Boy Meets Girl - Genesis 24 Series

You’ve heard that it’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Of course that’s true. We can read a picture book to a child and they can get all into that even not having any words to look at. It's been said that in the New Testament for every New Testament truth there’s an Old Testament picture in a story. I find that fascinating. You think about the New Testament teachings and you think about the stories involved in the Old Testament. There are a lot of teachings about marriage in the New Testament. But today we're going to look at a story about marriage in the Old Testament. About two people coming together, finding each other. It’s actually a love story in the book of Genesis 24 today. We’re going to learn five principles actually from this passage.

Now the first thing I want to say is if you’re single today and maybe God has called you to be single, I’m glad you’re here and this sermon is for you too. But you’re going to apply it differently probably. Apply it to the major decisions that you make in life – whether you’re buying a car, a house, or changing to another job, or moving to a different location. You can take these same principles and apply them to decision making. We’re going to talk about that in marriage, but you can take them and apply them to any kind of decision you’re making. There are maybe other people here who look at this and they feel bad for regrets that they’ve had because of mistakes they’ve made and they didn’t follow these principles. You’ve just got to know that God can take you from wherever you are and He moves us forward. So be thinking about where you’re going and what God wants to do in your life.

But no matter who you are, whether you’re young or old, married or not married, you can value marriage. So we lift marriage high and we value it because of its importance. It is not easy to be married.

One pastor brought a couple up who had been married for fifty years. He brought them up to kind of interview them and talk to them. They come up there and he says to the guy, “You are sure a fit guy for your age,” and so the pastor says, “What is your secret to staying so fit?”

He says, “Well on our wedding night we had an agreement that if we had a fight and argument, whoever was proved wrong in the argument would run around the block. And I’ve been around the block a few times.”

So the pastor continued and he said, “Hey look, well fifty years is a long time to be married. Have you ever thought about divorce?”

The guy says, “Divorce? No. Murder a couple of times, but never divorce!”

Marriage is harder than you think. It’s a difficult experience to be involved in. Today we're going to look at it in some very particular ways to try to understand what it means for us and how we can apply it to our own lives.

So let’s do this. As we go into this passage I want you to look with me at the very first verses of Genesis 24. The first verse doesn’t have to do with marriage, but there's a great application right there. Especially for all you young people, and old people too. But notice what it says. Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.

When I think about Abraham’s life and I say well Abraham experienced all kinds of trouble. He got to Palestine and there was a famine. And then he goes to Egypt and lies about his wife being a sister and he does that again in his life. I mean he had arguments with the shepherds, with Lot and they had to split company there. And then he had to rescue Lot and all those people and fight that battle. I’m thinking all these things he had the challenges he had in his life. Twenty-five years he had to wait from the time the promise was given till he held that little baby Isaac in his arms. Twenty-five years. That’s a lot of time. But he gets to the end of his life and he says the Lord has blessed me in all things. He doesn’t say that. Moses is writing this. But that’s the commentary here.

I go, “Wow. That’s great. I need to remember that.” Have perspective. But right now in the challenges that we’re experiencing we may feel them as pressures, as Abraham certainly experienced a lot of pressure in his life. But God blessed him in all things. He looks back on his life and he says, “Wow. I see the hand of God in my life.”