Me - He - Half
"Roughly 70 percent of Christian college students going off to college end up leaving their faith during their first year on campus" - Campus Renewal
I have seen so many people start this walk and for various reasons walk away from it, that is absolutely heart breaking and it is not the plan of God for your life. We believe the main reason this happens is a lack of the right foundation when we do go! I want to talk about the foundation with you today.
We have the choice to serve whatever God we choose in life! Some people serve an attitude others a culture and many even a liquid. We choose who we serve, but really they all boil down to 3 levels of commitment! We have all seen people be "all in" with something and a week later not even think about it ever again! Or we've been the person that will do it until we get distracted and then flip flop between a few things.
Some people serve themselves, kicking God off the throne. We will call this Me-Hovah.
Others serve God part time and when its comfortable or when they aren't distracted. We will call this Half-Hovah
But the call has always been to give Him all of us! We will call this Jehovah.
Jehovah is his rightful place and name let's talk about it!
Je - hovah
We find this in Luke 5:3 He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little distance from the shore. And He sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat. 4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon [Peter], “Put out into the deep water and lower your nets for a catch [of fish].”5 Simon replied, “Master…" I don't know what Jesus taught on that boat but from their first interaction we see Peter declaring Jesus as “master” and as we go further I don't want the word to scare you, I want it to excite as you come to know Him as master as well and all that goes along with it! He has never lost or failed, He is perfect. We tend to follow many things. We should want to follow as “master” the one that has mastered the whole world!
Continuing in verse 5 “we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but at Your word I will lower the nets.”
Peter was saying they fished ALL NIGHT long and I am sure that was exhausting! We need to see something here, what they were doing was outside of having a relationship and direction from Jesus! Many times we end up in this same exact spot when we are trying to do it on our own and in our own way! Maybe you have said it like this before “I tried but I am tired” if you are feeling like this may I offer that you might have been fishing without Jesus in your boat, and without His direction! This is a cross roads of serving Him as Lord! When we are tired and unsuccessful, will we be obedient to His voice in every area and circumstance?
Peter didn't listen to Jesus'' direction because it sounded good or because it made sense, He did it because he had an understanding of who was giving him direction.
When we were in control of our own lives we were in “chains” that were produced from our own desires and will, which often produced pain and disappointment. But when we serve Jesus as Lord everything changes! Jesus said it like this… My YOKE is easy and my BURDEN is light! What God asks us to do is easy, because it was designed by God to fit us! What the world places on us can never feel light because the world did not create our plan or purpose! When the world places stress and pain God promises to put an easy burden on our shoulders!
This is what it actually looks like!
Let’s talk about it like this, at the center of your heart is a “throne” and every day, hour and decision we determine who sits on this throne! There is always someone or something on this throne, it is never left unoccupied! The greatest and most desirable position is for Jesus to be sitting on the “throne” of your heart! This is when He is actually Jehovah or the Lord of our life! I aim to convince you to allow Him to be your Lord, every single day, hour and decision! Inside of His Lordship is every single thing we are looking for and every single thing that will bring us to a fullness of satisfaction! The benefits of having Him as the Lord of our life are endless!
Lordship is essential for relationship. But what exactly is it? Is it control? Is it slavery? No, Lordship is simply living inside of expectations, but at the same time outside of religion. Lordship is a give and take relationship, unlike religion that demands output only… serving Jesus is give and get! When we come to Jesus, we gain access to Him and His promises.
We need to determine that He will remain on the throne of our hearts every day, hour, minute and decision that we make. And if you slip back onto the throne, you need to have the wisdom to get up and allow Him to be that Lord of your life again. This is His end goal: a real and genuine relationship with His people.
If we can trust God with our eternity we should be able to trust Him with every other area of our life.
Sitting on the throne = Me-Hovah
This is the position that Jesus ultimately saved us from. I know this is not fun to hear but really why we were in the mess we were in or had the dissatisfaction we did was because we were acting as the God of our own life. We were sitting on the throne and doing what pleased us. I get it, it is much easier to live life by our feelings and desires but we all know the outcome was not what we intended for it to be. There are two main issues that we have when we fall into serving "Me-hovah" instead of Jehovah!
The first issue is commitment problems. We never actually settle down and pour our hearts into anything. We want to be wild and free, doing what we want, when we want.
“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord’, when you don’t do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). He explains that our response of obedience is not just important, but essential if our desire is to live a stable and blessed life.
The second issue is selfishness. They look at this relationship more of a “what can I get” instead of what can I give and WHO do I get? When it comes to serving the Lord its a great option to escape hell and have some amazing benefits laid before us but to be truthful, you will walk away and remove your access from the Lord if it’s only about “what can I get”. Serving God for heaven is still really only serving self, it is motivated by self preservation but will quickly disappear when something else is more interesting!
Half-Hovah = Sharing the throne
This is the mistake of “half-cheeking” the throne to your heart with Jesus. It is sharing the throne with Jesus to protect our own desires, interests and fears. In all honesty it is sharing the throne that you have claimed to have given to Jehovah. It is serving Him as half-hovah and it is dangerous! I get it, when you are scared, nervous or just selfish over an issue it’s easiest to take back control but my question is… will it produce the best outcome for yourself and your relationship with God? Sure it protects it right now but what does it do for our future and our present relationship with God?
Here is the reality of Half-hovah, if you live like this eventually you will slide to one side of the chair. Either all the way on it as your own god once again or off it to give God his rightful place as Lord. Sadly, most people slide all the way on because in this struggle we must realize that “If He is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all” - Pastor Joel Stockstill and if we are the lord we tend to take over everything. It is not worth serving Him with "half of your life" because He does not even accept that! He was speaking to a church in Revelation chapter 3 verses 15-16 and said it like this “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth." Jesus is not looking for half of your life when He sacrificed ALL of His for you!
The Key to serving Jehovah
We are all searching for a few basic things… For some of us its peace, others love, joy and on and on and on. Here is the simple truth by giving up our search in the things of the world, we can actually find what we have been looking for. It sounds crazy but it is the truth, through Jesus, He holds all of it!
What is sad to me and I am sure breaks God's heart is those who are around His kingdom and believe they are really doing well but never actually fully commit. This is what is boils down to, a full surrender and seeking of Jesus! Look at how Jesus said it His followers in Luke chapter 9 verses 23-25, Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?
We need to continue to check our heart in our prayer time where God can freely speak and reveal things to us! When we can do these things we will always be where God wants us to be and He will always be where He belongs, on the throne of our Heart! Jehovah!
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Uproar exists to accomplish three main things
1. Bring the message of salvation
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3. Empower this generation to bring the message to others.
Acts 17:6...“These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”
The Uproar is being held for Youth and Young Adults (12- 30)
Uproar is an annual FREE youth and young adult conference held in Elmira, NY. Every year 1000s of people from the North East gather to be encouraged to go home and be the Uproar in their schools and churches. We have seen God move in many powerful ways and have begun to see a change in this next generation. God has just started moving and Uproar is a catalyst to see this happen.
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