Kerry Shook - Never Go Back
Alexander the Great, in his quest to conquer the world, had to face the Persian army, he had to face the whole Persian Empire. So, in 334 BC, Alexander led a fleet of ships across the Dardanelle Strait into Asia Minor, and when he reached the shore, Alexander ordered his men to burn the ships. He told his men, "We will either return home in Persian ships or we will die here". Burning the ships made it clear that there was no turning back, this was their now-or-never moment. And, centuries later, in 1519, Cortez, the Spanish conquistador, landed on the shores of the new world. He also burned his ships, it was a leave-no-doubt statement to his men, that, "We're leaving the old land behind and we're taking new ground, and there's no turning back, this is a now-or-never moment".
We're in this series where we're learning how to break free from old, destructive habit patterns, and really experience change, I mean real and lasting change, and it really comes down to that now-or-never moment, where you're willing to burn the ships in order to break free. Transformation is really restoration, it's allowing God to restore and rebuild the broken places in my life. And God can't start the restoration and the rebuilding until the demolition takes place, that's the first thing he does.
See, Christianity is a decision followed by a process. You decide to surrender your life to Christ, and let him take over and be the restorer of your life, that's a one-time decision. Then there's this process of spiritual growth, as you daily choose to let him remodel and restore the broken places in your life. The problem is, we think that God is going to come in and do a little rearranging. I mean, we know we need to make some changes, "Sure, I need to change in some areas of my life".
So we think God might come in and rearrange the furniture or put down some new carpet or paint the walls, but then he comes in and starts ripping out the walls, tearing out the sheet rock, tearing out the cabinets, tearing out the sinks and the bathtubs. He starts tearing everything down so he can rebuild something greater and more beautiful than we could have ever expected. He's the master restorer, so we have to let him do what he wants to do in our lives because he's the only one who can restore our brokenness and break us free from the ruts that we're stuck in.
Now, it's this restoration process that brings about powerful change, and the good news is, regardless of what you need restoration from, regardless of what area you need to be restored or break free from, it's always found in the same process. Life change is always the same process, and it's found in the beatitudes, embedded in Jesus's most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. And these are really the steps to restoration, the steps for life change, really, the steps for spiritual growth. You know, we talk about growing spiritually, growing stronger spiritually? Really, it's all about restoration, it's letting Christ restore the broken places in my life. And sometimes, first, he has to tear down some of those places, burn the ship so he can rebuild some new ones that take me to the next level.
And so, the first weekend, we looked at the first step for life change, "I realize I'm powerless to change". And then, the second step, "I stopped running from my pain and realized that God has the power to change me". But now we come to step three, and this is the critical step, the most important step. This is the burn-the-ship step, where you take the step of faith onto a new land, and you burn the old ships you've been trusting in so there's no turning back. This is the big, now-or-never step.
So I want you to stand in honor of God's Word, and we're gonna look at Matthew 5:5, the third beatitude, the third step for life change. And it's a short verse, so I want you to read it out loud with me. Even if you're at home, worshiping online, read this out loud with me, as loud as you can, wake someone up who's sleeping. "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth". You guys started about halfway through, that's not gonna work. Let's do it again, how about that? "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth". Great job, you can be seated. You know, we've said that the word "blessed" literally means "true happiness".
So, Jesus is saying, "Happy are the meek". Now, what does it mean to be meek? When you think of the word meek, what do you think of? Weak, right? I mean, usually, when we think of the word meek, we think of someone who is weak, someone who's soft, kind of a wimp who lets everyone run over them and treat them like a doormat, but meekness is not weakness. The word meek has lost all its original meaning in our culture. In the recent NFL draft, the "Texans" traded up to the third spot, to draft linebacker Will Anderson Jr.
Now, can you imagine the "Texans," after they drafted Will Anderson Jr., coming out and saying, "The reason we drafted this guy is because we studied all his film, we interviewed him extensively, you know, we watched his pro day, and I mean, we know all about him. And we discovered he is the meekest player in the NFL draft, and that's why we drafted him, we drafted him because he's meek"? We'd be going, "What? I want him to be mean, not meek, we need an edge rusher who will wreak havoc on the other team's quarterback. I want him to be the toughest and the strongest player on the field, not the meekest player, I want him to be the meanest player". But the word meek, in its original meaning, is strength under control. If someone is meek, it's a great thing, it's strength under control.
