Surrender

Karen Gallagher

This week we are continuing our / / Connected series. Talking about being connected to God, what that means, what that looks like, how we do it. The last two weeks we’ve talked about the fact that God still speaks, and He’s speaking to you! I can’t stress this enough, the importance of being able to hear the voice of God. Jesus said in John 10, my sheep follow me because they know my voice. If we don’t know his voice, we’re not going to be very good at following.

Last week we talked through 4 easy steps in developing our ability to hear God’s voice. I want to recap those briefly. The first three are absolutely critical and necessary, and the fourth is simply a matter of practicality.

/ / Find a Quiet Place

Not always easy, but necessary if we want to hear the still small voice of the Lord.

Distraction is the number one reason we don’t hear God. Of course it is. It’s the number one reason we don’t hear our spouse. It’s the number one reason we don’t hear our kids. It’s the number one reason we don’t hear our boss at work, our co-worker. Right? What do we say, “Oh, sorry, I must have gotten distracted for a second, what was that again?” // Can you repeat that?

Kelley and I were talking the other day and I mentioned something and she said, “wait, what? I don’t remember that.” And I said, “We were sitting right there at the table when I told you.” Guess what her response was? “Was I on my phone? Was I doing something?”

We all know we live in a world FULL of distractions. And finding a quiet place is not only good for hearing God’s voice, it’s good for the soul. It’s good to just get still before God and rest. And if we want to hear Him, it is absolutely critical.

/ / Focus & Direct Your Attention

Hebrews 12:2 says, Look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Does anything else need to be said? Look to Jesus, focus on Him.

/ / Listen for His Voice

Be still // Look Forward // Listen

Have faith and trust that God wants to lead you and guide you in this life and WANTS to speak to you.

/ / Write it Down

Again, purely practical here.

Journaling allows us to get our brain out of the way while we are listening for God’s voice. It holds us accountable. It gives us the ability to go back and look at what we have heard, seen or sensed God was saying to us and check it against the bible.

Remember, The word of God is our basis for hearing the Voice of God. If what you are hearing does not line up with the written word of God, then I would strongly suggest it is not the Voice of God. Now, that doesn’t mean word for word it has to come from the bible, but it needs to fall in line with the character of God, the truth of His word and promises. The bible gives us a foundation that we can stand on.

Taking the time to listen for the voice of God is absolutely critical for our Christian lives. Listen, if all I ever had was the bible, the written word of God, my faith would not be shaken. The word IS the truth, and the word, even though it’s words on a page, is living and active. God uses the bible to speak to us in many different ways, but the fact that God WANTS to speak to us personally should NOT be overlooked. And again, remember what I’ve said over the last 2 weeks, hearing the voice of God doesn’t just mean hearing an audible voice, but there are many ways God speaks, and it is really the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we see the most.

Romans 8:14 says, / / For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

Being led by the Spirit of God is a promise in the Bible. We should expect to be led, and how does one lead? They talk to us, they motion to us, they hold up a sign, they point in a direction. So we need to be listening and looking for the signs God wants to show us in our lives to be led by the Spirit.

So, today we’re going to look at an area of our lives that I believe the Spirit of God is continually wanting to lead us in to, and the end result is a deeper, more connected relationship with God, but it may just be one of the hardest things I think we could ever do. Today we are talking about being:

CONNECTED through SURRENDER

Surrender is not a word anyone likes hearing, it usually means I’m about to give something up. Usually something I don’t want to give up. Usually something I wasn’t thinking about having gone from my life. I want it in my life. Whether that is an idea, a thing, a way of thinking, a pattern in our lives, an addiction, whatever it is. If we are going to be connected to God in the deepest way possible, it will require of our lives, SURRENDER.

We’re going to read from Matthew 16:24-26, / / Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?”

This is a concise little passage of scripture here.

He starts with / / THE INVITATION, or the recognition of what we’re after.

If any of you wants to be my follower...

That’s it, isn’t it? He’s asking a question we’ve already answered. It says, Then Jesus said to his disciples.... clearly we’ve defined this is why we are here, to follow you!

The ESV says it this way, “If anyone would come after me...”

