The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

GOD TEACHES JACOB TO DEPEND ON HIM (Genesis 31:19 to 32:18)

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.

GOD TELLS JACOB TO GO HOME (Genesis 30:25 to 31:18)

God needed to get the attention of Jacob, and He did.  It had been a long time since Jacob had heard the word of God in a clear voice.  Now, with the world becoming suddenly menacing, the voice and words of God became suddenly clear and meaningful.  Many times, that is exactly what we need to get us out of our comfort zones.  When things are going good we reason, why do we need to listen for the words of God?  Yet, when things start going bad, our first question is, why God?  Why is this happening to me?

It is then that we begin to listen to what God has been saying for a long time.  In Jacob’s case, it was “Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred.”  Suddenly, the words of God had a meaning for Jacob.  For twenty years Jacob had been away from the land that God had promised him.  During that time Jacob had prospered.  Yet, Jacob testified to his wives that his prosperity resulted not from his own cleverness, but from God’s grace.  This was quite a change from the arrogant, self-sufficient, man that had rolled the stone from the well and chose his own wife, confident in his own wit and wisdom.  

This was an important step for Jacob.  Because it is not until we recognize that our success, our blessings, our strength, come not from ourselves, but from the grace of God, that God can truly begin to use us to do His work.  

Click on the play button below to hear a message on how true prosperity is spiritual, not material, it does not reside here, but where God is.  We have to look higher than this world for true prosperity.  

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

JACOB AND LABAN (Genesis 29:1 to 30:30)

JACOB AND LABAN (Genesis 29:1 to 30:30)

As we study Jacob, we see a man who is confident and sure of his ability to handle anything this world can dish out.  Jacob knows God, and God has promised to be with him at all times.  Yet, Jacob has not learned to be led by God.  Instead, Jacob is leading and expecting God to back him up.

That is the way many believers treat God.  When times are good, they choose the way they want to go, and what they want to do.  Yet, just as soon as things turn bad, they turn to God to get them out of whatever mess they have gotten themselves into.  They never think to ask God to lead them; they never ask God to choose the path they will go down, and they never humbly surrender their life to the will of God.  

In today’s study, Jacob will find himself deceived by his Uncle Laban, trapped in a job he wants to leave, caught in the middle of a battle between two wives for his attention, and ultimately with 13 hungry kids looking at him for food and provisions.  Sounds like a normal day in one of our own lives, doesn’t it?

That is what makes the study of Jacob interesting, because Jacob is a story about us.  Think about your own life, are you retired but forced to work a job to meet your financial needs, are you stuck in a job you feel taken advantage of in, are you having marital problems, do you feel deceived by those you should be able to trust, or do you have hungry kids, sometimes adult children and their kids, looking at you for dinner and a house to live in?

Do you ever ask yourself, how did I get myself into this mess?  Do you ever ask yourself, and honestly answer, did God lead you, or did you lead God?  

As a believer, God has promised to always be with you, and He always will be, wherever you drag Him, but the real question you need to ask is, have you totally surrendered to the will of God in your life?  Are you following God as He leads you, or is God following you as you lead Him?  Have you ever seen the bumper sticker that says “God is my copilot”?  Listen, if God is your copilot, then you need to move over and let Him be Captain.  God is to lead you.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on the importance of living a life fully surrendered to God.

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)

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.

JACOB'S LADDER-PART I (Genesis 28:1 to 13)

Sometimes people tell me it’s hard to be a Christian. That is just so ridiculous.  Listen, all you have to do is think about old, unsaved, Jacob down there sleeping on stones, with a rock for a pillow, and tell me it’s hard to be a Christian.  The truth is, it is hard not to be a Christian. The Bible says, 

Prov 13:15
15 Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.
KJV

What could be harder than a stone for a pillow? “The way of [the transgressor] is hard.”  It is not hard to be a Christian. Jesus said, 

Matt 11:28-30
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
KJV

Now, what did that last sentence say?  “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  Jesus is telling us that to be a Christian, a Christ follower, is easy.

I have been teaching the Bible for a long time. Two things I’ve never heard. 

Number one: I’ve never heard any Christian—true Christian, a born-again Christian—say, “I’m sorry that I gave my heart to Jesus Christ.” I never have heard that.

Number two:  Something else that I have never heard: I have never heard any person without the Lord Jesus Christ say, “I want to tell you how much the dear, sweet, old devil means to me.” 

Here is the easy truth, I would be a Christian even if there were no heaven, and if there were no hell.  Now, without a doubt, there are both, but if I had a thousand lives, I’d give every one of them to Jesus Christ.  To know Christ in this life, that is easy. It is the way of the transgressor that is hard.

Here is an old familiar quote, “Nature forms us; sin deforms us; education informs us; penitentiaries try to reform us; but only Jesus can transform us.”  And if you’d like to be transformed, then you can be transformed. You can be made brand new through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the wonderful saving gospel of our dear Savior. 

Click on the link below to hear a message on how the story of Jacob’s Ladder shows us a picture of the sinner, a picture of the Savior, and a picture of salvation.

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)

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)

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 BATTLE WITHIN PART II (Genesis 25:1-27)

There is a battle that rages within every believer.  It is a battle between doing the will of God in our lives, and following the desires of the world.  It is a daily battle, and it is one that we will have until the day we join Christ in heaven.  Paul describes this battle that raged within his own heart.

