You Are the Boss of Me - Making Jesus Lord of my Life

but this is what we're going to do would you grab this here everyone because this is our sherman outline and this is the last of our series now we did call it you're not the boss of me but this morning we're calling it this you are the boss of me and we're talking about this how do we make jesus lord off our lives and i want you to jump down there just to underneath the reading because there's like three fillings there that i think are really really important for us and the things that are really going to shape your life your purpose and your destiny there's three things that potentially could do it two of them are wrong and one of them's right the first one is trans everyone it's just the culture that we live in and we talked about this recently with daniel shadrach meshach and bendigo they were living in a cultural moment and this is what they understood everybody you know that moments come and moments go idols rise and idols fall but you know what the kingdom of god is everlasting so don't give in to the trans the next one is this here it's what people tell you we're on instagram all the time we're on facebook all the time we're looking for the likes what's really popular and we're always thinking about what people tell us but as christians we believe this it's actually truth that should shape our lives and we believe that truth is the word of god how many people believe that that is the bible actually contains the truth that our world needs today and we're going to be looking at a passage tonight this is romans chapter 12. romans is one of my favorite book and this is one of my favorite chapters in it and we're going to be looking at this how do we make jesus lord of our lives and paul gives us some great truth on how we do that okay let's read it from verse one it says therefore i urge you brothers and sisters in view of god's mercy to offer your bodies as what a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to god and this is your true improper worship just not singing but actually full body commitment to god do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and then you will be able to test like road test and approve what god's will is his good pleasing a perfect will for by the grace given me i say to every one of you do not think of yourself more highly than you ought but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the faith god has distributed to each of you for just as each of us has one body with many members and these members do not all have the same function so in christ we though many form one body and each member belongs to all the others we have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us if your gift is prophesied then prophesy in accordance with your faith if it is serving then sir if it is teaching then teach and if it is to encourage then give encouragement and if it is giving then give generously and if it is to lead do it diligently and if it is to show mercy do it cheerfully so this is the question how do i make jesus the boss the lord of my life well the first one's real simple okay and paul outlines it in verse one and simply to dedicate my life to christ i love what he says here i urge you brothers and sisters let's look at the text in view of god's mercy in view of god's mercy what's happened here is really important paul in chapters 1 to 11 has described salvation the death the resurrection the sacrifice of jesus on the cross and for 11 chapters he's highlighted what we call in theology soteriology the doctrine of salvation what it was for god literally to come and save us and then he turns around and he says in light of this in view of this as many you know i'm married to isabel and she's french and the french have just been a massive blessing to my life and just recently i was eating snails just this week and you're going to hear about that later it is god's will for your life and you're going to eat them in heaven so start on earth everybody and uh but but one of my favorite places in france is the french the french alps everybody the french alps and isabel and i we had a friend and she had a beautiful property that just overlooked what's called the mong blanc massif the montblanc massif incredible we used to bring our children there on vacation she let us use her house it was remarkable and i remember you would sit there in any window that you would look right off you would see the view of the montblanc mass seaf and i would always sit outside in the morning and just on the balcony and just have the shutters wide open drink them a coffee i've told you before lavazza coffee everyone god wants you to eat snails and drink lavazza coffee and i i would be drinking my coffee hey and kids being kids they would come up and they would ask questions and i was like hey kids you can ask me any question but don't stand there because don't block my i came here for the view everyone i mean i love the local area here i love roseville i love granite bay you can stand in front of me i i don't need to see the fountains or anything like that you can block my view but when i'm in the alps what don't block my view i think what paul is saying here he says you know what we have got to keep the cross of jesus christ in full view of our lives all of the time and don't let any circumstances situations worries anxieties cultural moments ever block the view of the cross it's so important that we keep the cross right in our minds you can write this down somewhere okay when we lose the view of the cross we lose what the value of the cross and it just becomes then just another thing in our lives trust me everyone it's the only thing in our lives this is what paul says in first corinthians he said to the church when i came to you the only thing i wanted to know