Is He Lord Of Your Decisions - Ps Caleb Hearne

Hi there and welcome to Garden Church Podcast. We're excited that you've tuned in to hear a message from one of our team. I know that you'll be encouraged in your faith and challenged to live for God. We pray that you'll encounter Jesus in new and fresh ways as you listen to this podcast. God has got something great for you. It's a great day to be in the House of Lord Amen. Amen. Come on. The sun is shining. God is good. Let's go. Well, let Pastor Victoria mentioned before, our senior pastors are on and you'll leave right now and they send their love, but we always want to make sure that we honor them in our house. But if you don't know me, my name is Caleb and I'm on the team here at Garden and it's a privilege today to come and bring the word to you and I'm excited. I feel like God's put a word on my heart today. Are you ready for the word this morning? Are you responsive this morning? Are we awake today? Come on. We do this in our youth ministry. You know, our youth ministry like to shout me down sometimes. Sometimes when I'll bring up a scripture, you hear a little bit of a whoop or a shout from then, don't worry, okay? That's them because they're excited to hear the word of God, right? We know that it's a privilege to open the scriptures together. There was a point in time where you could access the Bible and today we can open the word of God and receive the revealing of his amazing promises and scriptures today. So we're believing that God is going to move. He's going to speak. Are you ready? Are you excited? Come on. So good. And you know what? Please be praying for our youth for our youth camp. We're believing for God to move at our youth camp. Every year we do this. If you don't know, we're big on young people here at Garden Church. We're big on the next generation. And we want to do whatever we can to expose our young people to encounter the presence and the reality of a living Savior. And so when we gather in those moments like a youth camp, this isn't just to be silly and throw stuff at each other and sleep and or no sleep or whatever it looks like. Okay. These are moments to create space for the Holy Spirit to move for young people to encounter God and their lives to never be the same again. And so we need your prayers. We need you. If you've got young people in your world, please jump in. Register them. You can even come on. You can actually help a young person come to youth. If you feel that way that you would like to sponsor a young person, you can do that. And so we're believing God is going to move at our youth camp. It's going to be so powerful. But if you are joining us today, we have been following a series. And this series has been so impactful, especially in the season we are in in our building a legacy season. And this series has been titled Is the Lord. Is Jesus Lord? And Pastor Amy launched this series a few weeks earlier. And she spoke on, is he Lord of your finances? And she spoke that so well, so pastorally. It was beautiful. It was powerful. And she laid the foundation of this series. And I encourage you, if you haven't yet, please jump on our podcast and have a listen to that because the way she laid that out was so powerful, we'll give context to today. But the question really comes in, what does it mean that Jesus is Lord? And we say that Jesus is Lord. What does that actually mean? Generally speaking, a Lord is someone with authority, control or power over others. To say someone is Lord is to consider that person a master or ruler of some kind. Okay, I'm sort of like you think about Lord of the Rings or these kind of amazing lyrical genius moments or like Downton Abbey. Anyone else here? Downton Abbey. No, don't judge me. Okay, I'm a married man. I love Downton Abbey. And in Jesus' day, the word Lord was often used as a title of respect towards earthly authorities. However, after the resurrection, the title Lord as applied to Jesus became much more than a title of honor or respect. Okay, saying Jesus is Lord became a way of declaring Jesus's deity that he is God. Okay, he rose from the dead. From then on, the apostles' message was that Jesus is Lord, meaning Jesus is God. We even see in the day of Pentecostal's moment that broke out when the Holy Spirit came. Peter's sermon on that day in Acts 2 verse 36, he said this, let all Israel be assured of this. God has made Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Messiah. He declared that in that moment. Church, Jesus is Lord, amen. He is Lord. And so this gives us the framework of this series that we are following today around Lordship. What does it mean? Okay, when we say Jesus is Lord, he is Lord of our lives. And so today, we're going to break in past of Victoria preached so powerfully last week, amazing preaching pregnant, you're incredible. And she preached on he is Lord of your feelings, he's Lord of your feelings. That was amazing. Please listen to that. But today, I want to ask you this question that I think affects