Total Surrender

Good afternoon. I'm going to say good morning to everyone. That song is always a beautiful one. It's one actually what when I hear that one I think of Renee singing the desk cant along the way. So you missed that strong voice coming out. My congratulations to Anna. You've influenced your husband enough to talk about tea. That's pretty impressive. And for those who are in Cant and that didn't learn the color for the day is blue. There's a whole about half the congregation is wearing blue today, so that worked out quite well. But it's great to see everyone. We've been active running all over. Came back from Dallas earlier in the week on a business trip. A couple of asked about the soup kitchen coming up. The main thing I would say we probably need in the ballpark of eight people. I mean we've done it with six eights probably. Six to eight is the sweet spot. Dollars roughly I would say is probably going to be my guess. I've never done this. My guess would be about $300 is probably what the food will be. About 70 people come in. Whatever isn't used is left there for them. We go in probably about I'll probably come in about 5 15 would be my guess. They don't eat food till seven, so you have an hour in 45 minutes or so to prepare the food. They come through and you serve it to them as they come through the line. There's a prayer in advance and then they do the cleanup. That's part of the arrangement. So for those who had asked me various questions, hopefully that helps with a little bit of background on how the flow tends to work. So let's go ahead and start up with the message. If you will please turn to Luke 18 verses 18 to 30. Luke 18 verses 18 to 30.

We're all here at church with with some distinct goals in mind. We want very much to please God, and we desperately want to become spirit beings in His kingdom, right?

That's our ultimate objective, and it's also our Father's ultimate objective. It's what He wants from us the most. But what is God really looking for from us in order for this to happen? What is God really looking for? Because that's an important thing to know. And the story we're about to read reflects a religious leader of the day asking Jesus that very question. Luke 18 and verse 18. Now a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Teacher, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, and that is God. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother. And he said, All these things I have kept from my youth. So Jesus recited five of the Ten Commandments. And I think it's important that we notice that He did not dispute the fact that this man had been submitting to obey these commandments over the course of his life. Verse 22. So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come. Follow me. But when he heard this, He became very sorrowful, for He was very rich. So this man was sincere.

He was conscientiously trying to obey the commandments.

But he loved money more than God, and so he was willing to submit obedience with conditions. Right? His priority to enjoy earthly comforts blinded his eyes to what should have been his higher priority. And so as a result, he wasn't ready to give up his physical treasures for ones that God was saving for him. And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, and He said, How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God. For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And those who heard it said, Who then can be saved? But he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. So God is to be first and foremost in our lives.

And when we do this, He promises to supply our every need. It's a beautiful phrase. But the promises to supply our needs, and not our wishful wants. And that is where Satan comes in, because Satan attempts to lure Christians away from God in the things of God's kingdom by making the beautiful things of the world glisten and glimmer, and you say, Ah! And also by trying to distract us from what God really wants of us. He's a thief. Satan is a thief, and his deepest desire is to steal our future by lying to us and making us believe that just the minimal level of submission to God is enough.

Verse 28. Then Peter said, See, we have left all and followed you. So he said to them, Assuredly I say to you, There is no one who has left house or parent or brother or wife or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time and in the age to come eternal life. Christianity today is filled with powerless Christians who fail to understand why they don't see God's power in their lives.

And the religious leader of this day, he submitted to God's laws. I want you to understand submission is important. Submission is something God expects of us. And there is a lot to be learned from submission in this life. We learn when we go to work throughout the week what it's like to submit to a boss. And that's not so easy. Those of you in marriage relationships learn to submit to your partner. That's even harder. That's even harder. Throughout our lives, we're learning through the act of submission. So what exactly does God want from us? Is submitting to Him enough? Please turn to 1 Kings 20, verses 1 through 4. Again, submission to God is a core and an important attribute, and He wants all of His followers to display that attribute. And while submitting to us seems overwhelmingly hard, it alone isn't enough. While you're turning to 1 Kings 20, I'm going to read a well-known verse, so you don't need to turn there, but for your notes if you want. You can write 1 Corinthians 3, verses 1 through 2, because Paul is talking about this situation. And he says, And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food, for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able. What was missing? There are believing Christians that were being spoken to when Paul was writing it. Christ was talking to a Pharisee who was a devout believer in certain areas. What was missing? Let's now read 1 Kings 20, and I'd like you to consider a very human example of the point I'd like to talk about today. Something far more difficult than submission. Now, when Benedad the king of Syria gathered all his forces together, 32 kings were with him, with horses and chariots, and he went up and besieged Samaria, and made war against it. Then he sent messengers into the city to Ahab, king of Israel, and said to him, Thus says Benedad, Your silver and your gold are mine. Your loveliest wives and children are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, just as you said, I and all that I have are yours. We see some more examples if we want to go back to the times of our parents, potentially, when the German High Command signed the instruments of unconditional surrender, May 7, 1945, in the presence of the British, the Soviet, the French, and the Russians.

