That is so true. We owe everything to Him, everything. Sometimes I think we forget that. That we owe Him everything. Sometimes we just think, well, we allow Him to do life with us. No, no. We owe him everything. Everything. He gave us life. He gave us breath. He opens our eyes every day. He gave us every single thing that we have, every penny that we have, every thing that happens in our life. All of those things are because he loves us. And so we have to remember that. You know know as I taught with the children about surrender, I taught Wednesday night about surrender and one of the things that it made me think about is how much of a struggle that surrender is. You say well why is surrender such a struggle? Why is that such a struggle? I is that such a struggle? I don't understand why we know that we're supposed to do that, right? We read God's Word and if we call Him Father, Lord and Savior, then why is surrender such a struggle for us? Well if you're asking me that question, I hope that that means that you are living a life that is surrendered. It sounds so easy, but here's the thing. We are taught to never surrender. Never surrender. Playing on a football team. You're in the game. Guess what? You're getting beat. I mean, you're getting beat bad How mean you're getting beat bad? There's no chance you're ever coming back to win this football game. You know what the coach says? Get out there and fight! Don't give up! Keep playing hard, never surrender! Never surrender. We're always taught. Don't give up, never surrender. In the military, they tell us this, no surrender, no retreat. We don't surrender, we don't retreat, we fight. We stay till the very end. We don't surrender. There have been times when the military had to surrender. But they're telling you to have that mentality that that is not an option. No surrender. You fight till the end. We as a country, especially, tend to have that attitude of no surrender, that we would never ever surrender. We're going to keep fighting. If it takes our last breath, We're going to keep fighting. But what if surrender is the best thing? What if surrender is the best thing? What do you mean surrender is the best thing? Surenders never the best thing. Really? What if surrender is the best thing in the military sometimes surrender today to fight another day. Maybe you surrender at this point in order to be stronger later. We think about it in the biblical terms. What if surrender is the best thing? What if instead of fighting against God, we surrender to Him. Everything. everything. But I don't really fight against God. Do you not? So you always live your life every day doing exactly what God's called you to do. Well, not necessarily. I mean, then you haven't surrendered. I mean, you're still trying to live your own life. But I'm talking to someone who is a new believer, one of the things I tell them is that when you come to know Jesus, you surrender your life. And you say, "I want you to come into my life and be my Lord and master of my life." That's surrender. That is surrender. And a visible picture of that is, you're sitting on the throne of your life. You're the king or queen dictating everything that happens in your life. But you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. And when you do that, since you called Him Lord and you called Him Savior and you called Him Master, you step off of that throne and you offer him the seed. And then you bow down at his feet and say, "I will follow you. I will do whatever it is." Then you call me to do. That is the best thing. That is surrender. That is the way we should start. Look at Galatians chapter 2 in verse 20. We're going to be back and forth in Galatians and some other books today, but Galatians is a primary book. So if you want to kind of market Galatians 2, chapter 20. Scripture says this, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live and the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live but Him. It's no longer I but Him. The reality for us to know is that we but Him. The reality for us to know is that we read that verse and it is all about surrender. It is absolutely all about surrender. I've been crucified with Christ. It's not me that lives anymore. I cease to exist. If you're baptized hopefully the pastor told you when you got baptized what that means. That baptism means the old you died. It was buried with Christ and resurrected to walk in a new life. That new life is that new creation. That one who is surrendered to Christ. That's what baptism is all about. It's an outward picture of what you've already done. Surrender. But we struggle with surrender. Oh, yes, I surrender. But I really think that the best thing for us to do is, did you surrender or are you trying to still run the show? You still trying to run the show? I remember when I was retiring from the military. I already retired. I already had a date that was going to be my last day of working full time for the military. Thankfully, in a rare time, usually didn't happen, they were able to bring in the person who was going to replace me and go ahead and put them