The Prayer Of Surrender 2-21-2021

CONNECTING WITH GOD THE PRAYER OF SURRENDER Sunday February 14, 2011 Scripture Reference: Matthew 6:9-13 "Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today the food we need, 12 and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. 13 And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one." Matthew 6:9-13 (NLT2) Intro. A. Welcome to this third Sunday in our newest sermon series "Connecting With God". So far, we have talked about the need that we all have to be connected. God has built into the very DNA of our lives the need to be in relationships and of course the most important relationship is our relationship with God. It is that relationship that makes for good, healthy relationships with other people. I was out riding with a police officer last month and it was my first ride along with this particular officer so we took some time getting acquainted. This happen to be a female officer and she was not married. I told I had been married for 45 years. She asked me how is it that we have stayed together for so long when so many other marriages fall apart in a matter of just a few years? My answer is simple, GOD! Now don't get me wrong because I would very much love to say that the reason we have been married so long is because I am such a wonderful man. I am overly thoughtful, considerate, giving, and selfless; unfortunately, I can't say that. Whatever of these qualities I am able to exhibit are because of the grace of God that lives within me. Last week we learned about making this first and most important connection with God. Last week we explored the myths that seem to surround God because of our image of the word Father, that God is caring, consistent, competent, and close. B. What you will discover as we move along in this prayer if you haven't seen some of this already is the fact that the Lord's Prayer can be very challenging. 1. As I just mentioned it challenges us to overcome the myths and misconceptions we often carry around about what God is like. 2. In a few weeks we will see that the Lord's Prayer calls us to a life of dependence. That we need to trust God for our daily bread and not ourselves. 3. It challenges us to say, "It is my fault" "I am wrong". That is what it means to prayer "Forgive us our sins." 4. Today we are going to be challenged to surrender, to give up control of our lives. Talk about a challenge! C. I know you know this but let me remind you that there are some things in life that we are simply not able to control. Let me name just three of them. 1. There are uncontrollable circumstances. Are any of you here able to control the weather? Can you control whether or not you get laid off? You know sometimes even when you work really hard to prove yourself invaluable you still lose your job. I wish I was able to control how many people show up for church each week, but I can't. There are some circumstances that are totally out of my control. 2. There are uncontrollable people. Most of us call them husbands or wives or children. Of course you might call them pastors, LOL. Do you have some uncooperative people in your life, maybe a co-worker, a neighbor, a friend? No matter what you do they just never want to cooperate; they never want to do what everyone else is OK with. 3. Another thing in our lives that we cannot control is what I will call unexplainable pain. What I mean is that things happen in our lives that cause us hurt and pain and we see no valid reason why they happened. We could also include the loss of work here, why me? Why not the other guy, after all I have been here longer than them? What about a broken marriage? Why did this happen to me? I never saw this coming. 4. What is the solution to these uncontrollable things that happen in every one of our lives? SURRENDER! Trans. Now let's talk a little bit about this thing called "The Kingdom of God". D. What Is The Kingdom Of God? 1. It is not political. The kingdom of God is not about government and powers of this world. In fact to quote the sticker I see on the back of cars now and then the Kingdom of God is "Not Of This World". God's kingdom is too big for this world to contain. God's kingdom is an eternal kingdom. 2. It is not a concept or a creed. The bible says, "For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God's power." 1 Corinthians 4:20 (NLT2) The kingdom of God is not something for scholars and theologians to sit around and debate. It is something that transforms us. The kingdom of God is God at work in the world. Notice what that verse we just read said, "It is living by God's power." 3. It is not material. Paul said in Romans 17:14 "For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Romans 14:17 (NLT2) If you read these words in their context you will discover that Paul is tell us that the Kingdom of God is not about a bunch of rules and regulations. It is about living in a vital relationship with God the Holy Spirit. Trans. Now let me answer one more important question about the kingdom of God. E. Where Is The Kingdom Of God? 1. Simply put the kingdom of God is wherever Jesus is and if you believe what I taught a few weeks ago in the first message then you will also know that this means the Kingdom of God is wherever YOU are. 2. Notice the second part of this phrase of the Lord's Prayer because it explains the first part. "May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." Where is the Kingdom of God? It is wherever the will of God is being done. When we are living this righteous life when we are obeying God that is where His kingdom is reigning. a) You see we tend to think of this as something sort of mystical and something reserved for church or at least some place religious, but this is a very false concept of God's kingdom. The kingdom of God is reigning where you work if you are living in the power of the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of God is reigning at the supermarket if you are living in the power of the Holy Spirit. 