Total Surrender — Lewis Gregory

Let me lead us in prayer as we begin. Lord we welcome this time together in your name. Thank you Holy Spirit that you are our teacher. You will now lead us and guide us into all truth and praise you Lord Jesus for your wonderful presence.

We thank you Lord for life more abundantly. Now open our eyes that we might behold wondrous things from your word and cause us to be quick to receive and quick to believe in Jesus name. Amen. Earlier this year as I was ministering the word in another church a lady began to sob and then more intently began to weep and as she did it became so strong that Lou went back and took her out and began to minister to her during that time and after it was over she was still sobbing and weeping and so Lou and I went to another room with her and we began to pray and minister to her and her story went something like this.

She was overwhelmed because of all the various pressures and problems in her life. She didn't have the best of income in fact she had to work two jobs. Her daughter had to move back home. She had a live-in boyfriend and she had a child by that person and then in the apartment above her was her son and his wife and their couple of children and really none of them seemed to be much of parents and so she had to come home and end up parenting these three grandchildren and her heart was grieved for their well-being and on top of that then the son and wife from the one upstairs were in conflict and they were about to at least separate if not divorce and she was just overwhelmed by it all and the pressure was so great and so she was wanting us to pray for these different family members and I said but you know really I sense that you're the one that needs prayer not just for the pressure that it's put upon you but because of the burden you've taken upon yourself.

And so as we began to talk and pray and share with her and from the Word of God point out to her the necessity that she had to give this to the Lord she said well I've done that before I've tried that I think I'm doing that but no you're not because look at the effect it has on you yes these are sad and grievous circumstances you're in and yes it's painful and you will feel the pain but the weight of the burden of the responsibility is something you're trying to carry and it's a load you're not able to bear and that's what Christ has come to do.

Christ as the Burden Bearer

That's why He's here that's what He wants to do. He says I'm the burden bearer and so cast your care upon me today. I want to look at that from the life of Peter and Andrew some of Jesus' disciples later apostles and I want us to go first to Matthew chapter 4.

Repentance and the First Call to Follow Jesus

What we're talking about here is total surrender. Total surrender now in Matthew chapter 4 one of the early times in which Jesus interacted with Andrew and with Peter actually I think the second perhaps account of this the second time they met and in verse 17 Matthew 4 17 from that time Jesus began to preach and to say this is his message repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee saw two brothers.

Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother. They were casting a net into the sea for they were fishers and he said unto them follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And they immediately left their nets and followed him.

Now this word repent generally conjures up specific sins in our life and to be sure that's part of what's involved. I want us to think about repent today as it is in the context here and as we'll see in the next passage it has to do with change your ways change direction in your life.

Yes but change the way you live your life. And it requires a change of thinking in order for there to be a change of action. But the repent is what's happening here and we're going to see that now. Let's look again.

Jesus comes and brings forth the message God's kingdom is here. It's now because of course the King was present King Jesus had arrived on the scene and so he's saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

We're going to move you from that realm of the kingdom of God on the earthly plane Israel Jerusalem. No I'm bringing you into the heavenly kingdom the spiritual realm of God's divine presence and power.

And so he says now that kingdom is here and now. And so he addressed these two Peter and Andrew they're fishers. That means they're fishermen. And they were fishing. And so Jesus spoke very deliberately to them.

And this is what he said short and to the point verse 19 follow me follow me now the follow me is an important statement and we're going to see that it means much more than what they thought it meant and it requires much more than what they initially offered.

But here's what he said follow me and I will make you. He says look you let me take care of things and I'll take care of you and yours. But you must follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And immediately it says they did what what they do left their nets followed him immediately left their nets followed him now that's called instant obedience.

Immediately there was no discussion no debate no analyzing no excusing or explaining or postponing for a later date. But immediately left their nets and followed him. When the Lord speaks difference it's time to respond.

It's not a waiting game with the Lord. It's now God's time is now when he speaks he wants a response from us. He wants us to act on his word. And that requires faith faith. And we'll come back that word faith later and we'll look at it more as we get into the next passage.

But look here now further. So immediately they they left their nets and they followed him. So there's a leaving and there's a cleaving. That would be the the phrase used in the book of Genesis. For for the husband the wife who are to leave parents and and cleave one to another but there is a leaving first of all see in repentance there's got to be a leaving before there can be a cleaving.