and say to you was christ and him crucified not sin there's no other agenda and look at me church i mean the stuff that we do here is really important our programs are really important activities are really important things try to get into our lives like politics seems so important and there is a certain importance to me but listen we are put on this earth redeemed by the cross of la of christ to keep the cross in full view and to bring the good news off the cross to this world that's our job on earth everyone that's a number don't let anything else you can have other things in your view but the primary view in life is the cross of jesus christ well it was really cool last weekend i happened to be down in uh orange county preaching at our new church plant which is going really well by the way um but there was a service before that there was a service before the service and it was a few miles south of it and and it happened on our i'm going to call it our other campus camp pendleton everybody the marine campus i was invited to preach there i think we got a picture of it here of camp pendleton and what was really cool about it um it was and many of you will know this was i was preaching there on the sunday but just on the previous thursday there had been that terrible explosion at kabul airport and 13 of our service people here from america their lives were lost and not exploded listen to this 10 of them came from this camp 10 of them came from this camp and i happened to be there 7 00 am in the morning that's an early service everybody and i had no idea what to expect i had no idea i mean i'm from ireland you know so i you know i don't hang out with the marines every day and american marines you know it's not a common thing i don't know what to expect i watched the marine movies you know they're all like in their mid-20s they're all buff like me and why are you laughing and uh you know they're all like whatever so i was expecting like you know i didn't know it was like high school ministry listen high schoolers these guys it was boot camp they literally graduated from high school in june and neither in boot camp during boot camp and i just want to say this i love all of you people but they were the best congregation i ever had they were the most obedient congregation i've ever had there is no one coming lit you know who you are the wakashim today you know who you are we got you on video and you're getting a letter no everyone was there on time they brought their own chairs they sat in line everybody and they were the most obedient anything i said to them okay how many people agree with this they all shut it yes sir are you ready everyone are you ready how many people are glad you came to church today very good second offering i got you there i got you right there again it was amazing i now thought what am i going to tell them what am i going to tell them and this was it everyone i just thought i'm going to tell them the story of my dad he was 16 year old he left belfast northern ireland went to the south of england and joined the royal marines he was godless with a capital g everyone i mean he was like absolutely off his mind crazy but at 23 years old he was on guard duty one night and a naval missionary called ted seymour came along and shared the good news of jesus christ with him my dad rejected it but ted he's an evangelist he came back again and he did my dad and he talked to him and eventually my dad said yes to jesus christ and i looked at all of those marines this is what i said to them i said my dad did that in the 60s but here we are in 2021 you're going to get the same opportunity today to say the same prayer and get your lives transformed so i invited them to pray the prayer like you're going to get this opportunity at the service end of the service today to say the same prayer and after they prayed the prayer i asked those that prayed the prayer for the first time to raise their hands and over a hundred of those marines raised their hands and give their life to jesus christ wow people an irish guy speaking to the american marines and we're all going to heaven do you know what they did they just made a simple decision to dedicate their life to jesus how do we do this how do we make jesus lord of our lives real simple everyone the first thing is just dedicate our lives to jesus the next one is eliminate any distractions so when we dedicate our lives to jesus it's not the finish line it's actually the start line of an incredible journey okay look what paul says do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed imposing ideas conforming transforming how do we get transformed by the renewing of our mind not the removal of our mind christians you're allowed to think god give your brain he invented the brain he wants you to think and he says then you will be able to test and approve what god's will is so uh one time going over to france with isabelle to visit her parents we took the channel tunnel how many people have ever taken the channel tunnel have you ever done that before it it's a pretty amazing experience and uh i still think it it is the longest underground tunnel that goes under the sea okay 23 and a half miles and when they were building at the french and the english some of the smart engineers they got together and thought oh we could have a problem here and the problem would be with our drivers and they would fall asleep not because it's so long but because of this feature here if you look at the inside of the tunnel you're going to see the concrete slats that go alongside and there's those lines that are along the wall and they quickly worked out at the speed of the train going along a narrow tunnel if the cabin window is too wide the drivers are going to get hypnotized they're going to get hypnotized and what we need to