The Strength of Surrender | En Fuego | Pastor Mike Breaux

Hey guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching. Every week we release a podcast that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free. An episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Point YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free. Enjoy this Bible teaching. All right, what's up Lake Point family? Great to see you all. Thanks for being here today. Hey, I want to add my happy Father's Day to all you guys out here today. We have so many great dads at Lake Point Church and all of our campuses. We just got an inordinate number of really good men around this place and so grateful for y'all. I just love the way you guys are making a difference in your family and your neighborhood and your community and the kids' schools and what you do at work. Just the way you're a light. We're so grateful for you today. We have on your way out today, you can grab a dad's root beer. We got dad's root beer. We got the original kind. We got diet root beer for you guys that are watching your figure. We got cream soda for you guys that live on the wild side. Just grab it on your way out today. Just a way for us to say thank you and have a great day with your family today.

My name is Bro, by the way, and I get to be on the teaching team here. We are in week three of a little series that we're calling In Fuego. We spent the first couple of weeks, if you're with us, talking about anger, about this combustible, smoldering kind of fire that rages in our heart that can cause so much damage. That's why we spent a couple of weeks talking about it. As we said last week in Our Enemy, what his plan is to get us either to deny it or to dwell on our anger. He loves to get us swinging back and forth, deny, dwell, deny, dwell. Jesus comes along and says, no, no, no, no, let's deal with it, and I will help you deal with it. If you missed either week, you might want to check it out online. I think it's a very important topic with a ton of stuff from God's Word to apply to our lives. I'm so excited for the freedom that a lot of you are finding. We're going to shift gears today, and we're going to talk about you and me being consumed. We know a bunch about consuming, right? Our whole society revolves around consumerism, and there's even a thing called the Consumer Index that shows how well we are consuming. We consume food, junk food, health food, fast food. We consume fashion. We consume tech. We consume cars and houses and entertainment. We consume social media, news cycles, podcasts, hot takes, streaming content. We are constantly consuming information and ideas and fear and anxiety messaging and comparison and comfort and convenience. And then we read reviews on Yelp to see how other consumers felt about their consuming experience. According to Harvard Magazine, businesses can expect a 9% increase for every star they receive from consumers. And one bad review can reduce the desire to purchase, visit, or book by 42%.

And it's not just products and such that we consume. We can bring a whole consumer what's-in-it-for-me mindset to our relationship with God, can't we? Man, I have been there. I was kind of like the person in the drive-thru, you know, pulling up the church going, hey, yeah, I like some great music, easy on the volume. If I could get like a couple of cool videos and we need a relevant message, hold the challenge. Could you throw in free coffee in a fun environment for my kids? Excuse me, could I get that supersized? It's kind of that consumeristic, you know, what are you going to do for me, God, kind of approach to faith, where you walk away from church giving it a one or two-star Yelp review. But gang, here's the deal. You and I were not created to be consumers, but rather to be consumed by God for His good purposes. You and I were meant to live a God-centered, other-centered, difference-making, enfuego kind of life that burns with passion and purpose. It says this about God in Hebrews chapter 12. It says, therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. He said, make no mistake about it, He is enfuego. Our God is transcended, He is otherly, He is holy, perfect and pure, and like a consuming fire, His presence burns away sin, evil, impurity. He is all-knowing, He is all-seeing, He is all-powerful, He is absolutely all-inspiring. He showed up before Moses ablaze on a burning bush. He led His people through the wilderness as a pillar of fire. He descended on the followers of Jesus and acts to like tongues of fire his love burns hot and it never goes out He is a self-combusting Inextinguishable eternal all-consuming fire and he never changes

