Complete Surrender

Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat. When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him. Luke 5:1-11

This account in the life of Peter is an event of surrender.

Peter had to choose to surrender of his time, his property, his pride, and his career in order to follow Jesus Christ.

Surrendering is not a popular word in our world today. Surrender carries negative meanings and is usually associated with defeat or loss, or even weakness.

Anytime surrender takes place, a winner and a loser are decided.

But sometimes those who surrender are actually the winners.

Illustration: There was an officer in the navy who had always dreamed of commanding a battleship. He finally achieved that dream and was commissioned on the newest and proudest ship in the fleet. One stormy night the captain was on duty on the bridge when off to the port he spotted a strange light heading straight toward his ship.

He ordered the signalman to flash a message to the other ship.

The message was this: “Alter your course ten degrees to the South.”

The message from the other ship immediately came back – “Alter your course ten degrees to the North.”

This captain was about to be told how to maneuver his ship – he signaled back to the other ship: “I am the Captain! Alter your course ten degrees!

The other ship came back with the message: “Alter your course ten degrees – I am a Seaman Third Class.”

The Captain, of course, was not about to be ordered by a Seaman 3^rd class and responded:

“I am a battleship --- alter your course.”

The reply from the Seaman 3^rd class came back with his reply to that command: “Alter your course ---- I am a lighthouse.”

What can we learn from that? Don’t argue with a Lighthouse.

No matter how big or how important any of us think we are, God’s Word stands – always – as an unchanging beacon of light. All of our courses – all of our direction- must be altered to His.

Surrendering is not a popular word in our world today. Usually, it has all kinds of negative meanings – defeat – loss – weakness…….

So, now we will look at several steps that we need to take in order to completely surrender to Christ.

Anytime surrender takes place there is a winner and a loser. But sometimes, those who surrender are actually the winners – as in the lighthouse example --- by surrendering to the to the higher authority he avoided the destruction of his ship. He was a winner because he surrendered.

So, today, let’s talk about surrender – complete surrender – to Christ – who is our unshakable lighthouse.

There are areas in our lives when and where we need to surrender to Jesus Christ as we grow in Him.

We need to come to Christ as we are.

Think about this ---- Peter was dirty. He had been fishing all night. He was covered in the smell of bait, of fish, and sweat. Very likely ---- he stunk!

But he didn’t say to Jesus – “Let me go home and clean up a bit before I follow You.” He immediately surrendered to Jesus’ call to follow Him. He obeyed.

But so many times today – as in all of past history – people resist following Jesus because they believe they have to get themselves “cleaned up” before they can even approach Jesus. They will say, “I have to get cleaned up first. I have to quit all my negative habits before I can follow Jesus, because He only wants pure people to follow Him.”  “I will clean myself up and then I will come and follow Jesus.”

That very familiar verse we find in John 3:16 says nothing about cleaning ourselves up before we come to Jesus. We do the coming to Him and He does the cleaning up.

There is nothing we can do to earn God’s love.

There is nothing we can do to deserve His love.

He gives it freely – but He asks us to surrender to Him in order to reap the benefits of being conquered by the Lord of the universe.

Let’s go back to the sea where the men are fishing. The men had been fishing all night – ready to rest – the nets had been cleaned.

And what does Jesus tell Peter to do? “Cast the nets back into the water --- yes, the ones you just cleaned.”

At that moment, Peter saw Jesus as just a preacher. Peter was a fisherman. He knew how to fish! He knew that sometimes fish don’t bite. So, for Jesus to tell Peter where to cast his nets sounded ridiculous!

The same thing happens in our lives as well. Through prayer, we may hear God giving us instructions that don’t make sense. But, when we choose to obey, we are always the better for it.

Jesus said, “let down the nets again,” Peter surrendered – going against everything he knew as a fisherman – “nevertheless, at Your Word, I will let down the net.”

He surrendered all of his knowledge as a professional fisherman, and he let down the nets.

The lesson here is this: Surrender must precede the blessings that God has in store for us.

The Scripture says that immediately the nets were full of fish – so many that as they pulled them into the boat – the boat began to sink. They had to bring in other boats to load all the fish – and when they had loaded the fish into the other boats, they also began to sink.

The lesson provided to us in this passage of Scripture is about more than just fish.

The lesson we must grasp here is this:

“God cannot bless us until we have fully surrendered to Him.”

God has blessings that He has designed for each of us who have surrendered to living according to His plan and His will.

Our complete surrender will yield a complete blessing from our Savior.

Let’s go back to the boat again. Peter has fished all his life – fishing is his occupation. But he has never seen a catch like he has seen this night.

And, you know, this message as recorded here in Luke isn’t about the boat; it isn’t about the fish or the fishermen.

The account of this fishing experience is about this --- “God cannot bless you unless you surrender to Him.”

God cannot – in His perfectness – pour out blessings on us until we have surrendered to living according to His plan and His will.

Our complete surrender will allow us a complete blessing from our Savior.

Let’s look at verse 11 again:

“When they had brought their boats to land, THEY LEFT EVERYTHING AND FOLLOWED HIM.”

Complete surrender involved – for them – giving up the things that they are used to having and doing.

These are the things which held them back from completing God’s mission for them.

God reveals your purpose when your surrender to Him is complete.

This question is one He wants each of us to answer: “What do I need to give up so that I may truly follow Jesus Christ?”

Maybe you have never acknowledged Jesus as Master. Maybe you have resisted surrendering your life to Jesus.

Maybe you have been a Christian for a few years – maybe many years. But there is something in your life that you need to surrender to Christ – a sin, a hobby, your career, or another person.

• Surrender means recognition of Jesus Christ as Lord, as Savior.

• Surrender means repentance of sin.

• Surrender means that I am willing to do whatever God wants you to do.

So, we must learn to surrender over to Him anything and everything that would keep us from doing whatever God wants us to do.

This morning, what do you need to surrender? What are you willing to surrender?