Inside the Box.

Y’all ever been in a situation that just right out blew your mind?

When I met my beautiful bride-to-be, there were many things about her that I didn’t know off the jump.  For instance, for our first date, we went to a little pizza place over on Ashley River Road called Paisano’s.  I went to order the pizza, and she told me it had to be pepperoni, cheese, mushrooms, and nothing else. I come from the line of thought that says if you have enough room to put the pineapples AND pepperoncinis on the pizza, you do it. The more toppings, the better. Not the case with Sarah.

I also got my mind blown on this fishing trip we took. In the beginning, I wasn’t aware of her love of fishing. She can out-fish anyone sitting here in this room. So, when we went on our first fishing date out in Edisto, I didn’t know this.  I quickly realized the error of my ways. Then, internally, I decided I had to put up or shut up. I couldn’t look macho and have the woman out-fish me. Right about the time I came to that conclusion, a fish bit my line and took my bait. He got the bait; I didn’t get him.

So, I reeled in and spent a couple minutes securing a new piece of bait on the line (all while she’s happily fishing away). 

After I finally got the bait secured the way I wanted, I threw the line back out. First cast… overshot the water and went straight into the weeds and bushes. Got stuck. I yanked and yanked until finally I had to cut the line because I was stuck (all while she happily fished away).

I went back to the tacklebox and dug around for another hook and weight and bait. Fought with those dumb tiny push clips trying to secure the weight to the line until my fingers were raw (while she happily fished away)

Finally got everything secured a third time, went to cast. Reared that fishing pole back like my life depended on it. Had to regain my masculinity with an insanely far throw. I snapped the pole forward like a whip with all my might. The phrase “hook, line, and sinker” took on a whole new meaning in my mind as I watched THE ENTIRE APPARATUS fly through the air, untethered from my pole to plunk in the water. Someone had wrapped extra string around the reel! I had spent all that time attaching the new bait, hook, and sinker, to that extra line, because I thought (as any normal person would) that it was all part of ONE FISHING LINE SPOOL on the reel!

It was at that point that Sarah gave up on trying to hold in her laughter at my plight, and I gave up on fishing for the evening. I admitted defeat.

My mind was blown. I kept trying to do what I wanted to do (out-fish Sarah), but all the things I kept trying to do on my own kept failing. All the tools that I had in my own power didn’t work. It wasn’t working out, and it took me too long to figure it out.

Today, we’re going to be talking about a man who got his mind blown, tried to go forward on his own, and it didn’t work out. Hopefully, we’re going to see today that we have some of the same tendencies he did. And Lord-willing, the Lord is going to be working in some hearts, that we heed to the warning, and don’t fall prey to the same trap going forward.

The verse we’re going to be primarily focusing on today is Genesis 17:18

And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

Genesis 17:18

There is so much meat in this verse, but I think many of us miss it because it’s so short, and it’s packed with so much else on both sides.  So, keeping that verse in the back of your mind, let’s get some context on what exactly is happening as we come upon this passage in Genesis 17. In Genesis 16:2-4 we see the beginning of trouble

² And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.

³ And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.

⁴ And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.

Genesis 16:2-4

‌Immediately, we see a plan being hatched. We see a woman, Sarah, who is trying to work inside the box. We’re going to keep coming back to that phrase, so I need you to go ahead and get it to stick … the box.

What is the box?

For the purposes of this sermon, I want you to think of the box as a toolbox that you carry around with you all the time.

• It holds your thoughts
• It holds your past experiences
• It holds your presuppositions (things you assume)
• It holds your preferences
• It holds your biases

As humans, whenever we are faced with a problem, we pull this toolbox out and we use what’s in it to help us fix or solve the problem.

