Episodes
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.
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.
Monday Jan 01, 2024
THE PROMISE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (Genesis 17:1-8)
Monday Jan 01, 2024
Monday Jan 01, 2024
Did you know that the Jews are less than 0.19% of the world’s population? And yet more than twelve percent of all the honors in science, in health, in medicine, in music, in philosophy, and in public life have been garnered by these amazing people. The Nobel Prize is one of the highest prizes that men of learning confer upon one another. In the last fifty years, one-third to one-fourth of the Nobel prizes have been given to these people who only represent 19- hundredths of one percent of the population. Why is this? I believe that God in a very special way has His hand upon these people. They are the people of destiny.
You can study history and find some amazing things. Did you know that it was a Jew that financed Christopher Columbus’s voyage to find this New World? Did you know that on board that ship when Columbus set sail was a Jew and he was the first man to set foot upon these new shores? Did you know that?
Did you know that a Jew, Hiram Solomon, financed George Washington and the Revolutionary War as we fought for our independence from the British? Did you know that? You don’t realize what an influence these people have had on your life.
Click on the play button to hear a message on the promise that God makes to Abraham that He is giving to Abraham and his seed, “all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” I believe that God meant exactly that. I believe the word everlasting means everlasting. What God is saying here is an iron fist upon history. The Sovereign God is definitively saying that certain things are going to be done. What God is saying here is His plan to bless you, and to bless me, and to bless the nations of the world. This indeed is a blessing, a promise, that has changed the world, and it will give us understanding if we today will take the Word of God and let it speak to us as we study together.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Monday Dec 18, 2023
GOD’S TESTIMONY TO HAGAR AND ABRAHAM (Genesis 16:7 to 17:14)
Monday Dec 18, 2023
Monday Dec 18, 2023
The Bible tells us that Abraham and Sarai failed to be patient and wait on God’s perfect timing to accomplish His will in providing a son for Abraham. The price of that failure was that Hagar was abused, and as a result, she rejected their witness and fled. Hagar was first given to Abraham by Sarai, and then she was rejected and persecuted by Sarai after she became pregnant.
Hagar’s rejection led her to flee from the very God that could give her everlasting life. Hagar had no desire to be like Abraham and Sarai, if the way they treated her was an example of the God they believed in. So, she turned her face back towards Egypt, back towards the world, back towards death and eternal darkness.
I am glad that the Holy Spirit of God is able to convict the heart of the lost person in spite of the witness that most of us believers display on a daily basis, especially when we are away from the church, and even worse, within our own home. Since Abraham and Sarai had so badly represented God to Hagar, God now steps in Himself and shows Himself to Hagar.
Click on the link below to a message on how God loved Hagar just as much as He loved Abraham. He sought her and found her, just as God had searched and found Abraham in the land of the Ur of the Chaldees. From this point forward, the true and living God would no longer just be One about whom Abraham and Sarai spoke, He would be her God as well. She confessed her faith with her mouth.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Monday Dec 11, 2023
ABRAHAM’S RIGHTEOUSNESS (Genesis 15:6 to 16:6)
Monday Dec 11, 2023
Monday Dec 11, 2023
The story of Abraham gives us an opportunity for God to show us the power of His grace, and the power of His silence. There are lessons for believers in both of these Biblical truths.
It is by the power of God’s grace alone that our salvation comes. Not by the works of man lest he should boast, but by the grace of our Heavenly Father that loves us. It is the power of God’s grace that comes to us when we believe on the promises of God, when we believe what God has promised to accomplish in us through Jesus Christ. It is when we believe that Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for our sins, and then died and rose again, that the power of God’s grace imputes righteousness to us.
It is by the power of God’s silence that we learn patience; that we learn the value of faith; and we learn to depend on God rather than on our own wits, our own strength, or the things that the world values and believes as natural. It is the power of God’s silence that creates a test we rarely pass. We fail this test because we want things on our timing, rather than God’s. One of the hardest lessons we learn as believers is to wait on God’s perfect timing for His will to be accomplished in our lives.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how God accounted Abraham as righteous. Abraham believed God. He just accepted what God said, and he believed God. That is the way each of us get saved. You must believe that God has done something for you, that Christ died for you and rose again. It is then that God will declare you righteous by simply accepting Christ.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Sunday Oct 29, 2023
THE CALL OF ABRAHAM (Genesis11:10 to 12:8)
Sunday Oct 29, 2023
Sunday Oct 29, 2023
Chapters 11 and 12 of the Book of Genesis mark an important turning point in the Scriptures. Up to this point, the story has been that of the whole Adamic race. There has been neither Jew nor Gentile. All have been one in “the first Adam.”
From this point forward in the Scriptures, the human race must be seen as a great river from which God, in the call of Abraham, and the creation of the nation of Israel, draws off a small stream through which He may at last purify the great river itself. Israel is the tool through which God chose to bring a Savior to the world. It is important for us to note that neither Abraham, nor Israel, were perfect, they didn’t do anything special to deserve this. In fact, as we will see today, Abraham was far from perfect. But, when God spoke to him, Abraham responded, and that is exactly what God was looking for. It was by grace that God chose Abraham, and the nation Israel, to bring revelation and salvation to the world. It was through the faith of Abraham that the nation Israel would be called.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how our obedience to God comes after we have stopped telling God what we want to do, and listen to what He wants us to do. Let me illustrate that with a question, how much of your prayer time do you spend telling God what you want, rather than being quiet and listening to what He wants to tell you? That is a measure of how much you harken/obey God, for you cannot obey God until you know what He wants you to do. Abraham was obedient to God because he listened, and then transformed what he heard into action.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Monday Oct 09, 2023
THE FLOOD-PART II (Genesis 7:2 to 9:17)
Monday Oct 09, 2023
Monday Oct 09, 2023
As part of the story of The Flood, the Scripture tells us about the patience and long-suffering of God. It says that once Noah and all the animals were in the ark, God waited for a full week, and nothing happened. No doubt the crowds outside the ark were having a great time making fun of the whole thing. Their hearts were already hardened. Even after years of having God’s prophets warning man of the coming doom, God showed man a final measure of grace by waiting a full week before the flood began.
This means that for a full seven days they still had the opportunity to accept God’s offer of salvation, yet they abused His long-suffering, His patience, and His kindness for the last time. That extra week of grace was offered to bring them to repentance, and instead they condemned Noah and His God. Without a doubt, the people of the time of Noah had “treasurest up unto” themselves “wrath against the day of wrath” and were ready for the “revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
Click on the play button to hear a message on how God’s final judgment was delivered on a world that had turned away from the Almighty God of all creation.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.