Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Milford

The Prophet Jeremiah 21:1-10 [NLTse]
The Lord spoke through Jeremiah when King Zedekiah sent Pashhur son of Malkijah and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, the priest, to speak with him. They begged Jeremiah, 2 “Please speak to the Lord for us and ask him to help us. King Nebuchadnezzar[a] of Babylon is attacking Judah. Perhaps the Lord will be gracious and do a mighty miracle as he has done in the past. Perhaps he will force Nebuchadnezzar to withdraw his armies.”

3 Jeremiah replied, “Go back to King Zedekiah and tell him, 4 ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I will make your weapons useless against the king of Babylon and the Babylonians[b] who are outside your walls attacking you. In fact, I will bring your enemies right into the heart of this city. 5 I myself will fight against you with a strong hand and a powerful arm, for I am very angry. You have made me furious! 6 I will send a terrible plague upon this city, and both people and animals will die. 7 And after all that, says the Lord, I will hand over King Zedekiah, his staff, and everyone else in the city who survives the disease, war, and famine. I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and to their other enemies. He will slaughter them and show them no mercy, pity, or compassion.’
8 “Tell all the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: Take your choice of life or death! 9 Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease, but those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians will live. Their reward will be life! 10 For I have decided to bring disaster and not good upon this city, says the Lord. It will be handed over to the king of Babylon, and he will reduce it to ashes.’

SERMON – “Losing To Win”
Has anyone here ever heard the name Hiroo Onoda? Hiroo Onoda was a lieutenant in the Japanese army and served during World War II. He was the last Japanese soldier to surrender at the end of the War. World War II ended in 1945. Lt. Onoda surrendered in 1974!
Onoda was stationed on Lubang Island in the Philippines when it was taken over by U.S. forces in February of 1945. Almost all of his comrades were killed or captured, but Onoda and several others hid deep in the jungle there. He and his men had been ordered by their superiors to maintain their assignment until they received specific orders otherwise. Having never received such orders, their strict adherence to the Japanese military code of discipline and honor kept them at their post. And while all of his fellow evaders were eventually killed, Onoda held out for 29 years, dismissing every attempt to coax him out of the jungle as a trick!

Finally, in 1974, the Japanese government sent Onoda’s former commanding officer to Lubang to order Onoda to surrender. When Lieutenant Onoda stepped out of the jungle to accept the order, he was wearing his dress uniform, had his officer’s sword strapped to his side, with his rifle still in good working condition!

This past week we read Jeremiah chapters 21-40 (those of us reading through the Bible together in 2017). In our reading, the Lord has given the prophet Jeremiah a clear message for the king, the leaders, and the people of Israel: Surrender to the Babylonian army, let them take you away into exile in foreign lands, and live; or, keep fighting, and be destroyed. As you might imagine, there is huge opposition to the Word of the Lord Jeremiah has been called to proclaim. Many among the nobility and priesthood, even other so-called prophets, are arguing that God would never let them suffer defeat: They are His people! The LORD would never let Jerusalem be destroyed: God’s Temple is there! As a matter of fact, several other prophets begin preaching that the Babylonians would be driven away and that all the damage Babylon had done to Israel, and everything they had plundered, would be restored within two years! Jeremiah responds, “I wish that was true, but it’s not going to happen. We either surrender or we die.”
God calls us – all humanity, and His Own precious people – to surrender, too.

Of course, “surrender” is a military term. It is when one gives all their rights over to the opposition. When an army surrenders, they lay down their weapons, and the other side takes control of them from then on. Their life and their welfare is in the others’ hands…
Surrendering to God works the same way. The Lord tells us we are sinners, that is, rebels: Rebelling against Him, rebelling against the way He made us to live, and rebelling against the plans He has for our lives. So, surrendering to Him means believing that we are sinners and accepting the sacrifice of Jesus as His way for getting right with Him again. Surrendering to Him means believing He has a way for us to live that is different from how we’re living, and so trading-in what we want to say and do for what He wants us to say and do. (That’s repentance.) And, surrendering to Him means believing He has a plan for our lives, and so setting aside our own plans in order to eagerly seek His.