And the Americans. I guess I missed one out. But later that same year, September 2, 1945, on the deck of the USS Missouri, Japanese leadership signed a similar agreement of unconditional surrender. And in both those situations, the Axis power of the Japanese Empire absolutely and unconditionally surrendered and yielded themselves to the mercy and the judgment of the Allied forces. There is plenty of talk throughout the Bible about us submitting to God, and it is required. But the concept that I want to introduce today is the concept of surrendering to God. We know we should submit, but surrendering to God. And sometimes these words get intermixed. Submit, surrender, and they're interchanged. It's more than just semantics, because there are some very critical differences between the two. So let me give you an example. Let me contrast them for you. Submission is the conscious acceptance of reality. It is the conscious acceptance of reality. So there's a level of yielding to it, but it's based on an individual choosing to accept. Submission is often linked with words you probably would think of, like commitment, compliance, acknowledgement, concession. So when you make a commitment, right, or a promise, a commitment is a promise or a pledge that we make to somebody. And again, the key thing I want you to get in mind for submission is it involves a situational analysis involving a person's choice and the option for non-acceptance. Surrender is more than commitment or submission, because you can be a committed Christian and still live a dead, passionless, empty life. An interesting conversation with my neighbor about that yesterday, and she actually brought that up. It's very true. Surrender is giving up and handing over yourself to another person's absolute control. Surrender is the moment when my personal force of resistance ceases to function. It's when I willingly and I solely respond to the call of the one I surrender to. So if we look around, there are all sorts of different examples that we could find of what absolute surrender looks like. I have a pen in my pocket. The pen is absolutely surrendered to the purpose of writing, and it's totally yielded to my hand when I write with it. This coat is absolutely surrendered to be my covering. The Temple of Solomon was absolutely surrendered to God when it was dedicated to him. You probably know where I'll go next, because every one of us is a temple of God. And we are a temple in which God will dwell, in which God will work mightily but on one condition. And that is that we absolutely surrender ourselves to him. If we do, God can do amazing work. But every day and every hour of our lives, we have to give ourselves to him to make that possible. Connie Cavanaugh in her book, From Faking It to Finding Grace, wrote, commitment means I am still in control, whereas surrender takes me out of the driver's seat. Commitment is deciding on a plan. Surrendering is going to God for his plan. Inherent in the act of surrender is submission to the conqueror. We cannot surrender to God unless we submit ourselves to his absolute control. This means we no longer have a plan for our life. Instead, we seek to understand his purpose for our existence. Interesting thought. Humans can go a very long way trying to submit to God. Commitment and submission are things that we strive to do throughout our lives, but there's something that we control that we're ultimately going to fail.

And as selfish Christians, it's easy to view God in this caretaker role. And we don't do it that blatantly, but we do it. It's this concept of, you know, God, in return for you doing this for me, I'll do that to assist you. Tip for tat. We cooperate with God, then we negotiate a little bit in response. You find yourself negotiating with God. I find myself sometimes doing it. I'm like, but God, I really do want that. But that's not for me. You know, your will be done. It's what we can tend to do. In contrast, many of you have probably seen a mixed martial arts fight. And when somebody taps out, they're surrendering to their opponent. They're giving up and quitting the fight. They're basically to a point where they're either going to have a bone broken or something else along those lines, and they're saying, you win, it's over, I'm done. Understand, we have all been defeated. But it may not be by the person you think.

God lets Satan test every one of us to see if we would sin, and we have all lost that battle. We've all tapped out to Satan. We've all earned the penalty of death. And so when we try to physically submit, all mankind is going to do what that same example. That same example. Ultimately, we're going to tap out to Satan.

