Participants: Mike Lemon (Host)
Series Code: SCS
Program Code: SCS000005
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00:33 Chapter 5: Consecration.
00:38 Hello and welcome to Steps to Christ in Song. 00:40 Today we're going to be looking at Consecration. 00:43 Consecration is one of those words 00:44 we don't use very often. It really means to 00:48 surrender your life to Jesus Christ, 00:50 to be totally committed and devoted to him. 00:53 Luke chapter 14:33 Jesus speaks to us and says 00:58 unless you are willing to give up all 01:01 you cannot be my disciple and that's a big question, 01:05 why would we give up all only because 01:08 he has something much better to give us 01:11 in exchange. My eldest daughter once asked me a 01:14 me a question about a lady who she saw in church 01:17 and she said to me daddy, don't you think that 01:20 that lady is half a Christian and I was kind 01:24 of I didn't know what to say and so I said 01:27 to her how come you say that she is half 01:29 a Christian? She said well she goes to church, 01:31 but I've heard her use bad words 01:35 she is actually used Jesus name as a swear word 01:37 and she uses it quite often that way. 01:41 And I had to admit you know it does sound 01:43 like she is trying to be half a Christian, 01:46 but Jesus says unless we give up 01:48 all we cannot be his disciple. 01:51 That's where Consecration is, 01:53 it's total surrender, we are not wholly 01:57 surrendered to Christ unless we give him our 01:59 whole heart. Before we go further with this 02:02 topic of Consecration, I'm going to ask 02:03 Rochelle to lead us in a word of prayer. 02:06 Let's bow our heads. 02:08 Our precious Savior, we need your spirit 02:10 to help us understand what consecration 02:12 and real surrender means. 02:14 Teach us and make this experience real in 02:17 our lives, in your name we pray. Amen. Amen. 02:22 Our human nature has been so altered by sin 02:25 that we must undergo a complete 02:28 transformation in order for us to be in 02:30 harmony with God and his laws. 02:33 This means that we must personally choose 02:36 to make an entire surrender of ourselves to Christ. 02:39 Jesus said in Luke 14:33 no one can become 02:43 my disciple without giving up everything for me. 02:47 Jesus isn't interested in forcing us to make 02:50 this decision. He wants us to do it because 02:53 we love him and we know that our happiness 02:56 is dependent on our unity with him. 03:20 I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold, 03:28 I'd rather be His than have riches untold; 03:37 I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands, 03:46 I'd rather be led by his nail-pierced hands. 03:58 Than to be the king of a vast domain 04:06 Or be held in sin's dread sway 04:15 I'd rather have Jesus than anything 04:24 This world affords today. 04:42 He's fairer than lilies of rarest bloom; 04:50 He's sweeter than honey from out of the comb; 04:59 He's all that my hungering spirit needs, 05:07 I'd rather have Jesus and let Him lead. 05:18 Than to be the king of a vast domain 05:26 Or be held in sin's dread sway 05:35 I'd rather have Jesus than anything 05:44 This world affords today. 05:54 More than anything, This world affords today. 06:30 You know living for those things Johnny is 06:32 quite natural to us, to live for men's applause for 06:36 worldwide fame and yet total dedication 06:39 to God is asking us to give up those things 06:43 for God you know and to give everything to 06:46 him to consecrate our lives to him. 06:49 But when we think of how people dedicate 06:51 themselves to those things it's kind of an 06:53 object lesson of how we can be completely 06:55 consecrated to God. It really reminds me of 06:58 sports you know right now last year we had 07:00 the Olympics and we had Michael Phelps. 07:02 Here's a man who won eight gold medals. 07:05 Amazing. Broke world records and 07:06 Olympic records, his life is just dedicated 07:09 to swimming and the way he eats, 07:11 the way he exercise, who he hangs out with, 07:14 it's all just dedicated to this one goal. 07:16 Yeah, yeah, so everything in his life 07:19 is wholly consecrated to swimming. 07:21 Exactly. Dedicated, loyalty. 07:24 Now in that consecration to something like that, 07:29 we can see a spiritual application like 07:32 Paul says okay, here in the Olympics, 07:35 you run to win, in the coming second no one 07:38 is going to remember. So you really want to 07:40 win so every aspect of your life 07:42 is consecrated to God. In your spiritual 07:45 experience have you had an experience 07:47 you can say oh I had to give up something 07:49 so that I could live for God. 07:52 There was one time I was on a mission trip 07:54 to Africa with a group of young people 07:56 and I remember it was a Sunday 07:58 and we were all planning on going 07:59 to the lake and we were going to go 08:00 swimming and sailing and just really have 08:02 a great time, but before we left one of the 08:05 missionary said, the mission post that 08:06 we are at invited me to come to a funeral, 08:10 to a lady that lived in the next village, 08:12 she had died and they needed some people 08:14 to come and help support the family 08:16 and I really didn't want to go, I wanted to go swimming 08:19 with my friends, but he invited me to go and I had to think 08:24 about it, I really had to pray about it 08:25 and I decided that about the 08:28 only lasting, lasting evidence that would be 08:31 from going swimming would be a sunburn. 