The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

A STRONG, SAVING, FAITH (John 4:48-54)

Why do we Follow Christ? Think about your answer to that question, why do you follow Christ?

Do we follow Christ because of promised healing? No, that is not the reason we follow Christ, because Christians get sick and die just like everyone else.

Do we follow Christ because of protection from disaster or accidents? I see no evidence that Christians escape disaster and accidents more often than others. A bullet makes no detour around the body of a believer.

Do we follow Christ for promised prosperity? Again, I see no evidence that Christians are particularly favored with wealth and success in the world.

Do we follow Christ because of a promise of stronger personalities or fewer neuroses than non-believers? I have watched Christians suffer emotional and mental disabilities, just like non-believers.

So, why do we follow Christ? Why become a disciple of Jesus when life may become more complicated as He so often warned us it would?

For one reason alone. In Jesus we behold the face of God. He is the truth, the everlasting truth. I trust in Him and His promises. He is the one certain thing in an uncertain world. He is to be worshiped, not so something will happen to me or to the world, something already has happened to me and the world, but because He is God, who through Christ has reconciled the world to Himself. He saves me. He is my justification. He is the center that holds. We offer our lives to Him because He alone has claim upon us."

Don’t base your faith in Jesus Christ based on signs and wonders. Jesus is the Savior. He suffered, lived, bled, and died for you, rose from the dead, and if you'll trust Him, I promise you, according to His Word, He will save you and He will keep you, and one day we'll be gathered around the throne to give Him praise forever and ever and ever. Believe in miracles, but trust in Jesus, and you go from a superficial faith, to a strong faith, to a saving faith. That's what matters.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how to progress from a superficial faith based on signs and wonders, to a strong, saving, faith in Jesus Christ.

Amen.

STRONG FAITH (John 4:43-48)

Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Every true believer in Jesus Christ must have faith in God. That is a basic requirement of being born again. If you do not have faith in God, then you cannot be born again. How many of you would like to have strong faith, not just faith enough to be saved, but strong faith in God?

In our economy, the dollar is the medium of exchange. If you want to receive something at a store, well, that store owner is likely to say something like, “According to your dollars, be it unto you.” Can’t you imagine a store owner talking like that? What he is saying to you is, according to the number of dollars you have, then that is how much I will give to you.

Well, in the kingdom of heaven, dollars are not is the medium of exchange. Faith is. The store owner in heaven, God, says in His Word, According to your faith, be it unto you.

Matt 9:29
29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.
KJV

This just means that whatever we receive from God is according to our faith. God gives to us according to our faith. Not according to the amount of money we give. Not according to who our friends are. Not according to our family. Not according to our feelings. Not according to our fate, F-A-T-E, and I hope you're not watching the horoscope, but according to our faith. Jesus said to the blind person, according to your faith, be it unto you. Now, not only do we need to possess faith. What we really need is for faith to possess us. We need a mighty faith. Why? Because we have a Mighty God.

The greater your faith, the greater the glory that God gets, and the more pleased He is with it. It is by faith that man gives God pleasure, and it is according to our faith that God gives man treasure, real treasure. Not the kind you put in your bank account, but the real treasure of God.

What is the real treasure of God? Well, what does God value the most of all things? His Son. The real treasure of God is His son. It is according to our faith that God gives us His Son and everlasting life.

John 5:24
24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
KJV

That is what real treasure is.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how to have strong faith in God. If you will apply the things that God tells us in His Word to your daily walk with Him, then God will bless you a strong faith.

Amen.

THE BENEFITS OF A CHRISTIAN (2 Peter 1:1-2)

We live in a world full of apostasy.  False teachings abound.  Satan is seeking to destroy the church from within.  The Christian life is more than just a birth.  It is a growth, and it is a development.  The key to a victorious Christian life in the midst of apostasy is found in the last verse of the book of 2 Peter. 

2 Peter 3:18

18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

KJV

You will not be able to live for God unless you have a knowledge of the Word of God.  Yet, we need to have more than simple knowledge about Christ, the kind of knowledge we find in a library book.  Rather, we are to have a super knowledge of Jesus.  To have this kind of knowledge of Christ is to know Him better than your closest loved one.  To know Him, is to know life eternal.  First comes salvation by the grace of God, then as we begin to know Jesus, we gain peace in Jesus.  

In our lesson today, we find that in just the first two verses of this book we are told of some truly marvelous benefits of being a Christian.  We have a like precious faith, made precious by the object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is through our faith in Christ that we have obtained all the righteousness of God.  Our sins have been wiped clean, and we have a standing before God as completely righteous.  Then, by the grace of God we obtained our salvation, and being justified by God’s grace we can have the peace of God because we have a super-natural knowledge of God.  We have a personal relationship with the Creator of all things, the almighty God.  But not just any personal relationship, we know Christ better than we know our own spouse because the Holy Spirit resides in our hearts.  He constantly speaks to us of the things that Christ tells Him to share with us, and He speaks to us when we are all alone.  

