The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

A TOUR OF HEAVEN-PART II (Revelation 21:9-27)

Heaven is a real place. It is not some mysterious, atmospheric, realm of smoke and mirrors. Too many people want to spiritualize heaven, denying that life exists after death, but in order to do that they must ignore the plain words of the Bible. Jesus clearly says that He has gone to prepare a real place for us. Every loved one that we have lost, who had Jesus Christ as their Savior, is in a real place. A place called heaven.

You might ask, “Who is it that will populate heaven?” The Bible is clear that Heaven is a made-new place. If you are not made new, then you are not going to be any part of it. Heaven is going to be a place where there are multiplied millions and billions of people. Who will populate it? First of all, every little aborted baby will be there. The saints of all of the ages will be there. Believers of every nation in the world are going to be there. But nobody is going to be there above the age of accountability who has not received Jesus Christ as his or her personal Savior and Lord. You just won't be there.

There is an old song that says, "Everybody who is talking about heaven ain't going there." Heaven is a made-new place, if you want to go to heaven, then you must be made-new as well.

2 Cor 5:17
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
KJV

Heaven is not only a made-new place, but it is also a prepared place for a prepared people.

John 14:1-4
1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
KJV

Heaven is a made-new place, and heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. Have you ever come to the cross? Have you ever repented of your sin? Have you ever really, I mean honestly trusted Jesus. Not trusting in your humanitarianism, not trusting in your charity, not trusting in your religion, not trusting in your membership of some church, but trusting in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ?

If you haven’t, and you want to spend eternity living in this beautiful place called heaven, then you make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior today.

Click the link below to hear a sermon on what heaven is going to be like.

Amen.

A TOUR OF HEAVEN (Revelation 21:1-8)

Let me ask you a question here, have you ever been made fun of for believing in such things as heaven and hell? In the really old days, when I was much younger, people would call those of us who believed in a life hereafter, Holy Rollers or Religious nuts. Both were used derisively to describe someone who is overcome with too much Holy Spirit and has lost touch with reality. Today, that is fairly mild compared to the hateful names they call anyone who dares to say that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that heaven is real, and therefore, hell is real. I certainly have gotten used to the tolerant looks from people, when they hear I am teaching through the book of Revelation.

When we as Christians talk about heaven, there are those people who just sneer and say, "Well, you Christians are so heavenly minded you are no earthly good." May I suggest that it is just the opposite? Many of us are so earthly minded we are no good to heaven or earth.

Col 3:1-2
1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
KJV

The Bible tells us that we are to be heavenly minded. What did Jesus tell us in Matthew 6:20-21?

Matt 6:20-21
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
KJV

If your heart is not in heaven, if you are not anticipating going to heaven, then it is because your treasure is down here. And to be honest, it is not your treasure that God wants. God doesn't need anything. It is your heart that God wants. So, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. By the way, if you want to know how rich you really are, you add up everything you have that money can't buy and that death can't take away. That is the treasure that you will have in heaven.

The Lord wanted John to write about heaven as He closed out this wonderful book of Revelation. I believe He did so because He wanted us to know about the place that He has gone to prepare for us, so that we could be confident in our future.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the reality of a place called heaven. Heaven is a real place that we are going to spend eternity in.

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.

BRIDEGROOM AND KING (Revelation 19:9-16)

The Marriage of The Lamb and The Second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both are very important events in the life and faith of the person who has accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Our knowledge of these events should shape how we live our lives today, how we view the world, and how we view our place in this world. This world is not our home, we are but sojourners with tasks to complete in order to hasten the day of the coming of our Lord. As a believer you are still on this earth for a purpose, and that is to bring others to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. You may not be the evangelist, but you are the seed planter, or the caretaker of the field, or the reaper of the harvest. You are the witness, the friend, the stranger, the co-worker, or the next-door neighbor, of someone who does not have a personal relationship with the Lord. You have a role to play in that person coming to Christ.

We have learned a great deal about the events that are going to occur with the Rapture of the church, and the horrible judgments that will occur during the Tribulation Period. We know that time is very short, and we know the eternal destinies of those around us are at stake. Christ has commissioned us to share the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

Click on the link below to hear a message on Jesus Christ as the Bridegroom and the King. As the Bridegroom He is coming for His bride, and as the King is coming with His bride. The world needs to know these truths.

Amen.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RESURRECTION

Today, we are going to talk about why the resurrection of our Lord Jesus is so important to our faith. The simple truth is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, and then on the third day, He rose bodily, physically, from the grave so that we might have everlasting life. We stand on a foundation; that foundation is the Rock, and the Rock is Christ. He came back from the dead, and Christianity rises and falls on that Rock.

It is a result of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ that all of the great doctrines of the New Testament faith ring out like a church bell with truthfulness to a lost world.

Not just forgiveness, but justification.

Not just redemption, but regeneration.

Not just remission of sin, but adoption into the family of God.

We are God’s children. We are joint heirs with Christ.

