Luke 6:6 - 11: Jesus is Lord

There are some churches that don't like direct preaching.

Some churches that would say of a pastor that was direct, he's gone from preaching to meddling. And there are other congregations like you.

English Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon in the 1800s was talking about a pastor that didn't want to be direct with his congregation.

And he said this, I heard of an English preacher who was so fearful, lest he should be thought personal, that he said to his congregation in England, Lest any of you think that I have prepared was meant for you,

I would observe that the sermon I'm preaching to you was prepared for a congregation in Massachusetts.

Spurgeon then said, I can plead nothing of the sort. I refer to you my here in the most pointed manner.

I will attend to Massachusetts if the Lord ever sends me there, but just now

I mean you. So dear church in Massachusetts, today

I mean you. We're going to look at a topic this morning, a theological concept that is very personal.

It gets into your business as it were. And that is very clear when you look at the language of Jesus, that Jesus is

Lord. If Jesus is Lord, that means he's Lord over you. And he's

Lord over your finances. He's Lord over your marriage. He's Lord over all kinds of things, including everything.

So today, if you'll take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 6, we're going to see first how

Jesus is Lord. And then I will attend to you, dear Massachusetts, in a very personal way.

Luke chapter 6. As you know, we're just going through the gospel of Jesus according to Luke.

And it makes you want to say Jesus is Lord. It makes you want to say he's king. He's the son of God.

He's the son of man. He's prophet, priest, and king. He's the divine son who's come to rescue the lost.

Luke chapter 19. He's come to seek and to save the lost. And Luke, the doctor, has put things together in such a way that it's very detailed.

It's very persuasive. It's almost lawyer -like. How can you not believe that Jesus is the

Savior? Because he gives proof after proof after proof after proof. In terms of his preaching in Luke 4, in terms of his acts of kindness in Luke chapter 4 and 5, and later in 6, everything about this book screams that Christ Jesus is

Lord. And if you're not a believer, you must believe in him. And if you are a believer, it's really good too because we go through trials in life and situations where sometimes we might not be walking by faith like we should.

And we might stumble. And we might fall. Or we might even doubt. And so you come back to Luke and you think, you know what?

I was doubting before. My atheistic friend was trying to convince me of this, that, and the other.

But I begin to reread Luke and I think, there's no one like Jesus. I'm putting everything on the line, trusting in Jesus for my eternal life and even sustenance today.

Cotton Mather, the New England preacher of old, said, The great design and intention of the office of a

Christian preacher is to restore the throne and dominion of God in the souls of men.

And that's exactly what Luke does. And that's exactly my prayer for you this week.

Jesus is Lord. Interesting. I mean, do we really say people are lords these days?

Maybe in England people might say that. When I was a custodian for a church in California, I was to take desks and rearrange them.

Because there was a Christian school on campus. The desk had to be taken away on Friday for the Sunday school on Sunday and then put back.

And on the desk they had little laminated names. And so we had to arrange things by names.

And, you know, little third grader desks. And, you know, some of the names were interesting. You know,

Jose. Okay, fine. John. Fine. Jesus. Okay, we give it a pass.

But the one that struck out to me all the time was the name L -O -R -D.

Can you imagine naming your child L -O -R -D? And we're going to see today that there's only one

King. There's only one Lord. There's only one Master. And you can be glad you rest in Him and He's your

Captain and He's your Savior. Jesus is Lord. And what

I love about Luke, he's not going to let us glibly say, Oh, Jesus is Lord. He's my Lord and Savior.

No. When Jesus says He's Lord, He really is Lord. And being found in human form,

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted

Jesus and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name. What's that name? So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is, you want to know what the name is?

Lord to the glory of God the Father. We come to chapter 6 and we have another

Sabbath encounter. Another Sabbath encounter. And every time the

Sabbath comes up in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, you know there's going to be action. You know there's going to be a confrontation.

You know there's going to be something wonderful and wild happening. Jesus has been confronting the religious establishment and they don't like who

He hangs out with. They don't like who He has fellowship with. They don't like it that He's not fasting.

They don't like it that He's not mourning. They don't like it that He's forgiving sins. They don't like it that He's doing anything because they're in charge and here comes

Jesus. Instead of the legalistic Pharisees worshiping and being like Simon, I'm holding the

Lord of glory in my arms. They are going to attack and eventually, of course, kill the

Lord of glory. Jesus first came on the Sabbath in Luke chapter 4 and they got so mad at Him.

