Sometimes we want to be our own boss. It’s important for us to know that when we surrender we are following the leader- Jesus Christ

Yeah. Hello everyone. My name is Pastor Roderick caesar the third on the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle in Jamaica queens new york and my prayer is that you would be blessed. You would be encouraged and strengthened by this word. Hope you enjoy God bless. Yeah, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord What an absolute blessing, privilege and honor it is to be able to respond to the true and living God to be able to respond to the true and living God. I’m so grateful for who God is and for who has called us to be so grateful for how he’s called us to live. Thank you so much for joining us today. Whether you are uh, wherever you’re watching from. Thank you so much for joining us. I pray that you would lean in and allow God to speak to you today wherever you are. Um, so hyped. I’m so excited for this message and I’m looking forward to sharing with you all today our new sermon series for today. We’re jumping into a new series, our new series today is called, I surrender, I surrender, I surrender so say it with me. I surrender wherever you are just here with me. I surrender. Um, and it’s so important for us to be in a position of surrender. So I’m so excited to share this message. I pray that you would be encouraged as well. Just lean in, take some notes and let’s be able to surrender to what God is saying to us today. Dear God, I just, thank you so much for this time. I pray Lord that as I speak, you would be seen, you would be heard. You would be felt. You would do what only you can do uh, in the service that you would bless your people. We thank you, We praise you, we give you glory. We ask these things in jesus name. Amen. Amen and Amen. It’s so important in this season to know what it means to lay our lives down to wrap our minds around what it means to lay our lives down for the kingdom of jesus christ to surrender. So in the comments, if you could just type I surrender, I surrender, I surrender. I want to see those uh, in the, in the comment section, um, it’s so important surrender in the dictionary is defined as to give oneself up, As in to the power of another to submit or to yield, to give oneself up to the power of another to submit or to yield surrender. We see a scene usually on the battlefield if uh, army is defeating another army or uh, they’re waging warfare, one individual or one army is giving up, they’ll raise their hands in surrender. If you’re watching a wrestling match or mm a match or something, they’ll tap out in surrender. Uh, if they’re defeated and what we realized in this christian walk, when we realize as we’re walking with christ is a call to christ is yes, a call to life and life more abundantly and a call to christ is yes, A call to freedom. Uh for freedom’s sake, it’s for freedom that we were set free, right? So we’re called to be free. A call to christ as a call to become a new creation. A call to christ as a call to do greater works. A call to christ is a call to walk by faith. But you cannot get any of those things without first surrendering. You cannot get any of those things without surrendering. We want all of those things. But the difficulty is that surrender is the doorway. We want to get to all of those things. You want to get to have a life and life more abundantly. We want to get to walk by faith and not by sight. We want to get to the new life that God calls us to. But the doorway to get there is surrender. The doorway to get there. The doorway to eternal life. The doorway to walking by faith, the doorway to getting free and remaining free. The doorway to becoming a new creation is all obtained through walking through surrender. And the difficulty for us then is when we realize that not everything we have with us can fit through that doorway, not everything we have with us can fit through that doorway. You can’t bring everything with you through the doorway of surrender. You can’t bring everything with you through the doorway of surrender. You can’t bring everyone with you through the doorway of surrender. You can’t bring everything with you. You can’t bring everyone with you through the doorway of surrender. And that’s a difficult thing for us to to realize. But it’s it’s a realization that we have to come to sooner rather than later that to follow christ is to surrender. And we can’t bring everything with us. We must let go in order to fit through that doorway, jesus says the door is narrow, the way is narrow and so for us to fit through, we have to let some things go. We have to surrender. And the thing about surrender is it’s personal. It’s personal. It’s personal. Is personal. Yes. God is a good God. A great God that calls people that that calls groups of people that champions groups of people and he calls us his Children plural. And but jesus invites us to this call of surrender on an individual level. On an individual level. Don’t think for one minute because you’re part of a group that calls themselves christians or part of a church that calls themselves believers. That that divorces you from your need as an individual to surrender. Mm. Do this with me. Everyone watching do this with me, right? Say I surrender. Yeah, I