Last week Ken opened a new series for us called Surrender which we are really excited about here at MRC. It always amazes me how we plan out these sermon series months in advance, then life starts to unfold, and as we get into a series topic, it ends up being exactly what we should be talking about for the times that we are living in…and here we are, in the middle of a pandemic…worried about our health, worried about our jobs, stuck in our homes, all wondering what the future holds…and we are entering a conversation about Surrendering to God’s will. Life has an amazing way of getting harder not easier, and with all that life throws at us comes anxiety, anger, depression, hopelessness, and fear. As a people we want to find relief from all the tension and pain that comes with life. Unfortunately, this is where so many of us struggle because in that search for relief we often go to everything and anything but God to find it. In this series we will discover where we can find relief and just to throw this out there, it isn’t found in your stuff, or any religious behaviors, or any form of drug or alcohol…it’s found in God and centering on and surrendering to Him.
So yeah, we are hitting a big subject at a time when we all could use some relief from the tension that life throws at us…but before we get rolling in this talk today can we just talk about a bit of an elephant in the room? Are we seriously basing an entire series off the idea of “surrender”? “Surrender” is a word that just brings some tension with it doesn’t it. It’s one of those yucky words that probably ranks right up other scary words that add a little stress to our conversations like “submit.” It’s interesting how uncomfortable we get when we hear certain words isn’t it? You even hear words like submit or surrender and we already can start to squirm a bit in our chairs and fold the arms across our chest…because these are things we just don’t like to talk about and really aren’t all that willing to do. Which may speak to why our lives feel so hard all the time…but I may be getting ahead of myself there.
Today and all week I’m going to be talking to you about centering on God and what life can look like if we do center on Him and His will. And to do that we are going to be building around and continuing to come back to Psalm 84 which is a Psalm that has meant a lot to me lately. I know this may not be the first or second…or even tenth place you would go talk about the subject of surrendering to and centering on the will of God but I think there is something really special for us to learn from this beautiful Psalm but before we do, let’s think about where we were last week.
Last week Ken did a great job kicking off this series. If you haven’t watched his videos or read his talk in the blog, you really need to go back and check it out. He led us into the idea of our spiritual worlds, and how there is so much there for us when we engage our spiritual worlds…which is so true, yet so few us ever really do that or go there. At the end of each of his videos he was listing out questions and asking you to engage those questions and we hope you took the time to do that! I had read his talk ahead of time, then hung out with him as he filmed them, and I really enjoyed listening and taking notes as He spoke. But you know what, it really got me thinking. I agree with everything he said, and I bet that you do too! I mean, everything he said made sense. Everything he said lined up with scripture and as he laid out the idea of all that could be if we would engage God, and surrender to Him…I just kept thinking to myself…why wouldn’t we do this? Everything Ken told us sounds so good, and we would all agree that it would lead to so much peace and joy in our lives…so the questions has to be asked. Why don’t we surrender? Why can’t we humans seem to do this? After Ken and I left that day, and I was home downloading His talks to Youtube and I just couldn’t get that question out of my head. Why do we fight God’s will? Why won’t we just simply surrender? There is so much there for us…so much treasure available to us, so much peace, so much value to life if we could simply surrender…but we keep on fighting it, and because we fight it, we make life so much harder than it has to be.
The question just stuck in my mind and heart and it was like I started seeing this wrestling match we humans are in everywhere and in almost everything. We just make things so much harder than they have to be, and I can see examples of this everywhere…I watched my children battle to do their schoolwork online right now. It was amazing to watch! Because of this pandemic they have about one tenth of the schoolwork to do that they normally would be doing this time of year if school was actually in session and all week regardless of what their wise parents would say about not procrastinating…they fought, kicked, pushed against…and then those few assignments just felt like climbing Mt. Everest by Friday…and I just thought wow, there it is again. That could have been so easy if you didn’t fight so hard against it.
