Absolute Surrender
Romans 12:1-2
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Paul in Romans 12 calls on the followers of Christ to yield themselves completely to God, to capitulate to His Lordship. Until we do this we can never experience the fullness of joy and blessing God has for us individually and as a church. Andrew Murray was in Scotland and was discussing with a group of men the condition of Christ's Church, and what the great need of the Church and of believers is. A godly Christian worker who was actively involved in training other workers for Christ when asked what he would say was the great need of the Church, the message that ought to be preached, answered very quietly, simply and determinedly: "Absolute surrender to God is the one thing."
I. Why is absolute surrender the Greatest Need in the Church
A. God demands our absolute surrender.
1. Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
2. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
B. The Condition of the church demands absolute surrender.
1. The Church today is filled with powerless Christians who live anemic Christian lives and fail to have any idea why they don’t see God’s power in their life.
2. 1 Corinthians 3:1 "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ."
3. “No words can tell the sad state of the Church of Christ on earth. I wish I had words to speak what I sometimes feel about it. Just think of the Christians around you. I do not speak of nominal Christians, or of professing Christians, but I speak of hundreds and thousands of honest, earnest Christians who are not living a life in the power of God or to His glory. So little power, so little devotion or consecration to God, so little perception of the truth that a Christian is a man utterly surrendered to God's will! Oh, we want to confess the sins of God's people around us, and to humble ourselves.” – Andrew Murray
4. We are members of that sickly body. The sickliness of the body will hinder us and break us down, unless we come to God. We must, in confession, separate ourselves from partnership with worldliness, with coldness toward each other. We must give ourselves up to be entirely and wholly for God. – Andrew Murray
5. 1 Kings 18:21 “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, ‘How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.’ And the people answered him not a word.” (CEV – “How much longer will you try to have things both ways?)
6. Many Christians have one foot in the church and the other foot in the world. They are trying to hold on to their baubles in the world and, at the same time, hold on to heaven. They think they are going to get the best of both worlds. The truth is that they get the best of neither. – copied
7. Matthew 6:24 “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
8. Lack of surrender to God is a result of selfishness deep within our characters. Our selfish characters rob us of intimacy with Christ and the power to touch our family, friends and the lost with the power of the Holy Spirit. Liu Zhenying, known as Brother Yun, is one of the leading pastors in the Chinese house church movement. He recognized that “Multitudes of church members in the West are satisfied with giving their minimum to God, not their maximum... Jesus gave his whole life for us, and we give as little of our lives, time and money as we can back to God. What a disgrace! Repent!” – Meldrum, The Beauty of Brokeness.
C. God’s blessings are conditioned upon our absolute surrender.
1. 1 John 3:22 “whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”
2. The condition of God's blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands. Praise God! If our hearts are willing for that, there is no end to what God will do for us, and to the blessing God will bestow. – Andrew Murray
3. Dr. D. James Kennedy wrote, “I believe we fail to see that God has a basic condition for His blessings. The Apostle James says, “Ye have not because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss” (James 4:2). 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!”
4. The secret of a happy, successful life both now and for eternity is TOTAL SURRENDER TO GOD.
5. There is no better example of total surrender than F. B. Meyer. He was a Baptist preacher and pastor of Christ Church in the heart of London in the nineteenth century. In the midst of a successful ministry, F. B. Meyer confessed that something was lacking in his life and ministry. J.H. Jowett recounts the following story: “Dr. Meyer has told us that his early Christian life was marred and his ministry paralyzed just because he had kept back one thing from the bunch of keys he had given to the Lord. Every key save one! The key of one room was kept for personal use, and the Lord shut out. The effect of the incomplete consecration was found in lack of power, lack of assurance, lack of joy and peace. The joy of the Lord begins when we hand over the last key. We sit with Christ on His throne as soon as we have surrendered our crowns, and made Him sole and only ruler of our life and its possessions. – copied
II. What does it mean to surrender absolutely?
A. 1 Kings 20:1-4 “And Benhadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Benhadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have.
B. Absolute surrender is to intentionally and permanently give up and relinquish all control and ownership of everything to Christ.
C. Surrender is handing over everything we are and have to God. It is relinquishing all control of our lives to God.
D. Matthew 10:37-39 “He who loves 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.”
E. You know in daily life what absolute surrender is. You know that everything has to be given up to its special, definite object and service. I have a pen in my pocket, and that pen is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing. That pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if I am to write properly with it. If another holds it partly, I cannot write properly. This coat is absolutely given up to me to cover my body. This building is entirely given up to religious services. And now, do you expect that in your immortal being, in the divine nature that you have received by regeneration, God can work His work, every day and every hour, unless you are entirely given up to Him? God cannot. The temple of Solomon was absolutely surrendered to God when it was dedicated to Him. And every one of us is a temple of God, in which God will dwell and work mightily on one condition – absolute surrender to Him. God claims it, God is worthy of it, and without it God cannot work His blessed work in us.
F. Surrender is not commitment or submission. You can be a committed Christian and still live a dead, passionless, and empty life.
G. A Commitment is a promise, obligation or pledge while surrender is giving up and handing over to another person absolute control.
H. Connie Cavenaugh in her book “From Faking It to Finding Grace” writes, “Commitment means I am still in control, whereas surrender takes me out of the driver’s seat... Commitment is deciding on a plan. Surrender 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.
I. Understand that commitment is something we can do, something we control. In surrender, we make the conscious choice to let go of that control, but the actual surrender is something only God can do.
J. When we surrender, we "give up," putting the focus where it belongs: on God. But it isn't giving up in the way we normally define it. The action is more like "giving over." In love. It is offered to us in love, by Love, for love. And we accept it the same way: in love, for love, out of love. – copied
K. A living sacrifice - Romans 6:13 “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”
L. Matthew 22:37 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind."
III. How is absolute surrender accomplished?
A. Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
B. The ability to surrender absolutely is a gift of God. However eagerly we may desire it, however diligently we may strive to acquire it, surrender cannot be attained by personal endeavor. While many attempt to submit or commit to God, absolute surrender is something only God can do. But while it is God’s work it requires a response from you.
C. It has been said – “At some point, we all surrender our lives to God. Some of us choose to do it voluntarily, while we walk the earth. Others surrender involuntarily, when their physical body dies. Surrendering while physically alive goes beyond recognizing and acknowledging the reality that we each belong to God. Similar to salvation, surrender is a gift we receive from God; we can't will it for ourselves. But also like salvation, the gift of surrender requires a response from us: acceptance. And there must be fruit: a changed life. It's not something we accept and then do nothing about. Any work we do will never get us salvation or surrender. But our work starts after we accept the gifts from God.
D. Philippians 2:5-11 “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
E. George Mueller upon whom God poured out such blessings that many people stand in awe to this day how God answered his prayers affirmatively, abundantly blessed and mightily used him, said that total surrender was the source of all the blessings of his life. He said that when he was ninety years old, adding that total surrender amounted to two things: First, absolute surrender to work what God wants us to do; and second, a total willingness to let God work in us whatever He wants to work.
F. Stop trying to do it and let God work in your life by totally surrendering.
Is Jesus Lord of your thought? Is He Lord of your passions? Is Jesus Lord of your speech, of your relationships, of your possessions? Is Jesus Christ Lord of your whole life? Is Jesus the Lord of every area in your life? Of your everything? Can you honestly say, “Anywhere, Lord! Anytime, Lord! Any cost, Lord”? Have you surrendered your all?
