========================================================================
  FULL SURRENDER
  by Mark Greening
========================================================================

Summary: nil

Duration: 1:57:39

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

nil

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

It looks like everybody is pretty well seated. We'll do something a
little bit different tonight. Why don't you grab your hymnal, turn to
484, and stand.

I've been on heaven's table and a higher plane, and I am now, Lord, let
my people ride around. I want to live above the world, though Satan's
thoughts make me a hurl. For faith has caught the joyful sound, the song
of sin, the choir cried.

Lift me up and let me stand. I've been on heaven's table and a higher
plane, and I am now, Lord, let my people ride around. I want to sing
that third verse again in a new light.

If you're like me, when you said, for faith has caught the joyful sound,
the song of saints on higher ground, I almost always assumed that was
those up in heaven. Were you like me? How'd you hear? You know, but I'd
rather catch the song of saints on higher ground than I am right here.
You know, isn't that what Paul talked about, being mutually encouraged
by one another's faith? Mark those who walk well according to how we
taught you and imitate their faith.

Doesn't the world need to see saints on higher ground than us? And then
provoking one another on to love and good works. So let's sing that
verse again, this time thinking about some godly saint that has spurred
you on in your life, giving thanks to God for them, okay? I want to live
above the world. Though Satan's arms hang me, our world has caught the
joyful sound, the song of saints on higher ground.

Pick me up and let me stand, my feet on heaven's table and a higher
plane, than I am now, Lord, let my feet on higher ground. I want to
scale the utmost height and density of glory rising. Here I am now, my
feet on heaven's table and a higher plane, than I am now, Lord.

I can say tonight with Jacob of old that surely the Lord is in this
place. Let's just bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, we thank
you for answered prayer.

Thank you for your presence, Father. Thank you for who you are, for what
you've done, for what you're doing, for what you will yet do, Father. We
just commit this time to you.

We thank you, we praise you, we worship you. Our hope and our expectancy
is in you. We have yet great expectation from you.

We have all come here tonight with our cups turned up, ready to receive
yet one blessing from the Lord. Surely we are people in need of you. We
want to know you more.

There's a story ever new held on the cross you bore. Our sins and by our
stripes you healed. We want to love you more.

I just ask you to be with us and guide us and direct us. Be preeminent
in every aspect of this service. Be Lord.

We give you that place. Lord, we invite your spirit to have full
control. Let no flesh glory in your presence, Father.

None. We want nobody to touch your glory. Lord, we just want you to be
in charge and to do what you want to do in our hearts and lives tonight.

In Jesus' name. You can be seated. I did have a number of announcements
here at the last meeting of this conference.

One hardly knows how to put into words everything that is on one's
heart. And I'm sure many of you would feel the same way. Still expecting
things from the Lord and yet overjoyed at what God's done.

Thank you, Lord Jesus. Again, a reminder that this room is to be kept
for prayer, kept quiet, especially however the Lord chooses to dismiss
us tonight. If you want to visit, I know we've made lots of friends.

Brother, this morning as we were sitting in the vehicle together, he
just said to me, he said, I just love you. And I just felt the same
thing in my heart. We don't even know each other.

And the people that I prayed with, that I wanted to get to talk more, I
really feel like I didn't get to spend that much more time. But my love
has just been deeper. And I know there's nothing, no other explanation
than Jesus and his Spirit.

Again, if you need time for quiet prayer, to my left there's a room. You
can do that. And there's no charge here.

And we're so grateful to see that standard being once again raised for
the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I sure am. I want
to personally recognize and thank you, Brother Greg Gordon, for walking
that way.

You've been an example to me. I know you've been an example to others.
We bless you.

And I pray that God would reward you richly for investing that way in
the kingdom in a day when it seems everybody wants to sell the gospel.
Thank you. There is a box at the back if somebody feels moved to the
Spirit to give something to the work.

It does not go to sermon index. It just goes to help cover expenses
here. And I want to really thank the church here.

Thank you, Brother Brian, for letting us come. I know it's been a joy to
you, but thank you anyhow. And thank you to every member and servant in
the Barnstall Church here.

You have blessed. We have a little saying back home. You blessed our
socks off.

And we thank you. Yes, give a glory and praise to Jesus. Hallelujah.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord for the love of Christ that caused
people to serve like that. One gentleman drove all the way to Tulsa just
for a little wire so that they could do what they needed to do back in
the sound booth.

Praise God for that kind of heart. Praise be to Jesus. Which does take
us to the sound booth back there.

Audio and video. The audio is available immediately on sermon index. For
those of you who want to go on there and download any of the sessions
here, it's available.

The video will be about a week until it's all available. It will be
available. You can either, I believe, download it or order DVDs.

The directions will be there. They'll have links. Again, I believe,
provided freely.

Praise God. That's an answer to a prayer even. We thought that maybe it
would have to be sold because of cost of production.

But God answered all those things. And thank you for everyone that
served in that way. One more thing.

I don't have mine on. I guess I should. I kind of hate that thing
hanging around my neck.

Mine's this funny color. All the regular people have these nice black
ones. But at any rate, when you leave tonight, there's going to be a box
out there on the table.

As you remember and try to remember, turn them in. They can be reused
another year. There's also some remnants and other publications that
have been taken.

You're welcome to help yourself on the way out. Free literature out
there. What a joy to see the gospel being freely given.

Freely. We surely have received this week. No doubt.

Well, we at this time are grateful to Brother Mark Greening. Coming down
and joining us from Canada. And the way he's labored in the world.

And shared of his very heart and soul both up here and also at the
dinner tables. And up and down the halls and wherever we caught him.
Thank you.

The Lord has given him a message. Sometimes when somebody gives a
message, we give testimony after the message. And that's good.

But I would like to bear testimony before the message tonight. That Mark
has a message from the Lord. It's one that's been on my heart.

The Lord has been praying, putting the verses there. And I found myself
through circumstances that I believe God ordained. Connecting with Mark
and finding the very verses that have been just circulating through my
heart was Mark's message.

So I want to bear testimony Mark has a message. Like was shared the
other night. A brother stood up and said that we cannot deal lightly
with this message.

We must accept it. We must deal with it. It will not go well with us.

We must give the more honest heed to the things we are going to hear
tonight lest we leave unspoken. I'm confident that what God has begun,
he will wish to perfect further tonight. And there are lies in this room
that he's going to place a radical call on tonight.

Would you settle it tonight? Even before Mark gets on this platform.
That if it is God and he speaks to your heart and you know it's God.
That you'll say yes.

Would you do that with me right now? No cost. No reserves. Nothing that
you're going to hold back.

Whatever he says you'll say yes. There's a song that says. I'll say yes
Lord yes to your will and to your way.

I'll say yes Lord yes. I will trust you and obey. When your spirit
speaks to me with my whole heart I'll agree.

And my answer will be yes Lord yes. Alright Brother Mark if you come up
here. And I've asked two brothers from back home.

It's a privilege to have people right from my hometown of Ephrata,
Pennsylvania to be with me. And I've asked them if they would come up
and pray for our brother before he begins speaking to you. Brother
Bruce, Jason.

Yes Lord. We bow our heads once again in reverence. Lord.

Worshipping you. Thanking you for the way you've been here. And asking
you once again Lord to come.

Lord I just pray that you would baptize this place with a spirit of
humility. With a spirit of brokenness. Before your almighty throne God.

And Lord I pray that you would fill our brother Mark Lord. With those
rivers of living waters. God we live in such a dry and thirsty time.

Dry and thirsty land Lord. I pray Lord that each heart would receive the
word from you tonight God. And we would be changed God.

Not reformed but transformed. Oh God would you do it for your sake. And
for your glory Lord.

Might the Christ be lifted up and draw man unto himself. In Jesus name
we ask this. Amen.

