The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita: Recent Episodes
Keith Martin
Each week a new verse-by-verse Bible study podcast given in expository style. Join us and see the Bible come alive as we study the truths that God‘s Word has for us.
THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD (Acts 1:9-11)
Today’s message does not have the great theological Bible truths of the last several weeks, but it does have some good Bible history. Our message today is somewhat workman like in that it talks about what the disciples did while they waited on the comforter that Jesus had promised them. Today, we talk about the characteristics of the disciples, and then we discover that Peter is still just as impulsive as he has always been as he tries to lead the group in choosing a replacement for Judas. And then lastly, we will set the stage for our discussion next week on the events of Pentecost.
The Bible tells us that the Old Testament Feast of Pentecost represents something—that is, it is the fulfillment of something. The Feast of the Pentecost has been fulfilled in the birth of the church. Pentecost was to depict the beginning and origin of the church. It spoke of the coming of the Holy Spirit in the very particular ministry of calling a people out of this world to form the body of Christ, which is the church. Five minutes before the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost there was no church. Five minutes after the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost there was a church. In other words, what Bethlehem was to the birth of Christ, Jerusalem, on the Day of Pentecost, was to the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how it was at Pentecost that The Holy Spirit became incarnate. He began to baptize believers, which means that the Holy Spirit identified them with Christ as His body here on this earth. As believers, we are a part of that fulfillment today. Our purpose on this earth today is to allow the Holy Spirit to work through us to gather all of the members of that great body of the church. Jesus is coming again to gather that church up as His bride. Our mission is to spread the gospel of Christ to the uttermost parts of the world.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD (Acts 1:9-11)
Our message today is about the ascension of our Lord into Heaven. Without a doubt, it is significant to our faith that Jesus is alive and working for us today. Jesus did not just go off into heaven and leave us never to be heard from again. He has provided us with a perfect, complete, salvation. He is our great High Priest in the Holy Tabernacle in Heaven, He is our paraclete, our advocate, before the Father. And He has promised to return for us.
Jesus is alive. Jesus is working for us, and Jesus is coming back. These are some of the things that distinguish our faith from all other religions. These are the things that we base our hope on. You do not place your confidence in a mere man when you place your confidence in Jesus; you place your confidence in the God-man. Because He is a man, He can sympathize with you and is able to meet your needs. He is a royal priest. He is a righteous priest. He is a peace-promoting priest. He is also a personal priest—He is for you personally. He didn’t inherit the office; that is, He didn’t come in the line of Aaron. He is an eternal priest. If the work of Jesus Christ had ended with His death, burial and resurrection, then our salvation would be incomplete. It is because Jesus is alive today and has ascended into heaven that He is our eternal and perfect High Priest. It is because Jesus is living today and has ascended to heaven that our salvation was completed. It is because Jesus is living today and has ascended to heaven that our salvation is being completed today. It is because Jesus is living today and has ascended to heaven that our salvation will be completed in the future when the Lord gives us our glorified bodies.
We don’t often hear messages preached on the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Rightfully so, the evangelistic message of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord is talked about more frequently. But the ascension of our Lord represents the hope and promise of the believer. As a believer my Lord is alive, He is my advocate, and He is coming again for me.
This is the message we need to proclaim. It is because we have the hope, the confident expectation, the promise, of the return of our Lord that we should feel the urgent need to proclaim the gospel message to a lost world.
Click on the play button to hear a message on what the Ascension of Jesus Christ means to you as a follower of Christ.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
THAT OLD-TIME RELIGION (Acts 1:1-9)
The book of Acts is a wonderful, wonderful, book, and we are going to be looking at this book for quite a while. As a matter of fact, I got to thinking about a title for this particular study and I came up with “That Old-Time Religion.” Now, the reason that I want to call it “That Old-Time Religion” is that we need to take a look back, so that we might really face the future. And it is very important that we do this today, because it is the Old-Time Religion that needs to be the New-Time Religion.
The book of Acts tells a very impressive story of what happened in the first century when the church was created. The book of Acts is the story of success. It is the story of a church triumphant. Really, it is the story of a small group of unlettered, uncultured people with meager resources, very little money, no prestige, no colleges, no seminaries, no radio or television, no internet, Google didn’t exist, there were no printing presses, and no magnificent buildings in which to draw people in. All they had was a small group of people who went out to tell the story of a publicly executed Jew.
They went out against great obstacles. They faced the imperial might of Rome, the intellectual sophistication of Greece, the religious bigotry of that day, and they turned that world inside out, and upside down, for Jesus Christ. They did so much with so little. Today, we do so little with so much. Therefore, I believe we need to go back and see what they did, and how they did it. And for that reason, we are going to be studying the Book of Acts, which is the story of a church on fire with evangelism and growth, and I believe it can become our pattern for today. And I want God to burn the message into your heart.
Click on the play button to hear a message on what Jesus can accomplish through you, if you let Him. Do you want this year to be a great year? Then recognize His presence in you, receive His promise to you, and respond to His program through you.
Our prayer, today, should be “Father, I pray, in the name of Jesus, that You would make me a greater soul winner. And Lord, help me to recognize that, in the truest sense, You are the one who draws those people to Yourself as You inhabit my humanity and display Your deity. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF ACTS (Acts 1:1-8)
Today, we begin our study of the book of Acts. The KJV lists the title of this book as “THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.” Of course, the titles of the books in our Bibles are not inspired, they were inserted by the translators, so there will be differences based on the translation, although this, and the “THE ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT,” are the two that you will generally see. But to me, a title that would more accurately describe the book is “The Lord Jesus Christ at Work by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles.” The reason I like that title is this book is, first and foremost, about the work of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, to establish the New Testament church, in order to call out a body of believers, whose mission would be to spread the Gospel message to the uttermost parts of the earth.
The Book of Acts, which is sometimes called the fifth Gospel, is a continuation of the Gospel of Luke. Luke is the writer, and it was written in about the year 60 A.D. The Book of Acts is remarkable in many ways, for it is a bridge between the Gospels and the Epistles. The New Testament without the Book of Acts leaves a great hole that needs to be filled.
The Book of Acts furnishes a ladder on which to place the Epistles. It is something that allows us to climb from the gospels into the Epistles. For the book of Acts gives the history of the founding of the churches to which the Epistles are directed. The book of Genesis records the origin of the spiritual body, and the book of Acts records the origin of the church.
Click on the play button to hear a message on the special features of this wonderful book. It speaks of the prominence of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is prominent. He is at work from the vantage place of heaven itself. And it also speaks on the Prominence of the Holy Spirit. Christ promised to send the Holy Spirit. You and I are living in the age of the Holy Spirit. The great fact of this age is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in believers.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
CHRISTIAN SOLDIER (EPHESIANS 6:10-24)
In almost every century since the creation of man, people have been concerned about war. In fact, if you were to go to Google, that bastion of “so-called” truth, and ask the question, has there ever been a time of total peace on the earth? You get different answers, but the bottom line is, since man was thrown out of the Garden of Eden, there has been little or no times of complete peace on earth. The Bible, the inerrant Word of God, tells us that in the end days, that we are living in today, there will be wars, and rumors of wars. It also says that we will have to wait for the Millennial Kingdom of Christ for there to total peace on earth.
So, with good reason, everybody today is worried about war. They’re asking, what is happening between Israel and Hamas? What does the Russian invasion of Ukraine mean to us? What about Iran getting a nuclear bomb? What about the president’s efforts to stop these wars? Does it mean that America will be forced to go to war?
What many Americans do not realize is that we are already at war. It is an invisible war, an unseen war. It is a continuing war between light and darkness, between good and evil, between heaven and hell, between Christ and Antichrist, between God and Satan, and between the church and the world. There is a war, an invisible war, and Satan is our adversary. And he, like a cornered animal that has been wounded and frightened, is letting loose with everything that he has in these last days. And you cannot afford to be ignorant of this war, for to be ignorant is to be unprepared. You cannot afford to try to be neutral, for those who do that, will suffer the most.
Click on the play button to hear a message that is a call to arms. The church is not a showboat; it is a battleship. And we need to learn this morning some truths about being a Christian Soldier in the war against Satan’s darkness and evil.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
LORD OF ALL OUR WORK (EPHESIANS 6:5-8)
Let me ask you an important question about your relationship with Jesus Christ. Is Jesus Christ the Lord of all of your life? Is He the Lord of all of your wealth? Is He the Lord of all of your worship, is He the Lord of all your family, and is He the Lord of all your work? This is an important question for us today, because if Jesus is not Lord of all of your life, then He is not Lord at all. Jesus will not be Lord over a divided kingdom that is your life. He will not share His throne with Satan. Today, Paul writes to us about making Jesus Christ the Lord of All of Our Work.
Now, most of the people who are listening to me, who are adults, have a job. You are employed. Either in a secular job, or a spiritual job. You see, even for those who have retired from their secular job, they still have a role, or a job, assigned to them by God. There is no retirement in the service of the Lord. If you are still breathing, then God has a job for you.
Let me ask you, is your job, that you spend a third of your life at, really meaningful to you, or is it just something that is necessary, and perhaps very boring? How would you like to have that boredom changed to blessing? How would you like to have that drudgery turned to delight? How would you like to have that monotony turned into something that is momentous, and exhilarating, and thrilling, and meaningful? You might say, in order for me to do that, then I would surely have to change jobs. Maybe not. I want to show you today how you can take your job, no matter what it is, if it is not immoral, and translate it from the secular to the savory; and how your job can become a ministry, how your job can become the temple of your devotion and the lampstand for your witness. I believe that is exactly what the Apostle Paul is talking about here when He is talking about slaves serving their masters for the glory of God.
It is an important Biblical truth that God chooses ordinary people, gives them supernatural power, and does extraordinary things through ordinary people. But listen. Here is the secret. God does extraordinary things with ordinary people in ordinary places.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how you should see your job, whatever your job is. As a partnership with God. As a service to yourself, and service to others, and as the lampstand of your devotion.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
TEACHING CHILDREN TO LOVE GOD (EPHESIANS 6:1-4)
Today’s message is going to be about how to raise children in way that they learn to love God. Now, there are many who would say that the principles of child raising that we find in the Bible, will seem old fashioned, and are not to be used in our so-called “enlightened day.” But, in my humble opinion, what is wrong with our society today is that we have left the principles of raising children found in the Bible, and listened to the Dr. Spocks of the world. The truths of the words found in the Bible are as relative, and as needed, in our day as never before.
A nation is no stronger than its home; and when children refuse to obey their parents, they are fulfilling the prophecy that says the last days will be perilous times. And any nation is in grave peril whose children are disobedient to their parents; and, therefore, it is no wonder that America is certainly in bad shape.
Today, the Scriptures that we will cover will be speaking directly to the fathers. But, let me tell you that most of these concepts that we will talk about today apply to the mother as well. Both parents need to be in agreement in how they raise their children. So dads, may I tell you that your most important task is being a husband and a father. It is not being a church leader, not being a businessman, but your most important task is being a husband and a father. The Bible says that every father owes to his children three things: He owes to his children devotion. He owes to his children discipline. And he owes to his children direction.
May God help us so that we will take our children and give to them these things that we need to give them: number one, devotion—don’t provoke them to wrath; number two, discipline—bring them up in the nurture of the Lord; number three: admonition—teach them the Word of God.
Click on the play button to hear a message on what the Bible says about how to teach children to love God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
HOW TO MAXIMIZE YOUR MARRIAGE (EPHESIANS 5:21-33)
In today’s message, we will be looking at what the Bible tells us about marriage. About the kind of marriage that God wants us to have. The kind of marriage that He has planned for His Church, and the kind of marriage where both the husband and wife maximize their love for God, and then through God, their love for each other. I know that when I teach on the home, I am really getting down to where the action is, because if you live for Jesus at home, and in your home, then you can live for Jesus anywhere, amen? And, if it won’t work at home, then it just won’t work anywhere.
Above all earthly relationships, before business, before your father and mother, and even before children, a man should love his wife, and a wife should love her husband.. The relationship between husband and wife is compared to the relationship of Christ and the Church. That is, the highest of all spiritual relationships and the highest of all human relationships is not mother and child, but husband and wife.
Mark 10:7-8
7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.
KJV
You see, as Christ loved the Church, a man is to love his wife. He is to love her supremely. And, if we had those kinds of homes, things would be different in this country—wives who are faithful followers, husbands who are loving leaders.
Our Lord loves us so much that He wants all of us to have three happy homes. The first happy home that God wants you to have is your family home. The second happy home that God wants you to have is a church home. The third happy home that God wants you to have is a heavenly home. And all three are centered in the Lord Jesus Christ. You won’t have a happy family home without Jesus; you are not going to have a happy church home without Jesus; and you are not going to have a heavenly home without Jesus. And if you don’t have Jesus, then you’ve missed it.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how to maximize your love for God, and through God, maximize your love for each other.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
THE IRONCLAD GUARANTEE OF THE GOSPEL (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)
Today, on this Easter Sunday morning, I want to talk to you about The Ironclad Guarantee of The Gospel. Easter is not about bunnies, and baskets, and baked hams. Easter is about the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am not saying that we cannot celebrate Easter with candy and easter egg hunts. To this day, as old as we are, my wife loves to hide eggs for our grown kids and grandchildren. I feel the same way about celebrating Christmas with Santa Clause and presents. However, I am saying that when we do celebrate these very special religious holidays, we need to remember, and make it a priority, to celebrate the real reason for the season, the birth, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
One of the great and wonderful things about a study of the gospels is that every sermon that Jesus gave, every parable that Jesus used, every miracle that Jesus performed, and every teaching moment that Jesus had with His disciples, was pointing toward the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the reason that Jesus stepped out of the throne room of God and became God incarnate in man. The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit had planned this event from the foundation of the world. And this is the culmination of that plan.
The death, burial, and resurrection, of our Lord form the foundation of our faith. It is imperative that each of us understand the importance these events have on our salvation. For without the death and burial of Jesus Christ, our sins would not be forgiven; And without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, death and sin would not be conquered, we would not have eternal life with God, and we would not have Jesus Christ as our High Priest sitting on the right hand of God.
The amazing love and power of the one true God is on display in these events as nowhere else in the Bible. Forget, the splitting of the Red Sea, the daily miracles displayed by Jesus as he walked on this earth, or Jonah being swallowed by the whale. When God sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins, and then displayed His awesome power in the resurrection of His Son, just so that we might be able to live with Him forever, that was an act of true love and power.
Nobody has ever, or will ever, love you like God loves you.
Click on the play button below to hear a message on the ironclad guarantee of the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
HOW TO BE THANKFUL IN TOUGH TIMES (EPHESIANS 5:20)
In my opinion, today’s lesson is about the hardest commandment in all of the Bible to keep and to obey. Yet, we are going to read about a commandment that if we do obey it, it will bring perhaps the biggest blessing of all. And here it is:
Eph 5:20
20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
KJV
It would be relatively simple if that scripture said, “Giving thanks always,” because there is always something that we can be thankful for. For example, breathing, or our heart beating, or the sun rising. But it says, “Giving thanks always for all things.” Notice the words, “all things.” The hard part of this commandment is, what do you do when you don’t feel thankful? How can you be thankful when you are faced with the tragedies and trials of life?
Basically, there are four levels of life when it comes to being thankful. First of all, there are some people who are not thankful for anything. They are constantly complaining, constantly bickering, constantly griping, and we have all been around that kind of person.
A little bit higher than that are people who just simply are filled with ingratitude. They just don’t give thanks. They may not grumble all the time, but they are basically ungrateful people. They are like a hog under a tree eating acorns off the ground, never looking up to see where they came from. And many of us just consume the blessings of God without looking up to thank Him.
Next, there’s a third level. It’s a little higher than that, and these are the ones who are thankful for obvious blessings when they come. If it’s an obvious blessing for health, for prosperity, for friends, for family, for church, we thank God. And that is good; we ought to do that.
But the highest level of thanksgiving, and the one I want to talk about today, is giving thanks always, for all things, no matter what—continual, perpetual, thanksgiving unto God. Now, that is a wonderful principle, and I am saying that it will transform your life from monotonous to momentous.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how you can be thankful to God even in the tough times, even when the trials you are facing are terrible.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
HOW TO HAVE A SPIRIT FILLED LIFE (EPHESIANS 5:18)
I want you to imagine a man who buys a car. Now, this man has never owned a car before, and he doesn’t understand anything about a car. But finally, he gets enough money to buy a brand-new car. And so, he is very happy with this car. He shows it off to his friends. He shows them the beautiful paint job. He shows them the soft upholstery. He has them sit in the car and listen to the stereo music. He shows them all of the amenities of this car.
But there is one thing he doesn’t understand about it: he doesn’t understand that it has an engine in it. And so, everywhere he goes, he has to push it. Now, every so often, he is going downhill so he can get in and coast, but that doesn’t thrill him too much because he knows he is going to have to push it up the next hill. And this car that is supposed to be a blessing to him has become a burden to him. And rather than it carrying him, he is pushing it. He is very proud of it, very grateful to have it—most of the time. But sometimes he wishes he didn’t have it at all.
And then, somebody says to him, “You know, there is something you don’t understand about this car,” and they show him a thing called the ignition button on the dash, and they say, “Push that button right there.” And he pushes it and hears this surge of power. He says, “What is that?” “Well, that is the engine. That is the motor. Now put it in drive, and push that pedal down there.” And when he does, it roars away in a surge of power. And he says, “Wow, this is wonderful! This is glorious! Why didn’t somebody tell me this sooner?”
You say, “Now, bro. Keith, really, that is kind of dumb. I mean, that is a stupid story. Nobody could be that dumb.” And you’re right, unless it is the Christian who does not understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now, when God saved you, God gave you a faith with an engine in it. And there are many people who are pushing their faith, rather than letting their faith carry them. And the faith—the salvation—that was meant to be a blessing, has almost become a burden to them. And they’re grateful they’re saved, but secretly, they think, “This being a Christian is such a difficult thing to do.”
Well, today, I want us to discover the ignition button to this thing called Christianity.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how the Bible teaches clearly that being filled with the Holy Spirit is a requirement for living a victorious Christian life.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
THE OPPORTUNITY OF TIME (EPHESIANS 5:13-18)
The word “opportunity” implies there are things to lose or gain, and that is what our lesson is about today, “The Opportunity of Time.”
Paul writes, “Redeeming the time,” which speaks of the days, the hours, and the minutes. But, more than that, it really speaks of the opportunities that we have. Because, you need to see time, not just as something that is passing, but you need to see time as an incredible opportunity. And when you are redeeming time, what you are really redeeming is opportunity.
God has provided for you an opportunity. It is God who is the creator of time. God’s great gift to you, number one is Jesus, and number two is time. God has given you time to work, time to serve, time to love, time to laugh, time to labor. But, like any gift, how you use it, is really up to you. And we need to see every day, this day and every day, as a gift from God. Time is something that God gave you today, and God will give you tomorrow. It is not something that you own. God is the creator, the possessor, of time. Therefore, I am a steward of the time that God has given me. And one day I will have to answer to God for what I did with this day, and every day, that God has given me. Twenty-four hours in the day, 1,440 minutes in the day, 86,000 seconds in the day—and every one of them is a precious gift from God. I want to show you from God’s Word how to take time, and use time, and maximize your time for God’s glory, as we face the road ahead.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how to live in the eternal now. Cut yourself loose from yesterday. Last year, with its heartaches and its failures, is gone. Forget those things which are behind. Confess them to the Lord, and bury them in the grave of God’s forgetfulness. Tomorrow is a time nowhere but on the fool’s calendar. Stop saying, “If I had the time …” You do have the time; use it. And if you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord, the Bible says, “Behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2) Now is the time to be saved.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
TAKE A WALK WITH GOD (EPHESIANS 5:1-17)
Is that something that you want in your life, to walk with God, step-by-step every day? That is what Paul is writing about in these verses.
Paul says that we are to “walk worthy.” Worthy of the work that the Lord has given us the spiritual gifts to accomplish.
Paul tells us not to walk as an unbeliever does, “in the vanity of their mind.” The word “vanity” as it used here means the emptiness and futility, of human life without God.
Paul says that we are to “walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us,” we are to “walk as children of light,” and we are to “walk circumspectly.” We are to walk worthy, in love, in light, and circumspectly. Simple, but hard words to accomplish in our lives apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.
Man has learned to fly through the air in his airplanes like a bird. He has learned to swim through the sea in his submarines like a fish. But he has yet learned how to walk on earth like a man, like God wanted him to walk. The Christian life, being saved, is described in the Bible, and characterized, and illustrated, as a walk. The Bible says that the Lord Jesus Christ died for us, and He gave us an example that we should “walk … as he walked.” (1 John 2:6) And the Bible also says, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” (Colossians 2:6)
Why does the Bible describe the Christian life as a walk? Because it is lived one step at a time. We receive Jesus Christ by faith, and so we walk one step at a time by faith. Step-by-step-by-step we serve the Lord, walking in sunlight. We are to walk one step at a time with our Lord Jesus Christ.
The thing that is going to impress the lost people of this city is not the preaching in our churches. It is going to be the way you walk this Monday morning. It is your walk that will make the difference. You see, talk is cheap. We are not talking about talk; we are talking about walk. We are to walk as Jesus walks. And when there is a church full of people—who are holy in character, holy in conversation, and holy in conduct, the city is going to look around and say, “Jesus Christ is real.”
May I submit to you that the greatest argument for Christianity, and the greatest argument against Christianity, is the life of a Christian. The thing that will put the lie to what I am saying quicker than anything else is for me not to walk as Jesus Christ walked. The thing that will put the yea and amen, and the truth and the seal of God, upon what I am saying more than anything else is for you to walk in holiness.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how to take a walk with God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
FINDING FREEDOM IN FORGIVENESS (EPHESIANS 4:31-32)
The overall theme of Paul’s message to the believers at Ephesus is about the power that is found when the church is unified in purpose and love. In the local church there is to be unity, but most of all in the body of Christ, the body of true believers, there is great power and comfort in unity. Both for the overall body, and the individual believer.
There are two problems that do great psychological, emotional, and spiritual damage to anyone, and perhaps to you. One is guilt, and the other is bitterness. Guilt imprisons us; bitterness poisons us. Forgiveness is the answer both to bitterness and to guilt. Guilt is the result of something we have done wrong. Bitterness is our reaction to someone else’s wrong, or our perception that someone else has wronged us. They both have us in a prison, and it is forgiveness—hallelujah—that sets the prisoner free from guilt, or from bitterness. God’s forgiveness of us sets us free from the prison of guilt, and our forgiveness of others sets us free from the prison of bitterness.
In the message today, Paul is telling us that when you forgive someone, truly forgive them from your heart, you set two people free. One, the person that you have forgiven, and the other is yourself. Now, “to forgive” actually means “to pay a debt.” You see, there are no bargain pardons. That is the reason our Lord taught us to pray in the Model Prayer: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12) Sin is a debt that we owe. We have sinned against heaven, against the kingdom. We have been sued for damages, and it is a debt that we cannot pay. But God, in mercy and in love, has forgiven us and paid that debt. You see, there are no free pardons. When somebody is forgiven, somebody else has paid.
For example, if someone owes me a thousand dollars, and that person says, “Keith, I can’t pay,” and I say, “All right, I forgive you,” the moment I say that, it cost me what? A thousand dollars. You see, to forgive is to actually pay the debt. The word “forgive” comes from a root word that literally means “to bear the burden.”
Now, if that is true, and it is, then let me ask, when our Lord forgives us, does He pay a price? Paul says that the answer to that question is, yes, the Lord does pay a price when He forgives us. Out of the riches of His grace, He paid the debt Himself and, therefore, cancelled that debt. That is the reason we call salvation “grace”—G-R-A-C-E: “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.”
Click on the play button to hear a message on the freedom that we can find in forgiveness.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
HOW TO BREAK SATAN’S STRONGHOLDS IN YOUR LIFE (EPHESIANS 4:22-31)
In last week’s message, we talked about what a difference God makes in the life of a true follower of Christ. We contrasted a life without God, to a life full of God’s grace and power. Yet, there are many believers who might say that they don’t feel all that different, that God is not working fully in their lives. The Bible tells us that the reason for this is that we allow Satan to have strongholds in our lives. If we want to experience the full measure of God’s grace and power in our lives, then we must remove the strongholds in our lives that Satan has dug in, and fortified, and is using to defeat us.
It is a tragic fact that there are many believers who get strongholds in their lives. And I believe that there are many people, who are listening to me today, who have in their heart, and in their mind, and in their life, a satanic stronghold. The tragedy of this is that not only is it harming them and wrecking their spiritual life, but they also, themselves, are contaminating the life of their family and the life of their church, because the devil has found an unclean place in that person, and the devil has made a campground, a foul nest, a beachhead, a citadel, a stronghold, there. And he uses that stronghold to war against God and against the work of God.
You are never going to cease grieving the Holy Spirit, you are never going to expunge Satan and get him out of your life, until you take these three steps: repentance, resistance, and renewal.
Click on the play button to hear a message on what these three steps are, and how to apply them to your life. How you shouldn’t try to repent until you are honest and face your sin. Don’t try to resist until you’ve repented. And don’t try to be filled until you resist—until you choose against Satan and yield to God’s blessed Holy Spirit.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE GOD MAKES (EPHESIANS 4:17-27)
The Bible teaches us that the behavior of a true Christ follower is to be radically different from that of the person who does not know Christ as their Lord and Savior. That difference is God. That difference is the light, the strength, the presence, the comfort, and the wisdom, among many other things, that God provides to His children, to those who call Jesus Christ, Lord of their lives.
In our message today, Paul reminds us of the blindness of lost people. He reminds us that no follower of Christ should let such earthly minded, secular, and lost, people influence what they believe, or how they behave. People who are outside of Christ simply cannot think straight on moral and spiritual issues. They may articulate the issues, but they leave out the spiritual dimensions because they are blind to them. Therefore, they cannot come to any true conclusions
Man was created to be inhabited by God. God intended for the human spirit to be inhabited by the Holy Spirit. The indwelling Holy Spirit was to enlighten the intellect, elevate the emotions, and energize the will. As a result, the life of man would express, in human terms, the life of God. The fall ruined all that. Sin entered and the Holy Spirit left. Without the life of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the natural man is spiritually dead, “alienated from the life of God.”
The genius of the gospel is that when we accept Christ as Savior, we are cleansed by His blood and regenerated by His Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes up residence in the human spirit, making it possible for the saved person to have fellowship with God. They can now cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and begin to live the kind of life that God intended man to live—a life governed by the Spirit of God.
The understanding of unsaved people is darkened because they are cut off from the life of God. Their spirit is empty, and darkened, because the Holy Spirit does not live within their spirit. As a result, they are ignorant of the things of God. This is the cause of their deep-seated, inner blindness. It is a vicious circle. The darkness is self-perpetuating. The lost move from darkness to darkness in darkness.
Click on the play button to hear a message on the dramatic, radical, difference God can make in your life.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
TO BE FAITHFUL IN MINISTRY (EPHESIANS 4:7-16)
In today’s lesson we are going to talk about how you can be faithful in your work for God, in whatever ministry God has chosen for you to do. God has a purpose for you in this world, and the Bible promises that God will give you the power, the spiritual gifts, that you need to accomplish that purpose.
