Who Is the Lord of Your Life?
Pastor Tan Thai · Sep 13, 2020
This sermon poses a central question: who truly controls our lives? Drawing from James 4:13-15, the pastor identifies three attitudes toward God's lordship: rejection, neglect, and submission. The message calls believers to abandon prideful self-sufficiency and live in complete surrender to God.
This sermon was delivered on the 19th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, opening with reflections on the fragility and brevity of human life. The pastor uses James 4:13-15 to remind the congregation that no one knows what tomorrow holds, and that life is like a vapor that appears for a moment and then vanishes. Multiple Scriptures from Job, Psalms, and Moses reinforce this truth.
The pastor analyzes three main attitudes people hold toward God's lordship. The first is outright rejection and opposition, which leads to judgment as warned in John 12:46-48. The second and more dangerous attitude is neglect — never including God in one's plans, work, or daily life. The pastor draws on Jeremiah 2:31-32, where God's people forget their Creator like a bride forgetting her wedding dress, and references the punishment of kings Nebuchadnezzar and Herod as warnings against pride and self-sufficiency.
The sermon emphasizes that forgetting God is not merely ingratitude but a form of betrayal, because His love for His people is immeasurable, as seen in Jeremiah 31:3, John 3:16, and Romans 8:38-39. The pastor dismantles the misconception that surrendering to God's lordship means a life of suffering, pointing to Jeremiah 29:11 and John 10:10 to affirm that God's intentions are always good and lead to a life of abundance.
The third and correct attitude is acceptance and submission to God's lordship. The pastor explains the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25 to show that believers are stewards, not true owners, of what they possess. Scriptures from Genesis, Psalms, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Haggai confirm that land, wealth, and even the ability to prosper all come from God.
The sermon closes with an encouragement to build an ever-deepening relationship with God through His Word and faith, making it progressively easier to entrust one's entire life to Him. The pastor stresses that God's lordship is not a chain but a source of true hope and freedom, a refuge in every storm of life, as described in Psalm 46:1-3 and Isaiah 49:13-16.