Episodes
Sunday Dec 12, 2021
A CARDBOARD CHRISTIAN (Proverbs 21:28)
Sunday Dec 12, 2021
Sunday Dec 12, 2021
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.
Sunday Nov 21, 2021
A TRUE FRIEND (Proverbs 17:17)
Sunday Nov 21, 2021
Sunday Nov 21, 2021
A TRUE FRIEND (PROVERBS 17:17)
Like most of you, I can count on one hand the number of true friends that I have had throughout my life, and still have fingers left over. A true friend is a gift from God, and it is something that we treasure because they are so rare. In today’s lesson, I am going to flip this around and talk about what we, you and I, need to do in order to cultivate and become a true friend to someone else. So, what do I mean when I say a true friend? Somebody has said, “A friend is someone who comes in when everyone else goes out.” If you want to know who your true friends are, face some real tragedy in your life, and then see who jumps ship, and who comes to be with you.
Prov 17:17
17 A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
KJV
A true friend will make you a better person. A true friend is faithful, and a true friend will care enough and love enough to confront you.
Now, for the believer, the best friend that we will ever have is Jesus Christ. Just think about the blessings of knowing Jesus and having Christ as a friend, and all of the things that it ultimately means to us. How His friendship for us lifts us to a new level, and the fact that we didn’t choose Him, but He chose us.
Now, let me give you something to understand. Grace is God’s acceptance of me. Faith is my acceptance of God’s acceptance of me. Peace is my acceptance of me. Love is my acceptance of you, and then, fellowship is your acceptance of me. Grace, faith, peace, love, fellowship—there’s an unbroken chain. We need to learn how to accept God’s acceptance of us so we can accept ourselves and so we can accept others.
Click on the link below to hear a message on what it means to be a true friend to someone else. As a Christian we offer eternal life with Jesus Christ in heaven. If this is truly our vision, then it is very important for you as an individual to have friends and to be a friend. But, if we are to bring more people to a saving knowledge of Christ, then we need to meet their needs, and one of the things that meets needs is that spirit of friendliness.
Amen.
Sunday Oct 31, 2021
RIGHTEOUSNESS INCREASES FREEDOM-PART II (Proverbs 14:34)
Sunday Oct 31, 2021
Sunday Oct 31, 2021
This is Part II of a message that I began last week on how the Word of God teaches that righteousness increases freedom, and I put this in the context of what is happening today to this country that we love so much. We live in a time when the very foundations of our nation are being challenged, and in many ways those foundations have already been unalterably changed.
Alexander Hamilton said, “People get the kind of government they deserve.” This means that the government that we have is a reflection of the character of our people. If the government reflects the character of the people, then you are going to find that the greater the character of the people, the more freedom, the more liberty, those people will have. The less the character of the people, the less freedom, and the less liberty, those people will have. Another word for character is responsibility, because character is responsibility assumed.
So, what is the only hope for America? I want to state with all of the power of my soul that the only hope for America is found right here in God’s Word.
Prov 14:34
34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
KJV
This is not merely what God has said in the past, this is what God is saying to any people, any nation. It is a universal truth from God, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” Unfortunately, the country that we love has overwhelmingly chosen the path that is described by the last half of this verse, where it says, but sin is a reproach to any people. It is with a very heavy heart that I have to say America is no longer the godly country our founders created.
Now on July 4, 1776, there was signed in the city of Philadelphia a document we call the Declaration of Independence. Now it was independence from Great Britain, but what many people fail to understand is that this same document was a document of dependence upon Almighty God. Now, without a doubt, the politicians of today have forgotten that fact. But it was clearly, and plainly, a declaration of dependence upon Almighty God.
Look at the opening and closing paragraph of this document. It says this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are … endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights.” It begins that way. But it closes this way: “With a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence …”—now, what is reliance? That’s dependence—“With a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence”—what is divine providence? That’s God—“With a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
All of that was stated in the context of depending upon Almighty God. It was then that the cannons fired. It was then that the fireworks went off. It was then, in the old statehouse now called Independence Hall, that the Liberty Bell began to ring out freedom. And on that bell are inscribed these words from Leviticus 25, verse 10: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land.”
In that document they said that God created us. Now, that isn’t what we can teach in schools today. But, our founders said in that document that God, as our Creator, gives us our rights, not the government. These are inalienable rights, like life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These have come from the Almighty, and not from government.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how our government, our constitution, began with a dependence upon Almighty God. And the Constitution was written by people of character, for people of character, and it will work for no other people. If we lose our character in the United States, our constitution will not work.
Amen.
