The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

TO DO A GOOD THING THE WRONG WAY (2 Samuel 6:1-11)

David was a man that God loved in a special way, and David loved God in a special way, as well.  In our message today, David wants to be the kind of king that God wants him to be.  In order to do that, David knows that he needs God’s power, he needs God’s anointing, and he needs God’s presence. 

Now, if you want to have, and to know, the conscious presence of the Lord in your life, then there is the holy reverence towards God, and the things of God, that you must express.  The reason that some people do not know the conscious presence of God is they have lost a holy reverence for God. We see an example of that in the way that David tried to move the Ark of The Covenant into the city of Jerusalem.   David’s first attempt to bring the ark in was lost because he did not express a holy reverence for the things of God. He became careless in the things of God, and his carelessness led to a great calamity that day.

The interesting thing here is David is following the way of the world rather than following the Lord. Now, God had said clearly, specifically, and plainly, how the ark was to be transported, but rather than transporting it as God had said to transport it, David starts out to do a good thing the wrong way, and what he’s doing is just simply disobeying the Lord.

Now, we can have the presence of God in our church and we can have the presence of God in our lives, but if we do, it’s going to be God’s way, not ours. You know what’s wrong with so many churches today? They’ve learned from the world, and they’re following the ways of the world. In fact, the world is conforming the Church more than the Church is transforming the world. We are being conformed by the world rather than being transformed by the Spirit of God, and it’s amazing how the spirit of this world has crept into so many churches.

When we choose to follow the way of the world, we are disobedient to God.  What follow’s our disobedience of God?  God’s displeasure with us, and then comes discouragement, and then comes defeat.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on how if you want to have the conscious presence of God in your life, then you must have a holy reverence for God, and the things of God.  You cannot lay profane and unholy hands on the things of God by being disobedient to His Word.  We need a reverence for God, for holy things.  We ought to be on our face before the thrice holy God of Israel. We ought to tremble in the presence of God.

Amen.

THE DEATH OF A FOOLISH MAN (2 Samuel 3:32-34)

Have you ever known someone who did something foolish?  Most of us have, and we generally only have to look in the mirror.  Now, have ever known someone who died foolishly?  They may have been a very intelligent, successful, and well liked, person, but they died foolishly.  I have known some.  They did things like jumping out of perfectly good airplanes for the rush of seeing the ground come up at you really fast.  I just never understood someone who would do that.  But generally, people die a foolish death because they got their priorities out of order.  The forget what is really important and choose to follow something that promises a quick rush of pleasure.  They live for today.  They allow greed, or addiction, or self-gratification to become the most important thing in their lives, even it means destroying their family, or hurting their loved ones.  

But there is something even more basic than that where people choose to die foolishly.  When it comes to choosing eternal life in heaven, or eternal death in hell, people will foolishly choose to reject God’s free gift of eternal life, and choose death instead.  Whether it is because they think they have all the time in the world to choose, or they just don’t want to believe in life after death, death comes, and they die a foolish death.  Our message today is about just such a foolish man.   

Now, I have said before that all of the Bible is about the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the theme of the Bible is salvation, or how to be right with God. The hero of the Bible is Jesus. The villain of the Bible is Satan. The story of the Bible is salvation.  God has packed salvation stories from Genesis all the way through to Revelation.  It is within the pages of this Holy Bible that we can find the words of eternal life.  We can find the story of how to be saved and how to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the foolishness of spending an eternity in Hell.  Don’t believe the lie of the devil when he says that he is your friend, and that God is your enemy.  The devil will tell you that it is hard to be a Christian.  That is not what Jesus Christ tells us.

Matt 11:28-30
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
KJV

John 10:10
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
KJV

Contrary to what the devil says, it’s not hard to be a Christian. The Bible says, “The way of the transgressors is hard” (Proverbs 13:15).

If you are looking for eternal life, come to Jesus Christ.  

John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
NIV

Amen.

