WEBVTT NOTE Podcast: Acts 29 Vancouver Episode: Prevailing Church : Surrender Publishing Date: 2018-09-16T06:00:44-07:00 Podcast URL: https://acts29.ca Episode URL: https://acts29.ca/prevailing-church-surrender/ 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:14.520 So they give evidence of divine sonship and divine ownership in their lives. 00:00:14.520 --> 00:00:21.920 And the pathway to both divine sonship and divine ownership is this word surrender. 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:25.320 That's how you get there. 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:31.600 And people get to a place of divine sonship and divine ownership through this word called 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:32.600 surrender. 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:36.680 And surrender is rarely external. 00:00:36.680 --> 00:00:39.300 Surrender cannot happen in two hours. 00:00:39.300 --> 00:00:42.860 You can start the process. 00:00:42.860 --> 00:00:49.760 You can symbolically do things that signify surrender. 00:00:49.760 --> 00:00:55.680 But really surrender is a voluntary progressive yielding. 00:00:55.680 --> 00:01:06.040 It's a voluntary, it's not coerced, it's a voluntary progressive yielding of what? 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:13.120 Of my will to someone else. 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:18.400 In this case, someone else's, Jesus Christ, towards what end? 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:34.440 So that he can reshape it as the song says, to whatever he wants me to be. 00:01:34.440 --> 00:01:39.240 That's perhaps a definition of surrender. 00:01:39.280 --> 00:01:45.640 To get to a place of divine sonship and divine ownership, both of which should be evident 00:01:45.640 --> 00:01:50.160 in a disciple's life, the pathway is surrender. 00:01:50.160 --> 00:01:59.600 Surrender may be defined as a voluntary progressive yielding of my will to someone else so that, 00:01:59.600 --> 00:02:05.320 in our case, it's Jesus, so that he can reshape it to whatever he wants me to be. 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:11.280 The surrendering of the will is the greatest battle because most other things can be surrendered. 00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:13.760 Money can be surrendered. 00:02:13.760 --> 00:02:16.440 Even life can be surrendered. 00:02:16.440 --> 00:02:19.800 But the will is the hardest thing to surrender. 00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:22.720 And yet that is what leads to divine sonship and divine ownership. 00:02:22.720 --> 00:02:27.360 And the thing is, God never forces a person to surrender his will. 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:30.040 God never forces a person to surrender his will. 00:02:30.040 --> 00:02:31.680 And God never begs. 00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:33.400 God does not beg. 00:02:33.480 --> 00:02:39.160 Paul would implore people on God's behalf, but God doesn't beg me. 00:02:39.160 --> 00:02:43.520 Not because he's proud, but because coercion is not his method. 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:46.600 Coaxing manipulation is not his method. 00:02:46.600 --> 00:02:49.240 He doesn't give us sob stories. 00:02:49.240 --> 00:02:54.720 He could have really milked crucifixion, but he didn't. 00:02:54.720 --> 00:03:00.140 So he doesn't beg and he doesn't force me to surrender my will. 00:03:00.140 --> 00:03:03.360 But he waits patiently for me to surrender my will. 00:03:04.320 --> 00:03:09.400 The problem is, the more I prolong it and the more I resist surrendering my will, 00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:15.280 the less time I have on earth to complete what he wants me to complete. 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:16.480 That's the problem. 00:03:16.480 --> 00:03:21.480 The more I prolong a surrendering of my will, the more I resist surrender, 00:03:21.480 --> 00:03:25.680 the less time I have on earth. 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:29.160 So any questions before we go on from there or anything you want to add? 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:42.240 Okay, so Oswald Chambers talks about three kinds of surrender. 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:48.720 And so I've taken the subheadings from some of his writings. 00:03:48.720 --> 00:03:55.920 And the first surrender is surrender to rest, surrender to rest. 00:03:55.920 --> 00:04:02.160 But the way we see rest is very different from how most writers and authors see it. 00:04:02.160 --> 00:04:09.440 So the first surrender is to rest. 00:04:09.440 --> 00:04:20.760 Is to rest, meaning we surrender our lives to this thing called rest. 00:04:20.760 --> 00:04:23.200 We surrender our lives to rest. 00:04:23.200 --> 00:04:24.640 And why do I say first? 00:04:24.640 --> 00:04:26.600 Because there is an order here. 00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:29.760 If you miss this order, things won't go well, 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:33.000 even though you have a desire to surrender. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.880 So the first surrender is to rest in Matthew 11, 28. 00:04:35.880 --> 00:04:41.480 Jesus did say, come unto me all that are weary and heavy laden and I'll give you rest. 00:04:41.480 --> 00:04:49.240 But the way we see rest will take us back about four or five years when we taught about rest. 00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:57.920 So when we say the first surrender is to rest, we are saying that we seize from self-generated 00:04:58.000 --> 00:04:59.920 means of sustenance. 00:04:59.920 --> 00:05:05.600 We seize from self-generated means of sustenance. 00:05:05.600 --> 00:05:11.440 We seize from self-generated means of sustenance. 00:05:11.440 --> 00:05:22.440 Meaning rest requires that I let go of ways that I come up with or conceive or fabricate 00:05:22.440 --> 00:05:26.720 or manufacture to sustain myself. 00:05:27.520 --> 00:05:31.680 It is to seize from self-generated means of sustenance. 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:36.000 This is what God was asking Israel to do in the desert when he said, listen, I don't want 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:41.880 you to bake bread anymore because bread was a usual means of sustenance for most nations 00:05:41.880 --> 00:05:45.040 in the time that Israel was going through the wilderness. 