Some will tap out because they give into anger. Some to sensual pleasures. Some to fear. Some to power. You figure it out. There's plenty of options. But ultimately, all mankind, based on their own human strengths, is going to tap out from successfully trying to submit to God by their own strength. And the case file of humans throughout history is full of it. Only one exception. That's Jesus. And the reason is because when we battle one-on-one with Satan, he is stronger. That's why the Bible says, all we like sheep have gone astray. And again, all have sinned and come short of the standard of the glory of God. But many Christians don't get that. Many Christians have one foot in the world and one foot in church. They're trying to hold on to what they treasure in the world, and at the same time, hold on to God's calling to eternal life. And there's this logic, I'm getting the best of both worlds. And the truth is, they're getting the best of neither. And so, as Jesus said, no man can serve two masters because he'll ultimately love the one and despise the other. Our Christian calling starts with us trying to submit to God. It matures into us surrendering to God. Look at all the examples in the Bible. You can look at Peter, Abraham, any hero, and you're going to see where they were asked to submit for years before being asked to fully surrender. And we'll look at a couple of those examples today. But we're on that same journey, and it's a journey of learning to submit through obedience. So baptism comes when we realize that we've been conquered. When we've been conquered by Satan and his influence, and we accept that we're limited. We realize that our only option then is to surrender to God in his way of life. Unconditional surrender is something we keep learning over time. But the concept of surrender is not an easy state of mind to come to. Baptism wasn't a simple state of mind to come to. It's when we see that we have totally and absolutely been conquered by Satan, and that our only choice is with God. If you'll turn to Isaiah 59, verses 1-3. Isaiah 59, 1-3. When push comes to shove, we've all tapped out to Satan's influences.

But that isn't the only thing that we see in the Bible, because everywhere we look at our report card in life, and it has this zero of a score because we failed, God the Father also writes down, help is on the way. And in our case, it was Jesus. Jesus died for us while we were enemies of God. We were actually at war with God when we were yielding to Satan's influence. And our commitment of baptism was to unconditionally surrender and place our lives into his loving and his merciful hands. That's where he paid the sacrifice we're going to be celebrating coming up in the next couple weeks. And thinking about that, the death penalty that we've earned that we deserved. So I want to make a very important differentiation here, though. Between the ultimate surrender that God wants from us and the example of surrender that occurs when we think of the human example, when an army surrendered to another army, it was unconditional. There were no negotiations, arms were laid down, and the conquered army said to the conquerors, our lives are yours. Usually that led to slavery.

And the people were owned by their enemies until somebody else conquered them, basically. Now, realize that God doesn't want us to be subordinate to him in a military fashion. God wants us only if we willingly select to be on his side. We still have to completely surrender. But God wants us only if we willingly select to be on his side. See, God is for us. He is never against us. And Christians aren't to be at war with God anymore. We were at war when we were with Satan, doing our human nature.

We aren't to surrender to him as if we were. True.

Isaiah 59, verse 1. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear, for your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongues have muttered perversity. In essence, you can look at our whole Christian life, and it's a matter of control. It's a matter of fighting over control. Submission is something we can do, because it's something we control. Surrender means we make the conscious choice to let go of that control, and to do the right thing. The right thing that God tells us, even if it's not what we want to do. Over the course of our spiritual journey, we go back and forth. Don't we? We're surrendering, we're doing all right. Oh, let's start negotiating a little bit with God. Can I submit just in this way, and not that? Okay, I'll surrender. It's part of our life story, isn't it? It's part of what we're learning. That leads to another point that we need to understand. The ability to fully surrender is a gift of God. The ability to fully surrender is a gift of God. No matter how eagerly we may desire it, however diligently we may strive to acquire it, surrender cannot be attained by personal endeavors.

We've all failed. We've all lost that battle multiple times to Satan. So while a whole lot of people attempt to submit or commit to God, absolute surrender is something only God can do for us. But while it's God's work, it requires a response that He expects from us, and that is acceptance.

We have to choose to accept that. There's nothing in the Christian life that doesn't involve God's love for us or our trust in Him. And God wants us to surrender to Him because of our loving trust in Him. That's not a military battle. That's realizing this is a gift to be able to unconditionally surrender to God. And so we shouldn't have the attitude when we come under God's authority, yeah, I'm coming because I have to. I'm here at church. I'll take notes because I have to. I'll listen. No. God isn't forcing us to. He won't. He'll say, okay, I will call people to my kingdom who really want to be in my kingdom. Biblical surrender says, I trust your desires are good and loving. I love you so I agree to yield to your will. And that's how God wants us to obey.

Obedience isn't this outward action because the rulebook says to. This ultimate arbiter of life is going to pound the gavel if I better do what that rulebook says. That's not what it's saying. Obedience is an inward trust based on God's love and guidance that results in outward action. It's an inward trust based on God's love and guidance that results in outward action. In many ways, you can connect this point of surrender and salvation.

Both are gifts that we receive from God and they require our acceptance. They're not something we could ever earn. And any work we do will always come short of that. But our work does start with acceptance. If you'll turn next to 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 23. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 23. Along with acceptance, there must be fruit. God expects fruit. God expects a changed life. Surrender isn't something we accept and then we do nothing about. Jesus gave... To go to the example, I was thinking this one fit with one of the items that Bill was pointing out, too.

If you think about all that Jesus did, Jesus gave his whole life for us. We can have the tendency to give as little of our lives, our time, our money as we can in return to God. It's this interesting area of, are we truly unconditionally surrendering ourselves to God or are we negotiating?

