Sure of God’s Presence

Genesis 26:23-35 NKJV  Then he went up from there to Beersheba.  (24)  And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.”  (25)  So he built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.  (26)  Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army.  (27)  And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”  (28)  But they said, “We have certainly seen that the LORD is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you,  (29)  that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.’ ”  (30)  So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.  (31)  Then they arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.  (32)  It came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”  (33)  So he called it Shebah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.  (34)  When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.  (35)  And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.

This is the Word of the Lord, Amen?

• Things have finally settle down for Isaac, though the Philistines had come against him at Esek and Sitnah, he has finally found peace at Rehoboth, the well of Room Enough.
  • As he begins to settle in peace, he decides to head up to a place his father had named “Beersheba”, the place where Abraham had made an oath with Abimelech… and it seems as though history is about to repeat itself…
    • But before that happens, God appears to Isaac and says these incredibly comforting words… words that I Believe God wants to comfort you with this morning:

Genesis 26:24 NKJV  And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.”

• “Fear not for I am with you” God says! “Fear not for I am with you!”
  • What an odd thing for God to say. Was God not with Isaac at Sitnah, or Esek… surely God must have been with Isaac at Rehoboth…
  • And surely God was with Isaac before these wells, because it was God who told Isaac “Do not go down to Egypt, but dwell in the land of which I shall tell you”.
    • So why say this now… why say “Fear not for I am with you” now, after all these things had happened?
• I think it is not because God was not with Isaac this whole time, He certainly was… I think it was because Isaac needed to be SURE of God’s presence… He needed God’s presence at the forefront of his mind…
  • And church I think when WE are sure of God’s presence… when we are sure that God is with us… then no matter where we go, no matter what is happening, no matter who comes against us… when we are sure of God’s presence we can be at peace…
    • We have no need to fear, no need to fret, no need to stress when we are sure of God’s presence.

• Sure of God’s Presence. That’s today’s message, that’s today’s takaway… BE SURE OF GOD’S PRESENCE!
• Alright, let’s get right into it this morning with point one: Take Comfort in God’s Presence.

Point One – Take Comfort in God’s Presence

Genesis 26:23-24 NKJV  Then he went up from there to Beersheba.  (24)  And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.”

• Fear not… for I am with you.
  • Man Isaac had been through a lot at this point.
  • Abimelech cast him out… “Get away from me for you are much mightier than us!”
    • So Isaac graciously agrees and moves on.
  • His servants dig well after well, trying to find a place to settle in the land that God had given him… and a land, mind you, that Abraham had already made and agreement and an oath with the Philistines over…
    • Yet this new Abimelech… this new king of the Philistines did not honor that agreement… nor did his people.
      • For time and time again the Philistines came against Isaac and his people…
      • They made themselves Isaac’s enemy, they made false accusations against him, the strove against him and quarreled with him not allowing him to settle in the land that was rightfully his…
        • But Isaac was a peacemaker, and time and time again… Isaac made peace…
• But here is the thing church… can we just be real… sometimes it is exhausting being a peacemaker.
  • Man I just get tired of it… sometimes I just want to yell, sometimes I just want to fight… sometimes I just want to quite…
    • And it seems like right when I get a break… right when things start going my way… right when I find Rehoboth…
    • It seems like right when I finally have time to breath… that is when I look to the horizon and see Abimelech… my old enemy… riding toward me with the commander of his army at his side…
      • “MAN… WHAT NOW BRO? I found Rehoboth… I found room enough… and what you are going to come and take this from me too”.
        • But it is in this moment… when my enemy is far off in the distance but approaching fast that God says “Fear not for I am with you”.
        • And I take a deep breath… and I take comfort knowing that God is with me… I take a moment to just be still and know that He is God and He is with me…
      • Listen the message this morning isn’t particularly deep… I don’t have a study of Hebrew words for you… I don’t have some amazing revelation about how Genesis reaches up through the rest of Scriptures…
        • I just have this simple message… God is with you… be sure of it… and when you are sure of it, no matter what your circumstance, you can take comfort in God’s presence.

Isaiah 41:10 NKJV  Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

Joshua 1:9 NKJV  Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Psalms 23:4 NKJV  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Hebrews 13:5-6 NKJV  Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU.”  (6)  So we may boldly say: “THE LORD IS MY HELPER; I WILL NOT FEAR. WHAT CAN MAN DO TO ME?”

• Even in the great commission in Matthew 28, Jesus ends it with:

Matthew 28:20b NKJV  and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”…

• God’s presence ought to bring us so much peace, so much comfort… it should bring us peace and it should bring us boldness… when we are sure of God’s presence in our life… then what can dismay us?
  • What can come against us? What fear, what stress, what trauma, what issue, what enemy, what drama shall cause us distress?
    • GOD IS WITH US.
      • It is such an important aspect of God’s character that He made it His name!

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.”