Cleave is a word. It means grab embrace take hold of it do not let go. It means with all you've got and all you are you take him you embrace him. So these two men Simon called Peter Peter the name Jesus gave him Simon his his birth name and his brother Andrew.

And they immediately left their nets and then they followed him. So they had to they had to make a decision here and they had to make a choice. But it was an exercise of faith. This is not just about willpower or mind control.

It's about a deliberate heart response to the Lord and to his word for your life. And so he says to them you follow me. So following him we see entails this whole idea of repentance. And repentance means you you turn from the one and you turn to the other.

So you you you leave your old way of living your old way of doing business and you turn to him and his way. But you got to turn from and you got to turn to. That's repentance. So you turn from the old way and you turn to the new way and you turn to the Lord and to his way.

And so that's what they did. Or so it seems they did it as far as they understood and that's that's where we all start. You you you you go on the base of what you know. And so as God shows you you respond as God speaks to you you you you obey all right.

So that's where we are. We've got the understanding of repentance. We've got the understanding of the necessity of following him which means leave your nets. Or at least at that point that's how they interpreted it.

It means leaving and it certainly means cleaving. So this is the starting point. Okay now time marches on days pass and we we see them again in a different setting and yet in the same setting different in one way same in another.

Launching Into the Deep in Luke 5

Now we go to Luke chapter 5. In Luke chapter 5 and here we find the disciples again and more specifically we find Peter and his brother Andrew with some of their their friends their fishermen buddies.

And what are they doing. They're fishing again. So verse 1 of Luke 5. And it came to pass that as the people pressed upon Jesus to hear the Word of God see that's are you pressing upon Jesus to hear the Word of God.

I mean consider this. These people who had only gotten a glimpse of the Lord had no full awareness of him as we do with the wonderful words of life that are available to us through the Bible or through the Holy Spirit.

And yet what little they saw and heard of him they pressed on him because they knew he had the words of life and they wanted to hear the Word of God. So we need to cultivate a hard hunger to know him and to hear his word.

Well that's what they were doing. Jesus was standing by the lake of Genesaret and he saw two ships out there in the lake. The fishermen were gone out of them. They were washing their nets. Well that implies they'd been fishing and now they're cleaning up.

So verse 3 tells us Jesus entered into one of the ships which just happened to be Simon Peter's. And he asked Peter if he would put the ship out a little into the land from from the shore. It's just go out a little into the water there and and Jesus had a plan.

And so after they got out a ways from land then it says Jesus sat down and he taught the people out of the ship. Now what we see in process here is what we'd call a divine setup. God is about to set the stage for Peter through the Lord Jesus to have a realization of what it really means to follow him and what it really means to forsake to leave to cleave.

So let's look at what's about to happen. The story unfolds. So Jesus delivers his message. He preaches a sermon a message from God. He gives them a word from the Lord the word they were pressing to hear.

He gave it now in verse 4 when when Jesus had finished speaking he said unto Simon launch out into the deep. Okay you went out a little ways and that's good but not nearly good enough. It's time to launch out into the deep.

You see in our life we're kind of like what Peter and Andrew did at the first. We leave a little bit but we don't leave at all. We go out a little ways but we don't go all the way and and that's what God is calling us to.

Here is leave it all and go all the way with him. So he said now look the first time you went out you just went out a short distance. But you've got to go out where it's deep. You got to go out into the deep things of God.

You've got to get into the depths of God. You've got to plumb the depths in the Lord. And so he says now launch out into the deep. Now let down your nets. Now it's interesting in the first instance when he called them to follow him they left their nets.

Now he doesn't chide them that they're fishing. In fact he says let's go a little further. Now put your nets back out in the water. Just out here in the deep. Just okay. That's far enough. That's good enough.

Okay now put them down in the water. And so they did. He says just put your nets down and you're going to catch some fish. But now Peter answered now this is not necessarily a debate or an argument. It's an explanation.

Of course he doesn't understand. The Lord already knows what's going on. But anyway he he responds by saying this. He said master we have toiled all night and have taken nothing. We've been at this all night long.

We've been fishing long and hard and we've not caught one thing not one. Lou's dad used to have a second job as a fisherman. He specifically went shrimping. I love shrimp. That was one of the things that got my attention about this good-looking woman I was dating.

