Power Surge Part 6 - Control

Okay, guys, these are the things your kids are making.

This is my…

This was made for me.

It says, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with strings and flutes.

Instruments are totally God, but sometimes we have to do without it.

So if you want more of these, feel free to go to the Sunday School.

Okay, so we continue with what we were talking about last week, power surge.

This time we're talking about yielding control.

And power flows when control is yielded, power flows when control is yielded.

When control is not yielded, the power of heaven does not flow easily because when man

begins to control what God can do or how God wants to flow, then it affects the power

surge.

So, to begin with, we must understand that control is an illusion.

Control is an illusion.

Control is an illusion.

You control nothing.

You control nothing.

To control is to have power over.

I have power over nothing.

I can't even have power over my breath, power over my heart.

I have power over nothing.

I have power over nothing.

Control is an illusion.

When I try to control and then you come and interrupt it, it just spins my life out of

control.

Everything is going well till you interrupt, the circumstances interrupt, or a leak in

your fuel tank interrupts, or a leak in your tire interrupts.

And then everything goes haywire.

Why?

Because for some strange reason, ever since the fall, one of the things we have desperately

tried to do is control.

Idolatry is a result of trying to control God.

Control is an illusion.

I don't know why it doesn't set deep in my heart that I control nothing.

Because everybody sitting in this room, we are all control freaks.

We are control freaks.

We try to control different aspects of our life.

We disguise control as being organized, being systematic, planning for tomorrow.

And our favorite scripture to go to is look at the ant.

It really works hard.

And so I've got to be like the ant.

That's the only time you want to be like an ant, eh?

Most of the other times we go for bigger animals.

And so any questions on that, control is an illusion.

You do not control tomorrow, you control nothing.

You don't control your relationships even.

You can't even control your breath.

I can't even control the words that come out of my mouth next.

Unless I'm reading my notes.

You can renew your thoughts, but you will be bombarded by thoughts from the outside.

Like if Nick turned to you and said, hey, Dilna, slap me.

The thought is introduced.

Try it, Nick.

Nick is scared that he might actually do it.

But because I tried this with someone, I went up to them and I said slap me.

Tried it five times at work.

The sixth time I tried it with someone, the guy actually slapped me.

He completely lost the point of the exercise.

I was trying to show him that thoughts can be introduced, but you don't have to respond

to the thought.

So you can't control the influx of thoughts, but you can control the response to a thought.

You can control response to the thought.

So control is an illusion.

To have power over anything is an illusion.

And so to live a God life, and please understand, if you don't think you're controlling, ask

your best friend or ask your spouse.

Ask your best friend or ask your spouse.

And I'm not talking about you controlling them.

I'm talking about you being controlling in terms of life.

Yeah, in terms of life.

And if talking about it bothers you, then know that it perhaps is harder than you initially

thought.

I don't even want to look at anyone in particular because you'll think I'm looking at you,

but I'm not.

You can look back at me.

That's a whole lot of eyes looking back at me.

Trust me, I got control issues.

And it's not so much controlling you, it's controlling things in my life.

Control is an illusion, and illusion is a bad thing if you make that your reality.

Yeah, so what happens when we talk about certain issues like that?

I'm not trying to argue with what Mark is saying.

I'm saying whenever we talk about these issues, yes, there's always things that need to be

held in tension.

But our problem is not the boundaries.

Our problem is control.

The boundaries should be there.

But our problem is usually not the boundaries.

Our problem is usually control.

We like controlling things.

Pardon?

That's the rest of the sermon.

So the boundaries we'll have, and it's good to have boundaries.

But the control is different.

The control is the things that you think you can set in your life so that nothing is disturbed,

and it's a falsehood.

The more controlling you are, the easier you are to frustrate.

The more controlling you are, the easier you are to frustrate.

Because all I have to do is move one of those things that you've lined up out.

It'll send your whole day out.

That's all I have to do.

I mean, you should try it.

Go to someone's house, and if they have a whole set of paintings on the wall, go touch

one and leave it a little crooked and see how long before the person comes and puts

it right.

Yeah?

Don't do it in my house, eh?

So to live a God life, to live a God life, I must lose control.

To live a God life, I must lose control.

To live a God life, I must lose control.

And God is always inviting you, God is always inviting you to yield control.

God is always inviting you to yield control.

What does yielding control mean?

An active surrender.

Imagine that for a second day, he's always inviting, always inviting you to yield control.

Why?

Because it is the only way that he can work himself into your life and he can work through

your life.

Hear me.

As long as I am controlling, as long as I decide what enters my life, what should be

set up in my life, what leaves my life, God is limited.

So be it in your marriage, be it in your home, be it in your finances, be it during a time

of worship, be it during any situation because there's no situation God is not involved in.

No situation.

He's involved in sin too.

As in he steps into your sin too, there's no situation that he's not involved in and

therefore if I do not yield control, I must realize he's always inviting, come Jacob,

can you yield this area?

Can you not hold it so tightly?

Can you not stop allowing people to interrupt, come into this area?

And so what does it do when you yield control?

The first thing that happens, which is why we don't, it messes that.

Which is set.

It affects my life.

It triggers or provokes old security and identity issues.

It affects my life.

It messes up my life first.

When I yield control, it messes up my life.

So who wants to have their lives messed up?

Nobody.

But God does that.

