Sunday, 3/9/2025

LET GO AND TRUST GOD

Genesis 1:26-31 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 27”So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 2:8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Genesis 2:15–17 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Genesis 3:1–8 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Genesis 3:23–24 “therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Worry usually wraps itself around five major themes.

1. A dangerous possibility. 

2. A possible threatening conversation. 

3. A shortage of resources. 

4. Our ability to do what we need to do. 

5. World-wide disaster. 

At the heart of worry is our need to be in control.

When Adam and Eve held the fruit in their hands, they wanted to control their destiny. 

When Adam and Eve took control, spiritual and physical death were instantly injected into humankind’s story.

First, the enemy will attempt to get you to doubt God’s character and motives.

Second, he will try to convince you that life will be better when you are in control.

The way we deflect both attacks is through the cross of Christ. 

Jesus laid down His life for us so we could be forgiven and have eternal life. 

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”. 

Our need for control is rooted in fear, and it fuels our anxiety: 

Romans 8:15 “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 

We are trying to control life that inevitably ends in death. 

1 Corinthians 15:26–28 And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For the Scriptures say, “God has put all things under his authority.” (Of course, when it says “all things are under his authority,” that does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority.) 28 Then, when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God’s authority, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.

Acts 4:26–28 “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— 27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”

Jesus’ resurrection puts the brakes on our need for control 

Isaiah 53:4–5 “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

Jesus can carry what is worrying you because He has already carried what was meant to kill you. 

You find peace by surrendering your need for control to the One who is actually in control.

Psalm 90:2 “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God”.  

Isaiah 46:9-10 God’s Word reminds us of just how in control God is: “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’”

Surrender your need to be in charge. Trust God