The Winning Response

Join us as we welcome special guest, Alisha Simpkins on this week’s episode of The Winning Response Podcast.

Alisha shares her story of how through faith and resilience she was able to overcome challenges and struggles. She refused to see herself as a victim and instead embraced God’s plan for her life. As Alisha opened her heart to hope, her life was changed and she now has a Non-Profit to help give hope to single mothers.

Singlemomstohomeowners.com

Our Everyday Winner this week is Joseph. As we look at his life we see that even in some very difficult situations Joseph maintained godly character and honor. His choice to respond in faith and forgive allowed God to bring him to a place of victory, restoration, and influence.

Hebrews 11:22 (ERV)

And when Joseph was almost dead, he spoke about the people of Israel leaving Egypt. And he told them what they should do with his body. He did this because he had faith.

Genesis 39:2 (AMP)

The LORD was with Joseph, and he [even though a slave] became a successful and prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.

Genesis 50:19-21 (ERV)

Then Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. I am not God! I have no right to punish you. It is true that you planned to do something bad to me. But really, God was planning good things. God’s plan was to use me to save the lives of many people. And that is what happened. So don’t be afraid. I will take care of you and your children.” And so Joseph said kind things to his brothers, and this made them feel better.

Genesis 39:6 (NIV)

So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

Jeremiah 29:11 (TLB)

For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Genesis 41:38-43 (ERV)

Then Pharaoh told them, “I don’t think we can find anyone better than Joseph to take this job! God’s Spirit is in him, making him very wise!” So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “God showed these things to you, so you must be the wisest man. I will put you in charge of my country, and the people will obey all your commands. I will be the only one more powerful than you.” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I now make you governor over all of Egypt.” Then Pharaoh gave his special ring to Joseph. Theroyal seal was on this ring. Pharaoh also gave Joseph a fine linen robe and put a gold chain around his neck. Then he told Joseph to ride in his second chariot. Pharaoh’s officials said, “Let him be the governor over the whole land of Egypt!”

Genesis 49:22-26 (ERV)

“Joseph is like a wild donkey, like a young donkey by a spring, like colts grazing in a pasture. People attacked him and made life hard for him. Men with arrows became his enemies. But he won the fight with his mighty bow and his skillful arms. He gets power from the Mighty One of Jacob, from the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, the God of your father who helps you. May God All-Powerful bless you and give you blessings from the sky above and from the deep below. May he give you blessings from breast and womb. My parents had many good things happen to them. And I, your father, was blessed even more. Your brothers left you with nothing. But now I pile all my blessings on you, as high as a mountain

Jen and Crystal's guest this week is, Sharon Smith. Sharon openly shares her story of being delivered from fear and coming to a place of being able to trust God with her health. As she chose to yield to faith instead of fear, God proved Himself faithful and she received the promise of a child.

Proverbs 18:21 (HCSB)

Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Ephesians 3:20-21 (NKJV)

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Sarah is known as an Everyday Winner because she judged God as faithful in keeping His promises. She honored God and her husband and received a child even through moments of uncertainty. In this episode we will learn how to trust in the faithfulness of God for ourselves and win in life.

Hebrews 11:11 (NIV)

And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.

1 Peter 3:5-6 (NIV)

For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

Genesis 15:2-5 (ERV)

But Abram said, “Lord GOD, there is nothing you can give me that will make me happy, because I have no son. My slave Eliezer from Damascus will get everything I own after I die.” Abram said, “You have given me no son, so a slave born in my house will get everything I have.” Then the LORD spoke to Abram and said, “That slave will not be the one to get what you have. You will have a son who will get everything you own.” Then God led Abram outside and said, “Look at the sky. See the many stars. There are so many you cannot count them. Your family will be like that.”

Genesis 17:19 (NLT)

But God replied, “No—Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant.

Genesis 18:9-15 (ERV)

Genesis 21:1-7 (NIV)

Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. “And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Psalm 37:4 (TLB)

Be delighted with the Lord. Then he will give you all your heart’s desires.

1 Peter 3:7 (ERV)

In the same way, you husbands should live with your wives in an understanding way, since they are weaker than you. You should show them respect, because God gives them the same blessing he gives you—the grace of true life. Do this so that nothing will stop your prayers from being heard.

