The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

WHEN EVERYTHING GOES WRONG (Genesis 39:20-23)

WHEN EVERYTHING GOES WRONG (Genesis 39:20-23)

Have you ever had one of those days when everything goes wrong? Have you ever had one of those years when everything goes wrong? There are some years like that, when everything seems to go wrong. What do you do?

I’ve always been amazed at the advice that people give to other people. It sometimes seems like good advice. For example, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Tell that to a person who’s really hurting. Or here’s another one that will really bless your heart: “When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” Now, doesn’t that just bless your soul? Can you see a guy dangling over a cliff, trying to tie a knot. It takes two hands to do that.  If you try that, then you will fall.  Or here’s one that’s really sweet: “Grin and bear it.”  Now, really, that’s what the world tells us to help us in our times of loss, to help us to understand why these bad times are happening. Or you’ll be really hurting. I mean, you’ll be in darkness and consternation. One of your friends will come along and put his arm around your shoulder and say, “Cheer up! It could get worse.” Well now, that’s a lot of comfort: “Could be worse.”  One person said in response, “Yeah, I cheered up, and it got worse.” He was right. 

Now that, really, is what the world does when the world cannot understand.  Listen, there are times when you, as a child of God, will find yourself in difficulty, and darkness, and consternation.

Click on the play button to hear a message on one of the greatest testimonies that we can share with the world is how we face tragedy and loss.  How we deal with events when it seems like everything is going wrong in our lives is the difference between a life of hope, and a life without hope.  It is that hope, based on the absolutely certain promises of God, in our lives that gives us the strength to face whatever it is that God allows in our lives.  

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

Amen.

GOD’S TESTIMONY TO HAGAR AND ABRAHAM (Genesis 16:7 to 17:14)

The Bible tells us that Abraham and Sarai failed to be patient and wait on God’s perfect timing to accomplish His will in providing a son for Abraham.  The price of that failure was that Hagar was abused, and as a result, she rejected their witness and fled.  Hagar was first given to Abraham by Sarai, and then she was rejected and persecuted by Sarai after she became pregnant.  

Hagar’s rejection led her to flee from the very God that could give her everlasting life.  Hagar had no desire to be like Abraham and Sarai, if the way they treated her was an example of the God they believed in.  So, she turned her face back towards Egypt, back towards the world, back towards death and eternal darkness.  

I am glad that the Holy Spirit of God is able to convict the heart of the lost person in spite of the witness that most of us believers display on a daily basis, especially when we are away from the church, and even worse, within our own home.  Since Abraham and Sarai had so badly represented God to Hagar, God now steps in Himself and shows Himself to Hagar.  

Click on the link below to a message on how God loved Hagar just as much as He loved Abraham.  He sought her and found her, just as God had searched and found Abraham in the land of the Ur of the Chaldees.  From this point forward, the true and living God would no longer just be One about whom Abraham and Sarai spoke, He would be her God as well.  She confessed her faith with her mouth.  

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

Amen.

A CARDBOARD CHRISTIAN (Proverbs 21:28)

The Bible says that the great hunger of every person’s heart is to know Jesus Christ.  Not know about Him, but to know Him and to have reality.  Yet, people are tired of hypocrisy. They are tired of games. But they are seeking reality.  If we want to reach people for Christ.  If we want to show people how to fill that great hunger they feel in their heart, then we must have this bright, shining, and living reality, and no longer be cardboard Christians. 

Prov 21:28
28 A false witness shall perish: but the man that heareth speaketh constantly.
KJV

This verse says that it is fatal not to have reality, to be false, to be a phony, to be a cardboard Christian. “A false witness shall perish.” A false witness is someone who looks like a Christian, acts like a Christian, talks like a Christian, they may even believe they are a Christian, but they are not saved, and they are not born again.  If you believe that you will have eternal life in heaven just because you have joined the right church, but you have never made Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, then you are a cardboard Christian.

The verse also tells us of the reality of a faithful witness, “but the man that heareth speaketh constantly.”

