Go, Yankees! Go Yankees. It’s a rough time. It’s a humbling time. It’s okay. We all need it, right? Okay. All right. Today I’m going old school. I’m using this microphone. It’s a good thing. Before I start, Holly, are you here? Holly b and Jessenia, I heard the Lord say Hazel will be glued to your family.

And as she grows, glued to different places in her life. And she will draw people together and just be the cement, the glue that keeps them together. And it was weird. He gave me these snapshots of her as a little girl, older, like in high school, and then much older, but always glue. Always pulling together, whatever that means to you.

Check it with your pastors in case it was not God. You never know, right?

Yes, Pastor Jonathan, I really appreciate you getting these flowers for me. This is nice. Do I have to stand over here the whole time? Are you going to bring them over? No, they’re not going over there. All right, well, well, we tried, we tried. Okay. So, let’s start with the word. What do you think? Maybe prayer first.

You never know, God help. Amen. And all God’s people who need help said amen. All right. There’s one guy in the back that didn’t say amen. He needs the most help.

Revelation chapter 17, verse 14 says, “These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them.” Yeah. Come on now. Let’s get bad today, for he is Lord of lords, King of kings, and those who are with him. Okay, there’s a call to action there. Who’s with him? Oh, that was weak. That’s okay. You were at least giving me your true heart.

Oh, it’s the bad Bob up here today. That’s okay. We’re gonna have a wedding later. And those who are with him, well, that’s good. Are called, chosen, and faithful. Yeah. What a scripture. It’s interesting. Pastor Liz didn’t realize what God had given me earlier this week when she got up here and made a call, which nobody really answered.

But you still have time. You still have time. And it was interesting because he spoke to me, and he said, “Bob, there’s people being drawn on Sunday who I have drawn. They think they came for their own reasons.” And by the way, he continued, “Everybody has their own reason. Sometimes you feel like obligation.

Sometimes you feel you come to the house of the Lord just because it was the right thing to do. Sometimes it’s just, well, there’s a wedding today, so I have to be here. Welcome visitors. It’s too bad you got me today. But the reality is that God called you to this place. Now, whether or not you acknowledge that, that’s your issue, whether or not you understand that, that’s a big issue, and whether or not you respond to that is an issue that has ramifications on your eternal life and my eternal life.

Are you with me on this? Okay, so we are teaching in this overcoming church. I don’t put stuff up there. Sorry about that. Maybe you can put like Pastor Kelly’s notes up there or something. Yeah. We’re teaching on the overcoming church and the lordship of God. Let me just say it emphatically: Jesus is Lord. I said, Jesus is Lord.

And yeah, yeah, we forget this. We get all whacked out about so much stuff in life—personal stuff, political garbage. I almost had a bad word. You know, things that are happening in our neighborhoods and things that are happening in our lives, and we totally forget that Jesus is Lord. He holds the entire universe in his hand, and no one or nothing can take that from him.

Yeah. And we forget this. We forget that we’re serving God himself. We can really, really, really lose sight of this because we want to bring God into this little tiny box that fits really well in our back pocket, that we can take out now and then and unwrap him when we need him and go, “Go ahead, God, play some tricks for me.

Do some tricks, work some miracles for me.” And then we can tidy him up and put him in our back pocket and go on our merry way, not realizing that he is Lord. I said, Jesus is Lord. Now, what I’ve come to realize is that very few people understand what’s happening. When you say, “Jesus is Lord,” I have just barely scratched the surface of what that is, and I’ve studied it a long time.

We could bore you all day with 10,000 scriptures about Jesus as Lord. I’m going to talk to you today about this and that. The first thing I do is always ask myself, why? Why would we discuss this? And I hope we’re having some kind of a discussion. I hope that some of the things I’m saying are actually triggering something in your soul.

So you start thinking, “Wow, is he really Lord for me? Do I really think of him as Lord?” So why would we discuss this? Because until we understand who he is as Lord of all, we will never attempt—now listen, catch this—to receive him as Lord in our lives. You know that you receive Jesus as your Savior.