Charles Spurgeon, one of the greatest, and most influential, Baptist preachers that has ever lived, told a story one time. He told of a woman who had been a member of his congregation. This woman was very poor, and she lived in what they called “the poor house” in those days. And Spurgeon went to visit her to give her some comfort and some help. And when he was there in her room, he looked up on the wall, and there he saw framed a certificate, a piece of paper, and it was a legal document. And so, he went over and read it. And it was a document transferring great wealth to this woman. She didn’t know what it was. She had framed it and put it on her wall. What had happened is this: that she had served as a nurse and had taken care of an elderly man, and when he died, he left her his estate. But, she couldn’t read so she didn’t know what it was. She was untaught, unlearned. When, finally, the bank learned about it, they said, “We wondered who the old gentlemen left his estate to.”
When the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, He left you an incredible giftedness. And it may be that you have not yet discovered what you have in the Lord Jesus. So, I want to talk to you today about your spiritual gift. Could it be that you have it framed as a motto on the wall, rather than having carried it to the bank to cash it and use it? Or could it be that you have left your gift under the tree, wrapped and unopened and, therefore, unappreciated? When God saved you, God saved you by His grace, but God did not save you to sit, soak, and sour; God saved you to serve. And you are saved by grace, and you serve by grace. You are a gifted child of God.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how you can learn what your spiritual gift is, and how you can develop and display your gift. If you are a born-again believer, then you are a person who has been gifted by grace,
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
TO KNOW ABOUT GOD BY HIS NAME (EPHESIANS 4:6)
Today, I want to spend the entire message talking about God. I just happen to believe that God is the biggest subject that we can talk about, at any time, as we study the Word of God. And the amazing thing to consider is that there is so much in the Bible about God, that to talk about God for 45 minutes today would be like trying to bail out an ocean with a teacup. We will only scratch the surface.
But there are some things that we can know about God, and we can know God without knowing everything about God. You also don’t have to know all that the Heavenly Father does when He administrates the universe in order to know God. And so, we can find out some things about God by objective observation, but we can really only know the heart of God, the goodness of God, by revelation. And how do we know the goodness of God? And what kind of a revelation has God given of Himself?
Certainly, the Bible is the most complete way that God has revealed Himself to us. But, did you know that one of the greatest revelations that God has given of Himself are the names of God. The Bible says, in (Psalm 9:10) “And they that know thy name shall put their trust in thee …” This tells us that to know the names of God is a great thing. So, today, I’m going to give you the names of God. Now, not all of the names of God, but I have selected some of them.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how God reveals Himself to us by His names. He is the God of strength, “Elohim.” He is the God of sovereignty, “Jehovah.” He is the God of superiority, “Adonai.” He is the God of sufficiency, “El Shaddai.” He is the God of supremacy, “El Elyon.” He is the God of stability, “El Olam.” He is the God of sympathy, “El Roi.” All of these names are wrapped up in one sweet name, Jesus.
There is one God and Father who is above all—that is the greatness of God. And through all—that is the goodness of God. And in us all—that is the grace of God. And it is all summed up in one person—and that’s Jesus. Now, you’ll never know the Father, until you receive the Son.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
FAITH WITH LEGS ON IT (EPHESIANS 4:1-6)
The Bible says that we are called to a vocation, and that vocation is “a worthy walk.’ We are called to walk worthy. That is, our faith is to have legs on it. It is not enough just to simply be seated with the Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenlies. That is our faith, but we are called to have a faith with legs on it, or what the Holy Spirit calls “a worthy walk.”
The Christian life begins with resting. The very first thing that you need to do in order to be saved is to quit trying and start trusting. To quit your struggling. To quit trying to be good by doing. Christianity is not spelled “d-o.”; it is spelled “d-o-n-e.” The work of salvation is already finished. When God created the world, God worked for six days, and God rested on the seventh day. Not because He was tired, but because His work was completed. But man was created on the sixth day, and man’s first day was a day of rest. God worked and then rested, God completed His work, that man might rest and then work.
Man starts by resting, and then he works. God works and then rests, that man might rest and then work. When Jesus Christ died upon the cross, He bowed His head and He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). And you and I, by faith, enter into the finished work of Calvary. I don’t try to be saved by living a good life, keeping the Ten Commandments, getting baptized, going to church, and all of those things. They are all good, and they all have their place. But, those things are works, and works cannot save. The only thing that saves us is when we by faith appropriate the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, first of all, the Christian life begins with sitting, resting in the completed work of Salvation of our Lord Jesus. But then, after we have come to the faith rest, then, there is the practical outworking, where we start to walk. We are not told to leap. We are not told to run. We are not told to drift. But we are called to walk.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how a Christian is to live a life of faith, facing our day-to-day problems and trials, by walking one step at a time. Walking with our eyes on Christ one step at a time.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
HOW TO PRAY FOR OUR LOVED ONES (EPHESIANS 3:8-21)
Today’s message is going to help us learn about intercession. If you have loved ones, then certainly you want to learn the art of intercession, or prayer. Let me tell you that I will use those two words, prayer and intercede, interchangeably. Because that is what we are doing when we pray for somebody, we are interceding for them with God. We are praying to God for them.
There is nothing we can do for our friends, our children, our parents, our fellow members of the church, and even people we do not know personally, that is any nobler, any higher, any more wonderful, or any more effective, than to learn how to pray for them, how to intercede for them.
As I was studying this week, there was a thought that hit me. It was so staggering that it almost consumed me. I mean, it almost drove me to my knees. It almost just overwhelmed me. I hesitate to tell you what the thought was because you’ll say, “Well, I knew that. You mean you’ve been teaching all these years and you just discovered that?” But, I want to tell you what the thought was. Now, don’t laugh when I tell you. Here’s what it was, and remember it was perhaps the most staggering thought I’ve ever had in my life: God answers prayer. Well, you say, “What’s the big deal?” Yeah, I knew it, too, but then I got to thinking, “Is that true?” I mean, is that more than just talk? Does God really answer prayer?
Now, if there is a God and He answers prayer—you think about it—that is staggering that I can touch the One who made the universe and bring Him into action through prayer. It just overwhelmed me, and I thought, “Oh God, knowing this is true, why don’t I pray more? Why don’t I learn to pray if God answers prayer?” What unmitigated fools we are if we don’t learn how to pray. And yet, there is a constant battle in my heart to pray more and a constant confession, “O God, have mercy on me. I’ve failed again in my prayer life.”
Is that true about you sometimes? If yes, then you will find something wonderful in this message. Now, I pray, and I thank God for answered prayer. I know that God hears my prayer and answers my prayer, but I am constantly condemned and constantly amazed that I don’t pray more and better than I do pray. I believe that when we get to heaven, one of the things that’s going to amaze us, and chagrin us, is that we prayed so poorly and prayed so little.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how to pray for your loved ones.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
WHAT WE HAVE IN JESUS (EPHESIANS 1:4-14)
The verses that we are going to review today are about you. This is your life. Here, the Lord is just giving your biography: from grace to glory; from eternity past to eternity future. Now, if you’re not interested in what you have in the Lord Jesus, and you’re not interested in your own personal spiritual welfare, then what on earth would you be interested in? What on earth could you be interested in?
Did you know that God chose you, that God purposed your salvation, before He laid the foundations of the earth? Now, you want to talk about some old-time religion, well you can’t get any older than this. I mean, this was before there were any trees and mountains and birds and bees and fleas. Now, that’s before there was anything. God, way back in eternity past, chose you, and God chose me.
You know, when we were kids playing football, or basketball, we would choose teams from among the group of kids. And there is always somebody who wonders if he is going to be chosen at all. Now, isn’t it wonderful to know that God chose us so far back? You see, God is love, and what good is it to be a God of love if there’s no one to love? Love, by its very nature, cannot dwell by itself. And so, since God’s nature is love, God created people like us, and chose us, that He might love us.
Listen, God does not love us because we are valuable, we are valuable because God loves us. You are somebody because God chose you by His grace. And by His sovereign will, God chose to bestow His love upon you. I like what Charles Haddon Spurgeon had to say about it. He said this: “God certainly must have chosen me before I came into this world, or He never would have chosen me afterward.” Now, isn’t it wonderful to know that even before we got here God looked down and said, “I see who he’s going to be, and I choose him”?
Most importantly, that means I can’t take any credit for my salvation. Because, it wasn’t, primarily, that I chose God. He chose me first. I love Him because He first loved me.
Click on the play button below to hear a message on what we have in Jesus.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
THE RICHES OF A CHRISTIAN (EPHESIANS 1:3)
There was a woman by the name of Miss Bertha Smith, who served as a missionary in China between the years of 1917 and 1958. She was a warrior for Jesus, if you ever saw one. One time, she gave a talk about how we are. You know, the Bible says “our lives are hid with God in Christ,” (Colossians 3:3). And so, she had a box—a shoebox about that big—and on the outside she had the word “God” written on it. And so, she opened that shoebox up, and on the inside of that was another little box, smaller. She had written on that “Jesus,” for the Bible says, “Christ is in God, and we’re in Christ.” (John 17:23)
And so now, there’s God, and then there’s Jesus in God. And then, she opened that box, and inside of Jesus was one that said “Me.” There I am in Jesus. And I thought, “Boy, that’s glorious! How is the devil ever going to get to me if he’s got to tear up that first box and then that second box to get to me?”
But she wasn’t finished yet. She opened that one that said, “Me,” and inside that was a still smaller box, and that had “Jesus” on it again. What that means is, I am in Christ, and Christ is in me. You can’t get better than that, can you? I am in Christ, and Christ is in me. Now, how’s the devil ever going to get to me? I mean, he’s going to have to tear up that big box, and that next box, and once he gets through Christ and starts on me, he’s going to find Christ on the inside of me. That is the security of the believer.
Security is not in a place; it’s in a person. If you’re in Jesus, then you’re as secure as you’ll ever be. And if you’re not in Jesus, then you are not secure. He is the security of our riches, which includes all the needs of your spiritual soul, and your body, of the past, the present, and the future; your needs for salvation, sanctification, service, and glorification. All that you’ll ever need is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He “hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in … Christ [Jesus]”—“in Christ [Jesus].”
Click on the play button to hear a message about the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. How to go from the rags of our self-righteousness, to the riches of God’s glory and His righteousness
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
INTRODUCTION TO EPHESIANS (EPHESIANS 1:1-2)
The epistle of Ephesians presents the church which is Christ’s body. This is the invisible church of which Christ is the Head. Ephesians reveals the church as God’s masterpiece, a mystery not revealed in the Old Testament. The church is more wonderful than any temple made with hands. It is constructed of living stones and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. It is the body of Christ in the world to walk as He would walk, and to wrestle against the wiles of the devil. Someday, the church will leave the world and be presented to Christ as a bride.
Paul’s ministry to the church at Ephesus was probably the high-water mark in the missionary labors of Paul. He considered Ephesus his great opportunity and stayed there longer than in any other place. The people of Ephesus heard more Bible teaching from Paul than did any other people, which is probably the reason he could write to them the deep truths contained in this epistle.
Paul loved this church in Ephesus. His last meeting with the Ephesian elders was a tender farewell. A great company of believers turned to Christ. I think the gospel was more effective in this area than in any place, and at any time, in the history of the world. I believe the Ephesian church was the highest church spiritually. It is an amazing thing to me that there were people living in that pagan city who understood this epistle. This must be true, for Paul wouldn’t have written it to them if they couldn’t have understood it. Furthermore, in the Book of Revelation we find that Ephesus is the first one of the seven churches of Asia mentioned in a series of churches that gives the entire history of the church. Ephesus was the church at its best, the church at the highest spiritual level.
Click on the play button to hear a message that introduces us to the book of Ephesians, and sets the historical context that this epistle was written in.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
A BOX OF BONES (Genesis 50:22-26)
Today, we close out our study of the book of Genesis. It has certainly been a good study about the power of God, and the faith of each of the people we have encountered. We have studied about the wonderful creation of all things by the mighty power of God, and the destruction of The Flood as God’s judgment of evil man. Then, we have studied about the faith of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Each man giving us an example of how to live a life of faith in spite of the trials and tribulations that faced them. In fact, our closing lesson is going to be another example of the faith of Joseph. The title of our lesson today is, “A Box of Bones.”
The very last words of the book of Genesis are “a coffin in Egypt.” Now, that’s a strange way for a book to end. It begins with creation, and it ends in a coffin. The devil said to Eve at the beginning of creation, “Ye shall not surely die; that you can sin with impunity.” But, the fact is the devil lied, because we have had one funeral after another. And so, the book that begins with a blaze of glory ends with a grave. The book that begins with the vastness of eternity, ends with the shortness of time. The book that begins in a garden, ends in a coffin. And the book that begins with a blaze of brightness, ends with a box of bones, the bones of Joseph.
Did you know that the bones of Joseph are mentioned not only in the book of Genesis, but in the book of Hebrews, as well? And not only in the book of Hebrews, but in the book of Exodus? And not only in the book of Exodus, but in the book of Joshua? God tells us about those bones, and then He tells us about them three more times. Now, what have we said about what we need to do when God repeats something multiple times in the Bible? We need to pay real close attention because God repeats the things that He feels are very important for us to understand.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how the faith of Joseph can be found in a box of bones.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
REVELATION OF PROPHECY (Genesis 49:8 to 50:21)
This message is dramatic because it tells what will happen to the twelve sons of Jacob when they become tribes. This is also our final opportunity to see another evidence of faith in the life of Jacob. He was speaking to his sons who were to become the twelve tribes in the nation of Israel and would be dwelling in the land of Canaan. Jacob says, “that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.” The phrase “the last days” is an important Biblical expression. It occurs fourteen times in the Old Testament, and it was always taken by the Rabbis to mean Messianic.
What is important for us to understand as members of The Church, the body of believers, is that the last days of the nation Israel will be different from the last days of The Church. There is a very sharp dispensational distinction which needs to be made between the two.
Here, Jacob is talking about the last days of the nation Israel and what is going to happen to the twelve tribes, which will develop from his sons, and will form the nation, Israel. These prophecies, and those given by Moses in Deuteronomy 33, are directed to the tribes of Israel.
Many people talk about the fact that certain prophecies concerning the nation Israel have been fulfilled, and that is true. But we can narrow it down further by dividing Israel into twelve parts and recognizing that God has had something to say concerning each of the twelve. Not only have His prophecies concerning the nation been partially fulfilled, but His prophecies concerning each tribe have been partially fulfilled, and that makes it remarkable indeed.
Click on the play button to hear the second part of a message about Jacob becoming the man of faith spoken of in the book of Hebrews as he shares God’s promises, blessing, and rewards to his sons.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
PROMISES, BLESSINGS, AND REWARDS (Genesis 47:27 to 49:7)
The messages over the next two weeks will talk about the blessings that Jacob gave to his sons just before he died. This section of verses includes the promises of Joseph to Jacob, and the promises of God to each of the sons of Jacob, in the same manner that we saw Abraham and Isaac give blessings to their sons.
As we watch Jacob give out his blessings, the scene becomes a picture of a judgment seat, where actions are judged and rewards are given, or not given out. In fact, it looks very much like the Judgment Seat of Christ. All of these sons are a part of the chosen family, so their place in that family is secure. They did not earn this place, but they were given this position by the grace of God. However, what is judged are the actions and the character of each son to determine the rewards and place in the Kingdom that they, and their descendants, will receive.
Click on the play button to hear a message about Jacob becoming the man of faith spoken of in the book of Hebrews as he shares God’s promises, blessing, and rewards to his sons.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
DYING GRACE (Genesis 47:28-29)
God gives us “living grace,” and “saving grace,” and God gives us “special grace.” So, the God who saves us, and the God who keeps us, and the God who gives us rewards in heaven, is the God who will give to us “dying grace.”
The Bible is clear that there is coming a day that I am going to die, and there is a day that each one of you will die. It is a fact that we all must die, with the one exception: should the Lord Jesus Christ come first, then we will not die, and we’ll not go to heaven by route of the graveyard, but we’ll go another way.
But before we talk about dying grace, I need to ask you this question, Have you been born again? Listen, if you haven’t been saved, then you’re not ready to die. You are also not ready to live, unless you’ve been saved. Now, you cannot have dying grace unless you’ve experienced saving grace. That is the first thing that you need to get done.
Now, Jacob had twelve sons, and they were mean as snakes—rascals, and rebellious. They were hard to deal with. But he kept on. He prayed for those boys. He lived before those boys. He witnessed to those boys. He admonished those boys. And he brought those boys to a faith in his God. And he left behind him a spiritual blessing for his children. And I want to tell you, that’s a good way to die, isn’t it? To leave a family behind you that, because you were their daddy, because you were their mother, they know God in a better way.
I know that with my own children, I prayed to God and said, “God, I want to be a good father. I want to live so that my children will know the Lord. I want them to believe in their father’s God.” You know, I’d rather die than betray my God before my children. And my children know that their father hasn’t been perfect, but my children know that their father loves God. They know that. And they know that their mother loves God. And I’m so glad that one of these days when I lie down to die, not only will I have a forgiving Lord with me, and I trust a fruitful life behind me, but I will have a family legacy after me. I want to leave something besides things to my children. I want to leave some spiritual vitality to my children.
Click on the play button to hear a message on what it means to have dying grace.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
THE KINGDOM REVEALED (Genesis 46:26 to 47:26)
Our lessons over the last several weeks have used the story of Joseph and his brothers to present the picture of Christ and His relationship with the people of Israel.
We have seen that with the rejection of Joseph by his brothers, It has described the Jews rejection of Jesus as their Messiah.
Then, with the suffering and persecution of Joseph and his ultimate placement at the right hand of the throne of Pharaoh, It has described the suffering of Jesus, His resurrection, and His placement at the right hand of God,
We have also seen that the very same Joseph that the brothers had sold into the slow death of slavery now stood before them in all glory and power. This illustrates the very same Jesus, that the Jews had the Gentiles crucify, will stand before them in all glory and power.
With the brothers’ confession of their sin against Joseph, This has described the Jewish people’s confession of their sin when Christ returns to set up His Kingdom.
Through the grace of forgiveness that Joseph bestowed on His brothers when they recognized him as their brother, It has described the grace of forgiveness that will be bestowed on the Jews when they see Christ and instantly recognize Him as Lord and Master.
And in today’s lesson, as we describe the kingdom that Joseph establishes, and the role that the Hebrews will play in that kingdom, it will describe the Kingdom and rule of Jesus that will be established when Christ returns and the role of the Jews in that Kingdom.
This whole dramatic and beautiful story of Joseph is a story about the grace of God. It is a story about Jesus. It is also a synopsis of the rest of the Bible as it also tells of the relationship that we as believers have with our Lord and Master as joint heirs in the promises of the Jewish people.
Click on the play button to hear a message on God’s grace, and God’s purposes being fulfilled. It is a story of illustration of the things to come as Christ comes again to rule for ever and ever.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
THE REVELATION OF GOD’S WILL (Genesis 45:9 to 46:7)
Does God have a purpose in the events of this world? Does God have a purpose for your life? If the answer to those two questions is “Yes”, and it is, then the better question is do you know the purpose of God for your life? If not, how do you go about discerning the purpose, or the will, of God in your life? This is what our lesson is about today. I want to speak to you about The Revelation of God’s Will.
Your great desire ought to be to know His will. Your great delight will be to do His will. Your great danger is to refuse His will. Nothing is right for you, if it is not God’s will.
It may sound simplistic, but the will of God for you is Jesus, just Jesus. Jesus is the head of the church, and the church is the body. What is the will of my body? My head. What is the will of the church of the body of believers? Jesus, the head of the church. The will of God for your life is Jesus. He is your Lord. Know Him, know the will of God.
Here are three principles about the will of God.
First, The will of God is for your welfare. It is not something you have to do; it is something you get to do.
Second, The will of God will never take you where the power of God and the grace of God cannot enable and keep you.
Third, You are free to choose. God will never force His will upon you. You are free to choose His will. You are not free not to choose. When you say, “Well, I just won’t choose.” You just made a choice. You are free to choose, you are not free not to choose—and pay attention, you are not free to choose the consequences of your choice. You make a choice to follow God’s will or not, and that choice chooses the consequences for you.
So, what should we do to know the will of God? Ask the same questions that Jacob did.
Lord, who are you? Do you know that Jesus is the Son of God? Do you know Him as your personal Lord and Saviour? Do you have an intimate relationship with Him? Is your mind conformed to the mind of Christ?
Lord, what do you want me to do? Are you willing to do whatever God will enable you to do? Are you surrendered to God?
Click on the play button to hear a message on how to know the will of God for your life.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
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.
REVELATION OF GRACE (Genesis 44:1 to 45:8)
One of the key promises of God that is found in the Bible is that for a multitude of sins, there are a multitude of mercies.
Psalms 51:1
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
KJV
God states, “according to thy lovingkindness.” This means that God will never stop loving us because of the sin in our lives. Our sin hurts God, because it is against God that we sin, but that does not cause God to stop loving us. Did you know that God does not love us because we are valuable; we are valuable because God loves us. Know also that God does not love us because we are good.
Romans 5:8
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
KJV
This is important for us to know because we need to have this confidence that no matter what we have done, God loves us. This tells us that there is nothing you can do to make God love you any more, and there is nothing you can do to make God love you any less. He simply loves you.
A man put the following ad in the Lost and Found section of the paper: “Lost Dog. Crippled in front paw, blind in left eye, mange on back and neck, tail missing. Recently neutered. Answers to the name Lucky.” And he was a lucky dog. I’ll tell you why, in spite of all the stuff that was wrong with him, somebody loved him enough to want him. You know we are better than a lucky dog, we are blessed dogs.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how God loves us out of sheer grace. I want you to have this confidence: God loves you with an everlasting love. No matter what you have done, no matter what is wrong with you, God loves you. That is the sheer grace of God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
CONVICTION (Genesis 42:29 to 43:34)
The story of Joseph and his brothers is a picture of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. For the lost soul does not fully know God, or His Son, and most of all they do not know what Jesus did for them. Lying between them are the terrible sins that they have committed. How can anyone ever bridge that gap? They do not know that Jesus has already provided them with a finished salvation, that it is there if they will accept it. God knows that the lost soul is not ready for the full revelation of grace that He wants to make to them. God allows the Holy Spirit to perform the work of conviction to bring them to a point of decision, just as He is with these brothers.
Sometimes you may feel that when you sin that God is just going to toss you away. Absolutely not, God won’t toss you off, but He will just squeeze all the tighter. And this pressure affects how you look at life, it affects your emotions, it affects your psyche, and it affects your health. One of the consequences of sin is that it depresses your heart, and there is no joy, no gladness. Sin is often fun while you are doing it, but it is what comes afterward that depresses us.
Don’t mistake happiness for joy. There is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness depends on what happens; that’s why we call it happiness. When something good happens, you’re happy; when something bad happens, you’re unhappy. You are not supposed to be happy all of the time. To be happy all of the time would be like having ice cream for every meal.
Jesus was a man of sorrows; Jesus wept. He was not happy all of the time, but He was full of joy. When Jesus was facing Calvary, He was full of Joy. The joy of the Lord is constant, and the joy of the Lord is your strength. Happiness is like a thermometer; it registers conditions. Joy is like a thermostat; it controls conditions. When happiness and joy are together it is a really wonderful time. When happiness is gone, joy becomes all the more important. And sometimes God gives you joy, not to take away the pain, but to help you bear it. And in the midst of excruciating pain, there can be supernatural joy.
Click on the play button to hear a message about how God convicts us of our sin so that we can have God's joy in our lives.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
WHAT WAS ONCE HIDDEN, BECOMES KNOWN (Genesis 41:53 to 42:28)
Have you ever had a sin that you buried in your past and never dealt with God about it? No matter how hard you tried to forget it, did it just keep coming up from your subconscious mind to your conscious mind? During the day when I have lots of other things to keep my mind focused on, I do okay, I can forget about them for a while. But, whenever I get someplace away from all of the hustle and bustle of the day, like when I am in bed trying to go to sleep, that is when all those things that I have kept buried all day long come out as things I need to worry about.
Now, as a believer, the devil will try to accuse you of sins that have already been forgiven. He does it just to make you feel guilty. Yet, the Bible tells us it is wrong to feel guilty about something you have already been forgiven for, and have had that sin cleansed by the blood of Jesus. But there is a difference between the accusations of the devil and the convictions of the Holy Spirit of God.
Conviction is the Holy Spirit saying, “This and this and this you have done,” and like a good doctor, He’ll put his finger right on the sore spot, and He will push. He will call it by name and want you to confess it and be cleansed. And once it is cleansed, it is so wonderful. You will know the conviction of the Holy Spirit because He will be specific in His convictions of your heart.
Did you know that if you are child of God and you sin, spiritually you’re going to feel dirty? And if you don’t feel dirty when you sin, then you need to ask yourself if you’ve ever been saved. If you have ever truly asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, and made Him you Lord and Savior. No pig has ever said, “Woe is me, I’m dirty.” For a pig has no concept of being dirty because that is his element. The child of God realizes that he is dirty when he sins, because he knows what it is to be clean. If you are a child of God, and you’ve sinned, then you have felt that. I want to say this again, just so there is no mistake, if you can sin and don’t feel dirty and grimy, spiritually, you need to ask yourself: “Have I ever been saved? Do I really know the Lord”
Click on the play button below to hear a message on the consequences of sin in the life of a believer.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
GOD’S PLAN UNFOLDS (Genesis 41:1-53)
I just love it when a good plan unfolds and it goes just like it was supposed to happen from the very beginning. Now, that doesn’t happen very often for me, but it always happens when God plans something.
Last week, we left Joseph in prison, forgotten by his family, forgotten by Potiphar, and forgotten by the butler who had promised to tell Pharaoh about his plight. Almost every person that Joseph had come to depend on had forgotten him. But Joseph’s faith was not in man, it was in God. While everyone else may have forgotten Joseph, God had not. God had a plan and a purpose for Joseph’s life, and He was making it come true.
This is the reason that God gives us the story of Joseph. As believers, we know that God has promised to be with us every step of our lives. Through hardships and trials, as well as the good times of our lives, God is with us. Our strength does not come from men, or the world. Our strength lives within us. God has placed His Holy Spirit in our hearts to be our strength, and it is through the power of the Holy Spirit that God gives us the power to endure any trial that is placed before us.
Click on the play button to hear a tremendous message about the power of God’s working in the lives of those who love Him. Joseph faced tremendous trials in his life, yet God was there with him each step of the way. Yet this only happened because Joseph fully and completely surrendered his life to the will of God. God would have handled it anyway without Joseph, but just look at the blessings that Joseph would have missed in his life if he had not been obedient to the call of God in his life.
Just imagine the blessings that you have missed in your life, simply because you have not been obedient to the call of God in your life. God used an obedient Joseph to perform great works in His name. What works can God use you for, if you will be obedient?
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
WHEN EVERYTHING GOES WRONG (Genesis 39:20-23)
Have you ever had one of those days when everything goes wrong? Have you ever had one of those years when everything goes wrong? There are some years like that, when everything seems to go wrong. What do you do?
