Pete McKenzie 0:06
Well, it’s, it’s good to be back, I had a great trip I was in Alabama for about three weeks. It is, it seemed like it went fast. The reason I went back to begin with many you guys don’t know or maybe you don’t care who influencers really is and what the scope of our ministry is. But it started in Arkansas with my best friend rocky Fleming he gave rocky a tool called the journey. And what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to figure out, you know, when guys are in Bible studies, or some type of small group, if they’re reading a book, they may read the chapter in the book, if they’re filling in the blanks, or do that or whatever that they’re doing in their Bible study. But when the Bible study is over, they don’t keep studying, they just wait until the next study goes, they’re not self feeders. What we were asking God is God, how can we help men become self feeders, so they can get in the word on their own. And journaling is a major part of that. So Rocky, God gave rocky over a period of years, the journey and he was in Northwest Arkansas, and he was in the real estate business. And he was ministering or had clients that were Walmart executives and hunt foods executives, and our Tyson Foods, executives, and then hunt trucking company, there’s a lot of billionaires in Northwest Arkansas. And so he was taking these guys through the journey and it changed their lives so badly that they said, you need to do this with me and all over the place. So rocky called me and said, we’re going to start a new ministry and want you to be a part of it. And that’s when I joined rocky in doing that. At the time, we were the first ministry outside of Northwest Arkansas to be with influencers. And then I had a guy that I’ve been mentoring and coaching up in Bakersfield. And he went out and spoke at some of their retreats and one thing led to another and they started using the journey and now there’s a men’s revival that’s been going on for 15 years in Bakersfield. It’s amazing. And then that spread over to Pismo Beach, and that spread up to Sacramento and to add up and just a lot of stuff going on in California now. And then they met a guy in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and it’s I have a thriving ministry in TELUS, Oklahoma. And in Memphis, Tennessee. And we have buddy ministries in Maine in North Carolina, in Wichita, Kansas. And so the thing is starting to grow. And so we had a regional directors meeting at Gulf Shores, Alabama, where I kind of grew up every summer we’d go down, spend a couple of weeks ago shores. And so we just spent three or four days just telling our stories, I had 16 guys there, and 12 of them are regional directors. And the rest were what we call champions that have ministries that are budding, but they’re not ready to become regions at this point. And so that’s why the why I went back there, but I’ve decided to, as long as I’m going back there, I might as well spend a week with my brother up in Florence on the Tennessee River. He’s got a bachelor pad on the Tennessee River. And so I spent a week with him, we played a little golf and hung out and got to go to Oxford, Mississippi. And so about a two and a half, three hour drive over to Oxford. And that’s where the University of Mississippi is. And so he had fire his fight all five of his kids went to Ole Miss. So went over and had a family dinner and I got to see all them and their kids and that was great. his oldest daughter is the mayor of Oxford. And so that’s a lot of fun to go there and see them. Then I went down to the retreat in it Gulf Shores and spend a week down there with the guys. Then I grew up in Birmingham and played ball baseball and basketball. And we have some of the guys that were a year or two ahead of me and have a breakfast every third Monday at Cracker Barrel in Birmingham, and so I try when I’m in town to be there on the third Monday so I can go and see those guys that I played ball with in high school and then I had breakfast one day and lunch another day with that group and we just reminisce and talk about stuff and I couldn’t believe how they had all laid so much. They really got old and then I had a chance I was a principal of a Christian School in Birmingham for six years eminently qualified is my degree in Melbourne in textile management.
