This is week number four of a series called new management, where we were talking specifically about the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Over the last four weeks, I've talked a lot about the negatives associated with not fully embracing the Lordship of Jesus. How when we are halfhearted in receiving our new manager, Jesus, that we end up mismanaging and our motivations are wrong and a variety of other things we talked about.

I'll say it again, Lordship is all or nothing. It is not the parts you like and ignoring the parts you don't. It's not obedience when you want to obey, but obedience every single time, especially when you don't want to obey.

When you talk about the negatives, sometimes you can get to a place where you are so bogged down in things you need to fix that you lose sight of the point of all of this. I remember when I was going through the orphan spirit process with Pastor Chuck. One day we were meeting and we were talking about another thing I needed to work on and I got very frustrated and said, "sometimes I feel like a 79 Pinto and every time I come into this garage, I'm having to fix something else. The transmission, one day, brakes the next, alternator the next. It's so frustrating." Pastor Chuck looked at me and said, "yes but every time we meet, you're one step closer to being roadworthy.”

I don't want you to lose sight of the goal here: you at God's best. God is working everything in your life together so that his best can be accomplished in you. Now there are things that inhibit that process, like the fallen world we live in, the sin that we engage in, our mindset, our past, what we believe, even our willingness to simply obey God. but if you will let him, God really will work his process out in your life to the point where you actually begin to live out God’s best for you.

I've said that phrase two times in the last minute: God's best for you. Understand that God is not trying to get your best for you, but his best for you. Do you trust God that his best for you is better than your best for you?

We've talked about a lot of negatives over the last few weeks, but let me give you some positives when it comes to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. There are joys to be experienced when you embrace Lordship that you simply cannot find anywhere else.

There was a moment during Jesus’ ministry here on earth when he was preaching something that was pretty tough. We find this in John 6. Jesus was explaining to them who he was, and why he came, but they just demanded a sign. So Jesus began to tell them how he was the bread of life and while they may have eaten manna with Moses, that he himself was the bread of life, that if they believed in him, they would be saved. And of course, they murmured, "Isn't this Joseph and Mary's kid?"

But the teaching got way tougher: John 6:53
53 So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. 54 But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life

At this, many of the people following Jesus at that time begin to complain about how hard that teaching was and we see their response in John 6:66
66 At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.

John 6:67-68
67 Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” 68 Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.

Words that Give Eternal Life
One of the biggest misconceptions in the church right now is that eternal life starts when you die. While it is true that upon your confession of faith in Jesus you are granted eternal life after death, the truth is eternal life starts at the moment you say yes to Jesus. Salvation doesn't wait for you to die, and neither does God's best for you.

Psalm 16:11
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy

There are only two paths that you can take in life: yours and God’s. Your path is totally and completely dependent upon your ability to decide well.
You are the Lord and master of every step. Now, that might sound comforting to those control freaks out there, but it also means that you are at the mercy of the information that you have in that exact moment. It means that you don't have the ability to see into the future, to know what's around the bend, or to understand why what is happening around you is happening. It means that every single thing in your life is solely upon your shoulders.

God's path is dependent upon his word and your obedience to it. He is the Lord and master of every step. Now, that might concern those control freaks out there, but it means that you are at the mercy of the information that God knows in that exact moment. He has the ability to see into the future, he has the ability to know what's around the bend, and to understand why what is happening around you is happening. It means that everything in your life is based on his faithfulness and your obedience.

What do you trust more: your ability or God's word? The answer will tell you what path you are on.

And furthermore with God’s word, it is the light for that very path he’s called you to walk.

Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Words that give life perpetually. That is what Peter said Jesus had. Those words light the very path God’s called you to walk. And when we embrace his Lordship, something beautiful happens.

Joy. Xara (chara) is the word for joy in Greek. Chedvah in Hebrew. There is a distinct etymological link between xaírō ("rejoice because of grace”), xará ("joy because of grace") and xáris ("grace") in that they all have the same origin, xar, “to extend favor, lean towards, to be favorably disposed.”

Why am I being a word nerd right now? Because I want you to see the link between our idea of the word joy and the biblical meaning, which is rooted in our response to God’s amazing grace.

So many people are seeking happiness, which is fleeting and fickle,
dependent upon our circumstances. But joy is the result of encountering God’s grace and mercy and favor. And it is enhanced by our obedience and reciprocated love, which allows us to live in God’s favor and pleasure.

There is unspeakable joy in your embracing the Lordship of Jesus.

Joy is the direct byproduct of embracing God's grace. Joy is the primary result of complete obedience. Joy is the evidence you're on the right path. Joy is proof of biblical Lordship.

