The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

ARE YOU IN FINANCIAL BONDAGE (Proverbs 3:7-10)

Have you ever had a time when you were sitting there working through paying your bills, and you just thought “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to never have to worry about whether there would be enough?”  What if something happened to my health, or a family member’s health?  What about losing my job, with no prospects of finding another?  What if your brother-in-law came back, again, needing to borrow more money?  I mean, he is your wife’s only brother, and it really doesn’t matter that he has never paid back the other loans you have made to him.

One of the leading causes of divorce is financial stress.  If you allow it to, worrying about having enough money to meet your needs can consume you.  Dreaming about financial freedom is a natural result of that worry.

God knows that these things are all true, problems occur, you have needs, and so the question is, what does God have to say in His word about true Financial Freedom?  Does God have a financial plan for you and your family?  Well, of course He does.  God has a plan for every aspect of your life, and your finances are part of His plan.

Well, in this section of verses God has a very important message for each of us, as believers.  God wants you to know that He has a plan for you, and His plan for you is not to be in bondage; God’s plan is for you to have liberty and freedom. God does not want His children in bondage to anything or anybody other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you’re in bondage to the Lord Jesus Christ, that’s perfect liberty, for the Bible says,

John 8:36
36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
KJV

Click on the link below to hear a message on how you can determine if you are out of God’s will for your life and in financial bondage.  God loves you and He does not want you to be in bondage.

Amen.

LET GOD SIT IN THE DRIVER‘S SEAT (Proverbs 3:5-6)

There is a popular bumper sticker out there that says “God is my Copilot.”  Well, if that is true in your life, then you better swap seats.  God needs to in the driver’s seat of your life.  We all like to be in control of our lives, but if you are to know God’s will, then you must let God be the one who chooses your way, not you.  You see, finding God’s will is not something that you are to figure out in your flesh.  It is not a puzzle that we need to figure out.  God is not leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for us to follow.  No, instead, we are called to trust in the Lord.

Someone once said, “To know the Lord Jesus is to love Him. To love Him is to trust Him. To trust Him is to obey Him. To obey Him is to find God’s will for your life. And to find God’s will for your life is to be blessed.”  The Word of God says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” No ifs, ands, and buts about it. If you let Almighty God choose the way, control the way, confirm the way, and clear the way, then you will know the will of God for your life.

Now, let me just give you some very practical advice and I want you to think about it. The way to know the will of God for your life is to do the will of God immediately and in all things. In all your ways acknowledge Him. Don’t wait till tomorrow morning. I mean, starting now! Number two: Obey Him in the small things; then the big ones will take care of themselves. Everything big is made of little things. “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.” (Luke 16:10) 

It’s hard to steer a ship that’s not moving, that means that God can’t steer a life that is not moving towards Him. I want to repeat again, the way to know the will of God for your life is to do the will of God immediately and to do it in all things. Obey Him in the small things; then the big ones will take care of themselves.

Amen.

TO KNOW THE WILL OF GOD (Proverbs 3:1-6)

Each of us, as a believer, is seeking the will of God for our lives.  We ask, are we doing what God has planned for us?  Are we touching the people around us with the gospel message of the cross?

As husbands, are we prayerfully leading our families in the path that God has chosen for us?  Are we the spiritual leaders of our families?  Does our family even know that we think about the will of God for the family?  Do they ever see us praying?  Do you pray together as a family seeking God’s will?

As wives, are you the prayer warrior that God wants each of us to be, but so often it is the wife and mother of the family that fills this role?  Does your family know that God is the one making the choices in your life?  Can they see God in the way you conduct yourself on a daily basis?

As married couples are you walking in the same direction, yoked together, pulling in the same direction, with your eyes on God?  Are you both surrendered to God?  Not just committed, but completely surrendered to the one, true, living, almighty God of all creation.

How to decide when and where to move in the work of Lord?  That is always a crucial question facing those that would do the Lord’s work.  Certainly, for most believers, the most difficult part is separating the desires of our own heart from the desires of the Lord.  Sometimes they coincide, sometimes they do not.  

