The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

THE TRAGIC COST OF SIN (2 Samuel 11:27 - 12:3)

The story of David and Bathsheba is a story that is a challenge to each of us as believers, for if a man as great as David could fall into sin, then so could each of us.  It is also a tragic story, because of the tremendous cost of David’s sin.  There will always be consequences when we sin against God. Not just on what we might call the “big” sins, but any sin.  Too many times we get complacent with our sin, because we have rationalized them as “little” sins, or “socially acceptable sins,” and we do not realize the full extent of the cost of that sin in our relationship with God.  There is always a tragic cost of our sin, and that is what I want us to see in our message today.  

But there is also hope.  We can have our relationship with God restored, and that is what I want you to know today, there is hope for us when we fail, even when we fail greatly.  

If you’re living in sin and God is not dealing with you, then do you know what you need to do? You need to get saved.  You need to make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior.  

If you’re living in sin and God is dealing with you, then do you know what you need to do? You need to get right with God.  You need to repent of the sin that is in your life and let God forgive you, and restore you.  

God is serious about your life. He wants you to live a righteous and a holy life.  God loves you and He wants you to be in fellowship with Him.  What is the hope for the child of God who has sinned?  God’s never-ending love for you.  God told David, that “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.”  God tells you the same thing, 

1 John 4:10
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
KJV

1 John 4:16
16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
KJV

1 John 4:19
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
KJV

Do you want to restore your relationship with God?  Do you want to once again “dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him?”  Then you must repent of your sins and find forgiveness in God’s love for you.

1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
KJV

The promise that God “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” is our hope as believers.  

If this message is for you, if you are now walking in sin, it doesn’t even have to be a great big one, like adultery, but any sin, then that sin is impacting your relationship with God.  You need to repent of that sin.  This message is for people who want to live once again in the full love of God.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on the cost of sin, and the hope that the believer has in restoring their relationship with God. 

Amen.

TO HAVE KINGDOM AUTHORITY (1 Samuel 24:1-7)

We live in a world today that is full of rebellion, and it is not just the riots and chaos that we see in our streets.  It is in our families, our churches, and in the places that we work.  People are choosing to rebel against the authorities that God has placed over them.  They stand up and say, “I will not wear a mask because my government tells me that I have to”, or “nobody can tell me I have to shut my business down.”  Even far worse, they take the streets looting, rioting, and burning down the foundations of our country.  The Bible is very clear about Christians who have a spirit of rebellion.

Rom 13:1-2
1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
KJV

Now, you might say, "Wait a minute. You don't know the kind of government we have. It is full of a bunch God hating, progressive, socialists."  Well, maybe you don't know the kind of government that existed when Paul wrote this, when Nero was on the throne. Nero was feeding Christians to the lions in his arenas, and he was setting Christians on fire to light the streets of the city.

But you say, "What if I have an unworthy authority? What if my parents are unworthy? What if my husband is unworthy? What if my president is unworthy? What if my mayor is unworthy? What if my councilman is unworthy? What if my teacher is unworthy? What do I do?" That's a wonderful question.  The Bible says that one thing that you don't do, you do not have a spirit of rebellion.  If you wish to live a victorious Christian life, then one of the most important lessons that we can learn is how to live under the authority of God.  This includes those whom God has placed in authority over us.  

Now the phrase kingdom authority means to be able to act with the authority of God in your Christian life.  Let me assure you, it is not God's plan for you to be defeated by the world, the flesh, nor the devil.  Because, when Jesus died and rose again, He gave to His children authority over these things. But, listen carefully to me now, we will never be over those things that God has put under us until we are willing to get under, and stay under, those things that God has put over us. 

However, I want to be clear that to be under authority does not mean that we give in to wickedness.  It does not mean that we approve error.  It does not mean that we blindly obey an ungodly government. The prophets in God's Word preached against the wickedness in the kingdom. Nathan warned King David when he did wrong. Elijah warned Ahab. Eleazar spoke to Jehoshaphat, Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, Moses to Pharaoh, and God forbid that we should have pulpits today that are silent when little babies are being murdered and when wickedness prevails in so many ways. 

One of the most disturbing and reprehensible rebellions that is taking place today is against our police officers, and it breaks my heart to see this occur.  Pastor Adrian Rogers quoted this description of a policeman in one of his sermons, and he says the author is unknown.  It is similar to what Paul Harvey once said about being a policeman, but it is not quite the same.  Every time I read this it moves me. 

"A policeman is many things. He is a son, a brother, a father, an uncle, and sometimes even a grandfather. He is a protector in time of need and a comforter in time of sorrow. His job calls for him to be a diplomat, a psychologist, a lawyer, a friend, and an inspiration. He suffers from an overdose of publicity about brutality and dishonesty. He suffers far more from the notoriety produced from unfounded charges.

