"CHRIST IS LORD!"
Phil. 2:5-11
Turn with me if you would to Phil. 2:5. This morning I want to share with
you about the Lord & I want to do it in a way, that I trust that before
this morning is over you will claim Him as all that He wants to be in
your life.
If we are going to see our churches work, if we are going to overcome the
difficulties, than He's going to have to be Lord in our lives. If you
will then, follow me as I share with you from God's Word and would you ask
the Lord to give us insight as we do.
I really never know where to start reading. It seems you ought to got
back to the beginning and read the whole book, anyway we'll start with
5. (read Phil. 2:5-11)
Let us pray. Father, In the name of Jesus, may the words of my mouth and
the thoughts of my heart, but Your words and Your thoughts and may Your
work be done today. In Jesus name we pray and all of God's children
said, Praise the Lord.
If we were challenged to give the message of the Bible in one sentence,
I believe it could be done. I believe it could be done in 4 words,
"Jesus Christ is Lord". The message of this Bible from Genesis to
Revelation is "Jesus Christ is Lord".
Everything that Jesus did, every miracle He performed, every word He
spoke, was the clear revelation of His Lordship. One of the most dynamic
studies I ever got into was Jesus being what He said He was in Matthew
5 when He said, "I have come to fill the law up", not to fulfill it, but
to fill the LAW UP.
Jesus was much more than coming as the Son of God. He came & He fulfilled
the Law of God. Friend that is hard to comprehend, but to understand His
Lordship today, I want to give you just a little of what IS a whole lot.
The first 5 books of the Bible are called the Torah, every day in the
synagogues, even until today, there is a section of the Torah read. In
the time of Jesus, it took 3 1/2 years to read thru the Torah.
The reason being is they acted out each thing that they read about, each
feast and every thing that went along; in other words when it was
Passover Time, they were reading the Passover; when Jesus came upon the
scene, He came on and entered His ministry on the Jewish Holiday called,
"Rhos-ha-shon-na, the Jewish New Year. That was His birthday, by the
way.
He walked from Galilee down to the Jordan, just north of the dead sea,
where He was baptized and when John turned and saw Him, he made a
statement---"Behold the Lamb of God". If you take it back to the Greek
and then the Hebrew, he was saying the "Als-a-za-o", the "scape goat".
At the very time He turned and said that, the scape goat was being turned
loose in the valley of A-cor, just a few yards away, for the Day of
Atonement in Jerusalem.
From that day forward He lived out a drama that was His greatest miracle.
Every day, what was being read in the Temple and the Synagogues, He lived
that day, He totally live the Law. Everything He did, He did because of
that reading of the Torah. So that He became the total fulfillment of
what God is & therefore you & I do not have to keep the Law to get to
heaven.
We enter into the fullness of the Law because we have entered into Him.
Now if I don't stop there, then I'll get off onto another sermon, and I'm
not suppose to preach that one. You will get the rest of that some other
time.
The Christian life is nothing more or less than a continual unveiling of
what it means for Jesus to be Lord. Every decision you make is based
upon His being Lord in your life or not.
Now God proclaimed Him Lord---It is God Who said "His name shall be Jesus
but He shall be Lord". Man gave Him a lot of names. Isaiah called Him
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Ever Lasting Father, Prince of Peace
& the angel told Joseph to call His name Jesus, which is Savior. Matthew
called Him Messiah----and John the Baptist called Him the Lamb of God.
God put all those things together and many other things and He called Him
Lord. He proclaimed Him Lord---He is Lord of time & eternity. In John
1:1 we find He existed even before time ever existed. Time came into
existence because of man. He was before time began and He will be even
after time comes to an end. He always has been, so He rules all things.
Everything that has been made was made by and thru Him & for Him. He's
Lord of all things.
He's Lord of all the demonic powers & even Satan himself. Every demon has
to flee when He speaks....His power is supreme over them because "He is
Lord".
Do you believe that? If we did we wouldn't be suffering like we are. We
believe it as long as it works. But it doesn't work very often. He is
Lord over every demonic power & He lives in every believer in
here....then why is it that Satan has such a freedom?
But yet, God proclaimed Him Lord...Lord is an interesting word. It's
translated from the Greek word back to the Hebrew, we call it Jehovah but
that's not really it. It's in the Hebrew spelled "YOD-HAID-VOV-HAY" YO-
VA, the unmentionable, unpronounceable name of God. We don't know how to
pronounce it. It was Him that spoke from the burning bush....
