The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

DAVID, A MAN OF FAITH (1 Samuel 17:1-49)

The Bible story of David and Goliath is one of the most familiar in the Bible.  You don’t even have to be a Christian to know this story.  There have been books and movies, and even TV shows based on this story.  Michelangelo even depicted the story on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  We are told this story from the time we are a child.  The image of a young man with just five smooth stones and a sling against a giant of a man in full battle armor is iconic in Bible history.  It is a story that reveals more than human bravery.  It reveals that, even as a boy, David had a heart for God. 

The key to this whole story is found in the fact that David didn’t volunteer to fight the giant because his people were being shamed.  No, David fought Goliath because Goliath was defying the armies of the living God!  David, put his faith in God.  He knew that God would deliver the giant into his hands.  David testified to his faith in God telling the giant “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.”

Powerful words of faith from such a young man.  

David knew that it was not by chance that God had led him to this battlefield.  David could say in his heart that it is not by chance that he was born into Jesse's family. It is not by chance that he had seven older brothers. It is not by chance that he had to fight for his place in the family, not with carnal weapons, but with spiritual ones. It is not by chance that I learned early to love, trust, and obey the living God. It is not by chance that God has become my constant companion and guide. It is not by chance that I learned to play the harp and write great hymns which will be sung by God's people forever. Such things do not happen by chance; they happen by choice. God chose me, and I chose Him.

It is not by chance that I became a shepherd and developed a heart for the flock. It is not by chance that God gave me courage to face the lion and the bear in the wilderness of which you speak. It is not by chance that I have great skill with a sling and a stone. That skill represents hard work and constant practice. And it is not by chance that I am not afraid of Goliath and you are.  And it is not by chance that we are where we are and that we are who we are.

David learned that he could not use the weapons of this world to fight the battle. He had to use his own weapons, his own methods, those in which God had schooled him. The believer today needs to recognize that the world can be overcome only by his faith and confidence in God.  

Amen.

JESUS ASKS, DO YOU LOVE ME? (John 21:15-25)

The section of verses that we are about to cover is very familiar if you have been a Christian for a while.  They are the verses where Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him.  They are verses with a lot of different messages that can be taught and preached on, but they all deal with the word love.  It is loving Jesus that is the secret of serving our Lord.  

Now, most pastors spend time talking about the differences in the Greek words that Jesus and Peter use for the word love.  Jesus, the first two times He asks Peter if he loves Him, uses the word “agapao” meaning to love deeply, but Peter doesn’t feel worthy to respond using the same word, so he uses the word “Phileo,” which means a brotherly love.  Peter’s deep feeling for the Lord is real, but having failed Him miserably, Peter just cannot bring himself to claim that he loves the Lord deeply.  This feeling in Peter is certainly important because Jesus has come here to prepare Peter for the things to come.  Jesus is here to show Peter what love really is, and to be honest, that is what the gospel of John is all about, love.  God’s love for us, but also what it means for us to truly love Jesus Christ.

Jesus doesn’t ask Peter about whether he believes the Lord’s doctrine.  He doesn’t ask if Peter is obeying His commandments, or if he is giving large sums of money, or what great things he has accomplished.  Jesus looks right at Peter, and He asks, do you love me?  Jesus is asking you that same question, do you love me?

Why does Jesus want you to know this?  Because the secret of serving our Lord is that you must first love Jesus with all of your heart, then you can feed His sheep.  It is love for Jesus that is the secret of service and if you're a teacher in a church, if you're a greeter in a church, if you're on a committee in a church, or if you are on the staff of a church, and if you serve for any other reason than that you love Jesus, then quit that job right now, or get right. You will have a deadening influence if you don't get right with God. You say, "Well, I just love music, I want to sing in the choir." That's not good enough. "I just love playing instruments." That's not good enough. "I just love to teach." That's not good enough. Do you love Jesus? If you love Him, then you can feed His sheep.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the secret of serving the Lord Jesus is that you must first love Him, then you can serve Him by serving others.  

Amen.

JESUS PREPARES HIS FOLLOWERS (John 21:1-14)

Today, we come to the last chapter of the gospel of John.  It begins with the same dynamic life of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of the other chapters in the gospel begin with.  Jesus has some unfinished business with His disciples before He ascends into heaven.  He has directions to give them.  Directions that they will need in order to share the gospel message to a dark world that needs to hear the words of eternal life.  But, He needs to speak to Peter most of all.  