Happiness and joy are different. Happiness is determined by the circumstances of life. Joy is determined by your relationship with Jesus.

So what does this look like practically?

1. Joy is in Faith not Feelings
Feelings can be described as invisible forces that color our perception and choices based on the information we glean form the world around us. Feelings, however, are always subject to our tangible and intangible experiences, but they are always based on perception. When you get a present, you are happy. When a loved one passes, you are sad. When someone cuts you off and nearly rips the front of your car off, you’re mad.
Feelings are governed by cause and effect. A thing happens as the cause, and how you feel is the effect.

The trouble with feelings is that we allow them to drive our responses. We are ALL guilty of this. Matthew 16 Jesus told them how he would die and Peter pulled Jesus aside and rebuked him, “This will NEVER happen to you.” If you were Peter, what would be going through your mind? Do you think it was just the loss of a loved one, or do you think he might have wondered what life after Jesus looked like for him. Back to fishing?
That’s what happened in John 21 when he thought it was all over…

Faith, on the other hand is not subject to experiences or perceptions, but on God’s Word and faithfulness, and your obedience to them. Feelings say, “Fear what you cannot see.” Faith says, “Trust even when you cannot see.”

You may have heard the phrase “blind faith.” This is like saying ‘straight line.” A line by definition is straight. Faith by definition is blind. Interestingly enough, faith does not require sight, but only hearing.

Romans 10:17
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Look, we are back at the Word. Why? Because the Word builds your faith, and your faith leads you to trust in God no matter the circumstances around you, and the result is JOY.

Joy and happiness may seem to many to be the same thing, but the most intense difference is in whom you place your trust. Happiness puts all the eggs in the basket of feeling. Joy puts all the eggs in the basket of faith.

Forget the pursuit of happiness. It will zap you of all your energy and strength, and even if you attain the thing that you think will make you happy, you only find it is fleeting. Real strength is in pursuing Jesus, and where he is, joy is, too..

Nehemiah 8:10
Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!

The joy of who? The LORD. Joy is found in Lordship.

Being obedient, trusting God, embracing the fact that you don’t have to have all the answers, you don’t have to feel good about it, you don’t have to have every step sorted before you start out, you don’t have to worry about the circumstances around you. You just have to trust your LORD and be obedient to what he says!

James 1:2-4
2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

Joy is in faith, not feeling. Which are you spending more time in? Walking by faith, or by feeling? Are you being driven by your emotions, or are you allowing faith to lead?

If you want joy, it is found in faithfully obey God’s Word.

2. Joy is in the Fruit not the Flesh
When you are submitted to the Lordship of Jesus, you belong to Jesus, and no matter what is going on around you, you are being led by the Spirit.
Paul gives a clear differentiation in Romans 8:5-11
5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. 9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) 10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

So to sum up, when you live by the Spirit, you get the results of a Spirit-led life. But when you are led by your flesh, you get the produce of the flesh.
What does the flesh produce? Galatians 5:19-22
19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Are you immoral? Filled with lust and impurity? Are you divisive? Always stirring the pot and quarreling? Are you selfish? What’s best for you and forget the rest? Are you addicted? Whether a drunk or incessantly jealous?

If you are walking in the flesh, there’s no joy and no Lordship. I initially thought, no joy or lordship in those areas, but that is incorrect, If partial obedience is disobedience, then what is partial lordship?

Let me put it into these terms:
- Let’s say you worship Jesus 3 out of 4 Sundays, but on that last Sunday, you go down to the swamp at night and worship the devil.
- Let’s say your spouse goes on a date with you for 3 weeks out of the month, but that 4th week with someone they met on a dating app.
Is that idolatry and adultery, or if it is just a little bit it is ok?

I am not talking about simply missing the mark here, but intentional sin. I am not talking about losing your salvation because you lusted again. I am not saying that Jesus is no longer Lord of your life if you engage in intentional sin, but in that moment where you willingly choose to follow the desires of your sinful nature, you are under the lordship of something, but not of Jesus.

In that moment we are worshipping another king and forfeiting joy.

But thank you Jesus for 1 John 1:9
9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

“This was supposed to be an encouraging message. I feel terrible now.” I did, too this week. It makes me sick to think of how I treat Jesus. it breaks my heart when I choose anger or jealousy over Jesus. I feel like Paul in Romans 7, “What a wretched man am I.” It should hurt us and grieve us how easily we abandon the Lordship of Jesus. But this is what life looks like when anything other than Jesus is lord.