• God is with us… His presence is with us… if you are a born again Christian then God lives in you, He is with you! Be SURE of His presence and take comfort in His presence.
  • Guy’s I will tell you, I have had a couple of months of very difficult and extremely stressful ministry.
    • And as I returned from my most challenging ministry trip I have ever taken this week… I was up against major jet lag, major stress, and lot’s of work that needed to get done.
    • And the morning before I needed to write this sermon I was dealing with jet lag, I wasn’t sleeping well… and I was getting anxious of everything that I needed to get done… “HOW ON EARTH AM I SUPPOSED TO DO ALL OF THIS WHEN I CAN BARELY STAY AWAKE DURING THE DAY‽ LORD HELP!”
      • And you know what the Lord Responded “Be still and know that I am God”.
        • When I heard Him say that… all my anxieties, all my stresses, all my worries… they just stopped… God had shut them all up at once…
        • And I was still… and I knew that He is God and He is with me.
          • And all the sudden all my problems seemed so small, so insignificant… in fact they didn’t seem like problems at all… because the God who can stop the sun from setting… is with me.
          • The God who created the heavens and the earth… He is with me.
          • The God who can guide the stone from a young shepherds sling to a gigantic warriors forehead… He is with me.
          • The fourth man in the fire… He is with me!
• So what issue? What problem? What enemy could ever rob me of my peace?
  • Church… I don’t know what everyone is struggling with this morning… but I know that if you are born again, then God is with you as well.
    • So if you have family stress robbing you of your peace… take comfort in God’s presence.
    • If your health isn’t what it should be, and you don’t know how things are going to turn out… take comfort in God’s presence.
    • If your marriage has taken a turn for the worse and you are desperate for peace in your house… take comfort in God’s presence.
    • If your job isn’t all it was cracked up to be… take comfort in God’s presence…
    • If the enemy is coming against you… and it seems like he is literally forming EVERY weapon against you… take comfort in God’s presence.
• You see when God told me that Jet-lagged morning “Be still and know that I am God” it wasn’t that I had forgotten that He was God… It wasn’t that I needed a lesson of who He was… I simply needed a reminder that He was with me… that He had always been with me… and that He always would be with me…
  • And if God is with me then I don’t need to be anxious moving this way and that… no, if God is with me then I can be still… because if God is with me then who can be against me?

Romans 8:38-39 NKJV  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,  (39)  nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• If God is for me, who can be against me‽ Amen‽
  • Now it is easy to say that… If God is for me, who can be against me… but at the same time we have verses that say the world will hate us because it hated Jesus first…
  • The truth is, church, that we will have enemies… they won’t be able to prosper against us… but they exist none the less… and they can be such a nuisance, can’t they…
    • Going back to our Genesis 26 text… God comes to Isaac and says “Hey don’t be afraid I am with you wherever you go” and immediately after that, Isaac’s chief enemy appears… Point two – Our Enemies Notice God’s Presence.

Point Two – Our Enemies Notice God’s Presence

Genesis 26:26-30 NKJV  Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army.  (27)  And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”  (28)  But they said, “We have certainly seen that the LORD is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you,  (29)  that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.’ ”  (30)  So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

• So here we have Abimelech, the king of the Philistines with his friend Ahuzzath and the commander of his army Phichol.
• Now the last time we saw Abimelech and Phichol they were kicking Isaac out of the land… And now when Isaac has finally found Rehoboth, he has found room enough and he has found peace… all the sudden his enemy shows up again.
  • But Isaac has no reason to fret, no reason to fear, no reason to be dismayed… because as he was just reminded, the Lord his God is with him!
  • And so as Abimelech approaches Isaac, Isaac has this newfound peace… The Lord is with me! What shall Abimelech do to me…
    • BUT TO HIS SHOCK… Abimelech does not come with words of war and division and destruction…  instead, Abimelech takes notice of God’s presence.

Genesis 26:28a NKJV  But they said, “We have certainly seen that the LORD is with you…

• You see church, when we are near God, and more importantly, when God is near us… when  God is with us… even our enemies Notice God’s Presence.

Proverbs 16:7 NKJV  When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

• When your ways please the LORD, when you live a life pleasing to God, then God will even make your enemies be at peace with you.
• Because how many of y’all know that sometimes you do everything you can to be a peacemaker but sometimes it is not enough… sometimes it seems like no matter what you do, how kind you are, how forgiving you are… yet still people want to find beef with you…
  • And God says “Listen, don’t worry about all that… don’t worry about your enemies… instead focus your life on pleasing me… and I will make your enemies be at peace with you.
  • All of the sudden, Abimelech, who had earlier cast him out… all of the sudden Abimelech wanted to be friends…
    • And look, Isaac was EXPECTING SMOKE!

Genesis 26:27 NKJV  And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”

• WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE! YOU MADE IT CLEAR THAT YOU HATE ME! What do you want? You want to fight, is that what’s up?
  • But Abimelech want’s peace, not war… why? Because he can notice the presence of God in Isaac’s life.

