Lost Control — Glenn Meldrum

For more messages by Glenn Meldrum and in his presence ministries. Go to www .IHP min Istry .com. You are welcome to make additional copies of this CD for free distribution. Mark 5.

Beginning in the 25th verse a large crowd followed and Pressed around him referring to pressing around Jesus and a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and it spent all she had.

Yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus she came up behind him in a crowd and touched his cloak. Because she thought if I just touch his clothes I will be healed. Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked who touched my clothes. You see the people crowding against you as disciples answered and yet you can ask who touched me.

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. When the woman knowing what had happened to her Came and fell at his feet trembling with fear told him the whole truth. He said to her daughter your faith has saved you go in peace and be freed from your suffering.

Won't you think about this woman? Twelve years she had this disease twelve years. It says in Scripture that she has spent everything she had on it so for twelve years. She pursued the answers and doctors and and healings and who knows what type of things she went after.

I mean, maybe she went after Spiritualists and in their form in that day or or some of the occult practices or whatever. I mean when people get desperate they start going desperate ways and they start thinking desperate things.

And so who knows what direction she went to at that time trying to find some form of healing. Now we have to look at this here from a very natural standpoint. We have to see a woman who spent all of her living now she was probably a mother and that means she would be married and maybe she had a bunch of kids and.

You have to realize that something was going on in her life that. Everything from the beginning where this disease broke out everything began to unravel. Bit by bit slowly it began to unravel. So here's this this woman I mean in the maybe in the prime of life thinking everything is great.

She has this family growing and wonderful husband and everything's going Phenomenal and a disease creeps in and something gets into her life and now she's facing this particular thing. But it just begins then so she goes to a doctor and a doctor says no big deal.

And so, you know some medication or whatever it is and it's still there and after a few months. It's still there and so she goes to another doctor and and tries him and and it's still there and then she tries something else.

But now it's gone on for a couple years then it gets a little worse and it's getting worse. Now her children are seeing her suffer under it and and the tension that's that's rising in the home makes for some division and some arguments between husband and wife.

The children see the stress between the marriages as the disease increases and and it causes greater problems in the marriage. She keeps looking and the family keeps hoping for something to happen. And so they go to another place to find healing and he's working and enslaving trying to put money in the bank.

Trying to save enough to to take care of the bills and the death that's accumulating over this particular disease and it goes on year after year and each year that it goes each each thing she goes after to try and find a Remedy and it proves fruitless.

She grows a little bit more despondent. She grows a little bit more weary. She grows a little bit more hopeless. She feels a little bit more in her life that that is there going to be any answer and she goes on and her Family suffers under it as well.

A family wracked by pain then, you know children that grow up and see a mother slowly dying before their eyes saying will Will she able to to see us get married? Will she ever see the grandbabies? The fear in a family the Anxiety that the pressures upon it all because of this illness and no hope and so she looks to everything that she could.

She turned to Jesus not because she had necessarily great faith or anything else. She was a hopeless woman. She was hopeless. She had nothing else that trusted no other place to turn to. But you know in the midst of everything she still wanted control of her life.

It's really crazy when you look at alcoholics and you look at the life of an alcoholic an alcoholic. They they refer to if you go to a a that he has lost control of his life. The reality is the problem is he's not lost control of his life.

They lie and they deceive the people by saying that he's lost control. He's not lost control. He has retained control. That's why he has the problem. But he is still controlling his life. He is still the manipulator of the family.

You see alcoholics manipulate the family. They control it. Through guilt and condemnation and all the other garbage that goes with it but yet a disease can do the same identical thing it becomes a controller of a family and the one suffering under the disease can be be in its own in their own sense a Manipulator because this outside thing is now causing tremendous problem within the family and it can reap havoc in it.

One healer after another healer and still nothing. Everything that she tried was hopeless and so she hears about Jesus she hears the testimony that there's this prophet in town that is touching the blind and they're seeing and healing the lame and Touching the bruised and the broken and they're changing it and she in her hopelessness probably sat there and says well He'd never touch me.

