Surrender
Notes
Transcript
Handout
This is the third weekend of the month when we answer questions that you have placed in the question box.
The question placed in the box this month is, “How can one be assured their life is surrendered to Christ?”.
This question has two parts: surrender and assurance.
We will start by defining surrender first and then look at how we can have assurance that our surrender is authentic.
What is this concept of surrender to God?
At its core, surrender means yielding to the power or possession of another, either by compulsion or voluntary choice.
Surrender encompasses multiple dimensions of yielding or giving up control, with profound spiritual implications.
There are a lot of passages that address surrendering to God. For today's sermon, we are going to look at Luke 9:23-24 and Galatians 2:20; 5:16-25.
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
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.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
In our relationship with God, we surrender to him willingly through the work of the Holy Spirit by embracing what God has done through Jesus.
Paul, in Galatians 5 and Ephesians 4:22-24, clarifies what Jesus meant when he said to “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me”.
In our act of surrender, we put off the old self and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God (Eph. 4:22-24).
Surrendering is about accepting God’s authority in our lives and living into the new identity he has given us as children of God.
We are surrendering the identity of a sinner, and thus the actions of a sinner. These actions are things such as sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, and orgies. If we practice any of these things, then we are not fully surrendered.
We are surrendering by taking on the identity of “Saint” and walking by the Spirit, who enables us to govern our actions through love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Surrender is a core part of the process of becoming more like Jesus.
Thus, we would all like our surrender to be total and complete all the time. If it is not, we may doubt our commitment to be surrendered, and thus look for assurance of a surrendered life to Christ, which brings us to the other part of the question: assurance.
In finding assurance of living a surrendered life, we must first recognize that it is a process that God is working in us through the Holy Spirit. Consider Philippians 1:6,
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.
In finding assurance of a surrendered life, we must first recognize that it is God’s good work that we participate in.
In finding assurance of a surrendered life, we must secondly recognize that it is a process that has three stages.
Stage one: It's a work that God began.
Stage two: It’s a work that God is doing through the Holy Spirit, that we participate in.
Stage three: It’s a work that God will complete.
1 Peter 1:3-9 also speaks to the process and gives us assurance.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
First, it is God's work from beginning to end (1 Peter 1:3-5).
Second, our surrender is tested by trials, not for God’s benefit, but for ours, so that we can have confidence in the work God is doing through the power of the Holy Spirit, as we walk in the process of surrendering to God.
Church, let us pursue surrender through walking by the Spirit, in full assurance of God working out the waxing and waning of our surrender.
