We Left All

Stewardship Series: Surrender

We Left All

Mark 10:21-28

Theme: Peter was confused on surrender to the Lord in regards to serving.

Introduction: This is a sad passage indeed for here is a rich man, one of position and seemingly having everything going well for him. He wanted to know about eternal life and what must he do. Salvation is not what we do, it is what has been done for us.

Money had a grip on him and Jesus told him to sell everything he had to give to the poor. The Jewish mindset is that riches is a sign of God’s blessing and this is counter to their way of thinking. You don’t have eternal life because you wealth. You must have Jesus Christ as your salvation. He needed living faith not a large bank account.

As the disciples were there observing this conversation, they were astonished v.24. In their minds the man’s wealth qualified him for eternal life. However, Jesus was saying that riches were robbing the man of eternal life. You must give up yourself and your wealth to follow Jesus. Believers are not those who have wealth but those who have Jesus Christ as their Savior. The man was convinced his actions were good enough to get him to heaven and only Jesus can take us to heaven.

Jesus explains that we are not to trust in riches to take us to heaven. Verse 23 they were astonished and verse 26 they were astonished out of measure. Man cannot save himself only God can save him.

Peter was a follower of Jesus and he was contemplating at this point what does it mean to follow Jesus. What does it mean to serve Jesus? Jesus had to correct Peter and the disciples wrong thinking.

Through these servants of God, we learn the importance of surrendering our service to God. As a steward of our time and ministry, we need to surrender ourselves to God’s will for our life.

There are three considerations for surrender.

I. We must surrender our hearts

A. Salvation

1. The obvious is the first consideration-before a man can serve the Lord, he must make sure he is saved and knows he is saved.

2. The disciples were still figuring the heart of a believer as you can see here in this passage-a person is not to trust in external righteousness or what he has done.

3. He must have his faith and trust in Christ—he must forsake his own works, his own pathway and turn unto Christ—this is repentance.

4. A man must change his mind about his righteousness and put his faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone.

B. Consecration

1. A child of God is called to live out a consecrated life.

2. He is called to yield his body to the Lord

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:12–16)

3. We are to yield our hearts unto the Lord

“Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the LordGod, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the Lord.” (1 Chronicles 22:19)

Later Peter wrote about this

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” (1 Peter 3:15)

4. When we surrender our hearts to the Lord, God will direct our service.

5. Many a person who has unyielded heart is not used by God because their hearts will deceive them

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lordsearch the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” (Jeremiah 17:9–10)

II. We must surrender our desires

A. Priorities

1. When God’s will is our priority, we don’t serve Him on our terms, but serve Him on His terms.

2. When a Christian aligns his desires with God’s desire, surrender to His will be first and foremost in his life.

3. Jesus’s focus here was on the man’s desires-do you love things in the world more than you love God? Are you more in love with sports or recreation or the lake than Jesus?

4. Jesus taught us to seek Him-Mat. 6:33

B. Purpose

1. This is where basic living gets to the brass tacks-what is our purpose here?

2. When you surrender your service to the Lord, you begin to understand life’s purpose

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

3. Being a Christian is not just part of my life, He is my life and my life’s purpose.

4. This the reason we serve-spiritual growth and surrendered desires causes me to have a life’s purpose-when I moved back to CA after a year back east, people asked why? Because my life’s purpose is to serve and glorify God.

5. For this rich ruler, his life’s purpose was money-he would rather have money than Jesus-nothing wrong with having money, it is only wrong when money has you—money can deceive you

“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:10)

III. We must surrender our plans

A. Seek God’s desire

1. For Peter and Andrew was fishing until they met Christ and for this man was getting money.

2. God’s desire is very different than what these men wanted, Jesus wanted these men to surrender their future and their plans to Him.

3. We are implored in the Scriptures to seek God’s desire over our desire-not my will but thy will,

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” (Colossians 3:1)

4. This seeking means to give every ounce of energy and effort into seeking God’s will.

B. Seek God’s glory

1. Everything we do whether in church or out of church, we want to give the honor to God.

2. He is to be given praise always-we must surrender our glory and our pride to give God His glory.

“In God is my salvation and my glory: The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.” (Psalm 62:7)

3. When we serve the Lord, we should not be concerned on who gets the credit but that God gets the glory.

4. It should be the desire for every servant to glorify God in His service-this is why I believe every message should be for His glory, every bus worker who serves should be for God’s glory, every nursery work who helps God should get the glory-be there, be on time, and serve to give Him the glory. Every lesson should focus on His glory in Sunday School-He is the hero of every story.

Conclusion: So when Peter said we left all, he had to realize you cannot serve God until you leave all. Many a man would like to serve God and bring his bad habits, his sinful life but God says, “We are to leave all to surrender to Him.” What is holding you back from surrendering to God? Will decide to surrender to Him today? Will you decide you will surrender your time to go to the Building Banquet on March 8?