Rom 7:18-20
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
KJV

The carnal nature is the one that we are born with, and its focus is on the desires of the world.  The new nature is the one that we receive once we are reborn in Christ, and its focus is on doing the will of God in our lives.  It is a battle that is only fought within the heart of a believer, for a lost person only has one nature, his carnal, or fleshly nature.  He has no choice but to serve Satan as his master, so there is no need for a battle.  It is when we become saved that we must then choose between our two natures, and it is then that the battle for supremacy within our heart rages.  

Every believer has three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil.  The world is that value system that’s out there. We call that the external foe. The flesh is that old Adamic nature. We call that the internal foe. The devil and he is the infernal foe.  These are the three enemies that are warring against us. 

Every one of us, when we come to the place where we want to be fruitful for God, after the Lord intercedes for us as He does, and it looks like we’re about to be fruitful, suddenly we find within us a battle going on. There is a struggle. It is an inner, spiritual, battle.  It is important to note that it is those, whose lives are the most fruitful for God, who are the most aware of the struggle between the two natures within themselves.  

However, this is something that all believers will experience when they choose to turn away from the world and begin their journey of spiritual growth.  As long as we are content to live carnal, worldly, lives, we have no problem, but once we are determined to meet the conditions that lead to spiritual fruitfulness, the battle begins.  

Click on the link below to hear a message about how we can have victory over the old, fleshly, carnal, nature through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

THE BATTLE WITHIN-PART I (Genesis 25:1-27)

It is interesting to note that while the Holy Spirit goes into great detail about the lives of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph, most of the story of Isaac is told by attaching it to another person.  For example, Isaac’s Mount Moriah experience was told through Abraham, and his marriage was seen through the eyes of Abraham, Abraham’s unnamed servant, and Rebekah.  Even with the birth of Esau and Jacob, which are Isaac’s sons, we will see this event through the eyes of Rebekah.  

This is a story of two opposites.  Here are two boys, born at the same time, born in the same place, of the same parents, to the same advantages and opportunities.  Yet from the outset one of them set out in his own stumbling, full of errors, way to please God, while the other set out to please himself.  One was ruled by a heavenly vision, the other by worldly and carnal things.  

As with each of our lessons in Genesis, there is the primary interpretation of the events, in this case it is the development of the seeds of the nations of Israel and Edom.  But, we also have the spiritual interpretation of this story, and this interpretation discusses the battle that rages within each believer.  The battle between our carnal nature, and our new, Holy Spirit created, nature.  The carnal nature is the one we are born with, and the new nature is the one we receive once we are reborn in Christ.

It is a battle that is only fought within the heart of a believer, for a lost person only has one nature, his carnal, or fleshly nature.  He has no choice but to serve Satan as his master, so there is no need for a battle.  It is when we become saved that we must then choose between our two natures, and it is then that the battle for supremacy within our heart rages.  

As a believer, you have three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world is that value system that is out there. We call that the external foe. The flesh is that old Adamic nature. We call that the internal foe. The devil: we know who he is, for he is the infernal foe.  So, we all have three enemies that are warring against us. 

Click on the link below to hear a message about that internal foe, the flesh; and we’re going to be talking about victory over the flesh, as we study our lesson today, and next week, on Jacob and Esau, these two twins.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

THE BRIDE FOR THE BRIDEGROOM (Genesis 24:28-67)

Today, I want to talk to you about a love story of a father finding a bride for the son that he loves dearly.  Actually, I want to talk about two love stories, with two Fathers, two Sons, two Servants, and two brides.  

One is Abraham, who, as a father, sends his servant back to the land that Abraham came from to find a bride for Isaac.  This unnamed servant is following the leading of the God of his master, Abraham, when he comes upon the house of Bethuel, where Rebekah lives.  His mission is to find the bride that has been selected by God for his master’s son, Isaac.  

The story of Abraham’s search gives us the type, or symbol, of a much greater, second, love story.  This second love story is the description of God the Father, determining from the foundations of time, that He would choose a bride for His Son, Jesus Christ.  Upon the completion of Jesus’ work at Calvary, which was the finished salvation that He has provided for each of us, God the Father sends the Holy Spirit as His Servant to gather together the bride for Jesus.  This bride is the church of the body of Christ, which is made up of believers that have come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior during this age that we live in today.  It is called the Church Age.  

Two tremendous love stories, two Fathers, two Bridegrooms, two Servants, and two brides.  Isaac loves Rebekah, but that is pale in comparison to the love of the Father, Son, and Spirit for the Bride of Christ.  

Click on the link below to hear about the greatest love story that has ever been told.  God has commissioned to me today to ask you a question. Are you ready for it? My Heavenly Father has said to me, “Keith, go teach this lesson. Tell people about Jesus. I want them to be Jesus’ bride. Tell them how wonderful Jesus is. And then, tell them that He who loves you is coming back for you one day.” My question to you is, will you receive Jesus as your Savior and seek to make His will yours?  God said, “Tell the people, Keith, that whosoever will may come.”  Don’t be left out of this love story.  Accept Christ today and be with Him for all of eternity.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.