The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

HOW CAN YOU TELL IF YOU ARE BORN AGAIN (John 3:1-7)

What does a born-again child of God look like? Can you tell someone is a Christian by the way they look, or by the way they dress? Are there certain things a born-again child of God should not wear?

How does a born-again child of God behave? Can you tell someone is a Christian by the way they behave, or by the things they do, or say? Are there certain things that a born-again child of God should not do or say?

Now, let me ask the real question that I am leading us to. Is there a way that you can look at yourself and know whether or not that you are a born-again child of God? Jesus tells us there is.

Matt 7:20-21
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
KJV

Jesus is telling us in this set of verses that you will know a Christian, a true born again believer, whether it is yourself, or someone else, by the fruit that they bear. Not by the things that they wear, or how they look, and not by the things they say or do, but by the fruits that they bear. What are those fruits?

Gal 5:22-25
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
KJV

Paul is telling us that these are the things that we should be able to see, feel, and experience when we are in the presence of a born-again child of God. There ought to be a noticeable difference in you as a believer. Not a weird difference, but a good difference in the way you treat yourself, your family, your friends, and those whom you come in contact with. We are sojourners in this world. This is not our home. Heaven is our home. We are aliens on this earth, because we are in this world, but we are not of this world.

We are twice born, redeemed, sanctified, Holy Spirit inhabited, joint heirs with the Son of God. Our outlook on this life, and our purpose in this world, is totally different from that of a lost person. There ought to be a noticeable difference about us. If we are truly born-again, then there ought to be a difference in us.

When you are saved, it brings a certainty to it. You ought to be able to say, "I know, that I know, I have been saved." If you have trusted Christ, if you have come down and trusted on the Word of God, if you have put your faith in Christ, and you know where God has put your sins, and somebody says, "Are you saved?" Then you can say, with that same certainty, "Yes, hallelujah, praise God, I know, that I know, that I am saved. God's Spirit agrees with my spirit that I'm a child of God."

Click on the link below to hear a message on the traits of a born-again believer, and on the things that will be true of you, if you are truly saved. God’s wants you to be certain that you are saved, listen and learn how you can tell if you are truly born again.

Amen.

JESUS, THE SOUL WINNER (John 1:35-42)

What is the role of a church member, or a witness for Christ, or a soul winner, or that of an evangelist, a pastor, or a teacher?

What is the single most important role for each of these people? To win people to Christ. Anything else we do impacts people’s lives in this short time we have on earth. While that is important, and it really is important, helping them find Jesus as their Savior impacts both, their lives now, and their eternal lives. Be sure and understand that I am not saying that we all have to be great evangelists with huge crowds of people coming to know Christ through our preaching. I am saying that everything we do to care for people, love them, treat them, hold them, walk with them, talk to them, work with them, play with them, everything, needs to keep in mind that our goal is to make sure they know that Jesus Christ loves them and wants them spend eternity with Him in heaven.

Every word we speak, every action we take, it is a witness of the Lord that we claim as Master. Every time we fail, it is a witness of the Lord that we claim as Master. Every tragedy we face, it is a witness of the Lord that we claim as Master. Everything.

Jesus is to be our example. We are to be working to be more like Christ every day. We study God’s Word to know more about Christ, and so we can be more like Him. We learn from His actions, and His words.

Click on the link below to hear a message about how Jesus led people to follow Him. We will see Jesus in the first couple of days in His public ministry gathering disciples. And He won’t do it by being a fiery evangelist like John the Baptist. He will do it with His words and His actions. Just like you and me.

Amen.

WE ARE CHRIST'S CANDLE (John 1:5-9)

Today’s message is about our role, as born again believers in Christ, of being a candle for Christ. We have been commanded by our Lord to allow His light to shine through us. We are to be Christ’s candle for the world.

