The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

FACING FAILURE WITH FAITH (Hebrews 11:32)

FACING FAILURE WITH FAITH (Hebrews 11:32)

If God were to grade your faith today, would you get an A? A-plus? C-minus?  There was a student who came to the professor and he said, “Professor, I don’t believe I deserve this F.” The professor said, “Neither do I, but it was the lowest grade I had.”  Now, is that the kind of faith you have? What kind of a report card would God give you today if God had to measure you?

The Bibe says that our faith is important because it is absolutely impossible to please God without faith.  So, if you want to get an A from God on your report card, then you must have faith, and not just any faith, but a hall of fame type of faith.  The champion that we will look at today is Samson, and the title of our message is “Facing Failure With Faith.” So, let me ask, do you feel like a failure? Do you feel like you’ve failed the Lord, and to be quite honest about it, you feel like you don’t even deserve a second chance? Then this message is just for you because Samson was indeed a failure. 

However, in spite of what Samson did, God is the God of the second chance. Samson had enough faith to know that even though he was a failure and a disgrace, and that he’d failed and shamed God, that God still loved him and would remember him when he came in repentance and faith.  Now, you may be someone who has failed and you’ve failed so much. But I’m here as a messenger of God today to tell you God loves you, and the same God that blessed ole Samson, loves you. Here was a man, though he failed, he learned to face his failure with faith.

Aren’t you glad that we serve such a God? And aren’t you glad that 1 John 1:9 is in the Bible: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

Download this message to hear how God wants you to face your failures with faith.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

HOW TO BE USED OF GOD (Hebrews 11:32-34)

Would you like God to use you? I mean, would you really, or are you afraid of what God might ask you to do?  Are you willing to say to God, Lord I want you to use me wherever, whenever, and however, you want to use me?  Let’s go a little deeper, when you die, will people remember you as a servant of God, someone who impacted others for God?  In other words, will it make any difference that you lived? Will your story be that He was born. He lived. He died. You draw your breath, you draw your salary, you exist to live, you live to exist, and that is all?  I wonder if there are a lot of us who will not really leave any vacancy when we go. Will it make any difference that you lived? What is your life really, ultimately, counting for?  Is it counting for God?  If that is what you want, then who are the kinds of people that God uses?  Does God use mighty people to do mighty things for Him, or does God use common people to do His work?

Click on the link above to hear a message on the characteristics of the people that God uses to do mighty things to accomplish His will on this earth.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF FAITH (Hebrews 11:31)

Today’s message is about a champion of faith named Rahab, and the story of Rahab will teach us that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the transformation business, and the greatest power on earth is the grace of God made available by faith.  A great preacher once said that “nature forms us, sin deforms us, schools inform us, jails reform us, the Word conforms us, but Jesus transforms us.” He changes people. He literally, actually, eternally, changes people.  He cleanses us, justifies us, and washes away all of our sin.  

Now, if your religion hasn’t changed your life, then you’d better change your religion, because you don’t have the New Testament kind of religion. Jesus is in the transformation business. There’s no one so bad he cannot be saved. God is not finished with you. God loves you, and there’s no one so good he or she need not be saved.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the transforming power of the grace of God.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

FAITH IN THE REDEEMING BLOOD (Hebrews 11:28)

When we greet a fellow Christian today, we will typically ask, “How are you feeling?”  Perhaps it would be more applicable to ask, “How are you faithing?”  You see, feelings are fickle, but it is our that faith keeps us steady.  In fact, you are no stronger than your faith. The Bible says, “According to your faith be it unto you,” and God wants you to be a champion of faith.  Now, today, we are talking about the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ, and we’re going to help you to understand something of the power of faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Heb 11:28
28 Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
KJV

When we come to the Lord’s Table, how do we come? With clean hearts, no unconfessed, no unrepented-of sin, because we are celebrating the Lord’s Passover. We’re celebrating what the spotless, sinless Son of God did for us. The Bible says, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death, till he come.”  When we come to the Lord’s Table, we are celebrating, we’re not coming to mourn a corpse; we’re coming to hail a conqueror. Jesus Christ has defeated the old serpent. The Lamb has slain the serpent, and we celebrate. 