3. Now have you ever considered this, "Why do we prayer this part of the Lord's Prayer?" Have you ever thought about this? Simply put we pray this prayer because this is not happening by in large. Why is that we so often hear this expression when something bad happens, "Well it must just be God's will?" I know I have said this but where is the scriptural basis for this idea? Is God's will for evil to prevail? Is it God's will for your loved ones to die of cancer? Is it God's will for maybe 400,000+ people to die from COVID? What did Paul just say, "but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." The fact of the matter is that in most of the world today the kingdom that reigns is MY KINGDOM. The will that reigns supreme in this world today is MY WILL, and this is NOT the kingdom of God and so Jesus tells us that we need to pray for His Kingdom to come and His will to reign over this world, but if that is going to happen it has to begin in ME FIRST! Trans. What I want to so with the rest of this message is to share with you what it means to pray this prayer of surrender. I. IT MEANS SURRENDERING CONTROL OF MY LIFE. The BIG question that has to be answered in each of our lives is this: A. Who's In Control? 1. We all know that this is a constant struggle. I don't, think we are entirely conscious of it but everyday of our lives we are dealing with this question, "Who is in control of my life?" Is God the one in control or is it me? You see there are verses in the bible that we just want to ignore, we want to say that somehow they don't apply to us or that they were for a different era and so they don't matter to us. People do this all the time with the tithing issue. "Well, the tithe is Old Testament and it doesn't apply to us because we are living under grace now and not the law." Funny though that I rarely hear these people say this about the Ten Commandments. "Oh, that lying and cheating, that not committing adultery, that is all Old Testament stuff we are free to do all of that now that we are living under grace." "After all where sin abounds grace will much more abound, isn't that what the bible says?" 2. Here is the key to answering this question; LET GO AND KNOW! Psalms 46:10 says in GW "Let go {of your concerns}! Then you will know that I am God. I rule the nations. I rule the earth." Psalms 46:10 GW You are more familiar with this verse when it is translated this way "Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world." Psalms 46:10(NLT2) I love this translation from The Message, "Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything." MG No matter how you put it this is tough for us, to let go of our worries and concerns and know that God is God and He can handle this whatever it is. But you see when I pray "Come kingdom of God" that is what I am doing. I am telling God that I want to release my control and let His kingdom come, and His will be done. Trans. The reason this is so hard is because: B. We Are In Conflict. 1. What I mean by this is that we are trying to control things that only God can control. You see you can't control your husband, your wife, your kids, your boss, not even your pastor (I know how disappointing that must be). Now it is not that we don't try, right? Now I am not saying here that we can't offer advice and help to people in our lives because we should and I think we must, but there is a huge difference between helping and controlling and the problem is that we are very prone to confuse the two. When I try to do God's job then I am in conflict with God. I am actually standing in opposition to Him and in case you didn't know this is a NO Win situation. 2. When we see this conflict going on we need to pray the serenity prayer. Who knows what that prayer is? "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference." Now let me ask you, "Is that the serenity prayer?" As you might have guessed the answer is no, at least not in part. What most of us know is just the first line of the prayer but the real power of this prayer is found in the part few people know. Here is the whole prayer. THE SERENITY PRAYER "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time accepting hardship as a pathway to peace taking as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to your will so that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen. Reinhold Niebuhr Look at what the last part of that prayer says. It talks about accepting hardship, trusting that God is in control, and surrendering my will to His. Notice that is says, that it is so I can be "reasonably" happy in this life and supremely happy in the next. Listen folks we will never be completely happy in this life because things are just never going to be that perfect for us. But if we are fully surrendered to God in this life then we will learn how to enjoy this life even when things do not go as we hoped or planned. Trans. So step one in praying the prayer of surrender is to surrender control of my life to God, now here is step two. To prayer the prayer of surrender means: II. IT MEANS LEARNING TO BE CONTENT. Now as we were just talking about in the prayer of serenity if we are to find the peace God has for us: A. It Involves Accepting What You Cannot Change. 1. Now what are the alternatives to not accepting what we cannot change? Let's list a few. a) You can spend your life worrying. That's always effective, right? b) You can live your life in resentment. I have always found that resentment and bitterness over the things I can't change makes me feel really peaceful. NOT! c) Instead of accepting what we can't change we can always choose to live in guilt and regret. That always helps you sleep at night, right? d) Self-pity. I don't know about you but this one is my favorite. I really love a good pity party it always brings such sweet relief. e) Fear. Choosing to live in fear is will always result in peace, right?. 2. Look at what Paul said in Philippians 4:11-13 "Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. 13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength." Philippians 4:11-13 (NLT2) B. Three Truths About Contentment. 1. It is learned. No one is born content just watch your children or grandchildren. Paul said he learned to be content by going through all the different circumstances that life affords. He learned to be content by being hungry and by being well fed. He learned contentment by having much and having little. You see there is something to be learned from whatever position in life we find ourselves. 2. Contentment is a choice. Learning is a choice as well. How often have we said about someone who went through a difficult experience and said, "Didn't they learn anything from that?" It was because the experience provided the opportunity to learn but we chose not to learn. 3. Real contentment comes through Christ. I know that some people have personality types that are calmer than others. [] Jim Scharn at our pastors meeting where he said in an extremely calm voice "I am livid about this." Real contentment comes through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Fromm putting our full and complete trust in Him. Trans. Let me share one more important aspect about contentment. C. Being Content Means Learning To Live Without Explanations. 