Acts 27:9-12

Acts 27:9-12
English Standard Version (ESV)

  The other week I was out riding my bicycle with the kids in the trailer.  There was a sign on the path that said 'Road Closed', so I read it and then went around it, seeing no obvious danger ahead.  Sure enough, in about 150 yards there was a fence across the road.  The detour was up a steep grassy hill to the right, so I obviously decided not to turn around and go back but instead unhitched the trailer and started trying to pull it up the hill.  You can guess how well this worked out in the end...
  The lesson here is that we don't always pay attention to warning signs.  Unless there is obvious danger, we often proceed as we want, assuming we can deal with whatever shows up later.  We neglect doing small things now and often end up paying  larger consequences later on.  We think we know better, just as the centurion does here -- Paul warns him, but his warning falls on deaf ears.  We can all think of plenty of examples.
  What small sins do is lead us down a path that isn't ideal for us.  We ignore the dangers of small sins and seemingly innocent flirtations with temptation, thinking we can handle them, and later on, we discover ourselves in far greater danger than we realized was possible.  We ignore the warnings about them, thinking they aren't that dangerous, and they end up consuming more and more of our time and energy.  We often look back and recognize the folly of our short-term thinking, but it's usually too late by then.
  So when God tells us he wants complete submission, he's trying to help us avoid these situations by keeping our attention on the little things.  By avoiding the small sins, such as not telling little lies that lead us into bigger lies later, we learn to be obedient and recognize how much greater life is when we serve and follow God in all things.  God desires us to experience freedom in Christ, and calls us into discipleship so that we might enjoy that freedom in the here and now.