God Expects Your Surrender
God expects our absolute surrender in order to work His blessed work in us.
Andrew Murray emphasizes the necessity of absolute surrender to God, drawing parallels from everyday objects that serve their purpose only when fully dedicated to a specific task. He illustrates that just as a pen must be surrendered to the hand for effective writing, believers must wholly yield themselves to God for Him to work in their lives. Murray points out that the temple of Solomon was dedicated entirely to God, and similarly, each person is a temple meant for divine habitation, contingent upon their complete surrender. He asserts that God is worthy of this surrender and that without it, His transformative work cannot occur in us.
Text
You know in daily life what absolute surrender is. You know that everything has to be given up to its special, definite object and service. I have a pen in my pocket, and that pen is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing. That pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if I am to write properly with it. If another holds it partly, I cannot write properly. This coat is absolutely given up to me to cover my body. This building is entirely given up to religious services. And now, do you expect that in your immortal being, in the divine nature that you have received by regeneration, God can work His work, every day and every hour, unless you are entirely given up to Him? God cannot.
The temple of Solomon was absolutely surrendered to God when it was dedicated to Him.
And every one of us is a temple of God, in which God will dwell and work mightily on one condition-absolute surrender to Him. God claims it, God is worthy of it, and without it God cannot work His blessed work in us.
Sermon Outline
- The Concept of Absolute Surrender
- The Necessity of Surrender in Spiritual Life
- The Temple of God and Surrender
- The Temple of Solomon as an Example
- The Importance of Surrender in Our Lives
Key Quotes
“God cannot work His work in us unless we are entirely given up to Him.” — Andrew Murray
“The temple of Solomon was absolutely surrendered to God when it was dedicated to Him.” — Andrew Murray
Application Points
- We must give up our lives entirely to God in order for Him to work His work in us.
- Surrender is necessary for spiritual growth and development.
- We are temples of God, and as such, we must surrender to Him.