There are some things we can’t take with us as we follow Christ. We need to trust God enough to let them go.

 

 

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 praise the Lord. Everyone praise the Lord everyone. What a mighty and wonderful God we serve. He’s worthy of the honor, worthy of the glory, worthy of the praise And what a wonderful thing it is to be able to worship him, worship him in spirit, worship him in truth. We’re so grateful to be able to come before the Lord and just to have time to connect with him this on this beautiful sunday morning. Uh, once again we’re talking about surrender. We’re talking about surrender and this is part two of our series called I surrender. I surrender. Uh, we’re looking at the book of luke. Chapter nine luke. Chapter nine, verses 23 Through 25 and the text reads and he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and 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. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself or his soul. Dear God, I thank you so much for this time. I thank you so much for this message. We pray that you would be glorified as well as I speak as I share. We pray that you would get the glory. We pray that we would be encouraged and strengthened to surrender in jesus name. Amen, I surrender, I surrender, say it with me, I surrender. Type it in the comments I I surrender, I surrender. It’s a powerful topic, a topic that we all need because we know that last week we said that surrender was the doorway, the doorway into salvation. You can’t take everyone with you through the doorway, you can’t move everyone with you through the doorway. You can’t take everything with you through the doorway. So it’s so it’s so important that we know that we need to surrender and that we know what surrender looks like in our lives. Last week we talked about following the leader, right following the leader in surrender. Uh it’s important that we follow the leader and the leader is not or should not be us. We need to surrender. We looked at tools that help us to follow the leader. The first tool is to walk in the spirit, walk in the spirit, right? Not walking by the flesh, not walking by what we think is right, But walking by the spirit walking in the spirit letting the spirit lead us being led by the spirit of God because if we’re led by the spirit of God as the word says, we are the sons of God walking in the spirit is walking in power, jesus said, you will receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem judea samaria and to the ends of the earth. So we need to walk in the spirit that’s a tool that helps us to follow christ and walking in the spirit. The next thing that we said we needed to do was walk in the word, walk in the word. It’s so important that we walk in the word because when we walk through the word and in the word we know that God is showing us some things and highlighting things to us and in our lives to let us know that we can be more like him to let us know that his word is a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path. So we want to walk in the spirit, want to walk in the word uh the third thing that we said last week is that we want to walk with his people is not we’re not about lone ranger Christianity right? We don’t want to do this just by ourselves but we want to do this walk in community and walking with the people of God helps us to be more like God. So walk in the spirit, walk in the word and walk with his people and then we looked last week at ways that we can surrender ways that we can surrender. The first way that we said, we can surrender is by surrendering on repeat, surrendering on repeat. That means surrender again and again and again surrender continuously. Surrender each and every day surrender each and every hour. Every time temptation comes every time the enemy comes, every time a snare comes our way we must surrender. The next thing we said is we need to surrender on mission on mission. That means we surrender on purpose with the purpose. Right? And the third thing we said to do is we must surrender on time on time. We say he’s an on time. God yes, he is and that may be true. But do we surrender on time? Do we surrender in God’s time or do we just surrender when we want to holding on to our own things for too long can really mess us up and can stop us from doing what it is that God has called us to do. So we have to surrender on time. So we looked at uh we looked at last week tools to help us surrender and ways we can surrender. And today I want us to look at what we can surrender or what we should surrender what we have to let go of and what we gain when we follow christ. So the title of the sermon today in this series called I surrender the title of the sermon is called let it go, let it go easier said than done. But it’s something that we have to do. We have to let some things go in order to follow christ. We have to leave some things behind in order to follow christ in order to follow jesus, we have to have to have to surrender verse 24 of luke chapter nine, jesus says whoever would save his life loses it, whoever