surrender one more time. I surrender. It’s personal. It’s about you. The I and the logo, the graphic is lower case because you’re surrendering to God. You must decrease. So he must increase but you also have a responsibility that’s connected to your surrender. It’s about you, it’s about your desires, it’s about your wants and dislikes your Proclivities and your habits, your strong will, your need to control everyone and everything you need to perhaps be too passive and avoid confrontation. It’s about all of those things and say taking all of those things, knowing all of those things about you and going to the spirit of the living God and saying Spirit of the living God fall fresh on me, I need you got to make me to mold me to film me to use me God, I surrender but don’t take my word for it. Let’s turn our attention to the text Luke. Chapter nine Luke chapter nine verses 23 through 24 Jesus is speaking and the text says that he said to all he says if anyone would come after me let him deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me for whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it today. I want us to talk from this topic that the sermon series title is I surrender. But the sermon title for this series today, this sermon today is called follow the leader follow the leader. If anyone would come after me, Jesus says let him deny himself pick up his cross daily and follow me following the leader. If anyone would come after me. Other versions say if anyone would be my disciple to come after me, Jesus is before, and he’s saying if you want to come after me, if you want to come behind, if you want to follow me, if you want to be my disciple, a disciple is a personal follower of jesus christ, but it’s also a student, a teacher, a student of a teacher, a leader or a philosopher, and if we want to be jesus student, if you want to be jesus follower, we have to realize, okay, we have to be a disciple and in order to do that some things can’t come with us in order to do that, we have to realize that okay to follow, Jesus comes at a cost to follow, Jesus means we have to surrender. So Jesus in essence said, if anyone would come after me, if anyone would be my disciple, if anyone wants to be a follower, if you want to be a follower then follow me. If you want to be a follower, then follow me at the beginning, he says, if any man would come after me at the end, he says follow me, So he’s saying if you want to follow me than follow me, but don’t miss what’s in the middle, what’s in the middle, what’s in the middle, surrender, what’s in the middle, denial, what’s in the middle, picking up your cross, what’s in the middle, something difficult, if anyone would come after me, come after me, but don’t miss what’s in the middle denial. Death to self submission and surrender are prerequisites to walking in the life that jesus christ calls us to. So I’m gonna say this, you cannot be a follower of jesus christ without surrender. Help us Lord, you cannot be a follower of jesus christ without surrender. So in essence, we have to give up our way to follow the way. We have to give up our way to follow the way Jesus says in scripture, I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father except through me. He’s the way he’s the truth, he’s the life. And the early christians in the book of acts, we see they weren’t called christians, they were called followers of the way and they followed the way and this is what they hung on and rested everything on what Jesus said when he said, I’m the way I’m the truth and the life they called themselves followers of the way they still do you follow the way? Do you follow the way the way the way why? Because that’s what Jesus says, I am the way and the way uh, promotes direction. It lets you know that you’re going somewhere, it’s leading you somewhere with an end goal in mind, Jesus says, look, I go to prepare a place for you in my father’s house are many mansions, I’m going to prepare a place for you? I’m going somewhere to prepare a place for you? Are you coming with me? Are you following the way? And we see that they were they were called followers of the way. And so what this shows us is that there’s a direction that we’re going, What this shows us is there’s a direction that christ is calling us to what this shows us is that it’s difficult because if you want to follow God, you have to follow God, but you can’t miss what’s in the middle, it’s denial. Something has to die. Something has to die. Something has to die. And it’s not jesus, he’s already done that. He’s already done that. He’s already showed us that he has done that and lived again so we can have life and life more abundantly. So now it’s our turn, it’s our turn, it’s our turn to pick up our cross, it’s our turn to die to ourself. It’s our turn to crucify our flesh, it’s our turn, Jesus already did that once and for all, something has to die. And so if you don’t die, Jesus isn’t dying. Perhaps his plans for you are, he says, I know, I know the plans I have for you, I know the way I want you to take, but then there’s a way that seems right to a man. And so which which way are we going to follow? Are we gonna follow his path or our path? his way or our way? What route will we take? We have to give up our way to follow the way. And because