The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

THE FRAMEWORK OF SALVATION (Genesis 45: 1 to 28)

THE FRAMEWORK OF SALVATION (Genesis 45:1-28)

There is something that I want you to know beyond the shadow of any doubt, and that is God wants you to be saved.  There is an old hymn entitled “BLESSED BE THE NAME” with the words, 

“I never shall forget the day,
Blessed be the name of the Lord!
When Jesus washed my sins away,
Blessed be the name of the Lord!”
—CHARLES WESLEY

And I wonder how many people might be singing that song, but they are like iron fountains in the park. You see a lion statue as a fountain, and there is water spewing out of his mouth, but he never tastes a drop of it. And I am wondering if there are those of you who have that song coming out of your mouth without tasting a drop of it.

Was there a time, was there a day, when you said, “Praise God, bless God, hallelujah, I know, that I know, that I know, that I have met Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord.  I have a day to be remembered.”  If not, do you know what my prayer is? My prayer is that this day will be the day that you will be able to sing those words and taste every drop of every word.  The Lord wants you to be saved, and only Jesus can save you. The problem is sin. 

Rom 3:23
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
KJV

And there’s only one thing that can be done with sin, and that is to bring that sin to the Lord Jesus Christ. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse us and make us pure and make us clean.  So, you need to pay attention to the message that God has for us in this story.

Click on the play button so that you can listen to what God has to say about how you can know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord.

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

Amen.

CROSSING GOD’S DEADLINE (Proverbs 29:1)

The subject of today’s lesson is a very serious and somber matter.  It is one that we don’t like to think about, and it is something that is hard to reconcile in our mind, because we have the misconception that every person can put off getting saved until the moment right before they die and then rush to get saved so they can go to heaven.  The Bible says that is not true and that is what we will talk about today.

There is in the mysteries of God’s omniscience a certain point in your life, a certain place in your life, where God has placed a deadline for you to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  This is one of those lessons that if you have family members, or friends, that are lost, then you will want to get this in front of them, because the stakes are eternal, and they know not where God’s deadline is in their life.  

Prov 29:1
1 He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
KJV

The Bible teaches that in front of every unsaved man there is a deadline.  It teaches that if he crosses that deadline, he is just as lost, just as certainly doomed, just as destined for hell as though he were already there and as though the iron gates of hell had already clanged shut behind him. It is possible for a man to commit a sin in this life; it is possible for a person to come in this life to a point which, if he commits that sin and transgresses and goes beyond that point, he can never; no, never; no, never be saved. He will cross God’s deadline.  Now, just to be clear, this is not about any so-called unpardonable sin, it is about you rejecting God more times than God is willing to let you pass, and God makes the sovereign decision to turn His patience to wrath.   

Click on the link below to hear a message on what God’s Word says about Crossing God’s Deadline.

Amen.

THE DANGER OF PRIDE (Proverbs 16:18)

THE DANGER OF PRIDE (PROVERBS 16:18)

God talks about pride, or being proud, 97 times in the Bible, so this is a subject that God really wants us to understand what He thinks about it.  

Prov 16:18
18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
KJV

Pride, more than any other sin, is holding back revival in our land, in our home, and in our church. Pride, more than any other sin is destroying homes and ruining happiness and joy in the home. Pride, more than any other sin, is undermining the foundation of America, this great nation that we love. Pride, more than any other sin, is causing Christians, born again people, to live lives of defeat. Pride, more than any other sin, is populating and filling up the place that we call hell. It is a dangerous sin.

But not only is pride a dangerous sin, it is a deceitful sin. Now, so many people do not understand that they have pride or what pride is doing to them. There’s a benefit at least to being a drunkard or a thief, as bad as that is. At least the drunkard knows he’s a drunkard. At least the thief knows he’s a thief. But the proud person says, “Well, if I had any sin, I’d confess it.” He doesn’t admit his problem. His pride, that is his problem, keeps him from admitting the problem.

Pride brings national ruin. Pride brings domestic ruin. Pride brings financial ruin. Pride Brings emotional ruin. Pride brings spiritual ruin and Pride brings eternal ruin.

Click on the link below to hear a message on five ways that pride can destroy your life.  Pride is a dangerous, and a deceitful sin that’s doing more damage in homes, and hearts, and lives than any of us may dare dream. And every one of us, wrestles with the sin of pride.

Amen.