And there's a word picture that went along with its original meaning, it's the picture of a wild stallion who is strong and powerful and beautiful, but untamed and out of control. Then the expert trainer comes along, and breaks the stallion's rebellion, but not its spirit, tames the stallion. And now, all that power and strength and beauty is harnessed for a purpose, it's strength under control. So it turns out that "Texans" fans should want Will Anderson Jr. to be meek, so he's not jumping offsides all the time and so he's not getting a roughing the passer penalty every time he sacks the quarterback. It's strength under control.
So, what does this beatitude mean? Jesus is saying, "Truly happy are those who place their life under Christ's strength and control". Our biggest problem is we're always trying to get control of our life, we're always trying to get our act together, and the more you try to control everything, the more you lose control. You know, "I'm gonna get my act together, this week I'm gonna start, I'm gonna get on that program, I'm gonna get it all together". When you try to get control of your life, you will get so frustrated, it will wear you out and you will eventually fail, because only God is in control. You can't get control of your life, but you can get your life under control when you place your life under Christ's care and control.
You can't get control of your life, but you can get your life under control when you place your life under Christ's strength and his control. Meekness, strength under control. So, life change step number three is, "I consciously choose to commit all my life to Christ's care and control". Step three is the turning point, it's the now-or-never moment. Step one and two are about admitting I'm powerless and broken, and desperately need God, step three is I have to choose, I have to decide to surrender my life to God's care and control so that he can change me. When you do that the first time, it's called salvation.
When I surrender my life and my eternity to God's care and control, and I admit I need him to save me, forgive me, and take me to heaven one day, that's the decision, that's salvation. That decision is now followed by a daily process of surrendering to God's care and control so he can keep restoring the broken places in my life. It's a daily process of saying, "God, I need you today, I can't change without you. I've got this character flaw, I've got this sin, this struggle," that, "I'm gonna need you, today. I'm broken, and so I need you to be my strength, and so I submit my life to you today. God, I need you, this situation is out of control, I can't handle this problem without you, so I surrender it to you today. I just commit myself to your strength, your power, your control". So how do you practically take this step?
You see, we all want to be in the driver's seat of life, we think we're the captain of our own fate, that we're in control. We look like we're in control, until the floodwaters of life hit and wash away our illusion of control and just reveal how powerless and broken we really are. But just as our vehicle of control is sinking and we're going under, Christ reaches out his hand and says, "Take my hand, surrender to me, I'll rescue you, I'll rescue you from your broken and flooded truck, and from now on, I'll be the captain that you can count on, just take my hand". You have a choice, you can choose to take Christ's hand or stay on your truck. There has to be a time when you decide, you say, "Yes, God, I choose to take your hand".
Now, what would keep you from taking God's hand, what would keep you from taking this step? Well, the same thing that might keep you from taking the hand of a helicopter rescuer, first would be pride. Pride would say, "You know what? I think I'm good here, thanks for the offer. You guys are so amazing and talented to bring that helicopter close, but it's not that bad here, it's not that bad on my truck. I can control this flood, don't worry about it, you go on and save someone who is really bad, someone who's really bad off. Sure I've got a few problems here, but I don't need to be saved, I can fix this problem. I think I'll get my truck turned over and I'll just drive out of here".
And our pride keeps us from taking God's hand. We say, "Really, my problem is not that bad, my sins and mess-ups aren't as bad as most people," while your vehicle of control is going under. And you're going, "I can fix this, I can handle this, I can change, I'll just try harder," and our pride blinds us to how desperate we really are and how much we really need rescue and forgiveness and grace. And sometimes we don't see it until our vehicle of control has just gone up in flames and sunk to the bottom of the river, and we finally reach out and take God's hand when we have nothing left to hold on to, but pride keeps us stuck.
Look what Jesus said, in Matthew chapter 18. "He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said, 'Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.'" Jesus says you gotta become like a little child, you need childlike faith. Now, what does it mean to have childlike faith? Does it mean that you never have any doubts or questions, and you just believe everything without questioning it? No, childlike faith simply means you realize how dependent you are on God. A small child is dependent upon their parents for everything, they have to depend on their parents for all their food, all their shelter, their clothes, even their emotional needs, they're totally dependent upon their parents.
