Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay, good morning, folks. Great to see you. Great to see you. My name's Alex. I'm part of the leadership here. If you're a visitor, welcome to Grace. It's lovely to have you join us here on Sunday mornings where the focus is always on the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ, With the help of the Holy Spirit, that's what we try and do. Worship Him through all that we do. The songs we sing, the prayers that we pray, the reading of His Word, the Bible, and the preaching of His Word. So just a few announcements. We'll get to those. Let me just mention as well, if you're a visitor, if you haven't already noticed, there's a visitor card. Feel free to fill in one of those. It's a way for us to be able to connect with you. If you have something you'd like us to be praying about for you or doing for you, then that's the way to do it. And of course, that card can also be used for anyone, by anyone to request prayer. And just make sure that card goes to Suzanne Mott. If you're not sure who she is, just ask around and I'm sure they'll be able to point you in her direction. Very good. And let me just mention as well any of the kids in the nursery. After the first song, that's when the kids are dismissed. So just make your way over, follow the crowd, and that will be fine. So just a few announcements, folks. First of all, the food cupboard was really overwhelmed with people on Thursday, and they've been cleaned out. So please be in prayer for them, this important ministry that happens on Thursday for the needy folk in our community. It's a wonderful outreach, a way to share in practical ways, and certainly the opportunities to share the gospel is there as well. We're very grateful for that. But please be in prayer. And if you feel that you can contribute either cash or gift card, just send those over to give those to Leslie. She would be more than happy to receive those. Is that OK, Leslie? OK. Great. So make sure that, yeah, any donations that you can give, just make sure those go to Leslie. Alan's going to come up now for brief notice as well. This is more of a technical thing. So starting today, we're changing the way we live stream our worship service. We're not going to use YouTube anymore. We're all going to be on the app. So I would encourage you to download the app. If you watch through the website, it'll still be there just as normal, and it'll be there through the week as well. But if you have your phone on you right now, you've already heard a ding because we're on live. It's a great opportunity for you to encourage other people to watch our service through your telephone by downloading the Church One website. Okay? So I just want to let you know that. It doesn't really change anything, but it allows us to reach out with the Word of God in a greater way by you sharing that app so that people can watch the church. Okay? Thanks. And the other thing we want to do this morning is we want to say a very big thank you to someone in particular. They've been involved in faithfully serving in the church. Before I tell you the area that they've been serving in, let me just say that we're just so grateful for all that this person has contributed and it is, along the line of refreshments that this individual has faithfully served. And of course, if you're like me, you really enjoy being able to pick something up at the end of the service, something to nibble on or a drink. So we've put together just a little thank you card. for Judy, and we also have some flowers here that we just want to give you. So Judy, would you be able to come up here? I'd like to give you a card, and just on behalf of the church, thank you for your wonderful service in terms of refreshments, and also just want to pray the Lord's blessing on you. Come on up here. That's for you, and the flowers are down there. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for faithful servants that make your church just, you make it work. So thank you for Judy and her faithful service and her commitment to serving you through this important part of all that we do here at Grace. And we as a church, we just pray your blessing on her in this next season of ministry in her life. And we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. Let's give her a big round of applause. Thank you so much. All right. Very good. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you, folks. Well, we're going to start our worship service now, and let me read to you from Psalms part of Psalm 146 as we open our service. Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth. On that very day, his plants perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners. He upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The Lord will reign forever. Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord. Let's just take a few moments now to confess anything we need to. We just want to make sure nothing gets in the way of us being able to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, this morning the way he deserves. So let's take a few moments to do that and then I will pray. To your Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the privilege to be able to gather here as your church, and we need your help in all that we do, even as we sit here to worship you. We need your help just to get our focus on you. We have all sorts of things running through our minds, hearts, and I just pray that you would help us to set these things aside, commit them over to you, so that we can truly focus on worshiping You the way that You deserve. And we do pray that everything that's done here is honoring to You. Again, help us to do that. We so often get it wrong. Our own agendas are always knocking at the door, wanting to creep in. So help us to set all these things aside and get our focus in the right place on you. And we just pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. Good morning. Please stand with us as we worship the Lord together this morning. From your word of God the Father, from before the world began, every star and every planet has been fashioned by your hand. All creation