The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

THE MARVELOUS TRUTH OF HIS COMING (Hebrews 2:9-18)

We have been talking about the purpose and the reasons behind Jesus coming to earth as a Man. Why He would care so much about us that He would even do such a thing, and the wonderful blessings that His coming means for us now and throughout eternity.  Just think, if you choose Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you will spend eternity with the Son of the Living God, the Almighty Creator of all things, in a place in Heaven that He has especially prepared for you. 

So, why would Jesus do this?  Because Christ alone could redeem man, and He could do it only by dying on the Cross.  It was the only way.  Jesus was and is man.  Jesus was and is God, Jehovah, and the second person of the Godhead.  Jesus stood as the Perfect and Ideal Man before God.  This meant that as the Ideal and Perfect Man, whatever Christ did would stand for, and apply to man, or in other words, it would cover for man. 

•When Christ died, His death would free man from ever having to die in judgment for our sins.
•When He arose, His resurrection would assure man that he, too, would arise and live eternally.
•When He was exalted into Heaven, His exaltation would make it possible for man to be exalted into heaven and to rule and reign over the universe with Christ.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how Christ made it possible for man to be restored to his destined glory and dominion.  Christ has made it possible for man to live eternally with God, and to fulfill his purpose for God.

Amen.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church in Wichita, KS.

WHAT IS MAN THAT GOD WOULD CARE? (Hebrews 2:5-9)

The only way we can truly understand what man is, is to understand what the Bible says about man.  It is from the Word of God that we learn the truth of how God views man.  How God answers the question, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou [didst visit] him?”  From a biblical perspective, the key question that we need to consider is why do all the worlds of space exist?  What is their purpose?  Has God any pleasure in dead matter? Is He not the God of the living? Can inanimate matter praise Him, the Lord of all life?  No, they cannot, and so there is man.  

When God made man, God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living, eternal, soul.  It is your soul that makes you of infinite worth.  Your soul will be in existence when the sun, and the moon, and the stars have turned to cinders. Your soul will go on endless, timeless, dateless, measureless, for God breathed into you the breath of life.  Man was created in the image of God, and you could no more cease to exist than God Himself could cease to exist.  

God is mindful of you. He sees you now—He’s looking at you right now. He desires you; He loves you. God doesn’t love us because we are valuable; we are valuable because He loves us. The dignity of man is that God is mindful of man, that God desires man.

Click on the link below to hear a message on why God loves you so much that He would send His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross to pay the penalty of your sin. 

Amen.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church in Wichita, KS.

A VIRTUOUS WOMAN (Proverbs 31:10-31)

Today’s message is a very interesting passage of Scripture because it talks about God’s ideal of a virtuous woman, He is saying that this woman is the complete, perfect, woman.  That is, she is God’s ideal of what a woman, a wife, and a mother ought to be.

Sometimes when you ask a woman what she does, she’ll say, “Oh, I’m just a housewife.”  Well, if that is you, then I hope that you will never say that again after this message here today, because you’re going to find out that perhaps the most difficult, the most demanding job in all of the world is being what some people call a “housewife.”  Now, I’d rather call her a “homemaker,” because she is not married to a house.  So, I don’t like the word housewife; but indeed, she is a homemaker.

This is the ideal wife.  Now, I don’t believe that there is anyone really like her in all of the world.  Yet, God has put into His Word God’s standard, God’s ideal for wives, and God always deals in perfection with His standards.

Listen to me men, if you are married to a good and godly woman, as I am, happily so and for many years, I can tell you that I do not have words in my vocabulary to express to you how much I value my precious wife.  I will also tell you that the real value, the real worth, of a wife is not in her outward charm—though I thank God for outward charm; it is not in the beauty of her face—though I thank God for that; but the real value of a wife is her virtue. God says “Who can find a virtuous wife? Her price is far above rubies.”

To her children, to her husband, and to her neighbors, she’s known as a godly woman, a woman who fears the Lord. That is her glowing witness. I am convinced that virtually all of the major problems that we have in America would change overnight if we just had some more women who met this standard of God’s virtuous woman.  The Bible tells us that the only way to be this kind of a woman is to fear the Lord. It’s all possible because of Jesus.

Click on the link below to hear a message on God’s ideal of a virtuous woman.

Amen.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church in Wichita, KS.

THE CHARACTER OF A LEADER (Proverbs 29:2)

I don’t think anyone listening to me today would disagree that we are in moral crisis in our world today, and especially in America.  But, we are also in a crisis of leadership, and certainly the Bible teaches us that a nation gets the kind of leadership that nation deserves. May I say clearly and plainly that leadership is crucial for any nation to be blessed by God.

