Sermon: "I Surrender"
In the 2007 November issue of National Geographic there was an article titled – “Remember This”. In the article it was reported that a 41 year old woman, known as A.J., from California can remember every day of her life since age 11. She says her memory flows like a movie. She remembers that at 12:34 p.m. on Sunday, August 3, 1986, a young man she had a crush on called her on the telephone. She remembers what happened on the TV show “Murphy Brown” on December 12, 1988. She remembers that on March 28, 1992 she had lunch with her father. Dates for A.J. starts her going back in time involuntarily. When she hears a date she remembers everything she encountered on that date.
If you have a memory like that you might remember parts of this morning’s message because it contains many things from a message preached here at Five Forks on May 28, 2006 – called The Freedom of Surrender.
We are using some of the material again because it is a vital part of “Embracing God’s Purposes for Your Life”. Last week we started a four week series of messages on this topic by looking at “The High Road of Faith”. You will never be able to fully embrace God’s purposes for your life if you don’t have a faith that puts God at the center of your life instead of “self”. This type of faith is sometimes called an “operational faith” or “the high road of faith”.
We looked at … Four Foundational Principles for Living the High Road of Faith.
- Believe that God’s view of life is complete (perfect).
- Believe God is always at work.
- Believe God works his good in all circumstances.
- Believe God’s purposes are higher than we can conceive.
In other words … You take everything connected with your life – your family, your career, your health, your dreams, your fears, everyone you love or dislike, and say, “God, make of this what you will, I trust you.”
That brings us to the next step in embracing God’s purposes for our lives, and of course by now you know that it deals with surrender. Our lesson will include scriptures from both the Old and New Testaments, but it has its foundation in the words of Jesus as recorded by Luke.
LUKE 9:23-24 – 23“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”
You can go deeper into embracing God’s purposes for your life by surrendering your life to him.
We will begin our lesson by looking at a sad truth.
I. TO BE HUMAN IS TO REBEL
This rebellion started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. You and I understand what they experienced.
Few of us enjoy being told what we can or cannot do. Why is that? It is because as human beings we desire to be in control. To be human is to rebel. Therefore, a Christian’s heart becomes a battleground. The Bible says …
GALATIANS 5:17 – For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
In God’s kingdom control is a key issue. As our scripture lesson shows we must yield control of our lives to God. He knows for us to grow spiritually we must surrender to him, and that means he will do whatever it takes to help us relinquish that control to him. Since most of us as Believers do not want to rebel against God. Let’s take a few moments and look at …
II. KNOWLEDGE THAT PROMOTES SURRENDER
The first think we need to know and accept is that …
A. GOD IS GOOD
If you are going to completely surrender to God, you must believe in your heart that God is good. You must know that he always acts with your best eternal interests in mind. Listen to what the psalmist had to say about God’s goodness.
PSALM 25:8-10 – 8Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. 9He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. 10All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.
To completely surrender to God, you must have complete confidence in the truth that whatever happens to you has first passed through the permissive will of your Father in heaven, and that he can make it work for your good. The Bible says …
ROMANS 8:28 – And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
You must believe that to the very depth of your being or you will want to hold on to the control of your life.
That brings us to the second thing we need to know and accept if we are going to surrender our wills to God.
B. GOD IS IN CONTROL
God is the creator and sustainer of the universe. Once, a godly man by the name of Job forgot that God was in control of everything. Listen to just a little of what God said to him.
JOB 38:34-35, 39 – 34Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? 35Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, “Here we are”?
39Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lion?
.
JOB 39:1, 19, 27 – 1Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?
19Do you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane?
27Does the eagle soar at your command and build his nest on high?
David was another godly man who had times when he would surrender his all to God, but he also had times when he failed to yield himself completely to God. Thankfully, when he messed up he was willing to repent and seek God’s forgiveness.
By the time David had become a senior citizen, he had learned that God is, indeed, in control. Listen to a prayer that he prayed before a large gathering of people shortly before he died. It is a prayer which shows that David truly understood that God is in control of all of his creation.
I CHRONICLES 29:10b-12 – 10bPraise be to you, O Lord, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. 11Yours, O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. 12Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.
Even if you can’t see the outcome of your situation, you can know that God is somewhere involved in everything that is happening in your life. When you come to truly believe that God is in control of everything that happens in the universe, including what happens in your life, it is much easier to surrender to him.
The third thing we need to know and accept if we are going to surrender control of ourselves to God is …
C. GOD KNOWS BETTER THAN WE DO
We will become very discouraged and may end up doing a lot of complaining if we fail to remember that both the goodness and the control of God may at times be hard for us to see and understand. That is true, because quite often, we cannot see things from God’s perspective. That means it is extremely important for us to always keep in mind that God does, indeed, know better than we do, what is good for us.
