TAP OUT - SURRENDER to God's Sovereignty (Session 1)

This message is for a teaching series I am sharing at Liberty's The Man Church. The series will offer expository lessons from various passages in the Book of Psalms. Doubts about God. Questioning God. Anger at God. These raw emotions and responses to the trials of life are in every man and they are in the Psalms. Posted here are rough drafts of teaching notes as shared at Liberty Baptist Church, Chatsworth, GA. 

TAP OUT – SURRENDERING TO GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY

1. INTRO

In MMA fighting and wrestling one of the ways to win a match is to force your opponent into submission. Upon realizing he is powerless to resist, the defeated foe taps out to end the match. He is finished fighting and willfully submits. 

One of the common storylines in Scripture is man’s sinful resistance to God’s will. Much of our wrestling with God is outright rebellion and our stubborn refusal to submit. 

This storyline is reflected in Psalm 115. This Psalm is written at a time when Israel is flat on the mat, broken and busted. The people sinned against God and turned to idols. God’s countermove was to allow Israel to suffer the consequences of her decisions. The people looked to idols to prosper and protect them, but the false gods failed. Israel was invaded by an enemy, and the people were taken into exile. 

Will Israel tap out? Will they repent of sin, return to God, and submit to His ways and His will. We hear this call for repentance and submission in Psalm 118:9, “O Israel, Trust in the Lord!”

Trust the Lord! Tap out! Submit! 

In this session we are going to look at how we are ruined in rebellion through idolatry. We will then see the blessing of tapping out and learn why and how we should trust the sovereign God revealed in the Bible. 

2. MAIN MESSAGE

A. Tapping out from idolatry (115:2-8)

i. Israel learned the hard way that idolatry always ends the same – it overpromises and under-delivers. When men turn away from God there will be some hard lessons learned. 

1. Idols promise prosperity but always make you pay (115:4). Verse 4 describes the allure of the silver and gold of idols. It’s a common story. A man gets carried away in something that he thinks will make his life meaningful. Maybe he thinks it will make him rich. Perhaps he sees his power and influence increasing.

a. Men can be carried away in any number of things that fit this category: sports, work, hobby, social media, sex. All of these things have the glimmer of gold. They shimmer like silver. BUT WHEN THEY BECOME IDOLS THEY BECOME COSTLY.

b. Radio personality, author, and speaker Rick Burgess often says that “Football is a wonderful thing, but it is a horrible god.” There are many things of which we could say the same. Otherwise enjoyable, needful, even wonderful things can become horrible gods. Verse 4 describes them as the “work of human hands (115:4). Before long a man has invested himself, his time, and his effort into something he can’t sustain or he may find that he’s never satisfied. And then it begins to cost him:

i. Maybe his job

ii. Maybe his testimony

iii. Maybe his marriage

iv. Maybe his children

WE WANT OUR IDOLS TO PROSPER US BUT THEY WILL MAKE YOU PAY.

2. Men who give their life to idols lose their life to idols (115:5-7). Verses 5-7 describes a problem with idols. We want to find fulfillment in them, but they are only empty in the end. 

a. Idols are parasitic. A parasite is a creature that attaches to a host and sucks the life out of it. Idols are parasitic in the sense that when we seek life in them, they suck the life out of us. Verses 5-7 mock the foolish lifelessness of idols, but the verse implicitly states the insanity of idols. Men want them to speak and respond. They want answers but get nothing. 

b. They want to find life in them, but will eventually find them empty and lifeless. Israel has found her idols to be empty. And many men are like Israel in Psalm 115. They have nothing left. They gave themselves to something that turned out to be empty and meaningless.

3. Verse 8 states the ultimate tragedy of idolatry. “Those who make them become like them.” After it drains a man and he is emptied out the man figures out that all an idol is, is the worst version of himself. And it is here that a man learns that EMOTION IS A BAD THEOLOGIAN. 

a. An idol may be made by a man’s hands, but it is first manufactured in a man’s mind. 

b. And this is often the starting place where a man turns away from God. He THINKS he knows who God is. Instead of getting in God’s Word and finding out how God REVEALS who He is, the man allows his anger, disappointment, misguided aspirations, his pleasures, and his opinions to shape what he believes about God. And it doesn’t matter if an idol is on a shelf, in your hand, or in your mind . . . it’s a false God.

c. Many men turn to idols because they have trust issues. They can’t trust the Lord (v. 9) because they’ve never been able to trust anyone. They’ve been beaten, lied, to and mistreated. Maybe they had a father, mother, or a wife walk out on them. A man who has experienced these abuses and tragedies may fail to trust God either because he thinks God is like those who have let him down, or he may believe God is responsible for allowing those tragedies to take place. This anger can become idolatrous! TAP OUT and TRUST GOD! 

d. The one true God has revealed Himself in His Creation and in His Word. No one manufactures Him. He is who is, no matter what a man thinks or feels. But this is where men make a tragic mistake and think that they can shape, control, or wrestle God. The wrestling begins in their mind with false beliefs about who God is.