holds together by the power of your voice. Let the skies declare your glory. Let the land and seas rejoice. You're the author of creation. You're the Lord of every man. And your cry of love rings out across the land. And she left the gaze of angels, Came to seek and save the lost, And mischanged the joy of heaven For the anguish of the cross. With the prayer you fed the hungry, with the word you sealed the sea, yet how silently you suffered that the guilty may go free. You're the author of creation, you're the Lord of every man, and your cry of love rings out across the land. With a shout you rose victorious, wrestling victory from the grave, and ascended into heaven, leading captives in your way. Now you stand before the Father, interceding for your own, from each tribe and tongue and nation, You are leading sinners home. You're the author of creation. You're the Lord of every man. And your cry of love rings out across the lands. You're the author of creation. You're the Lord of every man. And your cry of love rings out across the land. When I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast. When the tempter would prevail, He will hold me fast. I could never keep my hold through life's fearful path. For my love is often cold, ye must hold me fast. He will hold me fast. He will hold me fast. For my Savior loves me so. He will hold me fast. Those He saves are His delight Christ will hold me fast Precious in His holy sight He will hold me fast He'll not let my soul be lost His promises shall last, taught by Him as such a cause. He will hold me fast. He will hold me fast. He will hold me fast. For my Savior loves me so. He will hold me fast. For my life He bled and died, Christ will hold me fast. Justice has been satisfied, He will hold me fast. Raised with Him to endless life, He will hold me fast, till our faith is turned to sight, when He comes at last. He will hold me fast. He will hold me fast. For my Savior loves me so. He will hold me fast. He will hold me fast. He will hold me fast, for my Savior loves me so. He will hold me fast. Please be seated. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, there is none like you. To you, Lord, belongs all majesty, all glory, Lord. All honor and all praise, Lord. You are the one everlasting God. Truly, O Lord, we are humbled, humbled to be called into your family. To all who know Jesus as our Savior and King, Lord, who are the beneficiaries of grace and mercy, to be given new life, to know you, O Lord, and to be with you for all eternity. Lord, our hearts just cry thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Each day, O Lord, help us to remember, to remember the blood which was shed on the cross, the perfect and innocent body of Christ, which was broken and beaten, Lord, that we could be ransomed and redeemed from the bondage of sin and from death. Dear Father, we pray this morning that you would help us, O Lord, to lay aside our own greed, our own desires. Help us, O Lord, for we are so prone to wander. We declare this morning, Lord, that we want to be dying to ourselves, to surrender ourselves to you and to your will as the Holy Spirit leads us along. Father, like newborn infants that long for milk, Let us long, O Lord, for your word, long to be in your word, to be fully sustained by your word, by the every word that proceeds out of your mouth, O Lord. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for your word. Lord, we pray this morning for the many of us who have come this morning with pains and suffering, both physical and mental, Lord. You are Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals. You have the power to heal and to restore, Lord, to mend what is broken. Father, we just thank you that we can call on your name. Lord, we pray that you would also be with those who are suffering financially. You are also the God who provides, Lord, and your word tells us that you know our every need before we confess it to you. Lord, we ask for wisdom in dealing with our finances, and we pray your blessing over the work of our hands, Lord. Father, humbly we offer to you all that we do here at Grace into your hands. We know, Lord, apart from you and without obedience to you, that we can do nothing, that there will be no blessing. Father, we want to offer up to you our services here at Grace. You know all the areas in which we strive to serve you throughout the week and every Sunday as we gather here in your name. Protect us, Lord, from the ways in which Satan sneaks in and seeks to steal, to take our joy away from serving you, how he seeks to cause division and to turn us aside from focusing on one another and your church. Father, we need wisdom and guidance from your Word. We pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would teach us. Lord, we pray over Pastor Alan this morning as he brings forth your Word. Would our minds be sharpened by it, our hearts be softened, and would your Word convict, rebuke, and strengthen us? Father, we ask that this day you would be comforting those who are being persecuted for bearing the name of Jesus Our brothers and sisters scattered throughout the world, Lord, would you be their shepherd, protect them from the evil of this world. Rescue them, Lord, out of their persecution, and give them rest and peace here on this earth. See the hurt that they're in, Lord, and give them strength and encouragement from your word. Lord, help us to remember them daily in our prayers, dear Father, that we may be united with them in their suffering, Lord. Lord, we pray also over the body of believers here in Canada. Would you, Lord, prepare the hearts of our nation? Bring revival here as well, Lord. Give us, Lord, your people, your church, boldness and perseverance, Lord, to spread the gospel of Christ. Heavenly Father, we also seek your mercy and your grace. Forgive us, Lord, for how we have wandered and strayed, fallen and sinned against you, a holy and righteous God, and the one who will judge each one of us. Lord, forgive us and do not remember our sins before you, we ask. Lord, help us not to allow the shame of our sins to keep us from coming to you. Help us to remember your tenderness. to turn back to your arms filled with love for us, to find shelter in your word and in your great love, Father. Lord, our God, filled with all power, strength, and authority, we pray all of this in the name of Jesus, our Savior and King. Amen. Good morning. Good morning. Our reading today is from Acts chapter 2, 22 to 36. Acts chapter 2, 22 to 36. And if you should have your Bibles open, we are again reading from Acts 2, 22 to 36. And Peter is speaking. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David said concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is my right hand. I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell. In hope for you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the Patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God has sworn with him an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on the throne. He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses, seeing therefore, exalted, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. He is poured out of this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. This is the word of the Lord. Let's stand and prepare our hearts for the preaching of God's word as we sing to the Lord. Who tells the sun to rise every morning, Colors the sky with the shades of His glory, Wakes us with mercy and love, Jesus does. Who holds the orphan Comforts the widow, cries for injustice, feels every sorrow, carries the pain of his children, Jesus does. So we sing praise to the Father who gave us the Son. Praise to the Spirit who's living in us. When I was a sinner, He saved me from who I was. Cause that's what Jesus does. Who understands the heart of a sinner, showers His grace over all our mistakes, washes us clean with His blood, Jesus does. Who sings the song of sweet forgiveness? Who stole the keys to hell and the grave? Who has the power to save? Jesus does. So we sing praise to the Father who gave us a son. Praise to the Spirit who's living in us. When I was a sinner, He saved me from who I was. That's what Jesus does. Oh what a friend, oh what a Savior He's always been good, He's always been faithful He came to my rescue when I needed Him most And saved my soul So we sing praise to the Father who gave us a son. Praise to the Spirit who's living in us. When I was a sinner, He saved me from who I was. So we sing praise to the Father who gave us the Son. Praise to the Spirit who's living in us. When I was a sinner, He saved me from who I was. That's what Jesus does. Please be seated. The same praise to the father is a wonderful thing to be able to do because we do want to sing to him and praise him. A little too hot still. OK, let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you Lord for allowing us to express to you in song. our praise and acknowledgement of our need for you. You have taken us who have lived lives in disobedience and gone our own way and gone our own way and seen the terrible disasters that lead us, but you have brought us a savior to forgive us and to forwash us and to restore us. And now, Father, as we open the word, we pray that your Holy Spirit be poured out upon us, that we may see and appreciate the power of the Spirit of God and the authority of Christ. So, Lord, open our hearts. Let us put aside all the distractions around us and focus on your word. Speak to us, speak to us, O Lord, that we may reply to you. Lord, touch us in our inmost beings. Awaken us, Lord, to who you are, we ask. And may all that is done this morning through the teaching of your word lift high in the name of Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. We are continuing in Acts chapter 2, so if you've got your Bibles, let's turn over the passage that Leslie read. On the day of Pentecost, We often think, if someone says to you, I'm going to be talking about Acts chapter two, Pentecost, our minds instantly go to, oh, you're talking about the Holy Spirit. And certainly the Holy Spirit was the focus at the beginning, because it was the day of Pentecost when the Spirit of God was poured out. But also in that day, we have this incredible, wonderful speech that Peter gave. And the focus is on Christ. by the Spirit's enabling, the Spirit led them to focus on Christ. And the key to Peter's speech, the key to the entire book of Acts and everything that will follow is found in verse 36, chapter 2, verse 36. where Peter stands before the Jewish people that were there on that day, gathered in the temple courtyard, and he says, that all the house of Israel therefore know for certain, no mistakes, that God has made him, that being Jesus, both Lord and Christ. That's the key, that verse. Put a circle around that. Put a star in your Bible. Everything moving forward is that verse expanded out, taught, explained. That is the basis of all the missionary journeys. That is the basis of everything that will move forward in the book of Acts is verse 36 of chapter two. God has made Jesus both Lord and Messiah. The other day I was in Walmart and, you know, you get up to the cash and they give you that simple, and how's your day going today? And I love it when I say, oh, I'm under a lot of stress right now and I've had a crummy day. Do you want me to tell you about it? I usually always do that. The older cashiers kind of laugh and they say, oh, I'm tired too. It's the younger ones. teenagers or the 20-year-olds, they look at me in panic because they don't really want to know. They have no interest in hearing about my life. I look at them like, well then why do you even bother asking? We say those quick little snippets like they want me to say, great and how's your life, how's your day going to? Well you know what, in the Christian realm we can be guilty of that same sort of thing as well. I was driving up Highway 29, heading up, you know, I turned towards Delta and Athens and heading home. And there was a car in front of me with the bumper sticker, Jesus is Lord. And I looked at that and I said, oh great, they must be a believer. And I thought they're, I wonder if they even know what that means. Because it just gets to be one of those little sayings that we throw out. It's one of those things, Jesus