Jesus is My Lord

Sermon on Jesus is My Lord

Title:  My Lord

Theme:  Lord Jesus must be Lord of My Life.

Goal: to encourage all people to make Jesus Lord of their life.

Need:  People often live life like Jesus’ lordship doesn’t make a tiny bit of difference in their life.

Outline:

Introduction:  Living how Jesus doesn’t make a difference, or very little difference.

1. Jesus is the focus of all history.
2. Jesus is the point where we all have a decision to make.  Liar, Lunatic, Lord.
3. Jesus must be a difference maker in our lives.

Conclusion:  He is LORD.  Make him MY LORD!!

Sermon in Oral Style:

Congregation of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

          Today is the day.  You know the story.  Today is the day a virgin, gave birth.  Today is the day we celebrate the coming of a person who claimed he was God.  Today is the day shepherds saw angels and went and saw a baby that would be good news of Great Joy for all people.  The whole world finally had something to celebrate because of today.  Because of Jesus Christ, the newborn king. 

          Nice story pastor, but… It would make sense that many of us would have trouble trying to figure out all these things the Bible says happened.  They are not normal.  Is there anything about Christmas that is normal?  Expected?  Truly understandable inside and out?

          Today is the day we celebrate, but that shouldn’t mean we pretend like we have all the pieces put together and Jesus is that familiar story of Christmas time. 

          If we wrestle with trying to understand completely who that little baby in the manger was, maybe we ought to be wrestling all the time trying to learn more and more about what it means to become a follower of that little baby?

          What makes you a Christian?  Some people say something like this, well I don’t use bad language, and I try to follow the ten commandments.  That’s fine.  That’s a good start.  But shouldn’t there be more to it than that?  After all, you remember baby Jesus grew up and the Pharisees followed the ten commandments to a T, but Jesus kept on telling them,  YOU DON’T GET IT YET!  The coming of Christ calls us not just to be followers of Ten Commandments.  The birth of Jesus puts before all of us one of the most difficult and important questions you will ever have to make.

          The decision isn’t, will you keep the Sabbath day.  It isn’t will you be a good family man.  It isn’t even will you come to church on Sunday.  The most important decisions that needs to be made is this:  Jesus is Lord.  Is he MY LORD.  Jesus is I AM, Man, Messiah, Savior.  BUT IS HE MY LORD!  Master of my work, the purpose I use for making my decisions, motivator for how I use the always decreasing number of hours in my life.  IS JESUS MY LORD!

          Why talk about Jesus being MY Lord on Christmas day?  Because Christmas day is the day that raises a decisions for everyone.  Is Jesus real?  IS he not?  Is he God, human or both?  Was he anointed to do justice to the oppressed?  Is belief in him the way to salvation?  The birth of Jesus puts before us a decision that we can’t avoid having to make and wrestle with.

          Here’s Why.  First of all, Jesus is the focus point of all history.  I like the picture on the banner over here.  You see the two triangles, the points are both focused in on this prism here in the middle.  This could represent what happens in history.  The Old Testament times are full of promises.  To all people in Genesis 3 God promises that there would be a descendant of Adam and Eve that would crush the head of the snake, the devil and all evil.  Big promise.  Also, to Abram God promised all nations would be blessed by one of his descendants.  David is told that one of his descendants will be king forever.  There are all these promises in the Old Testament and with everyone the focus gets more and more focused.  All history, all people, all creation is waiting for one thing something.  And it is all coming together.

          Every page of the Old Testament is waiting for something, someone.  And its Christmas day, today that changes everything.  Its like the prism.  That’s Jesus Christ, no ordinary baby in a manger, like a baby in a manger would be ordinary anyway, right?  When Jesus comes all that was coming up in the Old Testament finally makes sense. 

          Wouldn’t you just love to go talk to Adam and Eve today and find out how they reacted when they discovered God’s plan.  Oh!!! That’s what he meant.  Jesus would defeat sin and set the entire world free.