Luke chapter 4 verse 28, they were filled with wrath because Jesus was talking about how

God is kind to Syrians and Gentiles. The next

Sabbath scene is found in chapter 4 verses 31 and following and Jesus confronts a demon and the demon says,

Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebukes the demon.

And now we come to another Sabbath scene in Luke and it's Luke chapter 6 verses 1 through 5.

And my outline for this morning is super simple. The declaration, number one, and the demands, number two.

The declaration that Jesus is Lord, number one, and the demands of His Lordship on your life, number two.

So we're going to learn a theological truth and then we're going to say, Because that's true, how does that affect me?

And by the way, that's one of the ways you should read the Bible. You learn some theological point and then it's not just because you want to study, you want to know more, you want to win a debate.

Oh, I spoke to the WPI students, the Christian Fellowship Group, on Friday night, two nights ago.

And I got there and they said there's going to be a game time and they were going to have some singing, testimonies, and then you could speak for 30 minutes.

So they said the game time on your phone, on Kahoot, I think it is, is

Bible trivia. And I thought, that is the pastor's worst nightmare.

If I win, I'm expected to win. If I lose, I'm expected to win. So I can't win either way.

Pastor. I came in second place. 31 questions, I only missed two.

And a team of other people beat me. Sounds like WPI. And I was trying to get the students, and I'm trying to remind you.

I know you know this, but remind you. We learn something theologically, and we have to go more than that.

We have to then step back and say, it's just not theory. It's just not a truth. But truth affects.

And then we realize, if Jesus is Lord for today, then how do I live?

What should I do? Is repentance needed in my life? Is there thanksgiving needed in my life? Do I need to think differently about God?

Do I need to do other things? And so when we come to this passage, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, we then step back and look at the demands of what he's saying.

And so that's what we're going to do today. We'll learn the truth. We'll understand the Bible better. But then I want you to sit back and think, if Jesus is

Lord, what does that mean in my life? For instance, just to give you a teaser.

If you look at your finances and your Venmo and your checking account and your bank statement, would it reveal

Jesus is Lord? That's the kind of stuff we'll talk about at the end. So number one, the declaration.

Number two, the demands. As you know, the Sabbath was created for God's people for their good.

It wasn't to be a suffocating thing, a restricting thing. It was to be for their good.

And God demonstrated, even in Genesis 2, rest. On the seventh day,

God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

God blessed the seventh day, made it holy, because on it, God rested from all his work that he had done.

From the very beginning, a creation ordinance, God has set up the Sabbath. God didn't need rest.

He never is weary. He never grows tired. But he knew the people needed rest. He knew the people needed rest, both physically, because we're finite and frail, and so God knows we need rest.

And he also wanted that picture of physical rest to point to the ultimate

Hebrews 4 rest that Jesus would earn for us. As you know, one of the

Ten Commandments, remember the Sabbath day, to what? Keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a

Sabbath to the Lord our God. On it, you shall not do any work. You, your son, your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

Reason, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. And so God in his goodness and kindness creates the

Sabbath for Israel that will one day point to the ultimate rest found in the

Lord Jesus. And the backdrop here is the Pharisees have gotten hold of something that's good and turned it wrong side up.

And they're trying to control people by what they can and cannot do on the

Sabbath. They were trying to be the Lord of the Sabbath. They were trying to take control. And if we control what people do, we can control them.

And so we come to Luke 6, 1, and we see this declaration in these first five verses.

Beginning in verse 1, on a Sabbath, while he was going through the grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some of the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.

And some of the Pharisees said, why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the

Sabbath? Now, back in those days, they had a few major roads.

But most of the time when you would go off the major roads, it would just be little paths and you would walk through fields and you would walk through just, you know, woods and forests and all those other things if it were around.

And here, these men are hungry. And so they pluck these heads of grain.

And then you rub and then you eat. I always thought, boy, this would probably not taste that good.

I want to soak them in water or something because I'd probably break my tooth on one of these things. And the

Pharisees didn't like it. It's not lawful. By the way, is it lawful to do? What did Mosaic law say?

I'm glad you asked the question. Deuteronomy chapter 23. If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag.

If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.

