Absolute Surrender

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central Good Evening everyone. It is Wednesday, July the thirty first, twenty twenty four. It is currently eight forty nine pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. I guess the first thing I need to do is I probably need to apologize for the broadcast earlier today. It was not very good. And to even add to the fact that it wasn't very good, it was over one hour long.

0:47 So it's one thing when it's not very good, but it's fifteen minutes, it's one thing. If it's not very good and it's twenty minutes, it's something totally different. When it's not very good and it's over an hour. It just I don't know. I don't really know where I don't really know where I went wrong. Maybe I had too many ideas I was trying. I think I put all the ideas together. I can't really articulate exactly what went wrong, but I just feel like it did not go right. I just feel like it it didn't go right. But what I'm going to do is I am going to borrow from the last one and build upon it and hopefully maybe take something that wasn't great and try to turn it into something positive. That's what I'm going to try to do. But before we do that, a couple of things. A couple of things. First, my daughter sent me this little meme about I don't know. She's always sending me memes constantly, memes TikTok's YouTube, well usually tiktoks more than YouTube videos, okay, news stories, just all the time. She will send them to me in the morning, in the afternoon, late at night, midnight, one in the morning, two in the morning, three in the morning, four in the morning. She doesn't care. She will send me stuff.

2:04 So in some and most time most of the time, I'm appreciative. Sometimes I'm like, it's three in the morning, why are you contacting me about a meme? Okay or a TikTok video? But I digress. But she sent this to me. I find it hilarious. I know it's going to offend many of you, but I still find it hilarious. Here's the meme. American Christians whenever a three thousand year old ancient Grecian competition comprised of athletes from one hundred and eighty four countries practicing approximately ten thousand religions, has an opening ceremony that isn't specifically catered to them. And I took that personally, that's funny, American Christians. Whenever a three thousand year old, ancient Grecian competition comprise of athletes from one hundred and eighty four countries practicing approximately ten thousand religions, has an opening ceremony that isn't specifically catered to them, and what do American Christians do? We take it personally. We say we're being persecuted. We say it's an attack upon our faith, and we get offended, and we get angry, and we get mad, and we want to boycott something and someone it's it's it's a three thousand year old Grecian competition comprised of athletes from one hundred and eighty four countries practicing thousands of different religions.

3:35 But but bu buh buh buh wait wait wait wait wait, we we get upset because it's not catered to our specific likes and our specific faith. Sometimes I really do believe that Christians seem to think that the whole world, that the whole world should cater to their every want, their every need, They're every demand, their every their their conviction, their feelings. It should thing should just make the world better for them. And I hate when I almost have to speak of Christians as being separate from me, but I don't. That's a Christian world in which I do not understand. So I found that kind of funny. You probably found that offensive. But that's okay, that's okay, all right, But that's not what we're here to talk about. We're here to talk about something else that's going to be somewhat controversial and that Christians have been arguing about for well about two thousand years. You're ready, You're ready. Okay.

4:36 So earlier today I had right here in my hands the sort of the Lord newspaper, and the sort of the Lord Newspaper got me thinking really a lot about my my Christian journey, my spiritual journey, and how there have been well, very specific times in my Christian life. I think now I'm kind of inflicted of where I'm at now in my journey. I feel like I don't really know where I'm at currently in my spiritual journey. But there was a time when, as a young Christian, I just know that I knew that I wanted to be used by God. I wanted to do great things for God, and I understood the way to know that if I was being used by God and doing great things for God, that it would manifest itself in really visible ways by the number of people I was ministering to, or the size of the church I was pastoring, or the number of people listening to my teaching, or the number of people downloading my podcasts, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Even though I would tell you numbers is not the most important thing. Even though I would tell you numbers is not the way you judge things, there was still a part of that, And looking back, I kind of question if if a lot of me wanting to be used by God and do great things for God was more about me than it was about God.

5:49 And we discussed all of that. But as I was reading the sort of the Lord this issue from July the nineteenth, I was just really thinking about a lot of those questions, because it's they have an article right here about that. It's the sort of the Lord's ninetieth year. Ninety years they've been putting out this paper. The first one was September the twenty eighth, nineteen thirty four. And all of these years they've been putting out this paper. You could say that they've been used by God. They've done great things for God, and they have something. There's something tangible, there's something, a way to measure it. Ninety years of putting out this paper and all the testimonial testimonials about how amazing it has been. I think that that is a very at least it's convicting to me because I'm like, well, so what do I have to show for what if I accomplished that type of thing?