Who am I? Coming from a from a desperate Situation she would just say she'd be she would just be in a hopeless feeling going another thing another thing. Why should I go and try another thing? I've tried so much.

I'm tired of trying things. I'm tired of the effort. I'm tired of it all. But somehow something was burning Inside of her something was tugging on her something inside was was different about it. And so so maybe she heard Jesus preached out there once maybe she saw Jesus do some miracles.

And it started building a little bit of faith in her a little bit of hope that that maybe there's a chance. Somehow or another she came to a point of hopelessness in herself. And she was finally at a point where she was willing to do the scariest thing that she could absolutely do.

To begin to lose control of her life. And so she was willing to go and run and she says if I but touch the hem of his garment I will be healed. We have this thing inside of us. It is bred in us naturally.

Let me relate it to you from a very natural standpoint. You have a little baby adorable little thing. Newborn sweet as can be, you know messy, but sweet, you know I have a friend that kind of referred to him at that stage as a little blobs, you know.

They kind of just they just they're needy. They're just there and until eventually their personality comes out and and they can be cute and adorable. But you know what happens boy. We want that old personality to start coming out and then the smiles and the giggles and and all the other stuff.

But also comes out something else with it. You were feeding the little baby and also the first time that little cute thing goes out and grabs a spoon and says I'm gonna Feed myself. She wants to do it herself.

She is in a place where she's wanting to learn independence. She's wanting independence. That is a natural thing it's very natural for a child to grow up and want Independence and so how long is it before you want to see that little baby walk and then after she begins to walk you're sorry.

She learned because then she's in everything because she's pushing the envelope of independence and mama's heart breaks. The first time she runs down the street and you weren't watching. Because she's getting bigger and now she can run down there she can get away from me and Then she keeps pushing the envelope as she gets older and older and when they hit the teen years, man.

They are pushing they are pushing hard. I Mean they want their independence. They want their independence. I want to make the decisions for my life. I want to wear what I want to wear. I want the color nails.

I want to wear. I want my ears pierced 15 times on each ear. They want what they want because they're growing up and they feel that that this is my right as an individual. I want freedom. I want my freedom and.

So they push it until eventually they're supposedly adult at 18 and and they're on their own. You see everything in the natural pushes us to independence. But everything in Christianity pushes us to dependence.

The total opposite that's why we have such a hard time with surrender. That's why we have the difficulty of losing control because our whole life has been an effort to have control our whole life. From when we were babies we wanted control.

Now, you know what even complicates it more as life goes on and we start getting hurts. You know, we do when we get hurts we start building walls because we want control. I'm not gonna be hurt anymore.

I'm gonna build some walls. I'm gonna protect myself and so we start doing these things in our life to try and build all these walls and Protections as if we could do such a thing. But we think we're doing it and we block off other people so that we're not hurt because we're tired of being hurt and we figure If I have greater control of my life, I will not be hurt as much.

The problem is we try to retain control. It wasn't until this woman finally came to point of hopelessness in herself hopelessness in the doctors. Hopelessness and everything out there that she came to a point to truly completely and in reality say I'm willing to lose it all.

I'm willing to give it all up. This here speaks about Christianity about where it is. You see even as Christians we come and we surrender to a point to a point. Maybe to a point that we understand. Maybe we've done our best in surrender, but you see surrender is a lifelong project.

It's a lifelong thing because he wants to take us deeper into it because he has more areas. He wants to touch and he wants control of. But part of it is because we live in a world that's ever-changing and we are a people that's ever-changing and because of those two Issues were always confronted with that issue of surrender.

One of the greatest problems I see in the church today is the issue of surrender. I remember hearing some years ago Chuck Swindoll make a statement while he was passed still pastoring and he made a statement saying I will not allow my church to sing.

To him I surrender all because I don't want them to become guilt be guilty before God because I know they will not. We can raise their hands. We can say I surrender all but is it manifested in our life.

Is it proved in our life? Have we surrendered all. Have we lost control that he could tell us anything and we would say yes Lord that he could say go. Here we'll go stay here stay if we do it tells us to do this.

We'll do whatever it is because we are in such love with him that if he speaks we will obey. And you see that is actually a very difficult spot to get to. That is a spot where we start really becoming mature as Christians where the surrender becomes so deep.

