Surrender — Glenn Meldrum

Mark was helping me and a couple other guys was helping me to put up gutters yesterday. And he happened to just ask says, what are you preaching tomorrow? And I said Surrender so there's a divine set up here and The reason for is because God loves us enough that he wants to speak truths to us.

So we understand and can apply him to our life. We have to understand those truth exists before we can begin to actually put them into practice. And once we understand they exist, then we have to make the choice of what we're gonna do.

Surrender is a reality of every individual on this planet. There's no such thing as a self-made man. They do not exist. They're illusions only in the minds of those who think that they are every individual surrenders to something.

They surrender either to the devil or to God they surrender to sin or to self or whatever it is. They surrender. It's impossible For us as human beings not to surrender. It's impossible. It's just we have to make the choice of who are going to surrender to and so that's where it really comes down to be.

Surrender is the hardest thing that you're gonna have to do or at least one of the hardest things you'll ever have to do in Your life because we are Rebels down to the core of our being. I mean, it's not just something we have a little problem with it.

Is the problem of the entirety of our fallen nature? It is what comes out of the fall. It's what comes out of our sin nature. You can have this outward type of rebellion that you know. You're gonna fight against everybody or you can have this passive kind of rebellion that you may outwardly look submissive but inside there's this rebellion this attitude this bitterness this anger that's inside of you because you are still a rebel and.

So it's really are we going to surrender? Are we going to take the path to surrender to who we really should? Otherwise you are going to surrender and you need to understand who you're surrendering to you really need to come to grips with that.

So turn with me to Romans chapter 12 Verses 1 and 2 and you know the thing about this portion of scripture is that it's simple. This is basic Christianity this is Christianity 101 and how can we ever go on any further until we get the basics down?

There is no true maturing in our Christian life until we begin to understand what this is. And if you want to mature as a Christian surrender is foundational to it. You want to become a man or woman of God you Sell surrender is is foundational to it.

You can't get away from it. It's an absolute I mean now people can be in leadership positions within the church and have nothing of surrender in their life to God. So the position or even the talent is not the issue.

General William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army. He said the greatness of a man is determined by the measure of his surrender. Not by how big his church is or how famous he is or what he's done or supposedly accomplished.

But according to the surrender that he has to God. And so let me read Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. Therefore I urge you brothers and view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God.

This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is his good pleasing and perfect will.

Now when you look at the book of Romans you Have to understand of course, this is just the nitty-gritty that it was ordained by God. It was inspired by God. But yet God used a man that had a brilliant intellect that had a systematic way of thinking and could process this and not everybody has that so God was able to take this man with a Wonderful intellect with the ability to process all this and you see this tremendous logic that is laid out in the book of Romans Chapters 1 through 3 Paul goes through extensive Arguments to lay out the reality that we're all sinners everyone Jew Gentile.

We're all sinners and we are left to ourselves under the wrath of God. Then he goes on from there in the next few chapters to begin to show that salvation is by grace through faith. And then you come to chapter 7 and in chapter 7 Paul shows the struggle of the Christian.

I know some people try to say that is for the non-believer, but it can't be not the logic of the book. I mean you do that there and you you throw the book all out of whack. And so chapter 7 is the struggle that's within the Christian.

Chapter 8 is the victory that comes. And then when you come to chapter 12, why is this here in chapter 12? Why is this I? Would think that it would be place. Well, you should do it sooner you should put it somewhere in the in the middle of the book where it's about the surrender to God and and the aspect of The grace and and and all that's there for salvation.

But here it's put at more the end of his arguments this logical flow of thought. Because surrender is so difficult for us. So difficult for us that we fight against it and we have all these things that just work against it and here we can be walking with Jesus and still fighting surrendering to him.

Surrendering enough to become a Christian surrendering to the place of salvation. But not surrendering to the place of walking in the victory that God wants us to walk in. And so you have this word that begins this chapter.

Which is therefore? Now in the original in the Hebrew and the Greek there are no chapters. Okay, that's 11th century Edition there are no verses that was probably a 12th or 13th century edition. And if you look at it, there's no periods commas capitals or anything like that.

I mean, so so it's a a daunting work for people that do translation to go and work through all that just because the nature of Hebrew and Greek the Benefit of chapters and verses as we can follow and you can tell people where to go and turn in their Bibles and so on.