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:48.640 And he said, you shall not live by bread and I'll humble you. 00:05:48.640 --> 00:05:53.240 And what he meant by humbling there was I'll teach you how to be dependent on me. 00:05:53.280 --> 00:06:00.960 And so he said, I'll teach you how to be dependent on me so that you may be sustained by the 00:06:00.960 --> 00:06:05.440 proceeding word of God. 00:06:09.440 --> 00:06:13.840 And therefore he says, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds 00:06:13.840 --> 00:06:15.320 from the mouth of God. 00:06:15.320 --> 00:06:18.720 So we are sustained by the proceeding word of God and his presence. 00:06:19.200 --> 00:06:24.200 And this is what sustained Israel in the desert even though they were a stiff necked people, 00:06:24.200 --> 00:06:29.440 they were sustained by the presence of God and the proceeding word of God. 00:06:29.440 --> 00:06:31.400 So the first surrender is to rest. 00:06:31.400 --> 00:06:36.620 If you don't get to this phase of surrender, there is no question of going into the other 00:06:36.620 --> 00:06:38.440 phases of surrender. 00:06:38.440 --> 00:06:39.640 It's not possible. 00:06:39.640 --> 00:06:40.640 It will warp. 00:06:40.640 --> 00:06:41.640 It will bend. 00:06:41.640 --> 00:06:50.360 This is the essence of divine sonship. 00:06:50.360 --> 00:06:51.900 Jesus lived like this. 00:06:51.900 --> 00:07:00.680 This is what makes us sons because it allows us to live the life of another. 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:05.320 It also means letting the covenants and principles of God go to work for us. 00:07:05.320 --> 00:07:21.200 Letting the covenants and principles of God work for us. 00:07:21.200 --> 00:07:28.480 So just like gravity works and you don't have to do anything, you don't have to pray, you 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:34.920 don't have to wait in suspended anticipation. 00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:40.080 When you throw a ball up, you know that the ball will come down because there is a principle 00:07:40.080 --> 00:07:42.420 called gravity and gravity will go to work. 00:07:42.420 --> 00:07:46.780 You don't have to exert your sweat, your muscles. 00:07:46.780 --> 00:07:49.520 You throw something up, you know it will come down. 00:07:49.520 --> 00:07:54.320 And so in the same way, there are covenants and principles that God has established that 00:07:54.320 --> 00:07:55.320 we live by. 00:07:56.320 --> 00:08:02.080 where a farmer plants a seed and he knows because of Genesis 822 or because his father 00:08:02.080 --> 00:08:06.880 has told him that as long as the earth remains, there shall be summer and winter, there shall 00:08:06.880 --> 00:08:09.040 be sowing and reaping. 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:13.520 So these are principles of covenants that already exist and they go to work for us. 00:08:13.520 --> 00:08:18.840 This is what rest looks like where we do not toil because God has established things that 00:08:18.840 --> 00:08:24.240 begin to work for us and we don't mess with them because he's made things well. 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:27.120 You have done all things well, just look at my life. 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:32.060 The fourth one is entering into the joy of God. 00:08:32.060 --> 00:08:38.800 This is what rest looks like and this is the first thing we surrender to. 00:08:38.800 --> 00:08:44.400 We know that we need to surrender to this because in Hebrews 4, verse 10 and 11, Paul 00:08:44.400 --> 00:08:53.080 actually says that labor to enter into this rest, meaning strive to enter into this rest. 00:08:53.080 --> 00:08:57.080 You literally have to surrender your normal way of living that you've been taught as a 00:08:57.080 --> 00:09:00.880 child into coming to this place where you surrender. 00:09:00.880 --> 00:09:04.640 And so the fourth one is entering into the joy of God. 00:09:04.640 --> 00:09:06.720 Entering into the joy of God. 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:08.440 Why? 00:09:08.440 --> 00:09:10.560 Because you see the end from the beginning. 00:09:10.560 --> 00:09:19.120 Joy of God because you see the end from the beginning. 00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:26.800 This is what Jesus saw in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 13, 12 I think, verse 1 or 2 or 00:09:26.800 --> 00:09:31.320 verse 2 or 3 where it says, for the joy that was set before him, he knew the end from the 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:32.320 beginning. 00:09:32.320 --> 00:09:38.560 He knew what would happen, that God's son would not see decay, that he would rise again. 00:09:38.560 --> 00:09:43.640 That Isaiah 53 already said that from the death of his son will come a harvest. 00:09:43.640 --> 00:09:49.760 And so rest requires that I enter into the joy of God because you see the end from the 00:09:49.760 --> 00:09:54.400 beginning because rest was always joyful. 00:09:54.400 --> 00:09:57.000 The next one is to labor to enter into it. 00:09:57.000 --> 00:09:58.440 To labor to enter into it. 00:09:58.440 --> 00:10:00.720 And that's the scripture I just gave. 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:04.600 Labor to enter into it. 00:10:04.600 --> 00:10:06.320 You have to labor to enter into rest. 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:09.600 You have to surrender to it. 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:16.200 There is an act of the will where you're saying, I surrender, I will strive to enter into it. 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:21.720 Hebrews chapter 4, verse 10 says that God has entered into rest, meaning God has ceased 00:10:21.720 --> 00:10:28.640 from all his works, meaning God has already established things and now since he has finished 00:10:28.640 --> 00:10:34.200 everything, it is finished, he says, Jacob, why don't you enter into this rest? 00:10:34.200 --> 00:10:35.800 Rest with me. 00:10:35.800 --> 00:10:41.040 Rest is not the absence of work. 00:10:41.040 --> 00:10:46.680 It involves work, but it's not something you do on your own. 00:10:46.680 --> 00:10:51.600 It is listening to what God is saying, doing what he asks you to do. 00:10:51.600 --> 00:10:57.880 And so we labor to enter into this rest or the seventh day position. 