Series: Believe ACT Like Jesus Message Total Surrender January 31, 2016 [slide 1] Hiroo Onoda, a lieutenant in the Japanese army during World War II, served his country in Lubang, an island some 90 miles southwest of the Philippine capital of Manila in December 1944. Three months later Allied troops landed on the island of Lubang, and one by one Japanese troops began to surrender, all except for Hiroo Onoda. Onoda refused to give up, so he headed for the jungle with three other soldiers. They were taught absolute loyalty to Japan and its emperor and followed a code that said death was preferable to surrender. One of the four soldiers emerged from the jungle in 1950, while two others died. All that remained was Onoda who stayed hidden and struggled to feed himself. For 30 years he snuck into the villages to steal rice and bananas and shoot their cows to make dried beef. Then on February 20, 1974 a young traveler named Norio Suzuki went to Lubang to find Onoda. He made camp in the jungle clearings and just waited. Onoda eventually made contact with Suzuki, and they began to talk. Suzuki returned to tell the authorities about Onoda. They, in turn, sent Onoda s commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, to give Onoda one final order surrender. The Philippine government pardoned Onoda who went home to Japan with a hero s welcome. Although he struggled to adapt to this new life, he did not view his 30 years in the jungle as a waste of time. Onoda was the last Japanese soldier to surrender, and he died on January 16, 2014. Perhaps you and I can relate to Onoda. We don t like to surrender either. To surrender means to give up control and let our lives be dictated by someone else s agenda and will. Surrender means I am weak. We live in America land of the free; home of the brave. No way do we raise the white flag and give it all up. We like to be in control. We like to do as we please. Like Onoda, we feel that death is preferable to surrender. The idea of our surrendering our lives to Jesus is not a new one. We sing, All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all, and we just sang, We raise our white flag. We surrender all to you, all for you. 1
But I have to tell you that I struggled this week as I studied the idea of total surrender, because nowhere in the Bible does it tell us specifically to surrender to God. In fact, when you study the Greek word for [slide 2] surrender, you discover a few different ways it s translated. One way it s translated is [slide 3] HANDED OVER, as when Jesus would be handed over (surrendered) to be tried and to suffer and to be put to death. Another way it s translated is [slide 4] BETRAYED, as when Judas betrayed (surrendered) Jesus into the hands of sinners. It s also translated as [slide 5] DELIVERED in Romans 4:25, which says that Jesus was delivered (surrendered) over to death. And finally, in Galatians 2:20 we read The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself (surrendered himself) for me. Now this doesn t mean that we re not called to surrender ourselves to God. In fact, we read of the example of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14:26. It says, 26 From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been [slide 6] COMMITTED (surrendered) to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. And there are plenty of verses in the New Testament that allude to the fact that it takes total surrender of our lives to follow Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew 16:24, 24 If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Jesus said in Luke 14:27, 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. And in Romans 12:1 we read, THEREFORE, I urge you, brothers, in view of God s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship. So when you think about what it means to live in total surrender to God, it means to give up total control and let our lives be dictated by his agenda and his will. It s no longer about what I want, but about what God wants for me. So [slide 7] I surrender everything I HAVE and everything I AM to be used by God for his PURPOSES. I want to do something kind of special here. Last year, First Church celebrated individuals who surrendered their lives to Jesus and were baptized. I put together a video showing most of those baptisms, and I want us to celebrate again. VIDEO AND WORSHIP TEAM: REDEEMED. 2
[slide 1] I surrender everything I have and everything I am to be used by God for his purposes. In our relationship with God, we are all in. We surrender our lives to him. We commit ourselves to love God and to do what he wants us to do no matter what. God doesn t want to be just another activity on our schedule I go to the gym, get the kids to soccer practice, and go to church. He doesn t want to be just a slice in our lives work, family, friends, and God. He doesn t want to be just a date on the calendar. He wants us to be totally committed, totally surrendered, and totally sold out to him. For thousands of years, people thought the sun revolved around the earth. We thought we were the center of the universe until one man risked his life to prove otherwise. Now we don t even question it. We know that we revolve around the sun along with all the other planets and moons in our galaxy. Why then do we still live like the Son revolves around us? We re not the center. God is. He doesn t revolve around our plans, activities, and desires; we must revolve around his. [slide 2] So how do we surrender all that we have and all that we are to be used by God for his purposes? I want to give you three ways to make this happen. First, [slide 3] realize that I don t have CONTROL. A number of years ago in the middle of winter, Dawn and I got in the car to meet some friends for a ski trip. Now the road from the house we lived in at the time came to stop sign where you could only turn right to follow the road or turn left into a car dealership. Snow had fallen the night before, and the roads hadn t been cleared off yet. As I approached the stop sign, I began to brake, but I couldn t stop because of the icy conditions. So I m holding onto the steering wheel for dear life. My knuckles turned white as I held my breath. I tried turning the wheel. That didn t work. I tried braking even harder. That didn t work. No matter what I did just couldn t get control. My car continued straight ahead, and we went up over the curb and smashed right into one of the dealership s brand new vans. How many of us are living our lives that way? We re just holding on for dear life. With white knuckles we re trying to gain traction in our lives. We re trying to steer out of harm s way, trying to slow down, and trying to control everything. And the faster life goes, the tighter we hold on. 3