That all he has to do is speak and we say yes. That he begins to speak and we we long we ache for if he tells to repent will be on our face because we're at That point where we're losing control of our life.

I have seen in my life every time I read I try to retain control of an area of my life is where I have The problems where I have the pain that hurts the struggles every everything because that's what self-control always does.

I'm not referring to the fruit of self-control. That's a different issue. Turn with me to acts the ninth chapter. We're going to look at a Couple more people who lost control. You see this issue may not seem like a big deal, but it is such a big deal.

That until a person loses control they will never be the man or woman of God that they should be or could be. It is such an issue. Because it is an issue that ultimately comes down to be an issue of Lordship.

Who will control my life. My own passions my own wants my own cares or Jesus Christ. Who will tell me what to do. Who will tell me what to spend and how to spend my money? Who will tell me what to do with my life.

Who will dictate it me or God? Who will dictate my entertainment. Who will dictate to me how I do everything? Me or God what will it come down to be. The issue is tremendous. You see for a man of God to come to a place to become a man of God or woman of God to become a woman Of God it is the issue of surrender.

It's the issue that God does not need our gifts and talents. He needs our surrender. When he has our surrender he can do the supernatural he can do the phenomenal through us. But until he has surrender we become an obstacle actually to his move.

We can become a hindrance within our own families because lack of surrender can cause nightmares within homes. The falling apart of families is 100 a surrender issue. If I surrendered to Christ. The old man would begin to die off and everything that is harmful to my marriage would begin to be Transformed by the power of God.

The reason why the breakdowns of marriage is because I am NOT a surrendered individual. Allowing him to touch those areas you see to be a surrendered individual. I have to want to be surrendered and I have to want to see the need in my own life.

So often when there's marital problems husband and wife point fingers at each other. Rather than pointing fingers at themselves. Change doesn't happen in a marriage because people point fingers at each other.

It just makes the the problem worse. The marriage wouldn't be like this if you were different. Marriages change because individuals are transformed by God. Because they begin to yield and surrender the hurts the pains the sorrows the struggles everything that's gone on that has made us to be the people that we are that with all of our Insecurities and fears and everything else he can begin to break into our lives and bring transformation to us as we begin to surrender.

The problem that we have when we suffer hurts and pains and sorrows and failures that we build those walls. We build those walls against people, but you know, what happens is we build those walls against people.

They somehow are built. They're also with God. It becomes scary. Why are we so scared of God? Why are we so terrified if he really broken our lives? Because we built those walls up and that's how we deal with relationships because that's how we deal with relationships.

We deal with it with God also. But what he's wanting is to manifest his love his goodness his tenderness his mercy and kindness his discipline. But he can only do it when we come to a point of such surrender that we will allow him to touch us.

That we will allow him to to discipline us that he will allow us to touch The the places that hurt the worst that we've tried to keep from him. Well, I've I've Loved people and they've hurt me. What if I love God and here it's me and so we protect we protect ourselves.

We say God you can come so close only so close I can deal with that. Oh God. But you get a little too close and you start touching something. I don't like to be touched there. I Don't want that. And so we stopped him from coming any closer.

Acts 9 the third verse beginning in the third verse. This is Paul's conversion and the third verses as he neared Damascus on his journey. Suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him Saul.

Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you Lord Saul asked? I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. He replied now get up and go into the city and You will be told what you must do. The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless.

They heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground. But when he opened his eyes, he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus for three days. He was blind and did not eat or drink.

I want you to think about this here is a proud Religious man. Go through his credentials and he listed all of his credentials of what he was as a success in the world. Listen to mom. He was a proud religious man.

He trusted in self. He trusted in his religion. He trusted in in his heritage. He trusted in his in his family line. He trusted in being a Pharisee. He trusted in all the things of self. He had everything going for him.

Everything going from him from a natural standpoint from a Jewish standpoint everything was going for him and God wanted to break into this man's life but to do it he had to bring the man to a point of hopelessness and helplessness in himself and How did he accomplish this in the life of Paul?