Father. Tonight I just come before you Lord. Lord I. You're worthy of
all praise and honor Lord.

I just thank you God. For being here this week. For being with me Lord
and breaking me.

And Father tonight I just pray for brother Mark. And God. I just pray
you.

Your spirit would just come down. And that he would be a vessel that. It
would be a flow in and a flow out.

And it would be directly into the hearts of each one of us here Lord.
And Father tonight. I also pray that you would say like it says in that
song.

That we would be lifted to a heavenly plane tonight Father. Father just
pour down your spirit. That we can reach that heavenly plane.

That our feet can be planted Lord. I just thank you God. Because I know
you're going to do it Lord.

I just praise your name Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Amen. I'd just like to thank. First Baptist Church.

For my brothers and sisters who have made this such a pleasant stay. For
Eula who has billeted us. What a blessing that has been.

For my fellow brothers who have shared in the conference. And the
encouragement in the Lord they have been to me. But what I don't think a
lot of you know.

Is that I have an American background. And as such I'd like to express.
Some of my American heritage right now.

And I'd like to do that by welcoming from Haiti. My brother from Haiti.
Jean-Louis.

Welcome to Barnesdale. And to Barnesdale I regret. But after that.

After the service. Je te parlerai en France. D'accord? Bienvenue.

Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking was Mark expressing a
gift there. Or what was going on.

No, no, no. That's my American heritage. You say what in the world does
that have to do.

Speaking French with American heritage. My mother is French American.
Born in Springfield Massachusetts.

And before she went to kindergarten. Where she was going to learn her
English. She was shipped up to Montreal.

Of all the places. The Frenchest city almost in Canada. Where she was
sent to an English school.

To learn English. And so we grew up speaking French and English. And so
I speak.

I'm trilingual. I speak French. I speak Canadian.

I speak American. I want you to know that. Yes.

For me one of the saddest phrases. In the Bible is this one. In
Ephesians chapter 2. Verse 12.

Remember at that time. You who are separate from Christ. Excluded from
citizenship in Israel.

And foreigners to the covenants of the promise. And here's the phrase.
Without hope.

And without God in the world. For me one of the saddest things. Is not
just to recognize that.

The unsaved are without hope. And without God in the world. It's more
devastating to realize that.

Yes. This often describes the condition of our churches today. When it
can be said of God's people.

That they are without hope. And without God in the church. This is why
so many Christians are despondent.

And pessimistic about what I call the cultural Christianity. That
pervades our churches today. And as we know this lukewarmness.

Is best described in Revelation 3.15. Where Jesus says I know your
deeds. That you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or
the other.

So because you are lukewarm. That's the condition. Neither hot nor cold.

I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. And then the Lord makes a very
funny statement. You know we don't often think of God adding humor to
Scripture.

But I think there's a humorous verse that follows. We often misuse it.
But the context of the verses you'll see is not a salvation context.

In verse 20. Here after describing this lukewarmness in the church. He
says this.

Here I am. I stand at the door. And knock.

Folks can you picture that? People are looking all over the church for
Jesus. All the while he's outside. Knocking on the door to get in.

And little has changed today. Christians in churches all over North
America are still looking for Jesus. They're looking for him in the
pulpit.

But they can't find him. They're looking for him in well run youth
rooms. And nurseries.

And programs. And strategies. And church growth.

And they're looking for him in the administration office. He's nowhere
to be found. When Jesus is nowhere to be found.

Then we try to attract him through the latest strategies. And we preach
messages that tickle itching ears. And we try to get him to come to our
churches.

And still he won't come. So what is our problem? Well God answers this
for us. In Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 12.

Be appalled at this O heavens. And shudder with great horror. What's the
horror Lord? My people have committed two sins.

They have forsaken me the spring of living water. And have dug their own
cisterns. Broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Now what does that mean to forsake God the spring of living water? Well
in 1 John 4 and John chapter 7. We are told what this spring of water
represents. John chapter 4 verse 14 we read. But whoever drinks the
water I will give him will never thirst.

Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water.
Welling up to eternal life. And then in John 7 verse 38 we read.

Whoever believes in me as the scripture has said. Streams of living
water will flow from within him. By this he meant the spirit.

Whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Folks the warning
in Jeremiah 2 verse 13 is this. If we forsake the ministry of the Holy
Spirit in our lives and in our churches.

Then we forsake God and we leave him. And we end up digging our own
church services. And programs and projects and plans and disciplines.

And teachings and busy work. And dare I say even revival meetings. And
we do this to try to mimic the spirit of the living God.

And what only he can do in our lives and midst. We end up forsaking God.
Isn't that what happened to the Ephesian church in Revelation chapter 2?
Her problem was that she left her first love.

I was always taught that she lost her first love. The church didn't lose
her first love. She left it.

She forsook God. Even though she had all the right theology. And the
right deeds.

And the right hard work. And the right perseverance. She left and
forsook the Lord.

Now what's the solution to returning to the Lord? To the spring of
living water? You see if we answer that question tonight. We have the
answer as to how God will revive our lives and revive our churches. You
have your Bibles turned to James chapter 4 verse 7. We'll be considering
a few points from this passage to see how the Lord will return to us.

James chapter 4 verse 7 we read, Submit yourselves then to God. Resist
the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come
near to you.

That sounds like revival to me, doesn't it? Wash your hands you sinners
and purify your hearts you double minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change
your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up. And tonight
what I'd like to do for most of our time is focus on the first part on
verses 7 and 8. God says to us here, If you've forsaken me then this is
the way back. Come near to God, come near to me and I'm going to come
near to you tonight.

Now the rest of the verse talks about washing our hands and purifying
our hearts. In other words, we're to deal with sin in our lives. But I
don't want to focus on that tonight because we already know as believers
or as those who have been associated with church for a long time, we
know that sin is an abomination to God.

And we've been sitting under messages all week and if brother and
sister, if we're not convicted by now, you know, we better get a heart
transplant. I mean, these messages have been convicting. And as
Christians in 1 John 1.9 it says, If you are the ones confessing your
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from
all righteousness.

It assumes, God assumes that we are the ones confessing. I trust that
we're all confessing our sins on an ongoing basis. But I want to ask a
question tonight because this really begs an answer.

Do you believe that confessing our sins and feeling guilty about our
sins is enough to bring revival to our hearts and our churches? If it
was, we wouldn't have this conference. Being guilty about our sins and
constantly confessing our sins is not enough to bring revival to the
church. Something's wrong.

How is it that I can keep confessing my sin? And as I said the other
night, I used to confess my sins in the layaway plan. Lord, for what I'm
about to do, please forgive me. Yet I still did not see God working
powerfully in my life, if at all.

The answer to this is found in James 4.7. Before we can draw near to
God, to experience His life-changing power, there's two things we must
do. First, folks, we've got to submit to God. A definition of submission
is this.

It means to yield oneself to the authority of another. Another way of
describing submission is like referring submission to a surrendering of
everything that I am and have to the control of another. If you and I
have not surrendered everything to God, whatever that means, then we
cannot resist the devil at all.

And if we cannot resist the devil, we cannot draw near to God. He will
not draw near to us. There will be no personal or corporate revival.

And just as you cannot receive money out of an automatic banking machine
without first surrendering your card to that machine, so we cannot
receive victory from God without first surrendering our lives and
everything to Him. Now I want you to notice something about submission.
You remember when Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus? He
saved them and then He gave Paul this charge about preaching to the
Gentiles and Jews.

In Acts 26-17 He says, Paul, I am sending you to them to open their eyes
and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God
so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who
are sanctified by faith in Me. Now do you get what Jesus is saying to
Paul here? He is saying, Paul, until people are under My power, they are
actually under the power of Satan. And people tonight in this world are
either submitted to God or they're submitted to Satan.