But control is just an illusion. We ve never had it, and we never will. Look what James says in chapter 4. [slide 4] 13 Now listen, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, If it is the Lord s will, we will live and do this or that. 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. [slide 5] There s a saying that goes, If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. I don t know if it makes him laugh or cry when we spend so much time planning and trying to control every situation in our lives. But if we re going to surrender all to him, then giving up control is realizing that we don t have it. I surrender all that I have and all that I am to be used by God for his purposes. Second, [slide 6] Just GIVE UP. Do you ever feel like you spend your life in a boxing ring? Instead of Mike Tyson, your opponent is your job or your finances or your marriage or your addiction. And no matter how good a person you try to be, no matter how many promises you make, and no matter how many times you go to church, your opponent knocks you out. Every attempt to gain control fails. And really what we need to do is throw in the towel. We need to give up. Matthew 16, [slide 7] 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? [slide 8] Jesus is saying that if you try to control everything, you re going to lose everything. The only way to really live life is to give up your life to Jesus and let him take control. The way you ve been trying to fix things doesn t work. And the tighter you try to hold on, the more you actually lose. You can t fix your finances on your own. You can t fix your marriage or your relationships or your addictions on your own. You need to take off the gloves of doing it on your own, throw in the towel, give up, and allow God to get into the ring and fight for you. It s taking the things you ve been trying to control on your own and laying them at God s feet to 4
find out what he wants you to do. I surrender all that I have and all that I am to be used by God for his purposes. Let me give you the third way to surrender all to Jesus. [slide 9] OBEY the Master. Total surrender will never happen without absolute obedience. Jesus asked in Luke 6:46, [slide 10] 46 Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? You all know that I m a dad. Let s say that I tell Alex, my son, to mow the grass while I m at the office. Now my son is a pretty good kid, so I expect that when I get home from the office, he ll have the grass mowed. But as I turn the corner to pull into the driveway, I notice that the grass is still knee-deep. When I walk in the house Alex greets me with a hug, and I remind him that he was supposed to mow the grass. But he says, Dear Father, I remember what you said. You said, Mow the grass. I memorized it and even looked up what the words mow and grass mean. I even got together with my neighbor friends and opened up a Better Homes and Gardens magazine and talked about what the grass would look like if we mowed it. Now what s wrong with this picture? He heard the command. He studied the words. He even started a small group study on it. But he never did what I told him. We say that Jesus is Lord of our lives, but do we really understand what that means? We read it in the Bible. We even address God as Lord in our prayers, but I m afraid far too often we translate the word Lord as friend. And there s nothing wrong with calling Jesus friend. Jesus even calls us his friends in the New Testament. And everyone needs a good friend, but how often do we submit to a friend? How often do we surrender to a friend? How often do we obey a friend? Friends are equals. In a friendship you both have rights, wants, and needs. And if one of you doesn t fulfill the other, you move on or you breakup. Jesus is our friend; but he s also our Lord. And that means he s our boss, CEO, and ruler. He s at the top of the org chart, and what he says goes. Fortunately for us, Jesus is a benevolent dictator. If we don t obey him, he doesn t send us to the guillotine or the electric chair or even hell. Romans 8:1 says, THEREFORE, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He doesn t condemn us when we disobey him, but he 5
disciplines us as a father would his children. He lets us suffer the consequences of our own devices. There is no surrender without obedience. I surrender all that I have and all that I am to be used by God for his purposes. What is God asking you to do today that you have not surrendered yet? What are you still holding on to for dear life? Does he want you to reconcile a broken relationship? Does he want you to get help for an addiction or a sinful habit? Does he want you to reorganize your schedule so you can commit to serving in a ministry here at the church? Does he want you to seek financial help? Or does he want you to just simply give your life to him this morning? [slide 11] Here s the thing about surrender. When we think about surrendering, we think about giving ourselves up to our enemy. If you are not surrendering all that you have and all that you are to be used by God for his purposes, you are God s enemy. Jesus said in Luke 11:23, 23 He who is not with me is against me. If you haven t surrendered to Jesus, that makes him your enemy. He knows what s good and right for you. He wants to give you a new life. He wants to pour out blessings on your life. But you have to surrender all that you have and all that you are to be used by God for his purposes. So here s what I want us to do during our invitation time. In the back of the pews are tiny slips of paper, and I want you to pull one of those slips of paper out and write on it what you want to surrender to God today. It could be a sin, a relationship, your marriage, your job, your schedule, a bad attitude, your complaining, or it could be your life. And as we re singing, I would like for you to bring your slip of paper forward and lay it down here at the altar as a symbol of surrendering that one thing to God. If you re ready to surrender your life to Jesus and make him Lord of your life and be baptized, bring your slip forward and come and talk with me. 6