Surrendering to Jesus

[0:00] Good morning. I don't know if you follow hockey this day. Apparently the Oiler is doing well.

[0:11] My wife is now familiar with the games. And she's even familiar with some of the players from Oiler. Do you know how I feel? I feel like the Oiler is going to make it to the championship.

[0:34] If Pastor Ken was here this morning, I believe he would be wearing Oiler outfit again. And he would have something to talk about the games.

[0:45] Well, let's talk about something more important than the games. I'm sure many would be familiar with the scripture I chose this morning.

[0:58] And the scripture is from Mark 8, verses 34 to 9, verses 1. This is the scripture that many are familiar with.

[1:13] Let me read these verses. Is anything worth more than your soul?

[2:06] Jesus went on to say, In this scripture, Jesus is asking the crowd.

[2:44] Jesus is asking us if we want to be his true followers. He is telling what needs to be done in order to follow him.

[2:57] Here he said, We must turn from our selfish way. We have to take up our cross. We cannot hang on to our lives.

[3:11] We have to give up our life for him and the gospel. I give this sermon title as surrendering to Jesus. In the dictionary, the word surrender means to give up completely in favor of others.

[3:32] Here in this scripture, we are asked to give up completely in favor of Jesus. If we want to be his follower. Unless we give up our way, we are not able to embrace God, Jesus' way, God's way.

[3:53] Do you think surrendering or giving up something is an easy one if we have won? What we need to remember here is that Jesus is not talking about surrendering something we value less in our life.

[4:13] He is asking to surrender something we value the most. We all have something we value the most. That is the one Jesus is asking us to surrender for him.

[4:30] In Matthew chapter 19, verses 16 to 22, the rich young ruler was asking Jesus, What good deed must be due to have eternal life?

[4:46] Jesus was telling him to keep the commandments. He said, Which one? And Jesus replied, You must not murder. You must not commit adultery.

[4:58] You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother. Love your neighbor as yourself. I have obeyed all these things, these commandments.

[5:12] The young man replied, What else must I do? Jesus told him, If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your position and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heavens.

[5:31] Then come and follow me. But when the young man heard this, he went away, said, For he had many position. What Jesus is asking us here is to surrender something we value the most.

[5:50] Here this young rich ruler, he has no problem with the commandment. Do you know why? Because they are something he value less than his wealth.

[6:04] Because they are something he can do easily. Apparently, he could not replace Jesus over his wealth. It said, He went away sad.

[6:16] Dear church, Giving up something less value or less important in life is easier than what we value most.

[6:28] If we want to follow Jesus, it is required that we keep up what we value most or what we love most over him.

[6:40] In other words, Jesus wants to be in the center of our life. We all know the story of Abraham in terms of his willingness to obey God.

[6:56] After Abraham had a son at 100 years old, God was testing his faith to see if he truly loved and trusts him.

[7:07] Genesis chapter 22, verses 2, It said, God said, Take your son, your only son, yes, Isaac, whom you love so much, and go to the land of Moria, and go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains.

[7:29] I will show you. Here, God is asking Abraham to give up his son, Isaac, whom he loved too much, so much.

[7:43] We all know the story that Abraham didn't ask any question or just follow what he was told. The next morning, he took his son and servants, and they traveled three days to Moria.

[8:02] When they arrived there, Abraham ordered his servant to stay at the bottom of the mountain, as he and Isaac went up to worship God.

[8:15] Isaac said to his father, You have the knife, I have the wood, but where is the lamb for us to sacrifice? Abraham said, Abraham built an altar with seven nets.

[8:34] Abraham explained what God has requested us. He then took Isaac and bound him with a rope and lay him on the altar.

[8:45] Isaac did not receive, since he was obedient to his heavenly father and his earthly father, even in debt.

[8:58] Just as Abraham was ready to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, the angel said, Don't lay a hand on this boy.

[9:10] Do not hurt him in any way. For now, I know you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me, even your son, your only son.

[9:26] I don't know how you would react if God would ask you to do the same. I would be shocked. I would be questioning myself again if I am worshiping the true God.

[9:43] I would probably delay the process. I would excuse myself. not able to do it because he is my only son.

[9:56] But Abraham clearly showed that what it means to love God. That union love involves surrender.

[10:08] In verses 15, Abraham was called again. The angel of the Lord says to him, This is what the Lord said, Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son.

[10:25] I swear by my own name that I will suddenly bless you. I will multiply your descendants be your numbers. Like the star in the sky and the sand on the seashore, your descendants will conquer the city of their enemy.

[10:43] And through your descendants, all nations of the earth will be blessed. All because you have obeyed me. We live in a country that leads us to become independent.

[11:01] That sometimes leads us to the belief that we can live without God. We don't see the privilege and blessing as they are from God.

[11:12] But rather, the outcome of our own efforts. We spend our time seeking position, possession, and power, which are walliness.

[11:28] It said, yeah, if you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. You will lose it. We need to remember that whatever we have on earth is just temporary.

[11:44] And ultimately, they are worthless. And still, they make us tired. If we want us, if we want to give up and surrender to Jesus, we need to admit that we lost our way and want to follow Jesus' way.

[12:07] When we follow Jesus' way, we will receive Jesus' reserve, which is to live abundantly now and to have eternal life.

[12:21] Any struggle that you and I have, it may be a marriage issue, it may be a relationship issue, it may be a family issue, financial struggle, employment issue, personal issue, such an addiction, can be overcome if we follow Jesus' way.

[12:49] In Myanmar, we have many rehabilitation centers that are operated by churches. people, they are well known in terms of bringing patients to new lives.

[13:03] All they do is teach them gospel. Most believe that their gospel can only transform their life. It is true that I have seen many transformed people.

[13:17] some even become pastors and ministers. Then, their rehabilitation ministries are even more successful as they lead the ministry.

[13:32] What I am trying to say is that when we made Jesus our center, He can definitely transform our life regardless of any issue we may have.

[13:48] In Luke chapter 5 verses 1 to 7, we all know the story of Simon catching fish. I am just going to read it.

[14:00] One day, as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, great crowd pressed in on Him to listen to the Word of God. He noticed two empty boats at the water and ate.

[14:16] For the fishermen had left them and were fishing, were washing their nets. Stepping into one boat, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out to the water.

[14:30] So He sat in the boat and taught the crowd from there. When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, Now go out where is deeper and let down your net to catch some fish.

[14:47] Master, Simon replied, we worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing. But if you say so, I will let the net down again.

[15:03] And this time their net was full of fish. they began to tear. A shout for help brought their partner in other boats and soon boat will fill with fish and on the verge of sinking.

[15:23] When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knee before Jesus and said, O Lord, please leave me. I am a sinful man.

[15:34] For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught as were the other with him. His partner, James and John, the son of Zebedee, were also amazed.

[15:47] Jesus replied to Simon, Don't be afraid. From now on, you will be fishing for people. And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.

[16:02] Dear church, sometimes we may have felt we walk hard all night, didn't catch a thing. But if we listen or if we surrender to Jesus and follow his instruction, follow his will, Jesus will bring his results for us.

[16:28] he is always inviting us to be his true follower. And he is always telling us what it means to live abundantly now and to have eternal life.

[16:48] Let's pray. O Lord Father, thank you for your words. Thank you for your invitation that we receive daily. Lord, we want to be your follower, your true follower.

[17:06] Lord, help us to know you more. Help us to have a heart for you, Lord. Lord, we love you.

[17:19] We pray all these things in your precious name. Amen.