Believe 15 ~ Total Surrender
February 1, 2015
Our world is filled with quotes about the need to push through the pain, work hard, never give up. Never quit. That’s inconceivable. We have that drummed into us. To a certain extent, we shouldn’t give up, we shouldn’t quit. Maybe we need these quotes because we find it too easy to quit and give up. If things aren’t going the way we want, will we give up?
But these sayings and words from well meaning people are so ingrained in our hearts and brains that when we need to give up, it becomes a struggle.
The video we just watched from Christian artist, Plumb, speaks about trying to do life on her own. Doing life without God, running from God, doing life on her terms, being caught up being someone you are not. Do you find that true for yourself? Is God a 2nd or 3rd thought and resource.
Last week in week 14 of Believe we took a hard look at what it means to have a SINGLE MINDED FOCUS on Jesus. That’s not always easy to do, and this week we’re looking at the phrase TOTAL SURRENDER. What does it mean to surrender? Surrender is defined as ~
to relinquish to the control or possession of another under duress or on demand
to yield (something) to the possession or power of another; deliver up possession of on demand or under duress:
When we think about surrender, it’s normally not a good thing. These definitions remind us we only surrender under conditions of duress or on demand. We picture someone waving the the white flag — surrendering! We think of throwing in the towel. Or if you’re a MMA fan. Tapping out. Tapping the ground and saying you’re done. Surrendering is equated with giving up; we’re told never give up.
If you’ve ever played sports with me, you know I don’t like to lose or surrender. I don’t like to give up or quit. You play to the end. A couple of years ago I was playing in the church softball league. We were a player short, so I played 1st and 2nd base. I was doing great, then it happened. I pulled my calf muscle. I could barely walk, let alone run. Quit?! Give up? No way. I played the rest of the game. Ran the bases and even ran for a foul ball, well I hobbled to the foul ball. Quitting? Saying my leg got the best of me? NO WAY!!
How many people have you known who quit living while they were alive? What normally happens to them? They get bitter and they die. That’s not the life Christ has called us to live.
Yet, we don’t want to give up or surrender to anyone. We want to think our own thoughts, do our own thing, and live as we see fit. We want our freedom and independence. Surrender implies we’re living according to someone else’s rules. Who wants that?
Yet, the Apostle Paul said God wants us to surrender to Him. He calls it a “living sacrifice.” In Romans 12:1, our memory verse, Paul wrote ~
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
According to Paul, worship is not an event. It is a sacrificial life. It’s a way of living. It’s a life that surrenders itself to God’s purposes. Paul says our worship is found in presenting our bodies as living sacrifices. And when we do that, our sacrifice is holy and acceptable to God.
God accepts our sacrifice. It comes in the form of surrendering our lives to Christ. We give Christ ourselves. We are the sacrifice. Christ was sacrificed for us. He surrendered His life so we could have life; and ultimately we sacrifice ourselves so we can have this new life Jesus offers us.
Once we do this, we should no longer follow the ways of the world. Yet the world is continually pulling us away from God. Solve your own problems, if you’re not happy, move on. The world offers so many other avenues to find satisfaction, which ends up being a false satisfaction and ultimately leaves us empty. The problem with living sacrifices is the fact that they keep climbing down off the altar.
Another issue is the fact we confuse 2 words. And it gets in our way of really . . . fully . . . totally surrendering to God.
I believe we confuse the words COMMITMENT and SURRENDER.
We can be committed to God, we can be a committed Christian, and yet we can live a spiritually dead, passionless and empty life. We when commit to something we are making a promise to do something, but we never give up our control.
When we surrender - - we are giving up something of value and giving it to another person who has absolute control and power.
In her book From Faking it to Finding Grace, Connie Cavenaugh wrote ~
“Commitment means I am still in control, whereas surrender takes me out of the drivers seat. Commitment is deciding on a plan. Surrender is going to God for His plan.” Isn’t that the truth!
Inherent in the act of surrender is submission to God. We cannot surrender to God unless we submit ourselves to His absolute control. This doesn’t mean we can’t have plans, dreams and goals. We need them, but we also need to give them over to God and ask God to bless them and give us the wisdom to know if this is what we are supposed to do. We need to understand His purpose and plan for our existence.