Yes, some of you do. That’s good. We’ll have an altar call later and give you another chance. We receive him as Savior. We receive Holy Spirit and His infilling. But do you know you must receive the Lord God as Lord? Oh, man, I just brought you to the deep end of the swimming pool. Now I’m going to drown.

Okay, there’s a major difference. We roll that off our tongues all the time, “He’s my Lord and Savior.” Sure, when you start to understand what the Lord really means, what he really is, you won’t be saying that too often unless you bring yourself to a place where you’re willing to receive him into your own life as Lord. This isn’t designed for children.

This whole overcoming church thing we’re doing—this, you know, taking on the life of God, being alive and remaining when he returns—that’s not for babies. If you want that, you should find a church where they can call you and love on you and kiss you and tell you you’re so good all the time and then let you go out those doors and live the next seven days any way you like.

How to make enemies and influence people.

Hey, I’m stuck preaching this. I don’t like it either. It’s His word. Yeah, He’s Lord. All right. You know, the Bible tells us that the teacher has to be first partaker. You know what kind of hell I’ve gone through trying to understand this in my own life? You know how many times I’m before God saying, “I don’t want to do this one.”

All right, let’s go back.

The book of Revelation, which we are toying around with, is, in fact, the revelation of Jesus the Lord. Did you hear what I said? It’s a revelation. A lot of Christians have the wrong idea about revelation. They think that revelation is something I got that nobody else ever got. In reality, revelation, which I believe is going to happen to some in this room today, is an understanding personally of who he is in my life, who he is in life in general, and who he is as the eternal God. It’s personal revelation. It’s not like, “Oh, I got something nobody else ever taught.” That’s baloney. That’s not revelation. That’s called head knowledge that you want to share with somebody just to prove that you’re so good. But a real revelation comes when God starts to speak to your life and he starts to grip your heart.

And yeah, I’d love it to be just a nice emotional thing that happens, poof, we’re done. But it’s a day-by-day walk with him. That’s great and awesome, by the way. It’s not horrible and miserable, but it’s day by day coming into that understanding of who he is in my life and maybe, just maybe, a glimpse of who you are in his life.

Okay, we’ll go back to my notes.

Who is the Lord? When I first started asking the Lord about this, he said to me this interesting statement: “Lamb to Lord.” I’m like, “What?” He’s like, “That’s how I introduce myself in the Bible. I go from Lamb to Lord.” So there are a lot of names and a lot of identification of the Lord in the Bible.

One of them is actually very much at the end of the Bible. In Revelation 13:8, it says that he was the Lamb, the sacrifice made before the foundation of the earth. Yeah. Think about this: before you were, he is. That puts us in perspective because we always want to go to the front of the line, including in front of him. And meanwhile, before you were a twinkle in your daddy’s eye, he died for you. Yeah. That’s the Lamb. That’s the revelation of the Lamb in our life. He goes on in the Bible to then further reveal himself. He goes from Lamb to God early in the scriptures, early in Genesis. All the way through the Bible, we see God, the creator, the source. Listen to me. The ultimate power, ownership. I did say ownership. Yeah. So many people forget that you were bought with a price, paid for in full by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and that he owns you, and you are not your own. That puts it in a whole different perspective, because I don’t know about you, but most of my life, I own it. Or at least I think I do.

So then he goes on in his word, and he reveals himself as Savior and Redeemer, right? He redeemed you back from destruction and danger. He rescues our life. In coordination with that, he reveals himself. This is the part of how God reveals himself from Lamb to Lord. Okay, so you have a picture of what I’m talking about here.

So after Savior, he talks to us about him being a deliverer, one who rescues you, who actually rescues you out of a place you cannot rescue yourself. That’s good news. I don’t know about you, but I need Jesus, just like I did 50 years ago today to deliver my life and rescue me out of places I cannot deliver myself. Come on. Yeah, you know it. You know it. If you know nothing else, you know this in your life. I don’t have to point it out to you. You just start thinking a little, “Oh, yeah, that thing. Oh, yeah, this.” See, we all think we walk through those doors, and because we’re the saints of God, we’re all holy, and we have no need of any more rescuing. You are holy like your Father in heaven, but you do need rescuing every single day.