00:10:57.880 --> 00:11:02.480 On the seventh day, God rested. 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:14.160 If you go to Hebrews chapter 4, verse 10, Hebrews 4, 10. 00:11:14.160 --> 00:11:18.160 Hebrews 4, 10. 00:11:18.160 --> 00:11:24.720 It says that for he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:26.560 as God did from his. 00:11:26.560 --> 00:11:27.440 Let me read. 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:34.520 For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 00:11:34.520 --> 00:11:42.640 For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 00:11:42.640 --> 00:11:48.000 The message, God himself is at rest and at the end of the journey, we'll surely rest 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:49.000 with God. 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:51.080 That is unfortunately a bad translation. 00:11:51.080 --> 00:11:53.840 That's when you know the message messes up. 00:11:53.840 --> 00:12:01.760 In verse 11, let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no man may fall by the same 00:12:01.760 --> 00:12:07.720 sort of disobedience, which means that if you don't surrender to rest, there is a high likelihood 00:12:07.720 --> 00:12:11.260 of you entering into disobedience. 00:12:11.260 --> 00:12:16.720 If you don't enter into rest, there is a high likelihood of you entering into disobedience 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:23.920 because you have to do things based on the perspiration of your thinking and your strength. 00:12:23.920 --> 00:12:28.720 That's all you really have. 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:30.240 So you're bound to make mistakes. 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:35.520 And he says you will end up in disobedience if you don't enter into rest. 00:12:35.520 --> 00:12:41.640 The next one was the next way we work rest into our lives is the very word sabbath or 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:49.200 which means to seize or desist from exertion, to seize or desist from exertion, to seize 00:12:58.400 --> 00:13:04.400 or desist from exertion, which is why when Jeevan was talking about how he went up there, 00:13:04.400 --> 00:13:09.200 and normally the typical way to go about doing stuff when you go on a mission to Plagueis 00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:16.360 is to war and declare and stomp your feet and all that stuff. 00:13:16.360 --> 00:13:22.000 And there might be a time and place for that, but sometimes you have to desist from exertion 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:27.400 because these battles are not won by the strength of the horse, by the size of the chariot, 00:13:27.400 --> 00:13:34.120 by might or by power, but by the spirit. 00:13:34.120 --> 00:13:39.120 And then the last one is, that is six. 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:46.120 And the seventh one is surrendering to rest requires living the life of another, requires 00:13:49.160 --> 00:13:56.160 living the life of another, living the life of another, where you decide that this life 00:13:56.160 --> 00:14:02.160 that you presently have while it is good doesn't have what it takes to live the way 00:14:02.160 --> 00:14:07.160 Christ lived. I no longer live, Christ lives in me, therefore I will live the life of another. 00:14:07.160 --> 00:14:14.160 We've talked about this, you can go online and listen to teachings on the feast of tabernacles, 00:14:14.160 --> 00:14:19.160 which was basically a festival that celebrated rest. 00:14:19.160 --> 00:14:24.160 So the first surrender is the first surrender of the life of another. 00:14:24.160 --> 00:14:30.160 So the first surrender is to rest. If you don't get this right, there's really no question 00:14:30.160 --> 00:14:37.160 of the next two surrenders because they are so much tougher and if you go there without 00:14:37.160 --> 00:14:44.160 learning this, you'll get exploited, you will overextend yourself and you will get exhausted. 00:14:44.160 --> 00:14:49.160 We'll talk about that. Any questions on this? 00:14:50.160 --> 00:14:57.160 I do think that Acts 29 over the years has learned this, but it is a reminder that we 00:14:59.160 --> 00:15:06.160 need to live only like this. It's probably one of my greatest strengths to operate our 00:15:10.160 --> 00:15:17.160 arrest. It's probably one of our greatest strengths as a church. Even our services, 00:15:19.160 --> 00:15:26.160 show that. We don't do much during a service. Everything just happens. Any questions? 00:15:40.160 --> 00:15:43.160 Any questions guys? 00:15:49.160 --> 00:15:56.160 To live the life of another is impossible if you don't live out of relationship. Divine 00:15:56.160 --> 00:16:02.160 Sonship, at the end of the day, is born out of relationship and that's how you live the 00:16:02.160 --> 00:16:09.160 life of another. So go home, listen to it again and remind yourself that, hey, I've 00:16:09.160 --> 00:16:16.160 got to come to this place where my first surrender is to rest. It's not to anything else but 00:16:17.160 --> 00:16:23.160 rest. Because if you live by the proceeding word of God, if you decide that you will not 00:16:23.160 --> 00:16:28.160 live out of self-generated sustenance, if you let the covenants and principles of God 00:16:28.160 --> 00:16:34.160 go to work for you, if you enter into joy so that you can be of good cheer even when 00:16:34.160 --> 00:16:39.160 things are difficult and overcome because you know the end from the beginning and the 00:16:39.160 --> 00:16:44.160 end of the beginning is not some kind of an outcome, it is Jesus Christ. If you begin 00:16:45.160 --> 00:16:50.160 to labor every time you find yourself out of rest, if you begin to labor to enter back 00:16:50.160 --> 00:16:57.160 and strive to get back into this place where you live by what God says, not an iota more, 00:16:58.160 --> 00:17:05.160 not an iota less. If you desist from exertion and learn to be still, if you allow the life 00:17:06.160 --> 00:17:13.160 of another that already exists in you to begin to live out from you, then you are now ready 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:18.160 having surrendered yourself to rest. You are now ready to go to the next phase which 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:25.160 is surrender my right to myself. Surrender my right to myself. To surrender my