I want to pause right here to give you something a little extra....the
Lord has revealed something to me during the study for this sermon....I
was always amazed at the miracle of the burning bush, "that the bush
didn't burn". The Lord has shown me something this week that's taken me
down a peg or 2... When I went back & looked at that I realized that that
wasn't the issue. That wasn't the miracle, that the bush didn't burn.
The miracle was that the fire didn't need the bush to flame it.
The bush didn't have anything to do with causing that fire to burn.
That's the reason it didn't burn. That bush could lend nothing to that
fire because it was fire from heaven & if you & I do anything of any
significance, WE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.
It's just the fire of God resting on us. He's Lord...He's Lord .... He's
Lord of the Physical because He speaks and the sick are made well & the
lame walk. No straining. He just spoke & they walked. He touched &
they saw. He's Lord of the spiritual because He forgives sin. If you
& I really believe that our sins were forgiven ... it would be a start
today to realizing the victory that we have. He's Lord of the
spiritual, He forgives.
He has forgiven all those of you who know Him. It's in the past. It's
an erroneous statement for you to ask for sin to be forgiven. You just
agree with Him about sin, you can't get forgiveness, forgiveness is
already there. God doesn't forgive sin. Did you know that? The sins
been paid for. It's taken care of. That's the way you are forgiven, not
because you can ask for forgiveness and get it....you just agree with God
about your sin and you'll know your forgiveness.
He's the Lord of nature. He spoke & the winds stopped blowing & the waves
quite raising. Nature itself realizes more than you and I do that He is
Lord.
When He died nature reacted ... the world went dark .... earthquakes came
.... because its Creator had just died .. He's Lord of nature....
And He's Lord of death.. Just one word from Him & the dead come to life.
Why is all that true? Because God proclaimed Him Lord. There is nothing
you can do about it. It doesn't make any difference weather you & I
agree with it today or not, He's Lord, because God made Him Lord.
God proclaimed Him Lord but the believer must receive Him as Lord.
There's a difference in being saved, and being Lord at that point &
making Him Lord of how you live every day of your life.
You see, Jesus died to purchase you as Lord. He arose from the dead to
pardon you, as Lord. But He lives to possess you as Lord. Every
believer in this place this morning, & you know if you are a believer or
not. You know it if you have a resident God living inside of you. You
know it. But the issue today is, is the resident God ruling in your life
today. If He's ruling in your life there's some thing the Bible says are
true.
If He's really Lord, the first thing is there IS NO WANT. David knew
that. The Lord (Jehovah), the Lord (Jesus), the Lord is my shepherd
(what?) I shall not want.....(want what?) Want for anything. If He's
Lord, then I have what I need. If He's Lord, He gives me rest, because
I can walk by quiet waters, I rest. If He's Lord then I'm forgiven. If
He's Lord I'm free. If He's Lord than I have guidance. If He's Lord,
then I have protection. If He's Lord then I am fed by the Spirit of God
in the presences of my enemies. If He's Lord I have a home secured in
heaven. I don't have to worry about that. Dwell means, stay there for
ever, dwell means you've got it right now.
If He's Lord there's not a struggle in you, and not a hunger in you that
is not met in Him. That's why He urges us "to seek first the Kingdom".
Who is the Kingdom. It's not what is the Kingdom? It is WHO is the
Kingdom. He is the Kingdom of God. Why? We go back to the beginning.
He lived out what the kingdom is all about. He is the kingdom. "Seek
first the kingdom of God and His...." His what? The Kingdom is a His...
He's a person. "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness &
everything else will be added to you"
I know that you are agreeing with it, but are you really hearing it? Now
listen. That means that there is no hunger outside of my hunger for Him.
There will be some wants, but no hunger. You see, hunger is what makes
you react the way you do.
That is what makes us try to defend ourselves. That is what makes us try
to gain things we don't need. We have things & desires that supercede
our love for Him. But when He is riding as Lord of our lives....then we
have no wants.
If He's Lord then Christians dwell together in harmony. Some times we
hate to hear that. We love to fight better than any other people I've
ever know.
In Phil. 2:1 it says; "If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ,
if there is any consolation of love, if there is any affection and
compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind...."
Well......"being of the same mind!" How can you be of the same mind when
we are so different, we can be of the same mind, because when He's Lord
we have His mind. Maintaining the love (heavy). United in
Spirit.....intent on one purpose...."do nothing from selfishness or empty
conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as
more important than himself".
Now all of you who have been obedient to that jump up & say Amen! Why
aren't we being obedient to that? If Jesus is Lord & we are defending
His Lordship, then why isn't there love between the brethren? Two Spirit
filled people can work things out, I didn't say they wouldn't fight. And
there is love there.
(vs.4) "do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also
for the interest of others." Where Jesus is Lord, there's peace, there's
harmony, you don't have to work at it, it's something you strive after.
In Ephesians it says to "strive diligently for the unity of the spirit".
That doesn't mean you give up, but make sure what you strive for is of
God & not of the flesh. I personally believe that we don't have much
time left. Let's unite forces.
We've tried everything to try to make people come together. The only
common denominator we have is a love & a commitment to Jesus that makes
Him Lord over our lives & our fortunes & our churches & our homes & our
dreams & the CONFLICT CEASES!!! Right there.
In Psalms we read about the conflict that is always going on among the
sheep...they will start fighting. No wonder Jesus called us the sheep.
You are like sheep without a shepherd, He said.
The one thing that will stop the conflict every time according to
everything that I have read is the appearance of the Shepherd. It stops
(clap). When Jesus is Lord, He reveals Himself to us so that we know
Him, not about Him....Now I'm not talking about some of this silly
emotional stuff that is going on in a lot of places.
I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a revelation of Jesus
Christ where we are put on our faces before Him & we see the awesomeness
of His Person & the beauty of His personality, & get to know Him &
because we know Him we are steadfast & firm in our commitment to Him.
That's what Paul meant in Phil. 3:9 when he says; "And may be found in
Him, not having righteousness of my own derived from the Low, but that
which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God
and the basis of faith." Listen, "that I may know Him, and the power of
His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed
to His death." "That I may know Him."
When He's Lord, you don't get there first. Do you understand? People
want to know him, but we are trying to know Him before He's Lord and He
cannot & He will not manifest Himself to that individual in whom He does
not rule.
Absolute, total rule. That's the reason so many of our churches are wrong
when we brag about our democracy. If you live in a democracy, change
your government. We live in a dictatorship....Jesus is the dictator.
He dictates & we do... That rubs us the wrong way some times.
I've never known the Lord to ask any man if it was alright if He, the
Lord, did something. He says it, we do it.
God will not reveal Himself to someone who has not made Him Lord of his
life, of his finances, of his hopes & his dreams, of his home & his
family.
He will not & no matter how much you try.
No matter how much you serve.
No matter how much you work in the church.
No matter what you do or how much you give.
Until He's Lord, absolute monarch in your life, He will not reveal
Himself. But when you do, He will begin then to show you things that you
have not dreamed of....
To reveal the hope of the ages, the strength that we have today in Him,
will be revealed to your heart.....& with that we will leave all fear &
anxiousness & self-centeredness.
We talked about the fullness, the filling of the Holy Spirit & I've
preached on that & I believe that. But the fullness of the Holy Spirit
is nothing more than Jesus being Lord. When He's Lord, that means He
controls & when He controls, that's what the filling is.
You don't ask Him to do anything to prove that, He's just Lord. You just
claim Him Lord in your life.
Not only did God proclaim Him as Lord, and we must receive Him as Lord but
someday it's not going to be a choice -- Someday, the Bible says, "that
every tongue is going to proclaim Him Lord" & "every knee is going to
bow". That's not a choice, it's coming. You see, He's Lord, rather the
people want Him to be or not. He's just not taken all that is His yet.
He's coming & He will be & is Lord over all things. He did once before
& spent 33 1/2 years & then He went back to heaven. There they
proclaimed Him Lord. Do you know where you can find that? In Psalm 24.
In Jerusalem, the wall that goes around the old city, especially around
where the Temple Mount is, it's a very, very high wall now. But then it
was twice that high. Maybe 3 times.
And there would be a choir that would set upon the pinnacle of that
temple. A hugh choir. And there would be another one, another choir,
that would march across the Kidron Valley & come up & they would start
singing & they would sing this hymn, & it's a picture of Jesus going back
to heaven. Psalm 24:7, it says, "Lift up your heads, O gates," and the
next one would say, "be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the Lord of
Glory may come in" and the next one would say, "who is the Lord of glory,
the Lord mighty & strong, the Lord mighty in battle, lift up your heads
O gates & lift them up O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come
in. Who is the King of glory, the Lord of hosts. HE is the king of
glory"
What did Jesus say, "I am the commander of the Lord's hosts". When He
went back to heaven the choirs in heaven proclaimed Him Lord. As He
walked down the streets He was proclaimed Lord. But there is coming a
day, there's coming a day, when His feet will stand physically once again
on the Mount of Olives. His feet will stand there & we will be there
with Him. And that hugh mountain will split in its middle & He will walk
across the Kidron Valley & up thru the EAstern gate that has been broken
apart by that earthquake & as he marches in, the demons will bow....
they'll all be there.
They were there at His death & His resurrection & they'll be thee then &
they will bow their knees & there on Temple Mount, & I am convinced it
will be there, there on Temple Mount, satan himself, grudgingly yes,
angrily yes, but he will bow his knees & he will say "Jesus is Lord."
I'm glad to know that He is Lord. The issue this morning is not whether
He is or not. God has proclaimed Him so. Whether He is in your life or
not is another issue, but He's going too, & you will someday. Yes, we'll
all be bowed down. Maybe even the rocks will cry out.
When He rode into Jerusalem to face His death He said, "If I shut up my
servants the rocks will cry out." I wish they would have shut up.
Wouldn't you like to hear the rocks cry out? WELL, THEY WILL! Yes sir.
The issue this morning is, is He Lord in your life. If He is then there
will be some of the evidences we talked about. When He's Lord, that's
just the way it is. To get there we need to claim Him as Lord in
everyone of life's situations. When something happens to you that fills
you with earthly joy, then at that moment say, "Jesus is Lord". Because
if you don't, you might be side tracked with a lesser blessing.
When you're hurt & you have had more grief then you can handle, your life
& everything that's in you is falling apart, at that moment say, "Jesus
is Lord". When the pressure gets so heavy that you can't handle it any
more, say "Jesus is Lord" and He'll handle the pressure.
When you have some great success, when life does something really great
to you & men start glorifying you & they start lifting you up & heaping
some praise on you, refuse the crown, & hand it to Him. Jesus is Lord.
When you are so lonely & hurting so bad & there is no one you can turn to,
say, Jesus is Lord & watch what happens. When your family falls apart
& you've done all that you can do, lift your face to heaven & say, "Jesus
is Lord." If you do that, then when you face death, when you face the
hardest thing you'll ever face as a human being. You will be able to go
out of this world saying, "Jesus is Lord". You know, I'd like to do
that. That's probably a little selfish but I'd still like to do it. He
probably will let us but nobody else will hear it.
The last words of this old human body say, "Jesus is Lord". You can start
here on earth saying Jesus, & by the time you get to Lord you'll be in
His presence. What a way to meet Him.
You see the whole issue for those of us who know Him this morning is His
Lordship in our lives. We say it, we call it, was say thank you & praise
you Lord, but He's not Lord. We haven't allowed Him to be. This morning
I ant to ask you to do one thing.......whether you're lost or saved, the
invitation is the same this morning. I want to invite you to a
coronation service.....this morning have your own personal coronation ...
& crown Him Lord. Crown HIM Lord. Not anything in this world, just
Jesus. I want to challenge you this morning to make Him Lord, absolute
monarch in your life, no reservation...That's what you have been set up
for, that's how you're built. You'll never be what you are, until He is
... Lord of your life. Let's stand for prayer.
We are going to sing in just a moment but first I would just like for us
to pray together & continue to pray while the instruments are playing to
give you time to seek the Lord & ask Him what it is that you need to do.
There's plenty of room here to kneel & if the room runs out then just
start back up the aisle. but dear friend I challenge you this morning
to make Him Lord, no matter where you are from, make Him Lord. Do it
publicly, do it openly. If He's not Lord of your life this morning, you
know that.
He may have been at one time, but He's not now, something else has
replaced Him, has replaced Him as the Lord of your life. I want to
challenge you this morning for the sake of this church or the church
where you go, stop this morning & make Him Lord & then go make it right
with someone you've hurt. If you can't love them for yourself, then love
the Jesus that is in them. Make Him Lord. You can just start coming
anytime, even before we start or finish praying. Be obedient, pray and
be obedient.
Heavenly Father, we lift ourselves as living sacrifices to you this day,
our desire is to love you & to praise You & to lift our voices in honor
& thanksgiving before you because You made Jesus Lord. Because He is
Lord & we are in Him. We thank you for what we have now & we glorify You
for what we will have & we look forward to that heavenly time when we
shall experience the fullness of all that it is. Now Father, just take
control of a life this morning, we bind satan & all his demonic spirits
that would try to hinder this service, break the hearts, break our hearts
today Father. Break our hearts & bring us to the altar weeping, in the
name of Jesus Amen Continue to pray,,,be obedient now..come on...some
of you need to come, somebody needs to go first---come & make Him Lord
... If our coming to be saved, come & see me...come
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