Please turn with me in your Bibles this evening to Genesis chapter 21, verses 22-34, which I believe in the Pew Bible can be found on page 20. Genesis chapter 1, excuse me, chapter 21, Genesis chapter 21, verses 22-34. And give your attention now to the reading of God's holy word. At that time, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, or with my descendants, or with my posterity. But as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned. And Abraham said, I will swear. When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech's servants had seized, Abimelech said, I do not know who has done this thing. You did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today. So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant. Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart, and Abimelech said to Abraham, What is the meaning of these seven new lambs that you have set apart? He said, These seven new lambs you will take from my hand, that this may be a witness for me that I dug this well. Therefore that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath. So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines. So far the reading of God's word. Where is home for you? My grandpa was born in Utah in the 1920s. And even though he spent most of his adult life and later years of his life in the Midwest, back in Missouri and in Indiana, where I'm from, he always longed to get back to the American West. We had family that moved to Colorado, had a nice cabin way up in the mountains, the Colorado Rockies. And so my grandma and grandpa would take annual trips out to the Rockies, to the mountains, close to the place of his birth. He looked forward to these trips all year long. This is where he wanted to be. And on one of these trips, I was privileged enough to accompany him. And as we were getting closer to the Rocky Mountains, he said to me, Colin, you can take the boy out of the mountains, but you cannot take the mountains out of the boy. This is where he wanted to be. He had come from the mountains. He wanted to go back to the mountains. It's where he felt at rest. It's where he felt like he was home. Well, where's home for you? Maybe it's a place that you have attained. Maybe it's the home that you live in now. Maybe it's a vacation home of some sort. Or maybe it's a dream home. It's something that you hope to attain to at some point in your life. And it's out there somewhere in the future for you, hopefully. A place that your soul longs to be. In our passage tonight, Abraham is also looking forward to being home. Here in what we might call a slice-of-life episode in the life of Abraham, the patriarch is given a taste of the home that God has promised him. And in tasting it, just this first taste of home, he also whets our appetites for home as well. So this evening we're going to see that God calls us to live now in light of our future home that he has promised to us. There's a lot of things in life that can distract us from that calling to be aware and and cognizant of our future home that God has promised. There's a lot that can distract us from that. So how do we do it? How can we live knowing that God has promised us a future home? Well, we'll take a look at that in two particular ways this evening. There's a recognition and there's a remembering. First We ought to recognize that God has already provided you a home. God has already provided you a home. We find Abraham here in what we might call the prime of his life. God called Abraham to leave his home in Genesis 12. Out of Ur of the Chaldees, Abraham obeyed and God has prospered him. He's a man of great wealth. He has lots of cattle. He has lots of money. He seems to have a sizable army at his beck and call. We see that in Genesis chapter 14 when several hundred men rally with him. In addition to this, God has told Abraham that he's going to be the father of many nations. He'll have a large family. And this will happen even in his old age. And this part of the promise of God has already begun to come to fruition in this very same chapter, in the earlier half of the chapter that we're focusing on this evening. The son of that promise, Isaac, has been born. And all of these things, all these details that we've just rehearsed about the prosperity of Abraham explains why Abimelech says what he does in verse 22. God is with you in all that you do. It is evident even to this pagan king that there is a God who has looked favorably upon Abraham. Now according to Genesis chapter 20, the chapter that comes right before our chapter tonight, we find that Abimelech is the king of this region called Gerar. Probably a tribal king of some sort. And it is in this region that Abraham tells King Abimelech that Sarah is only his sister, not his wife. Abimelech takes Sarah into his household where, in just a matter of time, she will become a concubine of his. But before this happens, you may remember, God intervenes through a dream. He gives Abimelech a dream and tells him the truth. And Abimelech responds rightly. He pleads his innocence before God. He returns Sarah to Abraham. He gives him sheep and oxen. And he lifts his hands and offers him any part of his realm to settle in, to sojourn in. That's in chapter 20, verses 14 and 15. So Abraham is allowed to live in the land. He's allowed to graze and sojourn. But nevertheless, Abraham is still in someone else's land. It's someone else's region. He doesn't have a fully settled home yet. Here in chapter 21, verse 22, the king and his military commander