There's no reshaping of a vase till the clay is kneaded.

K-N-E-A-D-E-D again.

There's no reshaping.

To put you back on the potter's wheel requires a yielding of control.

It messes up your life that is set.

It affects my life.

It removes the degree of control that I exert over it.

And we'll see as you go further, you'll see how critical this is if you're born again.

And the third one is, it triggers or provokes old security and identity issues.

Because most of us have ended up being controlling because of the environment and the background

we grew up in.

Because of something that was lost, now you will do everything in your power to protect

it from ever being lost again.

Because of something that you saw affecting your parents or affecting your child or affecting

your present, past and future, you decide this, this I have to keep safe.

And here's the thing with control.

You cannot put these words together.

Control.

Trust.

They don't go together.

Oil and water.

You cannot put these words together.

They're diametrically opposed to each other.

Any questions?

Some guys are smart.

They work around this in a very Christian way by saying, oh I don't control, I just

trust everything to the sovereignty of God.

That's as absurd, eh?

Trust requires relationship.

Sovereignty of God and just surrendering everything to the sovereignty of God doesn't

require any relationship.

Just be careful of that.

You'll find hundreds of them in Christian churches, inspirational speakers, teachers,

they'll come and say, oh, just, I just give everything over to the sovereignty of God.

That's like saying, I don't know what my wife's favorite color is, what her favorite food

is, whether she likes a Dyson or a Hoover, I have no idea.

Trust requires relationship.

And it is impossible to enter into a meaningful intimate relationship unless control begins

to dissolve.

The more control dissolves, the more intimate you get.

It's crazy.

You can ask newlyweds.

One of the hardest things for newlyweds is to find out the day after they get married

that they don't have as much control as they had the night before.

Suddenly it evaporates, poof.

That's the sound you hear, the poof.

And every day for the first three years, the poof just keeps getting louder.

By the thousandth day, it's like poof.

That's what happens.

Why?

Because you realize that all the autonomy you had, all the control you had is now gone.

And you can't even take it back because you actually love her.

The more you love somebody, the less you're in control.

The more you're in control, the less you will love somebody.

Let me say that again.

The more you love somebody, the less you're in control.

The more you're in control, the less you actually love somebody.

The more you love somebody, the less you're in control.

The less...

The more you love somebody, the less you are in control.

The more you are in control, the less you love somebody.

Take this from your spouse, to your child, to the church, to Christ himself.

Nope, I'm saying giving up control in everything including God.

No it's not.

The sovereignty of God is something that God is, but it does not, the sovereignty of God

is not what I want a relationship with.

I want a relationship with God who is sovereign.

Yeah just remember that guys, we don't want a relationship with the sovereignty of God we won't a relationship with the God who is sovereign.

He does what He wants, His very Name.

Is I AM SOVERANT.

I want a relationship with a God who is sovereign.

I do not want a relationship with the sovereignty of God.

And when you have a relationship with a God who is sovereign, you actually begin to trust his sovereignty.

But sometimes, guys, control has become so much an issue in my life that I will need prayer, I will need deliverance, I will need counseling, I will need help.

And it's completely okay to get that.

Don't shy away from it.

Some things in my life have developed into such a strong habit of control, I need help.

Sometimes control doesn't go away till I bring it into the open.

The things that we control most are the things that are hidden most.

Let me say that again.

The things that we control most, the only ones who know that are the ones that are sleeping in our bed or who feed us or take care of us.

Nobody else knows it.

So in that sense, the more, yeah.

It's such an, as I speak about it, recognize the wickedness of it.

It affects everything.

It affects everything.

Must take a hammer to it and slowly destroy it every day.

It has been built in my life over 58 years.

It does not fall with one hammer blow.

Do you know, Betty once spoke about this, I think.

It took 800,000 blows to bring down the Berlin Wall.

800,000 blows.

They kept hammering away at it and then the wall began to collapse.

Hopefully those kind of walls don't exist in your life because we'll have to wait really long.

Sometimes it's easier if you hang yourself upside down.

Blood flows to your head and your thinking clears.

Yielding control, don't try it at home.

It's only done by professionals.

Yielding control is evidence of growing relationship in intimacy.

And it has huge rewards.

At any level, be it with your child, be it a child with his parent, teacher with his student, spouse, God.

It's one of the signs of maturity in a relationship is the yielding of control and the growing in intimacy.

One does not happen without the other.

As I yield control, it becomes easy to be intimate.

This is why Jesus says in Ephesians, not in Ephesians, Paul, I don't remember where he writes it.

He says, hey, understand something that your body belongs to your spouse.

That's the yielding of control.

Yeah, but that's understood, guys.

I mean, I understand why Diana is adding the caveat, but you have to hold it in tension.

A message like this cannot address every issue that exists on earth.

But yeah, I don't expect us to be continuously exploited by an abusive person.

Surprisingly, in Christianity, initially when it happens, I'm supposed to forgive and then learn how to behave.

So in a teaching like this, I will not be able to cover every area where sometimes control needs to be exerted.

So just be aware of that.

So that's my caveat.

Yeah.

So intimacy in relationship is impossible without yielding control.

And if you're not married, one of the things you have to quickly begin to come to grips with is that you don't have to get over it.

You have to hold to be controlling.

Young people have controlling issues.

Abhishek has control.

Vignesh has control.

Ashish has control.