In the NLT, If any of you wants to follow me, or in the ESV if anyone would come after me, the word wants to or come after is defining intent. Jesus is setting the stage here for a very big question. I almost feel like this passage of scripture should be a lot longer because what Jesus is about to open up to his disciples is really big.

Alright, so he’s defined the intent. Your purpose is to be a follower of Jesus. You have decided, “This is what I want to do, to follow Jesus, to be His disciple.”

Even this series we are in, the entire purpose is to be connected to God, to be connected the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Our intent is to be more than just Bible reading, Church going Christians, our intent is to connect with a God who is real, alive, still active today! When I come to church, and I want to encourage you to do the same, I come expecting God to show up. I come expecting to have an encounter with Him.

And you, whether you’re here or online, are an incredibly important part of that puzzle. Your expectation matched with my expectation is a formula for encounter.

Jesus said in Matthew 18:19-20, / / “If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”

The ESV says, / / For where two or three are gathered in my name...

It’s more than just coming to Church and being here in the same room at the same time. It’s coming with the intent of being a follower of Jesus, of pursuing Him, of seeking after Him. This is why during worship Kelley encourages you to really engage in worship. This is more than just singing songs. We don’t do Sunday morning Karaoke.

See, it comes down to intent. What is your intent? Why have you come?

And Jesus is asking the same question, not of coming to church, but of coming to Him, why have you come? What is your intent? Are you here to follow me, to come after me? If you have, here’s what that is going to look like, and he proceeds to give three instructions for being a follower.

/ / Give Up Your Own Way

Matthew 16:24, If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way.

Other translations word this a bit differently. In fact I think the NLT goes a little soft here, even though giving up your own way doesn’t sound fun. Many of the other translations say, / / “you must deny yourself...”

The CEV and Good News both say, “You must forget yourself...”

Either way, there is something to lose, isn’t there? Surrender.

Surrender. What does Surrender mean, what does Surrender look like.

/ / The first step to Surrender is to give up your own idea.

We have a real issue with this in todays society. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but people are pretty stuck to their own ideas. Pretty stuck to what they believe.

And yet, Jesus is saying, if you want to follow me, you need to give up your own way.

That’s not an easy thing to do, is it?

There’s a prayer, called the Set Aside prayer, it goes like this:

/ / God, please help me to set aside everything I THINK I know, so I may have an open mind and a new experience. Help me see the truth.

That is this verse right here. Deny yourself. Give up your own way. / / God, help me set aside what I think I know for what YOU know.

This is that issue we have in society currently, this idea that your truth is the best idea. That you can somehow choose what your truth is, and live by that. Now, I’m not picking on any particular issue, or subject or topic, or even any person that subscribes to that idea, but when we stand in front of God and say, “I know better than you intended, created and think...” we are in for a very shocking discovery in the end.

The best thing we could EVER do in our lives is to say to God, “I don’t know. But You Do!”

This is not to say that what you believe, or what you think to be true is not a very real thing to you. It absolutely can be. I shared this with Village Church on Sunday evening last week, I had the opportunity to preach there as my friend Pastor John-Michael was out of town on a missions trip in El Salvador. I told them there was a prolonged season of my life where I was 100%, absolutely convinced that no one would ever love me. I would never get married. No one would ever see me as lovable.

It was so true to me, that when a well meaning friend, someone like Kelley, would tell me that one day I’d make a great husband, I would just laugh inside. I had zero capacity to believe it. I had a truth that was truer than true for me. But, was it the truth?

See, Jesus is saying, “If you want to follow me, there are some things you might need to give up, because you’ve been living your life believing something that is actually a lie and as long as you’re believing that lie, you’ll be led down a path that does NOT lead to life. But, I AM truth. I am the way to life, and I want to lead you to that life. But you have to be willing to deny your own ideas, your own thoughts, what you may believe to be true, for a better way.”

Jesus actually expands on this in the next verse. he says, / / If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.

How is that possible? That doesn’t make sense.

Well, let me use my life as an example. As long as I was unable to give up the belief that no one would love me, that no one would want to marry me, I was locked in a cycle of my own fear and shame. I was afraid of who I was. I was so afraid of rejection that there was no way I would risk it any longer. And in the midst of holding on to my own life, believing I knew best, believing I could do better than God could, I found myself trapped in a horrible sexual addiction. And all that brought me was pain. I was literally losing my life.