He never changes But I'm telling you this his presence changes anything it touches and he longs to touch you and me He wants to move us from being merely consumers to being consumed by him I want to unpack a story from the Old Testament book of 1st Kings chapter 18 today If you got a Bible you can you can head there or we're gonna put on the screens as well We can track them together. But this this story is it's in Fuego Anybody watch the UFC event at the White House the other night? They had a real live cage match event guys were kicking each other in the face on the White House lawn And I'm not talking about Congress either. It was like this is a real deal Well, this story we're gonna read today is one of those smackdown main event Royal Rumble cage match kind of scenes It's one of those incredible events in history where you wish you'd had tickets cuz man we got it. We got it all We got blood. We got trash talk. We got wannabe gods. We got villains. We got heroes. We got underdogs plus We got fire lots of fire I Can remember a true story many years ago back in my home state of Kentucky where a whiskey distillery? Was coming to a small town Well a certain church in that town Prayed against and lobbied against that distillery come into their town. In fact, most of the community didn't want it to come Well, the owner was an atheist very non sympathetic to the community's wishes and he built it. Anyway, well one night Lightning hit it and burned it to the ground The owner actually sued the praying church Blaming them for the lightning strike and the church denied any involvement whatsoever The judge in the case shook his head and said here We have an atheist who blames a God who he says doesn't exist and a church who denies the power of the one That they say that does So I want to take a little of the suspense out of this story by telling you up front the fire in this story 100% God he does it. In fact, the main character in this fire story is God himself And because the Bible is the epic story of God. He is always The headliner of every story but the best supporting actor role in this story goes to a guy named Elijah Have you heard of this guy?

Elijah was probably the most famous of Israel's prophets. He became a highly esteemed Spokesperson for God he was seen throughout Jewish history as the voice Not like a four-chair turn, but he was a voice for God and still today every time the Jews celebrate the Passover feast They will set an extra place at the table for Elijah. He's mentioned 29 times in the New Testament of the Bible I mean as Christians We can't really study the life of John the Baptist who paves the way for Jesus without understanding the life of Elijah add to that The fact that this guy doesn't die, but God just takes him up to heaven in a chariot of guess what fire Makes this guy pretty special but if you ask Elijah he would simply say man, I'm I'm nobody special. If in fact, I live in a cave down by the river Unlike unlike a bunch of my other counterparts superstars like Daniel and Amos and Joel and Zephaniah and Haggai I haven't written anything. In fact, my longest sermon recorded in the Bible is only 22 words But Elijah was the voice often a lone voice He was often on the run afraid isolated because there was an evil king and queen who really did not like prophets at all They really didn't like hearing God's truth from anybody But Elijah was committed to speaking for God because he was the voice even though he was alone voice As a result God does some amazing things through him and Elijah like many of us are learning discovered that God He is always with you and not only in the breathtaking Sensational big-time part the Red Sea rain down fire from heaven kind of miracles But mostly in the small quiet whispers deep in your spirit when you feel alone and you feel abandoned I mean even today God often speaks to the gentle and obvious rather than the spectacular And we might say God, I wish you would do something miraculous for me But the real miracle of Elijah's life in our life is the privilege of actually being able to personally know the creator of the universe the true and living God who is an all-consuming fire a God whose love burns white hot for You and for me now another player in this drama is an evil king. His name is Ahab

He's a man of God He was the eighth king of Israel. He was Israel's most evil king. He did more to stir up God's anger than any other king before him. And on the surface, his life was not unlike many of our lives were at one time. I mean, he was a guy trapped in his own selfish desires. And a lot of us have been there. He was a guy unwilling to listen to God. And a lot of us have been there. He was unwilling to do the right thing. A lot of us have been there. He married a really evil woman. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. His wife was a woman named Jezebel. Ever heard of this woman? In fact, do you know anybody named Jezebel? I mean, Judas and Jezebel are not real popular names among expecting parents, and for good reason. Jezebel, among other things, led her husband, the king, far away from God and drew him into all kinds of bizarre idol worship. She surrounded herself with 850 false prophets or false gods. They were her own voices who would tell her and Ahab whatever they wanted to hear so they could justify anything they wanted to do. But the voice, the lone voice, Elijah, he told him what the true and living God

