The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

CAN YOU UNDERSTAND JESUS? (Mark 9:30-40)

Do you understand Jesus when He speaks to you?  As believers we put many things in the way of our hearing what our Lord is trying to teach us. We bring the preconceived ideas of our religion to the Lord's classroom. We filter what the Lord says through those ideas, and it keeps us from hearing what the Lord is truly trying to teach us. We bring the world's values, measures, and standards to the Lord's classroom. We judge greatness, goodness, evil, and sin by the ever changing moral standards of the current social thinking. Using the world's standards prevents us from understanding what the Lord is truly trying to teach us. Listen to this podcast to learn that the keys to understanding Jesus do not include the rituals of religion, nor do they include the world's standards. Jesus says that you must first be reborn. You must be a believer to understand the words of Jesus. A person who does not have a relationship with Christ will never hear Him. Jesus says that you must also accept the role of servant of all. A proud man will never hear the words of Jesus. It is when we truly hear the words of Jesus that we find the purpose that He has for our lives.

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.

JESUS IS THE HOPE OF HUMANITY (Mark 9:1-13)

When you look out into the future do you have hope? If you do, then what is your hope based on? Does your hope rest on the government?  Can the government fulfill your needs? Does your hope rest on religion?  Can religion give you certainty about the future, about life after death? A person finds hope when there is certainty about the future.  Unfortunately, there is nothing certain about the government, or religion, other than our disappointment in both.   Listen to this podcast to learn that, for the believer, hope does not arise from the individual's desires or wishes, but from God, who is Himself the believer's hope, for it is in God that we find absolute certainty. Discover how the transfiguration of Jesus proclaimed that Jesus is The Hope of Humanity.

ARE YOU WORRYING ABOUT THE RIGHT THINGS? (Mark 8:10-26)

How much of your time is spent worrying about things you cannot control? What is it that worrying is keeping you from doing? What are the top 10 things you worry about? Your job, finances, food, shelter, loneliness, or your health? What would it take to get you to stop worrying about these things? SomeOne you could trust to handle those problems for you. Listen to this podcast to understand how knowing Jesus makes a difference in what you worry about, how much time you spend worrying, and how much time you spend accomplishing the things that God wants you to do. Learn how Jesus is that SomeOne you can have faith in. Learn how to worry about the right things.

THE LORD OF OUR NEEDS (Mark 7:31 to 8:8)

How do you go about meeting your family's needs?  You anticipate them.  You plan for them.  You work for them.  You spend hours cooking, cleaning, and making the things that they need.  You get up early every morning to go to a job because you know they are depending on you.  You sacrifice for them.  You want them to be able to depend on you.  You want them to have faith that you will be able to meet their needs because you always have.   You dedicate your life to meeting the needs of the family that God has been gracious enough to give you.  You do this because you love them.  If you, as a parent are capable of doing this out of the love found in your human heart, how much more so can Jesus, as the Son of the living God, meet your needs out of the unlimited love found in His divine heart?    Listen to this podcast to learn how Jesus, as the Lord of our needs, plans methodically and miraculously for our needs.  He structures our experiences to build our faith, and He expects us to have faith that He will always be there for us.  That faith comes as we look back at the things that He has done for us in the past.  That faith comes because He has promised to never, never, never, leave us.  

WHAT IS IN YOUR HEART? (Mark 7:14-30)

Every day the headlines declare the latest act of violence and evil that has occurred in our nation.    Every day we seek answers as to why these events are occurring more often than we remember in our past. Our politicians and the news media blame the tools of the violence while they ignore the source of the evil that drives these events. They choose to issue gun control and God control laws to handle the problem. These laws do nothing to solve the problem because it is the evil within the person's heart that drives the ability of man to commit these acts. Man's heart has a tremendous capacity for love, charity, and compassion for others. Man's heart also contains apathy, indifference, intolerance, and arrogance. Jesus tells us that there are also thirteen things within every man's heart that makes man the most vicious creation on the planet earth. Our country believes that a man must have freedom to do that which he desires. But for that freedom to be successful it must be constrained by man's absolute belief in the morals of right and wrong established by the living God. Instead of allowing our belief in the morals of God to constrain the evil that lies with the heart of man, our politicians have chosen to issue laws confining God's morals to the four walls of the church. They have mandated the abolishment of God's teachings from our schools. They have abolished the name of Jesus from our government buildings. They have banned God's commandments from our courtrooms. They have done this in the name of a new, socially, enlightened, morality. They have called good what God calls evil. In doing so, they have removed the constraints on the evil that lies within the heart of man. Instead of a new morality, we now have a lack of any morality, and they stand surprised at the violence that is the result. Listen to this podcast to learn that it is what comes from the heart of man that defiles our nation's soul, our people's spirit, and fills our headlines.

SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME (Mark 6:45-52)

Do you have someone to watch over you as you go through the problems of life? Do you have a resource with enough power to call upon when you are in your darkest moments? Most of us go through life being controlled by the things that are going on around us. When things are going good, we are happy. When things are hard, we endure on our own. But that is not the way Jesus wants you to go through life. Listen to this podcast to learn how you can have a direct link to the One with the power to put all of your problems beneath your feet. You can walk victoriously over the problems and challenges of your darkest moments. Learn how Jesus wants to be the SomeOne who watches over you.

THE ONE WITH ABSOLUTE POWER (Mark 5:1-20)

What kind of world do you think we live in?

Is it one of promise, and goodness, where evil is a rarity?The world is full of promise, but one look at the daily headlines tells us that evil is not a rarity. It happens every day. There is a constant struggle between darkness and light.

Knowing that evil exists, each of us tries to create a bubble of security around us. We try to shield our families from the darkness. Yet evil intrudes when a man walks into a school and shoots innocent children.

Listen to this podcast to learn the source of that evil, and find the only ONE with the absolute power to defeat it.

OUR GRATITUDE (1 Cor. 1:4-10)

During this time of Thanksgiving, what are you grateful for?  Is it your family, your husband, your wife, your job?   For the believer, we are most grateful for our salvation granted to us by a gracious God.  For we know that there was nothing in our actions that warranted that salvation, there was only the amazing grace of God.  Listen to this podcast and learn how Paul expressed his gratitude to God, and as you listen you will find the things that you can be truly grateful for.

JESUS, THE BELIEVER'S REST (Mark 2:23-28)

Do you always try to do what is right?  Most of us would say yes.  In your daily activities are you always trying to do what is ethical, moral, and just?  Again, my expectation is that you would say yes, as Christians we are basically moral people.   Do you have a set of values about what is right or wrong that you try to live your life by?  Of course, you do.  When you face a hard decision about your career, or marriage, or divorce, or even where you are going to go on vacation, do you try to do what is right in your own eyes?  Listen to this podcast to learn how Jesus tells you that if you answered yes to any, or one, of these questions, and you are a believer, then you have failed to fully enter into the rest that Jesus Christ offers each believer.