I. What Is Renewal?

A. Illustration – Mother Teresa wrote, The church wants "renewal." Renewal does not mean changing a habit and a few prayers. Renewal is faithfulness to the spirit of the constitutions, a spirit which seeks holiness by means of a poor and humble life, the exercise of sincere and patient charity, spontaneous sacrifice and generosity of heart, and which finds its expression in purity and candor (as cited on PreachingToday.com).

B. Context – This morning we’re beginning a series of six messages focused on principles of renewal, principles that will help us to experience a significant breaking forth of the Spirit of God in our church. Many of the ideas and principles for this series are taken from Pastor Michael Slaughter’s book Spiritual Entrepreneurs. This is what Slaughter says about renewal: (NEW SLIDE) Renewal is God-breathed, not program planned… Church renewal consists of people in community with one another, dreaming God’s vision, believing Christ’s victory, and living out the Spirit’s work. The evidence of renewal will be seen in transformed lives. He’s right. And we’ve got to do whatever it takes to live in true biblical community with each other, to dream God’s vision, to believe Christ’s victory in more than an intellectual way, to live out the Spirit’s work in powerful ways, to see lives transformed for Jesus Christ.

C. The six principles we’ll be looking at in this series are the Lordship Principle, the Biblical Principle, the Liturgical Principle, the Covenant Principle, the Priesthood Principle, and the Leadership Principle. These principles are all based soundly in Scripture and are aimed at helping the church find renewal and see many, many people come to Jesus Christ. It’s important that we see large numbers come to our church and come to Jesus. As Slaughter writes, Numbers are important because each number represents an individual life. (NEW SLIDE) We’ve got to reach out to meet people’s physical and spiritual needs if we’re going to see them come to Christ and if we’re going to see a true renewal of the Spirit of God. That’s what renewal is all about.

D. The renewal principle we’re looking at today is the Lordship Principle. (NEW SLIDE) The Lordship Principle states that renewal occurs as the church moves from a vague belief about who God is and how He works to clearly understood and clearly lived faith in Christ. It means returning to the truth that telling about Jesus is the unique business of the church. It means understanding and living like this faith costs everything to follow Jesus. In Matthew 16:15, Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” There was no ambiguity and no argument from the other disciples when Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” There is no wiggle room in this truth. Jesus is the Son of God and Lord of the universe. That is the truth. (NEW SLIDE) Our world has to decide if he is truth for only some people or if he is truth for all people. We tend to live like he is only truth for some people. It’s time we all started living the truth. To do that, let’s take a look at what the leadership at Slaughter’s church discovered as they look back at what God had done in renewing a one-hundred-forty-year-old church.

II. The Object of Faith

A. Slaughter writes, (NEW SLIDE) The first and most important theological element…was the clear focus on the person, work, and authority of Jesus Christ. He is the reason behind every action we take. In Acts 2:36, Peter says, “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” In Acts 4:12, he tells the Jewish leaders, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” John 14:6 – Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” And John 11:25 – Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.” You get the point. Those of us who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ are well aware of these truths, yet we‘ve got to do more than know them. We’ve got to live them out in every part of our lives. Every part of our lives has got to declare that Jesus is Lord.

B. (NEW SLIDE) The early church had this clear focus on the Lordship of Christ. They were honed in like a laser beam on the fact that Jesus is Lord, and they allowed this truth to permeate every part of their hearts and lives. The problem we face is that the church has a tendency to lose that clear focus on the person of Jesus Christ and to return to a vague and unclear belief in who He is. We’ve got to regain that focus. As Slaughter writes, (NEW SLIDE) The message of the New Testament church was radical faith in the person of Jesus Christ. Acts 4:10-11 – then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 He is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’ 1 John 5:1,5 – Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves the child as well. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 – For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of who are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. (NEW SLIDE) There was no ambiguity, no wiggle room, about the person of Jesus Christ in the hearts and minds of those who knew and saw Him physically. They saw the whole thing. Slaughter – The early Christians were so convinced of the validity of the witness concerning Jesus and the fact of the resurrection that they were willing to lay down their lives for this man. Those people were willing to forsake everything they knew. We’ve got to get it straight in our hearts and minds and in the way we live that Jesus Christ is Lord!

C. Illustration – John Baillie wrote, According to the teaching of our Lord, what is wrong with the world is precisely that it does not believe in God. Yet it is clear that the unbelief which he so bitterly deplored was not an intellectual persuasion of God's non-existence. Those whom he rebuked for their lack of faith were not men who denied God with the top of their minds, but men who, while apparently incapable of doubting him with the top of their minds, lived as though he did not exist (as cited on PreachingToday.com). (NEW SLIDE) Truth isn’t truth unless it is lived!