is Lord. And as I myself sat and thought about it, I'm going, well, I'm kind of foggy on it too. Yeah, yeah, it means God's in control. Okay, yeah. Is that it? Is that really kind of the max? Is that really it? Just to say, Jesus Lord, because that whole statement that we hear and see on bumper stickers and people writing and all that come from this passage right here in Acts chapter two, verse 36. this declaration that Jesus is Lord. And I'm afraid that sometimes, as believers in Christ, we just throw that term out, we throw that phrase out, and we really don't grasp the significance of what Peter was saying, or what is truly encapsulated in that. Because I can even sit there and go, well, it's kind of foggy. I kind of get, yeah, Jesus is God, and Jesus is in control. And I try to think of some other random things. Well, let's clear that up today. Let's clear that up, because it's probably absolutely critical that we understand what Peter was saying here and what we mean by it. Because I believe you can truly Come to know Christ as your Savior. You've lived a life on your own, done your own thing. You've lived the party life. You've done it, what everyone else did. You realize that you're not perfect. Your whole life has kind of come to a place of, it's not going anywhere good. And God, by His Holy Spirit, makes you realize that there is a way to start over again. God can unscramble the eggs of your life and put everything back in order, but you need to come Repent and ask the Lord to forgive you and acknowledge Christ your Savior. And you can do all that, but you can also live and never have Jesus truly as your Lord. He can be your Savior and have washed your sins away, but you can live the rest of your life without Him truly being the Lord of your life. So we need to figure that out. And so here is Peter, and after all the Spirit of God coming down, and everyone's speaking in different languages, and all this amazing thing, and Peter talking about all the prophecy of Joel being fulfilled that day, he says in verse 36, the key point that brings response, because if you go next week, we'll look at the latter response of the people, and they cried out and they said, what must we do to be saved? That conviction, that powerful cutting of their heart came because they were confronted with the fact of verse 36, that all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. So there's the whole key, that's it, that's the powerful declaration that we need to figure out ourselves. Well, let's talk about it. Because everything that Leslie read, starting in verse 22, really it builds up to that climax of that statement. And he says, God has made him both Lord and Christ. So let's start with Christ. Christ is the Greek word Christos, transliteration. Christos, which means Messiah in Hebrew, bring it into Greek, it means Christos. But Messiah itself means anointed one, one who's been anointed. Now that's a picture that had come throughout all the Old Testament, right back to Moses. But it really found its significance in 1 Samuel. Remember the story in 1 Samuel where the Lord said to Samuel, bring Eli, sorry, bring forth all the sons and bring them before me and I'll choose which one. And one by one, Elab and all those other guys came, not him, not him, not him, not him. And then finally David came. And the Lord said, this is the one I'm going to use. And the Lord said to Samuel, anoint him, anoint him. And Samuel got oil and poured it on the young boy David's head, because the Lord looked at his heart and not at his outward appearance, and the Lord saw the love of that little boy for him, greater than the heroes that were living in the land. That young little boy loved the Lord with all his heart and soul and mind, and God saw that, and God recognized that. And God told the prophet Samuel to anoint him. And so at that point, that concept of anointing really took on its fullest meaning. It means one who's being empowered by God to do a specific work for God. It's more than just simply a separation for God's work, because that's often the way we say it. We say, oh, they're separated. No, it's more than that. It is a divine empowering of God. And so that term Messiah, anointed one, eventually Christos, Christ, took on this meaning of the one whom God has separated from all else. to be the individual to whom God would work a great work through. Now, Jesus is just the Greek translation of the Hebrew name Joshua. Lots of Joshes running around. You know, right today, there was back then, too. But nobody would dare claim the name Jesus Christ. Lots of little boys named Jesus. But Jesus, the anointed one, nobody would dare that. And here now, Peter is saying that God the Father has made unto him, the Lord Jesus, both Lord and the anointed one in Christ. So now let's go back in the text and see how he builds on this. Going back to verse 22. He says, men of Israel, hear this, these words, that Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God through mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst. What does that mean? He's saying is the Lord Jesus, while he was on earth, had the ability to do miracles, whatever he wanted. And I've often thought, you know, even as a teenager, even when Jesus was 12, 13, 14, 15 years old, he could have, you know, I want a pizza, pepperoni pizza, you know? He could have just popped stuff, but he never did. He never did random foolish things, even though he had the ability to do it. He never just popped out a submarine sandwich or, you know, whatever, because I think, you know, if you had the ability to do anything you wanted at any point in time, you would be doing all that kind of stuff. But Jesus never did. The Lord Jesus used those acts, those individual acts, always to give authenticity to who he was. They were never random acts of miracles. They were always there done to prove his authority that he was the anointed one. And so Peter starts with the fact that the Lord Jesus has been empowered of God. And he demonstrated and proved his power by the miracles that he did. Now here we are today and we say, well, that's nice to know. Okay, I kind of got that. But