Amazing, huh?  Listen to this new series of podcasts to see the rest of what God has in store for us in this little book.

A FAITH BASED ON EXPERIENCE (1 Peter 1:5-7)

When I was a child and my Father wanted me to learn something that I would remember, he often had me experience it first, and then explain how important that concept could be in my life.  He called it character building and it usually involved me doing some type of work around the house.  For example, when he wanted me to learn that it is better to earn what you have in this world, than to steal it from somebody else who had worked for it, either by outright theft or by getting the government to steal it for you, he would put me to work.  He taught me that a benefit of hard work is the payment of something you want in return, be it money, or something else.

Learning from experience can come in a couple of ways, we can learn from our own experience, or we can learn from the experience of watching or listening to others.  For instance, I don’t have to jump from the top of a tall building to know that this is not something I want to do.  I have seen what happens to others when they contact the ground at a high rate of speed, and it is not pretty.  I learned this lesson from the experience of others.  

When we learn from our own experience, we often have a deeper understanding of what it takes to get through this type of trial.  I know that I never had a true appreciation for what a person goes through when they lose a very close loved one until I lost my father, and then my mother.  There is a deep feeling of anguish that does not come from watching others.  I have a much deeper sense of empathy for others now and it is because God allowed me to experience this trial myself.  

One of the key concepts that Peter is trying to teach us in the very first verses of this book is how certain our faith is, and how it is not based on a hope-so type of knowledge, but it is based on a know-so type of knowledge.  

When he talks of having hope, it is not a vague type of hope in the things that are to come, it is a know-so type of hope, an expectant hope, and a certain hope.  We know that Jesus is alive today because we know that He rose from the grave.  The Bible tells this is true, and secular history tells us that this is true.

We know for a fact that Jesus is coming again to reign as Lord of lords and King of kings, and we are absolutely certain that Jesus has prepared for us a place in heaven where we will spend eternity living with Him.  This is our know-so, expectant, hope.  

Peter now moves from the certain hope we have in Christ, to our faith based on experience and substance.  Faith is another weak word in the English language, but in the Bible our faith is based on the promises of God, the certainty of Christ, and the experiences we have in times of trial, and through watching others go through trials.  It is a faith based on the experience we have in Christ.  

HOW SECURE IS THE BELIEVER? (Romans 8:31-39)

What is the security of your faith based on?

Is it how much good you will do versus how much bad you will do?  If this is what your faith is secured by, then you have already failed, for no man can be good enough to meet the perfect and righteous demands of God.  

Is it how faithful you are to your church or religion?  If this is what your faith is secured by, then your faith is in your religion and not God.  A faith based on anything but God will fail because God will accept man on one basis only, faith based on the completed work of Jesus Christ which provides for our salvation.   

Is it based on your performance of certain religious rituals?  If this is what your faith is secured by, then your faith is based on the works of man, and nothing that man can do is sufficient to meet the demands of God.  

For the true believer in Jesus Christ, our faith is based on the power, the complete sovereignty, and the grace of God.

Paul says:

Romans 8:38-39

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

KJV

The closing verses of this magnificent chapter of comfort for the believer explores all of the possible ways that man can think of to try and mess up our salvation and separate us from the love of God.  In our lesson today, Paul refutes each one of them and states that they are blocked by the grace of God.

Once you have made Jesus Christ your Lord, then nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate you from the love of God.  Your faith secure because your faith is in God.  

HOW CAN WE BE RIGHTEOUS? (Romans 3:24-26)

For the believer who has Christ as his Savior, words like justified, freely, grace, redemption, propitiation, faith, and blood all have very specific meanings to their faith.  Yet how many Christians can define these words in a way that allows others to understand how God’s plan of salvation has changed their lives?  

For example, as you relate God’s plan of salvation to someone you know, can you tell them how it meets their need of being seen as righteous before God because of the redemptive price that was paid by Jesus on the cross.  How it grants them redemption?  How it serves as propitiation, and how the means of this salvation is our faith in Christ?  How the redemptive price for this salvation was so high, that it cost the shed blood of the Son of God?

The wonderful good news about God’s plan of salvation is that a holy and perfectly righteous God devised a plan of salvation that reaches down into the depths of sin and darkness that man has fallen to, and yet does not compromise God’s own inherent holiness, justice, and righteousness.  Listen to this podcast to learn what these words mean to your salvation, and to the salvation of those who want eternal life with Jesus in heaven.

DO YOU BELIEVE GOD? (James 2:21-24)

Do you believe God?

Not do you believe in God, but do you believe God?  

Do you believe what God says in His Word, the Bible?  

