Which Lord Is My Lord Part 1

Which Lord Is My Lord

10/22/95 Stewardship Joshua 24:14-27 Luke 9:57-62 , 14:25-35

In every period of the people of God’s history, you will find that God’s people have secretly served gods other than the Lord God. We saw it in our Old Testament reading when Joshua told the people, "now if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves which gods you will serve." Joshua’s message is, all of us are going to serve some kind of a kind. It will either be the Lord, or a god of our own choosing or one that we ourselves design. I want you to answer honestly at the close of the message, "which lord is my lord?"

There is a crisis in the church today over the misconception of the understanding of the word lord. What do we mean when we say that Jesus is lord of my life? Some people think that when we say the Lord Jesus Christ, we’re simply adding a phrase like Mr. Jesus Christ. We don’t use the word lord much in our everyday language. so its lost a lot of its true meaning.

I’ll try to help you understand what lord means through the illustration of a car. I am lord of my car. I paid some money for it. I’ve got a piece of paper at home that says I am the title owner. Nobody else has the right to use that car without my permission. I can take the car where ever I want to go. It doesn’t matter what time of day or night it is, when I want to use my car, I simply get my keys, crank it up and I’m gone. Nobody has the right to tell me, you can’t use your car today. If I want to paint it a different color, that’s my business. If I want to trade it or sell it, I can do that too. I could even give it away if I wanted to do it.

The fact that I am lord of that car also means I’m responsible for that car. If it needs gas, I need to put it into the car. If something goes wrong with the engine, I need to have it fixed. If there’s a sign that says no parking here or you will be towed, I need to make sure that I don’t park in that spot. If I come to a red light, I need to be the one to stop the car. As lord of the car, I am its source for whatever it is that it needs. As lord of the car, I am going to try to protect my investment. I am not going to do anything that’s going to intentionally damage any part of the car.

Now let’s just suppose for a moment that I one day I woke up and this car had the ability to think and act for itself. So after church several people had asked me for a ride home, and I told them all yes sure. But when I got into the lot the car was gone. My immediate response would be that someone had stolen the car. So I rush into the church to call the police but when I get in the phone is ringing. It’s Pastor Toby and she says, Honey the car is home.

I ask well how did it get there. She says, "It came by itself. When I asked the car where were you, it said, "It knew you would be giving people rides home after church, and it just didn’t feel like going the extra miles and carrying the extra weight." Now I’m Lord of this car, and its got the nerve to up and leave when I need it the most.

Now suppose one day, I finally get on the expressway in that car and I want to hit 55. I’m mashing the pedal to the metal and am barely doing 40. I ask the car what’s wrong. The car says, "I’ve never done more than 35 in the city. I’m not sure I should go that fast." I tell the car, "Look, I’m the lord here, trust me, you cannot only do 55, you can easily hit 85." The car responds, "yeah but I’m not sure that I can handle it. My tires have never gone that fast, the engine might overheat and blow up. I tell you what I’ll do. Each month for the next 20 months, I’ll drive one mile faster until I can get use to going that fast. I know you’re my lord, but there’s no use rushing things."

Now after having taken 20 months to do what it could have done in 20 seconds, the car is faced with another challenge. There I am doing 55 on the highway trying to get to another church to preach when all of a sudden the car pulls over to the side. I ask what in the world are you doing. " The car responds, well my tank is getting low and I don’t want to run out of gas" I tell it, you’ve got enough gas to get to the next exit and gas station. The car says "yes, but I don’t see any gas stations around and I’m afraid I won’t have enough to make it." I say look, "I’m the one that puts the gas inside of you that makes you run. I’m telling you get on the road. There is gas ahead at the next stop."