Reading from - Romans 12: 1-2
A Living Sacrifice
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s
mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not
conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God’s will is—his good,
pleasing and perfect will.
Blessing:
May God bless these His Holy Words and all of us present in their hearing and instruction.
A Place for You- Part Two:
I Surrender!!
Good Morning and Happy New Year!
Since the New Year is often considered a time for new hope and new beginnings, some of you may be wondering why you should listening to a sermon today suggesting such exasperation and resignation to have the title: “I Surrender!”
Or you may be thinking that I am advocating for abandoning your new year’s resolutions before they are even 48 hours old… and if you have willpower like mine, you may be wishing for such permission! But actually today I wish to continue to share my witness as to how Our Lord Jesus Christ has proven faithful in my life in keeping His promise made in John 14:2.
In my Father’ house there are many rooms…I am going there to “prepare a place for you!”
More specifically, I hope to continue to share how God has lead me to live a peaceful, happy and a powerful life by learning to SAT in the place that Jesus has prepared for me!
At this point a little review and certainly a couple of disclaimers are due.
First the disclaimers! I need to remind all of you here present and especially myself, that I am certainly not in any manner a spiritual authority and I am not qualified or interested in telling you what you need to do! Further, I have no right or intention to judge your behavior or beliefs against mine and you should resist the urge to judge yourself against these as well. My sole wish today is to praise God for the miracles he produces in my life on a fairly regular basis, and encourage you to watch for the miracles he provides for you as well, so you may find and enjoy the place He has prepared for you too!
Now the review- I am not sure how many of you were here this summer when I shared Doug’s story as A Place for You- A Beginning and I should not assume that even those who were here should have recalled any of the details. We don’t have time today to repeat the whole sequence of those miracles by which God allowed me to understand and even embrace the Place that He had prepared for Doug and myself. However, I believe Pastor still has that sermon posted on his blog, as well as the first three chapters of “Doug’s Story”. I would encourage you to look them up for review or for background if you are still interested after you politely sit through this today. But it would be helpful to hit the highlights to help you make some sense of today’s sharing.
Last time I shared how I not only survived, but learned to thrive through Doug’s death by God’s grace, teaching me to SAT in the Place He has prepared for me and for Doug in His creation.
To review, SAT is not bad grammar but an acronym for three crucial activities that combine to provide peace and power in all aspects of my life, as they did in facing the earthly loss of my beloved son, Doug.
Does anyone remember what SAT stands for? (Bear with me now and remember I’m a teacher, not a preacher, I need a little audience participation to keep me rolling!) Check out the title for the first activity:
Surrender- today’s topic. Then pay Attention to God’s miraculous workings and provisions in my life; and always be Thankful for those blessings!
The last time I shared the role of each of these activities in coming to understand the place Doug had in God’s creation and in my life and to celebrate the place Jesus had prepared for him after is a purpose here was fulfilled. Today, I hope to focus on the importance of Surrender in other aspects of my life. In subsequent messages, if invited back, I will focus on “paying Attention” and “being ever Thankful” each with its own due emphasis.
Now, I would like to say that I voluntarily decided to surrender all that is important to me to God in reverent faithfulness and awe for His provision, but that would be a lie! And lying is another issue in the mess that is my life, without God’s help, which will likely be the subject of its own sermon someday. Suffice it to say here, that I need to treat dishonesty like a plague- it is deadly to me! Actually, my first total surrender was a life and death issue, and actually provided release from the prison-like burden that lying had created in my life. That miraculous relief from the clutches of death, dishonesty and addiction came when I finally completely surrendered to the fact that I am an alcoholic, who has no control over my own drinking or the nightmarish alternate reality in which I was trying to hide, away from sane world where my friends and loved ones live.
That surrender and its relief did not come upon sobering up from my last drink, or from the therapy I received from the wonderful professionals at St Elizabeth’s Hospital, but rather from a flash prayer in an elevator, of all places, after my wife, Theresa and I struggled with how to tell or not tell the people in our community about my disease and treatment. As I left my wife in the hospital lobby that day to return to my room on the 4th floor treatment center, I was tormented between having to tarnish my reputation and bring shame upon myself and my family (Yeah right! Its sounds funny now-but then in was terrifying) or continuing to lie, hide and tempt eventual death that drinking again would surely bring. It didn’t take a falling to my knees, beating my breast, tortured cry out to Our Lord to make the miracle happen here, just mere but heartfelt mumble under my breath, “Oh God, I don’t know what to do…help me!
