Jesus Is King
Hey everyone. Happy July. I know it was July last week too, but it just feels like summer all of a sudden, right guys feeling it. All right. I'm just gonna go. I'm gonna read you guys. Just say, read the Bible. Stop small talking. Let's get to what we came.
All right, here we go. We are in acts chapter 12. This is a great story. Love this story. I'm excited to talk about it. Here. It goes. It was about that time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.
When he saw that this met with approval from the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter. Also, this happened during the festival of unleavened bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers. Each Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.
So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. The night before herd was to bring him to trial. Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and centuries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shown in the cell.
He struck Peter on the side and woke him up quick, get up. He said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists. Then the angel said to him, put on your clothes and sandal. Peter didn't and Peter did. So wrap your cloak around you and follow me. The angel told him Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening.
He thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself. And they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, now I know, without a doubt that the Lord has sent his.
And rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen. When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people were gathered, more praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door.
When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed. She ran back without opening it and exclaimed Peters at the door. You're out of your mind. They told her when she kept insisting that it was so they said it must be his angel But Peter kept on knocking. And when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished Peter motioned with his hand, for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison.
Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this. He said, and then he left for another place in the morning. There was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter after Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him. He cross-examined the guards in order that they be executed
Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. He'd been quarreling with the people of Tyre inside. They now joined together and sought an audience with him after securing the support of blastus y'all remember Blais , everybody, baby names, anybody a trusted personal servant of the king. They asked for peace because they depended on the King's country for the, their food supply on the appointed day, Herod wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people
they shouted. This is the voice of a God, not a man immediately because harod did not give praise to God. An angel of the Lord struck him down and he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of God continued to spread and flourish. But a story don't get stories like this often, do we get people getting released from prison?
We get people dying by getting eaten by worms to just great. Bible was an amazing book. This is an interesting story, cuz a lot of times commentators and other people don't entirely know what to do with it, cuz it doesn't seem to move the story forward in any meaningful way. When you're telling a story usually include details that help the plot move along.
And this story people look at and say, it just seems like a sort of a transitional story. It doesn't have a whole lot of major themes or anything. It helps us to transition from Peter to. This is one of the last times you're gonna see Peter in the book of Luke. Everybody's getting emotional. Say bye Peter.
By Peter. We'll see you. We'll see you one more time maybe, but after that, it's gonna be all Paul. He's taken over the story from here on out. So there's a transitional. Peter goes into hiding from this moment on transition from kind of Jerusalem and the scene that's happening there to now Rome in the nations of the earth.
So there is a movement here. But that doesn't make for a very interesting sermon. Does it just talking about transitions in a storyline? And that's actually not how we read the Bible. We don't just read the Bible as a story with plot and setting and characters. Although it certainly is that we read it more specifically to understand who God is and what he's up to in the world and who we are and what it means to be up to the things that he's up.
That's why he's given us the Bible. And I think that this text is like every other one in that respect, it teaches us something of the character of God teaches us what he cares about, teaches us who we are and how we're supposed to behave, how we're supposed to live in light of who he is. And so what's the God statement that's happening here in this passage.
What's the thing that reveals to us about the character nature of God, really simple. You ready tell you right off the bat. He's in charge. That's what it reveals God is in control or said more specifically. Jesus is Lord, that's the point of this story? There are all sorts of fascinating things that happen.
All sorts of amazing characters. We have Peter, we have this angel appearing. We have Rhoda who plays this sort of accidental comic relief. We have all this fascinating stuff that happens. But at the end of the day, this story is about two characters. Two characters only. It's about Herod and Jesus.
This is a clash of Kings. This is a clash of Lords where the two of them come into conflict. To this point in the story, we have seen Jesus making good on his promise to establish his church and the gates of hell. He says will not prevail against it. The kingdom of God is flourishing. The church is advancing.
