Almost two years ago, in December, Pastor Art had a heart attack. The surgeons opened him up and, as he put it, replaced a few parts. Afterward he lay in a hospital bed looking at a tray of food and wondering how he was going to get it from there to his mouth. Some brothers from this church were there to help him. Then came getting out of bed. Then walking. "I was able to conquer that," he said, standing on the stage, "and I was able to possess it."
He has been practicing his trumpet again too, the corritos he used to play here, with notes so high he thought his nose would bleed. Last week he finally got one of them. But getting it once isn't enough. "I have to possess it. I want to own it."
Then he told us what Sunday was about. The hardest conquest of all, he said, is ourselves. He read a line from his notes at the Bible Academy a few weeks before:
I cannot conquer the mountain until I have conquered myself.
The Bible is full of paradoxes, he said. When I'm weak, I'm strong. To receive, I have to give. The widow put two small coins in the offering, and Jesus said she gave more than everyone waving the big bills, because she gave all she had. Here is the paradox for this series: we conquer by surrendering.
He knows how that sounds. "Wait just a darn minute here," he said. "Deny myself? Can't I just be myself?" Our country was founded on a Declaration of Independence, he reminded us, and it promises the pursuit of happiness. It doesn't promise happiness itself. Jesus offers something else, on his terms: seek first the kingdom, and the rest follows. Jesus himself gave up his rights as God and wore a crown of thorns.
To show where the fight comes from, Pastor Art went back to the garden. God gave Adam every tree but one. Then the serpent came with a question: did God really say that? Eve answered him correctly. So the serpent told the big lie.
You can be your own god. That was the first declaration of independence, he said, and it was spiritual. Every one of us still carries it. Babies have it ("Mommy, I want you now"), and so do grown men. Forty-three years after he gave his life to Christ, he still gets irritated when his wife interrupts him in his office. He still worries. He still wants seconds of the chicken francese. "There's more of me that remains to be conquered."
Paul felt the same war. In Romans 7 he does the wrong thing he doesn't want to do and cries out, "Who will free me?" Then he answers his own question: Jesus Christ our Lord. Later, Paul writes the line that ties this sermon to the series. He hasn't arrived, he says, but he presses on "to possess that perfection for which Christ first possessed me."
At the end, Pastor Art asked anyone who knew God was asking them to let something go to raise a hand. Unforgiveness. Worry. Fear. The feeling of being owed. Then the church sang "I Surrender All." His last words were Jesus speaking: "I am your answer. Will you trust me?"
The main points
- The hardest conquest is ourselves, and we win it by surrendering to God.
- The oldest temptation is the serpent's: that we can run our own lives and be our own gods.
- Surrender starts when Jesus becomes our Savior and keeps going as he becomes Lord of our mind, emotions and will.
- God doesn't take our life away. As we give it to him, he gives it back better.
Questions for this week
For your time with God, your family or your group.
- What do you want to stay in control of?
- Where do you feel God "holding out" on you, the way the serpent told Eve he was?
- Which part of you still needs to be conquered: your thoughts, your temper, your worries, your appetites?
- What is one thing you can surrender to God this week, and who can pray with you about it?
Common questions
What is "the hardest conquest"?
Ourselves. Pastor Art's point is that we can't take hold of what God has for us until we stop insisting on our own way. In the Called to Conquer series, you conquer by surrendering.
What does it mean to deny yourself?
In Luke 9:23, Jesus asks his followers to put his agenda ahead of their own. It doesn't mean you stop being a person. It means your rights, opinions and plans come second to his.
Why does the message go back to Adam and Eve?
To show where our need for control comes from. The serpent's lie in Genesis 3 was that we could be like God. Pastor Art calls it a spiritual declaration of independence that every person is born with.
Was this message preached in English or Spanish?
Both. Pastor Art preached in English with live Spanish interpretation, as every Sunday celebration at Living Waters is in both languages.