The Church of Eleven22 - Our Need for Control: Be Free - Wk 8

Episode Date: May 26, 2024

In each and every one of us, there’s an innate desire to control ourselves, others, and even God. We all have a tendency to think we can earn God’s love through our works. But when we reveal, repent and remember, we confront the allure of works based righteousness and extend an invitation to embrace the transformative grace of Jesus Christ.  - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com 

1122, how are we doing? We're doing good? Well, I'm obviously not Pastor Jobi. I'm not Pastor Britt, but I am another bearded bald man to hear talk about Jesus with you. And can we also recognize how much Trey Brunson and I look alike? We could do some great crimes together, brother. Like, we would never need an alibi.

They're like, I saw him at Maple Biscuit Company or whatever. You know what I mean? So, hey, my name is Josh Turner. For those of you that know me, I've been around 1122 for a while. If I don't know you, I'd love to meet you. As I tell 1122 all the time, you just kind of consider me your weird uncle from Georgia.

I show up like once a year, kind of like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and you don't see him for a while, usually says some inappropriate stuff, and then leaves and everybody goes. That guy's weird. And then he just shows back up a year later. And so I really love you guys,

and I don't just say that. I get the opportunity to travel and preach a lot, and coming here feels like coming home. a little bit. Not only because your pastor and I have been friends for almost 20 years. He is one of my super close friends. I'm very thankful for your pastor, Pastor Joby. And I know you guys are as well. And here's what I said. Guys, you just baptized over 1,600 people a few weeks ago. You got like Tim Tebow out there just ripping children into the sky as he brings them out of the water. We get it, Tim. You're ripped. Okay? Leave something for the rest.

rest of us, man. But I saw that and I actually texted Jobi and I said, man, I go, I'm going to say this is your friend and someone who loves you. Like I have rarely seen what God is doing at 1122 and a lot of other churches. And it's not a comparison deal, right? Because every place, every church has their place in the kingdom. But I think it is also important that we acknowledge that there is something unique and special that God is doing here at 1122, not just in Jacksonville, but in all the campuses and locations that you guys have. And I know we know this, but I'm always going to say this, and I know who your pastor is,

so I know I don't have to reiterate it, but I'm just always going to read it it as crazy Uncle Josh. We know that this never happens without God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Amen? Like, this is, nobody is this good. Right? Like, nobody. But it also doesn't happen without great leadership.

And you have a great past. pastor, who I also believe, which is this is the how you know when you think someone's a really good preacher and teachers, when you've known them for 20 years and the way that you explain them to your other friends as I think he's the best communicator in America probably, one of the top in your pastor, Pastor Jobi. But the other thing is, is not only do you guys have a great lead pastor, but you have a great whole team and staff from all the campus pastors and location. campuses and assistants and worship team and kids and you. So can you honor them like you mean it

instead of half-hearted at 9 a.m. on Memorial Day weekend. Yes. It takes a lot to do this. And so I just want you to always remember how fortunate you are to be a part of 1122. And it is an honor for me to be here as always. So here's what we're going to do this morning. We're actually going to continue in our series, Be Free, which is working through the Book of Galatians. Now, here's the thing. Today, you are going to hear me reiterate and recap a lot of what you have heard over the past two weeks from Pastor Britt and Pastor Jobi. Why? Because Paul says a lot of the same thing over and over and over again in Galatians, which is why do you keep trying to put yourself back up under the law? Why do you keep trying to go back to works-based righteousness?

And how many of you know, if Paul says something over and over again, it's probably pretty important that we pay attention to what Paul was saying. And so what Paul keeps asking the Galatian Church is, Christ has made you free, why do you keep trying to go back to earning your salvation and earning your perfection in anything besides Jesus Christ? And last week, Pastor Britt preached Galatians 3-1 through 9. And listen, if you missed it, it is an end. an awesome sermon. Pastor Britt covers a ton of ground. I love that he called it a rainmaker

sermon because so many Bible pages are turning, it just sounds like rain in the room. I'm like, that is gangster. And I'm saying that everywhere now. I'm going to be like, guys, as you know, as I always say, it's a rainmaker sermon. I'm just going to claim it. Not going to give Britt any credit at all. But it was really awesome. It was a phenomenal sermon of how Britt went back to Abraham and the promise that God gave to Abraham. And I really want to encourage you to go back and listen to it if you missed it, because what we're going to do is we are going to pick up