That's awesome but the negative of it is that we can sometimes look at a chapter and think a new thought is is Beginning there and fail to understand that the thought is just a continuation of what's been going on.

So the therefore is actually tied into the end of chapter 11. That begins in verse 33 says and this is a doxology. Oh the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable his art his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out?

Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever. Therefore.

All right, you understand that therefore is tied into this doxology of the majesty and splendor of God because of who he is therefore and. So guess what the world does not have this knowledge. They don't understand who this God is.

This is something that is for Christians. He's speaking to Christians here. Though this truth is very good and very excellent about surrender of how to come to salvation. Yet here he is not speaking to the lost.

He is speaking to the Christian. He's speaking to those who have a knowledge of God at least to a certain point. And he's saying look at the majesty. Look at the greatness and the beauty and the splendor this God.

Therefore therefore. This is what you need to do. Now the next thing that he says is he says I urge you. The King James Version says I beseech you. The New Revised Standard Version says I appeal to you.

These are very strong words. Paul is not trying to say would you pretty please pay attention? He has come to a point in the book in the logical flow of this book to come to the place. Okay, here we are.

Listen to what I'm saying. I urge you I urge you. Listen to this because it is of tremendous importance. And so if this was not that important Paul would have just kind of made it blend in with everything else.

But its importance was so great. He says listen, I urge you I beseech you. And what was he doing it he was doing as an Apostle as a spiritual father as a man that had a love for the church a passion for the church.

And so this is his heart, but yet ultimately it goes beyond that. This is the heart of God speaking through Paul urging us. Urging us to understand what's being given here. What's being told? He goes on from the aspect of urging us.

He says I urge you I beseech you by the mercy of God. What he shares after this we must understand can only come through mercy and grace. It's impossible to surrender to God without mercy and grace. It's impossible.

You cannot do it through your own strength. You can't do it to your own ability. You can't do it through your own will you can't do it. It is a gift that comes from God by God alone and he comes to us.

He gives us the offer. Yes, we have to make the choices. Yes, I will submit to you or no, I won't. But he's calling us. He says this is by God's mercy the more we understand the true grace of God as Peter referred to it.

The more we understand the true grace of God. We see the true grace of God as something that is victorious and when he offers it to us He doesn't offer to us so that we can continue status quo. He offers it to us so that we can overcome.

So that whatever is in our life. Whatever these obstacles are whatever is hindering us from surrender can be dealt with that we can go before this God and have this mountain this obstacle this this this nightmare in our life that we've been been subject to and we go to him through grace and say help me and Through that act of surrender and crying out to him.

He brings this grace to break the chain. The power of grace is tremendous. But we must become people like Paul spoke to Timothy to be strong in the grace of God. You know, I brought this out before but that that verse is astounding to me.

Be strong in divine favor. How are you strong in divine favor? Well, if you were thinking of it from a presidential standpoint, how do you become strong in a president? Well, we think of it naturally that you kiss up to him kind of thing.

You know you play the politics and try and get your way in. But not with God. You see how do we become strong in grace strong in that divine favor? Surrender. Dependency, I mean, it's so simple in that, you know, so you want to overcome it's not that you have your own ability and strength.

But that you have this this abandonment to God this surrender to God. We're told in James chapter 4 that we overcome the devil. Not by putting on the boxing gloves and trying to go around with him. We overcome the devil by submit yourselves to God.

Resist the devil and he will flee. You see it's all comes down to submit. What is the submission is surrender. It's about yielding to him it's about giving up the control of our life and so he's trying to Bring to us the importance of this mercy of this surrender and the need to it.

I urge you with this because if you don't come to understand the power of divine grace and the way that is received. Then you will never receive it and one one absolutely beautiful verse beautiful verse is The very last verse in the book of Ephesians.

Grace to all those Who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love phenomena. You want grace? Love him with everything that's within you and if you don't love him with everything that's within you.

Then you cry out for the grace to do it. Because it can only be done through him. It can't be done through your own human strength. But he will give you the grace to love him if you'll cry out. He'll give you the grace to want to walk in holiness.

If you will cry out for the grace because you begin to see the reality of your own weakness and humanity that you can't do It on your own. You don't have the strength. You're not smart enough. You don't have enough ability or anything else.

