The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

TO EXPAND THE WORK OF GOD (Romans 12:8-13)

As believers, we have each been given a spiritual gift from the Holy Spirit in order to perform the kingdom work of God.  In our lesson last week we covered the spiritual gifts that are to be used to expound the Word of God.  

There are those members who meet the spiritual needs of our fellow members by teaching and preaching the Word of God in a way that they can apply it in their daily lives.  

Then, there are those who do the service work of the church.  They have the gift of ministering.  They voluntarily make sure the church is clean, the grounds are mowed, and there is food for the fellowship times, for we all know that it is impossible for church members to fellowship without food.  

They are the ushers, the ones who prepare the Lord’s Supper, who help prepare the baptismal, work the sound and video systems, and maintain the building.  A church can survive without deacons, or even a preacher for a period of time, but it cannot survive without those who have the gift of ministering.  

Then there are those with the gift of exhortation.  They seek out those in need and minister to them, they lift their spirits, and they encourage us to get out and get to work for Christ.  These are the people we call on when tragedy strikes, and these are the people who you want near you when you need to be motivated for God.  

The gifts of prophesy, ministering, teaching, and exhortation are gifts that are used by members to meet the needs of the church by expounding the word of God.  

Next, Paul describes those gifted to expand the work of God.  These are the gifts of giving, guiding, and going.  These are the spiritual gifts that God has given us to help our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to expand the work of God. 

All seven of these gifts of God’s grace are given to members so that they can function as a body member.  Therefore, they are for the benefit, and belong to the whole body and not the individual member.

Listen to this podcast to learn how your spiritual gift is to be used to accomplish the kingdom work of God.

THE CHRISTIAN'S RESPONSIBILITIES TO OTHER CHRISTIANS (Romans 12:6-10)

If I were to ask you if you had a responsibility to meet the needs of your family, most of us would say, absolutely.  When our family is in need, we will respond.  

If I were to ask you if you had a responsibility to meet the needs of the world, most of us would say, that depends on what you mean by meeting their needs.  The world is a pretty needy place and it is unlikely that we have the means or the resources to meet the needs of the world.  

Somewhere in-between these two extremes there are other groups that we could point to and ask the question of whether or not we are responsible for meeting the needs of that group. Yet, even with most of these groups, I would expect your answer to be, it depends.  It might depend on how you feel about the various groups, or it might depend on the level of resources you have.

What if I were to change the question to, do you believe that God has mandated that you meet the needs of these various groups, what do you think the answer should be?  In my opinion, the answer is again, it depends, but this time the critical deciding factor for whether or not we march forward, is not what we decide is important, but what God has told us to do.  If it is God’s will that we do something, then resources and our feelings about that group do not matter.  We will have all of the resources we need.  

Our lesson today is about how we use the spiritual gifts that God has given to each of us to meet the needs of our fellow Christian brothers and sisters.  

WHY CAN'T CHRISTIANS GET ALONG WITH EACH OTHER? (Romans 12:3-5)

WHY CAN’T CHRISTIANS GET ALONG WITH EACH OTHER?

To be honest, this is a question that at first you might say, well of course we can.  We believe in the same God, and we all have Jesus as our Lord and Master, at least this is the case if you are a true believer in Jesus Christ.  The problems begin when you start talking about how you go about being saved, who can be saved, and then once you are saved whether or not you can lose your salvation, or even what the word saved really means.  

But let’s make it simpler than trying to make all of the various Christian religions get along, because that hasn’t happened in over a thousand years, and it is not likely to happen any time soon.  Let’s ask the question of whether or not members of the same church should be able to get along?  Now it is even more obvious that we should be able to get along with those who attend the same church that we do, but if you look at the statistics of how many churches split, we would have to say that getting along is not happening the way that it should.  

So the question is why?  Why can’t members of the same church get along?

The answer is really simple, but hard for people to do.  The reason people fail to get along is that they take their eyes off of what God wants them to do, and how God wants them to behave, and they begin to act as the world around them behaves, and they do the things that they think is right.  

Paul has given us the basic first steps for members to get along with each other in the first two verses of this chapter, surrender to God, and then let God transform you into the image of Christ.  It really is that basic, that simple, but so hard to do.  If we are all allowing Christ to show through us, then we will get along with each other.  

Listen to this podcast to learn the way Christians are supposed to relate to each other to complete the kingdom work of God.  

HOW DOES GOD'S WILL CHANGE THE BELIEVER? (Romans 12:2)

What is God’s will for our lives, and how does that change us?  Finding God’s will is accomplished by sacrificing our whole being to God as a living sacrifice.  This means that we surrender our life to God.  He is ours to command.  He is the Master and we are the slave.  We obey Him.  