And, but I got really rooted in there and had a chance to minister to a lot of kids who are now in their early 60s. And I met with about eight or 10 of them for lunch one day at a good barbecue joint there in that part of town. And just got caught up with them. And and there was one guy, and I’ve mentioned him before when we talk about the man of God thing and putting wristbands on guys and three questions about a man of God. And, and I’ve told you before that that whole thing started when I was invited to speak to a retreat with a bunch of millennials, about 15 years ago, and they wanted me to talk on what is a man. And so I thought of Jeff young and Jeff. I’d hired Jeff at the school to teach some Bible and PE and coats and JV sports. And Jeff had this annoying habit of seeing me and other guys, as we walk down the hall toward him, he’d look at us and go man of God. And then we’ll always look around to see who came in. And because we never felt like we were a man of God. Men don’t wear that mantle too good, because we’re mostly on a workspace basis with the Lord. And we don’t work do enough, serve enough, give enough, no one of study enough, memorize enough. We’re not all that great as husbands and fathers and so we don’t feel like we’re men of God. And you all know that I’ve been teaching that for a lot of years. But I met with those guys. And I started telling them about for him and one of them was just retired from being the president, that Alabama gas company. And the other is an executive in an insurance company. And the other is Jeff young. Jeff was at the school after I left for 40 years. And he just retired last year. And this an amazing guy. And so I started telling Jeff about for him. And so Jeff wants to get a 4am going in Birmingham and I talked to Ken Smith, who is he was probably that he and john Donaldson, the two guys that I also met with for breakfast after that meeting, and told him that for him, and they both want to get for him started in their churches and cans, and they older in the church and teaches a class and so does john and his church. So it was a great trip, got a lot done. I saw a lot of people and stayed with my cousin who’s more like a sister to me than a cousin. She used to come and stay she and my mom had a great relationship. And she’s about 10 years older than me. So I had to help her and her husband get out of their chairs a good bit. But they still want to go play some golf, and we never got around to it with them. But I did play with my buddy as a shortstop on our high school team. I was a first baseman and he and I played a couple of rounds together. But I had a great trip. But I was looking forward to getting back. Because I think God’s doing great things here. And I think God’s got great things in store for us in the days ahead. There’s going to be some interesting days ahead. We’ve already been through some interesting days have rocked our world quite honestly. And you look at the things in nature. There was a tornado warning Sunday night before I left on Monday morning to come back. And tornado hit Atlanta and then my cousins were there suddenly have pretty close to them in that part of Birmingham. And so they had these tornadoes roar in through about a month ago through that area, and they went over to their son’s house because he had a basement so they got in the basement as soon as they shut the door in the basement the lights went out and the tornado hit their house and it tore the roof off and I got pictures of it and now that whole neighborhood I got a new respect for tornadoes. It was taken oak trees this big around and twist in them like they were straws and it just leveled it they had they had debris that they had gathered out of the street so people could drive them down the street about half the size this room in this this all the way up and down the street. Nobody got killed. That’s a amazing thing about it. Five people had gotten killed about two weeks before that and one of them that came through there but that was that was pretty interesting site. It looked like it literally looked like it bombed Berlin and in the all the rubble of all these houses. So it was an interesting trip and I really enjoyed being there. But again, I look forward to coming back and you know Bill shared with you guys.