we are not followers of ourselves, because we are following the lead of jesus christ, the son of the living god, who said do as I do, you pick up your cross and follow me? We have to walk differently than we walked prior. We have a new way to walk a new way to walk. We’re not following, our own desires were not following the way that seems right to us. We’re following to jesus, were following jesus and so to follow him, we can’t walk our way, we have to walk his way. We can’t walk our way, we have to walk his way. I want us to look at three ways that we can walk three ways to highlight us to help us know how we can walk the way that christ wants us to walk the first is this in order to walk in the way that christ calls us to walk? We have to first walk in the Spirit, Walk in the Spirit Acts Chapter 1: verse eight, Jesus says to his disciples, he says to them he says you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all judea and in samaria and in the ends of the earth, he said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all judea and samaria and to the ends of the earth. The beautiful thing about this is what we realize is for us, believers in jesus christ to walk in the spirit isn’t just a lotta, it’s not just a fun thing. We were walking with uh roses and lilies all this all the time. No, no jesus says to walk in the spirit is to walk in power. So walk in the spirit is to walk in authority. So walk in the spirit is to walk in in the the authority and power that we have as sons and daughters of God. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, walk in that power many of us we receive power. But do we walk in that power? Do we live out that power? Do we step by step by step? Walk out in the power that God has called us to and the power that God has given us. Do we know the power that we have as sons and daughters of God. Do we know the power that’s available to us by walking in the Spirit? You ever see those those uh either documentaries or shows or see uh an elephant that’s perhaps uh tied up and it’s tied to just a little spike that’s in the ground and it has a shackle on its feet tied to that spike and it’s just walking around in a circle walking around in a circle the elephant, if it knew its strength could break free easily and it wouldn’t even be a problem for her. It doesn’t know the power, the strength that it has because it’s been trained because it’s been broken because it’s been uh pushed down because uh the situations that led to it being there has broken its will and spirit and understand that okay, it’s not gonna move from here and many of us the circumstances that life has thrown at us, time after time after time after time has caused us to not realize the power that’s within us. The song that says I am a conqueror, I am victorious, I’m raining with jesus, I’m seated in heavenly places with him for the kingdom of God is within me. I know no defeat only victory. The kingdom of God is within me. I know no defeat only strength and power. So we don’t just receive the Holy Spirit. But by receiving the Holy Spirit, we now have the authority to walk in power. We now have the authority to say no to sin. We now have the authority to live different. We receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon us and we now have responsibility because the Holy Spirit has come upon us to be witnesses. You see the disciples could not receive the Holy Spirit and stay in Jerusalem, that’s our problem Many of us, we want what God wants and we want to stay comfortable, we want what God has for us, but we want to stay comfortable. We want the spirit of God, but we want to stay comfortable. We have to move, they had to move from Jerusalem. Go to judea, go to Samaria, go to the ends of the earth, John Chapter 16, Jesus says I have so many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them. Now. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak in his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come, The Spirit of Truth will guide us into all truth. The Spirit of Truth. So we receive power with the Holy Spirit, we received truth with the Holy Spirit and then we receive the ability not to walk in the ways of the flesh. Relations. Chapter five says Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, the desires of the spirit against the flesh. They are opposed to each other to keep you from doing what you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under law Galatians 5 25 says if we let our led by the spirit, let us keep in step by in step in and with the spirit and so for us it’s so important that we get this that if we’re being led by the Spirit and God and and the Holy Spirit through the power of the living God. And God is saying, okay go this way, go this way, we’re walking, we’re walking, we’re being we’re being led and the flesh is coming this way and it’s telling us to move out of the Will of God, the alignment of God, the direction of God, which way will we choose. But we continue to walk in the way that God has called us to which leads us to become more like him or we will step out of the will of God think of it as a as a river, as a river and you’re in this river and you’re walking in the way that God has called you to walk in order to get what God has for you. You have to