would save his life loses it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save. It seems a paradoxical, it seems like a contradicting statement, but jesus is saying, look, if you’re trying to save your life, if you’re trying to hold onto the things you want, if you’re trying to hold on to your way, if you’re trying to hold on to to the things that you think are right, you cannot be my disciple and ultimately you will end up losing everything you want to hold onto losing your life. But if you lose your life, if you lay those things down, if you lay down those wants lay down those desires, if you let those things go, then you will save your life, then you will pick up new life, then you will pick up new strength and you will pick up new hope in me and then he says, what does it profit? A man? If you gain the whole world, if you have everything this world could offer, you gain the whole world, but your soul is lost. So it’s important that we know as sons and daughters of God, as believers of God, as individuals listening, who God is willing to come closer to himself. It’s important that we know that we need to let it go as we look at our need to surrender. We need to know that we need to be willing to let our lives go to pick up the life that christ has for us up. As my grandfather would say, he says, look, don’t hold onto the cloak of this life too tightly. Don’t hold onto the cloak of this life too tightly. But that’s what many of us do. That’s what many of us do. There are many things that grab hold of our heart that grab hold of our attention and we develop an inability to let them go and surrender. But if surrender is the doorway, like we said, if it’s the doorway to life in christ, if it’s the doorway to life in jesus, then it’s one that we must walk through. If we’re gonna make the most of this life as believers, we know that we have to let it go. We know that we have to surrender. But what is your it that you’re called to surrender? What is your it that you’re called to lay down? We see uh in the book of luke jesus luke chapter 18, jesus encounters an individual who is rich, he’s wealthy, has a lot of money, a lot of material goods. And he asked the question to jesus, he says, Rabbi, what must I do to inherit eternal life, what must I do to inherit eternal life, Jesus says, oh, you know, do the good things don’t don’t steal, don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, don’t lie or bear false witness and honor your father and your mother. And the man says proudly, he says, I’ve done all of these things, jesus, all of these things since I was a child, I’ve been doing consistently and regularly. But then Jesus says, he says, OK, that sounds great. That’s wonderful. The man rests on his accomplishments, rest on his laurels, rest on the wonderful things that he has done and him being obedient and and being good. But then Jesus says, okay, now let’s get to the heart of the matter. Now, let’s dig a little bit deeper. Now, let’s let’s dig a little bit deeper beneath the surface. Let’s get to something that may cause you some difficulty, something that may cause you some pain, something that may cause you, uh, some difficulty with you trying to release. He says, take all of your goods and and give them to the poor. So let’s get to the heart of the matter. He addresses the thing that has his heart honoring your father and mother. Sure, I want to do that, that’s fine. You see, that’s why there’s a difference between obedience and surrender. There’s levels to this going in the, in the, in the comments and tight levels levels levels. There’s there’s levels to this, there’s a difference between obedience and and surrender. You can obey and do what’s right because you want to do what’s right, surrendering means giving up your will, surrendering means giving up your power and saying, look, this is something I don’t want to do, I don’t want to obey, I don’t want to obey. But you know what, Okay, fine, I’ll do this because it’s not my will, but it’s your will and I know that you know better, I know that you know better. You can obey and not need to surrender because okay, fine, I want to honor my parents. Fine. I’m being obedient to what God says that cause that’s no surrender for you. Oh, I I don’t want to steal, I don’t wanna I don’t wanna do these things. Okay, fine, that’s no surrender for you. But to surrender means I want this, but God, you’re saying this. So I’m going to lay down what I want, I’m gonna let go of what I want and pick up what you have for me. And that is the difficulty that many of us face. And that’s why jesus says it’s so difficult for those that are wealthy to inherit the kingdom of God because their possessions have their heart instead of them having their possessions. Their possessions have them instead of them having their possessions. And jesus takes it a step further and he says you have to uh forsake all that. You hold dear and put me in first place, put me at the center of your heart, put me uh as the one that you will follow. He says, No one who has left his house, his wife, his brothers, his parents, his