Untitled Sermon

Is there something in your life that you need to surrender and entrust to God?

Are there certain areas in your life that you are willing to “let go of the steering wheel” because you trust God?

I think for a lot of us, we like to drive what I would call “one-handed”.

We fool ourselves into thinking that we have entrusted our lives to God. But, if we are all honest, we still have one hand on the wheel don’t we? We aren’t holding onto the wheel with both hands out of desperate attempt to keep in the lane. Rather, we just keep one hand on the steering wheel just in case the ride gets bumpy. Just in case it looks like my life is swerving outside of the yellow lines.

Proverbs 3:5–6 NASB95

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.

I think of four main areas (not inclusive; just main areas) of life that we as people can struggle to entrust ourselves to God in surrender and humbly trust Him.

With our Salvation

With our finances

With our time

With our relationships

Entrust God with our Salvation

Have you made the first step in becoming a Christian… trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? The rest of today’s message will not offer much to you if you have not taken this first step to humble yourself, recognize your sin, confess it to God, and call upon Jesus as Savior… entrusting your life and soul to Jesus. Trusting that when you die, you will spend eternity in heaven with Christ.

Romans 10:9–10 ESV

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Entrust God with our Finances

Hebrews 13:5–6 ESV

5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

Does your wallet reflect that you trust God?

Now this statement could be received in many ways.

Is saving bad? Is spending bad?

Yes and No!

What purpose is in mind for what you are doing?

Do you save up out of fear of the future? Do you spend like there will be no tomorrow?

Do you have godly purposes in mind for your saving and your spending?

Money in and of itself is morally neutral. Money is NOT bad. Money is simply a thing that allows life transactions to take place. It provides jobs, it feeds you and keeps you warm, etc. Money is not a bad thing.

So then, what do we need to entrust to God if money is not bad?

It is the LOVE of money which is the root of all kinds of evil.

We must keep ourselves free from the controlling love which money can have on you. The world will teach you to strive for wealth. This is the American Dream… work hard, find opportunity, make so much money now that you can “live it up” when you get older and can retire.

Like my childhood pastor used to say, “You better curl up your toes, because I’m about to step on them!” I’m gonna say something that may sound very very strange and maybe even offensive… The American Dream is Anti-Gospel! Do NOT pursue the “American Dream”.

This is a world-centered perspective focused only on the acquiring of wealth and comfortability during this life.

When you read the Bible, Jesus tells you to do the exact opposite.

Matthew 16:24–25 ESV

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.

Jesus says that following Him comes at the cost of denying yourself. To take up a cross. You will lose your life in the pursuit of wealth and comfortability. People work and work and work all their life long just so that they can rest when they are older and able to retire.

So, you may be asking:

What are you trying to tell us Nate? Don’t get a retirement plan? Don’t save up?

I’m not telling you either of these things…

This is what I am telling you:

When you spend your money, do so with the intent to honor God in your spending.

When you save money, do so with the intent of serving God with what you are saving.

Money is not evil. It is the love of money.

Money in the bank should not be the peace which allows you to rest at night. Hebrews 13:5-6 again says:

Hebrews 13:5–6 ESV

5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

You should entrust yourself to God so that no matter what in life comes your way, you are content.

Ecclesiastes 5:12 ESV

12 Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

I can say these things to you confidently, because it is relevant in my life.

The temptation to pursue money is consistently being thrown at me.

At my work, we are only closed on Sundays. I work Monday-Saturday. And I come home each day exhausted from a lot of mental and physical work. And if anyone has worked with the public, you know that it is a LOT… that’s all I’ll say about that. haha.

Anyways… as most of you know, we recently took over the Natural Bridge General Store a little less than a year ago.

The previous owner worked on Sundays. Saturdays and Sundays were her two busiest days of the week. Especially during the Summer when so many people are traveling for vacation and wanting to enjoy a nice meal and find fun treats or souvenirs. Well, naturally, wanting to be at church and have a day of rest, we changed the schedule to working Monday-Saturday with Sunday being a day of rest in obedience to God’s Word. I want to be at church and worship the Lord and have time to rest and be with my family.

Well, then multiple things happen to me. Winter was tough to make due with bills for the store. Many long hours and slow days just trying to pay the bills and provide an income for me. Well now that summer is here, I am beginning to experience the flow of many people coming in and out of the store. This is especially true on Saturdays. I am trying to learn how to properly invest and save money during this influx of business… knowing that things will slow back down during late fall and winter again.

Well, there in the midst of this, the devil gladly tries to remind me how nice it would be to have two “Saturday-level-money-making days” per week. If I was willing to be open on Sunday, then I could really increase how much money I will be making now, knowing I will need it this winter. Especially now that I am married and not just a single man only working for myself.

Even though I never would or want to work on a Sunday due to my desire to honor God and worship Him, I can’t help that the thought has come to my mind more times than I am proud to admit.

So not only have I had these thoughts invade my mind, I have also had quite a few customers complain to me that we are no longer open on Sundays… and inform me that I am missing out on how much money I could be making if I was… as if I of all people were not aware of this.

Some have even argued with me: “just give it a matter of time… you will be here working on Sundays”.

All this to be said: the temptation of pursuing money is always at my door step when I am running a business. I never intend to give up my day of worship in exchange for a lucrative day of business. But the danger still remains… will it be tempting because of a love for money?

I must cling to God in surrender by trusting that He is my provider. I am not my own provider. Christ is. Jehovah Jireh… One of the famous names of God found in the OT: Means, ‘The Lord WILL Provide’

It is a much sweeter life to have what you need while in communion and obedience to God, than have all that you could ask for, but be distant from your Savior.

