Who Is the Lord of Your Life?
Pastor Tan Thai · Sep 11, 2016
This sermon poses a central question: who truly controls a person's life? Drawing from James 4:13-15, the pastor identifies three attitudes toward God's lordship: rejection, neglect, or acceptance and submission. Believers are called to live with the awareness that everything they have is given by God, and they are merely faithful stewards.
Preached on the 15th anniversary of September 11, this sermon opens with the tragedy of that day as a reminder that the future is not in human hands. James 4:13-15 serves as the foundation for the central question: who is the lord of one's life? The pastor demonstrates that human life is brief and uncertain, like a mist or a passing shadow, drawing from Job 7:7, 14:1-2, Psalm 144:4, and Psalm 90:10, 12.
Three main attitudes toward God's lordship are presented. The first is outright rejection and resistance, warned against by Jesus in John 12:46-48. More common and more dangerous among believers is the attitude of neglect — planning, working, and pursuing wealth without any thought of God. Using Jeremiah 2:31-32, the pastor illustrates how Israel forgot God despite His deep love for them, and how being forgotten is deeply painful in any relationship.
Forgetting God leads to pride and arrogance, as seen in the stories of Nebuchadnezzar and Herod, both of whom faced divine judgment. The pastor also addresses the fear that surrendering to God's lordship means losing joy and pleasure, refuting this misunderstanding with Jeremiah 29:11 and John 10:10, affirming that God's will brings abundant life, not hardship.
The third attitude is accepting and submitting to God's lordship. The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 illustrates that believers are not owners but stewards of what God has entrusted to them. Multiple scriptures affirm God's absolute sovereignty over land, wealth, and human capability — from Genesis 2:15, Psalm 24:1, Leviticus 25:23, Deuteronomy 8:18, to Haggai 2:8.
The sermon closes with a call to cultivate a deepening relationship with God through Scripture, faith, and daily awareness of His grace. God's lordship is not a chain of slavery but a source of true hope and freedom, as affirmed in Psalm 46:1-3 and Isaiah 49:13-16.