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.

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 BLOOD COVENANT (1 Samuel 18:1-3)

One of the most important concepts in the Bible is that of the blood covenant. The blood covenant is what the Bible is all about.  In fact, it is the subject of the Bible.  The Hero of the Bible is Jesus, the subject is the blood covenant.

Now, not only is the blood covenant the subject of the Bible, but it is therefore the strength of the believer.  The believer's security, the believer's victory, comes to the one who learns what his covenant rights are.  If you want to live a victorious Christian life, then you want to have the strength that belongs to you because of your covenant rights.  It is no wonder that it is the secret of blessing.  

Why would God show mercy to me? Why would God have mercy on such a person as I am? 

Eph 4:32
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
KJV

Why does God forgive me? Because I am worthy? No, I am under a sentence of death. Because I deserve it? No, I'm a rebel. Because I first loved him? No, I feared him. Why does God forgive me? For Christ’s sake, "Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." 

It is because of the blood covenant that the Lord Jesus Christ made with God the Father that I am forgiven. We are brought in, not because of what we have done, but because Jesus Christ made a blood covenant for us.  When you understand the covenant, no longer do you become a slave to fears. Sometimes you feel unworthy, but that doesn't make any difference. The covenant is kept no matter how you feel about it, and the Lord will never break his covenant.  Quit living by the tyranny of feeling, just live by the covenant.  It doesn't matter whether you are worthy or not. 

Christianity is not based upon your ability. It is not your responsibility. It is your response to his ability. That's what Christianity is. Jesus cut a covenant for you.  There is no longer any need for you to live like a beggar, and die like a pauper, when you can walk on this earth as one of the king's sons because of the blood covenant. Hallelujah for that. 

Click on the link below to hear a message on how the covenant that David made with Jonathan illustrates the blood covenant that Christ made for us, so that we can have everlasting life.

Amen.

WHO IS JESUS CHRIST TO YOU? (John 8:24-41)

This is the single most important question that each of us must answer. No other question has your eternal destiny in the balance. It is the one question that Jesus will look at when you stand before Him to be Judged.

John 5:22-24
22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
23 That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
KJV

Today’s message is one with three powerful statements by our Lord Jesus.

The first one is a declaration that Jesus is God, and if you fail to believe that He is God, then you will die in your sins.

John 8:24
24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
KJV

The second is that if you truly accept Jesus, the Son of God, as the Lord and Master or your life, then that truth will set you free from the bondage of sin.

John 8:31-32
31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
KJV

The third statement is that if you commit sin, then you are the slave of sin. If you do the works of Satan, then you are the slave of Satan.

John 8:34
34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
KJV

With these three statements, Jesus Christ is laying out the gospel message of the Bible right here in this set of verses. These are powerful statements that are meant to convict the hearts of each of us.

Click on the link below to hear a powerful testimony as to who Jesus Christ is. Jesus declares Himself to be God. You may want to call Jesus a good man, a prophet, a teacher, or a healer, but until you call Him God, Jesus says “that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” If you refuse to accept Jesus as God, then you are still without a passport to an eternity in heaven. Deny Jesus as God, and you will spend an eternity burning in the fires of Hell. Is just doesn’t get any plainer, any more powerful, than that.

Amen.

LIBERTY TO DO AS YOU WANT (2 Peter 2:19-22)

Liberty to do as you want, that is the promise of the false teacher and the apostate. It is a lie that is as old as mankind. No more following the rules of your parents. No more following the rules of your religion, the church, God, or the Bible. It is a lure that draws people within its trap doors, and once there, they find themselves deeper and deeper into the bondage of sin.

How many alcoholics feel free from the bondage they are in? How many drug addicts feel free from the bondage they are in? How many sexual addicts feel free from the bondage they are in? They were free to choose, but they were not free to choose the bondage brought on by the consequences of their sin.

People who are trapped in sin often try religion out for period of time. They commit to cleaning themselves up. It becomes their New Year’s resolution. How many New Year’s resolutions have you kept? My guess is not many. So, they fail in their cleanup efforts and then they go back to their lives of sin and they are worse off than they were before. They are trapped, they are in bondage.

Let me tell you something, I sin all I want to. You say, really? If I sinned all I wanted to, I would be deep in sin. My answer to that is you need to get your wanter fixed, in fact, you need a brand new wanter. You need to be saved. A child of God can sin. They can lapse into sin, but when they do they loathe it. When a lost person sins, they love it.

This is the reason that Peter has instructed us to make our calling and election sure. It is not enough just to go to church, or to be baptized. You must be sure that you are sure. You must be truly born again. One does not become a child of God by cleaning up his life. If we try to clean up our life without filling it with the Holy Spirit, Satan will fill it with many more sins than we had before. Knowledge of salvation is not salvation. In order to live in the Father’s house, you must accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord. You must make certain that you have authentic Christianity.

If you are not sure that you are sure, then you come find me, or find a pastor of the true gospel of Christ, such as we have at this church, and you make sure that you have the authentic Jesus Christ in your heart as your Lord and Master.

Listen to this podcast to learn that Jesus Christ can give you the liberty to do as you ought, rather than to do as you want.

