What is Control?

This morning I would like to talk about relying on God in our lives. About looking to our Maker for purpose, security, and peace. I want to talk about Control.

· Control. What is control?

o Miriam Webster defines control as, “the power to influence or direct people’s behavior or the course of events.”

· We all desire a sense of control or mastery in our lives.

o We believe that “having control” will ensure the outcome we want.

o Will guide us to “the next right thing” in life.

· And yet:

o Most of our lives, if we are honest, are out of control.

§ Some of us don’t know how we are going to pay our bills.

§ Some of us don’t know where the next meal is coming from.

§ And some of us don’t know if we can even keep going.

o The world would have us believe that all we need to do is:

§ Have the right job.

§ Marry the right person.

§ Have the right things.

o But so often we are let down and feel more hopeless once we have the things, than when we were still searching and striving for them.

Faith and I have experienced this firsthand.

§ We have an amazing relationship.

§ A roof over our heads.

§ Good cars to drive.

§ At we used to both have jobs we loved.

After the pandemic hit in 2020, the church I had worked at for 5 years was hit hard.

§ Attendance dropped.

§ Social distancing was enforced.

§ And giving dwindled.

o My role as the youth pastor was ending because the church couldn’t afford to keep me.

o I had 3 months to figure out what I was going to do.

o Faith and I prayed, and I began to apply everywhere, but God was silent.

o I had many interviews and was often at the top pf the candidate list.

§ But I was rejected at every turn.

My response was to begin to build worldly strongholds in my life.

§ Walls to insulate myself:

o From rejection.

o From disappointment.

o And from the silence of God in my life.

§ My relationship with God and with Faith suffered because I was trying to exert control over the circumstances of my life. But my life was out of control.

§ In trying to protect myself and building those walls, I made a worldly stronghold in my life.

§ I trusted more in my ability to fix the problem than in God’s plan and will for my life.

§ God wanted to be the divine stronghold around me. To protect, guide, and give me purpose. But my desire to control pushed God to the side and I felt alone and unheard.

Middle:

According to the passage we read earlier in Psalm 27, “The LORD is our light and our salvation”

§ God alone is to be the divine stronghold of our lives.

§ Trusting God to be our divine stronghold means:

o God decides which doors to open – not us.

o God declares worth and purpose rather than trusting in my own reason or motivations.

§ When we allow God to be the divine stronghold, we surrender our desire to control things.

§ God becomes the source of our security, and we can surrender to God and love others where they are just as God has loved us.

We create worldly strongholds – we build walls in our life:

§ To insulate ourselves.

§ To remove perceived vulnerability.

§ And to isolate who and what looks different from us.

o All so we can fool ourselves into believing we are in control.

What is a worldly stronghold? Paul spoke to the church of Corinth about this issue in 2 Corinthians 10. Listen to what Paul had to say. (Read the Passage out loud) 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”

A worldly stronghold is a mindset, value system, or thought process that hinders your growth.

In the 1970’s, a Pentecostal preacher named David Wilkerson moved from Philly to NYC because he heard the call of God on his life. He moved alone and without the support of his demonization in order to begin to tear down the worldly strongholds in the community around him. He started a ministry called “Teen Challenge” to combat drug addiction, gang violence, and alcoholism in the teenagers of the city. He focused on encouraging people tp seek after God through a deep and personal relationship with Christ.

Regarding worldly strongholds, Wilkerson said this:

Most of us think of worldly strongholds as bondages such as sexual trespasses, drug addiction, or alcoholism. Those things we would put on our “worst sins list”. Paul here is referring to something much worse than simply measuring of sins. A worldly stronghold is an accusation planted firmly in our minds. Satan uses these accusations to establish strongholds in our lives by weaving lies, falsehoods, and misconceptions – especially regarding the character and nature of God.

§ When we build worldly strongholds in our lives, we instantly focus on actions and sins, but biblically, the issue is much bigger than this.