III. Renewal – Returning to the First Love

A. Revelation 2:2-5 – I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. The problem the Ephesian church faced had nothing to do with their programs or their commitment or their doctrine. The problem was that their focus was on their programs and their commitment and their doctrine. You see, the focus of the church isn’t supposed to be on the church. The focus of the church is Jesus! Think about it. (NEW SLIDE) Faith centered on the church is dead faith. But faith comes alive in Christ. Lives aren’t transformed and empowered through the church. Lives are transformed and empowered through Christ! The church is the agent that God uses, but God is the One whom we worship and focus on. As Slaughter put it, …apart from a personal, dynamic growing relationship with Christ, the church has no life.

B. John Wesley, after his conversion at Aldersgate in London, wrote in his journal, The moment I awaked, ‘Jesus, Master,’ was in my heart and in my mouth; and I found all my strength lay in keeping my eye fixed upon him, and my soul waiting on him continually. The truth is that renewal is much, much more than simply adding a little more Jesus to the mix of what we normally do. Just adding a little more Jesus won’t work. Slaughter writes, (NEW SLIDE) Jesus must be the absolute focus. It must be an all or nothing proposition. The key for renewal is a clear focus on Jesus Christ as the object of faith and the cause of truth. In a post-Christian age, clarity of focus is now more necessary than ever. The church in Ephesus had lost that focus on Jesus. They lost sight of the truth that God’s desire for relationship with us drove Him to send His Son to die for our sins. As 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 says, All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. If the Ephesian church had returned to this kind of focus on Jesus, there might still be a city of Ephesus and a church devoted to Christ there. (NEW SLIDE) We’ve got to return to our first love, that laser-like focus on Jesus, if we want to see renewal take place in our church.

IV. Absolute Authority

A. Besides a clear focus on Jesus Christ, we’ve also got to realize what lordship is all about if we’re going to experience renewal in our church. There was no doubt in the New Testament church what the word “lord” meant. We don’t live in the kind of culture where that word is used regularly. But those early believers had a clear understanding that lord meant one who had absolute authority. (NEW SLIDE) A lord was one who was to be obeyed without question or argument. One who could do anything he wanted with his subjects. And that’s a tough pill for us to swallow. We’re raised in our culture to be fiercely independent, without anyone or anything telling us what to do or how to live our lives. We may sell our obedience for a paycheck, but our attitude still says that we’re in charge. We all struggle with this. But when we call Jesus “Lord” He is calling for the New Testament meaning. (NEW SLIDE) When we call Jesus our Lord, we’re telling Him to take absolute authority over our lives.

B. Lord also had another meaning. It meant “owner.” It’s how a slave referred to his or her owner. (NEW SLIDE) This term meant that the slave was totally bound to the authority of the master and had no rights whatsoever of his or her own. The only way a slave could respond to the owner was complete, absolute, total obedience. We tend to think in terms of democracy where God is concerned. After all, we live in America, land of democracy and freedom where anyone can become whatever their heart desires. So we approach God like anything He says is a ballot to be voted on, rather than an order to be obeyed. In truth, as those who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, we are slaves. Jesus bought us with His blood – He is our owner. He has absolute authority over us.

C. As Slaughter writes, Jesus, however, did not come proclaiming a democracy. He came proclaiming a kingdom… In a kingdom, all rules are determined by the king. Each person is given a responsibility… They [kings] do not need ask for my consent – they command!… In a democracy, choice likes in the hands of the governed. In a kingdom, choice lies solely with the king. Jesus, in Luke 6:46, says, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Ouch! I’m not saying that democracy isn’t a good thing – it’s a great system for governing a country. But as far as the kingdom of God is concerned, it’s worthless. How can we ever accomplish God’s will if we fail to recognize and submit ourselves to His absolute authority? I know it’s tough to do. I struggled with obeying His call into the ministry for eighteen years! By the way, that’s not something I’d ever recommend. But if we’re going to experience renewal we’ve got to stop living like Jesus is just a nice guy and start living like He is Lord, because He is! Andrew Greeley wrote, If Jesus makes you feel comfortable with your agenda, then he's not Jesus…. Once you domesticate Jesus, he isn't there any more (as cited on PreachingToday.com). (NEW SLIDE) We’ve got to submit to His absolute authority instead of trying to convince Him to do things our way if we’re going to experience renewal.

