"Soul Surrender - Open Hearts"

Happy New Year! Hope you all had an awesome Christmas season. We did. Overate several days in a row and had lots of time with family and friends.

Folks, I’ve got some very big, very good news - three things to tell you about:

• Christmas Eve – over 2100 people

-Moving time with God

-Thanks for inviting folks

• Year-End giving need $220,000 in December –huge goal

-We received $222,000 – awesome – thanks – continue to give

• Rock of Ages is with us – or we’re with them

-Call Art Hundeby – welcome and pray.

Today starts the first of a five-week series called Soul Surrender. And I got to tell you right off the bat, I’m pretty excited about these next weeks together because I believe God wants to take us on a unique journey as a church - a bit of an adventure if you will - but as with all journeys and adventures, the next five weeks will have some parts that are exciting and thrilling and other parts are a bit dark and dangerous.

Here’s what I believe, though. I believe we have a faithful guide to follow for our little community called Lakeview Church, and that guide is none other than Jesus Christ himself.

So I’m going to ask you right off the bat to focus in on what I’m going to say today because I believe God has something He needs us to hear. This whole soul surrender thing is a really big deal. It’s also a great way to start the New Year clearly focused on God. Challenge yourself as you head into this New Year and stick with us for the whole journey, for the whole four weeks of Soul Surrender. Make coming to church a priority during these weeks as we begin 2006 and God will work in your life.

Today I want to talk about some of the most mysterious words Jesus ever said. This week we’ll see that some of the things He said were not what people expected Him to say. In fact some of the things He said are exactly the opposite of what we might think He would say, and to be honest, what I’m going to read you today are among the harshest and strongest words of His entire life.

They’re words that ring with truth but they cut right to the heart of our lives and to the heart of our faith. So here goes but be careful, because naivety lost cannot be regained. If you take this to heart, your life will never be the same. In fact, if I’m going to be honest, I had a really rough time this week, going through this message because I don’t always like to hear everything that Jesus said. His words are full of truth but they also pack a powerful punch.

In Luke 14:25-33 (NLT) – It says this: “ Great crowds were following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, ‘If you want to be my follower you must love me more than your own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters. Yes, more than your own life. Otherwise you cannot be my disciple. And you cannot be my disciple if you do not carry your own cross and follow me. B ut don't begin until you count the cost.’ ”

"What king would ever dream of going to war without first sitting down with his counselors and discussing whether his army of ten thousand is strong enough to defeat the twenty thousand soldiers who are marching against him?” (Jesus makes the comparison; count the cost) He then ends by saying this: ”So no one can become my disciple without giving up everything for me.” Luke 14:33 (NLT)

Now, one of the crazy things that was happening right at this point in Jesus’ ministry was that He had become incredibly popular. People were simply all about Jesus and literally thousands of people followed Him from place to place to see what He was doing and to hear what He was saying. People would walk all day just to be near Him and they would go without food just to hear another hour of His teaching it really is quite amazing when you read it.

People were just enthralled with Jesus, and that was great, but you know what? Jesus saw a few warning signs that came with those crowds and in all the hype surrounding Him, He saw some red flags. See, He knew that enthusiasm without understanding meant nothing, and He knew that big crowds of people did not necessarily mean long lasting individual life change. And knew that just because someone would miss a meal to hear Him, did not mean they would spend the rest of their days living by faith.

So again, in what seems to be some pretty harsh words, Jesus attempts to thin out the crowd by getting them to think through their enthusiasm and to ponder their motivation for following Him. It was like He was saying, “Why are you here? And do you know what, it’s going to cost you to build this life of faith that I’m talking about? And do you have any idea what it means to engage that kind of faith over a life time?”

Jesus was always quick to point out to the crowds that following Him was not just an add-on to their life, but a complete transformation He called them to. He drove that home with these hard hitting, all-or-nothing, kind of statements.

Let me read a few of them for you. Luke 9:57-62 (NIV): As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."  Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." He said to another man, "Follow me."  But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good bye to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

Now you can tell here than Jesus wasn’t running for an election! But why so harsh and why right when the crowds were with Him …and what was He trying to get at?

