The Surrendered Life
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The Surrendered Life
The Surrendered Life
Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day. And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?
Key verse:
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Topic: The Surrendered Life
The Surrendered Life is not an easy life for us to live as Christians. It is not easy because our flesh, our human nature desires to take the path of less resistance.
When we live the surrendered life, their are some concessions that we must make. We have to give up somethings, we have to yield to the things of God, we may have to take some things, but there is a blessing to living the surrendered life.
To understand the Surrendered life, we must look at Jesus.
But many were amazed when they saw him.
His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human,
and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.
Jesus experienced a great amount of suffering:
Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
Suffering:
Suffering:
Mental suffering
Mental suffering
First Jesus was rejected of men. He had men that ridiculed him, they tried him and tested him, they lied on him, he had others that supported him for awhile then walked away from him. In the garden of Gethsemane he experienced extreme mental suffering, knowing what was ahead, knowing what he was going to have to suffer. He prayed earnestly until his sweat dripped to the ground like drops of blood. His flesh, didn’t want to endure what lied ahead of him. He was arrested, he went to trial experienced mental suffering, he was tied and beat, experienced mental suffering, nail to the cross, and even while he was on the cross, experienced rejection and ridicule from pass-byers.
Physical suffering
Physical suffering
Jesus suffered at the hands of sinful man. Many times they tried to kill Jesus. When they finally arrested Jesus they beat him, they slapped him, they spat on him, they nailed him to a cross and crucified him, even after he was dead, they stuck a spear in his side.
Spiritual suffering
Spiritual suffering
While Jesus was on the cross, the bible says he took on the sins of the world, when he took on the sins of the world darkness covered the land, Jesus felt a separation from the Father because of the sins that he took on.....Jesus said “My God, My God, why has though forsaken me.”
We must suffer too:
We must suffer too:
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Just as Christ suffered, when you live the surrendered life, you are will experience suffering as well. You will experience mental suffering: rejection, oppression, humiliation, your flesh will fight and oppose you and it will tax your mind.
You will experience physical suffering: possible assaults, death in some cases, sickness and diseases, your flesh will want you to do things that gratify you.
You will even suffer spiritually: the devil will try you, there will be seasons that you feel like you are separated from God, sometimes it will be hard to get a prayer through.
But you have to hang in there and remember what lies ahead:
Jesus said:
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Dealing with the Text:
Dealing with the Text:
Scriptures:
To truly be a christian is to be a follower of Christ (disciple) in order to follow Christ there are some prerequisites that must be accomplished.
The first thing you must do Jesus says:
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Deny:
Those who were following Jesus at the time believed in Jesus. They were probably even baptized believers because Jesus and hid disciples baptized unto repentance. However, Jesus says that if you are going to follow me, you have to deny yourself. You have to give up your own way.
Disown/deny/reject, self.....anything that is in disobedience to the will of God. Any actions, any thought that is against God and God’s will.
Take up cross daily:
In order for Jesus to take up his cross, he had to deny himself too. Jesus’ flesh didn’t want to go through the suffering, but in his prayer in the garden he said “Not my will, but thine will be done”. Jesus human nature, his human will wanted the bitter cup of suffering to pass from him. But Jesus says, not what I desire, not what I want to do, but your will be done! He denies himself, then he takes up his cross to accomplish the will of the Father. The will of God was that Jesus would die and offer himself as a sacrifice for the remission/forgiveness of sin.
We offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable which is our reasonable service. We crucify our flesh.....not once a week.....we have to do it everyday. Paul the Apostle speaks of this on two occasions in scripture:
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.
If we do what our sinful human nature desires to do.....we will die. If we live in disobedience to God we will die.
We need to put to death the deeds of our sinful deeds in our bodies. But how do we do that? We do it by the power of the Spirit/Holy Ghost.....if we put the deeds of our flesh to death by the power of the Spirit then we shall live.
Well preacher I don’t understand the concept of this living and dying that Apostle Paul is talking about. Let me give you scripture:
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Then Paul says:
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.
We have to die to live The Surrendered Life! Die!? We need to die to self, we need to die to our own will, we need to die to things that are not like Christ. Bad thoughts.....gotta die......bad actions.....gotta die......disobedience gotta die......rebellion.....gotta die.......sin.....gotta die!So it is as simple as this:
Die now (to the flesh) live forever (eternal life)
Live now (in the flesh, enjoy a life of sin) die later (the second death).
