebekah go and marry his masters son… How does he defend such an outrageous ask?
- By the word of his testimony…
- He shares how God did it…
- He tells the whole story… and in doing so he doesn’t make himself to be the hero.
- He doesn’t talk about how awesome he himself is… or how smart or successful he is.
- Instead he makes God the hero… He elevates God and all God did.
- And I guarantee you church, as the servant is telling this story, God is there in the telling… God is around that dinner table, as everyone else is eating… God is there moving, God is there working…
- That testimony that the servant is giving… that creats opportunity for God to move on the hearts of Rebekah and her family…
- It creates an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to affirm all this man is saying…
- For God to whisper in the hearts of all in attendance “Listen to this man, for it is I who has made his journey prosperous!”
- Again, I wonder saints… how many victories have we missed because we simply failed to tell the testimony… where God is waiting for us to overcome…
- Waiting for us to overcome our own doubts…
- Waiting for us to overcome the doubts of others…
- Waiting for us to overcome the lies of the evil one…
- I wonder if we have missed out on victories simply because we never gave God the opportunity to affirm His working… and we give Him that opportunity by telling the testimony.
- Church it was because of the good and faithful servants’ testimony that Laban and Bethuel were able to answer the way they did:
Genesis 24:50-51 NKJV Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The thing comes from the LORD; we cannot speak to you either bad or good. (51) Here is Rebekah before you; take her and go, and let her be your master’s son’s wife, as the LORD has spoken.”
- Church, a good and faithful servant tells the testimony… and in so doing he honors his Master’s will… Let’s close this thing up shall we?
Conclusion
- Alright church, here is the take away…
- If you are going to be a good and faithful servant… then God is going to ask you to do stuff… He is going to give you missions to accomplish… sometimes they will be big things, sometimes they might seem mundane…
- And as you faithfully obey the will of your master there will come times were other people are involved… other people who NEED to know that you are on a mission from God.
- Be it people you are trying to lead to Jesus, or people who you need favor from for one reason or another…
- When other people are involved in God’s plans… they need to KNOW they are involved in God’s plans… TELL THE TESTIMONY! Share with them all that God has done and is doing… give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to affirm all He has done through you.
- Give God all the Glory, Go all in and serve with your whole heart.
- Be faithful, listening to God, relying on God, positioned for success.
- And let God do the rest, Amen?
- Gospel Call
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
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