Mark 4:21
21 And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick?
KJV

When you stop and think about it, a candle, in and of itself, really is a remarkable invention. When it was created, its whole purpose was to serve as a simple instrument for dispelling darkness. It enabled man to work, or rest, in the dark. It allowed him to see the dangers that used the darkness to prey upon him. If it was put into a lantern casing, it became a mobile source of light and protection as man traveled along the road. It guided man along the pathway or trail that he was following. If you placed the candle in front of a reflective surface you could focus the light and cast it out for greater distances enhancing the protection, and utility, that it gave.

Darkness, with all of its power to frighten and bewilder, is no match for the light. The faintest gleam, the smallest candle, will dispel the deepest darkness. The function of the candle is to provide the light that dispels that darkness. But notice that the candle performs this function at a great expense to itself. It has to give itself up to the flame and be consumed. The light of the sun and stars is provided on the same principle. As they shed their light upon us, they consume the energy that is within them.

Now, the Word of God tells us that in the spiritual realm, the Lord Jesus is the Light that dispels darkness. The light that He brings has been provided at an infinite cost. Yet, when we come to Him, He kindles that light in us. The fact that we are now His light bearers means that we, too, must pay the price of shining. Our light is not to be hidden. It is not a secret light. It is to be placed where it will be seen of men. Many people hate and resent the light of Christ and will try to extinguish it. On the other hand, many other people will be drawn to it.

It is important for us to understand that it is the light itself that is the miracle, we are just the candles. We are sowers, and we are light bearers. We are to be a light unto the world.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the role of a believer to be Christ’s candle to the world.

Amen.

DEALING WITH PERSECUTION (Revelation 11:5-13)

The Bible says that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If you live for Jesus, and your life is in obedience to the will of God, it is fruitful for God, and you are sharing the light of the gospel to a dark world, then the Bible says that you will suffer persecution.

To know that this is true, all you have to do is read the headlines of the news today. Christians are suffering severe persecution in countries all around the world. So, the question that we will look at today is, How do you deal with this persecution? What are the Biblical truths that we must apply to our lives, if we are to be successful in dealing with persecution on both a physical and spiritual level?

Click on the link below to learn the five factors that the Bible tells us in the book of Revelation about the two witnesses for God, and how they dealt with persecution. These are important lessons that we must settle in our hearts and mind if we are to be victorious in our witness for God.

Amen.

THE CURE FOR LUKEWARMNESS (Revelation 3:17-22)

Last week we began a lesson on what a lukewarm Christian is and how God feels about that type of Christian. The Lord condemns the lukewarm Christian. He tells them that I would thou wert cold or hot, meaning that the Lord would rather have you against Him than pretending to love Him with a lukewarm heart. Lukewarm Christians have done more harm to the cause of Jesus Christ than all the prostitutes, bartenders, pornographers, and drug pushers combined.

Lukewarm Christians are the alibi of sinners. They double-cross Christ. Jesus would rather have you on the wrong side of the fence, than sitting on the fence. Jesus hates this condition so much that He says in verse 16, So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. God is saying that there is a sin that is so vile that it nauseates Him. What is that sin? Lukewarmness, and it is the sin that is probably the most prevalent in the church today. God is speaking to self-satisfied, half-hearted Christians. He is speaking to most of the people who attend our churches today, and that should break our hearts.

So, how did their self-satisfaction and complacency begin? How does a person, who is so excited on the day they are saved, become a lukewarm Christian?

Do you remember the fire that burned within you for the Lord on the day you were saved? The joy that filled your heart, the earnest desire to tell everyone around you about the wonderful gift of eternal life that you had just been given by a gracious God? Do you remember that at all? What happened to that person? Are you more on fire today than you were then? If not, then you have cooled down. People cool down by degrees.

Somebody has said that an average church is so lukewarm that you have to backslide to be in fellowship with all of the other members. Was there ever a time when you loved the Lord Jesus Christ more than you do right now? If so, then to that degree you are backslidden, you are beginning to cool down, and before long, you will be room temperature. And when you do, you will look around and say, I must not be so bad, because I am just like everyone else. The sad part is that if you really get on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ, people will think that you are odd.