For instance…  let’s walk through a real life scenario here. Your spouse is always leaving the toilet seat up. You hate it. One night at 3 AM you get your backside inadvertently and unexpectedly baptized, falling into the toilet.  At that moment, you pull out the toolbox. You pull out

• your preference (that the toilet seat be down) 
• Your past experience (your spouse never puts the toilet seat down)
• Your presupposition (you assume your spouse doesn’t care about you because they don’t listen to you when you ask them to put the toilet seat down)

You take these “tools” if you will, and you start to apply them to the problem at hand. Your preference that toilet seat be down drives you to confront your spouse. You come to this confrontation with a presupposition, assuming that your spouse doesn’t care for your feelings regarding the toilet seat, and you aid this claim with the past experiences where they didn’t put the toilet seat down.

Needless to say, I doubt this will lead to a productive conversation. Especially if it’s 3 in the morning and your backside is wet.

It’s a bit of a humorous example, but I hope it helps you understand a very valid mode of operation we sometimes fall into. This is exactly what Sarah was doing when she thought she was going to be unable to bear children. The plan that was hatched involving Hagar was one that was conceived entirely in Sarah’s toolbox.

She came to that crucial conversation with Abraham with the presupposition that she was unable to bear children. She was too old. She was past child-bearing years. There had to be another plan put in place.

Her preference was that Abraham’s lineage be continued, but her past experience was one of disappointment and let-down.  In this time period and culture, a woman’s status and worth were tied to her ability to produce the next generation in order to carry on the lineage of the family. Motherhood was valued above all else.  There was no doubt Sarah and Abraham had tried to have a child. Sarah probably married Abraham around the average age of marriage during that time (16 years old). She would have had DECADES of failed attempts under her belt by this point in time.  She finally decided to talk to Abraham about getting with Hagar when she was around 76 years old. How do we know this?

And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.

Genesis 16:16

Sarah was 10 years younger, so the age of 76 checks out. That’s a long time to go without seeing the Lord move in your circumstance!

So evidently Sarah became tired of waiting. She pulled all the tools out of her toolbox and hatched a plan to have Abraham’s lineage carried on through his servant Hagar. As we all know by now, Hagar conceived a son by Abraham named Ishmael. God kept his Word regarding the blessing and multiplication of Abraham’s descendents, and through Ishmael we have the people group known today as the Arabs.  Through Ishmael we have some of our Palestinian nations. Through Ishmael we have Islam.

So… Before we go any further, I need you to fully grasp this first point here. Remember when I said I needed you to keep in mind the idea of the box? I need you to look at the toolbox you’re carrying around right now. The biases and thoughts. The preferences, presuppositions, and past experiences. The tools that you draw upon and rely upon when you are faced with a situation you feel that you need to fix.

Everyone has a toolbox, and everyone tries to be a DIY handyman when it comes to fixing life every once in a while.

Maybe some of you can identify with Sarah.

• You have past experiences that have shaped and influenced the presuppositions you carry
• ‌Maybe that family member has mistreated you
• Maybe that coworker or classmate has been stealing credit for your work
• Maybe you grew up poor
• Maybe you watched a loved one abuse food, or drink, or medication.

Those past experiences led to presuppositions.

• I assume I’ll never be able to trust them after what they did.
• I assume I’ll always be in the background, doing the heavy lifting while someone else takes the glory.
• I assume I’ll have to scrounge and save every nickel and dime or else I’ll be just like I was when I didn’t have money for clothes and food.

Thus, these experiences and presuppositions have influenced the steps you’re taking right now to achieve the end goal of satisfying your preference.

• You prefer to keep someone at a distance, so you try your hardest to play hard ball and cold shoulder, so you don’t get hurt again
• You prefer to achieve rightful recognition, but you’re anger towards your coworker’s or classmate’s past behavior has led to you actively seeking to undercut them as payback.

• Because of the trials and mishaps of your past, whether in regards to finances or relationships, you prefer stability. In fact, you try your hardest to change as little as possible in order to keep that stable state. You essentially paralyze your growth personally and relationally in an attempt to keep everything level and predictable

Where Sarah messed up is the same place that we mess up today. We start pulling the tools out of our toolbox before we stop and consider that God is still King, and he is still on the throne. Don’t let your preferences, presuppositions, and past experiences keep you from the joy that comes from following the Lord with a pure heart.

