The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

HOW TO HAVE VICTORY BY SURRENDER (Romans 6:10-13)

To claim victory by surrendering appears to be an oxymoron.  How can anyone be victorious when they surrender to the will of another?  Someone once said, to the victor goes the spoils.  Yet, to be a victorious Christian, to live the life that God wants, we must surrender our will to that of Christ. The source of our power to be victorious over sin, Satan, and the things of this world, descends from Jesus Christ who has been placed above all things. 

We do not have to possess physical, intellectual, financial, or political strength to overcome Satan.  When you are willing to be to Jesus what Jesus was in His humanity to the Father, then Jesus will be to your humanity what the Father was to Him.  

When you fully surrender your life to Jesus, His Spirit will empower you to become victorious over sin.  Whatever sin that you have in your life, when you surrender it to Christ, Satan no longer has control over that portion of your life. 

Living victoriously isn’t your responsibility, it is your response to God’s ability. We are conquerors through Christ. In our lesson today, Paul is telling us that in order to be victorious over sin:

We must know that we are dead to sin.  Sin no longer has dominion over us.

We must reckon that knowledge in our lives.  Christ has more than adequately provided for the sin in our lives, therefore, we must reckon this in the way that we live.  

And then, we must yield our bodies, our minds, and our spirits, totally to the will of God.  We must totally surrender our will to the will of God.

Victory over sin and death is yours through Christ.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT SIN? (Romans 6:6-10)

What value is a promise made to you if you do not believe it and appropriate it in your life?

God has said in His Word that believers have victory over sin and death.  This is God’s promise.  But what good is that promise if we do not believe it and appropriate it in our lives?

The problem is that many of us do not feel like we have died to sin.  Sin is still a problem in our lives.  We are still allowing sin to dominate our lives.  We feel like we are alive to sin.

How we feel is important to us, for it can make a real difference in our performance.  For example, God has given me the task of speaking in front of various groups of people, on both secular and Biblical issues.  When I feel confident about the subject I am going to be speaking about, I perform better, I am more relaxed, I am not worried about making a fool out of myself.  My voice projects, it is stronger, and my whole attitude is one of confidence in what I am speaking about.  In other words, I am victorious in performing the tasks that God has given me.  

However, if I were to get up and speak on something that I know nothing about, and that I have had no time to prepare my thoughts, then I would feel nervous, my words would be halting, and the word “UH” would be repeated over and over.  When I feel less confident, then I am likely to fail in the tasks that God has given me.  My feelings impact how I conduct myself.  

Now somebody might say, Well the Bible says that if God asks you to do something, He will empower you to do it. 

And I would say precisely.  I am allowing my feelings to impact my performance in my obedience to God.  God tells me in His Word that He will provide, but when I allow my feelings to guide me, I am saying that I don’t believe God.  

The same thing applies to how we deal with sin.  If we are confident in our knowledge of the Word of God, then we are victorious in dealing with sin.  Paul has said that we are dead to sin, and that we are to be totally unresponsive to it, but how can we do that?

By putting our feelings aside, and believing what God tells us and applying it in our lives.  This is what our lesson is about today.  Knowing that not only have we died to sin, but that we have also been raised to walk in the newness of life, victorious over sin and death.

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF KNOWLEDGE (Romans 3:1-8)

Knowledge is power.  When you know something that others do not, you have an advantage over them.  That is why gossip is so enticing.  For that moment when you know something nobody else does, it makes you the smart one, the one on the inside, the one who has control of where that knowledge goes.  You get to choose who you will allow to join you in this exclusive club for those who have this knowledge.

At the workplace, knowledge is a leverage point.  When people refuse to share knowledge at work, it makes the company less efficient and less productive, but it can be viewed as job security for the person who has the knowledge.  If you are the one with all the knowledge of how things work, it makes it more difficult for the company to let you go.  It makes you more valuable than somebody who does not have this knowledge.  That value gives you leverage.  

Scientific knowledge is often the deciding factor in war time.  The country with the best weapons, the best training, and the best strategy, is usually the one who defeats the other.  Knowledge of how to make a nuclear bomb was the deciding factor in ending the war with Japan in WWII.  The country who got the bomb first was the victor.  

Knowledge is also power in the religious world.  When the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity, most of them did not know how to speak Hebrew anymore.  They spoke Aramaic which was the official language of the Babylonians.  This meant that the priests and the scribes would have to translate the Scriptures during the worship services for the people.  If the priests could declare what was right and wrong, regardless of what the Scriptures really said, then they had power over the people.  Nor could the people challenge their interpretation of the Law for they could not read the Scriptures themselves.  The religious leaders used this power to control and to mislead the people.

