Sermons
It matters who is in control
07 March 2010
Describe riding with Grandpa Willson (Lawrence) in Florida going down the wrong way of a one-way street.
Felt like Mr. Toad’s wild ride or The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party @ Disney World.
You know, there are many ways to drive, but there is only one way to drive down a one-way street and that is going the right way.
And there are not many ways to live life; there is only one way to live.
E. Stanley Jones, in his book “The Way” says…
“The universe in its inner structure is made to be Christian and the Christian way, being the way, is written into the nature of everybody and everything”
And “if we act in any way other than the Christian way we act against reality” and if that happens “we will work to our own ruin and the history of humanity is but a long confirmation of this truth.”
You see, God made each of us to know Him & to love Him…and then with His love, we are to reach out & love & serve all others as He would have us to.
And the only way to truly live out the life each of us were born to live is by choosing Jesus as the Lord of our lives & living in faithful obedience to God.
Exodus 20:2 “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
What's the principle behind this verse?
Make God 1st in your life.
Put Him 1st…keep Him 1st…
God Himself is saying He should be the top priority in your life & in mine.
No one… no thing should come before Him in our lives.
No one… no thing… not ever… should be above our Lord…
I can give no better example of someone who faithfully lives a life of obedience for Jesus more than someone who has laid down their life for Him.
About 7 years ago, 6 Christians were burned to death in an attack on relief workers in the Sudan.
They were obeying God.
They were following Jesus as Lord of their lives.
They were doing God’s will.
When rebels stopped their vehicle & set it on fire while they were all trapped inside, all 6 of those Christ followers died that day.
And do you know why they died?
They would not deny their faith in Jesus.
More recently, in 2009 in another country when the government discovered a church in someone’s home, which was illegal.
Soldiers came in & an officer grabbed the bible from the pastor & threw it across the floor of that room.
He announced that if they would simply spit on the Bible, they would be able to walk out of the room unharmed & with no criminal charges.
Nothing would be done to them if they simply spit on the Bible.
But if any of them refused to spit on it, he would shoot & kill them immediately.
In essence, they were asking those Christians to betray God & denounce God’s word.
One at a time, people got up, approached the Bible, looked over it down on the ground & spat on it.
Even the leaders of the church did as they were instructed to do.
But then a teenage girl slowly got up from her seat.
Slowly made her way over to the Bible & looked at it.
With tears, she bent down over it on her knees, picked it up, carefully & lovingly wiped off all the spit off the bible with her sleeve & embraced it with both arms.
As soon as she embraced it, a soldier walked over & shot her in the back of the head, killing her immediately.
She bravely did what no one else in her church was willing to do… lay down her life for her Lord.
This year, it is estimated that nearly 165,000 Christians will be martyred for their faith.
That’d be like almost the entire population of Grand Rapids losing their life for Jesus every year.
These dear ones are following the path of faithful obedience.
They live in places where they risk their lives each & every day just to gather to pray or worship like we are doing today.
They risk everything because they will not deny Jesus as their Lord.
So, what keeps us from living obedient lives to Jesus our Lord?
One thing that keeps us from living obedient lives for Jesus is we buy into the notion that we need to live for the moment.
I am talking about living for the…
Short-term things in life
Too often we fail to look at things from an eternal view.
Too often we fail to look at things from a long-term perspective.
We tend to settle for the easy way or the easy choice.
The convenient… the fun… the short-term…
The instant… the immediate…
while we ignore the long-term realties in life.
The stuff of life that lasts forever.
The things of God that are eternal.
Mark 4:19 “The attractions of this world, and the delights of wealth, and the search for success, and the lure of nice things, come in and crowd out God.”
Jesus is saying that these short-term values will keep us from a total commitment to God…
a commitment of total reliance on Jesus as Lord…
Now, please understand that not all short-term things in our life are bad.
We just can’t make them a top priority in our life.
Short-term things can keep us from living a life of obedience to Jesus as Lord, but what else can?
Getting caught up in our past & our failures
The past with all of its failures is a real stumbling block to a lot of people.
I’m talking about people who believe they’ve failed too many times in life that they cannot be used by God.
Let me assure you, we’ve all made mistakes.
We’ve all failed in life at some time.
At times, others have failed us or caused us to fail or fall.
There have been times when others have hurt us or harmed us in some way or scarred us.
But understand, no one can ruin your life because you have a choice to make… a choice of how you will respond to the past failures and past hurts.
Again, realize that we have all failed.
But dear ones, the Lord will forgive us.
and how He will use our failures if we let Him.
He loves to take people like me who was all but washed up & turn us around & make the rest of our days the very best…He has & He will do that for me & for you.
Maybe you think you’re not good enough at anything.
Let me tell you, God loves to use ordinary people.