I personally think Jesus wanted to make sure that people understood that the life of faith He was describing did not have any compartments in it. Jesus’ call on us is to surrender all of our life to Him, not just parts of our life.

This analogy might help you understand what I’m getting at:

Our kids are at the age now where we can play some games together as a family – board games. And so we’ve been collecting different games – (bring up 4 or 5 games and lay them out on the stage). That’s great and they’re all fun to play but this Christmas we got a very cool gift from some friends. It’s twelve games in one (bring out 12-in-1 game). This little box holds 12 games in it; compact, integrated, neat – very cool.

I thought this was a good picture of what Jesus was getting at because sometimes you and I as human beings want to divide up our lives into nice neat, tidy areas (compartments) kind of like these individual games – each one separate. Kind of connected but not really (and sometimes we like to play spiritual games too). Check this out: this is how we picture life somehow (we compartmentalize it).

First area/compartment: Spiritual life. This is when I go to church, when I’m involved in a small group. This is my Christian life

Second area/compartment: Work life. I mean a guy has got to have a real life after all. You can’t be a church guy all the time. And so at work I’ll be a different person because work is a different area/compartment.

Third area/compartment: Social life. And we think, when we go out with friends or whatever we can do what we want. My actions and relationship are for me and I’ll be a different person here in this area/game than I am in that one, or that one, and it goes on and on and on. Home game, money game, church area, work area, social area.

And so we compartmentalize/separate our lives into all these different areas so nothing is over lapping and Jesus said ‘wait a minute’. When it comes to this faith game I’m talking about, it’s all in one. Our life is supposed to be integrated. It’s all-together or it’s nothing, Jesus said, when it comes to faith it’s all in one and there’s no in between. Anything else is just playing games spiritually.

Now, here’s what happens when our lives are compartmentalized spiritually. We can think we’re experiencing spiritual breakthroughs when we’re in church sometimes or when we have a once or twice a month spiritual experience. But instead, what’s actually happening is that we’re experiencing spiritual breakdown. Let me explain. Say you make a decision this weekend – you’re convicted by this stuff - so you make a decision to follow God completely. But when you go to work Monday morning, the you at work has no intention of following through with a commitment that the you at church made on the weekend. Work is a different compartment.

That’s why some Christ followers think they can justify things like extra-marital affairs - because their lives are compartmentalized.

That’s also why some Christians justify stealing from their employer, or why some Christian business people treat their employees wrongly, or why some people say they follow Jesus Christ, yet when they live their lives, socially or at work, they go completely against the teachings and principles of Jesus. And what happens? As long as the profits go up, usually no one says a word.

We can compartmentalize our worlds so much that God simply has no place left in most areas of our lives.

And Jesus said that’s not the way to live. Instead, He said we must integrate faith into every aspect and every corner of our lives. We have to let Him shine more and more brightly into more and more areas of our lives. He calls us to surrender every area of our lives to Him, not just parts of us.

Jesus said that no one can become his disciple without giving up everything for him. It’s not about compartments and pieces of faith and it’s not about an add-to. Jesus doesn’t ask us to add Him to the rest of our lives. He simply said to count the cost of what following means because I won’t be just an add-on. That doesn’t work, Jesus said, but spiritual surrender does work.

Let me read you another story from Jesus life, the story of the rich young ruler:

Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question, "Good teacher, what should I do to get eternal life?"

And Jesus said, “You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not lie. Honor your father and mother."   

The man replied, "I've obeyed all these commandments since I was a child."

"There is still one thing you lack," Jesus said. "Sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me." But when the man heard this, he became sad because he was very rich. Luke 18 : 18, 20 – 23 (NLT)

Here’s the word Jesus was calling this man to and it’s the same word He calls us to. Surrender. Jesus says that in order to follow Him we have to be willing to LET GO of everything else. Really it’s a paradox; to gain real spiritual life we have to give up our lives. All the rich young leader in this story wanted was a bit of reassurance in his heart about what would happen when He died so he asked Jesus to measure his life and give him a grade about whether his qualifications would get him into heaven. Jesus said, “You’ve certainly lined up your life religiously and you’ve tried hard at this whole keep the rules thing but I still don’t think you’re surrendered. You’re still playing games and you’re holding on to something that’s holding you back”, and so Jesus called his bluff. See, Jesus knew that this man’s money made his life comfortable and gave him power and position and prestige in that culture, and Jesus knew that his money was the one thing that he kept a pretty tight grip on as his security – and maybe even his identity was caught up in money. Certainly at the very least it was a compartment that he hadn’t let faith enter, a compartment he had kept away from God. And so Jesus put his finger on it and said, “If you really want to follow me, let go of that one thing, be completely surrendered and then watch what happens to your faith.