DO I REALLY HAVE TO HONOR MY BOSS? (1 Peter 2:17-18)

But my boss is moody, unfair, unjust, corrupt, and just plain awful to me.  You can’t be serious; do I really have to honor my boss?

In our lesson today, Peter will talk about how we treat those around us.  The good people and the bad people.  The popular people and the social misfits.  Our brothers and sisters in Christ and those who have rejected Christ, and even those who we work for.  God wants us to win others to Christ, that is our mission.  We won’t do that if we treat people poorly, or if we are in an adversarial relationship with them.  People respond to those who treat them with respect.  You don’t have to like them, or what they stand for, or even what they have done to you or others, but you can still treat them with respect and honor.  

I have a son who works as a prison guard in a maximum security prison.  This is a place that houses the worst of the worst in our state penitentiary system.  Some guards use their position of authority to abuse the prisoners and treat them with despite.  The prisoners react to this treatment with violence and it endangers all of the guards and other prisoners.  My son has learned that if you treat them with respect, always watchful for deception, that the prisoners will generally respond with obedience and a level of respect in return.  This is not to say that the prisoners would not harm you in a blink of an eye, but people, even really bad people, respond to being treated with respect. 

God wants His ambassadors to be seen as law abiding, caring people, who treat others with respect, even in the face of persecution.  

Peter says that we are to do this, For so is the will of God.  This is not optional.  To do otherwise is to be out of God's will.  Our first priority is unto God.  This applies to all of our relationships.  

Sounds a lot like what my father told me, and what I told my own kids.  There are just times that a parent must say to their child, I want you to do this, because I said so.  I don’t have to explain myself, just do it because I want you to.  

Now, fortunately, God is in the process of giving us a further explanation for His command to obey, but He starts out with, you are to do this because it is my will for you.  Pretty simple. So simple, even I can understand it.  Be obedient to the laws of man, or be out of God’s will.  My dad would expect my response to such a statement from him to be, yes, sir.  God expects the same thing.  

WHY SHOULD WE OBEY THE LAWS OF MAN? (1 Peter 2:15-16)

So, last week we continued the theme of submitting to the ordinances of man in order that we might bring glory to God.  We know that we are going to be persecuted unjustly.  The secular world hates Christianity, and they will do everything they can to destroy us.  They will tell horrible lies about us.  To know this is true, you have only to look at the headlines of our own country.  The democratic party, and its progressive agenda, is focused totally on removing God, those who worship Him, and His morals about what is right and wrong from the public square, and for the most part, they have succeeded by telling lies about us.  

So why would God command us to obey the laws that these corrupt governments create?  

Our submission is limited only by our adherence to God’s laws in priority over man’s law.  But, we are to obey man’s law right up to the point that it violates God’s law, and that is difficult to understand why.  It is, of course, contrary to our natural desire for justice and fairness.  And believe me, nothing is more distasteful that being forced to obey the laws of the moral degenerates who are pushing their progressive agenda.  But God says I must.  I can and should fight for what is good and moral by God’s definitions, but I must do it within the law.  

The key to understanding this seeming paradox is that we must remember that we are the ambassadors of the almighty God, and all of our words, our actions, and our fights, must bring glory to His name, or we have failed Him.  Our mission is to change the spiritual hearts of people by introducing them to our Lord Jesus Christ, and let God take care of the rest.  Revival can only occur when the heart is changed by God.    

In our lesson today, Peter begins to give us an explanation for our submission.

THE QUESTION OF SUBMISSION (1 Peter 2:13b-14)

If I were to ask you to give me a list of so-called Christians or Christian groups that give others a bad impression of Christians, and Christianity as a whole, who would you list?  My list would include churches that protest military funerals, and violent anti-abortion groups and people. Make no mistake about it, God does not support this type of activity, and it does not bring glory to His name.  When one of these groups protest the burial of war veteran, nobody is thinking positive things about the people of God.  When an anti-abortionist walks in and shoots people, nobody is thinking positive things about the people or groups that this person represents or the God they claim to worship. 

If I were to ask you about the top lies the secular world says about Christians, what would you say?  My list would include “They are all a bunch of hypocrites” or “They hate _____people,” fill in the blank with whatever sin you want, be it gay people, drunk people, abortion doctors, or adulterers. While these are certainly lies of the greatest magnitude about true Christians, people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, they are unfortunately true of a large group of people who claim to be Christians.  Once again, make no mistake about it, God does not condone hypocrisy, or hatred of any person, on the part of His true followers.  Some of the most vehement words that Jesus spoke while He was on this earth were directed at the hypocritical Pharisees and Sadducees.  The Bible does not teach it, nor does God command His followers to behave in this way.  In fact, He commands just the opposite.

Mark 12:29-31

29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

KJV

You cannot love your neighbor as yourself, and hate them at the same time.  God didn’t say love only the good people, He said to love thy neighbor.  We are to recognize and proclaim sin for what it is, rebellion against God.  We are to recognize those who commit sin as rebels against God.  We are to preach and teach people to obey the commandments of God.  To behave in a way that is in accordance with God’s definition of good and moral, and to abstain from those things that God calls evil and amoral.  