He takes very average people & does extra-ordinary things in & through them when they make an extra-ordinary commitment of obedience to Jesus as Lord of all.
God desires to use you & me, and I trust He will use some of us as never before from this day forward.
Philippians 3:13b-14 “…but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind me and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (NKJV)
Notice it says, forget the past.
Get on with the present & the future.
Don’t dwell on the past & your failures.
Get on with living totally for God with Jesus as Lord right here & right now.
The last thing that keeps us from committing every area of our lives to God is fear.
This is probably the most common barrier for many of us.
When we start considering the reality of the Lordship of Christ, the question that comes up is this…
What is it going to cost me?
What is God going to ask me to do?
What will I have to give up?
Will God ask me to be a missionary?
Guess what?
Every true Christian already is a missionary…it’s just a matter of where!
Across the street, down the hall, at home, on the assembly line, in the classroom or locker room.
We are all called to share our faith… to live & give our faith away.
I’m still afraid though…
What will total surrender of my life to the Lordship of Christ really cost me?
I might lose friends.
What if people don’t like what I do?
I might lose the approval of others.
What if I can’t even keep my commitment to Him as Lord?
Dear ones, if we’re afraid of giving our lives in total surrender to Jesus as Lord…
It is because we really don’t understand who God is.
We don’t realize how very much He loves us & wants what is best for us… His best.
God tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’” (NLT)
What if any of my children said to me, ‘Dad, I want you to know that I want to live the way you want me to & I will try to always do what is right’?
What do you think my response would be?
Do you think I’d say, “Ah ha, I’ve got you right where I want you… you are going to regret this day”?
Of course not.
Yet a lot of people feel that if they really come to Jesus in total surrender to Him…
He is somehow going to make their lives difficult or miserable.
I don’t think so!
God loves you & His plan for you is good.
Don’t fear committing your life to Him, it is really the only way to truly live life to the fullest.
When we left Kentucky almost 14 years ago, it was a difficult thing for us to do.
We left behind friendships we had cultivated for almost a decade, we were leaving behind warmer weather, we left behind everything that was familiar & comfortable for us & we were leaving behind a supportive, loving, caring & giving church @ New Hope Community Church in New Washington, IN just across the Ohio River from Louisville.
Would our next church be as caring? Yes it would be, but we didn’t know that at the time.
Would I have what it takes to be a lead pastor instead of an associate pastor? The jury is still out…
But I knew that I’d lose intimacy with the Lord if I did not obey what He was calling us to do.
Even though it was difficult, so very hard to leave, I had too much to lose.
I had to trust & obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, than to trust & obey.
The things we struggled with at that time will most definitely be the very same things we would struggle with if or when God ever calls us elsewhere from this precious place.
But, as for me & my family, we will serve the Lord.
And we always want to be where He wants us to be because we know that if we’ll be where He wants us to be, there is no better place on earth to be than in the center of His will.
Let’s close with some bottom line questions for each of us to consider… a time for us to think about what this really does mean in our daily living…
Am I really living a life of total surrender to God?
Is Jesus really the Lord of all in my life?
And remember, Jesus was obedient even to the point of death… the cruelest death of all… and He didn’t just die physically, He died to His will… died to His own way…
He surrendered Himself & His will for the will of the heavenly Father & we are to do the same…
Is there anything in your life… anything in mine…
that our Lord is calling us to give up… to change…
to commit to Him in a deeper way?
Is Jesus the Lord of your witness?
Are you saying & doing what He wants you to?
Is He the Lord of your tongue?
Are you obedient in your conversations?
Your jokes?
Your language no matter where you are or who you are with?
Are we careless with gossip or too critical of others?
How about our thought life?
Is He Lord of all we think about?
Do we choose to view things He is asking us not to?
Movies, media or internet sites He is asking us to surrender to His Lordship?
Is there any unforgiveness in your life… toward God? Toward someone who has wronged you?
Have you experienced God’s forgiveness personally?
If you have not, He is speaking to you & He loves you & He wants to be Lord of all…
Dear ones, Jesus is the only One who deserves 1st place in your life & mine.
Please know that the only way to ever find true satisfaction & fulfillment in life is with Jesus being 1st & foremost in everything…
You see, we are all called to live Christ-like, Godly lives of faith & obedience…holy & pure living…
And this call comes to us from Genesis to revelation…
And there is not anything God asks of us that He doesn’t provide the necessary provision to see that it can & will happen in our lives…it must happen because the world knows the difference…and it’s time that a watching world sees the difference…
It’s time for God to be in control of our lives…
It’s time for Jesus to be the Lord of all.
Topics: faithfulness, God's will, obedience, persecution, priorities, thought life
Books Referenced: Exodus, Jeremiah, Mark, Philippians
