Episodes
![THE FAITH OF JOSEPH (Genesis 39:1 to 40:23)](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog341843/Clouds_300x300.jpeg)
5 days ago
5 days ago
THE FAITH OF JOSEPH (Genesis 39:1 to 40:23)
In today’s message we will discover that Joseph is a very different person than his brothers were. The single biggest difference in Joseph’s life is that he is a man of faith. Joseph distinguishes himself as something in the world, but different from the world. When people see him, they notice something different about him, and they are drawn to him. People are not drawn to failure, or to those who are walking around with despair hanging like a cloud above them. To be an effective witness for God you have to have something that people want; they see your ability to handle trials in your life, your calmness in a storm, and your faith in the promises of God. They see something that they do not have, they see something different in you.
Joseph had every reason to just give up in despair; to simply hide in a corner and weep. Joseph was sold into slavery because of the hatred and animosity of his brothers. And to be a slave in a foreign country is a life that is described as a slow death. It was certainly a bleak prospect for a seventeen–year–old boy. Joseph would have had to look hard to find anything to bring encouragement to his heart.
There is no person in the Old Testament in whose life the purpose of God is more clearly seen than Joseph. The providence of God is manifest in every detail of his life. The hand of God is upon him and the leading of the Lord is evident.
The question of why God allows trials in our lives, is one of the hardest lessons we face as believers, but it is also the thing that strengthens our faith in the power, and protection, of an almighty God that loves us and is gracious to us.
Click on the play button below to hear a message on how each step of Joseph’s life prepared him for the role that God had for him. If we are the children of God, in the will of God, then we can have the assurance of God, that nothing comes to us without His permission.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
![JOSEPH THE BELOVED SON (Genesis 35:16 to 37:17)](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog341843/Cloudslogo_300x300.jpeg)
Sunday Jun 23, 2024
JOSEPH THE BELOVED SON (Genesis 35:16 to 37:17)
Sunday Jun 23, 2024
Sunday Jun 23, 2024
JOSEPH, THE BELOVED SON (Genesis 35:16 to 37:17)
One quarter of the book of Genesis is devoted to Joseph. God describes the creation of the universe in just five words when He said “He made the stars also;” but He uses chapter after chapter to tell the story of a man that is not even in the direct lineage of Christ. Actually, more chapters are devoted to Joseph than to Abraham, or to Isaac, or to anyone else. More chapters are devoted to Joseph than to the whole first 2,000 year period of man’s existence from Genesis chapters 1–11. This should cause the thoughtful student to pause and ask why Joseph should be given such prominence in Scripture.
There are probably several reasons. One is that the life of Joseph is a good and honorable life. God wants us to have whatever is good, virtuous, and great, before us, and Joseph’s life is just that. The second reason is that Joseph was a true man of faith. Joseph was a prince among a world of men. The faith of Joseph was an undying faith. Joseph’s faith was a faith that believed despite adverse circumstances. The interesting thing about Joseph is that he had faith in the dream which was given to him, faith while in the pit into which he was placed, faith all the while he was in Egypt, and faith was what buoyed him up through all the problems in his life. Joseph believed that God was going to give the Promised Land to his family. Joseph believed in the impossible: that God would move his people back to the land promised to Abraham. Therefore, he commanded that his bones be taken back when the nation of his family returned to the land. And when the children of Israel left Egypt, they took up his bones and buried them at Shechem in the Samaritan country.
There is a third reason that God would spend this much time on Joseph, and it is a great one. There is no one in Scripture who is more like Christ in his person and experiences than Joseph. Yet, nowhere in the New Testament is Joseph given to us as a type of Christ. However, the parallel cannot be accidental.
Click on the play button attached to this message to hear a message on one of the most famous men in the Bible, Joseph, and listen to how Christ is revealed to us in this man’s life.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
![LEARNING TO LEAN ON JESUS (Genesis 32:1-28)](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog341843/Cloudslogo_300x300.jpeg)
Sunday May 26, 2024
LEARNING TO LEAN ON JESUS (Genesis 32:1-28)
Sunday May 26, 2024
Sunday May 26, 2024
LEARNING TO LEAN ON JESUS (Genesis 32:1-28)
The title of the message today is “Learning to lean on Jesus.” Now, in order to learn how to lean on Jesus, there is a battle that each of us will face, and it is a battle that I hope you are going to lose. It is that battle that we will be talking about today.
