The Final Authority

In your life, who has the final authority to make the decisions about: how you will live your life; what you will do or what you won’t do? Who has that final authority?

Now if you were 3 or 4 years old and I asked you that question, the only reasonable answer you could give me is “mommy” or “daddy”. I’ve been traveling over several continents, I’ve continuously run into people who still answer “mommy or daddy” or a substitute for mommy or daddy. Wives say my husband. Husbands say my wife. Some are religious people and say, “Well, when I have a decision to make I talk to the pastor.”

Now all of those are obviously a kind of escape: they’re ways in which we can avoid the personal responsibility. Others have matured to accept responsibility. In words not quite so eloquent, like the poet they proclaim, “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.”

The truth of the matter is this: Whoever is the final decision making authority in your life, that person is your Lord. You see, that’s what Lordship means. It means the final authority to make the decisions.

With that understanding, I suggest that you consider this; Jesus knows more about your life than you do. He knows what happened in your past. He knows what happened in the past generations and the things that are affecting you today. He knows what’s happening all around you in the present time and he even knows what other people are thinking about you right now. He knows all about your future too. He knows what you will be facing at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon. He knows the end from the beginning.

Now, here’s another thing you ought to know about Jesus: He loves you. Completely! Enough to die for you!

Now, I know that there have been many times when you actually have not loved yourself. Remember when you felt so foolish you could have kicked yourself? Remember when you wanted to go and kill yourself? Have you noticed the self destructive things you do as you drink, or drive, or use drugs, or let others use you? A person who loves you does not treat you like that.

I also know that you don’t know as much about your own life as Jesus does. Do you remember what you were thinking the day you were 4 days old? He does. Do you know what God the Father planned for you before you were born? He does. Do you know what that woman is thinking about you right now? He does. Do you know what the traffic will be like on the way home tomorrow? He does.

He knows everything about you. Everything! He knows every detail and he still loves you.

So just answer a simple question for yourself. Who’s the better decision-maker for you; someone who actually loves you; someone who knows everything there is to know about the decisions to be made; or someone who only sometimes loves you and doesn’t know everything about those decisions?

When you get to this point you recognize that it really is just common sense to let Jesus be Lord of your life and to yield to him all the authority to make the final decisions for your life.

Let me just pause for a moment to ask you another simple question. Have you already asked Jesus to come and be your decision-maker? If not there is no reason why you can not do so right now. He is not waiting for you to be good enough or for you to earn the right. He is ready right now. Are you? If you are ready just tell Him so:

Jesus, I invite you to be the final authority for all my decisions. As you help me, whatever you say I will do. I choose to stop doing things my way and do everything your way. Please help me.

What have I just done with you? I’ve taken you through a simple step by step process of demonstrating how one might talk to someone and bring him or her to the point of making a decision to receive Jesus as Lord. However, in doing so I haven’t used any religious phrases at all. If you go to someone and say to him, “Are you born again?” I can tell you what response you’ll get from him. The response will be whatever he thinks will get you to go away. He’s been attacked by “Christians” before and he has no desire to go through that again.

Here’s the real problem. This is a lesson in evangelism. In the New Testament there was only one person who got the title of evangelist. His name was Phillip. When you read the story of what he did in Acts 8, you see how he met the Ethiopian eunuch and you discover something that is really fascinating about his interaction with that Ethiopian. You discover that he didn’t try to tell the Ethiopian anything until the Ethiopian asked him a question. Philip asked him questions but didn’t try to tell him anything about God until the Ethiopian asked him a question. I suggest to you that one of the single greatest problems in the history of the modern church is that we keep trying to answer questions that nobody is asking. 

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Stop trying to answer questions that nobody is asking. 

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Stop preaching to people who don’t have any questions. Start seeing God has a completely different approach. The plain truth is that ALL service crosses a bridge of relationship. You can never serve anyone with whom you do not have some depth of relationship. 

His, thus Yours,

Stuart