The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

WHO ARE YOU CONTROLLED BY? (Romans 12:1)

If you were to ask the general population of this country, Who are you controlled by?  Many, if not most, would declare that nobody controls me, I control myself, for this is the land of the free and the home of the brave, right?  However, the truth of the matter is that there are likely a number of entities and people that we submit ourselves to be controlled by.  For example, the government bodies that we live under, both nationally and locally.  We submit ourselves to the authority of, and the rules and procedures of, these men and women who say they have the authority to rule us.  

There is your employer, you submit to their authority.  Your spouse.  Your peers.  Your religion.  Law enforcement.  So there are lots of entities and people we allow to control us.  We submit to their authority, and what they tell us to do, we do.  We are controlled by them.

Now, most Christians would immediately reply, Well Keith, obviously I am controlled by God.  And my reply would be, do your actions match your words?  Considering the way society’s shift in morals is moving at breakneck speed today, Christians are going to be faced with some difficult decisions.  For many years, in this country, the general moral and ethical principles of the country were based on Judeo-Christian values, so the Christian in this country had it fairly easy.  

Yet, we stand today at a crossroad in this country.  Nine men and women in black have decided that marriage is defined by what they say it is and that it is not defined by God.  Never mind that it has been defined by God as one man and one woman, and for almost all of history, and in almost every civilization, as one man and one woman.  Man’s definition is that marriage can be two women, or two men, or three women and men, or ten women or ten men, or in other words, anything goes.  For without the absolute truths of right and wrong as established by God, anything does indeed go.  

This decision by the U.S. Supreme Court has set the stage for the U.S. government to criminalize Christianity.  If you choose to say what the Word of God says about homosexuality, it will be deemed as hate speech.  The consequences of this will be that you can be fined, arrested, or have your business, your home, and your job taken away from you for stating what God says.  

If you are a Christian, you will then have a choice of submitting yourself to the authority of the government, or to God.  While the Bible is clear that we are to submit ourselves to local authorities, which are established and allowed by God, it is also clear that this obligation only goes until they dictate you violate God’s Word.  So this question of, who are you controlled by, will quickly transform from an intellectual exercise to a reality.  

Now, as for me and my family, our choice is that we are controlled by God, and no government, especially 9 people in black robes, is going to change that.  While I understand that those are brave words, and that they will very soon be tested, therefore, we are depending solely on God to empower us to live those words in our lives as we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, wholly controlled by Him.  

TO KNOW GOOD (James 4:15-17)

If we are to know what is good in the sight of God, then we must understand what God’s will is for our lives.  

Now, it is easy to say that we are to seek God’s will in all that we do, but how do you really do that?  How do you communicate with God on such a basic level that you can determine what His will is for your next moment?

We do this by fellowshipping with God.  This is God’s desire, to fellowship with us.  When we pray to God and God responds, that is fellowship.  It is through this fellowship that we discover God’s will for us.  It is through constant fellowship with God that we discover God’s will for the next moment, the next day, and so forth.

As believers, we have the awesome capability of fellowshipping with the almighty Creator of all things.  Yet, even as a believer we must deal with the sin in our lives or that sin will cause our communication line with God to be blocked.  Sin separates us from God. 

If you want to know good, then you must fellowship with God.  If you want to fellowship with God, then you must deal with the sin in your life.  

Listen to this podcast to learn how fellowshipping with the almighty Creator of all things is possible for you.

CAN YOU DEPEND ON THE FUTURE? (James 4:13-14

Can you depend on the future?

We all make plans for the future.  We plan for our kids to go to college.  We plan for our retirement.  We plan for our career.  It is considered prudent to do all of these things, and foolish not to, but can we depend on the future happening like we want it to, like we are planning for it to happen?

It would be great if we see into the future and know exactly what was going to happen, so we could better plan for the events that were going to occur.  For instance, if you knew that you were going to lose your job in a few months, you might begin to save money to prepare for it.  

This is why horoscopes, soothsayers, fortune tellers, and psychics, are so popular, people will try anything to look out into the future.  The problem is that none of these methods really work because they cannot really see into the future.  Only God can see the future.  Only God is omniscient.  Only God knows exactly what you will be doing in the next minute, the next hour, the next day, the next year, until the day you die.  

Satan cannot see the future.  Satan cannot prophesy, only God can prophesy.  So if we are to make plans for the future, wouldn't it make sense to consult the only One who knows exactly what is going to happen to us, when it will happen, and how it will happen?  God knows it all.  

Listen to this podcast to learn why it is so important to always consider God’s will for your life in any plans that you make, for it is God that commands your heart make the next beat, or He is the One that tells it to stop beating.  In this lesson, James tells us how foolish it is to leave God out of the equation when we need to depend on our future.   

ARE YOU ALL SHOW AND NO GO? (Mark 11:12-26)

Are you all show and no go?

For many people religion is about appearances.  On every Sunday morning they get out their best pious religion suit and put it on to go to church.  They sing the worship songs, they raise their hands, they may even say an amen or two as the preacher gives his sermon.  Then they go home, they take off their pious religion suit and put it back in the closet until next Sunday. 

They are all show and no go.   

Listen to this podcast to learn how God intends for the believer to have fruit to show for his labor.  In fact, the day is coming when Jesus will judge the works of a believer to determine the rewards, or the loss of rewards, that believer will receive. 

In this lesson, you can learn how to be serious about your desire to work for God, how to have your prayers answered, and how to earn the fruit that God is looking for in your life.   

THE HOLY SPIRIT LEADS (2 Cor. 2:5-13)

Do you know how to discern God's will and then apply it to your life?  In this verse-by-verse study of 2 Cor. 2:5-13 Paul describes how the Holy Spirit leads us.   How He leads us in dealing with those believers that have strayed from the will of God.   How the Holy Spirit works in conviction of the fallen brother, and how He leads us in our efforts to reconcile that fallen brother.   How He leads us in the path that we are to travel.   How He leads us as He opens doors for our lives and He closes doors for our lives.  Listen and learn how to discern God's will for your life.

To Know The Will of God

As a church we are seeking the will of God.  We are asking the question, how do we become the light unto the city that God wants us to be?  How do we bring more people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? Each of us as a believer is seeking the will of God for our lives.  Are we doing what God has planned for us, or are we doing what we have chosen for our lives?  Are we touching the people around us with the gospel message of the cross? This is a study on how to discern God's will for your life.