The Crucified Life

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. So today, we are dealing with, I think, one of the most powerful drives in our life, is to be driving like in the driver's seat. Don't you understand what I mean by that? We want to be in control. We want to be on top of our game. We want, even in areas of religion and spirituality, we want to make sure we've got things together, that we've got every doctrine in a row. We want to get everything down and even possibly get to know everything enough to get God Himself in our favor and on a leash. You know? So we can kind of move Him around to bless our lives the way that we want and get Him under obligation. And even if you've heard that phrase, Jesus, take the wheel, we'll even try to control which wheel God takes. Yeah, and that's the wrong one, Jesus, right? We'll tell Him when it's the wrong one. We said we wanted you to take our lives over, but we want it controlled in this way. And God knows this desire to be in control, to be in charge, to be on top, to be on the throne of our own lives, calling the shots, is the drive that exactly needs to die. Okay? We need a death and resurrection. Because anything short of a death and resurrection means we're still in charge. And God knows that's the problem. Gerhard Ferdi said it this way in one of his books. He said, there is no cure for the addict on his own. The theological terms, we must come to confess that we are addicted to sin, addicted to self, whatever form of that may take, pious or impious. The remedy for curing desire does not lie in satisfying it, but in extinguishing it. The cross does the extinguishing. The cross is the death of sin and the sinner. The cross does the bottoming out. The cross is the intervention. For a resurrection to happen, there must be a death first. So today we are continuing the series and we're going to be looking at this whole lie of control. You really think you're in control? Ever? Right? Paul saw the reality of that. And he also saw the reality that, like, every time we say, yeah, you know, I'll let you, that's okay, not my will, like a zombie in one of those B-rated movies, we come back as the living dead trying to still grab on. And it's always the old life we want. We don't want a new life. And God wants to put us to death and raise us to a whole new life. Well, you might say, well, why is this so important? In Galatia, you know, they had the problem of circumcision, is what he talks about in this book, and how then the law of God. And we're not really caught up in trying to complete and obey all 613 mitzvot or commands in the Hebrew Bible, in the Torah. We don't do that. So why are you focusing on this issue in Galatians? Because I don't think it's just the laws they were dealing with. I have a feeling we all are control freaks. All of us. Right? Control is the central issue. Whether it is in a religious term like they were dealing with, or in any aspect of our life, we want things to go our way all the time, as much as possible. So that's why we're dealing with this today. I don't think it's an issue just for back then. So let's read Galatians 6, 11 to 18. See with what large letters I'm writing to you with my own hand. It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. For now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear in my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. So from this text, we're going to explore three things today that I think will help you understand what we're talking about when we're saying, don't live in the lie of control. First of all, we're going to look at the controlling self, and then how the controlling self is crucified to the world and the world to that self, as Paul says. And finally, then, what it means to be a new creation. But the controlling self, I don't know if you've ever watched Judge Judy. Any of you ever watched Judge Judy? I think she's pretty funny. We watch and kind of laugh at, she makes almost anybody look like a fool, right? But she has this line that says, how do you know a teenager is lying? Their lips are moving, right? Yeah. How do you know? Here's what I want to say. How do you know someone has a control problem? They're still breathing. And what we saw in this text is Paul talks about how symptoms of a c...