Entrust your finances to the Lord. Seek first His kingdom, and He will provide all that you need in order for you to accomplish it! (Not necessarily all that you want, but all that you need to do His Will.) And I think that you will find that God often gives us far beyond just what we need. He is a good Father who knows how to give good things to His children. But we must have the spiritual eyes to see those good gifts as what they are…from God.

James 1:17 ESV

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Entrust God with our Time

Next, I think that we need to surrender to God “our time”. Which seems a little bit like a silly statement, because we are all living on borrowed time. None of it truly belongs to us. Yet we are named by scripture as “stewards”.

A steward is someone who has been entrusted with some form of resource that belongs to someone else. Their job is to use well whatever is given to them so that when the owner returns, he will find that resources given have multiplies. We see several parables like this in the gospels.

Jesus has given you a life. Precious minutes and hours and years. Can you honestly get to the end of each day and say that you invested your time well. That you spent it in a way that will reap a harvest of glory to God?

Many of you have probably heard the term: “Redeem the time”

Basically, make your days count! The bible says that your days are numbered. The way you spend them should reflect to God that you have spent them well as a faithful steward. Using them by acting in obedience, serving others, making the gospel known, and edifying the church of Christ!

This can take form in many ways.

I want to encourage you that it does not take full-time ministry to be an faithful steward of what God has given you.

Work hard to provide for your family, raise your children in the fear of the Lord, treat others respectfully at work, share words of encouragement, serve the widows and the elderly. If everyone was in full-time ministry, then who would take the love of Christ and the gospel to their office, to their work crew, to their fire station, to their school, etc.

On the other note of serving and doing good to others, I think their is also a lost sense of priority in spending your time with Jesus.

Here is a quote from Spurgeon:

“I Like that saying of Martin Luther, when he says, "I have so much business to do to-day, that I shall not be able to get through it with less than three hours' prayer." Now, most people would say, "I have so much business to do to-day, that I have only three minutes for prayer; I cannot afford the time." But Luther thought that the more he had to do, the more he must pray, or else he could not get through it. That is a blessed kind of logic: may we understand it!”

Do we see that the busier we are, the more we need the Lord’s help to make it through the day?

So this is a question that hits right to home with me. Am I busy…YES!

So am I preparing myself for that business? Not always…

I can tell you that I have never taken the time to have an intimate moment in the Word and in Prayer and then regretted my time as not well spent… Instead, I usually find it the other way around. And you can ask Ileana, because she has heard me say it… but when I get going in a rush in the morning and deal with rude customers, I come back to the kitchen and tell her: I should have done QT this morning!

Time with Jesus is an investment for the rest of our days!

Entrust God with our Relationships

Edify the Saints

We are specifically called to build each other up in every kind of way.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV

11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

This means even to the way we talk to and about one another:

Ephesians 4:29 ESV

29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Literally when we speak, it should be fitting to grace to those who hear us.

How often can you say that your speech is not just “good” but it is actually full of the grace of God. I’d say this is often more of a rarity than a common form of speech today.

Ephesians 4:1–6 ESV

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

The unity and the growth towards Christlike maturity means everything to God! Paul tells us in Romans that as long as it is up to us, we should be at peace with all people. So that means you are doing everything in your ability and power to be peaceable.

So I might ask you:

“How have you or how can you be building up others in the faith? Its a commandment…

Does a person come to mind? Hopefully several should be.

Reach the Lost

Then we should also be reaching the lost.

God gives each of us unique positions of influence in others’ lives. Often I might not have this person’s respect to be able to talk into their lives like you can. We each have a sphere of influence over those that we interact with frequently… co-workers, children, friends, class mates, etc.

I have heard it said that you will often gain a friend before you gain a convert.

People want to know you care. People want to feel that they can trust or respect you. Once you have this level of relationship in someone’s life, you are able to speak to them in a way that Lord-willing, they will listen.

But it is also equally important to recognize that you don’t develop friends without effort. You need to work at creating relationships with others. Take interest in what interests them. Find what you share in common and bond over those things. It is a selfless work to make friends for the sake of the gospel. To see the lost, take interest in them, know them, and share the greatest news with them!

Who was the last person you have tried sharing Christ with?

Who do you see that you have a relationship with in some type of capacity and could be leveraging towards the advancement of the gospel… to that person’s good and the glory of God!

Conclusion:

So, over all… what do you need to do in order to surrender your life more fully to Jesus. This is a life-long process.

What area are you failing to more fully submit to Jesus?

Have you made the decision to trust in Jesus? To count it better to give up a “worldly-life” in pursuit of a heavenly one?

Are you struggling to give back to God through tithing? Or maybe you are fearful of the future and store away treasures here on earth? Maybe you simply love money and the pursuit of it. Or perhaps you fail to restrain your spending… using it on selfish desires and wants when you could be helping or serving others?

How about your time? This might be the hardest of them all.

Want to know what the treasure of your heart is? Look at where you spend your time. Jesus is worthy of your time. This doesn’t have to just be time of prayer or bible study. This is the way you are being intentional at work with those around you. This is you loving your spouse and children like Christ does… etc.

Lastly, what about your relationships?

Are there people that you could make peace with if you could swallow your pride and be the humbler and more Christ-like person?

Can you think about people in your life that you intentionally pray for and seek to serve?

Are there lost people in your life that you are seeking to befriend and influence towards the gospel?

There are other areas too, but I think this highlights the majority of the ways a person should surrender themselves to Christ.

Like I said, it is a life long process… called sanctification.

I’m going to leave you with this quote that I really love:

“You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day;

by deeds that you do and words that you say.

Men read what you write,

whether faithless or true.

Say, what is the gospel according to you?”

People are always watching you… Will they see a life of surrender? or a selfish and entitled life?

The surrendered life is one of greater peace. The feet of Jesus is a beautiful place to be. All worries given to Him!