We have been studying about the man Jacob and how God loved him. Why did God love Jacob? It is for the same reason that He loves you. God did not love Jacob for what he was, but for what He knew He could make out of him. For, in spite of all of his faults, Jacob had a heart for God. The question that you need to ask yourself today is, do you have a heart for God?
Secondly, I want you to notice that God did not change Jacob so that He could love him; He loved Jacob in order to change him. And I’m so glad that God loves us today. With all of our weaknesses and with all of our faults, God sees something in us that He wants to make out of us. And so, He just loves us, and He keeps working with us. Thank God for His infinite, marvelous patience.
God wants us to come to a place of total, absolute, dependence upon Him. Most of us have never come to that place. Most of us still have enough Jacob in us to say, “Well, we hope He’ll bless us, but if He doesn’t, we’ll figure out a way. We’ll figure out a way somehow.”
God had to bring Jacob to a point where he was leaning on Jesus instead of his on self-confidence. It is the place that God wants to bring every one of us to. Paul said we are those who “have no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:3)
Do you know what most people want to learn? Self-confidence. You go into any bookstore, and there will be a wall of books on self-confidence. Having self-confidence sounds so good that to speak against self-confidence sounds terrible. But, the Bible tells us that the one thing we don’t need, is self-confidence. Ok, when you hear me say that, right away your mind threw up a wall and you said, “Oh, yes, we do”—“yes, we do.” Everybody wants that self-confidence. We’ve been taught everywhere that we have got to have self-confidence.
Yet, Paul tells us that, “[We] have no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:3) We have no confidence in self. Now, understand that I am not saying you should not have confidence, but, if you are going to have confidence, then you just have it in Jesus, have confidence in the Lord. That doesn’t mean that you are going to go around like a doormat. You go around like a real person. If your confidence is in Jesus, then you will really have confidence. Jesus is someone you can have real confidence in. Jesus is someone that you can truly lean on.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how God is battling with you to learn how to lean on Jesus. I hope you lose this most important battle with the Lord. This is a battle you cannot afford to win. And when God the Holy Spirit is striving with you today, why don’t you just throw in the towel and say, “Lord, I’ll not let you go except you bless me,” and no longer be dependent upon the flesh.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
![GOD TEACHES JACOB TO DEPEND ON HIM (Genesis 31:19 to 32:18)](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog341843/Cloudslogo_300x300.jpeg)
Monday May 20, 2024
GOD TEACHES JACOB TO DEPEND ON HIM (Genesis 31:19 to 32:18)
Monday May 20, 2024
Monday May 20, 2024
GOD TEACHES JACOB TO DEPEND ON HIM (Genesis 31:19 to 32:18)
In our message today we will talk about God teaching Jacob that he must depend on God to lead him and solve the problems that Jacob will face. Jacob’s whole life had been about conniving and deceiving others to solve his problems. But that is not where God needs Jacob to be in his spiritual relationship with God. Jacob must be dependent on God.
Jacob was a man who was clever, who thought that he could get by with sin, but God didn’t let him get by with it because God has made it very clear that whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. Jacob had refused submission to God at home; so he was forced to submit to his uncle. Jacob came to receive a wife in dignity, but he was made a servant because God respects the rights of the firstborn. Jacob had deceived his father; so he was deceived by his father–in–law. He revealed a mercenary spirit that displayed itself in the way he got the birthright, allowing his mother to cover his hands with the skins of goats. Later on, we will see that his own sons will deceive him in very much the same way.
Jacob deceived his father about being the favorite son, and he will be deceived about his favorite son, Joseph. In all of this, we see that God’s truth is that whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how God wants us to depend on Him rather than on our own efforts. Many of us take our burdens to the Lord in prayer. We just spread them out before Him. Then, when we get through praying, we get right up and put each little burden right back on our back and start out again with them. What does this say about the trust we have in the Lord? It says that we don’t really believe Him. We don’t really trust Him as we should.