If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.
There may be some people that are out there, may be some people inside the church this morning that are clinging to a lifestyle that opposes God. If you cling to it, if you cling to that life....you are going to lose your life. But if you give up your life for Jesus......you will find life.
Jesus said:
Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.
Pastor why have you been preaching repentance every Sunday? Because time is winding up, because we don’t have long before Jesus comes back to rapture the church. Because someone needs to repent and be saved, because the chief concern of the church is to preach the gospel to every creature.....He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.
Because the church has lost it’s focus in this pandemic, when the pandemic first hit churches (almost) everywhere was preaching repentance and then we tried to get back to business as usual, preaching everything except repentance and the gospel and with all of the stuff that is happening, God is trying to get our attention, He’s trying to get the worlds attention to let them know it’s time to repent! It’s time to live the “Surrendered Life”.
For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
Blessings to the Surrendered Life:
Blessings to the Surrendered Life:
I said that there is a blessing to living the surrendered life. We have to let people know that it is a blessing in living the surrendered life to God.
(In order to live the surrendered life, we have to have something to look forward to, there has to be some type of incentive.) (This is why many unsaved won’t come out of the world, they love this world so much, they are having such a good time now that they feel like being a christian isn’t for me, going to church.....naw I’ll stay home with my family, I’ll stay home and sleep, do some chores, watch tv, watch the football game, I’m too busy for God I gotta work, I got kids to raise.) If we read the scriptures, we will see that there are all types of perks, benefits, blessings in living the surrendered life.
Jesus says:
And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
Jesus told his disciples that there would be things, there would be people that would hinder or prevent them from following him. But if they were willing to give up those things, that they would receive so much more in return! This is a worthy investment! Lose a house, gain a mansion, lose family members, gain a heavenly family, lose land or property, inherit a New Heaven and a New Earth. In addition, to receiving a hundredfold return.....you’ll inherit everlasting life!
When you live the surrendered life, when the Lord has saved you and filled you with the Holy Ghost you become his child. Paul then says:
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
To be an heir means to receive an alloted portion of an inheritance by sonship or by being a dependent. In other-words as dependents of, as sons or daughters you should receive an alloted portion of inheritance from your natural fathers and/or mothers. That means all that they have in their possession goes to you, what they have is yours. Therefore Paul says:
And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
The Apostle Paul often times in his writings referenced the blessings of Abraham:
God told Abraham:
I’ll show you where to go.
I’ll make a great nation out of you.
I’ll bless you.
I’ll make your name great.
I’ll make you a blessing to others.
I’ll bless those who bless you.
I’ll curse those who curse you.
I’ll bless all the people of the earth through you.
Remember that God said through your seed.....all nations shall be blessed. Now here comes Jesus.....Not only were these promises fulfilled through Abraham and his descendants, but the complete fulfillment came through Jesus Christ coming into this world and dying for our sins. Through Jesus, all nations are being blessed! And if we believe, if we are saved, if we are living the surrendered life, then what belongs to Jesu also belongs to me!
If we are heirs of God’s glory, then we are joint-heirs with Christ. Well....let’s take inventory of what Christ has:
Eternal life
Power
Blessings
Healing
Peace
Glorification
Victory
God will bless your life so much, that you’re children will be blessed, every where you go will be blessed, everything you pursue in honor of God will be blessed. Jesus himself said seek ye first the kingdom of God and it’s righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. But the stipulation to the blessings of God is that you’re going to have suffer, you’re gonna suffer loss in some things, you’re going to have to make some concessions......but after awhile I’ll be worth it. The suffering is going to be worth it, the pain.....is going to be worth it......the tears is going to be worth it!
Paul says
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
What we are suffering now, what we are experiencing now......can’t compare to the glory he will reveal to us later!
Then Peter the Apostle says:
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
So after you have suffered awhile......it’s temporary......God will restore, God will support, God will strengthen you, God will place you on a firm foundation! Then Peter praises the Lord and says “To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Peter gets so overwhelmed about what The LORD is going to do that he starts giving God glory right then!
I know its hard right now......but hang on in there! I know you are hurting right now....but hang on in there.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;