understand this, that one of the wonderful aspects of coming to the Lord Jesus not only the fact that the Lord has forgiven us for the things of our past, the things of our shame, the things of the deeds and the lifestyle that we used to live in, not only had that been forgiven of the past, even the present, even the things of the future, but that the Lord had rather empowered us. That's not to say that you can go out and do miracles today, but it does mean we've been raised up with Christ and seated with him as Paul says in Ephesians 2. We've been raised up with him and seated with him in the heavenly realms. You have spiritual authority now in Christ because the Lord has been empowered. Now what is my spiritual authority? To pray and to be heard. It is the most misunderstood and misused and we just don't appreciate the authority that we have to pray. and say to the Lord, Lord, I just feel miserable today. And your heavenly Father, who cares for the birds of the air, stoops his ear to hear you because he cares for you. Do you appreciate that ability that you have to pray for the church, to pray for another Christian who is struggling and suffering? You have that authority. We don't use it enough. We, as I say, we use it like a salt shaker, occasionally to season some desperate need, rather than to bathe our church, to bathe the direction of our church, to bathe God's leading of this church, and to bathe each other in prayer. It is a power that has been entrusted to us that we don't appreciate, but we need to. Because, as we're gonna look at in a second, To say that Jesus is your Lord is easy words to come out of your mouth. Put it on a bumper sticker, stick it on your car. But to truly say Jesus is your Lord means that you are not a person who neglects prayer. because you cannot neglect the authority and the power that the Lord has and demonstrated and has given us through the ability to approach him. You cannot neglect that or occasionally visit it whenever it's sufficient or needed for you and then go out the same breath and say, oh yeah, Jesus is my Lord. No. Can't do that. Let's go on. And it says this. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. That means not just simply the foreknowledge of God, but the plan that was the basis of that foreknowledge. It was God's eternal, we call eternal decrees of God. In other words, it was always God's plan. the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified. He lays the guilt upon them. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. But God raised him up, loosening the pains of death. What does that mean? Part of the wonderful aspect of being, having the Lord as your Messiah, your Savior, Savior, excuse me, Savior, is the fact that you've been liberated You've been liberated from all of the struggles of this temporal world. You've been liberated from the fear of death. You've been liberated from the uncertainty of what's going to happen when I die. We live in a world where everyone panics over death. That's why marketing right now is all aimed at the baby boomers who think that they need to do something to make themselves look younger or act younger or whatever because they don't want to face the reality of death. And yet we've been liberated from that. because Christ has risen from the grave. And then he goes on to prove it by quoting from Psalm 16, where he uses David as an example, how David looked forward, not only to his own situation, but looked forward to the fact that the Lord would conquer death in his resurrection. And it says in verse 27, and you have not abandoned my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see decay. And then he explains how indeed it wasn't David talking about himself, but it was David talking about the fact that Christ would conquer death. I went to the doctor last week, and I was laughing. They look at you and they ask that typical question. I don't know why they ask it of me. Did they ask it of you? They asked this of me. Do you think about dying very often? Why do you ask me that question? Do I look like I do? But my answer is, I think about death every day. That's my answer back to them. And they go, oh. Not in some suicidal way, but rather in the fact that I look forward to the knowledge of a heavenly home prepared for me. I don't fear death. I think of it all the time. Christ has liberated us from death. Let's go on to that second term in verse 36. Go back to verse 36. Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. Okay, so we get the Lord, sorry, we get the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one. He is empowered, that empowerment is given to us, the liberation that has been brought into our hearts and our lives that we have peace with God. We don't fear dying. Death is not an obstacle. It is rather simply us going into the presence of our Savior who loved us and knew us and called us and walked with us our whole lives. The Lord to whom we've talked to, the Lord to whom we've read about, the Lord to whom I've taught about, almost every day for the last 30 some years. I just can't wait to sit and realize how wrong I've been. It's like, wow, I didn't get that. But what a joy it'll be to finally be in the presence of the Lord, what a joy. But then he gets this other term, the Lordship. God has made him both Lord and Christ. Messiah I get, and I see the implications in my life, but lordship is a different ballgame. It's understanding a different level of who God is, who Christ is. Now in the word, the word Lord in Greek is kurios, it just simply means, it can mean a very general sense. So I would go up to you and a servant would go to his master and say, Lord, what do I do today? What's my task? So it could be a very general term. But there's a much higher understanding that was applied to Christ that exists today. And it's about your relationship to him. When we talk about Jesus as Lord, we're not just talking about him as simply being our master. It's a much higher, much elevated term. A term that we have to wrestle with. A term that today you're gonna have to search your heart and ask yourself, is he truly my Lord? Or is that just a term I throw out