There is no gray area. You say, how can that be? Let's look at what...
Don't turn there. I'll just quote some verses.

In Romans 8-7 we read, When the sinful mind is hostile to God, it does
not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Why? Because the sinful mind
is still submitted to the prince of the power of this dark world.
Colossians 2-20 Since you have died with Christ to the basic principles
of this world, why as though you still belong to it, what? Do you submit
to its rules? And in Scripture we are either submitted to God or we're
submitted to the devil and the world.

We are either under the influence and control of God or we're under the
influence and control of the enemy to various degrees. There are only
two categories of Christians in our churches tonight. Those who are
submitted to God and those who are not.

As a matter of fact, in the book of Acts, we find a strong distinction
between those who are submitted to the Holy Spirit and those who are
submitted to the devil and sin. In Acts 5-3, then Peter said, Ananias,
how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the
Holy Spirit? Ananias was a believer. His heart was filled by the enemy.

In Acts 8-13, you remember, Philip was there preaching. Who was Philip?
He was one of the seven who was chosen in Acts 6. Peter and the apostles
said, Now men, so much is happening. There's such a wonderful revival
going around.

We don't have enough time. It would not be right for us to neglect the
ministry of the Word and prayer to wait on tables. So you choose seven
men from among you, from all of the people, the thousands who have been
saved, choose seven who are known to be filled with the Holy Spirit and
we'll turn this work over to them.

One of them was Philip. Do you think Philip sensed things, had a
discerning spirit? Do you think the Holy Spirit spoke to him? And here
he is in Acts chapter 8, and we read, Simon the sorcerer believed and
was baptized. Do you not think Philip knew that a false convert when he
saw one? Folks, Simon believed and he was baptized and he followed
Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

But there was a problem with Simon. Because he saw that the gift of the
Holy Spirit was given at the laying on of hands and he tried to buy
that. He wanted power.

He wanted to look good in the eyes of the people. Philip, discerning
that, said this, You have no part or share in this ministry because your
heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the
Lord.

Perhaps He will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For
I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin. Simon, you're
still submitted to sin.

Not to the Holy Spirit. And Satan was going to use Simon as an
unsubmitted believer in that area to limit and thwart the power and the
moving of the Holy Spirit in that area. And just as Achan's one sin
brought this unexplainable defeat on Israel, so believers submitted to
the enemy and to sin and not to God can bring unexplainable defeat,
powerlessness and ineffectiveness to the gospel that is being preached
and to the prayers that are being prayed even in a Bible-believing,
Bible-preaching church like we come from.

There are many sins that can be submitted to and make us captive to the
enemy. Increasing numbers of men and women are being bound by lust and
pornography. I preached on this not long ago and I was astounded by the
statistics that you can find on the internet.

It almost defies all sensibilities what has taken place. No one wants to
preach about it or talk about it. But over 50% of Christian men at a
recent men's conference, and I looked at numerous surveys, are admitting
that they are regularly looking at internet pornography.

The greatest shock I found was at a recent women's conference over 30%
of the women said that they were involved in internet pornography. Even
as Paul said in Romans, even the women. Others are bound and captive to
homosexuality and premarital sex and adultery, anger and rage and fear
and worry and doctrines taught by demons and false religion and occult.

And I want to pause here. It used to be I could name the occultic
practices that most people could get involved in 15, 20 years ago. I
can't do that.

I cannot even keep up, leaders of this church, I cannot keep up with
what's going on even amongst our young people. We need to be aware of
what's going on. If your daughters are reading the Twilight series of
books, you get them out of your house.

That will put your daughter into so much bondage and rebellion against
you as parents, you have no idea. We've known two girls in the past year
who've come under satanic oppression, severe satanic oppression because
they were reading those books, not to mention Harry Potter books and all
the other occult books that go on, Christians reading horoscopes and
Ouija boards and all of this other stuff, New Age healing. And this
binds the church.

There's gossip and slander, which the tongue is set on fire by hell
itself, manipulative and controlling spirits, obsessive, compulsive
behavior, theft, lying. Some people are so bound by a spirit of
falsehood, you even believe your own lies now. Then there's greed, which
is called idolatry.

We say we don't go and worship idols, but if we're greedy and we want
more and more and we're not content with such things as we have, God
says you're an idolater. And here's one that covers a whole raft of
problems in our lives. Rebellion.

Do you know what Scripture says in 1 Samuel? It says that rebellion is
as the sin of witchcraft and arrogance as the sin of idolatry. This
isn't just a sin for young people. Young people, if you rebel against
your parents, God has only given you a few commands.

He's given us the commands of Scripture. But growing up, He just says,
obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Young people, if you
rebel against your parents, I want to tell you, you might as well just
go out and get involved with Ouija boards and Satanism, because you know
what? It's a sin of witchcraft.

I have known young people who have gotten involved in so much rebellion
that God has allowed a spirit of rebellion just to fall on them and it
followed them their whole lives. Now, I want to talk about this later. I
don't want to look and sound insensitive to you.

I love you. Some of you are rebellious because of the way you've been
treated, being brought up. Some of you here tonight have been beaten
even to within an inch of your life.

I know that. No one's told me that. I just know that in my spirit.

And God's got freedom for you tonight. But I want to tell you that these
things, these sins, if we do not allow God by His Spirit to deal with
these sins in our lives, we can become captives. We can be submitted to
sin and its influences on our lives instead of being submitted to God.

And I have good news for you tonight. If you abound in any of these sins
or others, the good news is you can't change. Isn't that good news?
Praise the Lord that you and I in and of ourselves, we can't change.

You know why that's such good news? Because if I told you something
different, you'd go home depressed tonight. Because you know you can't
change. You've tried to change.

That's why you may even be here tonight. You can't change. And that's
one of the most important truths that I've preached at this conference.

You don't remember anything else. Remember one point. That is, you can't
change, but Scripture says I can do all things through Christ who gives
me strength.

Did Jesus not say in John 15, 5, without Me, you can do what? Some
things? Oh, wait a minute. Nothing! Folks, without the power of Jesus
Christ being demonstrated even in this room tonight, you could not take
your next breath. Not your next breath.

That's what nothing means. Nothing means nothing. We come and we say,
well, we believe that as far as salvation comes.

You did not choose me, but what? I chose you. What did you do to get
saved tonight if you're saved tonight? Nothing. Oh, wait a second.

I had faith. It is by grace that you were saved through faith. This is
not of human decision.

John 1, 13. You were born again by the Spirit of God. He came on you by
His grace.

He gave you faith, the belief. And if you said a sinner's prayer and you
meant it and you were saved because lots of people get saved that way,
although it's not scriptural. It's not written in Scripture.

If you pray the sinner's prayer and you meant it and there was a change
in your life, it's because God gave you the grace even to say the words.
Even if you're repeating someone else's words, you're saved by His grace
through faith that He put into your hearts. And all of a sudden,
something happens to us and we say we're saved by grace and then you
know what? We move away from that vine and we stop abiding.

We say, now we're going to produce fruit on our own. And I'm going to go
out there and I'm going to get better and I'm going to get more holy.
And I'm going to deal with these areas of sin and bondage in my life.

And then we look at everyone else and we say, I'm not as bad as that guy
or that girl, that woman, man. I'm not as bad as them. So it must be
okay because they're spiritual and God forbid, they're leaders in the
church and well, no one's perfect.

And we can't change ourselves. That's the good news tonight. But God can
change us if we submit to God.

And I want to talk about this. What does it mean to be submitted to God?
There's nothing complicated about it. Submission means that you and I
are willing to yield completely to the authority of another.

It is the surrender. Everything we have to the control of another
individual, namely to Jesus Christ, we submit to Him as Jesus Christ
submitted to His Father in everything, so we're to do the same. He left
us a wonderful example.