in place before I actually went out the door. They came in and so I cleaned out my office and they moved into my office. I wouldn't mind anymore as there. Their office. They moved into the office. I moved out. They started doing what I was used to doing. My job from that moment on was to sit in a conference room in a corner with a laptop and play solitaire, basically. If he needed me, he would call me. He would ask for my opinion. He would tell me what he needed to do or ask me to help him. But every day I was standing in his office, what's going on today, what you got going on. Oh yeah, you know the way I always did that was this was what I couldn't give it up. I said, oh I'm so glad you're here, I'm glad you're taking over. This is your office. This is your job. This is your everything." And I'm standing in his door every day telling him how to do his job. Was it mine anymore? I surrendered that job, but I could not let go. Finally he said, "Come sit down." I sat down. He said, "Look, I know this is hard. You've been doing this job for a very long time." I said, "That's true." He said, "You know all the people. You know what things worked for you and what things didn't work and you know how everything was." Yep. But I need to have the freedom to make my own mistakes. I need to have the freedom to do things my way. I know you still have another week or two that you're going to be here. And really and truly, if I have a question or I need your help, I will ask you. But I need you to let me do it myself. I need you to surrender the reins. Completely let go. I still struggled. But I tried every day. I tried to do it. I really did. But it was hard. It was a struggle. We have this struggle with surrender. Everyone of us do. We have a struggle. We don't want to give it up. So I want to give you some points to help you as you go through this walk of surrender. First of all, think about this. Surrender your attempt to save yourself. What does that mean? Well, we say we're given our life to God but then we try to do things that we think are right in order to walk in a way that is pleasing to God. Why are we trying to do it our way? Why are we trying to save ourselves when God said, "I'll save you." Why are we trying to do it our way when God said, "I'll show you what I want to do." Why are we trying our best to save ourselves? God gave us the plan. He told us how to do it. Why are we still trying to do it ourselves? Give up. Follow what God has told you to do. Some of the hardest times in my life is when I walked into a position and I already knew that I knew more about the job than the person who was my boss and trying to follow them. And trying to follow them. Eventually I figured out that I didn't know as much as I thought I did. The boss had been there as the boss for a reason and if I would follow the boss, things were whole lot better. God is the boss. He's the one in charge. He's the one who sent his son Jesus to save you in the first place. He's the reason that you have salvation. Stop trying to save yourself, surrender to God. Surrender your attempts to save yourself. Just surrender that. Give it up. That's number one. Look at Galatians 2.21. Galatians 2, verse 21. Galatians 2, 21. I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. If I'm still trying to save myself, then Christ died needlessly. If I can do it on my own, then why don't he have to die in the first place? The reality is I can't do it on my own, so why do I keep trying? Surrender that. Give it to God. He told you, I gave Jesus for you. He sent his son to pay the price that you couldn't pay. And if you accepted that, then surrender it. Stop trying to save yourself. Stop trying to do it your own way. If you can do it your own way, then Christ died needlessly. And we know he did not. Because you can't do it your own way. It's not possible for you to do it your own way. Once you look at this verse, Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9. We're still talking about surrendering, trying to save yourself. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not a single person can save themselves. You can't work your way to heaven. You can't pay your way to heaven. You can't go to church enough to get to heaven. You can't ride the coattails of your family member to heaven. You can't do any of that to get yourself to heaven. It is not you, but a gift of God. You're saved through faith by grace. Grace, God gives us grace. That's the only way he gave it to us. It's the only way. Now do we have the faith to believe that? If we have the faith to believe that, stop trying to save yourself. Surrender. That's what faith is. Surrender everything out of your hands and give it to someone else. In this case it's give it to God. I had faith. I said in my replacement. He was good man. He'd been in the military long time. I knew he knew how to do the job. I had faith in him that he'd be able to do the job yet every day I was standing there telling him how to do it. That showed that I did not have faith in him. That I thought I needed to put my two cents in. When we try to put our two cents