B. B. Submit to the Sovereign God (115:1-2, 9-18)  - As he did with Israel, God can bring a man into submission by allowing him to be overcome by the consequences of his misplaced trust . . .his idolatry. So, it’s time to tap out. It’s time to submit. 

i. The concept of sovereignty is stated succinctly in Psalm 115:3, “Our God is in the heavens; HE DOES ALL HE PLEASES. When referring to God, sovereignty means that God has a plan. God will accomplish His plan. He is in control. He is undefeated and “undefeatable.” IF YOU WISH TO WRESTLE THE SOVEREIGN GOD, YOU WON’T WIN – You’re better off to TAP OUT and SUBMIT.

ii. Submission is painful but it will bring you to a pleasant place of worship because of who God is. If God were as awful as our idols, the truth of God’s sovereignty would be horrible. But the truth of God’s attributes as revealed in Scripture mean that God’s sovereignty is GOOD NEWS for every man! Surrendering to God’s sovereignty is good because:

1. God is loving (v. 1) – We cannot gauge God’s love based on what we think or feel. We gauge God’s love based on what the Bible says about God’s love and how He has demonstrated that love in the sacrifice of his son (Rom. 5:8). God’s love never fails. And His love is expressed in The Gospel. Repent of sin. Turn to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. RESPOND TO GOD’S LOVE BY TAPPING OUT AND SURRENDERING TO HIM.

2. God is faithful (v. 1) – God does not lie. He does not fail. He has a proven record of keeping His promises and doing what He says He will do. SO TRUST HIS FAITHFULNESS BY GETTING IN GOD’S WORD AND DISCOVEREING GOD’S PROMISES. TRUST HIS PROMISE.

3. God is powerful (v. 3). The essence of God’s sovereignty is His ability to do what He has determined to do. His plans never fail. SO YOU CAN:

a. FEAR THE LORD (V. 12-13) Verses 12-13 reflect something true of God’s people. God has determined to bless them. It’s part of His covenant with them. He does bless them. He will bless them. So fear the Lord. Tap out from idols and make Him the priority of your life. Part of what it means to fear the Lord is that God comes first. You respect Him and revere Him. When you make decisions, the fear of the Lord calls you to ask how your decision will be viewed by Him. I’ll do right because I want God’s blessings and I want to please Him.

b. ASK FOR GOD’S HELP (V. 14-15) Notice how these verses are expressed as a prayer or as a blessing. You can tap out and turn from idols, no longer going after glittery, empty things, but by asking God to give you His help and His favor. Tap out in prayer! 

c. WORSHIP THE LORD IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE (V. 16-18) Because God is in control, the Psalmist ends by essentially saying, no matter what’s happening, I’ll worship God. No more idols for me – I tap out! This man has moved from wrestling into worship! 

3. CONCLUSION

Let’s end with verses 9-11 which call for us to tap out and trust God. Notice that the text says that God is our help and our shield. A shield doesn’t stop the shot from being fired, but it does mitigate the damage. 

Many men make a tragic mistake soon after they surrender. They start wrestling God again. How so?

They get into a trial and get angry again because somehow, they believed that once they surrendered there would be no more battles to face! WRONG. When you surrender to the Lord the battle with your flesh and the world has only just begun. 

Surrendering to God doesn’t mean you are now exempt from the trial, it means now that you stay behind the shield. You get in his word, you get on your knees, you do what God says, and you seek His protection and help. Worship isn’t just singing songs in church – worship is obedience to trust God through a trial! 

TAP OUT and STAY SURRENDERED TO GOD!

Discussion Questions:

• Successful wrestlers often have notorious submission holds that cause their opponent to tap out. Name a few of the most famous ones (example: Ric Flair and the figure 4 leg lock).
• If the issues of life were wrestlers (money, marriage, self-control, anger . . .) which are the ones who seem to always get you flat on the mat and won’t let go?
  • What are some of the false idols men turn to in tough times?
• As sovereign, God calls on men to trust Him.
  • What are some trust issues in your past that make it difficult for you to trust God?
  • Would someone at the table mind sharing a short story of a tough time that caused you to tap-out and turn to God?
• Verse 1 says God is faithful and that He loves us with steadfast love. What are some of the other characteristics of God the Bible reveals that give us good reason to “tap out” and trust Him?
• Verse 3 says that “God does all that he pleases.” That means that God has a plan and will accomplish His plan. As a man surrenders, trusts, and waits on God, what were some of the disciplines Brian discussed that men are called to do that are implied in verses 12-18?
  • How are you doing with these disciplines of daily trusting God?
• Verses 9-11 calls God our shield. The shield doesn’t stop the shot, but it does reduce the damage. Many men get angry at God because they think that if they trust Him that they won’t have trials. Why is this a false (unbiblical, idolatrous) expectation?
• How does Ephesians 5:16 call for a man to posture himself in trials?
• What are your takeaways from this session?