And nobody’s exempt.

In our church, we like to set up hierarchies of people who are more holy. God, looking down from heaven, goes, “Well, they all look about the same to me from this point of view.” So I want you to hear that again. He’s a deliverer. He reveals himself as a deliverer, going from Lamb to Lord, and every one of us, every single one of us, need a deliverer in our lives because we are unable to do it ourselves.

And then he goes on and he reveals himself as a shepherd. Yeah, he’s a guide. He tends to us. He guards us. What a great place. What a wonderful place. Because there are places, even though we try to train ourselves to guard our lives, to keep our lives, and we do our best, somewhere along the line, you’re going to need Jesus to keep your life, to tend to your life when no one else could care for your soul. He is there, and every person that’s experienced this at some point in time in their life understands what it is to have a shepherd in your life, one that cares so totally for you, that a care for you, even when you stop caring for yourself. Oh.He reveals himself as Prince. Yes, Prince of Peace. Princes are subject to a monarch, by the way. They have places that they’re subject to. And he came. He was okay with coming down from heaven, making himself a little lower than the angels, taking on the form of a man, and still as the form of a man being the Prince of Peace here on earth, as he is today in our lives.

He reveals himself as King. We hear this in the Psalms and pretty much everywhere else. A king is a monarch over a territory. That means he has rule over that place. Hopefully he will have rule over our hearts. That would be a good thing. I hope we all get there someday. I know there are areas where we each have places that we submit to him and say, “Okay, God, be the King of my life in this area.” But I’m telling you this by the Spirit of God—there will come a time when he will require that he be king over every area of your life. And you can fight it; you can come easy, or you can come hard. But once you come into that revelation, then you’ll understand what a king really is in your life, how you can trust him with your life.

See, he’s not like a king, like the kings we hear about on earth or study through history. They are horrible examples of a king—they’re selfish, they’re for their own betterment, their own good, their own power. But the King in heaven, King Jesus, is there for you. Think about it.

And finally, although this isn’t the end of my little speech here about this, we’re going from Lamb to Lord. And finally, I want to talk about Lord. That’s someone having power, an authority, yes, an influence. What a great thing when God becomes your Lord—he has influence in your life. We all need his influence in our life. I don’t know about you. He’s a master. We cannot understand this; this is a hard thing in our culture. When we talk about a master, a ruler, it has all these horrible connotations associated with it. And meanwhile, that’s because man corrupted what God first intended and turned it into something selfish for his own betterment.

Oh wow, it’s so great to have that kind of master. The Old Testament talks to us a little bit about masters and about slaves when they didn’t want to be—oh yeah, he just said the slave word. Oh, boy. That’s another trigger word. Yes. In the Old Testament, when a slave so loved—did you hear this? You heard this in prophecy today—when a slave so loved their master, they decided they would not go away from him. They bound themselves to that master, even though they could have left.

That’s because they touched the love of the Lord. That’s because they touched it. And us—that’s me. When we actually reach in and get a little touch, a little experience with the love of God as Lord of our lives, something changes. Our hearts change. And this is not just an emotional thing. This is a reality. Things start to change in your life. You refuse to live your life for your own self; you want to live it for your master, your Lord God Almighty. What a transformation! Does it happen instantly just because I say God’s my Lord? I don’t think so. I think there’s a process, but I think it’s a process that requires us to get on that train track and get going.

It’s interesting in the Bible, because of all the major words in the Bible, “Lord” is used the most. I’m not saying “the” and “and”—those are pretty high up there, okay.

Yeah, “Lord” is used almost 8,000 times in the Bible, depending on the translation you’re using. If you’re using one of those weird translations, it might be 12, I don’t know, but with the real translations, yeah, it’s going to be somewhere between 7 and 8,000 times. Imagine God speaking to us through the Bible, because, you know, the entire Bible is a revelation of himself to us.

