Am I Completely Surrendered to Christ?

00:00:00.000 | Well, how do I know if I am completely surrendered to Christ?

00:00:07.680 | It's a question today from a listener named Maria, who listens to the podcast from the

00:00:11.960 | Netherlands.

00:00:12.960 | Dear Pastor John, thank you so much for this wonderful podcast.

00:00:15.960 | I'd like to respond to APJ 1459, which is titled, "I'm Afraid of Surrendering to Christ.

00:00:21.840 | What Can I Do?"

00:00:22.840 | And I want to respond by posing a follow-up question to it.

00:00:26.440 | How do I know if I'm surrendered to Christ completely?

00:00:30.280 | I grew up in a Christian home, studied at a Christian college, got married, worked for

00:00:33.540 | a Christian organization.

00:00:35.240 | From the outside, that looks good.

00:00:37.320 | From the inside, I wonder, how do you know that you surrendered everything?

00:00:43.100 | Is it, for example, a mindset of the heart, which relates to making good choices?

00:00:47.040 | Is it listening to a sermon instead of watching a TV show?

00:00:50.520 | Is it reading a Christian book instead of non-Christian fiction?

00:00:53.900 | Or is it more related to big things, as becoming a missionary and doing lots of volunteer work?

00:00:59.120 | How do I know if my life is completely surrendered to Christ?

00:01:03.280 | I pray throughout the day, but I often feel caught up in earthly chores that I see no

00:01:07.240 | eternal value in.

00:01:09.240 | Pastor John, what would you say to Maria?

00:01:11.840 | Let's start by affirming the goal that Maria expresses, namely, to be totally surrendered

00:01:18.040 | to Christ, nothing held back.

00:01:20.240 | Now, I know, and perhaps Maria knows, that the language of surrender is not explicitly

00:01:28.320 | found in the New Testament, but the reality is there.

00:01:33.880 | The picture of surrender is that once we were enemies and our lives were at odds with God,

00:01:42.400 | we did not submit to Him, we were not surrendered to Him, we were our own masters doing our

00:01:48.860 | own will, robbing God of not only everything He's given to us, but our souls as well,

00:01:56.200 | and then a miracle happens, and we're born again, and everything turns around.

00:02:04.540 | We don't want to withhold anything from God anymore.

00:02:08.860 | We are eager to be totally at His disposal, do anything He wants, at any cost.

00:02:17.960 | We want to do it in the power that He supplies, so that in everything He gets the glory.

00:02:23.360 | That's what it means to be saved from the old way.

00:02:27.300 | So the reality of surrender is there, even if the language is not.

00:02:33.600 | Here's some ways that the Bible talks about what Maria means by, and what we would all,

00:02:39.800 | I think, mean by total or full surrender to Christ.

00:02:44.360 | Luke 14.33, "Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."

00:02:53.580 | Or Matthew 10.37, "Whoever loves mother or father more than me is not worthy of me,

00:03:00.080 | and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

00:03:04.720 | Or Matthew 22.37, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all

00:03:10.760 | your soul, and with all your mind."

00:03:13.280 | Or Philippians 3.7, "Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

00:03:21.880 | Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ

00:03:28.480 | Jesus my Lord.

00:03:29.520 | For His sake, I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish in order

00:03:38.040 | that I may gain Christ."

00:03:40.480 | That's what Maria wants, and she wants to know how she can know if she's doing it.

00:03:50.520 | She wants to know, "How can I know if I'm fully surrendered, if I'm fully loving God

00:03:57.820 | with all my heart, if I've renounced everything for Him?"

00:04:04.720 | I want to love nothing more than I love Jesus.

00:04:09.720 | I want to love God with not just a part of my heart, but all of my heart.

00:04:14.400 | I want to treasure Jesus more than everything in the world.

00:04:18.920 | How can she know if her heart has arrived at this kind of full surrender, full allegiance,

00:04:30.160 | full affection?

00:04:31.800 | Now, I have to say something very sobering, even before I make some suggestions about

00:04:39.040 | how to move towards the enjoyment of this assurance that you are surrendered.

00:04:46.440 | None of us—this is very sobering, let it sink in—none of us will ever get to a point

00:04:56.720 | in our Christian maturity where it is not possible, theoretically, to doubt the authenticity

00:05:05.140 | of our surrender.

00:05:06.140 | In other words, it is theoretically possible, no matter what you say or what you do, to

00:05:15.760 | think you might be a fake, you might not be totally surrendered, no matter what you have

00:05:23.160 | done.

00:05:24.160 | Think of it.

00:05:25.160 | In 1 Corinthians 13, 3, "If I give away all I have and if I deliver my body to be

00:05:32.520 | burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."

00:05:36.560 | Wow.

00:05:38.640 | So if you can actually—not just theoretically, but actually—give your life and yet not

00:05:46.840 | be really loving, not fully surrendered to love, then how easy it is to imagine that

00:05:55.760 | dozens of behaviors less than the ultimate sacrifice will not give you a sense of assurance

00:06:03.200 | that you have surrendered all.

00:06:06.620 | Is it not shocking—it is to me, oh my goodness, this is shocking—to realize that John Piper

00:06:14.760 | could actually have the courage to be burned at the stake, and in those last horrible moments

00:06:24.600 | with the flames licking in pain at my skin, to have the thought enter my mind, "You're

00:06:33.520 | not real, Piper.

00:06:35.280 | You're not really surrendered.