V. Volunteer or Slave?

A. We’ve seen that we’ve got to have a laser-like focus on Jesus Christ as the One we have faith in and as the One who is truth. We’ve seen that we’ve got to submit to His absolute authority. But Jesus takes it one step further in Luke 17:7-10. “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

B. I really don’t like that passage. You know why? Because I want to get recognized and rewarded for every little thing I do for God. I can sometimes get this kind of attitude like I’m entitled to some props because I’ve been obedient to Christ. We all get that ‘tude at various times in our lives. Part of the reason is that our self-interest makes us not want to obey, because it will cost us dearly. Part of the reason we get that ‘tude is that we don’t understand what a servant really is.

C. The word translated servant is “bondslave.” (NEW SLIDE) A bondslave didn’t work for wages. He lived under the authority and ownership of a master. He had no rights or privileges. He exchanged his individual identity for the identity of his master. I think we can already begin to see how this applies to our relationship with Jesus Christ. (NEW SLIDE) Bondslaves had no personal property – everything belonged to the master including the clothes on their backs. There was no distinction between work time and personal time, because every minute belonged to the master. That’s what Jesus is trying to communicate to us in this passage. When He bought us with He blood and we received the gift of His sacrifice by entering into personal relationship with Him, we became His bondslaves.

D. Jesus said that we’ve got to identify with the slaves in His parable if we’re truly going to be His followers. We’ve got to come to the point where we realize, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” That is the call of slavehood to Jesus. Slaughter writes, (NEW SLIDE) Volunteer is the language of the club. Slave is the language of the kingdom of God. C. S. Lewis wrote, He cannot bless us unless he has us. When we try to keep within us an area that is our own, we try to keep an area of death. Therefore, in love, He claims all. There's no bargaining with Him (as cited on PreachingToday.com). Renewal requires that we realize that we are only bondslaves and begin to live that way.

VI. God’s Choice – Not Mine

A. As we begin to become God’s bondslaves, we begin to realize that God’s call always comes in the form of a command. (NEW SLIDE) It’s not a suggestion. It’s not a plea. It’s not even a negotiation. When God tells us to do something, it’s a command. Think about Moses at the burning bush. God commanded. Moses argued. God commanded. Moses argued. This went back and forth until Moses realized that God wasn’t going to quit commanding, so he’d better obey. And Moses spent the rest of his life striving to walk in obedience to God’s command. In fact, the only time he failed to obey he did it big time, and it cost him his trip into the Promised Land. That should probably serve as a warning to us, but let’s also remember how God used Moses because he was obedient, and yet God’s Word still says Moses was the most humble man who ever lived.

B. Slaughter writes, …obedience is not an option. A king does not ask for consent – he decrees… He is the absolute authority – the owner – the one who calls us and sends us. Our only response can be one of obedience. When we recognize the authority of Jesus Christ, we realize that the ordering of our daily activities is God’s choice, not our own. In John 15:16, Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.” (NEW SLIDE) If we’re submitted to the Lordship of Christ, then the choice is all His. He will tell us what to do each day, and we’ll do it. If we’re not submitted, He’ll still tell us what to do each day, but we won’t be listening and we won’t obey. If we’re going to experience renewal, we’ve got to remember that the choice for how God uses us is up to God. As A. W. Tozer wrote, To many Christians, Christ is little more than an idea, or at best an ideal--He is not a fact. Millions of professed believers talk as if He were real and act as if He were not. Our actual position is always to be discovered by the way we act, not by the way we talk (as cited on PreachingToday.com).

VII. Good Excuses

A. Luke 9:57-62 gives an interesting account. As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 59 He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

B. At first glance, the statements the last two men offer to Jesus seem to be okay. But remember the context. Jesus and his disciples are traveling on the road from Galilee heading to Jerusalem, where Jesus will be killed. So the men He is talking to are already away from home. They’ve already temporarily left their lives behind to follow Him. What He is asking for is their permanent commitment, for them to give everything up and follow Him. Not looking for the reward of a secure home before following. Not looking for some time to wait for an inheritance to be granted before following. Not looking for some family time away before following. If we try to follow a Jesus who only rewards and never makes demands on us, we’re following the wrong Jesus. We’re living and preaching the wrong Jesus. (NEW SLIDE) Mother Teresa said, Preach Jesus, the true Jesus, the real Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, and not a Jesus of people’s imaginations.

C. So why do I focus on preaching with you? Because we all preach by how we live and what we say. (NEW SLIDE) We are all called to the kind of lifestyle where what we do and say and where we go is directed by Jesus. Slaughter writes, This itinerant lifestyle is not only for pastors. This challenge is for all who call Jesus Lord! Do you know what my official title with our denomination is? I am a Reverend, but that’s not it. I am a Pastor, but that’s not it. My official title is Ordained Itinerant Elder. What that means is that I’ve met the requirements for ordination by the denomination, and that I am the elder in the church according to our system of governance. But it’s that word “itinerant” that can cause some trouble. Anybody know what itinerant means? It means I go wherever those in authority over me send me. The same thing applies to all of us in our relationship with Jesus Christ. (NEW SLIDE) We’re all itinerant. We’re all called to go wherever Jesus sends us, to do whatever He tells us, to say whatever He tells us. As Slaughter writes, Jesus is the absolute authority. There is no excuse for anything other than absolute obedience… we cannot follow Jesus with any conditional clauses attached.