Her mother would always cook me these shrimp dinners every time I went over because they knew I love shrimp. And we would get a lot of shrimp. Well I went shrimping with him. We would put out that big net and we'd drag it behind the boat and we'd catch some shrimp.

We'd catch a lot of stuff. They'd be crabs in there to be all kind of fish. And we'd have to go through. And they called it calling it out until we got exactly what we wanted. But the one thing I noticed is even on the worst of times of shrimping you'd always catch something even a few just cold fish.

The ones you'd throw away or a few crabs or a few shrimp. But that always be a few. But here were these men these seasoned trained professional fishermen who fish all night. They didn't catch a single thing.

And now Jesus has the audacity. But then again he is the Lord and the master. But he he said to them go on out there and cast your nets just one more time. And Peter's going man if you only knew we're exhausted and more than that we're discouraged.

But okay you said it so we'll do it. And so they did. And and of course you know the rest of the story they caught some fish. I dare say it was the greatest catch on record. They caught so many fish. Their net almost broke.

They had started loading up the boat it filled up to overflowing almost sunk. They called their partners in. They brought another boat loaded it up and still had more to spare. Now that's how God provides exceeding abundant and beyond all we ask or think pressed down shaken together running over.

That's the abundant provision of God for our life. That's why he offers the abundant life. But these guys hadn't got it yet. But they're about to because we're going to see Peter's response. In fact the response of all of them.

Peter’s Recognition of Sinfulness and Need

So they they they go through this process. And then verse 8 when Simon Peter saw what was happening he fell down at Jesus feet and he said to him depart from me for I am a sinful man. Oh Lord Oh Lord he said I didn't have a clue.

I had no idea who you were and what you could do. I had no idea what you really were calling me to when you said follow me. But now that I see it I realize I'm nothing. You're everything. When he says I am a sinful man he's not talking about the fact that somehow he became aware that he had made a few mistakes and committed a few sins in his life.

He's saying whoa I'm nothing. You're everything. I'm the master seaman. I'm the master fisherman. And yet look at you in one word you pointed out a place to throw my net and I caught all these fish and I've never done that in my entire life.

And in fact I fished all night and didn't catch a single fish. Now that's a setup. That's God showing Peter. Look I'm the one that knows all about everything and I'm the expert at everything. And if you'll let me I'll make you.

But you gotta let me. You've got to let me. And that means you've got to forsake all so you can take all in him. You've got to forsake all and then he'll make you. So Peter's thinking about this man. I'm a sinful man he was.

He stood in all the Lord. We sing I stand in all of you. He saw the Lord in a in a way he had never known him before. He saw him as the true master of all things. And he was overwhelmed. He was. He was astonished it says here.

He was amazed. Amazing. We use these words. But boy they don't carry the punch they once did and they sure took it in him. Because Peter was stunned in the presence of the Lord just fell at his feet and began to really that's an expression of worship began to truly worship him truly humble himself before the Lord.

And in saying I'm a sinful man he was saying look I'm nothing. You're everything. I'm weak. You're strong. I'm hopeless but you're almighty and my hope is in you Lord. And then Jesus put him at ease. Look I know you don't measure up.

I know you're unworthy. I know you're in incapable. But that's what I'm here for. That's what I tried to tell you. If you'll follow me I'll make you. You don't have to try to measure up to me. You don't have to try to compensate for all your past faults and failures.

Just follow me and I'll take care of the rest. Just embrace me as your all-in-all. I'll do it. I'm here for you. I'll take care of you. But you've got to forsake all and follow me. You've got to embrace me.

You've got to cleave to me now. This is their response. This is their response. First ten. And so James and John felt the same way and they were partners with Peter. And and Jesus said to Peter and the message is for us today.

Don't fear. Don't be afraid of me. Don't don't do like Adam and Eve did when they ran there in the garden when they saw their sinfulness their utter hopeless helplessness. Don't run and hide from me. Now is the time to fully embrace me.

Now you see even more the relevance and necessity of fully following me. I'm totally leaving all and taking me. So he's saying look here's what I say to you. Don't fear. From henceforth you will catch men.

I'm going to make you just like I promised I would. And now it's time for you to do what I asked you to do in the first place. And that is forsaking all. Take me. I call you to repent turn from all of your dependency upon yourself.