right where Pastor Britt left off. So if you have your Bibles, Galatians 3, 10 through 12 says this. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse as it is written. Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. clearly no one relies on the law is justified before God because the righteous will live by faith the law is not based on faith on the contrary it says the person who does these things will live by

them so what we see paul saying is why are you going to continue to put yourself up under the law when you are going to end up becoming condemned by the law well what is the law that paul is talking about in this moment. Well, he's talking about the law that was given to Moses. The law was giving to Moses 430 years after the promise was given to Abraham by God. And in no way at all does the law contradict or null or cancel out the promise that was given to Abraham. And this is one of things that Pastor Britt talked about last week, which is so important. So it was given to Moses is 430 years after the promise was given to Abraham, and the law is broken up into three categories,

if you go and read it. The first is the moral law. And so the moral law is how are we to live morally? The Ten Commandments are in this, and it talks about the holiness of God and the righteousness of God in the moral law. Then it goes down to the civil law. The civil law was to the Hebrew people,

and it was meant to teach them how to live their lives day to day, and everything's in there from marriage, divorce, property rights, sexual conduct, the punishment for crimes. It was to teach the Hebrew people, the Israelites, how to live daily. So you got the moral law, you got the civil law, and then you go to the ceremonial law. The ceremonial law was given to teach the people of Israel how to worship God. What animals should you sacrifice? What is the correct way to sacrifice that animal? Which rituals should we keep? Which days should we keep holy? Which faith? festivals should we celebrate. These laws were taught how these laws were given to the children of

Israel to teach them how to live, how to worship, and how to follow God. Now here's the thing. There are over 600 of these laws. So when Paul is talking about that if you don't keep everything written in the book of the law, you were under a curse, you had to keep all 600 laws perfectly. Like you couldn't deviate from one of these laws at all. You couldn't make a mistake in one of these laws at all. Otherwise, you were putting yourself back up under the curse. So if that's what the law was, then also why was it given? Well, Galatians actually answers that. So if you have your Bibles, look with me at Galatians 3, 19 through 20. Why then was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the

coming of the child who was promised. The coming of the child who was promised is Jesus. So what the law is is the law was given to show us our sins until the promised child. God gave his law through his angels to Moses. He was the mediator between God and the people. Now a mediator is helpful if more than one party must reach an agreement. But God who is one did not use a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham. And once again, Pastor Britt talked about that last week, which is incredible.

So here's why the law was given. One of the first reasons the law was given was to show us our sinfulness. Now here's what's important. The law was given to also convict but not condemn. We have taken the law of God and we use it to condemn ourselves with. but the law was not given to condemn us and make us feel worse about ourselves than pushing us

further away from God. The law was given to show you your sins, to convict your heart, to actually push you closer to God. It was given to reveal to you your sinfulness. I love the way Pastor Jobb he says it. He says it was given to us as a mirror to see ourselves. What it makes me think about is there's this show on TBN, if you remember TBN, the Trinity Broadcasting Network. And there was a show on there called The Way of the Master. The Way of the Master was hosted by a guy named Ray Comfort. And I hope Ray's not in here because he will probably fight me after I give this illustration. So the way of the master was kind of like this man on the street.

Right? So he'd go to all these popular cities and he would just walk around with a microphone on the street. And he'd walk up someone and go, hey, if you died tonight, do you know where you would go? And they'd be like, yes, Ray, I'd feel like I'd go to heaven. Ray's like, why do you feel like you'd go to heaven? And the person would go, well, I'm a good person, Ray. Ray go, all right, well, let me ask you some questions. Have you ever hated anybody?

Well, yeah, you know, I kind of don't like my boss. Well, the Bible says that if you've ever hated anybody in your heart, it's the same as murder. Have you ever looked lustfully upon someone of the opposite sex? Duh, Ray. You know what I mean? Like, so Ray would then look at them and go, by your own admission, you were an adulterouser. do you still feel like you're a good person? And I'm thinking, how did Ray not get beat up every day of his life?

First off, right? Because it ought to have been like, throat punch. You know, that's how I would have handled Ray. That's a terrible way to do that. But that's what the law is meant to do. We're supposed to look at it and look at ourselves and go, I am a sinful person. I do have something in my heart that shows me I am sinful, and the law does that.