And Jesus is saying you have to humble yourself and admit you're totally dependent on God, that you can't change without him, that you're totally dependent on God for your next breath. The first place the children of Israel came to after they went out of slavery in Egypt was the Red Sea. And God does this miracle and he opens up the Red Sea, and once they've crossed over, God closed the Red Sea and killed off the enemy army. I believe the main reason that God closed off the Red Sea was not to kill the enemy army, but it was to close off any route back into slavery for the Israelites. God burned the bridge so there was no going back to Egypt.
The reason God had to do this was because so many times, when things would get tough, the Israelites would start complaining, griping and grumbling, and they would say, "It wasn't so bad, back there in slavery in Egypt. We had some food to eat, it wasn't the best, but it was all right. In fact, it was pretty good, and God's not providing food right now in this minute. I mean, we were better off back in Egypt, instead of being out here in this desert. I mean, it wasn't so bad in Egypt". No, it was terrible, it was slavery. And sometimes, out of fear, we prefer slavery to sin and addiction and staying stuck rather than taking God's hand, we're afraid of what God's going to do with my life if I surrender to his control.
And that's why, sometimes, God has to burn the ships completely so there's no way to go back. An alcoholic will, many times, only change when they just about die and they realize, "If I keep drinking, I'm going to die, it's for certain". God burns the ship so there's no going back. Or maybe it's a health wake-up call, where you got to change your habits because of what just happened, you got the doctor's report, you just had that surgery, you just had that heart attack, and God burns the ship so there's no going back. Sometimes God will allow our ship to burn up completely, so there's no going back, and we can see clearly, to reach out and take God's hand.
There was a time when a lot of those following Jesus started to leave him. They were just the hanger-ons, you know? They were just the people that were just hanging around him in hopes that maybe he would do the miracle of feeding the 5,000 and they would get a free meal. They were just hanging on to watch the miracles, and they just wanted to see the show. And when Jesus challenged them to go to the next level, and he shared the truth with them and how they needed to take that next step, they didn't want to hear the truth, so they started leaving Jesus. And Jesus looked at his disciples and he said, "Are you guys gonna leave me too"?
And Simon Peter said, "No, where else would we go? We have nowhere else to go, we burned the ships, we can't go back, we're holding on to you Jesus. We don't know where you're taking us, we're kind of scared about it, but we know you're the only one who's ever given us life and joy, and we trust you because there's nowhere else we've ever gone where we've found fulfillment. There's nowhere else for us to turn, we've burned the ships, there's no going back. We've taken your hand, we'll never let go, don't let go of us". Well, maybe it's fear that's keeping you from taking his hand, and sometimes, God has to burn the ship so we realize how desperate we are for him.
Another reason you might not take God's hand is because you think you just don't have enough faith. It's like, "I don't have enough faith to really trust God with my whole life, with everything in my life. I mean, I don't know, I think he would be trustworthy, but I don't know what he's gonna do, I don't know that I have enough faith". Well, look what Jesus said, in Matthew 17:20. "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you". Now, the mustard seed was the smallest seed known in Christ's day, and so I bet he held up that mustard seed to illustrate it and he said, "Hey, if you have faith even as tiny as this little mustard seed, that's all you need".
You see, Jesus was saying it's not the amount of your faith, it's the object you've placed your faith in. It doesn't matter if you have great faith if you've placed your great faith in yourself, it's going to fail. Place your faith in faith, that does nothing. But when you take the little bit of imperfect and ordinary faith you have, just a tiny, little bit, all the faith you've got's not much, but you take it all and you place it totally on Christ's care and control, then that object of your faith will never let you down. He will never fail you, he will always hold you up. You see, you don't need a lot of faith. You may have some doubts, you may have some fears, you may have some questions, but if you take the little bit of faith that you've got in your hand, and you reach that hand up and you take Jesus Christ, he will rescue you, and you will see that he is real, and he will never let you down.