in every day and do it our way, we're not living through faith. We're trying to live on our own. Stop going on our own. Stop struggling, surrender to God, surrender, trying to save yourself. Give that to God because God is the one who is in control and he is the only one who can save you. Second thing is this, surrender your sinful life. Surrender your sinful life. Oh, why did that already? I came up to the altar and I ask God to forgive me of all my sins and I accept them as my Savior. I've already forgiven. I've already surrendered my sinful life. Have you? Do you still sin? Oh well yeah I mean sometimes I mess up yet but is there a sin that you keep going back to? Well I don't really want to talk about that. There's for most of us there is something that we struggle with greater than any other thing in our life Old preachers to call it a pet sin They call it a pet sin. They said we like to keep in our pocket. We take it out every once why look at it Pet it a little bit We just we can couldn't let it go. And this was saying, you know, I don't need to play with you today. I'm putting you back in my pocket. But we never threw it out. We never got rid of it. We still held on to it. We still go back to it. Surrender your sinful life. Don't go back to it. Don't go back to it. In my example, if I surrendered it, why did I keep going back to it? Because I never surrendered it in the first place. I kept going back to it. Our sinfulness and their sinful things in our lives. And when we give it to God, we're supposed to be giving him everything. When he forgives us of our sin, he forgives us of all sin, past, present, and future. He forgives us of all of that. But for some reason, the human nature, the flesh is to hold on to that sin. It's to hold on to something from our old life, to hold on to that part of us that we just can't seem to let go. Even though God said that's something I'm on cast as far as the east is from the west, we keep trying to hold on to it. We keep trying to hold on to that old sin. Look at Romans 6 verse 1. Well what shall we say then? Are we to continue and sin that grace may increase? Are we to continue and send that grace may increase? The more we send, the more grace God gives us. Oh, so in that case, we need to send more to get more grace. That's a foulable thinking. No, we're not to send more to get more grace. What they're saying is God's grace is greater than you could ever imagine And even though you think your sin is so great that there's no possible way God can forgive it that grace is greater than that It doesn't mean that we try to send more so that we get more grace When we get grace when God covered us with His grace, He has covered us completely. And more sin doesn't make it better. More sin causes us to walk away from where we're supposed to be. Surrender your sinful life. Well, preacher, how do you know that I have that in my life? I don't. God does. I don't know what I can tell you is from my personal experience. There's been sin in my life that I've had a big struggle let and go of and the Scripture says that the flesh is weak and that we continue to strive. The flesh does not strive for good but for evil and so the chances are there's some sin in your life that you struggle with on a daily basis. If that's the case, stop struggling, surrender it to God, surrender it to Him. You know it's an incredible thing when you finally surrender. Man what a weight is lifted off. What a weight is lifted off when you finally surrender and realize that's not my responsibility anymore that's God. When I finally surrendered that job and walked out I said, "Well man I don't have to deal with that anymore that's incredible. That's a wonderful thing and why did I fight so hard to hold on to it. A little way may be to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, 19 and 20. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? That you are not your own. For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. Glorify God in your body. Many people will use this passage to point to a lot of different things. Oh, you shouldn't put poisons in your body. You shouldn't overeat. You shouldn't do all of these things. And while those are true, glorifying God in your body, go back to it says the beginning, you have been bought with a price. Yours is not your own. It's not yours anymore. When a husband and wife come together and get married, It's not yours anymore. When a husband and wife come together and get married, become a husband and wife, a man and a woman, become a husband and wife. One of the things they talk about in their vows is giving themselves to each other, that their bodies are no longer their own, but now they belong to their spouse. That now we have become one. And together we're going to live as one. When that happens marriages work well. When it doesn't happen, when one begins to fight against the other and they don't truly give themselves to each other, they begin to separate. Fractures show up before long that relationship is very fractured and our society, our society says, "We're not having just divorce and