Evan has control.

Chava has control.

These are all young guys in their 25s and 30s, and they're already controlling.

And your marriages become so much easier if you're able to begin to chip away at it.

And what your spouse then gets is a person who will be readily intimate.

And intimacy, I'm not talking about sexual intimacy.

I'm just talking about emotional, relational intimacy first.

So you don't have to get old for this.

And those of us who are older and who are married are quickly realizing, my God, why didn't Jacob preach this 20 years ago?

Sorry, can you say that again, Dilla?

Can you rephrase the question?

You didn't rephrase the question. You repeated it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I get it.

Guys, there's a difference between yielding.

Oh, repeat the question.

The question is, where do you draw the line between yielding of control and indifference?

And so, guys, yielding is different from club compliance and is different from indifference.

Yielding is a deliberate act of love and willingness for the sake of another.

Compliance or indifference is either forced or and is rarely an act of love or for the sake of other.

It's usually the result of, I don't want the hassle. My rags will yield.

You'll hear husbands sometimes say, my rags will give in. It'll be less of a hassle.

That's indifference sometimes. Compliance eventually leads to indifference.

One of the things that we should always remember in marriages or in any relationships is your relationship should not be one where all the furniture in your house has rounded edges.

It should have sharp edges.

When a house or when a relationship has furniture that is just full of rounded things, rounded furniture with no sharp edges, what it means is you have learned the skill of avoiding any kind of confrontation, and it goes into compliance and indifference.

Once it reaches indifference, it's only a matter of time before the volcano blows.

Most relationships, especially when you start a relationship, should have sharp edges.

You should bump into each other and scrape your knee, and then argue about it, and then go, oh, look at that owie and put a thing on it.

But go through the argument first. Relationships that only have rounded furniture are relationships that are not true. They're dishonest relationships.

They're dishonest relationships, and they don't prosper.

And so when we're talking about yielding, yielding is always a deliberate act of love and willingness for the sake of another.

That's when I yield. So when God asks for yielding, he doesn't want compulsive, he does not want compulsion to cause you to yield.

He does not even want rewards to cause you to yield. He wants an act of the will.

That's how the Father, that's how Jesus yielded to the Father's will. Not my will, but yours be done.

That's a yielding. It's an act of love for two, one for the Father, one for you.

That was the act of yielding. But here's indifference or compliance. Indifference was Cain. What is it to me?

What is it to me? You're your brother's keeper, but Cain's attitude was indifference.

Compliance is when people do things, but it's not out of love. It's force.

There's either covert force or brazen force.

And it's strange, in a home where children are controlled, two things will happen.

Either they become controlling or they become compliant.

Always remember that, eh? In any home or any church for that matter,

if I am controlling, then this church will only have two reactions.

Either you will then control in the future and rebel, or you will be compliant and be docile.

Both are terrible options.

Because this, it just spawns the same thing for years on end. Spawns it.

Losing control allows God to help himself to more of my life.

Losing control allows God to help himself to more of my life.

Isn't that beautiful?

Losing control allows God to help himself to more of my life.

And that's when you now discover him.

As long as I control his input and output of my life, there's only so much he can do.

It's not that he can't change that.

Every so often, when a person controls their lives, God sends a wave that will not destroy you.

God will send a wave that will unhook you from the mooring that you have tied yourself to.

And he will set you afloat on his mercy and grace so that your eyes open and you discover him afresh.

When I tie myself to a certain thing saying, I am going to control this aspect of my life, oh God,

doesn't matter how many prophetic words I've received, how many promises I've received,

how many things you've told me will happen, how many responsibilities you've given me,

how much authority you've given me, I've tied myself to this thing, this thing you cannot touch.

And he let it be, he let it be because he's always inviting me every day.

But a day comes when because he is fond of me and I'm his son and he wants me to conform to the image of the stature of Christ,

what he does is he'll send a wave.

And that wave will not destroy my life, but my God, it'll rip that thing that I have so controlled.

And he'll set me afloat on his grace so that my eyes open to, oh shucks, there's an ocean out there and I am okay.

Now when we talk about God, he doesn't clinically divide us into body, soul and spirit.

He means loss both in terms of, I mean every time I am willing to yield control,

everything in me is affected, the way I think, the way I relate, my emotions, my spiritual being, my physical body,

everything is set free.

Part of salvation is the end of self-determination and control and the yielding of oneself to the true God and creator.

It's a magnificent thing when we talk about freedom.

That is what freedom looks like.

But who experiences it, eh?

Guys, we don't want to die like this.

We want to get better.

If you're young, don't think you can solve this later.

If you're old, don't think this is too late.

We're talking about God who can change in a second.

The change can begin in a second.

I want to destroy control in my life.

Because can you imagine what will happen when losing control allows God to help himself to more of my life?

John 3.8.

How is John 3.8 even possible without the loss of control in my life?

John 3.8 says that just like you do not know where the wind is coming from and where it is going,

so is one who is born of the Spirit.

Do you know what that means then?

It means that just like you and I cannot control the wind,

we don't know where it's coming from, we don't even know which direction it is going in.

So is anyone who is born of the Spirit.

Anyone who has received Christ into their lives.

You.

And God is saying, my expectation of you Diana, my expectation of you Dilna, my expectation of you Mike,

my expectation of you Rachel is that you will be like the wind.