I want to prove this point. Do you remember the story of the rich young
ruler? He came to Jesus asking how to be saved, how to have eternal
life. We pick up the story in Mark 10, verse 19.

And Jesus said in response to his question, well, you know the
commandments. Don't murder. Don't commit adultery.

Don't steal. Do not give false testimony. Do not defraud.

Honor your father and mother. Teacher, He declared, all these I have
kept since I was a boy. And Jesus looked at him and loved him.

One thing you lack, He said, go sell everything you have and give to the
poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. At this,
the man's face fell.

He went away sad because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and
said to His disciples how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom
of God. Now folks, this is not a story about how to get saved.

Would you agree with me? If this is a story about how to get saved, then
the only ones in this room tonight who are saved are only those of us
who have gone out and sold everything. Do you see what I'm saying? This
is not a passage about how to get saved tonight. This is a story about
submission to God.

Jesus couldn't save Him or use Him until He was surrendered to God and
everything. And Jesus, and this is the only example in all the New
Testament of this, He comes to this man and He looks at the one area of
lack of submission and He says, Guess what? You can't be my disciple.
You're not willing to surrender everything.

I'm just pointing out the area because I know everything. That's the
area. You're going to come.

I'm going to tell you to pray a prayer or whatever and you're going to
think you're saved and you've never surrendered to me. You're none of
mine. So Jesus cut him off at the pass.

He says, You're not willing to surrender. You're not willing to be
saved. You see why many people do not have victory over sin in their
lives? Can you see why the devil won't flee from many people? They have
never surrendered everything in their lives to God and when they try to
resist temptation or the devil, he won't flee from them because they've
never completed the first part of the equation which is submission to
God.

Do you know why young people are leaving the organized church and
droves? Because they don't know what surrender is in their own lives.
Often because they've not seen it in the lives of those around them. I
often use that phrase, Christianity is more caught than taught.

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
The psalmist said in Psalm 51, 12, Restore to me the joy of your
salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. What happens when
we are filled with the joy of the Lord and we really love Him and we're
on fire for the Lord and we're doing what He wants us to do and we're
holy and we're living for Him? What happens? Next verse, Then I will
teach transgressors your ways and sinners will turn back to you.

Mom and Dad, it's not to get our teenagers in ship shape. It's not to
get them more obedient to us. It's to live like Jesus and love them like
Jesus before them.

We often don't talk about surrender or submission in our churches
anymore. We've replaced that word. I don't know if you guys use the word
like this down here, but we use the word dedication.

Oh, it sounds so spiritual. We're going to dedicate ourselves to the
Lord. Any of you go through dedication services? I don't know.

Back where I come from, you know, the youth pastor or a youth evangelist
comes or someone else and we have an altar call. Everyone who wants to
dedicate themselves to the Lord, you come forward and you come and
everyone comes forward. And what do we come forward to do? We come
forward to dedicate some of the flesh.

We give God a piece of flesh. We call it rededication. Okay.

All right. We rededicate our lives to the Lord and we rededicate that
fleshly carnal action and attitude we have. Lord, I'm just going to give
you some of my time and some of my talents and some of my love and some
of my life and I'll give up coffee for a week or something, that
bondage, or whatever.

We'll do little things. And we try to get spiritual. We pray that prayer
of Isaiah, Lord, hear my sin.

Harry, you know. What do we dedicate? I remember I used to go forward in
those things in our youth meetings and I'd dedicate. You know what I'd
be thinking when I'd go forward? I'd say, Oh Lord, just whatever you do,
don't call me to the mission field or to the pastorate.

But if I have to go anywhere, I'll go to the mission field. Because when
I was 13, I remember thinking this. The world's worst job has got to be
being a pastor and the second unto it being a missionary.

I used to think that. I used to say, Lord, don't you dare call me to
that. So I'd dedicate something.

You know, if I become a mechanic or a pilot, I'll dedicate that. But no,
don't. You know, God isn't looking for dedicated and defeated
Christians.

He's looking for people who are on fire for Him. The fire of a pure and
a surrendered heart is an expression that goes, Get on fire and people
will come and watch you burn. And just as God in the burning bush got
Moses' attention, so the Holy Spirit filling us and causing us to
overflow with His love and His power will cause others to question, What
is it that you have? If ever there was a time in church's history that
we need to be surrendered, it's today.

You say, Why would I say that? 2 Timothy 3, verse 1. But mark this.
There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to
their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of
God.

And who are these people? Are they pagans? Are they the cultists around
the corner? No. Having a form of godliness. It's talking about the
church.

Having a form of godliness but denying its power to have nothing to do
with them. So God calls us young people and adults, all of us tonight.
He calls us to be surrendered.

Submit to Me. That's His call in your life tonight. Nothing less.

Nothing more. 100% total submission and surrender to Him. That's what He
calls for.

You say, Well, as young people, what does that surrender look like?
Well, it means that every part of your life is surrendered to God. It
means that you have surrendered your right to the kind of music you
listen to. Doesn't mean you have to go to your mom and dad and ask them
what you're going to listen to.

You know the answer you're going to probably get. You won't like it. But
there's some music.

You know what I'm talking about. I used to be into rock and roll. I used
to play electric guitar and I know the kind of music I like.

And I remember the day as a young person. You think you got bad music
today. You should have been in my day.

I'm 59. You know the stuff. The acid rock and that.

That was bad. And God came to me and He says, this grieves me. This
grieves me.

Well, Lord, one of the 12 songs is okay. Get rid of the whole album. A
little Levin, Levin's the whole lump.

Get rid of it. Remember I used to have, I got rid of almost all my
record collection that would be worth about $10,000 today. But I gladly
give it up for the Lord because it grieved my Savior.

It means you give up your right to the kind of shows you watch, the
books and magazines you read, the friends you hang out with, your
boyfriend and girlfriend and what you do with them, your sports, your
priorities, your career goals, your schooling goals, your life's work,
your willing, even if God calls you to go to Bible college or the
mission field or do whatever or to live a simple life so that you can
serve Him or to be a tent maker, all of that you surrender to Him.
Adults, how about us? Have you surrendered everything to the Lord
tonight? I always thought I had surrendered. You know, you can be
surrendered to the Lord 50% or 75%.

You know what I've learned? That God can actually use you for a while.
He can use you if you're partially surrendered until He brings you to a
place in your life where He taps you on the shoulder and says it's not
enough. There's another layer of this I'm going to go down to.

You remember Jacob? He was with Laban and for 14 years he labored for
those two women and then he gained lots of wealth and he left and he
meets God at Peniel. What a wonderful story. He wrestles with God, he
gets God's blessing and God touches his hip but God changes his name
from Jacob which means a deceiver to Israel which means a prince of God
and he changes his name right then and there which means, as an example,
his heart was changed.

Oh, he must have been spiritual, right? Because God met him right there.
No, right after. God says get ready to cross the Jordan first.

Rid yourself of all the idols in your house. What? And it says he went
and he buried all the idols under the terebinth tree. How is that that
God could bless him and use him all the while there were idols in his
household? You see, we're never fully surrendered until God says we're
fully surrendered.

And I remember years ago, I surrendered to the Lord and I know he was
using me because I was involved in a revival and we saw in our churches
as I was pastoring, God was doing things. Fourteen weeks straight, every
week people saved. Never a break and after fourteen weeks there's a two-
week break.

I don't have time to talk about that but we grieved the Lord. We grieved
the Lord. We sinned against him and for two weeks the Holy Spirit
stopped saving and as elders, we felt we had blood guilt on our hands.

It was a terrible feeling. I'd never felt that before and as we prayed,
we said, Lord, what is this feeling? And the Lord says, I've yet others
to save but I can't because of your sin. Sin in the camp and we repented
and I preached a sermon on grieving the Holy Spirit and then God saved
twenty more people right after that.

