If you’re still new to the Grove, you may not have noticed it yet, but we’re a pretty subtle group of worshippers. And by that I mean there’s not a lot hand raising that goes on here. I don’t know why that is. Ashley and I have been to Christian concerts or conferences where everyone is raising their hands in worship, but here at home it seems like maybe we’re not comfortable raising our hands in worship. I think maybe the reason we’re uncomfortable with it is just because we don’t know what we’re doing. So, I’m going to have Tim Hawkins walk you through the art of hand raising in worship.

Seriously, though, raising your hands isn’t just a religious thing—it’s a human thing. And human beings raise their hands for essentially two reasons. The first is victory. When your sports team does something spectacular, your arms shoot up into the air. The second reason is surrender. When a criminal is surrendering to the authorities he comes out with his hands in the air. Victory and surrender—both of them have a lot to do with worship. Someone once said, “Only in the Christian life does surrender bring victory.”

Judson Van De Venter learned that for himself.

Born in Monroe County, Michigan, in 1855, Judson grew up with an interest in both art and music. He sang in his local church choir and studied both music and art in college. After graduating, he became an art teacher and eventually supervisor of the art department for a high school in Sharon, Pennsylvania. But he didn’t give up on music either. He often led worship for evangelistic rallies and revivals where he witnessed so many hearts coming to Christ. Some of his friends encouraged him to become a fulltime music minister, but he wasn’t sure. He wrestled with the idea of leaving his career to become a minister for five years. Finally falling to his knees, he prayed, “Lord, if you want me to give my full time to your work, I’ll do it, I surrender all to you.” And out of that experience, Judson wrote the hymn “I Surrender All.”

This hymn has not only touched the heart of countless worshipers and prompted people to surrender their lives to Jesus, but it also outlines what it really means to surrender your life to Him. The first verse describes surrendering to Jesus in terms of reverence.

 

• REVERENCE

 

Sometimes people associate reverence with respect or admiration, but it’s more than that. It’s also adoration and affection. In the first verse, Judson describes his own reverence for Jesus in these words: “All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, in his presence daily live.” Another popular hymn made famous the words, “Jesus loves me.” And those words are wonderful and comforting; but it’s easy to say, “Jesus loves me.” It’s whole other thing to say, “I love Jesus.” Can you say that? Do you love Jesus with an abiding love?

Jesus once said that the first and greatest commandment is to: “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind” (Matthew 22:37 NLT). This command urges us to love God—to love Jesus—with every fiber of our being; with every ounce of passion that we can produce. It’s an all-encompassing love that infects and infiltrates every area of our lives.

When I first fell in love with my wife, I thought about her constantly: while eating breakfast, at the office, waiting in line at the grocery store, pumping gas—I couldn’t stop thinking about this woman! I would call her and text her frequently throughout the day. Whenever we were apart, I just couldn’t wait to be together again. Having her on my mind all the time made me feel close to Ashley even when were a couple hundred miles apart. Even today, after eight years, I’m not quite as obsessive, but there’s not an hour that goes by that I don’t think about her.

I think that’s the kind of love that God wants us to have for Jesus—the kind of love that touches every moment of our day. The classic book on learning how to “in his presence daily live” is Practicing the Presence of God. It was written in the seventeenth century by Brother Lawrence, a humble cook in a French monastery. In it, he talks about his attempt to live every moment with an awareness of God’s presence. When God takes up residence in your heart, He’s with you wherever you go.

That reminds me of this four-year-old girl who was at the pediatrician’s office for a check-up. As the doctor looked into her ears with an otoscope, he asked, “Do you think I’ll find Dora in here?” The little girl stayed silent. Next, the doctor took a tongue depressor and looked down her throat. He asked, “Do you think I’ll find the Cookie Monster down there?” Again, the little girl was silent. Then the doctor put a stethoscope to her chest. As he listened to her heart beat, he asked, “Do you think I’ll hear Barney in here?” The little girl replied, “No, silly! Jesus is in my heart. Barney’s on my underpants.”

I hope Jesus is in your heart. I hope you will always love and trust him and live daily in his presence. The first part of surrendering to Jesus is reverence for him.

 

• REJECTION

 

The second part of surrendering to Jesus is rejection. Not rejecting Jesus, obviously, but rejecting your own sinful nature. Judson Van De Venter puts it this way in verse two: “All to Jesus I surrender; humbly at his feet I bow, worldly pleasures all forsaken; take me, Jesus, take me now.”

Part of surrendering our lives to Jesus is rejecting worldly pleasures—not wholesome, honorable pleasures, but worldly pleasures. He’s singing about our sinful desires and temptations. Jesus once announced to a huge crowd of fans, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23 NIV). Each one of us comes fully equipped with what the Bible calls a sinful nature. Anger, ugliness, resentment, hatred, jealousy, stubbornness, pride, lust, gluttony, cruelty, selfishness, greed—these are all expressions of our sinful nature. They rise up inside of us because they are part of who we are. Surrendering to Jesus means denying that sinful nature—even going so far as to put it to death—and choosing instead to follow Jesus. It means bowing humbly at the feet of Jesus and putting his will above our own.