I’ve always been amazed at the advice that people give to other people. It sometimes seems like good advice. For example, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Tell that to a person who’s really hurting. Or here’s another one that will really bless your heart: “When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” Now, doesn’t that just bless your soul? Can you see a guy dangling over a cliff, trying to tie a knot. It takes two hands to do that. If you try that, then you will fall. Or here’s one that’s really sweet: “Grin and bear it.” Now, really, that’s what the world tells us to help us in our times of loss, to help us to understand why these bad times are happening. Or you’ll be really hurting. I mean, you’ll be in darkness and consternation. One of your friends will come along and put his arm around your shoulder and say, “Cheer up! It could get worse.” Well now, that’s a lot of comfort: “Could be worse.” One person said in response, “Yeah, I cheered up, and it got worse.” He was right.
Now that, really, is what the world does when the world cannot understand. Listen, there are times when you, as a child of God, will find yourself in difficulty, and darkness, and consternation.
Click on the play button to hear a message on one of the greatest testimonies that we can share with the world is how we face tragedy and loss. How we deal with events when it seems like everything is going wrong in our lives is the difference between a life of hope, and a life without hope. It is that hope, based on the absolutely certain promises of God, in our lives that gives us the strength to face whatever it is that God allows in our lives.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
THE FAITH OF JOSEPH (Genesis 39:1 to 40:23)
In today’s message we will discover that Joseph is a very different person than his brothers were. The single biggest difference in Joseph’s life is that he is a man of faith. Joseph distinguishes himself as something in the world, but different from the world. When people see him, they notice something different about him, and they are drawn to him. People are not drawn to failure, or to those who are walking around with despair hanging like a cloud above them. To be an effective witness for God you have to have something that people want; they see your ability to handle trials in your life, your calmness in a storm, and your faith in the promises of God. They see something that they do not have, they see something different in you.
Joseph had every reason to just give up in despair; to simply hide in a corner and weep. Joseph was sold into slavery because of the hatred and animosity of his brothers. And to be a slave in a foreign country is a life that is described as a slow death. It was certainly a bleak prospect for a seventeen–year–old boy. Joseph would have had to look hard to find anything to bring encouragement to his heart.
There is no person in the Old Testament in whose life the purpose of God is more clearly seen than Joseph. The providence of God is manifest in every detail of his life. The hand of God is upon him and the leading of the Lord is evident.
The question of why God allows trials in our lives, is one of the hardest lessons we face as believers, but it is also the thing that strengthens our faith in the power, and protection, of an almighty God that loves us and is gracious to us.
Click on the play button below to hear a message on how each step of Joseph’s life prepared him for the role that God had for him. If we are the children of God, in the will of God, then we can have the assurance of God, that nothing comes to us without His permission.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
GOD’S PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE (Genesis 37:1 to 39:3)
Let me start this blog by making a statement and you tell me if you believe it or not. Are you ready? God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Now, do you believe that? Well, I want to tell you, that without a doubt, God has a wonderful plan for your life. God has a divine destiny for you. And, what a shame it would be if you missed it. Today, I want you to think with me on this subject, “God’s plan for your life.”
Now, I’m not just saying that God has a plan for Abraham’s life, or Joseph’s. Certainly, God had a plan for their lives, but God also has a plan for your life. Yes, even you. God has a wonderful destiny for you, and I don’t want you to miss it. Even in your old age, God has a plan for your life. Otherwise, you would not still be here on this earth, for there would be no purpose in it, and God has a purpose in all that He does. And, I believe as we study the life of Joseph today, we are going to find some things about his life that we can certainly apply to ours as we learn how to know God’s Plan for Your Life.
Click on the play button below to hear a message on how you can discover God’s plan for you. How you can let God give you a plan and a purpose for your life. I’m not talking about something you cooked up, but be in contact with God so however God wants to speak to you, He can. And, I believe the way that God wants to speak to New Testament Christians is presentation plus transformation equals revelation, that we might know the things that God has prepared for us.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
JOSEPH AS A PICTURE OF CHRIST (Genesis 37:1 to 45:28)
There are several of the patriarchs of the Old Testament who were a picture of Christ in specific acts. But, God has selected Joseph as the one individual, out of all the men of history, to picture Christ in such a thorough way. As we study the life of Joseph, we will find a direct parallel between the life of Joseph and the life of the Lord Jesus.
In the Old Testament, Jesus is enfolded. In the New Testament, Jesus is unfolded. In the Old Testament, Jesus is concealed. In the New Testament, Jesus is revealed. But, Jesus is there in all of the Bible. As you study the Bible enough, standing somewhere in the shadows you will find Jesus. He is there. It’s all about Him. Don’t get the idea that the Old Testament is about the Jews, and the New Testament is about Jesus. All of the Bible is about Jesus.
Jesus is the hero of the Bible. Jesus said, “Search the scriptures; for … [these] are they which [do] testify of me” (John 5:39). Notice that when Jesus made this statement, the scriptures were the Old Testament scriptures. The New Testament had not even been written yet. And, the Bible also tells us that on a particular day, He took two men and “he [showed] them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). That means in all of the Scriptures, you are going to find things concerning Jesus. Jesus is there if you look long enough. If you study reverently enough, if you think and meditate, you’re going to find the Lord Jesus Christ there in the Bible.
Click on the play button in link below to hear a message on how the life of Joseph pictures the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
JOSEPH, THE BELOVED SON (Genesis 35:16 to 37:17)
One quarter of the book of Genesis is devoted to Joseph. God describes the creation of the universe in just five words when He said “He made the stars also;” but He uses chapter after chapter to tell the story of a man that is not even in the direct lineage of Christ. Actually, more chapters are devoted to Joseph than to Abraham, or to Isaac, or to anyone else. More chapters are devoted to Joseph than to the whole first 2,000 year period of man’s existence from Genesis chapters 1–11. This should cause the thoughtful student to pause and ask why Joseph should be given such prominence in Scripture.
There are probably several reasons. One is that the life of Joseph is a good and honorable life. God wants us to have whatever is good, virtuous, and great, before us, and Joseph’s life is just that. The second reason is that Joseph was a true man of faith. Joseph was a prince among a world of men. The faith of Joseph was an undying faith. Joseph’s faith was a faith that believed despite adverse circumstances. The interesting thing about Joseph is that he had faith in the dream which was given to him, faith while in the pit into which he was placed, faith all the while he was in Egypt, and faith was what buoyed him up through all the problems in his life. Joseph believed that God was going to give the Promised Land to his family. Joseph believed in the impossible: that God would move his people back to the land promised to Abraham. Therefore, he commanded that his bones be taken back when the nation of his family returned to the land. And when the children of Israel left Egypt, they took up his bones and buried them at Shechem in the Samaritan country.
There is a third reason that God would spend this much time on Joseph, and it is a great one. There is no one in Scripture who is more like Christ in his person and experiences than Joseph. Yet, nowhere in the New Testament is Joseph given to us as a type of Christ. However, the parallel cannot be accidental.
Click on the play button attached to this message to hear a message on one of the most famous men in the Bible, Joseph, and listen to how Christ is revealed to us in this man’s life.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
BACK TO BETHEL (Genesis 35:1-15)
Today, I am going to challenge you. If you have never listened to one of the messages that are attached to these blogs, if all you have ever done is just read this blog, then I am going to challenge you to listen to the recording that is found in this link, because it may be that God is using this message to speak to your heart.
The message today is about Jacob, and Jacob needed to come back to God. And perhaps today you need to come back to God. You may indeed be backslidden, just like Jacob was. Let’s take the test today and find out if you are. Answer these two questions:
The first one, “Was there ever a time in your life when you loved Jesus Christ more than you do at this moment?” If the answer is yes, then you are backslidden.
Alright, let’s say you answered “no” to the first question, then here is the second one. “Was there ever a time when God was more real to you, and prayer was more precious to you, and the Bible was more valuable to you, than it is at this time, this day, this moment?” If the answer is yes, then, you are a backslider.
Today, we will see how we can come back to Bethel. Back to that condition of your love for Christ like it was when you were first saved.
Click on the play button below to hear a message on how God is the God of a new beginning. Our God is the God of a second chance. We find that is true all through the Bible. And the God that said to Jacob, “Jacob, come back to Bethel,” is the God that’s saying to you today, if you are away from Him, “Come on back! Come on back! I’m the God of a second chance.”
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
HOW TRUE REVIVAL OCCURS (Genesis 34:1 to 35:11)
Jacob’s story is a story that represents the story of many of us. It is a story of pride, of self-confidence, and of deceit. Yet it is also one of God’s grace, God’s patience, God’s power to transform a life from one of a carnal nature to one of a godly spiritual nature, and ultimately one of God’s love for this man. It is a story of God’s ability to see through all of the rough edges to find the diamond of the man of faith that Jacob was able to become.
That is what God does with each of us, He sees past all of our faults to find the man and woman of faith that each of us can become if we will surrender our will to His. And that is what had to take place in the life of Jacob, he had to come to the place where God had broken his self-confidence in his own abilities, and, therefore, was ready to surrender to God. This did not happen all at once, it happened over a lifetime. For Jacob did not fully become that man of faith described in the Book of Hebrews until the very end of his life.
Click on the play button below to hear a message on how God has challenged us to grow spiritually, and He has shown us that our pace should be lead by God, empowered by God, tested by God, and rewarded by God.
God challenges us to disdain the veneer of religiousness, for the surrender of righteousness.
God challenges us to make a choice, for we cannot live with one foot in the world and one foot in God’s will.
God challenges us to seek the revival of the Spirit of God in our lives.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
JACOB’S NEW NATURE (Genesis 32:28 to 33:20)
Jacob is now going to have to face his brother Esau. As we look at this scene, we see a difference between a believer and a non-believer. Here we have Esau, the all-American male, he was an outdoorsman, noble, probably the best athlete in the land at whatever he tried, he was generous, and likeable, yet he was a non-believer. Then, we have Jacob, who was devious, a schemer, hated by almost everyone he dealt with, yet he had a desire for the things of the Lord, and he had met with the Lord, and now he had a new nature.
Robert Laidlaw asked this question in his book “The Reason Why.” He said “I know a polished, cultivated, gentlemen, who is not a Christian, and I know a rather crude, uncultured, man who is a Christian. Do you mean to tell me that God prefers the uncultured man simply because he has accepted and acknowledged Christ as his Savior?” That was his question, and it certainly fits the way that most non-believers would look at things. People are drawn to successful people, to jovial people, and to polished people. But God is not.
Robert Laidlaw answered his question in this way “A Christian is not different in degree from a non-Christian, he is different in kind. Just as the difference between a diamond and a cabbage is not one of degree but of kind. The one is polished, the other is crude, but the one is dead while the other is alive, therefore the one has what the other has not in any degree whatsoever—life! And such is the difference God sees between a Christian and a non-Christian.”
That was the essential difference between Esau and Jacob. As a man, Esau was a far more open, honest, out-going, person than Jacob. He was a terrific person, but he was spiritually dead. Jacob was a natural-born schemer, but he had spiritual life.
It was a difference of kind, not degree.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how Jacob found out that not only was there no good in his old nature, but there was also something you may not realize; there was no strength or power in his new nature. Our new nature, given to us by God, cannot, by itself, enable us to live the Christian life. Simply being saved does not make you stop sinning. Jacob found out that it is through Jesus Christ that your help is going to come. Our strength and power come through Him.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
LEARNING TO LEAN ON JESUS (Genesis 32:1-28)
The title of the message today is “Learning to lean on Jesus.” Now, in order to learn how to lean on Jesus, there is a battle that each of us will face, and it is a battle that I hope you are going to lose. It is that battle that we will be talking about today.
We have been studying about the man Jacob and how God loved him. Why did God love Jacob? It is for the same reason that He loves you. God did not love Jacob for what he was, but for what He knew He could make out of him. For, in spite of all of his faults, Jacob had a heart for God. The question that you need to ask yourself today is, do you have a heart for God?
Secondly, I want you to notice that God did not change Jacob so that He could love him; He loved Jacob in order to change him. And I’m so glad that God loves us today. With all of our weaknesses and with all of our faults, God sees something in us that He wants to make out of us. And so, He just loves us, and He keeps working with us. Thank God for His infinite, marvelous patience.
God wants us to come to a place of total, absolute, dependence upon Him. Most of us have never come to that place. Most of us still have enough Jacob in us to say, “Well, we hope He’ll bless us, but if He doesn’t, we’ll figure out a way. We’ll figure out a way somehow.”
God had to bring Jacob to a point where he was leaning on Jesus instead of his on self-confidence. It is the place that God wants to bring every one of us to. Paul said we are those who “have no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:3)
Do you know what most people want to learn? Self-confidence. You go into any bookstore, and there will be a wall of books on self-confidence. Having self-confidence sounds so good that to speak against self-confidence sounds terrible. But, the Bible tells us that the one thing we don’t need, is self-confidence. Ok, when you hear me say that, right away your mind threw up a wall and you said, “Oh, yes, we do”—“yes, we do.” Everybody wants that self-confidence. We’ve been taught everywhere that we have got to have self-confidence.
Yet, Paul tells us that, “[We] have no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:3) We have no confidence in self. Now, understand that I am not saying you should not have confidence, but, if you are going to have confidence, then you just have it in Jesus, have confidence in the Lord. That doesn’t mean that you are going to go around like a doormat. You go around like a real person. If your confidence is in Jesus, then you will really have confidence. Jesus is someone you can have real confidence in. Jesus is someone that you can truly lean on.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how God is battling with you to learn how to lean on Jesus. I hope you lose this most important battle with the Lord. This is a battle you cannot afford to win. And when God the Holy Spirit is striving with you today, why don’t you just throw in the towel and say, “Lord, I’ll not let you go except you bless me,” and no longer be dependent upon the flesh.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
GOD TEACHES JACOB TO DEPEND ON HIM (Genesis 31:19 to 32:18)
In our message today we will talk about God teaching Jacob that he must depend on God to lead him and solve the problems that Jacob will face. Jacob’s whole life had been about conniving and deceiving others to solve his problems. But that is not where God needs Jacob to be in his spiritual relationship with God. Jacob must be dependent on God.
Jacob was a man who was clever, who thought that he could get by with sin, but God didn’t let him get by with it because God has made it very clear that whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. Jacob had refused submission to God at home; so he was forced to submit to his uncle. Jacob came to receive a wife in dignity, but he was made a servant because God respects the rights of the firstborn. Jacob had deceived his father; so he was deceived by his father–in–law. He revealed a mercenary spirit that displayed itself in the way he got the birthright, allowing his mother to cover his hands with the skins of goats. Later on, we will see that his own sons will deceive him in very much the same way.
Jacob deceived his father about being the favorite son, and he will be deceived about his favorite son, Joseph. In all of this, we see that God’s truth is that whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how God wants us to depend on Him rather than on our own efforts. Many of us take our burdens to the Lord in prayer. We just spread them out before Him. Then, when we get through praying, we get right up and put each little burden right back on our back and start out again with them. What does this say about the trust we have in the Lord? It says that we don’t really believe Him. We don’t really trust Him as we should.
Jacob will struggle with this almost until the day he dies. I pray that the study of Jacob will bring this truth home to your heart, and it will make a difference in how you trust God. It is not easy, as Jacob illustrates, but the reward of a life that is fully trusted to God, is a life that is a testimony to the lost souls of this world. A testimony to the power of God to transform, a finite life here on earth, to an everlasting life with Him.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
God needed to get the attention of Jacob, and He did. It had been a long time since Jacob had heard the word of God in a clear voice. Now, with the world becoming suddenly menacing, the voice and words of God became suddenly clear and meaningful. Many times, that is exactly what we need to get us out of our comfort zones. When things are going good we reason, why do we need to listen for the words of God? Yet, when things start going bad, our first question is, why God? Why is this happening to me?
It is then that we begin to listen to what God has been saying for a long time. In Jacob’s case, it was “Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred.” Suddenly, the words of God had a meaning for Jacob. For twenty years Jacob had been away from the land that God had promised him. During that time Jacob had prospered. Yet, Jacob testified to his wives that his prosperity resulted not from his own cleverness, but from God’s grace. This was quite a change from the arrogant, self-sufficient, man that had rolled the stone from the well and chose his own wife, confident in his own wit and wisdom.
This was an important step for Jacob. Because it is not until we recognize that our success, our blessings, our strength, come not from ourselves, but from the grace of God, that God can truly begin to use us to do His work.
Click on the play button below to hear a message on how true prosperity is spiritual, not material, it does not reside here, but where God is. We have to look higher than this world for true prosperity.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
JACOB AND LABAN (Genesis 29:1 to 30:30)
As we study Jacob, we see a man who is confident and sure of his ability to handle anything this world can dish out. Jacob knows God, and God has promised to be with him at all times. Yet, Jacob has not learned to be led by God. Instead, Jacob is leading and expecting God to back him up.
That is the way many believers treat God. When times are good, they choose the way they want to go, and what they want to do. Yet, just as soon as things turn bad, they turn to God to get them out of whatever mess they have gotten themselves into. They never think to ask God to lead them; they never ask God to choose the path they will go down, and they never humbly surrender their life to the will of God.
In today’s study, Jacob will find himself deceived by his Uncle Laban, trapped in a job he wants to leave, caught in the middle of a battle between two wives for his attention, and ultimately with 13 hungry kids looking at him for food and provisions. Sounds like a normal day in one of our own lives, doesn’t it?
That is what makes the study of Jacob interesting, because Jacob is a story about us. Think about your own life, are you retired but forced to work a job to meet your financial needs, are you stuck in a job you feel taken advantage of in, are you having marital problems, do you feel deceived by those you should be able to trust, or do you have hungry kids, sometimes adult children and their kids, looking at you for dinner and a house to live in?
Do you ever ask yourself, how did I get myself into this mess? Do you ever ask yourself, and honestly answer, did God lead you, or did you lead God?
As a believer, God has promised to always be with you, and He always will be, wherever you drag Him, but the real question you need to ask is, have you totally surrendered to the will of God in your life? Are you following God as He leads you, or is God following you as you lead Him? Have you ever seen the bumper sticker that says “God is my copilot”? Listen, if God is your copilot, then you need to move over and let Him be Captain. God is to lead you.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the importance of living a life fully surrendered to God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Here in this story about Jacob’ dream about a ladder to heaven, we see God’s provision of salvation, we see a picture of the sinner, a picture of the Savior, and a picture of salvation.
Jacob pictures the unconverted man. He is the picture of a sinner. Incidentally, I believe this is where Jacob got saved. I believe that up until this time Jacob had known about God, but he had not known God. His father was a godly man; his grandfather was a godly man, but Jacob was not a godly man. He was religious, but he was lost. Jacob pictures every unsaved sinner surrounded in darkness, surrounded by desert, and sentenced to death. Jacob is sentenced with death, a poor, lonely old boy, without God, without hope, out there in the wilderness.
In this dream Jacob saw a ladder. The bottom of it was on the earth, and that ladder went up all the way to glory, and God the Father was at the top of that ladder. Jacob saw angels coming down, and he saw angels going up. That ladder is a picture of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus is the One upon which the angels ascend and descend. He is the link between heaven and earth. Jesus Christ is the One who connects heaven and earth. He is that ladder that reaches into glory. There is the reach of the ladder: it goes all the way to heaven. There is the reliability of the ladder: God is over it. There are the resources of the ladder: God’s promises, God’s protection, and God’s presence, are all wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then, we see this ladder as a picture of salvation. Before this night, Jacob was separated from God. Jacob was in a place of separation, and then he saw the ladder, the staircase to heaven! He understood some spiritual truth. He understood that God had made a way for him, and that the blessings of God were to be mediated to him. And he’s now aware of God for the first time in his life. That howling desert, that wilderness, that hard place, has now become for him the very house of God. And what a blessing, what a transformation, it was in his own heart and in his own life!
Click on this link to hear a message on how Jacob’s dream is a picture of the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Sometimes people tell me it’s hard to be a Christian. That is just so ridiculous. Listen, all you have to do is think about old, unsaved, Jacob down there sleeping on stones, with a rock for a pillow, and tell me it’s hard to be a Christian. The truth is, it is hard not to be a Christian. The Bible says,
Prov 13:15
15 Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.
KJV
What could be harder than a stone for a pillow? “The way of [the transgressor] is hard.” It is not hard to be a Christian. Jesus said,
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
Now, what did that last sentence say? “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Jesus is telling us that to be a Christian, a Christ follower, is easy.
I have been teaching the Bible for a long time. Two things I’ve never heard.
Number one: I’ve never heard any Christian—true Christian, a born-again Christian—say, “I’m sorry that I gave my heart to Jesus Christ.” I never have heard that.
Number two: Something else that I have never heard: I have never heard any person without the Lord Jesus Christ say, “I want to tell you how much the dear, sweet, old devil means to me.”
Here is the easy truth, I would be a Christian even if there were no heaven, and if there were no hell. Now, without a doubt, there are both, but if I had a thousand lives, I’d give every one of them to Jesus Christ. To know Christ in this life, that is easy. It is the way of the transgressor that is hard.
Here is an old familiar quote, “Nature forms us; sin deforms us; education informs us; penitentiaries try to reform us; but only Jesus can transform us.” And if you’d like to be transformed, then you can be transformed. You can be made brand new through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the wonderful saving gospel of our dear Savior.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how the story of Jacob’s Ladder shows us a picture of the sinner, a picture of the Savior, and a picture of salvation.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Today’s message is about the family of Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob. From the birth of these two children, neither the parents, nor the children were obedient to God’s will. Each member of this family knew of God’s proclamation that Jacob was to be the one that the covenant blessing was to be passed to, and each person set about either attempting to by-pass this proclamation, or to obtain it through lies and deceit. Each member of this family was controlled by the carnal nature that existed within them and which demanded that they solve their problems under their own strength and limited wisdom. As a result, each of these people suffered the consequences of their decision to be disobedient to God.
Chapter 27 is a sad chapter, because everyone in it is doing the wrong thing, especially Isaac. As the head of the family, Isaac was a spiritually weak man, controlled by his carnal desires. He was a liar, and he was disobedient to God. His family followed his lead, they were a Family of Lies and Liars. This chapter has as its theme, Jacob and Rebekah conniving to get the blessing of Isaac for Jacob, which Isaac had every intention of giving to Esau, in spite of God’s revealed will.
Jacob wanted the blessing of his father. He knew that God had promised his mother that the elder would serve the younger, so the blessing was already his. All he had to do was wait on God. However, he did not trust God to handle this. Rebekah, certainly did not trust God. And evidently Isaac didn’t trust God either, or he would never have attempted to bypass Jacob and give the blessing to Esau. He followed his own feelings and appetite in contradiction to the distinct Word of God.
Now, something I want to make very clear, the method Jacob used in obtaining the birthright cannot be supported on any grounds whatsoever. He used fraud and deceit. His conduct was absolutely despicable. God did not condone this any more than He condoned the conduct of Sarah and Abraham in the matter of Hagar and Ishmael. Do not say that God gave this blessing to Jacob because of what he did, for God could not, and would not, use the trickery and cleverness of Jacob. Jacob received this blessing is spite of his actions, because God had covenanted to do so.
As we shall see over the next few weeks, God deals with Jacob in a very definite way for his actions. Jacob had to pay for his sin in the same manner in which he sinned. Jacob was deceived and lied to by an even greater liar than he was. He met Laban, who was the dean of the college of liars.
Click on the link below to hear a message on what happens when a follower of Christ fails to trust God to do what He says He will do.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Genesis, chapter 26, is the only chapter in the Bible devoted solely to Isaac. In this chapter we get a look at the actions of Isaac, and we see that he will repeat many of the same sins that Abraham did. Isaac was not a spiritually strong man. He was a man easily molded by the circumstances around him. He was willing to let them bend and shape him rather than seizing them and shaping them to his will. He was a man who had reached his spiritual peak on Mount Moriah, and then he spent the rest of his days stumbling and somehow kept going for God.
So, what is the lesson that we can find in this chapter? Well, one of them is patience. Patience to wait on God to work things out as He has promised. This is a message that many of us need, including myself. The second part of the message from this chapter, that goes along with the patience to wait on God, is to trust God to fulfill all of His promises to us. Both of these lessons go hand-in-hand. In order to be patient to wait on God, we have to trust that God will do what He has promised he will do. Isaac, and actually his whole family, were neither patient, nor did they trust God to do as He promised.
Isaac’s problem isn’t that he is dishonest, although he is. His problem is that he is not willing to rely on God. It is this lack of trust in the Almighty God that leads Isaac, and all of us, to take matters into our own hands to resolve. It is this lack of trust in God that leads us into a good share of the problems we face. It is this lack of trust in God that leads to many of the heartaches and pain that we encounter in this life.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how a lack of trust in God, takes us away from Him, and leads us into the world; away from our new nature, and toward our carnal nature; and away from performing God’s will, to performing the will of Satan. It is also about a loving and merciful God that will bless us in spite of our failings. None of us deserve the blessings that we receive from God. Yet, we receive them. None of us deserve salvation, yet God has provided it for us.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Today we are celebrating Easter Sunday. This is a holiday that most of the western world has celebrated for centuries. However, for most people the day is simply another holiday, it has no real meaning other than the Easter bunny, egg hunts, and candy for the kids.
To some, it is a time to go to church for a religious ceremony of some type. Many of us have memories of attending Easter services in crowded churches, with everyone dressed in new Easter, Sunday-go-to-meeting, clothes. The women were dressed in hats and gloves, and the men in suits and ties. The church was crowded with people attending for the one and only time all year that they came to church. Yet, if you were to ask most of them why they came, why the day was important, many of them could not tell you.
Why is Easter Sunday an important holiday to celebrate? It is because on Easter, we are celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. If you are a believer, if Jesus Christ is your Lord and Master, then Easter should be every bit as important to you as the celebration of the birth of our Savior on Christmas.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ means that we have A master to confess. It provides us with a living Jesus Christ sitting on the right hand of God the Father. He is sitting because He has accomplished all that God has asked Him to do.
It also means that we have A message to convey. The resurrection of Jesus Christ provides us with a message to tell others About Eternal life. About Power over sin in our lives. About The hand of the One who will bring us into the presence of God when we enter Heaven’s Gate. Where we can stand clothed in the robe of righteousness purchased with His Holy blood. Christ wields absolute authority and power in Heaven and on Earth. Angels and Cherubim of heaven, and Principalities and rulers of this world’s darkness, wicked spirits, demons, and Satan himself are held in check by the power and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. No kingdom, empire, or nation exists outside of the Lord’s permissive will. The message of the resurrection is that Jesus is on the throne, wielding all power and authority on earth as in heaven. This is the message we are to convey.
It also means that we have A mandate to complete. Jesus has commanded us to go out into the world and preach the gospel of His death, burial, and resurrection, baptizing them in the name of the Lord.
Praise God that Jesus was willing to be obedient to God’s will, and Praise God that from the foundations of time, the triune God has had our salvation in mind. God sent His Son that we might have everlasting life, and the power of God raised Him from the grave so that we might walk as a new creation in the newness of life.