do is actually narrow the side of the window bring it right in so that they can't see the first 65 feet they can't see the short term but they can see the long view and that's the only way to stop them getting hypnotized i think what paul is saying here and he's saying this to christians people that have dedicated their lives to jesus he's saying this here be very careful in life to keep the long view because if you just get caught in the short view you're going to get hypnotized and you're going to conform to this world the speed of this world everything that's going on all the information let's be honest everyone with everything that you're hearing on fox fox fox or cnn cnn or what god wants you to listen to bbc bbc bbc whatever it is in your life it just comes into yours and it's going instagram facebook and before we know it even as christ followers as people are dedicated to him we have conformed to a cultural moment yes are you with me everybody this this is it and we talked about this with daniel shadrach meshach and abednego we said this they'd only lived short lives but they kept the long view they were teenagers high schoolers that's what they were they were high schoolers that have been human trafficked their lives completely upset but in a cultural moment when idols were put up in front of them when everyone else was on their face they were still on their feet why because they kept the long view in life i want to encourage you with this here don't get hypnotized by this world paul is making a point here and here's the point a clear view of the cross will give us a right view of this world don't get up like me and just check the news and everything that's going on and reacted to i can't believe this i come and get up and check your bible you know that god sends you a text message every day and it's called the word of god live your life with the view of the cross because this cross i believe in this message of being able to renew our minds hear me everyone to actually renew our minds is is the best news we can offer the world uh this week um i happen to be in new york everybody it's um it's sad dad here today it's it's it's sad that because my son has moved to new york getting a job there building a new life and he he's left me okay and i moved him out this week and uh got him settled in and uh i'll tell you about the journey to new york in just a moment but we were over there and we went out for what i called the last supper you know it's our last dinner together so it brought him to a nice french restaurant we sat down and when we were being brought over i could see well the table they're putting us on is very close to another couple that are sitting there but i thought we'll be okay but you know it's a bit close we'll be okay well not only was it super close but they were super light i know that would never happen in granite bay or loomis or you know in this area but it was let's just call it new york loud new york live so we're sitting there and it's like they are unpacking their lives right beside us now they're not dating okay we find that out in the whole thing they're not dating it's more like their processing they're just processed now i'm not eavesdropping it's not like i'm like listening over here they're just annoying to the restaurant no need for a sign guy microphone they're just announcing to the restaurant so quickly find out that he's 26. and they both talked about you know this was in their own philosophy was coming out you know and they were talking about how forgiveness is the key to life forgiveness is the key to life and then they spent the next 30 minutes blaming their parents for everything very interesting very very interesting and to say he was 26 and he he i can't please it wasn't like it was just netflix was happening beside us and he really started to started to unpack all their psychotherapy their psychiatrist the medication that we're currently on the institutions they had attended the treatment that they had received and just listen to me here for a second and i just find myself i getting emotional about thinking of these this couple these two friends and i i love what i get to do as a pastor i i i love it i get the pastor i said isabelle last night some of the best people on the planet and that happens to be you um but but you know sitting beside this young couple and them just talking and unpacking i'm going to say they're hurt they're paying in life i thought i have lost my connection to lost people and i love what i do here and get to do this i i i get to hang out with a lot of christians but i thought to myself i haven't been in it was super close and it was super light but it was super helpful it was super helpful and i thought at 26 buddy you've seen too much in life and i don't know you you could blame your parents and act about having dinner with their parents next week i'm going to hear the other side i'm a joke by the way but this is all i wanted to do everyone i just wanted to turn around and grab them and hug them and hold them and tell them there's hope and it's a thing called the cross of jesus christ and it can transform your life and it can help you renew your thinking this is it everyone we've got to get to this point it's not only a prayer i prayed years ago oh jesus save me and i hope i'm going to heaven no that was the starting line i had an event that led to a process the transformation of my thinking and this is what the bible says in the book of hebrews that the blood of jesus christ is so incredibly powerful that it can go and go right into a guilty conscience and cleanse it wow i should be selling this stuff but i can't because it belongs to jesus and it's free it's amazing people and i looked at them and i just thought to myself lord they just need your help are souls they need