Let Go and Let God

Main Scripture: John 15:5 (KJV)

“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”

The Desire to Do Better

The Apostle Paul gives us a good understanding of this struggle in Romans 7:18 when he says, “For to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Paul understood the conflict between knowing what was right and struggling to carry it out. He recognized that having the desire to do good did not mean he possessed the strength within himself to overcome every weakness.
I believe many of us can relate to that. We tell ourselves we're not going to allow certain people to upset us anymore. We're not going to become angry over something that happened years ago. We're going to forgive, move forward, and stop allowing our past to interfere with our peace. But then someone mentions a name, brings up an old situation, or says something that reminds us of what happened, and before we realize it, those same feelings return.
The anger comes back. The disappointment comes back. Sometimes the guilt comes back. And we find ourselves struggling with something we thought we had already overcome.
Now, remembering something painful doesn't necessarily mean we've failed spiritually. There are experiences that leave scars, and some wounds take longer to heal than others. But we need to be careful that we don't allow those experiences to continue controlling our attitudes, decisions, and relationships. We cannot keep saying we want to move forward while deliberately holding on to everything that keeps pulling us backward.
Sometimes we are asking God to deliver us from something while continuing to entertain the very thoughts that keep it alive. We say we've forgiven someone, but every opportunity we get, we're reminding ourselves and everybody else of what they did. We say we want peace, but we continue revisiting situations that disturb our peace.
And this is where we need to recognize our dependence upon God. Paul understood that the desire to do what was right was not enough. He needed something greater than his own determination, and so do we.

Without Christ, We Cannot Produce the Change God Requires

Jesus said in John 15:5, “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” I want us to think about what He's teaching us. A branch receives what it needs to live and produce fruit through its connection to the vine. If that branch is separated from the vine, it cannot continue producing fruit on its own.
Jesus was explaining the importance of remaining connected to Him. He said, “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” Notice that the fruit comes from abiding in Christ. It doesn't come simply because we've decided to become better people.
Some of us are trying to demonstrate patience while refusing to allow God to deal with our anger. We're trying to show love while holding on to resentment. We're asking God for peace while continuing to entertain thoughts that keep us troubled. We want the benefits of spiritual growth, but we don't always want to submit to the process that produces it.
Galatians 5:22–23 identifies the fruit of the Spirit as love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. These are qualities that should become evident in the lives of God's people. But notice that Scripture calls them the fruit of the Spirit. We cannot produce genuine spiritual maturity through personality, determination, or good intentions alone.
Philippians 2:13 reminds us, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” In other words, God is at work within those who belong to Him, helping us develop both the desire and the ability to live according to His will.
So when we recognize something in our lives that needs to change, we need to do more than promise ourselves that we're going to do better. We need to submit that struggle to God and allow Him to work within us.

Stop Living in the Wounds of Yesterday

One of the things that troubles me is how long we sometimes allow people and situations from our past to influence our lives. Someone hurt us years ago, and we're still angry. Someone disappointed us, and now we struggle to trust anybody. Someone mistreated us, and we've allowed that experience to determine how we respond to people who had nothing to do with what happened.
Hebrews 12:15 warns us about allowing a root of bitterness to spring up and trouble us. We need to understand that bitterness doesn't always begin with hatred. Sometimes it begins with disappointment. Someone we trusted failed us. Someone we loved betrayed us. Someone we expected to treat us fairly did something that left us feeling rejected or disrespected.
Instead of dealing with what happened, we begin holding on to it. We replay the conversations, remember the circumstances, and sometimes imagine what we should have said or done differently. Before long, that experience begins affecting the way we treat other people.
And I want us to consider something. How much of our present are we willing to surrender to something that happened in our past?
Now, forgiveness doesn't mean that what someone did was right. It doesn't mean we have to pretend the hurt never happened, and it certainly doesn't mean we have to place ourselves back into harmful situations. But it does mean we must stop allowing resentment to govern our lives.
Ephesians 4:31–32 tells us to put away bitterness, wrath, anger, and malice, and to be kind and tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven us.
We cannot continue asking God to forgive our shortcomings while refusing to forgive those who have wronged us. There comes a time when we must acknowledge that holding on to bitterness is not helping us. It's interfering with the very peace we're asking God to give us.

Stop Carrying the Guilt of What God Has Forgiven

There's another struggle I want us to consider this morning, and that's guilt. Some of us have confessed our sins, asked God for forgiveness, and accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, but we continue living as though our past has disqualified us from becoming who God has called us to be.
We remember the mistakes we've made, the people we've hurt, and the decisions we regret. Sometimes we look at our lives today and wonder how God could use someone who has done the things we've done.
But listen to what Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
We need to understand what Paul is saying. He isn't telling us that becoming a Christian erases every memory or removes every consequence of our past. He's reminding us that through Jesus Christ, we have been given a new life. We are no longer required to continue living according to the sinful patterns that once governed us.
Romans 8:1 declares, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” If we've genuinely repented and placed our faith in Christ, why do we continue treating ourselves as though His forgiveness isn't enough?
Now, that doesn't excuse us from accepting responsibility for what we've done. If we've wronged someone, we should acknowledge it and make things right where possible. But there's a difference between accepting responsibility and continuing to punish ourselves over something God has already forgiven.
We cannot go back and change yesterday. We can learn from it, repent where necessary, and allow God to direct how we live today.

