The Epic Life - Bob Hallman

Genesis 22: The Test of Faith

So far in our study of Genesis, we have observed three great tests in Abraham’s life: ~ Chapter 12-to Submit to God’s call to leave his land & family~ Chapter 13-to Separate from his nephew, Lot~ Chapter 17-to Surrender his plan about Ishmael and to trust God to do a miracle
Growing up on Oahu, I remember that on the first day of every month at noon, sirens all across the island would begin to wail. Every time it happened; I would scan the skies over the Koolaus for Japanese zeros. If you were listening to radio or TV the programming would be interrupted and a voice would say, “For the next 30 seconds we will be conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is a test, and only a test!” The funny thing is, those wailing sirens, no matter how predictable and scheduled, caught me by surprise every single month!
1 Peter 4:12-13 “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. James 1:2-5 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 
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Genesis 33: Reconciled at Last

Genesis 33 is a pivotal chapter in Jacob’s life.  20 years earlier, Jacob had left his home because his brother had sworn to kill him for stealing his birthright and the blessing of his father, Isaac (Gen 27:41-45). Rebekah had told Jacob “when your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I'll send word for you to come back from there.
Gen 27:45. But since she never sent for him, Jacob had every reason to believethat20 years had not diminished Esau’s anger.
Story: A reporter was interviewing an old man on his 100th birthday. “What are you most proud of?” he asked. “Well,” said the man, “I don’t have an enemy in the world.” “What a beautiful thought! How inspirational!” said the reporter. “Yep,” added the centenarian, “I outlived every last one of‘ em. ”But outliving Esau was not an option for Jacob. Because for Jacob to fulfill his divine calling to be a blessing to all nations, he had to go back home and face his brother Esau. As I have stated before, sometimes you have to first go back in order to advance.
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Genesis 19 What a Difference A Day Can Make

The course of human history has often turned on events that occur so rapidly and dramatically that life is forever altered. History is punctuated with examples of “What A Difference A Day Can Make!”1. The day Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit2. The day Job lost everything3. The day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor4. The day the Berlin wall came down5. The day the World Trade Towers were brought down by terroristsThese are all examples of how quickly and radically life can change. Genesis 19 is another illustration of how life can take very dramatic turns. Little did Lot know that on this particular day his life would never be the same. 
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Genesis 31 Choose This Day

In Genesis 31, we find Jacob at a crossroads in his life. He must make a choice.
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Either he can stay where he is–in virtual slavery to Laban, but comfortable and well-fed. Or he can respond to the call of God, which involved no small degree of risk and required a great deal of faith in God and His covenant promises.
It is the same crossroads that the people of Israel would face when they were given the opportunity to either remain in the predictable life of slavery in Egypt, or believe God’s promise of a land of their own which included uncertainty and a path through the desert.
It is the same crossroads that an unbeliever who is presented with the gospel faces. Stay where you are spiritually–in the familiar life of slavery to sin, guilt, fear and frustration, or you can have a new beginning in Christ.
But this new life demands that you surrender your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. You can’t have it both ways!  It is the same crossroads I find myself facing daily. “Choose this day whom you will serve!
We hope you've been blessed by this audio version of a sermon pastor Bob Hallman delivered to his congregation on Kauai. 
Blessings, 
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Standing Strong Part 2 | Ephesians 6:10-24

Well, the book of Ephesians is a stunning book. It's an amazing book. It's anencouraging book. It tells us what God has done for us as believers, that wehave been chosen, that we've been predestined adopted and redeemed forgiven of all our sins, and then filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and then also given great and precious promises by which we look forward to thegreat hope of this kingdom that's coming. A kingdom with a king who is Jesus Christ, a kingdom with citizens the believers the Bride of Christ and a realm the one component of this equation that's yet to be established.  That realm is the new heaven and the new earth that the Bible says is coming so when we look at the first chapter or so of the book of Ephesians it's like man everything should be great you know.  Our lives should be just bliss and kind of smooth sailing no problems and you were just kind of waiting for him to show up.  In the meantime, we're serving the Lord well.
I wish it were that easy but it's not. Some of you even today have ahave a number of serious problems that you're facing and difficulties that are overwhelming and challenges that you don't know exactly how they'll be resolved.
What the Bible actually tells us is that despite the fact that God has laid out all this glorious inheritance for us as believers we're not there yet that kingdom and that experience won't be fully realized until the second coming of Christ
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Genesis 30: Waging Worldly Warfare

