Surrender: Let Love Live

Last week we talked about setting life goals to make us more like Jesus. It’s not about doing more, it’s about surrendering to Jesus.

New Year, New You, goals are good… fitness is good… financial prosperity… paying off debt is good… giving more is good… reading more books is good… enjoying life, stressing less, managing our time better all make us a better person as we develop better habits.

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul talks about eternity, our heavenly reward. God wants us to live by faith here in this broken world, with broken people, in a self-serving backwards culture. Victory comes when we surrender everything to Jesus.

This week we will build on last week.

We are called and empowered to live courageously with faith in the unseen. Faith that God has our very best in mind for us but we must aim to put HIM first always.

Our goal must be to please the Lord in all that we do. That is a lofty goal. We are going to have days where we miss the mark… we are going to have moments where we fall short… but God’s grace is all sufficient. Keep your aim fixed on pleasing the Lord by walking with Jesus daily.

What we do has eternal value.

2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Paul reminds us that we will all be judged by what we DO. All of us will stand before the Lord and give an account for what we have done in the body, whether good or evil.

These are the truths that put real skin in the game. We go through real life with real hurt, real scars, real damage… we are all really broken.

Jesus came to reconcile broken humanity but that can only happen as we surrender all and connect with Jesus daily.

This connection and surrender will change everything.

2 Corinthians 5:11–17 ESV

11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

PRAY

We just got an 8 week old puppy. Training a puppy is a new thing for me, … you have to incentivize good behavior. Puppies don’t respond well to insults or corporal punishment, they respond to treats and praise.

We also have 2 older dogs. The older dogs already know how to behave… they know not to bite everything, not going potty in the house, we don’t reward them for doing what they are supposed to do. But the puppy on the other hand, he is learning the little things and he want’s to be rewarded. The reward becomes the motivator.

It’s funny how people are a lot like puppies, we are motivated by rewards.

What’s in this for me, what’s the benefit, where is my treat?

As followers of Jesus, we need to move beyond responding to treats and simply respond to God’s love and surrender HIS will. That takes growing up and maturing in our faith. That will come out as we tell others about Jesus.

The things that control us will be revealed.

And there will be evidence of New Life when the Old Self dies.

Our faith is intended to be shared with others when we surrender to God.

ILLUS: I know sales is a part of many people’s job and I respect that. But personally, I hate it when people try to sell me something I don’t need or want.

When I think of people presenting the gospel to someone, I think of it in terms of a sales pitch.

Working on commission… being able to close the deal as if we get the credit.

Paul talks about the art of persuasion.

2 Corinthians 5:11 ESV

11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.

Are we persuading other by guilt, or fear. Are we persuading others by giving them false promise of sweet happy days ahead for Christians.

Paul says, knowing the fear of the Lord, we are to persuade others to follow Jesus… in Faith, without fear, living to please the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:11 NLT

11 Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too.

We will all be standing before the Lord and be judged by what we do now here on earth. We don’t earn salvation but when we sincerely know Jesus and walk with Jesus daily, our desires will change. With Christ at the center, we want to please HIM in all that we do. That will carry over to how we think, in what we say and how we treat others and how we see others.

We don’t see others as people who are lost but we know that we are all lost without Jesus and that’s the message we must convey to others.

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

We all need Jesus and we will all stand before the Lord and give an account for what we have done.

We will all stand before the Lord but Jesus came to save us, HE came to be our advocate, but we have to invite Jesus to represent us before the Lord.

Jesus wants to save us, but salvation is so much more then fire insurance. What draws us to God is HIS love. As we receive Christ, walk with Jesus, as we know God more deeply we recognize our own sinfulness, we begin to have a holy fear God. It’s more then just saving us from hell, it’s having an urgent awareness that other’s are in the same boat as we were without Jesus.

Salvation is the beginning of God changing how we see ourselves and how we see others. We love others enough to show them the love of Jesus. We want other to have a personal encounter God’s love. Jesus is so much a part of us that we can’t stop telling others… we can’t stop giving glory to God all the time.

Persuading others to follow Jesus is simply following Jesus everyday.

Share how God has changed your life. Share that we are still a work in progress. Share God’s love and believe that the Gospel can change anyone no matter who the person is, no matter what their background.

God’s Love has the power to control us when we surrender.

We still believe that God’s love is what changes us.

2 Corinthians 5:14 ESV

14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;

We can be controlled by a lot of different things… Fear… sin… addiction… busyness… money… all of these things control us.

But… control begins when we surrender to those things. Have we surrendered to the Love of God?

When we surrender, God’s love will change us from the inside out. It’s a lifelong consistent abiding in the love of God.

We need to chew on this… mediate on the Love of God… God’s love is the reason we are saved… we live… we breathe… we procreate… we have relationships and restoration of relationships… we are forgiven and can forgive…

We are controlled by the love of God and that control gives us power over any sin, hurt, pain, bondage… When we are controlled by the love of God we have real freedom.

Control: synechō means to hold together, enclose; hold prisoner; seize, press hard, dominate.

We have a free will but as believers so the only way the love of God can control us is when we surrender.

2 Corinthians 5:14–15 ESV

14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

We freely submit to God’s love because Jesus willingly died on that the cross because of HIS amazing love for us.

Without Jesus, reconciliation would not be possible. Jesus died and was resurrected so that we can die to our own temporary, worldly, sinful, self and be raised with Christ.

Surrender happens when we recognizing that our OLD SELF is dead so that our NEW SELF can live.

Paul is saying, don’t look at Jesus from a human perspective but a divine and an eternal perspective. God’s love changes our eternal direction so don’t get bogged down with earthly struggles. Remember, we live by faith, not by what we see so live courageously for Jesus… controlled by the love of God.

2 Corinthians 5:16–17 ESV

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

When we are in Christ, we are brand new. That’s why Paul says that we cannot think of this change as just a fleshly change that only impacts us in the flesh.

Jesus came to change us forever but we cannot hold on to our old life. Jesus came to change us completely… our thoughts, our purpose, the way we see ourselves and others will change. It’s more then just saving me from hell, it’s saving me from my old self, my old life, my old sin, my old selfishness…

We cannot thing of Jesus as just a mere human who died a noble death. If that’s how we see Jesus, we are limiting the sacrifice that Jesus paid for us.

Jesus not only died, HE resurrected from the dead, ascended to heaven, and gave us the Holy Spirit, clothing us with HIS power to live out that new life. That’s the reason Jesus came. Our old man has died, has passed away.

Jesus is our creator, our savior, our healer.

We are saved to serve.

TAKE AWAY:

How are we persuading others?

What is control our life? Is it God’s Love?

Are we holding on to our Old Self instead of putting on the New Self?