Notes from New Life Fellowship Church.

That's the church I went to last Sunday with Pam. Apparently it's the church Greg Jao goes to, because Pam bumped into him the Sunday before and she got to hold his baby throughout the whole worship service. We didn't bump into him this past Sunday. Sad :[

The pastor giving the message that day was Pastor Rich Villodas, and he said that the church was moving through a series but for that day they were going to do a Christmas-themed message.

To be honest, it was kind of like one of those moments where your mom or dad says, "I have to tell you something," and it's something important but you already know what they're going to say, so you just brace yourself for the impact and reply, "Okay..."

That's what that five second moment felt like when he said he was going to give a Christmas message.

And then, just like in a good movie, an unexpected twist happens. What your parents were about to say wasn't what you thought they were going to say. Or at least, not in the way you thought they would.

Pastor Villodas started with describing what it was like for him to learn how to drive, and how he felt cool, calm, and collected because he was in the driver's seat. But when he was teaching his brother how to drive, his anxiety would increase tremendously because he was in the passenger seat. And being in the passenger seat magnifies the reality that you are not in control because you're not behind the steering wheel.

I laughed to myself because I immediately starting singing, "Jesus, take the wheeeeeeel, take it from my haaaands..." in my head :P

And he went on to say that he wasn't saying that it was a free-for-all and that we don't have any self-control, but he was talking about a more destructive kind of control that we try to hold on to.

How can we move from a life of control to a life of trust?

For Christmas messages, more often than not we try to identify with the typical Christmas characters: Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and so on. But really, when you think about it, we look the most like Herod.

There it is. There's the twist.

Pastor Villodas kept saying, "I know, this isn't the Christmas message you came to church to hear, right?" throughout his sermon.
But I kept saying in my head, "Oh no, this is just fine."

He went on.

Herod lives in us when we try to hold on to control that we do not have.
He tries to control the people around him in an anxious and manipulative way.
We love to be in authority, base our identity in our control over others.
It can happen in big ways, but it can be the most damaging in subtle and small ways. We want to control how people think. We want to control how people think of ourselves.

When Herod tries to control the people around him, he causes damage. He tries to control his future and his life situation. But when Christ comes, He seems to disrupt the lifestyles we've grown accustomed to and brings change.

And Herod doesn't like change.
We don't like change.

When change comes, we control by:
Trying to hold on (to what we possess)
Grasping (what we want)

But there's a fine line between planning and obsessing.
We often have the attitude of, "If God doesn't do it, then I'll do it."
We need to relinquish control in order to receive.

Suffering = whenever you're not in control.

We question, "God, will you really do this if I let this go?"

True prayer is the true transference of control.

Which area of your life do you need to give up control?