Forsaking All and Trusting God’s Provision

Now look as humans. All we've got's ourself. We have family and friends. Sometimes we have other natural resources and human provisions and finances and whatever. But it's all very limited now. Peter had a ship and he had nets and he had expertise and he had experience.

And he was the best of the best. But it wasn't good enough because only the master fisherman the master craftsman the master of it all knows best and can do it all. And he had to come to see that as do we all do not fear.

You will catch man. Your life will count. It will make a difference. It will accomplish my purpose. Catching men was his state of purpose for the for for for Peter and for Andrew. And he says you need not be concerned.

I will enable you to accomplish my purposes for your life whatever those are whatever these purposes for your life are I'll take care of all that. I'll ensure that you are effective in achieving and accomplishing your goals and objectives that I have set for you.

I'll make it happen. That's what I do. Yes I am the master. And as the master I will ensure the job gets done right. I'll do it in you and through you and by means of you. But it will be in the power of the Spirit of the Living God.

But I will make it happen. So he puts Peter at ease but he also puts him in his place in a loving way in a gentle way but a very definite way to let him see. I'm the master and you are the servant. I am Lord and you are the subject.

Now he knows and he understands. And so look now at Peter's further response. Verse 11. This is the clincher. And when they had brought their ships back to the shore back to land. What they do this time.

They what. Now they forsook how much. All. Not just the nets. Not just a momentary temporary pause. But they forsook all. And then what they do. Then they really followed him. They thought they followed him before some of us have thought we've been following the Lord.

You know ten years into my Christian walk through a time where I hit the wall and in a growing level of dissatisfaction frustration a failure and defeat I realized you know I thought I was trusting God with my life.

I thought I had given him total control of my life. I thought I had totally surrendered and and yet I realized now I really hadn't. I'd given him areas of my deficiency areas of my weakness areas of my problems but I hadn't totally surrendered.

Andrew Murray and the Responsibility of a Yielded Life

You know there's a man who was a missionary in Africa many years ago in South Africa named Andrew Murray and he was very instrumental and very active during the time of great awakening and during the era of the second great awakening that we have so-called in the world.

And during this great move of God's Spirit in which many people's lives were changed radically and many people were were saved met the Lord he came to this conclusion. He said this God is ready to assume the full responsibility for the life that is totally or wholly yielded to him.

God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life that is wholly or completely and totally yielded to him surrendered to him given over to him. God is ready to do that. That's what Jesus was saying to these disciples.

I'm ready. I'm here. It's now it's for you but you've got to surrender all you've got to totally give up. There's a there's a way of saying this that is an acrostic which is a term used for if you take a word and you take the first letter and you you make another word out of it and what we have illustrated here and I touched on it earlier is it requires faith on your part.

And the acrostic goes like this. You may have heard it but I just want to say it because it's one of the best I've heard. I'm not usually big on things like that but it's a great memory crutch and it's an excellent way of describing it the word faith.

So let's take forsaking all. I take him forsaking all I take him faith forsaking all now that's what these these fishermen finally came to realize it means to follow him. That's when they finally understood what repentance is all about.

It's I'm forsaking all. And what am I doing then. Not just forsaking all. That's the leaving. But what about the cleaving side. The cleaving side is I take him and there you go. That completes it. Now we've got the circuit is complete.

Now we forsake all on the one hand and we take him on the other hand. And the all has to do not just with the leaving of our faults and failures our sins our mistakes our problem. It has to do with the relieving of everything we thought near and dear everything we thought made us who we were everything we thought was important or gave us significance value or worth.

But the beauty of it is when we forsake it all and take him as we see from the disciples later he's still letting him go fishing from time to time and he's still letting him have a life as it were in terms of other interactions.

In fact he even cooks a meal for him. So it doesn't mean you suddenly become some some stoic person some stiff formal fuddy duddy you know it means you suddenly begin to come alive in the truest sense of the word.

But you've got to forsake all and take him and that's what the disciples did at that point. They forsook all and they follow Jesus Christ forsaking all I take him. And that's total surrender. A number of years ago I was invited to be a part of a ministry team that went to a place in Alabama where there was a great move of God's Spirit and it lasted for about six weeks.