and use occasionally when it's convenient, or it looks good, again, on a bumper sticker or on a sign or something? To say Jesus is my Lord is talking about the Lordship of Christ in your life. So Lordship has two aspects to it. First of all, it has positional, and then it has the obligation aspect to it. If King Charles came in here this morning, we would acknowledge his position as king. And because of that position of king, we would respond to him with a bow of the head or maybe a curtsy for ladies. You respond to the position because you realize that's the obligation of how we respond to someone of that position. But then take it to a higher level when we're talking about the risen, reigning Savior who saved you, who gave you hope, who has a heavenly home prepared for you, who walks with you, who hears every one of your prayers, who cares about every need and every concern and every struggle that you go through. Right off the bat, we realize the response to Him, to call Him my Lord, has to be much greater than often the way it manifests itself in my life. So positionally to say he is Lord means this. It means he is the absolute ruler over everything that has been created. He's the absolute ruler over everything that has been created. Both those who love him and those who mock him and curse him and spit at him and use the name of Christ as a swear word in every sentence of their dialogue. He is ruler over them. He is sovereign ruler over the kingdom of darkness. He's ruler over Satan. He's ruler over all the demons of hell. He is sovereign ruler over all things. That is what lordship means. Absolute authority over everything that has been made. And for us who love the Lord as our Savior, there's a sense of peace in that, a sense of fear in that, because it makes you start to look at yourself in the mirror and realize How far away from where you should be you are. But for everyone now who mocks Christ in our world, in our culture, who mocks Christ at the Olympics, who mocks Christ in their language, what does the word of God say? Philippians chapter two, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess what? I can't hear you. Jesus is Lord. Not just Jesus is God. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Every knee shall bow. Certainly for the believer, we may be in humiliation, say, Lord, forgive me for my mediocre Christian life, my mediocre walk with you, but just think that everybody on the face of this earth who has ever walked this land will stand before the throne, and they will be bowing before that Savior, and they will say, Jesus is Lord. Positionally, he is in absolute control over every aspect of everything, over every person. And nobody, doesn't matter your education, doesn't matter how wise you are, doesn't matter how smart you think you are, those words are gonna come out of your mouth. Those words are going to come out of your mouth. Positionally, he is that. But what is the obligation then? Just as with a king who walks into this room, a human being who's just been granted because of being born in the right family, nothing special, we bow, we curtsy, we acknowledge the position. But what about you? So let me give you the obligation that is upon us, that we cannot escape from because of the fact that Jesus currently, as it says in verse 36, has been declared by God the Father to be Lord. First of all, we have to understand that all of the consequences of our disobedient, sinful life in Christ have been revoked. All of the consequences of the things of disobedience before a holy God, all the times that you cursed God before you came to the Lord, all the times that you've been involved in actions that are private within your life, even when you were a believer, have been revoked. That's lordship. Now, since that is true, since that is true, as a believer in Christ, for me to be able to say to the Lord, Jesus is Lord, for me to be able to say that without being a hypocrite and a liar, for me to be able to say that in more than a flippant way, then I have to understand this. There should be no guilt of your past. Humanness has guilt. Satan brings guilt up. But if you truly believe in the depths of your heart and you're capable of saying, Jesus is Lord, I believe in the Lordship of Christ, then you bring every action of your life and your past and you bring it before the foot of the cross, even today, even the things that we watched this week on the internet, even the things that have come out of our mouth, even the gossiping, even the critical heart spirit, we bring all of it before the foot of the cross and we say, Lord, forgive me. That is not acting in light of the Lordship of Christ. That's acting like I don't believe that you are Lord. But the joy of all that is the joy of being freed from the consequences. They've been revoked in Christ because He is the Lord. So first of all, when the guilt floods your heart and your mind, come to Christ and say, I left it at the foot of the cross. David, who had an affair with Bathsheba, then went out and killed Uriah, her husband, was able to write in Psalm 32, the Lord forgave even the guilt of my sin. That's lordship of Christ. But here's the second thing. As David said in Psalm 110 and again. So verse 24, Peter is quoting Psalm 110. And Peter says this, quoting portion of Psalm 110, where David did not ascend into heaven, but he himself says, the Lord says to my Lord. Now in the Hebrew, it translates capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. It's Jehovah said to Adonai, God the Father said to Jesus, God the Father said to the anointed one, sit at my hand until I make the enemies your footstool. What does that mean? It's not just simply talking about the absolute authority of the Lord Jesus over all things. But it also tells us this, that what comes from the Lord Jesus is of God. So how does that affect me? Look, I cannot pretend and come to the Lord and say, Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus. I cannot pray and say, I believe that Jesus is Lord. if you do not have full understanding of the authority of His Word. So many people who are Christians avoid passages of Scripture rather