stay in the river, you have to stay with the current but the enemy is calling you out the your your sin and temptations are calling you out but we have to keep in step with the Spirit romans. Chapter eight says all who are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God. The Holy Spirit is with us calling us sons calling us daughters, calling us Children of God letting us know that God is calling us to something bigger than ourselves, letting us know that God is calling us to surrender. So to walk and be led and the followers of jesus christ, it’s important that we must walk in the spirit secondly we must walk in the word in the word, so we must walk in the Spirit, we must walk in the word Matthew chapter four verse three and four, Jesus is tempted into the wilderness. And the interesting thing about this is he’s led by the Spirit to go into the wilderness to be tempted and so he’s led by the Spirit. Being led by the Spirit doesn’t mean you will not be tempted Being led by the spirit doesn’t mean you will not face difficulty. So he’s led by the spirit and then he goes into the wilderness and the enemy, the tempter comes to him in Matthew Chapter four and says if you are the son of God command these stones to become loaves of bread. But Jesus answered, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. So in order to follow jesus we have to walk in the Spirit and we have to walk in the word jesus was being tempted by the enemy and he didn’t say oh I feel he didn’t say oh I know he said no, no it is written, he went to the text and he said look it is it is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. The Word of God is our sustenance. The Word of God is our strength. The Word of God is our firm foundation. We must live by the word. We must walk in. The word. We must saturate our lives with the Word of God. It is so important it cannot be overlooked, cannot be overstated. So I was 1 19 says, Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. When I’m in darkness and need direction, I turn to your word when I’m lost and I need to know which way to go. I turn to your word when I have multiple decisions to make and I don’t know which option to choose. I turn to your word. Your word, Your word. Your word is a firm foundation. Your word is a lamp unto my feet. And it helps my path. It helps me when I’m on the way to stay on the way, it helps me when I’m on your path to stay on your path. It helps me when I feel like veering off of your path, and sin is calling me to stay rooted and anchored on your path. It helps me Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. So I’m more 19 verse nine says, how can a young man keep his way pure by guarding it according to your word. So the word is a guard as well with my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. The word is a shield. The word is a sword. The word helps us be protected, helps us be guarded. And it gives us an offense against the enemy and an offense against temptation and an offense. And we wonder why we get hit so hard, why we get hit so hard with these difficulties, but we have to root ourselves and anchor ourselves in the Word of God. If we want to be led by jesus christ, we have to walk in the word. Thirdly, we have to walk in, walk with his people, walk with his people, so to be led by by jesus, and to be followers of jesus. We must walk in the spirit. We must walk in his word and we must walk with his people. You all have heard the same birds of a feather flock together, right? Birds of a feather flock together. We have to watch who we take advice from. There’s a text in psalm chapter one verse one and it says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord? And on his law he meditates day and night? It says Blessed is the man who walks, not in the counsel of the wicked. So first he’s walking, walking innocently enough. I’m just walking, but you’re walking in the counsel of the wicked. Those that don’t know God don’t fear God. The fear of the Lord is what the beginning of knowledge, the beginning of wisdom. And yet you’re taking advice from people who don’t know God who don’t fear God. So we’re saying, Blessed is the man who don’t walk, who walks, not in the counsel of the wicked. So first you’re walking nor stands in the way of sinners. You get comfortable enough to just stand. You’re not moving, you’re just standing, you’re standing in the way of sinners, you’re standing with them, and then you’re sitting in the seat of scoffers, you get comfortable enough to relax to let your guard down. And then the contrast is instead of that. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. We have to watch who we surround ourselves with the saints of God. Watch who we surround ourselves with proverbs. Chapter 10 says the wise of heart will receive commandments, but a babbling fool will come to ruin whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his way crooked? Will be found out? Are we walking with people who are making their way crooked? Are we walking with people who are babbling and will come to ruin where’s the posture of our heart. But also are we connected to people who are we connected to? Who are we connecting with? We have to have to be connected to the people of God. If we’re going to be people of God, we have to be connected to the people of God. If we’re going to be people of God. Now that doesn’t mean you just shun everyone that doesn’t know him. But you can’t expect to live a godly life surrounding yourself consistently and constantly with ungodly people. It’s important sense of God. We cannot do this solo dolo Christianity where it’s just me, I’m good or I don’t need anybody. No, no. We are called to community. We are called to community. We are called to unity. We are called to togetherness, We are called. So uh after this, this, uh, so it’s important that we, it’s important that we do ourselves a favor and not disconnect from community. It’s important that we do ourselves a favor and find a church and find a leader and find the vision and submit and walk in surrender to what God is calling us to do. It’s so important that we uh, that we do this. So we have to walk uh in the spirit, walk with the word, in the word and walk with his people. It’s so important because we can we can chalk it up to saying oh you know I I can’t follow jesus because you know he’s not here, you know he’s not here. But when jesus said follow me, he didn’t just mean physically, he may walk in my teachings, walk in my ways. You see the disciples follow jesus physically and he said look I’m leaving, I’m gonna send a comforter and then you’ll meet me later and I’ll come back scriptures is filled with with text of individuals that followed other people and we see how good or how bad their lives turned out based upon who they followed. You see for us what we realize is to be a believer of christ is yes to follow the teachings of christ and yes to walk with like minded people, but just because you’re walking with like minded people doesn’t mean you still can’t miss it. You have to submit. You can walk, don’t forget Judas walked with Jesus for three years, judas walked with jesus, he followed jesus, he ate with jesus but it was just physical, his heart was not in it and when it came time to make the decision to surrender he went his way, he did what he wanted and as a result he lost his life and so for us we have to understand that as we walk in this new way, we are new creations. As we walk in this new way we have to walk worthy of our calling as we walk in this new way. It’s important that we walk led by the spirit. It’s important that we walk led by the word. It’s important that we walk with the people of God because we are not leading. We are not the leader, we’re not the ones leading. It’s God that is leading. So when the flesh rises up we have to remind ourselves that look, God is leading. When temptations come our way, we will have to remind ourselves that God is leading. We’re walking differently now by walking in the spirit we can surrender and this all sounds good. You say, okay, this sounds good, That sounds nice. It sounds all right. But how do we how do we apply this? How does this look in action, jesus says if any man must come after me, he must come after me. We must surrender. If any man must come after me, he must surrender. How does this look in action? Surrender? The way that we surrender. We must first surrender on repeat. We must surrender on repeat. And this means we realize that surrendering has to be a continuous action type. It’s not a one time thing. It’s not a one time thing. It’s not a one time thing. It’s not a one time thing surrender on repeat. It’s not a one time thing. It has to be a continuous action denial of self is not a one time thing because your flesh is persistent because the enemy is persistent because your desires don’t just go away. You have to be consistent in the fight and persistent you have to surrender on repeat. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself. Take up his cross, jesus says daily and follow me daily and follow me every day I wake up I take up my cross and I follow jesus. Follow jesus. We have to update our surrender, update our surrender. You see the title of this this series as I surrender the eye is small surrender and it’s it’s next to the word surrender. And it reminded me of uh iphone ipad whatever the situation. If you’re team Apple, whatever team android whatever. So I love right? But it’s so important that if you have a phone you have to have updates on that phone. If you’re specifically an Apple, you gotta have updates on that phone every so often there’s updates that have to be installed, updates that have to be applied bugs that have to be fixed at all. Excuse me. All these different things that have to take place. But yet we come to christ we say oh I pray the prayer, I’m good. No, no no that that surrender has to be updated day after day after day. The surrender has to be applied again and again and again every single day crucifying this flesh every single day. Making a commitment to follow God. And when you fall short the beautiful thing is there is grace. When you fall short, the beautiful thing is there is grace. We surrender on repeat. But when we fall we can get up again and we can press reset. And the beautiful thing about this is there is grace for our mistakes, there is grace for our stumbles, there is grace for our falls. But we have to be committed to surrendering on repeat. And when we do this we have to watch our position, our position. We cannot surrender while holding on so