Job not only learned that God was in control, he also learned and came to accept that God knows better than we do.
When we can truthfully repeat the following words of Job we are on the road to surrendering to God.
JOB 42:1-6 - 1Then Job replied to the Lord: 2“I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. 3You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.
4You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ 5My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
That is surrendering to God.
If you are going to embrace God’s purposes for your life you must surrender your will, your body, your time, your family and your possession to him.
We all know this type of surrender is not easy so let’s spend a few moments …
IV. JUDGING THE DEPTH OF OUR SURRENDER
To help us judge the depth of our surrender we are going to look at three questions. The questions may make you a little uncomfortable, but complete surrender to God should be the goal for everyone who claims to be a Christian. Here is the first question …
A. HOW OFTEN DO YOU COMPLAIN?
Regardless of who you are, trials are going to come your way. That’s a given. Whether these trials will be profitable to you depends upon your heart. Are you going to resent God for allowing them and then grow bitter and start complaining?
Once you start complaining you bring surrender to a complete standstill. Many times we do not consider ourselves to be complainers because we trust God for the big things in life. However, more often than not, it’s not the big things in life but the little things in life that create a spirit of complaining in our hearts. The Bible says ….
PHILIPPIANS 2:14 – Do everything without complaining or arguing.
If you find yourself constantly complaining about the weather, the actions of others, how you feel, or any of the other normal things we face in life, it is a good indication that you have not completely surrendered to God.
If you have surrendered yourself completely to a God who is in control and who is good, how can you complain? The second question is ….
B. DO YOU FEAR GOD WILL ASK YOU TO DO WHAT YOU DON’T WANT TO DO?
This is a tough test for each of us to take. We realize that when we completely surrender to God, we must do whatever he asks us to do, and go wherever he asks us to go. When we completely surrender to God, it means we willingly accept both the good and bad things he asks us to endure. The Bible says …
JOB 2:10b – Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?
How is your heart this morning? Are you willing to do whatever God wants you to do even if it would make you uncomfortable? Are you willing to endure whatever God would have you endure even if it would be very painful? Are you willing to go wherever God would ask you to go even if it would take you out of your comfort zone?
Do you see why we back away from complete surrender to God? To completely surrender to God you must love him so much and trust him so much that you are wiling to give yourself completely to him.
The third question is easier for us to approach, but when we look at it closely, far too often we come up short. Here’s the question …
C. ARE YOU RESISTING THE DEVIL?
In the book of James we read …
JAMES 4:7b – Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
A willful continuance in any sin destroys our submission and surrender to God. Satan is aware of this and is constantly tempting us to sin. We must never let down our defenses. We must constantly be resisting Satan and his temptations if we are going to stay surrendered to God.
At first glance many of us as Christians would say we are doing that, but as we examine ourselves in the light of God’s word, often we discover we really aren’t putting much effort into resisting the devil. Here is what the Apostle Paul tells us to do.
EPHESIANS 6:12-18 – 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasion with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
In a nutshell to resist the devil we must …
- Live a truthful life.
- Live a righteous life.
- Share the good news about salvation through faith in Jesus.
- Walk the high road of faith (trust God completely)
- Depend on what Jesus has done, not on what we do.
- Know, meditate on, study and teach God’s Word.
- Pray for other believers.
If we are not doing those things, we aren’t completely surrendered to God.
CONCLUSION
When we talk about embracing God’s purposes for our lives, it sounds like something all of us would jump to do. But as we have seen the last two weeks, embracing God’s purposes for our lives requires us to trust God and yield control of our lives to him.
First, we must live by faith.
That means you take everything connected with your life – your family, your career, your health, your dreams, your fears, everyone you love or dislike and say, “God, make of this what you will, I trust you!”
Here are four truths that will help you do that …
- Believe that God’s view of life is complete.
- Believe God is always at work.
- Believe God works in all circumstances.
- Believe God’s purposes are higher than we can conceive.
And then we must say to God, “I surrender”. When you have a faith that trusts God completely it is much easier to say to him, “I surrender”.
I want you to look at a surrender prayer written by Michael Phillips that we closed with in 2006, and then I am going to invite any of you who are willing to pray this prayer to come forward while our band plays and then I will close the service by leading all of you who come forward in this prayer as your own prayer to God.
Lord, break me … break my soul, so that none of my self remains. Fill me only with yourself, my Father … fill me with your Spirit. … Let my life be nothing but a reflection of your being … and your character … and your goodness. Cleanse me from all wrong motives ... make me like Jesus … let me become the person you desire me to be. … Show me, Father, what you want me to do … open my eyes to your purpose … your will … let me do nothing … say nothing … and think nothing that is contrary to your purpose. … Help me, Lord … guide my steps in your way.