You don't know where it's coming from, you don't know where it's going.

Can you be like that?

Because that is your nature.

You're born of the Spirit.

And then you realize how we've captured the wind and put it in our hands.

We've captured the wind and put it in a wind tunnel and locked it in.

And we let it go to and fro within that wind tunnel.

And control is releasing it.

All of us have this problem.

Please, I'm not preaching to you.

I just want it to bother us.

Where do we start?

Start with he's a good, affectionate, responsible father.

Start with he's a good, affectionate, responsible father.

Because it's okay to yield to him.

You know, it's so easy to yield to someone you love, eh?

When you know somebody loves you, you find it easy to yield to them because you know no harm will come.

But our problem is we don't necessarily think of him as that loving.

Therefore, it's hard to yield to him.

That's where we start.

I can yield control in my life in areas to my mom, to my sister, to guys like Derek.

I can name a few more, but then I don't know who I'll miss out on.

You might think you're on my speed dial and what if you find out you're not.

So leave that one and just stop with Derek.

So I can yield control to them.

I can be a little more shameless, a little more unaffected by how they think of me.

You only do that with the ones that you love.

And so where do we start this process of losing control?

But first, going to a God who is a responsible, good, strong, affectionate father.

Therein lies our biggest hassle.

And that is why one of the coolest tricks in the world is the one that Satan spins to convince you that he is not like that.

And what does he use to convince you of that? Circumstances. Circumstances.

Do you know how many people would serve God passionately if you removed from their lives the two problems that they're continuously dealing with every year?

Just imagine, remove from your life the two things that you have now spent, I have now spent years dealing with.

You would be free to serve him.

One of those two things, they're pretty minor sometimes, even though they're major in our lives, they're minor in the context of eternity.

Minor not in seriousness, but minor in the context of eternity.

They're two blips, you remove them and you'll be free to serve him.

And he's willing to do that.

I know you struggle with it, I know I struggle with it, but every day I wake up knowing he can remove it.

One of the gifts God has given us is new day.

We are in the second half of this year.

I went to bed late on May 31st saying, tomorrow I'll get to the second half of this year.

Kind of hit it running, wrote down the things that I have to pay attention on too in the second half of the year.

It's a gift that's given to us every day, a new day.

We get brand new starts, brand new mercy, brand new grace, brand new power with our past erased.

The guilt and the condemnation erased.

He will work with the mistakes I made yesterday, but he does not hold them.

So the first step is to start thinking of him differently because you can only yield to one you think loves you.

Why would you yield to a God who you think is controlling?

A controlling God is an ogre, a nasty guy.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons and all three of them are one in nature and their nature is not controlling.

So where do you go first when you want to yield control?

To recognizing the nature of the Father.

That's where you go first.

To yield control go beyond your individuality.

To yield control go beyond your individuality.

To yield control go beyond your individuality.

To yield control Yields to others.

Without yield control yloads to all creatures.

Without Yields to Finders.

Go beyond your individuality.

To yield control, go beyond your individuality.

How do you define individuality?

I belong to myself.

Or I belong to me.

I belong to me.

Go beyond your individuality.

I belong to me.

Because individuality is independent.

And self-assertive.

Self-assertive.

And the more I assert,

the more I assert it,

the more I control.

The more I control my life and lives.

And it hinders growth.

This is an upside down religion, guys.

Everybody encourages individuality.

Be an individual.

You have this, you have that.

And here is Christ saying,

No, that's not the way I teach you.

Go beyond your individuality.

You do not belong to me.

I should stop thinking I belong to me.

That's the whole individuality thing.

No.

Because the more I think that, the more assertive I am.

The more assertive I am,

the more independent I am,

the more I will control because

you must not get into my circle of independence.

Teach your children this early.

It's fascinating I hear children go,

My, my mama, my dada, my car, my plane.

Any questions on this?

Whatever you lay down will come back to you stronger in Christianity.

Anything you lay down is returned to you in original mint condition, much stronger.

The exchange is continuously happening.

Lay down Ishmael,

and you will both receive Isaac,

and you will, Ishmael will be taken care of.

Send that which is of the slave woman to the desert,

and you will receive the promise.

And the slave woman's son will also be taken care of.

Every time someone lays something down,

God takes it, shapes it, returns it saying,

Hey, you laid this down, it is pretty ugly, distorted,

made of clay from the world,

let me now return it to you with hands that shaped it in heaven.

And he gives it back to you, and you begin to think,

Ah shucks, it's come back to me but it's so much richer.

Go beyond individuality.

Go beyond natural life.

Go beyond natural life.

If you want to lose control, go beyond natural life.

As in, there are a lot of things that are right, that are good in our lives.

But God says go beyond that because the natural life will resist

the demands of the Son of God.

What do you mean?

Luke 9, you see that.

It was natural life requires that people,

that people who are not born in the world,

natural life requires that people find good places to stay in.

And Jesus is saying to them,

Foxes of holes, birds of nests,

where the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

Luke 9, 52 onwards.

The natural life says,

Let me wait till my dad is buried.

What he was trying to say is,

My dad's not dead yet, I'm going to get an inheritance.

Once I get the inheritance, I'll bury my dad and I'll follow you.

Jesus says,

That might be how the world lives, but that's not the way you're supposed to live.

Matthew 26, verse 17, not thereabouts in the message.

