Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Thank our dear heavenly Father.
[00:00:03] We're studying how to discipline ourselves for godliness.
[00:00:10] We're trying to learn skills that make it possible to live a richer and more empowered christian life.
[00:00:21] And this morning, I pray that you would show us that in the spiritual discipline of surrender, we find true freedom in Christ's name. Amen.
[00:00:36] It was about midnight, and Christ had 16 hours left to live.
[00:00:49] And he was with his disciples in a garden just east of Jerusalem called Gethsemane.
[00:01:02] And he said to his three closest friends, I have to pray, and I would appreciate it if you would be my prayer partners tonight.
[00:01:20] And so Peter, James, and John separated with Christ from the rest of the apostles.
[00:01:26] And Jesus said, be alert and pray.
[00:01:35] And then he went about a stone's throw away from them, and he got down on his knees, and he pled with God in prayer for a solid hour.
[00:01:49] And the summary of his prayer was, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.
[00:02:00] But then he said, but not my will, but your will be done.
[00:02:10] And after about an hour, he got up and went over to see his friends.
[00:02:16] They were sound asleep.
[00:02:19] I mean, drop jaw sound asleep.
[00:02:28] And Jesus said, guys, do you realize how important this is?
[00:02:35] Wake up. Be alert.
[00:02:39] Pray that you don't enter into temptation.
[00:02:44] And then again, Jesus went by himself.
[00:02:47] And for a solid hour, he talked to God about the difficulties he was about to face.
[00:02:55] And again he said, not my will, but your will be done.
[00:03:03] He got up again and went back to his friends for the second time.
[00:03:10] Sure enough, drool running down the side of their mouth, snoring, absolutely gone.
[00:03:19] And he shook them and said, guys, can you not watch 1 hour? Can't I get 1 hour of prayer out of you?
[00:03:33] And of course, they were embarrassed and they didn't know what to say.
[00:03:39] And a third time, Jesus went, knelt down, prayed his heart out, and said, one more time, not my will, but yours be done.
[00:03:59] In this garden scene, we see Jesus Christ practicing the spiritual discipline of surrender.
[00:04:10] In those prayers, he is surrendering his plans.
[00:04:17] He's saying to God, if it were possible, I would like it to turn out like this, but not my will, but your will be done.
[00:04:30] When Christ surrendered his plans to the father, he modeled something for us.
[00:04:41] And then Jesus went back to his disciples and he said, go ahead and rest.
[00:04:50] It won't be long before the betrayer is here.
[00:04:54] And sure enough, about 03:00 in the morning, Judas shows up with roman soldiers and temple guards.
[00:05:08] They have swords and fighting staffs.
[00:05:13] They've got themselves worked up.
[00:05:17] They're at the edge of a mob mentality.
[00:05:24] And Judas had given them the most unacceptable sign.
[00:05:34] He said, the one I kiss, that is Jesus.
[00:05:39] Grab him.
[00:05:42] So out of the darkness, into the presence of Jesus Christ, Judas walked, and he walked up to Christ and in a nonchalant way, kissed him on the cheek.
[00:06:09] And when he did that, they rushed in on Jesus, and they bound his hands.
[00:06:18] And Jesus said, if you're here for me, then let these others go.
[00:06:27] But Peter wasn't going to have it.
[00:06:30] Peter believed in the concealed weapon license. And he had his concealed weapon that day, and he drew his sword, and he meant to make a fight of it.
[00:06:44] But Jesus said to Peter, stop.
[00:06:50] This is not the way we're doing this.
[00:06:55] And then minutes later, some of the saddest words in the whole Bible, the gospel says, and they all forsook him and fled.
[00:07:10] In that moment, Jesus modeled the spiritual discipline of surrender.
[00:07:17] He found it in his heart to surrender the people he loved the most to God.
[00:07:27] He found it in his heart to say, ah, you mean the world to me, but now I relinquish my control over you, and I trust you. I trust you to the care of our heavenly Father.
[00:07:49] He modeled for us the spiritual discipline of being able to surrender people that we love dearly to God.
[00:08:05] And they walked him down the hill, through the valley of Kedron, back up the hill into Jerusalem, and they took him to Anas'house. Ananias'house.
[00:08:22] And he was guilty by accusation.
[00:08:34] And then Ananias sent him to Caiaphas's house. And Caiaphas had the Sanhedrin gathered together, and they had paid false witnesses against Jesus Christ.