all of us in every single one of us, every day of our lives. And this question is simply this, is he Lord of your decisions? Is he Lord of your decisions? And so this key scripture that I'm going to read to you this morning is from Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5. Anybody here know that off by heart? I was sharing with our kids' ministry team to get a chance, make sure you tell them how amazing they are. And I'll share in them, I can remember the moment being in church as probably maybe a five or six year old and being in kids ministry and learning Proverbs chapter 3 in kids church. And anyone else, remember that? Anyone else grow up in church? Proverbs 3. And it says this, if you know what you can say with me, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways submit to him and he will make your path straight. He will make your path straight. A Proverbs a day, okay? A Proverbs a day keeps the devil away. They say, okay, this proverb here is simple yet so powerful. I continually find myself going back to this proverb throughout my life because every single day garden, from the moment you wake up, your life is made up of decisions. Some are small, is it coffee or tea? We all know the answer to that one, all right? Is it surf or snooze, okay? Is it spanned or saved? Can I get an amen? Others shape the direction of our life, things like young adults, you're in this season. Who will I marry? Things like, as us as parents, I'm every day, how do I raise these amazing children? Whether you forgive with these questions, whether you trust, whether you obey, I've discovered something church, our lives aren't shaped by just one big decision. As much as there are a lot of big decisions in our lives, they're shaped by thousands of everyday decisions. Every moment, every one of these decisions, answers this question, who gets the final say? Who gets the final say? Every decision reveals who your Lord is, who your Lord is. You know, I like to think when we're talking with young people and these kind of connections, but I remember, you know, as a kid, and I've got two older brothers and I remember when my eldest brother finally got his license. For me and my family, we, you know, driving the car with mum and dad's okay, but that moment when one of us received freedom, it was heaven on earth. We could go wherever we want. We could do whatever, but I remember, and times after a little while, it started to wear thin because I would be in the car yet I couldn't choose where we were going. I didn't have the freedom to control the direction of what we were doing. And so I'd find sitting in the passenger seat sometimes, I mean, can't wait to get my own license. I can't wait to get my own car. Then I can go wherever I want, because then I'd finally get to do whatever I wanted. I could go wherever I wanted. I can listen to whatever music I wanted. Remember the CDs? Anyone else here? Young people, don't look me weird. Freedom. And then I got my own car. And it was amazing that first few weeks it's like, wow, I can go surfing whenever I want. I can go to Macchars. I can do all the things. And then I discovered this thing called fuel. I'd never had to pay for fuel before. I was the younger brother. I could get away with it. Where you going? Oh, yeah, I'm coming, right? Then this weird letter came through. It was called registration. And then insurance. And then I had to service my car. And then these things called tyres, okay? Repairs, I realised something, okay? I wasn't just gaining freedom when I received that car. I was gaining, yes, pasta, Alan, responsibility. And suddenly, I understood what it meant, okay? Being under someone else's covering didn't seem so bad. You know, I wonder if we have believed the same lie spiritually. We think Lordship removes our freedom. But maybe Lordship removes our burden. We were never called to carry. Never called to carry. So I was, I prayed as I've studied this week and prepared for this word and thinking through a few little seasons that I've been through in my life. I've put together. A couple of points. A handful of points that I pray is going to speak to me today, but it will encourage all of us in this room of how we can follow Lord, put him first in all of our decisions. And so the question is, how do we make him Lord of our decisions? We need to remind ourselves of a few things. Point number one, are you ready, church? Number one, Lordship isn't about control. It's about trust. Lordship isn't about control. It's about trust, Proverbs three, verse five, okay? Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to him and he will direct your path. Notice this, starts with this word called trust. Trust, move to do not lean on your own understanding. Don't lean on your own understanding. Then it says, submit to him. Some other translations say seek him. Submit yourself to the Lordship of the Lord, to submit to seek him in all we do. And then he makes your paths straight. There is a sequence there, there is an order. You know, we often want the opposite in our lives. I like to call it, we want the Google Maps Christianity. Okay, we want the Google Maps Christianity, God, show me the whole plan, then I'll trust you. Like show me that person I'm going to marry and then give me the whole direction all the way back to now. And then I'm gonna say that sounds good, I'm following you. Or maybe Lord, okay, I want to launch that business or I've got that idea, God, would you just give me the whole way all the way there? Okay, that looks awesome, it's a yes from me. We all wish we had the Google Maps Christianity, but we all know in this building today, that's not the way it works. God says, trust me before I show you. Faith isn't God showing you the whole journey. Faith is just taking the next step. We walk by faith, not by sign. The world says, trust yourself, believe in yourself. Follow your heart, the Bible does not say that. It just says, trust in the Lord. We need to trust, this is important for us today. We need to trust that the Lord is good. He is fundamentally good. We need to trust that God is love. We need to trust that God has a plan and a future for us. We need to trust that God will never leave us nor forsake us. We need to trust that God will make our paths straight. One of the biggest misconceptions about Christianity is that God wants to control us. He doesn't, this is what it is. There's a beauty in this. He invites us. It's an invitation. Adam had a choice all throughout the Old Testament. The Israelites had a choice. The disciples had a choice. Today church, you have a choice. Listen to this. This is not divine oppression. This is divine invitation. That we are not oppressed by our Lord. He invites us to follow Him, to trust Him. It's an invitation to us. Every decision becomes an opportunity to ask, "Me, I grew up, I'm a 90s kid coming through." You guys would probably understand maybe some students here wouldn't know. There was these bands we used to wear called W.W.J.J.D. bracelets. Does anyone remember these? Okay. What would Jesus do? They were cool once. What would Jesus do? This question that we can all apply to our day would be this. What does Jesus think about this? Lordship isn't about control, it's about trust. Number two, you ready for number two. Lordship, isn't what you say, it's what you obey. It's not what you say, it's what you obey. Wow. This one convicted me as I wrote this down this week. It isn't what we say, it's what we obey. In the book of Luke chapter six, verse 46, thank you, Holly. Jesus asks one of the most confronting questions in scripture. And he says this, why do you call me Lord? Lord, and do not do what I say. And I've called him Lord multiple times and maybe have not listened to exactly the direction or leading that he was calling me to. You think about that? Jesus doesn't ask, do you believe in me? He asks, if I'm Lord, Lord, Lord. He says, why don't you trust me enough to obey me? Lordship isn't just something we confess, God and church. It's not just something that we say in a moment or in a scripture or in a prayer. Lordship is something that we actually demonstrate. It's not just the words that we speak, it's the life that we live. We need to live out, we actually need to obey what he says, not just listen to the words, we need to obey. The hallmark of the Christian life is that we live our lives in obedience to God's word revealed through Jesus. This is what it looks like for us as Christians that we live a life of obedience to God. Then Jesus tells us this story, we look in the book of Matthew chapter 7, verse 24. And he tells us this story and there's two people that he tells us about here and many of you in the room have heard this scripture before. It says this, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house. Yet it did not fall because it had the foundation that was built on the rock. And so if we follow one from that bit of scripture there, it goes to the verse 26 to 27. And it says, but everyone who hears these words of mine but does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash. See, notice this, both builders heard Jesus. We understand, both builders, everyone hears these words of mine it says in the start of that scripture. Both builders heard both experienced the storms. The difference was an information. There's many people that we would know who know a lot about God, may know in a lot of scripture, may have studied everything, may know all the information. The difference in this passage of scripture was not information, it was obedience. It was obedience to the word of God that they heard the word and they applied the word. Storms reveal foundations, they don't create them. One of the most freeing truths I've learned is this, obedience doesn't earn God's favor church. Please do not get me wrong. Our obedience does not earn God's favor. Jesus already paid for that. Obedient simply says this, I trust you and I trust that your wisdom is greater than my own. That his wisdom is greater