There’s an old proverb that says, “If the gold rust, what shall the iron do?” Now, what that proverb is trying to say is that, if our leadership is not right, what’s going to happen to the rest of us? 

Now, here in our country, our government is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The very genius of our government is that the people participate.  It’s unthinkable that God Almighty would have ordained government and then told His people to stay out of it.  Because, if we do stay out of it, then who would that leave to influence and to lead?  Unfortunately, we see the answer to that question with the leadership that populates all levels of our government.  There is a crisis in leadership in our country today, nor is this anything new.  It has been a crisis for a very long time.  

Yet, don’t ever think for one moment that because wicked men make wicked choices, and wicked rulers lead, that God has forsaken control. He has not.  The Bible says, “For God is the King of all the earth,” and not only is He King of all the earth, but He is King forever. 

Now having said all this, what should we do? Well, number one, the very first thing that we need to do is to pray for revival. The second thing we need to do is prepare for suffering. We need to teach our children that it may not be like we had it. We need to be building character into these boys and girls. Then, the third thing we need to do: We need to prepare for the Lord Jesus Christ’s arrival.  He is coming. Jesus is coming.  All you have to do is look around and see that the signs of the times are saying that Jesus is near.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on the character of a leader.

Amen.

FINDING JOY IN YOUR WORK-PART II (Proverbs 14:23)

Prov 14:23
23 In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.
KJV

God tells us that “In all labour there is profit.”  Basically, God is telling us that no matter who you are and what your job is, God has given you that job and it is a sacred job because you are serving the Lord, and it is one that you are to find joy in because of who you are serving.  If you do that job in the name of Jesus, and you do it for Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, then you can find joy in that job.  It doesn’t matter if you are a homemaker, a widow, a retiree, 25 or 85 years old, single, married, or working every day at a job place, God has work for you to be doing, and this lesson is about finding joy in that work. 

Now, you may feel that your work is nothing exciting, nothing meaningful, nothing thrilling.  You feel that you are stuck as an ordinary person in an ordinary job.  There is nothing extraordinary about you, or the work that you do, and you wish that God would call you to do something really special, really extraordinary.  Now, you may be a very ordinary person.  But, God loves ordinary people.  He must because He has made so many of them.  God makes ordinary people.  Then, God takes ordinary people, and He gives them extraordinary power.  If Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, then God infuses us with His Holy Spirit so we are no longer ordinary, because when we get saved, we become extraordinary. God takes ordinary people; God gives ordinary people extraordinary power; and then God puts those ordinary people in ordinary places. 

Now, this is the takeaway that you need to put in your heart: When God takes an ordinary person and gives them extraordinary power, then puts that ordinary person in an ordinary place with extraordinary power, He does extraordinary things through an ordinary person. If you’ll learn this, and get this into your heart, it’s going to transform your life.

You may not be in an exciting job. But, if you learn what God has to tell you in this message, it is going to turn that drudgery into delight; it is going to turn that monotony into magnificence; and you’re going to find out that you are where God has placed you, and you’re there for a specific purpose.

Click on the link below to hear what the Word of God has to say about having joy in the work that God has called you to do.  

Amen.

FINDING JOY IN YOUR WORK (Proverbs 14:23)

The title of the message is “Finding Joy in Your Work,” and I want to tell you, if you understand what God has to say in this message, it’s going to transform your work. It’s going to change it from boredom to blessing. It’s going to change it from monotony to meaning. It’s going to change it from drudgery to dignity. It’s going to change it from the same old grind to glory, if you understand what God has to say to us in this message today.

You see, so many people are sick and tired of what they do. I mean, they endure their work, whatever it is, they don’t enjoy their work. They think their job is meaningless. They think that some people have happy jobs, some people have exciting work, some people have thrilling things to do, but not them. They draw their breath and draw their salary. They wake up in the morning and take a bath, shave, go down, drink a cup of coffee, eat a piece of toast, scald their throat because they’re running a little late, drink their coffee too fast, then they run out and fight the traffic and get to work. It’s the same old thing day after day. Then they come home at night, take a couple of aspirins, sit down and watch the TV, discuss things with the wife, maybe putter around in the yard a little bit, then go to bed. The next day, the same old thing: nothing exciting, nothing meaningful, nothing thrilling. It just seems to be so humdrum, so meaningless.