right 00:17:33.640 --> 00:17:40.640 to myself. The second surrender is the surrender of my right to myself. And we have a right 00:17:41.640 --> 00:17:48.640 to ourselves. It was given us by the creator. Which is why he gave us a will. If we didn't 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:59.120 have a right to ourselves he would not have given us each individual a will. He wouldn't 00:17:59.120 --> 00:18:06.120 have done that. But the surrender of my right to myself. In John, sorry in Matthew 16 24 00:18:07.120 --> 00:18:14.120 it says, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up the cross and 00:18:14.120 --> 00:18:19.280 follow me. I've been reading a few verses like that and it's odd how the follow me is 00:18:19.280 --> 00:18:26.280 always at the end. We have a tendency to say follow me and then you can later on deny yourself 00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:30.680 and take up the cross and stuff like that. Whenever Jesus talks he usually puts follow 00:18:30.680 --> 00:18:36.320 me at the end of the sentence. Before that he says, if you want to, anyone who wants 00:18:36.320 --> 00:18:42.840 to, desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up the cross and follow me. 00:18:42.840 --> 00:18:48.320 In other words, here's what he's saying. If you want to be my disciple, if you want to 00:18:48.320 --> 00:18:55.320 be my disciple, if you want to be my disciple, you must give up the right to yourself. You 00:18:55.320 --> 00:19:02.320 must give up the right to yourself to me, as in to him. If you want to be my disciple, 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:12.000 you must give up your right to yourself to me. If you want to be my disciple, you must 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:19.000 give up your right to yourself to me. Amazing religion we have. I love it. It is so difficult 00:19:31.960 --> 00:19:38.360 sometimes. Not so difficult, it so goes against the grain of everything that the world says. 00:19:38.360 --> 00:19:42.600 So in other words, what he's saying is, and scripture backs this up, you are not your 00:19:42.600 --> 00:19:49.600 own. You are mine to plant, bury, break, pour, multiply, distribute as I please. 00:20:09.360 --> 00:20:16.360 But again, he does not coerce, he doesn't take over till there is surrender. You are 00:20:17.880 --> 00:20:24.880 not your own. You are his. You are mine to send, to plant, to bury, to break, to pour, 00:20:27.800 --> 00:20:34.800 to multiply, to distribute as he sees fit. This is the surrender of the will. And just 00:20:34.800 --> 00:20:41.800 because I went to, Uttarakhand doesn't qualify me for this, that might be a trip. How about 00:20:42.360 --> 00:20:49.360 again tomorrow? How about, and that's just a trip. This is what he's asking for. I find 00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:58.960 this a stage that we, I mean a third stage, we don't really talk about it because I don't 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:03.440 think there's enough experiential knowledge in this church to go beyond that. 00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:08.920 To go beyond talking about it. But at least we can start working on this, where you surrender 00:21:08.920 --> 00:21:13.960 your right to yourself, to him. If you want to be my disciple, you must give up the right 00:21:13.960 --> 00:21:18.280 to yourself. And this is something I've been talking to God about, saying, Father could 00:21:18.280 --> 00:21:23.480 you teach me this? How I've surrendered to rest and I've learned that well. Now I must 00:21:23.480 --> 00:21:30.480 surrender my rights to myself, to you, so that you can send, plant, bury, break, to 00:21:33.440 --> 00:21:39.600 the poor, multiply, distribute as you please for the sake of others. Because it's not for 00:21:39.600 --> 00:21:45.400 your own sake, it's for the sake of others. So then, I become your servant, but I can't 00:21:45.400 --> 00:21:52.400 see you as my servant because you are his servant. That's how it works. It's not reciprocal 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:57.220 relationship where I am your servant, so therefore you are my servant. No, I'm your servant, 00:21:57.220 --> 00:22:04.220 you are God's servant. You're not my servant. And so, his guests, he will send you, plant 00:22:07.940 --> 00:22:12.560 you, bury you, break you, pour you out, multiply you, distribute you as he pleases. And who 00:22:12.560 --> 00:22:17.940 is he doing this to? For? He's doing it for his guests who come to him. And who are his 00:22:17.940 --> 00:22:21.340 guests? It can be a believer, it can be a non-believer, it can be a prisoner, it can 00:22:21.340 --> 00:22:27.660 be a prince. It doesn't matter who it is. You are now at his disposal. Because the moment 00:22:27.660 --> 00:22:34.660 you surrender your right to yourself, look at what you become. Servant son. The moment 00:22:37.180 --> 00:22:42.700 you surrender your right to yourself, you become a servant son. If you look at John 00:22:42.700 --> 00:22:48.180 12, 24 to 26, it kind of sums up this whole idea of I will break you, pour you, bury you, 00:22:48.180 --> 00:22:52.500 and do what I want with you because you have decided that you're surrendering yourself 00:22:52.500 --> 00:22:59.500 to me. John chapter 12, verse 24. Listen carefully. Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the 00:23:08.100 --> 00:23:12.780 ground dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, 00:23:12.780 --> 00:23:17.800 it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on 00:23:17.800 --> 00:23:23.240 to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, 00:23:23.240 --> 00:23:27.720 you'll have it forever, real and eternal. If anyone of you wants to serve me, then follow 00:23:27.720 --> 00:23:32.360 me. Then you'll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment's notice. The Father will honor 00:23:32.360 --> 00:23:39.360 and reward anyone who serves me. John 12, 24 to 26. Guys, it's necessary first to surrender 00:23:39.360 --> 00:23:46.360 to rest, which we talked about. If you want a photograph of what we wrote on the board, 00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:56.920 you can get it from Maurice and he may charge you. But the reason we have to surrender to 00:23:58.120 --> 00:24:04.500 rest, which is to live by the proceeding word of God, is because if you surrender your right 00:24:04.500 --> 00:24:09.100 to yourself without surrendering to rest, here's what's going to happen. You won't 00:24:09.100 --> 00:24:16.100 know when you're being exploited. You won't know how much is enough because now you've 00:24:17.940 --> 00:24:24.940 become a servant, but you've become a servant to the whims and fancies of environment, people, 00:24:24.940 --> 00:24:31.940 conditions, church, pastor. And now you're not necessarily hearing God. You're hearing 00:24:32.940 --> 00:24:39.500 everything and everyone. What happens then is you get exhausted, you get exploited. Nothing 00:24:39.500 --> 00:24:45.580 wrong with being exploited, but why get exploited unnecessarily? Get exploited by unbelievers, 00:24:45.580 --> 00:24:51.220 not necessarily by believers, if you can avoid it. You get exploited, you get exhausted and 00:24:51.220 --> 00:24:56.500 you get overextended. In the sense you never know which is God and which is not God. This 00:24:56.500 --> 00:25:01.220 is why it is first important to surrender to rest before you surrender your right to 00:25:01.220 --> 00:25:08.220 yourself. And when people don't, you operate, you will literally destroy yourself if you 00:25:11.220 --> 00:25:18.220 are not careful. You will destroy yourself. Because let's assume you're a servant and 00:25:18.620 --> 00:25:23.140 you get a call tomorrow saying, come and serve here. While you're serving there you get another 00:25:23.140 --> 00:25:27.140 call saying come and serve here. While you're doing that someone else says come and do this. 00:25:27.140 --> 00:25:30.900 What are you going to say no to? And how are you going to discriminate if you first didn't 00:25:30.900 --> 00:25:37.900 learn how to surrender to living by the proceeding word of God? Any questions? Yep. Live the 00:25:37.900 --> 00:25:44.900 life of another. To live the life of another is to live the life of another by being a 00:26:07.900 --> 00:26:14.900 survivor. The other is to let Christ in me either do all the work or take advantage of 00:26:15.820 --> 00:26:22.820 the work he has already done. The example I usually give is this. If you're in the hospital 00:26:25.140 --> 00:26:32.140 and if someone has to have, what are those things called that you hook to somebody else 00:26:32.280 --> 00:26:37.340 when they breathe? Respirator. Yeah. So they take a patient into the hospital and then 00:26:37.500 --> 00:26:44.500 they take a bedpan and they knock you out. Because if you hook the respirator to a person 00:26:45.100 --> 00:26:51.420 while they're breathing then your breathing begins to conflict with the respirator. So 00:26:51.420 --> 00:26:55.380 they normally give you some kind of a sedative. In the olden days they would just knock you 00:26:55.380 --> 00:26:58.900 off with the bedpan. But now that they have sedatives they give you a sedative and you 00:26:58.900 --> 00:27:05.900 kind of doze off. And when you doze off they connect you to the respirator so the respirator 00:27:06.140 --> 00:27:11.900 can start breathing for you. Otherwise there's always a conflict. To live the life of another 00:27:11.900 --> 00:27:18.900 is to either let what Jesus has already done go to work for you or let the Jesus who lives 00:27:19.580 --> 00:27:26.580 in you begin to do the work while you sit back and take the credit. So it completely 00:27:27.540 --> 00:27:34.540 removes all anxiety, all pressure, all need to do stuff to make stuff happen. You just 00:27:34.580 --> 00:27:39.100 listen to him, do what he tells you to. Living the life of another is what Jesus was doing 00:27:39.100 --> 00:27:46.100 in John chapter 10 and John chapter 11. Lazarus is dead. Lazarus is dead. And he instead of 00:27:46.780 --> 00:27:52.180 reacting from his own strength and power and knowledge of his father does something so 00:27:52.180 --> 00:27:57.860 different where he does not go to raise a sick man. When the sick man dies he still 00:27:57.860 --> 00:28:04.060 does not go. When the sick man has been dead for four days he finally goes. Why? Because 00:28:04.060 --> 00:28:09.700 he's living only by one thing, the proceeding word of God, nothing else. And the strange 00:28:09.700 --> 00:28:15.660 thing is Jesus did not heal anybody because he had the power to heal them. Jesus healed 00:28:15.660 --> 00:28:20.860 everybody because of the presence of the Spirit in his life to heal. He was as limited when 00:28:20.860 --> 00:28:27.860 it came to healing as I am. This is very hard for people to sometimes agree to or understand 00:28:28.860 --> 00:28:35.860 but the fact remains that Jesus was as limited as I am when it came to healing people. And 00:28:36.740 --> 00:28:43.740 all his healing happened by the power of the Holy Spirit. And he got it right every time 00:28:46.300 --> 00:28:53.300 because he learned how to let the life of God in him work through him. He never had 00:28:54.300 --> 00:29:01.300 a problem with how am I going to take care of my mother and my four brothers and sister. 00:29:02.780 --> 00:29:07.040 How am I going to take care of them? Because he knew that if he didn't take care of his 00:29:07.040 --> 00:29:13.340 family as the oldest one he was worse than an infidel. He said it himself. So he had 00:29:13.340 --> 00:29:16.820 to take care of them. How he could take care of them he doesn't know. How he would pay 00:29:17.140 --> 00:29:24.140 taxes he didn't know. How work would come he didn't know. But he was so sure that he 00:29:25.980 --> 00:29:32.980 could one depend on God doing stuff because he knew what his father could do. This is 00:29:33.060 --> 00:29:37.820 living the life of another where you do not do anything except what he tells you to. Not 00:29:37.820 --> 00:29:43.700 an iota more. It is absolute splendid rest. But when he tells you to do something you 00:29:43.740 --> 00:29:50.260 do it with all your strength. You are not lazy. Like Rhonda was reading out when you 00:29:50.260 --> 00:29:57.260 have to when you should run you will run not walk. So it is not an absence of work ethic 00:29:57.900 --> 00:30:04.900 but it is absolutely the absence of any strain, any machination, any exertion of strength 00:30:05.620 --> 00:30:10.860 or mind power that is self generated. You will use your mind power when he tells you 00:30:10.860 --> 00:30:15.060 to use it. You will use your physical strength when he tells you to use it. But you do not 00:30:15.060 --> 00:30:19.620 create things for yourself through your thinking or your own strength. I know you have heard 00:30:19.620 --> 00:30:23.740 this before but for the sake of the tape and for those that haven't heard it before Ezekiel 00:30:23.740 --> 00:30:30.020 44 verse 17 to 19. When you come to minister before me God said to the Levites you will 00:30:30.020 --> 00:30:36.140 not wear linen turbans or linen loincloths because I do not want you to perspire. And 00:30:36.140 --> 00:30:40.020 the reason he said do not perspire is not because he had a problem with it but because 00:30:40.100 --> 00:30:43.780 he wanted to bring out a point that when you come before me I do not want you to exert 00:30:43.780 --> 00:30:50.780 your human thinking and I do not want you to exert your human strength. And so he forbade 00:30:52.220 --> 00:30:57.440 the Levites from wearing anything except linen turbans and linen loincloths because anything 00:30:57.440 --> 00:31:03.400 else would cause them to perspire and he did not want the ministers before him to perspire. 