From Almost to All-In: Surrendering to Christ
Summary
Living an "almost" life versus an "all-in" life in Christ is a profound challenge that we face as we journey in faith. Today, we explored this through the encounter between Jesus and the rich young religious leader in Luke 18. This young man, despite his wealth, status, and moral standing, was not fully surrendered to God. He was seeking to earn eternal life through his achievements, asking Jesus, "What must I do?" rather than "Who must I follow?" This reflects a transactional relationship with God, rather than a transformative one. Jesus challenges him to sell all he has and follow Him, highlighting that true discipleship requires surrender, not just adherence to rules.
This story is not just about wealth; it's about what owns us. For the young man, it was his possessions, but for others, it might be control, fear, or comfort. Jesus calls us to identify and surrender that "one thing" that holds us back from being fully committed to Him. This is not about stripping away joy but about setting us free to experience true treasure and joy in Christ. The call to go "all-in" is a call to grace, where we trust in God's way rather than our own achievements.
The journey from "almost" to "all-in" is about moving from a divided heart to one fully surrendered to God. It's about living with a heart where godly love rules everything, not perfection of performance but perfection of love. Jesus assures us that those who give up for the sake of the kingdom will be repaid many times over, not in a prosperity gospel sense, but in the joy and freedom found in full surrender to God. As we partake in communion, we are reminded of this call to surrender, to open our hands and receive God's grace and love.
Key Takeaways:
- The rich young leader's encounter with Jesus challenges us to move from a transactional to a transformative relationship with God. It's not about what we do to earn eternal life but about who we follow and surrender to. [43:40]
- True discipleship requires identifying and surrendering the "one thing" that holds us back from being fully committed to Christ. This is not about losing joy but about gaining true freedom and treasure in Him. [50:34]
- Going "all-in" is a picture of grace, where we trust in God's way rather than our own achievements. It's about living with a heart where godly love rules everything, not perfection of performance but perfection of love. [57:46]
- Jesus assures us that those who give up for the kingdom will be repaid many times over, not in material wealth but in the joy and freedom found in full surrender to God. [01:02:37]
- The journey from "almost" to "all-in" involves a heart fully surrendered to God, where we are fully available to Him, experiencing the joy of following Jesus by letting go and giving our life away. [01:18:05]
Youtube Chapters:
[00:00] - Welcome
[00:30] - Introduction to the Series
[02:00] - The Challenge of Almost vs. All-In
[05:00] - Story of John D. Rockefeller
[10:00] - The Rich Young Leader's Encounter
[15:00] - The Question of Eternal Life
[20:00] - Jesus' Challenge to Surrender
[25:00] - Identifying Our "One Thing"
[30:00] - The Call to Full Surrender
[35:00] - Communion and Grace
[40:00] - The Wesleyan Covenant Prayer
[45:00] - Closing Prayer and Invitation
[50:00] - Final Blessing and Dismissal
Study Guide
Bible Study Discussion Guide
Bible Reading:
- Luke 18:18-30
Observation Questions:
1. What question does the rich young religious leader ask Jesus, and how does Jesus initially respond to him? [43:40]
2. What specific commandments does Jesus mention to the young man, and how does the young man respond to them? [47:25]
3. What does Jesus tell the young man to do in order to have treasure in heaven, and what is the young man's reaction? [50:34]
4. How does Jesus describe the difficulty for the rich to enter the kingdom of God, and what metaphor does he use? [50:34]
Interpretation Questions:
1. Why might the young man's question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" reflect a transactional rather than a transformative relationship with God? [43:40]
2. How does Jesus' challenge to the young man to sell all his possessions and follow Him illustrate the concept of surrender in discipleship? [50:34]
3. What does Jesus mean when He says that those who give up things for the kingdom will be repaid many times over, and how does this differ from a prosperity gospel message? [57:46]
4. How does the story of the rich young leader illustrate the difference between having a divided heart and a heart fully surrendered to God? [50:34]
Application Questions:
1. Reflect on your own life: Is there a "one thing" that holds you back from being fully committed to Christ? How can you begin to surrender it to God this week? [50:34]
2. Consider your relationship with God: Is it more transactional or transformative? What steps can you take to deepen your relationship with God and make it more transformative? [43:40]
3. Jesus assures us that those who give up for the kingdom will be repaid in joy and freedom. How can you experience this joy and freedom in your daily life? [57:46]
4. The sermon mentioned the concept of "perfection of love" rather than "perfection of performance." How can you focus on loving others more fully this week? [50:34]
5. Think about a time when you felt called to go "all-in" for Christ. What was the outcome, and how did it impact your faith journey? [57:46]
6. How can participating in communion remind you of the call to surrender and receive God's grace and love? [57:46]
7. Identify a specific area in your life where you still reserve control. What practical steps can you take to surrender this area to God and trust in His plan? [50:34]
Devotional
Day 1: Transformative Relationship Over Transactional Faith
True discipleship is not about what we do to earn eternal life but about who we follow and surrender to. The rich young leader's encounter with Jesus in Luke 18 challenges us to move from a transactional to a transformative relationship with God. This young man approached Jesus with the question, "What must I do?" which reflects a mindset focused on earning favor through actions. Jesus, however, redirects him to consider who he must follow, emphasizing that eternal life is not a reward for good deeds but a gift received through surrender and relationship. This shift from doing to being, from earning to receiving, is at the heart of a transformative faith. [43:40]
Matthew 16:24-25 (ESV): "Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.'"