6:42 So I was just thinking about that. And also in this issue there was an article why God used D. L. Moody. Why God used D. L. Moody, And they have kind of the famous it's the famous quote or someone says to D. L. Moody the world is yet to see. And I'm paraphrasing this because they have the quote a little different than the way it's typically sighted, but it goes something along like this. This is a loose paraphrase that someone said to D. L. Moody, The world is yet to see what God can do with someone who is completely and holy His, who is completely surrendered to him, and D. L. Moody famously supposedly said, I will be that man. I want to be that man. I want the world to be able to see what God can do with someone who's fully and completely his And I want to be that man. And the argument always goes is D. L. Moody was that man. If we ever need to know what it looks like, if we ever need to know what God can do with a man who is completely surrendered to God, who fully is his, D L. Moody is that example. So it's a powerful story.

7:52 I've heard the story in Bible college, seminary, Bible institutes, church, and every single time I'm like, and I have said this, I want to be that man. I want to be like that. And what does it look like? What does that look like? How do you? How? How do we accomplish that? How do I become completely God? How do I become completely God's not become God? How do I become God's God? How do I fully surrender myself to God so that God fully has everything? I am trying to see that correctly. I know someone can take that out of context and that make me sound like a heretic. Not that I become God. How can I become God's in a sense of belonging to him, God's possession, fully surrendered to him. And remember this article had this statement about one of the reasons D. L. Moody, you know, was able to be used by God because he was fully surrendered. And remember it had this statement, if I can find it, the first thing that accounts for God's using D. L. Moody so mightily was that he was fully surrendered man. Every ounce of that two hundred and eighty body of his wholly belonged to God. That D. L.

9:07 Moody wholly belonged to God was wholly his. He belonged to God. He was God's possession, God owned every part of him was surrendered. Therefore, the world could see what God could do with a man who fully belonged to him. And so we did a little reading about what does it mean to be absolutely surrendered to God? What does it actually look like? What does it actually mean? Now the article went on to say, well, it doesn't mean he was perfect, but it means and they went on to basically say that dal Moody's will was God's will and that it was surrendered to him, and so basically you're like, well, then how is he? How is he not perfect? And it was just a little bit of the typical Christian double speak. So when that was over, I you know, the whole you know, the whole episode was really good. I was kind of disappointed in it, just like now I'm going to be disappointed at this one because I made a heretical statement, even though I wasn't trying to make a heretical statement. Okay, nobody's trying to be God, but we're trying to become, in a sense, God's possession. But then you can argue, are we already God's possession? All right, we can have that discussion. But the point is I stated it incorrectly. Hopefully I've now corrected it at a number of times. But the point is, what does it mean to be absolutely surrendered? Now? When the broadcast was over, I'm just going to be honest with you, I didn't really want to think about it.

10:32 I didn't really care. I was like, it was garbage, it was trash. Probably shouldn't even upload it. Let's just move on. But then I received an email. Let me see if I can give you the time of the email. What time was this email? I've got fifty thousand things open here, all right, it's a little bit of hyperbole, but not many, all right, not much. Let's see here and look here for what time the email was. I'm looking at two thirty pm and it's just the subject line as sermon challenge. And they sent me a link to a sermon called are you fully Surrendered to Christ?

11:21 And then the person wrote under it just starting work, work, work, work, work, work work, And I had to laugh because they decided to go look for a sermon on well being surrendered to Christ, our absolute surrender. And I thought, well, that's awesome, all right, I even though my hour of talking wasn't very good. They immediately used the sermon's two point oh app following the sermon's two point oh app challenge, and went and looked for sermons on being surrendered to Christ. And the first one they found, the way they describe it is it's just work, work, work, work. You gotta do this and this and this and this and this and this and this. Now it's weird because do you do it to become surrendered, Like you have to do something to be surrendered? Or do you do these things because you are surrendered? So then how do you become surrendered?

12:08 Because I have seen the same thing. What does it mean to be fully surrendered? Well, to become fully surrendered, you have to do this, this, and this. I'm like, well, wait a minute, am I doing it to be surrendered? Or do I do that because I'm surrendered? Well, you do it because you're surrendered. Well, then how do I become surrendered? Well, you do it to be surrendered, and then you do it because you are surrendered. Well, if I'm doing it before I'm surrendered to become surrendered, then then doing it is not a result of being surrendered, because I was doing it before I was surrendered. So what does it mean to be surrendered? How do I surrender myself? What do I have? And almost inevitably is like you got to do this, you got to do this, And it's like, so I'm doing it without being surrendered.

