Absolute Surrender - Life of Paul Part 71

Good morning everybody. Now if you're a soldier, why is desertion a problem? Well, the answer is that to be effective, an army has to have a certain attitude, a certain commitment from every one of its soldiers that is totally inconsistent with desertion. Stonewall Jackson summed up this attitude very well when he said, duty is ours, the consequences are God's.

Another way of referring to this commitment is to simply call it absolute surrender. You see, good soldiers don't reserve the right to debate their orders. They don't reserve the right to decide which consequences of doing their duty they're willing to accept and which consequences they're not willing to accept.

Good soldiers have surrendered that right. Now folks, in order for God to accomplish his purposes in this world, he needs good spiritual soldiers. He needs followers of Jesus Christ who have that very same attitude. Followers of Christ who are willing to say duty is ours, the consequences are God's. Followers of Christ who are willing not to debate their orders. Followers of Christ who don't decide ahead of time what consequences of doing their duty they're willing to accept and which ones they're not willing to accept. But followers of Christ who are determined instead to simply surrender to the heavenly general and do our duty.

Now that's what we're going to talk about this morning. We're going to talk about absolute surrender because this is the next principle that the apostle Paul shares with the leaders of the church at Ephesus in his speech here in Acts chapter 20. And so I want to ask you, if you brought a Bible, to open to Acts chapter 20 and we're going to look at this speech together.

And while you're doing that, let me give you a little bit of background. Remember, the apostle Paul is completing his third missionary journey. He's on his way back to Jerusalem with an offering that the churches of Greece have contributed to the poor believers in Jerusalem. Let's show you where he is. He's moved down, beginning at Troas, going down the western coast of modern day Turkey, and he's gone to Assos, to Mytilene, to Chios, to Samos, and now he's here at Miletus.

And as you can see, Miletus is just a short distance from the city of Ephesus. And so the apostle Paul sends to Ephesus and he invites the elders of that church, the leaders of that church, to come and meet with him. These are men that he has mentored, that he has invested in, that he has trained to lead that church, and he knows this is going to be the last time he's ever going to see them here on the face of this earth.

And when they come, he gives them a little speech. And in this speech here in Acts chapter 20, the apostle Paul sums up for them the values that drove his life, the values that shaped his ministry. If you're here and you're a follower of Christ who wants to be everything you can possibly be for Jesus Christ, then this speech that Paul gives in Acts 20 is the most life-defining speech for you and me anywhere in the New Testament. We've already covered the first of five principles included here.

Number one is the principle of obedience. We're going to cover principle number two today that Paul talks about, and that's the principle of absolute surrender. So let's look, verse 22. Paul, giving his speech, says, And now, compelled by the Holy Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem. Paul was utterly convinced that it was God's will for him to carry this offering to Jerusalem, and nobody, nobody was going to convince him differently.

Acts chapter 21, the Bible says, While we were at Caesarea, a little closer to Jerusalem, a prophet named Agabus came from Jerusalem. He took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it, and said, In this way, the Jewish people of Jerusalem will tie up the man who owns this belt and had delivered him into the hands of the Gentiles. And when we heard this, Luke writes, we began begging Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?

I am ready not only to be tied up, but I am ready to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And since Paul would not be dissuaded, we gave up and we simply said, Well, the Lord's will be done point. The point I want you to see here, friends, is that for the apostle Paul in his mind, going to Jerusalem was not a matter of choice. It was a matter of duty for the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 22 continues and now compelled by the Holy Spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit warns me in every city along the way that prison and hardships await me. Now, this is very intriguing to me, that that here the Holy Spirit not only made Paul's duty clear, I want you to go to Jerusalem, but the Holy Spirit also made the consequences of doing that duty clear prison hardship. He told Paul ahead of time what it was going to cost him. And I believe the Spirit of God did that so that he could put on display for all of us to see this attitude of absolute surrender that was so central in Paul's life.