than my own. Man, sometimes we've got to fight our flesh. We think we might know it all. We've been through our experience, but I'm telling you his wisdom is always better than our own. I can tell you that from experience. Jesus already paid the price. You think about this in just a simple illustration. Nobody thinks seat belts still freedom. We have them because we know that there was a designer who knew something that we didn't know. The designer knew that we may need a seat belt. You may drive that day and you may not need it that day, but one day you might. God's commands are like this. They're not restrictions to us, they're protection. He's not restricting us, he is protecting us. Young person, that's a word for you today. That the word of God is not a restriction. It's actually there to help protect us. God will lead us, he will make our paths straight. It's about protection. Lawship isn't what you say, it's what you obey. That's what you obey. Number three, I've got here every decision is an act of worship. Every decision is an act of worship. You know, the tension or the battle of this statement. This battle that we understand over Lordship didn't begin with us. This battle has been raging since the beginning of time. It began in the garden. If you would open your scriptures and you read in the book of Genesis chapter three, and we understand that there is a serpent who comes and attempts Eve, and that's. moment, the temptation of Eve was not about fruit. It wasn't physically about the fruit that she saw in the tree. He tempted her with authority. He tempted her with not just eat this, the temptation that was there was you can decide. You don't need God telling you what's right or wrong. You become your own Lord. Isn't that the message of our culture of the world? That you can just follow your own heart. That you can just live your own truth. You do you. Trust yourself. We've all heard this before. Am I right? We've all heard this in our world. This is spoken so often. Yet it is a lie of the enemy. Humidity has been trying to sit on God's throne ever since that moment. There is a tension that lays in our world that we want to be the Lords of our own life. This is a battle that has been raging and will rage forever until we submit to the Lordship of Jesus. See, every decision we make is answering this one question. Is it me or is it God? That's why every decision is actually an act of worship. Every decision declares who sits on the throne of our lives. God, I surrender to you. I put you first in every decision of my life. I lay at your feet as an act of worship to you. I submit to your ways. I trust you, Lord. I obey you. Lord, as I submit my life that you would make my paths straight. This is our prayer. It is an act of worship. You know, we can think of this contrast. I love the way Scripture works and this contrasting moments when you study and you understand we know there is a garden in the garden of Eden. And then we contrast it with a different garden that Jesus was in. This garden not Eden, the garden of Gethsemane. And Jesus knows in that moment that He is facing the cross. The cross is before Him. The greatest decision and human history was to be made in that one moment. And this is Jesus' answer and his thoughts around this, what does he pray? He says in Luke chapter 22 verse 42. He says this father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done not mine. Man, can you imagine praying that prayer? Jesus in this moment has a decision that is before Him and He submits to God. And we think about this in correlation with this story. Adam reached for control. Jesus surrendered control. Adam said, what about my will? Jesus said, your will. One decision brought sin into the world. Yet the other brought salvation to the world. Church, if anyone had the right to choose his own way, it was Jesus. He modeled what true Lordship looked like. He lived a perfect life. He did all the right things, yet He still said, your will be done. Not my will. In that moment, it was an act of worship of a decision that He faced of death on a cross. Yet He knew that God had a will and a purpose and a plan that was far bigger than He could ever think or imagine. That is the same in our own lives. That we submit to Him. And we ask Him to come and do what only He can do to lead us to God us in every decision. We laid out His feet. It is an act of worship church. That when a decision comes and it could be big or small, maybe you've got decisions that you're facing today, I'm going to ask you, I'm going to encourage you. Maybe you just need to submit that to God. Maybe you need to come in a moment of worship and say, okay, I'll be trying to do it in my own strength. I've been trying to do it in my own wisdom. Caleb, what are you going to do? Whatever it is, but at that moment, it's like, okay, God, I'm laying at your feet. God, this is an act of worship to you. This decision, you are Lord of my life. Every decision is an act of worship church. Are you getting something