He is he is he does on Fridays and when Stace, and we do it. Because we didn’t ever want to forget who we are and why we’re here and where we’re going and how you’re going to get there. I mean, one thing and leadership and this is true, if you’re just a leader, if you’re a leader in your home, or your family or in your work in some capacity or church, you want people to know, to keep on target, keep on mission, this, don’t get out of this, don’t lose our vision for who we are, and why we’re here and where we’re going and how you’re going to get there. And that’s what leadership keeps in front of the troops. And so what we do is we say, Look, guys, we have five goals. And these are not just something we write down, these are something that we adhere to, this is something that we want to be marinated and that we want to become our identity and who we are. And the first thing is is Bill said a few minutes ago, make Jesus Lord of your life. He’s not just Savior, but he’s Lord. Make God’s word, the final authority in your life, you put yourself under the authority of God’s Word. So if it doesn’t match with God’s word, then it’s not true. And we want to be obedient. And it really if you’re going to be a man of prayer, and that’s the third thing, if you’re going to be a man of prayer, you need to be a man of the word because you q if you’re going to pray rightly, you then have to pray those scriptures, you’re gonna have to pray the mind of God, you’re gonna have to pray the truth. And so that’s why we say, Be a man of the word, then you’ll have more perfect prayers. And then if you’re going to really grow in your Christian life, you’re going to need guys around you that love Jesus more than you do, you’re going to make you’re going to chase after like minded men that are chasing after Christ. And we can all think of men in our lives that have mentored us and model for us. And maybe it one dad, maybe it was, but there are other men in our life coaches and teachers and next door neighbors and grandfathers that mark our lives. And we want to hang with guys that heard this fine in what what my mentor told me is find guys that love Jesus more than you do and hang on their screen door and don’t let them shake you off. And then finally, we give it away. We’re committed to the Great Commission. We’re committed to evangelism, we’re committed to telling people look at the chosen, if you’re not looking at if you’re not looking at chosen right now, and you’re not seeing that series. You’re missing the boat. You’re missing something that I think is one of the best things it’s been let that God has created and let loose in the Christian life, especially for such a time as this. I was with my brother in law in Auburn, I got to see Auburn play Florida, when on Friday night and Saturday, we were going to go back and see him play and it’s thunderstorms, inhaling, and now all kinds of weather. And so we didn’t get to do it. So we were just spending all day Saturday watching movies. And about I don’t know how many 10 years ago or something I was on TV, hence praise the Lord show. And I was last gown on the docket. They had singing groups in other Christian leaders, and they interview him kind of like Johnny Carson or something like that. And so they were my brother in law was saying what do you want to watch now? And I said, you guys know about TBN? Well, we’ve heard of it. And in my brother in law was eight years old, and I started dating his sister Susan and married her. And I was kind of his hero. I was playing minor league ball. And he lived one summer with us when I was playing in Montgomery. And he’d go the part with me every day and shag balls and have a good time for a kid his age. And so he had a lot of memories I’d forgotten. And it was fun to talk to him about those days. But I said your you want to see that? Oh, yeah, we want to see it. So we watched it about 20 minutes, and they watch that interview on TBN. And now I said have you ever heard of the chosen? They said now I said, you know, it’s really good. It’s about the gospel is about Jesus. And I’m really enjoying it. So we watched an episode and they say, let’s watch another one. We ended up watching five episodes, is eight of them in the first season. And so I’m hoping I haven’t checked back with them yet, but I’m hoping that they have been watching some more. I shared it with another friend and he stayed up to two o’clock in the morning watching five episodes. And so I encourage you, you can go to YouTube and just put the chosen and it’ll come up in the second season. They’ve had three episodes of the second season so far. They’re planning on having eight seasons. They’ve had over 100 million people watching all over the world, the chosen and their goal is a billion. But I watch it in literally cry
when Jesus cast a demon out of Lilith who was I just wept, and just to see the freedom and just how she responded to that and how she was once like this, and now she’s different, changed her life when he when he met the woman at the whale in sumeria. And now we’re up and she did such a good job of acting. As the guy that’s directing. It is a solid guy, and he interviewed the guy, Jonathan Nomi, who’s playing Jesus and he’s my all time favorite Jesus. In this the way he talks in the way that in they interviewed him and he just said, I’ve always felt so uncomfortable trying to portray him it was just an awesome task to try to do, but he does such an amazing job. Nick Kadima says, Remember, Nicodemus came in the night and met Jesus. And he said, I in Nicodemus tried to cast they have a lot of backstory that’s not necessarily in the Bible, but it builds up to the scripture in the Gospel. But Nicodemus had been called on to cancer demon out of Lilith. And