THE PROBLEM OF PRIDE-PART II (Proverbs 6:16-19)

The problem with pride is that it is a spirit of independence from God, it is a spirit of a lack of gratefulness, it is a spirit of competition that causes us to think of ourselves as somehow better than somebody else. It is a spirit that makes God your adversary.  It angers God.  The Bible says that you provoke God to anger when there is pride in your heart. It is not just that God will not help you; God literally becomes your adversary. This means that God stands and brings the whole universe against the proud man.  That man has God for an adversary.

Pride will produce domestic ruin. Homes become battlegrounds because of pride. Pride produces financial ruin. Do you know why many people are in financial bondage? Because of pride. They are buying things they don’t need, with money they don’t have, to impress people they don’t like. The reason we get in trouble is because our neighbors keep buying things we can’t afford, and we are trying to keep up. It is wanting more than somebody else. Pride produces financial ruin. 

Do you know what else pride will do? It will ruin you emotionally, because it will make you a slave to the opinions of other people.  Pride says that you’ve got to have the right symbol on your shirt. You’ve got to have the right emblem sewed on the hip pocket of your jeans.  That is a form of slavery that will never be satisfied, and it will ruin you emotionally. 

Pride also brings eternal ruin, because the devil is going to say to you, “Keep your dignity. Don’t admit your need of the Lord.” But until you admit your need of the Lord, you will never be saved. “Well,” you say, “I’m not all that bad.” Pride is a matter of the heart. Stop comparing yourself with other people and compare yourself with the Lord Jesus. There is none so bad that he cannot be saved; there is none so good that he need not be saved. The worst form of badness is human goodness when that human goodness becomes a substitute for the new birth. The reason that some people are destroyed, and destroyed forever, is because of pride.  Pride will sit down in the seat beside a person and say, “Don’t you go down there and make a fool of yourself. Don’t you admit your need. Do not confess that you need the Lord.” But the Bible says, “God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5)

Click on the link below to hear a message that tells us what we need today is God’s grace, for pride precedes destruction. It is pride, not unbelief, that keeps many from coming to the gospel. Don’t be that person who would let pride sentence them to an eternity in hell.  Come and find Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  Put your pride aside, repent of your sins, and put Christ on the throne of your life.  

Amen.

THE PROBLEM OF PRIDE (Proverbs 6:16-19)

Every one of us, everyone, wrestles with pride, and pride is a dangerous sin. I don’t know of anything that is doing more to hold back revival, doing more to ruin our nation, doing more to break up homes, doing more to blast lives, doing more to steal power from Christians, doing more to populate and fill that place called hell, than the sin of pride. It is a damaging, destroying sin. But it is also such a deceptive sin. The people who are the proudest are the least likely ones to admit that they are the proudest. And many people think that they don’t need to hear a lesson on pride. They say, “Well, my goodness! If there is one thing I don’t need, it is a message on pride.” As a matter of fact, they are quite proud of their humility. And many of us have pride that is well hidden, but it is right there.

Now, when the Bible condemns pride, it is not talking about self-respect.  It is not talking about taking pride in how you work and dress.  It is not talking about giving or receiving honor when honor is due to be given, or honor is due to be received.  However, the type of pride that the Bible does condemn is an attitude of independence from God.  It is when we say, “God, I don’t need you; I can do it myself.” This attitude of independence from God is what the Bible calls “pride.”

Click on the link below to hear a message on the problem of pride.  How, pride is the basic sin. It is the sin that leads to all other sins. It is the sin of independence against God. It is wrapped up in not believing God.  Countless people will spend eternity in Hell because they shook their fist in the face of God, and said “God, I don’t need you,” and God will turn His back on them and say, “as you wish.”  

Amen.

TO BE A FATHER (Part I)(Proverbs 1:20-22)

One of the greatest blessings that God has bestowed on me is that I am the father of two godly sons.  The fact that they both love God and serve Him is not a testament to anything that I have done, but to the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.  They were also blessed with the love of a truly wonderful mother.  That undying love that she has for them has shaped them in many ways.  Now, it is true that I have loved them both with all of my heart since I held them in my arms on the day they were born.  It is also true that our deepest desire for our children was that they loved God with all of their hearts.  

Unfortunately, not all children have the benefit of loving parents.  Sometimes children are caught up in the mistakes and the pride and the arrogance of their parents, and more often than not it is the pride and arrogance of the father.  Sometimes it is the mother, or even both, but more often than not it is the father.

There are many children who are going to be shipwrecked because of the pride and the arrogance of their fathers, who willingly choose not to guide those children into a safe and secure haven.  Those fathers will shipwreck their own lives, and then the lives of their children who will suffer in their own ignorance because their father did not teach them the ways of God.  