Children for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Well who will not receive many times more this time to uh than in the age to come eternal life? He’s saying, look, if you leave all of these things for me, if you put me first, if you put me 1st 1st and foremost and paramount in your life, many great things will come of this. But it’s a sacrifice. It’s a sacrifice. It’s a sacrifice. You have to surrender. You have to let it go, Jesus says, look and Peter says this at this response. Peter says, look, we’ve left everything to follow you, Jesus says, look, that’s a great sacrifice and for this you’ll inherit eternal life. And we realized that when jesus is moving and how he’s interacting with people, that he realizes that we realized that Jesus has a different perspective than we do. He puts first things first. He puts kingdom things first. He puts his father’s business above so many things and what we realize is it so important for us as we surrender as we let go, as we become the people that God has called us to be. And we looked at last week, how at how we surrender and looked at tools to surrender. But what is it? We’re surrendering. What is that? It it looks different for many of us and I want to look at five things highlight five things that that we need to surrender in order to be the people that God has called us to be. The first thing that we need to surrender as believers are. One main thing that we need to surrender is we need to surrender your plan, surrender your plan, surrender your plan. You say, oh, what plan? I don’t have a plan. I don’t know. I just go throughout life or whatever. I don’t know what plan. I don’t know. You know the plan I’m talking about. I’m gonna go to this college, I’m gonna do this after I graduate. I’ll be married by this age. I’m gonna have kids by this age. I’m gonna have this great paying job with this respected position. I’m gonna be living in this in this location. That plan. That’s the plan that we need to surrender. The plan that we say, okay, I’m gonna do this by, by this age or this by this day or this in this year or in X years. I’m going to have this or that and many of us at whatever stage in life we plan at whatever stage in life we have goals or dreams or visions that we may set for ourselves and and etch. We etch these things in stone and we make plans often times without seeking the counsel of the true and living God. We’re honest with ourselves. We make plans sometimes without seeking his counsel. We talked to everybody but God about our plan. Everybody but God talk to your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your sister, your brother, your friends, your co workers, everybody about your plan. I want to do this. What do you think? I don’t want to do this? What do you think? Your feedback? All of these things you talk to everybody, even God is like, all right, I’m waiting. When are you gonna come to me with your plan? And then we talked to all of these people come up with this plan and we say, okay, okay, God, this this is what I’m gonna do. Now blessed. This is what I’m gonna do God. Now. Here you go, bless it. But meanwhile, we’ve never submitted the plan to God in the first place, we’re asking him to put his stamp of approval yet. We haven’t prayed about it yet. We haven’t fasted about it yet. We haven’t opened the word about it. But yet these are plans that are now etched in stone and we’re saying this is what I’m gonna do. This is how this is gonna look. This is how this is gonna play out. But we haven’t yet taken the time to submit to God. And the unfortunate thing for us is oftentimes we hold on to these plans so tightly, we hold on to them and we don’t let them go. We say God, this is what I’ve written, This is how it’s gonna be. I said, let it be. So this is what’s going to happen. I’ve named it, I’ve claimed it all of these different things. We have it so tightly in our hands and we’re clutching to these plans and God is saying, just open your palms and trust me with what you’ve written down or open your palms and come and seek me in the first place and give me the license to to say no to cross this out to cross that that that out without you throwing a tantrum and running from me without you throwing a tantrum and saying, well, God, that’s that’s not fair. And shaking your fist at me individual that had a plan in scripture that needed to be surrendered was moses, moses, moses moses, one of the greatest individuals that we see written about in scripture, had a plan that needed to be surrendered. You see what moses did was he killed a man and ran, He killed him in and ran and hid and in him having a warped version of what his purpose would be. Ultimately, he would end up freeing is being the catalyst or the person that God used to free Israel from Egypt. But when he first saw his people being mistreated, he had all this passion and rage and didn’t know what to do with it. He had all this, this anger for the injustice that was taking place and didn’t know what to do with it. So he took a life because he did it his way it ended in murder because he did it