How did he do it in one failed swoop? God knocked a man to the ground blinded him and Went and attacked the very core of his very being. They have the saying out there that that men get their ego. From their from their job from what they do is their occupation.

We get some of our value from it. Well here was Paul's value in everything that he did. Everything now he was a Pharisee. He was aggressively zealously. They were told in Galatians I believe it is that he was more aggressive more zealous in all of his equals and So God in one failed swoop.

Took away everything he trusted in saying everything you are living for Saul. You have been fighting against the God that you thought you served. You have been fighting and warring against me and in one moment He saw the reality of it and he says everything I have been doing is a total waste.

Everything I've been living for has been a lie. Everything I've been doing has been false. Instantly God brought the man down to a place of hopelessness. Until we are broken until we're at a point that we really see our need and begin to become so desperate for God.

Because we see our need we will not abandon everything for him because we will still have that natural self trust in self. Until we lose control. As long as we retain control of our life as long as we can.

Retain control of the things in our life as much as we can and you know. The reality is we really don't have control. We just lie to ourselves that we do. We just we don't have control. You try to grab hold of a person.

What do you do. You drive the person farther away from you try to have control and the reality is you really don't have it. It's an illusion that that has been been been given to us from the fall. I mean our life is so unstable.

The Lord puts it in such simple terms as you are as the lilies of the field you're here today. You're gone tomorrow. Boy, that's a encouraging one Lord. But what he's trying to do is say you are frail you are frail and yet you trust in yourself.

You think you got tomorrow and you don't even know tomorrow is Smith. Wigglesworth said there is no other way into the deep things of God except by a broken spirit. There's no other way into the power of God.

Somehow in this natural mindset in this mindset that we have that comes natural right through through us growing up as children. We have the mentality that we can somehow do it that we can somehow do we have problems.

We can somehow solve them everything falls apart. We can somehow fix it. We have this mindset. Especially especially from the from the standpoint of men that that we have to be self-made men. We have to be strong and we have to persevere.

But yet the ways to the deep things of God is not because we've got it all together. But because we learn what it is to lose control and Surrender to God where we come an individual who has ceased to trust in our own Works our own abilities our own wisdom our own life our own experiences our own everything and that is terrifying.

Because you know we trust in what we trust in in the things in our life. Because it's kind of safe. We trust in our experiences we trust in that stuff because it's safe. I know this but God don't take me out.

Don't make my don't upset my little world because I've grown comfortable I can handle it and Then God breaks in and says I want everything. I want that thing. You've been guarding so hard. I want that.

And he gets a little bit deeper. God uses broken men because broken men become men who are so determined. To yield everything to him that he can pour himself through him. And do the miraculous and they'll keep pointing up to Jesus keep pointing to him and Jesus will get the glory.

Turn with me to Luke the 22nd chapter one reason why we don't want to go the path of losing control. We think that we will spare ourselves much pain if we keep control like I said, we get hurt and we build up walls and.

So we figure somehow if we have control of our life, we're gonna stop the hurt. We're gonna stop the pain. We're not gonna have those hurts anymore. And so we shut down in one way or the other or we build the walls or we've run away from people.

I mean you have breakdowns and families and what do what do men do? They'll go and they'll stay at the office all the time that they can to get as far away because they're tired of being in the contention and strife of the home.

Or somehow or another they go and they build a wall around them to protect themselves because they think it's going to be safe. But you see until we really lose control. It's not safe we're actually in the in the safest place when we lose control to God.

Not when we try to keep control of our lives because that's where the hurts and pains really come from. I Want you to think about this from a natural standpoint again? Think of what it would have been to be a disciple of Jesus and From their standpoint they did not understand what Messiah meant.

They did not believe he was God incarnate and flesh and blood. Okay, they did not believe that not until after he rose again from the dead. It was beyond the conception or even something that was that was even a possibility from the Jewish mindset.

Not even a possibility. They believed he was a Messiah. But they still had a very Jewish mindset that he would be be some kind of great Deliverer to the children of Israel from the bondage of Rome. One way or the other here's this man with phenomenal power.