I do this in my personal life, and I bet you do too. If we really stop and take some inventory of our stress and anxiety and tensions in life…there are some real pressures and responsibilities that we all have but if we really think through it…so much of why life is so hard is just us fighting against things we have no control over…and that question remains, why don’t we surrender to God’s will? I just can’t get that question out of my head, why can’t we seem to do this? We are missing out on so much…
My family and I have been enjoying all of this time that we have on our hands and one of the fun things we have been doing is watching the Marvel Superhero movies in chronological order. We love those movies and it’s been a cool pandemic event for us…and the other day we got to End Game which is the big epic conclusion to all of these movies and the big bad of the movie said something that I couldn’t believe…and I thought to myself…wow, that is so true! And it fit this question that I can’t get out of my mind.
“As long as there are those that remember what was, there will always be those, that are unable to accept what can be.” Thanos – Endgame Quote
I made Trey rewind that a couple of times so that I could write it down…and while none of them found that part really amusing in the moment, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, what a profound statement. It really made me think about the idea of surrendering to God, and why that is so hard for us…and I think there is something there for us to engage this week. It’s so true like my kids with their online schoolwork, like us adults fighting our way through life. We can hear Ken layout clearly for us all that could be in a life fully surrendered to the will of God, but we just can’t accept what could be.
Life will always throw adversity and challenges at us, but life could look so different. There is so much there for us…but we continue to pull against God’s will, trying to live as we think we should be living while sadly never experiencing all that life could be if we could bow our knee and surrender to God’s will. My goal this week is going to be to show just what could be, and what we are truly missing out on by fighting God’s will and not living a surrendered life.
What could be is a life with God living in you, which leads to a life that could be described this way…
Galatians 5:22 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. TLB
So tomorrow we start to build on this idea of what could be, a life with God living in us which produces those beautiful fruit in our lives, and we will do it through our look at Psalm 84…see you tomorrow.
Monday – What Could Be
So yesterday I told you that there was this question that has really stuck with me, and that question was with everything Ken was laying out for us last week, with every gift and blessing that our Bibles tell us is there for us if we could surrender our lives to God…AND we know it…why can’t we do it? We landed the plane yesterday looking at this idea that we are missing out on all that could be in our lives…and I want you to understand something, what “could be” is God living in us. God living in us leads to a life that can be seen and described this way…
Galatians 5:22 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. TLB
We call that the Fruit of The Spirit, and it’s all there for us if we can accept what could be and today I want to keep building into what life could be…and to do so we are going to look at just a few verses of the Psalm I told you has meant so much to me lately…as we read it, just let these few verses flow, there is such a peacefulness to them, such beauty here, check this out…
Psalm 84:5 And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; 6 They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! 7 God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn — Zion! God in full view! MSG
I love this, and just want to slow down today and walk you through this. I know it’s just a couple sentences from an obscure Psalm, but there is so much here, and I think in so many ways you hear Paul, and countless others echoing these words with their own writings and lives later in Scripture. So, for today we are going to just hang out in the blessing of verse 5…let’s read that again…
Psalm 84:5 And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; MSG
I love this, how blessed are those in whom God lives, whose lives become roads you travel…isn’t that awesome! We are blessed when we accept all that could be for our lives as His children. And what could be is God living in you, this is The Holy Spirit, which is available to us all if we believe, accept Jesus into our lives, and surrender. This is when we can experience all that could be. Paul really helps us see what could be, and how important it is for us to surrender, to forget what was and accept what could be here in Galatians 2.
Galatians 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. NLT
Do you see it? This is what it means to live a surrendered life, Paul is saying I’m laying down my old ways of living. I’m laying down my religious behaviors. He is saying that he understands he can’t do anything to earn what Jesus has done for Him but because of that gift and his own willingness to surrender his will to God’s…He now has Christ living in him. This is huge and where so many of us get caught…remember the Thanos quote I brought up from the Marvel movies yesterday?
“As long as there are those that remember what was, there will always be those, that are unable to accept what can be.” Thanos – Endgame Quote
Paul is trying to help us see, the same thing that our Psalm was trying to show us…what could be is God living in us. There is something special here if we allow God into our lives. Remember we are trying to figure out how to find relief from all the anxiety, stress, fears, tensions, and pain of this world and what are we seeing here? We have already seen the fruit that The Holy Spirit produces in our lives…
Galatians 5:22 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. TLB
Paul also says that God in us (The Holy Spirit) brings life to those who surrender to what could be.