08:33 Right. But going to the funeral would have 08:37 a much longer lasting. Impression. 08:39 Impression upon their lives and I could actually 08:41 help somebody spiritually. Yeah. 08:45 And I decided that that would be a better 08:47 idea than to go do something selfishly 08:49 something that I wanted to do and give that 08:51 up to go help support this family. 08:53 Yeah, you know in Steps to Christ it talks 08:54 about the warfare, actually calls it a warfare; 08:57 a warfare against self is the hardest battle, 09:01 the toughest battle that we will ever fight 09:03 and you're battling against self. You think to 09:05 yourself a funeral or a day at the beach right. 09:09 Yeah. Most people would choose a day 09:11 at the beach right, but you going there to support 09:13 people struggling with self and giving up 09:16 everything, Kevin in your music you play 09:19 the violin. Have you had that struggle? 09:22 Yes, definitely, I've been struggling 09:26 all along but a while ago I was, I felt like 09:29 I wasn't close to God and I didn't know 09:32 why and so I was praying about it and 09:35 thinking about it and I was listening to some 09:38 Christian youth meetings and as I was 09:40 listening I was convicted that it was my music 09:42 that I was playing music that was 09:44 bringing glory to myself not to God 09:47 and it wasn't necessarily the music's fault 09:50 but it was, I was trying to get glory for myself 09:54 So, I was thinking about it and finally 09:58 I decided to give it to him, give the music to him 10:01 what I would play, I would let him be in charge, and when 10:04 I did that I really had peace in my heart 10:07 and it was a really wonderful feeling. 10:09 So giving up your music to God means 10:13 you don't play the violin anymore. 10:15 No, definitely not. It just means that 10:17 I play it for him. 10:18 You play it for him. So it's sort like the rich 10:19 young ruler, God says you know Jesus says 10:22 to him give up all your riches. 10:23 He was dependent upon those riches, 10:26 that was his identity. How can he give that up 10:28 and he walked away, he was very sad. 10:29 But God had something much more for him 10:32 something better than he could ever imagine 10:35 and when he comes to us and he says I have 10:38 something better for you often we turn away 10:40 and we're very sad because we don't see 10:41 that we actually need to surrender all 10:44 to him to actually find true joy in our lives. 10:49 It may sound like an incredible sacrifice 10:51 to give everything to God, but Jesus makes 10:54 this very clear in Matthew chapter 16 10:57 verses 24 to 26, where he says if any of you 11:00 want to be me my follower you must deny 11:02 your selfishness and take up your cross 11:04 and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, 11:08 you will surely really lose it, but if you 11:11 give up your life for my sake you will save it 11:14 and what do you benefit if you gain the whole 11:17 world but lose your own soul, 11:19 is there anything worth more than your soul. 11:22 This my friends is a question we have to 11:24 answer for ourselves. Jesus was confronted 11:27 with this question on our behalf. Is my soul, 11:30 is your soul worth his sacrifice. 11:32 Thank God his answer was yes. 11:51 The pilgrims throng thro' the City Gates 11:58 while the night is falling fast 12:05 They go to watch on Calvary's hill 12:14 Ere the twilight hours are past, 12:20 Though dark be the way, with the eyes of faith, 12:27 They gaze at his cross above, And, low from each heart, 12:37 The shadows depart, As they list through his words of love 12:47 As they list through his words of love. 12:55 Rest, rest to the weary, peace, Peace to the soul. 13:09 Tho life may be dreary, Earth is not thy goal, 13:20 O lay down my burden, O come unto Me, 13:31 I will not forsake thee, I will not forsake thee, 13:43 I will not forsake thee, Tho' all else should flee. " 14:06 Far, far, away, o'er the dream of years They hear the voice 14:16 of the king, Where O Grave is thy victory 14:27 and where O death is thy sting? Captive He leads them for 14:39 evermore; While weary pilgrims rejoice; 14:49 For looking on high to the Cross He bore, 14:56 The faithful shall hear His voice, 15:03 The faithful shall hear his voice. 