00:31:03.480 --> 00:31:10.480 Fascinating! No self-exertion Jacob. Absolutely no self-exertion. Was there self-exertion 00:31:10.520 --> 00:31:14.800 in the quail being brought into the wilderness? No. Was there self-exertion in the water that 00:31:14.800 --> 00:31:18.440 came out of the rock? No. Was there self-exertion in the makeshift slippers that were worn out? 00:31:18.440 --> 00:31:22.160 No. Was there self-exertion in the clothes that were not wearing out? No. Was there self-exertion 00:31:22.160 --> 00:31:25.920 in keeping the scorpions and the serpents away? No. Was there self-exertion in bringing 00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:31.840 shade during hot days and warmth during cold nights? No. There was absolutely no self-exertion. 00:31:31.840 --> 00:31:36.980 Because they work, yes, you had to go with baskets and collect. You had to strike the 00:31:36.980 --> 00:31:41.060 rock or speak to the rock. That was all they did. They lived by the proceeding word of 00:31:41.060 --> 00:31:46.240 God and the presence of God and that is the surrender that is first asked of us. If you 00:31:46.240 --> 00:31:52.560 do not surrender to rest, you cannot successfully surrender your right to yourself because you 00:31:52.560 --> 00:31:55.560 will be someone who destroys yourself. 00:32:02.840 --> 00:32:08.200 Because you will either be exploited or you will exhaust yourself or you will over extend 00:32:08.200 --> 00:32:14.080 yourself through flesh driven ideas of servanthood. But the moment you surrender your rights to 00:32:14.080 --> 00:32:20.040 yourself, remember what you become. You become a servant son. Philippians 2.7. Philippians 00:32:20.040 --> 00:32:27.040 2.7. Can someone read it out kind of loudly from a decent version? Philippians 2.7. What 00:32:27.040 --> 00:32:34.040 is a decent version? We will find out when you read it. Philippians 2.7. 00:32:46.040 --> 00:32:52.320 Gave up the right to himself and became a servant. Now a servant, and we talked about 00:32:52.320 --> 00:32:58.440 this I think in 2010, a servant is permanently, this is what giving up the right to yourself 00:32:58.440 --> 00:33:05.440 looks like, is permanently subjected to his master. Is permanently subjected to his master. 00:33:11.880 --> 00:33:17.600 This is what giving up your right to yourself means. This is why it is harder than lifting 00:33:17.600 --> 00:33:24.120 up your hands in a service and saying I surrender. Two, a servant is totally dependent on his 00:33:24.120 --> 00:33:31.120 master. It's a deliberate separation from other means of dependence like my boss, like 00:33:39.120 --> 00:33:45.980 my salary, like my inheritance, like my relatives, like my family. It's a deliberate separation 00:33:46.020 --> 00:33:53.020 from all other ways that we actually connect our dependence to. A servant is totally dependent 00:33:55.660 --> 00:34:02.660 on his master. Three, he serves his master's guests. He serves his master's guests. It 00:34:02.660 --> 00:34:09.660 doesn't matter that it might be your neighbor, it might be someone you don't like, it might 00:34:16.460 --> 00:34:22.900 be a prince, it might be a prisoner, it might be a believer, it might be an unbeliever who 00:34:22.900 --> 00:34:29.900 killed your dad or mom. It doesn't matter. Four, a servant functions along with his master 00:34:32.980 --> 00:34:39.980 alongside other servants. So there is order here and the functions are not the same. And 00:34:42.460 --> 00:34:49.460 sometimes based on functions, some servants may be higher up the pecking order from the 00:34:51.220 --> 00:34:57.900 view of the world but not in the eyes of God. At the end of the day, all God looks at in 00:34:57.900 --> 00:35:02.700 every servant is faithfulness. And so it doesn't matter whether you're bottom rung 00:35:02.700 --> 00:35:09.700 or top rung, your faithfulness determines your expansion. Five, he works without expectation 00:35:13.880 --> 00:35:20.880 of pay. He works without expectation of pay. Really, he works without expectation of pay. 00:35:28.380 --> 00:35:34.220 Yes, because he had an opportunity when he received Christ on the cross to be set free. 00:35:34.220 --> 00:35:39.180 And having been set free, he goes back to Christ and says, here is my ear. Can you nail 00:35:39.180 --> 00:35:43.700 my earlobe to the doorpost? Because even though you set me free, I come running back to be 00:35:43.700 --> 00:35:48.780 a servant. And at the end of the day, after having done everything for you, Jesus, I will 00:35:48.780 --> 00:35:55.780 say that this was just my duty and I'm an unprofitable servant. It's just nuts how this 00:35:56.620 --> 00:36:03.620 kingdom works. And the sixth one is he owns nothing but stewards everything on behalf 00:36:04.060 --> 00:36:11.060 of his master. He owns nothing but stewards everything on behalf of his master. This is 00:36:11.060 --> 00:36:18.060 what giving up the right to yourself looks like. I think we'll stop here because there's 00:36:32.660 --> 00:36:38.300 still a long ways to go and I don't want to rush it. I'll just let you know. Or maybe 00:36:38.300 --> 00:36:44.220 I'll complete just this section. We'll leave the third section for next time. So when I 00:36:44.220 --> 00:36:50.300 give up the right to myself, when I decide that, yes, I've learned how to surrender to 00:36:50.300 --> 00:36:55.380 rest, I learn how to surrender to doing only what God tells me, nothing else, no other 00:36:55.380 --> 00:37:00.460 means of self-generated sustenance. Having learned that now with God, I come and say, 00:37:00.460 --> 00:37:07.340 I would like to learn how to surrender my right to myself. And the moment I surrender 00:37:07.420 --> 00:37:13.660 my right to myself, I realize that, oh shucks, I've just gone from son to servant son. It 00:37:13.660 --> 00:37:19.540 was great to be, I'm a child of God, yes I am, but now I'm a child of God and a servant. 