There's nothing in you that can do this of yourself. Nothing and so it comes through grace. It comes to the place of crying out for God's mercy. And what are we to do by God's mercy were to give ourselves as a living sacrifice.

Now The book of Romans was written to all of us, but ultimately directed to Roman Christians and so it would be going to those that were Jewish, but also those who are Gentile and Both Jew and Gentile understood sacrifice.

Okay, they did animal sacrifices. The Gentiles did it to their pagan gods and the Jews did it to the Lord God now those who are just critical of the Christian faith that are you know in the intelligentsia Tried to go in and say that well, there's no difference you know the the Judaism came out of the paganism and you know they all kind of do the same thing and the problem is the difference between the sacrifices of the Pagans and the Jews is absolutely 100 opposite to each other.

With the with the the pagans with the Gentiles their sacrifices were to appease the gods or to somehow Do something that would make them perform what they wanted them to do. With the Mosaic law the sacrifices were 100 about atonement not buying Some power from God not buying some blessing but about the aspect of needing atonement just like the parable that Jesus gave us of the of the Pharisee and the tax collector that's in the temple and here the the tax collectors beating his breath an expression in the Middle East of Tremendous agony may have mercy on me have mercy on me because that man came to understand his need he came to see that he was a sinner where the Pharisee the religious man was Oblivious and blind to it.

And when you look at the close of that of that parable It's the tax collector that walks away righteous and the Pharisee walks away in his sin. So a living sacrifice. This is ultimately then a very Jewish thought even though it was going to a Gentile world.

The concept of living sacrifice or of sacrifice was Going to be Jewish and thought because of how different it is from the pagan concepts. But there's something different here. It's living. It's not it's not this dead sacrifice the only way that we can be holy and pleasing to God is by being a living sacrifice if you want to please God if You want to bring joy to his heart.

You have to be a living sacrifice if you will not be a living sacrifice. There's no way you can please God. You cannot please God in yourself. You cannot please God through your own abilities wisdoms gifts talents or whatever it is.

You could give up Bill Gates fortune to the church and you still will not please God because he's not looking for that fortune. He doesn't need it. He's looking for your surrender and It's only in the place of surrender that we can begin to be a people that start pleasing God because through surrender We start doing what he wants rather than what we think we want to do or how we want our religion to to function and so the only way we can be holy and pleasing to God is to surrender is through being a living sacrifice and Then he said according to the 1984 NIV.

He said this is your spiritual act of worship and that's a good translation your spiritual act of worship, so Jesus told us that there's was a day coming when we would worship in the spirit and truth and here's what it is.

This is the expression of it the surrendered life. The place where we surrender to God and it is a spiritual act of worship. And if we are not surrendered to him, there is no worship going up to God from us.

The worship is going out to something whether self or Satan. Whatever it may be, but it's not going to God. It's only through the surrendered life that we can have the spiritual act of worship. So you know what that means?

You go to work and If you're striving with everything within you to live surrendered. Every act that you are doing during that day is an expression of worship. You see because worship is spiritual. It's what we are on the inside.

It's the life not just the aspect we come to sing songs. It is who we are and so one expression of worship in that sense is not greater than the other. That way there you could look at it that that the carpenter Can be as have as great a worship in the life as what they do as the preacher does.

Because it's the life. It's who we are in this relationship of surrender to him. So the spiritual worship is what defines us is what comes out of us that everything we do is for the glory of God then and.

So it's our spiritual act of worship, but the King James translated that little Greek phrase a little differently. He said this is your reasonable service and that's a good translation of those words as well.

It can be taken either way. I think both put together really bring out the full picture of it that this is our spiritual act of worship. But it's also a reasonable service. This is the basic. What does God expect of every human being on this planet?

Absolute surrender. I mean, that's the nitty-gritty. That's where it all comes down to me. That is God's will. Now you either have one of two responses to it you obey it or rebel against it. You either submit to him or you rebel against him and We want these gray areas.

We want these areas of in-between and but it's there's no in-between. Either we surrender or we rebel either we say yes to him or we say no and we do our own thing and. The sad thing is we can do that with a whole lot of religion say no to God and think we're okay.

