Sermon Tone Analysis

“*JESUS IS THE LORD OF ME*”

(Foundations Discipleship Series)

 

Session #2                                                        Westgate Chapel                        

 

PROPOSITION:  That the Christian life is to be lived under the Lordship and ownership of Jesus Christ since we are not our own but have been bought with the price of His blood.

!

i.    introduction

!! -     IN the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

!! -     GENESIS 1:26,

!!!       “*Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground*.’

(27) *So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them*.”

(Genesis 1:26-27)

!! -     THIS means that humans share, even though imperfectly, in God’s nature, that is, in His communicable attributes (life, personality, truth, wisdom, love, holiness, justice), and so have the capacity for spiritual fellowship with Him.[1]

!! -     AND one of those attributes that God gave us at creation was free will.

!! -     EVEN though we were created with the capacity for spiritual fellowship with Him, He desires that fellowship to be our choice . . .

not as robots.

!! -     THE risk that God took was that we would be so foolish as to reject the love of our Creator and decide to be the lord of our own destinies . . .

which is precisely the route that Adam and Eve chose.

!! -     AND the seed of that rebellion against God in the Garden of Eden has unfortunately been passed down from generation to generation and is in everyone of us to this day.

!! -     ONE day, when Kathryn was 3 or 4 she was running one weekday in the sanctuary in Cedar Rapids, where we were pastoring at the time.

!! -     A CUSTODIAN stopped her and tried to corral her and get her back to me . . .

when she threw her hands on her hips and announced, “You are not the boss of me!”

!! -     THAT is the seed that is in everyone of us that came all the way from the original sin in Eden . . .

and burst into the headlines last week when the Federal Courts tried to remove “under God” from our pledge of allegiance.

!! -     WE have been saying that to God for thousands of years now, “You are not the boss of me!”

!! -     IT is the spirit behind all lawlessness and sin.

!! -     YOU find it in the family, in marriages, in businesses, in schools, and in the streets . . .

wherever rebellion raises its ugly head.

!! -     IT is the reason that every generation has to come up with some outlandish fashion statement, because as soon as the last generation’s rebellion becomes acceptable it has lost its purpose . . . to say, “You are not the boss of me!”

!! -     IT is not just “young people being young people.”

It is the spirit of the world, the spirit of the antichrist saying, “You are not the boss of me!”

!! -     IT is God’s gift of free choice gone terribly wrong.

!! -     IT is man or woman on the throne of their lives, and the tragedy we see all around us in families, in communities, in nations are the result of humanity saying to God, “You are not the boss of me!”

!! -     THIS is part of the image of God that was marred in us when sin entered creation through Adam and Eve’s sinful choice.

!

ii.   the lord of the kingdom

!! -     NOW jump all the way from Genesis to Romans 10:9,

!!!       “. . .

*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*.”

!! -     IN this verse the apostle Paul is giving us the method of regeneration~/salvation, which is faith and confession in the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

!! -     WHEN you and I confess that Jesus is Lord, we are asserting three unalterable truths that are front and center of our salvation:

!!! 1.

That Jesus is God.

!!! 2.   That as God, Jesus is exalted to the right hand of the Father.

!!! 3.   That you belong to Him.

!! -     WHAT was marred of the image of God in Eden is restored in Christ when we are saved. .

.Jesus is established on the throne of our lives.

!! -     JESUS is Lord!

!! -     SALVATION is NOT just getting the sin~/guilt issue dealt with, your past forgiven and then on with life as pleases you.

!! -     SALVATION is the restoration of free choice under the Lordship of Christ.

!! -     AND the Christian life is living out the rest of your days with Jesus as the boss of you.

!! -     THAT is the essence of true discipleship.

!! -     “JESUS is the boss of me!”

!! -     GOD the Father created you . . .

therefore you belong to Him.

!! -     GOD the Son redeemed you . . .

therefore you belong to Him.

!! -     GOD the Holy Spirit indwells you . . .

therefore you belong to Him.

!! -     ON all three counts He is Lord of your life.

!! -     NO wonder, in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (page 1132), the apostle Paul writes,

!!!       “*Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?

You are not your own*; (20) *you were bought at a price.

Therefore honor God with your body*.”

!! -     BEFORE you made Jesus the Lord of your life you were ruled by sin.

In John 8:34 Jesus said,

!!!       “*I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.*”

!! -     YOU might have thought that you were in control of your life but that is just an illusion that Satan uses to trick the people of the world until he has completely destroyed them.

!! -     JESUS saw you on the auction block in the slave market and loved you!

!! -     THAT was why He died on the cross for you.

He laid aside the robes of glory, left heaven, took up an earthly body and gave His very life to buy you back and free you from slavery to sin.

!! -     HE paid so high a price for you and me!

!! -     THAT is why Paul can say, back in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “*You are not your own* . .

.”

!! -     THE context of 1 Corinthians 6 happens to be a discussion of Christians who thought they were free to take each other to court or indulge in sexual immorality.

!! -     AND Paul is reasoning with them to honor God with their bodies and their business dealings for the simple reason that “*You are not your own, you were bought at a price*.”

!! -     YOU are not the boss of you!

!! -     JESUS is the boss of you now!

!! -     THAT is the essence of the Christian life!

!! -     FORGIVENESS from sins without Jesus being the Lord of your life is NOT the Christian life!

!! -     I HAVE heard people describe friends or family and say, “They have received Christ as Savior, but He is not Lord yet.”

!! -     FRIENDS, there is no such experience.

It does not exist.

!! -     HERE is the Christian life as described by Jesus in the form of a commission for the church.

In Matthew 28:19-20,

!!!       “*Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spiri*t, (20) *and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.*”

!! -     THE life of discipleship is clearly articulated by Jesus here as,

!!! 1.   Repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

!!! 2.   The obedience of water baptism as a demonstration of the work of repentance and faith that has already taken place.

!!! 3.   A life of learning and obeying everything Jesus commanded.

!! -     WHY?

!! -     BECAUSE Jesus is the Lord of every Christian and we are not our own.

Jesus is the boss of me!

!

iii.  the life of the kingdom

!! -     IF Jesus is Lord, then you and I are not.

!! -     WHAT does life look like with Jesus as Lord?

!! -     WELL, it is a life lived out in the new boundaries of the kingdom of God . . . the range of God’s effective will, which is without limits.

!! -     IT is a life of daily surrender to Christ.

!! -     REMEMBER, when you became a Christian, you brought the kingdom of your life (the range of your effective will) into the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

!! -     THE life you now live as a disciple of Jesus is totally new and different than the life you have lived before.

!! -     IT is 180 degrees opposite of the way the world lives and what the world values.

!!! ~*     The world says, “You are what matters . . .

your rights, your happiness, your freedom.”

!!!! -     The Kingdom of God says, “*If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me*.” (Luke 9:23)

!!! ~*     The world says that the way up is over the backs of whoever stands in your way.

!!!! -     The Kingdom of God says “*whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it*.” (Mark 8:35)