Taught us a lesson. You see, I was surrendered but then the Lord was
going to teach you something else. Not enough.

I've taught you some more things here, Mark. I want you to be
surrendered in all these areas. I'll never forget the day when God had
put me in a ten-year desert.

Oh, I was still ministering and doing things that I had to do after that
senior pastorate. The Lord showed me I'm putting you in a ten-year
desert. I don't want you to read books.

I don't want you to listen to sermons. I just want you to stay in my
Word. I'm going to teach you something after ten years.

I wasn't sure if I was hearing from God or not. You know, sometimes
we're not sure. I wasn't sure.

But I kept that on the back burner ten years. Ten years to the week. I
was alone in my room and the Lord spoke to me.

And He says, this is what I want from you. You've always thought you're
surrendered. You're sitting on your past coattails.

Your past blessings. The past revivals. I want to take you somewhere
else.

I want you to go further for me. And I want to show you something.
You're not surrendered.

You thought you were surrendered. You're not surrendered. I said, God,
what is it you're asking me to do? The Lord said to me, Mark, what are
all the things you hold dear in this life? I want it all.

Because Mark, if you don't give it to me, I can take it. You do know
that. Mark, does your Bible not have the book of Job? Could I not do to
you what I did to Job? I can take it.

The Lord gives. The Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

I can take it all from you. And so the Lord asks me, He says, Mark, what
about your wife? Can I take your wife's life? I said, yes. He says,
well, wait a second.

What if I don't take her life? What if I take her health and she becomes
an invalid and you have to care for her the rest of her life? Can I do
that? Yes, Lord. Mark, what about your boys, Joel and Jonathan, whom you
love? You know they love me. They serve me.

Can I take them? Can I take their life, their health? Yes, Lord, you can
do that. Oh, what about your bank account? Can I take that? Lord, it's
yours. What about your cars? Lord, you can take those.

What about your house, Mark? You know, your wife loves this house. Can I
have your house? Lord, you can take my house. What about your health,
Mark? What about your life? Oh, Lord, you can take that too.

Here was the one. What about, Mark, your reputation? What about your
reputation as a preacher? What about your reputation as a spiritual
leader in your church? What if I was to put you right up front of your
church and have them read you out? And you would lose all face right in
front of everyone you've ministered to. What if I was to cause you to
lose your complete reputation in front of this church? Would you submit
to me? I said, yes, Lord.

Even if you took my reputation because Christ, he made himself of no
reputation, how can I hold on to my reputation? That's a big one for us
who preach. That's a big one. To surrender that.

To lose our source of income or our ministries. What if God did that to
us? I said, Lord, I surrender everything. I can't do anything.

Without you, I can do nothing. And I said, Lord, and I surrendered. I
meant it.

I meant it. And I said, Lord, what are you going to do now that I've
surrendered everything to you? And the Lord laid on my heart 2
Chronicles 16, 9 where we read, For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro
over the face of the earth so that He might strongly support those whose
heart is completely His. Can you picture that? Can you picture that?
Like God looking over the battlements of heaven.

He's just looking over like this. And His eyes search to and fro over
the face of the earth. He's looking at churches.

All of our churches represented here tonight. He's looking at all of the
Christians around the world. But you know what? He's not stopping at
every church.

And He's not stopping at every Christian. He says, I'm looking to and
fro to strengthen the brother, the sister, my child whose heart is fully
committed to me. Fully surrendered.

I said, Lord, what does that mean for me? The Lord says, Mark, from this
day forth, I'm going to strengthen you. I said, what are you going to
strengthen me to do? He says, I'm going to strengthen you to not sin. I
said, Lord's not talking about sinless perfection.

I'm not here to talk about that. We have a sin nature. But Paul says,
cast off the sin that so easily besets.

How can we just throw it off if it's a besetting sin? It's possible. And
God says, for these sins in your life that I reveal, Mark, I want to
show you I'm going to take care of it like now I'm going to give you
strength to not sin. That's what the benefit of a surrendered life is.

You will not sin. And these areas that you want to change and you
cannot, I will strengthen you to not sin. But you've got to surrender
everything and be willing, Lord, whatever it takes to free me of these
sins.

Even if you have to take everything. Even to within an inch of my life.
If you have to do it to purify me with your fire so that I don't sin,
then do it.

That's surrender. You see, the reason we're so content to live with our
sin is we're not willing to pay the price of dealing with sin. Remember,
Lucifer used to preach at us.

He looked right at me. He says, not all those who pray for revival are
willing to pay the price of revival in their own lives. You have only
surrendered tonight, brothers and sisters, when that sin that the Holy
Spirit has convicted you of tonight, you are willing to say whatever it
takes, Heavenly Father, in my life, whatever it takes, no matter what
the cost to me physically, personally, spiritually, reputationally,
whatever it costs, I am willing for you to do that if you will save me
from that sin and deliver me from it.

And God says, I will strengthen you. My eyes will fall on you. I will
strengthen you to not sin.

I waited the next day, the next week, the next month, and I was free.
Areas I couldn't change, God changed. A good definition of surrender is
that we daily die to ourselves and live for Christ.

Listen to what Jesus said to the crowds in Luke 14. 25 large crowds were
traveling with Jesus. Oh, large crowds.

Yet another chance to grow a church. Write it down on the denominational
report and look good. And turning to them, He said, if anyone comes to
Me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his
brothers and sisters, yes, even his own wife, he cannot be My disciple.

And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My
disciple. Now what is Jesus talking about? Is Jesus speaking out of both
sides of His mouth? He says, the greatest command is to love God and to
love others. And now He's saying, if we don't hate someone, we can't
serve Him and be pleasing to Him? He's not saying that.

This is called an expression of appearances. In other words, when we
love God so much with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, when we
have dealt with sin in our lives in such a way that He is everything to
us, do you know that from outer appearances, when people look at us, it
looks like we are so in love with the Lord that we even hate others that
are around us? By comparison, we don't. We love them, but they think
that.

Those of us who minister, as you start being led by the Holy Spirit and
being used by Him, you know what I've found? That God never ministers to
someone through me and He never saves anyone by allowing me to share the
gospel with them when it's convenient for me. Never. He just never seems
to do that.

This past Valentine's Day, my dear wife, she's got the patience of Job.
And it's so busy. I'm a tent maker.

I run two small companies that support me for ministry and I run a
church. So it's been really busy. I mean, you know, 14, 15 hour days,
seven days a week.

And I said, Honey, we're going out on Valentine's for dinner. That was
my plan. And I happened to be out at a church and I was trying to escape
because people were talking to me and I was, honest, I was that far away
from the crash bar or the exit and I was just going like this and
someone said, Hi! And I looked in the kitchen and there was a lady who
needed ministry.

For three hours, I shared and I wept with that sister so that the Lord
could minister to her. It was so intense because the Spirit of God came
in that kitchen so intense, I couldn't even call my wife to tell her
where I was. Now men, if you got home that night, what would await you?
But you see, my wife was also surrendered.

And she just said, Well, I guess he's talking to someone again. There
was another night. We went out on Saturday and had a wonderful time.

But you see, are we willing to surrender our time? Just a few weeks ago,
same thing. Honey, we're going out on Friday night. It was so brutal.

I said, We're going out on Friday night. She always got ready. But she
writes everything in her day timer in pencil now.

Right? She can erase that. And I get a call from a brother I love in the
Lord. He wasn't a brother yet.

He called me while he was out consulting at a company early in the
morning on my cell. And he says, I've got to come see you tonight. I
said, As in tonight? Yeah, tonight.

As in right around supper? Yeah. And I said, Lord, this is you. He says,
I'm under such conviction.

I was up all night. I need to get saved. I need to get saved.

What do we do? Well, let me schedule you in my day timer. No, no. I
said, Brother, you come.