Click on the link below to hear a message on why this Easter holiday is so important to us as believers. Jesus Christ is alive, and we are going to be with Him for all of eternity.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
There is a battle that rages within every believer. It is a battle between doing the will of God in our lives, and following the desires of the world. It is a daily battle, and it is one that we will have until the day we join Christ in heaven. Paul describes this battle that raged within his own heart.
Rom 7:18-20
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
KJV
The carnal nature is the one that we are born with, and its focus is on the desires of the world. The new nature is the one that we receive once we are reborn in Christ, and its focus is on doing the will of God in our lives. It is a battle that is only fought within the heart of a believer, for a lost person only has one nature, his carnal, or fleshly nature. He has no choice but to serve Satan as his master, so there is no need for a battle. It is when we become saved that we must then choose between our two natures, and it is then that the battle for supremacy within our heart rages.
Every believer has three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world is that value system that’s out there. We call that the external foe. The flesh is that old Adamic nature. We call that the internal foe. The devil and he is the infernal foe. These are the three enemies that are warring against us.
Every one of us, when we come to the place where we want to be fruitful for God, after the Lord intercedes for us as He does, and it looks like we’re about to be fruitful, suddenly we find within us a battle going on. There is a struggle. It is an inner, spiritual, battle. It is important to note that it is those, whose lives are the most fruitful for God, who are the most aware of the struggle between the two natures within themselves.
However, this is something that all believers will experience when they choose to turn away from the world and begin their journey of spiritual growth. As long as we are content to live carnal, worldly, lives, we have no problem, but once we are determined to meet the conditions that lead to spiritual fruitfulness, the battle begins.
Click on the link below to hear a message about how we can have victory over the old, fleshly, carnal, nature through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
It is interesting to note that while the Holy Spirit goes into great detail about the lives of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph, most of the story of Isaac is told by attaching it to another person. For example, Isaac’s Mount Moriah experience was told through Abraham, and his marriage was seen through the eyes of Abraham, Abraham’s unnamed servant, and Rebekah. Even with the birth of Esau and Jacob, which are Isaac’s sons, we will see this event through the eyes of Rebekah.
This is a story of two opposites. Here are two boys, born at the same time, born in the same place, of the same parents, to the same advantages and opportunities. Yet from the outset one of them set out in his own stumbling, full of errors, way to please God, while the other set out to please himself. One was ruled by a heavenly vision, the other by worldly and carnal things.
As with each of our lessons in Genesis, there is the primary interpretation of the events, in this case it is the development of the seeds of the nations of Israel and Edom. But, we also have the spiritual interpretation of this story, and this interpretation discusses the battle that rages within each believer. The battle between our carnal nature, and our new, Holy Spirit created, nature. The carnal nature is the one we are born with, and the new nature is the one we receive once we are reborn in Christ.
It is a battle that is only fought within the heart of a believer, for a lost person only has one nature, his carnal, or fleshly nature. He has no choice but to serve Satan as his master, so there is no need for a battle. It is when we become saved that we must then choose between our two natures, and it is then that the battle for supremacy within our heart rages.
As a believer, you have three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world is that value system that is out there. We call that the external foe. The flesh is that old Adamic nature. We call that the internal foe. The devil: we know who he is, for he is the infernal foe. So, we all have three enemies that are warring against us.
Click on the link below to hear a message about that internal foe, the flesh; and we’re going to be talking about victory over the flesh, as we study our lesson today, and next week, on Jacob and Esau, these two twins.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Today, I want to talk to you about a love story of a father finding a bride for the son that he loves dearly. Actually, I want to talk about two love stories, with two Fathers, two Sons, two Servants, and two brides.
One is Abraham, who, as a father, sends his servant back to the land that Abraham came from to find a bride for Isaac. This unnamed servant is following the leading of the God of his master, Abraham, when he comes upon the house of Bethuel, where Rebekah lives. His mission is to find the bride that has been selected by God for his master’s son, Isaac.
The story of Abraham’s search gives us the type, or symbol, of a much greater, second, love story. This second love story is the description of God the Father, determining from the foundations of time, that He would choose a bride for His Son, Jesus Christ. Upon the completion of Jesus’ work at Calvary, which was the finished salvation that He has provided for each of us, God the Father sends the Holy Spirit as His Servant to gather together the bride for Jesus. This bride is the church of the body of Christ, which is made up of believers that have come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior during this age that we live in today. It is called the Church Age.
Two tremendous love stories, two Fathers, two Bridegrooms, two Servants, and two brides. Isaac loves Rebekah, but that is pale in comparison to the love of the Father, Son, and Spirit for the Bride of Christ.
Click on the link below to hear about the greatest love story that has ever been told. God has commissioned to me today to ask you a question. Are you ready for it? My Heavenly Father has said to me, “Keith, go teach this lesson. Tell people about Jesus. I want them to be Jesus’ bride. Tell them how wonderful Jesus is. And then, tell them that He who loves you is coming back for you one day.” My question to you is, will you receive Jesus as your Savior and seek to make His will yours? God said, “Tell the people, Keith, that whosoever will may come.” Don’t be left out of this love story. Accept Christ today and be with Him for all of eternity.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
In our message today, we are going to cover the details of Abraham’s servant returning to Abraham’s people to find a bride for Isaac. Chapter 24 is the longest chapter in the Book of Genesis, and every detail of this beautiful love story, speaks of Christ and His bride, the Church. This should not be surprising because Paul tells us in Ephesians that marriage is intended to mirror the relationship of Christ and the Church.
We will see Rebekah, a type, or a picture, of the church as the bride of Isaac, being brought into the very tent of Sarah. The whole chapter, while interesting and full of local tradition and culture of the time, is at the same time a full-length study of the way in which the Father’s beloved Son obtained His bride, the church.
Woven into the fabric of this beautiful human story are the threads of an even greater story. We see the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world with a great mission to win and woo the hearts of the lost to the heart of the Beloved Son of God. Only rarely does He speak of Himself. His great mission is to praise the Son and to tell of the love of the Father and His grace and mercy. His great task is to seek out those that will become the Bride of Christ.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how the Holy Spirit takes advantage of life’s ordinary circumstances using them to accomplish His task. He never forces, never violates the human will, never overwhelms, never uses weird and uncanny means to conquer the soul. Ordinary things happen; a visit here, a chance meeting there, an unexpected conversation, a book passed by a friend—and all the time the Holy Spirit is at work. Until, at last, the gospel is presented, and the hour of decision comes. It was the servant’s way with Rebekah; it is the Spirit’s way with a lost soul.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
In today’s message, I want to talk to you about your faith. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 16:13 to be strong in faith. I want us to think about our faith, and I want us to look at our faith. I want us to examine our faith. I want us to test our faith, because, you see, the faith that cannot be tested, cannot be trusted.
How do you know that your faith is real and strong? Well, would you like to fly on an airplane that had never been tested? Would you like for it to be built, but never once put to any test? Would you want to get on it and commit your life to that airplane, and it had never been tested? I don’t think so, right? Would you like for a doctor to do surgery on you who went through medical school without a test? He just got a diploma as a participation trophy?
Do you want to put your faith, and your confidence, in something that hasn’t been tested? Again, the faith that cannot be tested, cannot be trusted.
If you were to measure faith, how would you measure it? Well, you could measure it with the dimensions of faith. You could measure it by its depth. You could measure it by its height. You could measure it by its length. Or you could measure it by its wideness. And that is exactly how we are going to measure faith today. We are going to study how God tells us in His Word how Abraham’s faith was measured. He is going to tell us how it was qualified.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how our faith is measured by the depth of its devotion, the height of its sacrifice, the length of its obedience, and the wideness of confidence.
Let me ask that the next time you pray to your Heavenly Father, pray these words, “Lord, increase my faith. And, Lord, when the test comes, when you ask of me something—to go somewhere, to give something, to sacrifice something—Lord, help me to obey. May my obedience be quick, intentional, instantaneous, impassioned, intelligent.” You don’t have to think up things to sacrifice. You just have to say, “Lord, all that I am, all that I have, belongs to you.”
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
In Genesis chapter 22, we come to an absolute mountain peak in the spiritual life of Abraham. This chapter is one of the great, great, chapters in all of the Bible. Chapter 22 is the account of Abraham’s obedience to God’s command of offering Isaac as a burnt sacrifice. God commanded him to offer Isaac on the altar and then restrained him at the last minute when He saw that Abraham was willing to go through with it. If you were to designate the ten greatest chapters of the Bible, you would almost certainly have to include Genesis 22. The Word of God makes it clear that God requires a life to be given up in order that He might save sinners. And there is no one among the children of men worthy to take that place. Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son was the only One capable of fulfilling that role.
In terms of depicting great truths about the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, this chapter easily compares with Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. In our message today, we will see the similarity between the sacrifice of Isaac and the sacrifice of Christ. It is no accident that this similarity exists. The Bible is full of repeated types and symbols that point to the real event in order to prepare us for what will happen. In this case, God is revealing the Gospel of the sacrifice of Christ for our sins to His beloved servant, Abraham.
On Mount Calvary, one day, men would see God providing Himself as a lamb. One day, on this place—this sacred place—God has provided Himself a lamb. And that’s the reason when John the Baptist saw Jesus Christ, who was God in the flesh, John the Baptist pointed to Him and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)—for the Lord, Jehovah Jireh, has provided Himself as the lamb.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the Word of the Cross, a dress rehearsal for Calvary. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” (John 3:16) There was no reprieve for the Son of God. There was for Isaac, but not for Jesus. And God knew that one day He would spare not his own Son, because He loved you that much.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Today’s message is about spiritual highs and lows. If you have been a Christ follower for very long, then the mountain top experiences when you feel so close to God, are right there alongside the deep valley experiences when you feel so far from God. The Bible describes Abraham as a hero of the faith, and I certainly agree with that description. Some of the things that we have seen Abraham do in our study of the book of Genesis, and some of the things that he will yet do in this book, are truly remarkable examples of a man who is filled with the Spirit of an all-powerful God.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I never like to see my heroes stumble. I mean, the Lone Ranger never told a lie, he was never mean to people, and he always rescued the girl, and defeated the bad guys. That is just the way it works, our heroes are not supposed to do the same kind of foolish things that we do, especially twice.
So, when you have the type of expectations that I do for my heroes, chapter 20 of the book of Genesis is a chapter that you would like to just skip over. That is because Abraham does all of the things we just talked about. He lies, and he is mean to Hagar and Ishmael. Worse, he repeats the same sin that he committed when he went down into the land of Egypt and lied concerning Sarah, saying, “She is my sister.” It is the same story, all over again. But in the end, Abraham defeats the bad guy, or the sin that has been in his life, he obeys God’s commands, and he gets the only girl God has wanted for him from the beginning, which is Sarah.
Yet, this story tells the truth about all of us as Christians. No matter how great we think we are, each time we try to solve our problems using the world’s methods, using our own strength, instead of depending on God, we will fail. And there is nothing more miserable than a Christian who has failed because he did not depend on God. The lost see this person as the hypocrite they are, and they want nothing to do with that kind of shallow belief.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how our faith and trust in God is the foundation for living a victorious Christian life.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
There are those who believe that you can become a child of God and continue on in sin. God says that is impossible. You cannot do that. Paul asks the question,
Romans 6:1-2
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
KJV
The idea that you can be a Christian and go on living in sin, or support and condone the sin of those around you, is a tremendous mistake. Don’t tell me that the book of Genesis describes a primitive view of God, and that we have a better, more enlightened one today. Don’t argue that, after all, Jesus received sinners. That is absolutely true, He certainly did, but when He got through with them, He had changed them. The harlot who came to Him was no longer in that business. When she came to God, she changed. A tax collector named Matthew came to Jesus, and he gave up that which was crooked when he came to the Lord. If you have come to Christ, you will be changed.
Many people try to explain that we are living in a new day and that we need to wake up. That is true, we are living in a new day, but it just happens to be the same old sin. Today, it is the same for us as Christians. The world has a lot of attractions. Many people want to have one foot in the world and the other living in God’s will. But it doesn’t work that way. In order to become saved, we are commanded to repent of our sins. The word repent is an expression that always has been given to God’s people as a challenge to turn around, to stop what they are doing. The word repent can be defined as walking down the road in one direction, stopping, and turning back to go in the opposite direction, never looking or going back the way you were going. This word is much more than just saying you are sorry, it is agreeing with God that what you did was wrong and committing not to do it again.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how God will bring judgement on pervasive sin. As Christians, our love cannot be of the things of this world. Our home is no longer here on this earth. We are pilgrims on this earth. We are here for one purpose only, to bring others to a saving knowledge of Christ.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Have you ever asked the question, how does a mature, obedient Christian react to the truth that a terrible judgment is about to happen to a world of sinful men? The Bible gives us examples of such reactions. Jonah was happy when he heard about the Ninevites. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever said, “Boy it is about time God did something about so and so.” On the other hand, Jesus was moved to tears when He looked ahead and saw the destruction of Jerusalem.
In today’s message, I want to talk about the great Biblical truth that we can pray an intercessory prayer for those who face the judgment of God. I want to talk about our critically important role of praying intercessory prayer for our loved ones and the world around us.
Do we know today of any such upcoming judgments? Yes, we do. God has promised a day of Tribulation, when judgment will come to this earth in such proportions that if He did not come to stop it, all of mankind would be destroyed. But, right now, we live in a day of grace. A day in which man can choose to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior. What are we doing to be concerned about those we know are lost? Are we concerned enough about those around us that will be left behind to suffer, and likely die, in this period of Great Tribulation, to share the Gospel message of Jesus Christ? Are we delighted as Jonah was when God said that He was going to destroy the Ninevites, or are we moved to compassion as Jesus was at the destruction of Jerusalem?
When we think about intercessory prayer, we have to think about who it is that can pray such a prayer. Who can be an intercessor between God and man? They must truly be important people in the eyes of the Lord. So, we have to ask the question who are These most important people on earth? Are they politicians, star athletes, movie actors, the billionaires of the world, or other famous people that we read about in the news every day? No, there are some people who are much more important than any of those so-called important people. And many of them are unrecognized, unnoticed, unappreciated, and unpraised. They are Christians, not mere Christians, they are Christians who have learned the ministry of intercession. The most important people on earth are those who know how to pray intercessory prayer, not just any kind of prayer, but intercessory prayer.
Click on the link below to learn how you can be the friend of God and pray an intercessory prayer for those that you love, and for the world around you. How you can be one of the most important people on the earth.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Have you ever thought of laughter as a part of your faith? To be honest, I think it is easy for us to forget that our faith is supposed to bring happiness into our lives. God is truly a wonderful and gracious God, and He blesses us with so much that we don’t deserve. But from the way most of us walk around, you would think that we have the weight of the world on our shoulders, when instead our problems are supposed to be on God’s shoulders, not ours. One of my life verses is:
Ps 55:22
22 Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
KJV
When I really apply this verse to my life, it simply changes my entire outlook on life. For, I have to ask myself, what burden do I have that God cannot handle? Is there anything too hard for God? And if God is handling it, then why not be happy about it? Why not have the joy of the Holy Spirit in my heart and on my face for the world to see?
Click on the link below to hear a message on how God has worked in Abraham’s life. How God has told Abraham on multiple occasions that he will have a son named Isaac, and that he will be the father of many nations. In this message we get a chance to see the joy of having a God that loves us and fulfills all of His promises to us.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
These three verses contain four wonderful, wonderful, truths that you need to learn. I want you to get these four things about a strong faith emblazoned in your heart, etched upon your consciousness. I want them to reverberate through your soul, because I want for you what I want for myself, a strong faith.
The first is that Strong Faith Releases the Grace of God. Faith is the key. It just opens the door and gets you in there where grace is, or it gets grace out here where you are.
The second is that Strong Faith Relies on The Guarantees Of God. Strong faith always relies on God’s guarantees. It does not rely on you, on what you wish, or what you want, but on what God has said.
The third is that Strong Faith Recognizes the Greatness of God. True faith is rooted in the promise, but not only in the promise, but in the One who promised. And so, if you are to have faith, not only must you have the Word of God, and a word from God, you must also understand the character of the God who gives this Word.
The fourth is that strong faith reveals the glory of God. The greatest way that you can glorify God is to believe Him.
Click on the play button above to hear a message on the most important part of God’s grace that we can apply to our hearts and lives. It is the foundational truth that we need to understand that our faith is based on. That truth is that There Is No Problem God Cannot Solve. You will never have to say that something is too difficult for God to do in your life. It is that truth that lets the peace of God rest in our hearts, for we have the omnipotent, the omniscient, and the omnipresent, God who can solve any issue, and any problem, that we might face as we serve the loving, living, God of all creation.
God said to Abraham, “Abraham, I’m going to give you a son.” Abraham was 100 years old. Sarah was 90. It was humanly ridiculous, so much so, that Abraham laughed, and yet he turned, and he believed God. How did he do it? Well, first of all, he said, “I know God that you want to do it by your sheer grace. And so by faith, I’m going to release that grace.”
Faith releases grace. It relies on God’s Word. It doesn’t look for anything else. It just simply takes the Word of God and gets a word from God. And, thirdly, the faith that relies on God, relies on God because it knows God’s character. It just simply is aware of who God is and what God can do. And, therefore, it just glorifies God. It just simply says, “God, I want to give you the praise. I’m going to give you the glory. I’m not going to stagger in unbelief.”
Now, if you’ll do that, then God will make you a person of strong faith.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Archimedes was a philosopher and physicist, and he said, “If you will give me a lever long enough, if you will give me a fulcrum with something to rest it on, and if you will give me a place to stand, I can move the earth.” He was right. For us, that lever is faith, that fulcrum is the Word of God, and that place where we stand is in His grace. With it, not only can we move the earth, but we can move heaven as well, if we learn to be strong in faith.
It is strong faith that releases the grace of God. Rom. 4:16 says, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace …” meaning that without faith, you will never know grace, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure.”
What is grace? Grace is “God’s riches at Christ’s expense.” Grace is God giving us and showing us His great wonderful love. There’s nothing we can do to deserve it, or to earn it. Grace is the unmerited love and favor of God that is just given to us.
Now, how can you get in on this unmerited love and favor of God? Only by faith! If you begin to work for it, if you begin to pay for it, then it is no longer grace. It is no longer grace. If it is by grace, then by definition, it is no longer works, otherwise work is not work. And, if it is by work, then by definition of the word work, it is not by grace, otherwise grace is no more grace. This is what the Bible says. You can’t mix grace and works, so the only way that grace can be grace is through faith. That is the only way that grace can be grace.
Now, it is important to understand that unbelief holds grace prisoner. If you are an unbeliever, grace will never work in your heart and in your life. The Bible says it is by faith so that it can be by grace.
Click on the play button above to hear a message on how a strong faith is the key to unlock God’s grace in your life.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Did you know that the Jews are less than 0.19% of the world’s population? And yet more than twelve percent of all the honors in science, in health, in medicine, in music, in philosophy, and in public life have been garnered by these amazing people. The Nobel Prize is one of the highest prizes that men of learning confer upon one another. In the last fifty years, one-third to one-fourth of the Nobel prizes have been given to these people who only represent 19- hundredths of one percent of the population. Why is this? I believe that God in a very special way has His hand upon these people. They are the people of destiny.
You can study history and find some amazing things. Did you know that it was a Jew that financed Christopher Columbus’s voyage to find this New World? Did you know that on board that ship when Columbus set sail was a Jew and he was the first man to set foot upon these new shores? Did you know that?
Did you know that a Jew, Hiram Solomon, financed George Washington and the Revolutionary War as we fought for our independence from the British? Did you know that? You don’t realize what an influence these people have had on your life.
Click on the play button to hear a message on the promise that God makes to Abraham that He is giving to Abraham and his seed, “all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” I believe that God meant exactly that. I believe the word everlasting means everlasting. What God is saying here is an iron fist upon history. The Sovereign God is definitively saying that certain things are going to be done. What God is saying here is His plan to bless you, and to bless me, and to bless the nations of the world. This indeed is a blessing, a promise, that has changed the world, and it will give us understanding if we today will take the Word of God and let it speak to us as we study together.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
The Bible tells us that Abraham and Sarai failed to be patient and wait on God’s perfect timing to accomplish His will in providing a son for Abraham. The price of that failure was that Hagar was abused, and as a result, she rejected their witness and fled. Hagar was first given to Abraham by Sarai, and then she was rejected and persecuted by Sarai after she became pregnant.
Hagar’s rejection led her to flee from the very God that could give her everlasting life. Hagar had no desire to be like Abraham and Sarai, if the way they treated her was an example of the God they believed in. So, she turned her face back towards Egypt, back towards the world, back towards death and eternal darkness.
I am glad that the Holy Spirit of God is able to convict the heart of the lost person in spite of the witness that most of us believers display on a daily basis, especially when we are away from the church, and even worse, within our own home. Since Abraham and Sarai had so badly represented God to Hagar, God now steps in Himself and shows Himself to Hagar.
Click on the link below to a message on how God loved Hagar just as much as He loved Abraham. He sought her and found her, just as God had searched and found Abraham in the land of the Ur of the Chaldees. From this point forward, the true and living God would no longer just be One about whom Abraham and Sarai spoke, He would be her God as well. She confessed her faith with her mouth.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
The story of Abraham gives us an opportunity for God to show us the power of His grace, and the power of His silence. There are lessons for believers in both of these Biblical truths.
It is by the power of God’s grace alone that our salvation comes. Not by the works of man lest he should boast, but by the grace of our Heavenly Father that loves us. It is the power of God’s grace that comes to us when we believe on the promises of God, when we believe what God has promised to accomplish in us through Jesus Christ. It is when we believe that Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for our sins, and then died and rose again, that the power of God’s grace imputes righteousness to us.
It is by the power of God’s silence that we learn patience; that we learn the value of faith; and we learn to depend on God rather than on our own wits, our own strength, or the things that the world values and believes as natural. It is the power of God’s silence that creates a test we rarely pass. We fail this test because we want things on our timing, rather than God’s. One of the hardest lessons we learn as believers is to wait on God’s perfect timing for His will to be accomplished in our lives.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how God accounted Abraham as righteous. Abraham believed God. He just accepted what God said, and he believed God. That is the way each of us get saved. You must believe that God has done something for you, that Christ died for you and rose again. It is then that God will declare you righteous by simply accepting Christ.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
In today’s message we will discuss a meeting between Abram and Melchizedek, the King of Salem, and then we will see a particularly seductive temptation of Abram when the meeting between Abram and the king of Sodom occurs. God will always prepare us for the temptations or trails that we will face, and in this case, He brings Melchizedek out to meet Abram first.
As I read these verses, several questions just jump right out at me. To begin with, where did this man Melchizedek come from? He just walks out onto the page of Scripture with bread and wine, he blesses Abram, and then he walks off the page of Scripture. It makes me want to know where he came from, then I wonder where he is going, and I wonder what his business is when he is not out greeting Abram.
The Scripture tells us that he is the king of Salem, but it also tells us that he is a priest of the most high God. Which brings up another question: How did he find out about “the most high God”? Melchizedek describes God as the most high God, which means the Creator of heaven and earth. In other words, the living God, the God of Genesis 1, the God of Noah, and the God of Enoch. This is the One true God that this king, named Melchizedek, is the priest of.
Click on the link below to hear a message that gives us the answers to these questions. Learn that the Bible describes Melchizedek as a type of Christ, or an illustration of Christ. Melchizedek compares to Christ in that the Lord Jesus comes out of eternity, and He moves into eternity. He has no beginning and no end. He is the beginning. He is the end. You can’t go beyond Christ in the past, and you can’t go beyond Him in the future. He encompasses all of time, and all of eternity.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
THE TIMES OF ENOCH (Genesis 5:24)
Enoch got out of this world. The Bible tells us that God just translated Enoch “that he should not see death.” That is, God took him physically, bodily, to heaven without dying.
There is the story of a man who was complaining about the situation in the world to Mark Twain, and he said, “I’m just afraid the world is coming to an end.” And Mark Twain said, “Well, don’t worry about it. You’ll never get out of it alive anyway.” But he was wrong. Enoch got out of it alive, and Elijah got out of it alive too.
Now, the Bible teaches that some of us are also going to get out of it alive, and I have a feeling that some of us who are living in this day, and this age, are going to heaven without ever dying. The Bible calls this the Rapture of the Church.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how the conditions of the world during Enoch’s time where so bad that God sent the flood to destroy the earth. Yet, when we compare those conditions to the conditions of our day and age, we see a great deal of similarity. Enoch preached the Second Coming of the Lord.
Some people say, “Well, you know, you Christians, you’re always talking about the Second Coming of Jesus. You’re always saying Jesus is going to come. Well, why hasn’t He come?” The answer is found in,
2 Peter 3:9-10
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.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
KJV
The Second Coming of Jesus will come.
Matt 24:37
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
KJV
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
The descendants of Seth are described in the Bible as the godly line. And as the world of the ungodly began to take shape right from the beginning, so did the world of the godly. God never leaves Himself without a witness, so from generation to generation, step-by-step with the generations of the wicked, the generations of the faithful to God flowed through the days before the flood.
As we study this line of Seth, there are only two things recorded, neither of which are recorded of the line of Cain. The first is that they lived. It is stated twice for most of them. The reason God doesn’t say that the Cainites lived is because, to God, they were “dead in trespasses and sin.” Yet for the line of Seth, the Scripture tells us that they lived, and Jesus tells us that they had life abundantly.
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
The second thing that is recorded of the Sethites is that they died. Once again, God did not record the death of the Cainites for heaven had no interest in their deaths. But for the Sethites, it is recorded that each one died and how old they were when they died. All that is except for Enoch, which is another story.
God said to Adam in Gen 2:17, “… For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” and they all died who were the sons of Adam. But, on the other hand, it was a day of jubilee. As each man dies, God proves Satan a liar, for Satan had said “thou shalt not surely die.” Yet each man died. God took note of each death and recorded it. The death of each saint was a jubilee day in heaven.
Psalms 116:15
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
KJV
Death for them was not the end, but the beginning.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
The critical difference between Cain and Abel was not a character difference at all, but the difference was in the offerings which they brought. It is the same today, for it is the offering that makes a difference in men today.
The offering of the lost person is his works. The lost person believes it is his good works that matter, that make him better or worse than someone else. A recent poll stated that a majority of Americans believe that the basis on which someone will get into heaven would be on how good their works were. It also said that if people believed in a hell at all, then it would only be the really bad people who would go there. Without a doubt this is the best false religion that Satan has going.
But no true believer takes the position that he is better than anyone else. The thing that makes him a Christian is that he recognizes that he is a sinner just like everyone else and that he needs an offering, he needs a sacrifice, and he needs Someone to take his place and to die for him. That Someone is Jesus Christ.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how the people of the world today are attempting through religion, through joining a church and doing something religious, and then by living what they call a moral life, to make themselves acceptable to God. Yet, we know that for our righteousness to be acceptable to God it must be a perfect righteousness, and that can only come through the blood of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:21 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. KJV
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
In the story of Cain and Abel that we find in the book of Genesis, Abel was a prophet, and Able taught that when you believe on Jesus, you’ll have remission of sin. Now, in order to have faith, Able had to have the Word of God. The Bible says that he was a prophet. He understood the blood atonement. I want to tell you, he may not have understood it as you and I understand it, standing on this side of Calvary, but he was a man of God. He was one of the Old Testament prophets that pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, there is a principle that starts in the book of Genesis and goes all the way through to the book of Revelation, and that is blood atonement. You cut this book anywhere; it will bleed. There is a red river of redemption. It welled up there in the Garden of Eden and flowed past the gates of Eden when God made for Adam and Eve coats of skin.