Jacob will struggle with this almost until the day he dies. I pray that the study of Jacob will bring this truth home to your heart, and it will make a difference in how you trust God. It is not easy, as Jacob illustrates, but the reward of a life that is fully trusted to God, is a life that is a testimony to the lost souls of this world. A testimony to the power of God to transform, a finite life here on earth, to an everlasting life with Him.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
![JACOB'S LADDER PART II (Genesis 28:10-22)](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog341843/Cloudslogo_300x300.jpeg)
Monday Apr 29, 2024
JACOB'S LADDER PART II (Genesis 28:10-22)
Monday Apr 29, 2024
Monday Apr 29, 2024
Here in this story about Jacob’ dream about a ladder to heaven, we see God’s provision of salvation, we see a picture of the sinner, a picture of the Savior, and a picture of salvation.
Jacob pictures the unconverted man. He is the picture of a sinner. Incidentally, I believe this is where Jacob got saved. I believe that up until this time Jacob had known about God, but he had not known God. His father was a godly man; his grandfather was a godly man, but Jacob was not a godly man. He was religious, but he was lost. Jacob pictures every unsaved sinner surrounded in darkness, surrounded by desert, and sentenced to death. Jacob is sentenced with death, a poor, lonely old boy, without God, without hope, out there in the wilderness.
In this dream Jacob saw a ladder. The bottom of it was on the earth, and that ladder went up all the way to glory, and God the Father was at the top of that ladder. Jacob saw angels coming down, and he saw angels going up. That ladder is a picture of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus is the One upon which the angels ascend and descend. He is the link between heaven and earth. Jesus Christ is the One who connects heaven and earth. He is that ladder that reaches into glory. There is the reach of the ladder: it goes all the way to heaven. There is the reliability of the ladder: God is over it. There are the resources of the ladder: God’s promises, God’s protection, and God’s presence, are all wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then, we see this ladder as a picture of salvation. Before this night, Jacob was separated from God. Jacob was in a place of separation, and then he saw the ladder, the staircase to heaven! He understood some spiritual truth. He understood that God had made a way for him, and that the blessings of God were to be mediated to him. And he’s now aware of God for the first time in his life. That howling desert, that wilderness, that hard place, has now become for him the very house of God. And what a blessing, what a transformation, it was in his own heart and in his own life!
Click on this link to hear a message on how Jacob’s dream is a picture of the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
![A FAMILY OF LIES AND LIARS (Genesis 27:1-46)](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog341843/Cloudslogo_300x300.jpeg)
Sunday Apr 14, 2024
A FAMILY OF LIES AND LIARS (Genesis 27:1-46)
Sunday Apr 14, 2024
Sunday Apr 14, 2024
Today’s message is about the family of Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob. From the birth of these two children, neither the parents, nor the children were obedient to God’s will. Each member of this family knew of God’s proclamation that Jacob was to be the one that the covenant blessing was to be passed to, and each person set about either attempting to by-pass this proclamation, or to obtain it through lies and deceit. Each member of this family was controlled by the carnal nature that existed within them and which demanded that they solve their problems under their own strength and limited wisdom. As a result, each of these people suffered the consequences of their decision to be disobedient to God.
Chapter 27 is a sad chapter, because everyone in it is doing the wrong thing, especially Isaac. As the head of the family, Isaac was a spiritually weak man, controlled by his carnal desires. He was a liar, and he was disobedient to God. His family followed his lead, they were a Family of Lies and Liars. This chapter has as its theme, Jacob and Rebekah conniving to get the blessing of Isaac for Jacob, which Isaac had every intention of giving to Esau, in spite of God’s revealed will.
Jacob wanted the blessing of his father. He knew that God had promised his mother that the elder would serve the younger, so the blessing was already his. All he had to do was wait on God. However, he did not trust God to handle this. Rebekah, certainly did not trust God. And evidently Isaac didn’t trust God either, or he would never have attempted to bypass Jacob and give the blessing to Esau. He followed his own feelings and appetite in contradiction to the distinct Word of God.
