Music.
Welcome to the Rooted Life Change Podcast. My name is Luke and I believe that you can experience lasting life change for your good and for God's glory.
We've been talking about making lasting life change and we've been in the early
parts of that. Really we've been just wrestling with coming out of out of
denial. In the last couple weeks we've been talking about dealing with and identifying our insanity. The fact that we keep doing the same thing, expecting
different results, that the way that we're behaving is leading us to a place
where we don't want to go and we keep doing that for some reason even though
all the signs say warning, danger, turn back. Have you, speaking of driving and
signs. Have you ever ridden in a car with somebody who was not a good driver, right?
If you've ridden in the car with someone who's not a good driver, you might be pumping those
imaginary brakes that are on your side, on the passenger side, or you might be gripping the
handles and holding on for dear life as people make turns. Well, it's like, you know, we've all
kind of been there. We've all got someone in our life who we love dearly, but we just would never
ride with them. The fact of the matter is is that the last several weeks the
things we've been talking about is the fact that we need to come to terms with.
The fact that we're the bad driver. That when we have control of our life we make
bad decisions and they're ultimately leading us down dead ends and down into,
a place where we don't want to go.
We need to come to a place where we're willing to say, I'm not making the right decisions,
things are not going the way they ought to be, and I've been in control, no one is responsible except for me.
And we need to say, we need to give control over, not just let go of the wheel and let the wheel spin wildly,
but to say, no, I need to get out of the driver's seat and I need to let someone else drive for a while.
I know you're probably all thinking of the country song, Jesus Take the Wheel, maybe.
And as cheesy as that might sound, that is what we're talking about, is saying, what
do we need to do to turn our life over? Because we've been driving it, and we've not been driving very well.
It's time somebody else gave us the directions. It's time somebody else made the decisions, because the decisions we've made have continued
to lead us to a place we don't want to go.
Jesus makes this invitation often to his disciples. He makes this invitation that sounds absolutely radical,
but when you think about all the things we've been discussing here, it makes so much sense.
Mark chapter 8, verses 34 through 37 say this. This is Jesus' words.
He says, when he called a crowd to him along with his disciples, he says, whoever
wants to be my disciple, whoever wants to follow after me, must deny themselves and
take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But.
Whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone
to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul.
Jesus is saying, look, you try and save your life, you try and maintain control, say, I'm
going to live life to the fullest the way I want to live it, you at the end of your
life are going to lose it.
But if you now say, I'm willing to turn my life over, I'm willing to metaphorically or,
spiritually die to myself, I'm willing to follow after Christ and live life not for
myself, but for something else, for someone else, namely Jesus, then you will find your life.
Put it this way in some of the terms that we've been talking about.
What good does it do us to be in control of our lives if that just ultimately leads us
into a head-on collision because of our own insanity?
What good does it do you or me if I have control or you have control over your life if you're
just going to end up in a place you don't want to go?
You're going to end up in a destination that you don't desire to be.
That's not worth it. That's not worth maintaining control. That's not worth it.
The end does not justify the means.
And so Christ is inviting us here in that passage to say, let go of your life.
Stop trying to maintain control. Stop white-knuckling onto that wheel.
Let go.
Let me take over, because it'll be better. What good is it if you maintain control and stay in the driver's seat of your life, if
you're just driving off of a cliff, right?
Let Jesus take over, and let's see if that takes you to a place you would rather go.
But, that's not an easy thing to say, or do. It's easier to say than it is to do, for sure.
But how do we actually start to do that? Are we willing to live life the way that Jesus calls us to live life?
That's no easy thing. But if we already know what it looks like living the way that we want to.
Jesus tells this parable in Matthew chapter 7 verses 24 through 27. He says this, he says,
Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like
a wise man who has built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose,
and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall because it had its foundation
on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice
is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down and the streams
rose and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash." Jesus
is saying it's not just enough to hear the teachings of mine, it's not just enough to
know what the right thing is, you need to actually begin to put them into practice.
We need to say, no, I'm going to build my life on a sure and sturdy foundation, rather
than just doing it myself.
What I seems right to me in this moment, when we do that, we're building ourselves a foundation
of sand that will be so easily washed away with the tide.
Jesus in this passage is calling people to follow His teachings, but not just lip service.
He's calling them to truly follow after Him.