he tried to do it and she got this this evil demonic look on her face and said, You have no power over me. So he ran out the door. And then later one, the Pharisees it had been with him at the time saw her after he, Jesus had cast a demon out over, and she was so different, and she was a beauty and she had just a different look on her face, and she was just changed. They went back and told Nicodemus and Nicodemus had said, after he ran out of the room, he said, Only God could fix this woman. And then he heard that she had been fixed. And he thought that it was a delayed reaction, and he had actually done it. And so she said, it had nothing to do with you. It was someone else. And he said, Who? She says, I don’t know his name. But I’ll remember him the rest of my life. And so then Jesus found out I mean, Nicodemus found out Jesus had cast it out. So he asked for a meeting with him. And he’s telling him and he said, I have so many questions. In the end. Nicodemus, if you remember, God put it in his heart to know him. And he had a real hunger to know the Messiah. And he showed up after Jesus died to claim his body with Joseph of empathy and bury him. But, and he said, I knew and I told people, that only God could fix this woman. And Jesus said, how’s that working out for you in the Senate. And that’s one of the things most of the movies I’ve seen about Jesus, King of kings in the greatest story ever told in other movies that are made, they just really accent and put all the focus on His deity. And he’s just so holy, you can hardly relate to him. But in this one, he’s got a sense of humor. And you see him interacting with his disciples and how bamboozled other disciples were about everything he said, and we’ve been reading that for all our lives. But when you see it in, in being acted out, it’s just amazing. And so anyway, you might get from all this, and I’m excited about it. And I am. But what I’m going to do is over the next few weeks, I want to go over those five goals with you. Jesus is Lord of your life, God’s words, and final and thority in your life, I just want to drive it home and all of our hearts. So it really does become not just theology, but practical reality in our lives. And I think that’s one of the things it’s these kids that I met with it Brownwood there was Bob Welch and he taught Bible at Brownwood while I was there, and Jared Leachman, and he was a football coach and taught some Bible classes while he was there. And now this is 50 years later, and Jerry’s still burning up for Christ in Bob Welch is still teaching the Bible and teaching kids and they all have told him that we hated you, because you made us memorize all those verses. And but we love you now. Thanks for doing that. And then then I’ve been consistently walking with Christ through the years and these kids was just so grateful that these men had been all these years and they’re still on fire for Christ and they’re still walking in this in the spirit and whatever you want to call it. And so today, I want to talk to you about making Jesus Lord of your life.
You know, when I returned from Germany, I lived in Germany my family did in in the late 80s 86 through 89. We came home in September of 89. And we had been attending Navy free for 10 years before that, and we came home and ate Nando wall in September in the wall came down in December. And when we were over there, we’re traveling in five Eastern European countries. And we’d go in his business man or something, depending on what the country was and how hard it was to get into and out of. But we came home and in the late 80s, I don’t know if you guys remember this, but there was a big debate going on that I missed because I was in Germany. But the question was, can you make Jesus can Jesus be your Savior and not Lord of your life. And so that was and there were this godly guys on both sides of the issue and and as well, Sanders, not chambers, but Sanders wrote about 40 books, and he’s a New Zealander, and just godly and stately, and his classic book is spiritual leadership. If you ever want to book on spiritual leadership, it’s Oswald Sanders, and it’s entitled spiritual leadership, and it’s excellent. But anyway, I happen to be at a retreat. And during those days, and he was a speaker, and it the camp where we were having a retreat, there was a lobby in the main building, and I was walking to the lobby one day, and he was sitting over by himself and a chair. So I went over to him and I introduce myself, and we were talking later on, I got to have him for dinner at my home and had him speak at a singles group that I was teaching at the time. But I asked him, I said, Dr. Chambers, do you think you can receive Jesus as your Savior, but not Lord? And he said, I did. He said, but it was because of poor teaching. I didn’t know about the Lordship of Christ. But when I heard about the Lordship of Christ, I made him Lord of my life. So I think it’s important for us to know what that really means. Sanders. Yeah. Thanks, Bill. Appreciate that.
