A Message by Pastor Michael Palmer
Given to
July 12, 2009
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW JESUS?
Exodus 21:1-2, 5-6; Philippians
2:5-8
Do you
want to know Jesus? Do you who claim to
know Him . . . do you want to know him?
If we are going to really know Jesus and experience His life-changing
power, we must be willing to understand and enter into the very Cross of
Christ.
I ask you
today, do we really know Jesus in the very depth of our lives? Does every attitude, every motive, etc.
reflect the fact that we really know Jesus?
Does He
speak to us through His Spirit, His Word, and His people, or do we grieve the
Holy Spirit by not walking in the bright light of His holiness? I want the Lord to speak to us—to me. He has in His Word, yes. But I am talking about our daily interaction
with Him – living out His purpose for our lives. I want to know Jesus. I want Him to speak to me—to you. I want us to be able to hear Him speak to
us—each of us sense His pulling, His convicting, His prompting.
I am not
preaching an expositional message today.
But I am sharing something that has been on my heart, and I have found
difficulty in expressing it, putting it in words. Some of what I am sharing with you today came
from Nancy Leigh DeMoss’s book entitled Surrender.
First, I want to mention
the pattern of the Master is how to know the Master. Then I want to state some reasons why we fall
short of full surrender. And then I hope
to point us—all of us, including me—to begin a fresh journey to Cross-centered
living and really knowing the Lord Jesus on a personal, more intimate basis.
I.
JESUS HAS LEAD THE WAY TO THE CROSS – IF WE ARE TO REALLY KNOW HIM WE
MUST FOLLOW HIM –
Philippians 2:5-8; Mark 8:34-38
The only way we can know Jesus is to actively,
purposefully, intentionally follow Him to the Cross. We must be broken of self living – fleshly
thinking. And the only thing that can
break us of that is the blood of Jesus applied to every crevice of our
life. We need to come in brutal confession,
acknowledging our need for the Cross and the forgiveness offered. And then in taking up our cross, we
acknowledge we have no power to obey Him and we cry out to Him for mercy,
grace, and strength to obey. And then we
obey.
Jesus is the Lamb of God—He willingly offered Himself on
the Cross. In order for us to KNOW
Christ, we must become broken and humble like the Lamb. As long as there is any portion of our life
that is unyielded to Christ, we thwart the power of God in our life. Plus we miss the tender speaking of the Holy
Spirit to us, because we are estranged.
We are not growing in our knowing.
It is only as we are willing to be partakers with Christ in the same disposition
of the Lamb of God as He offered Himself on
II.
THERE IS A DANGER
IN SUBSTITUTING COMMITMENT FOR FULL SURRENDER
During his years
in exile, Josef [Tson] was taken aback by some of the traits of evangelical
Christianity in the United States that were foreign to what he had experienced
in
The first of
those changes took place at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the
nineteenth-century emphasis on pursuing holiness shifted to a desire for
uplifting, ecstatic experiences.
A second change
took place in the 1950s and 1960s, which Josef identifies as a “shift from the
call to full surrender, to the call to commitment.” He explains the difference this way: [Josef
Tson quote]
Christian surrender means that a person lifts his or her hands and says
to God, “Here I am; I surrender; You take over; I belong to You; You dispose of
me!”
But this is
A call to surrender, and even
more, to full surrender, simply doesn’t go well with such people. Therefore, the preachers, who wanted
“results,” and wanted them in big numbers, felt (and gave in to) the temptation
to soften the demand, to reduce the cost, to make the message more “palatable.” And they hit the word “commitment.” . . .
Jesus makes it clear in Luke 17
that however much you do for God, at the end of the day you say: “I am an
unworthy slave; I only did what is the duty of the slave to do!” But all that is gone now, by the replacement
of the word “slave” with the word “servant.”
Webster’s
dictionary bears out the difference in meaning between these two words. A servant is defined as “a person
employed to perform services . . . for another.” A slave, on the other hand, is a
“human being who is owned as property by and is absolutely subject to the will
of another.”
As Josef Tson points out, slavery is a
concept we resist in the West. We can
barely swallow the idea of a servant, but the word slave sticks in our
throat—as it should, if we were speaking of a coerced or involuntary slavery of
a person who is owned against his will by another. That is an abhorrent relationship between two
individuals, both of whom are created in the image of God. But it is absolutely appropriate that human
beings should chose to be the slaves of the Lord Jesus, whom they love and long
to serve for all their lives.
(from
pages 70-72 in Surrender by Nancy Leigh DeMoss)
III.
THERE IS A DANGER
IN LETTING OUR HUMAN FEARS HOLD US BACK FROM FULL SURRENDER
Our natural tendency is to hold on tightly,
to try to protect and preserve whatever we think we can’t live without. We are afraid that if we surrender everything
to God—our health, our material possessions, our family, our reputation, our
career plans, all our rights, our future—He might take us up on it! We have visions of God stripping us of the
things we most need or enjoy, or perhaps sending us out to serve Him in the
most inhospitable place on the planet.
Many of our fears about relinquishing total
control of our lives to God fall into four categories. If I surrender everything to Him, what about
. . .
Provision—Will I have what I need? What if I lose my job? What if my husband loses his job? Can we afford to have more children? How will we pay for their education? What if God asks us to give our savings to
the church or to a needy family? What if
God calls us into vocational ministry—how will we be supported? What if the economy goes under—what will happen
to our investments? What if my husband
dies—will I have enough to live on?
Pleasure—Will I be happy? If I fully surrender to God, will I be
miserable? Will I be able to do the
things I enjoy? What if He wants me to
give up my career . . . or sports . . . or my favorite hobby . . . or my best
friend . . . or the foods I really like?
Might God make me stay in this unhappy marriage? Will I be fulfilled if I obey Him?
Protection—Will I (and those I love) be
safe? What if my child is born with
a mental or physical disability? What if
someone abuses my children? What if I
have an accident and am maimed for life?
What if I get cancer? What if
someone breaks into our house? Might God
choose to take my mate or my children?
If my child goes to the mission field, will he be safe?
Personal relationships—Will my relational
needs be met? What if the Lord wants
me to be single all my life? . . . What if my mate never loves me? What if God doesn’t give us children? What if I lose my mate? How can I handle the rejection of my
parents? What if my best friend moves
away? What if people reject our family
because of our commitment to biblical standards?
(from
pages 106-107 in Surrender by Nancy Leigh DeMoss)
We overcome our fears with faith in God and the Promises of
His Word!
·
Provision –
see Matthew 6:25-34; Philippians 4:19
·
Pleasure –
see Psalms 16:11; 36:7-8
·
Protection
– see Psalm 91:2, 4-6
·
Personal Relationships – see Hebrews 13:5; 1 John 1:3,7; Psalm 73:25
IV.
THE ONLY WAY TO TRULY KNOW THE LORD GOD IS TO COME TO HIM AS HIS SLAVE
Illustration – Exodus
21:1-2, 5-6 (READ THIS AND EXPLAIN)
Put an awl through your ear for Jesus!
·
This
is the only way to know Jesus’ heart.
·
This
is the only way to know Jesus deeper and deeper as you progress through life.
·
This
is the only way to know the power of God over temptation.
·
This
is the only way for a church to truly make disciples and see changed lives.
·
This
is the mark of a true disciple.
Are we willing today to tell Jesus: “Master, I am your slave
– put an awl in my ear”?
I want to know the Lord.
Do you want to know Him with me?
The only way is to bow the knee in surrender to your Lord Jesus.