Finding Victory Through Surrender | Daniel Bentley

When you ask Jesus to be your savior, but you hold him at arm's length and don't allow him to be your Lord, you're basically saying, I wanna remain in control. In that case, you haven't really decided to follow Jesus. What you've really done, if you drill down into it, is you've invited Jesus to follow you. It doesn't work like that. We're called to surrender all. I'm reminded of the words of that beautiful hymn that puts it so eloquently. [00:36:11] (31 seconds)  #SurrenderAll

So much power in the cross. It's where the war was waged, the the battle was fought, and Jesus came through it victorious. And so when you surrender at the foot of Calvary, your surrender becomes your victory. And in that place, you are able to triumph over sin, death, and hell. Jesus fought the battle for you, and he said it's finished. It's done. So when we partake of the bread, every time we celebrate at the Lord's table and drink the cup and eat the bread. We are proclaiming the victory that we have found in giving up our lives to Jesus. [00:50:35] (56 seconds)  #VictoryAtTheCross

In so many words, he was saying, I didn't come here to take sides. I came to take over. And that's what the Lord always does. You know, there's a story that kinda emphasizes this point. During the height of the civil war, one of president Lincoln's advisers approached him, and he said, jeez, it sure is nice to know that we have God on the side of the union. Lincoln is said to have replied, sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side. My greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right. [00:22:39] (39 seconds)  #OnGodsSide

And I would say, yes and amen to that. God is for you. But that doesn't mean he's beholding to you. He's not some genie in a bottle that you can wield at your command, and and he's, you know, duty bound to fulfill your wishes and dreams and desires. No. No. No. He's ready to fight for you, but only when you're aligned with his plans and his purposes. See, that's the key. [00:24:07] (27 seconds)  #AlignWithHisPlan

So knowing that to be the case, instead of trying to convince God to get on board with our plans, our agendas, or our ideas, what we ought to be doing is is seeking his face and and trying to discern his will so that we can make sure we're aligned with him. You see, the the the prayer of the true saint is thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now some of you are thinking, but wait a minute. Doesn't the Bible state in various places that God is for us? [00:23:32] (35 seconds)  #SeekHisWill

Now the mistake he makes here is assuming that only two options existed. He he assumes that there are only two possible answers. He's either for us or he's against us. But then he's surprised by the man's answer. He says, neither. And that had to have caught Joshua by surprise. And the same thing happens with us. Something you need to know about the Lord is that he refuses to be limited or bound by the restrictions that we try to place on him. [00:20:16] (33 seconds)  #SurrenderNotSolo

Now there's a parallel to be made between what they had to do and what God calls us to do as his kids. You see, Jesus in John 10 describes this abundant life of flourishing. He said, I came that you might have life and that you might experience it to the full or to the max, that you that you might experience this victorious Christian life. And so that's been promised to us. But don't expect the enemy to just roll over or to give up or to relinquish territory without a fight. All progress in the Christian life is made through battles. [00:11:29] (40 seconds)  #PrepareForSpiritualBattle

I I remember being so discouraged when I heard that for the first time. I thought, you know, if I give my life to the Lord, then things should be pretty easy for me. It was a shock to my system to be confronted by the reality that the devil, if anything, he goes after you more and harder the more you try to pursue the Lord. In fact, Jesus said it like this. He said, the kingdom of heaven is taken by violence, and the violent sees it. [00:12:15] (29 seconds)  #JerichoWasStrategic

So if you wanna pursue the Lord, if you wanna lay claim to that life that we're describing throughout this series, the light series, the life of blessing, the life of abundance, the life of victory, then you better get ready for a fight. Now the first battle that Israel had to face took place at Jericho. Now Jericho wasn't the largest or most populous or even the most important city in Canaan, but it may have been the most strategic. Now its significance lied in its location. [00:12:44] (35 seconds)  #DontBoxGod

And we forget that Jesus is the eternal word of God. He is the central figure in all of scripture from Genesis to Revelation. And so there are times at which Jesus chose to make an entrance prior to his birth in Bethlehem. And this, I believe, was one of those times. It was Jesus who stood before Joshua. And Joshua recognizes that this person is the Lord, and he falls on his face, and he asks the question, what are my marching orders? [00:33:14] (34 seconds)  #BowForBreakthrough

To resist him, to to stiff arm him, to hold him at arm's length is to hold your very joy at arm's length. God is inviting you in to this this place of victory, this place of breakthrough, and I believe God wants to do that in our midst today. Will you bow your heads with me? Thank you, Lord. That the place of victory, where all our victory is found, is in our surrender. Now where do you surrender? You surrender at the foot of the cross. [00:43:37] (35 seconds)  #StandBeforeTheCommander

He didn't have any siege weapons to work with or or battering rams that he could use, and and he's watching the clock tick. He knows he's running out of time, and so he sneaks over to Jericho, and and all of these these predicament predicaments are are weighing heavily upon his mind, and he's staring up at these walls, and out of nowhere appears a man. And he's got a a sword in his hand. Now the fact that the sword wasn't, you know, sheathed at his side, but rather was resting in his hand, let Joshua know that this guy was looking for a fight. [00:18:36] (38 seconds)  #AreYouForUsOrEnemies

Now in situations like that, someone's approaching you, they've got a weapon in their hands, we all have kinda like that fight or flight reflex that kicks in in those those moments. Joshua was no coward, though. I mean, he was a man of war, and and I think in this moment, his military background kicks in, and he moves towards, not away from, the armed stranger. And before the man can speak, Joshua dictates the conversation, and he confronts the guy with this question. We find it at the end of verse 13 where he says, are you for us or for our enemies? [00:19:14] (36 seconds)  #ProvisionBeyondManna

For the forty years prior to that, every morning when Israel would wake up, they would step outside their tent, and covering the ground would be these wafer like substances that provided them with the nourishment that they needed. It was just God provided it. They didn't have to worry about where their next meal was going to come from. But now the manna has stopped because God was signifying to them, you've arrived. But that meant that their food supply was dwindling by the day, and so it highlighted the need to come up with a more stable food source and a more permanent living situation. [00:17:44] (36 seconds)  #FortressOfJericho

These walls were enough to make any potential enemy think twice before attacking. I mean, before you even could scale the wall, you first had to deal with about a 15 foot high retaining wall. And once you scaled that, you came to the outer wall of the city. That was about 25 feet high. And if you could somehow manage to get past that, that the crest of the hill, the inner wall, was another 25 feet tall. So if you add all of that up from ground level, the top of the tallest wall stood stood 65 feet above where you were standing. [00:15:40] (37 seconds)