Sermon for 10/01/06

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Sermon for 10/01/06
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So you want to be like Christ? - SURRENDER: Releasing our grip

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, AMEN

Main Theme: This series is designed to take us past the good news of God’s grace! Grace is amazing but it is completely God driven. AFTER salvation comes the task that includes our participation: Becoming more and more Christ-like; the purpose of a Christian’s life! How we grow deeper in love with Jesus requires an intentional lifestyle aimed at becoming godly, not religious! We will look at 8 essential disciplines that will help our relationship with Jesus grow! Today, in our 4^th week, we see that God has set up the spiritual race course, but we choose to run it or not. The faithful do – giving up or “setting aside” any sin that stops them from running or crossing the finish line. They surrender something very dear to them – themselves. “Self-interest” is the mortal enemy of surrender. We surrender by 1) Studying Jesus and 2) Comparing ourselves to Jesus. And we surrender our possessions, positions, plans, and our people. Surrender results in surprises we would never otherwise experience. And the greater the struggle to surrender, the greater the surprise. (Based on Chuck Swindoll’s book “So, you want to be like Christ?” and other research.)

1) SHOWING UP! A wise pastor once said “Three-fourths of ministry is just showing up.” In other words, the faithful show up! If God says they need to be there, they commit to being there, and they show up. They are trustworthy. Paul mentioned this to the Corinthian church in one of his letters (1^st Cor. 4:2) “In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.” Despite what others suggest, Christians are not called to be “successful”, or “charismatic”, or “always optimistic or exited”, but we are called to show up when God calls – being trustworthy. Showing up is a big part of being faithful.

2) RACE! See, according to Paul, after receiving the free gift of salvation, all Christians have “a race” to run. A spiritual course has been set out before us. But whether we’ll run the race is up to us. Paul wrote to the Hebrews, (12:1), “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…” Notice: the race “is set before us” – meaning we, (the runners), don’t set the course. God does; and rearranging the course to suit our desires is not an option. Sure, “showing up” to start the race is a crucial part of our faithfulness to God, but it is not the only part. Actually setting out, down the race path set by God, reveals true faithfulness.

3) ENCUMBRANCE! But before we start the race, Paul says “lay aside every encumbrance” – which in the Greek means “weight” or “mass”. It’s anything that might be a burden. Often the original Olympic racers ran completely nude so as not to be encumbered by bulky clothing. Thankfully Christians were not asked to be nudists to be faithful; just discard anything that slows us or keeps us from running the spiritual race God has prepared for us. Think about it – what encumbrance is in your life that might keep you from following the course set out by your Lord?

4) THE SIN OF UNBELIEF! Now, Paul very specifically states that we are to set aside “the sin that so which so easily entangles us.” Notice he uses the definite article “the” pointing to a specific sin – the sin he has been taking about in the previous chapters “unbelief”. This “cloud of witnesses” he mentions are all the believers in the great hall of faith. And you and I are surrounded by them, and we are being challenged to join them by running the race God has prescribed for us. But first, we are called to lay aside “unbelief.” We need to decide if we are going to trust God – really relying on Him. Unbelief won’t allow that. The trust Paul is talking about is the kind that begins by truly surrendering the sin of unbelief - to God.

5) SURRENDER! We have repeatedly said in this series that our determined purpose as Christians is to KNOW GOD! We have discussed 1) the need for INTIMACY – returning to our first love by developing a close personal walk with God. 2) SIMPLICITY – shuffling our priorities to help us reorder our lives, free our minds, and clear our lives from the clutter that spoils intimacy with the Almighty. And 3) SILENCE and SOLITUDE – slowing down, shutting out the noise and distractions of a broken world in order to allow the Spirit of God to teach us. But now we come to the hardest discipline so far: SURRENDER! So far the things we have been asked to consider “giving up” were unpleasant things: complications, clutter, noise, distractions. But now we are asked to lay down our will. To surrender. To release our grip on our rights, our plans, our dreams. This… is a whole new ballgame! Now we talking about surrendering something we love!

