Rev. David Holwick O
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
May 1, 2011
Luke 5:1-11
|
I. Surrendering isn't easy.
A. Humorous episode in the invasion of Iraq.
By March 29, 2003, the invasion was well under way and American
forces had overrun the southern part of the country.
Two Canadian journalists were embedded in an Army unit and they
decided to do some sightseeing in a captured town.
They found a statue of Saddam Hussein and decided to have their
picture taken in front it.
All of a sudden, two young men came up to them with their hands
up in the air.
The journalists thought they were locals, but it turned out
they were soldiers who had taken off their uniforms.
It might be a stretch to call them soldiers - they said they
had been given only four days of training before being sent
to the front.
The two men gave up only after a veteran of the first Gulf War
told them if they surrendered to the British, they would
be treated well.
I guess if you are Iraqi, Canadian is close enough to British.
So the journalists put them in their car and drove to a nearby
American guard post.
The special forces soldiers didn't want them.
As a matter of fact, they were ticked off.
"Don't do that any more," one of them shouted at the reporter.
So they found a POW camp run by the British and dropped the
two boys there.
The British troops promised them they would not be mistreated.
#63423
B. There can be a lot of anxiety in surrendering.
1) You don't know what to expect.
2) Will it be a good experience, or bad?
3) You are entrusting someone from the other side with your
welfare.
C. Surrender is a spiritual concept, too.
1) In effect, we are letting God conquer us.
2) Do you have what it takes to give up to God?
II. The five stages of surrender.
A. Surrender begins with disinterest.
1) Peter had a history with Jesus.
a) From other passages we know Peter had already met Jesus,
soon after his baptism by John. John 1:42
b) Others left everything to follow Jesus, but apparently
Peter did not. He went back to fishing.
2) Many are not hostile to Jesus but not interested, either.
a) They have work to do and bills to pay.
b) There is always something more important to do.
B. The second stage is doubt.
1) When Jesus gives fishing advice, Peter puts it down. 5:4
a) We worked hard and got nothing - and we're professionals.
b) What does a carpenter know that we don't?
2) Many doubt God's advice.
a) He tells us how to do business, raise kids, live a
clean life.
b) We would rather do it our way, the way we always have.
1> "You can't love your enemies! I tried it once and
got burned."
2> "I'm not going to report that income on my taxes.
Everyone in government is a crook."
3> "You can't be honest and make it in New Jersey.
I'm just doing what everyone else does."
4> "I can't tithe my whole income. I tried it once and
couldn't pay my other bills."
5> "I can't give more time to God. I just don't think
it would make a difference."
C. Stage three is belief.
1) Peter sees that Jesus knows what he is talking about. 5:6
a) They get so many fish their nets almost break.
b) Another boat assists them, and both almost sink!
2) Are you waiting for a miracle?
a) You might think it would be easier to believe if
something dramatic happened to you.
1> You pray to Jesus, and win the lottery.
2> That person you want, falls in love with you.
3> Everything you do succeeds.
b) Jesus has already done plenty of miracles.
1> He cannot prove himself to you if you resist.
2> Can you place your faith in what he has already done?
3) Belief is not surrender.
a) Belief acknowledges what Jesus has done.
b) It doesn't have to signify any change on your own part.
D. Stage four is repentance.
1) Peter falls on his knees before Jesus.
a) He confesses he is not worthy of him:
"Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!"
b) Jesus is no longer a carpenter or even a fishing
instructor, but the Lord.
c) By seeing Jesus as he really is, Peter also sees himself
as he really is.
2) When you know Jesus, you realize you must change.
a) This isn't a one-time realization, but an attitude for
life.
b) But awareness of your sinfulness is not the end point.
c) What are you going to do about it?
E. The final stage is surrender.
1) Peter accepts what Jesus invites him to do.
a) Jesus lets him know he will become a fisher of men.
(I wore that T-shirt yesterday, from the Christian
bass-fishing club.
The club wants it both ways - they want fish AND men.)
b) To accept the challenge, Peter has to surrender.
1> He, and the others, drop the nets, leave everything,
and follow Jesus from that point on.
2) Surrender is the only proper response to the call of God.
Bruce Larson tells how he helped people struggling to
surrender their lives to Christ.
He said, "For many years I worked in New York City and
counseled at my office any number of people who were
wrestling with this yes-or-no decision.
Often I would suggest they walk with me from my office
down to the RCA Building on Fifth Avenue.
In the entrance of that building is a gigantic statue of
Atlas, a beautifully proportioned man.
With all his muscles straining, he is holding the world
upon his shoulders.
There he is, the most powerfully built man in the world,
and he can barely stand up under this burden.
'Now that's one way to live,' Larson would point out to
his companion, 'trying to carry the world on your
shoulders.
But now come across the street with me.'
On the other side of Fifth Avenue is Saint Patrick's
Cathedral.
There behind the high altar is a little shrine of the boy
Jesus, perhaps eight or nine years old.
With no effort at all he is holding the world in one hand.
My point was illustrated graphically.
"We have a choice.
We can carry the world on our shoulders, or we can say,
'I give up, Lord; here's my life.
I give you my world, the whole world.'"
#63425
III. Surrender is an unnatural response.
A. We do not enjoy limits being placed on us by anyone.
1) Humans desire control.
2) Control is the absence of humility. "Do it my way."
B. God will fight our control.
1) He knows we must surrender.
2) He will do what it takes to make us give up control.
IV. The three truths of surrender.
A. God is good.
1) He always acts with our best, eternal interests in mind.
2) Romans 8:28 -- Everything works out for our good.
B. God is in control.
1) God rules the details of our life.
2) He is behind all the confusion.
C. God knows better than we do.
1) God's goodness can be masked at times.