Sunday Oct 24, 2021
RIGHTEOUSNESS INCREASES LIBERTY-PART I (Proverbs 14:34)
Sunday Oct 24, 2021
Sunday Oct 24, 2021
This is a message that talks about a subject that weighs heavily on my heart as I read and see what is happening in our country today. We live in a time when the very foundations of our nation are being challenged, and in many ways those foundations have already been unalterably changed. The proverb that is the focus of our message today is very fitting for the subject at hand, because we are speaking today on this subject: Righteousness Increases Freedom.
Prov 14:34
34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
KJV
I believe the American Dream was placed into the bosom of our Founding Fathers by God Himself—I believe that with all of my heart. I believe that this is a Heaven-rescued, God-blessed land. I like what the Declaration of Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident … that all men are endowed by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights.” This means that, our very nature—the very nature of this land—is rooted in a belief in Almighty God.
When George Washington was sitting in the gallery amongst the members in the Continental Congress, somebody wanted to know which one he was. And, a friend said, “Well, if you want to see which one Washington is, when Congress goes to prayer, he’ll be the tall man who gets on his knees.” Washington was the one who went aside in the snows at Valley Forge, and got down on his knees, and prayed, and asked God to bless his little ragtag army. God did bless those revolutionaries, and out of that came America as we know it.
Thomas Jefferson said, “The God that gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.”
Alexander Hamilton said, “People get the kind of government they deserve.” This means that the government that we have is a reflection of the character of our people. You see, God ordained three institutions: the home, the Church, and the government. And, all three—the home, the Church, and the government—are but a reflection of the character of those people.
Now, here is another truth: if the government reflects the character of the people, then you are going to find that the greater the character of the people, the more freedom, the more liberty, those people will have. The less the character of the people, the less freedom, and the less liberty, those people will have. Another word for character is responsibility, because character is responsibility assumed.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how the righteousness of our people will determine the freedom and liberty that we enjoy as citizens of this great Heaven-rescued, God-blessed land.
Amen.
Sunday Oct 10, 2021
FINDING JOY IN YOUR WORK-PART II (Proverbs 14:23)
Sunday Oct 10, 2021
Sunday Oct 10, 2021
Prov 14:23
23 In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.
KJV
God tells us that “In all labour there is profit.” Basically, God is telling us that no matter who you are and what your job is, God has given you that job and it is a sacred job because you are serving the Lord, and it is one that you are to find joy in because of who you are serving. If you do that job in the name of Jesus, and you do it for Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, then you can find joy in that job. It doesn’t matter if you are a homemaker, a widow, a retiree, 25 or 85 years old, single, married, or working every day at a job place, God has work for you to be doing, and this lesson is about finding joy in that work.
Now, you may feel that your work is nothing exciting, nothing meaningful, nothing thrilling. You feel that you are stuck as an ordinary person in an ordinary job. There is nothing extraordinary about you, or the work that you do, and you wish that God would call you to do something really special, really extraordinary. Now, you may be a very ordinary person. But, God loves ordinary people. He must because He has made so many of them. God makes ordinary people. Then, God takes ordinary people, and He gives them extraordinary power. If Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, then God infuses us with His Holy Spirit so we are no longer ordinary, because when we get saved, we become extraordinary. God takes ordinary people; God gives ordinary people extraordinary power; and then God puts those ordinary people in ordinary places.
Now, this is the takeaway that you need to put in your heart: When God takes an ordinary person and gives them extraordinary power, then puts that ordinary person in an ordinary place with extraordinary power, He does extraordinary things through an ordinary person. If you’ll learn this, and get this into your heart, it’s going to transform your life.
You may not be in an exciting job. But, if you learn what God has to tell you in this message, it is going to turn that drudgery into delight; it is going to turn that monotony into magnificence; and you’re going to find out that you are where God has placed you, and you’re there for a specific purpose.
Click on the link below to hear what the Word of God has to say about having joy in the work that God has called you to do.
Amen.
Sunday Oct 03, 2021
FINDING JOY IN YOUR WORK (Proverbs 14:23)
Sunday Oct 03, 2021
Sunday Oct 03, 2021
The title of the message is “Finding Joy in Your Work,” and I want to tell you, if you understand what God has to say in this message, it’s going to transform your work. It’s going to change it from boredom to blessing. It’s going to change it from monotony to meaning. It’s going to change it from drudgery to dignity. It’s going to change it from the same old grind to glory, if you understand what God has to say to us in this message today.
You see, so many people are sick and tired of what they do. I mean, they endure their work, whatever it is, they don’t enjoy their work. They think their job is meaningless. They think that some people have happy jobs, some people have exciting work, some people have thrilling things to do, but not them. They draw their breath and draw their salary. They wake up in the morning and take a bath, shave, go down, drink a cup of coffee, eat a piece of toast, scald their throat because they’re running a little late, drink their coffee too fast, then they run out and fight the traffic and get to work. It’s the same old thing day after day. Then they come home at night, take a couple of aspirins, sit down and watch the TV, discuss things with the wife, maybe putter around in the yard a little bit, then go to bed. The next day, the same old thing: nothing exciting, nothing meaningful, nothing thrilling. It just seems to be so humdrum, so meaningless.
