Surrender Over Control

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. We're going to be talking about surrender over control. Ouch. I didn't want this one this week, that's for sure. I did not want this one this week. This is not a week that I felt too much in control of a lot of things. So we're going to choose surrender over control. Now, it's easy to say, it's hard to do. How many of you, come on, admit it, raise your hand. You kind of like control, at least in one area of your life. You know what I mean? Okay, keep them up, keep them up. Let's confess. Okay, now, if you are at this point in time looking around and seeing there's some people you want to raise their hand, because you know, well, you've got that control freak nature just like me. And this, Jesus is going to set us all free today, okay? At least that's what we hope, okay? Yeah, we battle with control. We do. Now, some of us might like this kind of a phrase. We kind of can laugh about it. I'm not a control freak, but can I show you the right way to do that? Right? Or we might say, this is the coffee mug I want to give my boss. I'm not a control freak, I just happen to know what's best for everybody else. Do you work for somebody like that? Have you worked for somebody? How long will you work for somebody like that, right? Or maybe somebody's trying to give you a hint, and they give you this card. I could stop being a control freak if other people could stop screwing stuff up. You understand? Yeah. Now, everybody's probably got some area that this is just what I, of all things, I've got to control this. So it might be at your house. Everything's just got to be in the right place at the right time in the right way. Don't touch that. Leave that alone. And wait a minute, what's going on with this, that, and the other thing? Or it could be the fact that you're controlling or wanting to control your kids, you know? Stop doing that. Stop doing that. Stop doing that. I'm going to ground you until you're 30 if you keep doing that. Now, it might not be your kids. You might be trying to control your kids' kids. Or maybe because, you know, or you're trying to control your kids because their kids are not behaving well, so you're trying to tell your kids how to control their kids. I know how this works. This is the way it works all across. We have some area. It might be at work that you are a control freak at work. It might be just the way that you dress, the fact that when you go to the gym, you look sharp, and you will never, ever let anybody see you without a, you know, everything is just in place. You've got to have makeup on, not me, but makeup on just to go to the grocery store, period, the end. I'm never going to let anybody see it any other way. So we've got those areas, right? It's fun to poke fun at this. It's fun to look at this. It's fun to laugh about this. But we're going to try to get below the surface of why and what's going on with this and how we can choose control or we can choose surrender. Boy, I have a hard time saying it. Over control. You know, the reality is when either I'm panicking or freaking out or anxious or trying to grab onto things, there's something going behind the surface of that. And it's not just psychology, the fact that I am feeling vulnerable at the moment and I need to cover that up. And it's not simply the fact of history where I might have been burned in the past a couple of times by a similar situation. And so I need to make sure this time it doesn't happen. But it's also theology. Okay, it's theology. Everything got serious for a moment. There's a spiritual condition going on when I need to be in control. And that is, in some way, I'm trying to take God's place in that area. We're going to be looking at that. So what we're going to do is together, one of the most famous Bible passages that's read a lot. It's a great passage. It's short. Let's read this together because we're going to be looking at this passage. Proverbs 3, 5 to 6. Can you read it with me? Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Nice verse. Problem is, it's hard to live it out, isn't it? Hard to live it out. And even when I try to be, I'm trying to control often how I'm out of control. Have you ever done that? I'm going to let this go. I'm going to do this. See, I'm not trying to be in control. And all of a sudden, I'm trying to control how I'm being out of control. And then I start getting upset about the fact that I'm not in control. And it just becomes a vicious cycle so quickly. Even if I'm trying to stay out of control, I'm trying to control how I'm out of control. And I end up, everything is about fear. Everything is about reactivity rather than about being centered on what God has for us in that promise and in our lives. Hey, I think there's a, you know, so...