his way it ended in a life being lost and it ended in moses having to flee. And in his plan he said okay I’m going to be a shepherd, I’m gonna have you know a wife, I’m gonna have a nice family, I’m going to have these sheep and he was fine in the world and is doing what he was doing. He was had a life that he liked to have. But then God interrupted him one day as he was tending his father in law’s sheep. God interrupted him. This burning bush was burning in exodus chapter three. And we see moses went to this this this this burning bush and God speaks to him and says I am the God of Abraham of Isaac of Jacob and in verse nine of exodus three, he says Now behold the cry of the people of Israel. They’re in bondage, they’re enslaved and has come to me. I have seen the oppression in which Egypt has oppressed. Israel come now I will send you to pharaoh that you may bring my people the people of Israel out of Egypt imagine with me you’re moses, you have your life set up in a way that makes sense to you. You have a nice plan, you figure, okay, I’m gonna live out my days here with my wife, with my sheep. I’m going to have some kids. I’m gonna be good. I have a great relationship with my father in law. Things are great right now and I’m fine. But God interrupts you and says that’s your plan. But that’s not mine. That’s not your that’s that’s your plan. Let me sound fine, but that’s not mine. I want you to to shepherd a different kind of sheep moses. I want you to shepherd a different kind of sheep. I want you to use your gift, things for a different way. I want you to be able that passion that you say that you had for your people. I want to use that a different way. Yeah. I find it’s it’s lie dormant and you want to bury over it with your new plan. But I wanna I wanna dig past the things that you buried over it with and use that for my glory. Use that to release my people use that so they can be free moses had to surrender his plan and walk in the will of God moses had to let it go to let go of his plan and walk in the way that God had called him to walk and he had a plan that needed to be surrendered. That’s why it’s so important for us because there are people that are waiting on us to surrender our plans. just as moses had to surrender his plan so that God could use him to free Israel from Egypt. There are individuals that are waiting on us to let go of our plan and walk in God’s way to let go of our plan and do what God has called us to do, to let go of our plan and be the voice crying out that they need in the season that they’re in. We have to surrender. And the thing about plans is we need to let our plans go. We need to surrender our plans to God. The plans that we hope to happen and the plans that haven’t happened. I’m gonna say that again, we need to surrender our plans to God. The plans that we hope to happen if you’re in a season of expectation and you say, okay, I’m gonna look forward to this happening. I’m anticipating this plan taking place in years past and that ship perhaps has sailed. Do you have to surrender the plans that you’re hoping to happen? And also the plans that haven’t happened. Okay, I wanted to uh get married by 30. You’re 33. The plans that haven’t happened. What’s what’s wait, nothing halts your progress easier than resentment. And so what we see sometimes is we can get so caught up on the plans that haven’t happened yet in our time frame in our time zone that it builds up resentment towards God and say God, you you failed me in this God. This was my plan and this didn’t happen just yet. Or God. This this hasn’t happened yet. And we look back on what we thought things or how we thought things should be. And and we’re not there yet and we don’t feel gratified yet in our life’s work or in what we’re doing. And we can be resentment and resent. We can be resentful and resent what God, uh, what we feel God should have done. And so for us, what we need to do is realize that okay, we need to surrender both. The things that we’re expecting from God in the future and the things that we expected God to do, surrender them both, surrender them both to God and say, you know what God, I know this is difficult, but I have to let this go. I have to lay this at your feet. And just because you let it go, it doesn’t mean it won’t come back to you just because you lay the plan down doesn’t mean that God won’t bless it. Just because you lay the plan down doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. But God wants to know that you know that he’s in control. God wants to know that you know that he’s in control and that he’s worth letting it go for. So we have to surrender our plan. The next thing that we have to surrender is our position, our position that deals with location. We see that the Lord called Abram who is we know as Abraham to a new land. He said Genesis chapter 12. Now the Lord said to Abram go from your country, from your kindred, from your father’s house to the land that I will show you and I will make you of of a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great. So that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, those