White Flag Week 3 Chris Johnson

White Flag Series | Week 3: White Flag or White Lie? — Motion Church Podcast

This week in the White Flag series, we pause for the hardest question of the entire series. Not what surrender costs. Not what surrender gives. But something far more uncomfortable:

Have you actually done it?

This message, delivered by Pastor CJ, lands right in the middle of the series with a challenge most of us aren't ready for. It's easy to love the idea of surrender. It's easy to raise your hands in worship, know the right songs, say the right things, and show up on Sunday. But as Pastor CJ puts it — our hands are raised in worship while our hearts are still on the weapons.

There is a massive difference between inviting Jesus into your life and giving Jesus your life.

The title says it all: White Flag or White Lie. Because if we're being honest, most of us don't surrender to God — we negotiate. We bargain. We manage our relationship with God in a way that quietly keeps control in our own hands. And some of us have gotten so good at looking surrendered that we've convinced ourselves we actually are.

Grounded in Matthew 16:24-25 and Galatians 2:20, this message walks through what it truly means to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. It unpacks the dangerous illusion of control — the calendars we fill, the timelines we set, the futures we map out — all while holding a steering wheel that doesn't control the road. Life, eventually, exposes the illusion.

But the most powerful moment comes from the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus himself showed us what real surrender looks like — honest enough to say "Father, take this cup from me" and surrendered enough to follow it with "nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done."

Church, surrender begins when preference ends.

This is a message for anyone who has been doing it their own way for too long. Anyone chasing success but feeling no peace. Anyone climbing ladders while their soul still feels empty. Because God doesn't bless the life we build for ourselves — he blesses the life we surrender to him.

God is not looking for perfect people. He's looking for surrendered ones.