It is spreading out from Jerusalem around the region, around the world. And now. One of the strongest men, one of the mightiest men in the day says I've had enough. I'm going to put a stop to this. And the inevitable conflict is what this story's all about. And Herod makes the first move. Herod's first move is simple.
He goes after the leadership of the church, he starts with James. You remember, there are three disciples that were closest to Jesus, James, John, and Peter. He starts with James and he has James executed right off the bat. Now, if I were James, I would be frustrated that my story gets a sentence when Steven got a whole chapter, but anyway, James is killed at the very beginning in verse two.
And from there, everybody, all the Jewish people are super excited because. Because their leader Herod is finally putting a stop to this church movement once and for all. And so when Herod sees that everybody approves of his killing of James, he takes the next step and says, all right James was one big piece of the leadership puzzle, but if you wanna go after the whole thing, if you wanna kill the snake, what do you do?
You cut off the head. And so he goes after Peter and he puts him in prison and he's not just gonna execute him summarily. He wants there to be a public trial after which just happened to Jesus. He'll be executed so he throws him into prison. And he's heard stories about Peter. You guys remember this is not Peter's first time in prison.
Last time he was in prison, he embarrassed the authorities by escaping. So Peter's earned a bit of a Houdini reputation. He's becoming an escape artist. So Herod is going to make sure that this doesn't happen again. So he appoints a whole bunch of guards, four squads of four guards. So 16 guards, all in all for one person.
He has two of them in the cell with Peter, where he's literally chained between the two of them and and Herod then says then sits back and says, okay, I've made my opening move, and now it's Jesus' turn to respond. I love this story. What does Jesus do? He sends an angel to Peter in the middle of the night. Before we get to the angel.
Let's talk about Peter. What's Peter doing when we see him in this story on the night before he's to be tried and. These were not long trials like we have today that take months and months, it would've been all done in a day trial verdict execution. This was happening. He was about to die the next day.
Where do we see Peter on the night before he's to die asleep? Anybody else? If you knew you were about to be executed, would that be your story? A sleep in prison Peter's come a long way. Hasn't he? Who does Peter remind you of in this. Jesus mark chapter four, there's this huge storm and Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat and Peter's freaking out and yelling at him.
Jesus, don't you care that we're about to die. And now here in this moment, when he's actually about to die, he has become more like Jesus. He's grown in faith. He's grown in courage. He is sleeping in the storm. What an amazing man, where I learned from this it's possible to grow. You guys know that.
The level of faith you have today does not need to be the entirety of your faith. The level of courage you have today is not all the courage that God wants to give you. He wants you to grow. We'll come back to that in a second, but Peter's amazing. He's sleeping between these two guys. Suddenly an angel appears in the room and I love this angel cuz he's irritable.
Do you guys notice this? This is now the second time he's had to break Peter outta prison. I'm assuming it's the same angle. And instead of just, Hey Peter, shaking him, giving the little pinch that says he struck him on the side. I don't think he bent down and struck him cuz he probably just kicked him in the rib.
Get up, get dressed and let's get outta here. And this whole story is clearly Jesus at work. Peter is doing nothing to help. He's just doing what he's told, and he thinks he's actually asleep through the whole thing. Do you guys notice this? Peter is like he's sleepwalking through the entire thing.
This is all done at God's initiative. He thinks the whole thing's a dream until he finally is left standing in the street by himself, and then he realizes it's actually happening. God has delivered him. And so he goes to the, to this house where he knows the church meets and the church has been praying nonstop for his release.
I love this part of the story and Peter knocks at the door and this amazing servant girl, Rhoda answers the door. And when she hears Peter's voice, she gets so excited that she forgets to open the door. She leaves this escaped prisoner, standing in, in the street by himself and goes back and tells everyone.
And then no one believes. no one believes that Peter's actually there. They have to see him before they believe what happened. And then the next day hero finds out that this guy, he was gonna execute the plan that he'd put into action, isn't gonna work out so well. He's frustrated, he's irritated.
And he actually orders the execution of the guards though. They hadn't done anything wrong, not fair, but it is what it is. Hazard of being a Roman guard. So hero's made his move. Jesus makes his move, but Jesus has another movie and this one's gonna frustrate her even more. He shows up one day at this parade, he's the center of attention.
Everybody's praising him. You can actually read this story, not just in the Bible, but there's a. Contemporary historian contemporary of Luke, a guy named Josephs who wrote around the same time that Luke did who records this story as well. It said hero was dressed in this shining outfit and he was glowing and everyone was telling him he was like a God.
And apparently God doesn't share his glory. and he says, really, as really you mighty king, you wanna put yourself in that position of authority. and the story ends as, as we just read with Herod being eaten from the inside out by worms, which is gross within five days of this event where people are cheering, you're a God, you're a God Herod dies.
The most powerful man in the region dies ironically by worms there's Jesus move Herod. You've made your move. You've done the best you can do. Now. Here's what I can do. And at the end of the story, we find out. that the clash of Kings is actually a fairly one-sided affair, that the contest between the two great rulers between Jesus as Lord and Herod is Lord is actually not much of a contest at all.
And the story ends in verse 24 with these words, but the word of God continued to spread and flourish. What's the moral of the story. Jesus' Lord period. There is no rival there is no power that matches his. He is in control and he will accomplish everything he sets out to accomplish. His kingdom will advance.
His church will grow and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. That's the message here. That's the confidence that Luke wants us as his readers to walk away with. Jesus is in charge. It's not even a question. There's no contest here now. . What does that mean? Because it's one thing for us to say it isn't, it's one thing for us to say the words Jesus' Lord, it's another thing entirely though, to live like it's true.
That's what I want to talk about today. How do we live? Like it's true. What are the implications of the Lordship of Jesus on our lives? that's the question I wanna consider. And I have three simple answers. What are the implications of the Lordship of Jesus? The first thing it implies is that we must surrender everything to king Jesus, everything.
See, I think when we use that language, Jesus is Lord, because we don't use that word Lord very much in the world. You walked around normal, the normal world. When's the last time you heard somebody use the word Lord. Outside of a church context, for whatever reason, it's become a churchy word, it's become a spiritual word.
And so when we use it, people O obviously go to God, but that's not what the word means. The word means king. So let's instead reframe my thesis statement today and to borrow language from the great theologian Kanye Jesus is king.
Yeah. King. Now king means something different. Doesn't. Yeah. It means a ruler who rules with absolute authority, who gets to say whatever he wants to say, and whatever he says is done, without question, we need to think about our lives in these terms. If we are followers of Jesus, if we are citizens of his kingdom, if we are subjects of king, Jesus.
Then he gets to say whatever he wants to say, and we do it. That's what surrender means. And this is in every area of our lives. Here's the thing. When we say things like Jesus is Lord. I think what we do is we make that a spiritual statement and we compartmentalize our lives into spiritual and physical.
And Jesus is Lord over this one, whatever that means it's vague and abstract and mysterious, but it actually has no real bearing on this one over. so over here, we have the Lordship of Jesus expressed through songs expressed through showing up to church every once in a while expressed through prayers that we pray around a dinner table, whatever your spiritual life might look like.
But over here, there are lots of other Lords, the stock market, or Washington DC, or our families, or just the good old God of America. Me. There are lots of other Lords that exist in this physical space. Jesus, you have this one over here and I just got this vision in worship. I don't know if I'll call it a vision, but a picture as we were worshiping of like Jesus king Jesus showing up at our door.
You guys, if you guys, I don't have it here. This is all, this is not in my notes, so I don't have the reference, but have you read the descriptions of Jesus in the book of revelation? Anybody read those? like revelation one, or revelation seven, the lamb, the lion, who is the lamb, like all these like vivid images of Jesus, as this glowing figure with you can't even look at him.
I don't even wanna get into descriptions, but just like all creation, all heaven and earth bowing down before him. I want you to picture this guy showing up at your door and knocking and saying, Hey. I've come to stay in your house and you say, Jesus, it's so fantastic that you're here. I've got this special space prepared for you and the spiritual part of my house.
You take him down to the basement where you've set up an air mattress on the ground said, Jesus, here's your spot. No, this is not how it works. You don't understand when the king comes to your house, he takes over the house. You move out of the master bedroom, you move out the master bathroom and he takes all the best.
And you ask him, where would you like me to stay? That's how this works. When a king shows up all of our lives, bow his feet. The fascinating thing about Herod this character here is Herod actually occupies multiple facets of this story. I have to ask the question. Why was Herod so intent on destroying the church, because just randomly killing citizens is not something that a good king would do.
And we might as sort of people who've grown up with super hero, super villain stories, think that he's just a villain, that he's just a bad guy, but the truth is he was a bad guy. but the truth is. it just, isn't a good practice for Kings to go around like haphazardly and sporadically killing their citizens.
It's not a good way to keep the peace. It's a way to start a riot and a good king. Wouldn't do it for no reason. The only reason that a king would do this is if he feel threatened, if he felt threatened. And the truth is Herod was threatened by the church in so many different ways. He was threatened by the Lordship of Jesus Herod exerted influence over multiple spheres of life.
And Jesus. Annoyed. All of them, Jesus exerted dominion over all of them. Herod was not a religious ruler, but he was responsible for keeping the peace in Jerusalem, which was a very religious town. And so we know that Jesus showed up and we know that he irritated religious people, that he didn't fit into their conceptions of what God was supposed to be like.
He didn't play by their rules. And so he definitely frustrated the spiritual life of the culture. and Herod to appease the spiritual people felt like he had to do something about the church. So that's one of the reasons that Herod went after James and went after Peter was to appease the religious people.
And the same is true of Jesus today. When he shows up in our life, he doesn't play by our rules of who God is or who we think he is. The fact of the matter is we had a Bible study here yesterday morning, and we talked about how we tend to try to reduce God down to a box of our own liking. We reduce him down to our own four walls of the church.
We reduce him down to different places in our lives where it seems like he fits. That was a great writer who once said God created humans in his image, and then we turned around and returned the favor. And that's what we do. We try to create God in our image. Another writer named Anne Lamont. She famously says, when you tried to make God in your image, when he hates all the people you hate and loves all the people you love.
And how often is that true of our picture of God, he likes the stuff we like. He hates the stuff we hate. If that's your situation, you're in a dangerous spot because you've got God in your own box. And then Jesus walks in and he, by the very weight of his presence destroys the box. I'm bigger. I'm more, I'm greater.
And so he does, he frustrates our spiritual lives. If Jesus hasn't frustrated you lately, you're not thinking about this. Clearly. If he hasn't messed with you in some pretty profound ways, chances are you've got him on an air mattress in the basement. He has come to express his Lordship over our spiritual lives.
That's what he says in the great commission. All authority in heaven has been given to me. Jesus is Lord over the heavens over the spiritual world, over every aspect of our spiritual lives, but that's not all he says in Matthew 28, he says all authority in heaven and on earth. The truth is Herod didn't just kill James or arrest Peter because he was threatened by the spiritual stuff.
Jesus said, Herod also killed him. Killed James went after Peter because Jesus followers were going around saying he was the king. And in the Roman empire, this was tantamount to treason. You have to understand in the Roman empire, there was an emperor. His name was Caesar and he was the absolute authority.
He was a divine ruler, according to the people of Rome, all the citizens and his word was Supreme. Now you have this group of people growing up within the empire, who said yeah, we'll respect you because our king tells us to, but if it comes down to it, we pick him over you. This is an act of treason.