Jesus commanded that we are to be salt and light to a dark world.  Salt is a preservative, an antibiotic, and a flavor enhancer.  It is applied externally and it draws attention to something different.  A believer is to be a preservative of the absolute truths about right and wrong that God has established.  We are to stand up when the world decides to call that which is wrong, right, and that which is right, wrong.

The believer is also to be a light unto the world.  One of the great facts about light is that darkness is simply the absence of light.  No matter how deep the darkness, the simple candle will chase that darkness away.  No amount of darkness can overpower the light of that candle.  When there is light, darkness goes away.  Light for the believer comes from within.  Salt is external, and light is internal.  Light emanates from the core of the believer.  We are to be a light to a dark world.  We are to show the world that there is an escape from the deep darkness of the world.

In order to be salt and light, the believer must be changed from what they were before.  If we look and act like everyone else, then we are neither salt nor light.  Yet, this change in who we are does not happen all at once for most of us.  Most believers will spend a lifetime having their body, soul, and spirit conformed to the image of Christ.  But the world needs to see this difference.  It needs to see the light of God’s Word shining through us.

In order to accomplish this us we must consecrate our body so that the Holy Spirit, who has made it His temple, might have free access to all its members, and free control over all its activities.  The believer who presents his body in this manner is changed.

Romans 12:2

2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

KJV

Listen to this podcast to learn how a believer is not to be conformed to this world, but is to be changed morally and mentally to show the world that the will of God is truly good, acceptable, and perfect for each of us.

WHO ARE YOU CONTROLLED BY? (Romans 12:1)

If you were to ask the general population of this country, Who are you controlled by?  Many, if not most, would declare that nobody controls me, I control myself, for this is the land of the free and the home of the brave, right?  However, the truth of the matter is that there are likely a number of entities and people that we submit ourselves to be controlled by.  For example, the government bodies that we live under, both nationally and locally.  We submit ourselves to the authority of, and the rules and procedures of, these men and women who say they have the authority to rule us.  

There is your employer, you submit to their authority.  Your spouse.  Your peers.  Your religion.  Law enforcement.  So there are lots of entities and people we allow to control us.  We submit to their authority, and what they tell us to do, we do.  We are controlled by them.

Now, most Christians would immediately reply, Well Keith, obviously I am controlled by God.  And my reply would be, do your actions match your words?  Considering the way society’s shift in morals is moving at breakneck speed today, Christians are going to be faced with some difficult decisions.  For many years, in this country, the general moral and ethical principles of the country were based on Judeo-Christian values, so the Christian in this country had it fairly easy.  

Yet, we stand today at a crossroad in this country.  Nine men and women in black have decided that marriage is defined by what they say it is and that it is not defined by God.  Never mind that it has been defined by God as one man and one woman, and for almost all of history, and in almost every civilization, as one man and one woman.  Man’s definition is that marriage can be two women, or two men, or three women and men, or ten women or ten men, or in other words, anything goes.  For without the absolute truths of right and wrong as established by God, anything does indeed go.  

This decision by the U.S. Supreme Court has set the stage for the U.S. government to criminalize Christianity.  If you choose to say what the Word of God says about homosexuality, it will be deemed as hate speech.  The consequences of this will be that you can be fined, arrested, or have your business, your home, and your job taken away from you for stating what God says.  

If you are a Christian, you will then have a choice of submitting yourself to the authority of the government, or to God.  While the Bible is clear that we are to submit ourselves to local authorities, which are established and allowed by God, it is also clear that this obligation only goes until they dictate you violate God’s Word.  So this question of, who are you controlled by, will quickly transform from an intellectual exercise to a reality.  

Now, as for me and my family, our choice is that we are controlled by God, and no government, especially 9 people in black robes, is going to change that.  While I understand that those are brave words, and that they will very soon be tested, therefore, we are depending solely on God to empower us to live those words in our lives as we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, wholly controlled by Him.  

THE GREATEST POWER OF ALL (Romans 8:1-4)

When you look at the world around us, what would you say is the greatest untapped source of power in the entire world?

Is it nuclear?  Is it hydrogen with all of the water on the earth? 

For the vast majority of believers and non-believers alike, the Holy Spirit of God is without question the greatest untapped source of power in the world. 

For the non-believer, or the lost person, the Holy Spirit is outside of their ability to tap for power.  The one role of the Holy Spirit with the lost person is to convict them of their need for a Savior.  The lost person cannot turn to the Holy Spirit for power.  You must be a born again child of God to have this power.