Adam and Eve had three kinds of garments. First of all, they had a robe of glory; they were covered with light. And then they lost that robe of glory, and they had a robe of guilt. They knew that they were naked, and they were covered with shame. And then they had a robe of grace, as God killed an innocent animal, and with that innocent animal, He made for them coats of skin. What was God teaching right there in the dawn of civilization? That “Without [the] shedding of blood is no remission [of sin].”
Then we see Abel as he comes continuing in the same idea, and he brings this pure, spotless lamb and the fat thereof, and God had respect unto the prophet Abel’s offering.
Click on the play button to hear a message on how there are really only two divisions of all religion, and that is the salvation of works and the salvation by grace.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Did you know that all religion is not the same? Somehow, we have thought that it is antisocial if we don’t just put our arms around everybody else and say, “Well, God bless you. You believe one way, and I believe another way, and your way is just as good as my way.” Well, that is simply not true. There is but one way to worship God, and that’s God’s way. Now, Jesus is not just a good way to heaven; Jesus is not even the best way to heaven. Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. Now, that may sound narrow to some people, but, it is what God, in His Word, has said is true.
John 14:6 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. KJV
Acts 4:12 12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. KJV
If Jesus Christ is not the only way to heaven, then Jesus Christ is none of the ways to heaven. If Jesus Christ is not the only way to heaven, then Jesus is a faker, because He claimed to be something that He was not. A faker is nobody’s Savior. If He’s not the only way, then He is none of the ways. He Himself said, “I am the way, the truth … no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Click on the link below to hear a message on how there are really only two divisions of all religion, and that is the salvation of works and the salvation by grace.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
GOD’S PLAN FOR REDEMPTION (Genesis 3:7-24)
The question that I really ask when I study about the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is, why didn’t God just smack Satan and stop all of pain and misery that he has caused? I would just love to have seen God just look at Satan and just say “Be Gone.” Well, first off, man would sin anyway, even without Satan. Satan just helps things along. Man will have this proven to him during the millennial reign of Christ when Satan is bound for a thousand years.
It took one man to undo the damage done by another man. Jesus, the second Adam, came to regain what the first Adam lost.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. KJV
Jesus came as he did (born of a virgin) to be what he was—holy. If He had been the son of Adam with Adam’s nature, he would have been a sinner because in Adam all have sinned and died. He would also have been a slave, for the son of a slave is himself a slave. Jesus was what He was (holy) to do what He did—redeem us. He came as a sinless man, paying the full price for our transgression. He satisfied God’s righteous and holy law and nullified all of satan’s rights to Adam’s domain. Then, Jesus did what He did (redeem us) that we might have forgiveness, cleansing, a new nature, and Kingdom Authority. He is the head of a brand-new race.
Jesus was born of a virgin that we might be born again. Jesus became the Son of Man that we might become the sons and daughters of God. Jesus died in agony that we might live in victory.
Click on the play button above to hear how God’s plan for redemption of the ruined human race was formed before the foundation of time. It is written, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:17).
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
In today’s lesson we are going to move into chapter 3 of the book of Genesis, and we are going to see how Satan works in this world to destroy mankind. Make no mistake about it, that is Satan’s goal, the complete destruction of the creation that God loves the most. The Bible tells us that,
John 3:16 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. KJV
The word world as it used here means mankind. God loved us so much that He would send His Son to die on a cross for our sins. Satan knows this, and Satan wants to destroy anything that God loves, and so his goal is to totally corrupt and destroy the entire human race. He started this effort in the Garden of Eden.
Now, it is important that you know that Satan is a decided fact, that Satan is a destructive force, and thank God, that Satan is a defeated foe. You need to learn about the devil. You dare not be ignorant about the devil and his devices. And he’s done all that he can do to pull the veil of darkness across his kingdom so that you will not understand. But I want us to see, as we look today in this scripture, what I call “How Sin Evolves in your life.”
Click on the play button above to hear a message on how Satan’s method to destroy man is the lie. Satan is the biggest liar, and he tells lies about the biggest subject, God Almighty.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
A TALE OF TWO TREES (Genesis 2:15-17)
In today’s lesson we are going to be talking about a couple of very important trees that God has given to mankind.
For the first tree, God had created man, and He placed man there in the beautiful Garden of Eden and gave him absolutely everything he needed for indescribable happiness and for joy and fulfillment. But in order that man might have a will—and a free will—God gave him the moral opportunity of a choice. And so, God created a tree and planted that tree in the Garden of Eden. It was called “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” and man was absolutely forbidden to eat the fruit of that tree. That was the first tree.
For the second tree, we have Calvary’s tree, which is a tree of life. Now, don’t be confused, this is not the tree of life that was also placed in the Garden of Eden, but it is “The” tree of life. The tree of eternal life. The tree that Christ died for our sins on. when you see the cross, and when you see what it did to Jesus, and when you see the wrath of God being poured out, there you have a knowledge of evil. That tree, Calvary’s tree, was a tree of the knowledge of evil, but it was also a tree of the knowledge of good. When you see the cross, when you see Calvary’s cross, there and there alone do you behold the goodness of God, the glory of God, the grace of God, the righteousness of God, the majesty of God—the glory of God—as you’ve never beheld it before, by beholding the cross.
Click on the play button above to hear a message on the two trees that God has given man. Trees that give the knowledge of good and evil. With the first tree we see the sinfulness of man, and with the second tree we receive the wonderful grace of God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
A MARRIAGE MADE IN HEAVEN (Genesis 2:18-25)
The message that I am going to teach today, will be called “Old Fashioned,” or “out-of-touch,” by many today. I understand that, and I really had to question whether I wanted to teach it or not, but I believe we live in a time when God’s plan for marriage has been put aside and forgotten. Now, I want you to understand that I know that many people are in marriages that are nothing close to this, or they are now single parents, but this lesson is about what God teaches us that His plan for marriage was when He created it. God created marriage for man. It is man that has corrupted this plan to what it is today. So, I thought it important that we reset the standard of what a marriage is supposed to be, when it is the way that God planned it.
Now, if you’re married, you have a potential of great, great wealth—and I don’t mean financial wealth. I mean you can be a marriage millionaire if you understand the value there is in a true, true marriage, based on God’s intent for marriage. Don’t be like the man who used to run his wedding movies backwards so he could see himself walking out of the church a free man. Let me tell you that there is a wonderful, wonderful, value in this thing called marriage, properly understood.
Click on the play button above to hear a message about God’s plan for marriage. I want to tell you that all true marriages are made in heaven. Marriage did not come from the swamps of evolution. It is not the product of societal folkways and mores. Marriage is the most basic instinct in the heart and mind of human beings.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
GOD’S COVENANTS WITH MAN (Genesis 2:15-17)
When God created man, He blessed man with the perfect spot to live, the perfect job, and the perfect mate. So, what is there that could be missing? Well, the next thing I want us to realize about Adam and Eve as God placed them in the Garden of Eden is the relationship that God gave them with Him. Adam enjoyed a relationship with God that we only partially see now as a Christian through the blood of Jesus Christ.
I believe that we will see the fulfillment of this relationship when we go to be with the Lord, and we are perfected. In some ways, I believe our relationship will even be better than the one Adam had with God. Actually, it will be the relationship that Adam could have had if he had obeyed God. I also believe that the covenants that God has established with man, from the Old Testament through the New Testament have been a progression toward obtaining that perfect relationship with God.
Generally speaking, God’s relationship to man has always been based on a covenant. The New Testament is actually a New Covenant which God has made, and it is in contrast to the Old Covenant of the Old Testament.
Click on the play button above to hear a message that describes the eight covenants that God has made with man and how they change the way that we approach God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Today, we are going to talk about two topics; the first is God’s rest. This is an interesting Biblical concept that I want you to know about because it really has tremendous application to us. Next, we are going to talk about how God established Adam, and then blessed him with a perfect home, a perfect job, and then a perfect mate. For all those social workers and psychologists that believe that man’s sinful behavior is simply a result of a person’s environment, this should be their prime example of how wrong they are. Unfortunately, man doesn’t sin because of his environment, man sins because he chooses to sin.
Click on the link below to hear a message where God is describing the ideal marriage. It took place in the perfect spot to live, each with the perfect job, and most of all with the perfect mate. It was planned by God, blessed by God, and created by God. If we do not have this today, it is only because we have strayed so far, as a race, from the perfect will of God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Today, I want to talk about how man lost the dominion that was given to him by God, how it was restored, and how it now rests with the church. Today, I want to talk to you about a church of conquest—a church with dominion. God’s plan for LifeChange Church is that we move forward, not backward. God’s plan for you is that you be victorious day by day.
When God made Adam and Eve, He made them king and queen of His domain, and God gave them rule.
Ps 8:6 6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: KJV
That was God’s plan. That’s why God made man. Man was designed for dominion. He was made for mastery. Do you think that is true today? Well, I think it would be hard to say that it is, when we read the headlines and see the rape, the murder, the war, the riots, the famine, the disaster, the heartache, the tears, the fears, and the failures of mankind. Man, given dominion, has lost that dominion.
Click on the link below to hear a message that looks at how Adam lost the dominion that was given to him by God, and how our dear Lord has bought it back for us and given it to this wonderful church—to LifeChange church, and to every Bible-believing church—and to every Spirit-filled Christian, that we might live and walk in victory.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
IS MAN JUST A CLEVER ANIMAL? (Genesis 1:27-30)
Today’s message is about the supreme question that divides the secular world that believes in evolution, and those who believe in the creation of all things by God. The Bible tells us that on the sixth day, God created the man and the beasts of the field. Now, that means that there must be a relationship between the two. Today, I want to look at that relationship and answer the question, Is Man Just a Clever Animal?
When we stop and compare men and the animals, we can see a similarity in design, a similarity in diet, a similarity in death. Now, we need to recognize the similarities between man and the animals, but I also want you to see the differences between men and animals.
Not only does man have a craving for Deity, and not only does man have a capability for dominion, but man also has a capacity for depravity that animals don’t have. Animals cannot sin, but on the other hand, animals can’t love God. In order for men to love God, they have to have the capacity, or the capability, to sin. God gave man that ability. You ask, “How could men sin if God made everything perfect?” Well, when God made man, God made him with the capacity to choose. And God had to make him with the capacity to choose. If he didn’t have the capacity to choose, he wouldn’t be a man.
But, most importantly, man has a conception of his destiny. He has a comprehension of the fact that he is going to die. But he knows that doesn’t end it all. You cannot crawl up in the grave and pull the dirt over your face and hide from God. When God made you, God made you in His image. God breathed into your nostrils the breath of life. You could no more cease to exist than God Himself could cease to exist. You’re going to exist somewhere—dateless, timeless, endless, measureless. Your soul is worth more than all of the stocks, the bonds, the gold, the silver, the schools, the railroads put together.
Animals are not going to live forever. When an animal dies, he’s dead. There was a time when you were not, but there never again will be a time when you shall not be. You were created in the image of God. God says something about man that He doesn’t say about the animals. The Bible says that He made the animals, but He created you. He took animals and made them out of preexisting stuff, but God did a unique creation when He made you, and you are made in His image, and man has a concern for his destiny. I hope you have a concern for your destiny as well.
Click on the play button to hear a message that answers the question, Is Man Just a Clever animal?
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
THE WORLD IN A WEEK(Genesis 1:3-27)
Today we are going to discuss the creation of the world by God as He prepares the earth as the place for mankind to live. Over the last couple of weeks, we have been building the foundation for how we are to understand the Creation story. We have talked about the meaning of the words “light” and “day.” and we have talked about who God is. Now, it is time to apply those lessons as we learn about the almighty power of the God we serve. The God of All Creation.
God begins the creation process of turning chaos into order. First, God dealt first with the darkness. In the second step, God dealt next with the disorder, itself. He began by raising the clouds. Then, the third step in the process was for God to raise the continents. That brings us to the next step in the process of bringing order to chaos, God dealt with the deadness of the planet. He created the plants and the animals.
The next step was to create man, God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. In his nature, person, and personality, in his moral and spiritual capacities, in his emotions, intellect, conscience, and will, man stands apart from the animal world. God created man as being threefold in nature, we have a spirit, soul, and body.
Click on the play button above to hear a message on how God prepared this earth for man to have dominion over. Most importantly, don’t miss the all important message in these verses about the light that is Jesus Christ. Don’t miss the message that we are creations of Jesus Christ, we owe Him our worship, our service, and our love. Don’t believe for a second that some day, if you reject the light that is Jesus Christ, that you will not stand in judgment and be condemned to an eternity without His light. Be sure you have the light that is Jesus Christ within your heart.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
WHAT A MIGHTY GOD (Genesis 1:1)
In today’s message, I want to spend time settling the question of who God is and does He exist. For you see, if you believe in God, then all of the questions you have about the Creation are answered. If you do not believe in God, then you will never have the answers to your questions about how this universe came in to being.
Have you ever thought about the fact that the Bible just presents God? There He is in the very first verse of the Bible, “In the beginning God.” He is simply presented. The fact of God is never explained in the Bible. The existence of God is never argued in the Bible. The Bible does not try to teach against atheism. God is simply presented. Now God, therefore, must be accepted by faith. Sometimes a skeptic will come and say to you, “Prove there is a God.” Don’t try, because you can’t prove that God exists, for the finite can never prove the infinite. But not to worry. After he says, “Prove that God exists,” you say simply with a smile on your face and much confidence in your heart, “I can’t. Now, sir, will you prove that God does not exist?” And he can’t do that either.
If a person does not believe in God, it is not that he cannot believe; it is that he will not believe. He chooses not to believe. All people are believers. Some believe there is a God; some believe there is no God.
The Bible says that “In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth.” He’s presented. Now, in the beginning God did what? He created, and what mighty power is seen in His creation! Only God has creative power.
Click on the play button to hear a message on why the almighty God created all things. He did it for His pleasure. He did it for His praise, and He did for you. This is our mighty God. He loves you and He wants to save you and give you everlasting life.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
THE MEANING OF LIGHT AND DAY (Genesis 1:1-5)
Today’s message is on the meaning of the words “light” and “day” as they are used in the Bible’s account of creation. Two very simple words, that we use all of the time, but so many people have a hard time understanding when it comes to what God says about the creation of all things.
In the book of Genesis, God said “let there be light.” The word “light” stands for and performs so many different functions and things in the Scriptures. The concept of light is described throughout the Bible, and it is first used here in Genesis. Light truly is a unique creation. The Holy Spirit chose light as a metaphor for God throughout the Scripture. Like God, light is mysterious but glorious.
Light by its nature, just like our Lord, is constant. The speed and the nature of light never change. The speed of the light that leaves our sun millions of miles away is traveling at the exact same speed as when it reaches us as we stand outside and let it fall on us to warm and comfort us. The light of our Lord is the same. It is the same today as it was on creation day, and as it will be when He comes for us to take us home. Satan and his kingdom must bow before God and the majesty of His light. When God’s light comes, Satan’s darkness must go.
It also means that there is only one way to get rid of Satan’s darkness, and that is the light of the Word of God. We have victory in Jesus because no force on the earth, or below the earth, can stand against the mighty majesty of His light. When our lives are filled with sin, it is the light of the Word of God that will give you victory over that sin in your life. In fact, it is the only light that will give you victory over Satan and sin. You cannot live the Christian life without the power and light of the Holy Spirit in your heart.
Click on the play button at the top of the post to hear a message on the meaning of the words “light” and “day” as they are used in the creation story found in the first few verses of the Bible.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
As you study the Bible, it always amazes me how one part folds into and helps the understanding of another part. For example, you must have an understanding of the Book of Daniel before you can understand the Book of Revelation. In my opinion, there are two books which are key to the understanding of all of the Scriptures, the book that opens the Old Testament (Genesis), and the book that opens the New Testament (Matthew).
God had some definite purpose in giving the book of Genesis to us. The first section of the book has to do with the universe and with creation, but the last part deals with man, with nations, and with the person of Jesus Christ. God was more interested in Abraham than He was in the entire created universe, and God is more interested in you and attaches more value to you than He does to the entire physical universe.
With Genesis begins the progressive self-revelation of God which culminates in Christ. The three primary names of Deity-Elohim, Jehovah, and Adonai appear in Genesis and these in an ordered progression which could not be changed without confusion. It also presents the problem of sin and how it affects man’s condition on the earth and his relationship to God. It also presents the divine solution of that problem.
Click on the link below to hear a message that describes what the book of Genesis is all about. Genesis is the “seed plot” of the Bible, and here we find the beginning, the source, the birth of everything. The Book of Genesis is just like the bud of a beautiful rose, and it opens out into the rest of the Bible. The truth here is in germ form.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
A PASTOR’S ACCOUNTABILITY (Hebrews 13:17)
The topic of our message is going to be on the accountability of the preachers and pastors that lead our churches. But, this message is not only for our pastors, it is for each of you as well, because you will also face a day of judgment. The Bible teaches that if the pastor is God’s man, then you ought to follow him; if he’s not, then you ought to fire him. It’s just that simple.
It is a fact that one of these days, every pastor, every preacher, every minister, must face the Lord, and He’s going to ask them to give an account of their ministry. But, it’s also a fact that each of us who are a true follower of Christ will one day face the Lord, and we will also have to give an accounting for not only, if we were obedient to God’s command to be submissive to our pastors, but for our own Christian work and ministry that God has given us.
Now, we are saved by grace through faith, and we cannot work our way to heaven. But, somehow people have gotten the idea that they can live just any way they like, do anything they like, and because they’re saved by grace they can just go to sleep in a Pullman car and just coast into the yards of glory and it will make absolutely no difference how they serve the Lord, what they did, or whatever. But the Bible teaches to the contrary.
The Bible teaches there is coming a day of accountability. The preacher is going to face an accountability. He is going to have to answer to God for the way he leads his church. Even though he is saved by grace, he will have to give an account.
Click on the play button to hear a message that will describe how Christ will hold pastors, and their followers, accountable the work that they have done in the name of our Lord.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
A LIFE WITHOUT FEAR (Hebrews 13:5-6)
When the old mapmakers were drawing ancient maps, they did not know what we know today. They didn’t have global positioning satellites. They could not see the world from outer space, and they would make maps of what they knew. But there was much that they did not know, and when they would come to the edge of their knowledge, they would often write something like this: “Beyond this, there may be dragons.” And, if you will look at some of the old maps, you will see the sea monster in the ocean right alongside those words. This is because man has an innate fear of the future, and of the unknown. The fear of the future is a foe that we all face. Whether we are young or old, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, we wonder about what is going to happen. Fear has no racial bias. It’s endemic to all people.
There is a fear of where our country is heading. There is a fear of the persecution of Christians that is occurring as our country, and world, move further and further away from the Biblical values of God, and God Himself. There is fear of the violence that is occurring all around us. There is a fear of financial loss and the inability to pay the bills that are sitting on your table at home. There is a fear of disease and failing health in a world filled with cancer and pandemics. These are just a few of the things that we face in an uncertain future, and yet, God wants us to have a future without fear. As a matter of fact, God has not only admonished us, but God has commanded us, not to fear.
Click on the play button to hear a message that will teach you how to live a life free of fear.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Today’s message is about a problem that many Christians have, and it is called bitterness. It is bitterness that blows out the candle of joy and leaves the soul in darkness, and I am afraid more people have a root of bitterness than we dare think. Bitterness has done untold damage to communities. It has done untold damage to churches, and untold damage to homes.
I am convinced that bitterness does more to hold back the power of God and revival than liberalism. Bitterness does more to hold back the power of God and revival than does alcohol or pornography. Bitterness keeps the people of God from having the power of God, and the holiness of God, that they need in their hearts and in their lives. Unfortunately, much of this bitterness, is found in the people of God. We have bitter brothers, sour sisters, caustic Christians, and the Bible speaks of a “root of bitterness.”
Click on the play button above to hear a message that will help you identify bitterness in your life, and how to deal with it. How to root bitterness out of your life.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Sometimes we are chastened by God. The word chastening is a Bible word that means child discipline. God loves you enough to discipline you. Now, you may not appreciate it now, but according to the Scripture, the time will come when you will bless the Lord that He loved you enough to chastise you.
God’s chastisement comes when we disobey the Lord, and as a result, we get into trouble because of our disobedience. Many times, when this chastisement comes, we fail to remember the exhortation that God has given us in both the Old and the New Testament, which says, “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.”
Did you know that God is more interested in you being holy than He is you being healthy? Did you know that God is more interested in you being holy than He is you being happy? God is more interested in you being holy than He is you being wealthy.
God’s plan for you, primarily, is not even to take you to heaven. Now, I’m going to heaven, but that’s a fringe benefit. God’s plan is for you to be holy. Do you have a desire to be holy? If not, He may carry you to the woodshed and develop that desire in you, and that will be for your profit.
Click on the play button above to hear a message on how a loving God chastises those who are His.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
ARE YOU RUNNING THE RACE? (Hebrews 12:1-2)
When you think of an athlete who is a runner on a track team, what do you think about? Dedication, training, conditioning, and a sense of complete focus on being prepared to run the race. Then, when that person is running a race, they are singularly focused on completing that race to the best of their ability, right? Imagine that there is a young man who is getting set in the starting blocks. Every muscle is tense in anticipation of the start. The starting gun goes off and he explodes out of the starting blocks. He’s looking straight ahead with complete, total concentration. Every inch, every ounce, every nerve, every fiber, he’s pressing to the goal. He stays in his lane. He’s not moving to the right. He’s not moving to the left, and in this example, he is not running against anybody else. He’s running against himself. He’s running against the clock, and he’s headed toward the finish line.
But, in this life, if you are a child of God, then you are in the race. I don’t care how old you are. I don’t care how feeble you are. I don’t care how rich, or how poor, you are. There is a race for you to run, and God wants you to run that race like a champion.
The truth is that most of the people in our churches today are not active soul winners. That’s tragic. You say, “But, I give my money.” I don’t care how much money you give, if you’re not endeavoring to bring souls to Christ, then you are not right with God. You say, “Well, I teach.” I don’t care how eloquently you teach, if you’re not trying to bring souls to Jesus, then you’re not right with God. You say, “Well, I attend faithfully.” I don’t care how much you attend, if you’re not trying to bring souls to Jesus Christ, then you are not right with God. Well, you say, “I live a clean, moral life.” I don’t care how circumspectly you walk, if you’re not endeavoring to bring souls to Jesus Christ, then you are not right with God. Andrew Murray said, “There are two classes of Christians: soul winners and backsliders.” You’re one or the other.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how you can learn to run the race of faith that God has put before you just like the champions in God’s Hall of Fame.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
WHEN FAITH SEEMS TO FAIL (Hebrews 11:32-40)
What happens when faith seems to fail? Sometimes we pray, and God doesn’t seem to answer our prayer the way we wanted. Maybe we’re going to have an outdoor event, and we say, “Lord, give us beautiful weather,” and the storms come and chase us back indoors. Has that ever happened to you? I mean, it turns everything into a swamp, but you prayed and asked God for it to be a bright sun-shiny day. Sometimes you pray, “Lord, I want to marry that person. Give them to me as a spouse,” and instead, they marry your best friend. You say, “Lord, how could you? I prayed and I had faith.”
Then, on a more serious note, sometimes we have a loved one who is sick, and we come to God, and we say, “Oh, God, heal my child. Lord, heal my wife. Heavenly Father, touch with Your healing hand,” and they don’t get better; they get worse, and it seems like some greedy malady is just eating away at those that we love the best, and we see them wind down to the grave. And we’ve tried to believe, we’ve tried to trust, and faith seems to fail. As a result, we are ready just to throw in the towel, and say, “What’s the use? It’s not working.” Have you ever been there? If not, then just hold on, because your time is coming that you will be.
There are times that come where the answer doesn’t come exactly as we think that it ought. Sometimes trials, temptations, tribulations, heartaches, tears, fears—they come, and faith doesn’t seem to remove them.
Click on the play button at the top of this episode to hear a message on how you can have a mature faith. Many people have a superficial faith, and a superstitious faith, rather than a strong faith, and a spiritual faith, and a biblical faith. So, if you’re about ready to throw in the towel, if you prayed for your child and your child didn’t get well, and you’re ready to quit coming to God and to church, then I want you to listen to this message.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
STAR WARS (Hebrews 11:32-34)
This message is about a man named Barak whose story is found in the Old Testament book of Judges. As you might imagine, since he is a member of God’s Hall of Fame for the champions of faith, Barak was a man known for his faith. The title of the lesson, which is Star Wars, comes from the Old Testament book of Judges which says,
Judg 5:2020 They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.KJV
The background of this story is that there was a battle between Barak and a Canaanite general named Sisera, and the outcome of this battle was known before the battle even started. It was fixed. The verse tells us that it was impossible for Sisera to win because he was battling the stars. He had a collision with the stars. The message is very clear, and it is that All the universe is against the man who is against God. If you are not with God, ultimately, you are destined to fail. The God who runs those stars, the God who created the universe and flung those stars out into space, programmed everything against Sisera. There was no way that he could win, because sin can’t win, and faith can’t fail, and this was a battle of faith, and God gave the victory.
Click on the arrow button above to hear a message on how God’s purposes will prevail. “Have faith in God, He cannot fail; have faith in God, He must prevail. He can’t fail.” Satan cannot win. The stars in their courses are against the man who’s against God. The stars line up for the man who loves God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
FACING FAILURE WITH FAITH (Hebrews 11:32)
If God were to grade your faith today, would you get an A? A-plus? C-minus? There was a student who came to the professor and he said, “Professor, I don’t believe I deserve this F.” The professor said, “Neither do I, but it was the lowest grade I had.” Now, is that the kind of faith you have? What kind of a report card would God give you today if God had to measure you?
The Bibe says that our faith is important because it is absolutely impossible to please God without faith. So, if you want to get an A from God on your report card, then you must have faith, and not just any faith, but a hall of fame type of faith. The champion that we will look at today is Samson, and the title of our message is “Facing Failure With Faith.” So, let me ask, do you feel like a failure? Do you feel like you’ve failed the Lord, and to be quite honest about it, you feel like you don’t even deserve a second chance? Then this message is just for you because Samson was indeed a failure.
However, in spite of what Samson did, God is the God of the second chance. Samson had enough faith to know that even though he was a failure and a disgrace, and that he’d failed and shamed God, that God still loved him and would remember him when he came in repentance and faith. Now, you may be someone who has failed and you’ve failed so much. But I’m here as a messenger of God today to tell you God loves you, and the same God that blessed ole Samson, loves you. Here was a man, though he failed, he learned to face his failure with faith.