We are excited to welcome our guest, Angie Smith this week on The Winning Response Podcast. Angie shares with us her journey of stepping out in faith and following God’s leading to purchasing a home in Tuscany, Italy. Learn how her step of obedience is not only changing her life but transforming the lives of other women. You will not want to miss this episode!

In this episode Jen and Crystal discuss the life of Abraham, an Everyday Winner. He is known as the Father of Faith because he was willing to step out and follow God’s direction even when he didn’t know where he was going. He counted God faithful to fulfill His promises no matter Abraham’s circumstances or his age.

Hebrews 11:8-10 (NIV) By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Hebrews 11:1 (ERV) Faith is what makes real the things we hope for. It is proof of what we cannot see.

Romans 4:18-22 (NIV) Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Genesis 12:1-5 (NIV) The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

Genesis 12:14-15 (NIV) When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace.

Genesis 20:1-2 (NIV) Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her.

Genesis 14:11-16 (NIV)

Genesis 22:1-18 (ERV)

Hebrews 11:17-19 (NIV) By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

James 2:23 (AMPC) And [so] the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) God, and this was accounted to him as righteousness (as conformity to God’s will in thought and deed), and he was called God’s friend.

Psalm 103:1-5 (NIV)

Psalm 91:14-16 (NIV)

Genesis 25:7-8 (NIV)

Psalm 92:12-15 (NIV)

Isaiah 46:4 (NIV)

In this heartfelt episode, Jen and Crystal sit down with Crystal's mom, Cynthia, who shares the profound impact that her relationship with God has had on her life. Cynthia reflects on how her faith in God not only transformed her own journey but is also a guiding light for her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren creating a lasting legacy of love that continues to inspire future generations.

Today we have the privilege of interviewing Judy Connor, Jen’s mom. She shares that even through a difficult childhood the Lord made His love known to her at a young age. As she grew in her faith, she bravely chose a path that was different than the way she was raised. The decisions she made changed the trajectory of the lives of her children and grandchildren. Her wisdom and insight will be an encouragement to the listeners.

In this episode we begin our series on Everyday Winners by looking at the life of Noah. Noah is a man who fellowshipped with God at a time when he was the only one following God. He completely obeyed God even though he was the only one and received persecution. His faith and obedience affected his entire family and the world.

Hebrews 11:7 (ERV) - "Noah was warned by God about things that he could not yet see. But he had faith and respect for God, so he built a large boat to save his family. With his faith, Noah showed that the world was wrong. And he became one of those who are made right with God through faith."

Genesis 6:5-22 (NLT)

2 Peter 2:5 (NIV) - "If he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others"

Matthew 7:13-14 (NCV) - "Enter through the narrow gate. The gate is wide and the road is wide that leads to hell, and many people enter through that gate. But the gate is small and the road is narrow that leads to true life. Only a few people find that road."

Genesis 9: 7-17 (NLT) - "Now be fruitful and multiply, and repopulate the earth.” Then God told Noah and his sons, “I hereby confirm my covenant with you and your descendants, and with all the animals that were on the boat with you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals—every living creature on earth. Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.” Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.” Then God said to Noah, “Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.”

James 2:26 (AMPC) - "For as the human body apart from the spirit is lifeless, so faith apart from [its] works of obedience is also dead."

In this episode we introduce our first series, Everyday Winners. We reflect on what a winning response looks like and the choices we must make to be everyday winners. Please join us as we spend the next serval weeks looking at the individuals described in Hebrews 11 as well as interviewing people who today are winning in life.

Mark 9:23 (ERV) - "Jesus said to the father, “Why did you say ‘if you can’? All things are possible for the one who believes.”

Hebrews 10:35-39 (ERV) - "So don’t lose the courage that you had in the past. Your courage will be rewarded richly. You must be patient. After you have done what God wants, you will get what he promised you. He says, “Very soon now, the one who is coming will come and will not be late. The person who is right with me will live by trusting in me. But I will not be pleased with the one who turns back in fear.” But we are not those who turn back and are lost. No, we are the people who have faith and are saved."

Hebrews 11:1-3 (ERV) - "Faith is what makes real the things we hope for. It is proof of what we cannot see. 2 God was pleased with the people who lived a long time ago because they had faith like this. Faith helps us understand that God created the whole world by his command. This means that the things we see were made by something that cannot be seen.

Hebrews 11:6 (ERV) - "Without faith no one can please God. Whoever comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who sincerely try to find him."