00:06:37.480 | You're not a real Christian.

00:06:40.000 | You just want to be remembered as famous.

00:06:43.000 | You're just a fake.

00:06:44.920 | You're just trying to earn your salvation."

00:06:46.560 | That's a scary thought.

00:06:50.480 | Or as I said, sobering.

00:06:55.800 | We never get beyond the theoretical possibility of doubting our full surrender.

00:07:01.720 | You can always say, "Maybe I'm deluding myself.

00:07:06.760 | Maybe I'm deluding myself."

00:07:10.120 | So what do we do?

00:07:12.960 | Live in perpetual doubt and fear of failing in the very thing Jesus requires of us?

00:07:21.760 | Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son

00:07:26.560 | or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

00:07:29.120 | It's not optional.

00:07:32.480 | Have we surrendered the love of father and mother?

00:07:36.000 | Have we surrendered the love of son and daughter to the extent that Jesus is loved supremely?

00:07:43.040 | What do we do?

00:07:44.520 | It's clear to me, really clear, that the New Testament does not want us to live in such

00:07:49.760 | fear.

00:07:50.760 | It doesn't want us to lay down our head every night and say, "Well, I have no idea whether

00:07:54.840 | I was real today or not."

00:07:57.240 | I would say three things.

00:07:59.680 | Number one, say to Jesus—so I'm just basically giving you how I fight this battle, as I say

00:08:05.960 | it laid out in Scripture, three steps.

00:08:09.040 | One, say to Jesus, and mean it with as much truthfulness as you can, "I love you, Jesus.

00:08:19.880 | I love you more than I love anyone."

00:08:22.280 | Say it.

00:08:23.280 | Say it out loud.

00:08:24.280 | Around people or not around people?

00:08:25.480 | Say it out loud.

00:08:26.480 | "I surrender all other loves as subordinate to you, and I ask that if there is any self-deceit

00:08:36.320 | in my saying this, you would take it away, at any cost take it away, and cause me to

00:08:43.520 | speak truly and authentically."

00:08:47.760 | I say things like that to the Lord regularly.

00:08:51.840 | I express my love to him, my allegiance to him, my trust, and then very honestly, I admit

00:09:01.920 | to him that my heart is deceitful.

00:09:05.980 | There are hidden faults, and would he please kill in me all that is contrary to my confession

00:09:15.080 | of my surrender and make me pure and truthful?

00:09:19.800 | And you may be surprised how the verbal, out loud declaration of your full surrender and

00:09:29.400 | full allegiance and full trust intensifies the very thing you are affirming.

00:09:37.040 | That's number one.

00:09:38.280 | Say it out loud and ask God to kill everything in you contrary to what you're saying.

00:09:44.160 | Number two, I would say, act.

00:09:47.080 | So the first one was say, and the second one is act on some godly inclinations that he

00:09:55.560 | gives you, which might stretch your competency or confidence so that you have to throw yourself

00:10:03.680 | on his mercy and power to help you more than if you didn't do the act.

00:10:10.720 | And say to him in the doing of it that you are not trying to negotiate or earn anything.

00:10:20.920 | And ask him to give you the power and the love to do it in the name of Jesus authentically

00:10:30.640 | so that he gets the glory.

00:10:33.520 | And you may be surprised that in the actual doing of acts of surrender with that kind

00:10:41.000 | of prayer, the reality of the surrender becomes more authentic.

00:10:48.400 | And finally, number three, this is the ultimate bottom line.

00:10:52.880 | Since the confidence that you are acting in full surrender can always be doubted, theoretically

00:10:59.160 | can always be doubted, ask your heavenly Father that he would work the miracle of Romans 8:16

00:11:09.760 | in your life, that he would take away the doubt.

00:11:14.720 | Just take it away.

00:11:17.640 | You can't make it go away.

00:11:19.640 | The more you focus on telling it to go away, the more you think about it.

00:11:23.160 | It's like, I will not think about white elephants.

00:11:25.120 | I will not think about white elephants.

00:11:26.940 | Anything you do can make it go away, but he can take it away.

00:11:31.720 | The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

00:11:38.320 | So number one, speak the truth of full surrender.

00:11:44.280 | Number two, act the truth of full surrender.

00:11:49.100 | Number three, pray for the gift of assurance of full surrender.

00:11:54.760 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for the great question, Maria from the Netherlands.

00:12:00.160 | I know we have listeners outside of the States, and we are really grateful to God for all

00:12:04.200 | of you international listeners.

00:12:05.760 | Thank you for carving out some time in your day to join us.

00:12:09.200 | We really appreciate it, and thank you for sending in your questions.

00:12:12.040 | If you want new episodes of this podcast delivered to you, subscribe to the Ask Pastor John podcast

00:12:16.800 | in your favorite podcast app or in Spotify or by subscribing to DG's YouTube channel

00:12:21.300 | and to find other episodes in our archive or to submit a question to us of your own

00:12:24.660 | like Maria did today, you can do that online at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:12:33.240 | Well if a wife is more spiritually mature than her husband, how does the husband lead

00:12:39.160 | her spiritually?

00:12:41.020 | It's not an uncommon situation.

00:12:42.880 | It's not an uncommon question.

00:12:44.560 | And it's in the inbox.

00:12:45.560 | That's up next time on Monday.

00:12:46.880 | I'm Tony Reinke.

00:12:47.880 | We'll see you then.

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Am I Completely Surrendered to Christ?

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