Imagine God talking about himself as Lord the most in the Bible, more than anything else. And we miss that. We can say it, we go, “Lord,” we go—every time when you start reading your Bible, notice how many times “Lord” comes up, over and over and over again, because I believe God wanted to really insert that into our minds, our hearts.

So we got the picture that he’s Lord Almighty. That’s—well, that’s Satan, you know, and that’s translated in many ways. Yahweh, Adonai, Elohim. There’s a ton of places. “I am that I am.” When you run out of words for who Lord is, God says, “Tell them I am that I am. I am.” He doesn’t have to explain himself a whole lot more.

You know, when you explain yourself, you have to go, “Well, I’m Bob, I’m a grateful…” No, no. “Yeah, I do this. People call me pastor sometimes. I don’t know why.” But you have to explain kind of who you are to somebody to get any relevance. God says, “I am that I am. You figure it out.” Because he knows who he is. Half the people in the world don’t know who they are.

See, there’s such a security in Lord. Check it out. I’m with the Lord. I’m with him. And we got all these weird little things that come into our lives, bring fear and torment. We’re not sure. “I don’t know who I am. I don’t even know what I am half the time.”

Figure it out. He is Lord. He is I AM. There’s none like him. There’s none like him in all the universe. And the universe is only part of what we think we know. Beyond that is still God, the Lord.

Revelation two and three says, “Him who holds the seven stars in his right hand.” This is—this is God. This is God talking about God, who he is. Lord. It’s him who holds the seven stars in his right hand. Let me see you do that. It’s him who is the first and the last who died and came to life again.Check that one out on your off days.

It’s him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. Him who is holy and true and who holds the keys of David. What he opens, no man can shut, and what he shuts, no man can open. Praise God for that. Praise God! You know why? Because he shut death, hell, and sin from your life and my life, and no man can open that door.

You are God’s forever. You belong to him. He’s your daddy, and nobody or nothing is ever going to change that in your life. That’s our powerful God. He’s unwilling to let you go, even to yourself. That’s why he’s here, bugging the heck out of you today.

And then there’s Jesus. Philippians 2:9-11 says, listen to this: “Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven” — think about it — “and those on earth and those under the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.” That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father in heaven. You want to glorify your Father in heaven today? Jesus Christ is Lord. I said, Jesus Christ is Lord. Don’t turn to your neighbor, turn to your God and confess, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” Even if I don’t believe it in my life, “Father, Jesus Christ is Lord.” Even if I don’t live it all the way, Jesus Christ is Lord.

Even Jesus identifies himself in John 13:13. He says, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say so, for I am.” Jesus identified himself as Lord. That’s crazy. We have a hard time identifying ourselves as Christians in a lot of circles. “Well, you know, I’m kind of, kind of a Christian, sort of, on Sunday, when I’m in this little room.” Yeah. The Bible describes him as Lord of healing, the Lord of the Sabbath, the Lord of forgiveness, the Lord of sight. I’m believing for you, God, the Lord of living and the Lord of the dead. He’s Lord Jesus.

It’s important to remember that there are many lords. Remember, we just read this out of Revelation 17. He said, “Lord of Lords.” Almost every translation that I could find does say he is the Lord (capital L), referring to him, of lords (small l). By the way, the word’s the same; it’s not like it’s a different word. But it’s interesting that there’s a difference between “Lord” — how do I say this? — and “lords.” Yeah.

Most of the time when we’re talking about “lord,” it’s us and not him.

That’s the conclusion I came to this week. Just, you know, looking over my life, I went, “Oh, I guess I’m the little lord.”

The book of Job, starting at Job 38 — I won’t read it to you.

Is God himself, the Lord, questioning Job now? You know, Job was a pretty decent guy. Apparently up in heaven when the devil showed up, wherever that was or however that happened, he says, “Have you…” You know, “I’ve been here hanging out,” and God says — he rats out Job — “Have you considered Job? He’s perfect. Perfect.”