Let’s fast forward 13 years. To Genesis 17. Abraham is 99 now. Remember… he had Ishmael when he was 86 with Hagar. So, Ishmael is now 13. For 13 years Abraham has been remembering that promise the Lord gave him. Sarah is still barren though, and Ishmael is growing into a young man. 

This is where we pick up at Genesis 17:15…

¹⁵ And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

¹⁶ And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

¹⁷ Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

¹⁸ And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

¹⁹ And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

²⁰ And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

²¹ But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

²² And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

Genesis 17:15-22

First thing I want to make note of here in verse 15 is the name change.

Sarai” (שָׂרָי) and “Sarah” (שָׂרָה) are different forms of the same Hebrew word that basically means “princess/woman of strength”.

So, what was the reason God changed it? It’s basically the same thing, right?

In this ancient culture, names held power. So, to change one was a powerful thing. Throughout the Bible, we see the power behind the transformation of names. 

• (Acts 9) Saul was changed to Paul when he met the Lord on the road to Damascus. 
• (John 1) Simon was changed to Peter when Jesus decided to make him the rock on which he would build his Church. 
• (Genesis 32) Jacob became Israel when he went from being a deceitful brother who schemed his way into a birthright, to a man who had wrestled with God, refusing to let go until he received a blessing 

I say all that to say, God changes names for big reasons, and we’d do well to pay attention to the name changes here. In Genesis 17:5 we see God change Abram’s name to Abraham, and here we see him change Sarai (with an i) to Sarah (with an h).  Why did He do it?

God was essentially saying, “listen, the way you operated before isn’t the way you’re going to operate now”.  That’s the meat and potatoes of a name change. In Biblical times, your name was attached to your identity. To change it was to re-identify yourself. 

God is re-identifying Abraham and Sarah right before our eyes in Genesis 17. Why is this important to note?

Well, Abraham and Sarah had been living a certain kind of way up until this point, as we’ve already discussed. They’d been going along the journey of life as many of us do, getting some things right and getting some things wrong. They’d been living with successes and living with mistakes.  But, for whatever reason, the Lord decided that this was going to be the moment to close that chapter of life and open the next. This was the moment he was going to pull the curtain back, remove confusion, provide direction, and execute the next step of his plan in the life of Sarah and Abraham. 

Let me tell you that God can do the same for you today. He can give you a new identity. How does God give us a new identity?

He doesn’t have to change our name to make this identity real in our lives. He simply has to change our hearts. How are our hearts changed? Through the complete and total acceptance of Jesus Christ

There was a day when Samuel was going along the journey of life as many of us do, getting some things right and some things wrong. I’d had successes. I’d made mistakes. But, for whatever reason, the Lord decided 2000-something years ago that he was going to send his son Jesus to die for me. 

So, when I decided to do my part in that plan of salvation and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior years ago, my name was written down in the Lamb Book of Life, and I took on a new identity. God reidentified me. No longer was I just Samuel. I was Samuel—a child of the King. My heart was changed from a desire to glorify self to a desire to glorify God.

Have I been perfect, no. Do I still sometimes fall, yes. But I strive each day to live this new life in Christ with the new identity that I have been given.  You have that same opportunity today. God can “change your name”. Through acceptance and unfettered submission to his son Jesus, you too can live in a new identity.

I came up with the term “unfettered submission” because many on the outside of the faith look at worship and submission to Jesus as an oppressive restrictive thing that keeps you from doing what you want and living how you want to live. It’s like fetters and chains that hold you down and tie you up. This is wrong. Submission to Christ makes you free. Free from the power of death. Free from the consequences of hell. Free from the grip of sin in your life. Free from the question everyone faces of “what is all of this for”. It’s not some intellectual cop-out to put your trust in Christ, as some would have you believe. It’s not some crazy attempt to find meaning in a meaningless existence.  It is the best and most freeing thing you can ever do!

So… back to Sarah and Abraham, he renames them to signify the new identity he is about to bestow on them and their lineage. What does God say here?

