Lord of All

ME

I love being around encouraging people.

A few weeks ago, the kiddos and I went to Lex to meet up with some of our friends from the Honduras Mission Trip.

We ate sushi, laughed and celebrated my friend Booger getting a “Spelling Bee Trophy.”

He’s my age so that’s kind of weird, but there’s a story behind it.

I was happy to see everyone, but especially happy to see my friend Keith.1233

*Keith w/grandkids pic*

Keith is a pastor in south Alabama and was also a youth pastor at a large church back in the 90s.

Keith is just fun to be around.

He’s like 60 years old, but he has fun with life like a kid does.

Here’s what Keith is like:

Just a ton of fun, encouraging guy who genuinely loves people with the love of Christ and is full of joy.

Why does Keith act this way?

He made a decision a long time ago to make Jesus Lord of his life.

He follows the direction of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Joy of the Lord just oozes out from him because of this.

WE

*Title Slide*

Have you ever met people like Keith that you just love to be around?

Little stuff doesn’t seem to bother them, they love life, love people and have nothing at all to hide.

We just love to be around people who love people, don’t we?

They lift us up, encourage us and the longer we hang around them their enthusiasm starts to rub off on us.

GOD

Did you know that Jesus was an encourager?

He loved to be around people.

Throughout the first four books of the New Testament, we find Jesus helping people, loving people, crying with people, and never giving up on people.

And here’s the cool thing about this: Jesus is the God who created everything.

So when we see Jesus loving people, no matter how poor, rich, popular or unpopular, we can understand what God is like.

In many places throughout the Bible, we see how Jesus is God’s one and only Son.

He’s one with God the Father and has always been.

Like He’s always existed, even before anything was created.

Let’s take a look at how and why those who were around Jesus knew that He is God.

Matthew 14 Passage

Jesus loves people, but He loves God His Father even more.

Matthew 14:23 NCV

After he had sent them away, he went by himself up into the hills to pray. It was late, and Jesus was there alone.

Jesus had people chasing Him everywhere- those who wanted to be around Him because He healed people and raised them from the dead- and people that hated His guts and wanted to kill Him.

But Jesus knew that if He didn’t spend time alone with God His Father after emptying Himself for others, He would never get a refill of the Father’s Spirit to keep going and get completely drained.

Fear to Peace

The disciples are in a small boat during a ferocious storm, and they’re pretty sure that death is coming for them.

Then in the middle of the night, Jesus starts walking on the water.

This FREAKS THEM OUT!

Now imagine this:

You’re out fishing on Lake Cumberland at 3am and someone starts walking towards you.

You’d be freaking out too right?!

So they’re out there losing their minds and what does Jesus tell them?

It’s me, don’t be afraid!

And so this guy Peter is like, aight bet… if it’s you tell me to walk on that water towards You.

And so Jesus tells Peter to come on out.

Peter is actually walking on this water for a second, but then the Bible says he sees the wind, freaks out again and then screams out for Jesus to save him.

But even while he is scared, Peter knows who Jesus is at this point, because he says “Lord, save me!”

He recognizes that JESUS IS LORD.

“... his sinking occurred when he turned his attention from Jesus to the storm. It is only as a disciple walks obediently focused on Jesus that the disciple can authentically imitate Him.”

-Roger Haun

There are constant distractions that call us to take our eyes off Jesus.

When we do this, we begin to sink.

Scottie bus driver story:

My friend Scottie is a pastor right down the road at Northside Baptist Church.

He also drives a school bus route through the week.

He told me a story about one of his bus kids- a troubled kid that he had built a relationship with.

He would talk to him everyday, found out a lot about his home life, and did his best to share Jesus with him.

Unfortunately, that kid took his own life.

His eyes were on his troubles instead of on Jesus.

This is why it’s so important to keep our eyes on Jesus:

Hebrews 12:2 (NCV)

Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect. He suffered death on the cross...

Bad stuff happens in life.

Stuff that isn’t fair and that seems overwhelming.

Because this world has been broken by sin- but this Jesus came to heal the world, to deliver from sin and to make us new.

A saint is not someone who never fails; a saint is someone who after a fall gets up and goes on again EVERY TIME. Peter's failures only made him love Jesus Christ more.

-William Barclay

Jesus grabs Peter by the hand and saves him, asking him why he doubted.

Too often when troubles come to us in life, we begin to doubt if Jesus still cares.

When every time Jesus is holding out His hand, waiting for us to draw closer to Him through those times.

Will we grab His hand and let us get back up after we fall?

LORD OF ALL

It’s at this point in our story that the disciples know for sure who Jesus is:

Matthew 14:32–33 ESV

And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

This was the first Jesus-focused worship service.

They knew that this man was the one the world has been looking for.

The ONE TRUE GOD.

And these disciples, who were terrified this night, grew to trust Jesus as their Lord and Savior and spent the rest of their lives imitating Him and spreading His great love to others.

JESUS IS LORD OF ALL AND WANTS TO LOVE OTHERS THROUGH ME

YOU

St Francis pic

St Francis of Sales was on a farm one day and saw a girl going to get water from the well. He noticed that before she filled the bucket with water, she put a piece of wood in it. "why do you do this?" he asked, and she responded, "to keep the water from spilling- to keep it steady."

Later, when writing to a friend, the bishop told this story and said " When your heart is distressed and agitated, put the Cross into it's center to keep it steady!"

In every storm and stress of life, the presence of Jesus and the love that flows from the Cross bring peace and serenity and calm.

Title Slide

Jesus, the Lord of All, gave His all on the cross for you.

So when life is just the worst and you can’t handle it, look to the cross of Jesus, cry out to Him, and He will pour out His Holy Spirit upon you and give you peace in the midst of any storm!

*Prayer*

WE

Philippians 4:6–7 NCV

Do not worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks. And God’s peace, which is so great we cannot understand it, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

What if we all learned to stay connected to Jesus no matter what happened in life?

God would give us peace that will guard us no matter what.

And others would see this peace in us and want to know why we are the way we are.

And we would have golden opportunities to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them, inviting them to have this same peace that we have.

That’s real life stuff, and that’s how Christ followers are meant to be.

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