Look what Paul goes on to say. Now, in light of knowing that prison and hardship is awaiting me, verse 24, I want you to know that I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself. My only concern is that I finish the race and complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. Now, what exactly is the Apostle Paul saying here?

Friends, he's saying, I have made an absolute surrender commitment of my life to Jesus Christ and to the will of God. My number one concern in life is not self-preservation. My number one concern in life is not what happens to me. My number one concern in life is doing my duty, being a faithful soldier for the Lord Jesus Christ. And this then is the second great principle that Paul shares with these Ephesian elders.

He says to them, fellas, if you want to be mighty servants of Christ like I am, if you want God to use you in awesome ways like he's used me, the first non-negotiable principle is obedience, and the second one, which is just as important, is this issue of absolute surrender. Now, that's as far as we want to go in our passage for right now because we have a question it's time to ask. And you know our question, so everybody deep breath. Here we go.

Ready? One, two, three. So what? Right. Say, Lon, so what?

Say, this is marginally interesting, but what difference does this make to my life at all? Well, I'm going to try to tell you that. You know, Andrew Murray wrote a book called Absolute Surrender over a hundred years ago, and here's part of what he said, and I quote. He said, in Scotland once, as a young man, I was in the company of people where we were talking about the condition of Christ's church. There was in our company an older godly gentleman, and I asked him what he would say was the greatest need of the church and God's people. He replied very quietly and simply, absolute surrender to God is the one thing. Murray went on to write, these words struck me as never before, that the condition for obtaining God's full blessing is absolute surrender to him. God is looking for those who will say, oh God, I accept your terms. Lord, anything for thee. Murray concludes, if our hearts are willing to do this, there is no end to what God will do for us, and the blessing that he will bestow, end of quote. Now before going on, why don't we take a moment and let's define absolute surrender.

Let's make sure we all know what we're talking about here. The best definition that I know of is found in the Bible. Romans chapter 12 verse 1. Paul writes, now I urge you brothers, in light of God's mercy to you, to present yourselves as living sacrifices to God, which is your reasonable service. The imagery here is that of the Old Testament sacrificial system, where a person would bring an animal to the priest there in Jerusalem, to the temple, as a worship offering, and the priest would take that animal and he would kill that animal, sacrifice that animal, and then burn that animal completely on the altar as an offering to God. How much of that animal did God want? Well friends, the answer is he wanted all of that animal. And in the same way we could ask the question as followers of Christ, in God calling on us to be living sacrifices, how much of us is God asking for?

Well the answer is the very same. God wants all of us. God wants us to bring our whole self, all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, all our strength, and lay it all on the altar before him. The whole shoot and match, lock, stock, and barrel. The whole nine yards, hook, line, and sinker. The whole enchilada, two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onion, on a sesame seed bun.

Boom! Lay it all on the altar. That's what he wants. He wants it all. You see, God is not interested in entering into a limited partnership with you. God is only interested in a complete takeover of your life. There's an interesting passage out of the Old Testament, 1 Kings chapter 20.

You don't need to turn there, but here's what it says. It says, Now Ben-Haddad, the king of Syria, gathered his army and attacked Ahab, the king of Israel. And Ben-Haddad sent messengers to Ahab and said, Thus says Ben-Haddad, king of Syria, your silver and your gold are mine, your most beautiful wives and your children are also mine. Then Ahab answered, It is as you say, my lord, I am yours and all that I have is yours. Now folks, this is absolute surrender. When we can approach God and say, Lord, I am yours and all that I have is yours, that is absolute surrender.

Absolute surrender means that you and I will go where God tells us to go. We will do what God tells us to do. We will say what God tells us to say. We will live like God asks us to live. We will act like God asks us to act. We will forgive like God asks us to forgive and that we will do all of this as a matter of duty, not negotiating with God ahead of time about what the possible consequences might be.