§ Worldly strongholds are a way of thinking that we internalize and believe but are actually the lies of our Enemy. Things like:

o I’ll never be good enough.

o If only I could have that job instead of this one.

o I’ll never lose the weight.

o I’m not as bad as they are.

o I don’t struggle with the things they struggle with.

o What I’m doing isn’t nearly as bad as what they are doing.

§ We allow these thoughts, and we build these walls to take the place of God’s way of thinking and God’s way of doing things.

o And when we do this, we reveal our doubts about God and His goodness.

As Paul told the Corinthian church, “We must take every thought captive.” We must reorient our mindset, attitude, and actions towards the heart and will of God and begin to live under divined strongholds.

As we look at the passage in Luke from earlier this morning, we see Jesus lamenting over Jerusalem’s lack of faith and their functioning in worldly strongholds.

§ We hear frustration and sorrow in our Savior’s voice.

§ Jesus desires to be the divine stronghold of their lives.

o To give them comfort, security, and purpose.

o But Jerusalem has settled for the worldly strongholds in their lives rather than looking to the Savior of their lives.

§ Jerusalem faces societal pressure about who and what they thought the Messiah should be.

§ They faced spiritual pressure in hearing the voice of God but rejecting God’s message to them.

o They did all of this in an effort to exert control over their lives and in turn couldn’t see the promises of God in front of them.

What are the worldly strongholds in your life?

§ Who you think should be president?

§ Whether to get vaccinated or not?

§ Deriving security in your education, job, family, or career?

§ What social media says you should do, or have, or take a stance on?

§ What kind of house you live in?

§ Where you go on vacation and how much you spend to get there?

§ Whether gay brothers and sisters should be allowed to worship with you in church?

§ What kind of music is played in worship?

§ What kind of car you drive?

§ What ethnicity of people are in the pews next to you, or in the houses across the street, or in the classrooms next to your children?

§ Or is it simply a refusal to acknowledge the dysfunction you hide with the façade of fake smiles on social media?

We MUST take every thought captive and surrender our desire to control over to God’s will for our lives.

How can we be Jesus to the world around us when we have allowed worldly strongholds to control our lives?

Does your love towards others look like God’s love towards you or does it look more like the lies of our enemy?

If our trust in God’s plan and purpose for our lives:

§ Doesn’t encourage growth and conversation between conservative and liberal people.

§ Doesn’t invite minority groups into this place of worship.

§ Doesn’t seek ways to better the community around us.

§ Doesn’t invite gay brothers and sisters to join us in worshiping God.

§ Doesn’t acknowledge the dignity, value, and worth of trans people.

§ Doesn’t welcome the homeless and addicted into this sacred place.

§ Doesn’t bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and open the inner prisons of those who are bound.

Then our surrender to God and witness to the goodness of God in the world has failed. And we are living in a worldly stronghold.

One of my favorite early church fathers, Athanasius of Alexandriaonce said, “Even on the cross, Jesus didn’t hide himself from sight; rather He made all creation witness to the prescience of its Maker.”

Jesus died on the cross to break down these walls.

What walls have you left standing?

Closing:

So, what hope do we have this Lenten season?

Our hope is in Christ alone!!! I know that sounds super churchy, but it couldn’t be more true.

§ We all desire to control our lives – but the truth is, we can’t.

o We can try but we will always fail!

§ God alone is to be the source of purpose and security.

o When we trust in our ability, our reason, our way, we are telling God that He is untrustworthy.

o That God doesn’t really know what we need, and we build worldly strongholds in our lives.

Choose to trust God each day. It is difficult but it is worth the effort. Surrender your desire for control and allow God to build divine strongholds around you.

Cicely Tyson said it best:

When you ask God for strength, as I do daily, He doesn’t usually drop it from the sky. He often answers by placing you in a circumstance that requires you to build fortitude while relying solely on Him.

I pray that each of us will examine our own lives and begin to surrender the worldly strongholds we have built for the divine stronghold of God’s promises to us.

And I pray, as the psalmist declared, “that we will dwell in the house of the LORD forever”, and may be able to say, “blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD.”