A Change Must Come

Two friends met for dinner in a fancy restaurant. Each requested filet of sole, and after a few minutes the waiter came back with their order. Two pieces of fish, a large and a small, were on the same platter. One of the men proceeded to serve his friend. Placing the small piece on a plate, he handed it across the table. “Well, you certainly do have nerve!” exclaimed his friend. “What’s troubling you?” asked the other. “Look what you’ve done,” he answered. “You’ve given me the little piece and kept the big one for yourself.” “How would you have done it?” the man asked. His friend replied, “If I were serving, I would have given you the big piece.” “Well,” replied the man, “I’ve got it, haven’t I?”

If we took an inner evaluation of ourselves most of us would come to the conclusion that we are self centered. That we care most about our plans, our desires, our will even over that of God’s. A true disciple of Jesus must follow His example of devoting His life to the will of God the Father. For most us, that means we must change from self centered to God centered. As Henry Blackaby once said “We can not stay the way we are and follow Jesus!

While preparing for this message I came face to face with the reality that I mess everything up and If I intend on following Jesus (that’s what will/wishes means). I must change and get to the place where I have no will of my own and only want God’s will done. Isn’t that how Jesus taught us to pray, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

In this short verse Jesus tells us how to get to this place, we must__________________________.

I. Deny Self (23b) Surrender My Will

To have a God centered life we must make a change. A change from being self centered to self refusing.

Jesus says His disciples must deny themselves. “He Must Deny” is the Greek verb arneomai, It means to have a certain disregard for, or to pay no attention to. It is the idea of saying “no.”

Some of us have a hard time saying no to things. I have a hard time saying no to a pretty girl.... my wife, Red Velvet Cake, and watching Top Gun Maverick.… I can hear the theme song’s guitar solo playing now…

But all of us have a hard time saying no to ourselves. We are told to say “no” to our own volition. That means the power of using our own will. The mandate of a disciple is to abandon the life of self-interest and self-fulfillment. We must give up our right to plan and choose the direction of our lives. Friends, I’m talking about rejecting our own will and the absolute surrender of that will to the Lord our God!

What do we know about absolute surrender.

ILL: This is a piece of teak from USS Missouri, On 9/2/1945 Japanese Foreign Affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu stood on this piece of wood before General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz and signed the documents of absolute surrender, by grace through faith upon another piece of wood, Calvary, I surrendered all my hostilities towards God and He has forgiven me and made me His own, as He bought me with the precious blood of Christ Jesus, therefore He is my Lord and I must deny myself and surrender my plans and my will over to Him today and forever more!

II. Recognize His Lordship

today, surrendering our all future plans to the LORD, recognizing His Lordship over our Lives! After all, He bought us with so a high price, the precious blood of Jesus! Therefore, He is our Master and LORD!

ILL: Jim Elliot was a talented and well educated young man with a bright future, who surrendered his personal dreams to God saying, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” He followed God’s will into the jungles of Ecuador, and in 1956 he and his 4 friends were killed by the very people they were trying to reach with the Gospel. Some see this event as tragic, yet his sacrifice bore much fruit, as his widow Elisabeth, later returned to the same tribe and lead many of them to Christ.

It’s likely that God’s will is not for you to die for the sake of the Gospel but it is His will for you to glorify Him in every aspect of your life, that can only happen when you are as surrendered as a conquered your will to His. As an old preacher once reminded me, God’s will may not be the safest place to be but it is the best place to be.

We must Deny Ourselves

II. Take up your Cross