This is absolute surrender. Now this is exactly what Abraham did when God asked him to leave his homeland. Abraham didn't debate the consequences with God. He just said, If that's my duty, I'll do it. This is what Noah did when God asked him to build the ark. This is what David did when God asked him to go out and face Goliath. This is what the Mary, the mother of Jesus did when God asked her to become the conduit for the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus. And friends, this is what every great man and woman of God down through the centuries has done as different as they may have been. Every great man and woman of God has had one thing in common and that is they've all made this absolute surrender commitment to Jesus Christ.

They've all said, Lord, just tell me what my duty is and I'll do it and I won't negotiate the consequences. I'll leave them to you. Folks, this is what God's looking for from you and me and from every other follower of Christ. If we want God to bless our lives like he did the Apostle Paul, if we want God to use our lives like he did the Apostle Paul, if we want God to reward our lives in heaven like he did the Apostle Paul, we must satisfy this condition of absolute surrender. Now you say, Well, Lana, I think I understand what you're talking about now, but I got a couple of questions. Well, fine.

What are they? Well, my first question is, as a follower of Christ, do I have to make this absolute surrender commitment in order to keep my eternal life and go to heaven? Do I have to do this?

The answer is no, absolutely not. Friends, possessing eternal life is the result of embracing Jesus Christ and what he did for you and me on the cross, shedding his blood to pay for our wrongdoing. And it has absolutely nothing to do with good works, religious activity, absolute surrender or anything else. May I say that if you're here today and you've never done that, this is an important thing for you to know that that try to keep the Ten Commandments is wonderful. Going to church is wonderful. Doing all the activities you do to try to be a good person or wonderful, but none of those are going to get you into heaven.

The only thing that gets you into heaven and gets you eternal life is trusting the blood of Jesus shed on the cross to pay for your wrongdoing in the sight of a holy God. And if you've never done that, man, I think Christmas is a great time to do it. I'd encourage you to do it. Nothing else is going to work. But do we have to do absolute surrender to have that happen? No, we don't. You say, well, I got a second question then, and that is, you know, I've had some real bad experiences with this surrender thing in the past, Lon. I mean, I, you know, I had a domineering father and a dictatorial husband and I had a boss that was awful and I had a controlling mother. Look, I understand that.

I had a Jewish mother and on the scale of one to ten controlling mothers here and Jewish mothers up here. I understand this. Believe me, I do. And you say, well, then, Lon, you understand why that in my life I've decided I am never giving up control of my life to anybody ever again. So how is this any different?

Good question. And the answer is what makes this different, friend, is the character of the person to whom you're surrendering. You see, God that you're surrendering to is not some person that's going to use your surrender to feed their own ego and to feed his own power trip or to get his kicks from abusing you. This is the holy God of the universe you're surrendering to.

The God who loves you so much that he was willing to give his own life for you. And friends, the only thing God wants to do with your absolute surrender is maximize your life for Jesus Christ and make you everything he created you to be. He will not abuse your surrender. He will use that surrender to get you to the place that you're functioning as the maximum you can be for Jesus Christ. So listen, if you've had some bad experiences with surrendering to people before, please, you mustn't extrapolate that and lay it on God. This is a completely different kind of being you're dealing with here. You say, well, Lon, I've got one more question then.

All right, ask it. Well, here's my question. Paul made this commitment to God, right? Yes, he did. And God led him into prison, right? And into hardship and in all kinds of nasty tough stuff, right?

Yes, he did. Well, so you say, so Lon, here's my question. If I make this kind of absolute surrender commitment, isn't it possible that God may lead me into something that I don't like? Isn't it possible God may take me somewhere I don't want to go?

Friends, it's not only possible, it's likely. Listen to what Paul went through. 2 Corinthians 11, I've been beaten times without number, Paul says. Five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes.

Let me explain that. The Jewish people used a whip made out of rawhide cords with bone and steel in the end that would rip your flesh up. And the rabbi said you couldn't beat anybody 40 times with this thing.