SAUL, THE MAN WHO HAD IT ALL (1 Samuel 26:21)

When I look at the life of Saul, it gives me pause, and it challenges me, because what happened to Saul could happen to me, and it could happen to you or anyone.  Today, we are going to talk about the folly of disobedience. We need to learn that fools are not born, they are made, and generally, they are self-made.

Saul, was a man who had it all.  In fact, no man ever had a better start than the man named Saul, and nobody ever had a sadder finish than the man named Saul. When we first meet Saul in the Bible, he was Israel's first king, he is handsome, he is courteous, he is thoughtful, he is humble, he is young, and he is vital, virile, and vivacious.  Yet, when you look at this same man when he becomes older, you see him as a bitter, murderous, envious, wicked, and desperate old man.  You look at him and say, "How could it be? How could someone who started out so well, end so poorly?”

Click on the link below to learn that there can be no success without obedience. Saul failed to obey the Word of God. No matter how much you know; no matter how much you have; no matter how much influence and authority you have, if you do not obey God, then you are going down, because you are practicing witchcraft.  “God says that Disobedience is as the sin of witchcraft.”  

The song says that we are to trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

As I have gotten older, and God has made it plain that I have a lot fewer days ahead of me than I do behind me.  Do you know what my prayer is for me? I want to end well.  I would not be honest with you if I did not tell you that I believe that God has had His hand on my life, and I bless Him for it. I bless Him for these years.  I regret the years that I spent not doing what God wanted me to do, but I rejoice in the days that God has let me teach His Holy Word.  So, my prayer is now that God will let me end well.  

No one is immune to the deceiving and deadening power of sin if he becomes self-willed rather than Spirit-filled.  We will never be over the power of sin in our lives until we are under the power of the Holy Spirit of God.  We cannot defeat sin without God in our hearts.

I don’t care who you are, or what you’ve achieved. I pray God that every one of us will have enough sense not to play the fool. Never a man had a better start, and never did a man end more tragically, than Saul, the man who had it all.

Amen.

THE CROSS WAS NOT THE END OF THE STORY (John 19:31-20:10)

We know that Jesus rose from the dead because Scripture tells us that after His resurrection He was touched by people, He walked, He talked, He ate, and He was seen by hundreds of people. The fact that Jesus rose bodily from the grave is a foundational principle in our faith. If you do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, then you cannot be saved and have everlasting life. It is that important. The resurrection has been, and still is, an integral part of the gospel message of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures make it clear that it was real, and you can believe it is true.

Satan and all his demons and servants in this world will tell you that it is a myth. Unbelievers have invented alternate theories, such as, Christ did not really die, he only swooned on the cross and in the tomb recovered, escaped into the night, and later showed himself to be alive; the disciples stole the body and then made up a lie about Christ's resurrection based on the fact of an empty tomb; the women who came to the tomb were half expecting a resurrection and therefore had a hallucination.

One and all, those explanations are the desperate attempts of godless men to avoid the fact that Jesus Christ is alive. God raised him from the dead. One and all, the clumsy attempts of an unbelieving world to deny the literal, bodily, resurrection of Christ from the dead break down before the facts.

Being a Christian is about a personal relationship with Christ. If Christ is not alive, then that relationship cannot exist. If Christ is still in the grave, then Satan has won, and we are all condemned to die in our sins. But Christ did rise, and you can have everlasting life when you believe on Him and make Him your Lord and Savior. It is an important principle in our faith for us to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the cross was not the end of the story. Jesus rose, He is alive today, and we can have everlasting life because of His death and resurrection.

Amen.

THE FINISHED WORK OF JESUS CHRIST (John 19:30)

Our message today is going to be about a simple phrase. A phrase that contains just three words, and yet they are three words that shook the world then, and they are still shaking the world today. They are “It is finished.”

John 19:30
30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
KJV

There is a prayer in my heart about this message today. It is that God would anoint this message with supernatural power. I pray that God would make these words a blessing. I pray that the Lord will speak through me, and as a result, that Christians will be strengthened, and that the unsaved will be convicted, and converted, and drawn to confess Christ as their Lord and Savior. I pray that everything that is said and done here today will glorify and magnify the name of Jesus. That is my prayer for this message today. I hope that is your prayer as well.