than deal with Scripture. They dance over them. They do not allow the Scripture to cut them to the heart and change them. Rather, they go to the Scripture to justify their lifestyle. Or they loosen the effects of Scripture so they're not convicted by it. Or even worse, they don't believe all Scripture is God's Word. They justify whatever portion makes sense to them. You are not serving Jesus as Lord of your life if you're involved in that. If you don't accept the whole Word of God as the entire counsel of God, He's not your Lord. If you're using the Bible simply as a means to justify your lifestyle and to think that you're smarter than God in getting away with it, or that you have just reason to act the way you do, He's not your Lord. Don't say He's your Lord, because He's not. Because Lordship demands that you submit to His Word, that you accept His Word. that we are obligated to walk according to his word. This church, the elders who have been tasked by God to give spiritual leadership to this church, search diligently and under the accountability of God Almighty to make sure that we walk in a path according to his word. And that fear fills my heart. And sometimes, for you, it's a hard thing to hear. But you're hearing it because the fear of God fills our heart, and it is our obligation, because we strive to be able to correctly say, Jesus is Lord, to walk according to his word. It's not done out of self-motivation or pride. It's not done out of a dictatorial attitude. It's not done out of trying to line up with some denominational ideas. And you and I, all of us, if we are going to say Jesus is my Lord, we better make sure that we submit to the word of God. Otherwise, don't even say it, because he's not. But it includes more. To say that Jesus is your Lord, as Peter is saying here, it means being obedient to the Holy Spirit. Now what does that mean? You probably already experienced this this morning. The Holy Spirit said to you, don't do that. Don't say that. Don't act like that. And you went ahead and did it anyhow. Don't watch that. Don't view that. Don't talk like that. And the Holy Spirit has done that because he loves you. And he's calling you to walk under the Lordship of Christ. If you want to say Jesus is Lord, you listen to the Holy Spirit. And one of the sad things that I'm seeing is too many Christians have this idea that I'm free under grace. And therefore, I can continually disobey the Spirit of God when he tells me what to do, because I can go to him tomorrow and, Lord, forgive me, and he'll forgive me. And I'll just go right back and disobey him. And, oh, Lord, forgive me again. That's baloney. If you feel that your life is just a continual circle that you can get away with acting and talking and speaking criticism and doing unloving things, and with the idea in the back of your mind that Lord will forgive me anyhow, He's not the Lord of your life. That's a selfish relationship you have to the Lord. You have to be submissive to the Spirit. And so when the Spirit of God says, Don't do that. Don't say those words. Don't have that critical thought in your mind. If he is the Lord of your life, and if you are under the Lordship of Christ, you will be obedient to that voice, because you know it's the Lord talking to you, right? It's not just simply some right-wing agenda from some right-wing church. It is the Lord doing what he's supposed to be doing in you, calling you to holiness. And so with love, I say to you, obey that voice. Obey the Spirit's leading. Otherwise, don't even go ahead and say Jesus is Lord, because he's not the Lord when you do things like that. It means surrendering. You see, if we truly believe that the Lord rules all things to all extent over all things, and I want to have a rebellious spirit, I will rebel against that which the Lord has instituted. That's contrary to Jesus' Lord. The Lord calls us to submission. And we all get our backs up with that word thrown out because we think of horrible things. But submission to the Lord Jesus is what God's called us to. It's not submission to a human leader. It's submission to the word of God and submission to Christ himself. It's submission to what the Lord wants of us. It's surrendering those areas in our lives that keep popping up that we seemingly think that we can't get control over. But we've never actually surrendered them to Him. We just justify it as, well, that's my personality. We surrender it and say, well, that's just my past experience coming out. But you've never surrendered it to Christ. Peter tells us that one of the great things about knowing the Lord as your Savior is that he has conquered fear and anger. It is a terrible thing to see Christians like a volcano of anger, always ready to burst. You have no idea what's going to trigger them. You have no idea how little of a scratch it's going to take. but they're a festering volcano of anger underneath the surface. And they put on a veneer of, I'm okay. That is not the Lordship of Jesus in your life, period. God has called us to the Spirit's fruit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, meekness, gentleness, self-control. No justification for anger in any of that. So I'm going to say to you out of love, and myself as well, when those thoughts of anger, don't write them off as, well, that's who I am, or that's my past, or that's whatever. Don't justify it. Submit it to the Lordship of Christ and say, Lord, this is a part of my life that I don't believe is godly, and I need to surrender it to you. that you would make me a gentle, godly woman or a gentle, godly man. But don't say he's your Lord if you don't even try that. Anger and even fear are qualities that you need to surrender to the Lordship of Christ. And finally, as Peter will say now in the next passage that we will look at, They cry out to him, they said, Lord, what must we do to be saved? And he tells them, repent. To truly be able to say that Jesus is your Lord means you're willing to be obedient to his word and you are going to do his bidding, whatever that may be. There's never been a Christian missionary who has gone to China or has gone to Africa in the 1700s or the 1800s