We have to be clear when Mark wrote his gospel. In the first words of it were, this is the good news of Jesus. The Messiah. He was releasing into the world, a document that could have him killed because he announced another king. This was not just a spiritual state statement they were making, they were saying we live by a different code.
We have a different law. We bow to a different sovereign.
Jesus is king. And if Jesus is king, then Caesar isn't now we'll respect him because he's in his position because God allows it. Where his word violates the word of God violates the law of Jesus. We choose Jesus every time.
Jesus is King of heaven and of earth. And I think we have become, as I was talking about a second ago, we have become these compartmentalizers. Where we compartmentalize our lives into spiritual and physical, and Jesus comes to blow up our compartments. See that idea that we are physical and spiritual beings that we are as you famously heard a soul living in a body and that the body is gonna go away and the soul will go on forever.
This is actually not a biblical idea. Where that comes from the writings of a guy named PLA. It's a Greek idea. If you go back though, to the Hebrew concept and you look at the Old Testament where the word soul appears over and over again, like why, so downcast? Oh, my soul. And this word appears many times the word in Hebrew is Neish and it doesn't mean the spiritual part of somebody's soul and Hebrew Neish means the whole being .Because in the Hebrew mindset, a person was not spiritual and physical. A person was a person, all of it mixed together in some chaotic mess. It's mud with the breath of God infused into it. And it's all sorts of messy for that reason because we, as human beings stand at the intersection of heaven and earth, both of them colliding with all sorts of chaos and all sorts of violence and all sorts of transformation in these little beings that we exist.
And we're not one or the other, we're not, our goal is not to lean into one to the exclusion of the, other's not to become, as people have often said so spiritual that we have no sense of ourselves in our bodies. The goal is to be whole, a complete person, physical and spiritual and loving Jesus with all of it.
And that means that we have to take seriously the physical side of ourselves because Jesus is Lord over that.
that means that all of our lives must fall under his kingship. That means that he gets to say stuff about every aspect about our relationships, our marriages, our friendships, about our finances. About our politics. God forbid, look, if Jesus is king, let's be real clear on this. If Jesus is king, then we are first and foremost, not citizens of an amazing democracy, but citizens of a monarchy.
First and foremost, now our king sends us into democracy to be light and salt, but always as citizens of his kingdom. And he gets to define the terms. Don't forget where you come from. Don't forget your country of origin. When he brought you into his kingdom, he gave you a new citizenship, a new identity, and now he gets to define how you engage in this democracy.
How you think about politics, how you think about everything. Start to finish, needs to be influenced by the kingship of Jesus. He's lured over the whole thing. This means we don't just come in this place and surrender for 30 minutes on a Sunday, surrender our time, surrender, whatever else we do in this place.
It means we surrender all of it. It means we wake up and daily, take up our cross and follow
that's. What this whole thing's about. Jesus shows up to be Lord over the whole mess.
So we have to surrender. Truth is Herod he is a religious leader. He's a political leader, but he's also himself, a king. Did you guys notice this? He's not an emperor, but Caesar you if you know your history at all, a guy named Claudias Caesar and Herod went to school together in Rome, there were buddies.
And so when Claudius ascended the throne, he gave his best. The title king of the Jews. And now along comes this movement of Jesus followers. And what do they call him Messiah? Which means what king of the Jews. So there are now two people fighting over the same title. So Jesus has threatened to inherit in a religious realm.
He's threatened Rome inherit in a political realm, and now he threatens his. His sense of self, his sense of control, his sense of pride, his title, his position, his dreams, his ambitions, Jesus comes along and says all of that's mine.
He does the same to each one of us. Each one of us, Jesus shows up in our lives and says your dreams, your ambitions, your plans, everything you have. Is now mine
as a friend of mine, says, tongue in cheek. Jesus will ruin your life. He will. So he can save it.
He will put to death, everything in us so he can resurrect us to new life.