Every day we are faced with the choice to either trust in the Lord with all our heart (Prov 3:5-6), or to trust in our own resources and ingenuity to get what we thinkwe deserve.
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Trusting in the Lord leads to peace, joy and contentment–it’s called the Spirit-filled life. Trusting in ourselves leads to anxiety, anger and disillusionment–I call it “Waging Worldly Warfare.”
2 Cor 10:3-4 “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.
Some of you are facing significant challenges in your life today.
1. A husband or wife who has failed to fulfill their calling as a godly spouse2. A financial crisis that threatens to bring financial ruin3. A conflict with a friend or a coworker who seems unreasonable and combative4. An unfulfilled desire that you have become impatient over:a. The desire for a husband or wifeb.The desire for material thingsc. Or, as in the case of Rachel and Leah, the desire to have children.You are at a critical junction in life–a spiritual crossroads: One fork leads to a life yielded to the loving and faithful care of God. The other leads to an exhausting life marked by pain of “Worldly Warfare.”

Genesis 29:The Anatomy of a Divine Appointment

Over the years I have come to believe that there is no such thing as “coincidence” for the man or woman who is surrendered and yielded to God. Every conversation, every “chance” meeting, every opportunity to serve is divinely orchestrated by God (Ephesians2:10).
I call them “divine appointments.  ”Last week we found that Jacob was a man in transition. Before his encounter with God in Genesis 28, he could only refer to his father’s God as “your God” (27:20). But now, Yahweh was Jacob’s God (28:21). He had seen the vision of the stairway from heaven and heard the amazing covenant promises of God. There was a new sense of direction, anew hope, and a new meaning to his life. And for the first time in his life, he was working in cooperation with the purposes of God. As a result, he was about to experience the incredible joy of his first “Divine Appointment.
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Genesis 28:Nowhere to Look But Up

Hitting bottom seems to be a prerequisite for usefulness in God’s kingdom.  Moses hit bottom during his forty years in the desert after attempting to deliver the Israelites by his own power.
Joseph hit bottom after his dream of being ruler over his brothers was dashed by repeated false accusations against him.
Peter hit bottom shortly after boasting that he would never deny the Lord. The apostle Paul described hitting bottom in 2 Cor 1:8-9:“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 
”Hitting bottom is enormously valuable, because when you’re on the bottom, there is “Nowhere to look but up!” In fact, hitting bottom is so essential to the life of faith, That God not only allows us to come to the end of ourselves, but often helps to facilitate that process–most often through failure. I don’t believe a person can be truly useful to God until he or she has been ruined by God

Genesis 27: Working the Angles

Working the Angles: You may have heard this phrase before. It refers to doing whatever is necessary to arrive at a predetermined favorable objective. I don’t think there is a better way to describe the lifestyle of Isaac and his family. They were a family accustomed to “Working the Angles.”
As we will discover, God’s ultimate purposes prevailed. But the story of this family’s life could have been dramatically different if Isaac, Rebekah, Esau and Jacob had rejected this worldly and sinful approach to “Working the Angles” and had adopted God’s version of “Working the Angles”–in the physical angles formed when a man or woman bends the knee in prayer before their sovereign God. 
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Genesis 26: Like Father, Like Son

I’ll never forget the day I was watching TV while laying on my back on the floor. Johnny was about 3 years old. My legs were crossed, my head was on a pillow and my hands were supporting my head. I happened to look over at Johnny who was next to me–legs crossed, head on a pillow and hands supporting his head–with a big grin on his little face.
At that moment it dawned on me what a great responsibility God had given me. My sons are watching, learning and emulating everything I do. Over the years that responsibility has changed what I watch, what I listen to and how I behave. And every time I hear my boys defending their inappropriate behavior to my wife by saying, “But daddy does it”, I have had to give up another much-loved activity in, my life.
Proverbs 22:6“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it. ” But to “bring up a child in the way he should go” I must travel that way myself.”
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