Good morning and welcome to all those listening on KJJR. I understand that a computer malfunction at the station interrupted the broadcast of our worship service last Sunday. If you missed it I encourage you to pick up the message on our website at clcwhitefish.org. 

 

We are in a sermon series called Life’s Healing Choices based on the Beatitudes of Jesus. We are able to make these healing choices because God first made a choice for us. While we were dead in our sins, he made us alive. He empowered us to face up to the hurts, hang-ups, and habits that are controlling our lives and turn to him for help. Let’s review what we’ve learned…

 

The 1^st healing choice is the reality choice. We made the choice to stop denying, rationalizing, blaming others for our problems, hurts, hang-ups, habits, addictions, and get real.  We are honest enough to admit we are stuck. We can’t solve our problem. If we could we would have, but we can’t.

 

 

The 3^rd healing choice is the commitment choice. We make the conscious choice to commit all of our life and will to Christ’s care and control.

 

This is easier to say than to do. Jesus modeled this for us when he prayed, “Not my will be done, but Thy will be done. Not my kingdom come but Thy kingdom come.”

 

I grew up in the church. I knew and loved Jesus from childhood. I never had any desire to reject him outright. But as I grew up, I intentionally began to cut him out of some areas of my life. I compartmentalized my life. See if you can identify…

 

I had a God part where I was willing to recognize Jesus as king, go to church, sing the hymns, talk the talk, but I had these other areas in my life where I wanted to be king. I wanted to do my own will. Consequently, my life began to drift further and further away from the Lord.

 

I thought I knew all there was to know about God, so I tossed my Bible on the shelf and left it there. I said to God, “Don’t call me, I’ll call you when I need you!”  I still prayed. Still asked God to fix this or that but I didn’t want him interfering in what I called my own freedom. What I didn’t realize is that I wasn’t headed for freedom at all. I was headed down a dead end road.

 

I bought into the same lie that trapped Adam and Eve. “Don’t you want to be like God? Don’t you want to decide for yourself what’s right and what’s wrong? Don’t you want to see what the other side is like?” 

God warned Adam/Eve – on the day you eat that tree, you will die. “You won’t die! You’ll become self-actualized! You’ll be like God, knowing right from wrong! You’ll become “your true self”.

 

On one hand, my life looked good. I wasn’t a drunk, wasn’t an addict. I wasn’t immoral. Yet, something was wrong that I couldn’t put my finger on it. I told myself I was a good Christian, maybe not a fanatic, or “holier that thou”, but I was a good person. I was being true to myself.

 

I figured if I kept God happy (boxed up in that little compartment of my life) the rest of my life was my business.  Yet my highway to freedom became more and more a dead-end trail. And I was too proud, too full of guilt, and too frightened, too stubborn to ask God for help. I was stuck. Have you ever been stuck like that?

 

Everyone’s journey is unique, but when we try to put God in a box go our own way, we end up at the same dead-end. It seems this “true self” we are seekingis more than a little bit twisted!

 

It wasn’t until I came to the end of myself, got on my knees, and opened my Bible that I discovered “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”  Proverbs 14:12

 

Then I read Mt 11…“Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Mt 11:28-30

The truth is all our attempts to find freedom outside of God end in slavery and bondage. In fact, the only way to truly be free is to become a slave, a servant of Jesus – to turn my will, my life, my past, my present, my future over to his care and control. Let him out of the box!  This brings us to the 3^rd beatitude - “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”  Mt 5:5

Satan delights in destroying language. He has worked overtime to convince us that the word “meek” means “weak”.  That to be meek means to be cringing, fearful, disappear from view.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Biblical meekness is like Biblical humility.  It refers to an accurate self-assessment. It means knowing who we are and who we aren’t.  I tried to find freedom by pushing God away, putting him in a box. I thought I was free and in control, but I was fooling myself. I was trapped.

 

The true meaning of meekness is power under control.  A well-trained war horse was described as “meek”.  A well-trained warrior was “meek” in relationship to his commander.  A world class athlete is meek before his coach. It means a disciplined focused relationship under the authority of a commander. To be meek is a conscious choice of allegiance, submission, and obedience.

 

Friday night, Grace and I watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics.  I was amazed at the creative genius of human beings. This week athletes will accomplish things no other human being as ever done. We’ve been gifted by God with amazing strength, creativity and power. It would be so easy to worship ourselves as if we were gods and needed nobody else.

At the same time our astronauts are watching the Olympics, war, divorce, disease, death, poverty, bigotry continue to plague and destroy us. We have amazing power and creativity, but we cannot save ourselves or solve these problems.  We need a savior and master.