It would kill them. So instead they beat you 39 times with it. Paul said five times that happened to me. Can you imagine what his back must have looked like? He goes on to say three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. The night and day I've spent in the deep. I've been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

You go, Whoa, Whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. Look, Lon, you're trying to talk us into making this absolute surrender commitment, right? Yes, I am.

And yet you're telling us all this bad stuff that happened to Paul when he did it, right? I am. You say, Lon, remind me never to hire you for a marketing position, okay?

No, wait a minute. You say, why are you telling us all this stuff? Because I'm telling you the truth.

Because you need to know the truth. Friends, listen. God doesn't promise when we make this absolute surrender commitment.

This is important. That He's always going to lead us where we want to go. What God promises is that He's always going to lead us where we need to go in order to fulfill His plan and His purposes for our life. And that's why you must understand this. That's why people who make this kind of absolute surrender commitment, their reason for doing it is not to get an easy life. Their reason for doing it is not to get a comfortable, cushy life. Their reason is that they want God to use them to the fullest. They want God to wring out of their life every bit of glory for Jesus Christ that He possibly can. And if it costs them some hardship, if it costs them some pain, if it costs them some brokenness, they're willing to pay that price. Because they want glory for Jesus Christ wrung out of their life, whatever the cost.

Those are the people who make this commitment. And God takes us up on it when we do. You know, 30 years ago when I was a brand new follower of Jesus Christ in my early 20s, I read Andrew Murray's book, Absolute Surrender. And I'll never forget after reading the book, I said, now God, that's what I want. I want to be that kind of person.

I've done all the things you can do to have fun. I want Jesus Christ to wring all the glory He can out of my life right now. And I'm making this commitment to you. And then, you know, I went out and looked for a woman to marry who had that same level of spiritual commitment, that same attitude about life.

God gave me a gem and my wife, Brenda, will be married 30 years next year. And together we set out in life and we said our commitment, our basis for life is that we are absolutely surrendered to whatever God wants for us. And the consequence is, well, that's God's decision. But we're going to do our duty.

You know, we stood on a stage in Langley High School back in 1992. The church was meeting there then with our little girl, Jill, who was a newborn. And we reaffirmed this commitment for ourselves. We reaffirmed it for her. We said as part of our child dedication that we would release this child to the will of God, whatever that might be, without bitterness or resistance.

Now, that's a statement of absolute surrender. Well, standing there on that stage 11 years ago, folks, we had no idea what was coming. Four or five thousand grand malls for our little girl, profound mental retardation, 911 calls frequently, hospital stays, sleeping many, many nights in hospital lounge chairs, switching off so one person could go home and get a shower and get a little bit of rest. We've been through years without ever sleeping through the night because my little girl would always be up in the middle of the night having seizures. We literally went years and never slept through a complete night. We went through depression and exhaustion and despair and feeling utterly hopeless.

We watched as Jill's medical condition completely decimated our finances. We began to wonder if we would ever laugh again. We began to wonder if we'd ever be happy again.

We tried so hard for this not to affect our three boys negatively because we were giving so much attention to Jill and yet there was just never enough of us, it seemed like, to meet everybody's needs. And you know, during that time, we would pray and say, Lord, if this is where you feel you need to take us, us, Jill, if this is what you feel you need to do in our lives, we made a commitment of absolute surrender. We're going to trust you. We're going to go there. But God, this is all so painful that at least assure us you're going to use this somehow for your glory. It's too painful to be wasted. Well, we're still on that journey today, friends.

I mean, every day I wake up and wish things were different. Every day I have to wake up and reaffirm that commitment of absolute surrender. But let me tell you in 11 years what the Lord's done. In 11 years, I believe the Lord has made my marriage better than it ever would have been if we hadn't been through this together. I believe He's drawn our family closer and made us stronger than we ever could have been if we hadn't gone through this. McLean Bible Church is where it is today, I believe, because God used all of this to make me a better pastor and a better leader and a better follower of Christ and just a better man. Now, we have Access Ministry today ministering to over 700 families who have children with disabilities. This wouldn't exist if it wasn't because of what God put me through.

