1 Matthew 25:14-30 Why Lordship is Necessary? Pastor Brian Long : January 12th, 2013 Big Idea: Lordship Resolution settles the question of who is #1 and who has ultimate control of your life. As we are still early in this New Year it is the ideal time to practice the deep wisdom of a proverb like Proverbs 4:26 which says, Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. This Proverb is positioned in a string of proverbs in Chapter 4 where a Father is giving sound, trustworthy advice regarding wisdom with coaching like: Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them. Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her and she will watch over you. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. And then finally verse 26, Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. The New Year presents an excellent opportunity to practice a fresh resolve on our ways. Are their things we need to stop doing, things we need to start doing and, things we need to keep doing? Interwoven in and around all our potential New Year s Resolutions is what I m calling The Lordship Resolution. Last time our investigation of the Gospels led us to discover that to make the Lordship Resolution we ve got to come to grips with this truth: For Jesus to be Lord of your life, every part of your life must be surrendered to him. That s what this series is really about a LORDSHIP RESOLUTION turning over more and more areas of our lives to Jesus. The Lordship Resolution is experienced as a prevailing attitude, aspiration, or agenda of your heart that is resolved to practice the four truths about Lordship we talked about last week: God is sovereign over all He has supreme authority over ALL life. God is sovereign over you He has supreme jurisdiction over every area of YOUR life. God holds you ACCOUNTABLE AND RESPONSIBLE for everything he has given you. Finally, God calls you to OBEY HIS WILL in every area your life.
2 Last week we ended together by pulling out our keys. The KEYS you have in your pocket or purse are regular reminders of all the stuff God has allowed us to have, to enjoy, and to manage. He is sovereign over all of it and he has graciously and kindly allowed you to manage and enjoy all that you have. I hope you realize God is trusting you with all that you have. What you do with it matters to him. Here s what this looks like day to day. Lordship is that process of: 1. Exposing ourselves to God s will and way. 2. Aligning our thinking and behavior with His will and way. 3. As we align ourselves with God s will and way we are making Him Lord of our lives. In other words, we are inviting him in to be Lord of every thought, attitude, conviction, belief and action. In other words, from the point of salvation on our desire must be to stay continually engaged in the process of surrendering more and more of our thoughts, attitudes and actions to the Lordship of Jesus. *The Bible knows nothing about salvation for a person who comes to the point of asking God to be their Savior but then refuses to engage in that process of surrendering every area of their lives to Him as Lord. In fact let me quickly give you three examples of areas where God is to be Lord in our lives. 1. He is to be Lord in our salvation. Romans 10:9 says, That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 2. He is to be Lord in our everyday life personal/professional. Colossians 3:17, And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:23-24, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 3. He is to be Lord of our marriages and families. Ephesians 5, 22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. And Later,
3 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church And the whole section starts with Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. {Which is Christ the Lord, or course}. Now, today I want to ask the question, Why is Lordship Necessary? What are the benefits of choosing to make Jesus Lord of your Life? What difference is it going to make for you? How is it going to impact your daily experience of life? I want to talk about two benefits this week and two other benefits next week. The first benefit is that I. Lordship settles the position issue. (Who is #1 in my life?) You don t have to be a Christian very long before you come up against this question of who s will is going to be #1 in my life? We have all battled with this. Typically very early in our walks with God and fairly regularly in our walks with God, we face this question. Whose will, whose agenda, whose desire is supreme in my life? Whose will and way do I want to rule the day? That s a great question to begin a New Year with. Adam and Eve faced this question. Back in Genesis Chapter 3 Satan comes to Eve and says, Did God really say, You must not eat from any tree in the garden? Eve corrects him telling him that there was only one tree that we cannot eat from. Then you read something very significant. Listen as I read verse 4 of chapter 3, You will not surely die, the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God. You see the first issue that mankind ever dealt with was Whose going to be number one? Who s going to call the shots? Whose will gets priority? Literally, Eve bought into the lie, the deception of Satan because she felt that if she ate that fruit she would be like God. She could be on equal level with him. If Lordship does anything for you, if it does anything for me it helps us settle the position issue of whose going to be number one in our lives. Twice in the Gospels Jesus has to deal with Peter on this very issue. I want to look at one of those instances as it is recorded in John 13. This is a dialog between Jesus and Peter concerning who is first in Peter s life. The setting of this chapter is right before Jesus is planning to have a very
4 intimate time with his disciples in preparation for going to the garden of Gethsemane, face arrest, and then eventually the cross. This is their last official meal together. Perhaps you know the story well. It is the story where Jesus is going to wash the feet of Peter. I want to pick up the story in verse three. Read verses 3-9, 13-17. From this story we see immediately that Jesus was not position conscious. Though he was the head guy in the room in terms of authority it didn t bother him to pick up the towel and become a servant. But, Peter on the other hand, he was position conscious and so it bothers him. You have to realize that Peter would not have minded if one of the other disciples had picked up the towel and began to wash his feet because Peter thought he was better than the rest of them or at least on an equal plain. Isn t it true that when you are around position conscious people very long you find that they scope out very quickly where they are on the ladder of those around them. Grabbing the towel and serving doesn t even enter their mind. They lack a willingness to give up their rights; they lack a willingness to walk a second mile with anybody that they would consider to be underneath them. They lack humility! Have you met people like this? You see, Lordship helps us to understand who the only LORD in life really is. It helps understand that we are brothers and sisters and not over anyone but we are to minister to everyone. And the one who is number one and belongs in number one position is Jesus Christ and no one else. Notice carefully, from verse 3 John gives us clues as to why Jesus was not position conscious because: 1. He knew what he possessed The Father had put all things under his power. 2. He knew who he was the Son of God. 3. He knew where he was going back to be with the Father, Because He knew these three things he didn t have to jockey, maneuver, or manipulate to establish position. It s my observation in life that those people who are the most secure people in life are not position conscious. They don t need the title, they don t need the office, or the