And so if you're in here and you don't think you're a sinful person, now you have the sin of pride and you're just one of us. So welcome to the club. So the first thing the law is given is the law, right now people are like, I do not like this guy. Just wait. The law is given to show us our sins. It goes on Galatians 3, 23 through 25.

before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of the faith was revealed. Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came. It protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as a guardian. So the law was also given to guard us. to protect us from ourselves.

Like, if you go through and read the Old Testament, so much of the law is God just teaching the Israelite people. This is how you act right. This is how you run a society. This is how you handle crimes. This is how you handle property. This is how you handle marriage. This is how you handle divorce.

Like, God was just giving laws to protect us from ourselves. I like to think of it this way, if this helps you. The law was a babysitter. Like, think about when you parents go out and you bring a babysitter in, what's the babysitter's job? The babysitter's job is to protect the kids, to help them keep following the rules and not burn down the house when the parents are out. But then when the parents come back, the babysitter doesn't just still hang out. The babysitter leaves because the babysitter is no longer needed because now the parents are fulfilling that role again. So just think about it this way.

The law is the babysitter and Jesus is, yo daddy. Do you know what I'm saying? But please, when you pray, please don't ever use the phrase daddy God. That's so weird, guys, and it creeps everybody else around you. They just don't say it. I was preaching at a church in Tampa. This has nothing to do with my sermon. I was preaching at a church in Tampa. And, I was preaching at a church in Tampa. I was getting ready to walk on stage and some of the pastors came in to pray with me before I was going on to preach. And one pastor hit me with three daddy gods and one prayer. And I was like, Lord, Jesus, get it off me. You know what I mean?

Like, just kind of caught me a little bit. Anyway, so now I am very appropriate. I am a professional. So now that we know what the law is and why it was given, now it can make sense to us. always of why Paul is going back to the churches in Galatia and going, why, why are you trying to go back up under the law? So here's what Paul is saying to them, guys, hold up a second. So let me just get something straight. So guys, you would rather keep over 600 laws to perfection, mind you. Like you can't screw up at all. You would rather do that to make yourself perfect

instead of believing that the one who saved you, the one that you have seen miracles do, the one that has changed your entire life, that he is the one that perfects you? Like you would rather put it on you than put it on Christ. And I think when we hear it in this context, all of us would go, that's insane. Yeah, why would the Galatian Church, if they have the freedom in Christ to be made perfect through Christ, why would they continue to put themselves back up under the law and put themselves back up under works-based righteousness? Why would they do that?

Here's the reality. We all do the same thing. Every single one of us in here, we all do things that make us feel closer or further away from God, and that is at times works-based righteousness. Now, hear me out. I'm not saying any of us do this consciously. I don't think there's anybody in here or any of the locations that woke up this morning

and said, you know what I'm going to do? I'm really thankful for Jesus for salvation. But to become perfect, I'm going to go find all those 600 laws, over 600 laws, and I'm going to keep them to perfection. None of us do this consciously. But I think we all do it subconsciously. I think that there are things that we do, that when we do them, we think, we do it. we think that God now loves us more or is more pleased with us.

Or when we don't do what we should, somehow God's up in heaven looking at Jesus going, they did it again, Jesus. He's at the right hand going, I know, Dad, you know what I mean? All of us, we don't do it consciously, we do it subconsciously. And I'll be honest with you, this is my greatest struggle and my walk with the Lord. It has been for a very, very, very long time. I actually have a text thread with five guys, morbidly called the coffin carriers, because these are the five guys that will carry my coffin one day.

My wife goes, good Lord, you need five people to carry your coffin? I said, well, the first one's going to walk in front and ring a bell. You know what I mean? Like, bring out your dead. And so I have these five guys. Pastor Justin Todd, actually the campus, the Mandarin campus pastor is one of these guys. and these guys know everything about me. I mean, they know the deep, dark parts of the things that I wrestle with, all of it.