In surrender, we make the conscious choice to let go of that control, but the actual surrender is something only God can do. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 23. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blamelessly unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. See, we can focus on the first part of our calling, which was submitting to God, and we can miss the second, which is God's ultimate intention that we fully surrender ourselves to Him.

The condition for God to bless us with becoming spirit beings for eternity is absolute surrender into His hands. If our hearts are willing, there's no end to what God can do through us.

Interesting topic, too, if you searched in study different areas. Another quote I read was by Dr. D. James Kennedy, and he wrote, I believe we fail to see that God has a basic condition for His blessings. The Apostle James says, You have not because you ask not. You ask and receive not because you ask amiss. James 4 too. Many times when we seek the blessings of God, we ask amiss because we do not meet God's conditions for the full outpouring of His blessings.

Very simply, that condition is total surrender to God. So with that frame of the concept that I'm talking about today, I would like to spend the rest of the sermon reviewing some key concepts about what absolute surrender looks like. What does it look like when we're doing it? What does it look like in practice? And the first is this. Surrender means giving up and over, verse giving in. Surrender means giving up and over, verse giving in.

Turn to Proverbs 3, and we're going to read verses 5 through 10. When we submit, we give in. Because we're keeping the focus on ourselves. We're making the choice. When we surrender, we give up. We put the focus where it belongs on God. But it isn't giving up in the way we normally humanly think of it.

So that's why it really is an action more like giving over to God in love. Proverbs 3, verse 5, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understandings. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the first fruit of all your increase. So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine. And our best example of this throughout the Bible is Jesus Christ. Out of the motivation of love, He came to earth when we hadn't done anything to deserve it. And while here on earth, He didn't just submit, He surrendered fully. He was mocked and made fun of.

He was ridiculed, and ultimately He emptied Himself to the point of being killed. He put everything into God's hands and handed Himself over. Now, the night before His crucifixion, Jesus surrendered Himself to God's plan, and you feel it in the words. I'm not going to have you turn there. If you want, you can write in your Scriptures. I mean, in your notes, Mark 14, verse 36, but I'm going to put this in common vernacular.

Jesus said, God, if it's in your best interest to remove this suffering, then please do so. But if my crucifixion fulfills your purpose, then that's what I want, too.

Okay, so what does that look like from us, if we were to say it? It would be something like this. Father, if this problem, if this pain, if this sickness, if this circumstance is needed to fulfill your purpose and glorify you in my life or in another's life, then please don't take it away. We don't do that a whole lot, do we? But that's what's being exemplified. Turn to Romans 12, verses 1-2. The level of maturity that's needed to surrender doesn't come easily. It's hard work.

And in Jesus' case, he agonized so much over God's plan that he sweat drops of blood. None of us have agonized that much.

In our case, surrendering requires this warfare with human nature, with our self-centered nature, with the I-wants in life. And pride is what causes us to believe that we're the center of the universe. Romans 12, verse 1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. In these verses, Paul calls on the followers of Christ to yield themselves completely. And until we do this, we can never experience all the joy and the blessings that Jesus talked about.

God's blessings are offered to us in love, by love, and for love.

And we are to accept them in love, for love, and out of love. I read that, and I thought, that's interesting. Interesting coining of words, but there's different aspects to how love presents itself. Turn to James 4, verses 9 through 10. James 4, 9 through 10. And as you're turning, I'd like to bring a thought out to you. All of you know the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit. One of them is self-control. What does that mean? What does self-control mean as a fruit of God's Spirit? Is self-control speaking of us ultimately attaining personal self-mastery?

It's not. Hopefully you can get through the topic of today's message that that's not good enough. Self-control isn't about us controlling ourselves, but having ourselves surrender to God. That's what the self-control, as a fruit of the Spirit, is talking about. Interesting verse in James. Lament and mourn and weep. Woo! Happy times. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Thanks for that encouragement, James. What's he getting at? Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. My theme verse for the last year. What's being said here is the promise is if we humble ourselves fully and have a crushed spirit, then God will lift us up.

It's like the fear of a child jumping into a pool for the first time and his daddy being in the pool, right? And his daddy saying, I'm going to catch you. Drowning is terrifying.

So is totally surrendering ourselves to God.

And it reflects this fear that was shared by every hero in the Bible. Just like all of us were scared the first time we jumped into a pool, every hero in the Bible that has surrendered themselves was being asked to do the unthinkable. And we'll never fully surrender to God unless we have that crushed spirit. We'll never know we'll be caught until we jump.

And God tells us that he's going to catch us. He also tells us it won't be easy.

We must give up and over and not simply give in. Let's move on to another concept about surrender. Surrender means following without knowing where we are being sent. Surrender means following without knowing where we are being sent.