So, how do you become lukewarm? You begin by becoming satisfied with where you are in your Christian life. You begin by assuming that you are all right because you are becoming more and more like those around you, but instead you are cooling down by degrees. If you are not a better servant of God today than you were yesterday, then you are cooling down. Lukewarmness is caused by self-satisfaction.

Click on the link below to hear a sermon about the cause of lukewarmness, and the cure of lukewarmness.

ARE YOU LUKEWARM? (Revelation 3:14-16)

When we call something lukewarm, it means that it is too hot to be cold, and too cold to be hot. Now, if I were to say that you were a lukewarm Christian, what would that mean? It means that you are too hot to be a stone-cold atheist, and too cold to be a passionate soul winner for Christ.

How many people in our churches today are room-temperature, lukewarm, Christians? Actually, in most churches today, if you are not a lukewarm Christian, you will stand out and be different from the majority of the other members.

Let me ask you another question, is it a sin to be a lukewarm Christian? G. Campbell Morgan said, “Lukewarmness is the worst form of blasphemy.” If you are lukewarm in your faith, then you are blaspheming the Lord Jesus Christ.

A lukewarm Christian says, “Jesus, I believe in you, but you just don’t excite me. I believe in you, but I just don’t get anything out of hearing your Word preached from the pulpit. There just is no message. Jesus, I believe in you, but I don’t intend to serve you with fire and fervor.” When you say these kind of things, you are saying to the Lord, who is present in every church service where two or more are gathered, “Lord, I am bored with You.”

Would you sing differently in the worship service if Jesus was standing next to you in the flesh? Would you pay more attention to the sermon, if Jesus was sitting next to you in the flesh? Would you be looking at your phone for the latest post on social media while the pastor preached? Would your mind be on the work you left undone the day before? If Jesus Christ was sitting next to you in the flesh, how would you be different in the service?

We ought to be worshipping and singing as if the Lord Jesus Christ was standing right there next to us. There is nothing pleasing to the Lord about a lukewarm service, full of lukewarm Christians, singing lukewarm songs, and hearing lukewarm sermons.

Click on the link below to hear a sermon about a lukewarm church. It is the last of the seven churches that we have been studying in chapters 2 and 3 of the book of revelation. These churches are real churches, but they are also representative churches of all the churches throughout the church age. There is not a problem in our churches today, that cannot be found in one these seven churches.

A FAITH FORGED IN THE FIRES OF PERSECUTION (Revelation 2:5-11)

The word Smyrna is translated from a Greek word that is also translated as the word myrrh in other parts of the Scripture. It stands for a sweet perfume that came from being crushed. It was also a substance used for medicinal purposes. What did the wise men bring to the baby Jesus? Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. It was also given to Christ when He hung on the cross. The Bible says that they gave Him wine mixed with myrrh. It was also used at the burial of Christ, where they scented His burial clothing with myrrh. Myrrh and Smyrna are translated from the same Greek word and they have the same meaning.

It is the providence of God that the suffering church would be in this city that has the name of such a perfume that was extracted by crushing it. This was a church suffering great persecution, but the Lord says I know what you are going through. It is encouraging when we are facing our darkest hours, to know that Jesus is right there with us. Jesus doesn’t promise to keep us out of persecution, but He does promise to get us through it. There is no heartache, pain, or fear that we might face that the Lord does not share. He has faced every kind of suffering, to a much greater degree than anything, that we might ever have to face. He knows about it, and He knows how to get us through it.

Click on the link to hear a sermon on a church that was poor in the eyes of men, but rich in the eyes of the Lord. The first part of this lesson we finish up our discussion from last week of the church at Ephesus, and then in the focus of this lesson, we cover the suffering church of Smyrna. Join us as God blesses the reading of His Word. Amen.

