Jesus, LORD and Savior
Every day our ministry receives about 10-15 pray requests via our Prayer Book on the Internet. Not every one who enters a request is a Christian. However, there are those who profess to be Christians (only God knows if they are truly born again) who are asking God to bless their ungodly relationships. Some are dating non-Christians, dating addictive or abusive individuals, or are single moms living (outside of marriage) with someone. Or they have prayer requests that are outside of the will of God.
We minister on the streets of Seattle and we meet people who have professed to be Christians, but are willfully participating in sinful behavior. Their drinking, shooting up, involved in homosexual or illicit relationships, involved in witchcraft, etc. Instead of being a light to the world, they have become the world.
Then there are the Christians who go to church every week and appear to be godly. But they are terrible employees, bosses, spouses, or children. In my past experience as an employer, some of the laziest employees were Christians. They are the type of Christian who has a bumper sticker on their car that says, "Honk if you love Jesus", as they speed past you and almost run you off the road. Or they run a red light. Or they go in the car pool lane with no passengers. That is why I don’t have Christian bumper stickers on my car. Joking aside, I just put a The Hill For Jesus bumper sticker on my car. And I have asked the Lord to keep me aware all the time that I am representing Him while driving. What do most people call these type of people?
HYPOCRITES
People we have described above are what others would call hypocrites. These type
of people the devil uses to give others an excuse to not accept Jesus as their
Lord and Savior. The sinner says, "That Christian is no different than me. Why
do I need his God?" That is a good question. If being born again means accepting
Jesus as your Savior but living according to the ways of the world, why would
the world want Jesus? For only one reason-fire insurance (so they don't go to
hell). The problem is there is no such thing as fire insurance Christianity.
That is a lie from the pit of hell.
There is a false belief that Jesus can be your savior, but not your LORD.
Some teach that individuals first accept Jesus as savior and then sometime
they make Him Lord. This teaching is contrary to Scripture. Yes, this may be the
experience of some Christians. And God is merciful. But the Bible teaches in
Romans 10:9-10
"that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe
in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; [10] for
with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he
confesses, resulting in salvation."
If you confess Jesus as Lord of your life, He then is your Savior.
Hard Words, but there is mercy and grace
We are going to share some hard words. So we want to make it clear that we
believe in grace and mercy. All of us need God’s grace and mercy. At times all
of us sin and need the blood of Jesus to cover our sin. There are times when
there should be consequences for our behavior. But God instead gives mercy.
Praise God. And without His grace, we could not have victory over sin. His
grace gives us the ability to have victory over sin, it is not an excuse to do
sin. Some say or think that they can sin and then His grace covers it. That
is false. Grace is not given to us to cover or hide our sin. It is given to
us as unmerited favor to help us have victory over sin. It is His
mercy that covers our sin.
As we share the hard words, remember we believe in grace and mercy. The Bible even says that God winks at times at our ignorance. Acts 17:30 For some of you, you may have been ignorant about the concept of Jesus being both LORD and Savior. It is time for you to hear the truth about having a relationship with Jesus Christ. And that he requires us to receive Him as both LORD and Savior.
Lets look at Romans 10:9-10 again. (Have them turn to it)
"that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; [10] for with the heart
man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses,
resulting in salvation."
These verses state that our confession of Jesus as Lord, results in our
salvation–it is our making of Him as our Lord, that He becomes our Savior.
Confess is the Greek verb Homologeo, literally defined as-to speak the same thing (homos, same, lego, to speak). To declare openly by way of speaking out freely, such confession being the effect of deep conviction of facts. (Vines Expository Dictionary) It is obvious that our confessing Jesus as Lord is not just speaking some words, but believing with deep conviction that Jesus is Lord of our life. Confess is a verb, which means there should be action with our confession.
Believe
Some will say "all you have to do is believe Jesus is Lord". Let's look at some
verses with the word believe and then look at the definition of the word
believe.
Acts 16:31 And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household."
Romans 3:22 "even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;"
Ephes. 1:19 "and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe…
Philip. 1:29 " For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake,
not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake"
(Unless we are willing to suffer for His sake, we are not believing in Him)
The Greek word for believe is Pisteuo-to believe, also to be persuaded of, and hence, to place confidence in, to trust, signifies, in this sense of the word, reliance on, no mere credence. It is a verb (action), not a noun.
