When we chose the series we just finished, Fool’s Gold, I honestly didn’t expect a series that would challenge me as much as this one did. I thought it was a simple, fun little five-week series that would ease us back into the back-to-school season.

 Boy, was I wrong.

 The deeper we went, the more I realized we were dealing with something far more significant than a handful of popular sayings that sound Christian but really aren’t. We were dealing with the subtle ways we learn to think about God, ourselves, faith, family, church, and the world around us. We confronted ideas that sound reasonable because we have heard them so often and because, if we are honest, sometimes we want them to be true.

 That last part challenged me most.

Counterfeit wisdom is rarely attractive because it is obviously false. It is attractive because it usually has enough truth mixed in to make it believable. Counterfeit wisdom fits comfortably with what we already want. It asks very little of us and doesn’t demand much change from us. As a result, if we aren’t careful, we can start adjusting our understanding of God around the life we want to live rather than letting the truth of God reshape the life God has already given us to live.

As I have continued thinking about the series, I keep coming back to one conclusion. Waking up from counterfeit wisdom and embracing God’s truth through Jesus requires active, ongoing surrender. And surrender is where things get personal.

I have noticed this in my own life, particularly around control. I believe God is trustworthy. I preach it. I pray it. I have experienced His faithfulness more times than I can count. And yet . . . I can still spend an enormous amount of mental and emotional energy trying to anticipate what might happen next, solve problems that have not happened, and manage outcomes that were never completely mine to control in the first place. Anyone else? I see that hand.

There is nothing wrong with planning, thinking ahead, or being responsible. Those are very wise actions and signs of good stewardship. Somewhere along the way, though, what I think is wisdom can quietly become control, and not far from that is the idea that control can – and often does – become a substitute for trust.

My guess is you have your own version of this. There are places where the wisdom of Jesus sounds wonderful until it asks something from us. Forgiveness sounds right until there is someone we find difficult to forgive. Generosity sounds admirable until it affects how we spend our money. Loving our enemies sounds beautifully Christian until we actually have enemies. Trusting God sounds comforting until the future becomes uncertain.

Eventually, following Jesus requires us to surrender something we would rather keep. If we are unwilling to do that, compromise becomes surprisingly easy. We begin taking our cues from the world around us without even realizing it. We measure success the way everyone else does. We worry about the same things, chase the same things, protect the same things, and become angry about the same things. We can keep believing in Jesus while letting other voices determine how we actually live.

Scripture has a word for that kind of thinking. We just spent five weeks walking through it. King Solomon, the writer of Proverbs, calls it foolishness.

That’s why the timing of what comes next matters so much.

Fool’s Gold asked us to examine the ideas and assumptions that quietly shape the way we live. Romans will take us beneath those assumptions to something even deeper. If Fool’s Gold helped us recognize the counterfeit, Romans will help us recover the real thing: the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ and what becomes possible when that gospel takes hold of a life. In that sense, we are not simply moving from one sermon series to another. We are continuing the same spiritual journey, moving from recognizing what has shaped us to allowing the gospel to reshape us.

On Sunday we begin a journey through Paul’s letter to the Romans as we kick off our series, All Roads Lead to Rome. For the next several weeks, we are going to sit with one of the richest explanations of the gospel ever written. Alongside the sermons, I hope many of you have purchased your supplemental resource from Seedbed and will join the weekly readings from the Wake-Up Call as we let the book of Romans work its way more deeply into our lives. You can sign up here to receive the Wake-Up Call.

BUT . . . I hope we approach Romans wanting more than information. Remember, transformation is greater than information. Paul did not write Romans simply so Christians could know more about the gospel. He wrote about a gospel powerful enough to change people. It exposes what is false, confronts what holds us captive, announces what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, and then begins reshaping the way we live.

THAT kind of gospel will ask something of us. So, perhaps this is a good moment to carry a few questions with us into Romans.

·        Where have I allowed the wisdom of the world to become more influential than I realized?

·        What am I holding onto that makes it hard to fully trust Jesus?

·        What part of my life have I quietly decided is mine to manage rather than His to lead?

I have my answers. I’m sure you have yours. Over the coming weeks, Romans will take us deeper into the heart of the gospel. My prayer is that we will allow God to take us deeper too.

The question before us is not whether we believe the gospel. That’s easy. Most of us reading this already do. The deeper question is whether we are willing to surrender enough of ourselves so that the gospel we claim to believe actually changes the way we live. The gospel is not simply something we believe. It is the truth of God that, when fully surrendered to, reshapes how we live.

See ya Sunday for the start of All Roads Lead to Rome.

Share