Scribes were the ones who preserved the Scriptures, who knew the book inside and out. And the word scribe literally means one who writes. And they took that role extremely seriously. I know we've heard messages here at times where they talk about the length they went to. It was really spectacular, which makes you encouraged by the Bible being preserved so well. They were also the teachers and the lawyers of the day. So on the surface, they would appear to live by the book. But as Jesus pointed out, they didn't give their lives to God. A person can appear very moral, but not surrender themselves to God. Turn to Romans 6, verse 13. Romans 6, verse 13. When God first called us, we studied, we studied, and we were taught. We prayed, we asked God for forgiveness, we repented, and we were baptized. We counseled with a minister to make sure we had properly prepared ourselves.

And we began this process of unconditionally surrendering ourselves.

We were baptized, and after God the Father calls a person, we said, God, I'm willing to do whatever you need in my life. But then we find all these human parts of ourselves that keep showing up. And we have to go back to God and repent and say, God, I'm willing to have you do anything and everything. I don't do it really well, though. Please help me. I'm going to keep working at this. And it's this area of growing and learning. Surrender means following without knowing where we are being sent. Remember, that's the point. And here is what we committed to in baptism. Romans 6, verse 13. Neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourself unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

See, God requires the unconditional surrender of everything he's called.

And we put baptism very seriously, and we committed to it. But at the end of the day, we must not continue to live with even more zeal and commitment than we did when we were baptized. We have to keep working harder at this unconditional surrender part until we were submitting when we were baptized. We had a concept of what it was involved, but we learned so much more once God's Spirit shows us what all is involved. And God has amazing plans for us, more than we can fathom. And there's a huge purpose he's working out, but for us to get there, we have to follow God without knowing where we are being sent. Another concept. Surrender means trusting God's purpose without understanding our circumstances and our trials. Surrender means trusting God's purpose without understanding our circumstances and our trials. So if the last point about absolute surrender dealt with surrendering to what God wants us to do, this point is about a total willingness to let God work whatever he wants to work in us, no matter how painful it may be in the short run.

Turn to 1 Peter 4 and verse 12. Trials come to believers because truth, faith has to be tested. Truth, faith has to be tested. And to trust God in hard times requires that we surrender to Him. And we submit to His words. I read a quote, which I don't totally know if I buy into. It's nice in theory. It's what I would like it to be. It said, Christians are like tea bags. See, I'm going to do the tea analogy. They always do best when they get in hot water. I wish that was true. It's a nice concept. True Christians, I guess, should do that. But I don't know that I always do best in hot water.

1 Peter 4 verse 12. Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeals that has come on you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.

Fiery. Let's not make it subtle. Let's just... Ah, it's a fiery ordeal. Trust means that a believer completely gives up his own will and subjects his thoughts and his ideas and his deeds to the words and the will of God. And there's examples throughout the Bible. You could even look at the first century Christians selling what they had so that they could work as a community and support those in this new church that was starting up and growing so quickly. That was a great example of trust. When we surrender to God, it demonstrates our love, our trust, and our faith in Him. And that's what Jesus taught. If you want to turn to Matthew 23 and verse 12. When God sees His children so completely giving up, so completely relinquishing every aspect of their lives to Him, then He knows He's going to be able to work mightily and through that life of that believer now and throughout eternity. That's what we're being shaped for. Matthew 23 verse 12. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who holds himself will be exalted. Step up verse. Jesus half-brother James is at the same thing in James 4.10. Humble yourself in the inside of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Trust. This is this delicate concept. It's this beautiful concept. Lives are told to submit to their husbands, and that requires a very special trusting relationship. Employees have to submit to their bosses. That's hard. But God says we are to totally surrender to Him. That means full and unconditional trust.

Now, I've been contrasting submit and surrender, and I want to link the words because there is connection. If you want to tie the two together, you can say that surrendering to God is another way of saying submitting completely to Him. Submitting completely to Him. But when tough times come, when trials hit us, it's hard to trust God's will. God doesn't tell us how He will get us places, but He just promises the ultimate destination.

As humans, we struggle with that one. God, in essence, is saying, trust me, I know how I'm going to get you there. You don't. You don't have a clue. But that's what I'm working on you to help you understand. That's what surrender means. And we can only achieve unconditional surrender if we trust His purpose and His intentions. I'd like you to turn next to Matthew 10, verses 37 through 39. Matthew 10, 37 through 39. And I'm going to get a little personal now. As you all know, as you all know, I go Christian living. I share things that are ouches to me because I know they'll be ouches to you, and we're all going through this thing together. So you all hopefully know me well enough for that. So all these questions are ouches to me, but I want to share them with you. Let me ask you some personal questions as you prepare for the Passover to help you identify areas that you may have opportunities to grow. Is Jesus the Lord of your thoughts? Is He the Lord of your passions? Is He the Lord of your speech and of your relationships? Is Jesus the Lord of every area of your life?