Now, I want you to notice that Jesus did not say, "I am finished." Even though all of the demons in Hell were howling in glee and saying, "We got Him, He's gone. He's finished." it is really important for us to see that Jesus didn't say, "I am finished."

Even though the disciples were mournful and brokenhearted because their leader, their Sovereign, their King, was dying there upon a cross. We need to understand that it was not that Jesus was finished. Instead, Jesus said “IT was finished.”

Click on the link below to hear a message on what Jesus meant when He said IT is finished. We will talk about the prophecies that were completed, and the suffering that was completed, but, most importantly, I want to tell you, thank God, God's way of salvation was finished. God's mighty work of redemption was finished. When Jesus died, all that was necessary for you to be forgiven and to be saved was done. There's nothing for you to do but to receive what Jesus Christ has already done, because "It is finished."

That is the difference between any false cult and biblical Christianity. There's nothing for you to do. What you must do is to receive the finished work of Calvary. Jesus Christ said: "It is finished". It is not what you do to be saved, it's what He has done. It's spelled d-o-n-e. "It's finished." Jesus Christ has purchased your salvation. It's paid for.

What I want you to hear in this message are God’s promises to you. When Jesus Christ said “It is Finished, He is telling you that if you want to be saved, you can be saved. If you want God to give you a new life, He'll give you a new life. If you want power over Satan, you can have it. Because "It is finished"

Amen.

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT-PART II (John 16:7-11)

Last week we began a message on three important truths about the Holy Spirit and the work that He does in our lives. These are truths that you will never learn in school. These are truths that you will never figure out intellectually. These are truths that you will never, never, ever know until you lay your intellectual pride in the dust and let God the Holy Spirit speak to you. In fact, the most important truths that will impact your life for all of eternity can only be known by the Holy Spirit speaking them to you. You won’t learn them in school. You won’t learn them in seminary, and you won’t learn them in the school of hard knocks.

These truths are about sin, righteousness, and judgement.

I love this passage of Scripture. The Holy Spirit of God is come to convict the world of man's basic problem. He has come to convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Now in a court of law, first comes the crime. When the crime is proven, then the judgment. That's the order: the crime, the punishment. But with God, the order is different. There is, first of all, sin, then righteousness, and then judgment. God has put righteousness between sin and judgment. God has interposed the precious blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now if you don't believe on Jesus Christ, if you refuse, then there is no righteousness between sin and judgment. You just die and go to hell. I'm a sinner, by nature, by birth, by practice, but I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and, therefore, God has interposed His precious blood and His righteousness stands between me and judgment. I like that. Between me and hell there's a bloody cross that Jesus died on.

Listen, if you're not a believer, put your hand up there on your chest and you feel that little heartbeat. That's all there is between you and hell. That's all—just a heartbeat. But if you've given your heart to Jesus, if you've trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, if you've said, "My basic problem is I've not trusted Him, but I trust Him now." And then God says, "I'll give you a bountiful provision. I will give you righteousness, and for you there is therefore now no condemnation, and you're not belonging to that tribe that's following Satan. You're twice-born. You're heaven born and heaven bound.”

Click on the link below to hear a message on the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Amen.

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (John 16:7-11)

Like most people, I spent a good deal of my youth getting an education in school. I went through elementary, Junior High, Senior High, and even college, and I learned a good deal in those schools. Not that I remember much of it, but the one thing that has stuck is how to learn. How to learn about a particular subject. How to study, and how to organize my thoughts about that knowledge in a meaningful way.

Now, to be honest, I hated studying while I was in school, and by the time I was done with college, I swore that I would never do it again. If I had to pick up a book to learn about something, I decided I could live with being ignorant. Well, you see how that worked out. I now have a job that requires me to study the federal regulations on such interesting topics as boycott laws, trade sanctions, and import and export laws. I also spend a good share of my time at home studying to teach these lessons. In other words, never tell God that you don’t want to do something that He wants you to do, because He has a way of making sure you do.