Do you know what? It's OK if you're walking through and you just pick a few while you're going. But if you're going to get a doggie bag to go, if you're going to get a bunch of stuff.

I just read about Red Lobster and how they finally went under in bankruptcy. And it was capped off by they had all the shrimp you could eat and it kind of put them out of business.

And a lot of customers were mad because after they had 10 plates of shrimp, they asked for a doggie bag and the people wouldn't give them to them.

Useless information, I know. We used to walk through the orchards in this apple picking time.

We were at Carlson Orchards yesterday and people pay for their bag and walk through. Would you think it was wrong if somebody paid for a $20 bag of apples, but they ate one on the way with their kids?

Would you think it's wrong if the Abendross 15 years ago, we'd walk through the orchard and I would say to the kids, you can't pick an apple off the tree, but you can pick one off the ground and eat it.

I mean, we're not taking thousands home. And so the disciples are just doing what's normal and natural.

The Pharisees, they are trying to get after Jesus, so they'll get after his disciples.

They say that's not lawful. By the way, you know what? I saw them picking grain.

That's harvesting and you're not allowed to harvest on the Sabbath. You're taking the chaff off the grain.

I think you're threshing. And when you blow the chaff away, one man said, you're now winnowing.

So all those you couldn't do on the Sabbath, but you could certainly eat. They could smell

Sabbath breaking a mile off. But remember, it wasn't

Sabbath breaking according to Moses, according to God. It was their own rules. Rule upon rule upon rule, just like legalists do.

They're just walking a little bit on the Sabbath and they want to eat. Last time in Luke 5, we were dealing with fasting.

And fasting was a big deal for the Pharisees. Something bigger than fasting for the Pharisees was Sabbath. What you could do on the

Sabbath. I read some Jewish reflections on the

Sabbath, extra traditional rules. In case a woman rolls wheat to remove the husks, it is considered sifting.

If she rubs the head of wheat, it's regarded as threshing. If she cleans off the side adherences, it is sifting out fruit.

If she throws them up in her hand, it's winnowing. Did you know some

Jewish Maccabeans died in the revolt because they would not pick up a sword? Because that was work.

And by the way, Jesus, you approve this. You commend it. You're not rebuking the people for it.

You're not going after them. What are you doing? You're not doing things that are lawful on the

Sabbath. Trying to go after Jesus. May I make a couple notes?

Mentally, number one, self -righteousness deceives. When you impose certain extra -biblical rules, and then you try to live up to those rules to make you think you're standing before God is now right, it is a deception.

And by the way, it happens in our hearts if we're not careful. I mean, some people sin with gross, immoral sins.

But a lot of other people who are moralist and upright, they sin with sins that are of self -righteousness.

One man said, beware of self -righteousness. The black devil of licentiousness destroys its hundreds, but the white devil of self -righteousness destroys his thousands.

And did you also notice something as you've been reading? Did you know that people, as far as I know, religious leaders who hated

Jesus never accused Him of being a legalist? Never accused Him of trying to obey every little rule.

But what did they regularly and often accuse Jesus of? Antinomianism.

Anti, against, law, nom. Jesus, you're not doing the rules. And that's exactly what legalists do.

That's what self -righteous people do. You don't do what we do. You don't do our traditions. You don't keep up with us.

And therefore, you're lawless. Note three, religion does not save.

These were the most religious people in the world. And they're going to need a savior.

Just because there's a large religion doesn't mean it's going to save anyone, because only the

Lord can. To reiterate, they, the disciples of Jesus, were not breaking

God's law. They were breaking the Pharisees' law. So how do you think

Jesus is going to respond? I didn't do it. They did it. How do you think

Jesus is going to respond? Well, you got me. How does

Jesus respond? He appeals to the Word, and He appeals to Himself. Take a look. Jesus appeals to Scripture.

And by the way, this is a good lesson, that if you're ever around a legalist or a self -righteous person, appeal to Scripture.

I guess you're around anybody, appeal to Scripture. It works for any person in the world. But here,

He appeals to Scripture. And He, by the way, takes responsibility for His men.

He, by the way, is the ultimate representative, not disassociating Himself from those He came to save.

But one day, being that great advocate on the cross, of course, making propitiation,

He stands up for His people as the last Adam, as the legal head and the perfect representative.

And what does Jesus say? He answers them in verse 3 with four

English words that are just trumpet -like. Have you not read?