12:51 It sounds like if I'm doing all of that, I am surrendered. It's like this circular reasoning that almost makes you want to scream. But when I saw I'm like, you know what, maybe I should review that. I'm like, well, I don't necessarily want to do a sermon review. So then I was like, well, what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? You know what, It's Wednesday night. You know, I'm just gonna move on if people got a million things to listen to and then well, then I found out that tomorrow is going to be all messed up, so I probably won't be able to record. I don't know about Friday. Saturday is pretty much not going to happen. So I'm like, well, let me do something. So here we are. So what are we going to do? Well, here's what we're going to do. We're going to look at the history of the concept of absolute surrender. In Christianity, the concept of absolute surrender refers to the total submission and yielding of one's will to God. God's will becomes your will, your will disappears, your desire disappears. Ever, you become God's in the sense you belong to God. Right. I know I keep saying it that way we should probably not the most articulate way, but I'm saying it because I'm really trying to stress, like You're now God's possession. You belong to him everything about you. Your will is now his will,

14:23 your desire is his desire, your thoughts are his thoughts. You've become fully surrendered to Him. And this has a been a very much a teaching within Christianity now almost inevitably. This is where you get the Christian double speak surrender yourselves fully to God. I mean, you're not going to be perfect, You're still going to sin. Well, I don't know how I can still sin if I'm fully surrendered and it makes no sense to me, but okay, But it refers to the idea of total submission and yielding of one's will to God. Throughout Church history, this concept has been understood inmphasize in various ways by different Christian traditions and theologians. Are you ready to take a trip through church history and see how this has been understood.

15:13 Let's go to the Early Church fathers first to fourth century. The early Church fathers first to fourth century. How did they understand this idea of absolute surrender to God? Martyrdom and confession. The early Christians viewed martyrdom as the ultimate form of surrender, giving their lives for their faith. When they talked about absolute surrendering yourself to God, you were then giving yourself as a martyr. You were being martyred, you were being killed for your faith. That was absolute surrender.

15:54 Confession of faith was an unwavering commitment to Christ. Even under persecution, were seen as acts of absolute surrender. So when you were being persecuted or you're being tortured, if you continue to confess your faith in the light of that persecution and suffering that persecution, that was absolute surrender. And if you suffered and you continue to confess your faith, you did not recant, you did not give up in a sense, that was absolute surrender. And if you went all the way to the point of being martyred, then well that was a continuation of that absolute surrender. So in the early Church between the first and fourth century, basically absolute surrender was absolute surrender. You surrendered your physical well being, your safety, your health. You endured pain, suffering, torture, imprisonment, starvation, stoning, being killed, dying as your ultimate surrender. That's absolute surrender.

16:56 That's absolute surrender. Well, obviously, as once secution began to go away and Christianity becomes more legal and becomes to dominate. Well, then you're not going to talk of absolute surrender that way, right, I mean because that I can't talk about absolute surrender because hey, you, I would have to tell you to go find someplace so that you can be killed, because there would be no real like it's not it doesn't become practical anymore. There's there's no real application to that. So then things are going to begin to change. So you have right there in the between the first and fourth century, there's there's a period in the first and fourth century that absolute surrender means meant martyrdom and confessing your faith even in the midst of being persecuted and tortured for your faith. Right, but also as as you move through the first, second, and third centuries, you get later as you move forth into the fourth century, then it kind of started changing a little bit, and it started turning into the idea of monasticism. You had different figures who would who emerged in church history who emphasized withdraw from worldly life and complete devotion to prayer and ascetic practices. The desert father sought to live a life of purity and total dedication to God. So then the idea was okay, it's not about dying and confessing your faith where you're being tortured. Now, the idea is, hey, if you're going to absolutely surrender to God, then you

18:26 leave the world, You leave all You leave these worldly pursuits, you leave the idea of a wife and kids and a job, or you leave all of that and you go and place yourself inside a monastery where you can dedicate yourself to prayer. You can dedicate yourself to surrendering all of you to suffering hardship because you won't look for comfort. You fast, you pray, you read, you worship, that's your life. You truly surrender everything you have to God by joining a monastery. So that kind of gets us between the first and fourth century martyrdom and confession and then monasticism. Now this brings us to the Medievil Christianity between the fifth and fifteenth century. Between five the fifth and fifteenth century. Now, during the Medievil Christianity, all right, so we had monasticism. So we had martyrdom and confession and monasticism in the first to fourth century. Once we get to the fifth to fifteenth century, we have really a couple of a number of things that happened. We have the rise of mysticism. You had the rise of mysticism. Now, mystics spoke of a mystical union with God achieved through complete surrender and contemplation. The concept of divine love and being wholly consumed by God's presence was central. This becomes

19:59 a very mystical idea where you you push and you surrender until you reach some kind of mystical union with God. You you become wholly consumed by His divine love and you and and that just it's almost some mystical thing that's hard to define, but everything else in the world just disappears because you're now captured in this rapturous mystical union and divine love that that you're just it's almost an experiential emotional concept. This is mysticism. So you have, you had so if you think about it, so you had.

20:46 If you go to the early Church between the first and fourth century, you have the martyrdom and confession, very practical. It's pain suffering. Obviously you're you are surrendering. Then it kind of turns into something more practical. Will join a mind because now you're really giving yourself to the things of God. Well, then when you get to medieval Christianity, Well, okay, is there a way to achieve this without joining a monastery? Okay, Well, it's a mystical thing. It's a mystical things. It's being consumed in a sense by God's presence, by being consumed by his divine love. It becomes becomes something much harder to define meaning. Well, then there's a lot of vagueness.

