A New Master - Made New (Week 2)

The year uh was 1120 when King Henry I lost his only uh legitimate son, the heir to the throne, and uh he he died by accidental drowning.

Uh but as you can imagine, it complicated the succession plan for the throne.

And for the next 15 years, King Henry was trying to figure out uh who was going to take the throne.

Uh, and uh 15 years later, in 1135, uh when King Henry did die, uh, his daughter, Empress Matilda, was the one who was supposed to be the successor of the throne.

But as often happened in history, there was uh a bit of a competition for the throne.

You see, Henry's nephew, Stephen, and his brother attempted to seize the throne.

And Empress Matilda said, That's my throne, I'm the rightful queen.

And Stephen said, No, I am the rightful king.

And a civil war ensued.

And for the next 20 years, can you imagine this?

The next 20 years, the people of England found themselves saying, uh, okay, who's in charge here?

And there was all kinds of issues that this caused.

Nobles were switching sides constantly, castles changed hands, local lords gained enormous independence.

And this period in history in England is simply known as the anarchy.

See, the really interesting part was that many of the nobles uh they were not really loyal to one side or the other.

Depending on how the war was going, they would switch sides back and forth.

It was easy to tell that nobody really was in charge because there was no king and there was no loyalty and there was no allegiance.

And this, of course, is not unique to history.

There have been many who uh have flipped sides, many prominent historical figures.

Ronald Reagan, of course, was a Democrat, some of you remember, and then he won the presidency as a Republican.

Winston Churchill, he uh flipped the house, leaving the Conservative Party to join the Liberal Party, and then everybody's favorite villain, Darth Vader himself, could not decide which side of the empire he wanted to be on.

But I can't help but wonder, uh, as we dive into this topic of lordship today, if some of us in here have found ourselves uh sort of like these nobles or sort of like these historical figures uh where some parts of our life and some days of our life uh it's really easy to follow Jesus.

It's really easy to put him in his rightful place on the throne, and yet there is also sort of a tug-of-war that goes on in our lives where we some days we just go, I don't know if I want him to be king.

I don't know if I want him to be in charge.

And I think the reason is we don't like anybody telling us what to do.

Because we want to do what we want, when we want, how we want, and where we want.

But when we are made new, and when we get a new start through salvation, we also are given a new king.

That's the title of today's message.

We're gonna be talking about this idea of lordship.

We live with a new king.

We're gonna be in the book of Acts today.

If you have your Bible, we'll be in Acts chapter 2, starting in uh verse 31.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And uh I want to uh welcome those of you who are joining us online today.

I want to welcome uh our two campuses, the Nealy campus, along with our North Midland campus.

I need to give you just a little bit of context for today's passage uh before we dive into it.

Uh and so as we approach Acts chapter 2, uh if you've read through the gospel accounts before, you know that Jesus uh has been crucified, and three days later he rose from the grave.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

He overcame death in the grave forever.

And in Acts chapter one, he ascends up into heaven.

Uh, and just before he does, he tells his disciples to go to Jerusalem and to wait there because he was going to be sending a gift to them.

And so uh the disciples obey and they bring some friends along with them.

And this is where we pick up the story in Acts chapter 2 today.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

The disciples have gathered together, they're praying and they're waiting when all of a sudden something sort of like West Texas happens.

There's a mighty rushing wind.

No West Texans, it's not a haboob, right?

But we do see in Acts chapter two that there is a move of God that happens in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

The text tells us it was both inside and outside, and you have to know in that moment, it certainly felt like chaos.

And text tells us that as this happens, a crowd of God-fearing Jews gathers together.

And then there's all kinds of crazy things that begin to happen.

Some people uh have a tongue of fire on their head, others begin to speak in a language that just a few hours before they did not know how to speak that language.

And what they've done is they've gathered together for the feast of Pentecost.

Maybe some of the people have actually stayed there.

Uh they've journeyed from their hometown and they've been in Jerusalem for the last seven weeks because they celebrated the Passover, and now they're there for the Feast of Pentecost.