who dishonor you. I will uh those who dishonor you, I will curse and all and then you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. We have to surrender our position. That means where we are, our location. Are we? So are we so committed to where we are that we won’t go where God tells us to go. Are we so committed to where we are that we won’t go where God tells us to go. Are we standing on our word and living in our word or living in his? And so what God will say sometimes it’s okay, go here, go to this school instead of this one. Go to this job instead of this one. You’ve been in this state. The state has raised you. You know all about it. And I’ll leave it and go here and this is a clear sign from God. You’ve been fasting about it. You’ve been praying about it. You’ve been seeking counsel about it from spiritual, uh, authorities. You’ve been you have dreams, visions, whatever the circumstance, maybe there’s a clear word from God to move. But yet there’s something stopping you from moving is your will against God’s will, your will against God’s will. Your word against God’s word. You have you can’t be so committed to where you are, that you can’t recommit to where God wants you to go. Do you have the faith to surrender? You walk by faith and not by sight. You see, surrender is a faith walk. It’s a faith walk because there are gonna be some things that God calls you to. That just doesn’t make sense. There’s gonna be some things that God called you to do. Leave all of this everything, you know, And go here, leave all of this, everything you know, And go in this direction to the land that I will show you. It doesn’t make sense. God. It doesn’t add up God. But yet Abram got up and did as God called him to do. We can’t be so tied to uh where we are that we don’t do what it is that God has shown us and called us to do. And we also can’t be so we can’t be so uh committed to leaving that we don’t stay when God tells us to stay many of us, we have our our dreams and our goals and our plans and our position all set up. They say, okay, I’m gonna go here, I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna have this, I’m gonna have this, I’m gonna move here, things are gonna be great and God says, yo pump the brakes, I need you here stay here you said but God, what about what about my position? I have all of this laid out, this is my position, this is where I’m gonna go, this is where I’m gonna be, this is where I’m gonna stay this and God says no, no I I need you here. So the reverse is also true. We can we have to trust God with our position and let it go, surrender our position, surrender where we are surrender where we are. Trust God with your position and surrender the third thing. So we have to when God gives us instructions we need to let go and surrender. The third thing we need to surrender is our perspective, our perspective, our perspective, our perspective In the book of Judges, Chapter six The Lord speaks to Gideon and appears to him and Angela the Lord appears to Gideon and says, The Lord is with you, Oh, mighty man of valor. Now, Israel is going through some difficult times. Israel is going through some rough times. They’re oppressed by Midian and Gideon’s perspective, he says this, please Lord. If you’re with us then why has all this happened to us? Where all his wonderful deeds that our fathers have told us saying that God brought us out of Egypt. God has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian. And the Lord turns and says to Gideon again, he says, go in, this might of yours and Save Israel from Midian, Did I not send you? And Gideon says to him, please, Lord, how can I Save Israel behold My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father’s house. And the Lord said to him, but I will be with you and you shall strike the media nights as one man. And he said to him, Now, if I’ll find favor in your eyes, then show me this as a sign that you speak with me. Please do not report here, depart from here until I come to you and bring out my presence and said it before you. And he said, I will stay until you return. So the Lord shows up to speak with Gideon. And we immediately see Gideon’s perspective, it’s one of defeat. It’s one of agony. It’s one that’s distraught. He shows up and says, God is with us. And Gideon says, how can God be with us when my life looks the way it does and sometimes life deals us some difficult blows, life deals us some difficult punches and it can cause you to have a warped perspective a warped view of God God says, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you, difficulty comes and Gideon says, God left difficulty comes and Gideon says, where is God, difficulty comes and Gideon says, God has abandoned. God has forsaken. God has forgotten. God has rejected little does he know that Gideon is going to be the answer to Israel’s problem. The answer to Israel’s problem, but would have but his perspective would have kept him imprisoned. Had he not moved on from it, had he not listen to the word of God? Because God said Gideon, you go in this might of yours and