It wasn’t until I sat down with friends of ours who are ministers and shared with them what I was going through, identified that my way was NOT working, my truth was not worth it, holding on to my life was only bringing me death. When I was finally able to truly let that go, honestly, within DAYS Kelley and I end up falling in love. And I kid you not, it was a miracle upon miracles, because before that moment we did not have feelings for each other, we were not attracted to each other, we had even had a conversation that we were NO GOOD for each other, so we didn’t need to wonder if the other person liked the other, we had it settled.

God did a miracle. Why? Because I was finally willing to Give up My Way, to deny myself.

Now, I may be just scratching the surface here, because the strength of this word used in scripture is probably more than I can explain, or maybe more than we want to hear. Looking in to the translation of that word deny means to deny utterly, to disown, abstain. Abstain means to prevent, or stop oneself from doing or enjoying something. Abstinence is the ultimate form of saying NO, isn’t it? And this is the denial Jesus is talking about. You must absolutely, 100%, without doubt or deviation, say NO to your own self, your own desires, your own way, your own truth...

Why? Because to follow Jesus means to go wholeheartedly after him. You can’t follow if you deviate, right? I think we all know that in theory, but to put that in to practice is a really big deal. Imagine being there in person. We’re reading it, and hoping it takes root, but imagine standing there in front of Jesus, and he says, “If you want to follow me, be my disciple, you have to deny yourself 100%...”

/ / 2. Take Up Your Cross

If anyone wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way....and the next thing Jesus says is, take up your cross.

What does it mean to take up your cross?

First, He wants me to deny my life while I’m living, now it sounds like he wants me to deny my life completely, to give it up....the cross is only used for one thing, isn’t it?

Now, I want to take a moment and go over what Jesus was NOT saying. How many people have heard someone say, “Oh, it’s just my cross to bear?”

And what they are talking about is some burden they have in their life. A physical illness, or the job they’re in that they can’t stand, or maybe a strained relationship… that is NOT what Jesus was talking about. Jesus wasn’t saying, “life is going to suck, just take it.” That comes out of self-pity and pride, That’s my cross to bear…basically saying, “Jesus couldn’t handle this one, I’ll take one for the team...”

The cross, for the people Jesus was talking to only meant an instrument of death. And they hadn’t even seen Jesus on the cross yet, so this wasn’t a connection to that, for them. And even when they saw Jesus carry his cross, it wasn’t a metaphor, it was Jesus carrying the very device that was going to be used to execute him. That’s what they were used to seeing. The cross at this point was a method of punishment that lead to death. For the crime you committed, you were going to be hung on a cross, and at the time they made you carry that cross up to the point of your being attached to it, and there you would die.

Now, I don’t believe Jesus is saying to everyone, if you want to follow me, you are going to have to die. We know not everyone is a martyr. Although, for some, this was as practical as it gets, it’s possible up to 6 of the 12 apostles were actually crucified. But it’s in the words that Jesus says next that we really see the deep truth of what He’s saying.

Matthew 16:25, / / If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

There’s two words in that verse that define this for us.

Give up - or the ESV says “loses”, whoever loses his life. That word means to utterly give up. It means to destroy, to put out of the way entirely.

The first part of Surrender was denial. What is denial, it’s pre-emptive. Right? The definition was to abstain from, so before the fact, you’re saying, “I choose to NOT go this way, where my desires are, but instead I am choosing to go the way of Jesus.”

Now, this next part, to take up our cross, you can’t take up something if you aren’t willing to put something down. You can’t carry your cross and your life. It’s one or the other.

If you try to hang on to your life, you can’t take up your cross, and you’ll miss life. But if you give up your life for His sake, then you will save it.

And that’s the second word in that verse to look at:

Save, or in the ESV it says “find”. to come upon, meet with, after searching, to find a thing sought.

So, to take up your cross is not to take up some sort of burden that you feel in your life is “your cross to bear”, because that is exactly the OPPOSITE of what Jesus is saying. If you try to save your life, if you try to carry that burden yourself, you’ll lose it.