That's what Paul discovered. We're gonna talk about Paul here in the weeks ahead. Philippians chapter two, chapter three, excuse me. Whatever was to my prophet. I now consider lost for the sake of Christ. Hear that whatever was to my prophet, anything that was gained to me, anything that goes in the credit score on my record books, everything there is loss for the sake of Christ.
What's more. He said, I consider everything lost compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For whose sake, I've lost all things. I consider them trash. Do you hear what you just said? I consider them trash, whatever was to my prophet and whatever it was to my detriment, my whole life.
I consider trash for the sake of knowing Christ. What he's saying is there's nothing better. I can be Lord of my life if I want, but I'll be missing out on Jesus. My friends. Do you want what you can accomplish with your life or do you want what he can, there's no contest. I look around the room. I see amazing, talented, gifted resourced.
But if all you live on the basis of is your talent and your resource and your gifts, then that's all you'll get. And that's all the world will get. But if you surrender yourself, your religious life, your physical life, your ego, everything. If you surrender it daily to him, then you will get what he can do and the world will get through you what he can do.
And there is no contest.
His dreams are better. His plans are better
lay down your life and find it. Jesus is king. What we do in the presence of a king as the song famously says is we cast down our crowns and we say your kingdom over mine.
And just hint, you have to do this every day for me. I have to do it multiple times a day.
so the first thing that the Lordship of Jesus, the kingship of Jesus implies demands of our life is surrender. The second thing is prayer. Prayer is the primary way that we engage in the kingdom of God. It's the primary way that we live as citizens of king Jesus. And we see this amazing church in the book of acts praying, and I love it.
They're facing a situation that they didn't want to face, that they weren't equipped to face. And so their response is constant prayer. Where in over our heads, Jesus, this laying down your life thing is hard. It was all fun in games for a bit when the church was growing, but now people are killing us. We don't know what to do.
Our leader is in prison. We need your help. They prayed constantly. Did you notice that Peter got released from prison in the middle of the night and when he showed up to this house, what did he find? A prayer meeting was happening? They had not ceased praying for multiple days and God responds. My question I want to ask is, do you think that this story would've happened?
If the church hadn't. Do you think that Peter would've been released from prison if they hadn't gathered in constant prayer? I don't know. I don't know but there's a guy named William temple. The Archbishop Canterbury says coincidences happen a lot when I pray and when I don't, they don't. So would God have done it or not?
We don't know. The question I have to ask is, did they pray for James? You have to think they did. If there are people of compassion, people with a heart for Jesus, it would be cruel if they prayed for Peter, but not James. You have to think they prayed for James too. And Jesus said no. And then they went back and they started praying for Peter.
Would Peter have been released if they didn't pray? We don't know. But what we do know is this, they prayed and Peter got released. Friends. What does this tell us? Pray. Pray in all seasons at all times, pray without ceasing. Paul says prayer is the, is it's the, what's the word I'm looking for?
Come on. The headwaters that's the word I was looking for. Prayer is the headwaters of life in the kingdom. In other words, it's the place where the river starts. It's the thing that all of this flows out of, I was asking you to help me out without giving you any context whatsoever. Like we have no idea what you're talking about, but it's where this whole thing starts.
It's where life in the kingdom begins. It begins in prayer and my friends. We can't expect to have this mighty rushing river of life with Jesus. If we have a mud puddle as headwaters,
we need to cultivate a quiet place with. Out of which everything flows. Now, God can do whatever he wants. He is gracious and kind, and if he wants to move in spite of our weak prayer lives, he can, but why would we try to make him why would we make God work? In spite of us? I don't want God to work. In spite of me, I want him to work through me.
So we need to cultivate these habits of prayer, this deep pool of prayer out of which the rest of our lives. Again, God can do whatever he wants, but I don't think very often our life with Jesus and our experience of his kingdom will exceed our prayer life. Does that make sense? If our prayer life is here, that's about what you're gonna get.