And as the wind begins to blow, unusual things happen.

And so the Apostle Peter stands up and begins to give one of the greatest sermons given all throughout Scripture, and he begins to explain what is happening.

And he comes to this crescendo moment of his sermon, and this is where we pick up our text for today, Acts chapter 2, starting in verse 31.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Would you please stand with me for the reading of God's word?

It says, He, this is speaking of King David, foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh seek corruption.

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.

Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, The Lord sit says to my Lord, sit in my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him, I want you to say it with me, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated.

Is that there has been sort of a constant drumbeat over the last hundred years that professing Christians in America have a general affinity for Jesus.

That sounds like a good thing, doesn't it?

Yeah, that Jesus came to be uh our Savior, that he came to give his life for us.

But where there is a gap or where this worldview divergence is, uh really it proves that there this does not automatically mean that these Christians, these American Christians, will have a comprehensive worldview.

That's the first thing.

And the second thing is that it does not lead them to submitting to Jesus as the active governing king of every facet of their personal life.

In other words, uh, there's a gap between Jesus being Savior and Jesus being the king and the Lord of their life.

I think we uh we all like the idea of Jesus being our savior, and many of us, if not most of us, who are professing Christians, we would say, man, I like the idea of Jesus being my savior.

I need a savior.

I uh I know me, and I need someone to come save me.

But it seems to be a different story.

Uh, even in my own personal life, I've had this different seasons of my life when it comes to Jesus being fully in charge, Jesus being the one who is king.

The reason is because we want to be king.

Or we want to be the queen of our life.

I was thinking this week about um one of my favorite uh YouTube clips.

Uh, this is one that Ally and I occasionally will go back and watch.

Uh this comes from a show that was on the ABC Network uh back in the early 2000s, and uh what would happen is they would uh take uh the wife from one family and they would put her in another family for a week.

And you know, usually there was uh quite a difference in the way that these families were raising their kids.

And on this particular day uh on this show, there was a boy named Curtis.

Some of you know King Curtis, and King Curtis, let's just say he had dietary challenges.

Uh and King Curtis, he had uh lots of reasons that he liked to eat the way he wanted to eat.

But Joy, she was a new authority in town.

And as you can imagine, uh hijinx certainly ensued.

I want you to see this one-minute clip uh from the show a few years ago.

Oh, cheese in a can.

Very happy to be throwing this away.

Bacon!

I want my bacon! I gotta tell you something.

Bacon is good for me.

This is very good.

She's gonna be going to the grocery store.

She thinks the blue, she's a smart little girl that she can do whatever she wants.

No, that's not how she can do it in my film.

She's not gonna choose the clean and more sort of thing.

I'm having nice to you, but now I'm coming to the edge.

I promise you one thing, okay?

If you do not have at least one food that you like, I will buy you a piece of junk.

Is that a deal?

No, I can't lose my things, and I don't want to lose it down anymore.

I'm living, and you can't stop packing my bones.

And a very, very clean guy into this.

I'm bumping around close, and she's be sarcastic.

Curtis, I won't be coming back until Saturday movie.

She's gonna try to stop me, but she can't run those little high hills.

Um, see, this face is bacon is good for me.

It's the best line in the whole thing.

See, there's a new authority in that home, and when that new authority comes in and brings uh new rules, King Curtis doesn't like it.

And I can't help but wonder if there are times in all of our lives, maybe for some of us who have just gotten a new start, and we're starting to understand that when there is uh when we're made new, all of a sudden that we have a new king in our life.

And there's a new authority, and we uh need to begin to submit to that authority.

In our text for today, we find that that Peter is actually preaching here about two different kings.

He's preaching about uh an earthly king, King David.

Uh Israel's probably most well-known earthly king, and yet he's acknowledging that there's also a different king.

You see, from a young age, David knew that he was not the ultimate authority.

Even when he was placed in authority over his kingdom, he was not the one who was ultimately in charge.