¹⁶ And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her

Genesis 17:16

The Lord declares that Sarah and Abraham’s offspring will be vast. The generations of children would expand and grow into nations of people. Their children would be kings. This is the promise that God gives. And what does Abraham do?

The Bible says that he falls on his face and laughs.

I read this wrong my entire life. I thought he was laughing purely in disbelief, like God was playing a joke on him. It’s important to note that this is not the laugh of one who doesn’t believe. This is the laugh of one who is in awe and in amazement, delighting in the promise of God, by which the impossible is made possible. 

How do I know this? Romans 4:18-20. This is Paul writing, speaking of Abraham…

17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 

18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 

19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: 

20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 

21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 

22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

Romans 4:18-20

The Bible says that he gave glory to God. Abraham thought it incredulous, but he didn’t think that it was undoable. He believed in hope that God was going to take him, a 100-year-old man, and give him a child with Sarah, a 90-year-old woman.

So… I have to ask you… What is God’s promise to you? Does it sound impossible?

If you’re a child of Christ, I’ll tell you what God’s promise is to you. If you love him as Lord, He will work all things together according to your good, just like he was doing here with Abraham. He was fulfilling a promise to do a good work in Abraham’s life. Seemed impossible though didn’t it. Seemed hard right?

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

Note that verse does not say “all things are good for them that love God. ”

It says all things WORK TOGETHER for good. That all things include the parts of your life you don’t like. 

• Life circumstances that you wish were different. 
• Mistakes you’ve made. 
• Regrets you hold.

I doubt Sarah and Abraham wanted to be in their old age with child. That was a life circumstance they might have avoided had they been able to do it their way. I feel sure there was some regret from Hagar, Sarah, and Abraham regarding the conception of Ishmael. I know Sarah thought it to be a mistake later and regretted it.

Similarly, I know some of you under the sound of my voice are in a similar boat. Romans 8:28 feels like a slap in the face, because it seems like parts of your life are just so out of wack and so far out in left field it doesn’t make sense. You have no idea how good can come out of it. 

May I encourage you to follow the Abraham Blueprint laid out in Romans 4:18-20 (that’s a sermon time for a yet-to-be-finished sermon 😁)

• Believe in hope,
• Be not weak in the faith
• Stagger not at the promises of God. (Don’t doubt the promises) 
• Give glory to God

Now that we know what we SHOULD do, I want to talk about what we ACTUALLY do sometimes. In fact, In Genesis 17, Abraham lays out a perfect case study. He believed on God’s promise, but he still tried to help the promise along. AND WE ALL DO THAT.  

People who know me know that I sometimes… struggle… with certain parts of the driving process. Don’t get Sarah started on how I park my Tacoma sometimes. Anyway… I had a driver instructor when I was learning to drive named Mr. Parnell. He was a retired Highway Patrol officer. Excellent gentleman. Funny guy too. He was an older fellow, mostly bald, (and I’m pretty sure I didn’t help his hair situation with the perils I put him through during our lessons).  The cul-de-sac definitely widened out a bit if you know what I mean.  

Mr. Parnell had a really cool trainer car that had a brake on the passenger side. Being as this was the case, he was fine with me driving the car… as long as he had his foot on the passenger brake. When I got too fast, took an unexpected turn, or tried to back in the parallel parking spot wrong, he’d hit that break.

We do the same thing with God folks. We’re fine with him driving the car. We’re fine with “trusting in the promise” … to a certain extent. Then we like to pump the brakes. We like to exhibit some control. You can tell Jesus all you want to “take the wheel”, but if you leave your foot on the brake, you’re not really doing yourself any favors. 

When God decides he wants to take an unexpected turn, or he wants to put you in reverse for a minute, or he wants to pick up the pace, we’re quick to say “HOLD UP LORD. DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING HERE?!”  And this is where we introduce what I like to call the counteroffer.