Aren’t you glad that we serve such a God? And aren’t you glad that 1 John 1:9 is in the Bible: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Download this message to hear how God wants you to face your failures with faith.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Would you like God to use you? I mean, would you really, or are you afraid of what God might ask you to do? Are you willing to say to God, Lord I want you to use me wherever, whenever, and however, you want to use me? Let’s go a little deeper, when you die, will people remember you as a servant of God, someone who impacted others for God? In other words, will it make any difference that you lived? Will your story be that He was born. He lived. He died. You draw your breath, you draw your salary, you exist to live, you live to exist, and that is all? I wonder if there are a lot of us who will not really leave any vacancy when we go. Will it make any difference that you lived? What is your life really, ultimately, counting for? Is it counting for God? If that is what you want, then who are the kinds of people that God uses? Does God use mighty people to do mighty things for Him, or does God use common people to do His work?
Click on the link above to hear a message on the characteristics of the people that God uses to do mighty things to accomplish His will on this earth.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Today’s message is about a champion of faith named Rahab, and the story of Rahab will teach us that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the transformation business, and the greatest power on earth is the grace of God made available by faith. A great preacher once said that “nature forms us, sin deforms us, schools inform us, jails reform us, the Word conforms us, but Jesus transforms us.” He changes people. He literally, actually, eternally, changes people. He cleanses us, justifies us, and washes away all of our sin.
Now, if your religion hasn’t changed your life, then you’d better change your religion, because you don’t have the New Testament kind of religion. Jesus is in the transformation business. There’s no one so bad he cannot be saved. God is not finished with you. God loves you, and there’s no one so good he or she need not be saved.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the transforming power of the grace of God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
When we greet a fellow Christian today, we will typically ask, “How are you feeling?” Perhaps it would be more applicable to ask, “How are you faithing?” You see, feelings are fickle, but it is our that faith keeps us steady. In fact, you are no stronger than your faith. The Bible says, “According to your faith be it unto you,” and God wants you to be a champion of faith. Now, today, we are talking about the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ, and we’re going to help you to understand something of the power of faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Heb 11:2828 Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.KJV
When we come to the Lord’s Table, how do we come? With clean hearts, no unconfessed, no unrepented-of sin, because we are celebrating the Lord’s Passover. We’re celebrating what the spotless, sinless Son of God did for us. The Bible says, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death, till he come.” When we come to the Lord’s Table, we are celebrating, we’re not coming to mourn a corpse; we’re coming to hail a conqueror. Jesus Christ has defeated the old serpent. The Lamb has slain the serpent, and we celebrate.
Now, in the Old Testament, the Jews put the blood upon the doorposts, to openly, and clearly, declare they were for the Lord, and so the death angel would Passover them. In the New Testament, we confess Christ openly as our Savior: “That if thou shalt believe in thine heart and confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, you’ll be saved. With the heart man believes unto righteousness; with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Just as the death angel passed over the Hebrews, he passes over us when we openly declare our love for Jesus Christ.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
The most powerful and influential people on earth are not kings and presidents and cabinet members. The most powerful and influential people on earth are parents of faith, and in their hands is the destiny of the world. I cannot overemphasize the importance of family. The Bible states that the family is a creation of God, and it is indisputably important. Faith is the vital ingredient in any family’s success. Do you want your children to be mighty for God upon this earth? It is a joy, a privilege, and a responsibility to raise your children for God, and you must have faith.
Every child is different. Every child is special. Every child is unique. Children do not come in standard packages. You have to read the label. God has a way for every child. Don’t see your child like a piece of marble or granite there, and you have a hammer and a chisel and you’re going to make out of that child what you want. That will be a great mistake. God has a plan for your children and grandchildren, and parents who are perceptive can see that special child.
We are living in perilous times, and we have been tasked by God to raise these children according to His plan for them. We are in a battle with the forces of the devil for the spiritual hearts of our children. First of all, there is liberalism in the churches. Our world is full of churches that do not stand on the authority of the Word of God, and the absolute Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is compounded by the humanism in the schools. Humanism is just a camouflage name for atheism. Then, there is our society filled with immorality. How are you going to do raise children in this world? Only by faith.
Click on the link below to hear a message on parents of faith and how God can help you to be a person of faith.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Man is the only creature who knows he’s going to die, and he’s trying desperately to forget it. If you don’t believe that, look at the woman who wears too much makeup trying to hide those wrinkles and age spots, or the man who has already passed middle age, making a fool of himself in a sports car, and trying to dress like a teenager with a gold chain around his neck. We just don’t like to think about death. If you mention death, people will look at you like you have smallpox. In society today, we don’t talk much about death. You go to a funeral, and in the funeral, we do all we can do to camouflage the fact of death. Our cemeteries look like memorial parks. We just change the subject of death like we switch channels in a television set. So, why is that? Well, there is a fear of death, and the Bible teaches that the devil keeps people in bondage through the fear of death.
I want you to understand this, anybody who’s afraid of death, is in bondage. Are you afraid of death? Then Satan has done a job on you, and you have failed to understand what Jesus Christ has done for you. I want to say clearly and plainly, no one is ready to live until he’s no longer afraid to die. Jesus has come to deliver us from the fear, and, correspondingly, the bondage, of death. Jesus Christ is the risen, living, victorious as Savior, and because He lives, we live with Him. We no longer fear death. We no longer fear death because we have a Savior, a dear, loving Savior.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how to live confidently; how to die expectantly, and how to no longer fear death.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
LEARNING TO LEAN ON GOD (Hebrews 11:21)
Many of us think that self-sufficiency is a virtue, and at many a high school graduation ceremony, there will be speakers telling young people to learn to be self-sufficient. The truth of the matter is that self-sufficiency is not a virtue; spiritually, it is a vice. In fact, if you are a follower of Christ, then God is working on you. God is working on each of us, and He will not be finished with us until our total, complete dependency is not on self, but on Him.
In our message today, Jacob tells God, “Lord, I trust you, but …” Have you ever done that? “Lord, I trust you, but, Lord, I don’t trust You completely. And now, Lord, You help me out. But Father, You know, I’ve got to rig this thing first and you just make my efforts work.” But that is not the way God works. Did you know that God likes broken things? Men throw broken things away, but God never really ever uses anything until He first breaks it. David said, in the Psalms, “A broken and a contrite spirit thou wilt not despise, O God.” Most of us are not being used of God because we’ve never been broken.
One of these days, if God breaks you and you become broken bread and poured out wine, God can use you. God took a little lad’s lunch, and broke it, and fed the multitudes. Mary took an alabaster box of ointment, and she broke it, and lavished her love upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The prophet Jeremiah said, “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among the thorns.” You’ll never have the crop you ought to until you put the plow in, until the old clods are broken. Even the Lord Jesus Christ took that Last Supper and said, “This is my body which is broken for you.” Men throw broken things away. God never ever uses anything or anybody until they’re first broken.
Click on the link below hear a message on how Jacob loved God, and he had to be delivered from his self-sufficiency. He had to learn how to lean on Jesus.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
The home is meant to be the seminary of heaven, but often it is the incubator of hell. If you are looking around, you can see that Satan is systemically dismantling homes in our world. Sociologists today would say that family is important, but when society changes, what we call family can change and the role of family may change. That is not true. The Bible clearly states that the family is not the product of sociology. Family did not come from the swamps of immorality. Family is not something that evolved from primordial ooze. Family is the gift of God. God instituted family in the Garden of Eden, and the first institution was not government, not education, not business; the first institution was family. God put a family in the Garden of Eden. Throughout history, when the concept of family was completely obliterated, disintegrated, from a culture, those societies crumbled. There is a war on the family, and you have to admit it: In today’s society, family life, godly family life, is difficult.
So, how do we fight this? Unfortunately, the majority of the dads in America, whether they are saved or lost, are focused on the things of this world. They are wrapped up in business, in sports, in recreation, in alcohol, in food, in materialism, and these fathers are living self-centered lives, while their families are dysfunctional, their families are crumbling around them. The Bible says that God made the husband to be the head of the family, and as the father, you have an awesome responsibility to be a spiritual man, a man of God.
Click on the link to hear a message on how we, as parents, both father and mother, have an awesome power to bless our children. You can bless your children by training them up to love God. But ultimately, the children must make their own choice to serve God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
I want you to take God’s Word and hold your Bible in your hand. Now, I want to tell you there is no book like the Bible. None whatsoever. The book that you hold in your hand is one book, and yet it is sixty-six books. There are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament. There are twenty-seven in the New Testament. They were written over a period of about 1,500 years by at least forty different authors in three different languages, people from all backgrounds and walks of life. But when you bring them together, they don’t make sixty-six books; they make one book, one book that is bound together.
This book has one hero, His name is Jesus. It has one villain, he is the devil. It has one theme, it is salvation. It has one purpose, the glory of God. And so, if you read any verse in the Bible, standing somewhere in the shadows, you’re going to find the Lord Jesus, and that’s what we’re going to see today as we continue to look in the life of the man named Abraham. We are going to look back in history, centuries before Jesus Christ was born upon this earth, and we’re going to find a wonderful depiction of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Old Testament, God gave illustrations, types, prophecies, figures of that which is to come in the New Testament. It is one of the great confirmations of the inspiration of the Scripture, when you see way back here centuries before Jesus Christ was even born that God gives figures and types and prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, not only is it a confirmation of the inspiration of the Scriptures, but, correspondingly, it is a confirmation of the deity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as we see Him pictured there, tucked away in the Old Testament.
Click on the link below to hear a message on if God was willing to give Jesus up freely for us all, how shall He not also freely give us all things? He is the God who provides.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
God is going to give you some trials, some tests, to see if your faith is real. Not for Him to know anything about your faith, for He already knows all about your faith, but for you to know that your faith is real and that it can be trusted no matter what. Warren Wiersbe said that “A faith that cannot be tested, cannot be trusted.”
Tests, and trials, and temptations come in two kinds. The devil solicits us, tempts us to do evil, to cause us to stumble. God tests us to do good in order to cause us to stand. What God wants to accomplish by testing us is to make our faith strong and pure. How will it be tested? It will be tested by fire. Then, what is the purpose of the testing? God is going to put your faith in the fire to purify it, to make it stand no matter what comes.
God is going to test your faith by asking you to do something that may surprise you—not by giving up the wrong things and the bad things, but by giving up the good things. It would be relatively easy if God asked us to give up the bad things, to give up lying, and stealing, and cheating, and pride—to show that we love Him. But that’s not what God is asking.
There are some things that we give up for the Lord. But the test of faith that God will give you is not what you are willing to give up for the Lord, but are you willing to give back to the Lord of the blessings that you have received. Are you able to give your blessings back to God? Not, are you willing to give up your sins for God? Are you willing to give your blessings back to God? The test of faith is not primarily between love and hate, but between two loves, those things we love dearly and that which we must love supremely.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how God wants you to be strong in faith. For without faith, it is impossible to please God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Without faith it is impossible to please God. You will never succeed in your Christian life without believing God. Faith is the mark of a Christian. Christians were called believers before they were called Christians. It is our chief duty to believe God, and in order to believe God, then you must hear from God.
How can we hear the voice of God? The Bible tells us that God speaks to us by His Son. So, how does God do that? The Bible teaches that we have three things. We have the written Word of God. We have the mind of Christ, and we have the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Now, the wonderful good news about having these three things to hear from God, is that it gives us such an advantage over what the Old Testament prophets had to hear from God. You see, these Old Testament characters, before they had the Bible, before they knew what we know by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, they had to wait for God to break in with some open revelation, some vision, some ecstasy. We don’t have to do that.
Listen, don’t just miss this Biblical truth by nonchalance. We have the inspired, inerrant written Word of God, and we have the mind of Christ, and we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God, all speaking to us and sharing the will of God in our lives. You have such an advantage today in being able to know the will of God. You don’t have to guess at the will of God, you can know the will of God. You can have the confidence to say to God as you pray, “Lord, this is Your will, and I thank You for it, and I stand on it.”
How can you have this confidence? You can have it because you have the written word of God, the Holy Spirit of God, and the mind of Christ.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how to have a dynamic life of faith that pleases God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “Little faith will bring your soul to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your soul.” How would you like to have great faith? If you are a Christ follower, then I trust that you do. When you came to Jesus Christ, God enrolled you in the School of Faith. Life is the classroom, the Bible is the textbook, the prophets and the apostles are the professors, and Abraham would have to be the Dean in the School of Faith.
Our message today is on the dynamic life of faith that Abraham led. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” This means that if you want to please God, then you must have faith. If you please God, then it doesn’t matter whom you displease, and if you displease God, then it doesn’t matter whom you please. There is no way to please God without faith.
Do you want to serve God? Then, your chief duty is to believe Him. The supreme evil is unbelief. Unbelief is the source of all other sins. Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden because they did not believe the Word of God that had been given to them. The Christian life, according to Hebrews 10:38, is to be lived by faith. The Bible says, “The just shall live by faith.”
Now, I am telling you as clearly as I can that without faith it is impossible to please God. You will never, ever, succeed in your Christian life without believing God. Not just in God, but God’s Word collectively in the Bible, and God’s Word that He has given personally to you.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how to have a dynamic life of faith that pleases God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
God tells us in the Bible that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” This means that without a word from God on a matter, you cannot, you have no basis, for a Biblical faith. Faith is not a leap in the dark. It is a step into God’s light. You must hear from God. Faith is not name it and claim it. The Bible is clear that You believe it and receive it, because God has named it, and you claim it. Now, that’s very important. You do not name it and claim it. You believe it and receive it, because God has named it, and you claim it. God does the naming. You do the claiming.
The Biblical word “hope” does not mean maybe, perhaps, or I wish. But hope means bedrock assurance. The Bible calls hope an anchor of the soul. It is solid, and the word “substance” or sub-stand means something beneath us that we can stand upon. Where do you get this assurance, this bedrock assurance, called hope? From the Word of God. God speaks.
Did you know that God speaks today? God has His written Word once and for all, settled. But then, God speaks to your own personal heart, and when God speaks to your heart personally, you have a rhema from God, that’s when you find faith growing in your heart and in your life. You have to hear from God in order to have faith. It is not just of God that you need to hear about, it is from God that you need hear. You hear God. In order to believe Him, you don’t just hear about Him; you hear Him.
The apostle Paul says in 2 Tim 1:12, “I know whom I have believed.” He didn’t say, “I know in whom I have believed.” Paul said that I have believed Him. I heard from God, and I believed what He said to me. Faith is believing God when He speaks personally to you. You must have faith that hears God.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how to have an unsinkable faith in God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
The Bible tells us that we are to walk humbly with thy God, and it also says that the only way to walk with God is to be in agreement with God. Agreement about what? Agreement about how we live a life of faith in obedience with God’s will for our lives. Now, it takes faith to walk with God. To walk with God, the first step is the step of faith.
So where do we get this faith? God tells us that our faith cometh by hearing, and what we hear is the Word of God. You cannot have faith without hearing from God. You cannot. You must personally hear from God. God is speaking to you personally. God is speaking to you intimately. It may be through His Spirit, it may be through the Bible, but God has spoken to you. For example, the Scripture you read will have a specific meaning to you. It is personal. Now, you’ll never walk with God, you’ll never have faith, until you hear, personally, from God.
Why did God save you? Why did Jesus Christ step out of the glory, come to this earth, bathe this world with His blood—why are you redeemed? Why are you here today? Well, you ask the average person, why did God save you? And they’ll say, “To serve Him.” Listen, if God had wanted servants, He could have gotten a lot better people than us. Angels will serve Him much more obediently than we do. Angels are perfect servants, if servants are what He wanted. God is not looking for servants. God is looking for men, women, boys, and girls who will walk with Him, who know Him intimately.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how to walk with God. How to have a life of faith that is so rich, so strong, so true, so God-centered, that you will be able to say Jesus Christ is a bright, living reality to me, and I walk with Him, and I talk with Him, and He tells me I am His own; and the voice I hear falling on my ear is His voice.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
In today’s message we will be talking about Abel. You may not know it, but Abel was a prophet of God, and today we will be discussing his message on faith. The central theme of the entire 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews is that God is to be worshiped, and if God is to be worshiped, then He must be worshiped in Spirit and in truth.
The key to Abel’s sermon on faith is that there are only two religions in the entire world: the true and the false. That may seem narrow to you, but that’s what this message is all about. There is the religion of grace and the religion of works. There is the religion of Cain, and there is the religion of Abel.
What is the way of Cain? It is to try to save yourself by your own good works rather than by the grace of God. It represents culture rather than Calvary. Most of the people in this world don’t need religion. They need to turn from religion to Jesus Christ. Most of the people in this world are egomaniacs strutting to hell, thinking they are too good to be damned. They believe that modern man is good. Yet, the Bible says that man is not good, and the news is not modern. It’s as old as the book of Genesis, and it is good news for bad man. It is the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is not salvation by works. Religion is what sinful people do for a holy God. The gospel is the good news of what a holy God has already done for sinful man.
The difference between Cain and Abel is the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how we need to lay our pride and our good works in the dust, and trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Life is a journey. We are headed somewhere, and it is not a casual journey. It is a race. The life of faith, the only way to live, is a life that has a destination. It is like a race. It has a goal. Now, faith helps us to find that goal, which is the will of God. Do you know what life is all about? It is to find, to follow, and to finish the will of God. That is the destination of faith. That is what faith is all about.
God tells us “Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.”—looking unto Jesus. This is telling us something very important. It is not great faith in God that you need. Oh, we all want great faith in God. But that’s a by-product. It is not great faith in God that you need. It is faith, in a great God. It is faith in a great God.
Do you know what faith is? It is the by-product of looking unto Jesus, who is the author and the finisher of our faith. He’s the Alpha, the Omega. He’s the one that fires the gun. He’s the goal to which we run. He is the coach that coaches us as we run. Put your eyes upon Jesus Christ.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how to live a life of faith. You will not live without faith. The question you need to ask is, do you know Jesus? You can exist without faith, but you will never live without faith. Jesus said, “I’ve come that you might have life.” You put your faith where God has put your sins: on Jesus Christ.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
How to live a life of faith. We live in an age where we have a lot of people who are called stars, these so-called movie stars. We have a lot of people who are called idols, these so-called sports idols. In my humble opinion, we have too many stars, and too many idols, and not enough heroes. I’m going to be talking to you today about heroes, Bible heroes.
Faith is a confidence that rests in hope. It is not a will-of-the-wisp sort of a thing. It is substance. When we live by faith, it’s not smoke and mirrors. There is, substance, there is confidence that rests in hope. The word “hope” doesn’t mean perhaps. Nor does it even mean wish. Nor does it mean desire. The word “hope,” in the Bible, means “rock-ribbed assurance based on divine revelation.” For example, the Second Coming of Jesus is called the what? The blessed hope. Now, is that the blessed maybe? No. It is rock-ribbed assurance based on the promises of the Word of God. Jesus Christ is coming again, and that is our blessed hope, our rock-ribbed assurance based on divine revelation.
Faith, therefore, is the title deed, the confidence, that what God has said is true, and God will perform it. There is no legitimate faith without hope. And there is no legitimate hope without faith. These cannot be separated. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present, and the invisible as seen.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how the Bible says that you are to live by faith, by a confidence that rests in hope.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
In today’s message we are going to be talking about patience. Oh my, how many times have you heard the saying “Don’t ever pray for God to teach you patience, because He certainly will.” Patience. The Bible actually has a lot to say about patience.
Heb 10:36 36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. KJV
There is not a one of us that does not need patience. Now, let me tell you something “With God, timing is more important than time.” So many of us, we want it, and we want it now. We want instant credit. We want instant food. Why do you think the fast food industry is so big? Because we want what we want, and we want it now. We want instant service everywhere we go. Nobody likes standing in line waiting on the things we need. We want instant gratification. Tomorrow is almost a dirty word in today’s vocabulary. Yet, so many times, with God, there is a time of waiting between asking and receiving.
The Bible tells us that, if we know the Lord Jesus Christ, our standard of living may change, but our standard of life will not. You have need of patience, that you might inherit the promises of God.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how to develop patience in your life as you look forward to receiving the promises of God. First, remember yesterday’s provision. He saw you through then; He’ll see you through again. Second, resolve today’s patience—not just hunkering down. Remember, it is not patience that solemnly waits in the dark; it is patience that gloriously anticipates the dawn. And then, rest in tomorrow’s promise: “though it tarry, it will come.” Get a hold of the Word of God and never, never, never let it go.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
WORSHIPING TOGETHER (Hebrews 10:19-25)
The church in the 21st century has a genuine problem, and the problem is lagging and sagging church attendance. Now, without a doubt some of this has been caused by the Covid pandemic. In fact, it is still having an impact today, as there are those who have serious medical conditions that prevent them from being in large groups of people. Nor is that the only reason people stay away from church, and I am not condemning anyone who is providentially hindered from being in our worship services. But, our message today is about why attending a worship service with other believers is incredibly important to you as a believer, and to the other members who attend with you.
People today have the idea that perhaps they’re doing God a favor when they come to church for a worship service. I think one of the tragedies of this age in which we live is that there are so many who claim to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet they do not regularly attend the Bible study and worship services of their local church. Yet the Bible teaches if you willingly forsake the assembling of yourself together, then you cannot claim to be true to Jesus Christ, if you willingly do that. Jesus Christ and the Church are not identical, but they are inseparable.
We need one another. We owe to one another a fearful loyalty in these days, to exhort and fire up one another. These are wicked days, lascivious days, evil days, and all kinds of mayhem and wickedness are in the world. That’s all the more reason we need to be faithful and loyal to our local church that God has given to us, and we must keep her lights burning brightly on Sunday and Wednesday.
Click on the link below to hear a message on why attending worship services together as a body is not only a privilege, it is our solemn duty.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
There is within the Bible a scarlet cord that runs through the entire Bible, that highway of blood that we find from Genesis to Revelation. It is important for us to understand that Calvary was not an accident, and it was not an incident. It is not something that happened as an afterthought. In Rev. 13:8 God tells us “the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world,” which means that before God flung this world into space, before God scooped out the seas, and heaped up the mountains, and flung out the sun, moon, and stars, before all of that, before anything was that is, God had Calvary in His heart and mind. And Christ was slain in the heart and mind of God from the foundation of the world.
As you look through the entire Bible you will see the shedding of Christ’s blood as the sacrifice for our sins in picture, illustration, and typology. God tells the same story with Adam and Eve, Noah, and then with Abraham, and with all of the sacrifices over thousands of years required under the Mosaic Law. Yet, God tells us that none of these sacrifices were enough to make the people who offered them redeemed. There had to be something more, for it was man who brought sin into the world, and so it would have to be a man who sacrificed His own life and shed His own blood. Yet, it could not be just any man, it had to be the blood of the sinless, spotless, Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.
If you’re an unsaved person, then you need to listen very carefully to this message because God put dark Calvary with its blood-drenched slopes, and with its uplifted cross, there as a roadblock to keep you out of hell. And if you’re a saved person, then you need to listen because when you understand what Jesus Christ did to redeem you, to buy you, Oh, how you ought to love Him all the more.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the power of the saving blood of Jesus Christ.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Today our message is going to be on the wonderful, God blessed, subject of “Nothing but the Blood.” Someone has said that you can cut the Bible in any place, and it will bleed because the Bible tells the story of what Jesus Christ did for you and me. This is one of my favorite topics to teach on, because this precious blood of Christ is the reason that I have eternal life with my Lord and Savior in Heaven. I honestly cannot think of a more important message to teach than this, Nothing but the Blood.
Actually, there are three cords that run through the Bible. One is a somber cord, a dark cord of sin and shame and degradation. The Bible teaches us about the sinfulness of man. The other is a bright, scarlet-red cord of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is a book about blood. And then there’s a golden cord that speaks of the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ which tells how He is going to rule and reign forever. The dark cord of sin, the red cord of redemption, and the gold cord of His Second Coming in glory. What a joy it is to read the Bible and find all of those things.
Actually, the four ingredients of a great church are these: the book, the blood, the birth, and the blessed hope. That is what makes a great church. Those are the things that we just have to keep on preaching over and over again: the book, God’s holy Word; the blood, the sacrificial blood atonement of the Lord Jesus; the birth, the necessity of a new birth, to be a twice-born person; and the blessed hope that Jesus is actually, literally, visibly, bodily, coming back to this earth one of these days.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the prophecy and the provision of the saving blood of Jesus Christ.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
God is teaching us a theological lesson in these verses. He is teaching that a believer should stay away from that which is dead and that which corrupts, He is saying that for moral and spiritual hygiene, we need to stay away from sin. Why would He command that? Because it is sin that causes us to have an unclean conscience before God.
So, what is it that we do that causes us to have an unclean conscience before God? It is sin. Whether it is deliberate sin, sin by association, or even sin that you stumble into, that sin pollutes your soul.
Then, what happens when we become unclean in the sight of God? There is a loss of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. There is a loss of freedom with God. We cannot worship God with an unclean conscience. Then, there is the loss of fruitfulness in God’s service. If your soul is unclean with sin, then God will not bless the work that you do. Sin separates you from God. Do you know why some churches never progress? Do you know why some Sunday School classes never grow and they’re not blessed? Do you know why some people never win souls? Do you know why some people’s prayers never get any higher than the light bulbs? I mean they work, they work, they work, but it is dead works because they have got a dirty conscience. They’re polluted. They don’t have a clean conscience with God.
Click on the link below to hear a message on why you can’t serve God if you don’t have a clean conscience, and that it is the blood of Jesus that makes your conscience clean. I thank God in Heaven there is that perpetual sacrifice, which means that I don’t have to go around with sin on my soul. I thank God for the finished work of salvation and the precious blood of Jesus Christ that will clean me and make suitable to work for God.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
A CLEAN CONSCIENCE (Hebrews 9:7-10; 14)
How does the Bible teach us to face the trials of life? It says that you can face those trials if you have a good conscience, if you have a great hope, and a gracious companion in the Holy Spirit of God. When the Bible talks about our conscience, it is really talking about our soul, and the worst pollution of all is the pollution of the soul. Now, all pollution is bad, but the worst pollution is not the kind we breathe, and it seems like we’re just being polluted to death. But, may I tell you that the real ecology problem is that of Satan and of sin, and the real pollution problem is that of sin.
The word uncleanness stands for a state of mind, and a state of soul, and a state of spirit, that is not right with God, and it stands for sin. Sin makes us unclean. In our study today, God will make the point that death and sin, or death and uncleanness, are inseparably linked together. Sin causes death, therefore, death is the visible sign of sin.
We often pray for the families of people who died, and sometimes we talk about people who die of sickness, and then we talk about other people who die a natural death. May I tell you that there is no such thing as a natural death, for all death is unnatural. It is not what God planned for us. All death is the result of sin. Now, listen to me carefully, all death is the result of sin, but not necessarily your personal sin. But, had there been no sin, there would have been no death. There was no sin in the Garden of Eden, and as a result, there was no death in the Garden of Eden, until sin came. Therefore, death is the visible sign, and the object lesson, of sin.
