Surrendering to Christ is Not Drudgery

Surrendered. To be used by the Lord as He wills. For some of us, it may mean 'Lord I surrender. I will go to Lebanon.' And for somebody else, it will mean 'Lord I surrender. I will not continue to hold on to this desire to go to Lebanon.'

'Lord, I put my child on the altar. I surrender. Lord, if it's Your will that He still be lost a year from now, I surrender.' Brethren, in all the surrender, we're surrendering to His will. Still in His will, He tells us to pray, He tells us to pray in His name. He tells us to pray that our joy may be full.

The thing is, surrendering to Him is not all drudgery. Surrendering to Him is surrendering to His love. It's surrendering to His kindness. It's surrendering to His goodness. It's surrendering to the reality that child that I just laid on the altar may very well be saved next year. Brethren, there is fear. I know it. There is fear to speak this way to the Lord.

There tends to be a hesitancy and there tends to be a reservation in us to willingly and honestly pass every single aspect of our life beneath the gaze of this all allegiance demanding Christ. We know it. There's a hesitation, there's a fear. Why? Because we don't know what tomorrow brings. We don't know what He may put us through. That's why we hesitate, because when we put it all on the altar - you know what? When you put Isaac on the altar, He may demand Isaac.

And you put it all out there and we're afraid, we're often afraid. We have these fears that what if He takes away that thing that I just feel like I need. And I know that there are fears because I know you. I know me. The fear is what will happen if I do surrender, especially that one particular area of my life. We fear, we hesitate. We get nervous.

What will He require? He always requires things of us that we don't want to give up. And He gives us things that are far better than the things that we do give up. Brethren, He has not promised to call us to an easy road. And He's not promised to call us to a road without suffering.

We need to be ready and resigned. The suffering is coming, brethren. The pain and the sorrows and the tears in this life. They're all ahead of us. But there's glory beyond that, and there's lots of glory in this life as well and being surrendered to Him. He could bring revival tomorrow. He can bring cancer tomorrow. I mean that's been the reality of church history.

That's been the reality of our brethren that have gone before us. But being surrendered, we don't want to fight because, brethren, He never puts us through anything that isn't for our good. He always does what He does with purpose. And it is always done with love. Brethren, I would just say this to us. As we hesitate, you think about this Christ who demands all of our allegiance. Has He not led you in the best possible way? Has He not been kind to you?

We heard about His providences. Have they always been easy? No. But brethren, do we not have a promise in Scripture that they're all being worked out for our good? Do we not have the promise that as the Father loved Christ, He says so I love you? Did He not tell us that He came to give us life more abundantly. You see these things we hold on to. We get this idea that 'I have to protect this because, Lord the truth is, I just really believe that I know how better to handle this thing than You do because I really think that if something happens to this over here that I'm not going to be able to be happy and satisfied and content any longer and I'm just really nervous about surrendering this thing to You because You may come in and do something that I don't want you to do.'

But brethren, we are just infants. We're children. We don't know what is best for us, and He knows and I guarantee you when He comes and He comes and He cuts, it is good. It is good for us, we can trust Him. Brethren, is He not always done everything that leads us to believe that we can trust Him. You see, it's a trust issue. That fear, when it crops up, it's a trust issue. And He tells us, I love you. He tells us, I came that you might have love more abundantly.

Brethren, we try to hold on to things. And you as a Christian, you know this. How often have we been in that place. Oh, we're trying to hold on to this thing. We're trying to protect this thing. And the longer we try to hold onto it and protect it and keep it from Him and shelter it and hold it back, the more miserable we become.

And when you let it go, joy. I mean, the cases are many fold. Don Johnson and his Arrowheads. Many of you have heard that story. Corrie ten Boom and the Nazis. You can read the chapter there. Hudson Taylor, those of you who got that - just concerning the mission. Men and women throughout history, they come to these points of resignation and what happens? Is it misery? No, it's joy. There is so much joy in surrender.