21:30 There in a lot of different ways to describe it. But during this same period, between the fifth and fifteenth century, the monastic world was still there. So then this was called monastic orders. Monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience were seen as forms of absolute surrender. Saint Benedict's rule emphasized obedience and submission to the abbot as a way to surrender to God. So now the monastic life took on a greater form. There were no rules, there were things you could do, vowels you could take, and it became you could argue much more strict, much more difficult to really see if your surrender is real, not so much a mystical thing, very practical, very structured, very strict.

22:22 So you still had to kind of the different concepts happening. So that gets us from the early Church father first to fourth century, they have martyrdom and confession monasticism. Then we have Medieval Christianity fifth to the fifteenth century, which gives us mysticism and monastic orders. Now that gets us to the Reformation and post Reformation from the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Now, when you look at the Protestant Reformers, this idea of absolute surrender to God, it evolves again.

23:02 All right, it begins to change. And we know who's gonna be at the forefront of this. It's gonna be one Martin Luther. Martin Luther, Right, we're gonna We're gonna know a little bit the way he's going to take because he's got he's a monk, he's Catholic, some of the Catholic ideas he's gonna be pushing back on the Look look what he says. Martin Luther emphasized faith and trust in God's grace overworks, viewing surrender as trusting entirely in God's salvation. So what is absolute surrender? That's where you know, you surrender yourself to God's grace and you give up on works, you give up on doing this, and doing that, and doing this. If I absolutely surrender, then I surrender myself completely to God's grace. Hey, I can't do this. I have to rely on imputed righteousness.

24:03 I have to rely on the word. I surrender myself to an imputed righteousness. I surrender myself to the work of Christ. I can't do anything. I surrender completely. Absolute surrender is giving up on works, giving up on human effort, giving up on my own, giving up my self righteousness, and throwing myself completely upon the grace of God. That is true absolute surrender. More in the luther perspective, Now Luther's perspective, let's just be honest, it doesn't. It loses. It loses ultimately within Christendom, the idea of absolute surrender is lost because just think about that. Luther emphasized that in the ninetieth year of the Sort of the Lord newspaper, which obviously the Sort of the Lord is not Catholic.

24:53 It comes now they would say there, they would probably try to claim some connection with the Anabaptist and try we won't get into how they would try to classify themselves, but clearly not on the Catholic side. You think, and they would say that they believe in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone. But how did they promote absolute surrender? Absolute surrender was nothing about throwing yourself upon God's grace. Absolute surrender was the idea of basically surrendering every part of yourself to God so that you serve him completely. It's all about what you do, not what about what Christ did, but what you do, literally, demonstrating that Luther's concept lost. Luther's concept was rejected by the majority of Christians, and it's rejected even to this day.

25:42 Even though they tell you they believe in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, when it comes to absolute surrender, they don't understand it the way Luther did. You want absolute surrender, then absolutely surrender yourself to God's grace and to imputed righteousness, not to anything you can do. I know that's not like, well, wait a minute, then, how do we have how do we There's nothing practical I can do about that. I can't. I can't, I can't create a you know, seventeen points that you need to put into practice and give you applicable No, that takes away everything that we do in Christianity, where it's do this, do this, don't do this, do this, and don't do this now. John Calvin, he spoke of predestination and the sovereignty of God, with absolute surrender seen and acknowledging God's supreme control over life. So from Calvin's perspective, okay, how he saw it is, if you truly want absolute surrender, then you absolutely surrender to God's sovereign control over your life.

26:44 You surrender that God is the one who's working all things out according to his eternal decrees, and all things are happening because of his eternal decrease, and he's working it out through his divine providence, and you just kind of surrender yourself to that a little still, that's different from Luther. Luther it was about surrendering yourself to God's grace for salvation and trusting in grace, not in works. Now. The Anabaptist, now this is all happening. Between the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the Anabaptist emphasized discipleship and a radical following of Christ, including nonviolence and separation from the world.

27:26 Absolute surrender was expressed through communal living and commitment to Jesus teaching. So the Anabaptist now it turns into actions what you do. And please note they have that separation from the world concept. This is kind of the monastic idea, but now taking on a different form. Now this is where you don't go join a monastery. You're living in the world, but separate yourself from the world. But please note the Anabaptist also had a non violent pacifist kind of idea as well. They didn't always follow that we can talk about what happened in Germany, but we won't go there, all right, So and then you had communal living, so in a sense you kind of created your own form of a monastery. So that concept never completely goes away.