Peter was to be the great preacher of Pentecost, the first disciple to reach out to the Gentiles, and the one who will lead this group of men on the trail to share the gospel.  But, at this moment, Peter was a broken man, full of self-doubt.  Jesus had already spoken to him separately, but He had more to say.  The Lord now had to minister directly to Peter's conscience.  Jesus knew the role that Peter would play in the days to come, and so He needed Peter to know that he had been forgiven.  

In each of our lives, there is a place, a time, where something happened, something where we failed the Lord by what we did.  I know that is true of me.  I have hurt those close to me when I sought to please myself instead of the Lord.  If you are a Christian, with the Holy Spirit living in your heart, then these are things that you come to regret with all of your heart, something you would give anything to undo. You wish you could go back and live the incident over again, only doing it differently this time.  You cannot erase the memory. 

Click on the link below to hear Part 1 of a two-part message on how the great physician deals with our own conscience. How he lays even the persistent ghosts of our past to rest.  

Amen.

THE SCARS THAT GOD BEARS (John 20:24-29)

Let me ask you a question, is Jesus God or man? Is Jesus God or man? Well, the answer to that question is yes. He is the God-man. He is God incarnate in man. He is God in human flesh. Now, the fact that Jesus is both God and man is absolutely foundational to our faith. There is no compromise on this fact that allows our faith to be real. The rock our faith is built on is Jesus Christ, who came to this earth as fully God, and fully man. Yet, it is this question that vexes the world, and there are so many false religions, major, world religions, that deny this is true.

The prophet Isaiah said, "Unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given..."

When Isaiah said, "a child is born," he was speaking of Christ’s humanity. When he said, "a son is given," he was speaking of Christ’s deity. Jesus Christ is the God-man. Now, as a child, He was born in Bethlehem. As God, He has ruled from eternity. But, understand this, He did not have His beginning at Bethlehem, only His birth. As a man, Christ was born to die. As God, Christ died for our sins.

Now, as I was preparing this lesson, I had to pause and think about how I envision God in my mind. So, I want you to think of God, and then think of the very first image that comes to mind. Now, notice that I am deliberately using the name God, here. Is the image you have of God, as He is described in the Bible, the baby Jesus there in the manger that we think of at Christmas time? Probably not, I just don’t think of God as a baby. He was, but that is not how I think of Him. Is it the man with white flowing hair sitting on a throne with a light so bright coming from Him that you cannot even look at Him? This is closer, right? When I think of God, I think of Him sitting on His throne. Ok, if that is not your image of God, then is it Jesus as the kind and gentle man that we see in all the portraits? Sometimes, right? But let me ask you, do you draw a distinction in your mind between God and Jesus? God is indeed a triune God, three persons, but there is just One God. All three make up the One God. So, when you think of Jesus, do think of Him as God, just as you would the Father and the Holy Spirit?

Ok, do you have the image of God in your mind, the very first image that comes to mind? Now, in that image, do you think of God, the triune God, as having scars? It just doesn’t seem to fit with our images of God, does it? Yet, those scars in the hands, feet, and side, of Jesus, the God-man, the second part of the triune God, are real, and they tell us so much about God. That is what our lesson is about today, The Scars That God Bears.

Now, it's very important that you understand this—that, as a man, Jesus suffered. When Jesus appeared before Thomas, He invited Thomas to examine those scars. They were a brute testimony to the fact that Jesus, indeed, was pierced with those hideous nails.

There is a great problem in the world today when you try to testify about God. The problem is not primarily science. The problem is not primarily history. The problem is primarily suffering. When you try to tell people about God, they will ask you again and again how can you believe in a God, if there be a God, who allows so much suffering? And this causes great doubt because here's the way the human mind works. "Well, if God is love, and God is all powerful, why does God allow so much suffering?" And so, they think well, perhaps He is a God of infinite love, but He has no power; therefore, He is a weak God. Or else He is all-powerful, but He has no love and so He is a cruel God. Or perhaps He has no power and no love, so He is no God at all.

That's the way people think. But there is a more important question that you should be asking. Not why do men suffer? No, the more important question for us to understand and consider is why does God suffer? That is the most important question that should be in your heart. Not why do we as humans suffer, but those scars tell us that God in human flesh suffered, and so why did God suffer?

