The Wells of My Father  |  Rev. Steve Smith
by Steve Smith
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Genesis 26:18, Genesis 26, Genesis 26:2-5, Genesis 26:12-14, Genesis 26:15, James 3:16, 1 John 4:20, Genesis 26:24

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/steve-smith--the-wells-of-my-father
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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attention to Genesis chapter 26 verse number 18 Genesis 26 18 while you're turning there let me say what an honor it is from a wife and boys to be here in Maryville in this beautiful sanctuary this beautiful building I believe that's a reflection of this beautiful church that is powerful that's moving great things are happening we give honor to Bishop and sister carpenter I personally am indebted to his friendship his encouragement his support loved him dearly to your entire pastoral team thank you for sharing them with the world they bless the world everywhere they go also great to be with Dave and Dorothy Glasgow before they made their sojourn east I had the privilege of them calling me pastor our loss was your gain they're great folks as well as Shannon Dave and their entire family love love this great group of people Genesis 26 18 and isaac digged again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham and he called their names after the names by which his father had called him I want to entitle my contribution to this service tonight the wells of my father turn to three people smile as big as you could smile smile so big they can see your tonsils and say the wells of my father let's ask God to anoint our time together his word gotta thank you for what you're doing in this room right now your word is already anointed God but we asked you to anoint our time together in your word I bind anything that is unlike you and I ask you to release the gift of communication within me Lord let your word do it's perfect work we will be faithful to give you praise and honor and glory in the wonderful name of Jesus we pray why don't you put your Bibles down and put your hands together and give God praise for what he's about to do in this room and you may be seated the wells of my father Warren where's be in his book be authentic rights Isaac was the son of a famous father Abraham he was the father of a famous son Jacob and for those reasons he is sometimes considered a lightweight among the patriarchs compared to the exploits of Abraham and Jacob Isaac's life does seem conventional and commonplace although he lived longer than Abraham or Jacob only six chapters in Genesis record his life and he's only given one verse in Hebrews chapter 11 Isaac was a quiet meditative men who would rather pack up and leave than confront his enemies not like Abraham and Jacob at all during his long life he didn't travel far from home Abraham had made the long journey from Haran to Canaan and had even visited Egypt Jacob went to Haran to get his wife but Isaac spent his entire adult life moving around in the land of Canaan if there had been an ancient Middle East equivalent to our contemporary jet-set Isaac would not have joined it however there are more Isaac's in the world than there are Abraham's or Jacobs and these people make valuable contributions to society and the church even if they don't see their names up in lights or even in the church bulletins furthermore Isaac was a living part of the Divine Plan that eventually produced a Jewish nation gave us the Bible and brought Jesus Christ into the world and that is nothing to be ashamed of when you turn to pay can you read the first verse of Genesis 26 you see that Isaac is encountering a famine it's very interesting when you study Genesis 26 it's almost an exact parallel between Abraham's life and Isaac's life Abraham also experienced a famine and when he did he ran directly to Egypt Egypt is the type of the world and Abraham with his sojourn into Egypt introduced so much hardship and difficulty even in the world today the Bible calls Abraham the father of faith he is the father of faith in many ways he's the father of we Christians he's the father of the Jews he's the father of the Arabs but just like us Abraham's life was not perfect in his walk toward God there were times that his traffic light of his heart was green toward God and he was all out for God there were other times most of the time when it was a yellow light it was proceeding with caution but when Abraham went to Egypt it was a red light he basically had walked away from God and most commentators believe that that is where he obtained Hagar who became the mother of Ishmael the father of the Arab nation when we walk away from God when we spend time away from the church we have no idea what we are introducing into our lives when Abraham encountered lack he left his journey of faith and temporarily back slid my question to you tonight is what do you do when you find yourself in short supply of something that you feel like that you need to survive short on money short on support short on inspiration short on fun short on love maybe you're experiencing a famine of emotional physical financial or spiritual strip what do you do do you take the time to investigate what is available outside of the church outside of the kingdom do you take a tour of Egypt that is what it looks like that Isaac was intending to do following his father's footsteps but God mercifully intervened and he came to Isaac and said don't go down to Egypt live in the land of which I shall tell you well in this land and I will be with you and bless you for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father and I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven and I will give to your descendants all these lands and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge my commandments my statutes and my laws don't ever try to outsource God's provision in your life instead of outsourcing obey God's principle principles what God said to Isaac is if you will stay