Surrendered - The best life is a surrendered life!

What circumstances has God used to shape your life? Our prayer is that God might use this weekend to forge something powerful in your life that looks more like Jesus.

Blacksmithing has been around since 1500 BC when the Hittites discovered how to forge and temper iron ore.

Blacksmithing is the art and craft of working with metal, typically iron, to create different kinds of objects and structures. The term "blacksmith" comes from the practice of using black coal, or "smith's coal," to heat a forge. The earliest blacksmiths were responsible for making weapons and tools for their communities. In the Middle Ages, blacksmiths became more specialized, creating armor and weapons for knights.

Blacksmithing is the process of creating objects from metal by forging the metal.

Forging is the process of metal smiting that involves use of a hammer and anvil.

The idea of God forging a person, particularly in the context of Christian theology and spirituality, is a metaphorical concept that draws parallels between the process of blacksmithing and the spiritual growth and transformation of an individual. Here's how the concept of God forging a man can be understood:

Selection and Calling: Just as a blacksmith selects a specific type of metal to work with, God calls individuals according to His purpose. This calling often involves a sense of vocation, mission, or purpose in life.

Heating: In the forging process, heat is essential to make the metal malleable. Similarly, God allows individuals to go through various life experiences, including challenges, trials, and tribulations, which can be thought of as the "heating" process. These experiences can include suffering, adversity, and personal struggles.

Shaping: God uses these life experiences to shape individuals' character, values, and beliefs. Just as a blacksmith shapes the red-hot metal with precision, God molds individuals to become more Christ-like. This shaping process can involve personal growth, moral development, and increased understanding of God's will.

Hammering: Just as a blacksmith uses different hammers to strike the metal into the desired shape, God may use various means to challenge, correct, and refine an individual. This may involve teachings from scripture, convictions through prayer, or guidance from a spiritual mentor.

Cooling and Quenching: After shaping and hammering, the metal cools and hardens. Similarly, the individual's character and faith are strengthened through the cooling process. This can involve seeking God's guidance, practicing patience, and allowing time for personal growth.

Annealing (optional): In spiritual growth, individuals may go through a process of spiritual refinement, which can be likened to annealing. This process may involve deepening one's faith through study, prayer, meditation, and self-reflection.

Finishing: God works to refine and perfect the individual, much like a blacksmith refining a piece of metal. This involves aligning one's life with God's will, striving for moral excellence, and living out the principles of love, compassion, and service as exemplified by Jesus.

Purpose: Ultimately, the forging process leads to individuals fulfilling their purpose in alignment with God's plan. Just as a blacksmith creates a functional or beautiful object, individuals become instruments of God's love, grace, and purpose in the world.

So how does this work in your spiritual life, your relationship with Christ?

Recognize that the first thing any good blacksmith does is choose the material that he wants to forge. He may choose steel, iron, brass, or another metal, then he is going heat it up and begin doing shaping it according to the purpose the blacksmith has in mind. God has chosen each of us and he sees in each of us our possibilities, how we might be a weapon in the kingdom of God for good.

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. Jeremiah 18:1–6

8 But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 2 Corinthians 4:7–9

We are surrendering to God’s will and plan for our lives because it is better than anything we could image for ourselves.

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “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. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? Matthew 16:24–26

Jesus is our ultimate example of surrender.

1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:1–11

Surrender in our lives is essential to our spiritual transformation.

We surrender in difficult times – We are not forged by comfort, ease or convenience … we forged through fire. Scripture calls it the refiners fire referenced in Malachi 3:3-4

3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lordas in the days of old and as in former years. Malachi 3:3–4

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9–10

Surrender is a life-long journey –

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

Our goal in a life of surrender is learning to trust God in his work of shaping us, forging our lives into Christlikeness.

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:28–30

Leading a surrendered life as an impact on your character …

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:22–26

But you might be asking, so what is God calling me to surrender?

Surrender Your Reputation

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—Philippians 3:7–9

Surrender Your Burdens

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

Surrender Your Aspirations

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Luke 9:23–24

Surrender Your Priorities

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33

Surrender Your Plans

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. James 4:13–17

Surrender Your Body

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19–20

Surrender Your Worldly Identity

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

Around the campfire– pick up a stick, walk up to the fire and declare … tonight I am surrendering my life, my time, my money, my job, my mind, my family, my will, my agenda, my future, my retirement, my possessions, my security, my goals, my worldly identity, my body, my plans, my burdens, my aspirations, my priorities, my reputation …

Let the stick you are holding represent all that you need to surrender through it into the fire as a symbol of surrender to God’s work, plan, forging in your life.