For the believer, the Holy Spirit is indwelling in their heart, waiting on the believer to turn to Him for power.  The sad fact is that most Christians do not know how to, or simply choose not to, tap into the power of the Holy Spirit to live a victorious Christian life.  We find that joy and peace are to be given to the child of God in this life.  We are to live for God in the very presence of sin.  Sin is not to dictate our life’s program.  

Paul has already shown us that there is nothing in the justified sinner that can produce this ideal state.  We have seen that even though we have a new nature, that new nature has no power of its own to do the things of God, and our old nature has no good in it at all.  We simply cannot live for God under our own efforts.  

The obvious question is then how is a child of God to live for God? 

Paul cried out for someone’s help, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24).  In other words, who is going to enable me to live for God?

Paul concluded chapter 7 by saying, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” 

Now chapter 8 will give us the modus operandi; that is, the means by which the victory for the Christian is secured.  Listen to this podcast as we begin a series of lessons on the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.

THE ROLE OF GOD'S LAW IN OUR LIVES (Romans 7:1-9)

What is the role of God’s Law in our lives?

Is it to establish the absolute truth about what the Creator of all things, including man, declares as right and wrong?

Is it to define the punishment for violating God’s Law?

Is it to define sin in the eyes of God so that man can know that he has missed the mark of the holiness and glory of God?

Is it a tool to reveal the sin in your life?

The answer is yes to all of these, but the most important role of God’s Law in our lives is to bring us to an awareness of our need for a Savior.  That Savior is Jesus Christ.  The Law says that all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God and the penalty for that sin is death and eternal separation from God.  The Law says that we are hopelessly lost and doomed forever.  Yet God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. 

The role of God’s Law in the life of a non-believer is to bring them to Jesus Christ for salvation from the condemnation of the Law.

Listen to this podcast to find out that the role of God’s Law in the life of a believer is to demonstrate the wonderful love of God for a sinful man.  As a believer you no longer need to fear the power of the Law.  As a believer you no longer need to be dismayed by your inability to meet the perfect standards of the Law.  When Jesus Christ died on the cross He broke the power of the Law over the believer.  He paid your penalty.  He satisfied all of the demands of the Law so that you are now free from the Law.  He died and rose again so that you might have eternal life.

THE FREE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE (Romans 6:19-23)

Romans 6:23

23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

KJV

This is one of the verses of the Roman Road to salvation.  It is familiar to anyone who has led someone else to the Lord, for it is in this verse that Paul summarizes the contrast between the ultimate goal of the lost person and that of the believer.

Paul says For the wages of sin is death:  A wage is the pay distributed by a paymaster, and the paymaster, which in this case is God, only pays for what you have earned.  A lost person believes that they can earn God’s wages.  Paul says that if you want to be paid by God, then He will only pay you for what you have earned by your sin.

What is the proper wage for sin, death.  If you demand payment from God for what you deserve, then the wages of your sin is death. 

But the Gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  For a life of sin, God will deliver payment for the wages earned.  But for those who believe in Christ, God gives a gift that is not deserved.  It is not earned.  It is a gift of God.

The word gift carries the force of a free gift.  The free gift of God compared against the earned wages of sin.  

Listen to this podcast to learn that God’s gift of eternal life is a life of the highest quality.  It is a life that endures throughout all ages. 

USING GOD'S POWER TO DEFEAT SIN

In a break from our traditional Bible study lesson, here are three scenarios that will help you understand how the believer is dead to the power of sin in their lives.  If you can apply these concepts in your life, then the Holy Spirit can give you victory over any sin.  There is no sin too big for God to remove from your life.

CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE (Romans 6:14-18)

Certainly, one of the most frustrating parts of living the victorious Christian life is the sin that keeps showing up in our lives.  Whether it is the occasional sin, or one that has built a stronghold in our lives that we just cannot seem to get rid of, sin keeps showing up in our lives.  Why does it keep happening?  We know we shouldn't do it, but we do it anyway.  Why?  Is there any hope for us to stop?

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you have only one choice, come and make Jesus Christ your Lord and Master.  That is the only way.  You cannot defeat sin on your own.  You are a slave to sin and it is only the saving work of Jesus Christ that can provide for your freedom from the dominion of sin over you.

If you are a believer, then God’s Word says that you are dead to sin, that you are free from the dominion of sin over you, and so you must choose you this day whom you will serve, either God or sin.  God has declared that sin shall not have dominion over the life of the believer.  There is no sin in your life that God cannot break the power of, if you choose to turn it over to God.  But you must believe that God can do what He says in His Word and you must really want Him to break that sin.  It is not a matter of how hard you try to stop that sin, for you cannot do it on your own.  It is a matter of how obedient you want to be to God as your Master.  

Listen to this podcast to learn how you can choose God as your Master and become free from any sin in your life.  God wants to work in your life.  The question is do you really want Him to?