Matthew 26:17

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

The message puts it as,

You know, your heart is ready,

but you love being lazy like a dog by the fireplace.

That's natural life.

Go beyond natural life.

We like controlling the things that we love and we take comfort in,

but every so often, God will demand things that do not fit in with your natural life.

And when he does, have the ability to get up, dust yourself off and say,

I hate this, but I will do it.

As I do it, help me to love it.

The natural life dislikes prayer time.

The natural life doesn't like reading the Bible.

This is why all of us struggle with the discipline of reading the Bible and prayer.

So blooming hard, right?

The natural life hates coming out during winter all the way to Burnaby for a one-hour service.

The natural life knows that you should be on time, but you can still afford to be late.

And so go beyond natural life because the natural life tries to control things.

You seem to be struggling because they won't let you stay in touch.

So is it wrong to actually set up with God?

At one point in Isaiah 42, God says, come and reason with me, argue with me, tell me your side of it.

And so one of the things we have to do when you think of someone who went and became a missionary

and lost the opportunity to spend time with their children and their children now have gone astray,

or when you think of someone who made a rash decision and squandered all their wealth

on a project that they thought was God or that they thought was Christian and it all went away.

Or when you see someone who's messed up their lives because of some of the decisions they've taken, take it to God.

You're not saying, oh God, I will not because this has happened.

You'll say, what about this father?

I am so blooming scared every time I look at their lives I'm reminded of how miserable they are.

Have conversations with him, argue.

It is in conversations that hearts are shaped and formed.

Please understand that.

One of the things God loves doing is forming and shaping our hearts.

How do you form and shape hearts? Through words.

Hear me again. This is critical.

God loves shaping and forming our hearts.

How does he form and shape our hearts? Through words.

He's already given a book, sixty-six books in that book.

He's already using words.

And then he begins to have conversations with you.

It's in the process of conversation that my heart begins to shift.

And he knows the right thing to say at the right time.

One little word and it changes you. It takes your fear away.

One little word and it becomes a shield to protect your heart from hurt.

One little word and it gives you the boldness to go and do something that you failed at last time.

One little word and years of being hopeless is changed to hope.

This God uses words. He used words in Genesis 1.

He uses words in Revelation 22.

Come Lord Jesus. He's still using words.

What do you think was happening with Mary?

He was forming her heart. He was forming her heart.

Please have conversations.

And please let your conversations be ridiculously real.

Part of our religion is the inability to have honest conversations.

Part of religion is two things.

One, an inability to have conversations.

Two, only to have conversations that sound godly.

None of us would dare write any of those Psalms David wrote.

And then I say to God my rock, have you forgotten me?

Why must I go mourning, oppressed by enemies?

My bones, they suffer agony as I wait for you.

And I hear the mocking of people saying, where is that God of yours?

But why are you so sad my soul? Why so distressed within me?

Put your hope in God for I will yet praise him.

My King and my Lord, raw.

But in the process this man's heart is being formed in the wilderness.

Go beyond your natural life.

Because the demands of the son of God will be resisted by your natural life.

Your natural life wants security.

Your natural life wants to keep the money you have.

These are natural things. They are not bad things.

Please understand they are not bad things.

But there will be occasions when the son of God will demand things that your natural life will resist.

At those times get up and say, no, I will not let my natural life control what I do for him.

It's a decision. Don't be afraid of making the decision.

When you make the decision, God says, aha, there's someone.

And I know their situation. I know their context. I know they have children. I know they have jobs. I know all that.

They think that because they made the decision, I'm going to send them to Timbuktu for the next four years and put them in prison there.

That's not how he's thinking. He's a father.

He's thinking, gosh, such a yielded heart. Great.

Whenever I need, I'll know their context and I'll pick for them a project that is going to stretch them or will not do them any harm.

That confidence that a child has in its parent.

Go beyond your personality. Go beyond your personality.

Beyond your individuality, beyond your natural life, beyond your personality.

How do we define personality?

We said individuality was, I belong to me.

Personality is, this is the me I belong to.

If individuality was, I belong to me.

Personality is, this is the me I belong to.

And whether you like it or not, this is what you get.

Hey, I like, I shoot from the hip.

What you see is what you get.

What you don't realize is what we see is pretty ugly.

But unfortunately that's what you have decided we will get.

Beyond your personality.

Beyond your personality, go beyond your personality.

The chief aim of our flawed personalities, the chief aim of our flawed personalities

is control.

This is who I am, there's nothing else.

I'm just expressive, I can't help it.

No I'm just quiet, I'm an introvert, I don't want to meet anybody, I can't help it.

Bah humbug.

Pardon?

Control.

The chief aim of our flawed personalities is control.

The chief aim of a godly personality is to serve others in love.

The chief aim of a godly personality is to serve others in love.

Jesus had a personality.

Jesus had a personality.

He loved the mountains.

He didn't go sit under a tree when he wanted to pray, he didn't go sit by a lake, he usually

went up a mountain.

Jesus had a personality, it suited a carpenter.

You would have liked him.

Why?

Because it doesn't matter that you weren't his type, his personality was such that it

was made to serve you in love.

Paul found this out and he said I will be all things to all men.

And the last one if you want to lose control is go beyond securing tomorrow.

Go beyond securing tomorrow.

Again, like Diana was saying, there are caveats to all this.