have approached Abraham to make a covenant with him. He asks Abraham in verse 23 to swear that he will not deal falsely with him or with his family or his descendants. And this is his way of pointing back to the falsehood that Abraham told him about Sarah. And he's saying, don't do anything like that again. You almost ruined my life and my kingdom. And you almost ruined things badly for my family. So if you're going to live here, don't do anything like that again. Don't be false to me. Abraham does say that he'll swear. But you'll notice that Abraham places a condition on this covenant before he's willing to swear. Verse 25, it says that Abraham reproved the king about a well that Abimelech's servants had seized from him. This word, reprove, here, it comes to us in a form that implies that Abraham is actually pelting the king with complaints. He's not bringing this up in a polite way. He's berating the king. letting the king have it about this episode where some of the king's servants took a well from Abraham. He's not happy about this. So by bringing this up, we come to see that what begins with Abimelech proposing a rather general agreement now includes a well of water and consequently the land in which that well lies. And what follows are the normal components of an ancient covenant. There's an exchange of some gifts. Here that's the sheep and the oxen, perhaps for a covenant sacrifice or covenant meal. And oaths that are taken. This is in verses 26 and 27. However, in verse 28, Abraham does something unexpected. He sets seven ewe lambs aside in addition to this gift. Abimelech's acceptance of these lambs, these extra lambs, is like him signing his name on the contract, saying, indeed, this well, for all intents and purposes, belongs to Abraham. Now, why is all this important? We've just gone into a lot of nitty-gritty details about this agreement that's taken place. Why is this important? Well, because God has made promises to Abraham, including the promise of this land. And so when we're dealing with agreements and covenants and swearing and oaths that have something to do with the land, we have to remember the important fact that God has already made promises on the same subject. God has said that he will be God of Abraham and to his descendants after him. And this will not be fulfilled in some abstract way, just in the air somewhere. God will fulfill this with a particular group of people, and he will give him a real place to live. Well, now Isaac's birth is the beginning of this group of people, But this real place to live in, this home, remains to be seen. Abraham and company are still wanderers in other men's lands. So we see that there are actually two covenants in operation here in Genesis chapter 21. One is this immediate agreement between Abimelech and Abraham. And the other is in the background. God's covenant promise to give Abraham a home. Remember that covenants are legally binding contracts. Kids, if your parents say something to you like, if you clean your room, then you can play with your friends, that's an agreement. You've entered into an agreement with your parents. Maybe it's not very formal. Maybe there's not paperwork involved, although that's not a bad idea, I think. That's something like an agreement. And if you enter into that agreement with your parents, kids, you have to do it. You can't go play with your friends if you don't clean your room. That's your side of the agreement. That's kind of like this covenant here between Abimelech and Abraham. They have to do their part. They've sworn an oath. They've made a covenant. And they are bound to that covenant. we have to ask, of these two covenants, the one Abimelech has made with Abraham and the one that God has made with Abraham, which one of them turns out to be truly binding? Well, in just a few chapters, we find out. In Genesis 26, verses 17 through 20, Abraham's son Isaac, he's grown up, He has sojourned in other lands, and he's returned to this very land of Gerar, this very spot. And it says there in Genesis 26, verse 18, Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And again in verse 20 of that same chapter, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, the water is ours. In other words, in less than one generation, from Abraham to his son Isaac, one generation, this covenant had completely fallen apart. Notice then the difference between this and God's covenant with Abraham. As expressed in Genesis 17, verses 7-8, God says, I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings. Abraham secures some land from Abimelech here, that's true, but it is short-lived. And here's the key, Abraham knew it would be. Abraham knew it would be. How do we know this? Paul tells us this in Romans chapter 4, this amazing chapter about Abraham, the man of faith. And Paul says that the promise to Abraham and his offspring was that he, Abraham, would be heir of the world. That's his inheritance. The world. The land of Canaan was for him just a down payment. It was a shadow at best. The reality is that the home God promised to Abraham and to his descendants after him was nothing less than a new heavens and a new earth. Loved ones in Christ, you are the descendants of Abraham by faith in Jesus Christ. This promise is for you. You are heirs of the world through faith. In John chapter 14, Jesus tells his disciples on the night before his death some reasons why he is leaving. They're so perplexed as to why he could be saying something like this. And he says that the reason why he's