Abraham gave God a counteroffer in Genesis 17:18… EVEN AFTER WE ALREADY KNOW HE WAS TRUSTING THE LORD. He couldn’t help himself.

He said, “Lord, I believe your promise and all, but you mind just using Ishmael? Like… he’s already here, so it makes sense and stuff. I wouldn’t have to deal with her pregnancy cravings, she wouldn’t have to get irritated at me when the hormones started acting up. It’s really a better deal God.”

I’m being a bit facetious, but you get the point. He took God’s promise, and he put his own spin on it. Even the most Christian of us do this same thing folks! The counteroffer is another tool we all possess inside our box. We take the blessing, the promise, or the opportunity that God puts in front of us, and we say, “Oh Lord, could you tweak it a bit here? Could you change it a bit there”.  

So, I have to ask you… Are you trying to give God a counteroffer? Are you trying to use the tools in your toolbox?

Are there situations in your life where you have asked God to work, but you’re still trying to exert some control. Maybe you’re just like Abraham. Ultimately, you believe in the promise of God, but a little bit of self has slipped in. Maybe you want God to work on somebody or in something, but you want it done your way instead of God’s way.

Sometimes we may not even recognize we’re giving God the counteroffer, trying to make Him work in our box. A really good example of this is when you decide to take (what I like to call anyway) the “closed mouths don’t get fed approach”

We’ve all heard of the phrase “closed mouths don’t get fed” right?  The general point is that you have to put yourself out there and do a little bit of work if you expect to see results. 

This is all fine and dandy until the work you’re doing for yourself is more important to you than the work God is doing on your behalf.

Case in point…1 year before I graduated college, I began looking for a job. Not just any job though. I wanted a 9-5, M-F, $40k a year, computer science job right in Florence. Florence isn’t exactly the capital of tech industry, so my options were limited, and the competition was high. So, I threw myself into working at it. I knew I’d need an internship that I could then use to transition into a full-time position, so I began my search

 I wrote a bunch of cover letters, sent emails, and revised my resume multiple times. I took extra classes for additional certifications in an attempt to stand out.  I interviewed tons of places. The school IT dept, the hospital IT dept, Blue Cross Blue Shield, the local county govt IT dept. Rejection after Rejection.

 Anyone that sent me a call back, I’d interview with. I so desired that EXACT TYPE of JOB that I chased it. Then there came the day I found it. It was a junior developer internship at a small software company named ACS technologies.

•  It was 15 minutes from my parents’ house, (where I planned on staying at least a year after graduation to save up money
• I knew people who had connections there
• It was a company that built Christian Church Software
• It checked all the boxes I’d mentioned earlier. The internship had potential to be full-time upon completion

I applied, then asked like 3 different connections to put in a good word for me. Waited.

•  I got an initial interview. Passed! 
• A second-round interview. Passed! 
• Third round – “I’m sorry, but we’ve decided to go with another candidate”

I. WAS. CRUSHED. And Angry. The person who ended up getting the internship was one of my classmates. He was the brainiac who knew everything and didn’t mind telling everyone how smart he was. I’d wasted all that time, trying so hard, all for nothing

That night I found out. I was so angry I went on a run to blow off some steam. Landed wrong on a rock and stumbled. I was stubborn and aggravated, so I ran through the pain. Got back to the house, was walking up the steps, and my knee gave out. 

Ended up having to spend a few months in therapy because of that dumb decision. 

That was right around Christmas. The internship fell through. I broke it off with the girl I was dating. My leg was all jacked up, hindering mobility.  I was done. 

Later, as I reflected, I realized I’d been giving God the counteroffer. I was taking the “closed mouths don’t get fed approach” and throwing myself into everything and anything, regardless of if it was God’s Will or not. I was offering up my Ishmael.

Essentially, I had this vision of what I wanted in my head and I was saying, “Lord, I believe that you’re going to protect me and keep me and bless me if I follow You, but how about you bless me with THIS job and with THIS girl and THIS SPECIFIC THING I’M WANTING”

But God knew the future that I didn’t. And, because He loves me, he wasn’t going to let me torpedo myself completely. 