Commitment is something we can do, it’s something we control. In surrender, we make the conscious choice to let go of that control, but the actual surrender is only something we can do because of the power of the Spirit of God.
When we surrender we put the focus where it belongs . . . on God. But it isn’t giving up in the way the world defines giving up. I think a better expression would be we GIVE OVER to God. We do it in love, because we fully trust in God’s love.
Paul is appealing to us by the mercies of God. Paul wants us to do this because we recognize God’s mercy at work in our lives. When we experience His mercy and grace we should have the desire to give Him everything we have and are. But we struggle with that.
We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. That means we turn our focus to God and don’t buy into all of the other junk that’s out in the world calling and wooing us away from what is right and perfect and pure.
The call of Jesus is one of obedience. The disciples really struggled with that. Because the call of Christ is not an easy call. Think about the words of Jesus to His disciples in Matthew 16 ~ 24 If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.
25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
Honestly, who wants to deny themselves, take up the cross, lose their life . . . so you can find your life? That’s like a riddle. But it is so true when we actually do this. When we give ourselves over to Christ, when we submit ourselves to His will and plan, when we surrender to Him, giving ourselves over to Christ — we often speak words like . . . peace, grace, mercy, power and strength. That’s what we experience
Why did that happen? Because we finally gave up fighting and gave in to the will of God. That’s part of what that song was telling us from Plumb. She said ~
Oh Lord I'm ready now
All the walls are down
I wanna make this count
I ran away from you
And did what I wanted to
You called my name
I turned away
But now I
Am listening
I was so caught up
In who I'm not
Oh Lord I'm ready now
Lord I'm ready now
That’s an act of submission. It’s surrendering her old self to Christ. It’s a daily event for us. We are to be filled again and again with the Holy Spirit. Paul commands that in Ephesians 5:18. It’s such a dynamic verse. Paul said ~ And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
Too many people get stuck on that first part. Don’t get drunk. OK, don’t get drunk. What people miss is the fact that Paul is comparing and contrasting the filling of the Spirit with the filling of wine.
But I want you to hold onto this. The way Paul wrote this, there are 2 major points we often miss.
1) It is the Spirit who is doing the work. We think we need to go back to the Spirit and ask for a fill up when our tank is low. But that’s not what Paul wants us to understand. We don’t do the work, the Spirit does, we must be open to the Spirit.
2) Going right along with that, the Spirit is refilling us on an ongoing basis. Not on an as needed basis, but continually, and it’s the Spirit doing the work.
What Paul has in mind is taking a bottomless cup or pipe and putting it in water and letting the water flow through it. Let the water take control. That’s the goal. Let the Spirit take control of you. Paul is telling us to be filled now and to remain filled forever. Don’t allow your tank to run dry.
But you see, we have to make sure the middle of the cup is cleaned out, that’s our sin life. If we don’t clean out our sin, if we don’t repent and confess, then that cup gets clogged and we cannot be moved by the Spirit because there’s no room for the Spirit of God to work in our life, because we are in control.
The goal is to empty yourself of yourself. Get out of the way of the Spirit of God. Remember, you already have the Spirit of God within you. When you accepted Jesus, the Spirit came upon you. So, you don’t need to ask for the Spirit again, He’s already there. We need to allow the Spirit to continually work through us.
That means our focus is Christ. In everything we do, we seek His wisdom and grace. As I’ve told people this week, we are to be wise as doves and shrewd as a serpent. We gain this from the Spirit. On our own we may be intelligent, but so is satan. He knows the Word of God better than we do, but he doesn’t buy into it.
As we conclude for today . . . the call of Christ is to
seek first His Kingdom . . . that gives us the single minded focus . . . then
we offer our lives, heart, soul, mind and body as a living sacrifice to Christ.
He gets it all, in exchange we receive eternal life, in this world and the next.
We receive the Spirit of God dwelling and empowering us, always.
We receive the promise that Christ, the Creator . . . will never leave us, never forsake us, never abandon us.
We gain His power, His strength, His love, His mercy, His wisdom!
I think that’s a good deal, but we are given the choice to act. Will you act on the call of Christ to follow Him, to surrender yourself to Him?