a deep cleansing but so do our minds as well and i'm speaking like the baysiders as well so i told you i was going to new york and um let me just try describe the journey to you um so the flight was going to be 6 30 a.m okay so you got to be the airport early and that means as well night before you're gonna have an early night you're gonna have an early night you're a wise adult isn't that right you have an early night and what's the hardest thing to do when you have an early night that's right get to sleep i'm lying there pillow under me pillow over me i'm sucking the pillow i'm like counting sheep they're irish sheep they've got sweaters on i mean it's just like everything i'm just eventually i get to sleep okay i'm going to get up at 4 00 a.m 2 30. beep beep beep beep smoke alarm the devil i mean why do they do that at 2 30 a.m and not 2 30 p.m okay like give me a warning the day before in the middle of the day so anyway i i mean this is 2 30. it's going to be b i rebuke it i do everything and manny's getting my head down again 4am alarm goes up thing is still beeping find out it's not in the hallway somewhere it's been in my daughter's bedroom up at the apex she's lying downstairs i got to fix this before i go 4am we're not going to the airport we're getting the high steps bringing it up through the house to change the battery and the smoke alarm has anyone ever tried to change the battery in a smoke alarm listen that's what you're going to be doing in hell every day give me the flames but it's not it's going to be just changing batteries they're just like demonic anyway we get to the airport we check in we're about to get on our first flight notice comes through the big flight to new york is cancelled oh yeah thank you for the empathy in the front row over here everyone and i'm like ah i can't believe it i'm trying to sort the thing then they get us on a flight we get on the flight and it sits on the runway for an hour and 30 minutes everybody of course i'm just leading worship songs for the whole flight passing communion and just being a pastor it was rough anyway we get to chicago midway we still got to get on to new york we get to chicago we're told the hurricane is heading to new york everybody i mean we look at our weather app when you hit new york your phone starts to leak there's so much water in new york everyone it's just blowing up it was absolutely crazy the flight is cancelled no now it's delayed it's going to be back on there's hours and hours i've got stubble night on my feet it's achieved in the morning but now i got a beard it's just like the day is so long it's just going on and on forever and eventually the guy comes out and the bus happened to be the pilot not just a guy and he turns out hey we're flying in new york and it's great i look at the weather app again they're still a hurricane with tornadoes yeah glory to god let's fly into the hurricane anyway we landed in new york our luggage got with us there is a god everybody and we're standing there waiting for the luggage and we just said hey we'll order the uber when we get outside it's like 1am right now we go outside it's like a biblical scene it's like the children of israel because the city has been decimated by the floods 14 people died that night he was decimated and ubers aren't running there's hardly a lift whatever i'm like ah it's one am and i'm a grown man i'm crying no i'm not but it was nearly it was bad and anyway a guy drives in and his the right people don't turn up to the right i grab him how much to go here he says 150 bucks i'd have given him a kidney at that moment in time people i beat him down to 130. he said it's got to be cash i said i don't have cash he said well i'm going i said you are not going we will find cash we drive outside i mean it's apocalyptic there's cars abandoned everywhere the cars i mean i mean the freeway people are driving down the freeway the wrong way you're just like going this it was insanity we get to the cash machine think about this sketchy corner new york 2 a.m i'm going to an atm put my card in and this is what comes up transaction cancelled card out of date by two hours it ran out two hours ago the date on the card i thought the guy's gonna kill me luckily my son he had his card he had money in the bank that i gave him and listen why am i telling you all this so we on one of the southwest flights i was talking to one of the flight attendants and he said you guys have had a terrible day we're really sorry it's not your fault but when all we're really sorry it's been so stressful and hey flight you know southwest attendance they're like counselors they're just oh my goodness so therapeutic giving us hope and i just said hey yeah it it it's been it's been stressful but you know what we're going to get there it's going to be okay in the end because you got to keep perspective everybody because just 10 days ago in kabul this is what some people were trying to do to get a flight it kind of puts everything in perspective doesn't it and this was their flight thank god for our military who who bravely tried to get as many people out at that moment in time you see what i was experiencing was an inconvenience what they were experiencing was a crisis are you with me everybody and the whole point of this is listen to me i want to make jesus lord of my life it's not just about dedicating my life to jesus and saying a prayer it's about bringing whole body worship all of me is in i didn't just raise a hand i raised a body and in that body you got a mind and jesus i want you to take this mind and i want you to transform it not just when i'm in church hands in the air but when i'm in an airport when i'm in a crisis when i'm in life when i'm in walmart when i'm on the i-80 when life is difficult everybody renew my thinking jesus i don't