Four weeks of naming the problem finally lead to the solution: surrender. In the finale of “Control Issues,” Pastor TJ McCormick tackles a word most of us instinctively flinch at — surrender sounds like losing, like weakness, like giving up. But he reframes it from the start: biblical surrender isn’t defeat, it’s a defection to the winning side. For weeks the series has diagnosed why we control, how we control, what it costs us, and the tension between responsibility and surrender. This message finally answers the question underneath all of it — if control was never ours to hold, what do we do instead?
TJ builds the message around one question each of us is unconsciously asking ourselves at all times: control asks “what if it doesn’t work out?” while surrender asks “what if it’s already in good hands?” From there he unpacks five things that are true about surrender. It’s a decision, not a discovery — something you choose, not something that overtakes you. It’s named, not vague — general prayers produce general results, but naming the specific thing you’re gripping produces real peace, illustrated through a friend’s three-year wait for a promotion he finally surrendered instead of chased. It’s daily, not one-and-done, pictured through Israel’s daily manna in the wilderness — you can’t live off yesterday’s surrender any more than they could hoard yesterday’s bread. And it’s modeled, not manufactured, rooted in Jesus’s own surrender in Gethsemane, asking for another way and then choosing the Father’s will anyway.
The most personal moment of the entire series comes here, as TJ opens up about the hardest part of losing his and Shayla’s foster son, Alexander — describing a visualizing prayer where he initially refused to let go, a dream where he finally placed his son’s hand in Jesus’s hand, and a stuffed bear named Teddy that he slept with for a year as a nightly reminder to keep surrendering. It’s raw and unpolished, and it sets up the final truth: surrender is rewarded, not wasted. Control promises safety but pays you anxiety. Surrender promises loss but pays you peace.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES
Romans 12:1
Luke 9:23
Exodus 16:19-20
Galatians 5:22-23
Matthew 26:39
1 Peter 5:6-7