One pastor defined “surrendering to God” this way:
• Following God’s leading even though you don’t know where He’s sending you;
• Waiting and trusting in God’s timing even when you’re not sure how long it might be or what it will bring;
• Expecting a miracle even knowing it’s impossible to come;
• Trusting God’s purposes even when your circumstances make no sense.
You know you’re surrendered to God when you rely on Him to work things out instead of trying to manipulate others, force your agenda, and control the situation. You let go and let God work. You don’t have to always be in charge. Instead of trying harder, you trust more.
Genuine surrender says, “Father, if this problem, pain, sickness, or circumstance is needed to fulfill Your purpose and glory in my life or in another’s life, please don’t take it away!”

Oswald Chambers in his famous devotional My Utmost For His Highest says that true surrender is only for Jesus’ sake and the sake of the Good News. Surrendering to Christ must not be done for what we might get out of it. For example, we might say, “I’m going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin; because I want to be made holy.” And, of course, being delivered from sin and being made holy will be the result of being right with God, but our motive for surrender shouldn’t be for any personal gain. We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself! It is like saying, “No, Lord, I don’t want You, but I do want the good things you have.” Gaining Heaven, being delivered from sin, being made useful to God… these are all good things, but should never be a consideration in genuine surrender. At the heart of genuine, total surrender is our wanting nothing but Jesus Christ Himself…

(Of course, the great news about surrender is that God does have good plans and good things for us. He conquers us in order to bless us.)

The first step to surrendering our lives to Christ is perhaps the hardest. In the cross, His resurrection from the dead, and Jesus’ ascension to Heaven to send the Holy Spirit and intercede for us – in all of that – is an invitation to each of us to surrender to, and walk through life with, the Creator of the universe and the Savior of sinners. Will we accept such an invitation by accepting the sacrifice and lordship of Jesus Christ?

If we will, then, can we stop striving and start abiding? I see and hear so many Christian folk saying, “I’m striving to be God’s man;” “I’m striving to be a godly woman.” And, I don’t judge these folks but, Psalm 46:8 says so clearly, “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (NASB). At the heart of surrendering is letting go of trying to make God’s things happen in our lives. We don’t have to strive to make ourselves be a certain way or our lives turn out a certain way. We just have to abide in Him (John 15).

And a part of “abiding” is facing what comes to us God’s way. Ask yourself, “Are you living life on your terms, or are you living it on the Lord’s terms?” If He says, “Get rid of anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth,” do you say, “Yeah, Lord, but…”? If He says, “Be anxious for nothing,” do you say, “Yeah, Lord, but…”?

In today’s world, our relationship with God might cost us our family, our friends, our job, and, in some extreme cases, our lives! Will we surrender our wants and our will – that hinders us from having a better relationship with Jesus Christ – and seek to abide by living according to His will?

Andrew and Simon Peter, James and John, Matthew the tax-collector… they all surrendered everything to follow Jesus Christ. (They didn’t give everything away, they just gave it over to God!) The rich young ruler, on the other hand, even though Jesus loved Him, couldn’t surrender… wouldn’t surrender…

In the prophet Jeremiah’s day, besieged by the armies of Babylon, surrendering because God said so meant life: Not necessarily a pleasant life; not necessarily an easy life; not knowing where they’d be taken; not knowing what their life there would bring; but, trusting in the Lord, surrender meant life! To us, besieged by trials and troubles, the powers of sin and darkness, and the propaganda and ways of society and the world, surrendering to God because He’s said so also means life: Not always a pleasant life; not an easy life; not always knowing where we’re being taken; not knowing what this life will bring; but, trusting in our Father, surrender means a closer and more intimate relationship with the Lord Who is the giver of life: The One Who’s given His life for you and me on the cross; Who’s given His life so that we might surrender, take His side in the battle raging for our families, neighbors, and the world, and know His companionship, covering, and glory…