You mean we shouldn't care about tomorrow?

Shouldn't we plan for tomorrow so that children have an inheritance?

Yes, all those things are true.

But our problem is not so much that, our problem is my god we are desperate to make sure that

tomorrow is secure.

And in the process of trying to make tomorrow secure, we control.

Go beyond securing tomorrow.

What does that require?

That requires sustained reckless.

Let's just not use the word sustained faith.

Sustained faith.

What does sustained faith do?

It rests in whatever god tells you to do.

It rests not in tomorrow, it rests in whatever god tells you to do.

Sustained faith, how do you define it?

Sustained faith does not rest in tomorrow, it rests in whatever god is asking you to

do.

Period.

That's sustained faith.

And when you fail, you get up and you start again.

Why?

Because every day we get a new start.

Every day.

What should you do at night if you've had a miserable day and you failed?

Clean your plate.

Put it in the dishwasher.

Unlike Aaron, make sure you turn the dishwasher on.

But put it in the dishwasher.

Can Aaron hear me?

He's not here, right?

Too bad.

Yeah.

He can hear you though.

Okay.

Yeah.

But one of the things I do if I have a really miserable day is I don't want to take it through

the night into the next day.

It's too much work in the morning.

I want to put it in the dishwasher tonight.

If that means staying up a little longer, so be it.

But tomorrow I get a fresh new start, man.

As that means waking up at 2.30 because I fell asleep halfway through the dishwashing

cycle.

I'll get up at 2.30 and I'll walk around a little in the dark, throw some water on my

face, get ready for the next morning is coming and I get a brand new sun to start afresh.

This is the joy of living for Christ.

Things are actually taken care of and we get a brand new day.

It doesn't mean yesterday's problem has gone away, but I get a brand new start at it.

The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning.

Occasionally you get, I mean if you try, yeah.

I once saw two sunrises.

It was so much fun.

I saw the sunrise and I went to sleep and I got up again and the sunrise was still there.

Oh, I was flying.

Any questions?

When we try securing tomorrow, it results in controlled outcomes.

You know someone sent me offerings in crypto.

It's a new way of sending offerings.

It's a very cool way.

So they send me offerings in crypto and so I'm trying to control the outcome now.

I received offerings.

It's worth a certain amount, but I'm sitting thinking maybe tomorrow it will go up and

then if it goes up, I'll get more offerings.

Now it's not about offerings.

It's sheer greed.

And so it went up.

I said praise the Lord.

And then before I could do anything, it went down.

This is how we try securing the future.

It's so pointless.

It's an illusion.

I even set an alarm saying when it reaches 0.75, the alarm will go off.

The alarm went off.

I didn't even hear it.

So this is so pointless.

Trying to secure the future is like being in the stock market.

If you think you have any control over it, it's absurd.

The only thing you control is what you can give somebody else.

The only thing you control is what you can give somebody else.

The only thing you can control is what you give.

Crazy.

The only thing that God allows humans to control is what we can give.

But a person who, if I'm someone who tries to control life, you will find that my giving

will be constricted too because I don't live like that.

How can one live generously if one is controlling?

There are two realms, guys.

In John chapter 3, verse 5 to 8.

John 3:5–8

There are two realms.

John chapter 3, verse 5 to 8.

John 3:5–8

Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is

born of water and the Spirit.

Flesh gives birth to flesh, Spirit gives birth to spirit.

Flesh, Spirit.

Spirit.

There are two realms and each produces after its kind.

So you either get things every day that's born of the Spirit or you get things that

are born of the flesh.

And here's where Galatians 6, 6, 6, 6 kicks in.

Those that sow in the flesh will reap decay.

Those that sow in the Spirit will reap life.

This is constantly happening.

Some of the sowing is done with our tongue.

The tongue is the spade that we use to sow seeds.

The words we speak do matter.

So Galatians 6, 6 says, some of us sow to the flesh and it produces.

So my attempt, I mean can you imagine this for a second, guys, if what I did in terms

of Acts 29, what I did with you, what I did in terms of teaching, in worship was coming

from my flesh, where it was to exalt the church, exalt myself, exalt who we are, that it was

from the flesh.

You know what I would be sowing into your life?

Just decay.

That's all.

Every act of mind always falls into two categories, either the flesh or the Spirit.

And there is no neutral ground.

When I'm sleeping I'm going to say the word, Yudhikas.

Okay they woke up.

Alright, so you either sow to the flesh or you sow to the Spirit.

And constantly doing this.

What if you could get four hours in a day where you sow to the Spirit?

You know what you'll reap?

Zoe life, as in the kind of life that God gives.

Who's reaping this?

Depends on who you're sowing into.

If you sow into yourself, it'll produce that.

If you sow into Thuani, it'll produce the same thing.

It's beautiful.

And then he goes on to say, I want you to know that since Chava, you are born of the

Spirit, you are like the wind.

You don't know where it's coming from.

You don't know where it's going.

You know what that means?

That at any moment, God should be able to pick on Dilna or pick on Chava or pick on

Derek and say, Hey, want you to flow that way?

And Dilna and Chava and Derek, knowing that God knows their context and will not make

absurd demands, begin to flow in that route.

And then suddenly while they're going there, the wind changes direction and they have to

go here.

One of the things with people born of the Spirit is that the world will misunderstand

you.

Your closest family will misunderstand you.