Seeking the Lord’s will is something each Christian should be doing on a daily basis.  

Finding the Lord’s will is the result of quiet, careful, meditation on the Word of God with a surrendered heart.

So how do you know which way is right?  You start by asking yourself whether your heart is in a condition that can even hear the will of God?  In other words, are you speaking from a surrendered heart that is fully obedient to God?  If your heart is not surrendered to God, if you are not obedient to God’s Word, then you cannot know the will of God.  

Then, have you prayed and asked God to reveal the sin that is in your heart, and then confessed and repented of it?  If there is unconfessed and unrepented sin in your life, that sin will keep you from hearing God’s will.

Isaiah 59:2
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
KJV

In my experience, this is the single biggest block between the prayer of the believer and the answer from God.  Many people want to live in sin, knowingly, and then expect God to ignore it and act like it doesn’t exist.  That will not happen.  God knows every sin, in every dark corner that you have placed it.  If you want to know the will of God, then you must first confess and repent of your sins.

Next, ask yourself, have you prayed about the question and then listened for God’s response, or have you simply told God the answer you want to hear?  

Then ask, is what you want meeting the purpose of Christ for this church being here, or for you still being on this earth?  Will it bring lost people to know Him?  If it doesn’t, then you need to rethink, and change your desires.  

Are you willing to accept God’s answer, whatever it may be?  You cannot know the will of God by intuition, or based on past experience, you must be willing to pray and accept God’s will, or it will never be revealed to you.  Why should God reveal His will if He knows you will not accept and be obedient to it?

Now, we have been talking about how to have God’s wisdom in our lives.  We need God’s wisdom in order to discern God’s will in our lives.  Our study over the next couple of weeks will be on how to determine the will of God in our lives, and the very first thing we must do is to make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior.  You cannot know the will of God unless you have made the Holy Spirit the president of your life, not just a resident in your heart, but the president of your life.  Then, once you are saved, once you have completely surrendered to the Holy Spirit, the very next thing you must do is to be obedient to the Word of God.  You must obey God’s commandments.  In order to do that, then you must have God’s Word hidden in your heart.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how to determine the will of God for you life.

Amen.

HOW WISDOM LIGHTS OUR PATH (Proverbs 2:9-22)

One of the luxuries of being a seasoned citizen is that we can look back on the choices we have made in our lives and see how our decisions impacted our lives for the better, or the worse.  If you are like me, I have made my share of poor decisions, and a few really good ones.  The wisdom to choose right from wrong, good from evil, and truth from lies, is something that each of us desperately need in our lives.  The Bible describes this as choosing between light and darkness.

John 1:5
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
KJV

Notice what John says here about the light that shines in the darkness, he says, the darkness comprehended it not.  Now, other Bible translations render this phrase in various ways:  “the darkness has not overcome it,”  “has not put it out,” or “can never extinguish it.”

Whatever the exact words, the message is the same.  Jesus Christ stands as the unconquered Ruler of time and eternity, and all of history is a battle between light and darkness.  God’s kingdom is a kingdom of light, and Satan’s kingdom is a kingdom of darkness.  

But, and this is important for us to understand, don’t ever get the idea that the kingdom of darkness is somehow as strong as the kingdom of light.  Satan is a formidable foe, but the grand truth is that darkness is totally powerless against the light.  

Satan’s darkness is not the opposite of God’s light, but the absence of it.  A lost person’s heart does not know God’s light, because it is filled with nothing but darkness.  God’s light is absent from the lost person’s heart.  A believer’s heart has a light within it that no lost person can ever know.  A believer has the light of the Holy Spirit of God within them, and no amount of darkness can ever overcome that light.

Have you ever been in a room or place where the darkness is just so great that you can almost feel it? It oppresses you, it weighs down on you.  For example, have you ever walked in a cemetery on a dark moonless night and felt the darkness surround you?

We once took a tour of Fantastic Caverns in Missouri, and at one point in the tour, the guide shuts off the lights and you are surrounded by complete darkness.  They do this, because in a cave underground, you can learn what real darkness is.  Yet the simple light of a candle can dispel even the worst darkness, and no amount of darkness can overpower that candle.  Satan and his kingdom must bow before God and the majesty of His light.  When God’s light comes, Satan’s darkness must go.  

