Surrender To Win Series

There was only one general that threw fear into the mighty warriors of the Roman Army, and that

man was Hannibal of Carthage. Carthage was in North Africa, and was the rival of Rome. It was

the only power great enough to keep Rome from ruling the world. For over 60 years they fought a

desperate struggle, and Rome was winning. Then in 218 B. C. Hannibal took command of the

armies of Carthage, and for 16 years he out-fought and outwitted the Romans. One of his key

weapons was a herd of 80 trained war elephants that would charge the enemy lines and soften them

up for defeat.

Rome could not believe the success of Hannibal. He captured a good part of Italy, and began to

plan the taking of Rome itself. All of history would have been changed had a Roman general Scipio

not gotten a good idea. When Hannibal's elephants charged in the battle of Zama, which could

decide the fate of the world, he had loud trumpets blown that scared the elephants and sent most of

them back into Hannibal's lines disrupting them and giving the Romans a chance to attack.

Hannibal lost that decisive battle, and Rome went on to conquer the world. Hannibal never did

surrender, but went on trying to fight Rome the rest of his life, but he never regained enough power

to make a difference. He is one of the heroes of history because he never gave up.

It is legitimate to never surrender even if you cannot win, when the battle is against evil. There

are some battles that are perpetual and cannot be won. The battle with sin and forces of evil is never

over in this life, therefore, it is a perpetual battle. We are not to surrender and give up, but like Paul,

press on fighting a good fight to the end. Many a scientist and doctor has fought against disease, and

died before they found the answer, but they did not surrender, and those who came after them built

on their foundation and won the victory. Thank God for those who never surrender.

On the other hand, it is folly not to surrender when you are fighting with God. The first man,

Adam, ran from God when he had sinned, and tried to escape from admitting his sin, and

surrendering to God. This has become the pattern ever since, and we see it so clearly in the life of

the rich young ruler. He was basically a good guy, and from his youth he had been religious, and

tried his hardest to please God. Jesus said only one thing he lacked. Wouldn't that be great to lack

just one thing? That would be easy to solve, and you would be in. Except, the one thing he lacked

was the ability to surrender. For him the problem was his wealth. He clung to it, and depended on

it. It was his idol, and he just could not surrender and yield to Christ as his Lord, and give his all to

him. It doesn't make any difference if you are an up-and-outer; a down-and-outer, or

middle-and-outer. The real battle of life is in deciding, can I surrender to Christ or not?

This is the kind of battle where the only winners are those who surrender. Life has two kinds of

battles. The kind where, when you surrender you lose, and the kind where, when you surrender you

win. The first step to sobriety in AA is to acknowledge your life is unmanageable and in our own

power you cannot stop drinking. In other words, the first step to victory is surrender. You have to

give up on yourself, and say I can't win, for as long as you think you can, and keep fighting in your

own self-sufficient strength, you will keep on losing. But when you surrender, and yield yourself to

God's power, then you begin the journey to victory.

Some men can stop drinking on their own, but no man can be saved on his own. The only way to

be saved in your own strength is to never have sinned, and that is not possible, for as the Bible says,

all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It is always too late to save yourself, because

you are always a sinner, and no one has the power to not be what he is. To go on fighting trying to

save yourself, and make a meaningful life in your own power is to fight as foolish a battle as those

Japanese soldiers who kept fighting for an island many years after the war was over. It is doomed to

failure.

The only way to win in this war is to surrender. But man is by nature stubborn, and that is why