Imagine telling that to the most influential religious people in the world.

I mean, I think in the last week, the Pope said that you don't really need Jesus to get to heaven, essentially.

And I want to say to the Pope, have you not read? Of course you've read.

And what does Jesus bring up here? Have you not read what David did when he was hungry?

He and those who were with Him. Kind of sounds familiar here. We've got some people who were hungry.

Got a bunch of other people with you. What's the illustration? Or what's the example, rather? How He entered the house of God.

Is He supposed to do that? Took and ate the bread of the presence. Is He supposed to do that?

Which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those with Him.

You Pharisees don't think that's wrong. You Pharisees aren't condemning David. You Pharisees have different rules for different people.

And as you know, there was a special bread that God said to put in the tabernacle.

And they would stack it, two piles, six in a pile. There's gold on the table, all kinds of other things in Leviticus.

But to make sure that if Jesus said to us, have you not read about David and the showbread? Why don't we turn to 1

Samuel chapter 21, so we've read. So keep your finger in Luke. And what Jesus is going after is found in 1

Samuel 21. 1 Samuel 21. There's a special bread in the tabernacle that only the priests are supposed to eat.

It's supposed to be a memorial portion for the Lord, symbolizing sustenance from God.

God sustains, God provides, God is there having fellowship. But only the priests should eat it.

So what's going to go on here in 1 Samuel 21 that Jesus refers to? Verse 1 of 1

Samuel 21. Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest.

Ahimelech, excuse me. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling and said, Why are you alone and no one with you?

Remember, he's running from Saul. David is. David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has charged me with a matter and said to me,

Let no one know anything of the matter about which I sent you and with which I've charged you.

I made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. Now then, what do you have on hand?

Give me five loaves of bread or whatever's here. The priest answered, David, I have no common bread on hand.

But there is holy bread, if the young men have kept themselves from women. David answered the priest, verse 5,

Truly women have been kept from us as always when we go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey.

How much more today will their vessels be holy? So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the presence, which is removed from before the

Lord to replace by hot bread on the day it is taken. So think through this a little bit.

Would there ever be a time where you can say ceremonial rules and laws might be superseded by love?

Would there ever be a time where you say, you know what? I know what the Bible says about this ceremony here in the

Old Testament, but there is something called loving your neighbor. Does this not sound like the parable of the

Good Samaritan? You have all these Jewish leaders walking by that person that they think is dead, and they think if I go over there and help the dead person,

I am going to be ceremonially defiled? It sounds exactly like that. If David technically broke the law because of mercy and love and kindness, who do you think

I am, Jesus is saying? The ultimate David, the great David, the Son of Man, the

Son of God. If David could do that, and by the way, you Pharisees never condemned him. If David can do that, what in the world are you doing condemning me?

They are not condemning David's actions. If the lesser

David could do that, cannot the greater David do that? We know the answer. It is very clear.

There was a need, and David ate the bread. This is escape from Saul.

And so Jesus says, and let's go back to Luke 6, haven't you read that? I mean this is like a duh moment.

Have you not read? I wonder what the response was from the

Pharisees. Probably going from toes to heels.

Jesus later called these kind of men whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but they are full of dead men's what?

Bones and uncleanness. Jesus the greater

David is here. Haven't you ever read you scriptural know -it -alls?

You of all people should know that human need is higher than some kind of ceremonial law.

Plus, we are not even talking about the real law of God and Moses. We are talking about all your extra little things that you add on.

Don't you know that the Sabbath was supposed to be a blessing? One writer said, if David had a right to ignore divinely ordained ceremonial provision, when necessity demanded this, then would not

God's anointed Jesus have a right under a similar condition of need to set aside totally unwarranted man -made

Sabbath regulations? The answer is yes. And so Jesus appeals to scripture, which is a good model for us.

But now he appeals to himself, verse 5. And he said to them, to them of all people, who think they ran the

Sabbath, who think they were master of the Sabbath, who think they controlled the Sabbath, who think they were lord of the

Sabbath, and Jesus said, the son of man, that's his favorite self -designation, is lord of the

Sabbath. I'm the master of the

Sabbath. I created the Sabbath. I'm king of the Sabbath. I determine what goes on in the

Sabbath. Translation, I am God. I'm God, and I'll do whatever

I please. I'm the lord of the Sabbath. And the language of the original is, he kept on, over and over, saying to them,

I'm the lord of the Sabbath. I'm king of the Sabbath. You guys have your ridiculous tiny little rules.