want to just react like everyone else reacts i want to think the way god wants me to think are you with me everybody stop encouraging me because we've got to finish this sermon all right the third way simply is and this is so easy okay just write this in we're going to jump right through evaluate my areas of giftedness this is quite interesting what does paul say here notice all of this paul says first thing you've got to do in view of god's mercy chapters 1-11 first thing is you do you dedicate your life to christ second thing is you renew your thinking and some of us here we've we tapped out at this point we tapped out and we said yeah i prayed the sinner's prayer and and you know what i read the bible every day and i pray and i just try to keep you know think the thoughts of jesus but paul says no there's more now in making jesus lord of your life you've got to do an inventory of all the gifts that you have inside of you you've got gifts and for some of you in this room look at me thank god for the gifts of god we all need to thank god for our gifts we all need to thank god and um this is really important you've got those gifts and right now you're using them to build your business to further your career and that is commendable that's why god gives you the gift it's actually to go out there and and i'm going to say this very strategically to bring in prosperity but not as an end in itself so that you can turn it around and help sponsor the kingdom of god and fill heaven and plunder hell or we all agreed on that yes because we got the long view and not the short view the other thing is that god has given you those gifts not just to build your business or further your career god has given you those gifts and just read anywhere in the new testament that you would operate those gifts within the life of the church everyone now if you're going i want to discover my gifts what are my gifts and this is what i'm saying go to growth track we have the most incredible system in growth track it sort of aligns disk with the new testament helps you discover what your gifts are and where you can serve and how you can get involved next week it's actually going to be at 9 45 so you can come to 9 45 and go to 11 30 service or come to 8 15 and then come to this service we're making it easy for you but get along and you know what if you don't discover your gifts you can't develop your gifts and then you can't deploy your gifts so god has given you gifts they're not for you you stirred your talents you stirred your gifts they belong to god and here's the really cool thing one day we'll have to give an account of how we used our talents and our abilities everyone good with that it's good okay number four number four is activate my gifts by starting to serve activate my gifts by starting to serve paul says this we have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us i think this is like so cool paul said you've got your gifts you've been through growth track whatever it is you know what your gifts are you're going to start using them for the lord i i want i want you to bring you to luke 19 uh verse 8 who's ever heard of zacchaeus zacchaeus yes the short guy went up the tall tree to see jesus okay that's what he did he says this it says but zacchaeus stood up and said to the lord look lord here and i look at this it's very important i give half of my possessions to the poor he didn't have to do this i give half of my possessions to the poor and if i have cheated anyone out of anything i will pay back what four times the amount when you do something different this guy what happens in his life he meets jesus he dedicates his life to jesus dedicates his life to jesus then something happens he begins to change his way of thinking begins to change his way of thinking and then it gets super practical and he goes i'm going to transform this to action this was the life of the early church everyone when people met jesus it was the beginning of a kingdom pilgrimage of where they followed him and just said everything that we have our resources also our talents and our gifts all of it belongs to you jesus and we want to deploy them for the kingdom of god what does that look like at bayside what does it look like at bayside well earlier on a year 15 service there was a young couple over to my right a great young couple room reuben and nina uh ruben great young guy his parents were actually from romania listen to this here they fled the ciacheski uh regime managed to escape the country and they met and fell in love in a refugee camp in austria can you believe this like where did you meet that's such an incredible answer they came to united states built their lives it's gone second generation reuben is an incredible young man busy young man busy young man he did the flooring in my house you need good flooring done hit me up afterwards okay i'm on 10 percent um he's incredible he's just he's full of character it actually turns up on time and does the job the way you described it amazing everybody he's incredible his wife nina is involved in business she has a whole bunch of stuff going on as well but this is what they do every week every week they do this young couple they come to the 8 15 service they always sit in one of the front tables get here good and early and then after that they go and serve in the children's ministry breubin says to me she's incredible she's a storyteller she loves to do it they actually happen to do every single week you don't have to do every single week that's what they have chosen to do they come to one service attendant worship in a service and then i'm going to say this they worship in another service by serving because serving is worship everybody let me give you another example um this is isaac on keys can you give it up for him everybody he's