and obey I will repay wherever you are when you are in a place of lack you need to keep believing in what you know is true you need to keep believing you know the Lord will bring you through wind troubles rise in your life and you don't know what to do you'll be fine if you'll just keep believing stay in the church stay in the church and obey and God will repay the scripture says that Isaac sowed in the land and he reaped in the same a year a hundredfold and God blessed him watch this the man began to prosper and continued prospering until he became very prosperous I think the rider wanted us to understand that he was prosperous he was loaded he had found his place he had made it he had stared down his famine he had obeyed God when everything inside of him wanted to flee the famine and now God had made him very prosperous he found his place he felt at home this was where he was supposed to be where he belonged and the scripture says he became very prosperous so the Philistines envied him he was blessed and highly favored it doesn't appear as if he was having any problem dealing with the blessings of God upon his life he was properly dealing with the blessings of the Lord upon him but the Philistines weren't they were envious they were jealous they were mad Solomon says that jealousy is as cruel as the grave no doubt he thought that he'd arrived that he'd made it that he was where he was always going to be but often the blessings of the Lord arouses the humanists of those around us like termites coming out of the Woodworks they come out of their hiding to attack your motive and your purpose and your character and what you are about like David endured the taunts of shimmie i we will all have to put up with the ankle bites of lesser people it's going to happen what's the matter God's blessing me what's the matter I thought the blessings of God were upon me but the Philistines hated him and the scripture says that they stopped up all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father and had filled them with earth why in the name of common sense would anybody do anything so insane in a region where water doesn't flow in abundance you would think that we would leave the wells alone if for no other reason for selfish reasons but hear me jealousy and envy can't run so deep that someone would rather die from a lack of water that allows you the privilege to enjoy what you rightfully dug out with your own hands don't get bent out of shape God's hands still on you people aren't against you they're typically just for themselves God's hand is still upon you the scripture says that when Joseph's brothers showed up he said God you meant it for evil but God meant it for good I'm gonna tell you this preaches a lot better than it lives but who cares what anybody else means to you as long as God means it for good if God means it for good it's going to be okay if God leaves it for good it's gonna work out all right and Abimelech the leader of the Philistines said go away from us for you are much mightier than we there it is there it is at least Abimelech was honest enough to admit the truth most people aren't you got to leave me because you're mightier than me we often we often use cliches that that have some truth to it for example you may be one or you've seen somebody say say veins have you got to say it that way you can't say favor is it fair you have to say favor ain't fair you know you got a new car favor ain't fair got a new house favor ain't fair got a promotion favorite fair but what we are missing in that is that the favor of the Lord cuts both ways it brings the blessing of God but it also brings the bitterness of people it brings the reward of heaven but it also brings the revenge of earth it brings divine treasures but it also brings human trouble David it's also when the oil is flowing down your head you know you're anointed to be king but Saul didn't see it that way Joseph those dreams you had they were so awesome but your brothers didn't see it that way Mary can you imagine the privilege to be the one lady in all of human history to bear the Christ child but the stigma was that to the day she died there were people that looked at her and said yeah that's the lady yeah yeah she says she bore the Christ child but we really know what happened don't don't get bent out of shape over the negative side the negative side helps you not to get the big head over the blessings that God gives you and so Isaac departed like they asked him to he went from garage garage to the Valley of gara he didn't go far he just went outside of town and the scripture says Isaac dug the wells of water which they had died in the days of his father that they stopped up and he told them by the names that his daddy had called them Isaac returned to his old stomping grounds Isaac comes back to the land of his Nativity he strolls down memory lane as he explores the the region he caught home in his formative years he discovered that the Philistines had stopped up the wells that his daddy had done now the scripture doesn't detail the names of the wells that Abraham dug Abraham was known for building altars while necessary wells were secondary to Abraham he built altars and that God take care of the rest but but he he also needed some water as well the locations of his altars are detailed but not the wells but these wells were although they were stopped up they still represented the spiritual heritage of Isaac it may seem that Isaac simply was a placeholder between Abraham and Jacob but at least he held his place when push came to shove the guy who would run from anything planted his feet and shut back no matter how great hear me no matter how great your spiritual inheritance that has been handed to you it will never remain yours unless you fight for it how many children have discovered that the spiritual Wells of their daddy has been stopped up only to shrug their shoulders and walk by and say well that's too bad that's really a pity Isaac said not here and not now my dad created