It’s good to be back. You know, I was at my cousin’s house, and they’re strong Christians in notice the book, and it was by Franklin Graham, and it’s sitting on their counter, and it’s in It’s entitled, The name. And it was all about the name of Jesus. And I looked at the back cover, because that tells you a little bit about what the book is all about. And this is what it said on the back cover. The name of Jesus is a lightning rod because his name represents a division of life between good and evil, God and Satan, light in darkness, righteousness and sin, heaven and hell. The name of Jesus shouts out a choice. Whom will you serve? Who will you give your life to in depend upon? rebellious self will sinful people want to retain the right themselves, right to themselves, what way they will take. Jesus denies that option. Speaking on his behalf, the apostle Peter said there is no other name under heaven given among men by which you must be saved. Jesus is gentle, but he’s not weak. He loves the sinner, but is absolutely intolerant of sin. He’s not a negotiator. He is Lord. It is this bristling truth that endorses intolerance toward Christians. If you notice any intelligent tolerance toward Christians lately, you haven’t seen anything yet. He’s not a negotiator. He is Lord. Jesus did not say do your own thing. All roads lead to God. That would have made Jesus politically correct and Jesus is not politically correct. He is Lord. Men do not love holy praying because they don’t love holy living. Do you not know that you’re not your own? Oswald Chambers. And I read this before, but I think it’s appropriate to read again today. Oswald train chambers has a devotional November the first you’ll have to give me a commercial break here. I’ve got this Parkinson’s disease and it makes your nose run all the time so I’m not sick or don’t have a cold or anything. It’s just bothersome, especially when I’m teaching. You are not your own. One core one Corinthians six. 19 says no, do you not know that you’re not your own? You know, I think that’s a penetrating question. You don’t belong to yourself when you come to Jesus. When you come to Jesus, I use the words like surrender. And surrender means you’re giving up. You’re given up, you’re right to yourself. What good is a servant who has his own agenda? So lordship, and we’ll look at that lordship in a minute. There is no such thing as a private life a world within a world for a man or woman who is brought into fellowship with Jesus Christ, sufferings, no private life. Once I came to know Jesus Christ, the whole world has a right to look at me and judge Jesus by my life. And so it behooves me, to know Him and to learn to be like him. And the third question we asked before we put a man of God bracelets on the guy is, do you want to spend the rest of your life learning to become just like Jesus? Why do we want to become just like Jesus? Why do we not live in in a closet anymore, the whole world is judging him by wow act when I missed that three foot putt. How you act, when the spill the coffee on your white rug, gravy, God breaks up your private life of his saints and makes it a thoroughfare for the world on one hand, and for himself on the other. He makes your life a thoroughfare for the world and for himself. That means Have you given up your right to yourself. Because if you’re calling yourself a Christian, if you’ve received Jesus and been redeemed and delivered and healed and saved, then that means that you’ve given up your right to yourself. And he gives a world a right to judge him, by your attitudes by your behavior and conduct. No human being can stand that unless he’s identified with Jesus Christ. We’re not sanctified for ourselves.
sanctified means you’re becoming more like Jesus, you becoming more pure and holy, you’re growing in that you take two steps forward. And in one step back in the process, you can take one step forward, and two steps back sometimes. But it’s a process of going forward and growing into maturity, setting your roots down, as you have ever received Christ Jesus the Lord. So walk in him, haven’t been firmly rooted, and established and built up in your faith. We say that’s the whole point of the Christian life and why so that we could look and act and be like Jesus, so people would be attracted to him through us. So people would look at us someday, and oh, I don’t know what you got, but I need it. That’s the goal. You’re not sanctified for yourself. You don’t want to learn versus and memorize scripture and know the word and become a man of prayer. Just for you, if you’re doing that itself is it’s fair SEO. You just want people to think you’re a holy guy, and you’re better than you really are. And you may even think that you’re better. Most guys don’t, but some guys do. Let him have his way. If you don’t, instead of being have the slightest use to God, in His redemptive work in the world, you’ll be a hindrance and a clog. That’d be a backslidden. Christian, that’d be someone who’s hindering the work of Christ rather than helping the work of Christ by the way you treat your wife, the way you live with your kids and raise them the language that you use the jokes you listen to until the things you watch on TV, the things you read. everybody’s watching, everybody’s noticing. We may you may not think so you may you have us. Maybe you have a secret life. You hear about guys all the time having secret lives, things that are going on underneath everything else, they look good on the outside, but underneath their dead men’s bones, as he said to the Pharisees, your whited sepulchres on the outside, but inside, you’re really dead man’s moans. The first thing God does with us is to get us based on the rugged reality until we do not care what becomes of us. And this is a hard one. Rugged reality said. That means that you’re going to have to do some hard work and your soul in your heart in your mind. Some rugged stuff, denying yourself taking up your cross every day being crucified with Christ. That’s rugged reality. That’s what it takes. It’s not an easy road. It’s a tough road. It’s a discipline road. It’s a surrendering road. His way of purpose in it so that he gets his way for the