They prayed fervently passionately. They prayed with actually not very much faith. Do you guys notice this? I love this about. They had enough faith to pray, which is great. But did you notice that when God actually answered their prayer, they were shocked. This reminds me a lot of me sometimes I'll catch myself in the middle of a prayer thinking.
I just, I couldn't imagine God doing what I'm asking right now. Like I'm praying for somebody to be healed in my head. I'm thinking there's no way this is gonna happen. Anybody else? This is just me. Please tell me, it's not just. Because if it's just me, then somebody else get up here and I should probably find a different profession.
But that, my faith is weak sometimes and their faith was weak, but it was strong enough to pray. And I think that maybe that's the point is maybe all you need is enough faith to get you praying. You don't have to be some hero. You don't have to have perfect unshakeable faith, just enough to get on your knees.
Maybe Jesus was actually serious about the whole mustard seed. Maybe when he said just enough faith, the size of a mustard seed and I'll move mountains. Maybe he was serious about that.
Do we have enough just to get us on our knees
and let him do the rest prayer? It's how we engage in the kingdom of Jesus. Surrender to him. We pray. And finally. It's the last way we engage. We walk in victory. That's why Luke is writing this, by the way, he's writing this letter to people who are still trying to feel out, whether they should be followers of Jesus or not.
And so he writes this story and he makes it very clear. If you walk this road, you win. That's the whole point of this thing. If you walk this road, if you bow to King Jesus, you will find yourself on the winning side of this story. He's in control, he's in charge. And I think we need to act like it. I think if you have bowed your life to King Jesus, we ought to walk with a bit more confidence and a bit more boldness.
Remember how I said Peter slept through the storm. He had become more like Jesus. We can. If we surrender, if we grow in vibrancy and passion and prayer, then we will see God move. And whether he answers our prayers or not, whether we like Peter get delivered or we like James don't, we can still walk in confidence that the victory is one.
And that makes you very powerful people. Do you believe that about yourself? Do you believe as you face the challenges of your life, that you are already walking in the victory that King Jesus has won, whatever that may be. Do you believe that he wins this thing that you're not just going to get by, but that if you walk in his wake, you can experience abundant life.
Now I'm not saying everything works out. Didn't work out the way James wanted it. This is not a health, wealth and prosperity message. That's not the kind of victory I'm talking about. What I'm instead talking about is assurance that no matter what happens, Jesus wins and you're gonna be okay to
be subjects of king. Jesus is to be on the winning side of this story. And I think we need to think of ourselves in those terms. Walk out of here with your head held a little bit higher than you walked in with a little bit more confidence, a little bit more courage, a little bit more faith. You're with King Jesus.
You're his kids. You're gonna be okay. You pray with me.
Jesus. This is all good stuff. But I can't convince anyone of it. I need you to show up by your spirit present and at work in this. Would you show up in the lives of each person gathered here and speak the truth. Would you show up at the door and knock, would you show up radiant glowing with all the power and glory that's yours? And in this moment of encounter, Lord would all of our crowns come crashing down to your feet.
We're gonna sing a little bit together. Keep your heads down for just a second thought, before we do though that first point, that first implication of surrender felt for me all week long and personally, and then on behalf of our church like the place where this whole thing starts. that we walk in here.
Each of us, I'm saying this myself as well. We walk in here, each of us with places in our lives where we let Jesus go and places that have a do not enter on the door.
And I just get the sense right now that king Jesus is staring at that. Do not enter sign and saying, why don't you open this one up too?
I don't know what that means for each of you, but I have a feeling, as I say this, you do,
there's a part of your life, an area where either you've just never considered Jesus entering, or you just really don't want him to, and
he's standing at the door and saying, why don't you let me in and see what I can do with that space.
And so before we engage in worship together, would you just take a couple seconds by his spirit and reflect on what he might be bringing to your mind and ask him to give you the courage to surrender?
See what happens.