out of this this morning? Point number four here. And this here follows a little bit of a different trend in this, but I want to remind us of this in this moment. Point number four is you belong to the one who's image you bear. You belong to the one who's image you bear. And this story, you know, we love opening the scriptures and the stories of the Bible that speaks so well to us. And I read this this week, Matthew 22 verse 15, and it says this, then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap Jesus and his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians, the man who served Herod at the time. And they said, "Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by others because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? This was a trap that was laid down for Jesus in that moment to trap him to say something that was going to get him in trouble." Yet Jesus, as we know, man, he's tricky. He knows what he's doing, okay? Jesus is smart. He's on it. Jesus says knowing their evil intent, he said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax." And they brought him a Daenerys and he asked them, "Who's image is this?" As you know, on a coin, as you were today, there is a picture, there is an image of the person who is the Lord of that currency. And whose inscription is on it, Jesus says. And they replied, "Seasons." Then he said to them, "So give back to Caesar what is Caesar and to God. What is God's?" When they heard this, they were amazed. So they let him go. They let him go away. Jesus dropped the mic in that moment. Jesus will try to trap him, asking him about these questions. Jesus asked for this coin. A Daenerys, I've even got an image up here of what it looks like, of a Daenerys here, this coin. You can see it literally has a picture of Caesar and even says Caesar's name on the currency, on the coin. And he asked for the coin and he says, "Who's image is on it?" And they say, "Seasons." So Jesus says and give it what is Caesar's that belongs to him and give what belongs to God. And you know, I've heard this preach around giving and it's amazing. You can use this for different things. But I think Jesus is saying something much deeper in this moment. Why does the coin belong to Caesar because it carries his image? Whose image is on you? Genesis tells us that every person is created in the image of God. The coin belongs to Caesar because it bears his image. Do you know church? Do you belong to God because you bear his image? You are his. You are his. God isn't asking for something that is not his today. He's inviting us back into a life that we were first created for. That is what Lordship is, church. Not taking, okay? God is not taking things away from us. God is restoring to us who we were always created to be. I think it is one of the greatest misconceptions about following Jesus that he just wants to control us. I'm trying to challenge that today. Challenge that mindset. He doesn't want to control us, okay? He invites us. And as we submit to him, he leads us. Think about it. A lot of you may know this scripture, Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. Wow, what a powerful scripture. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name, sake. David, when he's speaking the Psalmist in this moment, he's not saying I have peace, I have provision, I have protection, I have all the things I need. No, what he is saying here. See, it begins with this one declaration. He is declaring Lordship, initially in this moment that he submits to the Lord. He is shepherd. Everything else comes from that still waters, green pastures, restoration, protection, provision, presence. Everything flows from one decision church. That's why I keep coming back to this thought church. Everyone wants the benefits of Lordship. We want peace. We want purpose. We want provision. We want direction. We want hope. But not everyone wants to surrender. That is the first moment that we must surrender and make him Lord of our lives. It begins with lordship. Now let me make something really. here and the band you can come up. This message is not, "Go home or try harder." Because none of us maybe have a bait, everything perfectly, or you're going to understand this. None of us, okay? In this moment, we've tried to live the perfect life, but we're never going to be able to do that. None of us have always let Jesus have the final say. This is why we need grace. We need grace. Jesus didn't die because we made good decisions. He died because we didn't. He lived the perfect, surrendered life that we could not live. And though through his death and resurrection, he invites us into this new way of living, not by striving our own strength, not by walking, okay, and doing everything perfectly, but just following him and through the power of his Holy Spirit. See, Christianity isn't about making perfect decisions, church. It's just about following the perfect shepherd. Just following the perfect shepherd. So let me ask you this in your life who gets