15:10 Rest, rest to the weary, peace, peace to the soul, 15:23 Tho' life may be dreary, Earth is not thy goal, 15:34 O lay down thy burden, O come unto Me, 15:46 I will not forsake thee, I will not forsake thee, 15:58 I will not forsake thee, Tho' all else should flee. " 16:10 Tho' all else should flee. " 16:32 Christ paid all for us. His infinite sacrifice 16:36 was so he could take our filthy rags 16:37 and offer us life and a reconnection with him. 16:40 Yet it's a gift and so few decide to accept it. 16:45 You know Carmen there are many who want 16:48 that gift and want to accept it, but they 16:51 give up in despair. They look at themselves 16:56 and they realize wait a minute, I made a 16:58 mistake here and I made a mistake there 17:00 and I made this promise and I just can't do it 17:03 and you know how do I get it right? 17:07 How do I make that connection? 17:09 You know when I was younger I use to 17:13 make promises to God that I wouldn't fight 17:14 with my sister I wouldn't tease her, 17:16 argue with her or anything and the very next day 17:21 I would find myself arguing or having a 17:23 disagreement with her and I would feel so 17:24 bad because I had let God down and I had 17:27 promised this and I couldn't keep my 17:30 promises and I felt that he would not want 17:32 anything to do with me anymore because 17:33 I couldn't keep my promises to him. 17:35 So that connection that keeping your 17:40 promises you know in steps to Christ 17:42 it says that we feel like our promises and 17:45 resolutions are like ropes of sand which is 17:47 really not stable at all, but it says you need 17:52 to understand the true force of the will, 17:53 that power of decision to choose, 17:57 to surrender your life to Christ. 17:59 Alley, how did you find that work in your life? 18:02 Well, when I was about 13, I wasn't having 18:07 my own personal devotions like in the 18:09 morning and my mom was really 18:11 encouraging me to do that because 18:12 I fell like I was really spiritually struggling 18:13 and lots of the times in the evenings 18:17 I would go and talk to her and she would 18:18 like uplift me and encourage me to make 18:20 that commitment to have my devotions and 18:23 I was having a really hard time doing 18:27 because I would feel really like energized 18:29 and pumped up about doing it in the evenings 18:31 when I talk to her and then the next morning 18:32 I would be so tired, so I don't wanna do this. 18:35 Yeah. And so then finally I told her one night, 18:38 I was like mom I just don't feel 18:40 like having my devotions and she told me 18:43 she said Alley whether you feel like it or not 18:45 just try it, try it for one month 18:46 and so I decided to make that decision 18:51 and I, the next morning I got up I did not 18:54 feel like have my devotions. I was just like 18:56 no I don't want to do this, but I made that 18:59 decision I made that commitment, I said 19:01 okay I'm going to do this and God really 19:02 helped me and day by day he worked on my heart 19:06 and I was able, well he was able like I can't 19:11 even explain with words how it happened, 19:13 but I don't even remember when that 19:15 month ended I just kind of kept going 19:17 and now devotions aren't a problem. 19:19 And you still have devotions now. Um Hmm. 19:20 And that's a struggle and I know that 19:24 struggle, it's like you're fighting against 19:26 yourself. The Apostle Paul talks about it as 19:30 dying daily and it sets a real serious struggle 19:34 and he talks to Timothy and he says fight the 19:38 good fight, you know when I go to my office 19:41 and I pray really you know like what 19:44 I'm doing here I'm not doing anything, 19:46 I've got to do something you know 19:47 but I'm actually praying, I'm asking God to do 19:50 that work in and through me. 19:53 Did you realize that God only asks us to give up those things 19:57 that will in the end harm us and make our lives miserable? 20:00 You see, Jesus died to give us the freedom to choose 20:05 those things that are in our best interest. 20:07 When we exercise our will to do right, we are simply 20:10 experiencing the freedom that comes from being sons and 20:14 daughters of God. 20:15 The Apostle Paul puts it this way Roman 6, 20:18 verses 6 and 7. Our old sinful selves were 20:21 crucified with Christ. So that sin might lose 20:24 its power in our lives. We are no longer 20:27 slaves to sin for when we died with Christ 20:29 we were set free from the power of sin. 20:32 Will you be set free? 21:06 Like the woman at the well I was seeking 21:12 For things that could not satisfy; 21:19 And then I heard my Savior speaking: 21:25 "Draw from my well that never shall run dry. " 21:32 Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up, Lord! 21:38 Come and quench this thirsting of my soul; 21:45 Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more 21:53 Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole! 22:00 So, my children, if the things this world gave you 22:08 Leave hungers that won't pass away, 22:14 My blessed Lord will come and save you, 22:20 If you kneel to Him and humbly pray: 22:26 Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up, Lord! 22:33 Come and quench this thirsting of my soul; 22:40 Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more 22:47 Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole! 22:54 Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more 23:04 Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole! 