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Each week a new verse-by-verse Bible study podcast given in expository style. Join us and see the Bible come alive as we study the truths that God‘s Word has for us.
Episodes
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.
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.