Sermons

This is the first Sunday of Lent 2010. Lent traditionally is a time for introspection. It is a time to look inside ourselves and see our need for forgiveness. While that is always worthwhile, most of us have been here for several years and we understand we are sinners in need of forgiveness.

If you have sought the forgiveness of God for your sins, if you have trusted Christ to be your Savior, the payment for your sins, and now you are living in a relationship to God, then it is time for the next step.

The second step is to begin emptying yourself so God’s presence can fill your life. God will never compete for the first place in your heart with something else. God doesn’t compete with careers, or family, or education, or even our own personalities. God is either God or not. God doesn’t share space in our heart with anything or anyone else.

Our prayer is no longer, “God fit into my life and do what needs being done.” Instead we pray, “God, help me to yield myself to you so I can fit into what you see needs to be done.” That moves us from seeing God as our servant to being the servant of God.

Jesus tells us that it is impossible for us to serve two masters. We cannot serve God and the goals of this world. He said that we will love one and hate the other. There is not room in our hearts for two gods.

Surrendering the throne of our heart is not something we do as a one-time event. It is a conscious choice followed by a whole series of continued conscious choices, until with the Apostle Paul we can say, “For to me, to live is Christ.” (Philippians 1:21)

Today, I want to talk to you about making that choice. I want to talk to you about moving off the throne of your own life and making room for God’s reign.

We read in II Corinthians 5:17, “If any person be in Christ, that person is a new creation, the old is passed away, behold everything is new.”

It is that new creation on the inside that we are called to show on the outside.

I was reading in the Old Testament this week about the trouble between Judah and Israel and I ran across this verse: “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the entire earth to strengthen those whose hearts are true to him.” (II Chronicles 16:9)

If you were God, in control of everything and wanting desperately to give your blessings, helping the people who are hurting, bringing good news to the poor and liberty to those who are oppressed, and you were looking to give someone real power to bring about that kind of change in the world, what kind of person would you be looking for? What qualities would you be looking for in that person?

We may envision a giant radar screen in the presence of God. God’s radar is always searching across the faces of every person on earth as if it is trying to find the exact location to target someone whose heart is true to God.

God promises to fire strength to that person not only to endure life’s challenges, but to glow with God’s love, signaling to everyone else that knowing God is possible.

If you were God, would you choose to fire that strength to someone like you?

The Spirit of God dwells in us. When we yield to the Holy Spirit, God is able to fill us with all the resources—physically, mentally, and financially—that we need so we can do what God has for us to do.

Maybe you say, “But really, God using me? How likely is that? Can you imagine what it would take to get my life turned around? Do you know where I have been? Do you know what I have seen? Do you know what I face? God’s radar screen will most likely never stop on me. I have nothing to offer.”

Well, join the club. You got problems? Moses stuttered. Isaiah was focused on his sins. David was a teenager. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a teenager. Abraham was already 75 years old before he heard his first call from God. Noah was more than 500 years old when God called him. None of Jesus’ disciples had a theological education. Ruth was a foreigner. Mary the Magdalene had been possessed by evil spirits.

The God we worship specializes in calling those who may call themselves a lost cause. Because God is God, God can take folks like you and me and form us into the person God has in mind. God looks at us on the inside and sees the potential in us.

If we are willing to give God what we have and who we are, no matter how meager and inadequate that may be, we light up on God’s radar screen as a person who is willing to receive all the resources God has ready to help us do what God has for us to do.

Victory for God’s Kingdom begins with our surrender.

Jesus said, “If anyone wants to be my disciple, that person must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)

That is what I am taking about. If we want to be the follower of Jesus, we have to say that he is the leader; we are not the leader.

When you take a job, when you choose a profession, you enter a certain discipline. When you take a job in a bank, you surrender to the discipline of bookkeeping. When you take a job making windows, you surrender the discipline of the assembly line. When you teach school, you surrender to the discipline of education.

That means you submit yourself; you agree to cooperate with that system. You surrender yourself in exchange for being a part of that.

So it is with being Christ’s disciple. We submit ourselves and agree to submit to and cooperate with what Christ is all about. We surrender ourselves to what Christ wants to do in us.

Very often, we don’t ever get to that part of taking up our cross, our part of the responsibility of God’s Kingdom, because we can’t get the surrender part. We can’t give up being the leader. We can’t let go of being in command. We can’t say, “Thou art the potter, I am the clay.”

