I'm glad you're all here this morning!
And those of you who are joining us for the first time, I am especially glad you've been lead to join us! I pray that you will be blessed and will choose to return!
How many of you are familiar with the phrase..
"Finders Keepers. Losers Weepers?
Raise your hand..
Well, today I'm going to share a message that changes that concept, or at least, I pray, changes your perspective of it ...
A real Christian is an odd ball, according to the world anyway.
Can I get a witness?
Amen!
A true believer in Jesus Christ feels the supreme love for One whom he has never seen, talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see, expects to go to heaven on the virtue of Another, empties himself in order to be full, admits he is wrong so he can be declared right, he knows he must go down in order to get up, to become first, he must become last, he is strongest when he is weakest, richest when he is poorest, and happiest when he feels worst. He dies so he can live, forsakes in order to have, gives away so he can keep, sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, to lead he has to serve, and come to know that which passeth knowledge and understanding.
Can someone say "Praise the Lord?"
Amen and AMEN!
Real life is found only by giving up one’s life to Jesus.
The person who refuses to relinquish this right to the Lord Jesus misses out on the life God intended for him. He fails to experience the fulfillment of completing his mission on earth, whereas the person who gives the Lord the right to order his life experiences real life. He experiences that deep sense of fulfillment, inexplicable satisfaction, and pleasure with his life.
Even in the face of difficulties and hardships.
Amen?
And in addition to being given that special quality of life, he receives a gift that's called eternal life!
There is power in Relinquishment!
Say that with me,
There is power in Relinquishment!
But the process isn’t much fun...
Isn't that true?
Amen!
So what exactly does it mean to Relinquish?
Relinquishment: the process of releasing, yielding, resigning, surrendering, abandoning, waiving, or giving up something completely.
This power of relinquishment took Isaac up the slopes of Mt. Moriah and left him tied to an altar like a lamb led to the slaughter.
God’s request that he sacrifice Isaac was totally out of character with the God Abraham had known in the past.
All Abraham could do was to relinquish his son and trust God.
Can you just imagine the mental load that Abraham carried up that mountain?
The anxiety? The anguish?
I can almost here him say, Lord, I'm doing this, but please think about this!
I cannot understand what You are doing here and WHY?
But in order for Abraham to be the man God would build a people up on, he had to be willing to relinquish to God that which meant to most to him, his son!
The Lord doesn’t just want the first place in our lives, He wants all of our life.
And then there's Moses.
Moses tried to do things the “Egyptian Way.” The Bible says Moses “looked this way and that way” before he murdered the Egyptian. What he failed to do was look up!
He wanted to know if men were looking and evidently he wasn’t concerned by the fact that God was watching.
Once he stepped out of the will of God, he could not keep one Egyptian buried in the sand.
However, once he stepped back into the will of God, he was able to bury the entire army of Pharaoh in the bed of the red sea.
But the process in between was the process of losing one’s life.
He was pulled away from Pharaoh’s throne, and brought to the desert to do the very thing he had been taught to hate.
It was the “desert of relinquishment” that Moses learned many of the things he needed to lead Israel through the Sinai.
Moses did not start by parting the Red Sea.
God ask Moses what is in your hand?
That rod, a shepherd’s staff, a mere stick, became a miracle when Moses turned it loose at God’s command.
When did it cease to become a miracle?
When Moses picked it back up!
Moses had left his scepter in Egypt, and now his staff was a symbol of his authority over those bleating sheep.
God said “give me your authority” turn it loose if you want to be what I want you to be.
The first have to be last, if you want to lead you have to serve, full you have to be emptied.
This is the law of the Kingdom is much different than the laws of this world.
Sin began because the devil said “I will.”
Redemption was birthed because Jesus said, “not my will, but Yours be done”.
Moses was scrambling for excuses to avoid God’s call when the Lord told
him “put your hand in your bosom...now pull it out."
He was shocked to see that his hand was covered with leprosy!
Put it back in now and when he pulled it out it was cleansed.God was teaching Moses two lessons.
First, any person who cannot control his flesh, cannot cast out devil.
Second, God cannot do anything through anyone who wants control.
God intended to embarrass the devil and humble Pharaoh, but first He had to work on Moses.
You will never be a success for the Kingdom of God until you see yourself as a threat to the enemy!
Amen?
When we relinquish are lives into His hands, “the rod in your hand”, the ordinary tool that God put in your life, “it will be transformed into the “rod of God”.
No more was it called Moses’ rod, but from then on it became the rod of God.
God looks for ordinary people who will relinquished their life to him so He can give us the abundant life, a life everlasting!
A young boy gave up his lunch, but when it was given into the hands of Jesus, it fed 5000!
Perplexities Are Prayers Answers!
Say that with me.
Perplexities Are Prayers Answers!
Amen!
Much of what perplexes us in our Christian experience, “is the answer” to our prayers!
We pray for patience and God sends tribulation!
Wait! What?!
God, what are you doing here? Did you not hear me?
But Faith Triumphs in Trouble!
Scripture teaches,
"And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance, character; and character, hope."
Romans 5:3-4
Do you see it?
God not ONLY answered our prayer, but He gave us even MORE!
And all we can see if the struggle! The trial!
We want the Passover, but we don't want Good Friday!
We desire crown, yet we complain about the Cross!
We pray for submission, and God sends us suffering!
But we learn obedience to God through our suffering.
Hebrews 5:8
We pray for unselfishness, and God gives us opportunities to sacrifice ourselves for others!
We learn unity, through humility!
Philippians 2
We pray for victory, and suddenly, all the things of the world sweep down upon us in a storm of temptation!
"For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith."
1 John 5:4
We pray for a deeper relationship with Christ, and God severs our natural ties..
Friends betray us, family becomes indifferent to us!
Christ brings Division!
"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.
We pray for God to open the doors for opportunity, and He sends us trials!
And in the those trials, He provides us with the opportunities we prayed for.
But all we can see is the trials!"
Matthew 10:34-39
We pray for love, and God takes away the love we have known!
So we can know His love for us..
A love that changes EVERYTHING!
So that we will come to know that the kind of love we long for, that we've come to believe we'll never find...
Can ONLY be found in Him!
1 John 4:9
In closing...
We ask and pray for God to open doors, to give us the opportunities we desire...
So God sends us trials, and with those trials. are the open doors of His provision,
All the opportunities we desire...AND MORE.
Yet all we see IS the trial!
God has given what exactly we've asked for, and multiplied it with His abundance..
And all we can do is complain, that God hasn't heard us, He hasn't answered our prayers...
Reminding Him of the promises He made in Scripture!
So the next time, you pray, asking God to meet your needs and answer your prayers
Don't be upset with His process!
Instead of seeing the trials, look for the provision and blessings!
Because when Our Loving Father provides for the needs of His beloved children,
He does it exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask!
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
Ephesians 3:20-21
And now ...
May the the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries