What’s the first thing that a man has to have if he is going to be equipped to function in the Kingdom of God? Salvation! He has to have received Jesus as Lord.
Now let me ask you a question? Just pause for a moment and get everything else out of your mind while I ask you this simple question. In your own life, who has the final authority to make the decisions about how you will live ?
Now if you were 3 or 4 years old and I asked you that question, the only reasonable answer you could give is mommy or daddy. Now I don’t know about you, but while I’ve been traveling over several continents, I’ve continuously run into people who still answer “mommy or daddy.” Maybe there’s a new substitute for mommy or daddy but it’s still someone like mommy or daddy in authority. Wives say my husband. Husbands say my wife. Some are really religious people who say, “Well, when I have a really difficult decision to make I talk to the pastor.”
Now all of those are obviously a kind of escape: they’re ways in which people avoid the personal responsibility for their own decisions and many have really understood that. Others have matured; they proclaim, I am the master of my own fate. I am the captain of my soul. You see, I take personal responsibility for my decisions. Whatever I do, I accept the consequences. Whatever I do, I get the credit for it because I make my own decisions. I don’t have to talk to my wife to find out whether or not you can come to dinner at my house. I decide! Furthermore, I surely don’t need to go down and talk to the pastor.
The truth of the matter is this: whoever is the final decision making authority in your life (even if it is you), that person is your Lord. You see, that’s what Lordship means. It means the final authority to make the decisions. With that understanding, I suggest that you consider this; Jesus knows more about your life than you do. He knows what happened in your past. He knows what happened in the past generations and the things that are affecting you today. He knows what’s happening all around you in the present time and he even knows what other people are thinking about you right now. He knows all about your future too. He knows the end from the beginning.
Now, here’s another thing we ought to know about Jesus; he loves us. Completely! Enough to die for us!
Now, I know that there have been many times when you actually have not loved yourself. I also know that you don’t know as much about your own life as Jesus does.
When you get to that point you’ll recognize that it really is just common sense to let Jesus be Lord of your life and to yield to him all the authority to make the final decisions for your life.
Let me just pause for a moment to ask you another simple question. Have you already asked Jesus to come and be your decision-maker? If not, why not ask Him right now? If so, your name is written in the Jesus’s book of life and the scripture says that that’s something to rejoice about.
What have I just done with you? I’ve taken you through a simple step-by-step demonstration of one way to talk to someone and bring him or her to the point of making a decision to receive Jesus as Lord. However, in doing so I haven’t used any religious phrases at all.
But, do not forget what we said yesterday. We do not serve people by memorizing a script. Rather, Jesus is revealed when we listen to Papa God and speak what He is saying. Father is talking. Just listen to Him and repeat what He is saying.
His, thus Yours,
Stuart
His-Family 