[00:08:50] And in the end, Caiaphas stood up and said, I hold you to the oath of God.
[00:08:58] Are you the son of God?
[00:09:03] Jesus said, I am.
[00:09:06] And hereafter you will see me coming in clouds of glory.
[00:09:14] And the high priest tore his robe and said, he has blasphemed.
[00:09:21] And the Sanhedrin judged him worthy of death.
[00:09:29] And they waited till morning light.
[00:09:33] And as the light rose over the Mount of olives, they walked Jesus down the street and to the judgment hall of Pilate.
[00:09:51] Pilate said three times, I find no fault in him. But in the end, he said, take him and crucify him. Anyway, when I read this, I see Christ practicing the spiritual discipline of surrendering his position.
[00:10:14] If you read the gospel of John, Jesus said, the father has given all judgment into my hands.
[00:10:25] Paul told us that Jesus is the one who will judge the living and the dead.
[00:10:32] But on that day, he surrendered his prerogative to be the judge.
[00:10:42] And in a way that absolutely stunned Pilate. He even refused to argue and defend himself.
[00:10:52] He just surrendered himself to God.
[00:10:57] And in that surrender, he models for us. There needs to be times in our lives when we're willing to surrender our position.
[00:11:10] Do you really have to be right all the time?
[00:11:14] Is it important to you that you beat the people down around you to the point that they say, oh, you are absolutely right?
[00:11:26] Are you able from time to time to simply say, I don't have to fight about this.
[00:11:34] I don't have to insist on my position.
[00:11:42] I don't have to make this an ugly moment. In this moment, I'm going to practice the spiritual discipline of surrender, and I'm just going to let it go.
[00:11:56] Pilate found out that Jesus was from Galilee, and he had the break that he was looking for.
[00:12:07] You see, Galilee had a different roman governor than Jerusalem.
[00:12:14] And the roman governor of Galilee was Herod.
[00:12:19] And Herod happened to be in town for the Passover. So Pilate said, perfect. I'm off the hook.
[00:12:28] And he sent his soldiers to take Jesus to Herod's palace.
[00:12:35] Well, Herod was delighted because he heard that Jesus had done many miracles. And in his mind, he had conjured up this idea, I'm going to have Jesus do a magic show, and all the miracles that he's done, I'm going to get my friends here, and we're going to watch Jesus do a magic show.
[00:12:58] Except Jesus didn't do miracles to entertain people or to pander to kings.
[00:13:06] And when he would not perform for Herod, Herod became disgusted.
[00:13:17] And he decided to turn his disgust into insult.
[00:13:24] And he called for one of his royal robes to be brought.
[00:13:28] And he put the royal robe around Jesus as a mocking that he was the king, and sent him back to Pilate.
[00:13:43] Pilate did not have the personal courage to resist the crowd.
[00:13:51] And Pilate gave Jesus over to his soldiers, hardened Roman legionnaires, angry men who did not want to be in Jerusalem, angry men who had grown resentful over the years.
[00:14:13] But not only were they resentful, they were brutal.
[00:14:19] They saw the robe on Jesus and they said, oh, what, did you lose your crown?
[00:14:30] And someone snatched up a crown of thorns and jammed it on Christ's head.
[00:14:41] And they put a reed in his hand, and they pulled Herod's robe off him, and they threw a scarlet roman robe on him, and they began to mock him. They bent their knee and said, hail, hail to the king of the Jews.
[00:15:04] That didn't last long because some rude man arose from his mocking kneel and spit on Jesus.
[00:15:23] His friends thought it was a good idea, and they joined him in spitting on the son of God.
[00:15:36] Then they stripped him and tied him to the whipping post.
[00:15:40] And they whipped him mercilessly.
[00:15:48] When I hear this from the gospels, I see Jesus Christ so mighty within himself that he's able to surrender his pride.
[00:16:02] He's able to surrender his sense of pride.
[00:16:08] Mocked by Herod.
[00:16:11] Mocked, shamed, spit upon and beaten by roman soldiers.
[00:16:21] And because he had surrendered his plans in prayer, he was able to surrender his pride. That day, when they had done their worst, they led him out of the soldier's fort and down onto the street. And they gave him the cross to carry till Golgotha.
[00:16:51] Sadly, he was worn out after a sleepless night.
[00:16:58] After a merciless beating, he stumbled under the load of the cross.
