A Visit with the Joneses

Carol Jones Saint: Hello, hello there. What a special joy to have you coming in to visit with the Joneses at home sweet home. My name is Carol Jones Saint, and I welcome you into the living room as we share together in this time of devotions.

In just a few moments, Bert will be giving you a secret for living the Christian life. In these very serious days in which we're living, I think we need all the help that we can get. Come right in and be listening for that special secret that Bert will share with you.

Bert Jones: In this family devotional visit, I want to give to you a secret, a secret that means a great deal to me, a secret that the older I grow, the more important it is. A secret for living the Christian life, a secret for enjoying the Christian life, a secret for having perfect peace. I'm not going to tell you yet. You have to keep listening.

Carol Jones Saint: Keep listening.

Bert Jones: But I'm going to play a great hymn of worship right now, and it includes the secret. "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation." A great song of worship.

And what is the special secret for the Christian life? The secret for joy in living the Christian life? The secret for peace in living the Christian life? The secret for victory in living the Christian life?

Guest (Male): Tell us, Bert, what is that secret? What is the secret?

Bert Jones: Well, there were clues there. We kept saying, "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty one." We sang, "Lord, we praise you, Lord, we thank you, Lord, we love you, Lord, we praise you." The secret is simply this: the lordship of Jesus Christ in your life is the secret of joyful Christian living.

Guest (Male): The lordship of Jesus Christ. That's something, Bert, that most people really do not want to accept. They want to know the Lord, but to allow him to be Lord of their whole life, that's what makes the difference.

Bert Jones: That's what makes the difference. Indeed, the older I become, the more I realize that this is the dividing line between a victorious life and one that is rather disgruntled and not a very happy Christian life. The victory comes, the peace comes, the joy comes when you and I say, "Jesus Christ shall be Lord. He shall be Lord of my life. He shall be my Lord, my ruler, my master."

The word "Lord" is a very interesting one as used in the word of God. I looked it up in a Bible dictionary and I found that the word "Lord," as it is used in the New Testament particularly, refers to a master or ruler. It's actually an ancient name for deity. And the word "Lord" is the Christian designation of Jesus the Messiah.

So, when we say "Lord," we're giving this unique title of Lord, master, ruler, king of my life to God and to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is important for you and me to come to the place where we will say, "Lord." It is then that we have peace. It is then that we have joy in living the Christian life when we say, "Lord, be the Lord of my life."

Those words and that music by Haldor Lillenas express exactly what I mean when I'm talking about the lordship that becomes the secret of Christian living. It is to say, "Lord, thou shalt be the king, the Lord, the ruler of everything in my life."

Guest (Male): The verse I just sang said, "I yield control of my body and soul." In other words, everything that is mine—mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually—all of it is yielded to his control.

Bert Jones: That's what we have to do if we want the lordship of Jesus Christ in our life. I'm thinking of the day we call Palm Sunday. Oh, those people who were entering the city of Jerusalem that day. They thought they wanted him to be Lord and king. And they said, "Let's crown him king of Jerusalem today."

But they didn't want the kind of a king he came to be. They wanted a king who met their physical needs, who healed them when they needed healing, who fed them when they were hungry in the desert. But they did not mean to allow him to rule their lives. I would impress upon you the secret of saying, "all of my life shall be yielded to thee."

On the day they crucified Jesus, they in mockery put a sign above the cross that said, "King. This is Jesus, the king of the Jews." They called him king, but they didn't make him king. They called him king, but they didn't allow him to be their ruler of their lives.

How many in the church today are like that? Outward manifestations that would say we call him king. We read in 2nd Timothy the words that there will be a day coming in the last days that people will have a form of godliness but will deny the power thereof. And we're certainly living in a day like that.

He wants to be king and Lord and ruler of your life. He died to be your Savior, and he lives to be your Lord. That's the good news of the gospel. A famous historian has said that for all of its history, Britain has wanted a king just so the king would be in name only. But the British really want to rule themselves, and that's why they have a Prime Minister who really runs things.

That's an interesting comment, isn't it? A very interesting comment. And it's a good bit like a lot of people who glibly say, "Oh yes, I want Jesus to be king of my life," but they want to run their lives themselves.

Guest (Male): How true, Bert. That's what makes the difference.

Bert Jones: True lordship, true kingship is when you say, "not I but Christ." This is the secret of real Christian living. It's the secret of joyful Christian living. It's the secret of submission to his will. It's the secret of real peace.

It's the secret I found when one day the doctor came and said, "Bert, you have three kinds of thyroid cancer." It wasn't the traumatic event for me that it is for some people because long years before, I had surrendered my life and all that could happen to me to the lordship of Jesus Christ. And so what a secret it is when in faith-believing and actively trusting, you can be ever surrendered to the perfect will of God.

