Why Surrendering to God is so Hard (and why it changes everything) | Season 9 Ep 2

The day starts before sunrise, and so does the heart work. We open with Genesis 3 and confront a familiar tug: the urge to know, to control, to push past God’s guardrails in the name of getting all the answers.  

We share the “three P’s” we’ve been exploring—position, power, and pride—and zoom in on power as the quiet prompting to be “like God" rears up in Eve. That desire manifests in subtle ways: seeking outcomes without obedience, pursuing certainty over wisdom, and treating boundaries as cages rather than a source of care. Through the text, we explore why God’s limits protect and what it truly means to submit to God’s authority in a world that often rewards self-rule.

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Transcript

Welcome and Morning Prayer

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Hey all, thank you for joining us here at Grab the Faith, where we try to grab the faith and run with it. Join us as we try to learn a little more, grow a little more, and live a lot more. I'm your host, Bobby Gentry Goodwin. Stay tuned for this week's episode. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Here we are again, 6 o'clock a.m. for this week's Wednesday word of the week. We are doing it again, you guys. The Wednesday word of the week. Did you guys remember the word from last week? Well, in case you didn't, I'm going to remind you it was humility. Humility. But this week we have a whole new word. We're going to finish this lesson we started last week. I got so excited we didn't even finish the lesson. But this day, we're going to finish this lesson. So thank you for joining me on this weekly live broadcast at 6 a.m. Pacific time to study the Bible. To study the word of God. So we're going to have just a brief 15-minute study just to get us excited this week about God's word. Did any of you go to Bible study last week? I really plugged that. So I hope that you did. That you after this, you went to Bible study. Or if you did not find your hiney in a Bible study, my hope is that you opened the Bible, that you opened your own Bible last week just to get into the Word of God, to get fed from His Word. So again, thank you for joining me. This is a great way to start our day. Anyone want to start their day with the Word of God? Anybody here to start their day with the Word of God? You know, I am a sleeper. I'm a night owl and I'm a sleeper. So I like to sleep in. And I find sometimes when I sleep in and I hit that snooze button a little too much and I'm running behind. I just get off to a bad start to the day. If I don't have enough time in the morning, I'm rushing. I'm moving so fast. I forget things. I just don't get a good start. Well, we're here this morning for a good start. Anyone want a good start? To start the day off right instead of wrong? How do we start the day off? Listen, start it with a little word of God. Start it with a little prayer. We're here to start the word the day off right and get the word of the week in our minds that we may pursue Christ. Listen, pursue Christ. So let's start the day off with a little bit of prayer this morning. Let's go before God. Father, we thank you this morning. We just want to take the time to thank you. We are grateful, God. Grateful for who you are and what you have done, Father. If you had not done one more thing, I'm not the only one online that could say you have done enough. Thank you, Lord, for being a faithful God. Thank you, Lord, for being a good God. Thank you, Lord, for being a merciful God. We thank you for your grace this morning. We thank you for your power this morning. The power to help us live right, to give us your strength, Father, in our weakness. We thank you, Lord, that God, this morning for who you are, for sitting on the throne, Father God, for blessing us, Father God, in all the ways that you have done. But Lord, we thank you this morning for Jesus who came, Father, that we might be saved, that we might be a part of your kingdom. Thank you, Lord God. What a privilege. Hallelujah. What a privilege it is to serve you this morning, Lord God. And as we open up this word, lead us and guide us and teach us, Lord God, that we may run on to see what the end is going to be. In Jesus' name, we thank you this morning and we praise you. Amen and amen. Okay, let's jump off into this Bible study. We only got about 10 more minutes, right? So let's finish this lesson. Like last week, we're gonna be couching in Genesis chapter 3. So if you have your Bibles here on the Grab the Faith podcast, we say you go on and grab them and open them up. Listen, Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 says this. And we're reading some more verses, but we're starting at Genesis chapter 1. The serpent who excuse me, the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. Didn't we learn that last week? The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? Of course, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, the woman replied. That we are not allowed to eat. I'm gonna say that again. That we are not allowed to eat. God said, You must not eat it or even touch it. If you do, you will die. You won't die, the serpent replied to the woman. God knows that your eyes will be open as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil. Listen, even the serpent knows that there's things that God knows. God knows some things. Even the serpent knows that God knows something. We don't know, but he knows that God knows things that we don't know. Listen, the word the woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it too. May the Lord add a blessing to his holy word. Listen, last week we talked about this very same scripture. We talked about Genesis chapter 3, which was the sin that separated us from God. But we learned last week that we can be in right relationship with him through Jesus Christ who died on the cross and was raised again. We ain't gonna leave him on that cross. He was raised again. So we learned last week that there is three P's that we were able to pull out of this scripture. You guys remember what they were? Number one was position, number two was power, and number three was pride. So last week we talked about the first thought position. But this week, oh God, we're gonna be focusing on power. This week we're gonna be focusing on power and the dynamic that was present in this scripture. See, the power is the ability to direct or influence others, right? The ability to direct or influence others. Listen, that's a big old way of just saying, I'm in charge, right? What I say goes or what I say can have the influence over people, how they think, how they behave, how they act. Who has influence over you this morning? Who has power over you this morning? See, we're seeing in this scripture a little bit about how Eve struggled with power. See, we learned last week that she put her own self in a position by sitting with that serpent, by listening to what he had to say, which left her convinced. That's the new living translation we're reading from. But this week, what happened with the power? See, last week we learned it was Eve who allowed herself to be deceived. She did not hold her position on what she knew God had said. But the second P power. Something that we must remember and learn about in this scripture of text. See, I know something about this, see, and the Lord dealt with me on this as I studied the