Too often acts of heroism go unnoticed, and the truth is buried under all the criticism. The fact is that less than one-half of one percent of policemen ever discredit their uniform. That's a better average than you'll find among clergymen. A policeman is an ordinary guy who is called upon for extraordinary bravery for us. His job may sometimes seem routine, but the interruptions can be moments of stark terror. He is the man who faces a half-crazed gunman, who rescues a lost child, who challenges a mob, who risks his neck more often than we realize. He deserves our respect and profound thanks. 

A policeman stands between the lawbreaker and the law abider. It's the prime reason your home hasn't been burned, your family abused, and your business looted. Try to imagine what might happen if there were no policemen around, then try to think of ways to make their job more rewarding. Show them the respect you really have for them. Offer them a smile and a kind word. See that they don't have to be magicians to raise their families on less-than-adequate salaries. We think policemen are great. We thank God for all the little boys who said they would be policemen and all who kept their promise. We hope you feel the same way, and we hope you will show it, so that there will always be enough good policemen to go around."  That is a description of a hero that speaks to my heart.

Click on the link below to learn how to have kingdom authority in a world full of rebellion.

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.

A LAST ATTEMPT (John 12:23-36)

Have you ever had an event or an experience that you knew was going to be really, really, bad in front of you? You knew it needed to be done, people were depending on you, but you had a few days that you had to get through before it would begin? The waiting, the dreading, the sheer horribleness of it playing on your mind. I can think of things like watching my mother’s last few days on the earth, and the suffering she was dealing with. I knew her death was imminent. I knew it would happen in the next few days. I knew she would be in heaven soon, but I had to steel myself for the emotions that would come.

A soldier facing some kind of really tough battle. He knows the chances were slim that he was going to make it, but he couldn’t let his brothers in arms down. These were men he depended on, and they were the ones who depended on him, so he prepared himself to deal with it.

This is what our next few messages are going to be about for Jesus. He knew this was the reason that He had come to earth. His whole life had been about this coming hour. The entire human race depended on Him completing the work of salvation. He knew that He was about to carry the burden of every sin that had ever been committed and would ever be committed. He knew the ugliness of the world’s worst sins was about to be thrust upon Him and He would have to die as punishment for that sin. He dreaded the hour, but He knew the whole world depended on Him, and so He prepared Himself. There was so much He needed to do before that hour came, but His disciples needed to hear what He had to say. These next several weeks are going to be a study in how much Jesus loved each and every one of us, even the Jews and the Romans who would crucify Him.

Click on the link below to hear a message on what is likely the Lord’s last attempt to convince the Jews that He was the Son of God, the Promised Messiah.

Amen.

JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD (John 8:12-24)

When Bible talks about Jesus being the light of the world it has several meanings, but essentially it means that Jesus is God. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the light of the world? If not, then how long have you been rejecting Jesus as the light of the world? How many times do you believe that the Holy Spirit will stand knocking on the door of your heart asking to come in? Everyone wants to believe they have forever to decide about Jesus, but the truth is, that there comes a time in everyone’s life when their refusal to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, becomes final, and the Holy Spirit walks away never to return. When this happens, the eternal destiny of that person is sealed forever.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how Jesus is the light of the world, and how the rejection of that truth will cause God to leave you to die in your sins.

Amen.

JUDGMENT DAY (Revelation 20:13-15)

As we think about this final judgment of the unsaved dead, I sometimes wonder what those who read my posts, or listen to the podcast think. Do they ask themselves, “Is this real? Is a judgment day when I will stand before God real, or is it just something religious nuts talk about to make people scared enough to come to church? It just seems so theatrical, like the stuff of fairy tales, or an Edgar Allen Poe story, to talk about heaven and hell, fire and brimstone, and eternity. It is simple, you live, you die, you are buried, and that is it. Party while you can, because life is short.”

I want you to listen to me, with every single fiber of my body, I want to tell you that this judgment day is real. Every single person who has ever lived is destined to meet Jesus Christ. You will meet Him as your Savior, or as your Judge. You get to choose, but you must choose now, before you die, before your heart stops beating. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation, now is the time to choose Jesus Christ to be your Savior and Lord. You do not want to stand before Christ at this final judgment, for everyone who does, everyone, will be condemned to spend eternity in the lake of fire. Forever, and ever. It is as simple as that.