It also means that there is only one way to get rid of Satan’s darkness; the light of the Word of God.  We have victory in Jesus because no force on the earth, or below the earth, can stand against the mighty majesty of God’s light.  When our lives are filled with sin, it is the light of the Word of God that will give you victory over that sin in your life.  In fact, it is the only light that will give you victory over Satan and sin.  You cannot live the Christian life without the power and light of the Holy Spirit in your heart. The concepts of God’s wisdom and God’s light are intertwined.  They are both based on the Word of God, and they both come from the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.  But, most importantly, they enable us to determine right from wrong, good from evil, and truth from lies.

Click on the link below to hear a message about how God’s wisdom, God’s light, can deliver us from evil.  For it is when we acquire wisdom, that we will have light in darkness.

Amen.

THE INCOMPARABLE WORTH OF WISDOM (Proverbs 2:1-10)

There is an old proverb—not a biblical proverb, just a proverb—that says, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” But the problem is that a lot of people who go to bed early and get up early, they’re not healthy, they’re not wealthy, and they’re not wise. Going to bed early and getting up early doesn’t make you healthy, wealthy, and wise.  However, what is taught in God’s Word will make you healthy, wealthy, and wise, at least by the standards of God’s word.  Not by the world’s standards, but by God’s standards.  

So, what is a proverb, anyway? Somebody once said that a proverb is a short sentence based on long experience—that is, it is a lot of wisdom that has been distilled, crammed into, packed into, a sentence. That is, by a proverb, we can learn from the experiences of other people. Somebody else said, “You’d better learn from the mistakes of others, because you’ll not live long enough to make them all by yourself.”  That is probably a wise statement for most of us, but I know of some people who are definitely trying to do it alone.  They like making their own mistakes.  

But the proverbs that we find here in the Bible are not like earthly proverbs. Earthly proverbs are learned from experience. But that is not what Biblical proverbs are.  Biblical proverbs are truths that are given to us by divine revelation. These are not just simply things that are being worked out by human ingenuity; these are God’s words of wisdom given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

This is telling us that Jesus is wisdom personified. Let me tell you about wisdom. It commences at conversion, and it deepens by discipleship. 

Prov 9:10
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
KJV

That is, a man does not even have a modicum of wisdom until he knows the Lord. When a man reverences God, when a man receives Christ, when a man has a personal encounter, that man receives the wisdom of God. 

This is the incomparable worth of wisdom, it is provided by the Father; it is produced by the Spirit, but only by the presence of the Son. When you have the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart, then you are ready to have that real wisdom.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the incomparable worth of wisdom.

Amen.

TO BE A FATHER-PART II (Proverbs 1:20-22)

This is the second message in a two-part series on the role of a father in the direction that a child will go as they get older, and our message today will be about the way parents can raise a child who is wise and loves God.  

Certainly, we would like to think that every parent, every father, loves their child and wants what is best for them.  And as believers, we want to believe that the deepest desire of every parent, every father, is that their children will love God with all of their hearts.  

But unfortunately, not all children have the benefit of loving parents.  Sometimes children are caught up in the mistakes and the pride and the arrogance of their parents, and more often than not it is the pride and arrogance of the father.  Sometimes it is the mother, or even both, but more often than not it is the father.

So, what happens to that child who was not taught by their parents to love God?  There is an evolution of that child into becoming someone who does not know the love that God has for them.  They become someone who lives their life without God.  The really sad thing is that they never learn what it means to have eternal life with God in Heaven.  

But that is not the way that child starts out.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  That is where a godly father, and a godly mother, come into the picture.  It is their responsibility to teach that child what it means to love God with all of their heart.  Now, the fact is that, ultimately, it is the child who must choose to accept or reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Even with the best of parents, that child still has to make their own choice, and some don’t choose Christ.  But as parents, we can have tremendous impact on the path that child will take.

Click on the link below to hear a message on what it takes to raise a child who loves God with all of their hearts.  