You might ask, “Well what about the mother, isn’t she just as responsible?”  Yes, but the Bible is clear that the father is to be the major teacher of the family.  But, when the father doesn’t perform that role, whether it is because he is lost and does not know God, or he is too proud and arrogant to do so, or he just isn’t there anymore, then the mother has to step in.  But, God gives the role of the spiritual leader of the home to the father.

Our message today is on how To Be a Father, and it is part I of a two-part series.  In this first part I am going to describe what happens when a father fails to teach his child.  We are going to talk about what happens to that child as a result of that father’s failure.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on what happens when we do not teach our children.  When a father, who is so wrapped up in his own life, who is so proud and arrogant that he does not love God, and does not wish to teach his children to love God.  I hope you hear my words today, and I pray that you will not let this happen to your children.

Amen.

RULES FOR MEMBERS OF GOD'S CHURCH (1 Peter 5:5-9)

This week we are going to talk about how to be an effective church member.  So, as I was preparing this lesson, I got to thinking about the role of a church member.  And to be honest, compared to the pastor, church members have it pretty easy.  All they have to do is show up on Sunday for worship services, and maybe again on Wednesday night just to add a little extra learning.  

I mean, it is the pastor and the church staff who are supposed to do all of the work of the church.  If there are people to witness to or souls to save, call the pastor.  If there are letters to send out, call the church secretary.  If there are people to visit either as prospects, or at the hospital, or home bound, that is what the associate pastor is supposed to do.  If there are teenagers or children to be mentored and taught, that is what the youth minister and children’s director are for.

Now, members may need to bring some food, every once in a while, for a fellowship or a funeral, but all of the rest of the stuff like cleaning the church, replacing light bulbs that have gone out, or repairs around the church, that is what we pay the staff for.  My job as a member is to sit in that chair or pew on Sunday morning, stay awake during the sermon, say amen when the preacher says something good, and then go on my merry way letting the staff take care of everything else.  Right?  

If I tore up the bulletin into little pieces during the sermon to keep my mind occupied, it is my job to leave it on the floor of the sanctuary for the janitor to pick it up.  If something is not right with the building, it is my job to find the maintenance guy and let him know about it.  If we are not singing the right kind of music to suit my taste, it is my job to let the music director know.  If the sermons are too long, and the pastor is causing me to be late for the buffet line at the local restaurant for lunch, it is my job to tell the pastor about that, right?  He needs to know the problems he is causing.

Now, I hope everyone knows that I am being sarcastic here, and most people would say that this is not really true.  It is not the job of the shepherd to make more sheep, it is the sheep who make more sheep.  Right?  I also know that there are a lot of pastors out there saying, hey, he’s not being sarcastic at all, that is just what my members think and do.

So maybe we start looking at actions rather than words.  Think about it.  When was the last time you made a new sheep in God’s flock?  When was the last time you saw something that needed to be done for the church, and you just took care of it?  A visitor needed to be shown around the church, and you just did it.  A fellow brother or sister in Christ was at the hospital and his family needed a meal, or to be prayed over, and you just did it.  A paper towel dispenser in the bathroom was empty, and you refilled it.  You didn’t tell somebody about it, so they could fix it, you just did it.  

We live in a secular world where people get paid to take care of all of our needs.  The buildings we work in have maintenance personnel.  The streets we drive on have repair crews and cleaners.  The restaurants we eat at have servers.  So we have this expectation that a church works in the same way as the secular world, but does it?

Are the offerings we give to the church best used to maintain the building and pay the salaries of the staff, or touch souls for Christ?  Now, make no mistake about it, I am speaking to myself as much as anyone else.  I have often called the maintenance guy to take care of a problem, and in some cases, he probably would prefer we let him know about it, rather than doing a poor job of it ourselves, making the job harder for him.  But the core of my question is what should our attitude be about our service for God?  Should we expect others to be the servants of God, or are we, the members, the servants of God?  

Listen to this podcast to learn how to be an effective church member.  How we are to wear the garment of humility, how we are to deal with all of our problems and worries, and most of all, how we are to stand and resist our true adversary, Satan.  

What are you proud of? (1 Cor. 4:6-14)

What is it that you are proud of?  Your home, your car, your job, your looks, your wisdom, your clothes, your kids, your ability to sing, your college degrees, or your heritage? What is that you look at and say this is what I did, this is what I earned, this is what I created, this is what I accomplished, or this is what I am? This week's lesson is about what God says we have a right to be proud of. 

This study is a verse-by-verse study of 1 Corinthians 4:6-14.