28:10 You know why the monastic kind of monastery concept never goes away because if you it's one thing to say I'm absolutely surrendered to God. Well, you're sitting in the pew, and then you get up and you will get in your car that you're making, you know, hundreds of dollars a month car payment on, and you're paying insurance on, and go to a house where you're paying a mortgage on, and then you go to your job, and then you do this, and you do entertainment, you have hobbies, you go on family vacations, and you do this, and you do that, you do this, and you do this, and you do that, and you get together and you have you play some sports, and you do this for physical fitness. And you're like, but I'm completely surrendered to God. And some people are like, hey, it sounds like you just live life like everyone else. So you got to do something drastic to be surrendered to God. So that's why it always turns into do this and do this, and do this and do this, and ultimately it leads to, well, you got to just drop out of all of that and surrender yourself to God and just make your life about serving God. Now we get so. So we've gone through the Early Church Fathers first to fourth century. We've looked at the Medieval Christianity fifth to fifteenth century. We've looked at the Reformation and Post Reformation sixteenth to seventeenth century that was the Protestant reformers of the Anabaptist Now we move to the seventeenth and eighteenth century Puritanism and Pietism.

29:31 Puritism and Pietism. Now the Puritans focused on personal holiness and a moral rigor as forms of surrender to God's will. So once again, it's what you do. What you do if you truly to surrender to God means you've got to do this and this and this. But then the argument would be, you do this because you surrender to God. So now it becomes really kind of more convoluted. This emphasized self examination, repentance, and living according to scripture. Obey scripture if you want to truly surrender to God, obey everything in the Word, which then goes back to see Luther's ideas at this point are already abandoned. Luther is already lost. Like Luther from a human perspective, was an abysmal failure because his concepts are already gone. This is not focusing, This is not a proper distinction between law and gospel. Law and gospel is already destroyed by this point, because now it's works works, works, works, and the idea that you can obey all the scriptures, which then destroys the meaning of law. It's just a mess. At this point.

30:33 The Pietists stressed a heartfelt, experiential faith and personal relationship with God. Surrender was seen in a life of devotion, prayer, and active love towards others. So again you see it's doing doing again. Which comes first? Do you do in order to surrender or do you do because you've surrendered? And if if you do it because you've surrendered, then how do you get to the surrender part? Do you get to the surrender part by doing? Do you get to the surrender part by just saying you surrender? Well everyone knows you can't just say I surrender and you're surrendered. Then you have to say I surrender and you really mean it. Typically you have to do things in order to surrender. Oh, then it becomes all convoluted. So there's the seventeenth and eighteenth century Puritanism and Pietism. Now we come to the modern evangelical and holiness movements of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Modern evangelicalism and the holiness movement in the nineteenth to twentieth century. The holiness movement, figures like John Wesley and others spoke of entire sanctification are Christian perfection, where believers fully surrender to the Holy Spirit.

31:44 They emphasize the need for a deeper hang on. They emphasized a second work of grace that purifies and empowers believers for holy living. Now this idea of the Holiness movement or entire sanctification became the idea that looks, you can be a Christian, but you need to reach this entire sanctification because once you do, you basically can become perfect. You can become perfect because you can be entirely sanctified, You can be completely surrendered to the Holy Spirit. And now you will have you will have power to live according to the law. Again, it's all about doing see Luther's idea. Luther's idea lasted for about five seconds, and for the most part, it was rejected by most of Christianity.

32:29 Why was it rejected by most of Christianity Because Christianity is a law based religion. It is not a gospel based religion. Anyone who says it's a gospel based religion has never studied church history. Over and over and over. We talk a big game about gospel, gospel, gospel, and everything we do is law, law, law, law, works, works, works, works, works, works, works, works. We are a works based religion and I'm so sick and tired of people saying no other religions are works based, not Christianity. No, the difference with Christianity. As we lie, we sell you that Christianity is by grace alone, to faith alone, because of Christ alone, and then five seconds later we throw that away and we're like, now, slap you in the face and say, wake up, boy, it's time to work. Work, work, work, work, work, work, work, and if you don't work enough, you're not even saved.

33:22 The Holiness movement took at this idea that hey, all you got to do is get this entire symclification. If you'll completely surrender, then boom, you can get to perfection. It's it's just ridiculous. Then you had the Keswick movement, which promoted the victorious Christian life through complete surrender to Christ emphasizes the need for a deeper spiritual life and reliance on the Holy Spirit. Basically the same idea. If you just if you'll just surrender and rely on the Holy Spirit, tondun du dah, you get power and now you can do it. You can obey the law, you can say notice it, you can do it. And again, all of these, all all of these movements come along promising that you can do it, you can do it, and they all make all the claims, and then inevitably it just proves that over and over and over, No, you can't. You're still going to sin. Nobody's going to be perfect. You're going to sin because nobody can keep the law. You can't keep it before salvation, you cannot keep it after salvation. Salvation is the coming to the realization that you can never keep the law, but Christ did.