who went there with a rebellious spirit against the sovereignty of God and the Lordship of Christ. These were men and women who gave everything up because God called them to do it. Comfort was not their issue. Retirement packages wasn't on their mind. They heard the call of God and they went. When you read Isaiah chapter 6 and you see the fact that Isaiah saw the Lord, what did he say? He said, here am I Lord, send me. That's lordship in his life. where if we come to the Lord and the Lord's calling us to be involved in service to Him, and we say, it's not convenient time, or I don't want to give up anything, I don't want to have to sacrifice, I don't want to be obedient under the elders' leadership, I don't want to have to do something that is not in any way moves me out of my comfort or my personal desire zone, That is far from the Lordship of Christ. To say Jesus is Lord is more than just saying Jesus, God's in control. It's to acknowledge his position and the obligations that we have under him. And the only way that I'm going to say to the Lord Jesus on that day without being embarrassed and humiliated when I bend my knee and I say, Jesus is Lord, is if I right now surrender all these areas of my life, stop making the justification for the things of my life, and give myself fully to Christ. I want to serve Christ without any conditions. Here am I, Lord, send me, period. I want to surrender my attitude of anger. I want to surrender my bitterness. I want to surrender my rebellious heart. I want to be obedient to the full Word of God. I want the Word of God to shape me and change me, not justify me. I want to understand that the Lord wants me to serve Him and love Him without any exception. That is why there are so many Christians, I believe, who will say, Jesus is my Messiah, He's my Savior. but they can't honestly say he's their Lord. And if you never get beyond that, if you are not able or willing to surrender these areas of your life to him, because he is in authority, not surrender to me, surrender to the Lord, then what you see right now in your life is as good as it's gonna get. You're not going to get any better than you are. You're going to be mediocre, mediocre, mediocre. You will raise children who are spiritually mediocre. And your legacy as a Christian will be a person who was a mediocre Christian. Is that what you want? What we need to say to the Lord now by the Spirit of God is, Lord, I surrender everything to you. I surrender all to you. I want Jesus to be my Lord. I can't make you do that. That is between you and the Spirit of God in Christ. But maybe right now as we go to prayer, You need to be maybe that boy David, that little boy David who the Lord saw and loved. You need to surrender all those excuses back to Christ. Surrender all the past and the justification back to the Lord and say, here am I, Lord. Use me. Father in heaven, You know every single person online, watching. You know every single person here. You know me. Our lives are fully exposed to your eyes. There is nothing hidden. There is no secret action that we thought no one knew about. There is no emotion that we can hide or cover from you. There's no past event. There's no present thought that is not laid bare before your eyes. Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit right now would change us. We're not satisfied with where we are. We're not satisfied with where we've been. We want Jesus as my Lord. And Lord, right now, I just need some quiet time to confess those areas of my life that I've been justifying, those attitudes, those natures, those past fears, those anger issues, those rebellious thoughts that I have not yet surrendered to you. So Lord, just in a few quiet moments, hear these as we confess them to you. What a wonderful Savior we have. Jesus is Lord. And he is the Lord of our lives. As we move forward as individuals, as families, as a church, as people serving within this church, Let us truly at all times, oh Lord, be able to say to you with truthfulness, Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. Father, we praise you. We give you glory in Jesus' name, amen. Well, let's stand up together and sing out this song to Christ, knowing that he is our Lord. We stand and lift up our hands, for the joy of the Lord is our strength. we bow down and worship him now how great how awesome is he together we sing everyone sing holy is the lord god almighty the earth is filled with His glory. Holy is the Lord God Almighty. The earth is filled with His glory. Earth is filled with His glory. We stand and lift up our hands, for the joy of the Lord is our strength. We bow down and worship him now. How great, how awesome is he. Together we sing. Everyone sing. Holy is the Lord God Almighty The earth is filled with His glory Holy is the Lord God Almighty The earth is filled with His glory The earth is filled with His glory And it's rising up all around It's the anthem of the Lord's renown It's rising up All around, it's the anthem of the Lord's renown. It's rising up. All around, it's the anthem of the Lord's renown. It's rising up. All around it's the anthem of the Lord's renown. Together we sing. Everyone sing. Holy is the Lord God Almighty. The earth is filled with His glory. Holy is the Lord God Almighty. The earth is filled with His glory. The earth is filled with His glory The earth is filled with His glory All right, before we depart, let me just say, first of all, we do love you all. And so if you're here today and you need someone to pray with you, don't just run home, okay? Stay and let's just pray together. Turn around with someone near you and pray with them, if not with one of the elders or elders' wives, okay? But this is too important just to run home. So if God has spoken to you today, stay and let's just pray together, all right? Father, thank you for who you are. Thank you, Lord, that you love us. Thank you for the forgiveness in Christ. Thank you for your desire for us to walk close to you. Lord, may today be a hallmark day in our lives where we are able to say confidently tomorrow and every day this week, Jesus is my Lord. We pray this for His glory, in Jesus' name, amen.