Ever Deepening Surrender

Prayer

The Narrow Road - Why So Few Take It

Before we dive into our time of teaching this morning, I want to share a little bit about my time in Dallas this week. I was invited to serve as a Retreat Assessor for what ECO (our denomination) calls a Retreat Intensive. So there were about twenty candidates for ordination and then twenty assessors and four spiritual formation group leaders, as well as some folks who serve on the ECO staff.

And I want to share about this because one, you’ll get a better sense of what the movement we’re a part of is all about, and two, how it matches much of what we’re trying to do here at PCC. So there was a lot of prep work required for this retreat - for the candidates, and for the assessors as well. Candidates had to take a series of assessments - personality profile, one on emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, their motivations - and even an evaluation with a licensed counselor.

As assessors we took all those assessments as well as some other paperwork they filled out, read through them and come up with a list of questions to ask them. Retreat time was spend conducting lengthy interviews (using those questions) and then writing out an individualized map, a list of things they would have to accomplish over the next year or two (or three) to be prepared for ministry. Labor intensive process.

Beauty of this process - takes each candidate seriously as an individual, coming alongside to see what would benefit them most to achieve the four desired ordination outcomes. That we would have pastors who would be healthy spiritually and emotionally, integrated biblically and theologically, proficient in ministry and skilled in leadership. All of the candidates had to participate in spiritual formation groups (which will continue over the next year), really doing the same things we’re doing through our Practicing the Way course.

So many sharp people there. I love that we’re a part of a movement that takes seriously trying to be as faithful as followers of Jesus as we can be. Healthy emotionally and spiritually (so we can be people who love well). Passionate about sharing the good news of Jesus, making disciples - all the things we’re striving to be and do as well. We’re in the right place.

This morning is our last Sunday on the Practicing the Way course and so I want to offer final word on what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Because this is, after all, what it means to be a Christian. A Christian is someone who has accepted Jesus’ invitation from Mark 1:17, “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

To accept this invitation is to become an apprentice of Jesus, to learn from him how to live - it is, as we’ve said repeatedly, to be with Jesus, to become like Jesus, to do as Jesus did. What Jesus did was to go and fish for people. Following Jesus brings us to point where we ourselves go and make disciples, we go and help others come to know and trust and follow Jesus.

We’ve spent last couple of months going over what this means, culminating in what we talked about last week, crafting a Rule of Life. A plan that aids us in organizing our lives around the three goals of following Jesus, what we plan to do on a daily and a weekly and a monthly basis. So, this morning, I want to offer a final word on the critical element of following Jesus, or more precisely, our willingness to follow Jesus.

Important to recognize that everyone is invited to follow Jesus, but the great tragedy is that the vast majority of people do not. As we mentioned at the beginning of this series, 65% of Americans self-identify as Christians. But according to a number of studies, only 4% of people are actively following Jesus, are practicing the way of Jesus.

This was, of course, no surprise to Jesus. As he said in his Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:13-14, Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Jesus is saying what’s been evident throughout history - that most people take the wide gate, the broad road, it’s the default path. It’s only the few who find their way to the small gate and the narrow road that leads to life, the way of Jesus. As Mark Scandrette put it, “Practicing the way of Jesus will always be a minority activity.”

Listen, it’s incredibly easy to say “no” to Jesus’ invitation - it’s why most people do it. John Mark Comer describes some of the various ways we say “no”: We delay, we seesaw, we make excuses. Like going on a diet or getting in shape or organizing our closet, we procrastinate: “I’ll do it later.” But later rarely comes. It’s not a hard “no”, but it’s a “no” all the same. We don’t do what following Jesus requires.

Which begs the question - Why? Why do most of us choose not to follow Jesus? This amazing invitation - most people look at Jesus, who he is, what he did, how he loved - and they think it’s wonderful, they think he’s wonderful (even if they don’t think so highly of his followers). They recognize the goodness of Jesus. And yet, they choose not to follow him.

Here’s why - we need to be honest about this - there is a great cost to following Jesus. It is not easy, not for the faint of heart. Jesus was very upfront about the cost of following him, he never softened it, never did a bait-and-switch. He made if perfectly clear.

For instance, listen to what Jesus says in Luke 14:25-33: Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.  27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ 31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

Right off the bat - Jesus tells the large crowds who’d been traveling with him, almost as if to say, “are you sure you want to keep following me?”, that if you want to be his disciple, you’d better be prepared to put him above anyone and everyone else, even your closest family members. To make the point Jesus uses hyperbole: you must hate your father and mother, wife and children, all your relations - even your own life.

He goes on to describe the cost of following Jesus by giving two examples, that of someone building a tower, and of a king about to go to war. In both the examples the point is clear - don’t do it if you haven’t counted the cost, and aren’t ready to pay that cost. And the cost to follow Jesus? Everything - those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

It’s the same point in Luke 9:23-27,  Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”

Listen, you can’t make it any more plain than this - if you want to be my disciple, if you’re going to apprentice under me, you have to be ready to deny yourself. Not just deny yourself, but die to yourself. That’s what he means by taking up your cross. And not just once, but every single day, ready to give up anything and everything for the sake of following Jesus. In other words, lose your life for his sake.

Note that at the end he tells his disciples that some of them will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God. Which means that some of them will. And many of them did, and not at their own hands. They literally had to take up their crosses when they were executed for following Jesus.

As John Mark Comer writes, “To follow Jesus will require you to leave something behind. Following Jesus always requires you to leave something behind.” There is always a cost. You will have to give something up. In fact, many things. Things you are deeply attached to.