Are you willing to surrender to God your grasp on all your possessions, your desires, and everything else in your life?

Can you honestly say, anywhere, Lord? Anytime, Lord? Any cost, Lord? Have you truly surrendered that much? I am.

But that's the barometer for us to look to. Absolute surrender means to intentionally and permanently give up in relinquishing all controllable and all ownership of everything that's in Christ. It's handing everything over to relinquishing that. Matthew 10, verse 37. He who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

All of us, truth be told, need to stop trying to personally do Christianity.

It's our nature. As Mr. Petty likes to say, don't fight with God because your arms are too short.

And it's true. We must let God work in our lives by totally surrendering. We must purpose in our hearts to trust God even if we don't get it.

And to achieve this, we have to ask God to crush our pride and all the habits that we think of this time of year. And we look through and we say, this is what stops me from being what you want me to be, God. But thank you for your mercy, and please keep being patient with me.

So if you're currently going through trials and are faced with the question of whether or not to surrender, I encourage you to make the determination to surrender all that you have and all that you are to him, and God will then equip you to do all that he requires of you. Let's move on to another concept. Surrender means expecting a miracle without knowing how. Surrender means expecting a miracle without knowing how. And the classic example of this one is Abraham.

His whole life was this journey toward totally surrendering to God.

And it was filled with God asking or promising him things and that not giving it, because what he promised required a miracle. And Abraham did amazing throughout all this. But let's go to the final point. This is the point you'd figure. Turn to Genesis 22 in verse 1. And while you're turning there, I'm just going to give you a little bit of a reminder of the story. Abraham wasn't a spring chicken when God surprised him with the news that his elderly wife was pregnant. He was promised this when he should have been thinking retirement, choosing nursing homes. If CNN was on for the day, he would have hit headlines, because he'd fathered a child at 100.

God named Abraham some Isaac, meaning laughter, because Abraham and Sarah thought it was such a silly concept that at that age they were going to have a kid. And they fell in love with their boy and were reminded of how they doubted God every day of their lives. We don't think the communion of names can happen anymore. Hey, let's hear it for him, son! Hey, laughter, wash your hands, get ready to eat! Hey, laughter, rub your head as we thank God for this meal! Every time they called him, they were saying the word laughter. You guys know bad a-partyin jokes. If I was Abraham and had a cell phone in those days, I'm pretty sure I would have texted Sarah and said, how is LOL doing?

All right, I'll keep my date up. Yeah. But what we read in this next verse, Genesis 22.1 is when laughter moves to tears. Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am. Then he said, take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. Are you serious, God? What happened to all the unconditional promises in Genesis 12? All right. I mean, he not only had to wait, oh, is it 25 years? Now, this happens.

It's not like God didn't know how much Isaac meant to Abraham. Look at the words he chose. Take your son, your only son, whom you love. I mean, you don't submit to that.

You do not submit to that. There's a thousand reasons that's wrong, and that it's evil. This doesn't sound like God. Why would God dare to ask a faithful man to give up his son? In Deuteronomy 12, 31 through 32, this is forbidden. It's an immoral act. So what's going on here?

What's going to happen at times in our lives is God may give us a test of loyalty and not just obedience to his law. We will have tests of loyalty and not just obedience. Is God asking you to trust him today, maybe, while asking you to let go of something that feels like your children?

These tests are ultimately about us letting go of pride and control and seeing whether we will trust him. In an Abraham situation, instead of getting stuck in an argumentative way of thinking, God, but the Bible says, or God, you've taught me, what Abraham did next is really amazing. Genesis 22, verse 3. So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. The Scripture doesn't tell us of any sulking, any pity parties, any depression, any delays.

Instead, he purposes it as hard to obey God, even if he didn't understand. It's amazing. And that goes a very long way with making concepts that surrendering and expecting miracles without knowing how. Okay, so what do we make out of this? What do we personally do with this knowledge?