LET ME GIVE YOU A TESTIMONY TO HOW GOD WORKS THOUGH.

Because I didn’t take that internship, the next summer I was able to go to the Wilds and impact kids for the Lord. Even led some to salvation. Had the best summer of my teen years. 

The next year, ACS Technologies underwent some financial struggles. They laid off a bunch of staff. The man I interviewed with, who would’ve been my boss, put in his resignation.

My last semester of college, All the doors in Florence remained closed to me, but the Lord threw a door wide open right here in Charleston, SC at Nucor.

• He blessed me with a job making double what I had thought I initially wanted. 
• He gave me my own place to live (when I thought I was going to have to be living at home another year.)
• My job isn’t 9-5, but I have flexibility to work remote, which is amazing.
• He’s opened the door for me to preach in churches I’d have never been able to had I stayed at home.
• He didn’t just put another girl for me to date in my path… HE HAD A WHOLE SMOKESHOW OF A WIFE waiting for me in Charleston.

Even with all the tools in my toolbox, I couldn’t have built something so great! Nor could I have seen the future God had for me back then on my own. I simply had no idea!

 Working off the knowledge I had when I was applying for those internships years ago, I could have made a bunch of good, wise, stable decisions. I think I could have worked inside of my box and built something that would have been stable and morally okay.  I could have lived my entire life never setting foot on Rainbow Row.  But it would have been wrong for me. Why?  Because I don’t know my future like God does. 

• He saw a better life for me than I saw for myself. 
• He saw a better life for Abraham than Abraham saw for himself. 
• He sees a better life for you than you see for yourself. 

The fact is that whenever you try to handle something on your own apart from God, things will slip through the cracks.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that it’s impossible to make a good decision apart from God. There are plenty of moral, good people in the world who strive to make helpful, compassionate, and moral decisions. But, in the end, that isn’t good enough. Why? Consider the following example…

You’re building a house, and you need to wire up the electricity. You have two choices. You can choose an electrical contractor, or you can choose my brother. Let me stump for my brother really quick. He’s a smart and intelligent young man. 19 years of age. He’s spent a couple summers working as an electrical apprentice. He has an internship under his belt. He knows the difference between AC and DC voltage. He’s moral and good. He’s got the best intentions. He’s not intentionally going to seek to wire up your house wrong or burn it down. Because of these reasons, I think you should pick him to wire up 200 AMPS of pure lightning into your house. 

Already some of you are looking at me like I’m crazy and rightfully so. You don’t want some 19-year-old kid wiring up your house! You want a seasoned and experienced contractor who’s wired up many types of houses for many people over many years!

Explain something to me then… why do some of us treat our spiritual lives the same way?  

Know that apart from God, your spiritual life is dead and dark. Everyone recognizes this, regardless of if they believe in Jesus or not. You can see the depravity of the human condition all around you. 

Yet, some of us seek to bring light to this innate depravity through our own goodness and morality. We pull out our toolbox and get to work wiring up lights! After all, you’re a good person with no ill-intentions. 

• Yeah… you haven’t been around since the dawn of time 
• and yeah, you’ve never created solar systems with a breath 
• and yeah, you’ve never saved anyone from eternal damnation, 

but sure, you can go ahead and wire up the light into your dead dark spirit. It’s all about making good choices every day and hoping your good outweighs your bad when the Reaper comes calling right? 

NO! That’s a foolish line of reasoning. 

Good and moral people making good and moral choices die and go to hell every day because goodness and morality is not what saves you.

 Only trusting in Jesus as Lord of your life does. 

It makes sense that, since God is the one who initially created us, then He alone is the one who is fully qualified to restore us and fix us when we falter.

²³ For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Romans 3:23

Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Both you and I are included in that all.

⁶ But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Isaiah 64:6

Isaiah 64:6 tells us that our righteousness (all the good we can do apart from God) is as filthy rags.

We can’t do it on our own folks. We all need Jesus. Do you have him today or are you still trying to work inside the box?