tightly to the things of this world. We cannot surrender and not wear this this world as a loose garment where this flesh as a loose garment. We we can’t surrender with our fists clenched. We can’t surrender saying God I’m yours, I’m yours. But our fists are held so tightly to the things that God is calling us to let go. You can’t surrender with your guard up. You can’t surrender and say God I’m yours, oh God I’m yours with your guard up protected and saying, oh God I’m yours. But don’t get too close God I’m yours. But but but you’re hiding something behind your back. God I’m yours. And yet we’re saying we’re surrendering on on repeat. But yet we’re not being open. We’re not being transparent before the Lord, we’re not letting him know when you surrender, you surrender with your arms high, you surrender with your palms open, you surrender so that you know and that God knows there is nothing holding me back from you. All that I have is yours. I lay it down at your feet, I lay it down at your cross. I’m becoming more like you in this process. Is it difficult? Yes. Is it painful? Yes, but you have to do it again and again and again, Jesus said, pick up your cross daily and follow me. But the hymn writer said, I need thee, oh I need thee every hour, I need thee every hour I need thee, jesus says daily because he knows look, you’re gonna you’re gonna need to do this every day. The hymn writer says, okay, let’s take this a little bit deeper, let’s do this every single hour. Okay, some of you, some of you may say I need God every single half hour, some of you missing every single second, every single second of every single day. And that’s true because things can change up just like this. So we need to be submitted. We need to say, look, I need thee every hour I need thee. And the hymn writers, they knew another hymn writer says, come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy praise. And then he says prone to wander Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart. Lord take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. And the beautiful thing about this is he’s being honest with himself because many times we try to hide our flaws from God, pretend like we’re perfect, like, oh we’re like, oh I’m good, I’m good. No, no, the hymn writer says, no, I’m prone to wander. I know I’m prone to wander. I know this flesh wants to stray. So God, just, here’s my heart take and seal it. God help me live like you want me to live, I’m prone to leave the God I love. Help me stay anchored to your truth, anchored to your way to surrender again and again and again and again, Jesus was not tempted. Just one time in the wilderness, the enemy came after him again and again and again and each and every time he responded with it is written each and every time, that’s why he didn’t succumb because the word was hidden so that he might not sin against God. You see we commend jesus, we applaud jesus, we salute jesus, we give jesus all the praise, all the honor and the glory as we should when we look in the garden of gas enmity and he praised so hard, he praised that tears uh sweat, sweat of blood drips from his pores and he’s praying and he’s praying and he says God, if there’s any way to let this cup pass, let it pass, but God not my will, oh Lord, but yours be done. And we ended there, but jesus still had to get up and carry his cross, He still had to get up and and take one step. He still had to get up and take another step. Yes, he said not my will but yours be done. But he still had to walk all the way to calvary, all the way to calvary and then be nailed to the cross to die for our sins. He surrendered on another level completely. It wasn’t just saying not my will but yours be done. But that’s what it looks like. You can say not my will but yours be done. But how does it look? It looked like crucifixion. It looked like pain. It looked like carrying the cross. It looked like surrendering. So the plan and the will of God. So we have to surrender on repeat. Each and every day. He says we do this each and every day we surrender, we surrender on repeat. And secondly we surrender on mission, we surrender on purpose on mission on mission on mission. He says if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me last. I checked. It’s very difficult to follow someone by accident. You’ve got to be intentional about it, got to be intentional about it. And so we’re on this. This mission so to speak. You have to know and understand that surrendering is a part of the call, surrendering is a part of what were called to the mission can’t be complete without it. We know the details of the mission. And so as a result of this, we must surrender on purpose. What does that mean? Pastor Rod? It means that when we surrender on purpose we have to know what we’re giving up. We have to know what we’re giving up. We have to know why we’re giving it up and we have to know what we’re replacing. What we’re, excuse me, We have to know uh what you’re giving up, Why you’re giving it up? No where you’re placing it and know what you’re replacing it with. Yes, Lord. We have to know what you’re giving up. Okay, God is calling me to surrender. Yeah, fine. Great. That’s vague. Let’s get specific, Let’s dig deeper. What is it in your life in this season? In this moment that God