And if we love Jesus—if we really have reverence for him in our hearts—then that’s what we’ll do. Jesus put it this way when talking to his followers: “If you love me, obey my commandments” (John 14:15 NLT). Our love for Christ shows up in obedience to him.

I love my wife. And because of that I have occasionally allowed my desire to make her happy outweigh my better judgment. For years she has wanted a golden retriever. Despite the fact that we already have one dog and I had no desire to housebreak another one, I finally broke down and bought her a golden retriever puppy for her birthday. Shelby can’t be trusted to be unsupervised in the house because she’s still not completely housebroken and she likes to chew everything she sees. So we bought a 5×10 chain-link kennel, for both dogs to stay in while we are away from the house. However, every time we left the house, the dogs escaped. Toby, the older dog, was strong enough to bend the chain-link fence out far enough to squeeze through, so I kept having to reinforce it with steel ties and eventually a tension rod. When they couldn’t escape through the fence anymore, Shelby taught Toby how to dig under the fence. The funny thing is, even though they kept escaping the never went anywhere. They had the chance to wander all over the country side, yet when we came home, they were always sitting happily in driveway wagging their tails as pulled in. This not only drove me crazy, but confused me until I came across a paragraph in Barabara Woodhouse’s book, No Bad Dogs:

Thousands of dogs appear to love their owners, they welcome them home enthusiastically wagging their tails, they follow them about their houses happily and, to the normal person seeing the dog, the affection is true and deep. But to the experienced dog trainer, this outward show is not enough. The true test of real love takes place when the dog has the opportunity to go out on its own as soon as the door is left open by mistake and it goes off and often doesn’t return for hours. That dog loves only its home comforts and attention it gets from its family; it doesn’t truly love the master or mistress as they fondly think. True love in dogs is apparent when a door is left open and the dog stays happily within earshot of its owner. For the owner must be the be-all and end-all of a dog’s life.

Isn’t that true of us too? The real test of a life surrendered to Jesus is when we have the opportunity to wander away, to pursue worldly pleasures, to leave his presence, and choose instead to stay close to him, to abide in Christ, and obey. So surrendering our hearts and lives to Jesus involves reverence and rejection.

 

• RECEPTIVENESS

 

The last part of surrendering our lives to Jesus is receptiveness—that is, being receptive to his Spirit. Judson Van De Venter mentions this concept in both verse 3 and 4, when he writes: “All to Jesus I surrender… Let me feel the Holy Spirit… fill me with Thy love and power; let Thy blessings fall on me.”

The final step in surrendering all to Jesus is being filled with God’s Spirit, which then empowers and enables us to live Christ-like lives. When Christ’s Spirit mingles with your spirit, then your life begins to look like his. Our hearts begin to overflow with things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. The Bible commands us, “Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).

So the question is—how can we be filled with the Spirit. Well, the rest of that verse provides us with one answer: “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts” (Ephesians 5:18 NLT). Not only does Paul encourage us to drink deeply from the well of God’s Spirit, but gives us the bucket too—worship. The Spirit fills as worship flows. Music has a way of touching us, of opening our hearts and moving our spirits. An entire book of the Bible—in fact, the biggest book of the Bible—is a collection of songs inspired by the Holy Spirit. And when we sing those psalms as well as other hymns and spiritual songs—not just in a church setting, but at home, in the car, at work, wherever—we open our hearts and become intoxicated with God’s Spirit.

There’s another way to be filled with the Holy Spirit and it’s really easy—ask. Jesus told his followers, “Everyone who asks receives… You know how to give good things to your children. How much more your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:10, 13 NCV).

Just ask. That’s exactly what we’re doing in the lyrics of this hymn.

Invite God’s Spirit into your heart. But don’t stop there, be specific. Welcome the Spirit into every nook and cranny of your life.

I do something similar with my air conditioner every summer. In every room of the house, cool air surrounds me. Outside the asphalt sizzles in brick over heat, but inside I’m as cool as the other side of the pillow. Why? Two reasons. First, a compressor sits next to the house.  I didn’t build it or install it. It just came with the house. But equally important are the open vents. I didn’t install the air conditioner but I do open the air blockers. Cool air fills the house because the vents are open. I can go from room to room lowering the levers and releasing the air. The Holy Spirit will fill your life as you do the same: as you room by room, invite him to flow in. And when the Holy Spirit fills your whole heart, then you can sing with confidence, “All to Jesus, I surrender; all to him I freely give.”

 

Conclusion:

 

After choosing to surrender his whole life to Jesus, Judson Van De Venter spent the next several years traveling the country, leading worship for various evangelistic rallies and revivals, until moving to Tampa where he began teaching music at the Florida Bible Institute. In the 1930s a student sat listening to learning from Judson Van De Venter. That student was Billy Graham. Billy gave credit to Judson for having influenced his early preaching and often used his hymn, I Surrender All, as an invitation hymn in his crusades and rallies.

 

Invitation:

 

I’d like to do the same this morning. This hymn is a call to reverence for Christ, rejection of our own sinful nature, and receptiveness of Christ’ Spirit. If you haven’t surrendered your all to Jesus—then now’s your chance. Only in the Christian life does surrender lead to victory. Come forward as we lift our voices and hands to Jesus.