David was an earthly king and he knew that there was a higher king.

David under he understood where his authority came from, even though, uh, even though he oversaw, and even though he had authority over tens of thousands of acres and tens of thousands of people, ultimately he was not in charge.

And this is why Peter puts it this way in his sermon.

He says, For David did not ascend into the heavens.

He was simply an earthly king.

Here, Peter is exhorting these God-fearing Jews that David, though he was a good king for the most part, he was an earthly king.

He was a man after God's own heart, but there was a better king that had already come.

That Jesus, who had recently been crucified and resurrection, that he had a different kind of kingdom, that he didn't have an earthly kingdom, he had a heavenly kingdom.

And Jesus, of course, just uh a few days before this, he had acknowledged this standing before the Roman governor Pilate.

Here we see in John chapter 18, Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world.

John 18 · chapter mention

If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered to the Jews.

But my kingdom is not from this world.

See, when we are made new, we have to realize that Jesus is not just an earthly king, but instead he is the king over all of heaven and earth.

And David knew this, and so did Peter.

This is why in this sermon Peter is preaching, he acknowledges and throws it back to Psalm 16, where David had written this, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

On the day of Pentecost, Peter here is citing another king, an earthly king, but he knows that he is not the ultimate Lord.

Jesus is both savior and Lord.

Somebody say amen today.

Jesus is both savior in our lives, but he's also Lord.

Now, this is not a word that we use very much here in West Texas anymore.

Uh, we don't go and call our boss at work my Lord, at least for most of us, we don't.

Uh but this word in the original language is the word curios, and it simply means he is.

He is the eternal self-existent one, the absolute unchanging one.

The name Lord, it speaks of an underived and independent existence of God.

Make no mistake, my friends, he is the king, and he is the Lord, and he is the one who sets the rules, and we are called to obey them.

This is what we see all throughout the scripture is that Jesus is the king and that he is the Lord, and he is the king of our life.

And when we dive into this idea of lordship, we have to understand that lordship demands obedience.

Now I just said that word, and some of you just shuddered.

You hear that word obedience and you immediately think back to a time in your life when somebody said, You better obey.

You better be obedient.

And this is true, that we are called, when we make Jesus the Lord of our life, when he comes into our life as our Savior, we are supposed to let him be the Lord of our life.

But as I cited earlier, according to that Barna research, there's obviously a gap going on in many American churches, in many American Christians.

People say all the time, Jesus is Lord, but their life says something different.

Some of you who uh maybe own a company or maybe you manage a division, uh, you know exactly what this looks like in the people that you are trying to manage.

You know that uh you have an employee who says, uh, I'm gonna be there on time, and yet for the next week they always show up 15 or 20 minutes late.

You know that their words are just empty words.

You know that you have an employee maybe who doesn't represent your company well on social media, and you've talked to them about it time and time again, and yet they keep doing it.

You know that you've had an employee maybe before who uh who tells half truths.

It's like it's mostly true, but kind of true, but not really true at all.

You know that their words are just empty words.

We kicked off this series a few weeks ago looking at Matthew chapter 7, and Jesus says in that text, he says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

And I do think this is a sober warning.

Because Jesus, when he becomes our Savior, he is also supposed to become our Lord.

When we're made new, we get a new start, meaning we have a new king and we are called to obedience to that king.

And Lordship demands obedience, and there should be, listen to this, there should be some fruit of change in our lives when we make him the king of our life.

Because we're given the deposit of the Holy Spirit in our life.

There should be uh some fruits of change in our life.

You should become a different person because you are changed.

You don't have to be perfect.

I'm not saying that at all.

You never will be on this side of heaven.

However, when you have a new king, you should become a more patient person than you were two or three years ago.

You should be the kind of person who is growing in joy.

No matter what your circumstances are, you should be able to find joy in the midst of your circumstances.

You should be able to find peace, you should be a more self-controlled person than you were five years ago, especially when the cowboys are not playing well.

We need some self-control.

