Lesson 5 TURN

Principle 3: Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control.

“Happy are the meek.” (Matthew 5:5)

Step 3: We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God —this is your true and proper worship.” (Romans 12:1)

Illustration of Jesus as Savior but not Lord.

Playing games at the foot of the cross

Oswald Chambers wrote:

We are only what we are in the dark; all the rest is reputation.

Shane Pruitt said your identity is not found in sexuality, your identity is found in a Savior.

Please stand.

Acts 22:12–16 NKJV

12 “Then a certain Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there, 13 came to me; and he stood and said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that same hour I looked up at him. 14 Then he said, ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth. 15 For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’

Pray

You may be seated.

Changed life!

Principle 3 states that we choose to commit our lives and wills to Christ’s care. Step 3 in AA’s 12 Steps says, “turn our wills and lives.” I think Bill W., founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, got this step turned around. I believe that we must first commit and surrender our lives to the true Higher Power, Jesus Christ, and then we are able to turn over our wills to Him. Would you all agree with that?

When you choose to live this principle, you consciously choose to commit all your life and will to Christ’s care and control. How do you do that? How do you turn your life and will over to your Higher Power, Jesus Christ?

Turn

Let’s look at tonight’s acrostic for the answer to that question.

Trust Understand Repent New life

This step ends with new life, but you must first take three actions before that life can be yours. You must trust, understand, and repent.

First let’s talk about TRUST.

I don’t know about you, but I would rather walk with God in the darkest valley than walk alone, or with a stranger, in the light.

In Principle 3, you make the one-time decision to turn your life over to the care of God. It’s your choice, not chance, that determines your destiny. And that decision only requires trust, putting your faith into action!

But what is faith? Faith is not a sense, sight, or reason. Faith is simply taking God at His word! And God’s Word tells us in Romans 10:9 (GNT): “If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved.”

For some people that’s just way too simple. They want to make salvation much more difficult. But it isn’t! Our salvation, thank God, depends on God’s love for us, not our love for Him.

After you have decided to trust, the next step is to UNDERSTAND.

Relying solely on our own understanding got most of us into recovery in the first place! After you make the decision to ask Jesus into your life, you need to begin to seek His will for your life in all your decisions. You need to get to know and understand Him and what He wants for your life.

Proverbs 3:5 –6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

You see, our understanding is earthbound. It’s human to the core. Lim­ited. Finite. We operate in a dimension totally unlike that of our Lord. He knows no such limitations. We see now; God sees forever!

You know something really strange? It has taken me all my life to under­stand that it is not necessary for me to understand everything.

First Corinthians 13:9 –13 (GNT) tells us, “For our gifts of knowledge . . . are only partial; but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear. . . . What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete, as complete as God’s knowledge of me.”

Someday we will see Jesus face to face. The fog of interpretation will be lifted, and our understanding will be perfected.

Praise God that we do not need a perfect understanding of Him to ask Jesus into our lives as our Lord and Savior. Why? Because God does not lead you year by year. Not even day by day. God directs your way step by step.

The third letter in our acrostic, R, stands for REPENT.

Some people repent of their sins by thanking the Lord that they aren’t half as bad as their neighbors. That’s not true repentance! Repentance is how you begin to enjoy the freedom of your loving relationship with God. True repentance affects our whole person and changes our entire view of life. Repentance is to take God’s point of view on our lives instead of our own.

To truly repent you need to do two things: First, turn away from your sins; second, turn toward God. The Bible has much to say about repentance:

Turn from your sins and act on this glorious news! (Mark 1:15, TLB)

Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall.

Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart

and a new spirit. (Ezekiel 18:30 –31)

Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.” (Romans 12:2, PH)

It seems that most people repent of their sins more from a fear of punishment than from a real change of heart. But repentance is not self-loathing; it is God-loving. God isn’t looking forward to punishing you! He is eagerly anticipating with open arms your turning toward Him.

Then when you have chosen to turn from your sin toward Him, He will joyously give to you what the last letter in tonight’s acrostic stands for: NEW life.

The new life that you will receive is the result of taking the three actions that we just covered: trusting, understanding, and repenting.

As a pastor, I have heard some pretty glum definitions of life. These are just a few:

“Life is a hereditary disease.”

“Life is a sentence that we have to serve for being born.”

“Life is a predicament that precedes death.”

“Life’s a tough proposition; and the first hundred years are the hardest.”

Those are depressing words that you may feel are true if your life doesn’t include Jesus Christ. After you ask Jesus into your heart, you will have a new life! You will no longer be bound to your old sinful nature. You will receive a new loving nature dwelling within you from Christ.

God has declared you “not guilty,” and you no longer have to live under the power of sin! Romans 3:22 (TLB) says it well: “Now God says he will accept and acquit us — declare us ‘not guilty’ — if we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sins.”

Second Corinthians 5:17 (GNT) says: “Anyone who is joined in Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.”

In what ways does the “new life” demonstrate itself in us?

The “old you” said, The “new you” says,

Save your life! You must lose your life to keep it

(Mark 8:35).

Get, get, get! Give, and it will be given to you

(Luke 6:38).

Lead, at all costs. Serve (John 13:12).

application

Illustration of Jesus as Savior but not Lord.

Playing games at the foot of the cross

invitation