First Southern Baptist Church of Coalinga
Worship Service Message Outline and Scriptures for Sunday, August 13, 2017
I am excited this morning to preach on the next message in our series: “The Exchanged Life”! Today, we’re going to discuss the subject of “Total Surrender” of ourselves to the Holy Spirit. As you know, we will be looking at quotes of Christian preachers, missionaries and leaders and comparing them with God’s Word.
One of my favorite missionaries is Adoniram Judson, Jr. who lived from 1788 to 1850. He was an American Congregationalist and later Baptist missionary, who served in Burma for almost forty years. At the age of 25, Adoniram Judson became the first Caucasian Protestant missionary sent from North America to preach in Burma. His mission and work with Luther Rice led to the formation of the first Baptist association in America to support missionaries. Judson's brilliant mind allowed him to learn the Burmese language and translate the Bible for the Burmese people. There are few in the history of the church who have suffered so much for the cause of Christ as Adoniram Judson. His faith and perseverance through extremely difficult challenges and pain was a result of yielding his life to the Holy Spirit. Let me quote what he says about this subject.
“To clearly follow Christ, we must know the fullness of the Holy Spirit in our lives, but it costs much, to obtain this power. It costs self-surrender and humiliation and yielding up of our most precious things to God. It costs the perseverance of long waiting and the faith of strong trust.”
He goes on to say:
“But when we are really in that power, we shall find this difference: that whereas before it was hard for us to do the easiest things, now it is easy for us to the hardest.”
Acts 20:22-24 NKJV
Not only was Paul totally surrendered to the Holy Spirit leading in his life, even into threatening situations where he could be killed, he still obeyed what he was told to do. There is another person who did the same. Look at Acts 7: 54 - 60:
Acts 7:54-60 NKJV
What an example we find in the Apostle Paul and Deacon Stephen of those who have totally surrendered their lives to the Holy Spirit’s leading at any cost!
Dying and laying down our lives for Christ does not have to be physical.
Consider Romans 12:1.
Romans 12:1 NKJV
Listen to this testimony and quote from a Pastor by the name of Robert C. Haverson. I think you will find this especially interesting, because he was called to the Pastorate of First Presbyterian Church right here in Coalinga in 1947, where he served for three years. Pastor Haverson writes:
“After two years in Coalinga, I entered into a period of disillusionment that became so acute I felt I must leave the ministry unless something happened to alter the situation. This was resolved when after two weeks of intense aloneness and spiritual wrestling accompanied by the feeling that God had put me aside for further useful service. I finally told the Lord I was going to serve Him the rest of my life, whether there was any fruit or blessing in that service…and whether or not He would finally accept me in heaven.”
He like many Christians come to that conclusion from (Galatians 2:20):
Galatians 2:20 NKJV
Pastor Haverson from Coalinga continues:
“Furthermore, I was willing to be buried for the rest of my life in Coalinga and serve in obscurity there or anywhere.”
Dr. Victor Raymond Edmond the Fourth President of Wheaton College in Illinois concluded that for Pastor Richard Halverson
“Life is different, altogether new, wonderful, and meaningful, because the old life of selfhas been exchanged to the new life in Christ.”
Each of these men; the Apostle Paul, Deacon Stephen, Adoniram Judson and Richard Halverson made a decision to give their lives over to Christ and had committed to follow the Holy Spirit wherever and however He lead them. They had experience “The Exchanged Life!”
Look at what the Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1: 10 – 12.
Colossians 1:10-12 NKJV
The word “meet” in the KJV or “qualified” in the NKJV in the Greek is ἱκανός / hikanoō which means:
“Make able or to make sufficient, render fit or to equip one with adequate power to perform duties of one”
To be qualified or made able to do what God wants us to do, can only be accomplished through total surrender to the Holy Spirit!
A final quote I’d like us to look at is again from Adoniram Judson:
“As Christians, have we not had contact with a divine force, but with a divine person? Instead of praying constantly for the descent of a divine influence there was now a surrender, however imperfect, to a divine and ever-present Being; instead of a constant use of the Holy Spirit for doing my work, there arose a clear and abiding conviction
that the true secret of service: lay in so yielding to the Holy Spirit that He might use me to do His work…”
This is what Deacon Stephen, the first martyr of Christ did. Look with me at Acts 8: 26 – 27a.
Acts 8:26-27 NKJV
The Philip mentioned here in this passage is one of the seven men or Deacons chosen to serve the widows in Jerusalem. When Philip heard from an angel of the Lord, he did not stop to question the instructions he had been given. He just arose and went and did as he was told. He was totally surrendered to wherever the Holy Spirit would have him serve. From waiting on tables for the widows in Jerusalem to heading out to Gaza in the desert. As a result of his obedience to the Holy Spirit, we can read about the results of his encounter in the desert with the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8: 35 – 40.
Acts 8:35-40 NKJV
Philip’s total surrender to following the Holy Spirit’s instructions led to powerful witnessing that bore immediate fruit. Then the Holy Spirit took him to his next assignment in Azotus.
“The Exchanged Life” of total surrender enables each of us to experience the blessing of the Holy Spirit’s powerworking through our lives. It is here that “The Exchanged Life” magnifies and glorifies God!