This is where the true surrender part comes in. And that’s what we’re talking about today. Surrender.

It’s easy to want to pick up the things in our life.

Everything we go through in our lives is something that we are carrying, isn’t it? And how much of what we go through in life tries to cause stress, anxiety, worry? And how often are those things we can’t do anything about?

Yet we try so hard, don’t we?

Jesus said in Matthew 6:27, / / Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

Of course not, and they certainly aren’t going to solve the issue either, are they?

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12 that he has what he calls a “thorn in his flesh”. He doesn’t say specifically what it is. But it’s this thing that gets to him, that irritates him, that gets him down, and sure, in a sense it helps keep him humble, but he says in vs 8, / / “Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”

What is weakness? It’s admitting we can’t do it on our own, isn’t it? It’s admitting we aren’t strong enough to carry the burden. So, we might as well just let it fall to the ground, right? And see, taking up your cross isn’t saying, “ok, i’ll put this down so i can pick up another burden.” but rather it’s saying, “I’ll put this down and I am willing to admit defeat. I’m willing to walk the road of submission and surrender. To whatever end you decide for my life.”

See, if Jesus is the one saying take up your cross, he’s not taking about a Roman cross to a Roman execution, but he’s talking under his authority are you willing to submit your life even to the point of death. This is following after HIM, not following an earthly system or rule.

So, what does that look like?

Let’s get practical for a second, because we know that Surrender isn’t easy, is it?

/ / Admit you don’t know best.

Proverbs 3:6 says, In all your ways acknowledge him.

Start by admitting you DO need God in your situations.

Start by admitting that you don’t have it all together, and that you don’t know what to do next.

/ / Admit He DOES know best.

The bible says on multiple occasions that the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

That means having an awe and reverence of who He is. That’s the BEGINNING of wisdom.

What’s that look like?

God, I have this situation. I don’t know how to handle it. I take my hands off of it, I deny my best way of thinking and I say I am willing to walk the road you put me on no matter where it takes me. MY LIFE is in YOUR HANDS.

/ / Admit you are not strong enough

I am too weak, I need your strength to take over. Like God said to Paul, His power is works best in weakness.. Why, because as long as I’m trying to be strong enough, I’m not willing to accept his strength.

I see this all the time with Kaylee. She is struggling with something, and I’m offering to her help, but she’s so determined to figure it out on her own. Don’t get me wrong, I love that determination. It’s going to take her far in life. But when she gives up because she can’t, and walks away while i’m standing there waiting to help her..... all I can think is, you missed an opportunity.

Surrender is the stop and let go.

Surrender is the end of yourself.

Surrender is the beginning of Him.

Anything in your life that is beyond you. Surrender.

Anything that you are facing that seems too much. Surrender.

What you’ve been trying to solve and have been frustrated over time and time again. Surrender.

/ / 3. Follow me.

The last Thing Jesus says in Matthew 16:24, give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.

See, surrender doesn’t mean our work is done. It means we’re going to let God be God, do what only God can do, and we are going to listen to HIM for our marching orders, rather than ourselves.

When we come to the end of ourselves, realize that we can’t do what we need done in our lives, that’s when we can surrender. And when we surrender, we can make the choice to follow.

As long as I’m believing my own version of the story, and carrying my own burdens, I can’t truly follow.

What does following him look like?

Well, we’ve just talked the last 2 weeks about hearing the voice of God, right? Remember, I said this is something that needs to be practiced and worked at in our lives.

/ / First - Read your bible, Get to know what God says about life.

/ / Second - Develop a relationship with God where you communicate with him on a regular basis.

/ / Third - Invite the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you, to reveal to you the path of Jesus Christ.

Surrender is part of being Connected.

And Jesus is giving this basic understanding here. If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross and follow me.

Get your mind out of the way.

Lay down your physical worries.

Choose to follow him.

I think we all have areas of our lives where we need to give up thinking we know best.

We probably all have things in our lives that we continue to carry ourselves that are more of a burden that we are meant to carry, and God wants us to lay that down and pick up a surrender to His path for our lives.

If that’s you this morning, and maybe you’ve already felt it. While I’ve been preaching the Holy Spirit is highlighting things for you. I want you to pray this with me this morning: