God Is Lord

In any season of life it is easy to forget about God our creator.  Our lives are busy and hectic and stressful, and we feel as if we need to figure this out on our own and we don’t have time to trust God as we do life.

This morning is a good time to hit pause and reflect on who God is.  In the Bible we often see that God is referred to as Lord.

The exhortation today is that we would remember the Lord in our daily lives and to help us with this, I want us to memorize three categories of who God the Lord is…

1)   Control

On some level, we all have control issues.  It is easy to go through our day holding on tight to everything wanting every situation under our control.  We want everything to go our way. But, we must remember that we don’t have ultimate control. It is humbling and it is good, to remember that God is the one who has ultimate control.  

When we take control to an unhealthy level, we hurt those around us.  When you are on a conference call at work with a customer, and a colleague is not saying it the way you want it to be said, do you get really angry with that person and create tension, even belittle them, speak ill of them?

When we take control to an unhealthy level, we hurt those around us.  We forget how to serve the other person, we forget how we can truly help the situation.  When the going gets tough, it is good to trust God, trust his control, and then serve others and be helpful.  Be part of the solution, don’t be part of the problem.

And a great place to start to be helpful, is to humble ourselves by remembering that God is in control, not us.

2)   Authority

The second key word to remember is “authority”. God as creator and as lord has the right to tell his creatures what to do. He has the authority.  He speaks with absolute authority, and thus his Word, the Bible, has absolute authority. Control is all about power.  God can do what he wants.  Authority is about our needing to obey him and follow him.

In the Old Testament, God tells his people to follow him and obey his commands and law. Jesus picks up on this and says “if you love me, keep my commandments.”  Jesus even asked the questions “How can you say ‘Lord, Lord’ when you don’t do the things I say?”

Simply put, your ultimate allegiance to who you follow and obey, is not YOU.  It is God. When you think you are the one who sets the rules and makes the plans and charts the course, you tend to go beyond the boundaries of your authority, and run over people (figuratively).

Yes, we all have our God-given roles of influence and authority, but we are so prone to act as if we have more authority than we do. Know your role, listen to God, obey God, and serve others.

3)   Covenant Presence 

The third key word to remember is “presence”.  God is committed to us and therefore the LORD is with us.

God says many times and in many ways in the Bible “I will be your God, and you will be my people.”  When we are his people, he fights our battles, he blesses us, he loves us, he challenges us, he grows us, he stretches us, he tests us, he disciplines us… most importantly, he is with us.“God is Lord and He is with You".

The Exhortation

The exhortation today is to remember that God is Lord.  He has ultimate control in your life. He has ultimate authority over your life.  And he is with you, his presence is with you.

I exhort you today to remember God: control, authority, and presence.