If you and I purpose in our hearts to surrender to God's greater will before a temptation comes, we can win these battles ahead of time. But we must purpose to surrender even if it doesn't make any sense to us physically. And that's hard. And by contrast, if we wait until the last minute, very human, and we allow distractions and passions and our own rationale to kick in, we'll most often forfeit the victory, which is what we so often do. Now, that doesn't mean the battle for Abraham ended here. Think back to Eve. What happened with Eve when she was alone in the Garden of Eden? Satan started talking in her ear, right? He started questioning God's love for him, and you know that sorry old devil was doing that for night after night constantly with Abraham. Things like, how can you serve God when he treats you like this? Why don't you just quit worshipping this so-called God? What has he gotten you? God has lied to you all along. He doesn't love you. He's going to destroy your family. You must be the biggest fool on earth to believe this. Ha! Yeah, I mean, he would just be hour after hour playing in his mind. The battle would rage. And Satan is going to do the same things to us. Turn to Hebrews 11, verses 17 to 19. Hebrews 11, 17 to 19. Whenever you're alone and you don't understand what's happening in your life, that's when the enemy is going to come and cast doubts in your mind.

And if you entertain those doubts, it's going to lead to denial of God's Word.

So what do we do? What did Abraham do? Hebrews 11, verse 17. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who has received the promise, offered up his only begotten Son, of whom it was said, In Isaac your seed shall be called, concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. Abraham knew that God's promises were to be fulfilled through Isaac and his offspring.

So Abraham believed that if the God who miraculously gave him a son, later took his son, then he'd be able to raise him right back up again. He had him beat.

In a sense, he was saying, That's not how it would be to work. Would you ever want to take this as a thing? My God, it would make it work.

And that's a beautiful faith. Satan can't beat or turn to the right and turn to the right. And that's what we're trying to get to. But please never forget that there were two people that were involved in this sacrifice.

Abraham was well over a hundred, and Isaac was an older teen. He could have put up pretty good battle. If a foot race came, Isaac could win that one. Pretty confident of that one. So somewhere along the way, they had a conversation. I would love to have heard that conversation. But it had to go something like, Son, God wants me to sacrifice you. Now remember, your life is a miracle. And God has given amazing promises to be filled by you. And God is all-powerful. So even if it doesn't make any sense to us as humans, we must trust Him. And if needed, He's going to resurrect you after I kill you. Okay, Dad! But there had to be a dialogue that took place. And something led Isaac to say, Yes, He trusted without knowing why or how. How do you do that? You don't do that by submitting.

That, my friends, is surrender. Both Abraham and Isaac had to trust God, would take care and provide everything. Abraham completely surrendered to God. Isaac completely surrendered to both his Dad and to God.

And when Abraham placed his Son on the altar, we know the angel of the Lord stopped him from taking his life. You don't need to turn there. You can put in your notes Genesis 22, verses 12 through 13. But let me read the finish of this. It says, He said, Do not lay your hands on the lad, or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your Son, your only Son, from me. And the reason he could say, Me, is because this angel of the Lord speaking was actually the Lord Jesus Christ, pre-incarnate.

Of course, you know the rest of the story. God spared Isaac, gave another animal, and said, Now I know. But in Abraham's mind, Isaac was as good as dead.

Abraham obeyed because he had unconditionally surrendered to God. And you and I will face those times, hopefully, never to that point. But times where either we become overcome by fear, or we overcome fear by faith.

And those are going to be crossroads that we hit throughout life.

And once we prove our faith and our purpose in our heart to trust God regardless, then it's God's turn to provide something for us. Another quote I read, Andrew Murray once said, God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly-yielded to Abraham.

Surrender means waiting on God's timing without knowing when. You see, human nature wants to be in charge. And we realize we can't get everything we want. So we are willing to give a little bit. So we will make slide adjustments as long as we're largely going down that same path, right, that we want to go on. Well, friends, that's not surrendering to our loving God. That's adapting while maintaining control. And that's not what God's looking for from us. So we know we should truly strive to turn our lives over to God. But oftentimes, the thing that we hold back the most in our lives is our time.

We want to hold back a little bit of our time for what we want the most. And it's as if we give God the keys to every room in our heart but one. And we keep the key to part of our time for personal use, and we shut God out. And the effect of this in our lives is that we never can feel the full power and the blessings that God wants us to feel, the full assurance that He has in the Bible. Because that begins when we hand over the last key to our time to Him. That's tough. It's one of the few things that we treasure so much. And when we do this, we make God the soul and the only ruler of our life and its possessions. Turn to Daniel 3, verses 16 to 18. All these things are ouchies. All these things are hard to do. Daniel 3, verse 16. We know we're surrendering to God when we rely on God to work things out instead of trying to force our agendas and trying to control situations. And there's a lot of phrases like this in modern Christianity. Things like, it's when we let go and let God work. Or, instead of trying harder, we're trying to force our agenda. Or, instead of trying harder, we trust more. However you want to call it, what we see this really well defined and displayed was with Daniel's three friends.