The rules found in scripture should be pointing to someone. All the types and shadows should be pointing to someone.

All the laws should point that we need a savior to keep the law and to pay for our law breaking. And I am standing right before your very midst.

And because you want to control people and manipulate people and lord it over people with your self -righteousness, you can't even see.

But Luke is wanting you to see that Jesus is lord of the Sabbath. Mark's account,

Jesus said, Lord, I'm lord even of the Sabbath. I'm lord of everything, even the Sabbath.

You think that's the most important thing in Judaism back in those days? I'm lord of that. He's going after them, obviously.

Can't you do things of mercy on the Sabbath? Can't you do things of necessity on the Sabbath? Of course, God wanted to bless, not to suffocate.

And, of course, like all good false teachers, they take secondary issues and tertiary issues, second issues, third issues, and they make them super high.

They make it the issue. Sad. J .C.

Rowell said, Let us beware of falling into this state of mind. There's something sadly wrong in our spiritual condition when the only thing we look at in others is their outward

Christianity. The principal question we ask is whether they worship in our communion, use ceremonial, serve

God in our way. Secondary, consuming, primary.

So Jesus declares, I'm the lord of the Sabbath. I'm the lord. That's the declaration.

Now let's move to the demands of lordship. We're going to just stop right there. We could see the illustration of his lordship in verses 6 through 11, and we will next week,

Lord willing. But now I just want to let this settle in a little bit, the demands of Jesus' lordship.

The Lord Jesus who said, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do what I want? Say, When I think of lordship, when

I think of the lordship of Jesus, when I think about king of kings, lord of lords, master,

Adonai, ruler, sovereign, and then I think about my response,

I can probably boil down my response into two words. You could talk about more things, but for the sake of today, two words in response to lordship that I think you should think about.

If you're a Christian, Jesus is your lord. How do you respond? If you're not a Christian, Jesus is lord.

How do you respond? The two words in response to Jesus' lordship for the Christian, the blood -bought

Christian trusting in the resurrected Savior, the two words are trust. Any other guesses for the second one?

Trust and? How simple is that? Some lines in that song aren't too good, but we'll take it.

I'll give you some. Then in fellowship sweet, we will sit at his feet, or we'll walk by his side in the way.

What he says we will do, where he sends we will go, never fear, only trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.

When you think about the lordship of Jesus and how he's sovereign, I think it can break down into trusting and obeying.

Now for the record, to repeat one more time before I talk about some of this obedience. For all the proper talk in this pulpit about grace and resting and God accomplishing our salvation and how none of our works can contribute to our salvation and how the grace of God in Christ Jesus motivates us to obedience.

For all the talk about guilty in Adam, graced in Jesus the second Adam and response out of gratitude.

For all the talk about motivating people with grace and not naked brute law.

I want you to know that obedience is important for the Christian. Trusting is important for the

Christian. Obeying is important for the Christian. God expects you based on who you are in Christ and by the way you're able to do it because he gave you the spirit who dwells in you to be holy, to live lives of holiness.

Of course we don't want to be holy to earn God's grace.

You don't earn grace, it's given to you. You don't do it to get saved. You don't do it to stay saved. But you do it because it pleases

God because he's commanded it. Jesus alone is a savior and when

Jesus saves you sanctification begins and our response to sanctification is we want to say no to sin and yes to righteousness.

That's our response to God the sanctifier. So obedience is important.

Works are important. They just have to be in the right category. And so I just want you to know for all that talk about grace, motivating, resting in God.

When it comes to our salvation that's exactly true. When it comes to our sanctification we're still trusting, we're still resting but then we have a response and that response is obedience.

So let me ask you a few questions about Lordship and I just want you to think through it.

By the way, here's my assignment for you. I can't come up with everything today so just sometime this week sit down with a paper, pencil, iPad and just say since Jesus is

Lord how does that affect all these areas in my life? Here's some areas of your life that it should affect.

Did you know Jesus is Lord of your health? He's Lord of your health.

Whether you're sick or whether you're healthy Jesus is Lord. That means

I can trust Him for the future. If I'm worried about getting sick that means

I can trust Him for the present if I am sick. That means I can trust knowing that He's the

King of kings and Lord of lords and He sits in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases and I can say to myself when it comes to health

Lord I trust You. I don't have to be worried the part of obedience here if the response of Jesus is

Lord of my health I can trust Him and I don't have to complain I don't have to worry I don't have to fear.