In that instant, a warm wave of comfort and delight washed over me as I realized…I don’t have to lie anymore, I can be free of it and of alcohol!! And I did pay Attention, and I did give Thanks and by the Grace of God…here I am before you today, not because I am a conqueror, but because I am a Surrenderer!
My second major surrender is much less dramatic and only known by a handful of people closest to me, my wife, my daughter, my Mom, my boss and Doug before he died. Some of you may be peripherally aware if you have caught some of my quips about money or the lack there-of from time to time. Yes, that’s it…I have given my money and my livelihood over to God as well. He is my personal financial manager and I highly recommend Him now! However, finding that out was again not without struggle.
Sometime after I found continuous sobriety (it did take one more testing of God’s grace and an Angel named Annette who many of you have known and loved as well for that to begin) Theresa and I were still struggling to make a comfortable and stable life for our family in light of the debt and diminished income that my medical bills and our failing family- businesses caused after the death of my beloved father-in-law Louie. We had often argued about money and each other’s roles and responsibilities in both the problem and in the solutions, which were not easily or quickly being found. One of my greatest regrets in my life to this day is how cruel I was to Theresa during those times, as I was so full of self-righteousness having overcome my drinking problems. (I was not always so Attentive and Thankful yet was I, Honey!?) To add to her burden was my need to work out of town to bring in more money, which made both of us more sad and lonely in the struggle. Finally one day upon receiving an unexpected demand from a creditor for an immediate payment beyond our means, Theresa called me at work, overwhelmed, crying and looking for an answer on what to do to appease the bill-collector. I didn’t have any to offer on the phone, but I promised her I would take care of it, said good-bye and hung up, only to become overwhelmed on my own. With it being late afternoon, I white-knuckled my way through some paperwork to get myself through to quitting time. But as I walked to my car considering the long night of worry ahead in my lonely little apartment, the desperation struck me hard again. I had to do some deep breathing in the car, but began the short drive to my home away from home and I found myself at a crossroad (I mean literally at a crossroad, at the stoplight where a right turn would send me home to Crivitz to comfort and be comforted in the presence of Theresa and the kids, or where a left would take me to a liquor store just down the block to buy some temporary relief at the cost of who knows what! A little flock of birds fluttered up from a bush in the yard to the right and the at instant Jesus' promise hit me… if God provides for the little birds of the air, who don't reap or sow, why I should worry… He will provide for Theresa and me too!
I surrendered my money, my career and all my worry about them to God in that instant in the simple declaration… “OK, Lord! I work for you now… tell where to turn!” … and he did. I was home, reassuring Theresa, two hours later, calm and confident that all would be well. And it was!
We didn’t win the lottery or suddenly change our lifestyle, but the next week I was offered some extra work helping with a “Teen Prevention” program, which provided a few extra dollars to keep the wolves from the door. We got a better tax return due to business losses, that helped to pay off some debts. That Spring I was offered a new job with better pay and better benefits. And I quit smoking (hooray!) and started saving the money that went up in smoke before. Theresa also made career changes which left her happier and making more money as well! And on and on, things kept getting a little better and better. And best of all…I have never worried about money since and never argue about it with Theresa… ever! My standard response to her concerns or requests about money is always the same… much to her distress on occasion… “It’s only money, I’ll make some more!” And by God’s grace…I always do!!
The third and most recent major Surrender in my life, you already have heard about- that being the surrender of my misguided responsibility for my son’s life, as payback of a debt or a favor for saving my life and providing for my recovery from alcoholism. Again, remember that I believed that since God had used Douglas as a little four year-old boy to drag me into sobriety, I felt it necessary to prepare Douglas for some great call- to make him a better man than I had been. However, as Doug struggled with our shared weaknesses, my unreasonable expectations, and our shared disease- I was sure that I had failed both God and Douglas!
Finally, when all of these lead us to the verge of violent crisis, I confessed my failure and pleaded with Jesus to save Douglas from me and my shortcomings as a man and as a father. And He did! He immediately provided peace between Doug and me, and forty-eight hours later, He called Doug to His eternal peace…the place he had prepared for Doug in His Father’s house!
Since that time, Jesus has been faithful to show me the place that Doug was always prepared for in this life- to make a better man of me! And that work continues, even in the telling of the story of our lives together today! So I thank God and I thank you for the opportunity to share today!
