Embracing Freedom Through Surrender to God

The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you are already dead and the sooner you accept that the sooner you will be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function. [00:02:21]

Whoever wants to be my disciple now this is the third step must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me for whoever wants to save their life will lose it that is if I think I can be in control and make myself the center of the life my life and make my will and my ego run things which I'm so prone to do I want to have this I want to be recognized I want more success I want more money and that way is death and then I will lose my life but whoever loses their life I have died to those kind of petty small-minded ignoble dreams uh receives back something far far greater. [00:03:05]

I hear the voice of God saying to me you give me everything and I will give you everything and it is the this strange truth the will is made to surrender to God this is what we're talking about today so I'm want to invite you today to say this prayer your will be done God your will be done as best I can as concretely as I can I want to surrender I want to turn my life and my will over to you. [00:03:50]

The strange Freedom that comes to us in surrender is a kind of Detachment from all the petty stupid foolish stuff that my soul on its own is attached to and that my willpower cannot free me from and oh God help me die to that help me die to that help me die to that not so that I live with emptiness and pain and anguish and holess forever but so that I can come alive to something greater the will was made to surrender to God because somehow when we surrender to what is good when we take my own desires and my ego off the throne then it's like I'm put into this gulf stream of spiritual reality where I can actually find life. [00:05:13]

Some of the most inspiring words about this that I know were written by a man named dag hamers shold and he was a Swedish Statesman John Kennedy said that he was the greatest Statesman of the 20th century and he was the um youngest man ever named Secretary General of the United Nations he was stunned by this he was quite a humble person LED quite a humble life and uh it was on um April 1st 1953 that he was initially informed by journalist that the councel at the UN had named him Secretary General he thought it was an April Fool's joke I'm not making this up he got three phone calls from ger saying hey you're the man before he actually believed it himself and he served with enormous distinction uh he died when he was on his way on a peacekeeping mission to the Congo in a plane crash and to this day the circumstances of that crash are mysterious and disputed and he may well have been murdered because of his efforts after he died they discovered a book he had started it when he was quite a young man it was the only book that he ever published and it was uh published posthumously interestingly he was also the guy only person ever to receive the Nobel Prize for Peace that was awarded postumus and in this book there was an enormous spiritual journey his relationship with God that was revealed and it was was remarkably deep. [00:06:00]

I don't know who or what put the question I don't know when it was put I don't even remember answering but at some moment I did answer yes to someone or something and from that hour I was certain that existence is Meaningful and that therefore my life in selfs surrender had a goal. [00:07:53]

The person who does not have something to Worth Dying For has nothing worth living for and so Jesus comes again to you and me today in the midst of our attachments to whatever is small and Petty and issues that same great invitation if you would follow me then deny yourself take up your cross die regard yourself as dead and there's a kind of freedom of that I know I know I know it sounds like bad news I know everything inside us screams against doing this but if I will die to everything that is small and Petty and ignoble then at last I can come alive give me everything and I will give you everything your will be done that's the third step. [00:08:28]

There's always a danger in the spiritual life in a moment I might be moved about the beauty of a thought and think oh yes God I surrender all I surrender all and then the next moment somebody ask me to do something like no I'm been surrendered all so just to make this quite concrete very often in Jesus day now in in recovery circles in AA often it will involve alcohol that's part of the Beauty and the power of uh this way of life as folks will remember every day I'm not drinking anymore if you don't have an identified Addiction in that way you might just start with money and Just Surrender some money today in a way that you wouldn't otherwise do because we live in a world that uh has a big agenda for your money. [00:09:13]

Trust me with your money don't worry about tomorrow don't worry about what you're going to eat or what you're going to wear give and it will be given to you give and it will be given to you be generous and sometimes there's people who surrender like zakus give half everything I have to the poor pay back all the people I've defrauded four times that and then sometimes there's people that will not surrender like the Rich Young Ruler so today just to make surrender concrete uh there'll be an opportunity that you will have to give maybe it will be somebody that you see on the street somebody that's homeless I know that's not the best way to systemically combat poverty but still or maybe it's to send money to a worthy cause to be giving as lots of us are right now with the fires that have been going on in Southern California to bring relief there uh my old school Fuller is in the middle of all that they've got a fund and that's one of the things that n and I have given to just today sometime as a way of making surrender will your will be done your will be done made the decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God that's the prayer that's the invitation keep coming back it works if you work it. [00:11:04]