Daniel's three friends were full-on targets of the political yes-men of the day. And they brought them in front of the king outraged because they didn't bow to the idol. And when the king asked them if it was true, they could have lied. They could have self-rationalized and come up with this, okay, 30 seconds a day, I'll just think about God, but I'll bow down and I can then be a better example to God for the rest of my lifetime and I could serve. There's all sorts of ways that people rationalize. But instead, look at what they said. Daniel 3, verse 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, Oh, no, no, no, no, no, we have no need to dance between the wisdom's matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fire of earnest. And he will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up. Now, at this the king became outraged. You can picture his face turning purple, the veins were bouncing out of his neck, anybody who goes and tries to make a fiery furnace seven times hotter. I mean, okay, hot enough it's gonna, it's a fiery furnace. It was so hot they had to have some of these mighty men of the army carry or move the men forward. You know, Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego weren't fighting. Anyway, they went, the men who were transporting him, they got killed. And when they look down in verse 25, it talks about the king not only saw three people, but he saw four, one looking like the son of God. See, there was a much greater purpose and goal for Daniel's three friends than saving their own skin.

Their hearts were firmly fixed on God's kingdom, on being servants, and so they knew that God would save them. They just didn't know if it was in this life or not. Their time didn't mean that much to them, and that knowledge allowed their faith and their obedience to be a tremendous witness. So is God asking you to give up or to delay your plans for something that you have dreamed of for a very long time? The key for us to consider when this happens is that the Lord sees our faith, He will reward us, but it's going to be in His time. God sees our faith. He will reward us in His time. Turn to Colossians 3, verses 1 through 2. Colossians 3, verses 1 through 2.

The Apostle Paul fought hard battles throughout his life, and it seems like he not only had to fight all of his own nature, which he would talk about, but he was constantly having Satan throw darts through people, through churches, through whatever. He had a tough life, and he tells us what helped him out in Colossians 3 starting in verse 1. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. That's the way to do it. Jesus paid the penalty of death for every one of us, and we are granted the free gift of unmerited pardon, of eternal life. That's where our focus needs to be. If you'll turn next to John 14 verses 1 through 3. John 14 verses 1 through 3.

And the ultimate purpose, the end result of all our unconditional surrender, is to attain an amazing position in and of God's kingdom, something he set aside personally for us. And that's a beautiful thing. Jesus explained to his disciples that after his sacrifice to death, he was just going to go and create a very, very special place for those who were called and who followed him. John 14 verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. And if my father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to repair a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. We all love personalized gifts, don't we? God's making a personalized gift for you, and he's holding it for you and for me.

But we need to strive daily to remain unconditionally surrendered to God and his way of life, and then we get to experience what this amazing gift is that he's holding for us. So let's begin wrapping up. The Old Testament was about submission. The New Testament is about surrendering to God, having the law written in our hearts and yielding fully. For our final scripture, I'd like you to turn to Hebrews 12 verses 1 through 3. Hebrews 12 verses 1 through 3. You can tell by the location. Hebrews 11 comes right before this, and the Bible is full of amazing examples of people who fully surrender to God. That's the hero chapter to me, Hebrews 11. There are examples. There are the pillars of success, and so he transitions right after that chapter, and it says Hebrews 12 verse 1, Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight in the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your soul. If you're trying to do it by submitting, you're going to become weary and discouraged in your soul. We don't have the strength. We can't do it. Surrendering is ultimately a selfless act of yielding to God, and that's what Jesus did. That's the example where to follow. I want to follow. I want to finish with one final concept, and that is this. Once a life is surrendered, it is to be dedicated to helping others reach the same point. Once a life is surrendered, it is to be dedicated to helping others reach the same point. See, the Bible is full of all these wonderful examples of people who surrendered their lives and then dedicated their lives to helping other people get to that same position, so that God can grant them the gift of giving up and surrendering their own lives. That's that whole pay-it-forward concept. God is wanting us to pay it forward. And it all goes back to the fact that God is love, and love is outgoing concern. So if we get it, we're going to do things to pay this forward. We're going to do it not to be selfish for what God's done for us, but want to help and want others to share in that same joy. And so our human ministry on earth is one that's designed to be shared. And there's ways we do that. We do it individually and as an organization by sharing the message of Christ. We have the booklets, we have the telecast, we go to work and people ask us questions. We should never be afraid of that. But we also should strive to share His love and how we live and how we act. Surrendered Christians can have an inner joy, a total peace, a serenity, while they're here on earth. And it's based on this hope that we don't have to hurt deep down inside. We're surrendered. It's not about our own will. We know we're not strong enough, but we know who's helping us is stronger. So we don't have to worry. We don't have to be angry or scared or sad. That's all that the gospel promises. That's all that Passover is there to help us picture. But we must first surrender ourselves and all of our desires to God. So, like salvation, surrender isn't something we can do. It's only something we can accept from God. But if we do surrender to God, God does promise that He will lift us up.