Easter Weekend has passed. It was a great weekend to celebrate Christ, but Monday it returns

again, along with all of its spiritual challenges and sin struggles and roadblocks to our faith

and discipleship. And that includes the internal turmoil faced by a podcast listener named

Billy.

Hello, Pastor John. I live in Tucson, Arizona. I'm a relatively new convert Christianity.

I'm going through a season where I think I'm hardening my heart to Christ. I feel constantly

guilty of sin such as refusing to evangelize others, procrastinating irreverence, arrogance,

and idolatry. I think I desperately want to repent, but also dread surrender of saying,

yes, Lord, I'll do whatever it takes. This is because I fear God will make me do something

I really don't want to do. What's wrong with my spiritual condition? Is there a way that

I can finally submit to Christ? Is there some spiritual obstacle I'm overlooking? Or am I

just being foolish? Should I simply man up and do the hard stuff? Pastor John, what would

you say to Billy?

Billy, there are different biblical ways to describe your spiritual condition. And I'm only

going to mention one of them. It's serious, but because of the nature of it, there is

a way out. So I'll describe the condition because you asked me to, and then the way out.

I'm basing my diagnosis since I don't know you, and all I have to go on is those words

that Tony just read. I'm basing my diagnosis of your condition on these two sentences

that you gave us. You said, I dread surrender of saying, yes, Lord, I'll do whatever it takes.

This is because I fear God will make me do something I really don't want to do. What's wrong

with my spiritual condition? What's wrong, Billy, is that you are deceived about God and what it

will be like to experience surrender and a life of total consecration to Christ. What it will be

...