34:24 And then surrendering yourself to the finished work of Christ and surrendering yourself to His righteousness that's imputed to your account by faith alone. That's true absolute surrender. So then we go to the twenty first century, which is the contemporary understandings. The contemporary understandings really now this kind of comes into these parts. Charismatic and Pentecostal movements stress the importance of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and living a spirit led life. Absolute surrender involves yielding to the guidance and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now, the first time I met well, I met Charismatics or Pentecostals prior to my conversion, right before I became a Christian, and I've talked about it before. These were girls who I went to school with they got picked on all the time.

35:11 There were Pentecostal that had to wear skirts, you know, way down below their knee. They didn't wear any makeup, their hair was long, and then would get picked on. So typically I would try to stand up for them, not because I cared about their religion, just because anyone who wanted to do something different I had their back. Dress any way you want, do what you want, don't listen to anybody else, don't follow anybody else. Be unique, right, I love that, So I defended them. Now, once I became a Christian, these Pentecostal girls would constantly challenge me that, hey, you need the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And see, you need to be baptized in the name of Jesus, because being baptized in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, it's like a blank check. It's not signed, but you need it signed by Jesus. And what you need to do is you need the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And you'll know you've received it by speaking in tongues. And if you do this, then you'll get power. You'll get power. You'll get power, and then you can be all perfect. Well, you know, we'll come to find out those Pentecostal girls, if they had power, they were engaged in the same level of fornication as the atheist girls. So the speaking in tongues did not give them any extra power, but they claimed it all right, because well that's the way, that's the way it always works.

36:27 Christianity talks a big game, but when you finally look inside, we're never any better than anybody else. Okay, So there's the charismatic Pentecostal movement. You know how I feel about that. I reject the charismatic movement. I reject the Pentecostal movement utter. I think it's uttered trash. I think it's uttered garbage. I think it's a cancer upon Christianity. And anyone who buys into their nonsense can literally you are denying actual reality in front of you, right, So then you have spiritual formation. That's the second part of the contemporary understanding. Emphasize this practice like prayer, fasting, meditation, and means of surrending to God's transformative work, influenced by both ancient monastic practices and modern psychological insights. So spiritual formation basically borrows from the monastic world kind of mixes it with a little psychology, and then you bring back some of the rituals, some of the you know, some of those concepts, maybe contemplative prayer, the liturgy of the hours, you know, liturgy, some of this, and then well, you try to do these things so that you can fully surrender to God.

37:35 So the understanding of absolute surrender and Christianity has evolved and has taken various forms throughout Church history, from martyrdom and monastic withdrawal to mystical union, from Reformation trust in God's sovereignty to the puritan moral rigor, from the holiness of entire scification to the experiential depth of contemporary spiritual formation. The essence remains remains a complete yielding to God's will and purposes. Every tradition brings a unique perspective, reflecting the diverse ways Christians have sought to live out their faith and total devotion to God. Now what drove me crazy about that summary is the summary completely left out what Luther's perspective. In that summary, Luther is completely ignored. Even when it mentions the Reformation, it mentions Calvin's view, it completely ignores Luther. If you want to know absolute surrender, ladies and gentlemen. Absolute surrender is where you surrender everything you are trusting in to God's grace. You surrender your righteousness, your self righteousness, your works, your efforts. You say none of that. I come to Christ. I surrender myself to His work, his righteousness, and Him alone. That is absolute surrender.

39:05 All of this other stuff is ridiculous. It's made up, it's fictional, and I think it's all and I'm gonna be so. I'm gonna be even more bold. It's harmful, and it's psychologically damaging and scarring, and I bought into it a good portion of my Christian life. Oh, I'm gonna absolutely I'm gonna absolutely surrender. See, I want to be like D. L. Moody. I'm gonna absolutely surrender. And whenever they tell the stories of the men who supposedly absolutely surrender to God, we always basically make them sound like they were sinless, just like this article about D. L. Moody does. So it creates this idea that, see, if I can absolutely surrender to God, I'll basically be sinless, I'll basically be perfect. You have to start pretending, you have to start denying, you have to start acting like something you're not, and you give all these people these expectations, and people who really care, and people who can't just pretend that they're too honest with themselves, too honest about their internal struggles. They start cracking, They break under the pressure.