[00:17:07] And try as he could, even though they kicked him and beat him, he wasn't able to pick the cross up again.
[00:17:17] So they compelled a man standing beside the street, watching.
[00:17:24] And Jesus drug himself to Galgotha, and the cross was carried by another.
[00:17:33] And then they crucified him.
[00:17:37] And as he looked down, he saw soldiers.
[00:17:42] And they had a sharp knife. And they were cutting his outer robe into four pieces. So each one of them had a piece of it.
[00:17:54] But Christ wore a unique inner garment.
[00:17:59] It was a robe that had been woven from a single weaving without any seams. And if you cut it, it would totally unravel.
[00:18:11] And so someone took three sticks and four sticks and broke one of them shorter than the rest.
[00:18:21] And they drew lots for Christ's garment.
[00:18:27] Now he's on the cross. He is the creator of all. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And the last thing he owned was the clothes he was wearing.
[00:18:42] And he watched as he lost even those.
[00:18:49] Christ modeled the ability to surrender our possessions.
[00:18:56] Although he owned it all, when he died, he possessed nothing.
[00:19:10] It's 09:00 in the morning.
[00:19:14] For 3 hours, it seems to be a normal day.
[00:19:22] But then the sky began to grow dark.
[00:19:27] And it grew darker and darker, the clouds thicker and thicker, until finally, by noon, it was as dark as night. The clouds became so thick.
[00:19:46] And for 3 hours of darkness, Christ finished his work on earth.
[00:19:55] And with just a few breaths left, he made his last act of surrender.
[00:20:06] And he said, Father, into your hands I commit my soul.
[00:20:15] And he breathed his last breath and died.
[00:20:23] Christ models the faith to surrender our very soul to God.
[00:20:34] Perhaps 30 to 40 years after this, the author of Hebrews remembered all of this, and he wrote in Hebrews, chapter twelve, I want you to look unto Jesus, the originator and the completer of your faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
[00:21:14] Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted.
[00:21:29] The author of Hebrew said, I want you to look at Jesus Christ, and I want you to see him as an example of what surrender should look like in your life.
[00:21:50] I wonder, do you believe that you could discipline yourself to once a day, for one week, every day, talk to God about what is most important to you and what you want from life and what your plans are?
[00:22:22] And then after you've told him what you really want and what your plans are, that you could open your hands and say, not my will, but yours be done.
[00:22:38] Can you find the faith to say to Christ, this is something that I really want in life.
[00:22:48] It's meaningful to me.
[00:22:53] But I trust you enough that even the plans that are most important to me for my life, I'm going to surrender to you and say, not my will, but your will be done.
[00:23:08] Church.
[00:23:11] I wonder if on another week you might say, dear God, these people in my life mean more than life itself to me.
[00:23:24] I love these people. I value these people. I need these people in my life.
[00:23:32] I can't imagine life without these people.
[00:23:38] But I trust you so much that I'm willing to surrender these people to you.
[00:23:47] I'm willing to entrust them to you.
[00:23:51] I've come to believe that you actually love them more than I do, and you can care for them better than I can, and I surrender them to you.
[00:24:06] I wonder if you might have another time where you take a sheet of paper and you write down the stuff you have in life that you really, really value.
[00:24:22] Stuff, Harley Davidson's.
[00:24:33] And you make your list of the stuff you really value the most.
[00:24:38] And in a moment of holy surrender, you say to Christ, I really love this stuff.
[00:24:47] I really like having it in my life.
[00:24:50] But I'm holding it with open hands.
[00:24:56] I'm not clutching it. I'm not gripping it.
[00:25:00] I'm saying, I trust you with my most valuable stuff, and I surrender it to you.
[00:25:17] We have positions in our life, positions that are about careers and positions that are about our relationship and families.
[00:25:34] We have positions in our life that are about our opinions.
[00:25:42] I wonder if you might take time in your spiritual development to talk to God about your positions.
[00:25:53] This is no fun.
[00:25:56] I have done it, and I am in the process of still doing it and saying to God, I believe you gave me this position, but I don't believe it's mine.
[00:26:12] And I'm holding it with an open hand.
[00:26:17] And I'm saying to you, I surrender my position to you.
[00:26:27] I surrender it.
[00:26:33] If you gave me this position, you have every right to take it from me.
[00:26:42] And I hold it with an open hand.