give up. Get it over with, go find somebody else." God says, "Let me bring you back. Let me repair you back. Let me repair the relationship. If you and I have a problem in our relationship, you can't fix it. But if you surrender to me, I'll bring you back. And we'll be back together as one." Surrender to me. I paid the price for you. It's no longer you. If you accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, He paid that price for you. It's no longer you. If you accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, He paid that price for you, He accepted you, He is your Lord and Savior, your body is no longer your own. Why do we continue? Why do we continue to struggle with a sinful life? Why don't we give it to God? You see if we give up that life to God and give him full control, that struggle with that sinful life begins to disappear because we have truly surrendered. And only when we truly surrender will we get past it. That's the only way that it's going to happen. It's the only way that we will ever get past that sinful life, that thing in our life that we just keep holding on to. It's the only way we're ever going to get past it. It's a truly surrender it. Here's the hardest part of surrender. This is where we struggle greater than any other place in our life. Surrender living with yourself as Lord. Surrender living with yourself as Lord. I tell people, this is the throne of your life. When you accepted Jesus, you got off the throne and you said, it's yours Lord. I'm going to follow you. And then we turn around and say, move over. I need to be driving today. I need to run my life. I know what I need. You just move over God. You just stay right here with me. One of the worst bumper stickers that you can see is the one that says, Jesus says my copilot. That was intended to be a positive thing, meaning he's always with me. But if Jesus is your copilot, then you better swap seats. Because the word says, make him the Lord of your life. And if you're the one sitting on the throne, then he's not Lord. He's not Lord of your life. You said, I want you to come to my life, be Lord and be Savior. And yet you still want to keep driving. You want to keep being the Lord of your life. You want him to just be there to pick up your messes. You want him to be there to help you when you mess up. You want him to be there to keep you from truly messing it up even worse. But you don't want him to guide you. And so you have never truly surrendered your life for you. He paid the price for your sins. Your body belongs to Him. Your life belongs to Him. If you've given your life to Him, then you gave it to Him. Don't take it back. Don't keep trying every day to be the Lord of your life to drive yourself. Let God do it. Let God do it. Let God do it. Don't take it back. Don't keep trying every day to be the Lord of your life, to drive yourself, let God do it. Surrender living with yourself as Lord. Surrender living with yourself because when you do that, when you put yourself first, then you're not putting God first. So surrender living with yourself as Lord. Look at Galatians 5, 16 and 17. Galatians 5, 16 and 17. But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please. The flesh sets its desire against the Spirit. gets the Spirit and the Spirit gets the flesh for the two are in opposition. Wise air of struggle for surrender. Can't get any clearer than that. The flesh, when we're walking in the flesh, the flesh sets its desire for the things the flesh wants, which is against the Spirit. The Spirit sets its desire for the things God wants, which is against the Spirit. The Spirit sets its desire for the things God walks which is against the flesh. And when the two fight constantly you're not walking in surrender. You're not walking as you should be. You're not walking as God intends you. You're walking sort of kind to end the direction maybe that God wants you to walk but not all the way. Here's the thing. You ever try to do this? That's very difficult. It doesn't work well. It wears out one side more than the other. It's not how it needs to be yet when we try to walk in the flesh and in the spirit at the same time, this is our walk. This is it. We're not walking in a way that's pleasing to God. We're not walking in a way that God directs us to walk. We're struggling to keep one foot in the flesh and one foot in the spirit and it's a constant battle to keep going. Eventually one leg is going to wear out. You're going to fall down. It won't work. Yet we try it every day. We try it every day. We need to surrender it to Him. We don't need to continue. We need to surrender ourself and stop trying to make ourself Lord but follow God. When we try to walk in the flesh and the Spirit, it's not going to work. We just saw that they don't play well together. It doesn't work. God is a jealous God. He wants 100%. He doesn't want 75%. 