1. You see the one thing we all want to know especially when things go bad for us is "WHY?" "Why me?" Why this?" "Why now?" "Why God?" 2. Let me see if I can answer the question as to why God does not explain Himself to us. a) One reason God does not tell us what He is doing is because even if He did we would not understand His explanation. Last week I shared this verse with you from Isaiah 55:8 "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. Isaiah 55:8 (NLT2) [] Haven't you tried to explain to your children something that you were doing that was for their own good, but they still didn't understand even though you explained yourself? As God's child you will not understand some of the things He takes you through, so once again you have to pray the prayer of surrender. b) The last thing I will tell you is that God doesn't explain Himself to us because even if He did and even if we understood it would not remove the pain. What if God said to you after losing a job "I allowed you to lose your job because I wanted to see if you would trust me to provide something better for you?" Do you think that would make you feel better? I doubt it I think you would be like me, "Well Lord couldn't you have given me the new job before the old one was gone?" c) You are being tested. Now please understand that there is a great difference between being tested and being tempted. Being tempted is what the devil does not God and the devil tempts us to harm us. God tests us to help us not hurt us. He tests us so that we can see where weaknesses lie and where we are maybe not trusting Him as we should. 3. [] For some of us this will be a stretch but do you remember when you were in school and the teacher gave you a test in class? After they passed out the test and you began to take it did they turn on the TV and start watching some program? Did they bring in some other teachers and have a conference in the classroom while you were taking the test? What happened? The room got very quite didn't it? 4. What we need is not an explanation but the presence of God and what did God say about that? If you draw near to me I will draw near to you. Trans. OK so what we have learned so far is that to pray the prayer of surrender to prayer "Come Kingdom of God" is to surrender control of our lives and it means we need to learn to be content. Here is the third thing it means to pray this prayer. III. IT MEANS GIVING UP YOUR PLANS. You know this but I will say it anyway. A. Plans Get Changed. 1. What changes our plans most often? Problems. I wonder if any of us have had some plans changed because of COVID? Boy that was a dumb question. Problems changed our plans. You could share numerous stories today about your plans that were changed because of problems. 2. IAS is a reality. IAS is a fact of Life. What is IAS you ask? It's Always Something. You want to know what another word for problems is. LIFE! B. Why Do We Have Problems? 1. Sometimes we have problems because we made some bad decisions or choices in our lives. We sometimes need to admit that its no one's fault but my own. Some people today are in very bad trouble financially and it really is not the economy it was bad financial decisions. 2. Another reason we have problems is the simple fact that we live in an imperfect world. The world without problems we call Heaven. That fact is plant earth is a broken planet and it is not because of global warming or because of political powers. It is broken because it is a sin ridden world. Nothing works as it was designed to because sin has ruined all that God had planned for this world. That is why another is being prepared for us. 3. Another reason we have problems is because of the devil. You and I have an enemy whose sole purpose in life is to hurt us and destroy us if he can. He will do everything he can to make that happen, so we are bound to have problems if we chose to surrender our lives to God's plan. Trans. OK here is the fourth thing it means to pray the prayer of surrender. IV. IT MEANS LEAVING THE FUTURE TO GOD. I will make this brief. A. Plan For The Future But Live For Today. 1. I know this sounds awfully simple, but we just cannot allow ourselves to try and live in the day that has not arrived. Here is what the bible says, James 4:13-16 "Look here, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit."14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog-it's here a little while, then it's gone.15 What you ought to say is, "If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that."16 Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil." James 4:13-16 (NLT2) 2. I think most of you know that I believe in planning. Here is a great quote from Mark Twain that I think really expresses this thought about not trying to live in the future. Mark twain said, "I am an old man and have known many troubles but most of them never happened." Mark Twain What Mr. Twain was saying is that a lot of people live in the fear of what has never happened, and I must confess that I have found myself guilty of this on more than a few occasions. It is a terrible way to try and live and in fact when I do this I am not really living at all. My living has been put on hold. CONCLUSION A. Are You Fully Surrendered To God? B. Our Surrender Must Be Full And Complete. 1. Luke 14:33 says, "So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own." Luke 14:33 (NLT2) I want you to see that Jesus said we must give up EVERYTHING! You cannot be partially saved, and you can't be partially surrendered. 2. So what is in it for you, you ask? Here is what Jesus said, Mark 10:29-30 "Yes," Jesus replied, "and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News,30 will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property-along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life." Mark 10:29-30 (NLT2) 3. Do you know what the "hundred times" or "hundred-fold" means in regards to percentage growth? A Hundred-fold means 10,000%! Can any of you tell me where in this world of ours you can get a 10,000% return on your investment? Sounds to me like it only makes sense to surrender to God. C. Is there something you need to surrender to God today? Do you need to surrender to Him your marriage? Do you need to surrender to Him your finances? Do you need to surrender your work? Is there a secret sin that nobody knows about but you and God? That needs to be surrendered. Maybe what needs to be surrendered today is YOU! PRAYER 11