Surrender

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again radio friends. How in the world are you? Doin’ all right today? Well this is your good friend, Bob Cook, and I’m so grateful for the privilege of sharing a few precious moments with you over the Word of God. We’re separated by a good many miles, you and I. But yet but together over the Word of God by way of radio, the miles drop away, and there we are you and I in Jesus, just enjoying the precious, inerrant, infallible, eternal Word of God. I like that, don’t you?

Well 1 Peter 2:7 says, “Unto you therefore which believe, He is precious.” Peter said, “Yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full and glory. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Ghost.” This word ‘believe’, as I explained to you the last time we got together, has to do with commitment. You turn your whole life over to the Lord Jesus. And the way to do that is not simply merely to talk about it, but to take the elements, the aspects, the factors, the areas of your life, and give them by faith, to the Lord Jesus. “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk” — that means live everyday — “in Him.”

How do you do any business with Jesus? In the very same way in which you came for salvation. “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling. Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bidst me come to thee. Oh Lamb of God, I come.” Simple faith that comes to God as you are, and commits the need whatever it is, to your blessed Lord. That’s the reason Paul can say, “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests made known unto God.” Everything that is, he said, everything, pray about everything.

Now, it’s obvious that God doesn’t always give us what we pray for, and that’s a good thing. Jesus pointed out that, “If ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that I ask Him. Not a stone instead of bread, not a, a snake instead of an eel, not a scorpion instead of a birds’ egg.” No, God gives the right things to us when we pray. But our job is to pray and to commit. His job is to answer and to sustain. And oh how wonderfully He takes care of those who leave the choice to Him. “Onto you therefore which believe commitment is the key.” And the way to make commitment real is, is the doorway of obedience.

Obedience, obeying God’s Word. See, the people who are, who are unsaved, it says, “They are disobedient.” Had you faced really the fact that God has this key for us, and that it is probably the only thing that will make the Lord Jesus real to you? The, the concept crops up everywhere. Verse Peter 1:22, I still get it now: “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Holy Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren.” See? Obedience

Commitment means whatever God is telling you, do it. It’s that simple and that important. Now that of course throws me a curve because there’s some things I don’t want really to think about, I don’t want to handle them, I don’t want to cope with then, I don’t want to be bothered with them. Human being that I am, I want my own way — does that ring a bell with you? There’s where the battle lies. What do you do about it when you don’t feel like praying, when you don’t feel like obeying God, when you want your own way, and you know you do?

Well now, start with the miracle of salvation. You didn’t do anything to be saved; God saved you by faith. And a little while ago I quoted Colossians 2:6 for us. “As ye receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk,” — means life everyday — “in him.” The work of dealing with God on any level that affects your life is done in the same way as you came for salvation. Now what do I do about the battlegrounds in my life that hinder commitment and obedience?

That’s, that’s what plagues me, that’s where, where I, I, I strike a snag as my father used to say. What do I do about that? Number 1, I have to level with God, about it, I have to tell him the truth. The word ‘confess’ in your Greek New Testament is a compound word, means ‘saying the same thing as’. Confess means agreeing with God. And I have just to agree with God, He already knows the score. “There is not a word in your tongue, but He knows it altogether” — Psalm 139 says. So, you start by facing the reality that God already knows the score and you better level with him, you better be sincere about things with Him.

I’ve had the experience of, of coming this far with God and saying, “God I don’t want to do this. But oh, if you’ll work in my heart and mind, I’ll obey you.” And, and I have to tell you, even as I prayed, my mind races back through some years of experience and, and I think of different times when even as I prayed a pray like that “Lord I don’t want to, I want this my own way” — even as I prayed and committed it to Him in faith, I felt a change in my whole attitude. It was as though someone had let the steam out of the pressure cooker. It was as though I saw things in a different light. There was one experience where I found my whole viewpoint of something changing, as I committed a matter to God. You see, our problems oftentimes lie in our, in our point of view and in our attitudes, isn’t that true?