As Christians we have been given knowledge the world does not understand.  We have been given the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is tremendously powerful knowledge, for it is the secret of how to have eternal life with Jesus Christ in heaven.  The Holy Spirit lives within our hearts and He shares the knowledge of God with us.  He opens the Word of God and He explains it meanings, it promises, and most all what God has done for our salvation.  God wants us to use that knowledge to lead others to Christ.  He has tasked us with the awesome responsibility of being His ambassadors on earth.  We have the knowledge that can help bring others into this group of believers that God calls His own.  

Our lesson today is about how those with that knowledge failed to share it with the world.  When God gave the Mosaic Law to the Jews, He gave them the knowledge of right and wrong.  He gave them something more valuable than gold or silver.  He gave them the light of God.    

TO CARE FOR EACH OTHER (James 5:12-20)

When you think of your local church what do you think of?

In this last lesson of our study of the book of James, we learn how to care for each other.  Without question, Jesus wants our churches to be a hospital for those in need. When a Christian brother or sister is facing a trial, they should find support in the fellowship of the church.  When a person needs to find Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they should be able to find Him in our churches.  

This is the challenge that James has put before us.  We are to care for each other.  It should be evident to the world that believers care for those in need.  It should be what makes us different from the world whose main focus is to take care of themselves.  

James closes this letter with an appeal for patience as we wait upon the coming of the Lord, instruction on how to care for each other, and how the believer is to protect their witness before the world.  

WHEN WILL THE WICKED BE JUDGED? (James 5:7)

Do you ever look at the world around you and see people who are not even trying to be obedient to God, who are only looking to satisfy their own needs, and say “Lord, why do you allow the wicked to be so successful?”

It is easy to look at countries like Pakistan where Christians are being persecuted to the point of killing them by the thousands, and ask “Lord, why do you allow this to happen?”

When you find yourself working for someone who is deceitful, dishonest, and whose sole purpose is to make your life at work miserable, and ask “Lord, why are you not judging this person?  You promise that you will judge the wicked, so when are you going to do it?”

While it is true that God will reward the obedient believer and punish those who are disobedient, the Bible tells us that it will happen on God’s timeline and not ours.  

In our podcast this week, James tells the believer to be patient until the coming of the Lord.  God will judge all men, the believer and the unbeliever.  In fact, Nothing is more certain from Scripture than the fact of God’s judgment to come.

The Bible is clear that all of us are to be judged, we are simply not going to be judged all at the same time.  Just as there are several resurrections, there are several judgments.  They are distinguished by the subjects of the judgment, the time of the judgment, the place of the judgment, the basis of the judgment, and the result of the judgment.  

If you knew the Lord was coming tomorrow to judge you, how would it change your behavior?

LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH (James 5:1-6)

Does the Bible say that it is wrong to be rich?

Contrary to popular belief, the Bible actually does not condemn money.  A great many people have the viewpoint that there is something dirty about money, and those who make it.  They call it “filthy lucre.”  This is not what the Scripture says, even though you can find those words in the Bible. 

What the Scripture does say is that “… the love of money is the root of all evil …” (1 Tim. 6:10).  The key portion of that statement is the love of money.  Not the money itself, but the love of money.

The problem is not in the coin itself, or the dollar bill that you hold in your hand.  The problem is in the hearts of men and women.  It is the love of money that is the root of all evil. 

To know that this is true, think of all of the very wealthy Biblical characters.  Abraham was a man of great wealth.  Joseph was wealthy.  David was wealthy.  Solomon was wealthy beyond imagination.  If it was the money that was the problem, then God would not have blessed these men with these riches.  

Listen to this podcast to hear how the book of James does not condemn people just because they are rich but because of their wrong relationship to their riches.  James is concerned with how they get their money and what they were doing with it after they get it.  These questions are applicable to all of us.  

 

CAN YOU DEPEND ON THE FUTURE? (James 4:13-14

Can you depend on the future?

We all make plans for the future.  We plan for our kids to go to college.  We plan for our retirement.  We plan for our career.  It is considered prudent to do all of these things, and foolish not to, but can we depend on the future happening like we want it to, like we are planning for it to happen?

It would be great if we see into the future and know exactly what was going to happen, so we could better plan for the events that were going to occur.  For instance, if you knew that you were going to lose your job in a few months, you might begin to save money to prepare for it.  

This is why horoscopes, soothsayers, fortune tellers, and psychics, are so popular, people will try anything to look out into the future.  The problem is that none of these methods really work because they cannot really see into the future.  Only God can see the future.  Only God is omniscient.  Only God knows exactly what you will be doing in the next minute, the next hour, the next day, the next year, until the day you die.  