If we are placing confidence in, relying on, trusting in Jesus, not just giving Him credence, then we will make Him Lord of our life.
Remember we said some believe that Jesus becomes our Savior at first and then becomes our Lord at a later date?
Bible verses that include Lord and Savior in them: (have people
read)
Philip. 3:20 "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which
also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;"
1 Tim. 1:1-2 "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope; to Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord."
2 Peter 1:1-2 "Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;"
2 Peter 1:11 "for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you."
2 Peter 2:20 "For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first."
2 Peter 3:2 "that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles."
2 Peter 3:18 "but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."
Jude 1:25 "to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen."
Isn’t it interesting that most of the Bible verses on Jesus being Lord and
Savior were found in the writings of Peter. A man who at one time was very self
willed.
Verses with Jesus as Lord of our lives:
Matthew 7:21-22 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,'
will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is
in heaven. "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in
Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many
miracles?'
Matthew 8:19-22 And a certain scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I
will follow You wherever You go." [20] And Jesus said to him, "The foxes have
holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to
lay His head." [21] And another of the disciples said to Him, "Lord, permit me
first to go and bury my father." [22] But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me; and
allow the dead to bury their own dead."
Acts 2:36"Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ-- this Jesus whom you crucified."
Romans 13:14 “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. “
If the Bible makes it very clear that Jesus is to be our LORD and Savior,
then it would be fair to ask the following question:
Why Do People Only Make Him Savior?
There are several reasons for this. Maybe they had a foxhole salvation.
Others were never taught to make Jesus Lord. Some have chosen to ignore what
scripture teaches. Some are wolves in sheep clothing.
Foxhole Salvation
We have heard of people, maybe even some of you, who were in a situation
where it seemed the only answer was to call out to God for help. God answered
their cry and so they decide there is a God that loves them, they have heard
about Jesus, so they ask Him to be their Savior. Maybe they were in jail, they
had a terrible sickness, they were living on the street, they went through a
divorce, they truly were “under fire” and needed the protection of God.
The problem with many Foxhole Salvations is that once the ‘heat is off’ the person forgets about God and Jesus. Or they live carnal, wordly lives, and only call out to God when they need some help. They may go to church when they ‘need to’.
Never Taught
Some people made a sincere commitment to make Jesus as their Savior, but
they never were taught that He is to also be their Lord. Maybe they came to
Jesus because of a foxhole experience and they know their need for Him as their
Savior throughout their life. The problem is they were never taught that He is
to be Lord of everything in their life.
What happens is the person is never discipled. A prime example of this is a jailhouse conversion. A person in jail is given a Bible and a Bible tract. Because they are in tough times they decide to read the Bible tract and it touches their heart. They now have a Bible for the first time in their life and so they start reading it. It gives them encouragement so they decide to be a Christian. They then get out of jail and may try for awhile to live as a Christian. But they were never taught about spiritual warfare, ‘bad company corrupts good morals’, the fellowship of believers, the renewing of the mind, accountability, etc. So they start taking on the world and the things of the world become their Lord, not Jesus.
Ignore Scripture
Some people chose to ignore what the Bible teaches. Or they try to find all
the verses on love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, to try and defend their behavior.
Maybe they have gone to a church that all it preaches is love, love,
love-nothing but love. Whenever they are confronted about their ungodly
behavior, they say ‘grace abounds’. What they don’t understand is that if grace
abounds, we would not be sinning because grace gives us the ability to not
sin.
Yes, God is a good of love. But He is a holy God and He calls us to be holy. And the only way we can walk in holiness is by making Him be the Lord of our life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The reality is that some people want to not go to hell, but they want to keep their hellish behavior. We all have heard the following statements: “Yes, I want Jesus as my Savior, but I will not give up my smoking, boozing, fornicating.” The problem is that then some unknowledgeable Christian comes along and says, “That is ok, just accept Jesus as your Savior and He will take care of the rest.” Yes, it is true that He will take care of the rest, but He must be given permission to take care of the rest. That only happens when we make Him Lord of our lives.