Someone wrote to me quite sometime ago, now — I remember the letter however — complaining about, said her, her boss was absolutely impossible, criticized her every turn, and wouldn’t recognize her even when it was well done. And her job was just unbearable and, and so on. And would I pray that she could get another job. Well I wrote back and gave her the Scripture that said “Commit thy, thy work unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.” And I told her, I said, “Pray about your job and God will give you His guidance in the way feel about it and in what to do next.”Well after a while I got back this lovely letter saying, “I took your advice, I began to pray about my job.” And the writer went on to say, “I, my attitude has changed, my attitude even towards the boss has changed. And I’m in line for a promotion, I’ve just got a raise. Praise the Lord.” (Laughs) Well, there is where it is.

We do face the fact that our attitudes, and our desires, and our viewpoint, are flawed because they represent our own, our own biases, and oftentimes our own blindness to the truth of God. What do you do about it? You bring it to God just as it is. You level with Him about it, you turn it over Him by faith, and you let Him handle it. Philippians 2:13 says, “It is God that worketh in you both to will,” — that’s having to do with attitudes, the ‘want to’ — and to do.” That has the matter of implementing action.

“To will and to do of His good pleasure.” It is God that worketh in you to take care of your attitude, and to take care of your performance, that’s what that means. But it’s a matter of turning it over to Him by faith. When you do that, He works, oh how He works! Unto you therefore which believe, commit, turn things over.”

Now, your argument then is not with me, even the, the fact that maybe I don’t understand fully how deeply you have been hurt, or how bitter is your disappointment, or how grave is your situation, or how haunting is your fear, or how severe is your pain — physical pain, or whatever it may be. Of course I don’t know. There are thousands of people listening to this broadcast every day. And I can’t possible know. But I have to tell you that God knows. And I’m His boy, and I’m speaking by the guidance of His indwelling Holy Spirit, and telling you that whatever the situation is, if you will specifically level with God about it and give it to Him, He will handle it. And your attitude would change. You want to try that on for size. I wish you would.

God wants to work in the difficult areas of our lives. And so it is that the preciousness of Christ comes from commitment and obedience. Whatever God tells you to do today, do it. May be a very small thing, so insignificant perhaps — there’s a phone call or a, or a greeting card, or a letter, or repairing some situation where you either spoke hastily and out of turn — or whatever it may be. Just obey God, you’d be surprised.

Let me throw this in free. It’s not original with me, I got it from somebody where I read somewhere. But it works. Some of you live with people who are just well nigh impossible — a husband, or a wife, or relatives, or whatever it may be. Or maybe you’re working for a, a supervisor who is unpleasant, and demanding, and unappreciative, and the job is not very good, and so on. In other words you may be in touch with another human being whose conduct is hard to bear, and you feel critical about it.

Someone called me the other day and, and spoke of her husband who for many years had refused to take any spiritual leadership in the home, and the damage that this was doing was, and so on. Well the fact, the dreadful fact is they’re married perhaps to someone who has never quite grown up in the things of the Lord as well as in, in normal human relationships — I don’t know.

But what I’m trying to tell you is, where you’re faced with working with or living with someone who is difficult, you try this. Try regularly thinking of some good thing about that person instead of thinking critically all the time. And that attitude then comes true in what you say or don’t say. Instead of thinking critically all the time, try regularly to think of some good quality about that person. And make a habit of doing that. And then when you get a chance to compliment the person, do so. When you can do it sincerely, I mean not flattery. Flattery is soft soap, and soft soap is 90% lye. (Laugh) No, when you can do so sincerely, compliment the person. But make a habit of thinking something good about that, that difficult person. You will be surprised at the change in the relationship. Well as I said, I threw that in free, no charge.

Dear Heavenly Father, help us today to commit ourselves honestly to Thee, and to trust Thee blessed Lord, to work in Jesus name. Amen.

TIll I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!