They know everything about me? They're called the coffin carriers. You know what two of these guys always tell me about myself? That you are a Pharisee to your own heart. They said, man, you're really kind. And I had one of my buddies recent telling me, he says, you have the ability to love the most screwed up people I've ever seen in my life. He said, but when it comes to you, you are a Pharisee to your own heart. He said, Josh, you have created some standard that not even is the standard that God has called you to keep

and you think if you don't hit that standard, you're not good enough. I was recently meeting with my counselor. I have a counselor I meet with and I don't know if this is a word from the Lord for anybody in here or at any of the locations. You need a counselor. So I was meeting with my counselor and I'm like processing. all of this with him. And I'm like, you ever know something is not true in your head, but no matter how hard you try, it's hard to get it to your heart? Like, so I'm like, I know biblically I'm a preacher that this is not true, but somehow I still feel this at times,

and I still wrestle with this at times. So I start talking about the moment that I got saved. I remember the moment I got saved. Do you remember your moment that you got saved? I think a lot of us as Christians actually would be a lot better if we actually remember who we were before Jesus saved us, and the only thing that changed our life was Jesus and that you didn't become that good that somehow you go, I need to change my life, and you were able to change your own life. And so I remember for me, I remember that moment where I just lose it in this moment of worship, and I felt like I heard the Lord speak to me, and I felt like what I heard the Lord say to me, because I came from Florida State, drinking, party, and drugs, everything else. And I felt so bad about myself that I thought,

how could God love me if I feel this way about myself? And I'm standing in this church service and I felt this moment where I felt like I heard the Holy Spirit saying to me, son, I know where you've been. Son, I know what you've been doing. And I'm just glad you're home. And it broke me. I mean, like some guys when they cry and get emotional, they look like super tough. like Jason Statham. Actually, no one's ever seen Jason Statham cry, by the way. It's a fiction. But I am losing it. I am sobbing. So I'm telling the story to my counselor. I said, but at some point, something changed. It was like God was like, son, I know where you've been, I know what you've been doing. I'm just glad you're home, but now you better get to work. You better show me that you're good

enough for what my son did for you. You better prove it. You better be worthy of it. Now, please hear me. I'm not saying that there is a problem with effort. You should put effort into your walk with the Lord. There's a problem with earning. And I wasn't working from a place of effort. I was working and still continue to struggle with work from a place of earning. That I didn't. I was working and still can, and continue to struggle with work from a place of earning, that I could do something where God would look at me and be like, he's my man today. I told him, I go, I felt like I was this kid who'd been given a present,

like a toy, and I'm like, this is the best toy I have ever seen in my entire life. And I love this toy, and I'm so thankful for this toy. But then, like, two weeks later, I looked at that toy, and I was like, man, I got to, I got to be worthy of this toy. I better work for this toy. I better show the person who gave this toy to me that I am worthy of this toy that they gave me, so I got to go prove it to them.

And some of you in here know exactly what I'm talking about right now. That's why it's so eerily quiet in this large church right now. Because all of us, there is this part of us that we understand works-based righteousness. Well, why do we understand it? First of all, I think grace is really hard to understand. Just because something is simple to explain does not mean that it is simplistic. Grace is a complicated term.

It is a complicated thing to wrap your mind around that at your absolute worst, God chose you and loves you as much as he can all the time. That is hard. because we all know how we feel about ourselves at times. And we think if I feel this way about myself, how could the sovereign God of the universe who knows the beginning and the end, who's the alpha and the omega,

omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God, know everything about me and still be like, you're my man or you're my girl? That's hard. And the other reason I think that we understand works-based righteousness is because it's the system we live in, right? I mean, from a child of early adolescent to all the way up until death,

we understand I do good, I get good. I do bad, I get bad. I don't do good, I get bad. So all of us in this room, just because of life, it is, we're just in the system. So we actually live in a system that reinforces works-based earning. But I'm going to go a step further.

See, I don't think that we just understand it. I actually think we desire it. You know why I think we desire it? I think we desire it because it gives us a false sense of control. And at the end of the day, here's what all of us want. Control. We all want control. Control makes us feel like we have power.

There's really three areas of control that I see. The first one if you're taking notes is this. We want control of ourselves. Now, I'm not talking about self-control. Self-control is the fruit of the Spirit, and all of us could probably do to have a little bit more self-control. Amen? Like all of us, that's not the type of control that God is talking,

that I'm talking about. The type of control that I'm talking about is the type of control that you can do the right religious things, things or the right spiritual things and somehow that causes you to be able to dictate how your life turns out. You're doing the right things with the wrong heart. You're doing the right things because if I do these, then I can dictate the way that my life turns out. Now, please don't go to weird extremes with me on this, right? Don't be like, well, you mean I can just go like smoke meth and everything is going to be all right? That's not what I'm saying. But I think that for people like us who are

at church on a Sunday morning that we think that there are things at times if we do the right thing spiritually our life will turn out the way that we want it to. Let me give you an example. I actually thought about not sharing this, but I feel like it's a good illustration will help you understand what I'm trying to say.