Now, something I want to make very clear, the method Jacob used in obtaining the birthright cannot be supported on any grounds whatsoever. He used fraud and deceit. His conduct was absolutely despicable. God did not condone this any more than He condoned the conduct of Sarah and Abraham in the matter of Hagar and Ishmael. Do not say that God gave this blessing to Jacob because of what he did, for God could not, and would not, use the trickery and cleverness of Jacob. Jacob received this blessing is spite of his actions, because God had covenanted to do so.
As we shall see over the next few weeks, God deals with Jacob in a very definite way for his actions. Jacob had to pay for his sin in the same manner in which he sinned. Jacob was deceived and lied to by an even greater liar than he was. He met Laban, who was the dean of the college of liars.
Click on the link below to hear a message on what happens when a follower of Christ fails to trust God to do what He says He will do.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
![ISAAC'S STRUGGLE WITH FAITH (Genesis 26:1-35)](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog341843/Cloudslogo_300x300.jpeg)
Sunday Apr 07, 2024
ISAAC'S STRUGGLE WITH FAITH (Genesis 26:1-35)
Sunday Apr 07, 2024
Sunday Apr 07, 2024
Genesis, chapter 26, is the only chapter in the Bible devoted solely to Isaac. In this chapter we get a look at the actions of Isaac, and we see that he will repeat many of the same sins that Abraham did. Isaac was not a spiritually strong man. He was a man easily molded by the circumstances around him. He was willing to let them bend and shape him rather than seizing them and shaping them to his will. He was a man who had reached his spiritual peak on Mount Moriah, and then he spent the rest of his days stumbling and somehow kept going for God.
So, what is the lesson that we can find in this chapter? Well, one of them is patience. Patience to wait on God to work things out as He has promised. This is a message that many of us need, including myself. The second part of the message from this chapter, that goes along with the patience to wait on God, is to trust God to fulfill all of His promises to us. Both of these lessons go hand-in-hand. In order to be patient to wait on God, we have to trust that God will do what He has promised he will do. Isaac, and actually his whole family, were neither patient, nor did they trust God to do as He promised.
Isaac’s problem isn’t that he is dishonest, although he is. His problem is that he is not willing to rely on God. It is this lack of trust in the Almighty God that leads Isaac, and all of us, to take matters into our own hands to resolve. It is this lack of trust in God that leads us into a good share of the problems we face. It is this lack of trust in God that leads to many of the heartaches and pain that we encounter in this life.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how a lack of trust in God, takes us away from Him, and leads us into the world; away from our new nature, and toward our carnal nature; and away from performing God’s will, to performing the will of Satan. It is also about a loving and merciful God that will bless us in spite of our failings. None of us deserve the blessings that we receive from God. Yet, we receive them. None of us deserve salvation, yet God has provided it for us.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
![THE WORK OF THE SERVANT](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog341843/Cloudslogo_300x300.jpeg)
Sunday Mar 03, 2024
THE WORK OF THE SERVANT
Sunday Mar 03, 2024
Sunday Mar 03, 2024
In our message today, we are going to cover the details of Abraham’s servant returning to Abraham’s people to find a bride for Isaac. Chapter 24 is the longest chapter in the Book of Genesis, and every detail of this beautiful love story, speaks of Christ and His bride, the Church. This should not be surprising because Paul tells us in Ephesians that marriage is intended to mirror the relationship of Christ and the Church.
We will see Rebekah, a type, or a picture, of the church as the bride of Isaac, being brought into the very tent of Sarah. The whole chapter, while interesting and full of local tradition and culture of the time, is at the same time a full-length study of the way in which the Father’s beloved Son obtained His bride, the church.