It happened with Jesus.

It will happen with you also.

If you don't want that, then don't get born again.

But it's too late.

So now behave according to your kind.

One who is born of the Spirit, he knows his source.

It's not like he doesn't know where he comes from.

John 13.3, Jesus knew where he was coming from.

Think of a homing pigeon.

The homing pigeon is let go, takes this message and it's flying to a certain direction.

But if the wind changes, it goes this way, it goes this way, but it knows where it has

to return.

We know who we belong to, but how he senses where he senses us should be something that

we so easily accept.

God is the open door to adventures in God.

And a God who is not adventurous is a God not worth following.

And your God is adventurous.

Your God is not a stale God.

But to experience the adventure of God, you have to be born of the Spirit.

And you are.

And therefore, be like the wind.

Do you know the Nepal trip that I was talking about?

I just want to share this with you.

I'll send you the picture, see if you can put it on the screen.

So I'm debating, am I going to Nepal because what's his name?

What's your name?

Brandon.

Yeah.

Am I going to Nepal because I have to set things for Brandon or is there a greater reason

if there's setting things up for Brandon for the future, then I can go another time.

But I sense God saying, no Jacob, I want you to go to Nepal.

I want you to go to Nepal.

And I don't know why.

I don't know anybody there.

And so because of the sense that you should go to Nepal, I'm keeping my days open.

I'm keeping my days free.

I'm not committing to anything because what if this is true?

And then two days before I thought I should go, I haven't booked my ticket.

I'm standing at Staples and there's a guy in front of me talking to this sales guy called Rohit.

And so he's talking to Rohit and he says, oh, you must be from India.

And Rohit replies, no, I'm from Nepal.

And then he says, you should go to Nepal.

Then he's talking to the guy in front of me.

I'm right behind him and I'm listening to this whole thing.

You should go to Nepal.

Nepal is a good place to go to.

Nepal will receive you well.

You are welcome in Nepal.

I'm standing there thinking, how?

He's talking to the guy in front of me, but I'm hearing everything.

And then I send Brandon the picture.

And then it's my turn.

And as I go up to him, he walks away.

But as he's walking away, I see his t-shirt.

And his t-shirt says, this is your sign.

And then I say, okay, go book your ticket.

It doesn't matter whether he sends you climbing Mount Everest or whether it's just for a quick trip.

You go.

This is a picture I see.

It's a staples shirt, I believe.

This is your sign.

Is this the way God leads always?

No.

Sometimes he doesn't give you any sign.

He just says, do you think it's me?

Go.

The point is not that we have to go to Nepal.

Please understand that.

The point is very simple.

Can I be like the wind?

The point is very simple.

Can I be like the wind, directed by him to go wherever and to change directions?

To change directions?

To be misunderstood?

That the world will be hostile to this kind of living.

But you are born of the Spirit.

God will not put you through...

Please, one of the things every time I speak like this, people think, oh my God, I don't want to do this.

Because if I do this, then God will send me something.

He's not like that.

Do you do that to your children?

When your kid comes up and says, Dad, Mom, when I grow big, I want to earn so much money that you will be rich forever.

Do you immediately send him to a sweatshop and start making him make t-shirts so that you get rich right now?

No, you don't.

Why?

Because you know that the child has yielded.

Now it's only a matter of time.

God is like that.

But he wants that heart.

And once he has that heart, he can do whatever he wants with it.

I'll conclude because we are 6'15".

Romans 8, 14.

To be born of the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit.

To be born of the Spirit is to participate in the privilege of making all things new.

You cannot explain where you're going, where you're coming, why you change direction.

But others see the effect.

Others see the effect.

How do you know the wind went through this area?

You see the effect.

What happened in Acts 2, verse 2?

Acts 2:2

Sound of a rushing wind.

People heard the effect.

They saw the effect.

When the Spirit of God is using you this way, people around you will be affected.

The environment will be affected.

Guaranteed.

Why?

Because it's the work of the Spirit through you.

Who are you?

You're a body.

What is he doing with you?

Using your body.

To do what?

Whatever he wants.

Eddie, who used to come here frequently ages ago, would say,

This body is not who I am.

This body just tells me where I am.

It's like a vessel that God uses to go different places.

It doesn't tell me who I am.

It doesn't tell me I'm brown or I'm Indian or I'm a lean, mean fighting machine.

It doesn't tell me all that.

But...

What?

Mark, talk to your friend.

It doesn't tell me all that.

It just tells me where I am.

And then tomorrow, it could be somewhere else, like the wind.

Last thought.

Ezekiel 37, verse 1 to 6.

Ezekiel 37:1–6

Ezekiel 37, verse 1 to 6.

Ezekiel 37:1–6

It talks about how there was water that began to flow from under the throne,

and then every 1,750 feet, it would begin to become higher and higher until it became a river.

Guys, here's the odd thing.

In verse 6, Ezekiel 37, verse 6, look at what it says.

Ezekiel 37:6

God says to Ezekiel, do you see what is happening here?

Can you look at what's happening here?

And what is God pointing to?

It's odd.

If this was the throne, the water that comes out from the throne is the water that comes out of this.

That's all the water that's coming out.

Just enough to wet your hand.

It's like the mouth of a bottle.

That's all the water that's coming out.

It's like the mouth of a bottle.

That's all the water that's coming.