For some of you, this won't mean anything. For some of you, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about with my story. So I was on staff at a church here in Jacksonville for 17 years. I got saved at that church, kind of came up through the ranks at that church. Went from a middle school youth pastor to an executive pastor to them planting churches in Orlando.

And here's what I thought and what my life was showing me. That my life's trajectory looked like I was going to be the heir in the next lead pastor at this church. I had a great relationship with my senior pastor at the time and he was older than me. And I thought at some point in life, I've been with him now for 17 years. He's going to come to me and say, Josh, I feel like God has called me to take a step. back, it's time for me to retire. Josh, you have been with me for 25 years, whatever, how many years, and now it is time for you to step in and be the lead pastor. That is where my life looked like it was going. And that's what I was kind of preparing for. And I kind of always thought,

I will always be here. Fast forward into 2019. And I am no longer on staff, not by my own doing. I have been ostracized, betrayed, accused of things that were not true. And now all of a sudden I am forced out of the church that I planted out of the organization I've been a part of for 17 years. And all my friends now don't know what to do with me. And guys, I was broken, like deeply broken. Like it took me four years. of deep therapy, two years of antidepressants, and four years of many, many dark nights of the soul with the Lord. And during that four-year season, there was this question I would ask my

counselor, I'd ask my wife, I'd ask the coffin carriers, I'd ask Pastor Justin at the Mandarin campus, I would ask this question, did I do something where I wasn't worthy of this anymore. Like, could I have done something better? Could I have been more religious? Could I have been more spiritual? And could I have done something where my life could have turned out differently? Could I have, should I have not done something else? And so here's the underlying question I'm asking. Could I have met some standard that I had imposed in my mind of spirituality to actually control the outcome of my life? See, sometimes we do spiritual, religious things not out of a place of genuine gratitude for the Lord, but because we then think that we can

control the destination of our entire life. Listen to what it says right here. It says this in James 4, 13 through 15. Look here, you who say today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit. How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like a morning fog. It's here. It's here. It's. It's little while and it's gone. What you ought to say is if the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that. Guys, you can be the most religious person in every room and have the most religious acts of any person in any room. And that does not mean that your life will turn out the way that you think it should. And that's hard. And it's terrifying. So my question is,

is, are you putting yourself back up under the law? Are you doing some righteous things through works because there's a part of you that thinks that it will actually help you be able to control how your life turns out. Can I just challenge you to go back to what James says and just say, man, maybe the thing that we do is say, Lord, if you will it, this is what will happen. It's awkward, oddly quiet up in this big church this morning. So the first one is, is we want control of ourselves. The second one is we want control of others. Now maybe control is not the best way to put that. Maybe the right way to say it is actually we want the acceptance and approval of others. Like I don't think anybody in here woke up this morning and it's Sunday,

I don't care if anybody likes me. Just me and you, Sheila, against the world. Like, I don't think anybody does that. If there's anyone here named Sheila, she's like, I don't understand why he uses my name all the time. I mean, there's a desire for all of us that we want to be accepted and approved of. Do you not think that when I walk out on a stage or anybody walks out on a stage, there's not a human fear of me of, I hope I don't look like an idiot. I hope they like me. I hope that what I say helps that, like, I'm a human. In all of us, we have this desire for acceptance and approval, but sometimes we will do the right thing from the wrong heart, not because we're doing it unto the Lord, but we're doing it so other people will be

impressed by us. We're doing it so people look at us and go, oh, that Pastor Tray Brunson, he's so spiritual. And he's so handsome. When you got it, you got it, brother. Can't help it. But we do it so people take notice of us. Are you doing things right now so other people impressed with you? Are you doing it unto the Lord as gratitude to the Lord? Or are you only doing things so people will notice you for what you do? Do you do things around any of the church staff thinking maybe someone will notice me? Maybe somebody will see me. Maybe Pastor Jobie will pop out of a hallway and go get her done and then go back in. He's morphing to Larry the cable guy in my head for some reason at this moment. But guys, all of us, I'm trying to get

see, this is human nature, because all of us desire to be accepted and approved of. And I just want you to ask, what is driving that thing in your heart? If it's gratitude for the Lord, praise the Lord. If there's something, and you'll know it. You'll know it because when I say it and it hits you, and you go, oh, I don't like that, he said that. That's not me. That's the Holy Spirit convicting your heart. And listen, it's not just us. This is actually in Galatians 2. This is what we see Paul have to confront Peter about. This isn't a new problem. This isn't a 20th century problem. This is something that goes all throughout Scripture.