Click on the link below to hear a message that tells us why God allows suffering in this world, and why God chose to suffer.

Amen.

THE JOB OF A CHRISTIAN (John 20:21)

The title of the lesson is “The Job of a Christian,” but I could just as easily have used the title of, "Getting People Ready for Heaven" because that is what Jesus is telling His disciples, and us, about what comes next. The resurrection is real, Jesus is alive, and this is what He wants us to do next.

John 20:21
21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
KJV

Jesus didn't come as the great teacher. He didn't come as the great financier, and He didn't come as the great politician. He came to be the Savior of the world. The mandate that the Father sent His Son to do was a mandate of salvation. Our mandate today is the same mandate that Jesus had, and that is the salvation of souls.

Does God want people saved? Of course, He does. Has God put His instructions in the Bible? Of course, He has. What we need to do is to give the simple, glorious, message of Jesus Christ. There are thousands of people out there who will respond to the simple message of the gospel. The gospel is so incredibly simple—not simplistic—but simple, clear, plain, and sweet. You don't have to be a PhD to understand it. God loves common people, and so, what you need to do is to learn the simple, sweet, glorious message of the gospel, and then share it with others.

The world is hungering for this truth. His message is to be our message.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how we need to make a full, total, surrender to Jesus Christ. Learn how to share the gospel. Pray that God will lay some soul upon your heart, or that God will open extraordinary opportunities to you, and then be bold enough to speak for Jesus. Don't be afraid of failure. There can be no failure if you obey. Whether they are saved or not, you will be a success if you share the Lord Jesus. Successful witnessing is sharing Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results with God.

Amen.

THE FINISHED WORK OF JESUS CHRIST (John 19:30)

Our message today is going to be about a simple phrase. A phrase that contains just three words, and yet they are three words that shook the world then, and they are still shaking the world today. They are “It is finished.”

John 19:30
30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
KJV

There is a prayer in my heart about this message today. It is that God would anoint this message with supernatural power. I pray that God would make these words a blessing. I pray that the Lord will speak through me, and as a result, that Christians will be strengthened, and that the unsaved will be convicted, and converted, and drawn to confess Christ as their Lord and Savior. I pray that everything that is said and done here today will glorify and magnify the name of Jesus. That is my prayer for this message today. I hope that is your prayer as well.

Now, I want you to notice that Jesus did not say, "I am finished." Even though all of the demons in Hell were howling in glee and saying, "We got Him, He's gone. He's finished." it is really important for us to see that Jesus didn't say, "I am finished."

Even though the disciples were mournful and brokenhearted because their leader, their Sovereign, their King, was dying there upon a cross. We need to understand that it was not that Jesus was finished. Instead, Jesus said “IT was finished.”

Click on the link below to hear a message on what Jesus meant when He said IT is finished. We will talk about the prophecies that were completed, and the suffering that was completed, but, most importantly, I want to tell you, thank God, God's way of salvation was finished. God's mighty work of redemption was finished. When Jesus died, all that was necessary for you to be forgiven and to be saved was done. There's nothing for you to do but to receive what Jesus Christ has already done, because "It is finished."

That is the difference between any false cult and biblical Christianity. There's nothing for you to do. What you must do is to receive the finished work of Calvary. Jesus Christ said: "It is finished". It is not what you do to be saved, it's what He has done. It's spelled d-o-n-e. "It's finished." Jesus Christ has purchased your salvation. It's paid for.

What I want you to hear in this message are God’s promises to you. When Jesus Christ said “It is Finished, He is telling you that if you want to be saved, you can be saved. If you want God to give you a new life, He'll give you a new life. If you want power over Satan, you can have it. Because "It is finished"

Amen.

WHAT DO YOUR REACTIONS SHOW? (John 18:1 to 11)

I want to start by telling you something important, and here it is, the true test of your character is not seen in your actions but in your reactions. Have you ever gone to the doctor? And, when you were there, he was checking you out, and he put you up on the table, and took that little hammer and tapped your knee? He wanted to see if you had a particular reaction. He's trying' to find out something about you. Now, you could sit up there, and he could say, "Lift your knee," and you could raise it up and down like he said. But, he doesn't want to see what you planned to do, or that you can follow instructions. He wants to see the reaction he gets from you when he hits your knee with the hammer, because it is that reaction that is going to tell him something about you.