is calling you to let go of and what’s stopping you from doing it? Why are you giving it up? What is it that’s causing you to give it up. God is calling me to give it up. Okay, that’s great. That’s wonderful. But why why else? Let’s dig deeper. This is unhealthy for my lifestyle. Okay, let’s dig deeper. This is affecting my relationships. Okay, let’s dig deeper. Why are you giving it up? And then also know where you’re placing it and placing it at the foot of the cross. I’m leaving it. I’m leaving it there. I’m leaving it there and then also know what you’re replacing it with. Now this is key because so many times we’ll let something go and we won’t replace it with something that is God glorifying. So let’s say God calls us to end a relationship where God calls us to to end something. And so instead of of ending the relationship, cutting it off and saying, okay God I’m gonna, you know, plug back, I’m gonna get get closer to you. I’m gonna find a mentor or someone to really pour into myself to really lift me up in this time. I’m gonna take care of myself and do some self care. I’m going to really plug into you into what you have for me instead of of of really uh replacing the relationship with something to fill that void. We run to someone else to fill that void. And we call that surrender. We so I I surrender because God told me to let go. But yet somebody else comes our way. Something else comes our way and we feel it so quickly without running to what it is that God has called without replacing it correctly. And so what we realize is we surrender on mission. Why? Because the thief comes to steal, Kill steal, destroy on mission. Why? Because the flesh is crafty. Why? Because we as human beings are masters of self deception. No one had to teach you how to lie. No one had to teach you how to lie. Uh And the thing is no one had to teach you how to lie to someone else. But no one had to teach you how to lie to yourself. And we are masters of self deception. Were masters of saying things to ourselves that are not true because of how we view ourselves or because of of what we want in our flesh. Oh, you know, he just wants to talk, nothing’s going to happen. He wants to talk in person, there’s nothing going to happen. Really. That’s how you’re gonna play yourself today. Okay, cool. Oh, you know, it’s nothing. I’m just go, you know, on this site and look at the images real quick. It’s not gonna lead nowhere. Oh really? That’s cool. That’s how you’re gonna play yourself today. You know, I will say something like, oh I’ll just, you know, have a little sip or something. It’s not gonna lead me anywhere or I’ll just, you know, get get get in the car with these people who I know I’m not supposed to hang out with, it’s not gonna know that’s how that’s how you try to play yourself today. You know? And so for us, what we need to do is give up these things and say, okay, God, this is what you’re calling me to do and it’s difficult and it’s painful and it hurts. But I know that I’m surrendering on mission. I know that this is bigger than me. I know that this is greater than me, it hurts because there’s a way that seems right to a man. But the end result is death, it hurts because if we’re not careful it feels right to us, it looks right to us. But the end result is death. And if you’re not careful, you can think yourself out of being obedient to God. You can reason yourself out of being obedient to what God has told you to do. And when you surrender, you have to surrender with a plan in place. You have to know that this is more than just a nice gesture. This is more than just a pleasant tree. This is a mission that must be completed because it is a mission that is bigger than me. It feels like pain. Oh that’s great. It’s it’s supposed to it’s supposed to, last time I checked, crucifixion was painful last time I checked. It was not an easy thing. There is the reason why jesus went through the crucifixion and not through a guillotine through the crucifixion and not through a shooting squad. It’s a slow, it’s a methodical, it’s a painful death because that’s how it feels to say no, that’s how it feels to kill your flesh. That’s how it feels to surrender to the will of God. When we so desperately want to do our way, do our thing walking our path. And the thing about that death is the enemy is patient as well. It’s a slow death. But the enemy’s patient. It’s a slow death, but the enemy’s methodical. It’s a slow death. But the enemy is deliberate. So we must realize that the thief comes to kill steal, destroy we have an enemy but we have a God that is for us. We have a God that is with us. We have a God that is strengthening us. And even in the midst of our surrender, even in the midst of us saying God not my will but your will, God is empowering us to do his will and walk in his way and be the people that he’s called us to be for this season and for the rest of our lives. So third and finally we must surrender on time on time on time. So first we surrender on repeat. Second we surrender on mission. Third we surrender on time. He says if anyone would come after me, be my disciple, let him deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Whoever would save his life, we’ll lose it. Whoever saves his life, we’ll lose it. There is a punishment for not