Today's Sermon Notes

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Struggle & Sustenance | Pastor Dodjiel Hechanova | February 16, 2025

Genesis 26:12-33

12 And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him, 

13 and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. 

14 He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him. 

15 (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) 

16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.” 

17 So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. 

18 And 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 he gave them the names that his father had given them. 

19 But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, 

20 the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. 

21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah. 

22 And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” 

23 From there he went up to Beersheba. 

24 And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.” 

25 So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well. 

26 When Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army, 

27 Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?” 

28 They said, “We see plainly that the Lord has been with you. So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, 

29 that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.” 

30 So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 

31 In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths. And Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. 

32 That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.” 

33 He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day. 


  1. The Promises of God are not conditional on optimal economic conditions.
  2. Where there is wealth— there is often envy.
  3. It's one thing to have much— it's another thing to sustain it.


Psalm 37:25

25 I have been young, and now am old,

yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken

or his children begging for bread.

  1. Wells are a symbol of Spiritual Sustenance.
  2. Every Patriarch had their "Well Moment."
  3. The Source of True Sustenance is Jesus.



John 4:13-14

13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,

14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

  1. Digging is a reflection of our trust in God.
  2. Grace does not mean you don't ever have to exert effort ever again.
  3. Trust is not void of work.


Luke 12:41-48

41 Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” 

42 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? 

43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 

44 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 

45 But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 

46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. 

47 And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 

48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.