But all we got is a bunch of religion and not the genuine relationship that comes through surrender. Only by living the surrendered life. Can we know God's good pleasing perfect will across this country when I give altar calls and I'm up there praying for people and and I'll ask somebody what's the need and they'll say a Generic type of thing and I don't need to know but I need to know God's will.

I Take him right here to Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 you want to know God's will be a living sacrifice. Here is an absolute. The surrendered man or woman will never miss God's will. The unsurrendered man or woman will never know it.

Just as simple, you know, you want God's will live surrendered if you're not surrendered. You will not live in God's will go to church do all your churchy things. You will still not know God's will. You will not be walking in God's will because God's will begins with that surrender.

It begins with that place of giving up the control of our life of of coming to the place that we're at. We're at the end of ourself and all that we want then is to find that beautiful place as what Jordan was bringing out about surrender the beautiful place of surrender and You know, I'd venture to say a lot of us were really naughty boys.

When we were young some more than others. Rebels in various ways whether it was the compliant rebel where you're grumbling underneath and nobody knows it or you're the rebel. That's just you know fighting against mom and dad in every way that you can, you know.

We have that rebelliousness in us and that has to be broken because it gets such a hold on us. But yet, you know all that rebellion never brought us any happiness didn't bring us any. I Mean, I know as a as a drug addict as a man's, you know, just being a hippie living.

That life, you know, you think you're just rebelling against the status quo and you've got the the great life. You're just living the party and and yet inside. The thing that that drew me to Jesus was a loneliness.

I couldn't explain it. I couldn't tell you what it was, but this ache inside of me that nothing could satisfy. Until the day I Began to surrender a sacrifice for to be pleasing to God had to be holy. Israel had a lot of trouble with this because under the Mosaic Law They were required to bring the best.

Their best not their leftovers. They had to bring the best the best animal now. You know what that means if you bring your best animals to sacrifice those are your breeding animals. Those are like the best of the best and you want to use those to the breed.

So you have really good healthy animals that come out of it yet God's saying you give me the best. If you give me the best I'll bless everything else. But if you don't I'll curse everything else. You give me the best you give me the best of your grain.

You give me the best of your animals and yet time and again. What did they do this comes out? And if I remember correctly in Malachi rebukes them because they were giving sickly animals and he says go try to give them to Your governor and see if he'd accept them.

But you think that God's dumb and you can give him the leftovers of your life and that's okay. It's kind of like what we do with our dogs. Those of you that have dogs you give them leftovers, man. You get that tail wagging.

They're just so happy. We used to once have a Lhasa abso a kind of like a hairy little pudgy thing with short legs cute. I mean he was cute and You know, you put the dog food out there. He wouldn't touch the thing you put spaghetti sauce in it, man.

He just go wild over it come up with this orange face, you know a Doggy smile, you know happy sacrifice had to be Holy before it could be offered. So the priests would go and and examine the animal. Make sure it didn't have any broken bones that it wasn't diseased that it wasn't sickly.

And if it was approved then it could be offered up. It could be offered then you could take it in. But the Jews were trying to for a time to get around that they gave the leftovers a sickly. Yeah, you know, I mean God won't take the leftovers.

He won't take the spaghetti sauce on the doggy food. You understand he won't take our garbage. He's a great king. And he deserves the absolute best we can give the absolute best that we can give and so Jesus is the high priest and it wasn't a high priest that would go and examine the sacrifice.

It would be the you know, one of the other priests. But now the high priest the high priest of all high priests the highest of all examines the sacrifice. And so what does he find when he examines your sacrifice?

Does he find a sickly animal that you're just trying to give him the leftovers of your life that you don't really want to give Him the best or is he finding one that he says this sacrifice is pleasing.

The very aspect that that God is bringing these two verses here that we can know God's good pleasing perfect Will means that God will give us the grace to be pleasing to him. It is obtainable. We can do it now God expects of us what we're able to give and the Expectation of what a parent would have for a newborn babe or two or three year old child is different than what we'll have for a 20 year old to go and put on it on a three year old child.

What you'd expect of a 20 year old would be cruel and Do expect of a 20 year old what you expect of a three year old would be cruel. Just as well God has the has put before us the ability to please him.