6) SELF! A lot of us in the church can really “talk the talk” when it comes to surrender. But very few actually “walk the walk”. Why? Is it because we really don’t want to trust in God? No. It’s just that we have a greater love for our way – and so we miss running God’s race. Sure, God’s course is a good one! But we think our course is even better! And the four-letter word that trips us up is “self”. Being self-centered, and not God centered, defines sin. The Puritans have a great prayer that honestly nails our self-centered character to the wall: (“Man a Nothing”)

When thou wouldst guide me, I control myself,
When thou wouldst be sovereign, I rule myself.
When thou wouldst take care of me, I suffice myself.
When I should depend on thy providings, I supply myself,
When I should submit to thy providence, I follow my will,
When I should study, love, honor, trust thee, I serve myself;
I fault and correct thy laws to suit myself,
Instead of thee I look to man’s approbation, (approval)
and am by nature an idolater.

Lord, it is my chief design to bring my heart back to thee,
Convince me that I cannot be my own god, or make myself happy,
not my own Christ to restore my joy,
nor my own Spirit to teach, guide, rule me.
Help me to see that grace does this by providential affliction,
for when my credit is god, thou dost cast me lower,
when riches are my idol, thou dost wing them away,
when pleasure is my all, thou dost turn it into bitterness.
Take away my roving eye, curious ear, greedy appetite, lustful heart;
Show me that none of these things
can heal a wounded conscience,
or support a tottering frame,
or uphold a departing spirit.
Then take me to the cross and leave me there.

The fact is:Self-interest is the mortal enemy of surrender.

7) STUDY CHRIST! So how do we surrender? How do we release our grip and truly rely on God? Let’s read on in our Hebrew’s text because Paul has two suggestions: (Hebrews 12:2) “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God.” In other words we are called to two actions: the first is - Study Christ. Why? It is an antidote to the poison of self-interest that kills belief! The discipline of surrender begins by focusing our eyes on the person of Christ! See, Jesus is not the “finish line” of the race. Jesus is the designer of the race course, who emptied Himself and came down to be a runner! He ran the course! In fact, He ran it perfectly! Though misunderstood, misrepresented, misquoted, mistreated, and finally crucified – He never-the-less committed no sin. Jesus longed only to serve and follow His Father in heaven. Jesus showed us what it means to surrender! So we study Him!

8) IMITATE! Now in the Greek, the word interpreted “fixing our eyes” means to look exclusively at something and study it intently while consciously looking away from distractions. The implication is imitation! Just as great athletes study the films of other greats to discover their techniques, etc… so too, we called to study the one who ran the race course flawlessly. Then we are called to imitate Him! To live as He lived! To obey as He obeyed! To pour ourselves out, as He did! To please God and make Him smile – as the Son did! To surrender, as Jesus surrendered! Yes, we are “saved by grace”, but THEN we are called to lovingly imitate our Savior.

9) FOCUS! Now if you think this sounds like a lot of work, even an impossibility, know this: Focusing intently on Christ naturally results in a lifestyle of greater and greater selflessness. You don’t have to strive for it; the Spirit does it for you! As Christ comes into your heart to live, He transforms it to be less and less selfish. Paul calls us to focus intently on Jesus, and faithful surrender is a by-product the Spirit provides. If you want it, and stay focused on Him – He’ll make it happen!

10) HUMBLE/SELFLESS! When Paul was under house arrest in Rome, he wrote the church in Philippi explaining the pattern of the truly Christian life. Calling them to stay focused on Christ, he gives believers 4 commands – the first and third are negative, the second and fourth are positive. Holding Christ up as the ultimate example he explains the concept of surrender – (Philippians 2:3-5) “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” Wow – nothing goes against our consumer me-first culture more than being selfless and willingly and humbly placing others before ourselves. It IS humbling to be selfless and yet, didn’t Matthew quote Jesus as describing himself as (Matt. 11:29) “gentle and humble in heart”. Christ-like humility comes from focusing intently on Christ so as to imitate Him by selflessly thinking of others in everything we say and do.