Genesis 26:28 NKJV  But they said, “We have certainly seen that the LORD is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you,

• You see church, you can get to a point in your faith, and I pray that you DO get to a point in your faith that the presence of God is so evident in your life that even your enemies notice His presence…
  • We see this theme all throughout scripture, don’t we?
    • The Pharisees see the boldness of Peter and John, and what do they say? “They must have been with Jesus”.
    • Joseph, in the end of Genesis, was a slave but his master sees that the Lord is with him.
    • Deuteronomy 2:25 says that all the nations under heaven will fear God’s people because they will see that God is with them.
    • Oh! I love these verses from Zechariah 8… look what God says about His people:

Zechariah 8:22-23 NKJV  Yes, many peoples and strong nations Shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, And to pray before the LORD.’  (23)  “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ‘ “

• Church when you have the presence of God in your life… everything, EVEN YOUR ENEMIES, recognize and bow down to His authority.

Psalms 118:5-6 NKJV  I called on the LORD in distress; The LORD answered me and set me in a broad place [He set me in a Rehoboth place].  (6)  The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?

• Now with that encouragement let’s shift a little bit towards application this morning… are you practicing the presence of God…
  • Because sometimes we can forget that God is with us… and there are things we can do to even draw closer still to God… things we can do to remember that God is with us… and, unfortunately, there are also things we can do that distance us from God or distract us from His presence…
• So our final point this morning, just real briefly… We need to Practice the Presence of God

Point Three – Practice the Presence of God

• Practice the presence of God… you know the Psalmist David had something to say about this:

Psalms 27:4 NKJV  One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple.

• One thing I desire… on thing that I will SEEK…
  • The presence of God is something that should be desired and it is something that should be sought after…
    • So let me ask you church… yes God is with you! No He will not leave your nor forsake you… But, saints… are you desiring His presence even still? Are you seeking to dwell in His house, to be with Him to LIVE in the presence of God. Are you practicing the presence of God?
      • Because there is something to be said about practicing the presence of God… there is a book by a monk named Brother Lawrence about this, a great read if you are struggling with this…
    • Are you practicing the presence of God… are you consciously doing things to remind you that God is with you? And  are you living according to that truth?
    • For example… when God told me to be still and know… when He said “Be still and know that I am God”… I had to CHOOSE to be still, I had to agree with what God was telling me and live in that stillness and presence.
      • now practicing the presence of God also means living a life free of sin, and repentant of any sin that comes up. Because sin separates us from God… that is what Isaiah 59:2 says…

Isaiah 59:2 NKJV  But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.

• So as Christians we live separate from sin, we are not yet perfect, but when we do sin we repent and move on toward holiness… But if you are not doing that, if you are living in sin… then don’t expect God’s presence to be evident in your life… and don’t expect the enemy to flee from you…
• Further we know that God’s presence inhabits the praises of His people…

Psalms 22:3 KJV  But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

• Isreal is God’s people, we are grafted into Israel, we are a part of Israel. God inhabits the praises of His people… so if you want to practice the presence of God, you need to be in the presence of God’s people singing His praises.
  • And I know this to be true… I try to never miss church! I refuse to forsake the gathering of the brethren… yet last week I didn’t go to church on Sunday. I had so many meetings in Japan, and I had an emergency meeting Sunday morning that I wasn’t supposed to have but absolutely needed to have…
    • And as such Hannah and I did not have a church to attend, especially with the massive time change… live streaming wasn’t even an option.
    • And I paid for it… man… I needed that reminder, that closeness with God… without that weekly reminder of God’s presence, without being with God’s people praising Him… man it just seems like it is so easy to forget “God is with me”.
      • Now, praise God for His grace, as pastor Jared preached about… because of His grace He reminded me to “Be still and know” but I will tell you, don’t make a habit of forsaking the gathering of God’s people.
  • Of course there are other ways to practice the presence of God, like having a strong prayer life, keeping your thoughts on God throughout the day, and refusing to compartmentalize your faith…
    • But I don’t have time to preach all of Brother Lawrence’s book… It is worth a read if you haven’t read it, it’s called “Practicing the Presence of God”…
    • but I just want this sermon to be an uplifting reminder: God is with you…
      • Be sure of His presence, Take comfort in His Presence, and even your enemies will recognize His presence.
• Now, let’s close with just a few words of encouragement.

Conclusion

Genesis 26:28-29 NKJV  But they said, “We have certainly seen that the LORD is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you,  (29)  that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.’ “

• If you are born again, then God’s presence is with you! BE SURE OF IT wherever you go! And if God’s presence is with you, then you are blessed of the LORD.
  • And whenever you start feeling any other type of way…
    • If you start feeling like you are not blessed of the Lord…
    • If you start feeling stressed, and depressed, anxious and attacked…
      • If you start feeling anything other than blessed and highly favored… then let this sermon be a gentle reminder… practice His presence, be sure of His presence, and live in His presence…

Psalms 46:1-11 NKJV  To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. A Song For Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.  (2)  Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;  (3)  Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah  (4)  There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.  (5)  God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.  (6)  The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted.  (7)  The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah  (8)  Come, behold the works of the LORD, Who has made desolations in the earth.  (9)  He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire.  (10)  Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!  (11)  The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

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