Out Of Control

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? This is your good friend, Bob Cook, and we’re back together again over the Word of God.

We’re looking at Ephesians chapter 4. Paul says, “The unity of the spirit, what is it? One body, believers joined together in faith in the Lord Jesus, one spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, and one hope of your calling, the hope is in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s where we were the last time we got together. I want you to realize that your relationship to the Lord Jesus is indeed the basis of hope for every relationship of life.

You see, because humanly you get to dead-end streets in relationships and in handling problems. You get frustrated because there doesn’t seem to be any real answer to it, isn’t that true? Financial problems can be so scary. “I’m running out of money. What am I going to do?” They can scare you. Well, my only recourse, just as yours is, is to tell the Heavenly Father about it and the hope that we have is because of Jesus we can walk right into the throne room and tell him our needs. He said, “In everything by prayer.” This is Paul talking in Philippians 4, “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God that passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.”

Money needs can be so frustrating, and they can scare you. What if? You know, what if? What if I run out of money and I have to go on welfare? What if I run out of money and can’t meet the mortgage payment and they foreclose my house? What if, what if? Ahh, that’s, you see… As the kids say, that’s where the rubber meets the road, that’s where the real business of living shows up, and a sermon is one thing, but making it work is another, isn’t it, right? So Christ is our hope. How, is, that you turn the situation over to Him as it happens. You can’t really anticipate tomorrow and yesterday is gone, but you’re living right now.

And so, in faith in the Lord Jesus, He’s your savior, He’s your hope, He’s the entrée you have to heaven, He’s the basis of all of God’s promises being kept for you. See, “All God’s promises are yea and amen in Christ,” Paul says. All signals go, you got the green light, see? Why? Because of Jesus. Alright? He’s your hope, He’s your only hope of getting through to God, your only hope of being heard when you do present your petition and your only hope of an answer based on the promises of God after you’ve presented your petition. So focus on Him. One hope, alright?

Not only that, He’s your hope for eternity, isn’t it? “When we shall see him, we shall be like him, for we shall see Him as he is, the hope of the ages and ages and ages to come when you’re in the presence of the Lord Jesus.” He’s it.

Well, how do you make it real? Bring the situation to your savior and apply his almightiness by faith to the situation while you’re living it, not before, not after, but during. While you’re living, the situation, what is it, a temptation? Something you can’t handle? What is it, depression, something you can’t quite even verbalize and tell anybody else about it’s so deep? What is it? Something that is down deep in your heart by way of hurt or resentment that you can’t handle it? You can’t do anything about it ’cause it keeps on hurting? What is it, money? What is it, people? What is it, job? What is it? Schooling, neighbors, children, grandchildren? Oh, all these different parts of living are there and they’re not easy and no preacher, including Bob Cook, can make things different by talking. What I’m telling you is there is a way and that way is by faith to bring the situation to Jesus because He is your hope. He can do something about it, He can change circumstances or change you in the circumstances, or all of the above, see?

So you do that. He’s your hope. And you tell Him the truth. If you’re scared, tell Him so. If you’re mad, tell Him so. If you feel sick, tell Him so. If you don’t have any way out of the situation, tell Him so. They did that in the Old Testament days. Look it up in Chronicles, “Now Lord, our eyes are upon thee. Neither know we what to do.” This is the King talking. He’s supposed to know the score, but he’s praying with his people and he says, “Neither know we what to do, help us, O Lord our God.” See? Tell God about it in the name of the Lord Jesus, because He’s your hope and things will change, and you’ll get through and Christ will be honored and glorified. He’s your hope. One hope. Make it real today. It’s not just talk. It’s not just pie in the sky, as they say. Not just by and by.

It’s right now. Because you’re living now, you’re hurting now, you’re crying now. You’re perplexed now. You’re frustrated now, you’re discouraged now, or whatever. So you bring the now to the Lord Jesus Christ. He’ll handle it. He says, “All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth, go ye therefore.” You specialize in obeying him, He’ll specialize in seeing you through. Hallelujah. It’s a great truth, isn’t it?

