Lessons In Lordship Part 6
What Does Lordship Require of Me? (Part 2)
Introduction: Last week we resumed our study on the Lordship of Christ and we focused on two practical questions that Lordship demands we answer. Those questions were:
1. What Am I Holding On To? Is there anything that is keeping me from being totally sold-out for Jesus?
2. Who Am I Hanging Out With? Is there anything or anybody that is coming between me and Jesus?
Today we are going to continue looking at the implications of Lordship by looking at another practical application question. Let me remind you first of all of the over-arching principle that is guiding our study:
The Lordship of Christ is a Daily Exercise
As I stated last week, becoming a Christian or getting saved is a one-time event, but living a life for Jesus Christ is a daily exercise. Far too many people who call themselves Christians deny that profession by their daily walk. That is why a focus on Lordship is so important. With that in mind, let’s get back to our study. Here is our next question:
The Lordship of Jesus Christ demands that we ask...
3. Where Am I Headed?
I look at this question as a directional one. What direction is your life headed? Is that direction being driven by the Lord, or are you setting the course for your life? Turn with me to Colossians 1. I want us to look at some instructions Paul gave about how we should be walking as followers of Jesus Christ.
By the way, that term "followers of Jesus Christ" is a real good one for helping us keep our perspective in proper alignment. In fact, it may be the very best term when it comes to understanding the implications of Lordship. The word Christian can mean almost anything in our culture, and the term believer while it may be less generic than Christian still doesn’t really identify who we are. That’s why I really like the expression: Follower of Jesus Christ. That is very hard to misunderstand.
So let’s see what Paul has to say about being a follower of Christ starting with verse 9:
Colossians 1:9-10 (HCSB)
9For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.
To ask ourselves, "Where am I headed" is to ask, "Am I walking the way that the Lord wants me to walk?" Paul was very concerned that his readers walk worthy of the Lord. Within this passage we see what is necessary to walk worthy and we see the results of those who do walk worthy of the Lord.
So what does it talk to walk worthy? What do we need to be faithful followers of the Lord? Paul said that at the heart of heading in the right spiritual direction is and understand of God’s will. I have heard people for years say, "I wish I knew God’s will for my life." I have come to the conclusion that many people who say that don’t really mean what they say.
I believe that God desires to reveal His will to all of us. The problem is we are not that receptive to what it is that He wants. We worry about so many things, even to the exclusion of truly searching for God’s will. One of the reasons so many are so unfamiliar with the will of God is because they are not willing to spend time in the Word of God. Too many people want what Paul called wisdom and spiritual understanding, but they want it handed to them without the cost of faithful study.
When I get ready to go someplace that I have never been before I get on the internet and plug the location into Google Maps. Not only can I see it on a map, I can even get a satellite image of the location. In addition, if I know where I am, I can get step by step directions to where I need to go.
What Google Maps is to geography, the Bible is to our spiritual journey. Of course, if are like many people who don’t think they need directions, you can simply wander through life and hope you end up at the right place. That is bad advice when you are talking about geography, it is terrible advice when you are looking at your spiritual life.
So who is setting the course for your daily walk? If it is the Lord then there will be some obvious results that will be evident. Paul says that a worthy walk will be reflected in at least three verifiable outcomes.
Here’s the first:
1) Your life will please the Lord
The question I want you to ask yourself right now is: "Is the direction my life is headed pleasing to God?"
When I think about pleasing the Lord by the direction my life is taking I am reminded of what the author Hebrews said that we to:
[keep] our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne. (Hebrews 12:2)
Jesus pleased His Father by being obedient to His will, to go in the direction that He determined, and that path led directly to the cross. If you are not willing to take up your cross and follow Jesus as the Lord of your life, then you will not be able to please your Heavenly Father.
Here’s a second result of a worthy walk:
2) You will bear fruit for the Lord
So ask yourself: "Am I genuinely serving the Lord on a day by day basis? Do others see Jesus in me?"
One of the most definitive qualities that Jesus gave that He said would prove that we were His disciples, that we were headed in the direction He wanted us to head was that we were bearing fruit. Listen to what He says in John 15:
My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples. (John 15:8)
So what does it mean to bear fruit? Where do you find fruit in the grocery store? In the produce section. That is a great way to remember what it means to bear fruit as followers of Jesus Christ we are His products and He expects us to produce for Him.
If the direction your life is headed is not a productive one then you are headed the wrong way. To acknowledge the Lordship of Christ means that there should be evidence of Him in everything we do.
The third expression of a worthy walk that Paul pointed out was:
3) You will grow in the Lord
As we look at this point I want you to do a little self-evaluation and ask yourself, "Is there a measurable difference in where my relationship with Jesus Christ is today than a year ago?"
How about 6 months, or 6 weeks, or even 6 days ago? While I understand that we all go through growth spurts in our spiritual lives just like we may do in our physical lives, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be growing on a day-to-day basis.
If you are following the Lord, if you are not just talking the talk but are actually walking the walk, then these ought to be characteristics that are evident in your life. Turn over to Colossians 2. I want us to read another couple of verses from this letter that remind us of the importance of heading in the right direction in our walk with Christ.
These verses have special significance to me because they are the verses that Lenea and I printed on the front of our wedding invitations. We wanted to communicate to all our family and friends that from the beginning of our lives together we wanted our path to always be God’s path. I’m not saying that we have never strayed, or taken a detour or two, but I will say that God has always been faithful to draw us back to the direction He wants us to go is we will listen to His voice.
Look at what Paul says beginning in verse 6:
Colossians 2:6-7 (HCSB)
6Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, 7rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Notice that Paul spoke about receiving Jesus as Lord not just as Savior. What I see Paul saying is that the Lordship of Christ requires us to walk in Him. To me that means He is the one who sets the course or direction. To walk in Him means to walk how He wants us to walk and to walk where He wants us to walk.
Notice that there is another quality that will be evident in those who are headed in the direction in their spiritual lives.
4) You will be overflowing with thankfulness.
One of the quickest ways to assess whether you are truly walking with the Lord is to ask yourself, "Which do I spend more time doing: complaining or giving thanks?"
Conclusion: Let me simply restate the applications of Lordship for you and then we will spend a few minutes in prayer. The Lordship of Christ means that Jesus gets to ask you, "Where are you headed?"
To answer that question we looked at Paul’s letter to the Colossians and discovered that there are some clear evidences that you are headed in the right direction as a follower of Jesus Christ:
Your life pleases the Lord
Your life is productive for the Lord
You are growing to be more like the Lord everyday
Your life reflects an attitude of thankfulness
So, as you consider those qualities, I want to ask you: "Are you headed the way that Jesus wants you to?"
If, not it’s time to Change course.