I never would have understood or been and wanted to be a part of it. We have this new respite center that we're planning to build. And we hope it will be used as a challenge, a model to churches all around the country to reach out to these special children that are so near and dear to the heart of God and care for them. In fact, Brenda and I are flying out to Colorado Springs next week to go tape a couple shows on Jim Dobson on Focus on the Family where we're going to talk about what God has done in our life and what He's done in our church and try to challenge people around America to copy some of the things that we're doing.

And let me tell you what I believe. I believe that God wanted to take McLean Bible Church to the place we are today and beyond. But I believe that He knew He could never do it with me the way I was 12 years ago. I believe God knew that there were some tough things He had to do in my life. I believe God knew that there were some tough places that He needed to take me in order to get McLean Bible Church where we are today.

And you know what, folks? The point of all of this is that if Brenda and I had never made this absolute surrender commitment or if we had reneged on it, if we had deserted part way through when the consequences started to get tough, we wouldn't be seeing the blessings in our life that we're seeing today. And McLean Bible Church would not be where it is today blessing your life the way it is today. And what I want to tell you is God has great things He wants to do in your life. God has some incredible ways in which He wants to use you, but He can't do it unless you're willing to make an absolute surrender commitment to Him because friends He needs to take you places that you won't be willing to go. And He needs to do things in your life that you're not going to let Him do. You're going to desert unless you've made one of these commitments that says, Lord, duty is ours, consequences they belong to you. Whatever you want to do, God, you do it in my life and it's okay. Friends, I'm not naive enough to think that every follower of Jesus Christ is going to make one of these commitments.

I wish you would, but I'm not that naive. Let me tell you who makes these commitments. The people who make these commitments are followers of Christ who desire the blessing of God more than they desire human ease and comfort. The people who make this commitment are followers of Christ who value God using them more than they value human convenience and human safety. The people who make this commitment are followers of Christ who want God's rewards in heaven more than they want the applause of men down here on earth.

Now those are the folks who get serious with God and say, Lord, duty is ours, the consequences are yours, do whatever you need to do to wring out of me all the glory for Christ that's in there. And my prayer is that you'll be one of those people. Will it cost you something?

Yes it will. I'm not going to lie to you. It may cost you a lot. But you know, friends, if the result is that you end up bringing honor and glory to Jesus Christ with your life, then it's worth it. I mean, what else are you living for if you're not living for that? Let's pray together. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, if you need to talk to the Lord a little bit about this, maybe you're right in the middle of some circumstance that you're thinking about deserting. Don't do that, folks.

Don't do it. Let God do what He needs to do. You'll be glad He did. So if you need to talk to God right now, why don't you take a moment and do that. Lord Jesus, I thank you in the Bible that you don't play the shell game with us. As followers of Christ, I thank you that you tell us straight up what you're looking for from us. You tell us straight up what it's going to cost.

You tell us straight up what the benefits are going to be. And then you leave the choice to us. And certainly that's true on this issue of absolute surrender.

We have to make that choice. And Father, my prayer is that you would motivate many, many people here who are followers of yours to make the decision that they want you to wring all the glory out of their life for Jesus that's possible. And if that means absolute surrender, whatever the consequences, they're willing to pay that price.

Lord, many people have told you that in these quiet moments. I pray that you would assure them in their hearts that you're pleased with that commitment. And I pray by the power of your Holy Spirit that you would give us the courage and the resources we need to back up those commitments. Because we're going to have to. Lord, absolute surrender is not for the faint of heart. It's for the courageous men and women who want to be true followers of Jesus to their deepest being. May we be such people. And as such people, may you use us to make an impact on this city that will cause ears to tingle. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.