This is the importance of the Resurrection of Christ. It is an undeniable and indisputable fact in history. Everything hinges on the Resurrection. Do not insult my intelligence by saying that I believe this just because I wish it were so. I would not dedicate my life to the service of a man in a grave, and if you are in a religion where the founder of your religion is still in the grave, then your hope rests in that grave. It rests in a body that has turned to dust.

My faith rests in a risen Christ. My faith rests in a living Christ, therefore, my hope is a certain hope of eternal life with Him. Christianity is not just a creed, a code, a cause, or a church. It is a vital relationship with Jesus Christ. He alone has the words of eternal life. In Him dwells all the fullness and the wisdom of God. Only Jesus can meet the deepest desires of the human heart. Only Jesus is worthy of our faith, and it is in Jesus whom my faith rests.

Click on the link below to hear a message on why the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so important to the Christian faith. If you want to know who Jesus Christ is, ask the Holy Spirit. God doesn’t just say you must believe, but if you can’t believe that is just your hard luck. God says if you want to believe, He will help you understand and know that these things are true. If you want to know the truth about Jesus Christ, God the Holy Spirit will speak to you and confirm to you that Jesus is the risen Christ, the Son of the Living God.

THE CHOICE THAT DETERMINES YOUR DESTINY (Revelation 14:4-13)

Chapter 14 of the Book of Revelation is a chapter of contrasts. It contrasts the Lamb and the beast, earth and heaven, and the harvest of the doomed and the harvest of the saved. It contrasts the decisions that determine a person’s eternal destiny. It also contrasts those who follow the Lamb, and those who are bossed by the beast. It is this contrast that we are studying today, and it is from understanding the characteristics of both of these groups that we can learn a great deal from to apply to our lives today. The truth is that while this chapter discusses events in the Tribulation Period, the choice that is described here, is the same choice that man has been faced with since Creation. We must choose to follow Christ, or, willingly or not, we choose to follow Satan, and it is that choice which determines our eternal destiny.

When you die, you are either going to die in the Lord, or out of the Lord. So, the question is, if you died today, would you die in the Lord, or would you die out of the Lord? If you die in the Lord, of course, God says, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. On the other hand, if you die outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, what a curse, what a sorrow, what a tragedy it would be for you. Another question to consider is, if you were to die today, where would you be? In other words, if you get to where you are headed, where will you be? Five minutes from now you may be in heaven, or you may be in hell. These are the questions that we will be asking today as we study the decisions of the living and the destiny of the dead.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the choice that will determine your eternal destiny. Is it Heaven or Hell? We will answer the question of whether Hell is real, or is it symbolic? How long will you stay in Hell? We will also discuss what your loved ones are doing in heaven today.

Amen.

THE CHARACTER OF THE 144,000 (Revelation 14:1-4)

I’ll bet this will come as a surprise to you, but, it is a Biblical truth that one day you are going to die. One day I am going to die.

Heb 9:27
27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
KJV

The only intervening factor that might keep us from dying, is the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And before we die, there is a choice to be made. So, today is the time of decision in your heart. God made you a living soul. Your soul will be in existence somewhere when the sun, the moon, and the stars have all grown cold. There was a time when you were not. But, there never will be a time when you will not be. Now, the question is where will you spend eternity?

Rev 14:13
13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
KJV

When you die, either you are going to die in the Lord, or out of the Lord. So, the question is, if you died today, would you die in the Lord, or would you die out of the Lord? If you die in the Lord, of course, God says, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. On the other hand, if you die outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, what a curse, what a sorrow, what a tragedy it would be for you.

So, another question to consider is, if you were to die today, where would you be? In other words, if you get to where you are headed, where will you be? Five minutes from now you may be in heaven, or you may be in hell. These are the decisions of the living and the destiny of the dead.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the character of those have chosen to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and have made Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, then you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. You wear the seal of possession, protection, and preservation, of the almighty God. You are the possession of God, and you can never lose your salvation. Nowhere in the Bible will you ever find where a person who was truly saved ever loses his or her salvation. Why? Because they are sealed by the Spirit. And what God has sealed, the Kings' seal can no man break.

Join in and listen to this message about the character of the 144,000 saints who witnessed for God during the Tribulation period, and how God preserved them all, not losing a single one.

Amen.

DEALING WITH PERSECUTION (Revelation 11:5-13)

The Bible says that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If you live for Jesus, and your life is in obedience to the will of God, it is fruitful for God, and you are sharing the light of the gospel to a dark world, then the Bible says that you will suffer persecution.

To know that this is true, all you have to do is read the headlines of the news today. Christians are suffering severe persecution in countries all around the world. So, the question that we will look at today is, How do you deal with this persecution? What are the Biblical truths that we must apply to our lives, if we are to be successful in dealing with persecution on both a physical and spiritual level?

Click on the link below to learn the five factors that the Bible tells us in the book of Revelation about the two witnesses for God, and how they dealt with persecution. These are important lessons that we must settle in our hearts and mind if we are to be victorious in our witness for God.

Amen.