As we continue our sermon series on surrender this week, you will want to follow along in the book of Luke chapter 9. As we heard a bit ago, verses 57-62 talk about the costs of following our Savior. Well our subject this week, is still on surrender, but more specifically, Surrendering our Family.
Now many people would not agree with this verse. We see our family as the most important thing in our life and see no reason why God would want us to leave that family.
Do you know what that proves? It proves that we do not know what God knows and we do not understand what God understands. Because while we can read this verse today and think that God is uncaring towards our family or specifically this man’s family, we would be wrong. Let me show you how I know that.
1st Timothy 5:8 tells us, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever”.
That verse sure sounds like God puts some serious importance on families. To make that point even clearer, when Paul and Silas are imprisoned in Acts chapter 16, the jailer accepts Christ as His personal Savior and then takes them to his house so his family can hear them and be saved as well.
You see God puts so much importance of family that He has included you and I in His family, if we want to be included. We can even see how much He cares for His family in Galatians chapter 6 verse 10, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers”.
SO if we somehow feel that if we are asked to surrender our family to God, that God doesn’t care about them, we are misinformed. In fact, here is the point of our scripture verse focus for the day. We need to have a faith that God cares so much about our family, that he can take care of them, that He can love them and protect them, better than we can. It isn’t that Jesus is demanding the man abandon his family, only that He leave them to God, to love and to care for, while he follows Christ.
You see if we put it in that light, things are different. God doesn’t ask us to abandon our family when we surrender them to God. He only asks us to trust Him with their life and with their future.
Surrendering doesn’t mean we give up on them. Surrendering doesn’t mean we do not love them or care for them, but just the opposite.
By surrendering our family to God’s care, we are trusting that He care for them even more or better than we can.
Would you like to see how much God can care for your family when you devote yourself to Him? Here are some examples.
God asked that Abram leave his hometown of Ur and all he knew to go to a promised land that his descendants would inherit. Of all of the places Abram went, the trouble he got himself into, God kept every promise. It didn’t matter that Abram was 99 years old and had no children, God still took care of his family.
Jacob stole his brothers inheritance, and his birthright. Jacob had to flee for his life. But after 14 years Jacob returned home. He found his brothers family had prospered, as did his. He found that after those years passed, Jacob forgave him for all his wrong doings.
Later in Jacobs life, he has 12 children, and famine hits the land. Because of God’s plan, his youngest at the time, saves them all, even though he was sold as a slave in a foreign land.
You see, God cares more about our family than we can possibly imagine. We just have to give Him room to show it. Of course some people may think that it is not realistic for someone to surrender their family to God. Let me give you a great example of someone who did it.
Bill McCartney retired as the head coach of the University of Colorado football team several years ago. His reason for retirement was not because he was unsuccessful as a coach. His teams had won the national championship. They had won three consecutive conference titles and had been in the top 10 many times.
McCartney said that he was retiring because he wanted to reevaluate his priorities. He said, “I’m leaving coaching, & I’m going to take a whole year to re-evaluate my priorities. Is God first? Is my family second? Is my work third?” You see Bill loved his family very much, even more than football. But he realized he had to love God even more. When that year was over, Bill McCartney had dedicated his life & talents to Christ, & threw his efforts into founding the great men’s group, “Promise Keepers.”
Bill McCartney had to give up his career as a famous football coach.
So you may be thinking, what is God going to ask me to give up. If I surrender my family, what am I going to be asked to do? ….. I don’t know. But I do know this.
It might be a mission trip to Africa. It might be a lifetime of ministry. It might even be a job in a country that doesn’t speak English. Only God knows where He wants you to be and what he wants you to do for His Kingdom.
I’m going to end by telling you how God changed my life, since I surrendered my family to Him. 10 years ago, I found myself in the middle of a divorce. Fighting for custody on my kids. Not knowing what I did wrong to deserve the situation I found myself in.
I sat in the back of a Salvation Army chapel in Sunbury, Pennsylvania and decided that God must be able to lead my life better than I could.
Since that day, I have moved away from my family. My Mom, Dad, 13 Aunts and Uncles and more than 40 first cousins that I grew up with. Both of my grandmothers lived within 5 miles of me. All of my childhood friends still live back east. And one day God asked me if I was truly ready to surrender my family to Him. And I did.
Since then, here is a short list of what has happened to me since that day. I have lived in 4 different states, in 6 different houses. I have spent two years at a college, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I have had the opportunity to continue my education while serving God. I have enjoyed the birth of our youngest daughter. I have been to places like the Grand Canyon, Disneyland, Sea World, Yellowstone Park, Lake Tahoe, Roswell, New Mexico, Key West Florida, London, England and Capetown, South Africa. I have met holy people, I have had the pleasure of performing 7 marriages, including my own brothers. I had also had the honor of officiating my grandmother’s funeral.
God has allowed me to experience all of these things, not because I am special, or smart, or work hard. But just because I decided to obey him, and surrender everything I have to Him.
What does God have in store for you? What amazing experiences are waiting for you to give up whatever it is that He wants from you? Where will God send you in the next five years? What about the next 10 years?
You see just because we surrender our life to Christ, doesn’t mean our life is over, but that it is just beginning!
I still look forward to doing amazing things and visiting people all over the world. I look forward to mission work overseas. I look forward to visiting the holy land in three years. I’d never be able to do that, if it wasn’t for God and the generosity of the Salvation Army.
But do you know what I look forward to the most?
Two things. First, that my family is taken care of. They are as safe as I could ever make them. And second, that me, my wife and my children have a place to live, forever, with the God that created you and I. I look forward to Heaven. A place for all eternity, without tears, without sickness, without violence. That is what I look forward to the most. And all it took, was for me to surrender everything I had. My habits, my thoughts, my speech, and my Family.
If you are ready to make that full and complete surrender, would you pray with me?
Pray