And you know what? He says the same thing to us. He says, “I’m asking you to follow me completely, to be ALL IN and surrendered. But Jesus also said, “to be surrendered you’ve got to LET GO”. Notice how the story ends: “The man walked away very sad …because he was very rich.”

Now, Jesus isn’t telling all of us to sell off everything we own and that that is somehow the key to our spiritual lives. It’s not about money, Jesus said. It’s about what you’re holding on to that comes before your faith. That’s the issue.

So let me ask you very obvious question: What one thing are you holding on to that is stopping you from being completely God’s? Can you name it? Lots of us hold onto things such as comfort and pleasure and we say that we’re not willing to give it up; that we’re not willing to give up our time or our evenings or our social calendar or our wide screen or our cabin or our whatever - you pick - to follow Jesus. Our leisure and our comfort and our pleasure seeking is something we hold onto pretty tightly, often to the point where it becomes God to us, and over time it becomes what defines us. It defines what is security for us and Jesus would say, “Check your spirit on that. Is your comfort and pleasure more valuable to you than your soul?”

Lots of us hold onto things like position as well, and we say, “My career, or my salary, or the company that I’ve built, or my place on that board, or that spot I carry in the public eye, is what is the highest priority to me. I’ve got to hold on to that no matter what and Jesus can put His finger on my position if He likes, but I’m not going to let it go.” As soon as we say that, our position or our career or our company becomes God to us, and our soul takes a back seat to our climbing the corporate ladder.

Have you ever thought about this stuff? Jesus said that to follow Him means to place Him in the driver’s seat of our lives and to let Him fully lead our lives. Following Him is a choice to put Jesus first; above money, above position, above power, above family, above pleasure, above our schedules. That’s what Jesus was saying following Him means. You’ve got to be willing to let go. It’s not a real deal unless you’re willing to let go and surrender.

There are certain times of clarity that come into our lives spiritually when Jesus kind of puts His finger on one of our life compartments and forces us to make some decisions and to choose what we value in life. One of those moments happened for me when I was 18 years old and I remember the day with great clarity because on that day I made a choice. For me that choice marked the rest of my life. That day I decided to follow Jesus completely with everything I had, and I decided on that day that I was willing to leave everything else available to me in life in order to follow Him. I let go. I surrendered. And I knew right in that moment that that decision would mean giving the very best years of my life to lead in the local church. It was just a clear day where I knew that following Him would mean less of lots of other stuff and it’s a day I’ve never regretted mostly because it led me here.

Every once in a while we need a spiritual tune-up or a priority gut-check from God to see if we’re still surrendered or if we’re holding back and not letting go. Life has this way (especially in North America) of sucking us into a place that we never planned to be in. If you take time to analyze it, life in North America calls out to us with a different voice than God’s and it says, “live in comfort, make lots of money for yourself, get whatever you want whenever you want it, seek pleasure at any cost”. This culture is all about position and power and leverage and self-orientation. And Jesus said, “That’s not how the spiritual life works”. He said, “If you want to follow me, the way up is down. Humility is what creates greatness. If you want to follow me, the way to find life is to let go of it and the way to find fulfillment is not by pursuing every pleasure this world has to offer. It’s to pursue Jesus only.

Anyway, once in a while we need a spiritual gut check and just a few weeks ago I had a chance to do that in Calgary, Alberta. I spent two days with five other Senior Pastors from some of the best churches in Canada, and as is almost always the case, I was one of the youngest there. Most of the guys were 10 – 15 years older than me and we talked about lots of stuff.

