SURRENDER – Victory in retreat
“Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self.” - C.S. Lewis
Surrender is the act of giving up or yielding oneself or the possession of something to the power of another (Meriam-Webster dictionary).
It is both the result and the cause of true humility.
We’ll call it “The upward cycle”:
Humility surrender humility surrender
“True humility comes when before God we see ourselves as nothing, have put aside self and let God be all. The soul that has done this and can say, “I have lost myself in finding you,” no longer compares itself with others. It has given up forever any thought of self in God’s presence; it meets its fellow man as one who is nothing and seeks nothing for itself; who is a servant of God and for his sake is a servant of all.” Andrew Murray
It means giving up, admitting defeat, submitting, yielding, relinquishing control, handing over, parting with and conceding.
You will not experience the abundant life God offers or accomplish the purpose He has planned for you without living a life of surrender.
The Christian life is a surrendered life.
Mk.12:30 – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
Put His good first in all your:
Heart – emotions and desires
Soul – image, attitudes and character
Mind – thoughts and intellect
Strength – Energy and labor
John 3:30 – “He must become greater, I must become less.”
Nothing can remain un-surrendered (Phil.2:21 – Everyone…)
Compartmentalization
Allowing God control of only a few parts (ex. Sunday morning).
Natural to human nature
Essence of religion
“Of all bad men religious bad men are worst.” C.S. Lewis
We should have no compartmentalized areas of control.
Entertainment
Free time
Avg. Christian spends < 10 minutes with God daily.
Relationships
Future
A surrendered person has no rights.
You are not God’s greatest gift to humanity.
Rom.12:3 – “For by the grace given me I say to everyone of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”
He does not need you, your gifts or your abilities.
“Your calling must precede your gifting.” – Ravi Zacharius
1 Cor.1:26-31.
God used Peter; look how “gifted” he was.
Phil.2:3 – “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”
In grace, he chooses to use you when you love Him and focus on glorifying Him in humility.
Your image does not matter.
James 4:4 – “…Friendship with the world is hatred toward God.”
Your will does not matter.
You can not demand your way.
Your point of view does not matter.
You gave up control of those to another.
What areas must be surrendered?
Everything!
Nothing can be preserved or spared.
A slave for God has no rights!
How to surrender.
Legalism is wrong …BUT…the Christian life does require dying.
Lk.9:23 – “Then he said to them all, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
Gal.2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
The cross is the instrument of your death.
It will take those around you to be truly crucified.
Eph.4:2 – “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
“The daily cross, something which is to be the instrument of disgrace and execution is whatever gives occasion for ever deeper test of self surrender.” L.E. Maxwell
“Dead men don’t feel anything.” My old friend Barry Swift
Sacrifice is not cheap.
2Sam.24:24 – “…I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
Sacrifice and surrender hurt.
“Many Christians fear and flee and seek deliverance from all that would humble them. At times they may pray for humility but in their heart of hearts they pray even more to be kept from the things that would bring them to that place.” Andrew Murray
Practice dying to self. (Jer.4:4)Things you can surrender:
TV and other entertainment
Food (through fasting)
Sleeping in, negotiating with the alarm
Free time
Video games
Girlfriends/boyfriends for a time
GPA
Summer break
Your image
Your gifts and talents
Your hopes, dreams and desires (even good ones)
The rest of your life
Surrender is unpleasant but remember:
Results of surrender.
You won’t get your way.
Eph.5:21 – “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
You will go places and do things you never thought you would.
Your rights will be trampled.
Remember you have no rights.
The world will hate you. You’re promised that in Jn.15:18.
You will be persecuted and disliked. Promised that in 2 Tim.3:12.
The harder you try to hold on to your life the less of true life you’ll experience.
Mt.10:39 – “Whoever finds his life will loose it, and whoever looses his life for my sake will find it.”
Lose it find it.
You will experience the abundant life in ways you didn’t imagine were possible.
Your life purpose will be accomplished.
Lk.16:10 – “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”
Will you be faithful to surrender the little areas?
That is where it starts.
The surrendered person has intimacy with God and experiences God’s working in their life mightily.
The upward cycle: Humility surrender humility surrender.
Each surrender brings you closer to Him.
This process is the foundation for
Relationship with God and
For the working of His power
Rom.12:1 – “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.
Jn.4:23 – “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.”
True worship requires daily surrender and constant submission to His will whatever that is.
A proud person cannot be close to Him.
A proud vessel cannot be a conduit of His power.
It must be emptied before it can be used.
“We must present ourselves as empty vessels in which God can dwell and manifest His power and goodness. Where God has come in His power and revealed Himself, the vessel becomes nothing.” Andrew Murray
A surrendered life will experience rejection, pain, neglect; it is a life with no rights.
You will die daily and it will hurt daily.
It is the beginning of all God has for you.
In loosing “you” you will find who God means for you to be.
This is where a life of true abundance begins.
This is where a life of significance starts.
“Until a humility that rests on nothing less than the end and death of self and which gives up all honor of men, as Jesus did, to seek the honor that comes from God alone (which absolutely makes and counts itself nothing) that God may be all, that the Lord alone may be exalted – until such a humility is what we seek in Christ above our chief joy and welcome at any price, there is very little hope of a faith that will conquer the world.” Andrew Murray
Do you want to hear, “Well done good and faithful servant (Mt.25:21).”
Hold nothing back; start surrendering every area today.
THERE IS VICTORY IN RETREAT
Reflection Questions
What percent does God honestly control of your:
Entertainment 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Other_______
Why?
How can you give him more control of that area?
Free time 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Other_______
Why?
How can you give him more control of that area?
Relationships 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Other_______
Why?
How can you give him more control of that area?
College career 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Other_______
Why?
How can you give him more control of that area?
Image 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Other_______
Why?
How can you give him more control of that area?
Gifts and talents 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Other_______
Why?
How can you give him more control of that area?
Hopes, dreams & desires 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Other_______
Why?
How can you give him more control of that area?
Life plans 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Other_______
Why?
How can you give him more control of that area?
On the reverse side write out a note to God, surrendering whichever areas of your life you feel you need to surrender to Him.