Click on the link below to hear a message on what the Bible tells us about the causes of our soul becoming unclean.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
So many people ask the questions, what must I do to become acceptable to God? How can a person gain access to God, in order to fellowship and commune with Him? How can a person come to know God in a real and personal way, so personal that the person can know that God is looking after and caring for him? How can a person gain and maintain a relationship with God? Men have tried to approach God in the past under the Old Covenant and the old dispensations:
• Through prophets • Through angels • Through Great Leaders who are great men of God • Through priests • Through covenants and law or by trying to be as good as they can
But, every one of these approaches to God are inadequate. They are imperfect and incomplete. They may tell us some things about God. They may help us to understand God to some degree, but they don’t give us the full story, nor do they reveal the whole nature of God. They are only shadows and faint copies of the truth. They show us only a part of the truth about God. They don’t reveal God to us, nor do they make us acceptable to God or give us fellowship with God.
In the Old Testament, the children of Israel built a Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was a place where they sought to worship and become acceptable to God. But, this approach to God was just as inadequate as all the other approaches. Earthly sanctuaries and earthly worship cannot bring us near to God. Earthly sanctuaries and earthly worship cannot make us acceptable to God. Only Jesus Christ can bring us near and make us acceptable to God. This is the point of this passage of Scripture, to show that Jesus Christ is the Greater and more perfect Minister of the Tabernacle. He is the only Minister who brings us to God.
Click on the link below to hear a message on why the new heavenly tabernacle is better than the old.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
The message of the book of Hebrews is that Christ is alive and working for you, right now. You need to bring Him into your life. This is a relationship with God that the Jews never had with the Old Testament, or Covenant, that was the Mosaic Law and the Temple rituals. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ ushered in a new Covenant, a new relationship with God, and it was actually the fulfillment of all that God had given man in the Old Covenant.
Under the New Covenant, it is in Christ that we have a better priest; we have a better sacrifice; and we have a better tabernacle. All of this converges in Christ because He is all three. He is a better priest that ministers there. He is the better sacrifice because He offered Himself, and He ministers in a better tabernacle, for He offered his own blood for your sin and mine. Christ is the Mediator of the better Covenant because it contains better promises. First, the New Covenant is better than the Mosaic Covenant, not morally, but because it has the power to produce the desired result. The New Covenant gives us Christ as the Perfect Mediator. Second, it is established on better, unconditional, promises.
Under the New Covenant we obey God as a result of our worship of God. Not because we fear His judgment; that has already been settled by Christ, but because of our faith and love. True worship means the living Christ is real to you, you walk with Him daily, and you serve and obey Him. Then, we have a better covenant because the New Covenant secures the personal revelation of the Lord to every believer.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the fact that with Christ as our Great High Priest, and the New Covenant that God has made with man, that we now have a salvation that is secure, and the power of the Holy Spirit in our heart to enable us to do the will of God in our lives.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
If you cease to be better, then you cease to be good, and when you cease to be good you are living a life of sin. To stop growing in Christ, means that you are living a life of sin. The Christian who is living a life of sin, meaning they are truly saved, but not living a life in the will of God, is going to lose the rewards that God has promised them. These are the joy of living with Christ in your heart in this life, and the crowns, or rewards, that we will receive for living a life doing the will of God. You cannot lose your salvation, for that is secure in the hand of God, and no man can pluck you out. But, you can lose the opportunity to have our dear Lord and Savior say “Welcome my faithful servant” as you step into Glory forever and ever. Nothing would hurt me more than disappointing my Lord, Jesus Christ.
Click on the link below to hear a message where the writer of Hebrews tells Christians, “I am persuaded that you are going to live for God, that you are going to receive the things that accompany salvation, the joy of the Christian life, and the rewards for your work done through the Holy Spirit living in you.”
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Did you know that it is possible to be healthy and not mature? For example, most young children are perfectly healthy, but they’re not mature. In the same way, you can be a healthy Christian, but not a mature Christian, because it’s not time for you to be mature yet. You can be someone who has just begun their walk with God as a believer and be spiritually young. There’s nothing wrong with you in this stage. It doesn’t matter if you are 10 years old or 70 years old, if you have just become a Christian, then it is perfectly legitimate if you’re what the Bible calls “a babe in Christ.”
So, what is a grownup Christian? Paul gives us the answer, the model for maturity is Jesus Christ. Do you know that the measurement of my ministry as a teacher is? The measurement of your maturity, and do you know the measurement of your maturity is how much more you’re becoming like Jesus every day? You measure any man’s ministry by this: Is he, by his preaching and teaching and praying, causing people to be like Jesus? That’s what maturity is—that you are becoming like the Son of God.
Now, that’s the mark of maturity, and maturity is not something that one day you don’t have, and the next day you do have. Maturity is a lifelong process. Maturity is not a hundred-yard dash and it’s over. It is a lifetime marathon. I don’t care who you are, there’s always room for growth. If you fail to grow, if you fail to get better, you cease being good. I don’t care how good you are right now. The moment you cease to grow you begin to decay.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how to be a grownup Christian. The Bible tells us, Obey what you know, and God will give you more. Serve where you’re able, and you will grow in ability.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ died for your sins, my sins, the whole world’s sins, and then He rose again so that we might have everlasting life if we will make Him our Lord and Savior. Jesus stands today, alive, in the Holy Tabernacle of Heaven as our Great High Priest so that our salvation will be a forever, and ever, salvation.
So, now that you are saved. Now, that you know all that Christ has done for you, what should your reaction be? What should your duty to Christ be? God answers this question with a command, not a suggestion, but a command to grow as a Christian. To become a grownup Christian.
Heb 6:1 1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, KJV
It is one thing to become saved, it is another thing entirely to become a full-grown Christian. I want to put a thought in your mind, and I pray that it will bother you. I pray that it will bother you so much that it will spur you into action. I want you to write this down someplace that, every morning when you open your Bible for your quiet time, it reminds you of something very important. It says, “When I cease to be better, I cease to be good.”
Click on the link below to hear a message that says, if you have stopped growing, then you have begun decaying. Decay always begins when growth ends. The Bible says we are to go on to maturity. There is more to life than being born. A Christian is a tree planted, not a post stuck in the ground. We are commanded to grow. There is a “must” about it. The Holy Spirit of God has so much more for you to know about the grace of God, the blessings of God, and the work of God, but He cannot tell you these things until you are no longer a baby spiritually.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
As Christ followers, we believe in the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer. That just means that each believer is a priest with direct access to God. We have no need of an earthly priest because we already have direct access to God. This doctrine of the priesthood of the believer is clearly taught in the New Testament.
1 Peter 2:5 5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. KJV
This position of “royal priesthood” for the believer is made possible by the completed work of salvation of Christ at Calvary. Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection abolished the need of earthly priests and their sacrifices, for Christ became the sacrifice for all. As believers, the Bible tells us that we have full, unfettered, access to God. Yet, it is true that, like Job, we all have needs and we need someone to help us approach God. Listen, if the idea of boldly approaching the very throne of The Almighty God, so that you can speak to Him, does not intimidate you, then I am not sure you fully understand who God really is. Jesus Christ is that Mediator, that High Priest that brings God to us, and us to God.
There is a man in heaven, and His name is Jesus Christ. This is the place of His ministry. He is there at the right hand of the Father, co-equal, co-eternal with God the Father, and the place of His ministry is the place of His majesty, at the right hand of God forevermore.
Click on the link below to learn what a Savior we have! He is King. He is priest. He is the King of Righteousness. He is the Prince of Peace. And I’ll tell you, if you’ll make Him your King, you’ll know righteousness and you will know peace. I promise you on the authority of the Word of God that is true. And you will have a high priest, someone who will bring God to you, and someone who will intercede for you before the Father.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST-PART II (Hebrews 5:5-6; 7:1-8)
Sometimes, people say that Protestant denominations like Baptists, or Methodists, or Presbyterians don’t believe in priests. Oh, but we do! We have a great high priest, and His name is Jesus.
Now, God wants us to learn, and so God gives us His Word, the Bible. The Bible is a great book in many ways, and it has many figures, pictures, and illustrations to help us learn about God. One such illustration of Jesus as our high priest is a man named Melchizedek, and he has a lot to do with you. He is a shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament that pictured and prophesied our Savior in the New Testament and for ever and ever. I say, he pictures Jesus, however, he may indeed have been Jesus. Some expositors believe that Melchizedek was just another name for a pre-incarnate appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ when Jesus came to earth and appeared for a little while and then went back to heaven before His birth at Bethlehem. Now, whether or not Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus, or whether he was just an incredible, wonderful illustration and picture of the Lord Jesus, the truth is there that when we learn about Melchizedek, we’re going to learn about our High Priest, Jesus Christ.
Now, you may feel that you don’t need a high priest, but you do. A high priest is a mediator. You see, a priest is someone who can bring God to you and someone who can go to God for you. Now isn’t that what you need? Don’t you need somebody who will bring God, and make Him real to you, and mediate Him to you? And don’t you need somebody who can plead your case for you? Well, that is a priest. That is our great high priest, the Lord Jesus.
Click on the link to hear a message on how we protestants find out that we do have a priest, and He is so much better than any earthly priest. Better than Aaron, and better than any other local priest at a church.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
Jesus Christ is our Great High Priest, that is the role that Christ is playing in our lives today. He has completed His work of salvation, and now He is in heaven as our Great High Priest.
In the Old Testament, one of the functions of the priest was to hear the confession of sins so that a sacrifice could be made to obtain forgiveness of that sin. Un-confessed sin was and is a burden upon the person who sins. However, as a believer that has made Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, in this age of grace, we know that all of our sins have already been forgiven. We already know that we will not have to face the penalty of our sin, for Christ has already done that for us. Yet, sin is still a burden on our spirit, and we are certainly told to confess our sins.
We confess our sins out of obedience and a desire for cleansing. If we do not acknowledge our sin, it becomes like a malignancy which spreads to consume our energy, our spiritual zeal, and it is always present with us draining our ambition to serve the Lord. It robs us of the joy of being in God’s will, and for the Christian, being in God’s will is the zone, it is that special place we want to be.
Hebrews 4:16 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. KJV
This is telling us that we can come with great freedom unto the Throne of Grace. We can speak freely to the Lord Jesus Christ. We can tell Him things we wouldn’t tell anyone else. He already knows everything there is to know about us, so why not speak freely with Him. Christ understands us; He knows all of our weaknesses. And when we approach that throne of Grace it is so “that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” We can come with full confidence that He will hear us, and He wants to extend to us His Grace, and Mercy, when we are in a time of need.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the fact that our sin is not a secret, God sees it all, and God expects us to confess that sin. The message today is about the One who now stands in the office of High Priest, and to whom we must confess. Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is the Supreme High Priest.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.
Amen.
When you open the Word of God, Jesus steps out. It is a living book. It presents a living person. Jesus Christ is alive and well, and He says, “… the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” The Bible is alive!
The Bible says that the gospel is a saber of life unto life, or death unto death. It is the sword of God. It is quick. It is powerful. It is sharper than any two-edged sword.
Heb 4:12 12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. KJV
This says that the Bible is “quick.” Now that word quick means alive, but it also means that it is something that continues to go on. It will never die. This book, the Word of God, will live through the ages. It cannot die. It is alive, and it is deathless. It is the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever.
It’s the Word that the body of Christ, the church of believers, is built on. And in this day, when everything that’s not nailed down is coming loose, and the devil is pulling nails out as fast as he can, you had better build your life on the Word of God.
Click on the link below to hear a message that tells us that there is no way possible that you are going to be a growing Christian if you neglect the one book that God has provided to give you energy, power, sustenance, and strength, wisdom, knowledge, and faith; and that book is, the Word of God. If you do not spend time daily in the Word of God, then you cannot lead a victorious Christian life.
Amen.
God’s favorite characterization of His Book is the phrase, “The Word of God.” God’s favorite title for the Bible is the Word of God. Did you know that nowhere in the Bible will you find that God calls this book “The Bible?” Now, I am not saying that the Bible is not an appropriate title for this book, because it is. It recognized the world over as God’s book. Yet, it is not what the Bible calls itself. Over and over and over again you can find where the Bible calls itself the Word of God.
Now, that’s very important because when it is the Word of God, then it is what? God speaking. Now, if it is God speaking, then we have to pay attention to it. You see, God gave the same name to His own dear Son. Jesus Christ is called the same thing that the Bible is called. Jesus is called the Word of God. For example, in Revelation 19, verse 13, speaking of Jesus when he comes again:
Rev 19:13 13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. KJV
Now, that’s also very important because the character of both are linked together. The Bible is called the Word of God; Jesus Christ is called the Word of God. One is the written word; the other is the living word. The Bible is the Word of the Lord, and Jesus is the Lord of the Word. And so, the living word, Jesus, honors the written word. The written word, the Bible, presents the living word, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Click on the link below to hear a message that tells us there is no way possible that you are going to be a growing Christian if you neglect the one book that God has provided to give you energy, power, sustenance, and strength, wisdom, knowledge, and faith; and that book is, the Word of God. If you do not spend time daily in the Word of God, then you cannot lead a victorious Christian life.
Amen.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church in Wichita, KS.
Have you ever asked yourself what is one of the most serious sins that we as either, a lost person, or a believer, can commit against God? As a believer, we know that our salvation is secure, we cannot lose it no matter what we do, but we can still sin. So, what do you think would be one of the worst sins that a believer could commit? Murder, lying, stealing, adultery, worshipping idols, all very serious, but what could be more serious?
The sin of unbelief, the sin of not trusting God with your whole life, is one of the most serious sins that a believer can commit. It is serious because your unbelief will keep God from using you to do His work, and from blessing you. A Christian that does not trust God, is totally useless. For the lost person, unbelief is even more tragic and dangerous. It is the one sin that will close the door to salvation. Unbelief leads to denial and rejection of God, which leads to judgment and an eternity in darkness without God.
The writer of Hebrews is warning believers not to make the same mistake. Don’t doubt God. Come enjoy the rest of obedience, the rest of enjoyment of a Christian life. Learn what it is to have the full joy that comes with being in the Will of God.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the great failure of believers today is unbelief. They have received the rest of salvation, but they have not trusted God to do everything He says He will do. They still want to handle their problems all on their own. They have not found the peace and comfort, the rest, that comes from living a life of obedience and faith. The rest of obedience that an all powerful God can give you.
Amen.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church in Wichita, KS.
The Bible talks about entering into God’s Rest. There is the “rest of salvation” spoken of in:
Matthew 11:28 28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. KJV
Then, there is “the rest of redemption.” The Israelites that came out of bondage knew the rest of redemption. They were no longer slaves of Egypt. They came out by blood, blood on the doorposts. They came out by power---the power of God. God had brought them across the Red Sea. God had delivered them.
Then, Jesus spoke of “the rest of obedience, the rest of enjoying a Christian life.”
Matthew 11:29 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. KJV
The great failure of believers today is that they have received “the rest of salvation,” but they have not trusted God to do everything He says He will do. They still want to handle their problems all on their own. They have not found the peace and comfort, the rest, that comes from living a life of obedience and faith. “The rest of obedience” that an all powerful God can give you.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how Christ is a superior Savior and Priest, who provides better security than anything offered by Moses and the Law that God gave the Jews through Moses. How our belief and obedience to Christ, can bring us into the rest of obedience, the rest of enjoying a Christian life.
Amen.
We have been talking about the purpose and the reasons behind Jesus coming to earth as a Man. Why He would care so much about us that He would even do such a thing, and the wonderful blessings that His coming means for us now and throughout eternity. Just think, if you choose Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you will spend eternity with the Son of the Living God, the Almighty Creator of all things, in a place in Heaven that He has especially prepared for you.
So, why would Jesus do this? Because Christ alone could redeem man, and He could do it only by dying on the Cross. It was the only way. Jesus was and is man. Jesus was and is God, Jehovah, and the second person of the Godhead. Jesus stood as the Perfect and Ideal Man before God. This meant that as the Ideal and Perfect Man, whatever Christ did would stand for, and apply to man, or in other words, it would cover for man.
•When Christ died, His death would free man from ever having to die in judgment for our sins. •When He arose, His resurrection would assure man that he, too, would arise and live eternally. •When He was exalted into Heaven, His exaltation would make it possible for man to be exalted into heaven and to rule and reign over the universe with Christ.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how Christ made it possible for man to be restored to his destined glory and dominion. Christ has made it possible for man to live eternally with God, and to fulfill his purpose for God.
Amen.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church in Wichita, KS.
How would our world and our lives be different if Jesus had not come, died, and rose from that grave?
Death laid his hands on the Lord Jesus Christ, and death put Jesus in a rock-hewn tomb. And there was a stone in the mouth of that tomb, and the seal of the Roman government was placed upon that tomb. But on the third day, Jesus Christ stirred Himself. He rose from the sleep of death. He left those grave clothes that were wrapped around him like a butterfly would forsake a cocoon. Jesus Christ passed through the walls of that rock-hewn tomb. By the way, the stone wasn’t rolled away to let Jesus out—it was rolled away to let the disciples in to see that Jesus had come back.
The wonderful good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ is alive today. He is not behind us in a tomb; He is before us on a throne. We thank God for that. But, suppose that had not happened. Suppose death still held Jesus. Then, what? Suppose there had been no Easter.
Well, no resurrection, means no Savior. No Savior, means no forgiveness. No forgiveness, means no justification. No justification, means no cleansing. No cleansing, means the penalty of your sin is still upon you. If the penalty of your sin is still upon you, then you are destined for death and Hell, and you’re still in your sins.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how our world, our future, and our lives, would be different if there had been no Easter.
Amen.
The only way we can truly understand what man is, is to understand what the Bible says about man. It is from the Word of God that we learn the truth of how God views man. How God answers the question, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou [didst visit] him?” From a biblical perspective, the key question that we need to consider is why do all the worlds of space exist? What is their purpose? Has God any pleasure in dead matter? Is He not the God of the living? Can inanimate matter praise Him, the Lord of all life? No, they cannot, and so there is man.
When God made man, God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living, eternal, soul. It is your soul that makes you of infinite worth. Your soul will be in existence when the sun, and the moon, and the stars have turned to cinders. Your soul will go on endless, timeless, dateless, measureless, for God breathed into you the breath of life. Man was created in the image of God, and you could no more cease to exist than God Himself could cease to exist.
God is mindful of you. He sees you now—He’s looking at you right now. He desires you; He loves you. God doesn’t love us because we are valuable; we are valuable because He loves us. The dignity of man is that God is mindful of man, that God desires man.
Click on the link below to hear a message on why God loves you so much that He would send His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross to pay the penalty of your sin.
Amen.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church in Wichita, KS.
Who was it that thought up this idea of salvation? Not you, not me. It originated in the heart of Almighty God. Before God ever swung this world into space, before God ever scooped out the seas, and heaped up the mountains, and flung out the sun, moon, and the stars, salvation was in the heart and mind of God.
Why is this salvation so great? Because Jesus, with His rich, red, royal blood tasted death for every man. Jesus died instead of you. His death had your name on it. Only the dead in hell can even begin to know what Jesus suffered on that cross, and He did it for you. If you refuse this salvation, if you just drift on by, then you trample underneath your feet the precious blood of Jesus and pour contempt upon His death.
So, the writer of Hebrews asks this question: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation.” That’s the question. That’s a question that no lawyer can answer. That’s a question that no scientist with his computer can answer. That’s a question that no philosopher with his thick volumes can answer. That is a question that no soothsayer can answer. That is a question that even God Almighty cannot answer because there is no answer to the question “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” There is no answer because there is no escape.
Click on the link below to hear a message on our so great salvation that God has provided for us.
Amen.
Heb 1:8 8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. KJV
I want you to notice something very important here, God the Father calls God the Son, God. Now, the eternal claim of Jesus is that He is God. Jesus is forevermore God. A billion, billion years from now, He still will be God. Look at this verse: “Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever and ever and ever.” Jesus will still be King forever more.
A basic truth of our created universe is that things change. All created things change. This universe is going to wear itself out. This universe is going to run down, the second law of thermodynamics tells us that it’s on its way down. It is burning out. Another basic truth is that anything that moves makes friction, and anything that makes friction wears, and anything that wears, disintegrates. And that’s the reason that this universe that is moving and pulsating is wearing down, it is wearing down like a garment that wears out. It’s going to wear out. But Jesus is from everlasting to everlasting. A billion years from now Jesus is the same from age to age;
Click on the link below to hear a message on Jesus Christ, our Superlative Savior.
Amen.
“You may learn to love Jesus better, but you can never love anything better than Jesus. He is our superlative Savior.”
H. G. Wells, wrote in his outlines of history the 10 greatest men of all history, and number one on his list was Jesus Christ. But, the truth is, that Jesus Christ does not belong on anybody’s list. Why? Because, He is God’s unique, only begotten Son. He is our singular Savior. He is our superior Savior. He is our superlative Savior.
Jesus is unique in comparison to all of the other religious leaders. Buddha was a religious leader. Mohammed was a religious leader. Confucius was a religious leader. But let me tell you what all of these have in common. You can take them out of their teachings and still have their teachings. You can take Buddha out of Buddhism and still have Buddhism. You can take Mohammed out of Islam and still have Islam. You can take Confucius out of Confucianism and still have that system of thought. You just follow the deeds, the teachings, the precepts, the creeds of those particular faiths, and you have it.
But you can’t take Christ out of Christianity and still have Christianity, because Christianity is not a code, not a cause, not a creed, not a church, but Christ. It is a vital relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you tried to take Jesus out of Christianity, that would be like taking the notes out of music. That would be like taking the water out of a well. That would be like taking numbers out of mathematics. If you take Jesus out of Christianity, you don’t have anything left, because Christ and Christianity are the same.
Christianity is not just believing some thing; it is receiving someone. And this is the difference between Christianity and any other religion: Christianity is a vital relationship with a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. He is alive and well and living in me today. If we are to be Christ followers, born again believers in Jesus Christ, then we need to understand that Jesus Christ is our singular Savior, and therefore He is our superlative Savior.
Click on the link below to hear a message on Jesus Christ, our Superlative Savior.
Amen.
Today’s message is a very interesting passage of Scripture because it talks about God’s ideal of a virtuous woman, He is saying that this woman is the complete, perfect, woman. That is, she is God’s ideal of what a woman, a wife, and a mother ought to be.
Sometimes when you ask a woman what she does, she’ll say, “Oh, I’m just a housewife.” Well, if that is you, then I hope that you will never say that again after this message here today, because you’re going to find out that perhaps the most difficult, the most demanding job in all of the world is being what some people call a “housewife.” Now, I’d rather call her a “homemaker,” because she is not married to a house. So, I don’t like the word housewife; but indeed, she is a homemaker.
This is the ideal wife. Now, I don’t believe that there is anyone really like her in all of the world. Yet, God has put into His Word God’s standard, God’s ideal for wives, and God always deals in perfection with His standards.
Listen to me men, if you are married to a good and godly woman, as I am, happily so and for many years, I can tell you that I do not have words in my vocabulary to express to you how much I value my precious wife. I will also tell you that the real value, the real worth, of a wife is not in her outward charm—though I thank God for outward charm; it is not in the beauty of her face—though I thank God for that; but the real value of a wife is her virtue. God says “Who can find a virtuous wife? Her price is far above rubies.”
To her children, to her husband, and to her neighbors, she’s known as a godly woman, a woman who fears the Lord. That is her glowing witness. I am convinced that virtually all of the major problems that we have in America would change overnight if we just had some more women who met this standard of God’s virtuous woman. The Bible tells us that the only way to be this kind of a woman is to fear the Lord. It’s all possible because of Jesus.
Click on the link below to hear a message on God’s ideal of a virtuous woman.
Amen.
This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church in Wichita, KS.
I don’t think anyone listening to me today would disagree that we are in moral crisis in our world today, and especially in America. But, we are also in a crisis of leadership, and certainly the Bible teaches us that a nation gets the kind of leadership that nation deserves. May I say clearly and plainly that leadership is crucial for any nation to be blessed by God.
There’s an old proverb that says, “If the gold rust, what shall the iron do?” Now, what that proverb is trying to say is that, if our leadership is not right, what’s going to happen to the rest of us?
Now, here in our country, our government is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The very genius of our government is that the people participate. It’s unthinkable that God Almighty would have ordained government and then told His people to stay out of it. Because, if we do stay out of it, then who would that leave to influence and to lead? Unfortunately, we see the answer to that question with the leadership that populates all levels of our government. There is a crisis in leadership in our country today, nor is this anything new. It has been a crisis for a very long time.
Yet, don’t ever think for one moment that because wicked men make wicked choices, and wicked rulers lead, that God has forsaken control. He has not. The Bible says, “For God is the King of all the earth,” and not only is He King of all the earth, but He is King forever.
Now having said all this, what should we do? Well, number one, the very first thing that we need to do is to pray for revival. The second thing we need to do is prepare for suffering. We need to teach our children that it may not be like we had it. We need to be building character into these boys and girls. Then, the third thing we need to do: We need to prepare for the Lord Jesus Christ’s arrival. He is coming. Jesus is coming. All you have to do is look around and see that the signs of the times are saying that Jesus is near.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the character of a leader.
Amen.
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.
Now, make no mistake, God’s Spirit does strive with us, and God is infinitely patient with us in that He often reproves us. Time and time and time and time again, God speaks, and God woos, and God warns, and God pleads, and God instructs, and God reproves. But there comes a time when the Holy Spirit can be so insulted, so sinned against, that you cross a deadline that God has set for you, and God’s gentle precious Holy Spirit no longer speaks to your heart.
Now, here is the most chilling part of this spiritual desertion. Did you know that you cannot be saved unless the Holy Spirit of God draws you to Jesus Christ? That is true, and if you cross God’s deadline, that in His omniscience He has sovereignly set for you, and the Holy Spirit stops speaking to you, then you will never be saved.
Click on the link below to hear a message on what God’s Word says about Crossing God’s Deadline.
Amen.
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.
Did you know that God is interested in you being prosperous? Now, the reason that we don’t prosper like God wants us to prosper is very simple, there is un-confessed sin in our hearts and in our lives. It’s just as plain and simple as that. The reason that you don’t prosper, (meaning that you are not living a life of general welfare, where God meets your needs, and that you are being fulfilled and enjoying the blessings of God) is because there is unconfessed sin in your heart.
So, you might ask, “Well, Bro. Keith, I have covered sin in my life, and I want to get rid of it and get back the joy of the Lord in my heart. What must I do?”
Prov 28:13 13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. KJV
God is telling us that we need to confess that sin so that we “shall have mercy.” A good confession of committed sin is threefold. First, the sin must be exposed in your life. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to expose sin in your life. When we cover it, the Holy Spirit uncovers it. When we uncover it, He covers it, and when He covers it, it is gone; it is forgotten forever, never, never to be brought up again.
But not only must that sin be exposed in your life; that sin must be expressed. That is, you must confess that sin. You must name that sin. You must tell God exactly, precisely, what it is that you did. Then, Sin must be expelled from your life. It must be forsaken. We must be finished with that sin in our hearts and in our minds.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how you can enact God’s plan for prosperity in your life. God wants you to be prosperous. Turn your life over to Him today, and be the prosperous, victorious, Christian, that God wants you to be.
Amen.
Did you know that God is interested in you being prosperous?