00:37:19.540 --> 00:37:24.140 And then this kicks in, that I'm permanently subjected to the master. So this is not voluntary 00:37:24.140 --> 00:37:30.660 work anymore. I've nailed my ear to the door and I'm saying, I am here for you to send 00:37:30.740 --> 00:37:37.740 to break, to pour out, to bury, to multiply and to distribute to whomsoever you choose 00:37:39.460 --> 00:37:45.100 to do that with. Then I realize I'm permanently subjected to the master. And this is the great 00:37:45.100 --> 00:37:50.580 thing about the whole story of Isaac on the altar. He stayed on the altar. I do not pull 00:37:50.580 --> 00:37:54.860 myself off the altar. And these are the things we must learn. I pray God that we learn how 00:37:54.860 --> 00:38:00.820 to stay on the altar and not take time off. And then I realize that since I have surrendered 00:38:00.820 --> 00:38:07.820 my right to myself, I now am also saying that I will not fend for, work for, try to support 00:38:07.820 --> 00:38:13.700 myself, because I'm totally dependent on the master. Imagine what I'm saying, eh? That 00:38:13.700 --> 00:38:20.660 I won't fend for, I won't work for, I won't try to create ways for me to sustain myself, 00:38:20.660 --> 00:38:25.660 because this kind of servanthood is the kind of servanthood where this benevolent, wonderful 00:38:25.660 --> 00:38:32.660 God master that I have, I can be totally dependent on. Because otherwise I will serve two or 00:38:33.020 --> 00:38:40.020 more masters. You cannot. I'm at the beck and call of two or more masters otherwise. 00:38:40.020 --> 00:38:47.020 Three, I will serve the masters' guests and it is not left to me to discriminate. I don't 00:38:51.500 --> 00:38:58.500 have a choice. Father forgive them for they do not know what they're doing. The great 00:38:59.420 --> 00:39:06.260 thing is Jesus epitomizes this. God at his heart is a servant. One of the core essences 00:39:06.260 --> 00:39:11.900 of God is that he's a server. Servant makes it sound more noble. Let's just call him 00:39:11.900 --> 00:39:18.900 server. The core essence of God is that of a server. So the third thing then becomes 00:39:21.580 --> 00:39:28.580 I'll serve my masters' guests and I do not have a choice in who. I do not have a choice 00:39:29.260 --> 00:39:32.940 in who. One of the things that's happened to Christianity all around the world, especially 00:39:32.940 --> 00:39:38.580 to western Christianity, is we let our personalities dictate where, whom, how, when. That's just 00:39:38.580 --> 00:39:45.580 not me. Who's asking? Nobody asked you. You're a servant. I'm not talking about you being 00:39:49.340 --> 00:39:53.420 my servant. Like I said, I am your servant but I can't expect you to be my servant. You 00:39:53.420 --> 00:40:00.420 are God's servant. That's how this works. It also means that if I surrender my right 00:40:01.420 --> 00:40:06.540 to myself, that I function alongside other servants and some of them may have positions 00:40:06.540 --> 00:40:13.540 that they aren't fully fulfilling well but that is when Jesus turns to you and says, 00:40:16.340 --> 00:40:23.340 what is it to you? I once remember talking to the Lord about a person who was being unfaithful 00:40:23.340 --> 00:40:30.340 and the Lord said to me, who are they being unfaithful to? I said to you and I felt the 00:40:31.100 --> 00:40:38.100 Lord saying, so then what is it to you? Because if they're being unfaithful to me, if you're 00:40:38.780 --> 00:40:45.780 feeling terribly righteous and indignant about it, tell me why. They didn't do me any harm. 00:40:46.820 --> 00:40:52.620 So if a servant is being unfaithful in his function, I must learn that I still work alongside 00:40:52.620 --> 00:40:57.700 other servants because his house cannot be run by one steward or one servant. There 00:40:57.700 --> 00:41:04.700 are scores of them and some of them you will find are iron sharpening iron and that's exactly 00:41:04.980 --> 00:41:11.980 what they think of you too. But you work alongside servants that function in different capacity 00:41:12.260 --> 00:41:16.300 and God does not look at their function, he looks at their faithfulness. I'm very sure 00:41:16.300 --> 00:41:21.300 of this. There's not some cliched line that makes us all feel equal. It is just that functions 00:41:21.300 --> 00:41:27.020 are not equal but faithfulness is the measure and that is the only thing that will have 00:41:27.020 --> 00:41:31.700 you hear those marvelous words and surprisingly the marvelous words are not well done good 00:41:31.700 --> 00:41:38.700 and faithful son. Go figure. This is so precious to God. It is not well done good and faithful 00:41:40.460 --> 00:41:47.460 son. If I surrender my right to myself, I must work without expecting anything from 00:41:51.500 --> 00:41:57.540 God. I don't need to work without the expectation of pay meaning there is no if I do this for 00:41:57.540 --> 00:42:02.540 you what will you do for me. My God I dislike it when I hear stuff like okay what has God 00:42:02.540 --> 00:42:10.020 done for me lately. Why should I still follow him? Thank God we don't think like that but 00:42:10.020 --> 00:42:17.340 do not entertain that for a second right. We work without the expectation of pay because 00:42:17.340 --> 00:42:24.340 the garden of Eden. Why would you need pay when you have everything that Adam had in 00:42:24.620 --> 00:42:29.860 the garden of Eden is provided to you. Why would you expect pay? What was provided in 00:42:29.860 --> 00:42:35.700 the garden of Eden? Dignity and worth. Doesn't matter that you're a bond servant you have 00:42:35.700 --> 00:42:40.880 dignity and worth. Made in his image. What was provided in the garden of Eden? Security. 