Now, all of us can control our actions. But, it's our reactions that really count and really show what we are. How you react, what comes out of your mouth, when somebody cuts you off as you are driving down the road, or if you stub your toe, or hit your finger when you are trying to hit a nail, says a lot about what is in your heart.

The difference between our actions and our reactions is really the difference between reputation and character. Somebody once said that reputation is what others think about you. Character is what God and your wife know about you. Sometimes there is a vast difference. But I want us to think today about reactions, and what we can learn about how we should react from how our Lord Jesus reacted to the events leading up to His crucifixion.

Jesus Christ gave himself for us on the cross to pay for our sins, and then he rose again to give himself to us that he might live his life through us. The same Jesus who reacted that way so long ago will react that way in you today, if He is inside of you. If he's not there, if He is not in you, they you are just an imitation of Jesus. But, if he is there, you can say, "The life I now live I live by the life of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." Isn't that wonderful?

Click on the link below to learn how when we begin to live that way, the joy begins to come, the power begins to come, our loved ones get saved, our friends get reconciled, and God is glorified. That's what I want. That's what we want. We want our reactions to show people who we really are, a twice born person and a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

THE LORD'S PRAYER FOR YOU-PART II (John 17:14-26)

This is a prayer where Jesus asks the Father to keep and strengthen the Lord’s disciples, both the men who were gathered around Him on this dark night before His crucifixion, and those who would later come to believe on Him throughout the church age.

John 17:11
11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
KJV

It is amazing to understand that 2,000 years ago, Jesus, on His way to be crucified, took time to pray for you and me. It is a prayer that has transcended time and space. The Lord’s prayer has impacted every believer that has claimed Him as their Savior since the day He prayed it.

Did you know that you have this ability as well? You do. When you pray to Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus, and for the things that Jesus wills for you, then your prayer can transcend time and space just as the Lord’s did. You can pray for people in other parts of the world that you don’t even know. You can pray for your great-grandchildren that have not even been born yet. This is the power of praying to an almighty God. It is a wonderful thing to know and apply in our lives.

What was the Lord praying about for you on that street so long ago? He was praying for our protection, our security, our sanctification, and that we would have the power to do all the things that He has asked us to do. He prayed that we would share the gospel message of Jesus Christ to a lost world.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the how the Lord Jesus Christ prayed that you do the things that He has sent you to do, and then, that you would come to be with Him. Heaven is incomplete for Jesus without you. Jesus wants you to be with Him. That is such a wonderful thought to apply in our heart. Jesus wants you to be with Him.

Amen.

THE LORD'S PRAYER FOR YOU (John 17:1-13)

Imagine this, the Son of the Almighty God, the Creator of all things, stood in a street and prayed for you.

John 17:9
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
KJV

When Jesus says, “I pray for them,” He means that He is praying for those who have believed on Him. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then Jesus is praying for you. That doesn’t mean that the Lord does not love the lost. He so loved the world that He came to die on a cross for their sin. But this prayer was about the people who would take the good news of the gospel of Christ to the world.

What did Jesus pray for?

John 17:13
13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
KJV

It was for joy that Jesus endured the cross. Jesus wanted that same joy to fill the souls of his saints. His joy could not be full if their cup was not full too. So, he prayed that "they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves."

Click on the link below to hear a message on what Jesus prays for you. He prayed that you might have everlasting life and to have your cup filled with His joy.

Amen.

THE PURPOSE OF PRAYER (John 17:1-23)

Today’s message is on prayer and it comes from chapter 17 of the Gospel of John. This is a prayer of the Lord Jesus. It is a deep and profound prayer. In times like this, a time when great numbers of people are dying from a disease, a time when great persecution of God’s people is taking place, a time when there is doubt and fear about what is happening in the world, prayer is the most important thing in a Christian’s life. It is prayer that prepares us for anything. It is prayer that allows us to be prepared to face any fear, any tragedy, any persecution. The best preparation for anything is to pray.

The purpose of prayer is that God will be glorified. Prayer prepares us to do what God would have us to do. Then, when we do what God would have us to do, God will be glorified.

If you wish to learn the purpose of prayer in a Christian’s life, then I can’t think of a better way to do it than to eavesdrop on the Son of God when He prays. Imagine that, we get to hear the words of the Son of God as He prays. What a privilege that is.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how prayer can take you through any tragedy, any trial, in order that you might finish the things that God has for you to do.