wanted them to hear. So Ahab and Jezebel hated Elijah for speaking God's truth. So here's how the story goes. Elijah watches Israel slide further and further away from God. And this is Israel, God's chosen people, the great nation from the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the people he rescued time and time again, a people who once gratefully or deeply devoted to God, but they had moved from being consumed by God to being mere self-centered consumers. As a result, their culture is spiraling out of control and everybody's doing whatever they wanna do. They're partying all the time. They're sleeping with whoever they wanted to sleep with. It is girls gone wild and boys gone wilder and all in the name of the worship of their gods. So our main character in the story, the only true God, the all-consuming fire, going back to my childhood here, he has a little bit of a Popeye moment where he looks down and says, that's all I can stands and I can't stands no more. And he tells Elijah, it's time to do something about this. So Elijah comes out of hiding and he tells his courageous friend, a guy named Obadiah who actually worked for the king, he asked him to set something up. And Obadiah, a really cool guy,

even though he had a job in the palace, he loved the Lord. And at one time he had secretly hidden like a hundred prophets of God in caves to protect them from the anger of his evil boss. So Elijah asked his buddy Obadiah to set something up with the king. Even though letting the king know that he knows Elijah might cost him his life, Obadiah set something up. Well, Ahab, he agrees to meet with Elijah. And when he sees him coming, he greets him with this line that like it seems straight out of one of those movies where the evil king is finally introduced to the hero. Check it out. When he sees Elijah, he says to him, is that you, you troubler of Israel? He's like, well, well, well, there you are finally in the flesh, the one always stirring stuff up and making trouble with all this truth from God stuff. And Elijah comes back with this. He says, I've not made trouble for Israel, but you and your father's family have. You have abandoned the Lord's commands and have followed the Baals. Now it's supposed to be pronounced Baal, but I grew up saying Baal and we're in Texas, so we're saying Baal. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel

and bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at your wife Jezebel's table. This is like Elijah saying, how about your gods and my gods step outside? Let's settle this. Meet me on the mountain. So Ahab sends word throughout Israel and assembles all the prophets on Mount Carmel. Now, I don't know why Ahab agrees to do this, but he does. And he sends word to Jezebel's prophets to meet on Mount Carmel for this classic showdown. Maybe it's in his arrogance, he sees this as a chance to show off. Maybe he sees it as a chance for his wife to kind of strut her stuff. After all, she managed 850 well-fed prophets and they were going up against one skinny cave dweller. This could be a really great publicity stunt. You know, make a bunch of money, sell a bunch of tickets. He can make a total fool out of Elijah, make him even more unpopular than he already was. You see, the nation had been living in a famine for three years, one that Elijah had predicted. And so the blame for the famine was placed squarely on Elijah's shoulders. And so this is a chance to finally be rid of this dude and his out of touch God, and show the real power of their gods and the royal prophets. I got to stand on this spot, Mount Carmel in Israel.

There's a statue of Elijah there, actually. There's an incredible view overlooking what they refer to as the Valley of Armageddon, where some believe the final showdown will be fought. But it gave me chills standing there thinking about this particular showdown. Because, gang, this is kind of a pay-per-view moment. It's like ding, ding, ding, microphone drops. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the main event in this corner, weighing in at 135 pounds, including his tunic, from the plains, the caves of Gilead, the one, the only, the one, the lonely, the voice, Elijah. And everybody boos because they believe he's responsible for the famine. And in this corner, weighing in at a collective 17,000 pounds, the clever, the cunning, the royal sultans of sleaze, the prophets of Baal. And everybody cheers because the prophets of Baal let you live however you want to live. Let's get ready to rumble. Before the, sorry about that. I get a little carried away. But before this clash on Carmel could begin, Elijah takes the mic and he says these words to the crowd, to the people of God, this is so cool. He looks at the people and goes, how long will you waver between two opinions? How long are you gonna waver if the Lord is God? Follow him.