purpose of his redemption. The whole thing is that he could use you and redeeming other people for Jesus Christ. That’s the purpose of your life. The purpose of your life is not just to be a husband or a father, or a church member or an insurance guy or religion. State guy or probate ballplayer. The whole point is that God could use you and help himself to your life in my life, for the purpose of redemption and our wives, our children, our relatives, or friends or co workers. That’s the point. That’s what it’s all about. Don’t ever get confused about that. Why shouldn’t he we go through heartbreaks. I can’t tell you how much this meant to me when Susan died. Why shouldn’t I go through heartbreak? I told God years ago when we lost our baby at birth, God you can help yourself to my life. God put me in a position when our baby’s life was in danger. He was losing oxygen, you know the story. And Susan’s life who knows if he was in hammer Jane or what her situation was going to be? I was in the father’s waiting room. God I just pray Susan be okay, I pray the baby would be okay. I prayed that for about 10 minutes. And that’s totally my God. That’s all I got. I don’t have any real great powerful prayers. He said, Well, let me ask you a question. How much control do you have over what’s going on with Susan and the baby? I said, I got no control. I like to be in control. But I’ve got no control in this one. You’re the God of all control. So I’m praying to you that they’d both be okay. He said, Well, if I have all control, then let me ask you another question. Would you purpose in your heart to praise me no matter what happens to Susan the baby? You mean if they die? Would I praise you? I need an answer that one because I knew the answer to that question. He in a sense, was saying if I want to help myself to your wife into your baby, will you praise me anyway? Who would ever do that?
We get mad and angry with God when he takes our loved ones away. We lose our job COVID hits. We have lockdowns instead of praising God and thanking Him. And that’s what God is looking for. Because that’s acts of faith. God always honors faith. He never honors fear. Why shouldn’t we go through heartbreaks? What’s the answer to that question? How does God use us the most God is used and given me more opportunities through losing that baby then I would have ever had if we hadn’t lost a baby for Christ for the gospel. He taught me more things through that than I could ever learn any other way. He couldn’t teach me any other way to praise him no matter what be a no matter what, Christian. God if I get the job, I’m going to praise you. If I don’t get the job. I’m going to praise you if that surgery comes out. Okay, I’m going to praise you if it doesn’t their complications. I’m going to praise you anyway. You’re in charge. You’ll use everything, every heartbreak, to glorify yourself and to bring people to Christ. That’s redemption. That’s the purpose. That’s why we go through heart right? That’s why God puts things in and take things out of our lives. That’s why we get to spill the gravy on the floor and miss a three foot putts and get caught in a traffic jam. When you got to do the you’re gonna make you’re late for that important meeting. It’s all about the redemption. It’s all about the way we learn to respond the patients that goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, the hope. All of those fruits of the Spirit, self control. God uses all of that, for the whole purpose of redemption. Why shouldn’t we go through heartbreaks through those doorways God has opened up ways of fellowship with his son. And you know many of us have testimonies right now that we know Christ more today. Because of the heartbreaks we’ve been through we’ve gone deeper with him. We’ve we know him better, we love him more because of heartbreak and difficulty and trials and troubles. Most of us fall in collapse at the first grip of pain. We sit down on the threshold of God’s purpose and die away of self pity, and also called Christian sympathy will just ate us to our deathbed. Sometimes people are feeling sorry for themselves and get mad at God. Don’t be sympathetic with them. You don’t have to hammer them at that point. But at the same time, encourage them point them in his direction. It sounds so trite to say well, you know all things work together for good. Well, the truth is all things work together for good. It’s not trite. For those who love the Lord and are called upon according to His purpose. Are you Do you love the Lord are you called according to His purpose? Then God will take this and he’ll use it no matter how hard it is, no matter how much it breaks your heart. You’ve already given God permission to help himself to your life. He’s Lord of your life. What good is a servant who has his own agenda? So you’re not working on my agenda, God, and then you can now see you later. You’re going to take that out of my life and I’ll see you later. What good are you? If you can’t even say my baby, if you want, where’s the love in that? In God’s God would say, it’s at the cross. There’s where it is. That’s what it means to be crucified with Christ. You You willingly go to the cross with whatever you’re going through. And this is I love this quote, but God will not give you that sympathy. He comes with the grip of the pierced and of his son and says, enter into fellowship with me or Rise and shine. He comes with a grip of the pierced hand. I love that picture. When you’re going through heartbreak, and you’re going through difficulty and pain and separation and trouble, and the pierced hand comes into view and you just see him hanging on the cross. Taking the heartbreak, the humiliation, the pain, the suffering. Sure, should the servant not be like his master, willing to do that, willing to go through that make him Lord of your life. If through a broken heart, and this really sealed it for me when Susan died, if through a broken heart, God can bring his purposes to pass in the world. And thank him for breaking your heart. If the broken heart God can bring about his will his plan, what he’s trying to accomplish in the world by breaking your heart, then thank him for breaking your heart.
