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Muskegon SDA Church

Jason Sliger

The Science of Surrender

Father in heaven, we come into your presence this morning seeking a blessing from the wealth of knowledge that is in your word.

But Father, without the Holy Spirit, all the searching that we do will amount to nothing.

So Lord, we ask that the Spirit's presence would hover very close to us, and that you would take the lifeless words that I speak and breathe life into them, that you would take the message through your Holy Spirit and apply it to our lives.

Father, we want to be with you in the kingdom of heaven, and it's for this reason that we search the Scriptures.

Our sermon this week is entitled, The Science of Surrender.

Last week, we began a study on the concept of surrender and what that looks like in the Bible.

We looked at a lot of different aspects to surrender in our time together last week, but 1 passage that really stands out from that study is a passage from the Old Testament story in the book of 1 Kings 20 and verse 4, where we find a political surrender that takes place between 2 opponents.

The Bible tells us that Ben-Hadad goes and he makes war against Israel.

And in that battle that takes place, Ahab, the wicked king Ahab, makes a surrender to Ben-Hadad.

And in that surrender, the Bible records the very words that Ahab spoke to Ben-Hadad, and in those words, I believe we find the heart and soul of what it means to be a converted Christian.

Ahab, as he stands before Ben-Hadad, the conquering general, the victorious kingdom, he says this in chapter 20 in verse 4, and the king of Israel answered and said, my lord, oh King, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that I have.

Ahab made a complete surrender to Ben-Hadad.

It wasn't a half surrender, but it was a complete surrender, an unreserved surrender that was made.

And although that was a political surrender between 2 kingdoms, I believe we find there recorded the very essence of our attitude that we should have as converted Seventh-day Adventists.

As we pray to God, my Lord, O King, I am Thine, and all that I have.

We don't make a partial surrender to God for a partial surrender is not a surrender.

We don't make a quarter surrender or a half surrender to God when we come to Him, I am Thine and all that I have.

Dear Lord, Thy will be done, not my will, but Thine be done.

We are told in the book of Evangelism, page 317, Satan does not want anyone to see the necessity of an entire surrender to God.

The necessity of an entire surrender to God.

Now, if the devil doesn't want you to see something, you think it's a good idea for you to see it?

Why doesn't the devil want you to see the necessity of an entire surrender to God?

Some of us, maybe we kind of think that surrender is kind of on the side here, but According to her, she says it's a necessity.

It's something that's imperative to our salvation.

Satan does not want us to see or want anybody to see the necessity of an entire surrender to God.

When the soul fails to make this surrender, Sin is not forsaken.

The appetites and the passions are striving for the mastery.

Temptation confuses the conscience so that true conversion does not take place.

I believe with all my heart that those who experience an absolute surrender, my Lord, O King, I am Thine and all that I have, that they have experienced what she calls a conversion experience, which means that those who have not made the surrender to God, an absolute surrender to Him, that they have not experienced true conversion.

I said last week, we can have a head full of theoretical knowledge, we can be able to spout off all the right answers, we can have years of uninterrupted attendance at church and hold multiple positions within the church.

But if we haven't experienced an unreserved surrender to God, we have missed out on having that true conversion experience.

And although the Lord may use us as unconverted Christians to lead others to Jesus, if we fail to experience that conversion ourselves, we will miss out on the most important thing, and that is reunion with God in the kingdom of heaven.

Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings, page 141 says this, the greatest battle that was ever fought by man is the surrender of self to the will of God.

What's the greatest battle that you will ever fight?

The surrender of your will, the surrender of self to the will of God.

It is the greatest battle that you will ever fight.

In our time together last week, we talked about how when it comes to surrender, you can't even do it on your own.

Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches.

He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you can do, you can't even make a surrender on your own.

All you can do is pray and say, Lord, I am willing to be made willing.

When the Lord comes and says, this is what I want you to do through the impressions of the Holy Spirit.

Do you remember what the 2 words were that we say to maintain our surrender?

My child, this is the way I want you to go.

My child, I want you to go make this wrong right.

My child, I don't want you to eat a certain way.

This is the way we maintain that attitude of surrender to God, by simply saying, yes, Lord, I am willing to be made willing.

In our scripture reading this morning, we looked at Paul's description of absolute surrender.

Romans 6 and verse 16, if you choose to turn there.

I think it's a good way of reading it, but I'll read it to you from the King James Version.

It says, know ye not that to whom you yield yourselves servants, and this is why I like Jess's translation, because the word servants was translated as, did you catch it?

Slaves, know ye not that to whom you yield yourselves slaves or servants to obey, his servant ye are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness.

Did you know that there is nothing that you can do to change the fact that you are a servant?

There is nothing you can do to change that.

But the good news this morning is this, you can choose who's your master.

You can't, there's no neutral ground here.

We either yield ourselves or surrender ourselves as servants or slaves to God, or we yield ourselves or surrender ourselves as servants or slaves to God, or we yield ourselves or surrender ourselves as servants of Satan.

And when God comes through the impressions of the Holy Spirit and says, this is the way I want you to live your life.

When you say yes, you are yielding yourself to God and saying, he is my master.

But when the Holy Spirit comes and impresses with you, this is the way I want you to go, this is what I want you to say or not say, and you say no to that, you are yielding yourself or surrendering yourself to be a servant of Satan.

And I don't know about you this morning, but I think I would rather have God as my master than the devil any day.

The devil comes along with those temptations and he tries to get us to think that he would be a much better master to serve.

That God is too arbitrary, too strict, too difficult, whatever it may be, it comes up with all these excuses why.

But we know from our heads and our study of God's word that God is a much, much better master than Satan is any day.

But as I thought about this concept of surrender a little bit more, when it comes to having and maintaining this absolute unreserved surrender to God, There is 1 thing in our lives that will derail us every time.

1 thing that will derail you every time in maintaining that constant surrender to God.