If Baal is God, follow him. How long are you gonna waver between the two? And then it says, but the people said nothing. That's simple five word phrase, jump off the page at me. But the people said nothing. Kind of might be hard to believe, but I've been speechless before. So confronted by the truth that I was frozen, just like a lump in my throat. My mouth went dry. I couldn't speak if I wanted to. Have you ever been there? I mean, let me ask you, have you ever been sitting in a place like this and like an epic battle between your heart and your will breaks out? I mean, you kind of are living like this day to day. Then once a week you come in here and these two worlds collide. You got anger and then peace and then bondage and freedom, acceptance and challenge and faith and fear and worry and worship and hypocrisy and authenticity and bitterness and forgiveness and envy and contentment and being a consumer and being consumed. And you sit there at a loss for words because you know, you know that God is trying to say something to you. And you just sit there kind of frozen because you know he's trying to get your attention, but you don't know how to respond. Man, I have been there.

I was talking to a couple just last night who sat through a message a few years back about adoption here at Lake Point. And when it was over, they said they just walked silently to the car. They didn't speak to each other at all. They drove almost all the way home and they finally broke the silence and said to each other, we're supposed to adopt, aren't we? And they did. I mean, sometimes you just know that God is speaking to you and you sit there frozen. And then sometimes we resist that moment. And we think in the moment, you know what? This feeling, it'll go away. It'll go away. As soon as this bald guy shuts up and I'm outside in the parking lot, then I can just get back to normal and God will just leave me alone. Let me tell you something. He won't. He won't. He loves you way too much. He will not leave you alone. He pursues you and me like we are the only ones alive on this planet. You cannot outrun his love. And in those moments where you're still and you can't speak, that's when he wants to speak into your speechlessness.

So the people are frozen. They say nothing. So the voice, Elijah, continues and he sets up how this showdown is gonna go down. He says, I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has 450 prophets. Get two bowls for us. Let them choose one for themselves. Let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood, but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bowl and put it on the wood, but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your God and I will call on the name of the Lord. And the God who answers by fire, he is God. I mean, you gotta love this. You see what God's doing here? In ancient literature, Baal is known as a so-called little g God of thunder, lightning, rain, water, and fire. So here's God playing to his opponent's supposed strengths. And I also don't think it's any coincidence that God has chosen a man whose name, Elijah, is a combination of his own name. The name of God, Elohim, and Yahweh, you combine that, means Elijah, which means the Lord is God. So in this moment, the Lord is God, Elijah, steps up and says to the prophets of Baal, choose one of the bowls and prepare it first. Since there's so many of you,

call on the name of the Lord. naming your God, but do not light the fire. So they took the bull, given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. Oh, Baal, answer us, they shouted. But there was no response. No one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. Can't you just see them like dancing and shouting and singing? They're singing every fire song they could think of. Come on, Baal, light my fire. I fell into a ring of fire. I've seen fire and I've seen rain. Girl on fire, we didn't start the fire, burning it down. They sing every fire they know. And nothing happens. Nothing happens. And that's when this skinny, cave-dwelling prophet of God begins to trash talk. I love this. At noon, Elijah began to taunt them. Shout louder, he said. Surely he's a God. Oh, perhaps he's deep in thought. Or maybe he's busy, literally in Hebrew, that means maybe he's going to the bathroom. Or maybe he's traveling. Maybe he's sleeping.

You just need to wake him up. I love this scripture found in Isaiah where God himself kind of trash talks about these little G-God. This is kind of long, but track with me here. This is so cool. This is a cool passage of scripture. This is the Lord God speaking. I am the first and the last. There is no other God who is like me. Let him step forward and prove to you his power. Who but a fool would make his own God an idol that cannot help him one bit. The wood carver measures a block of wood, draws a pattern on it, works with a chisel and a plane, carves it into a human figure. He gives it human beauty and puts it in a little shrine. He cuts down cedars. He selects the cypress and the oak. He plants the pine in the forest to be nourished by the rain. Then he uses part of the wood to make a fire. With it, he warms himself and he bakes his bread. And then, yes, it's true, he takes the rest of it and makes himself a God to worship. He makes an idol and bows down in front of it. He burns part of the tree to roast his meat and to keep himself warm. He says, oh, that fire feels good. Then he takes whatever is left

