The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

THE POWER OF COMMUNICATION (Proverbs 18:21-22)

Outside of loving the Lord, I believe communication is one of the most important things in our homes.  Whether it is between you and your spouse, your children, your married kids and their spouses, or just people that you know, how you communicate is very important to that relationship.  

Now, it may be that you think you married the wrong person, but it may also be that you have not married the wrong woman at all. It may be, instead, that you never really learned how to communicate with your wife and vice versa.  I am convinced that the number one problem in marriage is communication. Now, whether you’re married or not, let me just say one of the biggest problems in life is communication, because many times, whether it is with our spouse, or our family, or our friends, many of us deliberately miscommunicate.

Prov 18:21-22
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
22 Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.
KJV

The highest form of fulfillment is sharing with someone else.  Being fulfilled is not having things; it’s not doing things; it is sharing, whether that be with God or with someone else. Sharing is the highest form of communication.

Click on the link below to hear a message about what the Bible says about the power of communication.  The secret to communication with anyone that you care about is to first get right with Jesus Christ.  Accept Him, accept that He has accepted you, accept yourself, then accept others as Christ has accepted you.  The power of communication is not about power at all, it is about using communication to share your love with others, the same love that Christ has shared with you.  

Amen.

DISHARMONY IN THE HOME (Proverbs 15:13-22)

When a man and woman are married, there is to be what is called the “The Music of Marriage.” You have the husband, or the father, who is the leader of the band.  It is the father who sets tune in the home. He is the leader of the band.  Now the Music of Marriage requires that there be “Harmony in the Home,” and if there is to be harmony in the home, then husbands and wives must sing the same song, but they sing different parts. That’s what makes it harmonious, and not a mere melody, but wonderful harmony.  

Now, this harmonious Music of Marriage occurs when we play the part that God has equipped us to play. So, husbands and wives are singing different parts of the same song, but hopefully they are singing in the right rhythm, so they sing it together. But, the message today is on this subject: “Disharmony in the Home” I’m really talking about tension in the home, and what can we do to deal with it.  How can we have the harmonious music of marriage that God wants us to have?

As a young man I tried to learn to play the guitar, and I have dabbled trying to play the piano.  I was not successful in either endeavor.  I can’t seem to tap my foot to keep time and play the notes at the same time, and a metronome drives me crazy.  But, playing the guitar did teach me a few things besides having sore fingertips.  I learned that in order for the music coming from the guitar to sound harmonious, each of the strings have to be in tune.  Now, to tune those strings you have to adjust the tension on it.  If the string is not tight enough, then the music is flat and dull.  But, if the string is too tight, then the music is shrill and high-pitched. But if the string is even tighter, the string will snap.    

One of the major obstacles to the harmonious Music of Marriage is tension in the home caused by stress and strife. Stress is related to raising your voice, to raising your pulse, and raising your children. Listen, if you’ve got children, then you have stress just built in, and being in today’s home, the string can get mighty tight, and sometimes it can snap.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how God intends for you to deal with the stress in your home, and how you can have that harmonious Music of Marriage that God wants for your home.  

Amen.

DON‘T MISS GOD‘S SPECIAL BLESSING (Proverbs 5:1-23)

This week my wife and I celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary, and if you add the years that we dated before we got married, it has been 47 years.  At the age of 16, I fell in love with a young lady that I met in church, and then we happened to go to the same high school as well.  She was the first girl I ever dated, in fact, she has been the only girl I have ever dated, and the only girl I have ever wanted to date.  There has been no other in my heart, but her.  God’s special blessing has been on our relationship from the very beginning.  

The topics of love, and romance, and marriage, and all of the things associated with them, are subjects that everybody is interested in. At least, you ought to be interested.  It is a universal subject, no matter who you are, or where you live; and you never really outgrow it. Now, the girls get interested a little bit before the boys because they mature a little earlier.  This means that the girls start thinking about the boys before the boys start thinking about the girls.  That is a good thing because the girls need a head start before the hormones start raging in the boys.  But, it is not long before the boys are catching up with the girls, and from then on it is “neck and neck.”

Love, romance, and marriage, are very wonderful things, and we need to find out what God has to say about them, because God has some very definite wisdom on the idea of romance and love, and how to be blessed by your marriage.  Now, contrary to popular belief, God is not some kind of “cosmic killjoy.” Don’t get the idea that God is against love and romance and marriage. He is not.  Yet, when God says, “Flee fornication, and “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” God is not trying to keep sex from us. He’s trying to keep sex for us.  Because it is a wonderful gift of God.  

God has a special blessing for you when you allow God to choose your mate.  God wants you to be fulfilled. God wants you to have sexual fulfillment. God wants you to have real joy. God doesn’t want you to miss His best.  Don’t miss God’s special blessing for your life.

