The Epic Life - Bob Hallman

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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Genesis 25 The Offspring of Abraham

James 4:13-14 “What is your life?
You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
In light of life’s brevity, one of the most profound and beneficial questions we can ask is:
~“How would you like to be remembered at your funeral and what steps would you need to take for that to happen?”
~“What kind of memories are you leaving your spouse, your children, and your friends?”
~ “What kind of legacy are you creating?”
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Genesis 24: The Search For A Bride

An average of 13,500 Americans get married every day. And roughly 50% of those marriages will end in divorce! I wouldn’t describe those as very good odds.
Can you imagine getting on a plane with those kinds of odds? Or getting in the ocean if you knew you had a 50% chance of being eaten by JAWS? But it shouldn’t come as a surprise to us considering that most marriages are the result of meeting people: In bars, in Internet chat rooms, through dating services, or by marketing yourself on eBay to the highest bidder!
Personally, I think the divorce rate could be substantially reduced if we went back to the days of arranged marriages as recorded for us in Genesis 24.
My young son Michael has decided to eliminate possibility of marital failure–he’s going to marry his mom!
Genesis 24, the longest in the book of Genesis, presents us with the delightful story of Abraham sending his servant to find a wife for his son. This is more than just a story of "boy meets girl." It is a wonderful foreshadowing of the redemptive work of God.
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Genesis 23: The Death of Sarah

Only two things we can be sure of–death and taxes!
Most of us live as if we’ll never die. Death, even under the most expected circumstances, always seems to catch us by surprise. But the fact is, death is a part of life.
In Ps. 89:48 the Psalmist asked the universal question, “What man can live and not see death; or save himself from the power of the grave? ” As a pastor, I’m often asked how a God of love could allow suffering and death. But the Bible says that, “God takes no pleasure in the death of anyone” (Ezek 18:32).
In fact, according to Scripture, universal death is the result of universal sin (Romans 5:12).“For the wages of sin is death” Rom 6:23. And since every human being has sinned (Is.53:6; Ro. 3:23), every human should expect to die (Heb. 9:27).
In light of this eventuality, two of the most profound and beneficial questions I think we can ask ourselves are: 1. “How would you like to be remembered at your funeral?”2. “What steps do you need to take for that to happen?”
There are really only two things to live for in life:1. Temporal things: houses, cars, promotions, the next deal, the next vacation, and the next shopping spree Col 3:1-2 “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”2. Eternal things:What kind of memories are you leaving your friends and family? What kind of spiritual legacy are you creating?
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Genesis 21 : A Promised Fulfilled

We live in an era of unkept promises. Nations sign important treaties and then breakthem at will–case in point: Iraq, China, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and NorthKorea.
Even our own president wagged his finger in the camera while making his stubborn denials of wrongdoing only to be later exposed as a lecherous liar.
Even many married couples show little regard for their wedding vows. At times it seems that no one can be trusted–no one is honest–no one is good for their word.
We even have a sarcastic phrase for our jaded skepticism: Promises, promises!! Even Jesus Himself would not “would not entrust himself to any man, for he knew all men.” (John 2:24).
But according to 1 Peter 2:23 there was One to whom Jesus entrusted Himself and that you can safely entrust yourself to and lean on heavily: His name is Yahweh, Jehovah, Almighty God, the Eternal God.2 Cor 1:20 “no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ.” It has been said, “You can’t break God’s promises by leaning on them!
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Genesis 20: Déjà vu

Déjà vu = French term meaning, “Already seen”, or in our terms, “been there, done that!”It’s that strange sense that you’ve said something before or been somewhere before.
Unfortunately, I’ve never had a significant déjà vu experience. They are always meaningless and trivial.
In fact, as I thought about this message, I couldn’t recall the details of even one of these experiences in spite of the fact that I’ve had dozens over the years.
In Chapter 20 of Genesis, Abraham was about to have a déjà vu experience of his own. Unfortunately, for Abraham, his “been there, done that” experience was a reality, because Chapter 20 is a virtual rerun of Abraham’s sin found in Genesis12:10-20
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Genesis 18 The Visitation

Sometimes when I’m coming home late at night from meetings or a Bible study, I will turn on the radio and listen to Art Bell.
People seem to be fascinated with UFOs, crop circles, Bigfoot sightings, and alien visitations.
In fact, our own Garden Island News recently reported alleged UFO sightings right here on Kauai.
Several different people reported seeing a “huge orange fireball the size of house falling in the sky.” I’ve seen that hundreds of times myself, but I always just called it a sunset!
Last week I was asked if I believe in alien visitations. My answer was, “Absolutely!” In fact, the Bible records scores of them for us–one of which is found in the text of Gen 18 that we are studying today!
Enjoy the following message. 
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Getting Spiritually Fit 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Most New Year’s resolutions are earnestly made but rarely carried out. The top 3 noble, yet usually unattainable, New Year’s resolutions are: 1. Lose weight2. Exercise regularly3. Eat healthilyNow I find it interesting that the focus of these three goals, while admirable, are temporal in nature. And like Paul instructed Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:8, “physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”One of my personal traditions for the last several years has been to reevaluate the direction and priorities of my life. And since I am a Christian, a significant part of that reevaluation includes the things that have eternal value. 
 
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