Romans 8:2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. NLT
I think this idea of God in us bringing life to us is a really important one…especially as so many of us seem to drag our way through each day we spend on this planet. This idea of the Spirit being life-giving makes me think of a point Ken made as we finished up our study on Holy Week. Do you remember his last talk on The Great Commission? Ken said that there are a lot of good-hearted people out there trying to do God’s work, who exhaust themselves and burnout because while they are working really hard, they are not waiting on and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead their lives and I think Paul is helping us see why, it’s because the power of the Spirit is life giving.
So as we close out this portion of the talk I want you to think about some things. We are building out of an idea, that as a people we fight against surrendering to God’s will, and when we do that, we can miss out on all that could be. And what could be is God living in us. Which produces a life that would be described as a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. God in us brings is life-giving.
And what did we hear from our Psalm today?
Psalm 84:5 And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; MSG
Those of us who have God living in us truly are blessed, and tomorrow we will look at why this is so important for us to have this life giving spirit in us…and that really comes down to how hard life actually can be…see you tomorrow.
Tuesday – What drives you?
So yesterday we really started to dig into Psalm 84…well we only made it through one verse, but I think it had a lot for us to dig into…
Psalm 84:5 And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; MSG
We looked yesterday at what all could be if we have this life-giving power of God living in us. It’s an amazing gift that we can all have, but sadly few believe, accept, and surrender to God allowing all that could be to take shape in their lives. And today I want to pick back up and talk to you about why it is so important to have this life-giving Spirit in you. Why this Psalm would say you are so blessed to have God living in you. Why Paul reminds his churches time and time again that they have Christ in them. It’s because life is hard. I know this isn’t a surprise to any of us who have spent any length of time on this planet but life is hard, and adversity will hit your life…and the reason guys like Paul keep bringing you back to God living in you as so important is because when you have God living in you, you can find peace, focus, and even energy as life comes at you and because the source of that power and strength is God, you can make it through all that life throws at you. And because it’s God living inside you…it cannot be taken from you! Let’s keep going with our Psalm now adding verses 6 and 7 to what we have already been reading in verse 5.
Psalm 84:5 And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; 6 They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! 7 God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn — Zion! God in full view! MSG
So what do we see here? This Psalmist describes the life of a blessed person with whom God lives as a person whose life winds through lonesome valleys, comes upon brooks, springs, and pools of rain, God-traveled, the road is windy, and curves up mountains…but leads to God. Wow is this so powerful, but I want you to really see what he is saying. It’s a really artsy way of saying life is hard and has its challenges. Do you see it? It is a life of high moments, and also low moments which we all experience. It’s a life of lonely valleys, and amazing moments too. Life has its mountains to climb…which isn’t easy! You have mountains in your life too, don’t you? But did you notice that at the top of that mountain, at the end of that challenging God-traveled life…is God. So, this Psalm is saying, blessed is the person with whom God lives because life is hard, but God is traveling it with them. This is such a big deal, and I want you to understand this about our lives…when we accept, believe, and surrender to what could be we are blessed beyond measure, not because life won’t throw a lot at us, but because we get to walk through it all with God.
We are blessed with God living in us because we have the advantage of His life-giving power in us. Which means that when tough times come and they will, a God-traveled person won’t fall apart or lose focus because everything centers on God and I think the biggest reason a person is so blessed because God lives in them is because all their motivators and drives come from God…they are internal rather than so many people who pull their motivations from exterior things. God in you can never be taken away from you, but external sources of motivation and energy can be taken away. Which leads to an important question that each of us needs to ask ourselves.
So what drives you? Where do you get the motivation to do things in life? For the person who has God living in them, they are blessed because they receive this life-giving power of the Spirit. So they draw their motivation from God in them…this is their power source…and frankly it can never be taken away. I think this is where so many people get in trouble with their lives. They refuse to own their own development…they put it on someone or something else to get them through and it can help them for a little while, but it can be taken from them…to me it’s shaky ground. I want to show you a few examples of this today.