surrendering. If you draw your last breath and you’re still clutching to your way and not surrendering to the way of the true and living God. There is a punishment for holding onto your way. It’s real hell is a real place, separation from God is real. They say hell is a prepared place for an unprepared people. But it was never truly intended and prepared for us. We could have avoided it if we had surrendered. Timing is so important. We have to come to the true and living God and submit our will to his and say, look Lord, I surrender all. I surrender all to you. I surrender to your will into your way. You say, oh, but God, you know, uh you say, oh, but but but Pastor Rod, you know, my uh I’m a child of God and my bible tells me, you know, that that God is slow to anger and abounding in love. And yeah, that’s true. But that same bible says that God chasen’s those whom he loves. And so we’re saying jesus loves me this. I know right? God loves you. He’s gonna chasing you. If God loves you, he’s gonna correct you, he’s gonna correct you. Why is this? Because he loves you enough to pull the covers back and expose you. He loves you enough to turn the lights on while you’re trying to hide your dirt in the darkness. He loves you enough to make you so uncomfortable. You can’t stay in a place where you once thrived because sin is crafty and many of us, we may have to live with consequences that we’re not prepared for right now. And so God loves us enough to stop us before we hurt ourselves further to stop us. Before we go somewhere where, where it’s going to be extremely difficult for us to come back from David, Excuse me. Uh, God stops us. And what we realize is that we have to surrender in our time in our time. How do we know this? Because David had an opportunity to surrender? He saw bathsheba bathing on the roof top and it was at the time when kings go out to war and he didn’t do that. He didn’t go out to war. He stayed there. He watched. And so what we saw taking places he had time and time to to surrender, but instead he did what he wanted and he was never the same. His kingdom was never the same. His reign was never the same. He suffered consequence after consequence after consequence. Many other individuals in scripture we see could have surrendered but didn’t and they suffered as a result. So as I close, it’s so important for us to know that we are not the leader. It’s so important for us to follow the leader, follow the leader. So many times we want to be the leader. We want to be the one in charge. We want to be the one moving our way. We want to be the one doing what we want to do. But what we have to realize is jesus christ is the leader and as a result, we have a new way to walk. We walk in the spirit as a result we walk in the word. As a result we walk with his people. As a result when we surrender we surrender on repeat. When we surrender we surrender on mission and we surrender, we surrender on time. So my prayer for us today is that we would surrender our way and follow the way. Let’s bow our heads in prayer. Dear God I thank you so much for this time. I thank you for your people. I pray Lord that as this word has gone forth. If there are those that are holding onto their things holding onto their will holding onto their way, I pray that they would not hesitate to let go God that you would speak to them so clearly that you would highlight the things in their hearts to be able to let go and I pray Lord that they would let go and be more like you in the process. I thank you for what you’ve called them too. I thank you for surrender and I pray Lord that they would just surrender to your will to your way and be more like you as they let go, we thank you, we praise you and we ask these things in jesus name, Amen. Now if there’s anyone here who it was listening, you’ve heard this message and you realize you don’t know jesus christ, you don’t have a relationship with jesus, I just want you to repeat after me. This is the first step of surrender. The first step of surrender is coming to know jesus christ to repeat these words. Dear God, I come to you a center in need of saving a human in need of grace. I pray that you would forgive me that you would cleanse me and make me new. I believe in your son jesus. I believe that he came and died and rose again so that I could have life and life more abundantly. I pray that you would strengthen me and I thank you for the new life I have in you. We ask these things in jesus name Amen and Amen. Give yourselves a round of applause Heaven is applauding and celebrating because you made a decision for christ today my prayers that we would continue to live a life of surrender and glorify God in the process. God bless you is my prayer. Thank you so much. Hello again. Pastor roderick sees a third here, thank you so much for watching my prayer is that you were blessed. You are encouraged and strengthened by that message. If you would like to be a blessing to the ministry, you can text B G T. F I 277977 Again you can text B G T F. I 277977 to sow a seed into the ministry and we thank you, thank you so much for your generosity or you can visit our website at b g t f I dot us for more information. Thank you so much. Once again, I hope you are blessed. I’m praying for you. We love you here at Bethel God bless.