HOW DO YOU FACE PERSECUTION? (1 Peter 3:13-15)

How we face suffering and persecution is one of the defining characteristics of the Christian faith that sets us apart from the world.  Let’s be honest, it is not hard to face the good times, when things are going your way, and when the people around you support your words and actions as they relate to living for Christ.  Christians look at the source of those blessings differently than the rest of the world does, but how they react to them is very similar to everyone else.  

Being persecuted for your faith comes in many forms, from simple disrespect on the part of someone you meet or the government that rules over us, to being excluded from something or somewhere, to serious physical harm to your body by torture, death, and imprisonment.  All because we stand and identify ourselves as Christians and live our lives accordingly.  The world reacts to these kinds of persecutions by saying “That’s not fair, I want justice!”  They get angry, they march in violent protest, or they take the baker or the florist to court and have the government shut them down.  We are going to learn in our lesson today that God wants His children to face this kind of suffering with joy in our hearts.  

Now, my first reaction to suffering is often the same as the world’s, shouting “That’s not fair,” and wanting someone to do something about setting that injustice right.  My thoughts run immediately to the fact that this nation was founded on Judaeo/Christian beliefs and the constitutional guarantee we have of freedom of religion.  So where is my government that is to support me and defend me?  Well, as we all know, that government has long gone and now believes that we are to be free from religion, instead having freedom of religion.  They now willingly persecute Christians for saying what they believe.  In many other countries, the government violently attacks and kills Christians for living a life for Christ.

The secular world turns to those around them, or to their own brand of religion, or the government for help.  As a Christian we are to turn to God and say “Lord, what am I to learn from this,” or, “Lord, who am I to be witnessing to?  Who do you have watching me to learn how a Christian faces persecution?”  The truth is that not all suffering is a lesson for the believer, sometimes it is a lesson for the persecutor, and sometimes it is just the face of evil doing everything it can to destroy Christianity.  Satan hates mankind, but he has a special hatred for Christians, and there are times that he uses evil people to do great harm to the people of God.  

The difference between how a Christian faces persecution and all others comes from their personal relationship with, and their knowledge of, Jesus Christ as their Lord and Master.  They know from personal experience that God is in control of all things.  His hand of protection is around His children, and His Spirit is in the believer’s heart providing the strength, courage, faith, and hope, to deal with whatever Satan and the world can dish out.  It is not easy, but the focus of the Christian is not to be on the short term of our lives on this earth, but on the eternity that we are going to have with Jesus Christ in heaven.  That is our promise from our Lord, and that is the reason we can face persecution and suffering with a God-given joy in our heart.  That is the defining difference in how a Christian faces persecution.  This is what sets us apart from the world.  This is what identifies us with our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.  We have the promises of the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, in our hearts.

Listen to today’s podcast to learn how a Christian is to face persecution.

OUR MISSION IS TO GLORIFY GOD (1 Peter 2:12-13a)

Last week we began talking about how the believer is to live a separated life by his behavior.  In other words, people should see a difference in us by our behavior.  They are to see in us a type of behavior that brings glory to God.  

We are a chosen people, we have a special position before God, we are separated by birth because we are the adopted children of God, we are no longer the slaves of Satan, we are separated by our new birth.  

We are a people separated by our belief, our faith is in Christ, our beliefs are unlike any other man-made religion, we believe in our salvation by God’s grace and the precious blood of a risen Savior, not man’s works and efforts.  We are separated by our belief.

We are also a people who should live lives that show a new attitude toward the world around us.  We are to be strangers and pilgrims in this world that is no longer our home.  The world is defined as the society around us, with God left out.  God is deliberately not welcome in the minds and hearts of most people in our society.  Neither are His adopted children, Christians.  

We are strangers in this world.  We are away from our home.  We are in this world, but we are not of this world.  