Imagine if he said that about you. I’m sure once in a while, God up in heaven said, “Star, you’ve seen Star? She’s perfect.” “See Mel? Mel? He’s perfect.” It’s hard, right? You don’t… everything, you don’t identify with some scriptures at all. I have never thought that about me, but that’s a whole different thing because I live with Cindy, and my wife reminds me. And I give her a lot of reasons to remind me. But the reality is, God from heaven is going, “Perfect.” Later on in the scriptures here in Job, at the end of Job, or near the end of Job, he starts to talk to Job like this: “Where were you when I formed everything? Who were you, big guy?”

“Oh, you know all sorts of stuff.” He proved it. Job was awesome — full of pride, but awesome. You know, it may have been the first book ever written in the Bible in reality. And Job, you know this guy, he had it going scripturally. He had it going with the principles of God. You know, his buddies, they did really well just shutting up and being quiet for seven days. And then they opened their mouths and proved their, you know, pride. And then Job responds back in his pride, just like us. Just like us. Just like me. “I got that, God. I’ve read through that Bible a bunch of times. I got it down. I can teach it, I can preach it, I can prophesy it.”

And then he says, “Where were you, Bob, when I formed the heavens, when I laid the foundations of the earth? How do you figure into all this? How do you become lord all of a sudden, little lord? Bob.”

Am I being too real for you guys today? Amen. I’m sorry. We’re going to have a nice wedding after this. You know, I’m going to just preach a little longer so you don’t have to wait so long. You know what I mean? And then, you know, there’ll be a line forming at my seat over there for forgiveness.

It’s great.

Recognizing his lordship will begin to give us an understanding. Oh man. Now we’re talking really bad stuff, the fear of the Lord.

Now, I’m not going to unpack all of that for you, but I know Psalms 34:9 says, “Oh, fear of the Lord, you his saints,” that you know saints aren’t those people flopping around up in heaven, you know, it’s different, okay? “Oh, fear the Lord, oh you saints, for those who fear him have no lack.” Think about this. Connect the fear of the Lord with knowing him as the Lord, and when you do, you have no lack. You don’t have a need for anything. Think about it. He goes on in Psalms 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” You’re all familiar with that. I’m saying to you that because of the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, you’ll begin to understand him as Lord.Check that one out on your off days.

It’s him who has the sharp, double-edged sword, him who is holy and true, and who holds the keys of David. What he opens, no man can shut, and what he shuts, no man can open. Praise God for that. Praise God! You know why? Because he shut death, hell, and sin from your life and my life, and no man can open that door.

You are God’s forever. You belong to him. He’s your daddy, and nobody or nothing is ever going to change that in your life. That’s our powerful God. He’s unwilling to let you go, even to yourself. That’s why he’s here, bugging the heck out of you today.

And then there’s Jesus. Philippians 2:9-11 says, listen to this: “Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.” Not some tongues, but every tongue should confess.

Every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father in heaven. Do you want to glorify your Father in heaven today? Jesus Christ is Lord. Turn to your God and confess, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” Even if I don’t fully live it out, Jesus Christ is Lord.

Even Jesus identifies himself in John 13:13. He says, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for I am.” Jesus identified himself as Lord. We often hesitate to identify ourselves as Christians in many circles. The Bible describes him as the Lord of healing, the Lord of the Sabbath, the Lord of forgiveness, the Lord of sight, the Lord of the living, and the Lord of the dead. He is Lord Jesus.

It’s important to remember that there are many lords, but Revelation 17 calls him “Lord of Lords.” Almost every translation refers to him as the Lord (capital L) of lords (small l). There’s a difference between Lord and lords.

Most of the time when we’re talking about lord, it’s us, not him.

That’s the conclusion I came to this week, looking over my life—I’m the little lord.

In the book of Job, starting in chapter 38, God himself, the Lord, questions Job. Job was a decent guy. When the devil showed up, God asked, “Have you considered Job? He’s perfect.” Imagine if he said that about you. Up in heaven, maybe he says, “Have you seen Star? She’s perfect. See Mel? He’s perfect.” It’s hard to relate, right? We often don’t feel perfect. But in heaven, God called Job perfect.