By the way I would never worry about my health. That's two below me. I'm preaching to you

Massachusetts but I'm also preaching to me. By the way if He's sovereign over your health

He's sovereign over your spouse's health your kid's health your parent's health. So part of lordship is for the

Christian submitting and resting and trusting and then obeying.

How about this? Whether you're single or married Jesus is Lord over that. I talk to single people they're dying to get married figuratively and then when they get married they have to die to self literally.

How can I rescue that? And they make being married an idol

I'd only be joyful if I would have a spouse and of course married people they're like well did

I marry the wrong spouse? My spouse doesn't seem to change. And you know what the lordship of Jesus Christ over your singleness over your marriage does?

It frees you from things like this. I can't be happy unless I'm married. It also frees me from this.

Why won't my spouse change? Why can't I make them change? I think

I've told you there's a marriage book and one of the appendices it says in this particular appendix it says how to change your spouse and the entire page is blank.

How dumb am I? Jesus is Lord and he's put the spirit of God into my spouse and his spirit in me and he's

Lord and I don't have to worry I can rest in that. I can rest in if Jesus is

Lord of my marriage then he has delineated roles and while love is certainly touted in this culture self -sacrificial love at a cost isn't certainly submission isn't touted at all but that's what

God says and Jesus is Lord and I'll just submit to that. How about Jesus is

Lord of your work and it should respond with I need work

I should trust him and not worry. I am a workaholic I work too much because I can't stand to be at home or whatever the reason is.

It starts influencing everything he's Lord over your boss I just had a better boss and I can come up with ten other things but for the sake of time what about your children?

Is he Lord over your children? How many? If any? Miscarriages?

Worrying about your children's safety? Security? Salvation? What's going to happen to our children in such a world as this?

Where sin is touted as righteousness? And you begin to think children are the gift of the

Lord the fruit of the womb is reward what's going to happen to my children when

I die? And the list goes on and on and on and you think Jesus is Lord and I can trust him and he's alive and he's interceding praying for me.

As I mentioned earlier how about your finances? Will I have enough to retire? Where will

I go when I retire? And again just to be as personal as possible how can

Jesus I'll just be blunt how can Jesus be Lord of your finances if you're making $50 ,000, $100 ,000 a year and you throw in $5 in the offering plate?

Really? You know I hardly ever talk about giving at this church I think I've talked about giving maybe five times so here's number six in 27 years.

Remember the paradigm for giving Jesus who was rich became poor for our sake think incarnation he saved us he's given us the ability to work he's given us the money and then we sacrificially give and so many of you here do.

He is Lord of your sex life which means only in marriage and not on TV screens he's

Lord of your gender he made you male or he made you female boy it sure is quiet in here isn't it?

Whoa! He is Lord of your time how you spend your time and of course we have leisure time there's nothing wrong with that but he's

Lord of your time and that influences Lord's Day worship good job coming for Lord's Day worship it's the most important thing in your

Christian life is Lord's Day worship it affects how I serve other people because that will cost me time it will affect somebody interrupts me and they have a need of course

I just think of Jesus as he's on his way over to Jairus' daughter to raise her from the dead and then the lady with the blood issue comes to him he is

Lord over all history which helps me to be reminded that I don't have to freak out about current events

Acts 17 he made from one every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation sovereign over everything because he's the

Lord it makes me think of Jesus is Lord of my future how long

I will live how long you will live how long your children will live Psalm 31 don't you love this verse my times are in your hand

Lordship you will not die one second before you're supposed to he's

Lord over the weather I mean my grandma and grandpa had this little box it was just on the weather thing only it was a little kind of brown box with an antenna you just push the top little white button and it just talked about the weather the whole time because they needed something to worry about all day and I'm like I think

I have like five weather apps so I can know what's coming to complain about sure is hot in here isn't it

Calvin said it's certainly not one drop of rain falls without God's sure command understanding

God's Lordship even can affect my view of the weather how about people in your life that you want to be saved and you're yearning for and your spouse is not a

Christian and the list goes on and on and on did you know Jesus is Lord over every person in this world including those who go to heaven