these wells from nothing and you are gravely mistaken if you think that I'm going to casually walk on by as if this is the way things should be he said as long as there is breath in my body I will do everything in my power to make sure that was what was handed down to me is handed down to my children after me I think I read it somewhere in the scripture like this it said for the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off even as many as the Lord our God jump off just tape it I didn't have it dad I didn't have a brand Paul that was in the ministry you have some kind of spiritual and heritage whether it is a spiritual father in your life or it is a biological father or grandfather that was also the spiritual father you have a spiritual inheritance when I lived in West Memphis at a younger age right out of high school I worked at a funeral home and one of the probably the most difficult funerals for me to work and to conduct was for a young man about my age he had been working on a sign in West Memphis and he had a piece of metal that he was attaching to like a billboard and had hit a live wire and it electrocuted him the reason that funeral was so difficult as that young man's grandfather had pastored the church in West Memphis before Bob McCool ever showed up but his father had been an Isaac but he did not read igg the wells it rocked my world not because just of his passing but I began to think about the mercies of God upon my life my mom and dad were just Isaac's they their names are never up in life they just serve God but I was so thankful and grateful for Isaac's who say I'm not the Abraham my daddy was the Abraham but I tell you what I'm gonna keep the wells unstopped I'm gonna make sure the water keeps flowing I'm gonna make sure that my kids get what grandpa dug out with his own hands and so Isaac service dug in the valley and they found a well of running water there that they dug and they found living water it was running it it was awesome it had been a long hard fight but they had a breakthrough they had fasted and prayed until they got what they were wanting they got the promotion they got the revival they had the breakthrough it was awesome and then the scripture says the herding of guru cord with Isaac's herdsmen saying the water is ours and so he named that well contingent I got blessed so much as the scriptures say prosperous prosperous prosperous like prosperous three times over I get kicked out of where I felt like I was comfortable now I dig a well and there's just continue I tell you what I'll go do I'll dig another well I mean that's what I could do James says for we're envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work but Isaac said I can dig another well and he dug another well and he over that one also same song second verse can't get better so it's got to get worse I mean it's crazy the second well and he named the first one contention he named the second one extreme hatred to dangerous places in Isaac's life when he was tempted to go to Egypt and when he dug a well that he named hatred oh I'm glad you didn't go to Egypt but I've met way too many Apostolic that didn't go to Egypt and they're very blessed the blessings of God are upon him but somehow you get near of them and hatred comes out it just comes out you wake up in the middle of night and you're thinking about what was done to you your prayer time is invaded by thoughts of what you wish God would do to that other person you're loving those Psalms that are called in preparatory Psalms those are the Psalms where David said something like may the fleece of a thousand camels infest your armpits I mean you're you're looking at thinking can that be in the Bible it gotta be I can pray like that and so you're struggling with it I've got a word for you tonight move away from the God did not keep you out of the world God did not bless you exceedingly to have you camp and hatred whatever you've got to do it may be the hardest struggle of your life but you keep going to God and saying God purify my heart you didn't bring me this far for me to be stuck right here I'm gonna move beyond the hatred I'm gonna move beyond the anger John said it this way if someone says I love God and hates his brother he is a liar for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen how can he love God whom he has not seen my world monday side-- my carnal side says God but have you seen some of those people that I've seen of course he has move away from the hatred whatever you've got to do what I love is the next verse says and he moved from there God doesn't want us to stop it hatred God's got other places for us to go and he moved from there if I have to do whatever I have to do I am going to move from move from hatred and he moved from hatred and said I'm gonna dig a well again after a while you know the definition of insanity doing the same thing over again expecting the same result this is the third time they've argued for two times but yet he digs again because he can't live without the water and this time he's waiting for the quarrels he's waiting for the fight he's waiting from the show up at the scripture says they did not quarrel over it and he called the name of that well Rios which means spaciousness and open room if you've been confined like he's been confined if everywhere you go somebody says you're not where you're supposed to be and then you find where you're supposed to be its openness it's open space look don't worry about it every one of us have keys in our pocket those keys are all broken in the right places you can put them at a whole lot of locks and they don't fit because it's not the key to that lock Isaac found the lodge that he was created for he was broken in all the right places and he said I I have found spaciousness I have a strategy something that happens to me often for whatever reason when I fly I hate the middle seat I think you can understand why nobody's ever called me tiny before and so I work overtime to make sure I get the outside