Later, in Job, God questions Job: “Where were you when I formed everything? Who were you, big guy? Oh, you know all sorts of stuff?” Job was full of pride, but he was awesome. Job had a handle on the principles of God. His friends questioned him, and they did well being silent for seven days. But when they spoke, their pride showed, and Job responded with his own pride. Just like us.

Then God says, “Where were you, Bob, when I formed the heavens, when I laid the foundations of the earth? How do you figure into all this? How did you become lord, all of a sudden—little lord, Bob?”

Recognizing his lordship will give us an understanding of the fear of the Lord. Psalm 34:9 says, “O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack.” Connect the fear of the Lord with knowing him as Lord, and when you do, you lack nothing. Psalm 9:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Because of the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, you’ll begin to understand him as Lord.

In other words, you have to bring yourself before him. No altar call will do this for you. There’s an altar in your heart that requires you to get before him, tear down idols, and say, “Lord, I need wisdom, and I need the fear of God.” Don’t coast through life, forgetting he’s Lord. Don’t live a comfortable Christian life, doing some good things, some bad things, and then go to heaven. He’s Lord in the earth.

We want to see the power and anointing of God, to see miracles, signs, and wonders, and that comes because he’s Lord in our lives.

So the question is: Is Jesus our Lord? This is a question only you can answer for yourself. This isn’t a corporate question—not today, anyway. Someday it will be because I believe Jesus is coming back for a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, an overcoming church that understands he is Lord. But before it becomes a corporate question, each of us must come to the understanding and acceptance of him as Lord, individually.

If he’s not Lord of my life, I can’t blame anyone else.

I’d like to blame Mike Flores. Or maybe Pastor Jonathan, but when he comes back, God won’t care who I blamed. He’ll only wonder if I made him Lord of my life.

Matthew 7:22 says, “Many will say, ‘Lord, Lord, haven’t we done good things? Didn’t we prophesy, perform miracles?'” But he will say, “Depart from me, for I never knew you.” They never made him Lord. Once you make him Lord, you’re not checking boxes like, “I prophesied well” or “I performed miracles.” They’ll say, “Lord, Lord, we did all these things,” but he’ll say, “I never knew you.”

There was no intimacy, no knowing him as Lord. When you truly know him, even though you may be afraid or imperfect, you’ll go to him. “Where do I go, Lord?”

Who’s going to fix this? Am I going to fix it myself—little lord, Bob?

There are things in life designed for diversions, distractions. Life is full of things competing for our attention. They keep us from recognizing and receiving him as Lord. These distractions aim to keep you unfaithful.

In Revelation 17, he is the King of kings and Lord of lords, and those with him are called, chosen, and faithful.

Where are you today?

Do you feel called here today?

I know the Lord has called people here today.

If you confess him before man, he will confess you before God. I give you one last opportunity to declare that Jesus Christ died for your sins, that he was buried, was raised on the third day, and is now in heaven praying for you and me. The Bible tells us in Romans that if we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that he died, was resurrected, and is Lord of our lives, we will be saved.Now, it sounds too easy because the world and its systems make you jump through all sorts of hoops with promises of safety.

That you’ll get something good, but then it doesn’t deliver on that promise.

But God’s promise is true. I’m looking around this room, seeing dozens of people who believed in their heart and confessed Jesus openly. Their whole lives were changed, and the world can’t figure it out. People ask, “What happened to that person?”

So you have an opportunity today.

The gospel is the good news. If you want to know Jesus as your Savior, I’m giving you an opportunity. You can raise your hand, look around, and maybe feel embarrassed for a moment, but it will change your life.

Amen. So, Lord, you’ve heard this message today. I pray that it brought honor to you. Father, we’ve all heard your call today, and we are responsible for it. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to respond to you.

This week, as we wrestle with this word that you are Lord, I pray that you help us. Draw us close to your heart, Father, and let your love overshadow us.

As little lords, we bow our hearts before you, to the Lord Jesus Christ.