Romans 6: 13-14 in the New King James version reads, "And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin (it is referring to bodily members, hands, arms, tongue, voice, etc.) but present (or give) yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are no longer under law but under grace."

The words I want to focus on today from that portion of scripture are these, "Give yourselves completely to God." When I talk about the heart of the disciple, a number of things come to mind. The question often asked is, "Does he have the heart for it?" He may have the personality and the intelligence, but does he have the heart? Sometimes people will say, "He is involved, but is his heart really in it?" In Joshua 22:5 hear the words of the Lord, "But take careful heed to do the commandments and the law which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul."

If there is anything that has been perplexing and difficult to deal with in the church down through the years it is people in the church who have adopted the words of the old commercial, "A little dab will do ya." So many people trifle in the things of God. They meddle in the things of God only to the degree that they want to. They don't want to become fanatical, they don't want to become something that is outstanding or noticeable, they just want to blend in with everyone else.

A contrasting verse of scripture to the one we just read from Joshua 22 will show you what I'm talking about. It is found in Deuteronomy 20:8. It is speaking about principles of warfare. It reads, "The officers shall speak further to the people and say to them, what man is there among you who is fearful and faint hearted. Let him go and return to his house lest the heart of his brethren faint like his own." He is saying if we are not careful we can let someone else's mediocre living affect us to the point where we say, "He's not doing it; why should I?  They aren't doing it; why should I?  Nobody seems to be pressing on the upward way; why should I?"  The writing here and the words of real concern here are, "If there is a man among us who is faint hearted and fearful, go home, because your faint heartedness and fear may rub off on other people and we will have a whole troop of soldiers who are faint hearted and fearful. We cannot afford to let that happen, so go home."

Let's read that verse again from the Living Bible. "And now, is anyone fearful or faint hearted? If you are, go home before you cause the rest of us to be the same way." In Colossians 3:23 we have these words of admonition: "Whatsoever you do, do all with all of your heart, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not as unto men." Don't do it to please someone or to get applause. Don't do it just to get recognition, but whatever you do, do it with all of your heart and do it as unto the Lord.

Our text verse says, "Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God", which infers that unless it is a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, it may not be acceptable. In the Old Testament when they took a lamb from the flock to offer it on the altar of sacrifice the lamb was first slain. The throat was cut, the blood was drained and the animal was placed on the altar of sacrifice and when the animal was placed there the fire was lit and the animal was consumed on the altar. Now when you become a believer we don't cut your throat, but let me take it one step further, for it means the same thing when in the scripture it says, "Reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."  To the degree that I am still in control of my life, Jesus is not!  To the degree that I allow Jesus to become more and more part of my life, I become less and less.  The more I am determined to be me, the less I'm going to be Him.  The more I am willing to let go of me and my ambitions and what I want and what I am determined to become or determined to do, the more Jesus is able to become alive in me and accomplish what He wants to accomplish.

If I am willing to become a living sacrifice, there is no glory in this little lamb being slain.  He wants you and me very much alive. Jesus gave His life that this little lamb in His pasture thrives. As the Lord is his Shepherd, he will lack for nothing. He is guarded and protected and cared for and led and directed and when the sheep takes on his own ideas and runs off, he is now vulnerable to every beast and predator out there waiting to pounce and take him into the thickets and destroy his life. So the Lord says, you make sure that the Lord is your Shepherd and you stay with the flock and you stay protected, cared and provided for. That means you give up on your own ideas of wandering over that hillside on your own. Give up on that. You are not to have plans for your life.  He has plans for your life. You are not to have ambitions that are outside of the will and the desire of Almighty God for your life.  He says, "I know the plans I have for you. I have plans to bless you and plans to give you hope and a future."   I have plans for you. You need to give up on yours, for you are not going to go anywhere with those plans, but you certainly will go a long way with mine. The supreme sacrifice was made so that you and I can become living sacrifices. Consumed, but alive.

One of the most feared words and often ignored words in scripture is the word "surrender." We don't like that word.  Most people dislike the word "submit" or "submission."  Why? Because it implies turning one's self over and it means to let go. It is scary and that is why He says you live by faith and the One you are letting go to has a better plan and idea than you do. Back in the third chapter of Genesis God said the young man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. The wife will then obey. When a man is clinging and the wife is obeying, there isn't a problem. If a man isn't clinging and the wife isn't obeying, then we have a problem. If the man is clinging to something other than what God said I want you to cling to, then we have a problem. The word submit should not be a problem if someone is clinging.  The word surrender should not be a problem if someone has his arms around you.

"I surrender, dear!"  Those words almost always in the natural world are put in the negative. People think it is negative to surrender and to submit is a negative. It is not, as far as God is concerned. It is very much a positive. That's the reason why He says, "Don't you be conformed to the thinking of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."  In other words, when the world says this, you better think just the opposite because usually the opposite is true for the child of God. The world says, win, win, win, everything is win. The child of God says surrender, surrender, surrender. The world says hang on, hang on, hang on and look out for Number One. The Bible says let go, let go, let go and He will take care of number one.

In this world's way of thinking, winning is everything. Surrender is unthinkable. That is why in the Bible it says we are not to be conformed to the way the world thinks, but rather just the opposite and be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you will be able to prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God.  The good and perfect and acceptable will of God will never materialize if we don't do the other.  If I don't change my mind or my mind has not been transformed by the Word of God, then I'm not going to understand or be able to see or experience that good and perfect and acceptable will of God. The Bible says reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Remember, God will never break your will.   God will never do that because He wants your will. What good are you if you do not have any will power or any get up and go?  When he talks about Peter being impulsive and vocal as he was, God didn't take that away from Peter; He only wanted to get control of it. On the day of Pentecost, this impulsive and very verbal man stood and preached like no one had heard before and three thousand were added to the church. He doesn't want to break your will; He just wants to get a hold of it. He wants you to surrender it to Him so that He can use you.

God will never break your will or coerce you or force you into surrender. He knows that will never work, so He draws us to Himself. God is a Lover and a Liberator. God loves you so much that He wants you liberated. You think it is all up to you. It is not all up to you; it is all up to Him. The more we give up on the idea that it is all up to me and understand that it is all up to Him and I need to get out of the way, the more, then, all things will work together for good to them that love God and are the called according to His purpose. He's a Lover and a Liberator and surrender to Him brings a person real freedom and never bondage.

As soon as you surrender to Him you will discover that Jesus is not a tyrant. You will find that He's a Savior and you will find that Jesus is not the boss, Jesus is your Brother. You will find that He is not a dictator. He is a Friend. Remember the words of the hymn, "What a friend we have in Jesus." If you want to know how much you matter to God, I want you to look with your spirit's eye to Jesus hanging on the cross. See him hanging there? You look at Jesus with His arms outstretched on the cross and you hear Him saying to you, "I love you this much.  I would rather die than to live without you."

How do I know God loves me? He gives us plenty of evidence that reveals to us how much He loves us. God tells us that He loves us in Psalm 145:9. He tells us furthermore that we are never out of His sight, Psalm 148:3. God tells us that He cares about every detail of our lives in Matthew 10:30. God tells us that He has given us the capacity to enjoy all kinds of pleasure in I Timothy 6:17. God also says He has good plans for our lives in Jeremiah 29:11. God cares so much about you that He has forgiven all your sins, the ones you haven't even committed yet, past, present and future. That is found in Psalm 86:5. God loves and cares for you so much that He is very patient with you, it says in Psalm 145:8. He cares so much about you that He sacrificed His own son for you, Romans 5:8. He loves you more that you can ever imagine!