Biblical Protocols for Prayer- Chapter 11: The Surrender Protocol
Notes
Transcript
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What do you think of when you hear the word surrender?- Military, giving up something
- Conditional vs. unconditional surrender
- Surrender usually implies that the thing being given up is greatly valued
- Usually comes when we feel we are out of options, at the very end, and there is no hope continuing on the path we are on
- Often means we are settling for something less than ideal
- But with God, as we will see, when we surrender, we receive so much more than we could have anticipated- like the boy who brought Jesus his meager lunch and from it came enough to feed thousands
- every time Jesus talks about what it means to be his disciple he focuses on the subject of surrender dying to self, giving up perceived rights
- Galatians 5:24- And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
- We must surrender our personal desires and agendas to the Lord in exchange for our father's plan and purpose.
- Matthew 6:10 “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
- God’s will can be realized on earth- It’s easy to be distracted by the chaos around us, but God is working to bring about his will, and we are instrumental in bringing it about.
- Not fatalism- what will be will be and there is no use trying to change it
- All throughout scripture we see God working in line with the prayers of faithful believers as their wills are aligned with his.
- Prayer is not passive resignation or capitulation to the inevitable.
- Until we start believing that there is power in our prayers, we will continue to minimize the importance of it in our lives.
- The key is in the alignment of our will to God’s- that’s what makes all this work, and it requires surrender
- We see this in Jesus’s prayer life in Luke 22:44- Jesus sacrificed his desire, not wanting to die a terrible death on the cross, in order to pursue God’s will (aren’t we glad he did!)
- Jesus died to his will in Gethsemane before his body died on Calvary
- God-focused prayer puts the priority on God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will.
- Surrender precedes all other requests in the Lord’s prayer- this is where our prayers must begin
- Before asking God to provide for our needs, forgive our sins, or watch over us, we must surrender our will to his.
- To say yes to God, we must first say no to self
- Prayer does not align God to us; it aligns us to God
illustration of aligning tires to the frame, not the frame to the tires- often we pray in a way that tries to get God on the same page as us
- “The will of God is not something you add to your life. It's a course you choose. You either line yourself up with the son of God... or you capitulate to the principle which governs the rest of the world.” - Elisabeth Elliot
- Surrendering our will to God’s is not an easy task
- Cabinet maker illustration- pressure applied for a short time
- When we do reach that point, we find that that God’s way is much better than ours- Landon illustration- “things will be easier if you just obey!”
- Growth in grace is the product of a yielded life
- Surrender is a daily choice
- How do we know God’s will- his word, his Spirit
You see, what we give up, what we are often holding so tightly to, inevitably leads to pain, frustration, emptiness, and ultimately destruction
But if we surrender to the will of God, we are assured joy, satisfaction, and eternal life
Surrender often implies that we are settling for something less than ideal, but when we surrender to God's will we receive so much more than we could ever imagine.