The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

THE LORD'S PRAYER FOR YOU-PART II (John 17:14-26)

This is a prayer where Jesus asks the Father to keep and strengthen the Lord’s disciples, both the men who were gathered around Him on this dark night before His crucifixion, and those who would later come to believe on Him throughout the church age.

John 17:11
11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
KJV

It is amazing to understand that 2,000 years ago, Jesus, on His way to be crucified, took time to pray for you and me. It is a prayer that has transcended time and space. The Lord’s prayer has impacted every believer that has claimed Him as their Savior since the day He prayed it.

Did you know that you have this ability as well? You do. When you pray to Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus, and for the things that Jesus wills for you, then your prayer can transcend time and space just as the Lord’s did. You can pray for people in other parts of the world that you don’t even know. You can pray for your great-grandchildren that have not even been born yet. This is the power of praying to an almighty God. It is a wonderful thing to know and apply in our lives.

What was the Lord praying about for you on that street so long ago? He was praying for our protection, our security, our sanctification, and that we would have the power to do all the things that He has asked us to do. He prayed that we would share the gospel message of Jesus Christ to a lost world.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the how the Lord Jesus Christ prayed that you do the things that He has sent you to do, and then, that you would come to be with Him. Heaven is incomplete for Jesus without you. Jesus wants you to be with Him. That is such a wonderful thought to apply in our heart. Jesus wants you to be with Him.

Amen.

THE HOLY SPIRIT REVEALS (John 16:12-24)

Well, the world has certainly changed since the last time we met to study God’s Word. Instead of being in a building full of people, I am speaking to an empty room because of the coronavirus pandemic. From the looks of things, it may be this way for some time to come. As a result, I want you to know that I will continue our study of the Book of John with a new podcast posted each week. I also want you to know that God is in control. If you are worried, let God take that burden from you. If you are afraid, let God comfort you. If you are sick, let God work His will in your life. God is in control.

It shouldn’t, but it always amazes me when I see God’s timing play out in our lives. For example, prior to all of these events occurring related to the virus outbreak. Before we had even heard the word coronavirus. God has had me teaching about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He knew this time of trial was coming. We didn’t, but He did, and He wanted to remind us of how He will be here with us. He wanted to bring to our remembrance all that He has said about how He was indeed in control and that we can depend on Him. If there is nothing else that you walk away from this message with, it is that God is in control, and that He will give you the strength you need to get through this time of trial.

Isa 40:28-31
28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
KJV

This virus did not take God by surprise. He is in control. If you will wait upon the Lord, if you will let Him have control of your life, then He will renew your strength.

In chapter 16 of the Gospel of John, we have been talking about three truths that the Lord Jesus Christ has sent the Holy Spirit to teach us. They are the truths about sin, righteousness, and judgment. In today’s message, Jesus is going to tell His disciples another truth that the Holy Spirit will reveal unto them.

It is A truth about the new age of Grace, and the church of true believers, the body of Christ. It is through this body of true believers, that the Holy Spirit will bring the gospel message of Jesus Christ to the world, and bring words of life and hope to those who need to hear them during the times of tragedy that we face.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the work of the Holy Spirit as He reveals the truths of our Lord Jesus.

Amen.

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT-PART II (John 16:7-11)

Last week we began a message on three important truths about the Holy Spirit and the work that He does in our lives. These are truths that you will never learn in school. These are truths that you will never figure out intellectually. These are truths that you will never, never, ever know until you lay your intellectual pride in the dust and let God the Holy Spirit speak to you. In fact, the most important truths that will impact your life for all of eternity can only be known by the Holy Spirit speaking them to you. You won’t learn them in school. You won’t learn them in seminary, and you won’t learn them in the school of hard knocks.

These truths are about sin, righteousness, and judgement.

I love this passage of Scripture. The Holy Spirit of God is come to convict the world of man's basic problem. He has come to convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Now in a court of law, first comes the crime. When the crime is proven, then the judgment. That's the order: the crime, the punishment. But with God, the order is different. There is, first of all, sin, then righteousness, and then judgment. God has put righteousness between sin and judgment. God has interposed the precious blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now if you don't believe on Jesus Christ, if you refuse, then there is no righteousness between sin and judgment. You just die and go to hell. I'm a sinner, by nature, by birth, by practice, but I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and, therefore, God has interposed His precious blood and His righteousness stands between me and judgment. I like that. Between me and hell there's a bloody cross that Jesus died on.

