I’m Afraid of Surrendering to Christ — What Can I Do?
00:00:00.000 | Easter weekend has passed.
00:00:06.000 | It was a great weekend to celebrate Christ, but Monday returns again, along with all of
00:00:11.460 | its spiritual challenges and sin struggles and roadblocks to our faith and discipleship.
00:00:17.800 | And that includes the internal turmoil faced by a podcast listener named Billy.
00:00:22.320 | "Hello, Pastor John.
00:00:23.400 | I live in Tucson, Arizona.
00:00:25.040 | I'm a relatively new convert to Christianity.
00:00:28.200 | I'm going through a season where I think I'm hardening my heart to Christ.
00:00:32.540 | I feel constantly guilty of sins such as refusing to evangelize others, procrastinating, irreverence,
00:00:39.440 | arrogance, and idolatry.
00:00:42.160 | I think I desperately want to repent, but also dread surrender of saying, 'Yes, Lord,
00:00:48.280 | I'll do whatever it takes.'
00:00:50.280 | This is because I fear God will make me do something I really don't want to do.
00:00:55.080 | What's wrong with my spiritual condition?
00:00:58.000 | Is there a way that I can finally submit to Christ?
00:01:00.720 | Is there some spiritual obstacle I'm overlooking, or am I just being foolish?
00:01:05.800 | Should I simply man up and do the hard stuff?"
00:01:08.600 | Pastor John, what would you say to Billy?
00:01:10.760 | Billy, there are different biblical ways to describe your spiritual condition, and I'm
00:01:18.120 | only going to mention one of them.
00:01:19.920 | It's serious, but because of the nature of it, there is a way out.
00:01:25.420 | So I'll describe the condition, because you asked me to, and then the way out.
00:01:31.000 | I'm basing my diagnosis, since I don't know you and all I have to go on is those words
00:01:36.480 | that Tony just read.
00:01:38.240 | I'm basing my diagnosis of your condition on these two sentences that you gave us.
00:01:44.840 | You said, "I dread surrender of saying, 'Yes, Lord, I'll do whatever it takes.'
00:01:51.200 | This is because I fear God will make me do something I really don't want to do.
00:01:58.960 | What's wrong with my spiritual condition?"
00:02:01.240 | What's wrong, Billy, is that you are deceived about God and what it will be like to experience
00:02:08.720 | surrender and a life of total consecration to Christ, what it will be like to say and
00:02:16.120 | mean, "I am yours, and I want to be as free as I can be from sin and as fruitful as I
00:02:25.960 | can be in glorifying you.
00:02:29.080 | So do whatever it takes, even if it takes my life."
00:02:34.840 | You are afraid that saying that will have consequences you don't want.
00:02:42.240 | Your dread of this is based on a deception.
00:02:45.880 | You're not unique in this.
00:02:47.000 | I'm not pointing my finger at you, but about millions of others.
00:02:52.920 | This is how the human heart and the devil team up to keep us from the greatest possible
00:03:01.000 | holiness, the greatest possible glorification of Christ, and the greatest possible joy.
00:03:09.720 | Jeremiah 17 9, "The heart, your heart, is deceitful above all things, and desperately
00:03:17.920 | sick who can understand it."
00:03:19.720 | Now, the heart, when he says the heart is deceitful, he's reminding us that the heart
00:03:25.320 | is the seat of sin, and sin has power only by deception.
00:03:32.520 | That's the only way sin can work.
00:03:35.400 | So Hebrews 3 13 says, "Exhort one another every day that none of you may be hardened,"
00:03:41.920 | you mentioned hardness, Billy, "that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness
00:03:49.480 | of sin."
00:03:50.480 | That's how it works.
00:03:52.600 | Or another way to say it would be that our sinful desires deceive us.
00:03:58.600 | So Paul says in Ephesians 4 22, "Put off your old self, which is corrupt through deceitful
00:04:05.480 | desires."
00:04:06.480 | You've got desires, desires to avoid something and desires to embrace something, and they're
00:04:11.600 | deceiving you.
00:04:13.400 | Then add to that deception that the world outside us also deceives.
00:04:19.640 | Matthew 13 22 warns against the deceitfulness of riches, which choke the word and it proves
00:04:29.240 | unfruitful.
00:04:32.120 | And then there are people, not just riches, but people outside of us.
00:04:36.600 | Romans 16 18, "Such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but by their own appetites and
00:04:42.920 | by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive."
00:04:50.440 | And then add to all that power of deception, the devil, which Revelation 12 9 describes
00:04:57.200 | like this, "He is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world."
00:05:04.640 | That's what you're up against, Billy.
00:05:06.940 | And judging from your fear of surrender, I would say these powers of deception are doing
00:05:15.620 | battle with your new self in Christ, and they are lying to you, deceiving you, and you have
00:05:24.100 | given some ground to them that you ought to take back.
00:05:29.040 | And I'm trying to help you take it back by the power of God's Word and the Spirit.
00:05:33.420 | So what is the deception that you are in the grip of?
00:05:39.000 | And what's the truth, which is the opposite of the deception?
00:05:43.780 | You will know the truth, Jesus says, and the truth will set you free, John 8 32.
00:05:49.840 | And the context of that verse is sin sets you free from the bondage of sin and deception.
00:05:56.100 | You'll know the truth, free from the enslaving deceptions of untruth.
00:06:02.500 | And the deception is this, Billy, you test yourself now to see if this is true.
00:06:07.500 | I'm saying you are deceived like this.
00:06:09.940 | You are believing in your heart that if you say sincerely, "Yes, Lord, I'll do whatever
00:06:17.320 | it takes," God will make you do something you really don't want to do.