00:42:40.880 --> 00:42:47.480 I will put you in a garden east of Eden. They were secure there. What was provided in the 00:42:47.480 --> 00:42:54.480 garden of Eden? You know I remember me preaching this at the church in Chennai and Chad's dad 00:42:55.560 --> 00:43:00.640 summed up the whole thing because I was speaking in a Tamil service and he came and said to 00:43:00.640 --> 00:43:04.920 the congregation you need to understand that nobody can touch you or lay a hand on you 00:43:04.920 --> 00:43:09.880 because you are secure in God. I thought to myself man that's taking my message to an 00:43:09.880 --> 00:43:14.040 extreme. I wouldn't probably have said that but the moment he said that I knew that that 00:43:14.040 --> 00:43:20.120 is what I must expect for you, for me and for us. If security is what he is giving then 00:43:20.120 --> 00:43:24.400 it is that kind of security that he is giving when nobody can lay a hand on you because 00:43:24.400 --> 00:43:29.880 he guarantees the essentials of Eden to his servants which is why we work without expectation 00:43:29.880 --> 00:43:36.480 of pay. Third, what was provided in the garden? He said I will give you provision. He didn't 00:43:36.480 --> 00:43:40.000 say work and I will give you provision. He said I will give you provision and then because 00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:45.740 I work you work. What was given in the garden of Eden? You were given companionship and 00:43:45.740 --> 00:43:52.320 intimacy both with Eve and with God who walked with Adam and Eve in the cooler garden. Guaranteed 00:43:52.320 --> 00:43:58.000 intimacy the same kind that Jesus had. Hey you and I get there we will say with Jesus 00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:03.280 sitting at the well my food is to do the will of the Father and to finish it. That's what 00:44:03.280 --> 00:44:10.280 we will say. What else was given in the garden of Eden? They were given purpose. What is 00:44:10.880 --> 00:44:15.820 our purpose? It is very simple. Make disciples of all nations and build Christ reflecting 00:44:15.820 --> 00:44:20.160 mature churches that prevail. This is our purpose. If this is not your purpose then 00:44:20.160 --> 00:44:24.880 we will have to preach about destiny and big dreams and stuff like that. All of it is true 00:44:24.880 --> 00:44:29.840 but if the horizon does not have this singular purpose that Jesus Christ's purpose was make 00:44:29.840 --> 00:44:34.320 more disciples, make disciples of all nations, build Christ reflecting churches that prevail. 00:44:34.320 --> 00:44:38.360 If that is not the end goal then it does not matter whether you are a businessman, whether 00:44:38.360 --> 00:44:42.000 you are an engineer, whether you are a naval architect, whether you are a construction 00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:49.000 worker. If that is not the final purpose then your purpose is unworth squat. What else did 00:44:49.000 --> 00:44:56.000 he have in the garden of Eden? Dignity, security, provision, companionship, purpose, freedom. 00:45:04.400 --> 00:45:10.520 Freedom to eat of anything except one and that was put so that he would have to make 00:45:10.520 --> 00:45:17.520 a choice. If free will was not given there wouldn't be a tree. The tree was necessitated 00:45:19.160 --> 00:45:25.660 because of the free will given to man. Freedom. Freedom to everything is permissible for us 00:45:25.660 --> 00:45:29.760 but because we are servants we don't think in terms of permission we think in terms of 00:45:29.760 --> 00:45:36.760 beneficial. Freedom to engage with the father just like Jesus did. Freedom to have the spirit 00:45:39.360 --> 00:45:46.360 of God live in us and live through us. Freedom to dance under the sun. Because we have been 00:45:46.360 --> 00:45:51.840 provided these essentials as a servant you work without the expectation of pay. And final 00:45:51.840 --> 00:45:58.840 one, however we will stop at this, is that once I give up my right to myself I realize 00:45:58.840 --> 00:46:04.840 that all that I presently possess I do not own and that it may be taken any time, not 00:46:04.840 --> 00:46:11.840 taken, it may be asked of me any time to take what I have at present for breaking, pouring, 00:46:11.840 --> 00:46:18.840 distributing, multiplying. So I own nothing but I possess everything but I cannot exert 00:46:24.280 --> 00:46:30.520 ownership over it. And so the moment I say I surrender my right to myself every morning 00:46:30.520 --> 00:46:34.700 it becomes more important to pray give us this day our daily bread. Because you want 00:46:34.700 --> 00:46:39.640 two things now, you want God to tell you what to do with what you have and also provide 00:46:39.800 --> 00:46:45.400 what you need because nothing you own is any longer yours and this becomes difficult. 00:46:45.400 --> 00:46:52.400 This is not theoretical. This is not theoretical. I am pleading with God please help me do this 00:46:53.240 --> 00:47:00.240 because I definitely am not able to do this. I am not here at all. But it is a cry now. 00:47:01.240 --> 00:47:08.240 So we will stop here but the third stage is when you surrender your right to self determination. 00:47:14.240 --> 00:47:21.240 You surrender your right to self determination where to simply put it you have written it 00:47:21.240 --> 00:47:28.240 down a certain way. It is to want what your will does not want. It is to want what your 00:47:31.560 --> 00:47:38.560 will does not want. Father take this cup away from me but not your will but mine. I have 00:47:38.560 --> 00:47:45.560 preached this. I have believed this. I have preached it and it may be true while we are 00:47:52.960 --> 00:47:59.960 young but once we are old it changes. What did Jesus say to Peter and John? He said when 00:48:00.520 --> 00:48:06.840 you were young someone dressed you and they took you but now that you are old someone 00:48:06.840 --> 00:48:13.840 will tie your hands together and take you where you do not want to go. It is a surrender 00:48:14.160 --> 00:48:21.160 of the right to self determination where you do not even get to choose what you want because 00:48:21.860 --> 00:48:28.860 you now begin to choose what your will does not want to choose. I am talking about stuff 00:48:29.760 --> 00:48:36.760 I don't know but Jesus is like that. He is the one who is going to take you where you 00:48:36.840 --> 00:48:40.680 want to go because I often say God won't send you anywhere you are not ready for and 00:48:40.680 --> 00:48:46.440 that you don't want to go which is true but he is yearning that you will say anywhere 00:48:46.440 --> 00:48:53.440 oh God because I will will to go where I don't want to go but we will talk about that later. 00:48:58.040 --> 00:49:02.400 So I will just ask Jane to come back and sing the chorus of that song.