TO BE A FATHER (Part I)(Proverbs 1:20-22)

One of the greatest blessings that God has bestowed on me is that I am the father of two godly sons.  The fact that they both love God and serve Him is not a testament to anything that I have done, but to the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.  They were also blessed with the love of a truly wonderful mother.  That undying love that she has for them has shaped them in many ways.  Now, it is true that I have loved them both with all of my heart since I held them in my arms on the day they were born.  It is also true that our deepest desire for our children was that they loved God with all of their hearts.  

Unfortunately, not all children have the benefit of loving parents.  Sometimes children are caught up in the mistakes and the pride and the arrogance of their parents, and more often than not it is the pride and arrogance of the father.  Sometimes it is the mother, or even both, but more often than not it is the father.

There are many children who are going to be shipwrecked because of the pride and the arrogance of their fathers, who willingly choose not to guide those children into a safe and secure haven.  Those fathers will shipwreck their own lives, and then the lives of their children who will suffer in their own ignorance because their father did not teach them the ways of God.  

You might ask, “Well what about the mother, isn’t she just as responsible?”  Yes, but the Bible is clear that the father is to be the major teacher of the family.  But, when the father doesn’t perform that role, whether it is because he is lost and does not know God, or he is too proud and arrogant to do so, or he just isn’t there anymore, then the mother has to step in.  But, God gives the role of the spiritual leader of the home to the father.

Our message today is on how To Be a Father, and it is part I of a two-part series.  In this first part I am going to describe what happens when a father fails to teach his child.  We are going to talk about what happens to that child as a result of that father’s failure.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on what happens when we do not teach our children.  When a father, who is so wrapped up in his own life, who is so proud and arrogant that he does not love God, and does not wish to teach his children to love God.  I hope you hear my words today, and I pray that you will not let this happen to your children.

Amen.

ARE YOU PREPARED? (Proverbs 1:10-19)

Are you prepared?  Well, prepared for what?  In these days of unrest there is a whole group of people who are called “preppers.”  They have go-bags that are at the ready to grab in the event of an emergency, be it a hurricane, a riot, or some other cataclysmic event.  Those bags contain food, camping equipment, and tools for survival without all of the support that we have in our society, like electricity, grocery stores, hospitals, gas stations, and even the internet.  They are prepared to face a crisis event.

So, how you respond to the question of Are You Prepared depends on what you need to be prepared for?  Is it a crisis event, or is it just to go to work today, or to school to take that exam?  

Our message today is going to ask the Christian believer Are You Prepared to go out into the secular world?  This message is for every believer, young or old, rich or poor, educated or not.  For you to live a victorious Christian life you have to be prepared to face a world full of temptation and sin.  This is especially true of our children as they get to the age where they will enter the world.  But even though this message seems to be directed at our children, the principles that Solomon describes are just as applicable to adults.

One of the primary responsibilities of a Christian parent is to prepare their children to go out into the world and live a life that honors and glorifies God.  Now, every parent wants their child to go out and succeed, but a secular parent and a Christian parent should have different definitions for the word succeed.  The world looks at success in terms of wealth, power, happiness, and a family.  

A Christian looks at success as finding fulfillment in always being obedient to the will of God for their lives.  Now, wealth, power, happiness, and a family, may, or may not, come for the Christian, but if they do, they are simply due to the grace of God, not because of anything that we have done.  Our trust is in the love that God has for us, and the certain knowledge that He will provide everything we need, and much more than we deserve.  

If your trust is in something other than God to provide for your needs, like your own hard work, then you are not prepared to do God’s will for your life.  This is true because it impacts your priorities.  If your priority is to provide for your needs, then those needs will always come before your work for God. 

Other than making sure your children know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, teaching them this concept of duty and service to God is the single most important principle that we can give them.  It is to be more important than teaching them how to read, to write, to dress themselves, and to be polite.  All those things are important, but without God, and without a desire to serve God, they will be easy prey for the world.  

Click on the link below to hear a message that asks the question Are You Prepared to go out into the secular world?  

Amen.