amazing thank you so much um but you're gonna see another uh guy in keys often around here and his name is andre and andre is incredible he's incredible and i he's one of the best pianists i've ever heard in my life he's originally from russia he played the whole russian concert thing and competitions amazing and uh they came under persecution there they had to flee the country and this was it the money they couldn't bring their money out of the country and this is incredible they left some to their family but left most of it to the local church and just said we want to help build a church in russia and they came here and i mean literally on a small wing and on a big prayer and god has helped them build a business and he teaches kids and he teaches my daughter piano and his daughter and he he's phenomenal and not only does he teach the piano he teaches them how to pray and he speaks god into their life it's it's like you learn the piano but you're getting discipleshi at the same time it's pretty remarkable and he came over to my house the other night to see isabelle and i and abigail because abby's leaving as well that's a whole nother story she's going to london to study oh sad dad um but uh she came over to the house the other night and i said andre i just want to thank you so much for what you do for bayside and and how you serve and it was his wife irene that spoke up and she said he loves the church he just loves it he loves serving with his talent i said how many times you played recently he went 20 times in the last three weeks you know what that's called staff but he don't get paid for it everybody he don't get paid for it this man sitting here in the front row ken you don't know ken he's on our board he just doesn't have opinions he serves spoke to him recently he had six meetings that day to do with bayside that was more than me and he's a volunteer andre 20 times he's played in the last three weeks and this is what she said i mean his wife just turned around laughing at this oh we were meant to go away on a mini vacation a weekend to san diego and he found out there was no one to play keys so we rescheduled ha ha as you do thank god he's not here this weekend hopefully he's in san diego everybody okay listen this is really important we call it joining the team around here joining the team when you join the team it's not because you have more time it's you have different priorities different priorities we're all busy look at me we're all busy why would you join the team because you've got gifts you will be accountable for them you listen let me give you the highest thing here we have hundreds of people returning to church every single weekend in this sort of covert craziness people are wanting god more than ever and this is the really cool thing hundreds of new people are coming along to church and everybody we're saying come to our house we need our house ready for them we need people that are saying you know what i'm going to attend a service i'm going to serve at another service and i'm just going to change my priorities and put the kingdom of god first and when lost people come to church and find jesus christ we're going to be ready to love on them and make sure that they have an incredible time are you with me everybody that's what it's about that's what it's about so real simple we're going to do two things here i'm going to ask people who are not yet a christian just stay where you are if you're not yet a christian in a moment i'm going to give you an opportunity like the marines had to become a christian for everybody else this is what i'm going to ask you to do today i'm going to ask you to head out to our covered courtyard we've got 23 ministries one of them is bound to suit you 23 ministries that you can serve in in the life of this church how do i make jesus lord in my life i dedicate my life to him i get rid of the distractions i discover my gifts and i deploy them for the kingdom of god that's lordship of jesus built right down into the nitty-gritty of our lives so this is what we're going to do we're all going to stay in our seats we'll have a moment of prayer now i'm going to ask you to close your eyes by your head would you do that close your eyes this is a very special moment like i spoke to the marines last week i'm speaking to you right now if you are not yet a christian if you've never made a decision to follow jesus to dedicate your life to him you can right now simply pray this prayer with me i'll say the words and you can just pray those words into yourself here we go dear lord jesus thank you that you did come and die for me thank you for your mercy and in view of that i give you my life jesus i give you my sin and i receive your forgiveness i give you my past and i receive your future and jesus i take my hands of the steering wheel of my life i give it to you and i get in the trunk jesus take me into the future and again with your eyes closed and your head bowed if you prayed that prayer in just a moment i'm going to ask you to raise your hand i always say this when you raise your hand nothing weird happens it's just me and you but come on everybody if you prayed that prayer and you really meant it right now would you put your hand in the air so i can see it raise your hand right up thank you thank you right across bleachers as well come on put your hand up don't be scared you know you prayed it you want to do it put your hand in the air thank you thank you thank you can we put our hands together and really encourage the people

Channel: Bayside Church

Views: 1,755

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Bayside Church, Bible, Hope, Compassion, Love, God, Andrew McCourt, Daniel, The Book of Daniel

Id: YJxrJ0Dw0rI

Length: 37min 12sec (2232 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021