and makes his God a carved idol. He falls down in front of it, worshiping and praying to it, rescue me, he says, you are my God. Such stupidity and ignorance. Their eyes are closed, they cannot see, their minds are shut, they cannot think. The person who made the idol never stops to reflect. Why, it's just a block of wood. I burned half of it for heat and used it to bake my bread and roast my meat. How can the rest be a God? Should I bow down and worship a piece of wood? The poor deluded fool feeds on ashes. He trusts something that can't help him at all. Yet he can't bring himself to ask, is this idol that I'm holding in my hand just a lie? He trusts something that cannot help him at all. Does that sound familiar? Now, of course, we are certainly intelligent enough not to worship a carved piece of wood, but we sometimes bow at the altar of looks and image, don't we? We can worship at the shrine of materialism, success, and status. We can give our energy, our devotion, our affection, the shallow self-seeking relationships and self-gratification and fame, never stopping to think, isn't this idol just a piece of paper? Isn't this just a piece of reflective glass?

Isn't this just a piece of like metal and rubber? Isn't this just a piece of wood and stone and brick and shingles? Am I bowing before something that's just a lie? Because the truth is this God can't rescue me. This God can't save me, this God can't love me, this God can't create me, this God can't recreate me, this God can't sweep away my failures, this God can't give me a bigger purpose, this God can't give me eternal life. Oh, it promised me that and more, but man, this is just a lie. You see, if you and I chase all the stuff of this consumeristic kind of life, making them little gee gods, we will miss out on knowing and experiencing the true and living God of unfailing love and mercy, the good Father who wants to consume all of us and walk with us every day. Well, check out the prophets of Baal. They're crying out to their wannabe God. So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears as was their custom until their blood flowed. Y'all ever gotten that desperate, that frantic? I mean, that frustrated with your little gee gods? I know a bunch of people who got that desperate, that they got to the point of cutting themselves, just harming themselves because their God, their God really couldn't help them anymore.

Midday passed and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But again, there was no response. No one answered. No one paid attention. Now, this is kind of a contrast. to the people said nothing, now their God said nothing. Then Elijah said to all the people, come here to me. They came to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which was in ruins. This is kind of a shout out to their history. He's kind of like saying, do you remember how we used to walk with the living God? And with the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he dug a trench around it, large enough to hold two seals of seed. The purpose of that trench was to catch the blood of the bull as it ran down the altar. He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood. Do it again. And they did it again. Do it a third time. And they did it a third time. The water ran down around the altar

and even filled the trench. Now you would think, instead of telling them to saturate the altar with water, he would have called for them to bring lighter fluid or gasoline. What's he doing here? He's intentionally stacking the odds against God because Baal was the supposed God of fire. At the time of the sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed, oh Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. And I've done all these things at your command. Answer me, oh Lord. Answer me so these people will know that you, oh Lord, are God and that you are turning their hearts back again. Now notice something about Elijah. He didn't dance around. He's not trying to draw attention to himself like the other so-called prophets of Baal. Elijah doesn't ask God, do this, God, so they will crown me the winner. Do this, God, so they'll finally start listening to me. Do this, God, so they'll finally give me the respect I deserve. No, no, no, no. Elijah wanted what God wanted. And that was for the people to turn their hearts

back to their creator. And check out what happens. Then the fire of the Lord fell, burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, also licked up the water and the trench. And when all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried. The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. Still the undefeated, undisputed champion of the universe, our God is in fuego, all-consuming fire. I think, I think Elijah asked a great question to all of us when he asked those people, how long are you gonna waver? How long are you gonna waver between two opinions, two gods? Because the short story of the history of Israel since Moses led them out of Egypt was we follow God. No, now we follow our own selfish desires. Oh man, our selfish desires have wrecked our lives. So now we follow God. Now forget it, we're gonna do whatever is right in our own eyes. Oops, sorry, God, we will follow you and on and on and on this pattern would go. So Elijah, the voice stands up with passion. He asked, come on, how long are you gonna do this? How long are you gonna waver between two gods, between famine and rain, between death and life, between misery and happiness, between guilt and forgiveness, between little G wannabes and the true living God?