HOW TO RAISE KIDS WHO WILL COUNT FOR GOD (Proverbs 1:7-9)

I am always amazed at the wisdom of God.  There are times that I don’t always understand what God is doing, but that is ok, because God doesn’t need my understanding.  One area that I think about is the fact that most people are parents when they are young, full of energy, and make no mistake they need that energy to chase after those kids, but they lack the wisdom that it takes to be a really good parent.  You see, we tend to gain more wisdom as we get older, but it is when we are young that we need that wisdom, and raising kids is one of those times.  

Now, my wife is a terrific mother.  She has dedicated herself to our boys, and nobody ever loved a child more than my wife loves our two boys and their wives, and our grandchildren.  But, I have to admit, that I could have been a better parent than I was.  It wasn’t for a lack of trying.  I just never did get a copy of the how to raise kids manual so that I could read it and know what I was supposed to do.  I had to learn on the job, just like everyone else.  Now, it is at a time like this when I realize just how ignorant I was.  There I had, available for me in His Word, a complete guide to the way God wants us to raise kids to count for Him, and I just didn’t have the wisdom to use it like I should have.

 If you are a Christian parent, one of the promises of God that you should hold dear to your heart is that, the generation of the upright shall be blessed.

Ps 112:2
2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
KJV

This is a promise that God will bless your children and make them mighty upon the earth.  The strongest desire of my heart for my kids is not that they be wealthy, not that they be famous, not that they will always be praised or whatever, but that they will love the Lord Jesus Christ and count in His cause.  I want them to be people who will count for God.  God has kept this promise in my two boys and their own families, in spite of my failings.

I thank God for Christian homes. I don’t know of anything any better than a Christian home. Your home doesn’t exist so you can do your business; your business exists so you can have your home. God ideally wants everybody to have three homes. A family home, a church home, and a heavenly home. Jesus is the greatest homebuilder. Satan is the greatest home-wrecker.  God wants you to have a family home. Now maybe you’re an orphan. Maybe you’re divorced. Maybe you’re separated. Then you need some friends that will be sort of a family to you. That’s one of the good reasons we have Bible fellowship classes in churches. But you need some kind of a family home. And then you need a church home. You need a place with your brothers and sisters in Christ. And then you need to know that you know that you know that when you die, you’re going to heaven—to the Father’s house. Now Jesus is the key to all three. You have to know the Lord Jesus Christ.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on how to raise kids who will count for God.

Amen.

INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PROVERBS (Proverbs 1:1-6)

Whenever I get ready to teach, or study, a book of the Bible, and I know that I am going to be spending a lot of time in it, I try to get in my mind why God put this book in the Bible and what it is that He wants me to learn from it.  The Bible is such a marvelous book. It is so simple that a child can learn about God’s love for them, and it is so deep that a person can spend their entire life plumbing it depths and barely get below the surface. I love the Word of God, because it allows me to know the mind of God, and when I know the mind of God, I know the love of God.  There is nothing that I value more than the love that God has for me.  It sustains me, it motivates me, it guides me, and it makes me the person that I am, a servant of God.  

I firmly believe that God gave us His Word so that we might know who He is, what He has done for us, and as a result, that we might live for Him.  It is His Word that answers all of the questions that we have in this life.  It is His Word that grounds me in the absolute truths about right and wrong, it establishes what good and evil are, light from dark, and it gives me the keys to living a victorious Christian life.  

So, what is it that God wants us to know from the book of Proverbs?  Why did God give us this very unusual book?  When you look at the book of Proverbs, you will find it to be an interesting collection of short, concise and forcefully expressive sayings.  Unlike our studies of the gospel of John, and the life of David, Proverbs does not even tell a story, or a series of stories.  We won’t find David slaying Goliath with five smooth stones, and we won’t find Jesus healing the sick and feeding the five thousand.  As a result, you may not consider the Book of Proverbs as a very thrilling story, but it is.  You also may want to think of the Book of Proverbs like a big collection of sayings that you might find in a Chinese cookie, but it is not.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on what God wants you to know about the book of Proverbs, and how it can give you the answers to many of your questions about life.  

Amen.