Listen, if you're not a believer, put your hand up there on your chest and you feel that little heartbeat. That's all there is between you and hell. That's all—just a heartbeat. But if you've given your heart to Jesus, if you've trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, if you've said, "My basic problem is I've not trusted Him, but I trust Him now." And then God says, "I'll give you a bountiful provision. I will give you righteousness, and for you there is therefore now no condemnation, and you're not belonging to that tribe that's following Satan. You're twice-born. You're heaven born and heaven bound.”

Click on the link below to hear a message on the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Amen.

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (John 16:7-11)

Like most people, I spent a good deal of my youth getting an education in school. I went through elementary, Junior High, Senior High, and even college, and I learned a good deal in those schools. Not that I remember much of it, but the one thing that has stuck is how to learn. How to learn about a particular subject. How to study, and how to organize my thoughts about that knowledge in a meaningful way.

Now, to be honest, I hated studying while I was in school, and by the time I was done with college, I swore that I would never do it again. If I had to pick up a book to learn about something, I decided I could live with being ignorant. Well, you see how that worked out. I now have a job that requires me to study the federal regulations on such interesting topics as boycott laws, trade sanctions, and import and export laws. I also spend a good share of my time at home studying to teach these lessons. In other words, never tell God that you don’t want to do something that He wants you to do, because He has a way of making sure you do.

One of the other things that I learned in school was that a school cannot teach you many things about how to live in this world, especially about what is right and wrong. This is particularly true when it comes to living a victorious Christian life. There are some things that you will never learn in school. There are things that you will never figure out intellectually. There are things that you will never, never, ever know until you lay your intellectual pride in the dust and let God the Holy Spirit speak to you. In fact, the most important truths that will impact your life for all of eternity can only be known by the Holy Spirit speaking them to you. You won’t learn them in school. You won’t learn them in seminary, and you won’t learn them in the school of hard knocks. Our messages over the next couple of weeks are going to be about three of these tremendous truths.

Now, truth is so very, very important. There are those who are afraid of the truth, afraid of what that truth will mean in their lives. There are those who are willing to accept half-truths, socially adapted truths that allow them to deceive themselves into believing they are religious, or just a good person. Then, there are those who arrogantly think they know all truth. My prayer for you today is that you will have the humility to ask the Holy Spirit to speak the truth to you.

Click on the link below to hear a message on man’s basic problem, the sin of unbelief. Not believing on Jesus Christ is the great sin. That is the mother sin, the father sin, the parent sin, the sin of sins. The greatest sin is not believing. Unbelief does not come out of the head; it comes out of the heart. It is a predisposition against Almighty God. It is not trusting the God who loves you. Refuse the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are condemned because you have not believed. You have refused Him. That is the greatest sin, and with it brings the greatest penalty.

Amen.

STUBBORN UNBELIEF (John 12:37-50)

Jesus Christ has been my Lord and Savior since I was a young man. His Holy Spirit has lived in my heart for more than 50 years. In fact, it is hard for me to remember a time when the Holy Spirit was not my constant companion in everything that I did. I have chosen to live my life in the center of God’s will. I am God’s servant and that is the desire of my heart, to serve God in all that I do. However, that has not always been the case. There have been periods of my life when I have ignored Holy Spirit who lives within my heart. I have put Him in closet within my heart and told Him that He was not welcome in certain areas of my life. I wanted Him close by if I needed Him, but otherwise I didn’t want to be bothered. I wanted to live my life, my way. Now, every single time I did that, the Holy Spirit convicted me, chastised me, even took me out to the woodshed to discipline me. In short, I failed in all aspects of my life when Jesus was not first in my life. It is when Jesus is the President of my life, not just a resident, that I truly live an abundant life in the way God wants me to live.

As a result of this lifelong relationship with Jesus, it is sometimes hard for me to understand why someone would choose to reject Jesus as the Son of God, as their Lord, and as their Savior. Knowing what I know and what it has meant to me, it just doesn’t make sense to me why the vast majority of people would turn away from the free gift of eternal life in heaven with Jesus. It boggles my mind. Yet, it is true. Whether it is for self-centered reasons, or to chase after a false religion, they deliberately, willfully, and knowingly, choose to reject Jesus as their Lord and Savior. It doesn’t mean they cannot be reached. It doesn’t mean that they are morally bad people. It just means that, so far, they have made a deliberate decision to reject Christ. It means that if they were to die today, they would spend eternity in Hell, without God. Unfortunately, the longer a person lives rejecting Jesus, the harder it gets to ever reach them with the truth of who Jesus is. In other words, their mind is set in its ways. Their heart becomes hardened to the gospel message that is found in the Bible. They say, it cannot be true. That the words of the Bible have been corrupted by man. When you die, you die, and that is it.