We are also pilgrims in this world because we are on our path back home.  Our eye is on the goal of completing our mission that God has given us.  The mission of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with a dark world.  

Peter is telling us that our goodness, a goodness that is to be something beautiful to behold, is how we are to behave.  This goodness is to include our obedience of the laws of man.  Christians will be, and have been, accused of horrendous crimes, of hatred, and of violence.  These are lies on a grand scale, and God wants our behavior to prove that these things are false.  Our behavior is to be such that when the world sees a Christian, they are to say that their behavior brings glory to the God that they serve.  In other words, we are God's people in a world of lost people.  Our behavior is to reflect the goodness of God who has sent us here as His personal ambassadors.  This goodness, that is witnessed by others, is to be a result of our separation.

This is the basis for everything Peter teaches in this passage.  We are a chosen people who have been saved, reborn, and given a mission from God.  That mission is to serve God.  It is to be a witness for Him, to lead others to Christ, and to bring glory to God.  That is our mission.  Everything else takes a back seat.  

God has commanded us to live separated lives.  He has given us His definition of the words good, moral, evil, and amoral.  We do not get to change those definitions as the world has done.  Our lives are to meet His standards so that we can represent Him and bring glory to His name.  The world is to know God by what they see in us.  

DOES THE WORLD SEE GOD IN YOU? (1 Peter 2:11)

If I were to describe someone as a good person, a moral person, what does that mean to you?  If I were to describe someone as an evil person, an amoral person, what does that mean to you?  Where do the definitions of the words good, moral, evil, and amoral come from? Are these words relative?  Are some people better than others, or more evil than others?

Do those words, good, moral, evil, and amoral, have the same meaning today as they did 10 years ago, 20 years ago, even 40 years ago?  I don’t think so, so why has the world changed the definition of what good and moral behavior means?  Why does the world want a different definition of these words?

As with all words, the meaning depends on the dictionary that you use for it.  For example, if I say the word resurrection as it relates to Christ, I mean the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  I get my definition from the Word of God, the Bible is my dictionary.  Many Christian religions, and some non-Christian religions, believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but they have a different definition for the word resurrection.  They may believe in a spiritual only resurrection, or maybe a symbolic resurrection, but not a physical resurrection.  They say the same words, but they use a different dictionary to define the word, so we have to be careful to know which dictionary we are using when we say the words good, moral, evil, and amoral.  

The answer to the question of why the world has changed the definition of these words is because God’s definition of these words, as He defines them in the Bible, are too restrictive.  They don’t fit in with the new morality.  So over time, man has chosen a different dictionary to define these words, they have moved away from God’s definitions in the Bible, to a definition of their own creation.  The further man moves from the definitions of the Bible, the more evil behavior is called good, and good behavior is called bad.  God warns us of this in His Word.

Isa 5:20

20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

KJV

We live in a society today where homosexuality and lesbianism are called good.  Men can call themselves a woman, have some surgery, and they are called brave, heroes, and good.  It was not long ago that the country had a different name for these types of behavior, but now we are told we must accept evil and amoral behavior as good and moral.  In fact, we must go further than just accepting them, we must agree with the world and call them good and moral, or face persecution.

We live in a society today where God’s definitions of good, moral, evil, amoral, and those who preach, teach, and try to live by these definitions are the ones called evil and hateful.  Jesus tells how we should react to these descriptions.

Luke 6:22

22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.

KJV

So, let me ask you, are you feeling blessed these days?

Our lesson today is about why God wants His followers to live their lives by His definition of the words good, moral, evil, and amoral.  We are to be different from the world, not weird different, but a good difference.  A difference that people will notice and be drawn to.  We will never be perfect by God’s standards, but we are to live our lives more like Christ lived His life every day.  God has a purpose in this desire for us.  We are to be a separated people, not isolated, but separated from the world’s definitions.  We are God’s special people, a peculiar people, a chosen people.  We are His ambassadors and our lives should show it.