Satan cannot see the future.  Satan cannot prophesy, only God can prophesy.  So if we are to make plans for the future, wouldn't it make sense to consult the only One who knows exactly what is going to happen to us, when it will happen, and how it will happen?  God knows it all.  

Listen to this podcast to learn why it is so important to always consider God’s will for your life in any plans that you make, for it is God that commands your heart make the next beat, or He is the One that tells it to stop beating.  In this lesson, James tells us how foolish it is to leave God out of the equation when we need to depend on our future.   

HOW DO YOU REACT TO SIN? (James 4:9-12)

In our politically correct society, what is the proper reaction that is expected of someone who has offended someone else?  Is it to laugh about what was said?  Not likely.  Is it to ignore it as something inconsequential?  A great number of politicians have learned the folly of this reaction.  The accepted, and expected, reaction is for the person to publically, sincerely, apologize and promise to never do it again.  It is interesting that our society demands this type of reaction even when the offended person is totally unknown to the person who made the insensitive statement.      

Contrast this to what most people consider the proper reaction that is expected of someone who has committed a sin against God.  The world celebrates these people, praising them for their courage, and condemning those who would point out that this act was indeed a sin against God, and that God is offended by this sin.  Not just this sin, but any sin.  

The world laughs at the idea of calling something a sin.  Our churches today are calling as good and proper what was once called sin.  They not only tolerate sin in the church, but they declare their own open-mindedness because they accept sin as normal and accepted.  As a result, church members are not dealing with sin in their lives, even though the Bible teaches that sin of any kind offends God. 

In this lesson, James describes how the believer is to react to sin that has been identified in their lives.  We are to mourn that sin.  We are to ask God for forgiveness of that sin, in other words we are to apologize to God.  We are then expected to repent of that sin, which means that we are promising God that we will never do it again.  

God expects, and as our Creator deserves, a better reaction than we give to someone, whom we do not even know, that we have offended.   

HOW TO DRAW NEAR TO GOD (James 4:4-8)

When I was a small child, I always wanted to be near my Father, because I knew that he loved me, and that he would protect me.  When I put my small hand into his big hand and we walked somewhere, I always felt secure and safe.  When he hugged me I knew all was right with the world.  

Now that I am a child of God, I want God to be so close that I can feel the warmth of His embrace.   I want God to be so close that I can put my small hand into His infinite hand and I want to walk and talk with Him.   

What is so amazing about our God is that He wants to be close to us as well.  He wants to walk and talk with us in the cool of the afternoon as He did with Adam and Eve.  The Bible tells us that there is a great gulf fixed between man and God, yet God has taken the initiative on this side of the grave.  In an act of infinite compassion God has come looking for us because we are lost.  God has sent His Son Jesus Christ to be the bridge that can bring us to God.  

God has come as far as He can.  He stops short of violating the human will.  He stands at the edge of the bridge with arms outstretched and says Come! Come! Come!

In our lesson today, James tells us how to draw near to God.  How it is possible to have a personal, up-close, relationship with the almighty Creator of all things.  

THE SOURCE OF WORLDLINESS (James 4:1-3)

When we think about the term worldliness we think of the envy and strife that exists in our secular lives.  Political parties split, and one group becomes pitted against another.  As management and labor meet around the conference table, there is a battle going on.  In the corporate world there are climbers on the corporate ladder who are stepping on the hands of others as they go up.  In our neighborhoods, one family does not speak to another family.  Within families there are quarrels, brother against brother.

When a church allows worldliness to enter its doors, the characteristics of the world become evident in the church.  The envy and strife that exists in the world are displayed within the church.  The symptoms of a worldly church are divisions, conflict, power struggles, and open warfare among its members.  

Worldliness can be exhibited from both the pulpit and the pew.  It can pray with self-righteous eloquence.  It can find triumph in the middle of a deacon’s meeting.  It can take over a trustee’s meeting.  It can split churches over the color of the carpet, or a building program.  It will begin in a fight over who to ordain to its ministry, who can become a church member, or who can be baptized.  All are topics that can destroy the fellowship and evangelistic efforts of the church.

Listen to this podcast to learn that symptoms of worldliness are evidence of a problem that lies much deeper.  It lies within the heart of the church member.  

What is the answer to worldliness?  Prayer.  Personal prayer, properly performed, can reveal the worldliness in our hearts and can cleanse it.  James teaches us the secret of obtaining an answered prayer from the almighty, living, God who tells us that we have not because we ask not.