D. That’s what those men in Luke 9 were doing. They were trying to place conditions on their obedience. But Jesus wasn’t buying back then, and He still isn’t buying now. Why not? Because He knows that total and absolute obedience is not only the best for His kingdom, it’s also the best for us. He knows we’re not too good at running our own lives, and that we’ve got to submit to His absolute authority if our lives are going to make a difference. (NEW SLIDE) If we don’t stop trying to put conditions on our obedience, it will literally be the death of us. Jesus knows that the conviction that He is Lord has been the foundation of every spiritual awakening, every Holy Spirit outpouring, in our world. (NEW SLIDE) He will not allow us to create a god in our own image who serves us and our particular prejudices, which is exactly what we’re trying to do when we put conditions on our obedience.

E. We have to deal with our own self-absorption when we face Jesus and His authority, which is one reason we don’t like to deal with it. Zacchaeus did. When confronted with his own self-absorption, he said in Luke 19:8, “But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.” This lowly tax collector dealt with his self-absorption, and Jesus accepted his obedience. And, as Jesus said to the adulteress in John 8:11, “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

F. Slaughter writes, (NEW SLIDE) Following Jesus involves everything. He is not just one part of life – he is life! In Romans 14:7-9, Paul writes, For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. If we want to experience renewal, we will accept His absolute authority and live with Him as Lord of every part of our lives.

VIII. The Good News about Jesus

A. You know what one of the best things about submitting to the Lordship of Christ so we can experience renewal is? When we submit to the Lordship of Christ, we become powerful tools for sharing His love with those around us. (NEW SLIDE) There are lots of clubs and organizations and service agencies around. But we can offer those around us only one thing that those organizations don’t already offer – JESUS CHRIST. We can belong to the Elks or the Lions or the Optimists and do good things, but they still don’t hold a candle to the good news of Jesus Christ. We’ve got to be careful not to offer them a watered down message with a vague theism that denies or focuses on anything else than clear faith in Jesus Christ and absolute submission to His authority. (NEW SLIDE) For when we condense down the theology of renewal to its least complicated form, it simply means lifting up Jesus in every act of the church. That’s what submission to Christ is all about. That’s what the Lordship Principle is all about.

B. Illustration – Knute Larson wrote, In the early 1990s when President George Bush had fiery John Sununu as his White House chief of staff, a reporter asked Sununu if his job was difficult. He quickly answered, "No." The reporter thought Sununu had misunderstood the question, so he asked again, and got the same reply. Sununu, a former governor of New Hampshire, then explained why he felt his job was easy: "I have only one constituent." He knew his job was to please the President (as cited on PreachingToday.com). (NEW SLIDE) Our duty as bondslaves is to please Jesus and nobody else. Our duty as bondslaves is to submit to Jesus and to nobody else. May all of us submit to His absolute authority over every part of our lives.

C. Illustration – In Discipleship Journal, Lorne Sanny wrote, Author and educator, Howard Hendricks, sat in a plane that was delayed for take off. After a long wait, the passengers became more and more irritated. Hendricks noticed how gracious one of the flight attendants was as she spoke with them. After the plane finally took off, he told the flight attendant how amazed he was at her poise and self-control, and said he wanted to write a letter of commendation for her to the airline. The stewardess replied that she didn't work for the airline company, but for Jesus Christ. She said that just before going to work she and her husband prayed together that she would be a good representative of Christ. Doing it for Christ's sake adds another dimension to submission. You are submitting not just to your employer or husband or parent, but to the Lord, because of your love and gratitude for him (as cited on PreachingToday.com).

IX. Conclusion

A. Please bow your heads and close your eyes out of respect for each other’s privacy. How are you going to respond this morning? Let’s spend a few moments listening to what the Holy Spirit is speaking to each of our hearts.

B. How are you going to respond to God’s call to submission this morning? If you’re surrendering to the absolute authority, the Lordship, of Jesus Christ this morning, please come forward and kneel at the altars if you’re physically able. Otherwise just come up front and stand or sit. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a Christian, because all of us need to submit and surrender throughout our Christian lives. So if you’re surrendering to the absolute authority, the Lordship, of Jesus Christ this morning, come forward now.