Surrender To God Series

Ravi Zacharias tells the amazing story of a young Christian, Hien Pham, whom he met in Vietnam

who served as an interpreter with the American forces.

Shortly after Vietnam fell, Hien was

imprisoned on accusations of helping the Americans.

His jailers tried to indoctrinate him against

democratic ideals with daily readings of Marx and Lennon and it began to take its toll. ‘Maybe,’

he thought, ‘I have been lied to. Maybe God does not exist. Maybe the West has deceived me.’

Hien is then determined never to pray again. Tomorrow would be a new day!

That next morning he was assigned latrine duty.

While cleaning out the tin cans used as toilets, he spotted english printing on something.

He cleaned it an opened it once everyone was asleep.

It read: ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him for I am

convinced that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus

our Lord. He knelt beside his bunk and cried out to God, "Forgive me Lord!"

This was to be the day he would never pray again, but pray he did and still does!

Hien came very close to giving up on God.

He was close to surrendering but to whom?

Satan was waiting for Hien to make the wrong

move and what Hien would be surrendering

would be his soul.

Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV)

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,

that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,

which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be 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.

John 3:30-31 (NKJV)

30 He must increase, but I must decrease. 31 He who comes from above

is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth.

He who comes from heaven is above

A true Christian must be willing to surrender everything he or

she has to God—nothing less. God wants all of us for Himself

for He is a jealous God. I know I’ve read that somewhere???

Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, that we are to be a

‘living sacrifice’ and ‘not to be conformed to this world.

What does that mean? That is… to be a living sacrifice?

When we think of a sacrifice, we typically envision some

animal on an altar that has had its throat sliced and it will

bleed-out into a bowl, later used to adorn an altar of God

as a sacrifice to Him thereby cleansing those who the sacrifice is for.

But, in this case… it is the person whose things and whose life have been sacrificed

in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because Jesus paid the ultimate price for each

one of us, there is no longer any need to sacrifice anymore animals. In return for what

He did for us… This free gift from God… We MUST offer ourselves and our possessions

to Him, to do with what He so desires.And you know what’s ironic? These things are

already His. We don’t own any of them. He gave them to us to use and in some cases

multiply. But if we SURRENDER… but if we SURRENDER

He may tell us to give up the keys to that shiny new car.

He may tell us to pursue a mission to Africa.

He may have us travel 1500 miles to preach.

You never know what He has in store for you… but to find out…

You must SURRENDER it all to Him.

Tell Him to do with it what He wants!

It’s a hard thing to do!

We tend to love our possessions!

You might find yourself trying to barter with God…

"Hey, I sure would like to keep that one…

Could you take this one?”

I just don’t think that would

go over real big with God???

Sometimes it takes a humbling experience for us to

‘see the forest because of the trees’, so to speak.

Hien, had to get down on his knees to scrub urinals,

just to have God show him, who is real and to dispel

the thought that he had been lied to by his American friends.

Hien made a great choice as did one storm-chaser, whose story is about choices.

It's a story about choices…some bad… some good

A storm chaser back on May 13, 2009, found himself staring at a category five

tornado with nowhere to go… no way to flee from its path. He had been playing

tag with it all day. It would be spotted, would touch down, and then disappear