And these just aren't behavior modification models.

No, no, no.

These are the fruits of him being the Lord of your life.

He's in charge and he's changing you.

And he's far better than any uh self-help podcast or book or reel that you can find on the internet.

He's far better than any YouTube show that you can watch.

Let me just tell you this: the best version of yourself is when you make Jesus the Lord of your life.

It's how you how you make yourself the best version of yourself.

You will be a better employee when you make Jesus the Lord of your life.

You'll be a better wife or a better husband, you'll be a better uh son or daughter to your parents in their twilight years.

Why?

Because Jesus has your best in mind.

And I believe you'll never be more alive or more fruitful or more joy-filled than when Jesus is Lord.

Once again, this is not just like behavior modification, it's much deeper than that.

I believe that a new king gives us a new heart.

And this is how we change.

When our heart begins to change, when our heart begins to submit to him, this is where real change comes because you submit to his ways of life.

I was thinking about um earlier this summer, uh, I found myself uh sort of, you know, when I put my shirt on, it was a little tighter than it should have been.

Anybody ever had one of these moments?

Yeah, and I had the choice.

I was like, I could just go buy new clothes, or I could make some changes in my life.

And uh I knew for probably a couple of months, like, I'm like, I need to make some changes in my life.

But it wasn't until the beginning of the summer, we went on a trip with Allie's family, and we went to one of those all inclusive resorts down in Mexico, and the last night I sat down to dinner, and as I was sitting down to Dinner, I was repulsed by food.

I'd been eating all day long.

I was like, I'm disgusted with myself.

And in that moment, there was something that changed in my heart.

It wasn't when I was on the treadmill.

It wasn't when I was uh meeting with the doctor, and they're like, hey, your levels are getting a little out of whack.

It wasn't any other moment, it was in that moment that my heart changed, and I decided, like, I want to be around for my kids.

I want to be able to do what God has called me to do for the next 40, 50 years.

And my heart changed.

And guess what happened after that?

My behaviors began to change.

I instilled some different things in my life.

It's amazing when we submit.

I believe this is true for Lordship in our life too.

When we submit to him, when we begin to change our heart, guess what?

Our behaviors begin to change too.

Lordship starts by saying, I yield all of myself to you.

To all uh to your ways, Jesus.

I submit every part of me to you.

This is where Lordship starts.

And I want to um just pick on a few of you for just a couple of moments.

There's lots of different uh scenarios or areas of life that we need to put under the lordship of Jesus, but I'm just gonna pick a few here that I see uh here at mid-cities often.

I want to talk to you men for just a moment.

Uh, some of you in here, you would say, uh, man, I I have dealt with lust for years.

It just I keep finding myself submitting to this.

I keep struggling in this area, and you've tried, you've tried all the different softwares, you've been in lots of different accountability groups, and yet you continue to find yourself dealing with this issue over and over and over again.

And I want to tell you, this is actually a lordship issue.

See, see, God He designed you with sexuality.

God designed you, He's the one who actually created that.

He's the one who made it good between a husband and a wife.

He is the one who designed you the way that you are, but what you continue to do is not make him king in this area.

And the way to actually overcome this area is to wake up every single morning and say, Jesus, would you be the Lord of my eyes today?

Jesus, would you be the Lord and King of my mind?

Jesus, I don't want to struggle with this anymore.

I want to walk in freedom.

I want to walk in power, I want to walk in victory.

You are the Lord of my life in this area.

There's some of us uh in here today that um maybe have been living uh as a married couple does, and you've been therefore doing what married people do, uh, and you've been cohabitating.

And you're like, yeah, we're gonna get married like at some point.

When?

Six or seven years from now.

You got like two or three kids together.

This is a lordship issue.

Get married.

Call the church this week.

We'll set up a time to get you married, to help you.

And there's lots of other areas that I can pick on.

I have plenty of areas in my own life where I am in the process of letting Jesus be more and more Lord of my life.

Uh, but those are just a few examples.