But as it goes, a strange thing begins to happen.

There are no tributaries pouring into the river, into this little trickle.

There's no extra water coming from anywhere.

But as it goes further and further from the throne,

the spring of water that is as small as that which comes from the mouth of the bottle becomes a river.

How?

That's what God is saying to Ezekiel in verse 6.

Ezekiel, do you see what's happening?

Look, do you see what's happening?

That every time you stay connected to the throne and yield yourself to it and go out miraculously,

the amount of water that flows through you will increase like crazy.

The further you go out, the greater the increase.

That's why a church that wants the Holy Spirit for itself is a church that will see tiny little trickles

and will want to fall down or speak in tongues, and that's about it.

The experience of the enormity of God the Holy Spirit is only experienced in outward movement.

And if you don't, you and I will be like David's men or Gideon's men who could not make the longer journey

but had to sit down while others had the adventure.

It'd be a shame to miss out.

Outward movement.

It doesn't matter how old you are.

My God, I get scared when people get old and say they can't go because they're old.

I get scared when people say I don't have the money to go.

God isn't sending you somewhere where you need money.

God is sending you somewhere far enough to do something crazy enough

so that the amount of water that flows in the river of the Spirit through you is so huge

that something dramatic happens in one life or ten lives or in a city or in a nation.

We are not all going to Nepal.

We are not all going to other countries.

We are not all doing this.

This is absurd.

We should collapse that way of thinking.

What are we doing?

Anywhere, anytime, any place, I am here.

Send me.

I'll stay connected to the throne and every day I will say,

Oh God, take my control away.

I yield control.

I yield control in all these areas.

I yield control now, oh God.

Now that you see this heart that is willing to be swayed any which way,

do only what you can do.

And for some of us, it might be Nepal.

For some of us, it might be someone broken down in White Talk or Surrey

who you happen to see as you are walking by.

And once you begin to do this, God will take you on drills.

Drills are not actual experiences.

They are to see whether you will respond.

Hear me.

I didn't mean to talk about this.

Drills are not actual experiences.

Drills are rehearsals for the real thing.

But in the rehearsal, God will find out how quick will you obey.

It looks like God is saying to you as you are driving back today,

Hey, I want you to be aware of people that are walking on the street in the rain

that I may want you to give a ride to.

And you are driving past them and either there is no space to stop for them

or they don't look like they need a ride,

but you are aware suddenly of every person who is getting wet in the rain.

All God wants to do is alert you.

And then tomorrow, when the sun is shining,

he will bring back saying,

Remember yesterday, stop for that person.

But because now he has seen how alert you are.

A drill is when God sends you on an errand

just to see the alertness and the willingness of your heart.

And once he sees that, then it's only a matter of time before he says go.

To be led by the Spirit, you have to be trained by the Spirit.

And to be trained by the Spirit, you have to be trained by people.

And anyone who refuses to be trained by people saying,

I only get trained by the Spirit, will die not being trained by the Spirit

or being led by the Spirit,

except on occasional situations where God doesn't have anyone else

and you are it.

Any questions? I'm done. Any questions?

Okay, can you take this verse home?

John 3, 8. Can we look at it together?

John 3, 8. Can you take the verse home?

John 3, 8.

The wind blows wherever it pleases.

You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from

or where it goes going.

So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

I am born of the Spirit.

The wind goes wherever it pleases.

You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.

That is the definition of yielding control.

But you hear the sound.

And the way we hear sounds will differ, eh?

For me, it may be a knowing.

For you, it may be a sign.

For someone else, it might be a dream.

But as soon as the knowing comes, you've got your shoes on.

You've girded your loins, to use an old English term.

You've got your jacket on. You've got your cap on.

And you're pawing the ground.

You're snotting like horses do.

You're waiting. Why?

Because any moment now, the rider will come and he'll have you go wherever.

But you get ready.

So if you ask me, will I be here next Sunday?

My answer is, I don't know.

I like being here on Sunday.

In this, imitate me and you will be imitating Christ.

In this.

But if you want other areas of control that you want to know in my life,

it's two thousand bucks a pop.

Yeah?

Let's pray on that terrible note.

Yeah.

Jesus.

All we do today, before we leave, is just repent of control.

Repent of control.

To repent is to say, this is how I used to think.

I want to think differently.

So I take that area.

That area.

And that area.

And that area.

Where I am controlling and because of that, even the church suffers.

Because of my personal, individual ways, the church I serve suffers.

It cannot go on.

Help me, Lord.

Help me, Lord.

Help me, Lord.

Help me.

Father, as these kids come in with these tamarins,

I just thank you for a simple sign you're sending out.

We're saying, I have heard and I dance over you.

The horse and the rider have been cast into the sea.

Thank you that Exodus 15 is at work right now.

In any life and every life in this room,

that appears in the Bible,

that appears in the Bible, that appears in the Bible,

in any life and every life in this room,

that appealed for freedom from control,

Exodus 15 or Exodus 17 goes into effect,

where Miriam took a tamarin and she began to dance,

and her song was,

the horse and the rider have been thrown into the sea.

Thank you, Father, for your faithfulness.

And with this tiny little sign saying,

I have heard and I have responded.

We receive it now, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Bless you guys. If you need prayer,

there'll be people to pray for you, with you.

Enjoy a week where control is a little less, yeah?

Cool.