          And that’s a spectacular thing in itself.  These promises were getting smaller and smaller.  Forgiveness for all people.  A child from Abrahams line.  A king from Davids line.  Finally, it seemed like salvation was only for the two faithful tribes of Israel.  But the minute Christ was on the scene, Wham.  It spreads out instantly.  Salvation for all.  Even covering non-Jews like most of us here.

          A baby in a manger, Jesus is the turning point of all history, the lynch pin of every year, decade and millennium that ever has been.  I can say it and tell you what the Bible says.  But the question is, Believe it or NOT?

          Because of what Christ taught, he also is the lynch pin in every persons life as well.  What did he teach about himself?  He said he was the great I AM, he is the Son of Man.  He is the Messiah.  He is the savior.  He is the Lord.  He said all of those things about himself.  Do you believe him or not?

          How do react to others who have said these things about themselves.  David Koresh and the Branch Davidians down in Waco, Texas.  Marshall Applewhite who told his followers to commit suicide to rendezvous with the spaceship behind the comet.  They claimed to be God incarnate.  It is so easy to discount them as frauds, and not believe a word and not even think to follow anything they taught.

          What about with Jesus?  We made a decision about these others.  What about with Jesus.  Isn’t it one way or the other.  Either he is Lord or he is crazy.  If he’s crazy, you might as well forget about him.  If he’s Lord…. Well?  How about for your life?

          Some would like to think they can have a little of both worlds.  Sure he claimed to be God and the savior of the world, I don’t buy that stuff, but I try to follow the rest of what he taught.  Would you ever say you liked everything about Jim Jones and his cult and like to follow all of his teachings except his Kool Aid Recipe.  It doesn’t work.  Not with Jesus either.  Is he Lord, or is he crazy. 

If he is crazy.  Forget about him.  Find another holy book.  Forget about Christmas and wish everyone happy holidays instead of a merry Christmas.  It isn’t worth your attention if he wasn’t who he said he was.

But if you believe him and believe in what he said, then life will change.  It has to, doesn’t it?  If He claimed to be God and he was?  If he said he’d come back to life and he did?  If he said he expected his followers to give up everything to follow him, he’s telling the truth about that as well.

Jesus wants you to believe in him, marvel at who he is, never quit wrestling with all these crazy things that he said about himself.  But in the midst of it all, he wants to be your Lord.  He wants you to stop having a simple ten commandment faith.  Or a simple, be nice to your friends and maybe even your enemies life.  He wants to be your Lord.  When you have a decision to make, he wants to be at the center of it.

Like Peter… get out of the boat.  Imagine if he had just a halfway faith in Christ.  Instead of asking Jesus to call him to walk on the water.  “Hey Jesus, come on over here.  You’re crazy if you think I’m going to step on the water to see you.

What decisions do you make that Jesus wants to be a part of?  That’s a good question.  But I think a better question for us would be if Jesus is your Lord, if Jesus is all-knowing God and our humble brother, if that Jesus is your Lord, which decisions would you really want to leave him out of?  Are there any?  Would they be really that good of decisions if you don’t think Jesus would be too keen on what you decided?

That’s the difference between Jesus our church or life mascot, Go Jesus, and Lord.  How would Christ want you to build that house, hook up the plumbing, do the windows, put in the wiring?  At first it sounds stupid at first, maybe.  But doesn’t Jesus want to be the boss of your work?  How do you treat your spouse, your kids or your friends?  How do you file your taxes?  What do you do with the money you make?  How do you spend your Sabbath day?  How do you use energy?  How do you help the forgotten in society, like the sick and poor?

Not that Jesus is keeping an eye on you waiting until you mess up.  If you make that little tiny baby the boss of your life, it may just give you that much more joy in doing what’s in line with what’s truly good for your life.  And every time you do what is truly good in the eyes of Christ, its truly good for everyone.  No matter what the immediate consequences might be.

So today, Christmas day.  Our celebration of the first of Christ’s 2 comings.  The celebration of Christ’s birth is a day that changes the history of the world, and changes the course of lives.  As we end our time of waiting for the first coming of Christ, let me leave you with this thought:  Is Jesus Lord of your life.  Are you ready for his second coming?

This is God’s will from his word.  And All God’s people say, AMEN.