If you have your Bibles, look with me in Galatians 2, 11 through 13. But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face. For what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers who were not circumcised, but afterward when some friends of Jesus came, Peter wouldn't eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism. From these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision, as a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter's hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

So here's what happens. Peter is hanging out with the Gentiles. the non-Jewish believers who are not circumcised. All of a sudden a bunch of Jewish people show up who are circumcised. And Peter's like, well, man, I don't want these people to look at me wrong. So I'm actually going to go over to the religious people and hang out with them because I don't want to be criticized. Peter's doing something with the wrong heart. He's not doing it because it's the right thing to do.

And it's not even the right thing to do in this moment. He's just so afraid of how people look at him. How are you doing with this? are you doing things unto the Lord or are you doing them because you want to get noticed? If so, let me give you an antidote. Matthew 6, 1 through 4. Watch out. Don't do your good deeds publicly to be admired by others for you will lose your reward from your father in heaven.

When you give to someone in need, don't do as the hypocrites do blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity. I tell you the truth they have received all the reward they will ever get. but when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts and private and your father who sees everything will reward you. Sometimes the best way to serve the Lord, sometimes the way to keep your heart right

is serving the Lord in anonymity. It's doing something and not telling anybody else about it. And saying, God, I am doing this solely out of honor for you, out of effort to love you, not out of earning, but out of effort. control of ourselves, control of others, and the third and final one is this, control of God. I think at the core of all of us, there is a part of us that we want to control God. You ever thought like, man, my life would be awesome if God would consult me about what I thought

sometimes? Like, I've got some really great ideas about my life. You ever spent like an extra long quiet time with the Lord in the morning and gone to work and thought secretly, the Lord is with me today. Have you ever done something screwed up, made a mistake, sin, and then you actually have trouble walking into church because you feel like God is so disappointed with you? You ever thought, if I do this, then God will do this? See what you're looking for is control in all those scenarios.

Let's get super practical. Let's just take the tithe. You know, the Bible says the Lord loves a joyous giver. Malachi 310 says that we were to bring the tithe into the sore house. So there is a biblical principle for it. But when you tithe, do you do it out of joy and out of gratitude? Or you do it and there's something in the back of your mind that thinks, well, the Lord owes me now. So you're searching for control.

I think a lot of you in here know, but I have a severely special needs child. She's the 12th known case in the world. Tracheosomy feeding tube, sleeps on a ventilator at night. For the first seven years of our life, we spoke sign language. And if you have never been disrespected by a child in sign language, it is adorable. You came and get mad. You're like, what do you want? And so the doctor said she would never speak

because her vocal cords weren't strong enough. So one weekend, my wife was out of town and my daughter Riley had a birthday party. She said, hey, I need you to take Riley to this birthday party with these little girls. So I take Riley to a birthday party with little girls. The birthday party's upstairs. So I take Riley, I have a wheelchair carrier upstairs.

I sit Riley on the floor and then I go sit in a corner. And I'm sitting in a corner because even though we spoke sign language, Riley would click at me. She'd go, and I'd look at her, and she would sign, and I would tell all the little girls what she said, and they would talk to Riley, and then Riley would go,

and I'd look at her again. So I was her translator. And I left that party furious at God. You ever been there? You ever been really mad at God? Like, I was furious. And I am, I can remember driving in my car. How does this bring you honor, God?

