City Life Starter

1. The Word: Luke 6:46-48

⁴⁶ “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? ⁴⁷ Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: ⁴⁸ He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. ⁴⁹ But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell.  And the ruin of that house was great.”

1. Reflection Questions:

1. Have you stopped to contemplate what it means to make Jesus Christ Lord of your life?  How does this differ from Jesus as savior of your life?
2. How does obedience signify Lordship?

Bumper stickers are an interesting way to convey opinions, political stances, and religious viewpoints to the rest of the world.  Some stickers are intended to be serious in nature, while other are intended to be humorous.  Still others evolve from serious to humorous over time (those “Vote For…” stickers for losing candidates from 2-3 elections past come to mind).  And some are just unintentionally funny (such as those patriotic “Keep America First” type stickers on foreign luxury cars like Mercedes and BMWs).

As a young man in the early 80s, I remember seeing a popular bumper sticker which read, “God is my Co-Pilot.”  Even then, I remember thinking there was something strange about that saying.  It wasn’t the attempt to communicate one’s theology via back bumper—I myself had “In case of rapture, this vehicle will be abandoned” emblazoned across the lower right corner of the back window of a dilapidated 1972 Chevy Impala, the abandonment of which should have startled no one, rapture or no. Instead, it was the sentiment conveyed.  If God was my co-pilot, then His job was to sit idly by while I flew the plane of my life, only getting involved when I ran into trouble or needed a break from steering things. Unfortunately, much of my early Christian life conveyed this message far more loudly and clearly than any bumper sticker.  While God was great for salvation and any major crises in my life (please, God, heal my acne before Saturday night!!), the relationship was inordinately one-sided.  I wanted God as my savior, protector, and provider, but I did little in the way of acknowledging Him as Lord beyond lip-service.  The missing element in my life was obedience to His word.

In Luke 6, Jesus delivers a series of messages beginning with The Beatitudes.  His audience included His disciples, along with throngs of people who came to hear Him speak and many who sought healing from Him.  Toward the end, He defined lordship for the crowd by contrasting two men and their houses.  Please allow me to paraphrase His words.  The man who hears (in our case “reads”) the word of God and does what it says is like a man who digs down to build a solid site-fixed home on a firm, level foundation.  The man who hears (again, “reads”) God’s word and does not do what it says is like a man who opts to purchase manufactured housing (what we used to call a trailer house), and just park it wherever convenient.  When the flood rose (note Jesus does not say if; He says when–the takeaway here is that disaster of some kind WILL come), the house built on a solid foundation was able to withstand, and the house sitting on no foundation was utterly destroyed.  The difference? One man had his house (his life, really) anchored to the foundation of obedience to God’s word; the other heard the word, but it did not change his life.  He continued to pilot his own life, until it was swept away by the flood waters. The point is this: God is not our “co-pilot,” content to just let us fly until crisis occurs.  In short, He is Lord of all, or He is not Lord AT ALL.

Prayer

“Heavenly Father, the pilot’s seat is one in which we are unqualified to sit.  You are the Master Pilot. You have given us Your Word, our operator’s manual, and the most important lesson is that we are wholly incapable of running our own lives.   Please shed light on those areas of our lives where we are operating as “hearers” of Your word only.  Embolden and empower us to be “doers” of Your word, so that we might live wholly in obedience to You. Our desire is that You are not just Lord in name only, but that we may evict those idols that are functioning in lordship, so that You can take Your proper place in our lives.  We ask this in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.  Amen.”