Bible and studied this scripture. See, we see her seeking power. We see her wanting to know what God knows. But don't we do the same thing? Don't sometimes we want to know what God knows? Anybody ever go to a psychic? See, you want to go with and see what God knows. And listen, honey, I ain't judging people because the Lord wore me out on this because I don't like to give up my power. I like to be in charge. Am I alone in this? Anyone else like to be in control? Anyone else like to yield their power? We do it all the time as parents. Do this, do that, do this. We yield our power all the time, sometimes without even listening, sometimes without even caring. Sometimes we yield our power over other people. So sometimes people like power. And listen, this is something that Eve was dealing with. She wanted some power. She wanted to know what God knew. She wasn't content with the with the boundaries that he had set and paced. She wanted to make her own boundaries. She didn't learn the word of the week that we're learning today, which is submission. Oh, that's a word that's necessary for us all to learn this morning. Submission. To submit ourselves under the authority of God and under the authority of his word, under the authority of what he shares with us through his word, through prayer, through scripture, what he says to us when we're in his presence, submitting ourselves unto his authority. See, we think of submission sometimes just as submitting to your husband. You know that is that scripture. But we have to submit ourselves under some things. And listen, not only as wives, what should we submit ourselves under to or under our husband, but we should also submit to God's authority under his power and not our own. See, here in this scripture, we see Eve submitting herself to something else. She's submitting herself to the notion that she can know what God knows, that she can be in charge, that she can have all wisdom. Do you know who have all wisdom and all knowledge? Newsflash, it ain't us. Okay, newsflash, it ain't us. It's God. And I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful that He has all power and all authority and all wisdom. Because if I had some all power, I would do some things that was not good. I would do some things that would not edify him. I would treat people some way that they should not be treated. See, we're seeing a little bit now about the abuse of power, the abuse of authority. Anyone with me this morning? We want to know sometimes what God knows. Eve wanted to know. Listen, how this plays out. When will it be over, Lord? When will I get out of this season? When is this gonna end? Or what's gonna happen, Lord? Oh Lord, tell me what's gonna happen? How is this gonna work itself out? Why is this happening in my life, Lord? Take this cup from me. Why is this happening in my life? But listen, we gotta follow Jesus, who said, Never, nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. We can't know what he knows. Saints, we gotta watch what we won't. See, we see Eve warning some things that was if God wanted them to eat from all the trees in the garden, he would have told them that. Where we're submitting ourselves. Sometimes we're submitting ourselves to other things, we're not submitting ourselves to the word of God, we're submitting ourselves to our flesh, we're submitting ourselves to money, we're submitting ourselves to what people think about what they think about us. We're so worried about that that we're not so worried about what God said. Do we see this playing out in the word of God this morning? Submission, we got to stay in our place. Listen, you want to know the word of the week? That's it. Submission. God put boundaries, guardrails up. He gives us instruction for a reason. Don't commit adultery. If anybody out there ever committed adultery, you know why that guardrail is in place. Anybody else out there have struggles from the lies they told, you know now why the guardrail is in place, why God sets boundaries around us. They keep us safe. They keep those guardrails, keep us. We want to stay within God's guardrails. Listen, we gotta watch what we want, saints. See, we learn in this text, and if you've been following me for a minute, go back in the Grab the Faith podcast where we study Genesis. We learn that sometimes we get in trouble with what we look at. What Eve looked at. When we have people in our in our space that is not godly, we gotta listen out for what we're hearing. Because sometimes that stirs up the war in us. See, the word of God says stir up the gifts. But sometimes some other things get stirred up in us that are not good. We gotta watch what we want, we gotta follow the boundaries that have been set before us. Do what he says do, okay. He says, go to church, don't forget the don't forsake the assembling of the saints. He says, love your neighbor, okay? He says to follow those ten commandments, he's giving us guardrails, so we won't be rebellious and end up in the place of sin that Eve did when she did that and gave it to her husband. As soon as her eyes was open, she felt ashamed. You read in the scripture, they hid from the Lord, they hid from him because they were so ashamed, they started to separate themselves from him. We could be so rebellious sometimes, rebelling right along with Eve in this text. Listen, as we come to a close in this Bible study, as we come to a close, we got to recognize that God has put some things in place that we should follow. We should follow his commands. Why? Like my mama said, because he said so. Okay, my mama, you said, because I said so. You said that to your kids, because I said so. Why? Because you know the risk. We can't know what God knows. Many years ago, I was in prayer and in fellowship with the Lord, and he told me to fast. And I hate fasting. I'ma be honest. I hate fast. I love me some food, y'all. And he said, fast, and I fasted because he said so. I didn't know why. I didn't want to do it, but I did it anyway. But I didn't know what God knew because at the end of that seven days, hallelujah, and this the truth. At the end of that seven days, my father called me on the phone with my sister and said he got saved. He accepted the Lord that very week. Now, listen, I'm not saying that my fast broke off something for him. I'm not saying that, but I know one thing that fast broke off something for me. That fast broke off something for me. I will never know if my fast broke off some things for my dad, but I do know that that fast broke off something for me. It broke off my need to know and to explain when the Lord calls me to something, I'm gonna do it. And I knew from that moment that my ability to negotiate with him, my ability to not want to do what he said to do, that broke off for me. My need to have a reason broke off from me. My need to do it in my own way broke off for me. See, that fast broke off something for me, it showed me something that when he says something, what he says is best, and I learned to submit myself under his authority. Yes, do I struggle with that? Many times I do. Do I do it all the time? No, I don't, but now I know that when God says it, it's good because not only was his word good, but we serve a good God who knows. May God bless you this week, may he keep you this week. Go on and find yourself in Bible study, go and submit to his authority and go on and give him some glory. May he bless you mightily. God bless you and keep you. We'll see you live next week at 6 a.m.