75% is pretty good. It's not 100. It's not 100. It's just part of it. If an athlete goes out and gives 75% every day, they're going to get cut. They're not going to get to keep playing because they're not giving 100%. If you go 75% every day, they're gonna get cut. They're not gonna get to keep playing because they're not giving 100%. If you go to work every day and you only give 75% you're never gonna get a raise, a promotion you're never gonna get what you need. In fact, you might lose your job because you're not doing everything you can. If you only give 75% in marriage it's gonna end in divorce because you're not giving 100%. Somebody said one time marriage is going to end in divorce because you're not given a hundred percent. Somebody said one time marriage is a fifty-fifty proposition. No, it's not. It's a hundred and a hundred. You give a hundred percent. They give a hundred percent. That's the only way it works. If we only give fifty percent to God and He's giving us a hundred percent, it's not going to work. We're still going to be walking in a way that we're not supposed to. We're still going to be unsurrendored. We're still going to be unsurrendored. Galatians 5, 25, what does it say? If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Whoa! That makes a lot of sense. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Somebody might say, "Let's walk the walk and talk the talk." Not just talk the talk. I can talk about it, but if I'm not walking, I haven't done what I need to do. If we also walk by the Spirit and live by the Spirit, then we'll follow what God wants us to do. Then we've made Him number one. Then we have surrendered our life to Him. 100%. We gotta do both. We can't just do part of it God doesn't want even 90% God wants 100% look at James chapter 4 verse 7 James chapter 4 verse 7 says submit Therefore to God Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Who? What's the opposite of that? Do it your way, call the devil in and he's going to destroy you. I know y'all are going to think all I do is read bumper stickers. There's another bumper sticker says if you give the devil a ride he's going to want to drive. Think about that. Well I don't invite the devil into my life do you not? Is there never a time when you invite evil into your life? Maybe you decide to look at something on the internet that you know you shouldn't. You just invited a devil in. Maybe you decided to be ugly to somebody when you know you shouldn't. You just invited the devil in. When you decided that you know God really wants you to do this, but you want to do that. And so I'm going to go do do this you just invited the devil in If you haven't submitted to God Then you're not going to be able to resist the devil and he will not flee from you. He will hang out He gets that foothold in your life and it's a constant struggle When all you got to do is submit in the first place. Surrender to God in the very first place. When you surrender to God, then you can resist the devil and then he will flee from you. But when you don't fully surrender, there are little opportunities where you open the door and let the devil stick his little foot in. And when he does he's going to continue to stay there. He won't flee because you invited him in. Surrender is a struggle. It's a struggle. It really is. Well, it shouldn't be. No, you're right, it shouldn't be. But the reality is it is. We just read the scripture and said, "The flesh resists the spirit and the spirit resists the flesh." That's the absolute definition of a struggle. We're still flesh. We're still living in this world. We're still walking in this world. It's a struggle. Some people say, "Well, you know, I just want to do what I want to do." Okay, that's fine. You just want to do what you want to do. But what if what you want to do is rob the bank? Well, that's not going to end very well. What if what you want to do is completely against what God wants you to do? That's not going to end very well. The reality is it's surrender. Yes, it's a struggle because the flash keeps wanting what it wants. But the Spirit is trying to show you what God wants. You have to surrender to God. It's a struggle. But it all comes down to this. Matthew 16, 24. Matthew 16, 24. If you really want to know how to defeat that struggle, then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself. Take up his cross and follow me. If anyone wishes to follow me, he must deny himself. That's the first step. Okay, I know that the flesh wants what the flesh wants, but I'm denying that because I gave my life to God I'm not doing that. I'm following what God wants. Take up your cross You take up that battle every day and follow Jesus. This is a daily process. This isn't a one-time deal Oh, how much easier it would be if it was a one-time deal easier it would be if it was a one-time deal. I accept Jesus Christ, I'm denying myself, I'm taking up my cross, I'm following him, and now I don't have to worry about that struggle anymore. Nope, you wake up tomorrow, guess what? The flesh still wants, what the flesh still wants. You still have that battle every day. There's still a struggle every day. The difference is, are you going to keep struggling or are you going to give up? Are you going to keep struggling towards that surrender or are you going to surrender every day