save Israel and Gideon says me, You got the wrong one you must not know about Vanessa because I’m I’m the weakest, My clan is the weakest. My tribe is the weakest, and I’m the weakest out of everybody in there. So you must not know you got the wrong one. He has the wrong perspective about himself. God says, go into strength of yours. God says, you’re a mighty man of valor. Yet you call yourself weak. God says you’re a man of strength. You call yourself uh not strong and unable to do the things that God has called you to do. Gideon had to believe that God, that, that he was who God said he was and the same thing goes for us many times. Our perspective of things can keep us away from what God is actually trying to do. In and through our lives, our perspective of God, Oh, God forsaken me, God rejected me. God’s forgotten me. No, no, no, no way. God is is for me. If he was that wouldn’t have happened. If God was still in my corner, then, you know, this job would have been mine. If God is still in my corner, then this wouldn’t have affected me or my family. If God was still in my corner, then my finances would be set up differently. If God was still in my corner, then our perspective gets warped. And because we’re not submitted to God, we feel entitled to it. Our perspective gets warm because life has dealt us a lot of difficulties and we begin to adopt a certain mindset about ourselves, That is not true. We begin to adopt a certain mindset about ourselves that people have called us, we believe we’re so quick to believe the perspective of others about ourselves. We’re so quick to believe the words of others about ourselves. And we let we let those words weigh on us, we let those perspectives weigh on us and it becomes our perspectives. It becomes how we see ourselves. But when God says something true, when God says you are my child, when God says, you are loved, When God says, you are chosen. When God says you are valued. When God says you are strong. When God says, I am mighty in you. When God says I have chosen you for greatness. When God says, I’ve set you apart, we say me now God, you got the wrong one. Look at my mistakes. Look at what I’ve done. Look at how far I’m straight. Look at, look at, look at it, it’s your perspective and that perspective can keep you from doing mighty things in the Kingdom of God. That’s where the enemy wants to keep you. Because what he does not want is for you to be free, so that you can free others. But what he wants you to do is stay with a faulty perspective and not be free and not do what it is that God has called you to do. So what we need to do is that when God says something about us, we need to accept it. We need to say, look God, God, I know that you know better than I do. I know that you see differently than I do. And you say I have strength, I don’t feel like I have strength, but I’ll go in the strength that you say I have, I’ll go on the strength of his mind through the shed blood of your son, jesus christ. I know they’ve said this about me, I know they’ve said this about me consistently time and time again and I’ll go in what you say about me, not walk in, what they say about me, so we have to surrender our perspective. I’m Excuse me? Yeah, perspective. Fourth thing. The fourth thing we have to surrender is our preferences are preferences are preferences. We see that Peter in the Book of Acts was a jew. And as a jew, he was not eating anything that was unclean. But then there came a time when God shifted uh Peter’s view. He gave him a vision of all these animals and reptiles and birds of the air floating down from heaven on a sheet of sorts. And the voice came to Peter in this vision and said, Rise Peter Kill and eat. And Peter says, oh, no way, God, I’m not gonna eat anything. Unclean. He’s following the law. He’s following what he’s been taught, he’s following his preferences. And a voice came to Peter a second time and said, where God has made clean, do not call on, do not call common. And this happened three times. And then the vision ended. And this shows now peter that gentiles are included in God’s plan for salvation. It was a vision, uh, that that showed Peter to think beyond his scope beyond his box, beyond his perspective. And many times we have the same thing, we have the same uh, issue. We have a preference that we like or something that we want to do. And it doesn’t have to be outright sinful. So many times you say, I gotta pick up my cross. It’s always sin. It’s sin here sitting here saying, it doesn’t have to be outright sinful, but it’s just something that’s keeping you from conforming to the image of God your possessions. There’s nothing wrong with having things, there’s nothing wrong with being wealthy, when jesus told the man with the the great wealth, the young ruler to give up his wealth and give it to the poor, he wasn’t saying oh poor is the only way to be, he was just taking, he was just pointing out the fact that the riches had the man’s heart instead of the man having the riches, the riches had the man. And so for us, what we need to realize is we need to be able to surrender our