Listen to me, the Bible is the one true word of God, and the God that I believe in, is powerful enough to protect His word from any efforts by man to corrupt it. If you believe that man can corrupt God’s Word, then you do not believe in the same almighty Creator of all things that I do. You do not believe in the God of the Bible.

I also believe that there comes a time in everyone’s life when they must choose Jesus as their Savior, or to reject Him. The Holy Spirit is patient with each of us.

2 Peter 3:9
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
KJV

Jesus declared that He stands at the door knocking.

Rev 3:20
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
KJV

Jesus wants you to choose Him, but when the Holy Spirit determines that your decision is final, He will stop convicting you, and walk away. He will harden your heart to the word of God, and you will be doomed to die and go to Hell.

Click on the link below to hear a message about how the Jews, in their stubborn unbelief, finally rejected Jesus as the Messiah, and Jesus stopped knocking, stopped pleading with them, and then hardened their hearts.

Amen.

KNOWING THAT YOU ARE ETERNALLY SECURE (John 10:27-29)

Let me ask you a question. Is there something that could be better than knowing that you can be saved? Yes, there is. It is knowing that you can be certain that you're saved.

Well, is there anything more wonderful than knowing that you can be saved and knowing that you can be certain that you are saved. Yes, there is. It is knowing that you can be saved, knowing that you can be certain that you're saved, and knowing that once you're saved and certain you're saved, you can also know that you can never ever lose your salvation.

The title of today’s message is, “Knowing you are eternally secure.” If you don’t believe this can be true, I want you to listen to the scriptures that we are going to cover over the next 3-4 weeks. I want you to ignore for a little while, what makes logical sense to you, because God’s love and grace for you is beyond your ability to understand. I also want you to ignore what you have been taught before. I want your mind open, your heart open, and your ears open. No preconceived ideas or ideologies.

Instead of all of that stuff that man says, I want you to listen to what God has to say about this question. God wants you to know that you can be saved. He wants you to know that you can be certain of your salvation. But, most of all, God wants you to know, that once you are a child of God, an adopted member of His family, a joint-heir with Jesus Christ, saved to eternal life, that you can never ever lose that salvation. That father-child relationship can never be undone. You don’t drop in and out of God’s family. Once you are in, you are in for good. That is what the Bible says, and that is what we are going to talk about over the next few weeks. Jesus tells us this is true in the verses from the Gospel of John that are the focus of our lesson today.

John 10:27-29
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
KJV

Click on the link below to hear a message that is talking about something that is fundamental to our faith when we're talking about eternal security of the believer. How you can know that you are eternally secure.

Amen.

JESUS WAS SENT FROM HEAVEN (John 6:37-51)

When a person rejects Jesus Christ as their Savior, they are rejecting Him as the Son of God. They are rejecting Him being anything more than just a prophet, a teacher, or a good man. They are rejecting Christ as being sovereign. They are saying that He is nothing more than a man, that He was born as a baby, just like the rest of us. Therefore, He cannot be God, so He must be a man.

Yet, Jesus says “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.” The Bible is clear that Jesus is the Son of God, and that His Father giveth Him people for salvation. There is no other path to salvation than through believing in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. He alone is the way, the truth, and the light.

John 6:47
47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
KJV

Click on the link below to hear a message on how Jesus is the bread of everlasting life. Jesus tells us, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever.”

Amen.

JESUS IS GOD'S ANSWER TO MAN'S DISABILITY (John 6:6-16)

Many of us do not even realize that we are spiritually disabled. We live a good life, a moral life, so we do not recognize that our weakness is that we don't have the strength to be godly. Not good, not moral, but godly. We are without strength, and so Christ died for the ungodly. You see, I have a need to be godly in my life. What is God's plan for me? What is God's plan for you? God's plan for all of us is that we be godly. Yet, we don't have the strength to be godly. Without the power of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we cannot be godly on our own. What does it mean to be godly? To live our lives as God would have us do, to do the things that God wants us to do, and to accomplish God’s work, and purposes, in this world. We cannot be godly without God in our heart.

So, if you are to have spiritual strength, then you must validate your weakness by acknowledging the primary source of your weakness is sin, you must recognize the paralyzing force of your weakness, and you must stop the persistent course of your weakness.