Ok, I can already see the wheels turning in a lot of your minds because your saying, “Bro. Keith, you are a little late with this lesson because I am retired.  I don’t have to work anymore.”  If that is what you are thinking, then shame on you.  Did you know that God doesn’t have a retirement program for Christian believers?  If you are a Christian, and you are still breathing, then God has work for you to be doing.  If that were not true, then God would have taken you to heaven.  So, if you are still here, then God has work for you to do.  Now, I am not talking about religious work, I am talking about God’s work, whatever God calls you to do.

Now, there are others who might be saying, “Bro. Keith, I don’t work at a regular job, I just stay at home taking care of my family.”  Let me tell you that the work that a wife and a mother does taking care of her family is one of the most important jobs there is in this world.  The greatest God-given role of a mother is pointing her children to Christ. The greatest desire of a mother who loves Jesus, is that her kids come to know Jesus as their Lord and savior, and then live their lives for Him.  Just imagine, you get to partner with God in the daily discipleship of your children and in leading them towards a saving and sanctifying knowledge of the truth.

The same can be said for a wife, and about the love and support that she gives to her husband.  Once the kids are gone, some women can feel that their purpose is over.  But that is simply not what the Bible tells us.  Just as the husband is to help his wife be all that she wants to be in the eyes of God, it is the wife's responsibility to help the husband become all that God wants him to be.  

The point that I am trying to make is that it doesn’t matter if you are a widow, a retiree, 25 or 85 years old, single, married, or working every day at a job place, God has work for you to be doing, and this lesson is about finding joy in that work.

Click on the link below to hear a message about how to have joy in the work that you do for God.

Amen.

TRUE FINANCIAL FREEDOM (Proverbs 3:9-10)

Last week we started talking about what it means for a believer to be in financial bondage to the world, and how that impacts their ability to do the work that God has for them to accomplish.  We said that God has a plan for every aspect of our lives, and our finances are part of His plan.  In fact, God promises that if you will follow His amazingly simple plan, then you will find true financial freedom.  

Prov 3:9-10
9 Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:
10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
KJV

Look at the promise the Lord has given us in these verses.  He says, “Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”  

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. 

Click on the link below to hear a message about six principles from the Word of God that you can use in your life to find financial freedom.  If you want to get out of financial bondage, or better yet, if you want to keep yourself out of financial bondage, to enjoy the freedom that comes from serving the Lord, then these six principles from the Word of God will make that happen for you.  

Amen.

MAKING EXCUSES TO GOD (2 Samuel 19:32-39)

Have you ever made an excuse to God to explain why you didn’t want to do something that He asked you to do?  God says “Keith, I want you to go witness to that big guy over there that is decked out in motorcycle gang leather and chains.”  I look at the man, at the long beard, the ear rings in his ears, and then I look back up at God, and say “Well God, he looks pretty busy right now, and I am pretty tired, I sure don’t want to have a long conversation right now.  You know God, the more I think about it, I am not sure I am the right person for the job.”  

Did you ever try to talk God out of making you do something like that?  It never works out, does it?  In fact, after you have been a Christian for a while, you learn to just say “Yes Lord, thank you Lord, I love you, Lord,” and then you go do whatever He wants you to do.  Things work out a whole lot better when we don’t make excuses and just be obedient to God. 

When I think of Biblical characters that gave excuses to God, the person that comes to my mind is Moses when God told him to go back to Egypt and stand before the Hebrews and Pharaoh.  Moses said things like, “Listen God, I’m not good enough.  I don’t have all the answers.  People won’t believe me.  I am a terrible public speaker, and, I am not qualified to do that.”  Making excuses didn’t work for Moses either and in Exodus 4:14 we see how God reacted when it says that “the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses.”  God got tired of the excuses and sent Moses on down the road.  

Then, I think of a shoe salesman named Dwight L Moody that God called, or Billy Sunday, a professional baseball player.  God called both to be great evangelists, yet both had to wonder “Why me?  I am not qualified to do that.  I don’t know enough to do that.”  Yet, they both responded, and God used their faithfulness to reach millions.

Well, today’s lesson is about one of those men in David’s life that put on a good show to start with, but then just made excuses when David asked him to do more.  The man’s name is Barzillai.

Barzillai uses a whole list of excuses to not go with David, and he eventually looks at David and says, "I'm not going, David, and that's the end of it. There's Chimham here; he wants to go, take him." And David did. He said, "All right, Barzillai, please yourself, have it your own way. I wanted you to help me run an empire. I'll never ask you again. Good-bye. Come on, Chimham, come and take this old man's crown."

And that is where the Holy Spirit leaves him—where David left him, heading back for the rut that would soon become his grave.  Make no mistake, there is a limit to how many times the Holy Spirit will listen to your excuses before He says, “Ok, please yourself.  I wanted you to help me to bring the gospel message of Christ to a lost world, but you said no.  I will never ask you again.”  

