Total Surrender

Total surrender

Selected Scripture

Some of the context of this sermon was gleaned from ideas and illustrations found on SermonCentral.

Last week we looked at what it means when we say God bless you and wither we want God blessing or a bailout of what we are going through.

This morning, I want to talk a moment on surrender.

Total and complete surrender to God.

Not just giving Him some of the things of your life, but giving Him everything.

Yourself, your family, your future.

What does that look like and how many of you have I lost already because you have thought of several things that you will not give God.

When you ask someone to surrender something today, you have jumped into their airspace.

We have created a society that feels that it is unacceptable to surrender anything to anybody including God Almighty.

People who talk of surrendering to God must be weak, must need religion as a crutch, or are unstable.

What does God say about surrender? Why does He desire it for our lives?

Do you care what God says about it or must everything in your life be directed through all your filters first?

Turn to Mark 10:17-21 read

Mark 10:17- paraphrasing, we see Jesus encounter with a rich man that approaches Him.

He asks Jesus the ultimate question- “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus talks about the 10 Commandments and the rich man is quick to say that he has done that since he was a child.

(21) Jesus looked at him and loved him. Kind of with the look of… “Bless your heart.”

If you are from the South, you will get where I am going with this.

“One thing you lack”, he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

Scripture says that this unidentified man’s face fell or saddened. Why? Because the one thing that God asked of him was the one thing that he was not willing to give up- thus it was not a total surrender.

Jesus, talked here about the rich man, and it is easy to blame the rich man for not giving of what he has. If you do that, you will have missed Jesus point here.

What is it that you are not willing to surrender to God? Maybe you don’t have a lot of money, then money is not what He is looking for you to surrender.

It is something else- He will make it known to you what it is. He will show you what is more important in your life than Him and He will want you to be willing to give it up.

You may not have too- but if you hold unto to it, it is an indicator that you are not willing to give it up.

(26) “The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, who then can be saved?” (27) Jesus looked at them and said, with man this is impossible, but with God; all things are possible with God.”

No one can surrender to God without God’s help. We are by nature selfish and we want what we want.

But with God, it is possible to have the right prospective on the blessings that God has given us and not have such a tight fist on them that we are not willing to give anything back to God.

(28) “Then Peter spoke up. “ We have left everything to follow you.”

How many would be able to say that they have left everything to follow Jesus?

How many of us are willing to be open handed to things in our lives that God has given if He wanted them back?

He doesn’t take everything , He wants to know that He can take if He desires or if the thing becomes a stumbling block in our lives.

I am a work in progress just like everyone else here. There are things the Lord is working on and there are things that I have a hard time giving up- he will bless in our obedience, and He will work on the things we hold unto.

It is always less painful to open our hand rather than God having to open it for us.

Jesus says follow me- the reason we follow is two-fold. We follow for the sake of Jesus and we follow for the sake of the gospel. The good news that comes from what Christ has done for us.

If total surrender to God is motivated by personal gain, we have missed the reason God wants us to surrender to Him.

Even if you are asking God for deliverance and the taking away of sin in your life, It is not the true reason of Christianity.