leaving is to go and prepare a place for them. John 14, verse 3. And he describes in this same chapter, later in verse 23, he says, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love Him and we will come to Him and make our home with Him. In other words, Jesus, the Son of God, is telling His disciples that all those who love Him will live in the fellowship of God. That will be their home. And that is a promise that is not made through the exchange of sheep and goats. It is not on the basis of a faulty oath that may or may not stick. It is a promise that is made and sealed by the blood of the new covenant. This means it cannot be broken. And it will not be broken. Brothers and sisters, the death of Jesus Christ has washed away your sins in order that you might dwell with the living God. That is the end goal of your sins being washed away and you being given the righteousness of Jesus Christ is so that you may be fitted to live with God Almighty for all eternity. This is the home that God has promised to us. And by faith, we recognize that He has already promised it and provided it to us. You have gathered together as the Lord's people on the Lord's day. This is the most intense and wonderful expression of the home that God has already provided for us. This is where we taste it best. The Lord has provided you a home. That's a recognition that we have to have in order to live faithfully in light of these future promises. But secondly, we have to remember something. Remember that you are a worshiper. Remember that you are a worshiper. There are a couple of ways that we can talk about this reality from our passage. On one hand, we are to live all of our lives through faith. and in this way, offer our lives as worship, every part of our lives. But on the other hand, we also pause our normal life to worship more formally. We can see these things here. Verse 31 of our passage we read, Therefore that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath. You can probably see this in a footnote in your Bible. Beersheba just means the well of the oak. This is the place where this all took place. And it's here that Abraham plants a tamarisk tree. This is a tree that can reach up to 30 feet high. It's useful for shade in a hot and dry climate like this one. And this act is Abraham's way of acknowledging that God has indeed given him a taste of what he's promised. this temporary settlement and a period of rest. Planting a tree by this well that they were disputing about, Abraham is depicted the way that later Scriptures describe the blessed man. The man who delights in God's Word. Psalm 1, the man who is planted by streams of water and that bears fruit in its season. we see here Abraham bearing the fruit of his faith by planting this tree. He is a man who believes God's word, and so he is a blessed man. Well, what does this blessed man do? Looking at verse 33 in your Bibles, it says that Abraham called on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. Now, if you've been reading up to this point in Genesis, you'll recognize that we have seen Abraham call on God's name already. Genesis chapter 12 and 13. However, this is the first time that he appeals to God as the everlasting God. In particular, why is that? Because God is revealing to him that he is, as he revealed himself, In his covenant, I read from Genesis chapter 17 earlier, and God told him that the covenant he was making with him was an everlasting covenant. And Abraham now, in all these dealings with Abimelech and this well and the land that accompanies it, he recognizes that this everlasting covenant was true and has revealed the character of the God who made the covenant in the first place. He is the everlasting God. He is enduring and trustworthy when he makes promises. All of this is in the context of what must have felt like to Abraham a life-threatening obstacle. What good is a land if you don't have water to survive in that land? What good is the son of a promise if, in not that long, because of lack of water, that son of the promise is dead? What good are these promises of God if this well, this spring of life for Abraham and his family, has been taken away from him? The text says that some of Abimelech's servants had seized this well from Abraham. And this word is used elsewhere in the Old Testament to describe a robbery. We see this, for instance, in Judges 9. We read that the leaders of the city of Shechem hid men in the pathways of the mountains to rob them as passers-by went through. It's the same word that we're finding here. If you're reading from the King James Version tonight, this helps us when it says that the well was violently taken away from Abraham. And now it has been restored. And at the end of all this drama and danger, what does Abraham do? He worships. He calls on the name of God. He lifts his thanksgiving to God. Look at Abraham in our passage. That's something we can't say about Abraham very often in Genesis, to look at him as an exemplary man. He's doing one faithless thing after another, and yet we see him here growing in his faith, demonstrating that he knows that his true home, the one that has been promised to him, is yet to come. It is future-oriented in the ultimate sense. We've already mentioned the usefulness of this tamarisk tree that he's planted, but notice he has just planted it. As far as I know, plants, trees, take a long time to grow, meaning he can't experience the immediate benefits of this tree that he's planted. He's looking ahead. He's looking to the