I love to run…I know I don’t look like a runner, but I enjoy the fresh air, the time to just be outside, and I’m thankful to be healthy enough to run. But I know a lot of people who think I’m nuts because I don’t run in many races. I don’t see myself running any marathons or in the Olympics when I grow up. Frankly the races cost money, and stress me out, and I run for me, not for a race…and I know many runners right now who are struggling to stay motivated because their races have been taken away due to this pandemic. They could only get excited to run with people, and not due to social distancing they can’t…and it’s becoming a struggle every day to stay fit. Do you see it? If you are getting in shape for your health and well-being…it’s an internal motivator. It can’t be taken away by a race being cancelled by Covid-19 or anything else.
I see this a lot around my daughter and youth soccer. She loves the game of soccer and after watching and coaching children for the last 10 years around youth soccer and youth sports in general…here is something that has become crystal clear to me, the motivation and passion needs to be the childs, not mommy or daddy’s or it just isn’t sustainable. Syd loves it, and because she is owning her development I could see her having a real future in it. Because it isn’t mom and dad pushing her to do things on her own, we aren’t dragging her to trainings and the field, it is something in her heart that she enjoys and does without the parental push…so as a dad I know it’s sustainable and I need to foster that for her because it’s her passion…not mine. So many children are playing youth soccer or sports in general and the parents are pushing them, dragging the child to practices that they don’t want to go to, and forcing them to do things they don’t want to do…those kids typically burn out before high school…are you seeing it? The motivation coming from within is sustainable and can’t be taken away…if it’s external it’s probably not going to last…and can be taken away.
I think we are seeing this often in our spiritual development and today in the middle of this Pandemic it is really standing out to me. We all know men and women who talk about their needs for small groups, community, and discipleship classes. Now I want you to hear me I think these are all good things, but for so many men and women out their they are not owning their spiritual development. They rely on a small group or discipleship built by the church for their time with God, and while these things can be used, and should be used as a way to enhance and strengthen our personal walk with God…what happens when they are taken away? You know, this is sad when it comes to physical fitness when the 5k is taken away and we pout and gain some weight…it is sad when it comes to a young person burning out on a fun youth sport like the game of soccer…but this is a tragedy when it comes to a person’s walk with God. I do not think there is anything that has frustrated me more than trying to encourage people to engage and grow in their walk with God, while watching their spiritual growth being stunted because they are relying on external things to motivate them to spend time with their Heavenly Father, while labeling Ken and I as the guys who do not like small groups or discipleships. All the while by not engaging their Heavenly Father they miss out on what could be, while not grasping that it was their Heavenly Father who sent His son to this Earth to sacrifice His life in a horrific way so that we can experience eternal life, AND also now walk in an intimate and free relationship with God.
Can I tell you something, if you are not spending personal and meaningful time with God you are not fully surrendered to Him. You are not experiencing all that could be. If you are relying on external things like discipleships, men’s groups, women’s groups, even regular in person church services to be your time with God…to act as your relationship with Him you are now experiencing living in a time where you can tangibly see that it can be taken from you. When you love God with all your heart and are experiencing a life that is God-traveled you don’t even seek external motivation because you realize that God is all you need! Everything else, including Sunday services, small groups, fun church community moments, discipleship classes, all of it…they are just a bonus…because you have accepted what could be. You have God living in you.
Wednesday – What matters most to you?
Today we are closing out the second talk of this Surrender series, where we have been looking at a life lived with God in the center…which is life that just doesn’t fall apart as life hits. We have been walking through a beautiful Psalm that has meant so much to me, and really we have just hung out in 3 verses of this Psalm so far.
Psalm 84:5 And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; 6 They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! 7 God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn — Zion! God in full view! MSG
We have been building out of this idea of the blessings that come for those whom God lives. Yesterday we really got into the heart of what I wanted to share with you in this week’s study. When we surrender to God’s will we accept all that could be in our lives…and what could be is a God living in us which leads us to a blessed life, where life still comes at us, we do continue to have those ups and downs that Asaph describes, but it’s a life that we travel with God. This is a life that Paul describes this way…
Galatians 5:22 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. TLB
Paul also says that God in us (The Holy Spirit) brings life to those who surrender to what could be.