or are you going to just take a few days a week just for me? You know I'm going to surrender to God four days a week but those other three you know I got to have my own stuff then you're not surrendering at all you're still following the flash you're not giving it at all. You're still following the flash. You're not giving it to God. It's not something that you can do once in a while. This is something that needs to happen every single day. Colossians 3.23 says this, "Whatever you do, do your work hardly as for the Lord rather than for men. Whatever you do, do it for God. Not for you, not for your friends, not for your boss, not for your girlfriend, your wife, not for anybody else, do it for God. And if you do everything you do for God, it's going to take care of itself in every way other than that. And everything you do, do it for God. Well, I'm doing this so that people will see what I'm doing and they can recognize me, then you're doing it for self, not for God. Well, I'm doing this so that other people You can see that in Del want to come and learn from me. Then you're doing it for self. You're not doing it for God. If you're doing it for reasons other than for God, you're doing it for self or for somebody else. Whatever you do, do it for God. So the question then becomes this. Are you ready to surrender today? Are you ready to surrender today? Are you ready to surrender today? Well, preach I already gave my life to Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. That's wonderful, dudes. I'm so glad that that is the case, but that's not the question I asked you. What I asked you is, are you ready to surrender today? Are you ready to give it all up every day? Not just once every day. Are you ready to do that? Do you realize that you are struggling? Are you ready to surrender? Or maybe this, maybe for the very first time. Maybe for the very first time. Maybe the reason that you have a problem surrendering is because you've never surrendered in the first place. Maybe you keep trying to do it your way instead of God's way, thinking that one day you're going to get there. It's never going to happen. You're never going to be able to get to that place of salvation on your home. You're never going to be able to get to that place of surrender until you truly surrender. You're never going to be able to be used by God in a way that He intends if you've never given your life to Him in the first place. See, in this world we have a lot of people that like to be pretenders. They pretend to be something that they want to be knowing they're really something they don't want to be. They pretend to be someone. Well, I'm going to get up on Sundays and I'm going to church, and everybody's going to know that I go to church every Sunday, and I'm going to sing those songs, and when the preacher reads the Bible, I'm going to read along with him, I'm going to do all of that stuff, and so everybody will know that I'm a Christian. But that's not what the Scripture says. It says we have to surrender. We have to give it all to Him. And so being a pretender doesn't get you to heaven. Only person you fool with that is you. Oh, you might fool a couple other people, but the only one you're really fooling is you, because God said that's not the way. That's not the way. Some people will say, "Well, you know, my family was very religious and so I know that I'm just following what they did and so it'll all be okay but did you give yourself to God in the first place?" If you're just following what they did, maybe you're following all the things that they did, but if you missed the step of giving your life to Christ in the first place, none of the rest of it matters. You can be what people believe to be the best person they've ever met. The most wonderful, caring, giving person, you talk about the Lord, you do all of those things, but if you've never given your life to Christ, no that matters. Well the day of judgment you will hear depart from me. He who works iniquity I never knew you. Depart. But if you've given yourself to Jesus already. you've already given your life to him and you know that But you're struggling on a daily basis with surrender You struggle with that. Well, let me give you some advice start your day with surrender Start your day denying yourself Taking up your cross and following him start your day with that every day Every day. God today is your day. I call you Lord. I call you Savior. I call you Master. Today I follow you wherever you call me to go. I'll go wherever you lead. I'll follow whatever it is that you call me to do, but then do that. Don't just say it. Do it. Because you might find that he's calling you to talk to someone in your life. You might find that he's calling you to give up something in your life that you've been holding on to. You might find that he's calling you to surrender to vocational ministry. You might find that he's calling you for something you never believe was possible. Because if you don't surrender, you're never going to know. It's time to give up the struggle and surrender. Every day. you Transcribed by https://soundwise.ai