Week 2 – The Child of Promise

? What if our significance lies in what God does through us, not to us? Join Kent in exploring Isaac's "insignificant" life and discover the thread leading to Jesus. Tune in for insights that might change your perspective! ?️✨  It's EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give). Get the fill in the blank bulletins my.harmonychurch.cc/bulletins. --------------- OPENING ILLUSTRATION: Years ago I was eating dinner with a really good friend from high school.  He had started this marketing company and had some of the biggest brands in the world as his clients.  Names like Red Bull and Etnies skateboard shoes.  He was jet setting to New York and Australia and all these cool places.  He’s such a good guy, he wasn’t bragging about any of this, we were just talking.  And then he asked me what we were up to.  I remember feeling like I wished I could just pull my head into my shell like a turtle and hide.  We were a few years into planting a church in Wichita Kansas at the time and honestly, it was a struggle.  We only had about 90 people coming and I was embarrassed because I knew about all these church plants that had 1,000 people.  Jenni and I were struggling on every front.  I remember talking through that and feeling like a poser as I tried to convince him and me that what I was doing was good and significant.   I was posturing to impress him and it left me feeling depressed. Do you ever do that?  Posture to impress people? What I mean is over-inflate who you are because you feel like you’re “less than” WE: I’m sure this appears for each of us in different ways -Some mom starts talking about the birthday party she is throwing for her kid that includes ponies, clowns, inflatables & sky diving and you’re insecurity flairs up - “We just do a cake and some friends…” -That kid on the team that’s the best makes a little snide comment about your abilities and you spent the rest of your career trying to prove them wrong -You’re dad was NEVER impressed with anything you did and now you are secretly trying to be the best at everything hoping he will one day tell you how proud he is. All of us have an insecurity somewhere about not being significant enough. b I want to take you to an insignificant account of a person from history whose life is insignificantly significant and look at what we can learn from a person's life like that. THE BIBLE: Isaac is called “the child of promise”.  His mom and dad, Abe & Sarah are told in their old age they will have a bouncing baby boy - if you missed it, go back and listen to last week.  They will get pregnant, Isaac is born into a world that is very different from the world you are in.  It’s shepherding, it’s sunup to sun down.  It’s sacrifice and dirt and sweat fear and laughter.  Isaac will grow up to be a young man who marries Rebecca.  She is his relative (second cousin on Abrahams side).  There is this beautiful narrative about Abes servant going to search for a wife for Isaac.  The servant asks Rebecca for a drink and she offers to water his camels as well.  His servant invites her to come and marry Isaac and she does… It’s beautiful.  These two fall in love, have a couple of boys - twins - we’ll get into that next week.  Not everything is smooth for them.  At one point they have migrated to the land of the Philistines under the territory of King Abimelech and Isaac lies (like his father did) about who Rebecca is - he tells them she’s his sister.  When Abimelech finds out he’s furious - “you could have caused us great sin…” He will eventually live to a ripe old age and seems to be so senile he can’t tell the difference between his own sons.  He is manipulated by his wife and his family ends up seeming less than ideal… Can I tell you a secret about Isaac? b Isaac doesn’t do anything spectacular in his life…  this child of promise seems to have turned out to be a dud… b What’s the deal with that? I want you to think about this, God makes Abraham move out of his country, follow him for near 100 years, multiple times makes promises to him about Isaac, has him take him up on a mountain to sacrifice him and takes his place.   All of this build-up for what feels like a letdown b What we get with Isaac, is a liar who eventually is so senile he can’t tell the difference between his own sons. b It feels like instead of “child of promise,” Issac should be called “Issac the insignificant…” b What is going on with the story of God? b It seems full of these highs and lows that are hard to understand… I want to read you a passage that God speaks to Isaac the Insignificant  This passage comes right before Isaac will lie about Rebecca’s and try to protect himself Genesis 26:2-6 [ANTHONY - please underline vs 4] 2 The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring[a] all nations on earth will be blessed,[b] 5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” 6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar. It’s crazy to me that after God says this, that he will bless Isaac that Isaac still lies to protect himself - He stays where God tells him to, but doesn’t fully trust Him…  Because he still feels like he has to posture himself.  I feel this in my bones… Here’s what I want you to notice about Isaac.  What God was doing was going to be through him, not to him. b What I mean is God’s promise is not that Isaac will have a blessing, but that his descendants will bless all nations… ILLUSTRATION: A while back when we had that big snowstorm, I made a joke with Trent Castleman about him going out to break the water for his farm animals and make sure they were fed.  I asked him if he tied a rope from the barn to his house so he wouldn’t get lost in the snow like Pa on Little House on the Prairie did.  I call Trent Pa now and you can too…  lol But it got me thinking,  There are all these threads in the story of God that all lead you home to one place… b All these threads lead you back to Jesus. b The reason Isaac is significant is not because of Isaac, but because Isaac is the ancestor of Jesus. b Two thousand years before Jesus, God was planning the redemption of the world so two thousand years later your life could be changed today! b That’s the significance of Isaac! CLOSING ILLUSTRATION: Listen, you may feel like what you are doing isn’t very significant.  Like in this world you don’t matter very much.  I get it.  I feel that a lot.  Can I tell you something?  Sometimes what God wants to do is something through you, not to you.  Sometimes what He needs from us is to be faithful in the small things because out of those small things 200 years from now, the one little change you made in this world.  The one conversation, the one hope you brought into someones life, the child that you raised or the great great great grandchild of yours who knew Jesus because of changes you made in your family today will fulfill the significance of what God is doing in the world. The secret is, God doesn’t need us to be significant, what He needs is for us to sell out to Him - even if we are insignificant.