11) PERFECT SURRENDER! When Jesus came down to demonstrate and empower us to run the race according to God’s will, Paul explained in the next few verses of Philippians that… (2:5-11) “…although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted Him…” See even though Jesus deserved all the respect, worship, and adoration due Him as God, He let it all go! He emptied Himself! He relinquished His independence, to submit to the Father. He waited on the Father for His will, for His timing. He eagerly sought out the Father who told Him where to go and what to do and when to do it! He gave up what was rightfully His for the sake of others – including you and me! On a cross surrounded by thieves and murders – He displayed perfect surrender. And God glorified Him for doing so!

12) 20-80! Have we fixed our eyes on Jesus? …focused our gaze on Him? … have we studied Christ - which then leads to selflessness? If so, then how do we explain the 20-80 rule? The rule that says… 20% of the members do 80% of the ministry! The rule based on 20% giving 80% of the time, talent, and treasures needed to build God’s kingdom! How do we explain the sadness expressed at the Faith and Care leaders gathering last week because many of our members do not not even show up to their group meetings to sign up to serve the church body, (remember the pastor who said ¾ of ministry is just showing up)? In fact, some members have repeatedly refused to serve when asked – having no intention of living up to the promises they made when they joined and pledged to participate. I could give dozens of other examples of members “talking the talk”, but not “walking the walk” – starting with myself – but why do it? Why give more examples of the 20-80 rule? Can comparing ourselves to Christ actually cause any of us to change our self-centered ways?

13) YES! COMPARE! Well, yes actually! Remember our Hebrews text? Read the next verse (Heb. 2:3) “For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.” The term “consider Him” in the Greek is an accounting term. You do it when you balance your check book and compare your figures with that of the bank. So “considering” Jesus implies measuring yourself against His experience and His example. Every time you feel sorry for yourself - pause long enough to consider His situation. Feeling criticized, abandoned, persecuted? –compare your life to His. Next time you are asked to surrender something comfortable for the greater good, weigh what you have to surrender to what He surrendered. In other words – comparing yourself to Jesus can wake us up to the truth! We are called to keep Jesus as our standard! We are called not to preserve our life, but to pour it out for others! As a result - we will not grow weary and lose heart! When the devil suggests giving up the race, taking it easy, worrying only about number one, we will be blessed by looking at Jesus and surrendering to God’s will! Yes! It’s true! Comparing ourselves to Christ may actually cause us to change our self-centered ways!

14) RELEASE YOUR GRIP! Some hesitate to surrender their entire lives to Christ because they think surrendering means giving into defeat! It does not! It simply means releasing your own grip on your life and dropping it into God’s capable, caring, and expert hands! You are releasing it to the One greater than yourself, and trusting – believing – that He is both able and willing to care for you better than you can. When you release your grip, you find you have more energy, and less worry. Though Satan suggests “releasing your grip” sounds a lot like suicide – the decision to trust God is more like slipping off a heavy backpack and taking a leap. It will feel weird and scary at first. You’re so accustomed to carrying a great weight, that releasing it will naturally upset your balance at first. And jumping into the unknown - expecting to be caught by God may be frightening at first, but every time you land in His large, powerful, and caring hands, you find a greater joy and a deeper intimacy with the Lord. As you start to live as He did, you are sharing in His experience, and you truly get to know Him better! He is right there – living within you! Encouraging you and urging you to release your grip and take the next step!

15) SURRENDER WHAT? Believe me, I know, surrendering is hard in the beginning, especially if you are a selfish kind of person, a little spoiled, a little pampered, a little over indulged. Your old self will whine and fight for survival! But God honors those who pay the price to be like Him: selfless! That’s why surrendering plays such a large role in putting “self” in its place! That’s why some of us must consider what it is we must surrender to be more like Christ!

1) Some of us surrender our MATERIALISM and GREED before we find the freedom and relief that comes from being Christ-like! We cannot idolize things. Go ahead, and make a list of the material things that are dear to your heart – are you willing to surrender them to God – releasing them in prayer to Him – declaring Him the owner of these things? We’ll never become like Christ with greed in our hearts, and as long as material possessions mean more than they should.