But if I’m to be honest, I wasn’t listening to much of it because I was watching those guys. As I watched and listened it was like Jesus was talking right at me for two days straight (and it was gut check time) and His question was simple:

“Dean, what is going to be the priority of your life in this next decade? Take a look at those other guys who are older than you and ask yourself what your faith is going to look like 10 - 12 years from now. What’s going to be the top priority? Money? Leisure? Position? Power? Pleasure? Or Dean, is it enough for you to just follow me and it may sound crazy, but I knew, just like when I was 18, I knew I had to make a choice. Just a few weeks ago in November, I had a decision to make sitting in that room with five other pastors. Am I completely surrendered? Am I going to hold on to something and not let go?

In Luke 9:23 Jesus said this, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me.” It is simple what Jesus was saying. Simple but not easy.

Following Jesus means putting our selfish ambitions aside and taking up His cross, allowing His life to become ours and allowing His power and ambition to over take over our power and ambition. As we get closer to Easter, I think you’ll get a clearer picture of what Jesus was really saying here when He said ‘take up your cross’. In that culture, carrying your cross meant shouldering it all the way to the place of crucifixion (ie; to be identified with Christ even till death). It was high-stakes commitment that Jesus talked about but then look at what He says next: “If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process?” Luke 9:24&25

There is another level to life that I believe most of us are unaware of. Jesus said true life – real life, abundant life - comes when we give up more, and better life happens when we give up our lives to Him. Jesus said this paradox is very real; that if we try to control and grasp as tightly as we can to this world and to this life, we’ll lose our very soul. That it’s in the very pursuit of this life, that we can lose eternal life. But, Jesus said, if you give up your life you will find your soul and that it’s in this surrendering of our lives that we find the real and true life that only Jesus can offer.

So it seems there is a whole other level, another realm to the spiritual life that Jesus calls us to. Understand this: if you really want to see the true life Jesus offers, then a complete giving of your life is what is needed. And I need to tell you the truth, that if you want to live life to the highest capacity and if you want to find the most fulfillment possible and if you want soul expansion beyond your comprehension, if you want more and a better life, then jump in with both feet and surrender everything to follow Jesus.

Just to put a little more emphasis on this deal I want you to hear why I’m in, why I’m surrendered, and why I re-worked that decision a few weeks ago in Calgary.

I’m surrendered because I want to be part of something that’s going to last forever. I want my life to count for eternity and I want to be part of something that’s goanna change the world. Very simply, I believe Jesus’ plan to save the world is just the best one I’ve ever seen. Jesus said, “I’m going to give up my life for this world. I’m going to give everything and surrender, and because I surrender every individual person in all of history will have a chance to have their life changed and their sins forgiven and their souls expanded. Then Jesus said, “I’m going to ask those individuals whose lives have been changed to shine brightly the light I’ve given them to the world around them by living a life of radical love and grace and commitment and surrender.”

I need to tell you that Jesus is changing the world one person at a time, one life at a time, one soul transformation at a time. And I just want to be part of that eternal thing He’s doing. I can’t imagine anything more important than that. Doesn’t everything else just pale in comparison to being part of something that’s going to change people forever?

What do you think compares to that? Money? Possessions? Position? Power? Pleasure? Self-gratification?

No way. It all comes in a distant second. The life Jesus calls us to is the only one that’s’ going to last forever and it’s the only one that’s really worth giving your life to.

So, I just wanted to publicly say. “I’m surrendered”. And I’m going to ask you to surrender your lives, too, because when we let go of everything and surrender to Jesus, that’s where we find real life.

Work with me as we close. It’s a bit of a cheesy idea but I think it’s what God wants me to do. We’ve prepared about 1000 small white flags (you got them when you came in). White flags symbolize surrender. Here’s what I want you to do: write words on those flags, words that symbolize surrender for you. Words like: “My best for his best; My life for yours; Completely yours; Yes God; Carte Blanche; Money/Position/Power/Control; ALL IN!; I Surrender”.

Once you have written on your that flag, there are two options:

• Come up and lay it down on the altar as an offering to God.
• Keep it as a reminder that on this day you surrendered.

Or, do both. You can lay it down and then take it home with you, too.

Maybe it’s not such a cheesy idea after all.