How does my seven-year-old not being able to speak bring you glory? How can you split the oceans and rise mountains from the earth? But you can't make a little seven-year-old talk. And I, I mean, I'm just, and as you can imagine, I'm very transparent with the Lord. I don't have much of a filter in life, much of the dismay of my, everybody that knows me for that point like so I'm just having it out with the Lord here's a thing can I just say this about that the lord can handle it the Lord's not like no I'm out of here do you know what I mean like the Lord wants you to come to him with who you are and so I just have it out with God fast forward about a year I'm writing a

sermon living in Orlando writing a sermon my daughter is laying on the floor next to her big brother and they're both playing PlayStation 4. And I'm sitting there and I'm writing my sermon. My wife was at Target, of course. We've sent all of Mr. Target's kids to college. I don't know who they are, but they've been on the Turner Scholarship for years. So I'm sitting there and I'm writing my sermon and I start hearing a noise. And I'm like, what in the world is this noise? And I look down at the floor, and Riley, my daughter is covering her trache with the end of her finger, and she's sucking in, and she's making a noise. Now, the doctor told she would never speak. Her vocal cords weren't strong enough. She would never make a sound. She used to cry, and she would cry in complete silence.

So I kind of watch her for a second. I said, hey, Rye, I said, can you cover the end of your, can you cover your trache and blow out and make a sound? So she covers a trache, blows out, and makes a sound. So I put my computer down, I get on the floor, I sit Riley up and I look at her brother, Aiden. I said, hey, Aiden, I go, well, you go get Riley's pass a mirror valve. A passamere valve is a valve that you put on the end of a tracheosomy so that when the patient breathes in, it goes in through the trache, but when she breathes out, it forms a seal, pat making the air go over her vocal cords and out through her mouth and nose. So we put her a passamil valve on her.

I get out my phone and I start filming and I said, can you say mommy? And my daughter spoke for the first time ever. And I call my wife, like I said, she was at Target, and I go, I'm not upset about it, guys. This is why we can't have nice things. So I call her and I'm like, you need to come home right now. At this point, I'm weeping. Aiden, my son's weeping. Riley's looking at it's like, why are you two idiots crying?

talking for seven years. So I call Becca and I'm like, you got to come home. So Becca, so Becca walks in the house. I'm sitting on the couch still a puddle. Riley's in the middle. Aides on this side. He's still sobbing. Becca walks in holding Target bags and I went, you checked out? Like, good Lord woman. I'm not an addiction specialist, but so she walks in. holding the bags, and my daughter looks at her and goes, hey, mommy. All the women went, oh, she drops the bags and goes, hey, baby, and we just all weep uncontrollably. So then I go back to writing my sermon. How many of you know that sermon's going to be a little bit different than it was first supposed to be?

So I sit down, I start writing. but I can't stop thinking about a question. Why like this, Lord? Why like this? Why not when we were in the hospital and people and pastors would come and Pastor Jobi would come and lay hands on her and pray over her? Why not in the worship services? God, why not when we would go get the elders of churches to pray for her?

Why, God, when we were anointing her with oil? Guys, she had so much anointing oil on her for the first part, her life, doctors would walk into her nick you, like little cubicle, and go, wow, what's that smell? I'm like, that's Frankencents and myr, baby. That's that Rosa Sharon, girl. Like, and why like this? Because the only formula I could have made from what happened is that PlayStation 4 brings healing. Like, that's all I could have come up with. And it is messing with me. I'm always very careful when I say I feel like God spoke to me. I don't take those words like lately. And I can remember I'm sitting in this gray chair at our house. And I'm just, I'm like,

God, why like this? Why, out of all the religious, spiritual moments that we have been in with Riley for healing? Why like this? And I felt like the Lord spoke to me. And here's why I felt like the Lord said to me. Because Josh, if I had done it when you were doing anything, you would have made it a formula. And I went well played, Lord, because I would have. You would have seen me on TBN two weeks later selling that thing with a prayer cloth. But you know what the formula would have given me? Control.

It would have given me a false idea of control of God. And then what I would have been doing was telling people, if you want healing, what you've got to do is just do this. See, all of us in here, there is a level of us that we want control. We want to control God. Please hear me when I say this. You cannot domesticate the sovereign God of the universe. So then what's the answer? If all of us struggle with this, and listen, I know I made a few jokes about how quiet it was in here.