That seems like inhuman it seems like it’s where’s the where’s the love in that. And I wish it was different. I wish we didn’t have all the pain and the trouble and the trials in life, but God uses every bit of them and every one of them to glorify himself through us, to grow us up to become like him.
CS Lewis, a renowned British thinker and writer and one of history’s greatest defenders of the Christian faith wrote this. A man who was merely a man and said the sorts of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic, on the level of the man who says he’s a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make the choice. Either this man was and is a son of God, or out otherwise, he’s a madman or worse, you can shut him up for a fool. You can spit on him and kill him as a demon. Or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord, and God. But let us not come to him with any patronizing nonsense about him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us, and he did not intend to.
Jesus is our Savior. That means that it’s one that saves from danger and destruction. We’ve been beaten but we’re not beaten down. We’ve been stretched but we’re not broken. Who brings salvation, redemption, deliverance. And who rescues us? That’s our Savior. And that’s what Mary when she was so changed and he cast the demon out of her and she was this a new person. He delivered her he rescued her, he saved her and he’s kept her from destruction they showed in the movie where she tried to commit see what’s going to commit suicide and jump off a cliff into the rocks the ocean. And adult flew over and got her attention and she followed that dove into town. Then later Jesus cast her demon out, delivered her He is our Savior, but he’s also Lord that means one who has supreme rank. And, and when I’m back in Alabama, it happens every time I go back, they’ll say, Susan, how are you going to move back? Once you move back to Alabama? Now Alabama is a great place. It’s the best kept secret around Obama, California. Don’t start moving there. They are weather wise people. It’s a great state. And it’s beautiful and rivers and lakes in the OED squat sandy beaches down south and Tennessee River up north and it’s just a great state. But I told him I’m, it’s not my call. Moving back here, I wouldn’t mind moving back. It’s a great place to live. But I’m in the army. Now I’m in the Lord’s army, and I don’t move unless I get orders cut. So I don’t just pick up and move to move and get out of a tough situation. People are leaving California, right and left, I don’t blame them for a second, especially with young children. On the other hand, if Jesus is Lord of your life, you don’t get to make that call. You don’t get to sell your house and make a profit if you want to, unless he gives you permission, and He will give you permission on occasion, it’s a time to do it’s the right thing to do, it’s a smart thing to do. On the other hand, it may not be as well. And even though you could make a profit, here to stay, put where at where you are, until he says move. That’s what it means for Jesus to be Lord of your life. And that’s where you start getting the habit and the freedom and the power in your life, to thank him for the hard things. To thank him for what he puts in and what he takes out that they are uncomfortable. And there’s some times that you don’t want to do the right thing. But you do it. And it’s hard, and you didn’t want to do it. And it could be something like going back and asking forgiveness, going that and making restoration for something, someone you offended or someone you hurt. And the Holy Spirit is saying, if you’re my disciple, here’s what my disciples do in this situation. They go in, they ask forgiveness, they name their sin, and they ask forgiveness of the for that person. And they make it right as best as they can. They may not get forgiveness, they may not respond the way you had hoped they would respond. But that’s not your problem. Your your assignment is to go and do it. If it’s something you damaged, or cost of money, you go and pay it back and pay more than it cost. Well, those are the things that guys do when they’re jesus is lord of their life. He’s supreme and rank in power, and he has authority over us. And you know, here’s the way it works. We’re selfish, and we want our own way. We want to stay in control of our own life. We want to be Christians and be in control of our own life at the same time. That’s natural. That’s getting rid of the flesh and dying to the flesh, being crucified with Christ, and then making our lives the whole purpose of our lives Christ and the gospel and redemption.
