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They Surrendered All
Brian Mashburn
March 23, 2008
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They Surrendered All
I remember 4 years ago when our little community here at Southwest were digging deep and pitching in a little extra money in order to advance Christ's cause. My 4-year-old was saving money to buy himself an electronic motorcycle.
Limping our way through trying to teach our boy the idea of giving, stewardship, and sacrifice, Carrie and I asked him if he would give some of his money "to God." He said he would, counted his collection of money, and when I asked him "how much of it do you want to give to God?" he said, "All of it."
And he did. At our next gathering he threw all of it in.
And then...I went right out and bought him his motorcycle.
And it wasn't about trying to teach him that "if you give to God, you'll get the stuff you want" (that's not always true). And it wasn't about tricking him into thinking God mysteriously delivered the motorcycle because of his great act of financial faith (that might even be outright cruel). It wasn't even about the gift of the motorcycle that he wanted so badly.
It was about the heart of his dad that almost uncontrollably needed to give extravagantly to him. Why? Because I asked my boy to give up something he really wanted for himself (at least postpone it), and surrender it for something self-less.
And then...he surrendered all.
Jesus did this. He surrendered all to the will of his Father, even unto death...and then his Father gave him life, life to the full.
We see this same surrendering in the book of Acts. The Jesus people surrendered their will, their money, their stuff, where to live, how to live, their power and influence, sometimes even their lives...just like Jesus. Acts 19:20 says that "In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power."
They surrendered all...and we need to surrender all. How close to all are you? It's like when a child of God surrenders all, the heart of the Father is so touched that He opens up the floodgates of Heaven and gives that child His best, life to the full, partnership in the Jesus movement, the life of Christ.