seats on an airplane if for some reason I am in the middle seat between two people God is my witness almost every time it will be two men who make me look tiny and there on the right and there on the left slim jim is never on the right and the left never never and not only do they make me look tiny they don't know anything about personal space so they spread out I'm like I'm like the filling of an Oreo cookie I mean it's the air via never went off I would just find the exit door I think and take my chances it's crazy when I get out in the D in the terminal they said what are you doing your block Oh openness space space that's how Isaac must have felt he found where he was supposed to be he found his openness he found his space no watch this then God comes to him and says I am the God of your father do not fear for I am with you I will bless you and multiply your descendants for my servants Abraham's sake up and to this time he's just dug wells God doesn't even say I'm your father he says I'm your daddy's father hey hey don't go fear I'm your daddy's father he didn't come and say hey I am your father the very next verse says that Isaac built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord God didn't want it just to be the God of Abraham he wanted to be the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob I am convinced that this is where God becomes Isaac's God where he sees that there is a place for him and he builds an altar there the next verse says the king of Bimala quit just it which is a title like Pharaoh or Herod comes and says hey we have seen that the Lord is with you excuse me aren't you the same people who pushed us out of town aren't you the people who didn't want you we have seen that God is with you you are now the blessed of God hear me if you will follow this trajectory in your life when a man's ways please the Lord he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him Isaac moved away from hatred and he found an open place he built an altar in an open place he found a relationship with his neighbors in an open place and God became his God in that open place but that's not where God wants you to stop Isaac moved on to another place and they dug another will and they found water again and he named the well this time Sheba which means an oath so he almost back slid if God hadn't immersively come to him here to go into Egypt as well God blesses him like crazy and it's not really even his God yet he finds a well and he digs it and he calls it contention and he finds another one in its hatred and he moves beyond and he comes to the third one and it's an open space but the fourth one it's an oath they're individuals in this room tonight that God wants to enter into a covenant relationship with it's not just an open place it's an oath it was called Sheba the town became known as bear Sheba it was the place that Abraham and Isaac both made covenants with Abimelech it was the place that Isaac built an altar and if you turn further in Scripture you find that it was after Jacob the wayward grandson of Abraham the one whose name meant supplanter and he'll catcher and liar when he left there Sheba he found himself running from anything and everything and in the midst of that situation God shows up in a dream and the angels of God ascending and descending wouldn't you think you'd be descending in our Cindy it's ascending and descending something happened geographically at that location Abraham had built an altar there there were covenants made there Isaac made an altar there and God meant shake up there if we will rebuild the wells of our fathers those three boys on that second row won't be has bends in the future but this well that springs up within them it won't be contingent it won't be hatred it won't just be open places it'll be a nose it'll be a covenant with Almighty God that says what my grandfather dug out I'm gonna keep digging out as long as I'm alive stand all over this room to your feet and lift your hands right now to heaven come and talk to the Lord right now are there any whales that are stopped up in my life have I stopped that contingent have I stopped at hatred where wherever I stopped never have I have a toy but making a journey into Egypt God is calling us to repeat the wells of our fathers our spiritual fathers are our biological fathers God is calling us to move beyond contention and hatred and moving to a place of open spaces and in the oath and a covenant with God it's not about the conflict it's about God working out and ask some things that need to be worked out well he never built an altar until he went past hatred he never built an altar until he went past contention from the front row to the back row is there anybody in here that has a desire in your heart I want to come and for a few moments of time I want to read igg some wells I want to make sure the wells are we dug I want to make sure the waters flowing in my life I want to make sure that in the midst of everything that's going on in this world that the one thing I could hold to is that the wells of water are spring up in my life whether it's riots or kovat or whatever's going on I can always rest and rely upon that relationship that I had with God thank you Lord for Wells of Our Fathers we don't want them to be stopped up we don't want them to be in disrepair we don't want them to be non-functional God allow us to dig out some wells allow us to dig out some wells of conviction some Wells a prayer some wells of holiness some wells of evangelism some wells of passion and worship and praise God were reading some wells in this room tonight we're reading some wells that were handed to us by our fathers thank you for those wells god we don't ever want to take them for granted we don't ever want to look at them lightly but we want to value those wells we want to value those things that were taught to us and we want to dig out those wells we want to dig out those wells and let the waters flow for us and for our children and for our grandchildren