Ps 35:27 27 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. KJV
God is pleased when you’re prosperous. So, what is God’s plan for prosperity, and what is prosperity? Well, prosperity doesn’t mean that you’re going to be wealthy. In fact, many of you may already have more money than God can trust you with right now. When the Bible talks about Prosperity, it means that you live a life of general welfare, where God meets your needs, and that you are being fulfilled and enjoying the blessings of God.
Now, the reason that we don’t prosper like God wants us to prosper is very simple: there is un-confessed sin in our hearts and in our lives. It’s just as plain and simple as that. The reason that you don’t prosper, (meaning that you are not living a life of general welfare, where God meets your needs, and that you are being fulfilled and enjoying the blessings of God) is because there is unconfessed sin in your heart.
Click on the link below to hear a message on God’s plan for prosperity and what the cost is of hidden, unconfessed, sin in your life.
Amen.
Today, I want to talk about the lost opportunity of living every day for the rest of your life, and then all of eternity, with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
Now, when you think of all the people in just the last 20 years who have heard the gospel message of Jesus Christ, I would have to guess that there have been millions upon millions, upon millions of people who have heard this wonderful gospel of forgiveness and eternal life in heaven with Jesus Christ. I would guess that millions of those people came to know the Lord Jesus Christ through the ministry of God’s Word.
However, and I hate to say it, but I have to believe that millions of those people, in fact the vast majority, who heard the gospel message of Christ preached to them, go away unsaved. They go away having not received the Lord Jesus Christ. There has been no change in their lives. They have heard the Word of God, and they’ve gone out unsaved. Now, I have to ask myself, “Why do some people hear the gospel and not receive it?” God, in His Word, provides a compelling answer to that question.
Prov 27:1 1 Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. KJV
I believe far and away, the majority of the people who hear the gospel message and go out unsaved, and remain unsaved, are lost because of procrastination. They believe the gospel, and they are not self-righteous. They know that they need to be saved, and they say, “One of these days, I’m going to get saved.” But they keep putting it off.
Click on the link below to hear a message on why you should ask yourself these questions, why should I not have the joy of knowing Jesus now? Why should I not have the peace of knowing Jesus now? Why should I not have the fulfillment of knowing Jesus now? Why should l not have the love of knowing Jesus now? Why should I not have a God that I can pray to now? Why should I wait to be saved? Why put it off till tomorrow? Being saved is not like taking bad medicine in order to get well. It is like that first taste of ice cream on a hot summer day. It is so good, you have to eat more. That is what being saved is like, it is so good, you want even more.
But most of all, ask yourself, Why should I miss the opportunity of eternity?
Amen.
In today’s message we are going to be talking about how to handle anger. Now, all of us have to deal with anger in our lives. There are lots of counselors out there who you can spend a great deal of money on learning how to deal with anger, but today we are going to see what God has to say about how to handle anger. I believe this is a topic that is very important for every believer, because I don’t know of anything that’s doing more damage to people than is the problem of uncontrolled, un-Christian anger.
Not all anger is bad. Some anger is good. The Lord Jesus says the way to be angry and sin not, is to be angry only at sin. You see, you are to love the sinner and hate the sin. So, how can you tell when your anger is a godly, or sinful anger? Ask yourself, it is without sufficient cause, if it is without a righteous cause, then it’s sinful anger. If that anger is against the person rather than the offense, then it is unrighteous anger. If you have a desire for revenge, then it is unrighteous anger. If you harbor that anger in your heart and don’t want to give it up, then it is unrighteous anger. Then, if you have an unforgiving spirit, then it is unrighteous anger. If your anger carries one of these marks, then it is an unrighteous anger. The really wonderful thing about God is that He knows how big of a problem this is.
Click on the link below to hear a message where God gives us six principles right out of the Word of God on how God wants us to handle unrighteous anger.
Amen.
Our message today is on the subject of truth. Now, the idea of real truth is something that is an often-discussed issue in our society, and everybody seems to think they can subscribe to their own version of truth. The idea of God, as our Creator, having the sovereign right to determine the absolute truths that govern our world, is certainly rejected by the majority of our society.
We have a generation today that does not know how to differentiate between truth and facts. Now facts deal with knowledge, and knowledge may double, but truth, never. If it is new, it’s not true. Truth is settled in eternity.
Prov 23:23 23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. KJV
So, we have substituted facts for truth. Not that facts in themselves are wrong. Facts are stubborn things. But there is a difference in acquiring facts and learning truth. We’re drowning in facts. What’s the difference between facts and truth? Facts are like a recipe; truth is the meal. When you digest the truth, it will change your life.
Now, the Bible says, “Buy the truth, and sell it not.” When the child of God looks into the Word of God, and sees the Son of God, and is changed by the Spirit of God into the image of God, for the glory of God, I believe he has learned the truth of God.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how to apply God’s truth in your life, and how that truth will set you free.
Amen.
The prayer of every Christian parent is that their children will come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and that they will live their lives being a true Christ follower. Unfortunately, many times the children of even the best of parents choose to follow a different path, the Bible even gives us the story of the prodigal son to tell us that this is true. Ultimately, the child becomes a person who must make their own decision about who Christ will be in their lives. Our job as parents is to “train up a child in the way he should go,” both in what we say and what we do, for we must be a living example of what a true Christ follower is to our children. You cannot expect your child to follow Christ if they do not see you following Christ in all aspects of your life, and your children see it all. They see all the things you hide from the world. They see if Christ is real in your life or not. Your actions are more a part of the way you train a child than any words you say.
Prov 22:6 6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. KJV
Notice that this verse does not say, “Teach a child in the way that he should go: and when he is old, he shall not depart from it.” There is a difference between teaching and training, and many parents do not know that difference, and therefore they are losing their children. Your responsibility is to train your children. The English dictionary says to train means to “prepare for a contest.” It means “to instruct by exercise.” It means “to drill.” It means “to form to a proper shape.” It means “to discipline for use.”
Click on the link below to hear a message from The Master’s Class at LifeChange Church Wichita about how to train your children so that they will become followers of the one true Almighty God, and that the Lord Jesus Christ will be made manifest in their lives.
Amen.
One of the most frequent challenges that I get when my lessons are heard by Muslims is that Jesus Christ is not the Son of God. They often quote the Quran which states that “Allah, who has not begotten a son (nor an offspring)…” as the basis for their disbelief. They have also asked this question, “You say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God because He was born of a virgin, and that He didn’t have an earthly father. Well, Adam didn’t have a father or a mother. Wouldn’t that make Adam more a Son of God than Jesus?” The answer to that question is found at the very root of our knowledge about who Jesus Christ is. The answer that the Word of God gives us is that Jesus is not the Son of God because He was born of a virgin. Instead, He was born of a virgin because He is the Son of God.
Now, I’m aware that the world laughs at the idea of a virgin birth. They think of it as some sort of primitive, medieval, superstition or something. They mock the idea of the virgin birth. I can tell you furthermore, the devil hates the idea of the virgin birth, because it teaches both the humanity and the deity of his nemesis, and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, I want to show you in this message that you have no hope of salvation apart from the virgin birth. I want to show you that if you take away the virgin birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you have destroyed the whole foundation of Christianity, and it will all collapse like a house of cards. It is not incidental; it is fundamental.
Jesus was born of a virgin that we might be born again. He came to earth that we might go to heaven. He became the Son of man that we might become the sons and daughters of God. That’s what it’s all about. That is why we have the virgin birth. Thank God that God stepped out of heaven and was born of a virgin. That’s the reason the angel said, “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” (Luke 2:10)
Jesus Christ is not the white man’s Savior, the black man’s Savior, the yellow man’s Savior, the western Savior, the eastern Savior; He is the Savior of the world. “This is good news which is to all people.” He is the Savior of the world. The world needs Jesus. Jews and Gentiles need Jesus. Young and old need Jesus. Rich and poor need Jesus. Intellectual and illiterate, we all need Jesus. He is the virgin-born Son of God.
Clink on the link below to hear a podcast message from The Master’s Class at LifeChange Church Wichita that describes the answer to this world’s problems is the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The hope of the individual, the hope of the church, the hope of the family, the hope of this nation, and the hope of this world, is Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The Bible says that the great hunger of every person’s heart is to know Jesus Christ. Not know about Him, but to know Him and to have reality. Yet, people are tired of hypocrisy. They are tired of games. But they are seeking reality. If we want to reach people for Christ. If we want to show people how to fill that great hunger they feel in their heart, then we must have this bright, shining, and living reality, and no longer be cardboard Christians.
Prov 21:28 28 A false witness shall perish: but the man that heareth speaketh constantly. KJV
This verse says that it is fatal not to have reality, to be false, to be a phony, to be a cardboard Christian. “A false witness shall perish.” A false witness is someone who looks like a Christian, acts like a Christian, talks like a Christian, they may even believe they are a Christian, but they are not saved, and they are not born again. If you believe that you will have eternal life in heaven just because you have joined the right church, but you have never made Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, then you are a cardboard Christian.
The verse also tells us of the reality of a faithful witness, “but the man that heareth speaketh constantly.”
John 10:27 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: KJV
This means that the Lord doesn’t know anyone unless they have heard His voice. You cannot be a Christian without hearing the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t mean audibly. But you must hear God. A faithful witness hears, and what is it that they hear? His voice. What is His voice? His Word. The Bible that we have been given by God, written and inspired by God, those words are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Click on the link below to hear a podcast message from The Master’s Class at LifeChange Church Wichita on the fatality of a false witness, and the reality of a faithful witness.
Amen.
All of us get angry from time to time, and our message today is about what the Word of God says about dealing with anger.
Prov 19:11-12 11 The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. 12 The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass. KJV
Now, somebody once said that anger is an acid that destroys its container, and indeed it does. It is a gross form of acid that does harm to anything that it is poured on. I am talking about ungodly, unjustified, anger. There are some people who will tell you this about their anger, “Well, it’s just my Irish blood; it just runs in the family,” or whatever ancestry it is that they claim to have. They are like a loaded shotgun with a hair trigger; and anytime they’re jostled, they blast away. To excuse this, they say, “Oh, well, it only lasts a little while.” Well, so does a tornado, but when one comes, they are usually weeks cleaning up the wreckage. It is same way with those bursts of anger. It can take weeks, months, even a lifetime, to clean up the wreckage that you have caused to the ones you love.
Now when you are quick to get angry, there is so much that you are going to lose. You can lose your job. You can lose your friends. You can lose your children. You can lose your wife. You can lose your health. You may lose a few teeth. You can lose your testimony. There is nothing more debilitating to your Christian testimony than the fact that you just fly off the handle at anyone who gets in your way, irritates you, or offends you.
When you let the sun go down upon your anger; that is, when you live with your anger. You and your spouse get into an argument, and then rather than kneeling by the bed and getting right with God, and getting right with one another, you go to bed back-to-back, angry; you let the sun go down upon your wrath—do you know what you’ve done? You’ve opened the door to the devil. What you’ve done is this: you’ve said, “Devil, come in and wreck my home; devil, come in and destroy my family; devil, come in and ruin my testimony.” You have given the devil a place in your heart, that’s what the Bible says:
Eph 4:26-27 26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27 Neither give place to the devil. KJV
Prov 19:12 12 The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass. KJV
If you’re not a Christian; if you’re not saved; if you don’t know that if you died right now that you would go to heaven, then I want you to look at what this verse says, “The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass.”
Now, the King of kings is Jesus. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. One day, you are going to stand before Him to be judged. For every man, there is a day to be born, a day to die, and a day to be judged. You can face the Lord’s wrath if you want to, or you can have His favor if you want to. Do you want the King’s favor like the dew on the morning grass sweet, gentle, loving, fruitful, multiplying, and life-giving? You can have it.
Now you need to be saved, born again, born from above. To be saved means that every sin is forgiven. To be saved means that Jesus Christ now lives in your heart. To be saved means that when you die, you’ll go to heaven. So, if you want to deal with that anger that is in your heart, then the first thing you need to do is ask Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior.
Click on the link below to hear a message on what the Bible tells us about how to deal with anger.
Amen.
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.
A TRUE FRIEND (PROVERBS 17:17)
Like most of you, I can count on one hand the number of true friends that I have had throughout my life, and still have fingers left over. A true friend is a gift from God, and it is something that we treasure because they are so rare. In today’s lesson, I am going to flip this around and talk about what we, you and I, need to do in order to cultivate and become a true friend to someone else. So, what do I mean when I say a true friend? Somebody has said, “A friend is someone who comes in when everyone else goes out.” If you want to know who your true friends are, face some real tragedy in your life, and then see who jumps ship, and who comes to be with you.
Prov 17:17 17 A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. KJV
A true friend will make you a better person. A true friend is faithful, and a true friend will care enough and love enough to confront you.
Now, for the believer, the best friend that we will ever have is Jesus Christ. Just think about the blessings of knowing Jesus and having Christ as a friend, and all of the things that it ultimately means to us. How His friendship for us lifts us to a new level, and the fact that we didn’t choose Him, but He chose us.
Now, let me give you something to understand. Grace is God’s acceptance of me. Faith is my acceptance of God’s acceptance of me. Peace is my acceptance of me. Love is my acceptance of you, and then, fellowship is your acceptance of me. Grace, faith, peace, love, fellowship—there’s an unbroken chain. We need to learn how to accept God’s acceptance of us so we can accept ourselves and so we can accept others.
Click on the link below to hear a message on what it means to be a true friend to someone else. As a Christian we offer eternal life with Jesus Christ in heaven. If this is truly our vision, then it is very important for you as an individual to have friends and to be a friend. But, if we are to bring more people to a saving knowledge of Christ, then we need to meet their needs, and one of the things that meets needs is that spirit of friendliness.
Amen.
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.
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.
This is Part II of a message that I began last week on how the Word of God teaches that righteousness increases freedom, and I put this in the context of what is happening today to this country that we love so much. We live in a time when the very foundations of our nation are being challenged, and in many ways those foundations have already been unalterably changed.
Alexander Hamilton said, “People get the kind of government they deserve.” This means that the government that we have is a reflection of the character of our people. If the government reflects the character of the people, then you are going to find that the greater the character of the people, the more freedom, the more liberty, those people will have. The less the character of the people, the less freedom, and the less liberty, those people will have. Another word for character is responsibility, because character is responsibility assumed.
So, what is the only hope for America? I want to state with all of the power of my soul that the only hope for America is found right here in God’s Word.
Prov 14:34 34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. KJV
This is not merely what God has said in the past, this is what God is saying to any people, any nation. It is a universal truth from God, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” Unfortunately, the country that we love has overwhelmingly chosen the path that is described by the last half of this verse, where it says, but sin is a reproach to any people. It is with a very heavy heart that I have to say America is no longer the godly country our founders created.
Now on July 4, 1776, there was signed in the city of Philadelphia a document we call the Declaration of Independence. Now it was independence from Great Britain, but what many people fail to understand is that this same document was a document of dependence upon Almighty God. Now, without a doubt, the politicians of today have forgotten that fact. But it was clearly, and plainly, a declaration of dependence upon Almighty God.
Look at the opening and closing paragraph of this document. It says this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are … endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights.” It begins that way. But it closes this way: “With a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence …”—now, what is reliance? That’s dependence—“With a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence”—what is divine providence? That’s God—“With a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
All of that was stated in the context of depending upon Almighty God. It was then that the cannons fired. It was then that the fireworks went off. It was then, in the old statehouse now called Independence Hall, that the Liberty Bell began to ring out freedom. And on that bell are inscribed these words from Leviticus 25, verse 10: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land.”
In that document they said that God created us. Now, that isn’t what we can teach in schools today. But, our founders said in that document that God, as our Creator, gives us our rights, not the government. These are inalienable rights, like life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These have come from the Almighty, and not from government.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how our government, our constitution, began with a dependence upon Almighty God. And the Constitution was written by people of character, for people of character, and it will work for no other people. If we lose our character in the United States, our constitution will not work.
Amen.
This is a message that talks about a subject that weighs heavily on my heart as I read and see what is happening in our country today. We live in a time when the very foundations of our nation are being challenged, and in many ways those foundations have already been unalterably changed. The proverb that is the focus of our message today is very fitting for the subject at hand, because we are speaking today on this subject: Righteousness Increases Freedom.
Prov 14:34 34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. KJV
I believe the American Dream was placed into the bosom of our Founding Fathers by God Himself—I believe that with all of my heart. I believe that this is a Heaven-rescued, God-blessed land. I like what the Declaration of Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident … that all men are endowed by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights.” This means that, our very nature—the very nature of this land—is rooted in a belief in Almighty God.
When George Washington was sitting in the gallery amongst the members in the Continental Congress, somebody wanted to know which one he was. And, a friend said, “Well, if you want to see which one Washington is, when Congress goes to prayer, he’ll be the tall man who gets on his knees.” Washington was the one who went aside in the snows at Valley Forge, and got down on his knees, and prayed, and asked God to bless his little ragtag army. God did bless those revolutionaries, and out of that came America as we know it.
Thomas Jefferson said, “The God that gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.”
Alexander Hamilton said, “People get the kind of government they deserve.” This means that the government that we have is a reflection of the character of our people. You see, God ordained three institutions: the home, the Church, and the government. And, all three—the home, the Church, and the government—are but a reflection of the character of those people.
Now, here is another truth: if the government reflects the character of the people, then you are going to find that the greater the character of the people, the more freedom, the more liberty, those people will have. The less the character of the people, the less freedom, and the less liberty, those people will have. Another word for character is responsibility, because character is responsibility assumed.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how the righteousness of our people will determine the freedom and liberty that we enjoy as citizens of this great Heaven-rescued, God-blessed land.
Amen.
Prov 14:23 23 In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. KJV
God tells us that “In all labour there is profit.” Basically, God is telling us that no matter who you are and what your job is, God has given you that job and it is a sacred job because you are serving the Lord, and it is one that you are to find joy in because of who you are serving. If you do that job in the name of Jesus, and you do it for Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, then you can find joy in that job. It doesn’t matter if you are a homemaker, a widow, a retiree, 25 or 85 years old, single, married, or working every day at a job place, God has work for you to be doing, and this lesson is about finding joy in that work.
Now, you may feel that your work is nothing exciting, nothing meaningful, nothing thrilling. You feel that you are stuck as an ordinary person in an ordinary job. There is nothing extraordinary about you, or the work that you do, and you wish that God would call you to do something really special, really extraordinary. Now, you may be a very ordinary person. But, God loves ordinary people. He must because He has made so many of them. God makes ordinary people. Then, God takes ordinary people, and He gives them extraordinary power. If Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, then God infuses us with His Holy Spirit so we are no longer ordinary, because when we get saved, we become extraordinary. God takes ordinary people; God gives ordinary people extraordinary power; and then God puts those ordinary people in ordinary places.
Now, this is the takeaway that you need to put in your heart: When God takes an ordinary person and gives them extraordinary power, then puts that ordinary person in an ordinary place with extraordinary power, He does extraordinary things through an ordinary person. If you’ll learn this, and get this into your heart, it’s going to transform your life.
You may not be in an exciting job. But, if you learn what God has to tell you in this message, it is going to turn that drudgery into delight; it is going to turn that monotony into magnificence; and you’re going to find out that you are where God has placed you, and you’re there for a specific purpose.
Click on the link below to hear what the Word of God has to say about having joy in the work that God has called you to do.
Amen.
The title of the message is “Finding Joy in Your Work,” and I want to tell you, if you understand what God has to say in this message, it’s going to transform your work. It’s going to change it from boredom to blessing. It’s going to change it from monotony to meaning. It’s going to change it from drudgery to dignity. It’s going to change it from the same old grind to glory, if you understand what God has to say to us in this message today.
You see, so many people are sick and tired of what they do. I mean, they endure their work, whatever it is, they don’t enjoy their work. They think their job is meaningless. They think that some people have happy jobs, some people have exciting work, some people have thrilling things to do, but not them. They draw their breath and draw their salary. They wake up in the morning and take a bath, shave, go down, drink a cup of coffee, eat a piece of toast, scald their throat because they’re running a little late, drink their coffee too fast, then they run out and fight the traffic and get to work. It’s the same old thing day after day. Then they come home at night, take a couple of aspirins, sit down and watch the TV, discuss things with the wife, maybe putter around in the yard a little bit, then go to bed. The next day, the same old thing: nothing exciting, nothing meaningful, nothing thrilling. It just seems to be so humdrum, so meaningless.
Ok, I can already see the wheels turning in a lot of your minds because your saying, “Bro. Keith, you are a little late with this lesson because I am retired. I don’t have to work anymore.” If that is what you are thinking, then shame on you. Did you know that God doesn’t have a retirement program for Christian believers? If you are a Christian, and you are still breathing, then God has work for you to be doing. If that were not true, then God would have taken you to heaven. So, if you are still here, then God has work for you to do. Now, I am not talking about religious work, I am talking about God’s work, whatever God calls you to do.
Now, there are others who might be saying, “Bro. Keith, I don’t work at a regular job, I just stay at home taking care of my family.” Let me tell you that the work that a wife and a mother does taking care of her family is one of the most important jobs there is in this world. The greatest God-given role of a mother is pointing her children to Christ. The greatest desire of a mother who loves Jesus, is that her kids come to know Jesus as their Lord and savior, and then live their lives for Him. Just imagine, you get to partner with God in the daily discipleship of your children and in leading them towards a saving and sanctifying knowledge of the truth.
The same can be said for a wife, and about the love and support that she gives to her husband. Once the kids are gone, some women can feel that their purpose is over. But that is simply not what the Bible tells us. Just as the husband is to help his wife be all that she wants to be in the eyes of God, it is the wife's responsibility to help the husband become all that God wants him to be.
The point that I am trying to make is that it doesn’t matter if you are a widow, a retiree, 25 or 85 years old, single, married, or working every day at a job place, God has work for you to be doing, and this lesson is about finding joy in that work.
Click on the link below to hear a message about how to have joy in the work that you do for God.
Amen.
Everybody wants to be wealthy, but God tells us that there are different kinds of riches. There are true riches and there are false riches. True riches are the things that you have that when you share them, they increase. They become more. False riches, are the things that when you try to share them, they decrease. Anything that is of real value, anything that is of lasting value, anything that is a treasure in heaven—the more I give of it, the more I have of it. But with false riches, you hold on to them because if you give them away, then you have less.
If you want to know how rich you are, then add up everything that you have that money cannot buy and death cannot take away—then you will know how rich you are.
You see, with the riches of this world, if I think you’re trying to take what I have from me, it’s going to make me miserable. But if I have something that I want you to have, it’s going to make me happy to give it to you. With true riches, you’re not trying to keep everyone else from getting it. True riches are the kind of riches that I can share; and the more I give to you, the more I have for me. Isn’t that wonderful?
A man is impoverished if he is not rich toward God, if he does not have riches in heaven, if he has not made deposits in that safe deposit box in the glory.
Prov 11:4 4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death. KJV
Who is our righteousness? Christ is our righteousness. Why is that important? Because it is the righteousness of Christ that “delivereth from death.” If you want to live for eternity with Christ in heaven, then you need Jesus Christ in your heart. Then, Solomon says, “riches profit not in the day of wrath.” What does that mean? It means that no matter how much money you have in the vault, you’re going to die.
There’s a life to live; there’s a death to die, and there’s a judgment to face.
It means that you will not be able to bribe the Judge that you stand before on that Judgment Day that all men will face. You’ll not buy God off. You’ll not buy your way into heaven. When you die a Christless death and stand before the Great White Throne of Judgment of Jesus Christ, your money is not going to profit you one little bit.
True riches are the things that you have that when you share them, they increase. They become more. The thing that is of most value, the thing that has the most lasting value, the thing that is a treasure in heaven, and the thing that I most want to give to my children are the true riches of God. And the more true riches that I give of it to them, the more I have of it. That doesn’t mean that they will all take that inheritance and make it their own, but it does mean that you have given them the key to having true riches. Loving God.
2 Cor 8:9 9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. KJV
This means that Jesus Christ died for you, that you might be rich, and the Bible says,
Rom 10:12 12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. KJV
This is God’s way to real wealth. If you will call upon Jesus Christ today, then you will have true riches. Based on the Word of the almighty God, I can promise you that this is true. God’s way to True Riches, riches that will last for an eternity, is to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and make Him your Lord and Savior.
Amen.
Everybody wants to know how to be wealthy God’s way. In our messages over the next couple of weeks, we are going to find out about how to be wealthy. As a matter of fact, many of you may be wealthier than you realize, and some of you may not be nearly as wealthy as you think that you are. Today, we will put everything in perspective as we talk about “True Riches.”
Now, I know, when I’m talking to you about money, I’m talking to you about something very pertinent—something that every one of us is interested in, and we ought to be. Somebody once said, “The most vital nerve in the body is the one that runs from the heart to the pocketbook.” And sometimes we seem to be so sanctified, but yet when it comes to money, we’re not really as sanctified as we act like we are. I found a poem that describes the way we often are.
I once knew a Baptist; he had a pious look, He had been totally immersed, except his pocketbook. He placed a dollar in the plate and sang with might and main, “When we asunder part, it gives us inward pain” —AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Now, I believe there are some like that today, who really tend to love the Lord, at least outwardly, but inwardly there’s another love, an inordinate love for the material things of this world. So, we’re going to be talking about true riches, and the measure of a man is what that man thinks about money. You tell me about money, and I’ll tell you something about your character. I’ll also tell you something about your faith. Stewardship is that area of life, not only where man makes money, but where God makes men. So, we’re going to be talking about this matter of real riches, or true riches.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the different kinds of riches that God’s Word tells us about. Some riches are not riches at all.
Amen.
We live in a world where a lot of people, including our Christian brothers and sisters, are living with a heavy heart. The world has taken a pause this weekend to remember all of the of the people who were lost in the terrorist attack on 9/11. The families of the soldiers and first responders who lost their lives responding to the attack over the last 20 years are dealing with the loss of their loved ones. There is sorrow, worry, and stress that is weighing down on all of these people, and our lesson today is about God’s Miracle Medicine for people with heavy hearts.
Have you ever heard of a medical term called E.I.I? E.I.I. stands for “emotionally induced illness.” That is, people are sick physically, but their emotions have made them ill. Now, I had never heard of this term before, so of course, I went out on Google, the source of all untruth, and searched for articles on it, and there was quite the list. Some described it as “A psychosomatic illness that originates from or is aggravated by emotional stress and manifests in the body as physical pain and other symptoms.” Other articles just talked about the real physical effects of long-term stress on the body.
In our message today, I want to give you a little G.M.M., or “God’s miracle medicine.” I believe that God is leading me to teach us what God has to say about this idea of the impact our emotions can have, good or bad, on our health. God tells us:
Prov 17:22 22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. KJV
You see, right there in God’s Word, we learn that “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” That is God’s Miracle Medicine. A Christian without joy, a joyless Christian, is a contradiction in terms. Someone has well said, “A religion that wears grave clothes ought to be buried.” I say amen to that.
Click on the link below to hear a message where God tells us in His Word that true joy is found in the Lord Jesus, and “a merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” I want to share it with you today. I want you to know the Lord Jesus Christ. And for all that E.I.I. that is weighing your heart down, I want you to take a good dose of G.M.M, God’s miracle medicine. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.”
Amen.