Who is the Boss?

WARNING: PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT YET HAVE THE SPRIRITUAL FORTITUDE FOR THE DEEPER THINGS OF GOD LEST YOU READ THIS AND FIND YOURSELF GREATLY OFFENDED.

Pastor Dan shared on Sunday that James, the half-brother of Jesus, who at one time would not believe that Jesus was anything more than his older brother came to not only fully believe in Jesus as God, but was willing to die for that belief.  How?  Why? As Pastor Dan pointed out the answer to that question is revealed in James 1:1, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  For James, Jesus was not just an elder brother nor was he only a Savior…no, he was his LORD—his master, his boss, the leader of his life.  What about for you and me?

When our son Seth was three years old, we were driving in the car and I told him to stop doing something.  He said, “I not have to listen to you. You not the boss of me.”  My head whipped around putting all of our lives in jeopardy as I drove and asked, “If I’m not the boss of you then who is?”  He looked at me, smiled and said, “Jesus is the only boss of me!”  (What do you do with that?  Ha!)

Well, Seth’s theology may be misdirected, but nevertheless I pray that he allows Jesus to be his only boss.  I believe that the Lenten season especially pushes us to let the Spirit probe our hearts and minds with that question, “Who is the boss of you?”  Are the circumstances of life in charge of you; do they dictate your mood and your response?  Is money your boss?  Is a busy calendar what determines what you will or will not do for Jesus?  Is food, drink or substance the thing giving you your marching orders?  Who or what is your boss?  As we follow Christ, he will lead us all to a fork in the road.  It is the place where we must decide if we will only have Jesus as the Forgiver of our sins or will we fall on our knees and cry, “Jesus, just as you have given your all for me, I give my all to you!”

Around the Church of the Nazarene we talk a lot about one’s personal moment of full surrender which is met by God’s gift of grace called entire sanctification.  However, it seems that often our personal sanctification is thrown out the window when we come together as a local church family.  For instance, I am sure this has not happened here, but in my past experience, I have watched people leave the church because they did not like the color of the walls or they said the music was too loud or that the music was not loud enough or that the pastor should not preach in jeans…I even had one family leave because they said one sermon did not have enough humor for them and another family got mad because they said a sermon had too much humor.  And then, and this is the most unsanctified statement I have ever heard, “I am leaving this church because I just don’t feel like I am being fed” (Just so you know my response to that is this: “Sunday worship ought not to be your main course, but your weekly dessert.  If you leave here hungry it is because you have let yourself get malnourished all week long”).  My point is, I have watched sanctified people act very unsanctified over things that frankly do not matter.  They leave the church family because their personal preferences are not being met.  

Who is the boss? That is not only a question we must ask as individuals, but also as a church family?  Who will be our boss? Jesus or the squeaky wheels who would find something to complain about if the Apostle Paul himself were leading us as a church family?  Jesus or those who threaten to take their tithe away if they don’t get what they want?  Jesus or those who say the issue is this, that or the other but never bother to ask if the real issue is a matter of sin in their own heart?  Who will be our boss as a church family? Jesus or someone or something else?

I warned you not read this!  When it comes to Jesus being the boss, it is offensive.  In John 6 Jesus lost all of his disciples but 12 because they said, “This is a hard teaching who can accept it?”  Everybody wants Jesus as their Savior, but few will receive Jesus as Lord.

BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT I HAVE HERE AT CFNAZ.  Even this week, I was again shown another example of how your heart as a church family beats to let Jesus be the boss around here.  When you voted for the Refocus process to begin that was really a corporate time of surrender that said, “Not my will, but Your will be done in our church family.”  Regularly, people who know me ask, “Chad, how is it really going in Canton?”  And I say, “Our church family has remained boldly, lovingly and radically faithful to their commitment to let Jesus change our direction and emphasis as a church family.”  Praise God and thank you!

As we move forward and we all begin to experience the tension of a change of direction and emphasis, I urge you to keep this question at the forefront of our collective heart and mind, “Who is our boss?”  If Jesus is our boss then, as hard as it may be, with his help, we can all set aside personal preferences in order to ask, “What does God want us to do so that the lost friends and family whose names we have put at the foot of the cross might know him as Savior and Lord?”