Ok, I can already see the wheels turning in a lot of your minds because your saying, “Bro. Keith, you are a little late with this lesson because I am retired. I don’t have to work anymore.” If that is what you are thinking, then shame on you. Did you know that God doesn’t have a retirement program for Christian believers? If you are a Christian, and you are still breathing, then God has work for you to be doing. If that were not true, then God would have taken you to heaven. So, if you are still here, then God has work for you to do. Now, I am not talking about religious work, I am talking about God’s work, whatever God calls you to do.
Now, there are others who might be saying, “Bro. Keith, I don’t work at a regular job, I just stay at home taking care of my family.” Let me tell you that the work that a wife and a mother does taking care of her family is one of the most important jobs there is in this world. The greatest God-given role of a mother is pointing her children to Christ. The greatest desire of a mother who loves Jesus, is that her kids come to know Jesus as their Lord and savior, and then live their lives for Him. Just imagine, you get to partner with God in the daily discipleship of your children and in leading them towards a saving and sanctifying knowledge of the truth.
The same can be said for a wife, and about the love and support that she gives to her husband. Once the kids are gone, some women can feel that their purpose is over. But that is simply not what the Bible tells us. Just as the husband is to help his wife be all that she wants to be in the eyes of God, it is the wife's responsibility to help the husband become all that God wants him to be.
The point that I am trying to make is that it doesn’t matter if you are a widow, a retiree, 25 or 85 years old, single, married, or working every day at a job place, God has work for you to be doing, and this lesson is about finding joy in that work.
Click on the link below to hear a message about how to have joy in the work that you do for God.
Amen.
Sunday Sep 12, 2021
GOD‘S MIRACLE MEDICINE (Proverbs 12:25; 15:13-15; 17:22)
Sunday Sep 12, 2021
Sunday Sep 12, 2021
We live in a world where a lot of people, including our Christian brothers and sisters, are living with a heavy heart. The world has taken a pause this weekend to remember all of the of the people who were lost in the terrorist attack on 9/11. The families of the soldiers and first responders who lost their lives responding to the attack over the last 20 years are dealing with the loss of their loved ones. There is sorrow, worry, and stress that is weighing down on all of these people, and our lesson today is about God’s Miracle Medicine for people with heavy hearts.
Have you ever heard of a medical term called E.I.I? E.I.I. stands for “emotionally induced illness.” That is, people are sick physically, but their emotions have made them ill. Now, I had never heard of this term before, so of course, I went out on Google, the source of all untruth, and searched for articles on it, and there was quite the list. Some described it as “A psychosomatic illness that originates from or is aggravated by emotional stress and manifests in the body as physical pain and other symptoms.” Other articles just talked about the real physical effects of long-term stress on the body.
In our message today, I want to give you a little G.M.M., or “God’s miracle medicine.” I believe that God is leading me to teach us what God has to say about this idea of the impact our emotions can have, good or bad, on our health. God tells us:
Prov 17:22
22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
KJV
You see, right there in God’s Word, we learn that “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” That is God’s Miracle Medicine. A Christian without joy, a joyless Christian, is a contradiction in terms. Someone has well said, “A religion that wears grave clothes ought to be buried.” I say amen to that.
Click on the link below to hear a message where God tells us in His Word that true joy is found in the Lord Jesus, and “a merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” I want to share it with you today. I want you to know the Lord Jesus Christ. And for all that E.I.I. that is weighing your heart down, I want you to take a good dose of G.M.M, God’s miracle medicine. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.”
Amen.
Sunday Sep 13, 2020
TO HAVE KINGDOM AUTHORITY (1 Samuel 24:1-7)
Sunday Sep 13, 2020
Sunday Sep 13, 2020
We live in a world today that is full of rebellion, and it is not just the riots and chaos that we see in our streets. It is in our families, our churches, and in the places that we work. People are choosing to rebel against the authorities that God has placed over them. They stand up and say, “I will not wear a mask because my government tells me that I have to”, or “nobody can tell me I have to shut my business down.” Even far worse, they take the streets looting, rioting, and burning down the foundations of our country. The Bible is very clear about Christians who have a spirit of rebellion.
Rom 13:1-2
1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
KJV
Now, you might say, "Wait a minute. You don't know the kind of government we have. It is full of a bunch God hating, progressive, socialists." Well, maybe you don't know the kind of government that existed when Paul wrote this, when Nero was on the throne. Nero was feeding Christians to the lions in his arenas, and he was setting Christians on fire to light the streets of the city.