He's made it obtainable for us. But it comes only through the mercy of God through the grace of God only comes that way. There's no other way. No other way it can happen and so Just like Jordan brought out with Psalms 139 search me.

I Want to be a clean sacrifice, I want to be an acceptable sacrifice. God what's unacceptably what is stopping me? From being an acceptable sacrifice. Now, you know the thing about this is is when you go to offer up a sacrifice you give a control of it and It's not like you could go up to the priest when after he's examined it and you kind of try and negotiate with him says Well, I'll tell you what.

How about if you take the front half of the animal? I'll take the back half, you know, and he says no. No, it has to be only can I have just the leg? Just just the leg. Just let me keep one leg says no the whole animal either you give it all or you don't give any of it.

We want to negotiate with God. What can I give? Can I give you this this this is that acceptable? Is that enough and he says no. I got on the cross completely. Absolutely totally for you and I demand of you your absolute surrender to me.

You see there's not a compromise we try to make it that way we try to even twist scripture to try and say that but It's not able to be done first. Corinthians chapter 6 verses 19 through 20 says do you not know that your body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have received from God?

You are not your own. You are bought at a price therefore honor God with your body. You don't belong to yourself anymore. If you are a true follower of Jesus, you do not belong to yourself anymore. That means you have no say over your life.

And if you want to say over your life you want to do what you want to do. Then you are gonna have to make the choice to rebel. Do you understand because this you know, if you're gonna follow him, it's about obedience loving obedience.

Do we want that? You see in American Christianity We have gone to great lengths to try and soften the whole message water it down make it palatable. So that people will supposedly accept it and then you have this concept.

Well, if we can bring them somehow in the faith, then maybe they'll they'll really come to salvation. They'll really come to a place start walking with Jesus and it's not how it works. We're rebels. I mean you make how does it work with an anarchist?

You know, what's an anarchist an anarchist is an individual that has one goal to overthrow the government. And what do you just make best friends with with an anarchist? Like he's gonna overthrow your family and everything you love and you're just gonna become good buddies.

There is to be a breaking a Severing of that that you can't be a partial anarchist against God and then a partial lover of God. There has to be a choice that either we forsake the anarchy or we forsake Christ.

We don't like it that black and white but I hate to say it it's what the reality is because this Aspect of being a sacrifice as a living sacrifice is very different than a dead sacrifice. A dead sacrifice is done.

Okay, you know you slay the animal you pour out the blood you put it on the altar. It's done but under the Mosaic Law You have to do it again and again because the blood of bulls and of goats could not cleanse of sin.

There had to be a perfect sacrifice, which was Christ, of course. But a living sacrifice, I mean it gets up on that altar and if the heat gets too hot. Think I'm gonna get off. Is there a jacuzzi nearby or something?

I can cool off it. You see we don't want it that hot. It's it there has to be this lifelong choice to be on that altar this lifelong choice. And I guarantee you that the voices of this world the voices of hell the voices of your own flesh.

Life are gonna try and get you off that altar. Because if you get off that altar, then you're not in the place of surrender anymore. You are then outside of that fellowship with God. But yet there's a greater There's a greater One who will give us the grace and strength to stay on that altar even when it gets hot but yet living that life of a surrender is Tremendous joy to stop fighting, you know fighting against God is hard work.

Miserable work miserable and the finally does come to the point and say I give I give up. You can have this man this 350 pounds of muscle, you know, and then he's gonna wrestle this 100-pound guy that's just you know, just sticks basically and you know, what is it?

How long does it take before the little guys on the ground and the big guys sitting on top of them? And you know if you just kind of get a cartoon picture of this, you know. You got this little skinny guy this big huge Muscular man sitting on top of all you see his legs and arms fighting is how much he has conquered.

But yet he doesn't even understand it you know, it's like it's just his life is miserable and here this big old guy drinks his latte and has a Apple fritter or something, you know, it's this little guy's just fighting and he can't get anywhere, you know.

And we just ridiculously keep fighting and fighting and fighting and we fail to understand who you're fighting against. Because you're not gonna win. I Is the easiest the best the most joyful thing where we come to that place of surrender, but you know one of the One of the things that Martin Luther said the founder of the Great Reformation.