5 place on the organization chart, or any of that because they have a clear sense for who they are. It also seems true that the less secure you are in yourself or in your relationship with people or in your relationship with God the more you will demand your rights or your position or whatever it is you feel you deserve. In fact, settling the Lordship issue and practicing humility is core to healthy, fulfilling relationships. Our personal lives and relationships can never be what they could be or should be until we determine to make Jesus Lord of our lives understanding that He and He alone is #1. There is a fascinating, creative movement gaining some steam on the internet called, iamsecond. From their website, I am Second is a movement meant to inspire people of all kinds to live for God and for others. The I am Second movement reminds people that they are second and God is first, loving him and those he loves comes first! Check out this testimony from Stephan Baldwin. That, friends is an articulation of the Lordship Resolution. The first benefit of choosing to make Jesus Lord is that once and for all it settles the question of who is #1 in your life. It settles the position issue. It keeps you second. The second benefit is that it II. It settles the permission issue. (Who has a right to my life?) The Lordship issue will not only settle the question of who is #1 in my life it will also settle the question of who has a right to my life? Who has bottom line ownership of my life? Sometimes there are believers who have not settled the Lordship issue and they make the mistake of only buying into God to settle the salvation issue. They try to make Jesus Lord of their tomorrow and getting into heaven and not Lord of today and the issues that confront them on a regular basis. And they are missing out. Turn with me to Luke chapter 9. In Luke chapter 9 there is the story of the time when Jesus was going along one day and three different people interact with him on issues that are basically discipleship and lordship questions. Let s start with verse 57 of Luke chapter 9. Read 57-62.
6 These three encounters reveal three key principles about Lordship. 1. Lordship means accepting the future regardless of the cost (57-58). Lordship says, I m in God. I m totally in. Because you are the Supreme Being in the world and because I believe that you love me and have the absolute best in store for me, I will give myself totally to you! It s like giving God a blank check that represents your life and signing your name and giving it to God and saying to him, God, I want you to take this and use it anyway you want to. 2. Lordship means seizing the moment regardless of the inconvenience (59-60). These are strong words from Jesus. But, they force us to face the realities of a life that desires to follow God. You might think, Wow, Jesus is insensitive. He needs griefshare. Please realize, if this guy s father had already died, he would have been occupied with the burial then. But, evidently he wanted to wait until after his father had died to follow Jesus, which might have been years away. Jesus basically tells him that the spiritually dead can bury the physically dead and the spiritually alive are to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom. 3. Lordship means leaving the past regardless of the pull (61-62). Sometimes the pull to the past is a positive pull. It s a pull that has power because of how much you adore and are addicted to life, as you have known it. But, sometimes the pull is a pull of guilt or failure. I ve spoken with a number of people who hesitate to give their lives to God because they don t really believe that their lives are worth anything. They don t believe that they are a tool that God would want let alone use and the unfolding of their futures are limited by an unwillingness to leave the past. Bottom line, in all these examples, Jesus is making the point that: Lordship is more than words. Lordship forces us to change and to choose. Lordship will not leave us the same.
7 The benefits of following God and making him Lord of our lives are tremendous but as with all beneficial things it takes intentionality and resolve. When we make the Lordship resolution, we resolve to engage our hearts and minds in the process of surrendering more and more of our lives to God s leadership and never, never, never give up. The Lordship Resolution impacts our lives because it addresses the Position Issue and answers the question of who is #1 in our lives. I am second. You are second. God is first. It also impacts our lives as it addresses the Permission Issue and answers the question of who has a right to our lives. Let s spend a few moments reflecting on all this. I d like to have you bow your heads. A moment ago I suggested that settling the Lordship issue in your life is sort of like giving God a blank check that represents your life. And by signing your name and giving it to God, you re saying to him, God, I want you to take this and use it anyway you want to. As your heads are bowed I want to ask you to imagine that check. The check represents your life. It s blank because you recognize Jesus as #1 in your life and you realize that since he is supreme he has ultimate right to your life. I only want you to imagine yourself signing this check if one of the following is true for you: 1) You are already in the process of making Jesus Lord of your life currently. OR 2) Today you are choosing to begin to engage in the process of surrender of every area of your life to the Lordship of Jesus. You ve known him as Savior but now you desire him to be Lord and you re going to let him lead. OR 3) You re not sure you re willing to make the Lordship Resolution but you are willing to be made willing.
8 The worship team is going to come and play a song for us that I think represents God s heart. He won t relent until he has all of you, because he loves you that much. If one of these three conditions reflects your heart, I want to ask you to imagine yourself signing this check representing your life over to God as a symbol of your desire to make him Lord of your Life. Church of the Foothills 2014