the final say. And the decisions that you face, who gets the final say when your feelings disagree with God's Word, who gets the final say? When culture disagrees with the ways of Jesus, who gets the final say? When forgiveness is difficult, who gets the final say? When generosity costs me something, who gets the final say? When obedience isn't convenient, who gets the final say? Because every decision reveals who your Lord is, church. And so I wonder today for some of us, maybe the Holy Spirit has been speaking to you and gently putting his finger on your heart, areas where we've maybe just quietly taken the steering wheel back, maybe areas that we once had laid down at his feet, and then we have found ourselves taking back the reins, we've taken back the steering wheel. You know, in these moments, God's grace is so good. God's grace is sufficient. It's not because we wanted to rebel, not because we stopped loving Jesus. We just thought, I'll handle this. I'll take this one, Jesus. My career, yeah, I can look after that. My relationships. OK, maybe I'll just try my way. My future, my finances, my family. See, today Jesus is standing here in this moment and it's not a moment of condemnation. There is no condemnation today. He's just standing with this word, I hope you've heard this. He's standing with an invitation. He's standing, he's inviting you back, inviting you back to worship, and inviting you back to submission. It's this thing that we've got to understand is that when we come under his leadership, we come back under his wisdom. We become back under his peace, under his covering church, because here's what I have learned in the few years of following him. The greatest freedom isn't getting to do whatever I want. The greatest freedom is walking every day knowing. I don't have to be my own Lord anymore. I don't have to carry the weight of every decision anymore. I don't have to have every answer. I don't have to know and control every outcome church. I don't have to know exactly what's around the corner, because I know the one who does. And I follow him, and I submit to him. And so today maybe the prayer isn't just this. Jesus bless my decisions. Maybe the prayer is this simple prayer. Jesus from this day forward, you get the final say. Today, that is my decision that I am surrendering to him, a fresh, that Lord, I give it to you. You can have the final say. Church, when Jesus gets the final say, we don't lose our lives, that is a lie of the enemy. We finally get to discover the life we were created to live. Is the Lord of my decisions? Is the question? Is the Lord of your decisions today? From now on, we can remind ourselves these few things. Lordship is not about control. It's about trust. Lordship isn't about what we say. It's about what we obey. That every decision is an act of worship. And we just understand that you belong to the one whose image you bear. Can I pray for you today? Across this room, would you close your eyes? All Lord Jesus, today we surrender a fresh to you. Lord, we come under your Lordship over your rule, over your reign. And God, we thank you that you have invited us. Lord, that you don't condemn us, Lord, and we may be going down their own paths and we follow our own ways, Lord, that there is no condemnation in it, but you invite us back into relationship, into submission. Lord God, and I thank you today for this word, Lord, that you would speak, Lord, that you would bring revelation, Lord, to our lives, Lord, that we don't have to try and do it on our own anymore. But as we choose to follow you, as we trust you, as we don't lean on our own understanding, Lord, we praise, we submit to you, Lord, that you would direct our paths. Lord God, that you would lead us, Lord, that we would remind ourselves that we are never left, Lord, we have not been forgotten, Lord, that you never forsake us, but Lord, you have a plan and a purpose for us. And so today, God, we put you a fresh as Lord of our lives. We say, Lord, you are our Lord, you are the Lord of our decisions in Jesus' name. Come on, church, would you stand with me? We are going to worship in this moment. We're going to just seal this with worship. Come on, would you even right now lift your hands? Would you give your moment at this moment of just decisions of our lives, Lord, that we're going to lay them down to your feet, Lord, that we're going to worship you. We're going to offer them to you, God, our lives that are living sacrifice to you. And Jesus' name, we worship you, God. Thank you, Jesus. - How good was that message? I know that you would have been blessed. Garden Church is a flourishing life-giving church based on the northern rivers of New South Wales. We have a passionate commitment to see you make a difference in your world, thriving community, and most importantly, connect you to Jesus. Visit our website gardenchurch.com for more details of ministries, our heart, and even some great resources to empower your life. Be blessed, go and be life-giving. (upbeat music)