The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

JOSPEH AS A PICTURE OF CHRIST (Genesis 37:1 to 45:28)

JOSEPH AS A PICTURE OF CHRIST (Genesis 37:1 to 45:28)

There are several of the patriarchs of the Old Testament who were a picture of Christ in specific acts.  But, God has selected Joseph as the one individual, out of all the men of history, to picture Christ in such a thorough way.  As we study the life of Joseph, we will find a direct parallel between the life of Joseph and the life of the Lord Jesus. 

In the Old Testament, Jesus is enfolded. In the New Testament, Jesus is unfolded. In the Old Testament, Jesus is concealed. In the New Testament, Jesus is revealed. But, Jesus is there in all of the Bible.  As you study the Bible enough, standing somewhere in the shadows you will find Jesus. He is there. It’s all about Him. Don’t get the idea that the Old Testament is about the Jews, and the New Testament is about Jesus. All of the Bible is about Jesus.

Jesus is the hero of the Bible. Jesus said, “Search the scriptures; for … [these] are they which [do] testify of me” (John 5:39). Notice that when Jesus made this statement, the scriptures were the Old Testament scriptures.  The New Testament had not even been written yet.  And, the Bible also tells us that on a particular day, He took two men and “he [showed] them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). That means in all of the Scriptures, you are going to find things concerning Jesus. Jesus is there if you look long enough. If you study reverently enough, if you think and meditate, you’re going to find the Lord Jesus Christ there in the Bible.

Click on the play button in link below to hear a message on how the life of Joseph pictures the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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)

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)

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 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.

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 WORK OF THE SERVANT

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)

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.