future. Abraham's act here is a future-oriented act. By planting this tree, he's acknowledging that God will fulfill his promises. Maybe not in his lifetime, but one day. And that leads Abraham to bless God, to offer him praise and thanksgiving. What else do we see Abraham doing in this passage? He knows that this is a future-oriented home. Is he then rejecting this world and his responsibilities in it? We actually see the exact opposite. Abraham is living into his responsibilities in this world. Abraham doesn't dismiss Abimelech because Abimelech is not a believer in the God of Abraham. instead he respects his jurisdiction over this land and he works it out with him abraham has flocks and cattle he has a family a very important family to tend to and so he makes a deal and he lives and it is because he knows that this life is not the only life that there is that he can engage faithfully while he remains here But he does so as a worshiper. Because worship reminds him of his true citizenship. Worship reminds him that his residency is not ultimately in this place where he has planted this tree, where he is getting his water. It is not here. It is in a world to come. It is in the place that Jesus has gone to prepare for all of us. Brothers and sisters, you have a life that's filled with all kinds of responsibilities. You live in a world that is opposed to God. You have a job. You're studying. You're raising children. Even if you're retired, your days are still filled with decisions, relationships, responsibilities. Some of you have retired only to realize that your life is busier now than it was when you were working. That life, whatever it may be, is acceptable to God through faith. And as we offer it to God in worship, live it faithfully for His sake. It is because your true home is yet to come. It's for that very reason, not in spite of it, but because your true home is in the future and yet to come that you can deal faithfully in this world right now. I grew up in a town on the banks of the Ohio River in Indiana. And there's a man there who is a local legend. He's since died. His name was Harland Hubbard. Harland Hubbard. And in 1950, Harlan and his wife, Anne, built a tiny shanty boat, a little houseboat that they built with driftwood on the banks of the Ohio River. And they rode it from Brent, Kentucky, almost 1,500 miles all the way down to New Orleans. And this lifestyle that they lived while they were on this boat, living on minimal resources, living off the land and the river, It brought them back to the shores of the Ohio River, back to Indiana, to a little place called Payne Hollow. And there they settled and built a small shack, and they lived there for 34 years, rarely going into town, living simply off the resources of the land and the river. It's kind of romantic, if you ask me. And they came to cherish this little home on the fringe of society. But the constant threat of that life being taken away from them was always very stressful to Harlan. Listen to this from his memoir. Harlan says, If some devastating change should come to Payne Hollow, a highway, an industrial plant, the government, or bad neighbors, there is always the river, beckoning us downstream to some out-of-the-way bend where nothing would bother us. Perhaps you share this same problem. Either you, like Harlan and his wife Anna, have attained the life that you're looking for. You feel like you have arrived at your home, and you're afraid that you could lose it. Or perhaps you have that dream life that you're trying to attain and you're afraid that you'll never get there. Both of these things are longings for home that we have twisted in ways that do not honor God. But they are longings for home, nevertheless. Brothers and sisters, we are the offspring of Abraham by faith. And like him, your life with all of its ups and downs, all of its relationships and responsibilities. It is pleasing to God as you are a pilgrim and a sojourner in this life. You are free to live it faithfully. But it is not your final home. This is so hard for us to remember. It is not your final home. That home is still to come. And the antidote to these longings turning into something of an idol for us, the antidote to that is worship. calling upon the name of the everlasting God, where we remember the faithfulness of the Lord. We remember our true citizenship and residency. We recall the promises that He has made to us to make His home with us, a promise that He has secured through the death and resurrection of His beloved Son. And by faith, brothers and sisters, know that He is preparing that final home for you. Amen. Let us pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we give you thanks and praise that you have indeed promised us a home with you, the everlasting God. Our hearts are so looking forward to that day when your Son returns in all of his glory to set up his kingdom in its fullness, to be done with all of your and our enemies, including our own sinfulness, so that our souls and our hearts may finally find true repose in the kingdom of God. We thank you for these precious promises that you have sealed, not with the blood of goats and sheep and oxen, but with the blood of your beloved Son. And we pray that these promises of a future home would orient our lives to live faithfully day by day, whatever comes our way, prosperity or suffering, trials and temptations. Help us to live faithfully as the people of God on a journey to the city of God. We pray and ask all these things for Jesus' sake. Amen.