GYCSE 2018: Given to God

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GYC Southeast

Michael Dant

Drowning In the Will of the Almighty

Oh, Heavenly Father, we just so desperately need you.

And so we desperately need your help, and we plead for your help this morning.

We thank you for it, In Jesus' name, amen.

Carl Grant was representing the United States at Osaka, Japan for a table tennis tournament.

And the evening before the tournament began, He was out there in the area where they were having the ping pong tables and things.

He struck up a conversation with 1 of the people from the Chinese delegation.

As they were talking, they were bantering back and forth, they decided, hey, it's not the competition yet, that starts tomorrow, but let's just play a game together and see how things go.

And you know what, Karl Grant said to himself, he says, I don't care if this is official or not, I'm gonna beat this guy, right?

Because this is a guy from the Chinese delegation, and if you don't know about table tennis, the Chinese sometimes are the best players in all the world.

And so he said, I'm going to do everything I can to beat this player tonight.

And he put all of his energy and all of his effort and all of his expertise and all of his training, He put it all into that 1 little game, and he just barely eked out a win.

And he was so happy, he went back to his players, his teammates, and he said, you know what?

I just played a game with 1 of the guys from the Chinese delegation, and I won.

And so the next day to prove it, he took his team over to where the Chinese were getting ready, and he said, hey you guys, I played 1 of you last night and I won and my teammates don't believe me.

So hey, help me out here Okay, and so the guy he was talking to says well, who was it?

And he said well, I don't see him here yet but oh there he is and at that very moment the guy was walking towards the team and the Chinese player says, oh yes, that's Mr.

My friends, self laughs at us in our efforts to beat it.

We may die to self, but my friends, self does not die.

When self is taken off the throne of our life, it is relegated to the deepest dungeons, but it still calls out, cries out, I want to be reinstated on the throne, and even getting it off the throne is impossible for us, we can't do it, self laughs at us.

Self is intertwined around every fiber of our being.

We are addicted to selfishness, to selfish ways.

That is why everyone who enters the pearly gates of the city of God will enter there as a conqueror and his greatest conquest will have been the conquest of self.

That's what we're here to answer this morning.

The answer is given by Jesus to Nicodemus, very short and clear and concise, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

That which is born of the spirit is spirit.

In other words, you cannot patch up your old self and fix it.

That which is born of the flesh will always be flesh.

The key to getting victory over self has to be a transformation, a miraculous, supernatural transformation of the Holy Spirit.

And that makes sense, you know, in a lot of ways when you think about it.

You know, before we give ourselves wholly to God, we are walking the broad road.

We are, the Holy Spirit is working on us, But the Holy Spirit has limited access to us because of our free will.

But when we are converted, when we give ourselves wholly to God, then the Holy Spirit is no longer just working on us, he is dwelling and working in us, and it's the devil who has limited access to us, and the difference is transformational.

An Englishman and his American friend were standing at Niagara Falls And the American said to the Englishman, hey, you know what?

Would you like to see the greatest unused power in the world today?

And the Englishman said, sure, let's see that.

So they went down the stairs to the bottom of the falls and they looked up at this massive wall of water pouring over those falls, and the American says, that, my friend, is the greatest unused power in the world today.

He said, no my friend, the greatest unused power in the world today is the Holy Spirit of the living God.

The greatest unused power in the world today is the Holy Spirit of the living God.

Trying to live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit is like trying to start a lawnmower without a spark plug or without gas.

In fact, what you're going to end up doing is end up sore and frustrated.

My friends, if you are sore and frustrated in the Christian life, this may be the problem.

Trying to live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit is like trying to fly by flapping your legs.

A caterpillar can't do it and you can't do it.

If you want to fly, what does a caterpillar have to do in order to fly?

It needs to die and be transformed into something that flies naturally.

Our sinful nature is the problem and Jesus, the Holy Spirit, dwelling in us is the only answer.

So I've told you nothing you don't already know.

So the question then becomes, okay, okay, we need the Holy Spirit, we knew that, thank you, but let's go on.

What are we going to do to get the Holy Spirit?

We're not seeing the Holy Spirit poured out with power in our lives, even personally today, and we can, and we should, why not?

This is perhaps 1 of the most common questions that we have about the Christian life.

How can I be filled with the Holy Spirit?

The answer is if you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you must be emptied of self.

The only prerequisite for receiving the Almighty God into our life so that He can be Almighty God in us is to let Him, is to get out of his way and let Almighty God be Almighty God.

Of course, that's a lot harder than it sounds.

So I'd like to share with you 3 main principles of the Christian life.

Second, the Holy Spirit is the solution, we all knew that.

Self is the problem, the Holy Spirit is the solution, and surrender is the key.

But we cannot even surrender ourself by ourselves.

In fact, there's a principle I'd like you to learn, I'd like you to memorize this.

My friends, no matter what the it is, Whether it be faith, whether it be love, whether it be joy, whether it be peace, whether it be surrender, whether it be victory over sin, no matter what the it is in the Christian life, only God can do it, we know that.

But because of our free will, only you and I can let him.

We saw that last night, it's a little bit scary.

And we have to let him, and that's what surrender is all about.

Only God can do it, only you and I can let Him.

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Drowning In the Will of the Almighty

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