John 10:27
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
KJV

This means that the Lord doesn’t know anyone unless they have heard His voice. You cannot be a Christian without hearing the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t mean audibly. But you must hear God. A faithful witness hears, and what is it that they hear? His voice. What is His voice? His Word. The Bible that we have been given by God, written and inspired by God, those words are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Click on the link below to hear a podcast message from The Master’s Class at LifeChange Church Wichita on the fatality of a false witness, and the reality of a faithful witness.  

Amen.

JESUS IS THE ANSWER TO YOUR DARKNESS (John 20:30-31)

John had a purpose when he gave us the gospel of John and it was that we might believe in Jesus, and that by believing, we might be saved. God wants us to know that Jesus is the answer to man's darkness.

John 20:30-31
30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
KJV

Jesus Christ is the light of men.  Now there can be no greater sin than to reject the light that is Jesus Christ. Once a man hears the gospel and his heart is open to the Word of God, if he does not act upon that light, and go from faith to faith until he believes in Jesus Christ, his condemnation is doubled. Because not only is he judged for his sin, but he is also judged that he refused the cure for that sin.  He refused to believe in Jesus Christ.

John 3:19-20
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
KJV

When God comes to judge the world, he's not going to judge the world primarily by the sin that was committed, but by the light that was rejected.  Jesus is the Light of the world. We are born as spiritually blind beggars, but those blind eyes can be opened and will be opened by the grace of God. It's not just turning on the light, the heart and the mind have to be opened and quickened to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. And once the heart, once the mind, are opened and quickened, then we go stepping into the light we are given until we come to Jesus. Man's greatest need is to come, admit and confess his spiritual blindness, his spiritual darkness.  When he says God help me, I'm blind, then God opens his eyes and gives him light.

John tells us that the purpose he had in writing this gospel was “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”  God wants us to know that Jesus is the answer to man's darkness.  

Click on the link below to learn how you can find God’s answer your darkness.  That answer is Jesus Christ.

Amen.

WHY DO YOU BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST? Part II (John 6:67-69)

The Bible commands each of us, as believers in Jesus Christ, to be ready to answer this question for someone who asks you to explain the hope that exists in you.

1 Peter 3:15
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
KJV

My answer is this, I know that Jesus is the Christ, personally. I know it personally. I have proven it in my own life. Not only does history tell me that He is the Son of God. Not only does the Bible tell me He is the Son of God. Not only does the Holy Spirit tell me that He is the son of God, but I know it to be true through personal experience, for personal reasons. I can testify that I know, that I know, that I know, that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God.

Ask yourself, Is Jesus Christ real to you? My answer to that question is Yes, he's real. He is real to me. I know, I am sure that he's the Christ, the son of the Living God.

Jesus Christ alone is the answer to your heart's need. There is nowhere else to go. Where else will you go if you don't go to Jesus? No one else has the answer to your sin. No one else can fill the longing of your heart. Nobody else can give you peace that passeth understanding. Nobody else has the words of eternal life. Nobody else walked out of that grave, but Jesus did, and I want you to know and be sure that He is the son of God.

Click on the link below to hear a message on why I believe in Jesus Christ, and if God calls upon you to talk to someone this afternoon about why you believe in Jesus Christ, then you should be able share why you believe in Him.

Amen.

WHY DO YOU BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST (John 6:64-69)

This is an important question to have a ready answer for, because if you cannot articulate a response to that question in your own mind, then you will not be able to explain it to someone else. You cannot effectively share the gospel of Christ without explaining who Christ is and why you believe in Him.

Now, as believers, we all will agree that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He came as God incarnate in man. That is the easy part. Yet, many of us will have a different answer to the question of why we believe in Jesus Christ. It will be different because each of us came to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior in our own way. Some of us, like me, knew Jesus from a very young age, others not until much later in life, and still others after a tragedy or trial occurred.

How we were saved is the same for each of us, for there is but one way to the Father and that is through Jesus Christ, but how we learned to love Jesus is different.

