"Faith That Surrenders"

"O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever." (Psalms 74:19) The actual illustration for "saved" that Paul was saying in the context of 1 Corinthians 3:15 was that of being 'snatched out of the fire.' If you will, it would be like you burning something such as trash, and then you see something you cherish within that pile of trash and you snatch it out of the fire. For God, that something is the soul of His child that has been purchased by the blood of His Son; which means that we escape the fire based upon the fact that we are cherished by God; no matter what hell might deliver us, we will not perish!!! I'm sorry, but I feel a little out of sorts; so if I get a little loud, it's only because I have been crying out to God all morning for strength. Maybe that's the point of this title today, and God is trying to tell me I don't need strength, but that I need to surrender. If you don't know how to swim, you don't need strength, you need to relax and let the lifeguard save you; otherwise the lifeguard will let you drown, and bring you unto shore to revive you. They try and convince us, based upon 1 Corinthians 10:13, that God will never give us more that we can handle; somehow, I am not quite sure that is true. In the context of what Paul was talking about, it was temptation not trials; there is a difference between trials and being tempted by sin. First of which, is the fact that God does not tempt us with sin; He will however give us strength and a way of escape from being tempted; but we must take it! Our biggest problem with that, is that when we do end up sinning, it's because we either found another way, or we did not take the chance to escape. Secondly, when God gives us a trial, and He does, He does so to weaken us from walking in our own strength. It is His way of showing us that we don't really know how to swim, and we need to learn how to drown gracefully, so that He can safely pull us from the water. Now if that sounds like God not giving you more than you can handle, then I must have missed the part about us putting up a fight; because it is my experience that putting up a fight will just get you in trouble with the lifeguard. The whole point of this message is how weak and fragile that we are, not about our need for strength. We do not need strength, we need to surrender our lives completely to God, every last bit of it! Now, for those of you that do not see any part of this message in the context of the verse we have before us today, then I have not completely expressed what it was God placed upon my heart. Because this verse is all about "surrender!" It cannot be any clearer than it has been spelled out! The "turtledove" is being delivered over, but the request is for the "soul" not to be delivered. the "congregation of thy poor" is being forgotten, but only for a moment: SNATCH! That's what it feels like when you drown...
 "Therefore, be patient," says the LORD, "Soon I will stand and accuse these evil nations. For I have decided to gather the kingdoms of the earth and pour out My fiercest anger and fury on them. All the earth will be devoured by the fire of My jealousy. Then I will purify the speech of all people, so that everyone can worship the LORD together. My scattered people who live beyond the rivers of Ethiopia will come to present their offerings. On that day you will no longer need to be ashamed, for you will no longer be rebels against Me. I will remove all proud and arrogant people from among you. There will be no more haughtiness on My holy mountain. Those who are left will be the lowly and humble, for it is they who trust in the name of the LORD. The remnant of Israel will do no wrong; they will never tell lies or deceive one another. They will eat and sleep in safety, and no one will make them afraid." (Zephaniah 3:8-13) NLT