[00:26:49] Oh, and then there's pride, isn't there?
[00:26:54] Oh, how subtle it is.
[00:27:04] It creeps in.
[00:27:09] It turns us on the inside into somebody we really don't want to be.
[00:27:17] It causes us to treat people around us in improper ways.
[00:27:24] But somehow or another, we say to ourself, my pride isn't sin.
[00:27:33] We say to ourself, I have every right to be proud.
[00:27:38] I won't even argue with about that.
[00:27:41] But I will say, do you think you could find some time in your spiritual life to take a good, hard look at everything you say you're proud of?
[00:27:53] And then open your hands and say to God, I surrender this pride to you.
[00:28:01] I surrender it to you.
[00:28:10] And now we come to the make or break point.
[00:28:16] You see, really, all of this surrender is only practice. For the ultimate surrender, where I say to God, I surrender my whole life to you.
[00:28:34] I no longer claim that this life is my own.
[00:28:40] I believe that I've been bought with a price, that I don't have the right to claim my life anymore.
[00:28:52] What Christ did was so awesome that he has every right to claim my life.
[00:29:03] And as Christ taught me, I'm even going to hold my life in an open hand. And I'm going to say to you, o Lord God almighty, I trust you with my very eternal soul.
[00:29:23] It's all yours.
[00:29:29] Some of you are saying, I'm afraid I could lose everything.
[00:29:37] See, there is the myth.
[00:29:41] Jesus said, if you try to hold on to your life, you lose it.
[00:29:50] But if you hold everything in an open hand and you're willing to give him everything, Jesus said, that's how you gain your life.
[00:30:03] You lose your life by gripping and squeezing and insisting and gritting your teeth.
[00:30:11] You gain your life in holy moments of faith where you're able to say in prayer to God, I trust you with this more than I trust myself.
[00:30:30] Church.
[00:30:33] You see, the discipline of surrender is God's way of nurturing faith in us, but it's also God's way of freeing us from the myth of life.
[00:30:51] It's God's way of saying, you're living by a myth.
[00:30:59] Your plans your plans.
[00:31:03] Jesus says, don't you understand? I had a plan for you from before the creation of the world.
[00:31:11] Whatever plans you've trumped up for yourself, they are inferior to the plan that God has for you. He created that plan before the foundation of the earth.
[00:31:24] And if I can surrender my plan and I can accept his plan, I'm living as part of a cosmic, divine reality.
[00:31:39] My people.
[00:31:43] If I can stop saying my people, and I can start saying to God, they're your people, how can I love them the way you want them to be loved?
[00:31:55] Church how can I put the expectations on myself and take the expectations off of them?
[00:32:07] How can I surrender these people that I love more than life itself to you and simply say, they're yours, I'm your partner. Help me to love them the way you want them to be loved.
[00:32:25] Our possessions, the world and everything in it is passing away. But he who does the will of my father abides forever our pride, our positions.
[00:32:40] Here's what the spiritual discipline of surrender does. It sets me free from the tyranny of selfishness. It sets me free from the tyranny of materialism.
[00:32:56] It sets me free from the sense that everything rises and falls on what I do or don't do.
[00:33:05] And it permits me to live in a relationship with a God who my trust for continues to go up and up. And now I'm living a life based upon my great confidence in the goodness of God.
[00:33:24] And I'm freed from the tyranny of all this other stuff.
[00:33:29] Church the spiritual discipline of sacrifice is a spiritual discipline that Christ models for us. And then the scriptures say, now you look unto Jesus. He is the one who got your faith started, and he is the one who's going to partner with you in surrender so that he can perfect your faith.
[00:33:53] Our dear heavenly Father.
[00:33:58] Oh, how majestic I find Christ to be.
[00:34:04] I'm always impressed with him.
[00:34:10] But even though I find Jesus to be altogether lovely, I recognize a clinging in my heart.
[00:34:22] I recognize a gripping, a holding, an insisting.
[00:34:31] And I know that it keeps me from being the soul that you want me to be.
[00:34:38] And so I pray for myself this morning, and I pray for everyone in this room and everyone who's online.
[00:34:46] Would you, by the great work of your spirit, walk us through the spiritual discipline of sacrifice, surrender.
[00:34:57] And then may our souls be enriched, and may we be more full participants in this grand purpose that you have in the world.
[00:35:09] In Christ's name, amen.