I called my wife. I said, Honey, about the date, she knew. There was a
silence, a space of a half hour.

She knew. I said, It's tomorrow night. No problem.

And you know, people look at... Go to the marriage books and counsel.
They'll say, Mark, you're sinning against your wife by not doing that.
You know, when we put the Lord and love the Lord first, that it will
look by comparison like we hate those around us.

Jesus tells us that anyone who does not carry His cross and follow me
cannot be my disciple. And you know, the cross is an instrument of
death. We put it up there and say, Praise God, Jesus saved me.

God calls us every day to die like Jesus did. To surrender. Jesus says
to you tonight, You must die to me in everything.

You must surrender your lives to me or else you cannot be my disciple.
You can be someone else's disciple, but you can't be Jesus's. You could
be surrendered to something or someone else, but you cannot be submitted
to Jesus.

Well, how do we die to ourselves? John tells us that we must hate living
for ourselves and love living for Jesus. Here's a wonderful passage.
John 12.24 Jesus said, I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat
falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.

But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will
lose it while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for
eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me and where I am, my
servant also will be.

My Father will honor the One who serves me. Do you see what God has
called us? We say, Thank You, Jesus, that You died for me. And He says,
Now I want You to die for me.

Have you ever thought of that? One of the most touching prayers I have
ever heard was a dear sister who I was sharing with, with her and her
husband. And she was struggling, as we all do at some point in our
lives, with surrendering. She was struggling with surrendering.

Now, moms, I know you can't relate to this dear saint, but she was
really struggling surrendering her children to the Lord. Now, you don't
understand that, do you, moms? Letting go of her children and letting
them into the hands of the Lord, even letting them fail in a safe,
loving environment. You know what, moms and dads? If you don't let your
kids fail in a safe and loving environment here now, in the home, you
know what they're going to do? You control them.

They're going to be like sprung steel and they're going to fail and
wreck their lives and cost hundreds and thousands of dollars in
irreparable damage. Not irreparable. God can heal anything.

But you see what happens? Let go of them. Surrender your children to
God. We are not the Holy Spirit in our children's lives.

We guide them. We direct them through the Scripture. There's times for
discipline, but there is a time where, you know what, the consequences
of their actions are disciplined enough for them.

And if you go and restate the obvious, they'll despise you. The only
command, one of the few commands for fathers is fathers, do not
exasperate your children under wrath. You know, God used to tell me that
with Mark.

Just don't exasperate Joel and Jonathan under wrath and they'll make it.
You show them Christ's love. You be gentle and loving.

You guide them, but you don't do things and control them so much that
they hate you. How many children have I talked to over the years? They
say, I hate my father. Why? They control me.

I can't breathe without them knowing it. And so this dear woman, she was
struggling with control with surrendering her children to the Lord and
with surrendering her husband to the Lord. Anyone relate to that?
Surrender your husband to the Lord.

Leave room for God's wrath. Oh no, I'm getting in that phone booth with
my husband. In a phone booth, you can probably get two people in.

I don't know how big the phone booths are here, but back home, you can
get about two people in there. Not a third. And so we're in there in the
phone booth trying to change husbands and wives and kids and there's two
of us in there and God's saying, I'm waiting.

You get out and I'll go in. I'll move in. You get out of the phone
booth.

I'm going to go in. You surrender them to me. Leave room for the wrath
of God.

Let me move in their lives. And so this lady, she said to me, I want to
surrender everything to the Lord today. Today I want to surrender.

And as she began to pray, she began to weep, and she said this, she
said, Jesus, You loved me so much that You died for me, but I've never
died for You. Lord, I want to die for You today. I surrender my life to
You today.

And as she wept, I wept. I thought, Lord, that's it. We have to die for
You.

You died for our sins. We've got to die in thanksgiving for what You did
for us. Are you willing to submit to God today? To die to your own
desires and goals and pleasures? To lose this life that you may gain
eternal life? If you do this, God will honor you.

And as Psalm 91, 16 says, With long life will I satisfy Him and show Him
my salvation. In order to draw near to Jesus and experience a personal
or corporate revival, we must submit to God and surrender to Him our
lives. But there's a second thing we must do.

We must resist the devil so that he flees from us and no longer block us
from drawing near to the Lord. If we're resisting the devil, that
implies he's resisting us. And you know what he's resisting us to do
tonight? He's resisting you and me, if he can, from drawing near to
Jesus because he knows as soon as he's out of the way and we resist him,
Christ comes to us and revival comes personally and corporately.

Now this topic of the devil is not to be feared because 1 John 4, 4
says, Greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world. Meaning
the devil. And since this is true, do you know that the devil is more
afraid of Christ than you, than you should be of him? And so there
should be no fear.

I'm not going into great detail tonight because you're going to see how
simple this is, contrary to what all the books say. We've just got to
resist him. But I mentioned a couple of nights ago about how the enemy
is overcome and I gave a story of a friend of mine who was going to be
positioned into one of Canada's top political positions and for various
reasons, I can't give details just to know that this was a very powerful
position and he was very close to getting it.

And a demonic spirit had been on him. He was possessed. And we always
think, oh, people who are possessed, they're foaming at the mouth.

Absolutely not. Most of us here tonight wouldn't even pick them out of a
crowd. And the Lord brought us together and I shared with him and told
him he needed to come to Christ by faith for forgiveness of his sins and
salvation.

And he came and after two hours of prayer with three of us, God
wonderfully, wonderfully delivered him. Now I'm telling you this story
so you understand the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in you and me if
we've come to faith in him. Because he was marked for such a powerful
position in Canadian politics and ultimately the UN, one week later he
told me he was walking in downtown Toronto in a big open square where
people often go between buildings.

And as he went into that open square, all of a sudden, five Satanists
converged on him, all wearing their dark robes and their hoods, wearing
their pentagrams. And one of them came up to him and he said, Are you
the one who was saved a week ago? And my friend said, Yes, I was. How
did you know? He said, My master Satan has sent us here today to kill
you because you were marked.

My friend said, Mark, what happened next? I couldn't believe my eyes. He
said, The man pulled out a fish knife and he says, I'm going to gut you
right here in front of everyone. My friend just remembered what I had
taught him the week before because you see, when he was in our
apartment, when God was going to deliver him through prayer alone, the
demon was going to kill us and I had to command that demon to sit down,
to submit to the authority of Christ so that we were not killed.

My wife, who was praying in another apartment with three other gals,
knew nothing about this and when she got home that night, she says, I
stopped the prayer meeting and I said, Pray for Mark because that
demonic spirit is going to kill him tonight. And so, this man remembered
the authority we had in Christ and so as that man came at him, that
Satanist with a knife, he said, In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
put down the knife and immediately he put his knife down like this and
he looked at my friend and he said this, You Christians just throw that
name of the Lord Jesus around as if it's nothing. You have no idea the
power in that name.

He couldn't do anything. He was frozen. All of a sudden, three other
people, three men who were witnessing from People's Church in Toronto, a
well-known church, they were at an evangelistic meeting, three guys,
they came up and they stood beside my friend and there was four of them
and they stood there and they looked at those Satanists and they began
preaching the gospel to them.

Four of them ran off and one of them, whose name was Dog of Satan,
that's what he called himself, fell to his knees, repented, and was
delivered right there on the spot and praised God and prayed with them.
Now the reason I'm telling you this is that Christians have believed the
lie that the enemy is so powerful, and he is, that he's lying to you
tonight and telling some of you you're going to be bound in sin the rest
of your life. And that's a lie.

He cannot touch you. Greater is He that is in you than he that's in the
world. And you know, this topic of the enemy is found all the way back
in the book of Genesis.