Ask yourself, how many excuses have you given to God at this stage of your life, whatever that is, young or old?  I just can’t imagine that anything could be worse for a child of God than for the Lord Jesus, at last, to simply leave a person to himself.  Then for that believer to face, one day, the judgment seat of Christ and see someone else take their crown.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on what it means when we tell God, “I will go a little way for you Lord, but I am not going all the way.” 

Amen.

LET GOD'S DREAM BE YOUR DREAM (1 Chronicles 17:3-4)

I am going to tell you a little secret about me.  When I dream, I am always the hero.  I am the one who saves the damsel in distress.  I am the one who charges into the fire and carries out the little baby, and I am the one who captures the bad guy and puts him into jail.  In my dreams, it’s me who is the one doing everything wonderful.  In my dreams, I am the hero.  Yeah, I know, I have watched way too many John Wayne movies.  

However, in reality, if something bad happened, I know that I could barely save myself.  I would put up a good fight, especially if you threatened my family, and that includes my dogs.  But, I have learned from experience what my limitations are.  No, I know that in real life, when real danger comes, that it is the real heroes of our society that do the saving.  It is the fireman who climbs that ladder to save the damsel while the building is burning all around him.  It is the policeman who puts his life on the line to catch the bad guy and put them into jail, and it is the soldier who stands on the line between tyranny and freedom.  These are the real heroes.  

Now, truth be told, I am really glad we have these heroes because I couldn’t do it.  Not anymore, and probably never could, but that is not what I tell myself in my dreams.  Hey, a man can still have his dreams, right? 

In today’s lesson, we are going to talk about dreams, and what happens in the dreams that God gives us, and who the hero is in God’s dreams.  You see, sometimes God will put a dream in our heart. Sometimes God will lay something on us and give us a vision. 

I firmly believe that God speaks, God leads, and God will plant things down deep in your heart.  But, I want to be clear that when I say the word dreams or vision in our lesson today that I don’t mean that you will see movies in your mind, but I do mean that God will lay things on your heart.  Things that He wants you to do.

I’m also not talking about human schemes, or carnal ambition. I’m talking about things that God lays on us that I believe from my heart of hearts are from Him.  I believe that God gives a dream to everyone, that is, if they’ll listen. God didn’t just put us here to waste time and idle away. God made us for something very wonderful, and the Bible says, 

Eph 2:10
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
KJV

The word workmanship means that we are His work of art, and God built us to work for Him.

Click on the link below to hear a message about a dream that God laid on David’s heart, and how God expounded and expanded that dream beyond anything that David could imagine.  

Amen.

DAVID, A MAN OF FAITH (1 Samuel 17:1-49)

The Bible story of David and Goliath is one of the most familiar in the Bible.  You don’t even have to be a Christian to know this story.  There have been books and movies, and even TV shows based on this story.  Michelangelo even depicted the story on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  We are told this story from the time we are a child.  The image of a young man with just five smooth stones and a sling against a giant of a man in full battle armor is iconic in Bible history.  It is a story that reveals more than human bravery.  It reveals that, even as a boy, David had a heart for God. 

The key to this whole story is found in the fact that David didn’t volunteer to fight the giant because his people were being shamed.  No, David fought Goliath because Goliath was defying the armies of the living God!  David, put his faith in God.  He knew that God would deliver the giant into his hands.  David testified to his faith in God telling the giant “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.”

Powerful words of faith from such a young man.  

David knew that it was not by chance that God had led him to this battlefield.  David could say in his heart that it is not by chance that he was born into Jesse's family. It is not by chance that he had seven older brothers. It is not by chance that he had to fight for his place in the family, not with carnal weapons, but with spiritual ones. It is not by chance that I learned early to love, trust, and obey the living God. It is not by chance that God has become my constant companion and guide. It is not by chance that I learned to play the harp and write great hymns which will be sung by God's people forever. Such things do not happen by chance; they happen by choice. God chose me, and I chose Him.

It is not by chance that I became a shepherd and developed a heart for the flock. It is not by chance that God gave me courage to face the lion and the bear in the wilderness of which you speak. It is not by chance that I have great skill with a sling and a stone. That skill represents hard work and constant practice. And it is not by chance that I am not afraid of Goliath and you are.  And it is not by chance that we are where we are and that we are who we are.

David learned that he could not use the weapons of this world to fight the battle. He had to use his own weapons, his own methods, those in which God had schooled him. The believer today needs to recognize that the world can be overcome only by his faith and confidence in God.  

Amen.