40:05 They start losing that you could argue, they begin to deconstruct. They you may even begin to lose their faith because they start questioning if any of this is real or if any of this works, because everyone else is off pretending. Those who can say, wait a minute, why are we pretending. Let's be honest with ourselves. And then people look at them like, well, you're honest with yourself because obviously you're not safe, because if you're really saved, you would be like the rest of us, and like the rest of you are lying hypocrites who just won't admit the sin that is inside of you. Absolute surrender is surrendering to God's grace for salvation. I don't see all of these other concepts I think are contrary to reality. They're impossible because if you have to me a correct understanding of law and gospel, all of these require. Absolute surrender is basically obedience to the law. We cannot do that. Therefore, we're never going to be absolutely surrendered, because we're always going to be in violation of God's law in some way shape form, perpetually. Now throughout church history, there have been some books written that really have driven this concept of absolute surrender and have so basically are responsible for putting some of these ideas into the minds, into the world, into the culture of Christianity. We obviously know the most famous book, or I think one of the most famous books,

41:35 Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray, which was written in eighteen ninety seven. This classic devotional book by Andrew Murray is perhaps the most well known and influential work on the topic. Murray was a South African pastor and writer, and emphasized the importance of yielding fully to God and allowing the Holy Spirit to work through the believer. Surrender is the key to a victorious Christian life, the role of the Holy Spirit, practical steps to achieving wildly read in evangelical and holiness circles. Murray's book has inspired countless Christians to seek a deeper, more surrendered walk with God. It remains a staple and Christian devotional literature. Yeah it is the book. I remember, we've looked at it before in different podcast episodes and it's like, do this and do this. Wait a minute, Am I doing it to surrender? Or am I doing it because I surrender. It's circular reasoning at its worst. And the idea is like, you're living your Christian life, but you know what, you really can't have victory, You really can't have power until you surrender. But if you surrender, dun, dun da dun, now you become super Christian.

42:38 Now you can do it. Now, you can do everything now. Charles Stanley was a big promoter of Andrew Murray's Absolute Surrender and he always his testimony you tell the story that he was, I think a pastor and his just life, his spiritual life was just empty and weak, and it was problems and struggle and he didn't know what was wrong. And finally he discovered the concept absolute surrender, and then his ministry turned around, and you know he now he becomes this famous world known pastor all because he absolutely surrendered. He absolutely well, his marriage fell apart and he got a divorce, but he absolutely surrendered. The next book is Absolute Surrender by im Bounds. This was written in the nineteenth century. Now. Ian Bound's known primarily for his writings on prayer, also addressed the theme of absolute surrender in his works, his tea. His teaching. His teaching focus on the power of prayer and the necessity of a surrendered life to effective prayer. The link between surrender and powerful prayer is important of holiness dependence on the Holy Spirit.

43:50 Bounds writing also had a significant influence on pastors, evangelists, and prayer warriors, encouraging the lead lives of total dedication to God. And I've got Ian Bound's book, The Complete Work, and it's like, if you completely surrender, if you completely surrender, you know, basically you'll be praying about fifteen hours a day. Okay, So well yeah, those so Absolute Surrender by Ian Bounds, you can look for that one. I kind of know the concepts more in his work The Complete Works on Prayer, because that concept shows up there as well. But Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray is the most famous work. So you may if you read it, you'll hear if you read the Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray. Trust me, when you go listen to sermons, you'll be like, well that Andrew Murray's concepts are alive and well, and sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon, and it's gonna be do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this. It's gonna be all the things you're supposed to do, all right? Then? Absolute surrender by Samuel Logan Bringley. Because how you say his name or Bringle b r E n g l e. So Absolute surrender by Samuel L. Samuel, I'm sorry, let me read this again. Absolute surrender. I really can speak correctly tonight.

45:13 I know I've probably messed up so much, all right, but I think I feel like I've messed up more words than I probably have. But okay. Absolute surrender by Samuel Logan Bringle b r E n g l E, b r E n g l e. Absolute Surrender by Samuel Logan b r E n g l E earliest twentieth century. And let me just say clearly, I don't know anything about this book, nothing about number three zero. I know number one and two. I don't have a clue about number three. Samuel Logan Bringle, I guess is how you say his name? B r E n g l E was a commissioner in the Salvation Army. He wrote extensively on holiness and the deeper Christian life. His works often explored the concepts of absolute surrender as essential for sanctification. If you want to be sanctified, if you want, you have to absolutely surrender. Well, then is it? Does sanctification bring us to absolutely surrenders? Does absolute surrender bring us to sanctification? Am I doing the sanctification? Oh? It gets all convoluted and confusing, all right. The key things holiness sanctification are the experience of the Holy spirits fullness.

46:26 His works have been particularly influential within the Salvation Army and the broader holiness movement, emphasizing a life wholly dedicated to God. I have never heard of that book. I have never been very I don't know a lot about the Salvation Army, never really had many dealings with it. So there you go. Then the next book is The Cavalry Road by Roy Hessen or Hessian. I don't know how you would say his last name, H. S. S io N. The Calvary Road by Roy H. E. S. S io N. This is from eighteen fifty, although not titled Absolute Surrender. Roy Hessians The Calvary Road is often associated with the theme due to its focus on total surrender to Christ. He was a British evangelist and it presents a path to revival through brokenness and humility. The key themes are brokenness, humility, continuous repentance, and the power of the Cross. The Calvary Road has been influential in revival movements, encouraging believers to embrace a life of brokenness and total surrender to Christ. All right, that's roy h.