When God says, “Thou shalt not,” what He is really saying is, “Don’t hurt yourself.” When God says, “Thou shalt,” He’s saying, “Help yourself to happiness.” God wants you to have satisfaction. God wants you to have joy.  This is God’s plan. This is the design that we should follow.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how you can receive this special blessing by finding the right spouse, and then how to keep from destroying, or ruining, this wonderful gift of God.  

Amen.

BEHOLD, THE BRIDEGROOM IS COMING (John 13:36 to 14:3)

In today’s message, we are going to cover a set of verses that are as clear a statement that Jesus can make that He is preparing a place for us to spend eternity with Him. He is in heaven today, but someday He is coming for us. Heaven is real, and therefore Hell is real, and I want to be with Jesus in this place that He has prepared specifically for me and everyone else who has made Him their Savior.

This set of verses talks about heaven. These verses tell everyone, who calls Jesus their Lord and Savior, that when your work for God is done on this earth, Jesus Christ has a place for you. It is a place specifically designed for you by the One who loves you like no other. One of these days, Jesus is coming for His bride, and that puts my heart at peace. I don’t have worry about my retirement plan in heaven. Jesus has already taken care of it. I don’t have worry about which medical insurance plan I need for heaven because Jesus has already taken care of that as well. The day is coming when there will be a shout, Behold, the Bridegroom is coming. That is what I am waiting on, Jesus is coming for me.

Click on the link below to hear a message on one of the most blessed truths that I know, Jesus Christ may come at any moment for His church.

John 14:1-3
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.
KJV

Amen.

THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB (Revelation 19:1-8)

How many of you remember your wedding day? I truly do remember that day. My wife was absolutely stunning, she was so pretty. I knew I was marrying way above my pay grade, and I still am. We are coming up on our 40th wedding anniversary in a couple of months, and I still claim to be the lucky one in this relationship. But that was quite a day, for two 20-year-old kids who had no idea what God had in store for them. We just knew we loved each other.

I remember how hard my wife worked to prepare herself for that day, and how hard she worked to make that event special. She made everything what every wedding is supposed to be, beautiful and full of joy. It was truly a day that I will always remember and cherish.

Today, we are going to be talking about another wedding, The Marriage of the Lamb. In chapter 19 of The Book of Revelation we are going to see that this marriage takes place at the end of the Tribulation period. It comes between the Judgment Seat of Christ and the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus to establish His Millennial reign. The church comes to the most climatic time in all of its history. It is time for The Marriage of the Lamb to His chosen bride.

Click on the link below and hear a message on the day that the Lord Jesus Christ makes everything right. It will be a day of great music as all of heaven sings the Hallelujah chorus praising the Lord because Jesus Christ has come to reign.

Amen, and Hallelujah.

A GODLY MARRIAGE (1 Peter 3:1-7)

The institution of marriage, as it was created by God, is a wonderful thing.  It is defined in the Bible as one man and one woman choosing to love God first and then each other next.  They work together to accomplish the will of God in their lives.  They are true yokemates working together to please God.  Marriage is something which God has given to the entire human family, not just to Christians or to the nation Israel.  In the Book of Genesis, we are told that God made man and at that time man was alone.  I think the Lord let Adam be alone for a long time to let him know he was missing something.  Then Scripture says that God took man and from man He made woman.  Using the Hebrew words, Genesis 2:23 reads, She shall be called Isha, because she was taken out of Ish.  She is called … an help meet for him (Gen. 2:18); that is, a help that was fit for him.  In other words, she was to be the other half of him. He was only half a man, and she was to be the other part of him. 

In God’s blueprint for marriage, He has assigned roles for both the wife and the husband.  A godly wife was a woman who has a healthy fear and respect of God.  A woman who is obedient to God’s will for her life.  A woman who seeks to fit into the needs of her husband as they work together to accomplish the tasks that God has assigned to them.  She is also a woman who is submissive to her husband.  Now, when Peter says to the wives, Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, it absolutely does not mean that the wife is to be a slave to her husband.  The Bible does not teach that in any form or way.  What is does teach is that a woman is to make a voluntary choice to be submissive to her husband because of her love for God.  The Christian wife, in obedience to her Lord, subjects herself to her husband’s leadership, authority, and control.  She does this because she fears God, because she loves God, and her duty, just like the husband’s, is to be obedient to God’s will for her life.  

Now, this is important to understand, none of this means that men are superior to women or that women are inferior to men.  They have simply agreed to work together with the husband leading.  In the marriage relationship, it simply means that God insists on order in the home.  To establish that order, He assigns the respective roles to the husband and the wife.  There cannot be two captains on a ship; neither can there be two people at the helm in the home.