lordship whose means absolute ownership, controlling influence, why does Jesus want to be the absolute influence in controlling person in our life, because that’s our safest place to be the safest place I can possibly be. And it may be in jail. It may be in California, maybe an Alabama, it may be in the jungles of the Amazon, maybe in the Middle East and being a missionary over in very difficult places. And I’ve had parents who just did not want their children to go to the Middle East to serve because it would be dangerous era go to the jungles where there’s really people down there that will kill you like Jim alga got killed in Central America. And they don’t want their children to go and I tell them I said the safest place they can be is in the Amazon or be in the Middle East. If they’re in God’s will. They’re safer there than here out of God’s will. So all you want to do if you’re a Christian, and Jesus is Lord of your life, you just want to be where he wants you to be doing what he wants you to do, how you do it, and what you do, in what you do. That’s the Lordship of Christ in your life. You don’t call those shots anymore. You just obey. And you learn to obey by disobeying and it didn’t work out right. That’s how you learn to obey. Your parents tell you don’t do this and you do it and it didn’t work out too good. And that work out for you. didn’t work out worth a flip. Or then maybe your obey next time. And that’s how we learn obedience. We’re hard headed aren’t we? Can I get an amen from the congregation? Jesus loves hard heads. He loves to so soften him up. Well, I’m out of time. I think you get the picture. Jesus Lord of our life, have this attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Who being found in the parents of a man did not regard equality and that the word equality is a big word today we want to be equal without paying the price. Who did not regard equality with God is something to be grasped, but he emptied himself even to the point of death on a cross and then why then God highly exalted Him and we stayed on him a name which is above every name, that the name Jesus, every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. One day you will make Jesus Christ Lord of your life. Why not today? One day you will bow your knee, every liberal, every conservative, every Baptist, every Catholic, every Islam, Buddha, they’re all going to buy a bow their knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we get to do it today. We get to do it now. And people are going to watch you and watch me and they’re going to judge what Jesus is like you mean, that’s what Jesus is like the way you’re acting. And we don’t act always the way we ought to act. But we can learn. And Jesus is patient, we put a man of God helmet on a guy, he may not be the most mature man of God, but God gives him time and grace to grow into it. What a God, what a Savior, we haven’t Jesus, what a lord. If you’re going to follow our Lord, I suggest Jesus Christ. That’s the safest place to be, let’s pray. And Father, we thank you for being Lord, we thank you for not just being Savior, but your Lord of our life. And we would ask you today to help yourself and give us that spirit heart attitude to say thank you, God for breaking my heart, because you’re accomplishing your purpose in the world. And that would be redeeming other people. And you’ll use this hurt this heartbreak, this trial, to give us the opportunity to participate with you in the Gospel, in the Great Commission. It’s the best way to do it. They don’t look at us, so our victories and we’re happy and we’re blessed. And they they’re not surprised. But when we go through heartbreak, when you put things in and take things out, Lord, inward peace. And people ask me all the time, Lord, how you doing? Listen, Susan, I miss her every day. But Lord, I have a great piece about it, because I know you’re working in there and you’ve got her in heaven now and I’ll see her again. Now see you. But right now you’re giving me the wonderful opportunity of not having her and having peace. And it’s a great message for others.
To be part of the redemptive process, thank you for giving me and all these men an opportunity to participate with you in the Gospel and redemption of others. And so will give you the glory throughout all eternity in Jesus name And all God’s men said give him having guys
Transcribed by https://otter.ai