00:06:25.140 | Now here's the truth.
00:06:27.500 | Truth is that if you say sincerely, "Yes, Lord, I'll do whatever it takes, and you can
00:06:36.460 | do whatever it takes to make me as holy and God-glorifying and fruitful as I can be,"
00:06:43.620 | God will give you a heart that wants to do what he calls you to do.
00:06:50.660 | That's the truth.
00:06:51.900 | Right now in your deception, you can't see and feel that.
00:06:56.660 | All you can see and feel is that God's call will be against some of your present desires.
00:07:03.740 | That's what it means to be deceived.
00:07:06.300 | Most people are locked up in this bondage.
00:07:09.580 | These desires are what Paul calls deceitful desires, Ephesians 4 22.
00:07:14.860 | They are lying to you.
00:07:17.160 | They are telling you that surrender will only mean misery, miserable denial of these desires.
00:07:26.640 | And that's the lie that you are believing in your heart.
00:07:30.100 | Now here's the truth.
00:07:31.700 | The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered
00:07:36.940 | up.
00:07:37.940 | And then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
00:07:45.780 | Now while you are deceived, Billy, selling all that you have can only look idiotic, can
00:07:53.620 | only look like doing what you don't want to do.
00:07:55.860 | That's what you said.
00:07:56.860 | It's going to ask me to do something I don't want to do.
00:07:58.940 | That's the only way it can look while you're deceived.
00:08:02.020 | But Jesus said that when the kingly rule, the kingdom of Christ comes into your life
00:08:09.860 | with power, you see something so stunning, so beautiful, so valuable that selling everything
00:08:16.740 | becomes joyful.
00:08:19.860 | On the other side, the front side of deception, it looks burdensome, horrible.
00:08:25.420 | No way am I going to sell everything for this junk piece of treasure called Jesus.
00:08:29.700 | No way.
00:08:30.700 | And then bang, the kingdom comes in, sets you free.
00:08:34.260 | Let me get rid of it.
00:08:35.660 | The happiest thing in the world would be to have this treasure.
00:08:39.140 | It's no sacrifice to sell everything to have this treasure.
00:08:42.300 | The truth of the beauty and the value of the kingdom has set you free from the deception
00:08:48.980 | that selling all is miserable.
00:08:51.940 | So here's the issue, Billy.
00:08:53.640 | There is truth and there is a lie.
00:08:56.820 | There is deception and there's liberation.
00:08:59.660 | The lie, the deception, is that if you give yourself up wholly to God for him to do whatever
00:09:07.180 | he pleases to make you holy, God-glorifying, fruitful, you will be joyless, miserable.
00:09:14.140 | That's the lie.
00:09:15.140 | The number one lie of the universe is that lie, and you're believing it right now.
00:09:20.980 | And the truth is that if you give yourself up wholly to God for him to do whatever he
00:09:26.580 | pleases to make you holy and God-glorifying and fruitful, he will give you an eternal
00:09:33.580 | treasure, himself and all that God is for you in him, treasure, more enjoyable than
00:09:41.540 | anything in this world, and he will give you a heart that experiences this treasure as
00:09:49.220 | gain, not loss, even if it costs you your life.
00:09:53.940 | So Billy, the way out of the deception is one, look, look, look, look at the treasure
00:10:03.860 | Jesus Christ, beholding the glory of the Lord, as Paul says, 2 Corinthians 3.18.
00:10:09.780 | Number two, all the while praying, praying, praying for your eyes to see and a heart to
00:10:16.620 | feel the wonder of the treasure.
00:10:19.660 | Third, surrounding yourself in this battle with mature Christians who will exhort you
00:10:26.580 | every day not to be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, Hebrews 3.13.
00:10:32.980 | Join Paul in saying, "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of
00:10:40.420 | knowing Christ Jesus my Lord," Philippians 3.8.
00:10:43.740 | He is that valuable, Billy.
00:10:45.980 | He is, that's the truth.
00:10:48.060 | He is that valuable.
00:10:50.340 | Don't let anybody or anything or any supernatural deceptive power deceive you otherwise.
00:10:57.500 | Thank you, Pastor John, for your directness, and thank you, Billy, for your willingness
00:11:02.580 | to ask such an honest question.
00:11:04.500 | It's questions like this one that help address the lives of hundreds and maybe thousands
00:11:08.740 | of others in the same situation.
00:11:11.860 | Humble listeners with honest questions lead to episodes like this one that will serve
00:11:16.940 | many listeners.
00:11:18.060 | That's how this podcast works.
00:11:19.380 | It only works with your humble, honest engagement, so thank you.
00:11:24.740 | And thank you to everyone who is listening.
00:11:26.060 | If you haven't done so, you can get the latest episodes delivered to you by subscribing to
00:11:29.580 | Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app in Spotify or by subscribing to DG's YouTube
00:11:34.660 | channel.
00:11:35.660 | And to find other episodes in our archive or to submit a question to us, go online to
00:11:39.540 | DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:11:44.340 | Well praise and possessions, those are the two dominant idols of our age.
00:11:49.500 | The desire for self-glory and the desire for material wealth.
00:11:54.140 | So what is the Christian's relationship to the praise of the world and the possessions
00:11:58.140 | of the world?
00:11:59.140 | We have to think this through, and we will next time.
00:12:02.060 | I'm your host Tony Ranke.
00:12:03.060 | We'll see you back here on Wednesday.
00:12:04.500 | God bless.
00:12:05.500 | God bless.
00:12:05.500 | God bless.
00:12:06.500 | God bless.
00:12:06.500 | God bless.
00:12:11.500 | [BLANK_AUDIO]