People thrive when their lives are oriented around and towards greater things than themselves
or their own wisdom. This is so true.
If you want to find someone who's miserable, just find someone who's trying to live life all for themselves.
They're going to be miserable because they're never going to be truly happy.
There will always be something to be upset about that is not going well.
But when we live our lives for something more than ourselves, namely for Christ and for
for the kingdom of God.
We're gonna find that.
We experience way more joy. Not more peace, or maybe, not should I say, not more lack of suffering,
but we would experience more peace and more serenity in the midst of our circumstances.
The thing is, is that in that parable, both houses experienced a massive storm. It wasn't that the
one that was putting Jesus' teachings into practice didn't have a storm. It's that they
weathered the storm differently. And that's what we're coming to find, is that if we follow after
Jesus, we're going to weather storms differently. There's going to be something different.
And turning things over to Jesus is, I like to put it this way, it's a one-time commitment
and a lifelong endeavor. It's not just something I say or do once, it's something I do once and
and I continue to do each and every single day.
I often need to turn my life over to Jesus over and over again.
One of my favorite Bible passages is Psalm 84, verse five.
And it says this, "'Blessed are those whose strength is in you "'and whose hearts are the roads to Zion.'",
Or another way, another translation is, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. Let me break this down for you.
Well, I'll break it down for you first by giving you an analogy.
I used to, I've worked a number of different jobs and there, I used to work one job. I worked as a,
grocery clerk. I worked at a grocery store. And I got used to going to work. Every time I went
from work, I would get in my car, I would pull out of my driveway, and I would take a right.
I'd go, this is the way to work. I'd drive and I'd make my way to work. Well, I stopped working
at the grocery clerk and I did some work, some other jobs, and I started working for a general
contractor for a while. And when I needed to go to work the next day, I was no longer working at
the grocery store, I was working for a general contractor. I needed to drive out of my driveway,
I needed to make a left. But wouldn't you know, when I turned out of my driveway, I didn't make
a left, I made a right because in my head I was going to work. I got partway to work and I was
like, wait, I'm driving to the wrong place. I was in my place of habit, my place of familiarity.
I had just gone on autopilot and did the thing I had always done.
This passage talks about, Blessed are those whose strength is in you, and in whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
Or the translation I like is, whose hearts contain the roads to Zion.
I like to think of that idea of roads being in our hearts. Of us having roads that we travel down on a routine, continual, we get kind of habitual way.
We have our routes, our routines, the ways we always drive when things happen.
And God is saying, blessed are those whose hearts have roads in them that lead to me,
that lead to where I am.
And following after Jesus is inviting some major road construction in our heart.
It's saying, Lord, pave over some roads that I need to no longer drive down.
Help me build some new roads that lead to new places, that lead towards you, that lead
towards life and not towards dead ends, not to places I don't want to go.
Right? And that's the invitation of saying, Jesus, I want to follow after you.
I want to begin to pave new roads in my heart that chase after you, after what you've called
me towards, and not chasing after my own self, my own comfort, or avoiding the things I want
to avoid.
So how do we do this? How do we begin to invite Jesus in and say, Jesus, take over the wheel.
Jesus, I want to have new roads paved in my heart. How do we begin to do this?
Well, the very first thing we need to do is we begin to trust.
We begin to turn things over to Jesus by trusting Jesus, trusting that God cares for you and
that He wants an ongoing relationship with you.
You do this by believing that God cares for you and that He wants to be involved in your daily life.
Matthew 11, verses 28-29 say this invitation from Jesus. He says,
Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened.
I will give you rest.
Take my yoke up and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls."
I don't know about you, but that's a verse I need to hear every once in a while.
Come to Jesus. He will give you rest.
Take up His burden. His burden is way lighter than the burden you've been carrying. It's way better.
Find Jesus to be gentle and humble in heart, that He will give you rest for your souls.
Trust that when Jesus said those words, He meant them for you, that He truly wants to.
You need to understand and encounter the grace of the gospel.
The following passages that I'm going to share here from the Bible are just so simple and
so deep at the same time.
They communicate the depth of the gospel, the fact that Jesus has borne our sins away,
that all of the mistakes you and I have made, the insanity we have turned our life into, Christ has redeemed.
He took to the cross and He died for.
This is from 1 Peter 2.
He, talking about Jesus, committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.
When they hurled insults at Him, He did not retaliate.