preferences, our possessions. Many of us we have many things, clothes, sneakers, jewelry, all these different things that were amassing. But if God calls you to lay those things down, it calls you if God calls you to give up that pair of sneakers or those pair that that pair of shoes or whatever the situation may be, if God calls you to give those things up, is that something that you’re willing to do or is that something that you’re gonna hold on so very tightly to your preferences, your possessions, You are also your your your people, There are some people in our lives that we prefer. I like this person and this is my boyfriend, this is my girlfriend, this is my friend, but God may have a different path for you. God may be calling you down a different particular road and the crazy thing about it is we have difficulty letting go of people letting go and moving on from relationships, whether it be friendships or other or other relationships and we have difficulty doing that, but we have to let go of those preferences. And sometimes we also, God calls us to let go of things that are seeped in and baked into our personality. Let me think, oh, that’s me, that’s just how I am. You know, it’s just me, that’s just what I do. That’s just me. I’ve always acted this way ever since I came up, this is what I’ve been doing. But God calls us sometimes out of those things, out of timidity into boldness, out of out of being a too aggressive and saying, okay, let’s let’s dial back a little bit and here out what someone else is saying, God calls us out of these things that we now brand ourselves well, this will be my personality. But what happens when God pulls you back or what happened when God’s launches you forward? Are you gonna be able to surrender in that way and uh surrender in that way and let go and surrender away from your preferences. Now, all of this, all of these different things, surrendering your uh your plan, surrendering your uh your your plan, your position, surrendering your perspective, surrendering your preferences, all of these things that boils down to one thing we have to surrender our power our power, our power, that’s the fifth component. We have to surrender our power. God gives us all free will God gives us all the ability to do or not to do something. But it boils down to us surrendering our power Esther Queen Esther in the book of Esther chapter four, she was the queen and she had every right to sit back and not free her people from from certain death. She had every right to sit back and not intervene when her life was at stake because she had power. But she had to surrender her power. She got a word from her cousin Mordecai told Esther and said, do not think that just because you’re in the palace, you will escape any more than the other jews. If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise from another jews from another place. But you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows, perhaps you’ve come into the kingdom for such a time as this, Esther could have sat back, Esther could have been silent, Esther could have been quiet, but instead she surrendered her power the power and authority. She had the influence that she had to the plan of God and as a result of that, her people were delivered her people were saved. Her people were freed from certain death that was looming over their lives. Kanye West and his song. Power at the very end of one of the very last lines that he says, he asked the question he says, do you have the power to let power go? And now we know that Kanye is going through a lot right now. And so I feel like the same church that rallied around him should be the same church that prays for him as he’s going through what he’s going through. But I think that speaks to a really interesting point is that do you have the power to let power go to surrender? To surrender it all, whose power will you walk in yours or christ your power? Because you know, you think that you’re holding on to something, but what jesus says is if you want to, you want to keep your life then you’ll just lose it. So at the end you really have nothing. You really don’t. This power that you think you have, that you’re walking in, it’s it’s only gonna lead to destruction, It’s only gonna lead to pain, it’s only gonna lead to separation. We need to be able to let go of our power and say God, I submit it to you. You see in the end, in the Book of Revelation at the end of the scriptures, it says what all the elders, they all cast down their crowns. You say, I’m gonna take this crown, the symbol of my power, the symbol of my authority, the symbol of my rule, the symbol of my reign, the symbol of my control and I’m gonna lay it down at the feet of jesus Why? Because we have to surrender our power, surrender our Power James. Chapter 4: verse eight says. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you, cleanse your hands, You sinners purify your hearts, you double minded. We need to be able to draw near to God. We need to cleanse our hands. We need to let it go. And when we do this, what do we gain when we let go? What do we gain? Or we just let it go so we can just be on just empty. I don’t have anything. No, God comes and fills us up. God comes and makes us new God comes and builds us up, God comes and restores us, we gain eternal life. There’s a lot of letting go. But what’s gained his victory over sin? There’s a lot of letting go. But what’s gained is peace and reconciliation with God. There’s a lot of letting go. But what is gained is grace that sufficient in our storms. There’s a lot of letting go. But what’s what’s gained is unmerited favor and tender mercies, what let what’s gained is new mercies every morning. So it’s a lot to give up. But when we think about it and we tend to get, you know complain about it and say, oh I don’t have to give up. What do I have to give up? Think about what he gave up. Think about what jesus christ gave up so we could obtain. think about what he let go, let it go, think about what he let go, so that we could obtain. He let go of his life. He breathed his last so we could breathe our first right on the cross. It says he gave up the ghost, he breathed his last. And through that we now have eternal life through that we can now breathe our first in him Philippians. Chapter two, verses five through 11 says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ, Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped but he emptied himself By taking on the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So he emptied himself. He let go, and then verse nine says, what did he gain? Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So that the name of jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue shall confess that jesus christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. We cannot be afraid to let go because of christ is our example of crisis. Our forerunner of christ is the author that we look to the author and the finisher of our faith, then we see that in him letting go, he let go and confined himself to flesh for 33 years wrapped in flesh for 33 years limited himself to suffer the things that we suffer as human beings. God did this so that we could be healed whole and made new so that we could have life and life more abundantly. He let his life go. He laid his life down. So now we must do the same. It’s so important for us to know this. As the team comes up, I want us to really have this mind in ourselves. That was also in christ, jesus go. He was in the form of God. He didn’t count equality with God, a thing to be grasped. He didn’t count equality with God, a thing to be grasped. And what many of us try to do what many of us want to do, what many of us feel as though we have a right to do is play God is be God is do what God would do is be God. In our situation is know the difference between the right and wrong and choose what we would choose versus what God would choose and so what we need to do is to let it go, let go of the power surrender, I surrender right. I surrender. That’s what we need to do. Saints of God. So we can be closer to God, so we can be more like God the things that we need to do in our lives. We need to understand that we need to let it go so that we can be more like God and pick up what he has for us to pick up. But first we need to let it go. Let’s pray dear God, I thank you so much for your people. Everyone watching. I pray that you would father be glorified Father. That has this word has gone forth. I pray that it fell on good soil and I pray that your people would be more like you that they would know what it’s like to continue to live a life of surrender. I live a life that is uh that that surrenders to you to your will to your way that they would not be afraid to let go so that you can be glorified. I thank you, I praise you. I give you glory. Give them strength and grace to let go strength and grace to surrender to your will and your way to surrender their plans, God strength and Grace to surrender their their position. God’s strength and Grace to surrender their perspective. God’s strength and Grace Father to surrender their preferences and surrender their power and be more like you. I thank you, praise you. I give you glory for all these things in jesus name. Amen and Amen. Now if you’re here, you’ve heard this message and you don’t know, jesus christ as your Lord and say if you want to come to know him today as your Lord and your savior, I’m gonna ask you to repeat after me. Dear God, I thank you so much for your son, jesus for sending him to die on the cross so I can have life. I pray Lord that I would be more like you that I would surrender to you. I thank you for the ability to be new in christ. Thank you for forgiving me of my sins and cleansing me from all on righteousness and I won’t fail to give you the praise to give you the honor and to give you the glory for we ask these things in jesus name. Amen. Hey man, give yourselves a round of applause. Heaven rejoices for you. Heaven rejoices with you. You made a new decision to surrender to christ today. Let’s give God praise. Thank you so much. God bless you as my prayer. 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.