What should life look like? Remember, joy is in the fruit, not the flesh.
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

These are the results of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Look at that last phrase: “every part of our lives.” All or nothing. That’s Lordship.

And did you catch one of those fruits: joy? When the Spirit is leading you, joy is a result. Even when the road is rough. Even when the attack is overwhelming. But so is patience. You CAN patiently endure. And self-control. You don’t have to be angry all the time. And faithfulness. Your flesh doesn’t have to be your king.

Those who are under the Lordship of Jesus are led by his Spirit, and those people produce godly fruit that bring life. You are going to sin - to miss the mark - to unintentionally mess up. I don’t know that we can control that. But we CAN control our intentional sin.

You get angry. I get it. But you don’t have to serve anger.
What does the Lordship of Jesus want you to do when you get angry?

You see something that stirs lust in you. I get it.
What does the Lordship of Jesus want you to do when you get lustful?

You have that same thought that is toxic. I get it.
What does the Lordship of Jesus want you to do when your thoughts are toxic?

Most of us aren’t trying to abandon the Lordship of Jesus. We just don’t know how to handle it when our flesh acts up.

Here’s the answer:

3. Joy is in obedience not ability
What if I told you that your life is more determined by obedience than your ability?

You see, our flesh acts up and we have to fight temptation or thought processes, and we can sometimes get in a trap of trying to battle out of the situation in our own ability rather than being obedient to what God has asked us to do.

Some of us have to fight so hard to keep our our lives even remotely together. Sometimes we even idolize our ability to keep our heads above water. The fight becomes our identity. And that fight is against sin, against temptation, against our past, even against people.

But the problem is that we are wasting all of this effort in trying to fight everything and everyone around us that we are being robbed of the joys of the Lordship of Jesus. What do I mean?

Well, when it comes to fighting, do you really know what you are up against?
“Yessir, preacher, it’s that boss that won’t pay me enough.”
“Yessir, preacher, it’s that devil woman I said I do to on the altar.”
“Yessir, preacher, it’s that naggin voice telling me I mess up everything I touch.”

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ

Strongholds, arguments, high things against the knowledge of God, and every thought are subject to what now? The OBEDIENCE of Christ. Obedience here is hupakoe in Greek. It means “to submit to what is heard.”

Do you hear and obey the voice of the Lord?
You can’t obey what you can’t hear. And there are so many verses about being obedient to the voice of God.

John 10:27
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

John 5:25
Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Deuteronomy 13:4
You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.

John 8:47
Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

One more: Psalm 29:3
The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters.

The voice of who? The LORD

God doesn’t need you to understand. He just needs you to HEAR and OBEY.

So many people are living in the gap between the mess up and the make up. You messed up and you feel the conviction, and you know you need to make up and ask for forgiveness, but in that space you are paralyzed because you don’t know what to do. This is where you abandon your ability and embrace obedience.

Let’s say you had a lustful moment. The Bible says cut off that which offends. Don’t pop your eyeballs out, but maybe you need to delete an app
or leave you phone on the kitchen counter. Don’t let your lack of ability keep you in that gap between the mess up and make up. Forget your ability and embrace obedience.

You will find life gets better not when your ability to fight gets better, but when your obedience gets better.

If you will do what God tells you to do, you will start being led by the Spirit. When are start being led by the Spirit, you begin producing godly fruit. When you start producing godly fruit, you actually begin to live out God’s best for you.

The quicker you embrace the Lordship of Jesus, the better life will be. Better, not easier. Better, not calmer. Better, inspire of circumstances.

Joy is in faith, not feeling, in the fruit, not the flesh, in obedience, not ability.

Is Jesus really your Lord and Savior?
This message challenged me because I know there are moments when I choose another lord. Those are moments when I am being led by my flesh into intentionally sin. I have to repent, to not just say sorry, but to change.

Are you really being led by the Spirit?
When I get in those flesh-led moments, I basically am telling the Holy Spirit to mute. It grieves him and creates death and brokenness in my life. I have to choose to say no to my flesh and yes to the Spirit.

Are you really being obedient?
Obeying when you want to or when it is convenient is partial obedience, and it means I trust my own ability more than I trust his word. Those moments show me who I REALLY trust to rescue me. I have to put it all in his hands and just do what he says to do.

I bet I am not the only one…but this can be remedied.

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us now. Let’s pray.

If you are not experiencing the joy that comes from the Lordship of Jesus,
this is the moment to get right with God.

I need to get under his Lordship to begin with.
I need to be led by the Spirit.
I need to stop laying games and just obey.

Now is the time to respond.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

How does he want you to respond?