Total Surrender Illustrated by Prison Ministry

I spent two weeks there myself and during that time the word got out throughout the surrounding area of what God was doing and people began to just come from all over all various churches and there would be 3 ,000 people or so gathered at the convention center every night every night for six weeks and it was on radio and some of the prisoners at the state prison in that city began to hear and they said we want to get in on this.

Well there happened to be a pastor that ministered in the prisons that he and I had gotten to be friends and he said these prisoners have a real hunger to know God they want to hear the Word of God. They are eager to get in on this revival this outpouring of God's Spirit this time of spiritual waking they want to be a part of it.

I said I'll go. So I began to go up there to the prisons with him. On one occasion we gathered in this room they but they gave us a certain prison area that they had and they could lock us in this one section and it was about the size of this room actually and there were some beds in there and some chairs and so we were in this room and the ones that were eager to learn and know they were in there and it was probably I don't know 15 but there was one man who that was his his cell area that's where he had to stay so he couldn't leave but he wasn't exactly excited about being there but that's alright because he needed to hear obviously me it definitely need to hear and so you know we're so I began to teach them and explain to them about what it means to give you a life of the Lord and and a number of them in there have professed to be Christian that they had accepted Christ either before or during their time in prison so they knew the Lord but they didn't really know the Lord.

They they knew some things about him but they didn't had not really totally surrendered. So as I got to that point I said no wait a minute let me see if I can help you understand what it means to forsake all and take him.

What does it mean to totally surrender. Well let's go back at some point before you got in prison you were arrested. The arresting officers the authorities they came to you as it were. Let's say that maybe they had to use force so I had to use a weapon.

They pulled out their gun they pointed it at you and they said give up hands up. And without hesitation you did what you gave up. And yes you put your hands up. Why. Because you knew the authority was here.

And when the authority spoke what'd you do. You acted isn't obedience. You didn't argue with him. I've heard some guys argue with the authorities before. It's not a good scene. I've seen what the authorities can and will do if you give them any kind of trouble and they have the right to because you are a criminal or at least you're suspected of a crime.

And I said so you had hands up and what are you doing in effect you're saying to them I surrender. Then they take you into custody. They probably put the handcuffs on you but now you're their prisoner.

You have no more authority no more say it's totally up to them now. And in a similar way we have to come to that place with the Lord where we realize we're powerless and he's Almighty. He's the authority here and not us.

And so what we do. We say hands up. I give up. I give up. I surrender. You see in the leaving there has to be a giving up of our dependency on all the other stuff. There has to be a giving up of looking at who I am and what I can do and begin to look at who he is and what he can do.

And so in that state of surrender we say Lord I give up. And so I said okay guys it's time to give up. And they began to just raise their hands and surrender to the Lord in total surrender in complete surrender and holy yielded their lives to him.

Lord I give all to you. And I had to come to that place because you see I had realized that while I had surrendered in certain areas my problem areas might my weaknesses my deficiencies. I had not fully surrendered all to him.

I had not yet given myself to him. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 4 and 5 it says there that that the Macedonians first gave themselves to the Lord they gave up totally and entrusted their life to him.

And our privilege is to do the same forsaking all I take him all to Jesus I surrender. I surrender all just bow your heads. I might have a prayer about that that I want us to pray about other needs here today and give some testimony.

Prayer for Complete Consecration

So father as that old song says all to you I surrender. I surrender all. So Lord we say to you now yes Lord as the disciples of old had to come to the place where they thought they had forsaken all but really had just forsaken their nets some things and just for a short period of time and gone a short distance with you Lord we want to go all the way with you Lord we want to go to the depths with you Lord God we want to go full speed ahead with you Lord Jesus Christ you are the master and so in our minds I we kneel before you now Lord and we say yes Lord I do follow you.

I follow you all the way totally and completely. I choose now in Jesus name to leave all and forsake all and follow you. I choose to claim to you Lord Jesus forsaking all I take you. I take you as my Lord and my life and my all.

I do totally surrender Lord Jesus and thank you that you take me and you will make me you will make me what you want me to be in your time and in your way. But you will do it and I trust you with that Lord and thank you for that.

And father I pray for a family and friends are in need of that very same thing that in Jesus name you will do a work in their lives and cause them as Peter and Andrew and the others did cause them Lord to see that there must be a total and complete surrender of forsaking all and taking of you and thank you Lord that you will do that and we trust you for their lives and their well-being as well in Jesus name.