That’s what it makes following Jesus so difficult, so challenging. Because we are loathe to give things up. The biggest battle in following Jesus is our self-will. Which is why the first step to following Jesus is to deny yourself. To put your own will to death. That’s what it means to take up your cross. Another word for this is to surrender. Lay down your arms, quit fighting against Jesus.

Because it’s the only way that we can move into complete obedience to Jesus. That we can put into practice everything that he’s teaching us. That we will become like him and do the things that he did. When we are willing to say to Jesus, not my will, but thine be done. As C.S. Lewis writes, if we’re not willing to say that to Jesus (your will be done), then he will say it to us, your will be done. He will let us walk away, just like he did with the rich young ruler who would let deny himself of his wealth in order to follow Jesus.

The Narrow Way - Why (and How) We Must

But here’s the other thing that’s so important to consider - not simply the cost of following Jesus, but the cost of not following Jesus. The rich young ruler kept his wealth, but at what cost? It’s telling that he walked away “sad” as he walked away from Jesus. Jesus makes clear that the cost of not following him is our very life. Our soul. As we saw in Luke 9, we may gain the whole world - we may get all the world has to offer (success, wealth, pleasures, admiration), but we will lose our life.

Ironically, the only way to keep your life, to save it, is to lose it for the sake of Jesus. As Jim Elliot wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot knew what he was talking about - he was martyred for his faith.

But there’s also irony in not choosing to follow Jesus, in trying to gain the world. Comer makes this point that our life becomes harder, not easier, when we try to avoid the difficult path of discipleship: “In our pursuit of happiness over obedience, we make our life less and less happy. In our resistance to Jesus’ yoke (which is easy and light), we end up shouldering the crushing burden of our own unsatisfied desires.”

In other words, rather than finding the abundant life that Jesus came to give by willingly following him, we take that task on ourselves - I’m going to find happiness. I’m going to figure out how to make my life meaningful. I’ll find love. I’ll create the security, peace, joy that I want for my life. But it never works.

And all the while Jesus holds his arms open and says, I can give it to you, right here, guaranteed, if you will just follow me, my way. We so resist the way of Jesus and end up paying the price - how many times do I have to keep coming back, humbled - Jesus, your way is better? As hard as it is, Jesus, your way is much, much better. Therefore, I’m ready to live in full obedience to you, forsaking anything and everything.

That’s the heart we want as followers of Jesus. And that brings me to the last thing I want to focus on, it’s something I’ve been trying to remind myself of ever since I first read the Practicing the Way book. It’s one of the ways that discipleship is defined. It’s this, discipleship is “a lifelong process of deepening surrender to Jesus.” As John Mark Comer writes, “This, this alone, is the ground on which a life of apprenticeship to Jesus is built.” A lifelong process of deepening surrender to Jesus.

Throughout the whole of our lives, hour by hour, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, we continue to give our lives in obedience to Jesus. Ever-deepening surrender. This is it. This is the key. If you want to grow as a follower of Jesus, here’s where you start - surrendering to him. Offering yourself in obedience to Jesus. Jesus, I will obey. I will do whatever you ask of me, because I love you, and I want to be like you.

All that we’ve talked about over the last few months won’t help much if you don’t start here. You won’t start to create a plan to organize your life around following Jesus if you don’t intend to, if you are not willing to deny yourself and pick up your cross to follow him. How can you craft a Rule of Life, rearrange your schedule, take things out, change your habits, if you will not surrender your time to Jesus. If you won’t give him your day, your week, your month.

Likewise, you cannot practice generosity if your heart is more like that of the rich young ruler, who would not forsake his wealth. Giving requires the heart attitude of “Lord, all that I have is yours, what would you have me do with it?” It’s that heart attitude that led the first followers of Jesus to sell off their property in order to give to anyone who had need.

In the same way, to love the Lord with all your mind, at the very least, means a willingness to put yourself in a position to learn the teachings of Jesus - daily engagement with the Scriptures, your readiness to learn as you come to our time of teaching here on Sunday morning, etc. We could go through the litany of practices - the point remains that all this starts here - a willingness to continually surrender yourself to Jesus.

Listen, your willingness to continually surrender yourself to Jesus will be much easier you more you recognize the truth, the goodness, and the beauty of Jesus. Of possibility of life in the kingdom of God, what it would really be like to live where everything is under God’s reign, just as he intends it to be. There’s too many serious temptations in the world, and because of that, we need a stronger vision, a deeper desire for real life. The more you are convinced that the best life possible is found in Jesus, the more you are willing to surrender yourself to him. Keep looking at Jesus.

Practicing the Way - So, here’s what I want to encourage you to do this morning. Take the next step. That’s all that is necessary to begin (or continue) this lifelong process of deepening surrender to Jesus - the next step of obedience. What’s the next step I can take to follow Jesus, to be with him, to become like him, to do as he did?

Hedging on crafting a Rule of Life? Surrender, take that step. Maybe your next step is exploring a spiritual practice. Maybe it’s giving up something you are loath to give up (habit, routine, that’s making it harder to more fully give your life to Jesus. Maybe it’s a commitment to a practice you haven’t been fully committed to (Sunday morning worship, solitude, Scripture). Maybe it’s an honest prayer of confession, your unwillingness to surrender to Jesus. Next step - pray daily for deepening surrender to Jesus.

Before we end with our closing prayer, I want to share a prayer that I pray (almost) daily, before I begin my time of silence. I want to read it to you, to give you a chance to hear it, before we pray it in our closing. In our time of closing I invite you to offer yourself in surrender to Jesus (or, if you’re not there yet, confess that honestly. Perhaps you can begin with just praying your desire to have a heart of surrender)...