When He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.
He bore our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live to righteousness.
By His wounds, you have been healed, for you were like sheep going astray, but now you
you have returned to the Shepherd, the overseer of your souls." We've all gone astray.
We've all gone down paths that lead to insanity, that lead to places we don't want to go.
But now we're being invited to know the shepherd who keeps watch over our soul.
Ephesians chapter 2 says this, as for you, you were once dead in your transgressions and sins.
The things that we had done wrong, the wrong things done to us,
we were once dead in them. There was nothing we could do about them.
In which we used to live in them, and when you followed the ways of this world
and the ruler of the kingdom of air and the spirit who is now at work and those disobedient.
When we were following, after Satan, when we were continuing to choose from the eat,
from the tree of knowledge and good and evil, we were continuing to make a choice to be disobedient,
we were living dead in our transgressions.
And all of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of the flesh
and following its desires and thoughts.
Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath, but because of His great love for us,
God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive to Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.
It is by grace you have been saved, and God raised us up with Christ
and seated us with him in the heavenly realms
in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages we might, he might show the incomparable riches
of his graces expressed in kindness in Christ Jesus.
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast,
For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus do good works God prepared in advance for us to do.
Christ redeemed you and I out of sin, out of the circumstances we found ourselves in.
We didn't claw ourselves up or get ourselves put together well enough for Jesus to accept us. No, while we were still messed up, Jesus died for our sins,
and he loved us while we were still in our sins. That's the thing, is that you,
don't need to earn the love of God, you just need to accept it. You just need to
say, I'm willing to accept the grace that Christ has for me and follow after Him.
And so we come to a place of needing to confess and turn to God.
That's what that fancy word you may have heard in churches called repentance.
That fancy word simply means turning.
It's to make an about face, to say, you know what? The way I'm going is not where I want to go.
I need to turn around.
Let me turn around.
Let me turn over the wheel to Jesus. Let me let Him be the director of my soul and my life.".
It's simply saying, yeah, I agree with God's assessment of myself.
I've lived a life of insanity. I've been living in sin and brokenness, and my way only leads to destruction.
Lord, I accept Your grace and forgiveness. I want to follow after You.
And that is the beginning of a journey that's going to take you a lifetime, a one-time decision
that we make over and over again.
Now, none of this happens all at once. Sometimes we get so just crushed underneath the weight of my life isn't the way it's supposed
to be.
I'm stuck in an addiction.
I've got hurt, healing, hurt or a trauma that just feels so big that I can't handle.
I'm stuck in cycles that I can't seem to break.
I can't seem to make change in my life where I desperately need to see change.
We get so stuck in that place where we feel like, I've got to get there.
I know where I'm supposed to be, and that's not where I'm at.
And we feel crushed because we're not there yet.
Let me tell you that you've got to take it easy. That God is not up there saying, I can't believe you haven't figured it out yet.
Oh, I can't believe you just aren't putting yourself together in a day.
That's not God. God knows what you're capable of. Remember that passage I read?
Jesus said, come to me, I will give you rest.
That's a God who knows what you're capable of. So maybe don't crush yourself underneath the expectations
you feel like you need to be meeting.
But just simply say, does God have enough grace for me to do the next right thing?
What can I do today? What can I do tomorrow to take one small baby step in the direction of where I need to go?
God will provide you the strength and the resources to do that thing. I guarantee it.
God is not up there to judge and wag his finger at you. He's inviting you to come to know him
and to begin to experience new life in him.
I'd encourage you this week to.
Wrestle with the things that I shared today to perhaps say, are there things in my life that I've not wanted to turn over to Jesus?
Maybe I don't want to turn my life over to Jesus at all.
Why not? What is the holdout for you? Or maybe you've turned your life over to Jesus,
but there's parts of it you've not wanted to turn over. What are those things,
and why don't you want to turn those over? Pray with Jesus about those things. Say,
These are the things that I know I ought to turn over. I don't want to for some reason.
Talk to God about it. See what shifts in your heart and mind as you wrestle with that over
this coming week. Thank you for tuning in today, for listening and participating in the conversation.
I hope this has been helpful for you. Always feel free to leave comments or to email me at
luke at conduit ministries dot com. I'd love to engage in the conversation with you more directly.
I hope that this finds you well and that you are able to take one more step closer to Jesus,
after listening today.
Music.