2) Some of must release our grip on our CAREERS or SOCIAL LADDERS. Is your ego wrapped around your title or role! We must deliberately refuse to allow a career position or title determine who we are. We need to let the importance of our social status go! Place all the benefits, perks, importance or power before God! Release these things. Find all your security, identity, and contentment in Him!

3) Some of us must surrender our PLANS and DREAMS. Those plans and dreams we have; must be held loosely. Yes, plan wisely, but always be ready for God to rearrange your dreams and take you on a journey that appears dangerous at first. But don’t sweat it! He knows what He is doing! And He isn’t obliged to inform you …or ask your permission to upset your neat little agenda!

4) Here’s a hard one! Hold the PEOPLE you love loosely! Sure you love them, but remember; everything this side of heaven is temporary! If relationships don’t end, they will certainly change! Enjoy the time you have with loved ones, but avoid the temptation to cling! Give each loved one to God for whatever He wills. Prepare yourself for the day you release the people you love into God’s hands!

16) SURRENDER’S SURPRISE! Friends, Chuck Swindoll once wrote down these two principles: 1) Surrender results in surprises we would never otherwise experience, and 2) The greater the struggle to surrender, the greater the surprise! Today, Jesus comes to help you release your grip! His Spirit eagerly awaits permission to empower you to surrender it all to God! If your life is all wrapped up around a possession, job, role, future expectation, or a relationship – you aren’t fully relying on God. Selflessly holding on to those things and people means you are carrying all the weight and suffering all the worry and fear that comes with them! God gentle calls you to stop – now! Let Him help you to… Surrender! Let go! And let God! Release your grip! Why delay the amazing surprise God has waiting for you! Praise God! AMEN

Sermon/Confessional Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, we confess that we are not always eager to run the race you have set before us. In fact, sometimes we don’t even show up. And when we do, we prefer to design the route ourselves. Many of the things that encumber us and slow us down, we refuse to toss aside. There are sins we’d rather keep. Forgive us, and help us to let them go! Empower us that we might set ourselves in motion down the trail that you have chosen for us.

Lord, some of us strive constantly to be in control of our lives. Even if we have begun to see the futility of this obsession, we do not know how to let go. We hear your promise to care for us, but we still cling to our possessions, careers, social status, plans and dreams, and people to bring us the security and joy we desire. Forgive us, and enter into us – that we may surrender all parts of our life to you. Teach us to trust and lean on you for all things.

And now Lord, although you know us better than we know ourselves, listen as we share in a moment of silence, those other parts of our lives that need to be forgiven, washed clean, healed, and recommitted to you! (made anew.)

(Silence)

Lord, we will never be able to fight our selfish desires by ourselves. Help us to study you, compare ourselves to you – that by focusing on you we may be transformed. Let your Spirit increase within us, so that “self” can decline. Help us to surrender all we have and are into your capable, willing, and caring hands. In Jesus Name We Pray. AMEN

Assurance of Forgiveness:

Friends, listen to the good news: The Lord, who offers you the life-giving discipline of surrender, …that Lord has mercifully heard your confession and eagerly forgives you all your sins. Go now, having released everything you are and have into His divine hands! Loosen your grip, let go, release your life to the Lord who died on the cross for you! And then prepare yourself for the life-giving surprises that surrendering to Christ always brings! Praise God! AMEN

Opening prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, all week long we have made countless decisions and choices that have impacted our life, and others around us. Too often we have chosen our path based on our own selfish desires and dreams. As a result we enter this holy place with the burden of sin and the pain of broken relationships and lives. But we come this morning with hope in our hearts. For on the cross you declared your love for us, despite our frailties and weaknesses. We come to throw ourselves on your mercy, confident that you will hear our cries and forgive our sins – washing us clean and making us new creatures through your Holy Spirit living within us! We come in from a deceptive world full of lies and false claims, seeking your wisdom and knowing that your truth will set us free to increasingly be the people you designed us to be. We come to ask for help in surrendering who we are and what we have to you – confident that focusing on you will mysteriously transform our hearts and lives in life-giving ways. May our songs of praise and our prayers rise up to you, and make you smile! Draw us ever closer to you, that we might become increasingly more Christ-like in every thing we say and do! In Jesus Name We Pray! AMEN!

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