Don't Make Jesus Your Personal Lord And Savior Series

DON’T MAKE JESUS YOUR PERSONAL LORD AND SAVIOR!

John 5: 22-24, 26-29 (p 743) May 5, 2013

INTRODUCTION:

When I first read the title of this chapter in Follow Me I thought…what are you talking about David Platt?!!!

And then the truth of what he was trying to convey hit me hard…”I love to hear individuals tell about how Jesus has called them and saved them”…Our testimony, like the Apostle Paul’s, is one of our greatest resources in soul winning for Jesus….

But when we say “I made Jesus my personal Lord and Savior” it minimizes the inherent authority of Jesus”…Surely, none of us can decide to make Him Lord. Jesus is Lord, regardless of what you or I decide!

The Bible is pretty clear in Phil 2 “That every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord.” (Phil 2)

The question isn’t whether you or I will make Him Lord the real question is whether you or I will submit to his Lordship, and this is the essence of salvation!

And maybe what hit me the hardest was this paragraph from Follow Me.

Yet on even deeper level, I’m afraid that we use this phrase all too often to foster a customized Christianity that revolves around a personal Christ that we create for ourselves. Almost unknowingly, we all have a tendency to redefine Christianity according to our own tastes, preferences, church traditions, and cultural norms. Slowly, subtly, we take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into someone with whom we are a little more comfortable. We dilute what he says about the cost of following him, we disregard what he says about those who choose not to follow him, we practically ignore what he says about materialism, and we functionally miss what he says about mission. We pick and choose what we like and don’t like from Jesus’ teachings. In the end, we create a nice, non-offensive, politically correct, middle-class, American Jesus who looks just like us and thinks just like us.

Jesus isn’t the one who need to or can be customized and changed…in fact, He revolutionizes use. He transforms us…we are made “clean” through His word…Our minds are to be transformed daily, renewed through His truth… (not our assumption. When His word confronts our assumptions, prejudices, convictions and beliefs…it’s not our mold that Jesus is to be conformed to…but our will, our thoughts, our desires are to be conformed to His… We don’t prune Him to make Him more acceptable or American…He prunes us to make us “more fruitful. (John 1:2)

All of this for one reason…to fulfill His mission…we proclaim Jesus to the world, for we realize He is not merely a personal Lord and Savior who is worthy of individual approval ultimately Jesus is the Savior of all mankind…He is Lord of everything and everyone…and is worthy of everyone’s eternal praise!

For this to happen every single person will have to decide…

I DO I BELIEVE IN HIS RESURRECTION AUTHORITY?

The Barna research h group says, “Many Christians no longer believe that God is the supreme Creator and ruler of the universe. Over half of those who call themselves Christians don’t believe that the Holy Spirit or Satan is real, and tens of millions of them don’t believe that Jesus is the divine Son of God. Half do not believe that the Bible is completely true.

And you and I would both agree that such Christians are not Christians…It is impossible to follow Jesus yet disregard, discredit and disbelieve His word…To follow Jesus you have to believe Jesus…

According to Jesus our hearts, minds, and lives revolve entirely around His word…He said

“The Spirit of truth will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14: 17, 26)

Jesus said, “If you abide in my word you are truly my disciple and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”. (John 8: 3-32)

But there are people who will say…that was over 2,000 years ago…it archaic…out dated, haven’t we progressed beyond the teachings of the Bible? How do we still know that what He taught is true today?

And the answer to that question is tied to the actuality of Jesus resurrection…think about it, if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead we don’t have to worry about one word He said. If Jesus wasn’t resurrected than all of Christianity is a hoax and Christians are the stupidest people alive…scripture even teaches that…

1 Cor 15: 17-19 (p801)

But, if Jesus did rise from the dead, if He did what no one else in all history was able to do…conquer death—then we can’t just accept what Jesus said. We must orient everything in our lives around what Jesus said.