He made this interesting little point. He says God creates out of nothing. Therefore until a man is nothing God can make nothing out of him. As long as we have that fight against God, we are stopping the very work that God wants to do in our life one of the Wonderful and powerful expressions of surrender is true repentance.

And you know what repentance really is okay, we're having this battle with God there's this thing in our life and We're wrestling with them and lo and behold BAM. There we are on the ground again there he is sitting on top of us and we're going to for a time have our arms and legs fighting against him and trying to resist him until Eventually we come and stop fighting and what we finally do in that stopping fighting.

We say you are right. I am wrong. Have mercy on me. Forgive me. Why do we have to go so far fight so hard? Why do we have to go through all the craziness? To finally come to the place of this beautiful act of repentance.

Because it's that rebelliousness that's in us. Now I know as a boy that I used to hate it when even when I did wrong and I was disciplined for it. I mean, it's just crazy today. You have you know, it's a human nature.

So, you know a guy breaks into a house the police catch him and they're angry at the cops for catching them. You know, I mean, it's like you're the criminal but you know, you're angry at at everybody else, you know.

And you know, it's just it's how we do it. It's just crazy. Instead of coming to the place of understanding the joy of repentance. There's the agony of repentance as we are going through repentance it can be there.

Psalms 1. Psalms 51 is a perfect example of it, but it's at the end of repentance that the joys found. The end of that act of surrender. William McDonald said the broken man is quick to repent. He does not try to sweep sin under the carpet.

He does not try to forget it with the excuse time heals all things. No, he rushes into the presence of God and cries I have sinned. Maturity in the faith. I wish I could say is where the point where we no longer sin.

That's not gonna happen till we're in heaven as we mature will sin less and less. But an aspect of maturity is that when we sin we learn how to run faster to the foot of the cross. That when we're fighting against God and he nails us to the ground that we are quick to understand what's going on.

Say forgive me forgive me of mercy. Because what really has to be the underlying thing behind it all is not the aspect that we're suffering for our sin. But that our sin is hiding the beautiful face of Jesus.

And that we want anything that separates us from him out of our life. You see that's maturing in the faith where it's no more just going. I'm tired of suffering from my sin. Now it's the aspect. I'm tired of breaking his heart.

I Want the fellowship. I want the nearest it's not worth it. The sin is just not worth it because it breaks this beautiful relationship that I've grown into that I begin to understand God. I want to be holy because I want that relationship with you.

Because repentance comes out of brokenness out of poverty of spirit like has come out this morning as well. And until there's poverty of spirit. We're gonna be like that little man under the big huge Wrestler and we're gonna be fighting because we still think somehow we can do it.

Somehow you are pinned to the ground. You have this massive man on top of you. You are not gonna get out from underneath until you finally say mercy. And yet you keep fighting and fighting and fighting and you fight your counselor you fight everybody you fight with your wife.

Whatever you just fight and it's like why? Why. What is it getting you. Other than more sorrow and more pain and yet you miss the whole thing the joy of surrender. To finally come and say forgive me and you know He doesn't have to forgive.

But it's his nature to forgive and we can rely on that nature that he forgives. What a phenomenal God. And so John the Baptist told us in Matthew chapter 3 verse 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.

Who do you tell this to the religious people? Religious folk that had a form of godliness. But did not have the real thing inside of them. Produce fruit give evidence of the reality of it when repentance is real.

We stop the fighting we stop the fighting we begin to learn the joy of what it is to truly surrender to him. You know, there's this this concept in Scripture that is absolutely Contrary to the world and everything the world promotes and everything of American life.

American life is that if you want life go for the gusto pursue whatever you want pursue your truth. Pursue your desires pursue whatever you want, whatever it is because you have the right to do it. But yet the Word of God says you want life.

Die we don't like that one. We want to go to God says bless the socks off me and just let me stay the way I am Right. I mean we want to go claim these promises, but we don't want to surrender. We don't want to submit.

We don't want to do it his way. But we get angry at him when he doesn't bless us when we ask for those promises and we say I'm claiming it. But yet we haven't surrendered. We haven't come to the place of becoming a life that he will bless.

And so Jesus told us says whoever wants to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it and I happen to think that Jesus knew what he was talking about and that he meant it a Criteria of salvation is you've got to die to self that you've got to come to the place where you are stopping the fight.