This week we will be exploring Genesis 24:1-28, Guidance According to God.
Genesis 24 is a love story unlike any other love story (unless you can remember someone coming to your hometown on a load of camels with gifts galore and enticing you to travel 500 miles to marry someone that you have never met or even seen before 🙂.
Though it appears as merely a love story, Genesis 24 is the longest chapter in Genesis indicating its importance to the redemptive narrative.
Isaac, the promised seed, receives a bride!
How that bride is found is what makes this story so interesting, inspiring, and informative.
This week we will focus on the servant and his prayer for guidance.
Have you ever had a massive decision to make and did not know what to do?
Have you ever wondered what God's will is for your life?
Have you ever prayed that God would make your next step clear to you?
Life presents us with a multitude of choices every day...and sometimes those choices have major implications for our life, for our family, and for our future.
Genesis 24 provides us with some biblical principles for discerning God's will in our lives. We will explore those principles on Sunday.
May we trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding and may we acknowledge Him in all our ways so that He will direct our paths!

This week Pastor Zach will be teaching through Genesis 23, Grief According to God.
Genesis 23 kicks off the epilogue to the life of Abraham and the transition to the generation of Isaac. This transition begins with the death of the matriarch--Sarah.
Abraham grieves the death of his beautiful bride.
Grief and loss are realities in this world that we all have to face sooner or later. Often moments of grief and loss can cause us to doubt God. But when Abraham's moment of loss comes, his faith has matured. Abraham fears God and trusts that God's promises are not exhausted in this life.
God's people have a hope beyond the grave! Jesus conquered death in His resurrection. Therefore, God's people can persist in faith and look forward to the complete fulfillment of God's promises in the future.
With that kind of faith, Abraham buys a small plot of land and a cave in which to bury his bride. In the midst of his loss and grief, Abraham anchors himself to the land of promise with this purchase. There would be no turning back for him now.
May we rejoice in the hope of Jesus Christ as we face the realities of grief and loss in this world and may we remember that every promise of God will be fulfilled!

Genesis 22 is holy ground.
This chapter is the climax of the Abraham story and one of the most powerful and beautiful pictures of the love of God and the sacrifice of His only Son.
Genesis 22 is called the Akedah ("binding") by Jews and it is perhaps the most read portion of Scripture in the Jewish faith. Seven days a week, twelve months a year, the story of the Akedah is read and prayed over in the Jewish morning prayer service. It is also read on Rosh Hashanah, as the blowing of the shofar looks back to the ram sacrificed as a substitute for Isaac.
We will reflect on the great love that Abraham had for his son.
We will walk with Abraham and Isaac to the mountain of Moriah.
We will consider God's provision of a substitute sacrifice for Isaac.
And we will rejoice in the powerful promise given to Abraham regarding his Seed, Jesus Christ!
May God captivate our imagination, deepen our faith, transform our hearts, and fill our mouths with His praise!

This week we will explore Genesis 21:1-34, Faithfulness According to God.
FINALLY! After many, many years and many, many heartaches and doubts, Isaac (aka Laughter) finally arrives!
Sarah is overjoyed! She sings in amazement at God's faithfulness!
Abraham is overwhelmed. He holds his son in his arms with unfathomable awe.
But all is not well.
Isaac's birth brings turmoil into the family. While Sarah laughs with joy, Ishmael and Hagar laugh in mockery.
Abraham is caught in the middle.
Genesis 21 is a chapter filled with laughter and anger, joy and heartbreak, delight and desperation.
Just like most of our lives today.
But God remains faithful! Through the ups and downs of life, He is the steady Rock. His goodness gives us reason to rejoice, His power carries us through times of pain, His mercy meets us in our desperation, and His peace gives us peace.
In the midst of the storms and the waves of emotion, may our eyes be fixed on Him!