Phenomenal power the most popular man in Israel the talk of the nation. What would you think it would be like to be one of those twelve men around the most popular man in the nation? What do you think it would be like to be around the man that you thought was going to be the ruler of the nation and You're one of his twelve.

Do what that would be man these guys. That's why they were arguing who'd be the greatest in the kingdom because they thought they were gonna be part of the cabinet. They'd be part of the rulers of this kingdom.

They would have their own little thrones and he'd have his big throne. I Want you to imagine? Here's the situation here here. They're all walking along Jesus walking along the disciples are all around him and this woman is trying to touch the hem of his garment.

I Want you to think about from a natural standpoint? What were they doing? Why were they having to walk so close and I mean they thought they were Jesus bodyguard. We're gonna protect Jesus as if Jesus needed protection.

And here's those stay back back back back back, I mean it was just from a natural standpoint. It was a very proud position think of you being one of the the the closest people of the most popular preacher on the planet and Tell me that it'd be easy to walk in humility.

I Mean there was pride oozing from their bones and then all sudden in one second in one moment. Everything they trusted in was ripped from them. Everything I want you to think here's Jesus looking at these men saying if We were if we were to look at it from from just a carnal standpoint.

We'd say how in the world am I gonna start a church with this? I Mean these men there. They the things that were in them is like what hope is there? But Jesus understood something that was going to be so important.

Because the making of the men of God was going to be that they went to the cross also. When he went to Calvary he did not go to Calvary alone. It was not a private issue. It was not that he just went there for the sins of humanity.

He was going to take 11 men. One man didn't want to go to the cross. He's take 11 men with him because he knows knew the only hope of Christianity to exist was that he had to break the self will the Selfishness the self-life of an individual so that they would cease to have control of their own life and begin to lose it to God.

And this was a difficult one. This was a difficult in Luke 22 in the 60th verse this is Peter replied He denied the Lord twice now. He just denied him the third time. He's denying him the third time. Peter replied man I don't know what you are talking about.

Just as he was speaking the rooster crowed and the Lord Turned and looked straight at then Peter remembered the word The Lord had spoken to him before the rooster crows today. You will disown me three times and He went outside and wept bitterly.

The most agonizing thing that I could imagine would be here. You are you make your boast that you'll do anything for Jesus and the reality is is he wasn't a surrendered man? The reality was is he was not a man that God could really do what he wanted to do through until he'd been to the cross until his own desires were dead and So here he is at a point and he denies the Lord and then Jesus looks at him, you know I don't believe Jesus looked at him with hate.

I don't believe he looked at him with anger. I Believed he looked at him with eyes of such tender compassion That he probably wished Jesus looked at him with anger. It would have been easier to deal with than to have them eyes.

Look at you with this divine pity with this divine love and it burned in his soul and he went out and wept bitterly the breaking of a man for three days and the greatest agony that his soul ever went through while he was Beginning to die to the selfishness to the self-life to the arrogance to the self-will to all the fears to all the things that was.

The obstacle God was was why he was defeating Satan in hell. He was allowing a man to be made. The making of a man is the undoing of his control the undoing of the control of his own life the undoing of the of his own Self-life that he comes to a point and he begins to die to the old nature and he becomes a broken man and a broken Man or a broken woman is an individual who has come to point to cease trusting in Themselves because they see to do so is hopeless.

To do so is hopeless and you know, that's a hard place. That is a hard place. That is a difficult spot. Why do you think it took Moses 40 years being in the wilderness for? 40 years he was trained in Egypt for 40 years.

He was under the best Egyptian teachers that existed. He had the best religious training from an Egyptian standpoint, he had the best military training. He was a warrior. He knew war he knew how to lead armies into battle.

He had the best philosophy the best mathematicians the best everything of that day. He was a prince of Egypt taught by the best talk about pride. You walk along and people bow down. You want to talk about getting proudful you walk on people start bowing to you.

Somebody says something wrong pull theirs off off with their head. I mean, there's some arrogance there they have an old saying about the Caesars of Rome where they says power corrupts and absolute power.

