Announcements:
- Prayer meeting (Next One April 2, 2023 at 6pm). First Sunday of every month.
- Summer Family Camp June 12-16 (4 nights). Sign up. Fill out Private Room forms
- Sponsor a youth summer camper if possible
- Women’s meeting April 29 at 9:30am. Mark your calendar.
- Spanish Translation for the sermon is now available at HCC. Feel free to invite Spanish speaking people to church.
- Youth meet every Saturday at 6:30pm, 3rd Saturday of the Month at the Youth meeting is at the community center.
- Pray for HCC and Open Hands Community Charitable Services as we prepare to expand our service to the community.
- Pray for Pastor Elias Ozuna as he enters full time into ministry.
Sermon Notes
Generally, surrender means to give up something or control over something. If you think about
the military, surrender would mean giving up control of your soldiers and sometimes even your
country to the control of another country. Such as in World War II when Japan surrendered to
the United States and gave control of their country over to the United States.
But there are other ways that we are surrendering our control to something or someone either
conditionally or unconditionally.
In our walks with God, are we unconditionally surrendering control of our lives to him, are we
surrendering with conditions, or not actually surrendering at all. When we unconditionally
surrender control to God, it looks like trust, freedom, reliance on Him; totally letting go. On the
other hand, conditional surrender is on our own terms which makes us feel safe, we can predict
how things will turn out and we still actually have control. In that case, we are not trusting God
to lead and guide us, we are holding back from true release and freedom in Christ.
Jesus laid it out very well in Luke 9:23-26. Sometimes people read that verse and see “take up
their cross” as punishment. But that is the wrong perspective. It is the idea of giving over control
because we love God. Surrender is not for our personal gain or benefit but God does bring
blessings to those who truly love and seek him. Unconditional surrender to God is an intimate
and personal choice with our God-given free will to give our desires, our hopes and dreams, our
everything to him knowing and believing that he will lead us into a future filled with his
goodness.
We have the most incredible example of unconditional surrender from Jesus himself in Matthew
26: 36-45. Here we read about Jesus’ struggles with the reality of what was to come for him
which was to be beaten and to be hung on a cross for our sins. But he surrendered to his father’s
will and trusted in the plan for salvation of the world.
Yet just a few days before this Jesus had seen crowds cheering and praising him in what we refer
to now as Palm Sunday. Matthew 21:1-11. Today we remember Palm Sunday as the beginning
of the last days of Jesus’ life on earth and the leading up to his death and resurrection. So today
and this week, reflect on the fact that Jesus freely and unconditionally surrendered, he accepted
the shame, the beatings and suffering because it was God’s plan to provide us with salvation. His
surrender was for us. He committed no sin, he was blameless. Yet he surrendered his will to the
Father for you and me.
In closing, let’s all think about what we might be holding onto and haven’t unconditionally
surrendered to God. It’s truly time to give it to God so that we can grow our relationship with
him and have freedom and praise king Jesus without conditions. Let’s surrender to Jesus.
Surrender the guilt, shame, fear, pride, whatever it is that is holding you back from being closer
to God, it’s time to surrender.