This week we will explore Genesis 20:1-18, Providence According to God.
Abraham is growing in his relationship with God. In Genesis 18, we see him welcoming God into his home, showing great humility and worship, interceding for the city of Sodom, and receiving the greatest news that he could receive... that his wife, Sarah, would bear a son in a year's time.
He seems to be the model of faith.
But then, in chapter 20, Abraham fails again.
Out of his fear and unbelief, he falls right back into an old sin. He lies about his true relationship to Sarah and jeopardizes her and the promise of God.
It is a reminder to us all that let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall (1 Corinthians 10:12).
Old patterns of sin have a way of resurfacing whenever we are stressed, depressed, bored, annoyed, or just distracted from our fixed gaze on Jesus Christ.
Abraham fails. Again. But God remains faithful. Always.
God's providence superintends over all events. His grace is always operational. His sovereignty is always in control. His faithfulness is always our comfort and our rock in difficult times.
Even in this predicament, God is at work.
And even in this pagan land, God is on the move.
We can rest in the providence of God!
May God protect us from the sin that so easily entangles and empower us to walk with Him day by day for His glory and our good!
This Sunday, we will celebrate communion together as fellow partakers of God's grace!

This week we will explore Genesis 19:17-38, Tragedy According to God.
Lot's story is tragic.
He began well. He was blessed. He was loved. He was joined to Abraham in family and friendship. He was enjoying the goodness of God.
But the world's lure was too strong.
His eyes were attracted to the wealth, popularity, and carefree lifestyle of Sodom.
Slowly, step by step, he moved closer and closer to its worldview, its values, and its temptations.
Soon he and his family were fully engulfed in the city life of Sodom.
When two angels arrive to announce God's judgment on the city, Lot is caught in the middle. He is literally torn between the lusts of Sodom and the life of his family. He freezes. He falters. He fails.
He loses it all.
This week we will explore the second half of Genesis 19. We will look at the historical and archeological evidence for the destruction of Sodom, the reality of God's judgment, the danger of the world's influence, and the amazing, redeeming grace of God.
May God open our eyes to His truth so that we will not be conformed to the world but transformed by the renewing of our minds!

This week we will explore Genesis 19:1-16, Compromise According to God.
Lot's story is tragic.
He began well. He was blessed. He was loved. He was joined to Abraham in family and friendship. He was enjoying the goodness of God.
But the world's lure was too strong.
His eyes were attracted to the wealth, popularity, and carefree lifestyle of Sodom.
Slowly, step by step, he moved closer and closer to its worldview, its values, and its temptations.
Soon he and his family were fully engulfed in the city life of Sodom.
When two angels arrive to announce God's judgment on the city, Lot is caught in the middle. He is literally torn between the lusts of Sodom and the life of his family. He freezes. He falters. He fails.
He loses it all.
This week we will explore the first half of Genesis 19. We will look at Lot's slow conformity to the world, his futility in trying to protect his family, and the depravity and sexual immorality of the city around him.
May God open our eyes to His truth so that we will not be conformed to the world but transformed by the renewing of our minds!

This week we will explore Genesis 18:16-33, Intercession According to God.
In Genesis 18, God not only reveals the miraculous birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah but He also reveals the impending judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.
Abraham is certainly aware of the sins of Sodom. His nephew, Lot, has been living in Sodom for some time and Abraham has even rescued the people of Sodom from their captivity to four eastern kings. So he is not ignorant of the city's sin, rebellion, and depravity.
But he still has a great concern for Lot, Lot's family, and the people in the city.
So when God reveals His intent to judge, Abraham immediately stands in the gap and intercedes.
Abraham's prayer for the people of Sodom reveals his heart.
A.W. Pink once said, "The measure of our love for others can largely be determined by the frequency and earnestness of our prayers for them."
It is a quote that has always convicted me and challenged me. If my prayers for others is weak or non-existent, then it reveals that my heart toward them is cold.
There are a lot of principles on prayer that we can learn from Genesis 18. We will explore these principles on Sunday and spend some time in confession, intercession, and supplication for one another, for our church, and for our city.
May our love for Christ and for others grow so that our prayers to Christ and for others will grow as well!