That's how you know, either one, you don't like me or two, the Holy Spirit, is moving. Because I think this is human nature. And my hope for this sermon, and I literally got on my knees last night in the hotel praying for you. y'all because I felt like God wanted to do something that only God can do. So, so what do we do? How do we handle this? I want to give you three quick words. The first one is reveal. You ask God to reveal to you the intentions of your heart. Hopefully this morning that I have said things and you have gone, oh, I don't like that. Because what that is is that is not me just saying, something you don't like, that is the Holy Spirit doing something in your heart that you

recognizes in your heart. Thank God for that. Thank God that the Spirit of God is still working in us and he loves us enough to continue to reveal things in us and thank God that He helps us remember that, hey, you actually cannot make me love you any more than I already love you. And you have some things in you that think you can. I want to show you those things so that I can break those things off of you. So reveal. God, please reveal this to me. The second one is repent. Guys, I repent all the time for this.

God, I am constantly going, God, like, I do things, and I think that, like, you are more pleased with me now. Like, you, I have some extra measure of favor. Like, you're up in heaven looking at Jesus being like, Jesus, he did it today. Double portion. Do you know what I mean? God's not holding anything back from you going when you get it right, then I'll give it to you. So when you, when God reveals it to you, thank you, Lord. Thank you for revealing it. God, please forgive me of believing this. God help me to trust your son more, which is the third word, remember.

I don't care how you have to remember. Journals, Bibles, like, whatever you have to do to continually beat this into your brain, that Jesus Christ is the only reason that you and I, are perfect and righteous, that it is your faith in Him, that Jesus Christ fulfilled all the laws that were ever written, and he died righteous, he died holy in your place, and that when you put your faith in Him, God puts the righteousness of Christ on you, and you are now the righteousness of Christ. I don't care what you have to do to remember it. Get tattoos your forehead, I don't care.

Just say what, yeah, maybe not foreheads. You can't come back from that. But you've got to remember it. And for some of you this morning, it starts with Jesus. Please hear me, you can't do it without him. You're not good enough. And nobody is. Nobody is.

There's not one person on this earth right now that God's looking down to heaven going, you know what, Jesus, they're just killing it. They've got it all figured out. The only reason that you and I are able to be who we are to try to not control ourselves, to try not to control others, to try not to control God is because of Jesus, and actually who gives you

the ability to continue to kill these things and your heart is Jesus. And today, this morning, some of you just need to respond to this. Listen, some of you, the Holy Spirit, spoke to you this morning. And I said things and you went, nope, that's me. But for some of you, it starts with Jesus. And I want to give you a chance to you chance to respond. So I'm just going to ask everybody to close your eyes and bow their heads with me.

If you're in here, we're going to do two quick alter calls. If you're in here and you would just say, Josh, God revealed some things to me about some of my intentions today. I've been looking for control. Need to ask for forgiveness and repent. If that's you, I'm going to count to three and I'm asking you to raise your hand. One, two, three, raise them. There are lots of hands. You guys can put those down. Now if you're in here and you're like, Josh, I don't know Jesus. I don't have a relationship with Jesus.

The Bible's clear that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, that we are all sinners in need of a Savior. Jesus Christ is that Savior who fulfilled the law. The Bible says that we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus Christ is the son of God crucified and dead buried resurrected that in that moment we are saved. but as we have been talking about today, not only are you saved,

not only your sin separated from you as far away as the east is from the west, but you are also now the righteousness of Christ. You are made perfect in Christ. And you would say, Josh, today, for the first time ever, I want to commit my life to Jesus Christ and ask him to make me perfect

and to be the savior of my life. If that's you, I'm going to count to three. I'm going to ask you to raise your hand. One, two, three. Raise them. Amen. Quite a few hands in here. Lord, we thank you.

God, we thank you that you are a good God. God, thank you so much that you love us. That you reveal things to us about our hearts, that you don't leave us alone. God, thank you for our ability to repent to come to you. God, thank you that you are the one that makes us righteous and holy, and it is not by our works. God, you're not opposed to effort, but you're opposed to earning it, Lord.

Thank you, God, that we don't have to earn it. thank you that you love us. Thank you that you care for. So God, for every person that raised their hand that you revealed something to them in these next few moments of worship, God, God, as they come to this altar to worship God and to ask for forgiveness, God,

would you just move on their hearts and let them see themselves as you see them? And for every person that committed their lives to your son, Jesus, as their Savior, thank you, Lord, that nobody's life has ever changed by the words of a man, but always through the power of your heart. Holy Spirit and your son Jesus. And God, we pray all these things in His Holy Name. Amen.