Now, in the Old Testament, the Jews put the blood upon the doorposts, to openly, and clearly, declare they were for the Lord, and so the death angel would Passover them. In the New Testament, we confess Christ openly as our Savior: “That if thou shalt believe in thine heart and confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, you’ll be saved. With the heart man believes unto righteousness; with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Just as the death angel passed over the Hebrews, he passes over us when we openly declare our love for Jesus Christ.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

PARENTS OF FAITH (Hebrews 11:23-27)

The most powerful and influential people on earth are not kings and presidents and cabinet members. The most powerful and influential people on earth are parents of faith, and in their hands is the destiny of the world. I cannot overemphasize the importance of family. The Bible states that the family is a creation of God, and it is indisputably important.  Faith is the vital ingredient in any family’s success. Do you want your children to be mighty for God upon this earth? It is a joy, a privilege, and a responsibility to raise your children for God, and you must have faith.

Every child is different. Every child is special. Every child is unique. Children do not come in standard packages. You have to read the label. God has a way for every child. Don’t see your child like a piece of marble or granite there, and you have a hammer and a chisel and you’re going to make out of that child what you want. That will be a great mistake. God has a plan for your children and grandchildren, and parents who are perceptive can see that special child.

We are living in perilous times, and we have been tasked by God to raise these children according to His plan for them.  We are in a battle with the forces of the devil for the spiritual hearts of our children.  First of all, there is liberalism in the churches. Our world is full of churches that do not stand on the authority of the Word of God, and the absolute Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ.  That is compounded by the humanism in the schools.  Humanism is just a camouflage name for atheism. Then, there is our society filled with immorality.  How are you going to do raise children in this world?  Only by faith. 

Click on the link below to hear a message on parents of faith and how God can help you to be a person of faith.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

LESSONS FROM A BOX OF BONES (Hebrews 11:22)

Man is the only creature who knows he’s going to die, and he’s trying desperately to forget it. If you don’t believe that, look at the woman who wears too much makeup trying to hide those wrinkles and age spots, or the man who has already passed middle age, making a fool of himself in a sports car, and trying to dress like a teenager with a gold chain around his neck. We just don’t like to think about death. If you mention death, people will look at you like you have smallpox. In society today, we don’t talk much about death.  You go to a funeral, and in the funeral, we do all we can do to camouflage the fact of death. Our cemeteries look like memorial parks. We just change the subject of death like we switch channels in a television set.  So, why is that? Well, there is a fear of death, and the Bible teaches that the devil keeps people in bondage through the fear of death.  

I want you to understand this, anybody who’s afraid of death, is in bondage. Are you afraid of death? Then Satan has done a job on you, and you have failed to understand what Jesus Christ has done for you.  I want to say clearly and plainly, no one is ready to live until he’s no longer afraid to die. Jesus has come to deliver us from the fear, and, correspondingly, the bondage, of death.  Jesus Christ is the risen, living, victorious as Savior, and because He lives, we live with Him. We no longer fear death. We no longer fear death because we have a Savior, a dear, loving Savior.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how to live confidently; how to die expectantly, and how to no longer fear death. 

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

LEARNING TO LEAN ON GOD (Hebrews 11:21)

LEARNING TO LEAN ON GOD (Hebrews 11:21)

Many of us think that self-sufficiency is a virtue, and at many a high school graduation ceremony, there will be speakers telling young people to learn to be self-sufficient. The truth of the matter is that self-sufficiency is not a virtue; spiritually, it is a vice.  In fact, if you are a follower of Christ, then God is working on you. God is working on each of us, and He will not be finished with us until our total, complete dependency is not on self, but on Him.

In our message today, Jacob tells God, “Lord, I trust you, but …” Have you ever done that? “Lord, I trust you, but, Lord, I don’t trust You completely. And now, Lord, You help me out. But Father, You know, I’ve got to rig this thing first and you just make my efforts work.”  But that is not the way God works.  Did you know that God likes broken things? Men throw broken things away, but God never really ever uses anything until He first breaks it. David said, in the Psalms, “A broken and a contrite spirit thou wilt not despise, O God.” Most of us are not being used of God because we’ve never been broken. 

One of these days, if God breaks you and you become broken bread and poured out wine, God can use you. God took a little lad’s lunch, and broke it, and fed the multitudes. Mary took an alabaster box of ointment, and she broke it, and lavished her love upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The prophet Jeremiah said, “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among the thorns.” You’ll never have the crop you ought to until you put the plow in, until the old clods are broken. Even the Lord Jesus Christ took that Last Supper and said, “This is my body which is broken for you.” Men throw broken things away. God never ever uses anything or anybody until they’re first broken.

