Traditional Worship - Steps: Drop the Rock

What does it actually mean to let God change us, not just our circumstances? That question sits at the heart of this powerful message, which walks us through steps six and seven of the 12 steps as a pathway for Christian discipleship. We all carry rocks, whether resentment, anger, fear, the need for control, or the hunger for approval, and we carry them so long they start to feel like part of who we are. The message draws on Philippians 1, where Paul reminds us that the one who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion, and on Ezekiel 36, where God promises not to instruct us to manufacture a new heart on our own but to give us one. The distinction is everything. Christian transformation is not self-renovation. God holds the chisel. Our part is willingness. Step six calls us to become entirely ready to have God remove the things keeping us from becoming who he created us to be, and step seven calls us into the humility that makes that possible. Humility, rightly understood, is not thinking poorly of ourselves. It is seeing ourselves truthfully through the eyes of God, gifts and wounds and all, and acknowledging that we need him. Together, these two steps move us from seeing what is broken to surrendering it, and that surrender, it turns out, is not a one-time event. It is a daily way of life.