How long are you gonna waver? You see gang, the audacity of God is that he clearly states over and over again in his word that there's only one God and it's him. And it's not because he's on an ego trip, it's because it's true. And when we choose to cry out in desperation to any of those other little gods we set up, there's only gonna be silence because they're not real. They can offer no answers, no guidance, no truth, no comfort, no power. They are not God's worthy of our worship. And you might be thinking, well, you know what? I would follow God too if he would do a miracle like that for me. If only I could see like fire from heaven descend, I might believe too. Hey, listen, for me, every day of life is a fire from heaven miracle. A brilliant, a brilliant blazing ball of fire sets every day painting the sky with this unparalleled majesty. Fire twinkles millions of miles away in the night sky to remind me that when I go to sleep, that there is a God who never does. Fire then rises in the Eastern sky and lights another day where we awaken amazingly refreshed and our lungs fill up with this, the exact right amount of this perfect thing

called oxygen and our hearts beat with incredible regularity, sending life-giving blood to these little tiny intricate passageways all through our body, all the way to our brain that lets us know as we see the reflection of our one and only kind of face in the bathroom mirror, we say, I'm alive for another day to kiss our spouse, to hug our kids, to know the miracle of loving someone so. so much that it feels like a fire is burning deep in our soul. To walk through each day ignited by the experience of joy and happiness and challenge and friendship. To sometimes laugh so hard that you feel like you're gonna combust. To walk through your front door and know that the home fires of shelter and safety are still faithfully burning. To sit outside by your fire pit at night and reflect on all the bad decisions you've ever made. All the stupid things you've done. All the times you should have crashed and burned and you think, man, it's a miracle I'm still alive. Guess what, you're right. Your whole life is a miracle sparked in you by the loving God who's the all-consuming fire. And I think that maybe sometimes God wants to ask you and me, how long are you gonna waver?

You see all this miraculous around you, how long are you gonna waver? I know he's asked me that. He's like, bro, how long are you gonna, how long till you move from being a consumer to being consumed? When will you surrender? When will you lay your life on the altar and let me light you on fire? When will you stop fitting me into your life and start building your life around me? When will you stop worshiping comfort and say yes to me even though it costs you? When will you stop leaning on your own understanding and just trust me completely? When will you stop asking who's gonna pour into me and start asking who can I pour into? Romans 12, kind of a famous passage, scripture says, and so dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he finds acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of the world and other little G gods, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Let's be honest, being a living sacrifice that's talking about is not real comfortable. Being consumed by God means your plans may change. Your identity gets reshaped. Your priorities get reordered. But here's the great paradox. According to Jesus, when you and I do that, we don't lose our life. We find it. We find it. Moving from consumer to being consumed, it centers around one word, surrender. Surrender. I've had this written in the margin of my Bible for years now. You've heard me say it before, but I wrote it right over that Romans 12 passage. It says this, the greatness of a man is in direct proportion to the measure of his surrender. The greatness of a man is in direct proportion to the measure of his surrender. Let me say something to all you guys today, because there's a lot said about being a tough guy, being a strong man. Let me tell you what makes a guy really tough. It's when he realizes that there is tremendous power in powerlessness. When you and I finally come to God and surrender and say, I need your help to be a good man. I need your help to be a good dad.

I need your help to be a good husband. When we humble ourselves and say, Father, I cannot kick this habit on my own. I can't live this life in my own feeble strength, in my own puny willpower. I need a higher power. I need a better wisdom. I need the strength of the everlasting God surging through my veins. When we do that, that's when God starts developing true strength within us. Let me give you nine characteristics of a really tough guy. Here they are. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. And gang, that only happens inside of you and me when we surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit of God. We followed the apostle Paul for weeks. I don't know how many weeks, but a lot of weeks. You talk about a tough guy, check out what he wrote from a damp and dirty prison cell. He said this, kind of a famous verse. For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. Here's Paul saying, that's the secret of my life. You want to know the secret of my internal toughness? I just lay my life on the altar every day and I rely on the power of Jesus Christ to me. And I can do all things through him who gives me strength. He also wrote this in Ephesians chapter one.