23:19 The woman at the well had been searching for fulfillment 23:21 in all the wrong places, maybe she thought that was her 23:25 only option. Jesus showed her she was empty, totally dry 23:28 He didn't leave her that way though, He gave her 23:31 living water. Jesus is the same today, 23:33 He still has that living water, and He desperately wants to 23:36 wants to fill us up. 23:37 The paradox that we find in the scriptures is that 23:40 in order for us to be filled with that living water, 23:43 we need to be emptied of self. 23:45 And that emptying requires a total surrender of your will 23:50 to God. In Steps to Christ it talks about not being able to 23:54 control your thoughts your impulses, your affections 23:57 and all of those memories cause you to wonder 24:01 you know, can I do this? And what she says 24:04 is you need to understand the true force of the will, 24:07 the power of choice. 24:09 You know that struggle of wanting to do to follow 24:14 God and not being able to is something all of us deal 24:17 with and yet it seems that the only suggestion we 24:21 find in steps to Christ is to try harder. 24:23 Yeah and yes and no, to try harder; to try harder, 24:29 to exercise your will in the right direction, 24:33 to choose to surrender your will to God instead 24:37 of trying to fix your heart. We can't fix our hearts, 24:40 our hearts are desperately evil the Bible says and we 24:43 cannot change them and changing our hearts is 24:46 what God does and so when we submit our will 24:50 to him we choose him to come in and change our hearts. 24:53 In your life Andrew, have you had an experience or 24:57 experiences where you've had thoughts or tendency 25:01 or even fears that you couldn't control and you 25:04 turned to God and he gave you a victory 25:07 over those things? Yeah. When I was 10 25:10 years old my family and I had just move to their 25:13 country of Rwanda and Rwanda is best known in 25:16 most people's mind as the place where the genocide 25:19 happened in 1994 and when we arrived there, 25:22 we visited some of the places where these 25:26 killings had taken place and honestly in 8 years 25:28 not much had changed. I mean they were still 25:31 you know bones and old bloody clothing from 25:34 people who had been killed there and this 25:36 deeply affected me, because I was only a small boy. 25:39 You saw this evidence of death and killing. 25:43 Yeah. And it really affected me and I began 25:47 to have nightmares at night, I was really scared 25:50 because here I'm in this place in for all I know the 25:53 people I'm meeting and getting to know could 25:56 have been the people who are involved in this and if 25:58 it happen in the past you know what's to say it 26:01 won't happen while I'm there and I was just very 26:04 scared and I began to pray that God would take 26:07 this fear away from me, take away these nightmares 26:10 and I remember one night I had a dream, it was so 26:13 simple but I can honestly say I believe God gave it 26:17 to me and in this dream I was standing in the road 26:21 and a war was happening you know like I imagined 26:25 what the genocide must have been like and I was so 26:28 scared, I didn't know where my family was and 26:30 all of a sudden I saw Jesus walking down the 26:34 road and he took my hand in his and walked down, 26:37 we walked down the road together and I just felt 26:40 such peace, it was a very simple dream but after 26:43 I had that I was not scared anymore, I didn't have the 26:46 nightmares because I knew that whatever 26:49 happened to me God would take care of me. 26:52 So, you surrendered your will to God and you 26:55 asked him to change something you couldn't 26:58 change in yourself and he gave you a dream and 27:01 through that you had peace within. 27:02 Yeah. That's God's work and that's what it talks 27:05 about when it says surrender the will to him. 27:08 There is a well-known phrase that goes 27:11 something like this, the road to hell is paved with 27:14 good intentions, that means that there are many 27:18 who have desires to chose God, they hope to serve 27:21 him, but they actually do not choose to become 27:24 Christians, they don't fully consecrate their 27:27 lives to Jesus Christ. Let's turn to him right now and 27:31 ask him to give us fully surrendered hearts. 27:35 Heavenly Father, we thank you Lord for the 27:38 images we find in the scriptures of Jesus and his 27:43 life of total dedication to us, to dying for our sins. 27:48 We thank you for his life and we choose to give our 27:53 lives to you right now. Thank you for this 27:57 great gift in Jesus name, amen. 28:03 Steps to Christ in Song is a 13 part series from 28:07 Fountainview Productions 28:08 designed to be an easy, non-threatening way to 28:11 share the good news about Jesus Christ 28:14 with friends, relatives and co-workers. 28:16 Order your copies now by calling 28:18 1-877-490-4141 or visit us 28:24 online at www. fountainviewproduction. com. 28:29 Steps to Christ in Song is also available at your local 28:33 ABC Christian Bookstore. |
Revised 2014-12-17