Remember Who You Belong To

In 1 Corinthians 6:20, Paul reminds the believers in Corinth, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”
Paul was addressing their conduct and reminding them that their lives no longer belonged to themselves. They had been redeemed through Jesus Christ, and because of that, they were expected to live differently.
I believe we sometimes forget what it means to have been bought with a price. We speak about salvation, forgiveness, and the goodness of God, but we don't always consider the responsibility that comes with belonging to Him.
Jesus Christ gave His life so that we could be reconciled to God. And because we belong to Him, there should be evidence of that relationship in the way we conduct ourselves.
We cannot claim to have been changed by Christ while deliberately continuing to embrace the attitudes and behaviors that contradict His Word. We cannot continue making excuses for bitterness, hatred, unforgiveness, and resentment simply because we believe someone gave us a reason to feel that way.
I understand that people can hurt us deeply. I understand that some experiences are difficult to overcome. But our pain doesn't remove our responsibility to obey God.
And being a Christian doesn't mean we will never struggle. It means that when we struggle, we must learn to turn toward Christ rather than allowing those struggles to lead us away from Him.
We belong to God, and our conduct should reflect that relationship, not just when we're attending church or participating in ministry, but in our homes, our relationships, and our everyday responsibilities.

Learning to Let Go and Let God

In Matthew 11:28–30, Jesus gives an invitation to those who are weary and burdened. He says in verse 28, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Then in verse 29, He says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” And verse 30 declares, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
I want us to pay attention to something Jesus said: “Learn of me.”
Jesus wasn't telling us to ignore our problems or pretend that difficult experiences never happened. He was inviting us to come under His instruction and learn how to live according to His will.
Some of us have been carrying things for so long that we've become accustomed to living with them. We've accepted anger as part of our personality. We've accepted resentment as something we're entitled to feel. We've allowed guilt to become part of how we see ourselves.
But Jesus is teaching us that there is another way to live.
We have to learn how to forgive when our feelings tell us to remain angry. We have to learn how to respond with patience when we're accustomed to reacting in frustration. We have to learn how to trust God when we don't understand why certain things happened.
And we need to understand that letting go doesn't mean we'll never remember what happened. It means we're no longer willing to allow that experience to control how we live.
Some of us are still carrying words that were spoken against us years ago. We're carrying disappointment from relationships that failed. We're carrying guilt over mistakes we cannot change. And we're carrying resentment toward people who may have already moved on with their lives.
But how long are we going to continue carrying those things?
Jesus said, “Come unto me.”
He didn't tell us to figure everything out before coming to Him. He invited us to bring our burdens to Him and learn from Him.
Letting go and letting God doesn't mean abandoning our responsibilities or expecting God to do what He's instructed us to do. It means surrendering our desire to control everything, trusting Him with what we cannot change, and obeying Him in the things we can.

Pressing Toward the Mark

The Apostle Paul gives us another important lesson in Philippians 3:13–14. He says, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Paul knew what it meant to have a past. Before his conversion, he had persecuted the church. He had opposed the followers of Jesus Christ and participated in actions that he would later recognize as wrong.
But after encountering Christ, Paul didn't allow his former life to prevent him from fulfilling the responsibility God had given him.
Neither did he pretend that he had already reached perfection. He acknowledged that there was still something before him worth pursuing.
I believe we need that same understanding.
Some of us have spent so much time looking backward that we're neglecting what God has placed before us. We're still thinking about who hurt us, what we lost, who disappointed us, and what we should have done differently.
But how long are we going to allow those things to interfere with our spiritual growth?
Paul said, “I press toward the mark.”
He wasn't suggesting that he had forgotten every event of his past. He was making it clear that his past would not become more important than his pursuit of Christ.
We may have been hurt, but we can still grow. We may have made mistakes, but through repentance and God's grace, we can live differently. We may have experienced disappointment, but we don't have to allow it to determine the rest of our lives.
Our responsibility is to continue pursuing the life God has called us to live.

Conclusion

As we consider today's message, I want us to think about the things we've been carrying that continue interfering with our relationship with God and with other people. Some of us have been holding on to anger for years. Others have been living with guilt over decisions that cannot be changed. Some have allowed disappointment to affect their ability to trust, forgive, and experience peace.
And although we have a genuine desire to do better, we continue trying to accomplish that change through our own strength.
Jesus reminds us in John 15:5, “For without me ye can do nothing.” We need to understand that spiritual growth isn't something we can accomplish independently of Christ. We must remain connected to Him, submit ourselves to His Word, and allow the Holy Spirit to work within us.
We also need to recognize that letting go isn't always accomplished in a single moment. Some things require continued prayer, patience, forgiveness, and a willingness to confront what we've avoided for years. But we cannot keep holding on to the very things we're asking God to deliver us from.
Jesus Christ has already paid the price for our salvation. Through Him, we have been given the opportunity to become new creatures, to grow in righteousness, and to live according to God's will.
So this morning, I want us to examine ourselves. What have we continued carrying that God is calling us to surrender? What old wound have we allowed to influence our present? What guilt have we permitted to remain when Christ has already made forgiveness available through repentance and faith?
We cannot undo everything that has happened in our lives, but we can decide whether those experiences will continue governing how we live.
Paul reminds us to press toward the mark. Jesus reminds us to learn of Him. And the Word teaches us that those who are in Christ have been made new.
We have to stop allowing yesterday to interfere with what God is trying to accomplish in our lives today. We must learn to let go of what has been holding us and trust God enough to follow where He is leading us.
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” — Matthew 11:29 (KJV)