So what have I learned through all these miraculous rescues that God provides? Other than I am not very good on my own?
Has anyone noticed that in each case, I was in trouble…deep trouble when I finally found the need or the desire to surrender? Well, I was…then! So much so that I used to think that God only bothered to pay attention to me when I proved to be too weak and ineffectual to solve my own problems! And also that it was my duty to use the gifts He has given me to take care of myself and the others He put in my keeping. In time, I came to believe what I have heard many good Christians say to rationalize hard times… that God lets us experience difficulties to bring us closer to Him, to show us how much we need Him!
But I have learned now that I don’t need to wait for trouble to surrender and it works to my benefit not to wait. I have learned the Truth of what Jesus taught us:
“That in all things, God works for the good for all who love Him, for those who have been called to according to His purposes.”
Please notice- He didn’t say “for all those who are in over their heads!” or “all those who are beaten into submission!” He said for all those who take a little time to seek God’s will or His purpose and to love Him enough to trust Him… with everything! Finally after all that, I have learned that I can surrender every day, every hour, every instant, if necessary, to God’s purpose and... Oh!!... What power and what peace I have come to know! When I daily surrender the little things…He takes care of all the big things too! God has me by the hand… I can walk with God…and He is leading me to the Place He has prepared for me!
And all it takes is a daily little, but heartfelt prayer from me each morning, modified from today’s scripture in Romans 12:1- a daily personal surrender:
“Heavenly Father…I offer myself as a complete living sacrifice to you, dedicated to your service and pleasing to you! This is the true worship that I should offer!”
Simple… no breast beating, soul-wrenching, long-suffering cries of agony to gain God’s attention and care… just a simple… “Here I am Lord! I am yours. Please use me as you see fit because I love you and trust you!
Well then you may say…what about yours still evident struggles, David! We’ve still seen you angry, or we have seen you sad or mostly we frequently see you being the smart aaa… leck you can so often be! Is God leading you there too?
I have finally understood the answer to those questions are still no…but not because God has abandoned me, or because He doesn’t love me, or that He has changed His mind about the Place He wants me to be…!
I have come to know that loves me and trusts me so much that He allows me to choose my own path each day, to decide for myself! He is not jealous or possessive or angry as I once feared Him to be! He is patient and wise and has a delightful sense of humor about my continued pride and willfulness! He lets me wriggle my hand free and wander! And just as if I were to leave a wide well beaten path to find some imagined and tempting short-cut through the woods only to find myself hemmed in front and back by thorny, thick, underbrush struggling to get back on the path! I now know that when I start to struggle with anything in my life, great or small, it means I have wriggled my hand away and wandered from God’s side, and also the peace and power He so freely shares when I slip my hand in His! And thankfully, I have learned a five word –five fingered reach to God’s guiding hand …
The Abbreviated version of the Lord’s Prayer… FATHER THY WILL BE DONE! [Stretch one finger out with each word to present a reaching upward hand]
And in the spirit of short and simple…let me summarize all that I have learned as the simple but powerful assurance that God does have Place for me in His Creation, here on earth for me to enjoy! If only I surrender to that Place! And better still… Jesus is preparing a Place for me, as He already has provided for Doug, in His Heavenly kingdom! And if He does this for me, the wreck that I am, I firmly, adamantly, completely believe He has a place for you too…if you choose to reach out, surrender your own struggles and take His hand too!
God Bless You and I thank you for the opportunity to share today! Please join me in prayer…
Father God, I praise you and thank you for this opportunity to share with my friends some more of your grace and the wonders that you have provided in my unworthy life! Please help our friends to surrender their own struggles and better enjoy their own blessings and wonders in the place that you have prepared for them on earth… as we all wait in joyful hope to attain the Heavenly Place that you have prepared for us all through your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose Name we pray!
Amen!
Well now I know it is time to surrender the pulpit and give you your own opportunity to choose your own paths today! But if you would like to have me back for the next topic in “The SAT in my Place” series, I ask you to remember a couple things about today’s stories, as they may be helpful to you in following my next topic
“Paying Attention: All Things Great and Small His Wonders to Achieve” Please think about the details of the my freedom felt in committing to the truth, the elevator, the stoplight, fluttering birds, and I promise there will be more! YIKES!!
That a lot of homework! Again…I am a teacher, not a preacher! Thanks for listening!
Let’s sing together, our closing Hymn number_____.
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