John 1 as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God even to those who believe in his name who were born not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man but of God and God's will in the exercise of his will

James said he brought us forth by the word of truth that's God working did you know

Jesus is Lord over the small tiny little things in life that mean hardly nothing in our eyes how about this the lot is cast into the lap but it's every decision is from the

Lord how about this are not two sparrows sold for a cent and yet not one of them fall to the ground apart from your father but the very hairs of your head are all numbered huge issues in life minor issues in life

I mean I've gotten in trouble quite a bit as a dad over the years but I'd get in trouble all the time if there was some little bird in the driveway and it's mom is gone or whatever it's fallen out of the nest and then the kids are like let's rescue the little birdie and I'm like I've read on the internet that unless you feed that little birdie with some kind of test tube you know turkey basting thing miniature scale 19 times a day it'll die so just let the thing die anyway even if we get it fixed and we get it healthy and we put it in a zoo it's still going to die and I can just I can just see the looks

I should have probably been nice so from the smallest to the largest to things temporal to things eternal

Jesus is Lord and our response should be

I can trust and rest in Him thank you in a world that has a thousand Pharisees and in our own heart as well we want to be

Lord we want to be in charge we want to be captains of our own destiny masters of our own ship we're not so who is?

Satan? The media? Our flesh? No Jesus is showing here via Luke's writing you can know for certain that Jesus is the

Son of God that He's the Lord that He's the King that He's the Savior because He's Lord of the Sabbath that means

He's Lord over everyone I probably I don't watch a lot of news

I don't think I've watched any of the major news networks for years I think the last time I watched when COVID was going on because I didn't know what was going on with COVID but when

I do listen to any kind of news or listen to what's going on I'm interested in what's happening in Israel and those kind of things it bothers me

I'm anxious I'm fearful I'm certainly not serene I'm certainly not calm

I'm certainly not oh well you know this is just wonderful and then

I'm reminded of the Lordship of Jesus you probably know where I'm reading this from why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the

Lord and His anointed saying let us burst their bonds apart let us cast their cords away from us and what's the response to the nations in a rage what does the

Lord say He who sits in the heavens laughs the

Lord holds them in derision then He will speak to them in His wrath here's what

He said ask for me I've set my king on Zion my holy hill I'll tell of the decree the Lord said to me you're my son and today

I have begotten you ask of me and I'll make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession you shall break them with a rod of iron dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel so here's what you need to do kings here's what you need to do nations even today in Psalm chapter 2 be wise be warned serve the

Lord with fear rejoice with trembling kiss the sun by faith lest He be angry and you perish in the way for His wrath is quickly kindled blessed are all those who take refuge in Him dear

Christian Jesus is Lord and therefore it should affect every area of your life including the pride that says we've got to run our show and then we just repent and give that up and say

Thy will be done isn't that a good thing to say? Thy will be done it causes us joy when we think of Revelation chapter 19 we think about the end

Hallelujah for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns it causes praise it gives us security gives us health spiritually it makes life bearable one writer said innumerable are the evils that beset human life innumerable too the deaths that threaten it our body is a receptacle of a possible thousand diseases now wherever you turn all things around you not only are hardly to be trusted but are openly a menace they seem to threaten immediate death embark upon a ship you're one step away from death mount a horse if one foot slips your life is imperiled go through the city streets you're subject to as many dangers as there are tiles on the roof fierce animals you see are armed for your destruction but if you shut yourself up in a walled garden seemingly delightful there a serpent sometimes lies hidden your house continually in danger of fire threatens in the daytime to impoverish you at night even to collapse upon you and I pass over the writer said poisoning ambushes robberies and open violence so the pillow we lay our head on is

Jesus is Lord we trust Him and then we want to respond with obedience so that every every our lives we try to grow in grace and have it more reflect the

Lordship of Jesus and even though we don't do it perfectly if we were to say this and I hope you do

Lord I'd like the areas of my life to more reflect your Lordship please forgive me please help me because there are some areas that need some house cleaning would you do it for your glory and my good do you think the

Lord would answer that I think so let's pray thank you Father for your word it's comforting to know you're the sovereign

King and Lord it's comforting to know that nothing can stop you or thwart your hand it's comforting to know that we're your children and you want what's best for us and you know what will give you glory so help

Bethlehem Bible Church be a church that's trusting in the risen Savior and responding with Jesus is