But you say, "What if I have an unworthy authority? What if my parents are unworthy? What if my husband is unworthy? What if my president is unworthy? What if my mayor is unworthy? What if my councilman is unworthy? What if my teacher is unworthy? What do I do?" That's a wonderful question. The Bible says that one thing that you don't do, you do not have a spirit of rebellion. If you wish to live a victorious Christian life, then one of the most important lessons that we can learn is how to live under the authority of God. This includes those whom God has placed in authority over us.
Now the phrase kingdom authority means to be able to act with the authority of God in your Christian life. Let me assure you, it is not God's plan for you to be defeated by the world, the flesh, nor the devil. Because, when Jesus died and rose again, He gave to His children authority over these things. But, listen carefully to me now, we will never be over those things that God has put under us until we are willing to get under, and stay under, those things that God has put over us.
However, I want to be clear that to be under authority does not mean that we give in to wickedness. It does not mean that we approve error. It does not mean that we blindly obey an ungodly government. The prophets in God's Word preached against the wickedness in the kingdom. Nathan warned King David when he did wrong. Elijah warned Ahab. Eleazar spoke to Jehoshaphat, Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, Moses to Pharaoh, and God forbid that we should have pulpits today that are silent when little babies are being murdered and when wickedness prevails in so many ways.
One of the most disturbing and reprehensible rebellions that is taking place today is against our police officers, and it breaks my heart to see this occur. Pastor Adrian Rogers quoted this description of a policeman in one of his sermons, and he says the author is unknown. It is similar to what Paul Harvey once said about being a policeman, but it is not quite the same. Every time I read this it moves me.
"A policeman is many things. He is a son, a brother, a father, an uncle, and sometimes even a grandfather. He is a protector in time of need and a comforter in time of sorrow. His job calls for him to be a diplomat, a psychologist, a lawyer, a friend, and an inspiration. He suffers from an overdose of publicity about brutality and dishonesty. He suffers far more from the notoriety produced from unfounded charges.
Too often acts of heroism go unnoticed, and the truth is buried under all the criticism. The fact is that less than one-half of one percent of policemen ever discredit their uniform. That's a better average than you'll find among clergymen. A policeman is an ordinary guy who is called upon for extraordinary bravery for us. His job may sometimes seem routine, but the interruptions can be moments of stark terror. He is the man who faces a half-crazed gunman, who rescues a lost child, who challenges a mob, who risks his neck more often than we realize. He deserves our respect and profound thanks.
A policeman stands between the lawbreaker and the law abider. It's the prime reason your home hasn't been burned, your family abused, and your business looted. Try to imagine what might happen if there were no policemen around, then try to think of ways to make their job more rewarding. Show them the respect you really have for them. Offer them a smile and a kind word. See that they don't have to be magicians to raise their families on less-than-adequate salaries. We think policemen are great. We thank God for all the little boys who said they would be policemen and all who kept their promise. We hope you feel the same way, and we hope you will show it, so that there will always be enough good policemen to go around." That is a description of a hero that speaks to my heart.
Click on the link below to learn how to have kingdom authority in a world full of rebellion.
Amen.
Saturday May 09, 2020
WHAT DO YOUR REACTIONS SHOW? (John 18:1 to 11)
Saturday May 09, 2020
Saturday May 09, 2020
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.
Sunday Feb 16, 2020
TO LOVE IN A WORLD OF HATE (John 15:12-26)
Sunday Feb 16, 2020
Sunday Feb 16, 2020
Is Jesus Christ your personal friend? If not, you are missing out on the best of all friends. Jesus is my personal friend. I have all there is of Jesus just for me, and yet, you can have all there is of Jesus just for you as well. Only God can do that. Only deity can do that. He loves us all, but, He loves us each. He loves us individually. He cares for us. The God who runs this universe, in and through Jesus Christ, is your own personal friend. What a friend we have in Jesus!
There are a lot of people out there who have never met our friend Jesus, and He tells us, "You are my friends if you do what I command you, that you love one another as I have loved you." If we are to do this, then we need to say, "O God, help me to find someone that I can love and cultivate for Jesus. And help us to make our church a family of friends.'
When people come to a church that loves Jesus Christ, do you know what they should be impressed with? They should be impressed with the way the members love one another: the bigness of their love, and the warmth of their spirit. They should see any church that loves Jesus as a family of friends. We have the best Friend that a person could have, and we should share that Friend with them.
But there is another side of the world. There are people who deliberately choose to hate us just because we love the Lord. The opposite of love is hate. The Lord has been commanding His disciples to love one another. One reason why such love is imperative is because of the hatred of the world for the Lord and his own. He commands us to love one another, including those outside of the church, but He also wants to prepare us for the hatred that the world has for His followers.
Click on the link below to learn how to love as Jesus loves, in a world of hate.
Amen.