And It Begins By Letting Go And Letting God Series

INTRODUCTION:

Get up…eat breakfast…head to work…work all day… return home…eat some supper…watch a little tv…go to bed… and then repeat those same steps tomorrow.

Some of us may have a few more steps; some of us may have a few fewer steps. No wonder people ask the question: “Is this all there is to life?” And it’s not just unbelievers who ask that question; there are many who know Christ as their Savior that ask that same question.

God tells us in John 10:10 (NKJV)

10 … I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

God says there is more; and if we don’t see it; or more so, if we are not living that way then we are missing something. We saw the first week; we can miss that “more” by sticking to the routines of life and not listening to the calls of God on our life. God interrupts our routines of life and calls us to do certain things, and if you are not open to Him, then you may miss them. Then in week two, God showed us that this world wants us to live in spiritual blindness or at the very least in a spiritual fog rather than seeing with clarity. But God calls you and me to spiritual clarity so that we can have “more.”

And this past week, Jesus showed us that there is a script for our life, and it is called the will of God for our life. Our scripts are different, and we have the free will not to follow them; but if you chose to follow the script, the devil is going to do all that he can to take you off-script because the devil knows that you get the “more” of this life by following the script.

Today, we need to tackle something that I find tough to do in my personal life and that is letting go and letting God have control. Anne and I have been married 45 years, and throughout our marriage, I can count just using both hands, the number of times she drove, and I was the passenger. I admit being more comfortable being the one in control, but spiritually being in control gets me nowhere; Jesus has to be in control.

Let me share with you a Scripture on this very subject and make some observations that I see. So turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 3: 11-17.

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Matthew 3:11-17 (NIV)

11 "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.

14 But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"

15 Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.

16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him.

17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

POINT #1

AS CHRISTIANS, WE KNOW IN OUR HEARTS THAT THE BEST THING THAT WE CAN DO IS TO ALLOW GOD TO HAVE CONTROL OVER OUR LIVES.

Verse 11… But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

In our passage this morning, we have two key players: Jesus and his cousin, John the Baptist. John's ministry was to prepare the way for the Messiah. And he is performing his ministry; John acknowledges with his own mouth that Jesus, who is coming after him, is more powerful than he is. Now more powerful could mean a little more powerful, or it could mean a lot more powerful. And John wants you and me to know that the more powerful that he is referring to is tilted to the lot more powerful side. So much so that John says that he is not fit to carry his sandals.

And if that is true and John knows that it is true without a doubt, then you and I can automatically assume as we read the rest of the text that John is going to do whatever Jesus says without questioning Him or without offering Jesus another way to do it. But here is the problem, if we assumed that, we would be dead wrong because John like us has the problem that it is hard to let go and let God.