The Lordship of Jesus

You have all heard us talk over and over again about giving your lives to Christ and letting him change you. You have heard a lot of the following words: dedication, yielding, surrender, full commitment, rededication, and sanctification.

We all get fired up… only to fall down from time to time, so How do you make these things actually work in your life?

I want to try something. Everyone stand up… hold your right hand in the air… take your right hand and pat the top of your head. OK you can sit...

Whose will controlled your right hand?

Some of you say you did it. But you would never have done all those things without me being here? Some say it was my will and others say it was your will. Let me ask a question would you stick your finger into the socket? I didn’t think so.

POINT - you don’t do everything I tell you to do, but you did let me control your right hand a minute ago.

You chose to cooperate with me. IOW, it was a combination of two wills… yours and mine. You let me carry out my will, but it was your hand doing the patting.

That’s how it is with God.

Obeying the Will of God involves two wills working together.

You decide that He knows better and begin to allow him to control your will.

Romans 6:11–19 NLT

11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. 12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. 15 Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! 16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living. 19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.

That

What is the only thing that you can do to improve your life?

Live under the grace of God… give ourselves to Him…

You can re-read this passage and everywhere you see the word sin, substitute a problem you struggle with in that spot. Word becoming personal.

I’ll give you an example. fighting…

Now you might be thinking it sounds great but

How do I allow God to take control of my life?

Let’s look at this growth cycle.

God kicks everything off in an atmosphere of trust.

The person who actually draws us to God is… God himself. You need to understand that he is more interested in you growing and maturing than you can ever be.

God see all kinds of potential in you and he wants to bring it out of you.

John 6:44 NLT

44 For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up.

Ephesians 2:8–9 NLT

8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

Ephesians 2:8–10 NLT

8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Philippians 1:6 NLT

6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Phil

Philippians 2:13 NLT

13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Colossians 2:19 NLT

19 and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.

John 14:21 NLT

21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”

John 14:2 NLT

2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

I yield (Confess, Commit, Obey)

The growth cycle begins when you finally decide to let him do his thing. You turn over control of every area of your life… intellect, attitude, values, emotions, relationships, thoughts, habits, motives, desires, … as much as we can to the one you acknowledged as Lord and Savior.

Romans 12:

Romans 12:1–2 NLT

1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

1 Peter 3:15 NLT

15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.

1 Peter

Luke 9:23 NLT

23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.

2 Corinthians 7:1 NLT

1 Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.

Jesus becomes Lord

When you yield it permits Jesus to become Lord of the areas you are submitting to him. (Write permit along the arrow.)

Lord is a European term… we don’t use it over here. We know what a landlord is… he would be the guy who owns the building … who controls who live there and who doesn’t. He’s the boss of his building.

That’s kind of what happens when we allow Jesus to be the Lord of our lives. We give him the right to control what goes on in our lives. He then guides and leads us throught he power of His own example.

Colossians 2:6–7 NLT

6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

Ephesians 4:15 NLT

15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

Hebrews 5:8–9 NLT

8 Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. 9 In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.

Philippians 2:5–11 NLT

5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. 9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

As we keep yielding various areas to the Lordship of Christ, He comes eventually to control more and more of our "house." We are on a continuum from zero percent Christ‑control to 100 percent Christ‑control. Only you can say at what point you are on the continuum: 40 percent? 75 percent? 20 percent? Which way is the present trend ‑ toward more and more Lordship for Christ, or less and less?

When we allow Jesus to be Lord in our lives, it unleashes

The Holy Spirit’s Power

Ephesians 3:16–17 NLT

16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.

When He becomes Lord it unleashes the Power of the Holy Spirit in your life. He strengthens you within.

The unleashed Holy Spirit also produces other things such as the power to acknowledge Christ as Lord, the power to witness, improvements in our character and the feeling of being loved.

The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin in our lives.

When the HS points out sin in our lives, we can either ignore it, stifle it or allow it. If we ignore it or stifle it, it puts us on the road to full scale rebellion.

When we face up to it, we then have to yield that area to the Lordship of Jesus which allows him to be lord of that area and unleashes the HS’s power in our lives. Cycle goes on and own. As this cycle goes on and on, we keep growing and increasing the percentage of Christ‑controlled living.

Each day, your life and mine, we will have more concerns and problems that we never dreamed of two years ago. The physical, mental, social and religious parts of us keep unfolding with new dilemmas and this is why we must keep growing, turning over these new areas to Christ's control, which will release the Holy Spirit to help us deal with them and point up even further adjustments that need to be made.

The Holy Spirit makes us sensitive to sin.

Galatians 5:16–21 NLT

16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. 19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Ephesians 4:30 NLT

30 And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.

John 14:26 NLT

26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

John 16:13 NLT

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.

Other by-products of the Holy Spirit are

1. The Ability to acknowledge Jesus as Lord

1 Corinthians 12:3 NLT

3 So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.

2. The power to witness.

Acts 1:8 NLT

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

3. Improved Character.

Galatians 5:22–23 NLT

22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

4. Feeling of being loved

Romans 5:5 NLT

5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

5. Direction

Acts 13:2 NLT

2 One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.”

6. Power to overcome temptation.

1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT

13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

My hope is that this take the vagueness out of growing in your relationship with God. God wants to take control of our lives, but we have to allow him control.

Here is what I want you to do… give God a starting point. Pick an area you know God wants to bring change and growth in… then yield it to the Lord. Watch what he does in your life.

You cannot do this on your own. You have to allow the HS to work in you.