Guest (Male): And it was my secret, Bert, whenever the doctor came and said, "You have a brain tumor. And when we operate and remove that brain tumor, it may leave you forever crippled. It may leave you not able to speak. It may leave you with a very definite handicap. You may always be in a wheelchair." But it was my secret, too, for being surrendered to be willing to accept whatever the Lord would send to me.

Bert Jones: You did not just surrender when suddenly you heard the news you had a brain tumor. I didn't just surrender when suddenly the doctor came out and began talking to me about the problems involved with cancer. Peace came because long years before, I had said that big yes to Jesus Christ.

Guest (Male): You were then committed. I was committed.

Bert Jones: And that big yes from long years before said Jesus Christ is Lord of all. He's Lord of all. Today there are some who talk a great deal about him as Savior, but they fail to let him be Lord and King. They'll say, "Oh yes, I'm a born-again Christian, but I'm running my own life. Oh yes, I'll let him be my Savior. He can forgive the past. But I'm not going to let him give me victory right now."

This is the fallacy of a great deal of popular preaching. The fallacy of a great deal of popular born-againism these days. The fallacy of saying, "I will call him my Savior, but I will run life myself." And so that leads me to ask: as we're talking about the lordship of Jesus Christ, who is king of your life? As we ask about it, as we talk about it, it goes down to a very simple question. Who rules you?

Who is your ruler? Who is your Lord? Who is your master? Long years ago, the great missionary Hudson Taylor put it well when he said, "Jesus Christ is either Lord of all or he is not Lord at all." Do you get that? You can't have him be a little bit of a Lord and still be a Lord. To be Lord is to be Lord of all or not Lord at all. He is either King of everything or he is King of nothing.

Guest (Male): But Bert, somehow we're saying, "Yes, Lord, you can be Lord of all as long as you give me everything. And as long as you give me perfect health, as long as you make me rich, you can be Lord of it all." But that isn't what it's saying, is it?

Bert Jones: No, it says Lord. It means that even if the hard times come and the times of suffering and disappointment and heartache and pain, financial disaster, you are still Lord of all. So, who rules you? Do you rule you? Does the Lord rule you? Does your family rule you? Does your work rule you?

Are you crowd-led or Christ-led in this day when so many people say, "Well, I had to do it because my peers forced me into it"? Are you fashion-led or faith-led? Are you led by the opinions of others? Are you led by the customs or the mores of the group in which you live? Are you led by your possessions, your savings, your things, your houses, your lands, yourself, led by the big "I"?

Who rules you? Ask yourself the question. Is he the King of your life? You see, to crown Christ King involves taking off your crown that says, "I'll do what I please," your crown that says, "I've got to be me," your crown that says, "I'll do my own thing." And instead, you must crown Christ the King of your life instead of yourself.

Moreover, to crown Christ King does not only involve taking off your crown, but it involves letting him be the King. As letting him be the Lord and the ruler of life, you have new plans and new habits of life and a new lifestyle, if need be, and new recreations and new controls and new desires and new aims and new purposes and a new life that says, "Lord, I'm willing to live for thee."

The late Vance Havner, who wrote with such insight to our generation of church members and professing Christians, he noticed the verse of Scripture in Acts 10:14 where, when Peter was given the great vision from the Lord, Peter said, "Not so, Lord. Not so, Lord." Vance Havner comments, "What an amazing contradiction. If Christ is Lord, we cannot say, 'Not so, Lord,' as Peter said."

We can say it, of course, with our lips, for we can call him Lord, Lord, and not do what he says. But when we do, we deny his lordship. We deny his control of our lives. We cannot truthfully say, "Not so," and still call him Lord. Instead, we must say, "Have thine own way, Lord, hold o'er my being absolute sway." Would you have him be Lord? Then make this your prayer: "Lord, hold o'er my being absolute sway."

Carol Jones Saint: What a very special joy it has been to have you visiting at home sweet home and to share this special time of family devotions with all of us. We pray that the thoughts that we have shared, the songs we have sung, the Scripture that has been given, all will be used by the Holy Spirit to help each one of us in our Christian walk.

As we have been discussing the fact of the lordship of Jesus Christ, I was thinking of those verses found in Matthew 7, near the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 7:21 where Jesus said, "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." Oh, how important for us to remember that he truly has to be Lord in actions and in deeds and not in words.

Remember that you can be a special blessing to us if you would take time to write. The mailing address is: A Visit with the Joneses, Post Office Box 575, Erie, Pennsylvania, and the zip code 16512. Our email address is visitjoneses@aol.com. Don't forget, if you're making a check to help in the expenses of the ministry, a check should be written to the legal name: A Visit with the Joneses.

As we go, let's join together in singing the song that the trio was singing just a few moments ago, "Have Thine Own Way, Lord, Have Thine Own Way," and make it be the prayer of your life. Goodbye.