Text: Matthew 16:24-25
Topic: Surrendering control of our lives to God

• Illustration: Ortberg shares how terrifying it was to drive his first baby home from the hospital.
• Does anybody want to know what the next really scary day is with your kid in the car? When they turn 16, and you have to hand over the keys.
  • Illustration: Ortberg tells of the first time one of his kids drove.
• From an early age we are taught that the journey of life is from the passenger seat to the driver's seat.

• It is a big moment in your life when you hand someone else the keys. Whoever is in the driver's seat is the person in control.
  • Illustration: Ortberg tells of his family telling him which way to drive.
• This week, we remember Palm Sunday. This is the day Jesus came riding into Jerusalem.
• Everybody was cheering for him, but they all had an agenda for him.
• A lot of people find Jesus handy to have in the car as long as he's in the ride-along seat, because something may come up where they require his services (health concerns, work concerns, etc).
• If Jesus is driving, I'm not in charge of my life anymore. No, it's his agenda. It's his life.

• Is Jesus just in the car—just a ride-along? Or have you ever said to him, "All right, Lord, I am now giving you the keys of my life"?
• Jesus is clear about this. There is no way for a human being to come to God that does not involve surrender.
  • Matthew 10:39
  • John 12:24
  • Matthew 16:24
• Surrender is not the same thing as being passive.
• Part of God's will for your life is that you be active, make choices, be creative, and that you initiate and take responsibility.
• Surrender does not mean being a doormat. In fact, if you fully surrender your life, if you become a holy, devoted follower of Jesus, often it will require courage in fighting the status quo.
• Surrender is the glad and voluntary acknowledgement that there is a God and it is not me—that his purposes are wiser than my purposes, and his desires are better than my desires.
• Jesus does not come to rearrange the outside of my life the way I want it to be; he comes to rearrange the inside of my life the way God wants it to be.

• When spirituality gets discussed in our culture, there are certain messages that everybody likes hearing. (Example: "No matter how much you mess up, God still loves you.)
• But the message we are talking about today—the message of surrender—doesn't interest people.
• Here are some of the messages we have to hear: "You are self-centered and self-promoting, often in secret ways;" "Your desires will often be self-serving, and even your ability to perceive that will be blinded by self-deception;" "You need to bend the knee, submit your heart, confess your sin, and surrender your life to God."
  • Illustration: Ortberg tells of his desire to be a leader and the freedom he has found since surrendering that desire.

• Life works better when Jesus is driving. Here's why: You receive power and freedom through surrender that you cannot obtain any other way.
  • Illustration: Ortberg examines the success of Alcoholics Anonymous. AA knows that the most powerful tool against the most powerful addiction in the world is not in asking people to decide to stop doing what they have to stop doing; it's the decision to surrender the will.
• The steps toward surrender are similar for us.
• Step One: We realize we are powerless—that our lives are unmanageable.
• Step Two: We come to believe a power greater than ourselves can restore us.
• And Step Three: We make a decision to turn our will and life over to the care of God.
• Try to overcome your problem, and it will beat you; surrender your will, and then another kind of life becomes possible.
  • Illustration: The guidebook of AA, the Blue Book, offers a profound reflection of the way the mind works and why we need a power greater than ourselves: "We are unable at certain times to bring into our consciousness, with sufficient force, the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even one week ago."

• The only way to free yourself from the insanity of temptation is to hand over the keys.
• Of course, the good news about surrender is, if you do it one time, you never have to worry about it ever again. Right? No!
• Jesus says: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me."
• What's the key word in that little sentence? Daily.
• Paul says: "Offer your body as a living sacrifice." The idea is continuous offering.
• Say you take a creature that's still alive, put it on the altar, and say, "Stay there until you're consumed." Then you light the fire. The creature is going to get off the altar!
• Paul is saying to crawl back on the alter. You surrender day by day and moment by moment.
  • Illustration: Ortberg tells of how he once had to deal with profound anger in this manner.
• Usually surrendering to God like this will lead to behavior that comes with a cost.
  • Illustration: Ortberg tells of surrendering to his conscience and confessing a sin.
• But with surrender comes freedom.

• We have three options: (1) live with a rebellious heart toward God; (2) live with a divided heart; (3) live with a surrendered heart.
• So, here is the question once more: who is in the driver's seat?