Click on the link below to hear a message on why I believe in Jesus Christ, and hopefully, it will help you learn how to express your own reasons.

Amen.

GOD'S TWO WITNESSES (Revelation 11:1-4)

Let me begin this post by asking a question, are you being persecuted for Jesus? If not, why not?

How about other Christians, in countries around the world, are they being persecuted today? Yes, they are, Christians are being killed in our world today in greater numbers than ever before. Yet, in the U.S., up until the last 15-20 years, to be recognized as a Christian was generally a positive thing. In fact, until recently, 80% of the country’s population identified themselves as a Christian. Now, to be certain, in the last 8 years we have had a dramatic shift in people’s attitude in this country towards the morals and values of the Judeo-Christian faith that most of us grew up with. Christians are quickly becoming the targets of ridicule and persecution in our country. Not on the scale of the rest of the world, but even that is not far off. Declare yourself to be a Christian today at most of our major universities, and then stand for your beliefs by speaking out, and you may not even be able to graduate. You will certainly be ridiculed and attacked by both the staff and the other students.

So, the question is, why are some Christians persecuted while others are not? The Bible says in 2 Tim 3:12, Yea, and all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. This says that all shall suffer persecution if they are living godly in Christ Jesus. This would mean that if you are not living godly in Christ Jesus, then you are not going to suffer persecution. Now, persecution can come in many forms, Jesus tells us that,

John 15:20
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
KJV

Jesus tells us that if you stand for Him, even in the U.S., you will face persecution. Click on the link below to hear the first part, of a two-part, message on the lessons we can learn about dealing with persecution from God’s two mighty witnesses that rise up during the Tribulation period.

Amen.

THE POWER OF SALVATION (Romans 1:8-16)

If you believed someone was about to go into a dangerous situation, what would you do to help them?

Would you tell them about the danger?  Would you try to stop them if you knew the danger was imminent and very real?  What if they still wanted to go, would you ask others for help in stopping them?  Would it depend on if it was a loved one, or a stranger?

Most of us would go to great lengths to keep someone, even a stranger, from walking into a dangerous situation like a fire, or stepping in front of a train, or stopping a robbery in progress.  Much of our reaction would depend on how serious we believed the danger to be and how well we knew the person.  

As a believer in Jesus Christ, you know of the imminent danger that much of the world faces once they die.  If you truly believe that heaven and hell are real, and that the only way to avoid spending eternity in hell is to find Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then what are you willing to do to save the people you know, or even a stranger, from that certain danger?

Listen to this podcast to learn the power of the salvation provided by God for those that call upon His name.  Listen to the words of the apostle Paul as he tells us that believers are indebted to the whole world because of the grace of God and what Jesus did for us on the cross.  

WHAT ABOUT HELL? (Mark 9:41-50)

Is hell really real? The preacher says that it is. TV evangelists proclaim that hell is full of fire and brimstone. Is what they say true? The scientist says that it is not. Professors state that there is no empirical evidence to prove... the existence of hell, or heaven, or even life after death. Is what they say true? Somebody is right and somebody is wrong. If the scientist is right, then life is short and the grave is all there is. If the preacher is right, then eternity is a long time to spend burning in the fires of hell. Listen to this podcast to see how Jesus Christ describes the reality of hell and what our roles are in preventing ourselves, and others, from spending eternity in hell.  

THE CANDLE AND THE BASKET (MARK 4:21-23)

In the parable of the candle and the basket, Jesus asks the simple question of the believer, would you bring a candle to a dark room and then cover it up with a basket?

Most people would say no, that does not make any sense because the purpose of lighting a candle is to dispel the darkness. A candle’s light brings safety from the things that lurk in the dark. If you put the candle into a lantern it becomes a mobile device that lights the pathway on a dark night, and if you put a reflective surface behind it, you can cast its light for long distances.

 

Listen to this podcast to hear how this message applies to the believer.  Learn how the believer is the candle that shines the light of Jesus upon a dark world.