Reflection: In what ways have you been approaching your faith as a transaction? How can you shift your focus to deepen your relationship with Jesus today?
Day 2: Identifying and Surrendering the "One Thing"
True discipleship requires identifying and surrendering the "one thing" that holds us back from being fully committed to Christ. For the rich young leader, it was his wealth, but for others, it might be control, fear, or comfort. Jesus calls us to recognize what owns us and to let go of it, not to strip away joy but to set us free to experience true treasure and joy in Him. This act of surrender is not about losing but about gaining true freedom and treasure in Christ. [50:34]
Hebrews 12:1 (ESV): "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."
Reflection: What is the "one thing" in your life that you need to surrender to God? How can you begin to let go of it today?
Day 3: Trusting in God's Grace Over Our Achievements
Going "all-in" is a picture of grace, where we trust in God's way rather than our own achievements. It's about living with a heart where godly love rules everything, not perfection of performance but perfection of love. This journey from "almost" to "all-in" involves a heart fully surrendered to God, where we are fully available to Him. Jesus assures us that those who give up for the kingdom will be repaid many times over, not in material wealth but in the joy and freedom found in full surrender to God. [57:46]
2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV): "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
Reflection: In what areas of your life are you relying on your own achievements rather than God's grace? How can you begin to trust more in His grace today?
Day 4: Joy and Freedom in Full Surrender
Jesus assures us that those who give up for the kingdom will be repaid many times over, not in material wealth but in the joy and freedom found in full surrender to God. This assurance is not about prosperity in a worldly sense but about the richness of life that comes from being fully committed to Christ. The journey from "almost" to "all-in" is about moving from a divided heart to one fully surrendered to God, experiencing the joy of following Jesus by letting go and giving our life away. [01:02:37]
Philippians 3:7-8 (ESV): "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ."
Reflection: What does full surrender to God look like in your life? How can you experience the joy and freedom that comes from letting go and following Jesus?
Day 5: A Heart Fully Surrendered to God
The journey from "almost" to "all-in" involves a heart fully surrendered to God, where we are fully available to Him, experiencing the joy of following Jesus by letting go and giving our life away. This is not about perfection of performance but perfection of love, where godly love rules everything. As we partake in communion, we are reminded of this call to surrender, to open our hands and receive God's grace and love. [01:18:05]
Colossians 3:14-15 (ESV): "And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful."
Reflection: How can you cultivate a heart fully surrendered to God today? What steps can you take to let godly love rule everything in your life?
