SERMON NOTES

JOHN 18:1-12 (NLT)
(1) After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees. (2) Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples. (3) The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove. (4) Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked. (5) “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I Am he,”  Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) (6) As Jesus said “I Am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground! (7) Once more he asked them, “Who are you looking for?” And again they replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.” (8)  “I told you that I Am he,” Jesus said. “And since I am the one you want, let these others go.” (9) He did this to fulfill his own statement: “I did not lose a single one of those you have given me.” (10) Then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave. (11) But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?” Jesus at the High Priest’s House (12) So the soldiers, their commanding officer, and the Temple guards arrested Jesus and tied him up.

SURRENDER = YIELD

• Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray

TO YIELD MEANS YOUR POWER SHOWS UP DIFFERENTLY

• We bear the image of God and He has bestowed or placed some of His power upon us and even within us.
• God has given you agency, a will, and the ability to exert power in various degrees in your life, so to surrender doesn’t actually mean you give up all of your power, but it 100% means your power shows up differently.
• Surrender is the way of the cross; it is the way of the Christian. 

TO YIELD MEANS GOD’S WILL > YOUR WILL

• And a life of surrender means allowing the power of God to direct your steps instead of going wherever you want to go.

TO YIELD MEANS YOU EMBRACE SUFFERING

• To yield and surrender to God means there will be times we embrace the pain of the cross, not run from it.
• God’s primary purpose is not to make your life more comfortable here on earth; God’s ultimate purpose is to make you more like Christ.
• The greatest power of Christ was on display not through the escape of suffering but through His embrace. 

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

1. How are you encouraged/challenged by Murray’s idea that Surrender = Yield? 
2. How does surrender, suffering, and faith get lived out in your life today?
3. Where is God teaching you to surrender today?

SERMON AUDIO