From 9th to 12th of September, Pastor Jonathan Fontanarosa – Senior Leader of Edge Church International, a multi-campus church in Australia, United Kingdom and United States – came to preach at the E16 conference in SIBKL.
Pastor Fontanarosa is committed to mobilizing the church to serve the community and over the years has overseen many major community transformation projects.
Is Jesus the Lord of our whole heart?
Pastor Fontanarosa shared that Jesus is not only our Savior (Messiah), but He is also our Lord. Having Jesus as Lord means that He has supreme authority over all areas in our life including our no-go zones.
Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. (Acts 2:36)
If there are no-go zones in our heart for God, that means Jesus has not become the Lord over all our heart.
Yet, we are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind (Matthew 22:37). Is Jesus the Lord over your whole heart?
Do we have little Isaacs in our life?
Jesus wants us to give Him our Isaacs.
God asked Abraham to sacrifice his promised son Isaac.
“God says to Abraham, ‘Can I have access to the one no-go zone in your life?’ It’s not that God wants to take Isaac out of Abraham’s hand but He wants to take Isaac out of Abraham’s heart,” said Pastor Fontanarosa.
Jesus does not want to share His place with anyone. So, when Abraham handed his Isaac to Jesus, He took Abraham’s dream and multiplied it. Abraham becomes the Father of nations (Genesis 22).
It is when we give our little Isaacs to Jesus that He will multiply and bless our five fish and two loaves to abundance. Do you trust God enough to hand over your little Isaacs?
Is there anything that competes for our affection for Jesus?
While money is not evil, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10).
It is often said you can judge the affections of a man by seeing where he spent most of his money in. ‘For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’ (Matthew 6:21).
That is why the story of the young ruler meeting Jesus relates to many of us. The rich young ruler came to ask Jesus the way to eternal life. Jesus listed six commandments of the Mosaic law, which the ruler followed.
Yet, Jesus intentionally left out the remaining four commandments, which relate to the relationship with God. Jesus said to the ruler that although he had a moral life, he lacked a relationship with God (Mark 10:17-27).
“Did you think that Jesus really wanted the young man to sell everything? The issue is not the money in the man’s hand but the money in his heart.”
Anything that takes the throne of our heart besides Jesus is harmful to us. Only Jesus can be a good shepherd of our heart.
Are we the church to the people who do not know Jesus?
When we make Jesus as Lord over all our heart, including our no-go zones, the Holy Spirit does a greater work in transforming us into becoming more like Christ.
We become the church to the people around us, especially to those who never step into church.
“Wherever you go, you are the church. Imagine the impact if every one of you is an evangelist, pastor and leader.”
Nicky Gumble wrote in Bible in one Year:
The only Bible some people will read is your life.
Paul writes to the Corinthians, ‘Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it – not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiselled into stone, but carved into human lives – and we publish it (2 Corinthians 3:1–3, MSG).
Not everyone can or will read books – but everyone you encounter can, and will, read your life.
Are we inviting people to our lives and not just church?
Making Jesus Christ as our Lord also means making disciples like Jesus did.
“As you go through the gospel, note how much time Jesus spent with the crowd and the twelve disciples. We need to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19), not only gathering people.”
If 12 people made 12 disciples each and if we do this eight times, we would reach 5.2 billion people in the world.
Jesus said that He will build His Church (Matthew 16:18) while we are to go make disciples (Matthew 28:19).
“We are so busy building churches and running church programs that we are not building disciples.”
All of us can disciple someone. Discipleship is walking with a brother or sister-in-Christ in his or her journey of life. We may not hold all the answers to their problems. But we can show the love of Jesus to them. This is discipleship.
Are we withholding any no-go zones from Jesus to take lordship over our life?
Do not worry. Jesus says that He is the good shepherd (John 10:11). He has come to give us life and life to the full (John 10:10). We can trust Him. We can make Him Lord over all our heart and watch Him bring us to find green pasture (John 10:9). Let us trust in Jesus and give Him our no-go zones today.
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Note: All pictures are credited to SIBKL.
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