Absolutely corrupts because the Caesars of Rome had absolute power. They were absolutely corrupted by that power. And so here he is for 40 years being made mold and shaped as a man. And it took God 40 years for the breaking of a man for a man to say I cannot do it.

I Do not have the ability. I do not have the power. And then God says finally boy if you had done that 20 years ago making of a man. Making of a man of God we want our Pentecost. We want the power of God made manifest.

We want the signs and wonders, but we don't want to go through Calvary. But the only path to Pentecost is through Calvary. That's the only path. To have the power of God comes down to be a people who come to play point and they're willing to get on the cross.

In essence to be crucified with Christ to die to that old nature to die. The ambitions itself the wants the cares everything to die to the hurts the pains the sorrows to open up the closets in our life.

There are all the scary things that we have hid from the face of everybody in God and to open them up and say God get In there clean it out. Lose control, but that is a terrifying place. I Remember just a silly little thing a silly little thing with with Jesse and I but actually it's not a silly little thing.

It's a it. It was a long process. I Wish I would have learned earlier, but you know, God was good knowing that I was not willing to surrender to that point. I thought I would I would have even said so.

But he knew I wasn't pastored in in in Detroit. Resigned the church in Detroit went to grad school and went through all that. Don't don't need to go through the whole history. But took a pastor then pastored finally in Wisconsin when I took a pastorate in Wisconsin.

We went and had a garage sale sold all kinds of our stuff. Well all the leftover stuff we load up in a in a big OU hall and and we we take it over to Wisconsin. Well, we resigned the church in Wisconsin.

And what do we do? We have another garage sale. So we sell more stuff and then the call came as an evangelist and so we went and had our little car. We got this little trailer loaded in just enough stuff to live on and we went to Pensacola, Florida saying God you've called us.

This is where you know. This is where we feel you want us to go and we're gonna go down there and and we have this much money. We need a little trailer and we need a little minivan to tow it and so we go down there and and in four days we have it and a bunch of miracles took place and everything else and.

And God established us there. We got this little repossessed piece of property that had a dumpy dumpy trailer on it. We ended up looking for a house to try and move on. I don't want to go through all the Reasons for it part of it is codes and everything else.

We couldn't find a house, but we found an old school building. So we moved this old school building on and and converted it to a house and probably about two weeks before. We have occupancy permit and it was probably about two months for Jesse, but I wasn't ready yet.

I was still I'm going. I'm gonna be living in this thing and Jesse's trying to prepare me says well What if God doesn't have us live here? No way. I'm not doing all this work for nothing and Two weeks beforehand God says you will never live here.

And so we were getting so busy. We couldn't live in this 16-foot trailer anymore. We went and decided well We'll make the plunge rent the place out and a fifth wheel in a truck and you know what we did then.

Another garage sale, but this time it's all gone. I mean God, why didn't you tell me up in Detroit? Why did I have to haul that silly stuff all over the place pay the expense of one place after another?

Because I wasn't willing. Now I could lie about it. I could say I'll give all kinds of spiritual things. Yes, it would have been I would have done anything for Christ. But the reality is he knew I wouldn't and in his mercy and tenderness he was going to take me on that path of surrender.

So that one day it didn't matter anymore. It didn't matter if it was walking away all the keepsakes and all the little stuff. It didn't matter anymore if it walked away that dying process can be very painful that surrender process, but until that happens We become a vessel that cannot be used the way that God wants to use us.

I want to take you on a very very difficult section of Scripture for a minute turn to Luke 14. It's interesting how we can make the proclamations about the Word of God. We believe that the Bible is God's inspired Word.

That we believe that he gave it to us every bit of it. That is all Authoritative it is absolutely the Word of God. No part and portion of it is not the Word of God. It is complete. Completely the Word of God a complete and beautiful revelation of God and then in the very next word Take something Jesus says or something in Scripture.

And say well, he didn't mean that that's really bizarre, isn't it? I believe it's all inspired except let me read the redefine. What he said here. Let me give a different interpretation than what he meant.

Well, if he said it if it was inspired he said that then that's the truth. Why don't I just go and take it what it says? That's what makes my preaching Unpalatable to some people is that they just don't want the Word of God saying this is what it says.