You see, the heavenly Father lowered his Son Jesus Christ down to this earth to die on the cross for all of our sins, and to rise again to lift us up out of our sins and bring us with him to heaven one day, to give us the power to change here on this earth, to forgive us of all our past, to secure our future, and give us a purpose and power in the present. I mean, what a deal. You see, that's really a picture of Jesus, he reaches out his hand, he reaches down to us, but then we still have a choice, we have to reach up to him.
You see, we have to believe in Jesus. The word believe in the Scripture doesn't mean that you just believe in your head that Jesus is real, that he existed, that he died and rose again. No, it's that you place your whole life upon, the word believe literally means "to place one's whole life upon". It means that you reach out your hand and you place your whole life upon Jesus. I mean, that guy had to risk his life, didn't he, to reach up and grab the rescuer's hand? He's like, "Man, I gotta trust him. If he drops me, if he's not strong enough". And maybe you're wondering, "Is God's strong enough? Will he let me down, will he drop me in the grease, will he mess up my life? I mean, my life's got a lot of problems and mess right now, but, I mean, God could really mess up my life".
And you wonder, is he strong enough to hold you up, do you really place your whole life upon him? Everything in your life, you trust him with it, because he knows what's best for you and he's the only one that can hold you up. That's what it means to take this step. I want us to get real practical, here at the end of this message. How do I practically take this step? First, I trust Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. In Acts 16:31, it says, "They replied, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.'" So you believe in the Lord Jesus.
Now, it's not just believing in your head, the Bible says even the devil and his demons believe in Jesus, but they're not going to heaven. And so it's placing your life upon, believing him, placing your eternal destiny upon him, all your eggs in his basket, and you're burning the ships, you're not gonna trust in those other things anymore, you're trusting in Jesus Christ. Then I start growing and surrendering daily in my faith, and that is, I trust God's Word as my standard to live by, I trust God's Word as my standard to live by.
You see, you gotta make one big decision, what are you gonna base all your other decisions on? And if you decide that you're going to base your decisions on God's Word, it makes all the other decisions in your life a lot easier. You gotta decide what's gonna be your standard by which you live. Is it going to be what the world says, what culture says, what's popular, what you feel like, or what God's truth says? And when you make that decision, you obey God's Word even when you don't feel like it, even if you don't understand it totally, because you know God knows what's best for you, and obedience brings blessing.
In Matthew 6:33, Jesus said, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well". He's saying, "If you put me first in the most important areas of your life, as you daily grow in Christ, put me first and I'll take care of it, I'll bless it, I'll give you all the things that you really need". Whatever area you want God to bless you in, put him first in that area. Whatever you need in life, you're to give in life. Isn't that amazing? It's a paradox of life, it's a biblical principle, if you need more energy, what do you do? You just lay on your couch, eat junk food, and just binge television. No, that takes away your energy.
If you need more energy, what do you give energy? Exercise, and you get energy back. If you need friends and you have no friends, what do you do, just sit around and mope? "I got no friends". No, you be a friend, you go out there and you be friendly, you be a friend to people, and you'll have more friends than you can count. If you need financial breakthrough, what do you do? You need blessing in your finances? You give, you give. Whatever it is you need, you have to give it and prime the pump, and God says, "I'll give back to you even more". What do you need, time? Then you serve, and somehow God gives you all the time you need to get things done that you need to get done. You put God first, whatever area you put him first in God blesses.
And then, thirdly, I surrender to Christ's power, I surrender to Christ's power. It's just a daily thing as a Christ follower, "God, I need you today". Sometimes I'll go off in my day and I try to solve problems, I try to fix things, I try to be the really great pastor that I wanna be, and I just fall flat on my face. "God, I need you on this one, this one is too big for me," and I come back to that surrender. This is the step of surrender, where you burn the ships, and you step forward and you just grab his hand, each and every day.
And I love Philippians 4:13, "I can do all this through him who gives me strength". "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," that's all things, whatever you're facing, with his power. So, if you feel broken and weak, and like you're just standing on that truck and the floodwaters are hitting, and it's going up in flames and you're about to go under, just know he's right there, reaching out his hand. And you can trust him, he's strong enough, he's bigger than any of your problems, he's stronger than any of your struggles, and he's right there reaching out.