Author Gary Thomas bought a home only to see it drop
in value. He and his wife were ticked with God.
But they found that their neighborhood offered them
many opportunities to witness. [1]
2) Obedience does not obligate God to bless us.
a) Obedience calls us to sacrifice.
b) We cannot measure our trials against our comforts.
c) We must measure our trials against their potential
to draw us nearer to God.
3) God sends us graces every day.
a) These are circumstances that can draw us into a deeper
relationship with God.
b) It is not for us to question God's ways.
V. Testing where your heart is.
A. How often are you complaining?
William Law, great leader in the Church of England in the 1700s:
"Don't please yourself with thinking how piously you would act
and submit to God in a plague, a famine, or persecution,
but be intent upon the perfection of the present day,
and be assured that the best way of showing true zeal is to
make little things the occasions of great [spirituality]."
B. Do you fear God breaking into your life, or invite him to?
C. Are you surrendering to God's moral obligations?
1) James says submitting to God is a corollary of resisting
the devil.
2) Willfully continuing in sin destroys the character of
surrender.
=========================================================================
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
Many points in this sermon were adapted from the article "The Freedom of
Surrender," by Gary Thomas, Discipleship Journal, #95, Sept/Oct 1996,
page 50. I also used material from the sermon “Going Beyond Good
Intentions: Surrender,” by Rev. Jeffrey Stratton, Kerux Sermon #26790.
February 4, 2007; http://evvabe.com/
[1] "The Freedom of Surrender," by Gary Thomas, Discipleship Journal,
#95, Sept/Oct 1996, page 50.
#63423 “It Can Be Hard To Surrender,” by David Holwick; adapted from
"Iraqi soldiers surrender to CBC reporters," Toronto Star,
March 28, 2003, submitted by Black Powder,
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/879343/posts
#63425 “Surrender Is The Only Proper Response To God,” by Bruce Larson;
in his book “Believe and Belong’” adapted from sermon “Going
Beyond Good Intentions: Surrender,” by Rev. Jeffrey Stratton,
Kerux Sermon #26790.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=========================================================================
Discipleship Journal, #95, Sept/Oct 1996.
"The Freedom of Surrender," by Gary Thomas, page 50.
I. Areas of surrender.
A. Easy to surrender to God in worship, harder when you are being
wronged.
B. Blaise Pascal's ultimate test.
1) Gave up popular social circuit to write apology of faith.
2) Expecting it to take ten years, he fell ill in meantime.
3) Was he bitter because "God owed him"?
4) No, he gave out food and blankets to the poor.
a) He had to surrender his ministry to God.
b) Giving one thing to God is easy; giving it all is hard.
II. Surrender is essence of Christian life.
A. It is the attitude we should have after conversion.
B. We struggle to relinquish more of our will to God.
1) Temptation to write a negative article on someone.
2) Christians are convicted it must be done God's way.
C. The struggle will never end.
III. Surrender is an unnatural response.
A. We do not enjoy limits being placed on us by anyone.
1) Surrender is an unnatural (or supernatural) response
to everyday life.
2) Humans desire control.
a) Control is the absence of humility.
1> Do it my way.
b) Control pollutes our relationships.
B. God will fight our control.
1) He knows we must surrender.
2) He will do what it takes to make us give up control.
IV. The three truths of surrender.
A. God is good.
1) He always acts with our best, eternal interests in mind.
2) Psalm 25:8 and Romans 8:28.
a) Everything works out for our good.
B. God is in control.
1) God rules the details of our life.
2) He is behind all the confusion.
C. God knows better than we do.
1) God's goodness can be masked at times.
a) (author's example of buying a house that devalued)
b) (their neighborhood offered an opportunity to witness)
2) Obedience does not obligate God to bless us.
a) Obedience calls us to sacrifice.
b) We cannot measure our trials against our comforts.
c) We must measure our trials against their potential
to draw us nearer to God.
3) God sends us graces every day.
a) These are circumstances that can draw us into a deeper
relationship with God.
b) It is not for us to question God's ways.
V. Conditional surrender?
A. We want to bargain with God.
1) Surrender, then draw it back.
a) (Ron Gordon and record collection)
2) We tend to treat God like a used car salesman.
B. Faith responds immediately.
1) Abraham didn't bargain about sacrificing Isaac.
2) He didn't offer his sheep or himself instead.
C. God is in charge.
1) Humility is the recognition we see with a finite eye.
2) Faith lets us accept God's stubborn silence.
3) Jesus at Gethsemane.
a) However much we want, we want what God wants even more.
VI. Tests of surrender.
A. Mature surrender is a gift from God.
1) Trials will come, but will they be profitable for us?
2) We can resent God and get bitter, or remember the 3 truths.
B. Testing where our heart is:
1) How often are we complaining?
William Law, great 18th-century Anglican:
"Don't please yourself with thinking how piously you
would act and submit to God in a plague, a famine, or
persecution, but be intent upon the perfection of the
present day, and be assured that the best way of showing
true zeal is to make little things the occasions of great
piety [spirituality]."
2) Do you fear God breaking into your life, or invite him to?
3) Are you surrendering to God's moral obligations?
a) James says submitting to God is a corollary of resisting
the devil.
b) A willful continuance in sin destroys the character of
surrender.
VII. The peace of surrender.
A. Surrender leads to peace.
1) A good God calls us to surrender to good things.
a) Pleasant surprises.
2) God's chief aim for us is the character of Christ, not
happiness.
a) We can have a virtual war with him, or a peaceful
surrender.
b) Surrender brings the greatest joy, rebellion brings
the greatest regrets.
B. Prayer of Francis De Sales [...]
1) Be God's surrendered child.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Create HTML Help, DOC, PDF and print manuals from 1 single source