Wolves in Sheep Clothing
We must also acknowledge that there are those who are pretending to be
Christians. They are pawns of the enemy. They are willfully being deceptive. Or
they are very deceived and think they are Christians, even though there is no
evidence of salvation in their life. Or their motives for doing good works were
for personal gain. We all have heard the following verses from Matthew 7:21-22:
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
TRANSITION: We have seen the reasons why a person may have not made Jesus Lord of their life. And some of you are saying:
Ok, I want Him as my LORD and Savior
You may be asking the question: “How can I have Him as my Lord, I have
been making myself as lord. I don’t know where to start. It is so hard.”
What you need is CPR. Listen closely, I said you need CPR. As a Christian you have been in the fire and you have been burned. You have had the life taken out of your walk with Jesus. There needs to be drastic measures taken to bring you back to life in Jesus. You need CPR.
C-Confession
Remember the definition of the Greek verb Homologeo-To declare openly by way of
speaking out freely, such confession being the effect of deep conviction of
facts.
You have been convicted of the fact that Jesus must be more than Savior, He must
be LORD of your life. The first step in CPR is to Confess.
To confess to God and man that you have not made Jesus LORD of your life. All
of us need to make this kind of confession. Even as born again, spirit-filled,
on fire, Christians there are times we have not made Jesus LORD. We need to not
only confess to God, but to man, because we have been a poor witness at times.
Man-people around us, have seen that we have not made Jesus as LORD of our life.
They need to hear from us our acknowledgment of our falling short. Our
confession may help others to see sincerity in us and want to be sincere in
their own life.
So right now, let’s take a couple minutes of confessing to one another. Be specific in your confession. You can’t think of anything? Ask God to bring events into your mind. Think on His holiness, and You will know that you have fallen short.
C is for Confession, but we need CPR, not just C-Confession.
P-Praise
Once we have confessed our sin, we can praise God that He forgives our sin
and failures. Jesus’ blood covers all our sin, rebellion, stubbornness,
foolishness. I don’t care what you have done. I don’t care how rebellious you
have been. I don’t care how much you have been the Lord of your life. Praise
God, He honors our confession. Let’s praise and thank Him for His forgiveness.
Let’s praise Him that He will give us grace to allow Him to be the Lord of
our lives. It is by His grace that He becomes the Lord of our life.
C for Confession, P for Praise, we also need the R to have CPR.
R-Repentance
Our confession and praise will be of no value if we do not repent.
The Greek word for repent is Metanoeo. The definition is to perceive
afterwards. To change one’s mind or purpose. A change for the better. Repentance
from sin.
If there is true repentance, there will be change. We will renew our mind. We will say Yes Lord, and say No to sin. We have perceived that we have been in error so we take steps to change.
How drastically we take steps in a different direction will reflect how much we have made Jesus LORD. Repentance does not mean we will not sin again. But it does mean is that as it is revealed to us that we are in error, we will apply CPR once again. C-Confession, P-Praise, R-Repentance.
The problem for many Christians is that they applied CPR one time in their life, instead of applying it on a daily basis. Or they only use one part of CPR. They only confess and live in a pity party forever. They walk around always living with regrets and guilt. There is the other type of Christian that just goes around praising Jesus, shouting Hallelujah, and never repenting. There also is the Christian who all they do is repent, they never are having any long term victory over sin.
So our question to you:
Is Jesus LORD and Savior of your life? Maybe He never was even been Savior of your life. You can make Him Savior now. But remember, that He is not just to be your Savior. He is to be your LORD.
Jail e-mail story:
There is a guy in jail in Oregon who is being charged for the murder of his best
friend. He was like a grandfather to his best friend’s son. His best friend’s
brothers and sisters were like brothers and sisters to him. Why is he being
charged for murder? Because when the police arrived on the scene he had a gun in
his hand, and the best friend was shot dead. They were the only two in the
house. The man in jail does not remember anything because he was so drunk. Him
and his friend decided to party that night. What is so sad is that he is a
Christian. He said in his own words, the Bible says to stay away from
drunkenness. His problem was that alcohol had become his lord, not Jesus.
We want to pray for three types of people. The first one is:
1. Those who have never accepted Jesus as either Lord or Savior. In other words,
you have never had Jesus in your life. He has not been Lord or Savior.
2. Pray for those who have made Him Savior, but not Lord.
3. Pray for those who have made Him Lord and Savior, but have backslid or just made some dumb choices.