So, he says one hope, alright, what else? One Lord. One Lord. Now, see, this is the unity, the unity. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Being one in Christ is like ligaments in the body that hold bone and sinews and muscles together. That word, bond of peace, it’s our word ligament. So now he says, “One Lord.” One Lord. Well, that’s the word that’s used for Lord all through the Greek New Testament, Kyrios, lord. And it covers a great deal of truth and a concept that may very well revolutionize your whole attitude if you let it. Jesus, our savior, said, “Ye called me master and Lord and ye say well, for so I am.”

No question about his lordship as a fact. The first realization of a person who has been convicted and is being born again by the Holy Spirit, is that Jesus is Lord. Saul of Tarsus apprehended by God there on his journey to Damascus, lying now on the dusty road, prostrate and stricken by that light, far greater than any atomic explosion. And he says, “Who art thou, Lord?” And then he asks the second question, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Jesus is Lord.

Paul says in Philippians 3, “For this cause also God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, Heaven and Earth,” and so on and so on, “That the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father, the Lordship of Christ.” I often turn in this connection to Philippians 2. What does the Lordship of Christ mean?

I just quoted for you the 10th and 11th verses of Philippians 2. “Every knee should bow and every tongue confess,” and so on, “That Jesus Christ is Lord.” But you take that chapter and open it up and you’ll find some of the ways in which the Lordship of Christ needs to work out, needs to work out in your feelings. If any comfort or love, any fellowship of the spirit, any compassions and mercies, your feelings, your feelings, make him Lord of your feelings, you cannot ultimately control your feelings by lecturing yourself or by determining to feel different, but a person can make the difference in your feelings.

The Lord Jesus Christ, make him Lord of your feelings. By faith, take from Him the calming of the inner storms and the joy and peace that He alone can give. Lordship in Christ makes you like-minded with other people. That means the same love, being of one accord and of one mind. You’re one in the Calvary love, not just in association. Associations wear and pall and get stale, but Calvary love never wears out. So, you’re one in your Calvary love, like-minded.

Making Jesus Lord produces that oneness and your motivation, he’s Lord of your motivation. “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory but in lowliness of mind.” And He’s Lord of your mind, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” And then He’s Lord of your methods. “Do all things without murmurings and disputings that you may be blameless and harmless as sons of God without rebuke,” and so on. And He’s Lord of your message, holding forth the word of life. That’s just a little profile there of the Lordship of Christ, one Lord. He wants to be Lord of all of the departments of your life.

Let me ask you the hard personal question, and I love you and I’m just wanting you just to face up to this. How long has it been since you just went over all these different areas of life and told the Lord Jesus, that by faith you were inviting Him to be Lord of that area of life, your feelings, your motives, your relationships, your mind, your methods, your message, everything, all of your life.

See, one Lord. Now, Paul’s talking about the unity of the Spirit, and that depends upon all these other factors, see? One body, you belong to everybody else in the body of Christ, believers; one Spirit, the Holy Spirit; one hope, Christ is our hope; one Lord, the Lordship of Christ. Let Him be Lord. And that means let Him give the orders, let Him be in control, let Him take the steering wheel. See? Lordship. Let Him have control of the specifics in your life, all the way from picking a parking place, to buying a car, to buying a new suit, to paying the rent, to budgeting the budget, to dealing with junior’s stubbornness or whatever it may be. Lord of the specifics of your life. Let Him run it.

Now, He won’t always do what you want Him to do, He won’t always do how you figure it should be. He said, “My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts. They’re higher than that.” God sees the big picture of eternity, and He fits you and me into that set of plans, not just our little 2 x 6 earthly plans. But let Him, let him, let Him do it. Let Him do it. “Yield yourselves to God as those that are alive from the dead,” Paul says in Roman 6, then obey Him. You you get the idea? Make him Lord.

Oh, how do you do it? By faith, just as you took Christ as savior, by faith. Take that specific area of your life and say, “Lord Jesus, I give this to you. It’s not mine anymore, it’s yours.” You turn it over by faith, and trust Him and then start obeying the promptings of His blessed indwelling Holy Spirit. You’ll be delighted at what God can do when you yield.

Precious Father today, oh, may Christ be Lord of our lives, and the Holy Spirit in control, I ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!