The second thing that you must do to gain spiritual strength is you must activate your will. You have to choose to accept the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Master. You have to choose to accept salvation by grace.

And then the third thing is that you must initiate your walk. You need to hear the Word of God, and then obey the Word of God. Salvation comes first, salvation by the grace of God, but then you must Rise, take up your bed and walk.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how you can have the inner spiritual strength to be godly. Jesus is God’s answer to your spiritual disability.

Amen.

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD (INCLUDING ME) (John 3:16)

What was the very first Bible verse that you can remember memorizing?

It would be John 3:16 for me. In fact, with my memory going away in my old age, it is probably the only verse I still have memorized. I know lots of verses by their context, but if it wasn’t for the internet search engines and the Bible concordance on my computer, I would have a hard time finding them. But John 3:16 is one I still remember.

So, why do you think that is? Why would this verse stay with me so readily, when others do not? It is because it tells me of God’s love for the whole world, but it is written in such a way, that it seems like He is talking to just me. God loves the world, but the word whosever means including me.

Who does the verse say loves this poor lost world? The one, true, almighty God. The eternal, self-existing, uncreated, and having need of nothing, God. It is God, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. It is God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. It is God, who takes the initiative. It is God, who loves and gives. It all begins with God.

That God is “not willing that any should perish” is a great Biblical truth that is revealed to us. John tells us in 3:16 that “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” That is God's earnest desire for all the children of Adam. The gospel invitation is extended to all. If you want to make the invitation of this verse personal, then put your own name in the verse. For example say, For God so loved the world (including Keith Martin), that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever (including Keith Martin) believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God’s plan for salvation, includes me, even me. God does not want me, or you, or anybody else to perish.

The word Perish is a word that should make us all tremble as we think of the consequences of our sin against God. The word perish reveals the other side of God's character. He is not only a God of immeasurable love, he is also a God of infinite holiness. It is the finality of the word that terrifies us. Death, and what occurs on the other side of death, is a mystery to the lost person, but John 3:16 brings clarity to the mystery. In it, God puts a choice before us. He says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The choice that God gives us is to believe in Jesus Christ or perish. If we reject Christ, then God will allow sin to complete its work beyond the grave of condemning the soul to an eternity in torment.

But that is not what God wants for us. God would have every person come to repentance. That is why the invitation of John 3:16 is universal, hinging on believing in him. Those who do, become heirs of everlasting [eternal] life. God created us with eternity in mind. We have an immortal soul and spirit that will exist for all of eternity. This great verse, which summarizes the whole gospel story, begins with God and ends with everlasting life. It begins with one who had no beginning. It ends with that which has no ending.

The fact that Jesus Christ has come into the world provides each person with the ultimate test of believing or disbelieving, of choosing whether to continue in their sins and surely perish, or whether to believe in him and pass from death to life. The coming of Christ into this world is the single decision point of eternal destiny for each of us.

This great verse is the essential foundation of the gospel of Christ. God loved the world, including me, so much that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever, including me, believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Don’t walk away and reject such a gift. Choose Christ. Choose eternal life.

Click on the link below to learn just how much God loves you.

Amen.

JESUS, FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH (John 1:14-17)

If I were to ask you to name the one quality about God that you cherish the most, what would it be?

God’s love? Surely, this is the one quality about God that you cherish the most. God loved us enough to send His Son that we might live through Him.

God’s mercy? It is God’s mercy that causes Him to help us when we are at our most despicable in the eyes of God. It was God’s mercy that was shown to Saul of Tarsus.

God’s holiness? I had to think about this one for a moment. However, if God was not absolutely holy, then He would not be God. If God was not holy, we would not have a God that could do all things.

God’s wrath? For God’s love to be real, His wrath must also be real. This is certainly a quality about God that I want to avoid. Although, I have to admit there are some truly evil people out there in the world that I know will someday face the terrible wrath of God, which gives me a sense of balance in the world. This is a quality of God that I have come to trust and have faith in.

God’s glory? God’s true glory is beyond our ability to even conceive of. Yet, we were given a glimpse of this glory in the person of Jesus Christ, who stepped out of heaven, and for a brief time made Himself a little lower than the angels, just so that we might have our sins forgiven. Is this the quality of God that you cherish the most?

God’s grace? Imagine a God that could save us even though we rejected Him and nailed Him to a cross. God’s grace is the quality about God that I cherish the most, because it is through the grace of God that I can have eternal life with Him.

Amen.