Making Jesus Lord Of Your Life Series

Life Choices Series

#1 Making Jesus Lord of your life

Good morning everyone, Hey, we are so glad that you have joined us online and pray often that it will be a blessing to you.

We have started today a new series entitles “life choices”. The RightNow Media video some of you saw shows us that we make millions of little decisions in our lives but there are a few of those decisions that will change your life forever.

The decisions that we make in life not only affect ourselves but all those that are around us. Very few decisions don’t have some kind of a ripple effect in some way. We are in a sense our brother’s keeper.

Bad and good decisions affect us and others around us.

We decide how we are going to come up with a plan in which we decide which direction we are going.

There has to be some boundaries that we use to set up guidelines for ourselves and we will not leave those boundaries so that we stay the course.

Boundaries have value to us!

We all need boundaries. Boundaries keep us safe. ...

Physical Boundaries. ...

Sexual Boundaries. ...

Emotional or Mental Boundaries. ...

Spiritual or Religious Boundaries. ...

Financial and Material Boundaries. ...

Time Boundaries.

The illustrated power point showed us that we come to crossroads many times a day in our lives where we decide which road or path we will take. (Move hands and show many roads and the decision to pick one)

Some decisions don’t affect eternity…some do.

Some don’t really matter because it is a matter of preference and they can change daily with no consequences.

There are some of the decisions that we make are life changing, life threatening.

3 elements we use for of our decisions that we will use for several weeks as we look at life choices for a believer.

Strategic: Long-term, high-level decisions that determine the direction of where your life is headed and must have a lot of forethought.

Tactical: These decisions give us strategic direction into how we will live our lives once we make a decision.

Operational: Daily, routine decisions put strategic and tactical goals into practice.

Strategically you must put into motion the high-level decisions that shape or destroy our lives.

You must know what they are and what you will or won’t do with them.

Tactically- once you have made a decision, how it will be played out in our lives once we make the decision.

Operationally- what does that look like in our everyday routine life?

Amen! Here we go!

Please turn with me to the book of Acts chapter 26-

The bible book containing Acts of the apostles-

Set this up- Apostle Paul is being dragged in court before Festus because of his traumatic change being the persecutor of Christians known as the “The Way” and the his new found desire to convert everyone to being a Christian.

Festus could not find any legal reason to hold Paul for any crimes against Rome or Cesar but was headed to Jerusalem and wanted to do the Pharisees a favor and hear the case against Paul but they had to be careful because Paul was also a Roman citizen.

Acts 26: 9-11

“Festus wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?” Paul answered, I am now standing before Cesar’s court, where I ought to be tried, I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you know very well. If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has a right to hand me over to them, I appeal to Cesar.”

Paul tells this lower court that he has done nothing wrong and is not afraid to stand trial before them.

He says that if he is innocent should be let go and if they find him guilty on trumped up charges that as a Roman citizen he appeals to Cesar to make final decision.

That Festus has no right to turn him over to the Jewish counsel for punishment.

This scenario is what happens to each one of us at some point in our lives.

All the people involved in the trials had a choice as to wither they will follow the Jesus that Paul told them about or openly reject him and pay the consequences.

#1 decision that must be made in our lives- the most important life choice bar none!

Wither we will accept or reject Jesus Christ as Lord.

Those who have not accepted Jesus will be shown all the opportunities in their life where the gospel was shared and they openly rejected or put off to a different time.