47:31 E Ssion is called the Calvary Road. Written in nineteen fifty another one that takes this idea. This is going more with the idea of brokenness, humility and repentance as some way of absolute surrender. Now we come to number five, My All for Him, My All for Him, nineteen sixty seven. And I am never going to get this last name right, but here we go. Basilia Schlink, Basilia Schlink, b A s I l e A Basilia. That's how I'm going to say it. B A s I l e A Schlink s c h l I n K Basilia Schlink.

48:21 I know it's a name, so it's probably pronounced completely different. And I apologize. Nineteen sixty seven. I don't know anything about this book. I know this though Basilia Schlink was a Lutheran nun and founder of the evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, wrote about living a life of complete surrender to Jesus. Her book, My All for Him embodies to principles of absolute surrender, the key themes love and devotion to Jesus, repentance, and community community living. The writings have been particularly impactful within Lutheran and Evangelical communities, promoting a life of deeper commitment to Christ. I was a Lutheran, never heard of this book in any way, shape or form. Never heard of it, have no understanding of it, and I can't give you any thing about it but My All for Him.

49:11 So those are different books from different traditions, different theological streams. Of course, I don't think her book really captures the I mean, it's nineteen sixty seven. It doesn't give you the historical Lutheran view. These books, though different in stall and emphasizes a emphasis and different emphasis, share a common theme of calling believers to a deeper level of commitment and surrender to God. Andrew Murray's Absolute Surrender remains the most widely recognized and influential book among them, but each author has contributed a uniquely to the understanding and practice of absolute surrender in the Christian life. So here's my conclusion.

49:55 When people talk about absolutely surrendering yourself Christ, that means surrendering, surrendering yourself completely to God's grace for salvation, surrendering yourself to the finished work of Christ, giving up your work, giving up your righteousness, surrendering it to Christ, and trusting fully in His imputed righteousness, and not trusting in anything you do, can do, will do, should do, or shouldn't do, because nothing else makes any sense to me, even though I spent most of my Christian life with Oh, if I surrender myself, if I can surrender myself, then God will use me and God will do great things. And if I do, but I gotta do this, and I gotta do this, okay. And while other people were talking about supposedly being absolutely surrendered, you can look at their lives and go, how can you convince yourself that you're practicing it when you're not? Because I know I'm not.

50:54 You're not well. And the more you really are honest with yourself, you're like woo, no no one, and no. Christ absolutely surrendered himself to the Father. He surrendered himself not to his will, but to the Father's will in the incarnational relationship. But for us, I don't know. So I reject almost how anyone teaches on the subject. I reject all of it. Now you can, if you would like, you can get on the sermon's two point oh app and look up for sermons on absolute surrender. And I think they're all going to take very much a works based approach to it. I've given you a completely opposite one.

51:43 But those are books that you may want to look up and read, just because if the more you read these books and know about these things, the more you can identify them when they show up in sermons at your church. Because trust me, the concept of absolute surrender up in your church at some point, probably every year, probably multiple times a year, if not continually, even though it may be not clearly articulated, but the concept is there, and it's almost always a pro ninety nine percent of the time, it's going to be works, works, works, more works and works and works and works and works and works and works. There. You have it, all right, I'm going to stop that was fifty two minutes, fifty almost fifty three minutes. I feel like I still have not been able to pull all of my thoughts together perfectly.

52:38 Hopefully hopefully I've said Hopefully I've said something correct. I hope so, I hope so. But we'll see. I'm going to stop right there. We'll talk more, because there's a lot of concepts here that's really bothering me. Maybe in the out maybe the first hour of the earlier broadcast today, you kind of caught on to just some of my struggles with how and even this bothers me because I was so wrongly taught and all this pressure was placed upon me and live a life of failure, of filling a life of failure, of shame, of discouragement, of disappointment, instead of just finding peace in the finished work of Jesus Christ. I'm also bothered by how we are told about living our life for God so we can be used by God. And then that concept of being used by God almost articulated as judged by very fleshly means and judging success, even though we say we don't judge things by those fleshly means, and we sometimes condemn big churches saying, well, the only reason they're big is because these fleshly means. At the same time, we look down on small works. If they're if the church is getting smaller and smaller and smaller, and fewer people are listening and fewer people are giving, then we're like, well, God's obviously done with that ministry. God is not in that ministry.

54:09 The Holy Spirit's not moving. That ministry is dead. They just need to give up and go away. And it's like, well, how do we wait? And then we looked earlier in the first hour, Well, wait a minute. You know it doesn't you don't always judge it that way. But then what does that mean? I don't I don't really know. I just know that everything I've ever been taught about absolute surrender has been absolutely wrong. You can tell me what you think news. I f it Yahoo dot com. News, I f a Yahoo dot com. That's news. I f Yahoo dot com. Thanks for listening, everyone, Have a great evening. God bless