We don't talk about him very much, but I remember reading, there was a
father one night putting to bed his five-year-old son and his four-year-
old daughter and he read about Adam and Eve and he asked them what
lesson they had learned through the story and without hesitation, his
five-year-old boy said, not to play with snakes. And that's what James
is saying here. Don't play with snakes.

Resist them. That simple. Just resist them.

What does it mean to resist the devil? To know how to resist the devil,
all we have to do is understand how he comes at us and what his tactics
are. What are his tactics to get you and me to fail tonight? It's very
simple. He is not going to come at you and attack you as he did this
man.

Probably not. Here's how he comes. John 8.44 Speaking of the devil,
Jesus said, He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the
truth, for there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the
father of lies. And here's Satan's tactics to keep us from drawing near
to Jesus and having revival tonight. It's a lie.

He has no power. He wants to stop... Does God have a will for our lives
in this church? Yes. Does Satan have a will for this church? Yes.

Does he have a will for your life? Yes. And his will is to keep you
tonight, tomorrow, this week, from being revived, from coming to the
Lord and surrendering everything, because when you do, the power of God
will fill you through the Holy Spirit and you'll be able to live
Christ's life. What language do you speak here tonight? Some of you
might speak Spanish, some Hindi, English, French.

Do you know what language Satan speaks? Lies. Falsehood. Deception.

This is what Paul refers to in Ephesians 6-11 as the devil's schemes.
All week long, Satan has been sending you propaganda messages that are
made of pure lies. You say, well, what lies has he been telling me?
That's easy.

Find out what the Bible says, take the opposite, and that's what he's
telling you tonight. He's been telling some of you that you will never
be free from that sin. Sin.

You're a chip off the old block. Your mother sinned, your father sinned,
their parents sinned, and you're doomed. Repeat that again.

It's genetic. You're just going to be a sinner just like your parents
were. That's what he's telling some of you.

He's telling some of you because of your abusive background, you could
never change. He's telling you that. He's saying, I have you and I'll
never let you go.

In this area of impurity and pornography and lusts, he's telling you
that most guys do it and that's just a guy thing and you can't get out
of it. He's telling you that. I know that.

He's telling some of you women you'll never be free from your fear and
your insecurities and your anxieties. You'll never be able to submit to
your husbands as God is calling you. And I trust men that if your wife
is going to submit to you that you love her as Christ loved the church.

Because if you don't love her and you are harsh with her, scripture says
that God will not answer your prayers. And you know what I'm going to
pray tonight? Lord, if any man does not treat his wife as Christ loved
the church and he is harsh with her and he is abusive to her, I pray
Lord that you would treat that man exactly like he's treating his wife.
That's what I pray tonight.

So how do we resist the devil? Peter in 1 Peter 5, 8 says the same
thing. He says, Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion
looking for someone to devour. Resist him.

How? By the devil standing firm in the faith. What is the faith? The
Word of God. The truth that Christ has defeated Satan at the cross.

And now Satan is no longer able to defeat you. Colossians 2.15 And
having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle
of them triumphing over by the cross. Satan is defeated in your life.

The only power Satan has in your life tonight is a lie. He has been
defeated. Jesus said, You will know the truth and the truth will set you
free.

If you will claim this truth tonight that Satan is defeated and that you
can resist him, he has lost his power in your life. And you will no
longer be submitted to him and the sins of the flesh that are binding
you that you hate and would change. If you tell me tonight, if I put a
pill bottle up here tonight and I say, Any one of you want to come up,
this is an anti-sin pill for your bondage or bondages tonight.

If you come up and take this pill, you can be freed from your sin. Don't
put up your hands. How many of you would come up and take that pill
tonight? I know you would.

And there's something more powerful than medicine here. It's the blood
of Jesus Christ. And he defeated Satan at the cross.

And the only thing I know, God burdened me today. I was so burdened
about this. He said, Tonight there are people who are being lied to and
they've grown up in backgrounds that are so terrible, he told me, that
they cannot believe that they can be freed.

But if, Jesus said in John 8, 36, if the Son sets you free, you will be
free indeed. Folks, I have seen and been involved in praying with just
one or two of us where I've seen Satanists delivered in the most dire
and despicable circumstances and I can't even share what they've been
through. You can only imagine.

And I've seen the power of God come on them and deliver them instantly.
And they lived the Christian life and they were lovely people. You'd
never guess their background and he was healing them.

This verse in 1 Peter 5, 8, it says, Resist them standing firm in the
faith because you know that your brothers throughout the world are
undergoing the same kind of sufferings. You know, that's encouraging to
me because I know when Satan lies to me, when Satan is tempting you and
lying to you, just know this, every Christian goes through it. You're
not alone.

So when the enemy tells you, guess what? No one will understand you. You
can't go and tell your pastor or someone else about this. Don't tell
them.

I've had people tell me that year after year after year. Mark, we were
afraid to tell you what was happening. We were afraid to tell you.

But when you resist the devil and you expose his lies, and sometimes you
know what? You have to confess your sins one to another that you might
be healed. Part of the healing comes through this. To be able to expose
what's in the darkness and bring it into the light.

And when you stop believing Satan's lies about the fact that you cannot
be revived, it doesn't matter if this church gets revived. This is what
the high and lofty One says, He who lives forever, what? I dwell in a
high and holy place, but also with Him who is what? Broken in contrite
and spirit. To revive the heart of the contrite.

All I care about when I preach is that one person, by God's grace, just
one person will understand that they can leave tonight revived. Do you
know that the feeling that you have as one person being revived is the
same feeling you would have if this whole nation, if all of North
America was revived all at once and the biggest revival this world has
ever seen? You will not feel any different. When the love of God is shed
abroad in your hearts by the Holy Spirit, when He cleanses you and He
makes you new, I love what John says in 1 John 5, 4, For everyone born
of God overcomes the world.

This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. You
say, well, how do I resist the devil? How do I get over? By faith. Do
you have faith in the Word of God tonight? Do you have faith in what the
Bible says? That the reason that Jesus appeared in 1 John was to destroy
the devil's work? All you have to do is put your faith in the Word of
God and He will set you free.

Put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who said, without Me you can do
nothing. You can't get free tonight without Him. You will know the truth
Jesus said and the truth will set you free.

The thief comes only, the thief talking about Satan comes only to steal
and kill and destroy. And you know what? He's stolen your joy tonight,
many of you. He would kill you if he could, but he's killing your
spiritual walk with God.

He's trying to destroy your families. He's already succeeded in some of
yours. He wants to destroy your future.

He'll destroy your relationship with God every chance he gets. But Jesus
says, the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come that
they might have life and have it to the full. Do you believe that
tonight? I remember when the Lord Jesus came on me and convicted me.

He says, Mark, it's for freedom that Christ has set you free. Stand firm
and don't let yourself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. You can
resist the devil and have victory tonight.

And now having done this, now we can draw near to God. Now what does it
mean to draw near to God? It is this. It's an attitude of the heart and
mind that says God is loving and I can go to Him, listen, I can go to
Him just as I am tonight for forgiveness and acceptance.

None of us will be set free tonight. Not one. If you do not believe
that, hear me on this.

That was the principle that Jesus taught in the parable of the prodigal
son. And I want to share with you tonight, if you are not revived in
your heart, if Jesus does not mean everything to you and you are not
filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, love and joy and peace and
patience and kindness, all of the fruit, if you're not filled with that,
that's what God wants to do for you tonight. But here's what Jesus said.

You have to know that God will do this for you, but you won't know if
you don't understand who your Heavenly Father is. Listen, let me
describe what the Lord Jesus Christ, what your Heavenly Father is like.
This is what Jesus said in Luke 15, 17.

Speaking of the prodigal son and the prodigal daughter that may be here
tonight, when he came to his senses he said, how many of my fathers
hired men of food to spare and here I am starving to death. I will set
out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned
against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your
son.