Quotes
I find the hill of Calvary, I find the hill of Calvary. Beautiful music, it's been just fantastic, of course, throughout the Lenten season, as it always is, but especially the songs are powerful, the lyrics go along with the beautiful music. I want to begin to tell you a story that you might have already heard. And I've been reading a couple of leadership books, and in the leadership books, they have keep referencing a particular time in American history. And there's some certainty to the story and then some uncertainty to the story. But John D. Rockefeller, you might know that name. He was, at one time, the wealthiest individual in all of the world. [00:37:37] (45 seconds)
He was the founder of Standard Oil. And in the early 20th century, he recognized the problem because of the United States of America having a shift. There was a shift from agriculture to industry. And there was a need for a different type of worker, an industrial worker. And so he was a man of vision. And being a man of vision, he realized that the current education system wouldn't really support that sort of thing. It prioritized, which is not a bad thing, but it prioritized teaching students critical thinking, independent inquiry. And those skills weren't actually needed in the industrial era as much. And so Rockefeller saw an opportunity to shape the future workforce. [00:38:44] (51 seconds)
And this is just rumor. And it's not a quote, but it's just rumor. And I've heard it multiple times in different books. But he said something like this, I don't want a nation of thinkers. I want a nation of workers. And he needed a workforce, and he knew America needed a workforce that arrived on time, followed orders, knew that when the bell rung that you moved to another place or you took on a new task. And no longer did the skills like strategic thinking or creativity, problem solving, really, they didn't really. They didn't really. [00:39:24] (35 seconds)
The front lining needs there. And so they took a backseat to the industrial machine. Well, to address this misalignment in 1902, actually Rockefeller sunk about a million dollars into the general education board. He helped form the general education board. And a million dollars at that time was about $37 million during our time. Now, over its time in the early 1900s, invested probably $100 million in emphasizing particular style of learning, punctuality, obedience. It was really based off an 18th century Prussian model of education. [00:39:47] (46 seconds)
And it was designed to create people, a compliant workforce, as well as docile subjects and factory workers. Now, over time, this new approach actually worked. But at times, it began to emphasize, basically, as we saw, and I think I've seen in my own personal education, that it emphasized getting the answer right. That it was like listening to facts, memorizing those facts, and then whoever was best at regurgitating those facts would be rewarded. Regurgitating correctly, of course. Now, who learned that way? Most of us. And some of the critical thinking skills and stuff like that have finally come back into play, and that's important. They're highlighted in our society and much needed. [00:40:58] (56 seconds)
But the religious leaders and the religious system at Jesus' time was very similar. They had a very similar goal, you could say, as this sort of this new model of education that was being put in place in the early 1900s. And I think that some of this still exists in the religious world that we deal with, even in the Christian world. And it's really based off of really a misunderstanding of why we have the Ten Commandments, even. Why do we have the law? And we will see this problem in Luke 18 today as we see the rich ruler, or the rich young leader. And he asks Jesus some questions. He wants to know if he's getting an A plus on his report card. But he doesn't ask the right question. He fails to ask himself this question. [00:41:53] (59 seconds)
Am I becoming the person God created me to be? Or am I just getting good grades in religion? Okay? That's really what the basis of all his questions were in this story, in this encounter with Jesus. Now, this biblical encounter, we get three out of four in the three out of the four Gospels. And this young man, if you go and you look at the different encounter, this encounter with Jesus, you get different names for this young person. Rich young ruler, rich young religious leader, all sorts of different things. We're going to call this young man rich young religious leader, because that's what he was. He had straight A's in religion. He had straight A's in morality. He had youth. He had wealth. He had status. He had morality. He was, like we talked about a couple of weeks ago, he was all show and no go. Okay? And spiritual truth was that the Jesus way that he now was about to encounter, the Jesus way is not looking for right answers, the Jesus way is looking for right surrender. [00:43:39] (73 seconds)
And that's what he is about to face with Jesus today. Now, many religious people still ask the question, what must I do? What must I do to get into heaven? What must I do to be a good Christian? What must I do? Instead of, who must I follow? Who am I? Am I following? Who has the most say-so in my life? Who's my Lord? Who's my King? So when it's just all about what must I do, that's where it gets into this transactional relationship with God instead of a relational transformative relationship with God. Now, let's look at our scriptures today in Luke chapter 18. [00:44:01] (47 seconds)
Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question, good teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus asked him. Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments. You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother. The man replied, I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young. When Jesus heard his answer, he said, there is still one thing you haven't done. Sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. [00:44:30] (42 seconds)
But when the man heard this, he became very sad, for he was very rich. When Jesus saw this, he said, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God? In fact, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Those who heard this said, then who in the world can be saved? He replied, what is impossible for people is possible for God. Then Peter says, we've left our homes to follow you. Yes, Jesus replied, I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brother or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom will be repaid many times over in this life and will have eternal life in the world to come. [00:45:12] (56 seconds)