Godly husbands are to be considerate of their wives.  Men are not to ride roughshod over their wives, bossing and bullying them, ordering them around, letting them do hard labor which is beyond their strength, or making unreasonable demands upon them.  Peter says that godly husbands and wives are heirs together of the grace of life.  This means you both are co-heirs of God’s grace.  You both are saved from your sin.  You both are joint heirs with Christ.  You both are adopted children of God.  You both have been granted eternal life by God’s grace.  The husband and the wife are partners.  They must work together. They have something more than marriage vows to bond them together.  They have Christ. They are heirs together of God's gracious gift of everlasting life.  They are true yokemates.  They should work together to establish a Christian home, to bring up children in the ways of the Lord, to provide a measure of stability to a community, and to be the moral and spiritual backbone of the nation.

A godly husband is to dwell with them according to knowledge.  For a husband to deal with his wife in the way that God wants him to do, the husband must know and understand several things.  First, he must know God’s desire for the marriage relationship.  This means he knows what marriage is and what it is to be in the eyes of God.  Next, he must know his wife.  This means he knows her nature and emotional makeup, what she needs and wants emotionally and spiritually, her strengths and her weaknesses.  He must also know the word of God.  You cannot be the spiritual leader of your home if you do not know what God says in His Word.  The husband has the responsibility to guide the family in the will of God.  In order to do this, the husband must know the Word of God.  It is amazing how easy it is for a wife to submit herself to a husband that is who and what God says he is supposed to be.  

With that in mind, you can see that the marriage relationship is not to be one of a man insisting on treating his wife like a little child who has to jump every time he says so.  She is there to help him. She is there to be a part of him.  She is there to love him. And he is there to love her, guide her in the ways of God, and protect her.  That is God’s desire for the relationship of a man and woman in marriage.  This is how a husband is to treat his wife, and this is how a wife is to treat her husband.  They both do this because they love God first, and then each other next.  

Listen to this podcast to learn what God defines as a godly marriage.

IS IT OK TO GET A DIVORCE? (Mark 10:1-12)

Is it ok to get a divorce? The modern world that we live in would say, yes, when two people no longer want to be married, they should feel free to get a divorce.  Our religious establishments would say, no, the marriage relationship is permanent and should not be broken.  They go even farther and condemn those that do get a divorce and expel them from the church.  These churches treat those who have gotten a divorce as second-class citizens.  They forget that God is a gracious and forgiving God.  Our Creator, the almighty, living, God, created the institution of marriage to be between one man and one woman, and when that marriage is conducted in accordance with God’s will, it is the sweetest of experiences for that man and woman.  In fact, when two married believers have their eyes on God, that marriage is the closest thing to heaven that can be found on this earth. Unfortunately, man allows sin and hardness to enter into that relationship.  Once there, that sin and hardness creates a desire for the two people to separate what God has put together.  Listen to this podcast to learn what God says about marriage, divorce, and remarriage.  Listen to how the Bible answers the question of Is it ok to get a divorce?

WHEN DOES MAN'S LAW SUPERSEDE GOD'S LAW? (Mark 6:53 to 7:13)

In the coming days the U.S. Supreme Court will render a decision that could destroy for this nation God's institution of marriage as that being between one man and one woman.      So the question becomes, when is it ok to place man's law above God's law? It is a fact of history that the founders of our country used Biblical Judeo-Christian values and morals of right and wrong to establish the laws, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights in the creation of our country. They had a strong belief that man's law was subservient to God's law. As a segment of our country has chosen a different set of values and morals that they wish to impose on this country, they have declared that the founder's beliefs are out of date, unenlightened, and do not meet the needs of a new socially elite, and enlightened, society. So they have decided that man's laws are superior to God's laws. They have declared the right to ignore God's laws and replace them with man's own cleverness. Listen to this podcast to hear what Jesus had to say to a nation that made the same choice that the U.S. has made.  Listen as Jesus, the Creator of all things, condemns the arrogance of man to say that man's law supersedes God's law.

THE ORDER IN FELLOWSHIP (1 Cor. 11:1-16)

Has God established an order in His worship services?  What is God's intended relationship between man and woman?  Who is the man's head?  Who is the woman's head?  Who is Christ's head?  These are the questions answered in this verse-by-verse study of 1 Cor. 11:1-16.

TO KNOW CHRIST ONLY (1 Cor. 7:25-40)

The Bible tells us that time is short, and there is much work to be done for the Lord.  What is it that distracts you from focusing totally on the Lord's work in your life?  Is it your marriage?  Is it your job, your friends, your stuff that you have accumulated while you have lived? In this verse-by-verse study of 1 Corinthians 7:25-40, Paul challenges us to focus our whole life on completing the Lord's work.