 

Have you made Jesus Lord and King of your life? Have you committed your life to him as master of every aspect, every room, every hurt, hang-up, and habit?  The truth is Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth!  He is righteous, good, provider, healer, Savior, trustworthy, dependable, sovereign over all creation.  One day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord of lords and King of kings. Our petty rebellion against his sovereign rule doesn’t change any of that.

So why don’t we trust him enough to turn over the control of our life and will to him?  Let him out of the box.  Maybe things aren’t bad enough! Maybe we aren’t lost enough!  Or…

 

Maybe we are afraid that if we really turn our lives over we will lose our independence. As if we really had it to begin with! We don’t want to admit we can’t handle it ourselves, or that our way didn’t work. We don’t want to face the truth about ourselves.

 

Maybe our guilt is holding us back. We don’t believe God can forgive us, maybe we can’t forgive ourselves. Is that a pride thing?  “Pastor John, you don’t understand, you’re just an ordinary sinner, but me, I’m a supreme sinner!  Better than all other sinners by far!”  I want to say, “How impressive!”

 

What if instead of the world’s greatest sinner, you’re just a very ordinary sinner no more special than all the millions of other sinners around you? Maybe what you really need is for God to rescue you for your own self-centeredness! True humility and meekness is the courage to own up to what I really am – not much - but precious beyond measure in God’s sight.

 

Sometimes what hinders us from turning our lives and wills over to the Lord is our fear of what he’s going to do with us. I’ve got this image in my mind of who I want to be, how I want people to see me. If God takes over, I might have to change my image of myself and others. 

 

Maybe I’ve spent my life snubbing, condemning Bible thumpers and Jesus freaks. If I turn my life and will over to him, will I become one of them? What will happen if I let God out of the box, especially after I’ve been working so hard to keep him in?

 

Maybe I’ll have to let go of some favorite prejudice, hatred or resentment. Maybe I’ll have to deal with some unfinished business, hang-ups, habits. Maybe I’ll have to make some changes. 

 

It wasn’t until I became so sick of the dead end my “highway to freedom” had become that I finally said, “Okay, Lord, you win. I don’t know what my life might look like if I let go and commit to following you. I don’t know what my friends will think. I don’t know what changes I’ll have to make in how I think about myself, or how you will change my dreams and desires, but I’ll give it a shot because my way hasn’t worked.”

 

Another fear I faced was the fear of failure. What if I give myself to God, and then go right out and fall flat on my face. What will people think of me then? This is what I learned: You’ll never get through this 3^rd step until you’re more concerned with what God thinks than what other people think.

Of course, you’ll fall - again and again! That’s no surprise to the Lord! He’ll help you get back up again and again and through each trial, he’ll forgive, cleanse, and make you stronger. You’ll learn to trust him more and yourself less. Like a well trained war horse, you’ll discover power you never knew you had and your relationship with your master will grow ever deeper.

 

But what if my faith is too small?  That’s the point - your faith is too small! It’s not your faith in your faith that matters. It’s your faith that God can do what you can’t.  You didn’t create him, he created you. You wouldn’t be facing this decision if he wasn’t calling you. Will you respond?

It’s in this 3^rd step that we move from religion (trying to keep God happy, keep God in a box) to a relationship of living faith with our master, creator, Savior, Lord.   

 

AA puts the 3^rd step this way. “We made a conscious decision to turn our wills and our lives over to God as we understood him.”  That doesn’t mean God as I want God to be. I’ve always been blown away by people who say, “I’ve got my own ideas about God.”  Groovy! A god created in our own image has no power to save us. Are we willing to let the Lord tell us who he is?  Let him out of our box?

 

All you need to begin this journey toward healing is to believe that God exists and that he cares about you. He will reveal himself to you as you seek him in the Bible and in Jesus. He has the power to forgive you, rescue you, free you and transform you.

 

So what choice will you make? Will you choose with his help to turn your will and your life over to his care and control? 

 

Will you choose to make him Lord of every area of your life, everyday of your life? To open the box and let him into every room, every hurt, hang-up, and habit?  The meaning of meekness is to let him take the reins - to go where he directs!   Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth! 

 

Let’s pray… “Dear God, I need your help. I open whatever box I have tried to keep you in.  I ask you to take over management of my life, to set on the throne of my heart and mind and will. Straighten out the way I think and feel. Change the desires of my heart. Set me free from the hurts, hang-ups, and habits that bind me. Give me courage to open the Bible and seek you. Teach me who you are and who I am. Have your way in me, so that I might become all you created me to be. In Jesus name. AMEN