He said, I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him. Check this out. This is the same mighty power, the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him at the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. Listen to me, if God can blow the rock off a tomb and give life back to a dead man, he can work through your life too. The same power, the same power is available to all of us. With that being true, let me ask you, why would we go through life choosing to do it on our own? I mean, why wouldn't we drop our pride, stop chasing other gods, put our ego on the altar every day and say, consume me, oh God? Because I just don't want to experience what you can do for me. I want to be overtaken by you. Burn away all that is shallow and selfish and fake and risk-free. I want to burn for you as a living sacrifice. Consume my heart, my thoughts, my plans, my passions for your glory. I want to rely on your strength and your wisdom and your grace and your power every day because the greatness of a man, the greatness of a woman is in direct proportion to the measure of their surrender. So let me ask you, how long are you going to waver?

Until you do that. You see, when it comes to us, there is no wavering with God. You may not yet believe in him, but he believes in you. So much so that he promised that he would come down and bring us up out of the bondage and oppression of sin. The promised one, Jesus, would lay himself on the altar, would take the sins of the whole world up on his shoulders so that mankind, you and me, could be made right with God. And Jesus never wavered either. He went to the cross and voluntarily laid down his life so that we could know real life. And gang, that's what lights my fire. I have spent the past almost 50 years of my life now trying to get people to see that there's a God who loves them with a relentless love. I've been trying to hold out the invitation to embrace the gift of God and his amazing grace, for people to grab hold of a new beginning, to grab hold of a fresh start, a clean slate, to accept forgiveness through Jesus Christ, to acknowledge that Jesus is the Lord, to let him heal you, to let him fix you, to let him transform you, empower you, set you free as you follow him. And you know what? I'm sure like Josh and many other preachers have felt, I have sometimes felt like a lone voice, outnumbered in a culture where people surround themselves

with only those who will tell them what they wanna hear, a consumer culture where pleasure and comfort and achievement and ecstasy and selfishness, those things are God. And the reason I feel so obligated to speak the truth is because the prophets of Baal are still deceiving the minds of people and taking them far away from the true and living God and far away from hope and far away from true happiness and far away from peace and far away from freedom, fulfillment, purpose, and passion, the kind of life that God has longed for all of us to experience. I feel compelled to speak God's truth because so many people are living beneath their privilege of knowing the true and living God. There is a God who cannot bear the thought of heaven without you, so much so, he allowed his son to take your punishment on the cross so your sins could be wiped away if you would just surrender to him. So let me ask you one more time, how long will you waver? If the Lord is God, then follow him. Follow him. I'm gonna give you some space to do that today. Let's bow our heads. Maybe right now you know God's speaking directly to your heart, you just know it, and you're sitting here in one of those frozen moments

and you know he's saying to you, come on, stop wavering, stop living with one foot in and one foot out. Put both feet in the light and just follow me. Surrender your life to me. Lay it down so I can fill you with power and purpose and passion and freedom and wisdom. He wants to do that right here, right now. All you gotta do is surrender to him. Say, Jesus Christ, I accept the gift of your forgiveness on my behalf, thank you for what you've done on the cross. I want you, I want you to lead my life. I need you to lead my life. I want to be consumed by you, God. Father, it's my prayer that someone is praying that prayer right now in their own words. In kind of a frozen moment where they just know that you're speaking to their heart, and I pray that today they would just go palms up and surrender. Thank you, God, for pursuing me all those years. You never stop. Bunch of us are grateful for that. Thank you for the miracle of life. Thank you for proving that you are the one true living God. God, we want to live our lives consumed by you. And I pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.