Romans 8:2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. NLT
This is the blessed life of someone whom God lives, and I really wanted you to see by surrendering to God’s will life is just better. It’s a life with all these things coming out of our lives that Paul describes, and it’s also a life where all of the power, motivation, and strength comes from God in you…which means it can not be taken away from you. Which I think we can all see is a big deal in the difficult times that we are living in right now and it was towards the end of our time yesterday where I made a bit of a challenging statement…I said that if you are not spending personal and meaningful time with God you are not fully surrendered to Him. You are not experiencing all that could be. Well since you are still watching here today that means I didn’t lose you with that statement and it’s that area that I want to continue building on today. When you love God and start to spend personal and meaningful time with Him everything changes. This is a surrendered life…and what is really interesting is you will begin to see that all you really need and desire is God. I think for most people we have so much, and we want so much…we are always looking around wanting more, and those desires for stuff, wealth, and things of this world are just never fully satisfied and leave many of us restless. It’s interesting when you live a surrendered life you really only have one desire. You only have one need…and that is God. Everything else just becomes a bonus in life for you.
Let’s go back to Psalm 84 and I want you to see how this awesome Psalm ends…
Psalm 84:8 God of the Angel Armies, listen: O God of Jacob, open your ears — I’m praying! 9 Look at our shields, glistening in the sun, our faces, shining with your gracious anointing. 10 One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship, beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches. I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin. 11 All sunshine and sovereign is God, generous in gifts and glory. He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions. 12 It’s smooth sailing all the way with God of the Angel Armies. MSG
This is so good, and its verses 10 that really stands out to me…did you pick up on this?
10 One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship, beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches. I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin. MSG
I want you to think about this, he says that one day with God beats a thousand days on wonderful vacations and that he would rather scrub floors and do menial tasks in God’s house than be an honored guest in the palace of the worlds ways. His priority and number one desire is crystal clear, it’s God. Now think about what this means for him and think of the peace this would bring his life. What can you take from someone whose desire is to be with God? What happens to a person who’s highest priority and deepest desire is God if you take his home? What if you take his house or his car? What if you buy something nice that he doesn’t have? What if you give him a nice thing will he like it? Sure! But it’s all just icing on the cake, it’s a bonus to the life He is living with God. When you think about this Psalm it is so profound…and it’s so true.
Psalm 84:5 And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; 6 They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! 7 God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn — Zion! God in full view!
No matter what is thrown at you when you accept Jesus, believe in Him, and surrender to God’s will you are blessed because God lives in you…regardless of the lonesome valleys, regardless of the mountains you must climb…and through all that life throws at you, (and it will throw a lot at you) because you are fully surrendered to God and He is your desire, you live with a peace that just can’t be taken from you.
Psalm 84:10 One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship, beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches. I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin. 11 All sunshine and sovereign is God, generous in gifts and glory. He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions. 12 It’s smooth sailing all the way with God of the Angel Armies. MSG
This is amazing, and I was so excited to talk to you about this today. As we close this talk, I want you thinking about this. So many people walk through life and just aren’t willing to surrender to God’s will over their own, they know best. All they are doing is making life so much harder than it has to be. Life will always have challenges, it will always have lonesome valleys and mountains to climb, but it doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it. We must surrender to God’s will over our own. When we do, we experience all that could be, and what could be is a life lived with God in us. This is a blessed life with the Fruit of the Spirit coming out of us, with the life-giving power of the Spirit in us. This becomes the source of our strength and cannot be taken away from us. When we are truly surrendered to God, we are spending personal and meaningful time with Him…and our number one desire becomes God. Which leads to a level of peace, joy and centeredness because regardless of how good or bad the things life is throwing at us are, they are secondary to the joy of being with God. This is where we experience all that life could be…this is what we miss out on as we fight God’s will and try to continue to live for ourselves, this is why this Psalm is so meaningful…because a life with God living in us, truly is a blessed life.
Psalm 84:5 And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; MSG