Click on the link below hear a message on how Jacob loved God, and he had to be delivered from his self-sufficiency. He had to learn how to lean on Jesus. 

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

LESSONS FROM A DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY (Hebrews 11:20)

The home is meant to be the seminary of heaven, but often it is the incubator of hell.  If you are looking around, you can see that Satan is systemically dismantling homes in our world.  Sociologists today would say that family is important, but when society changes, what we call family can change and the role of family may change.  That is not true.  The Bible clearly states that the family is not the product of sociology. Family did not come from the swamps of immorality. Family is not something that evolved from primordial ooze. Family is the gift of God. God instituted family in the Garden of Eden, and the first institution was not government, not education, not business; the first institution was family. God put a family in the Garden of Eden.  Throughout history, when the concept of family was completely obliterated, disintegrated, from a culture, those societies crumbled. There is a war on the family, and you have to admit it: In today’s society, family life, godly family life, is difficult.

So, how do we fight this?  Unfortunately, the majority of the dads in America, whether they are saved or lost, are focused on the things of this world.  They are wrapped up in business, in sports, in recreation, in alcohol, in food, in materialism, and these fathers are living self-centered lives, while their families are dysfunctional, their families are crumbling around them. The Bible says that God made the husband to be the head of the family, and as the father, you have an awesome responsibility to be a spiritual man, a man of God. 

Click on the link to hear a message on how we, as parents, both father and mother, have an awesome power to bless our children. You can bless your children by training them up to love God.  But ultimately, the children must make their own choice to serve God.  

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

GOD PROVIDED A SUBSTITUTE (Hebrews 11:17-19)

I want you to take God’s Word and hold your Bible in your hand.  Now, I want to tell you there is no book like the Bible. None whatsoever. The book that you hold in your hand is one book, and yet it is sixty-six books. There are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament. There are twenty-seven in the New Testament. They were written over a period of about 1,500 years by at least forty different authors in three different languages, people from all backgrounds and walks of life. But when you bring them together, they don’t make sixty-six books; they make one book, one book that is bound together. 

This book has one hero, His name is Jesus. It has one villain, he is the devil. It has one theme, it is salvation. It has one purpose, the glory of God. And so, if you read any verse in the Bible, standing somewhere in the shadows, you’re going to find the Lord Jesus, and that’s what we’re going to see today as we continue to look in the life of the man named Abraham.  We are going to look back in history, centuries before Jesus Christ was born upon this earth, and we’re going to find a wonderful depiction of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the Old Testament, God gave illustrations, types, prophecies, figures of that which is to come in the New Testament.  It is one of the great confirmations of the inspiration of the Scripture, when you see way back here centuries before Jesus Christ was even born that God gives figures and types and prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, not only is it a confirmation of the inspiration of the Scriptures, but, correspondingly, it is a confirmation of the deity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as we see Him pictured there, tucked away in the Old Testament.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on if God was willing to give Jesus up freely for us all, how shall He not also freely give us all things? He is the God who provides.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

HAS YOUR FAITH BEEN TESTED? (Hebrews 11:17-19)

God is going to give you some trials, some tests, to see if your faith is real.  Not for Him to know anything about your faith, for He already knows all about your faith, but for you to know that your faith is real and that it can be trusted no matter what.  Warren Wiersbe said that “A faith that cannot be tested, cannot be trusted.”

Tests, and trials, and temptations come in two kinds. The devil solicits us, tempts us to do evil, to cause us to stumble. God tests us to do good in order to cause us to stand.  What God wants to accomplish by testing us is to make our faith strong and pure. How will it be tested?  It will be tested by fire.  Then, what is the purpose of the testing?  God is going to put your faith in the fire to purify it, to make it stand no matter what comes.

God is going to test your faith by asking you to do something that may surprise you—not by giving up the wrong things and the bad things, but by giving up the good things. It would be relatively easy if God asked us to give up the bad things, to give up lying, and stealing, and cheating, and pride—to show that we love Him. But that’s not what God is asking.

There are some things that we give up for the Lord. But the test of faith that God will give you is not what you are willing to give up for the Lord, but are you willing to give back to the Lord of the blessings that you have received.  Are you able to give your blessings back to God? Not, are you willing to give up your sins for God? Are you willing to give your blessings back to God? The test of faith is not primarily between love and hate, but between two loves, those things we love dearly and that which we must love supremely.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how God wants you to be strong in faith. For without faith, it is impossible to please God.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.