24 Aug Surrender

Read: Psalm 1 John 2:12-17

Last Sunday, Pastor Ken preached the sermon “Resist Temptation,” from 1 Corinthians 10:1-14. This Sunday, he will preach from 1 John 2:12-17 on loving God and not the world. As you prepare your heart for our corporate gathering, let these words from Shane Barnard lead you to further surrender to Jesus by the power of the gospel.

Heart Preparation

Is it ok to say that It is HARD to surrender?!!! To put ALL your chips in on Jesus? What isn’t hard is convincing ourselves, in our safe Christian bubble, that we ARE surrendered to Jesus. We . . . worship [with the church] on Sunday, don’t cheat on our spouse, listen to worship music on the way to work; I mean, we are professionals at this for crying out loud!  Professional something – that’s for sure.

And we are surrendered. The question is: to what? 

Give yourself a moment to take an inventory of your heart– an honest diagnostic: what do you spend your time thinking about? Dreaming about? Striving for? What comes to mind?

Comfort? The approval of man? Sexual sin? Safety? How everyone else is wrong and you are right (a.k.a. legalism)?

It is one thing to sing “at the cross I surrender my life,” and another to walk that out when the church service is over. It is HARD to surrender your life! To lay down your pride and preference!  I would even go as far to say that it is downright impossible. It is just as impossible to live out the Christian life as it is to come in to the Christian life. Perhaps a more theological way to say it: sanctification is just as much of a supernatural, God-empowered miracle as salvation. As much as we needed Him to save us, to that same degree we need Him to sanctify us. We need Him for “surrender.” How does this happen? Where do we run for this kind of help?

There’s a place 

“There’s a place where streams of grace flow deep and wide.”

There is a place! The cross. And on the rugged cross there hung a man. And flowing from that Man’s wounds is the power to not just save us but sanctify us. “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil 1:6)

Flowing from Jesus’ veins is our power to surrender today. The Gospel! The good news of Jesus applied to our drive home after church. The Gospel smashed in to your commute to work.  The Gospel preached to ourselves through the hard hours of the day.

John Piper said it well: “Do you feed your faith day by day with the promises of this triumphant gospel? Do you, as a believer, go to the gospel day by day and savor its power in verses like Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” The gospel is the good news that God gave us his Son, so as to obtain for us everything that would be good for us. Therefore the gospel is the power that gives us victory over temptation to despair and to pride and to greed and to lust. The gospel alone can triumph over every obstacle and bring us to eternal joy. Whatever it costs, stand in it, hold it fast, believe on it, feed on it, savor it, count it more precious than silver or gold. The gospel will save you. And it alone.”

Let’s use this [truth] as a pathway to surrender today! And by His Spirit alive in you, as you put to death the deeds of the body, He WILL help you, beloved!   

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.  (Rom 8:11)

Devotional by Shane Barnard, inspired by the song, “At the Cross (Love Ran Red)”

Song List for Sunday
1. “Let Your Kingdom Come,” by Sovereign Grace Music
2. “How Great Thou Art,” by Paul Baloche
3. “The Depths of Your Love,” by North Wake Music
4. “At the Cross (Love Ran Red),” Arr. by Shane & Shane
5. “The Wonderful Cross,” Arr. by Joel Engle