We want to take all the benefits of Christianity, its love and forgiveness, its hope and joy, and weave them into what we want to do, as if we are in command.

Jesus asked the question, “What would it profit a man if he were to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

What is at stake here is our soul. Even if we gain the highest position, win all the gold medals, and attain the most of everything, the day will come when our days on this earth will end. How will that matter to our soul when life is over?

Most of the time we choose to surrender our hearts to things that enslave us. Think about it. We willingly surrender to things that take up our time and rob us of the life God intends for us.

When we surrender our hearts to God, then we find real freedom, real life. Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

Many times we look for life in all the wrong places. We think we will have an abundant life if only we can get an education, a good job, a house of our own, someone to love us and commit to us, a couple of children, a bigger house, a better car, friends like that, the vacation of a lifetime—and the list goes on and on.

Regardless of where we think an abundant life is, it is always just a step or two away from where we are. The wise person knows that finding the abundant life is not possible by surrendering to those things.

Why are you here today hearing this sermon? What is God saying to you? Surrendering your heart to what God has in mind has to be a conscious decision and it has to be an ever-present goal.

When God’s radar is searching across the faces of the earth’s nearly seven billion people, is your face one that lights up the radar? Are you one who is trying to learn more about God and God’s Kingdom and your part in it?

We read a few moments ago,

When the time had fully come, God sent his own Son. He came as the son of a human mother and lived under the Jewish Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might become God’s children. To show that you are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who cries out, “Father, my Father.” So then, you are no longer a slave but a child. And since you are his child, God will give you all that he has for his children. (Galatians 4:4-7)

God’s timing is never off. You are where you are because God is working in your life. God wants to give you the strength you need to shine for God’s Kingdom. Now is the time to show on the outside who lives on the inside of your heart.

God is tapping you on the shoulder to say, “This is what I want you to do for my Kingdom.”

Where will you draw the line? “God, I will do this, but I won’t do that”?

“I don’t mind going to church, but I draw the line on Sunday School.” I will help in the kitchen but that is it. I don’t want to get further involved.

What would your life look like if you totally surrendered it? If you decided you wanted God on the throne, in command of your life?

In this congregation, there are some who have surrendered their hearts to God. They know who is on the throne. If you know much about this congregation, I’m sure you could name a few of those individuals. It is obvious whose Kingdom they serve.

We have seen great growth in 2009. God is at work in this congregation. But we all know we have a ways to go to be the church God has in mind. We have experienced only a tiny bit of growth in our personal lives and in the life of this part of Christ’s church.

God still has bigger plans for us.

What would happen to the church if every one of us individually surrendered our plans to God’s call on our lives?

What would happen if each of us genuinely desired to be disciples of Jesus Christ? What would happen at this church if we wanted, more than anything else, to light up God’s radar screen?

God is not going to run over us and do it anyway. God won’t share the throne with anything or anyone else. It requires our surrender.

I have here a little white flag. You know, the white flag has always been the signal of surrender, giving up power to the one who is stronger.

When the disciples of Jesus take up the white flag, it doesn’t signal defeat, it signals victory for God’s Kingdom.

I invite you to decide today to surrender your heart to become the person God has in mind.

If you want to light up on God’s radar, if you want that extra strength God has reserved for those who want to do his will, it must begin with the white flag of surrender.

The ushers are going to give you the opportunity to take a white flag home with you today. I hope you will take the flag and consider who is on the throne of your life. If it is you, give up. Surrender. You are not God.

God’s plan for you is bigger and better than you can imagine. God’s strength is going to be with you to accomplish everything God has for you to do.

I want to warn you that surrendering to God’s plans will at times be a little scary. It may mean you have to make decisions that aren’t popular with your friends. It may mean you have to rearrange your schedule. It may mean you will be called to do some new things and look at life differently. You may discover opposition or have to make some tough choices.

This surrender is a continual decision. That is why I want you to take the little flag home. Use it as a Bible bookmark, or put it someplace where you can see it every day to help you remember God invites you to surrender to the best victory you can imagine.

Let’s make these six weeks of Lent 2010 all about surrender. Then, let’s enjoy the victories that are coming for God’s Kingdom.