These are the words of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. So in verse 18, this rich, young, religious leader says, good teacher. He addresses Jesus as good teacher. And Jesus basically at this moment in time tries to bring in some critical thinking. He's like, so you call me a good teacher? That's saying something about me. Only God is good. So what are you saying about me? Am I God? Basically. Okay. He sort of has that little conversation going on behind the scenes. You think I am God. Now the main question that this young man says is what do I need to do? What do I need to do to inherit the kingdom, to inherit eternal life? How do I earn it? How do I get it? What do I need to do? [00:46:08] (52 seconds)
This young man was a spiritual achiever. Now it's not bad to be in a spiritual achiever at all. We want to achieve things for the Lord, but that was what he was about. Now, so Jesus basically lists off a portion of the 10 commandments and the commandments that he lists off are the commandments related to loving others, not loving God, but loving others. The young man hears this and he says, check, all done. I've got an A plus on that. He had this outward obedience going on in his life, not a problem. But Jesus knows because he is fully man, but fully God, he knows his heart and he knows something's missing. [00:46:59] (42 seconds)
And so I've heard it said about this young man that this guy was young enough to run. He was rich enough to walk away. He was respected enough to get an audience with Jesus, but he was not surrendered enough to follow. That was his problem. And the biblical truth really is this, is the most impressive resume can't replace surrender. We can have some pretty amazing resumes when it comes to religion, religion, but it can't. replace surrender. Our namesake, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, he called this issue the almost Christian issue. [00:47:47] (47 seconds)
So if you think you're gonna kind of not be challenged today, man, John Wesley, he was an in-your-face type of guy, let me tell you. We probably wouldn't like him much. And a lot of times people say, well, those Methodists, they're just trying, they're pretty loosey-goosey about things, you know. It's like, if you met John Wesley, you wouldn't have thought that at all. And so we're gonna talk a little bit about the almost Christian. Someone, he said, does everything right, but doesn't fully give their heart to God. Wesley said that many will attend church, read scripture, they will tithe, they will live ethically, but they will never give their hearts to God. They won't do it. They still have one thing, maybe. Maybe they have multiple things, but one thing is in the way of truly surrendering. [00:48:29] (53 seconds)
A lot of times we listen to this story. We listen to this encounter. And yes, I could preach on it. It's a whole nother sermon or two, but we often say, okay, he's talking about those rich people and I'm not rich, right? And I don't really need to prove to you that you are actually rich, but just go on the Kenya trip and you'll find out you are rich, okay? First of all. Okay. So that answered that question. You're rich. But anyway, this isn't just for the rich among us, okay? This is a lesson about what owns you. That's what Jesus is trying to talk to this man about. It just happened that it was his sense of control and he had everything and he had a lot of possessions and Jesus is like, that's your one thing. Now for me, it might be something totally different. Jesus might say, this is your one thing. This holding you off from going all in. All followers of Jesus need to make loving God about everything in our life and there shouldn't be any second kingdoms. [00:50:34] (68 seconds)
Now, if you want to know about true holiness, true holiness is not perfection of behavior. Even though that's what we've always been taught. It's perfection of love. We need to get the loving part right. Where do we still need, where do we reserve the right to control our life still? That's where we need to start a lot of times. Where do we reserve the right to control our life? We don't have to go all in. God's given us free choice. We want to just, we want to keep that portion. What's your one thing though? And that's probably your one thing that is keeping you from going from, you know, all in with Christ. What would you, what would it look like to move from this almost to all in? [00:51:42] (51 seconds)
And are we willing to give up that one thing? Is it wealth? Maybe it is. You don't have to have a lot of money to still let it control your life. Maybe it's control, just control. Maybe it's fear. Maybe it's comfort. Maybe it's your image. Maybe it's just apathy. It's like, I've just been going through the, I really care. You know, it's just, you're apathetic. How can we move from almost to all in? Well, the key piece of this is we've been talking about is listening to him. We listen to him. We listen to God. We need to figure out what is the one thing. Let's just start with one. Let's not start with like a whole handful of stuff because we probably all got a little, you know, we got like a, we're holding on a lot of stuff. That's just one thing. I mean, what is the one thing that is sort of really keeping us from that almost category? And we need to bring that to Jesus. We need to lay it at the table of grace. [01:02:37] (58 seconds)
The other thing that we can do is not just listen and figure out that one thing. There's something called the Wesleyan covenant prayer. And we, we say it together. Every service, the traditional 1115 service after communion, we're going to do it today, but we're also going to do it before we take communion today, because these are familiar words to us and we should use it. I wanted to use it as this moment of examination, a moment of prayer, of confession and commitment and, and really a guide for us as a personal act of surrender. And I desire, you know, and you desire to go all in. Well, these are some words that we can say and they will open our hearts and our minds and boy, they challenge us. And, and maybe Jesus is saying, you know, okay. Or you're saying, I, geez, I want to, I want to fully surrender. I just, I don't know how to get over that hump. And so these words are powerful. [01:18:05] (58 seconds)
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