How to Surrender with Honor
Written by Ed Allen
Saturday, 24 July 1999 19:00
We live much of our lives with the illusion of control, but ultimately life is out of our control. Periodically, we are confronted head-on with that reality. Whether in our careers, in our finances, with our family or significant friends, or with our health ? we cannot escape the reality that life is ultimately out of our control.
And because we work so hard for so long at convincing ourselves that we are in control, when we are confronted by the reality of our impotence we often respond badly. In one way or another, we fall apart. I saw a vivid illustration of that recently.
Illustration: Diane riding rides at Waterworld. She was out of control, screaming her head off ? it wasn?t pretty.
God offers an alternative. He does not hide the fact that we are not in charge, but He shows us a way of living other than screaming our way through life without restraint. Today, we will look at how to surrender with honor.
Acknowledge God?s control
- The Bible calls God?s control sovereignty. Listen to the universal testimony of God?s people concerning God?s sovereignty?
- 1 Chronicles 29:11-12: "Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all."
- Psalm 24:1: "The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;"
- Psalm 47:7: "For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise."
- Psalm 115:3: "Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him."
- Psalm 135:6: "The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths."
- Isaiah 14:27: "For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?"
- Isaiah 46:10: "I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please."
- Daniel 4:35: "All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: 'What have you done?'"
- Ephesians 1:11: "In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will."
- Does God?s sovereignty cover all of the details of our lives? Of course. We are like the servant of Jesus? illustration who live from command to command. Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 10:29-30 how detailed God is in the governance of our lives.
- "Aren?t two sparrows sold for a penny?
Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
And even the hairs of your head are all counted."
- "For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is
above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases he does,
in heaven and on the earth, in the seas and all the deeps.
He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,
who makes lightnings for the rain and
brings forth the wind from his storehouses."
- Some of you know the story of Job ? Or look at the words of the prophet Jeremiah from a book called Lamentations. In this book, the prophet is lamenting the downfall of the city of Jerusalem.
- Then later the prophet acknowledges the source of Jerusalem?s difficulties.
- The greatest evil of all was the death of God?s son. But the Bible makes it clear that the death of Jesus came from the hand of God Himself and out of His direct design. The Bible says, "This Jesus was delivered up by the definite plan and foreknowledge of God." (Acts 2:23)
- My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns;
my bile is poured out on the ground because of the destruction of my people,
because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city.
- Who can command and have it done, if the Lord has not ordained it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
- Over the difficulties, details and ultimately over our death God is in control. Job 14:5 "Man?s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed."
- Acknowledging God?s sovereignty is an intellectual exercise. And I mean this in the most practical and active way. This is something we must do with our minds. We must recognize with our minds that God is in control and we are not. We don?t do this because we must but because we can. All of creation lives under God?s control. The sun, moon, stars, winds, waves and all of creation follow His divine command. But of all creation only one entity is given the privilege of recognizing God?s sovereignty. Only one entity can choose to acknowledge God?s control.
- Some of you have difficulty acknowledging God?s sovereignty. If God is sovereign, then you have a problem with some of the decisions He makes. So it?s just easier to think that some things are out of His control. You can take comfort in the testimony of the greatest theologian in American history. Jonathan Edwards once said, "From my childhood up, my mind had been full of objections against the doctrine of God?s sovereignty ? it used to appear like a horrible doctrine to me." But after some explanation he says, "Now absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God." If you have difficulty with the idea of God?s control, it may be because you think your plan, your desires and your own sense of fairness are better than God?s. The Bible calls this self-worship, to place ourselves in the position of God. Ultimately, God?s job is not one we are qualified for and certainly not one we want.
- Some of you struggle to acknowledge God?s sovereignty. Helpful hints:
2. Jonathan Edwards resolved to think of his own death. Claimed that once he put his life in its proper context, he could more easily put his plans in their proper context.
3. Look for opportunities this week to acknowledge God?s sovereignty and control.
Align your will with God?s will.
- I have a light socket in my house that looks crooked. It looks off balance. But if you hold a real level up to it you find that the wall, not the light socket is out of balance. If we want our lives to achieve real balance then we cannot use the culture as our plum line. We can?t even use our own ideas.
The servants in Jesus? story at the end say, "We have only done what we were told to do." We have found out our orders and we have followed. This is the essence of the second great phrase of the Lord?s Prayer. "Our Father who art in heaven, holy is your name." Here is a magnificent and beautiful acknowledgement of God?s sovereignty. Then comes ? "Your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." In other words, "I agree with your will God. Let it be done here through my life. May my life and will be aligned with your will." Aligning your will with God?s will is an exercise of your will.
If God is sovereign, why do we pray?
Mike Cannon reminded me this week that part of the answer to that question is found in the nature of prayer. We do not pray to let God know what He doesn?t know. We do not pray to change God?s mind. We pray so that God might change our minds and our wills and our character so that they more completely reflect His.
One of the greatest spiritual awakenings of all time happened in Wales in 1904 and 1905. This awakening centered around the life and preaching of a coal miner?s son named Evan Roberts. During the spring of 1904 he was repeatedly awakened in the middle of the night usually from 1:00 to 5:00 AM by a sense of God?s presence and deep communion with him. He grew convinced that God was going to "claim 100,000 souls." In September of that year, Roberts was at a meeting when he heard a pastor named Seth Joshua pray, "Lord, bend us." This simple phrase electrified Roberts and became the theme of this preaching. He began traveling to small cities throughout Wales, and then into larger urban centers. Finally he preached to a huge crowd in London. And by the end of 1905 over 100,000 people had responded to the call to follow Christ wholeheartedly and completely. The messages were always very simple and revolved around the theme: "Lord, bend us. Align our will with yours."
This can only happen through a daily discipline of spending time relating your will, and your desires to God?s. Also, seek advice.
Accept what God gives. (Affirm what God does.)
- We can acknowledge that God is in control with our heads and still reject what He does with our hearts. As we said at the beginning, we can resist Him in anger; we can forget Him in denial. But if we want to surrender with honor then we must accept what God gives and affirm what He does.Job: "What we accept good from God and not trouble?" (2:10)
God is an equal opportunity employer. It doesn?t matter who we are. Proverbs 21:1 "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will."
Obviously those who try to exercise ultimate control over their lives are trying in vain. I got a call from a friend whose mother died very suddenly ?
Life is uncertain and beyond our control. And yet our lives have meaning. Our actions and our decisions matter. Someone once suggested that we are nothing more than passengers on the Titanic rearranging the deck furniture. What we do simply does not matter. But that is not right. That is not the message of the Bible. It is not what our sovereign God desires.
How do we live with the out-of-controlness of life and yet affirm its meaning? Isn?t all suffering a sign that nothing matters really? Have you ever seen the bumper sticker, "Life is hard and then you die?" Isn?t that the truth? Shouldn?t we just resign? Just quit? Or maybe we should scream our way through life?s tunnels either out of anger or fear. Absolutely not! The Bible offers an alternative. We can surrender with honor. We can acknowledge God is in control with our minds. We can align our wills with God?s will and with our hearts we can accept what God gives.
Resignation is a passive activity. Acceptance is proactive.
I encourage you today to surrender with honor. The alternatives are burdensome.