Many of the things that we continue to struggle with are actually not this particular issue or this particular issue.

It's actually a lordship issue.

And it begins in our heart.

Your heart says, I don't want that anymore.

I want what you want for me.

Here's what 1 Peter chapter 3 says.

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

It says, But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.

Maybe some of your translations uh use the word regard him as Lord or honor him as Lord.

Lordship begins in the heart.

Colossians 2 puts it this way.

So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him.

You see, Lordship is every day for the rest of your life.

That's a long time.

It's a minute-by-minute choice.

It's an hour by hour, a day by day choice, a year-by-year choice.

We choose to walk with him and let him be the Lord of our life every single day.

See, I choose Allie every single day.

And she chooses me.

Twenty years ago, uh, when I put that ring on her finger, 21 years actually now, 21 years ago, when I put that ring on her finger, she said, he's off limits, ladies.

That bald spot and dad bod are off the market.

Sorry, babe.

And the same is true with lordship.

We choose to let him be king every single day.

This is the way that God has set up the world.

He doesn't make us love him.

He doesn't make us make him king in our life, at least for now.

Scripture is clear that there will be a day where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and say that Jesus is Lord.

It's submitting to him.

It's letting him into every part of our life.

Maybe some of us uh can think back to uh the last six months or eight months or three years of our life, and we would say, man, my life has really been sort of like the anarchy.

Some days I'm in charge, some days he's in charge.

There's this part of my life that I don't really want him to be in charge of.

Let's not talk about that one over there, but I can let him be in charge of this area of my life, and really what it proves is that he's actually not Lord at all, because he's not Lord of all.

It's the way the one one-to-one book puts it.

I was thinking this week about the story, the parable of the prodigal son.

Many of you have read uh that passage before.

It's a familiar story, even if you're new to church.

There's this son who uh who goes off and he goes to his dad and he says, Hey, give me my inheritance, and he leaves uh to go do whatever he wants to.

And for a certain period of time, he lives as his own king.

And I'm sure that it was a lot of fun, probably for a while, until all of a sudden he runs out of money and he goes, What in the world am I gonna do?

And there's this moment in the story where Jesus explains what is actually happening, and he says, There's this moment when he comes to his senses.

When he comes to his senses and he turns his heart and he goes home to his daddy.

And what does his daddy do?

He runs to him.

And I have to imagine that if we were to get more of that story, that that son begins to live in a different way because he knows the character and the heart of his daddy.

And I believe the same is true for you and I today.

I believe that for some of us, maybe we've never let Jesus be the king of our life.

And as you're beginning to be made new, that there is a new king in your life.

Maybe for some of us in here today, we can think back on a time in our life where Jesus really was the king of our life, but for any number of reasons, we've kind of taken the reins back again and we've been the king in our own life.

And so today, to end our time, I want to just simply give you an opportunity to put him in his rightful place in your life.

To maybe for the first time say, Jesus, I want you to not just be my savior, but I also want you to be my king.

Maybe some of you today you need to say, Jesus, I have taken this area of my life back and I'm gonna give it to you.

Would you be the king and the Lord of my life?

Would you bow your heads with me?

Maybe some of you today would say, I I I've never put Jesus in his rightful place.

But as I've been preaching, the word of God has convicted you.

You can already tell he's beginning to change your heart, even right now.

You say, God, I want you to be king over everything.

That's you today.

Why don't you just slip your hand up just real high?

Some of you say there's a particular area in my life that I need to submit to him.

That's you, just hold your hand up right now.

Jesus, I thank you for these precious souls.

That you love them far more than they ever could imagine.

That your grace is sufficient for them.

And that your power is made perfect.

That what you accomplished on the cross covers every time that they have taken the reins back and been the king or queen of their own life.

But Lord, right now you know exactly what is going on in their world and what area they're submitting to you, whether it's their whole life or whether it's one particular area.

God, we just say yes and amen today.

Would you empower us by your spirit to walk this out today, tomorrow, and for the rest of our life?

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.