Abandoned to God

About 5 years ago my family and I got the priviledge to help with a church plant in a small community outside the town we currently live in. I was friends with the man who was going to be the Pastor and felt like the Lord wanted us to go and help if we could. We were there for four years and it was a great growing and faith building experience. We all became a family together. The church continued to grow and the Lord was doing great things. Then suddenly (to us anyway) the Lord called us to go and teach the Word in Canada. To make a long story short, the Lord provided amazingly and we went to Canada and taught the Word. We sought to plant a new fellowship there (in Alberta) and made some wonderful friends. Almost a year went by and the Lord changed the plans again, this time He moved us to the city we're currently living in. We have felt a need, since we've been in the mission field ourselves, to find ways to support other missionaries in the field. As we seek the Lord for the specifics, we're trying to be open to what He wants us to be doing.

Last Sunday I got the priviledge of being able to preach at the church that I helped plant outside of the town I live in. Every once in a while I get asked to come and teach and I'm blessed every time - partially because I get to see my friends and family again, but mostly because the Lord takes me through the ringer to come to that which He'd like me to teach. I've become quite addicted to His call and the sometimes gut-wrenching, but always wonderful process of listening to Jesus. This time, the Lord gave me two ideas to start with for the message. They came at about 1:00 am on Sunday morning, not because that's when I sat down to work on the message because I knew I was going to teach for a week or so, but because that's when the Lord spoke. He's teaching me to wait for Him, which to be honest, is very difficult. The two ideas were 1) the idea of being abandoned to God, and 2) Romans 6:22.

Romans 6:22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

Abandoned to God

As an orphan is abandoned to the care of those at shelter or home, we ought to be abandoned to God. To be abandoned is to be removed from the care of one and left in the care of another. We must be removed from the care of self, and set in the arms of a loving Father, that He might adopt us and make us His own.

Romans 6:22 has 3 points:
1) be set free from sin
2) be a bondslave to God
3) have fruit to holiness, and eternal life

We like the fruit and eternal life part, but so often we aren't willing to walk the road to get there. The road of repentence and slavery. We want to come to God on our terms instead of His. We want His blessings, but we don't want to have to trust Him through the conforming and purging of pain or sacrifice. We are saved by grace, which is a gift of God, but we must walk while trusting Him through the valley of the shadow of death, the death of our old nature.

The Bible doesn't allow a middle ground for God's children to rest in; there is the state of unbelief and carnality and there is the state of pursuing God - of loving Him with our entire being, no others. We do not have the option of sitting still, we either move forward or we move backward.

Philippians 3:13-14 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, (14) I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

1) Set free from Sin. We must be set free from sin and the weights that slow us down and get in the way of our relationship with our Father. When we come to Christ we are forgiven of our sins, praise the Lord! Also, every day, we must walk in confession and repentance so that there is nothing between our God and us. We don't need to be re-saved every day, but we do need to have our feet washed from the stains of the world.

Read: John 3:16-17; 2 Cor. 5:17-21; Hebrews 12:1; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Thess. 4:3,7; John 17:17; Eph. 5:25-27. We must confess and repent (1 John 1:9) and then God can do the work of sanctification (to set apart, to purify, to make holy). It is ours to repent and walk in His forgiveness and new life.

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

2) Bondslaves of Christ. In one way, we become slaves to Christ when we are saved. He paid the price for our sin and therefore owns us. However, even though Jesus paid for our sins, He doesn't force us to love Him. (Amazing!) The second part is that we daily must submit our lives in trust to Him as his bondslave (one who has willingly submitted themselves to serve another). This is the heart of being Abandoned to God. When we choose to Abandon ourselves to Him, to pursue Him with our entire being, to know Him as our Father and King and friend, to seek Him above all things. Hebrews 12:1 says that we must "run" the race set before us. Let us run away from sin and self and run toward our Lord and Master. Because He loves me and died for me and has given me new life, I am willing, no I want more than all else, to know and love my Master. We have the opportunity to show our devotion moment by moment as we obey Him. Obedience is the other half of belief. Belief without action is not belief. To trust is to commit, to be Abandoned to that which we trust.

Jesus submitted completely to the Father when He was on earth. What a wonderful example. In the garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixtion, staring at death, carrying the weight of the sins of the world, and contemplating being separated from His Father because of the sin put upon Him; Jesus said "Not my will, but You're will be done!" As Jesus did, we must put aside ourselves in humility. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's not thinking about yourself at all. This is what Jesus did.

Romans 6:16-18 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? (17) But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. (18) And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

Read: 1 Cor. 6:11-12, 1 Cor. 7:23, Romans 14:8

A slave is often hungry or thirsty. Do we hunger and thirst for God Himself?

Read: Mat. 5:6; John 15:13-14; Matt. 6:33 - Seek first the Kingdom of God.

To be Abandoned to God is to love Him completely, above all else. A slave does what the Master tells Him. Are we submitted to His will or our own? If we are Abandoned to Jesus we will be listening intently and running in obedience!

3) Fruit to holiness and eternal life.

Read: Gal 5:22; Rom. 7:4; John 15:8
A bunch of fruit = holiness

The fruit comes as a result of being with Jesus, not because we pursue it per se'. When we confess and repent of our sin, when we commit daily to being the bondslave of Christ, then fruit will certainly come. That fruit is for the Father to enjoy, for His labor of love in us.

May God bless you as you seek for Him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength! May you be abandoned to Him!