Sermon SeriesWhat is our response to Christ as Lord of our Life? 3/3/19
The story goes of a man named Gary from MI who decided to have a yard sale at the end of summer. Things were going really well and one of the people who stopped by was a local pastor. He had seen the push mower that was for sale and since his had died he stopped to check it out.
It seemed like a good deal, so he bought it from the man.
A couple of days later the man found the pastor at his front door with the lawn mower. He asked the pastor what was wrong.
The pastor complained that the mower wouldn’t run.
“It’ll run,” said Gary. “But you have to curse at it to get it started.”
The pastor was shocked and proudly said: “I have not uttered a curse word in 30 years.”
Gary responded: “Just keep pulling on the starter rope—the words will come back to you.”
Little did Gary realize that he was expressing a biblical truth that we can never forgotten.
It doesn’t matter how good you are, your human nature with all its flaws, failings and evil is just under the surface. Given the right circumstances it will come out.
We seriously need a “savior” but more than that we need a “Lord” to guide us daily as we move toward that salvation.
Pray
For the last couple of months in adult Bible Study we have gone over and over a summery of the purpose of scripture.
Main theme of scripture is “the Redemption of Mankind”
Then there are two secondary themes:
1. Man is given a choice of either accepting God’s definition of good and evil and living under that or, choosing to define good and evil on our own terms. That means that your definition of good and evil usually is different than mine.
a. Our choosing our own definition of good and evil (effectively saying that we are god) is the reason creations redemption is necessary.
b. This defining good and evil on our own terms is the source of all evil in the world. It’s what Satan uses to promote his anti-God agenda.
2. The second sub-theme is that through the offspring of woman God would enter the world in human form. That man (Jesus) would live his life choosing to live under God’s definition of good and evil 100% of the time. Living like this made him sinless.
We as humans are not capable of living a life like this. Some may get close but never close enough.
Therefore, God WILL judge humanity at the great White Throne judgment and if Jesus Christ is not Lord of your life you won’t be saved and you will receive the results of the life you have chosen.
Eternal separation from God!
Therefore salvation becomes necessary and this is accomplished through the “offspring of the woman” Jesus Christ, God in human form.
This is Good News for those willing to accept it and live under God’s definition of good and evil.
If you are willing, then you need to be baptized to solidify the commitment to live with Jesus Christ as Lord of your life and you need to be joined to a body of believers for support, encouragement, accountability, and a place to use your spiritual gifts.
• Salvation is our hope and the Lord Jesus Christ is our life.
We must preach salvation while remembering that Christ as Lord of our life is the author of that salvation.
• The two go together and cannot be separated.
Groups that focus on “salvation” are missing the life changing experience when you live with Christ as your Lord.
Yet it is “salvation” – this future hope – motivates us to live a life looking to Christ as our Lord.
Read : 1 Peter 1:3-16
• What do we learn from Peter?
Our salvation causes us to:
1. Praise God our Father
a. In his great mercy we have:
i. A new birth
ii. A living hope
iii. We greatly rejoice
iv. We are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy
2. Respond by:
a. Praising God our Father
b. Love God and Jesus Christ
c. Being filled with inexpressible and glorious joy
d. Greatly rejoicing
3. Act by:
a. Preparing our minds for action.
b. Being self-controlled.
c. Setting our hope fully on the grace to be given to us.
4. Lastly the hope of our salvation causes us to be:
a. Obedient children
b. Resist evil desires
c. Holy as He is holy.
There is only one way to have this hope and to be willing to commit ourselves to these changes.
Recognizing that Jesus Christ lived a life 100% under God’s definition of good and evil and died as a sacrifice so that those who joined themselves to him would be saved from the final judgment.
Salvation cannot be had by just some action you take – like saying a prayer.
Paul says that when we confess (acknowledge) that Jesus Christ is Lord then we are saved and can claim that hope of salvation, being filled with joy that we will not stand in judgment but will stand with Christ as part of God’s kingdom.
So, while we wait, we have things to do that the authority above us – our Lord – has instructed us to do.
1. GO – or Act, do something that fits with our spiritual gifting for Christ.
2. Make disciples – share what God has done for us with someone. And as those disciples move along in the path of maturity.
3. We get them Baptized- fully committed to the task.
a. Identifying and naming their authority – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
4. Teaching them Christ’s desires as their leader who has full authority over everything.
5. And encouraging them to never forget that Christ (our Lord) is always by our sides in all situations until the end of the age when he returns.
Then we will see our salvation with our own eyes and hopefully hear “well done my good and faithful servant.”
The bottom line is that until Jesus is Lord of your life salvation is not part of your life no matter what you’ve done to try and get it.
The best part of all this is that God is a patient, loving, and a gracious God who is moving you along toward maturity and will not reject you as long as Jesus is Lord of your life.