Woven into the fabric of this beautiful human story are the threads of an even greater story. We see the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world with a great mission to win and woo the hearts of the lost to the heart of the Beloved Son of God. Only rarely does He speak of Himself. His great mission is to praise the Son and to tell of the love of the Father and His grace and mercy. His great task is to seek out those that will become the Bride of Christ.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how the Holy Spirit takes advantage of life’s ordinary circumstances using them to accomplish His task. He never forces, never violates the human will, never overwhelms, never uses weird and uncanny means to conquer the soul. Ordinary things happen; a visit here, a chance meeting there, an unexpected conversation, a book passed by a friend—and all the time the Holy Spirit is at work. Until, at last, the gospel is presented, and the hour of decision comes. It was the servant’s way with Rebekah; it is the Spirit’s way with a lost soul.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
![THE FAITH THAT CANNOT BE TESTED, CANNOT BE TRUSTED (Genesis 22:1-18)](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog341843/Cloudslogo_300x300.jpeg)
Sunday Feb 25, 2024
THE FAITH THAT CANNOT BE TESTED, CANNOT BE TRUSTED (Genesis 22:1-18)
Sunday Feb 25, 2024
Sunday Feb 25, 2024
In today’s message, I want to talk to you about your faith. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 16:13 to be strong in faith. I want us to think about our faith, and I want us to look at our faith. I want us to examine our faith. I want us to test our faith, because, you see, the faith that cannot be tested, cannot be trusted.
How do you know that your faith is real and strong? Well, would you like to fly on an airplane that had never been tested? Would you like for it to be built, but never once put to any test? Would you want to get on it and commit your life to that airplane, and it had never been tested? I don’t think so, right? Would you like for a doctor to do surgery on you who went through medical school without a test? He just got a diploma as a participation trophy?
Do you want to put your faith, and your confidence, in something that hasn’t been tested? Again, the faith that cannot be tested, cannot be trusted.
If you were to measure faith, how would you measure it? Well, you could measure it with the dimensions of faith. You could measure it by its depth. You could measure it by its height. You could measure it by its length. Or you could measure it by its wideness. And that is exactly how we are going to measure faith today. We are going to study how God tells us in His Word how Abraham’s faith was measured. He is going to tell us how it was qualified.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how our faith is measured by the depth of its devotion, the height of its sacrifice, the length of its obedience, and the wideness of confidence.
Let me ask that the next time you pray to your Heavenly Father, pray these words, “Lord, increase my faith. And, Lord, when the test comes, when you ask of me something—to go somewhere, to give something, to sacrifice something—Lord, help me to obey. May my obedience be quick, intentional, instantaneous, impassioned, intelligent.” You don’t have to think up things to sacrifice. You just have to say, “Lord, all that I am, all that I have, belongs to you.”
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
![THE BIRTH OF ISAAC (Genesis 20:1 to 21:34)](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog341843/Cloudslogo_300x300.jpeg)
Monday Feb 12, 2024
THE BIRTH OF ISAAC (Genesis 20:1 to 21:34)
Monday Feb 12, 2024
Monday Feb 12, 2024
Today’s message is about spiritual highs and lows. If you have been a Christ follower for very long, then the mountain top experiences when you feel so close to God, are right there alongside the deep valley experiences when you feel so far from God. The Bible describes Abraham as a hero of the faith, and I certainly agree with that description. Some of the things that we have seen Abraham do in our study of the book of Genesis, and some of the things that he will yet do in this book, are truly remarkable examples of a man who is filled with the Spirit of an all-powerful God.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I never like to see my heroes stumble. I mean, the Lone Ranger never told a lie, he was never mean to people, and he always rescued the girl, and defeated the bad guys. That is just the way it works, our heroes are not supposed to do the same kind of foolish things that we do, especially twice.
So, when you have the type of expectations that I do for my heroes, chapter 20 of the book of Genesis is a chapter that you would like to just skip over. That is because Abraham does all of the things we just talked about. He lies, and he is mean to Hagar and Ishmael. Worse, he repeats the same sin that he committed when he went down into the land of Egypt and lied concerning Sarah, saying, “She is my sister.” It is the same story, all over again. But in the end, Abraham defeats the bad guy, or the sin that has been in his life, he obeys God’s commands, and he gets the only girl God has wanted for him from the beginning, which is Sarah.
Yet, this story tells the truth about all of us as Christians. No matter how great we think we are, each time we try to solve our problems using the world’s methods, using our own strength, instead of depending on God, we will fail. And there is nothing more miserable than a Christian who has failed because he did not depend on God. The lost see this person as the hypocrite they are, and they want nothing to do with that kind of shallow belief.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how our faith and trust in God is the foundation for living a victorious Christian life.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.