The Bible tells us over and over again that there is a judgment day coming. There is coming a time when God will put the final period, upon the final paragraph, upon the final page, upon the final chapter, upon the final book of human history. This judgement will include every person who has ever lived that rejected God’s free gift of salvation. If during your life on this earth, you said no to the gospel message of Jesus Christ, then you will stand before Christ to be judged and condemned to an eternity in hell. The key to who will stand at this judgment is not how bad you were, or how good you were. It is whether or not you made Jesus Christ your Savior and Lord while you lived on this earth. That’s it, that is the determining factor and to which judgment you will go to, and where you will spend eternity.

For all those who have said that they don’t believe in hell fire, 30 seconds after you get there, you will believe. This is what God’s Word says, and it is as sure as the God that wrote each word. There really is a lake of liquid fire, and the sadness of it is, that you don't have to go. C. S. Lewis brilliantly said that everybody in the world is in two categories. Those who are like Satan who say to God the Father, “not your will but mine be done.” And those who are like God the Son who say to the Father, “not my will but thine be done.”

Now those in the first category who say to the Father, not your will but mine be done, who are autonomous and live self-concerned, self-controlled lives, will one day drop into that Lake of Fire and a broken-hearted God will say, "Not my will, but thine be done." God doesn't want you to go to hell.

The truth is, that if you die outside the Lord, then you are going to come to a judgment and you will find out for yourself that the Bible is indeed true.

But I have got wonderful news for you. The Bible says of the Lord Jesus Christ, “He that believeth on him is not condemned. Now there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Click on the link below to hear a message on the final day of judgment.

Amen.

THE FINAL JUDGMENT (Revelation 20:11-13)

The simple truth is that we live in a world full of evil. Evil lives in the heart of man. Evil doesn’t care who it harms, it just wants to harm someone or something. When a young man takes a gun to school and kills other students, that is evil living in the heart of that young man. I don’t care what you believe you are a victim of, there is no rational reason for killing others. It is just plain evil. No law can change the evil that lives in our hearts. Creating a perfect environment to live in cannot change the evil that lives in our hearts. You can make the world a Garden of Eden, and evil will still bubble up out of the heart of man.

There is only one way to change the heart of man, and that is the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Yet, this world rejects the free gift of salvation, and being given a new, godly, nature that the gospel of Christ offers to a lost world. So, evil grows and grows. The world gets darker and darker with sin. It seems that there is no answer to the problem. It seems that evil will eventually win and shut out the light of all that is good.

As believers in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we know that the answer is not to be found in man, but in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus comes again, He will deal with evil of every kind. He will deal with Satan and all of his followers, and He will deal with the evil that resides in the heart of man. A day of judgment is coming, when Christ will deal with the evil of this world, forever.

Today’s message is about that final judgment of the unsaved dead. It is called the Great White Throne Judgment. Satan has persuaded mankind for centuries that there is no future punishment, no final accounting before God. It is a lie that has allowed evil to grow. The Bible tells us over and over again that there is a judgment day coming. There is coming a time when God will put the final period upon the final paragraph, upon the final page, upon the final chapter, upon the final book of human history. This judgement will include every person who has ever lived that rejected God’s free gift of salvation. If during your life on this earth, you said no to the gospel message of Jesus Christ, then you will stand before Christ as your judge at this final judgment.

The time of this final judgment will come and every scheme, every plan, every desire, that men sold their souls for, will turn to rust, and dust, and mold, and corruption. The unsaved dead will be raised from their graves to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ to be judged.

You may make the choice not to be a Christian. You may choose to never give your heart to Jesus Christ, but one day you are going to meet Jesus Christ. Every person who has ever lived has an appointment already set on the calendar to meet Jesus Christ. He is inescapable, and He is unavoidable. You will meet Jesus Christ. If you don't meet Him as Savior, then you will meet Him as Judge. You may have ignored Him, you may have denied Him, you may have disbelieved Him, you may even have cursed Him, but one day you will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the Final Judgment.

Amen.

RESURRECTION AND REBELLION (Revelation 20:5-10)

The title of our message today is Resurrection and Rebellion. In the first part of our message we will talk about the order of the resurrections of the just and unjust. Contrary to what many will tell you, the Bible does not teach of a single resurrection. Instead, it teaches of two resurrections. The first resurrection is for those saints who have Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The second resurrection is for those who have rejected Christ as their Savior. Instead of joining Christ in heaven for eternity as the saints will do, these who have rejected Christ, will now stand before Christ as their Judge.

The second part of today’s message is about God’s plan to bring a final resolution to sin on this earth. Jesus Christ is going to come and rule for a thousand years. This will be a literal period of one thousand years when man will live in a perfect society. The animal kingdom will be changed, the mineral kingdom will be changed, and the earth will become a regenerated Garden of Eden. Men will live for a thousand years, they will be but youngsters at the age of 100 years old. Satan will be removed from the scene and cast into the bottomless pit, where he will remain chained until the very end of this one thousand year period, when God will let him loose for a little while.