Do you believe God the Father when He said of Jesus Christ, this is my Son in whom I am well pleased?  

Do you believe God when He says that your salvation is by His grace alone, and not by works, lest any man should boast?

Abraham was a man that believed God.  What this means is that Abraham said amen to God. God had said, “I will do this for you,” and Abraham says to God, “I believe You. Amen. I believe it.”  And that was counted to him for righteousness.   Abraham did not work to earn his salvation, it was his faith that was counted for righteousness.  But it was not just faith in anything.

It is important to note what Abraham believed, for God to count it for righteousness.  It was when he believed the promise of THE SEED.  That is when God counted it to him for righteousness.  

Ultimately it is the same for all ages.  It is the faith in Jesus Christ that our salvation rests.  He is The Seed.  

It is not mere faith that saves, but it is the object of your faith that saves.

It is not mere faith that saves, but it is your faith in Christ that saves.  

Abraham just believed God. He just accepted what God said about the promised Seed, and he believed God. That is the way each of us get saved.  That is how we receive God’s gift of eternal life.

You must believe that God has done something for you, that Christ died for you and rose again. 

It is then, that God will declare you righteous by simply accepting Christ.

Listen to this podcast to learn that it is not good works that will allow you to stand imputed with righteousness before God, but it is when you believe God.  

A TEST OF YOUR FAITH (James 2:14-20)

What is the test of your love?

   

Valentine’s Day has just passed and most of us demonstrated our love for that special someone in our life by buying a gift, candy, flowers, or a special meal of some kind.  This custom is so ingrained in our society that to fail to do something leads to being called a callous, worthless, uncaring, bum, by your recently past, not-so-special anymore, loved one in your life. There are those that see this as an actual test of their spouse’s love.

It is not enough that you say that you love them, for the word love is an often used word that can have various levels of intensity.  

It is not enough that you believe that you love them, for how many times have you really believed that you loved someone, just to find out that it was more of a physical attraction, instead of real love?

There must be more, there must be a demonstration of that love, or your spouse will consider your love dead, or missing, or simply a mental assent to the concept of love, but it must not really reach down into your heart.  

In other words, love without works is dead.  You can tell your wife that you love her, and then she will probably look at you and tell you how nice that is, but that she shows you her love by her works.  

Therefore, the test of your love for your spouse is your works.  

It doesn’t mean that you do not love her if you do not have works.  You can be married without works, but if you truly love your wife, or your husband, there will be works that are the natural result of that love.  They will come from the emotional, heartfelt, desire, to do things for your spouse that will demonstrate your love for them.  Those works will be the fruit of your love.  

You will do things for your spouse all of the time, not just on Valentine’s Day, not just because you want to pass a test, or a judgment to come, but because to love someone in the manner that God has intended for a man and a women to love each other, means that what they want and need is much more important than your own wants and needs.  

Now, if you can understand this concept, then you will be able to understand one of the most widely misinterpreted, and misunderstood, sections of the Bible as we study it today.  Listen to this podcast and learn what the Book of James says about a test of your faith, and how a faith without works is dead.  

HOW TO ASK GOD FOR WISDOM (James 1:6-11)

Have you ever been so overwhelmed by the circumstances that you found yourself in that you feel totally inadequate to handle things?

Too many choices, most of them bad ones, and how do you know which choices are good and which are bad?

James tells us “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him.” (James 1:5 HSCB).   

So where do we find God’s wisdom?  A large share of it is in God’s Word.  The Bible contains God’s answers to our questions about almost every aspect of life.  But we also gain wisdom from God through our prayers during times of trials.  

God’s purpose for the trials of a believer is to enlighten them, helping them to grow spiritually.  God truly wants to give you the wisdom to make the right choice.  He wants you to grow in your faith.

Listen to this podcast to learn that if you want to ask God for His wisdom, you must ask it of Him in faith, with nothing wavering, with no doubt, and fully trusting in God.  

TO HAVE MOUNTAIN MOVING FAITH (Mark 9:14-29)

Have you ever wanted the kind of faith where you could look at a mountain and say "Mountain, I want you to move over there," and the mountain would move? Now before you say that is impossible, understand that Jesus tells us as believers that If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Jesus says nothing shall be impossible for us, not even moving mountains.  So, what does it take to have mountain moving faith? Must you have a mountain of faith? Must you believe really hard in something or someone? Must you follow the TV evangelist who cries out "I believe, I believe, now if you will send me your money I can make you believe too?" Listen to this podcast to learn that God does not ask you to have mountain sized faith, or to believe extra hard in any thing or any one.  God just wants you to have mustard seed sized faith in the things that He wants done, for you to be obedient to those things, and then let Him do the rest.  If you can do this, then nothing shall be impossible to you, not even moving the mountain that God tells you to move.