We are to do this with a spirit of love and because we know the eternal consequences of rejecting Jesus Christ and rebelling against God are real and permanent.  Hell is real and it is forever.  God’s judgment is real, and because we love our neighbors as ourselves, we do not want this for anyone.  Our mission is to preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ so that He can change the heart of that person, and provide them with eternal life.  

The world is going to make up enough lies about us as it is.  We are going to be persecuted unjustly.  The only defense we have is that our behavior does not match the lies.  If someone wants to look for the truth in your life, they should find a law abiding citizen who respects the law of man.

Yet, when we, as Christians, violate man’s laws and become labeled as criminals, when we lie, or steal, or fail to pay our taxes, drive a vehicle while we are drunk, when we commit violent acts, or when we violate God’s commandments, we bring dishonor to the God that we serve.  We bring dishonor to the name of those who serve God and we taint the gospel message that we preach.  Our actions have to match our words.  This is what our lesson is about today, behaving in such a way that when the world tells lies about us, our behavior can set the record straight and bring glory to the God we serve.  

TO BE ELECTED BY GOD (1 Peter 1:1b to 2a)

The Bible emphatically teaches the doctrine of election, and this is a doctrine that has caused endless debates and disputes throughout the ages.  People will either go off the deep end into hyper-Calvinism with this doctrine, or they avoid it like the plague because they don’t understand it.  When it really is quite simple to understand.  Man complicates it by assuming that God cannot know anything that man does not know.  That really is the heart of the problem for man in understanding this doctrine.  

However, the truth is that man’s mind is limited, and God’s mind is unlimited.  Man’s capacity to know things is finite, and God’s knowledge is infinite.  Man’s knowledge is bounded by the constraints of time, it encompasses what has happened in the past and what is happening right now.  Man can only guess at the future.  

God created the concept of time so His knowledge is unconstrained by time.  He knows all things from before time began until well past the day when eternity makes time irrelevant, and He knows it all at the same time.  God cannot learn anything, since by definition He already knows it all.  

In today’s lesson, Peter gives us his own inspired insight into the subject.  He bluntly declares that our election is based on God’s foreknowledge.  Without hesitation, or qualification, Peter says that God has elected a certain company to become members of the royal family of heaven.  However, God does this and never violates our own volition, or our own right to choose.  God woos, He does not ravage.  He does not endow His creations with wills of their own, with the power of choice and personal accountability for their behavior, and then act as though they had no such thing.  

God’s election of certain members of the human family to become members of the royal family takes into account the response of each individual when confronted by the Holy Spirit with the offer of salvation.  While this may sound difficult to understand, the simple truth of it is that if you want to be a part of the elect of God, then choose Christ when the Holy Spirit presents salvation to you.  

Salvation boils down to one question, will you accept or reject Jesus Christ as your Lord and Master.  

If you say yes, then you will become part of the elect of God, and you will spend eternity in heaven with Christ.  

If you say no, then you will not be part of the elect of God, and you will spend eternity burning in the fires of Hell, forever without the light of God.  

Listen to this powerful Biblical doctrine of God’s foreknowledge and how it can bless you because God knows who you are, where you are, what you are going through, and He has a plan for you.  If you are believer, then God will empower you to deal with any persecution or trial that you may be going through.  He knew about this before it ever occurred and He has prepared you for it, and He is with you every step of the way.  

HOW FAR WOULD JESUS GO? (Romans 15:1-7)

Over the last two chapters of our study, Paul has certainly made it clear that part of lovingly exercising our religious liberty to do the debatable things, the things not clearly defined as wrong in the Bible, is knowing when not to do something, or knowing when it might cause harm to someone else.  

I believe Paul would sum up his argument in this chapter by saying the spirit of charity, or the spirit of love, outweighs all of our other concerns.  If we truly love our neighbors as ourselves, then we will not do anything that will harm them.  Just as we would not do anything to harm ourselves.  

Paul has told us that in the area of essential beliefs, or the things clearly defined in the Bible, we are to have unity.  How do we have that unity?  By moving closer to Christ.

In the area of non-essential beliefs, or the debatable issues, we are to have liberty.  How do we express and enjoy that liberty?  By moving closer to Christ.

In all things we are to have charity towards our brothers and sisters in Christ.  How are we to show this charity?  By loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and spirit.  How do we show God that we love Him this much?  By moving closer to Christ.  

If we do the first commandment, the second commandment will take care of itself.  

If we do the second commandment, then we will be our brother’s keeper, and we will do, or not do, what it takes to help build our brother and sister in Christ, spiritually.  

So this is the spirit of charity, or love, that we are to have towards our brothers and sisters in Christ.  But Paul has not finished yet.  I think he knew that if he left it here, depending only on our love for our neighbor, we would respond as we have.  So, he has an even higher ground to map out for us.  It is a great thing to treat a weaker brother in the spirit of charity, or love.  It is a far greater thing to treat them in the spirit of Christ. 

In this lesson, Paul will basically ask the question of how far would Christ go in building up a fellow brother or sister in Christ, and then he will tell us that is how far we should go.