One of the other things that I learned in school was that a school cannot teach you many things about how to live in this world, especially about what is right and wrong. This is particularly true when it comes to living a victorious Christian life. There are some things that you will never learn in school. There are things that you will never figure out intellectually. There are things that you will never, never, ever know until you lay your intellectual pride in the dust and let God the Holy Spirit speak to you. In fact, the most important truths that will impact your life for all of eternity can only be known by the Holy Spirit speaking them to you. You won’t learn them in school. You won’t learn them in seminary, and you won’t learn them in the school of hard knocks. Our messages over the next couple of weeks are going to be about three of these tremendous truths.

Now, truth is so very, very important. There are those who are afraid of the truth, afraid of what that truth will mean in their lives. There are those who are willing to accept half-truths, socially adapted truths that allow them to deceive themselves into believing they are religious, or just a good person. Then, there are those who arrogantly think they know all truth. My prayer for you today is that you will have the humility to ask the Holy Spirit to speak the truth to you.

Click on the link below to hear a message on man’s basic problem, the sin of unbelief. Not believing on Jesus Christ is the great sin. That is the mother sin, the father sin, the parent sin, the sin of sins. The greatest sin is not believing. Unbelief does not come out of the head; it comes out of the heart. It is a predisposition against Almighty God. It is not trusting the God who loves you. Refuse the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are condemned because you have not believed. You have refused Him. That is the greatest sin, and with it brings the greatest penalty.

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.

TO LIVE ABUNDANTLY Part 2 (John 11:25-44)

This is the second part of my message on how to live abundantly. Jesus said, "I've come that you might have life, and have it abundantly." What does it mean to live abundantly? It means to live the way the Bible teaches. Well, Ok, what does it mean to live the way the Bible teaches? It means several things, but the basic foundation is that you must live before you die, and live after you die. How do you do that?

Let me ask you a question, have you exercised faith in Jesus? Have you? Well, this is the time for you to do it. I want to tell you on the authority of the Word of God that Jesus will save you today and He will keep you saved. Jesus is not a probation officer. Jesus is a Savior. He will see you through all the way. Now you might have to be unwrapped. You might have some hangover sins for a while, but He will save you. And the One who gives you life will give you liberty, and you can feast with Him and you can witness for Him. Now you might be a seasoned individual. You might think I'm too old for this. Well, it's never too late with God.

If you believe that you are dead in trespasses and sins. If you want a new life. If you want to be saved so you can have fellowship with Jesus and live with Jesus. Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. If you would believe me, you would never die. If this is how you feel, then exercise faith in Jesus.

Now, you may be already be a member of a church. Unfortunately, some church members never really understood how to be saved. They were good folks in their own minds and the minds of their neighbors when they joined the church, but they never really, honest-to-goodness got saved. You need today to trust Christ.

For others, it may be their first time in a church, and they might say, "Well, you know, I need Jesus, but I need to wait till I get more acquainted with the church."

Let me tell you, it's not the church that saves; it's Jesus. This may be the last opportunity you'll ever have to give your heart to Jesus. It may be your first time here, but it may be your last opportunity.

Others of you are intimidated by the devil. He whispers in your ear and says, "You'll never make it. You're too bad. You don't deserve it. You'll never be able to live it." Listen to me. Satan is a liar. Jesus died for you on the cross, and Jesus said, "Whosoever will, may come."

There is a deep desire in my heart that each of you learn to live abundantly in Jesus. That you learn to live life in the way the Bible teaches you to live.

Click on the link below to learn, if you want to live before you die, and live after you die, then you must apply these four principles to help you to have, a truly, abundant life:
1) You must exercise faith in Jesus.
2) You need to have freedom through Jesus.
3) You need to enjoy fellowship with Jesus, and
4) you need to exhibit faithfulness to Jesus.

Amen.