The people of the earth will have been living in blessing for a thousand years. They will have children during the millennium. The population of the world will grow again. Even though they are living with the Son of God right before them, in blessings, in peace, many of them will reject Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. Jesus will rule the nations with a rod of iron. There will be no uprising during that time. There will be no Satan leading in rebellion. But down in the human heart, latent in the human heart, there will still be sin if it has not been washed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is these children, who, after a thousand years, are going to rebel against God when Satan is let loose. God is demonstrating to the world two great principles when He does this.

Number one: Punishment is not the final answer. Satan has been in the prison house doing hard time for one thousand years and he comes back to rebel one more time. Even a thousand years of punishment did not reform Satan. Punishment is not the answer to reform the heart of man.

Number two: Environment is not the final answer. Make your environment as good as you can, but after one thousand years of peace and righteousness down in the human heart this latent sin comes bubbling up. That is the way it is with sin in the human heart. There is only one answer to sin and it is the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God will deal with this rebellion and He will deal with Satan, bringing a final resolution to sin. Sin will be no more.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the order of the resurrections and how God deals with rebellion against Jesus Christ.

Amen.

ARMAGEDDON (Revelation 19:12-21)

The Battle of Armageddon is described in the Book of Revelation. It describes a climatic moment in the history of the world. In this battle, our Lord Jesus deals with the forces of evil that have taken over the world. Jesus Christ will deal with Satan, the demons that fell with Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet. But most of all, He will deal with the people of the world who have utterly, angrily, and with full knowledge of what they were doing, rejected God as the one they will worship and obey. In one moment, at one place, Jesus Christ will bring the full wrath and vengeance of God on the evil of this world.

Don’t believe the depiction of this battle that you see in the movies and in secular books. When Jesus comes in power and great glory at the Battle of Armageddon, how is the battle going to be won? Not by guns or weapons, but by the sword that goes out of His mouth. It will be won by the power that is found in the Lord’s voice. The armies who are riding with the Lord are not in battle fatigues carrying arms, they are dressed in white linen, and then the Lord speaks. I think it will be just two simple words that the Lord shouts, “Drop dead.” The One who spoke them into existence will speak them into oblivion.

If there is a lesson for us to be learned from this it is, don't ever be at war with God. I am telling you that the time is coming soon and very soon when 777 will take care of 666, and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and Christ. The saints have prayed through the ages, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Make no mistake about, God’s will, will be done.

Are you at peace with God or are you at war with God? Jesus made peace through the blood of His cross.

Col 1:19-22
19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
KJV

Click on the link below to hear a sermon on the final battle, where Jesus Christ comes in power and glory to set right all of the evil injustices of the world. You can be at war with God and suffer the wrath of God, or you can sign a peace treaty with the Prince of Peace. You can be at peace with the Lord, if you will just say yes to Calvary.

Amen.

THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS CHRIST (Revelation 19:11-16)

We need to be looking for the imminent return of our Lord. The suddenness of His coming, shapes much of how we are to live our lives as Christians. It gives us a sense of urgency to reach people for Christ. We are not looking for something to occur. We are looking for Someone to come, and that Someone is our Lord Jesus Christ, and He can come at any moment. Jesus tells us that for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. If you believe He can’t come today because some event has to occur first, then you better buckle up because this is a day when He might come.

Two things are critical that we need to know and understand. First, Jesus Christ is coming suddenly at any moment. Second, the church is not waiting for the tribulation. We are not waiting on any thing. We are not waiting around fearing the coming of the wrath of God. Instead, we are looking for Jesus.

1 Thess 5:9
9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
KJV

The Bible teaches that God will chastise His church, but He does not pour His wrath out on the church. What does that mean to you and me today?

First, We need to learn of His coming. You cannot afford to be ignorant of these things. You need to teach others these things. The world needs to learn. Jesus said over and over, "Be ready, be ready, be ready, be ready, for I am coming again."

Second, We should look for His coming. We are not waiting on some prophecy to be fulfilled. If I thought that we were going through the great tribulation, if I thought the mark of the beast and all of these things had to take place first, I wouldn't be looking for the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of looking up, as the Lord tells us to do, I would be looking around. I would not be waiting for someone to come; I would be waiting for something to happen. But we are to live every day as if Jesus were to come at that very moment.

Third, We are to long for His coming. The last prayer in the Bible is this, Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. We should long for the coming of our dear Savior. What a day that will be when I will see Jesus. We need to long for his coming.

Fourth, We need to live for His coming. The Bible says we are to occupy. Jesus said, Occupy till I come. And when he does come, I want to be found faithfully serving Him, and I hope that you do to.

God's people ought to be praying, Even so, come, Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.