Make me like one of your hired men. So he got up and he went to his
father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and
was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son and threw his arms
around him and he kissed him.

Tonight, your Heavenly Father, every day like that father, he's been
looking for you. He's been looking for you. You go out to the end of
that road and he says, I wonder where John and Sally and Susie and Paul
are.

Where are they? And when we surrender to God, when we draw nigh to God,
that is the kind of loving father we draw nigh to. Folks, if you do not
see God as the most loving father that you could ever imagine, you will
never, ever draw nigh to him. Never.

Most people go their whole lives and never draw nigh to God. They draw
nigh to him once for salvation and then the devil makes them feel
ashamed. Isn't that what he did to Adam and Eve? Not a new tactic.

He makes them ashamed of their sin and the more they get to know this
holy God, the more they fear approaching him. Before long, they stop
going to him altogether and they live a lonely, powerless, sometimes
hypocritical Christian life. Here's the problem.

The problem is we did what the Israelites did in Psalms or described in
the Psalms. We humanized God. Have you ever humanized God? We brought
God down to the human level and we relate to him like an earthly father
or a mother or an authority figure that we've had in the secular world
or even the church or church leaders or elders or pastors and we bring
God down to that level.

And when we see God in this way, we sin against God the Father by
refusing to draw near to him and staying in our powerless, joyless,
loveless state. Speaking of why the Israelites were sinning in this way,
the psalmist described it in Psalm 50, 21. He says, You thought I was
altogether like you, but I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face.

God was saying, You know why you keep falling away from me and your
idolatry and sin? Because you think I'm like every other father, every
other authority figure you've ever known, but I'm going to accuse you
because that's not me. You're not believing what my word says about you.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, I want you to know something tonight.

God, your heavenly Father, is the most loving, caring, sensitive,
gentle, understanding, approachable, forgiving, merciful heavenly Father
you could ever go to. In Isaiah 46, 9, we read, I am God and there is no
other. I am God and there is none like me.

Jeremiah 31, 3, He's telling you, Can you believe by faith these words?
These are coming from God to you tonight. He tells you this. He says, I
have loved you with an everlasting love.

I have drawn you with loving kindness. Psalm 139, read it. I don't know
if it's tonight or tomorrow, but at one point, the psalmist says this.

He's just overwhelmed. He says, How precious are your thoughts towards
me, O God. How vast is the sum of them.

I do count them. They would outnumber the sands of the sea. Do you get
what God is saying to you tonight? God is saying to you, I love you so
much.

My thoughts are so precious towards you. Towards you. Towards all of us.

He thinks precious thoughts. What's precious thoughts like? Well, let's
say we have some sand up here. I tell my wife, Virginia, I love you.

There's a grain of sand. Can you see it? There it is, okay. Here's
another one.

I think you're sweet. Here's another one. I think you're a wonderful
wife.

I think you're a wonderful mother. I think you are great. On and on.

Now, can you see those five grains of sand I just dropped down there?
Now, God says, when I think of each one of you here tonight, I am
thinking so many precious thoughts towards you that if you could go to
the beach, the biggest beach you could ever see, it outnumbers
everything. Everything I think about you is more than that. That's how
much I love you.

That's what he says. How vast is the sum of them, and yet, it is this
God that we fear approaching in revival. How we have believed the
enemy's lies.

How we have sinned by, as Hebrews says, having an evil heart of
unbelief. I'm not condemning you. I had one of those hearts.

And after living a defeated life for so long, I got down on my knees as
I shared the other night, and I said, Lord, forgive me for the greatest
sin I've ever committed in my life. It's an evil heart of unbelief. I
have not believed your words.

I have believed Satan's lies, and I'm defeated. But tonight, I'm going
to believe you. It is for freedom that Christ has set me free, and he
set me free that night.

Columbia Bible College, a few years ago, they handed out a survey.
Freshmen coming in and seniors leaving. Four-year program.

And for the freshmen, they had this, a number of questions on the sheet,
and at the top, it was titled something like, How do you perceive your
earthly father? And so the students answered all those questions, and
they filed them away. Four years later, upon graduation, they handed the
same survey out, and they had the same survey. They just changed the
title.

How do you perceive your heavenly father? And they wrote down the
answers to those questions. Same questions, mind you. Do you know when
they compiled those two sets of questionnaires, that after all of the
Bible courses and evangelism courses, and all of the theologies, and all
of the synthesis courses, and everything else they taught during those
four years, do you know that the answers were virtually unchanged? That
tells me that we can know, tonight, you can know everything there is to
know about the Bible.

You can have all the theology down pat. And Scripture says, Jesus said
to the religious people in John 5, You diligently seek the Scriptures,
thinking that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures
that speak about me, yet you refuse to come to me to find life.

And so if God is such an approachable God, a loving God, why don't we
draw near to Him, so that He draws near to us? Why don't we do it? In
verse 8 it's called sin. Come near to God, He'll come near to you. Wash
your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded,
grieve, mourn, and wail.

Change your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom. And humble
yourselves before the Lord, He'll lift you up. You know, I could stand
here and name a whole bunch of sins to convict you.

I don't have to do that. Because you already know what they are. I'm not
going to say that to you.

Do you know what? The Lord weeps for you tonight. He weeps for you
because of one sin, the sin of unbelief. The sin of unbelief that God
demonstrated His love for you in this.

Christ died for you even while you were still a sinner. If there's
anything that I want you to be convicted about tonight, forget about all
those sins that we know we do. Not forget about them, but just let's put
them out of our minds right now.

I want you to be convicted about one thing and one thing only. That when
you and I sin, we sin against our loving, merciful, good, and generous
Heavenly Father. And Satan has lied to some of us and shown us that he
is unyielding and hard and angry and unapproachable.

A God that sends sinners to hell. I'm going to tell you something that's
going to be very shocking and no one pick up a stone yet to stone me. Do
you know that God does not send people to hell because they're sinners?
Did you know that? God does not send people to hell because they're
sinners.

Because if He did, who in this room tonight would make it? I don't see
halves. God does not send people to hell because they're sinners. He
sends them to hell because they have rejected His loving, free gift to
us in Jesus Christ.

That's why. Imagine my wife coming up after all she's had to put up with
me in our marriage for 26 years now. We've been married.

I've known her five years before then, so for 31 years we've known each
other. And she brought me this present that she had labored on. By the
way, my wife's a great artist.

She paints and beautiful paintings. Imagine it was a painting, something
she did. She put her heart and soul into hours into an oil painting.

And it's wrapped up and she gives me this present and I just pick it up
and throw it on the floor and trample on it right in front of her. How
do you think she'd feel? Do you know that to not accept God's loving
gift, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to you, that
if you will believe in Him, you will not perish and have everlasting
life. He is lovingly giving you the Lord Jesus Christ as your salvation
tonight.

He is lovingly offering you revival through the power of the Holy Spirit
tonight. And He says, what are you going to do with this gift? What?
Hebrews 10.29 says, How much more severely do you think a man deserves
to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has
treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified
him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? Two things. God is giving
you the Lord Jesus Christ who shed His blood for you tonight, and He's
offering you this gift.

What will you do with this loving gift? You can stamp on it. You can
trample it. You can reject it, or you can accept Him as your Lord and
Savior tonight.

He is also offering to you the Spirit of grace, the Holy Spirit to you
to revive you tonight. What will you do with that Spirit of grace? And
here is God's promise to all of us tonight in closing. Draw near to God,
and He will draw near to you.

Brothers and sisters, this has been a wonderful conference, and
sometimes I fear that we make evangelistic meetings or revival meetings
like a means of grace. If you come up here, there's grace. And you pray
here, there's grace.

There's grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know that you can meet
the Lord? You don't have to come forward. You can meet the Lord right
where you're sitting, right tonight.

You don't have to come forward. I don't need to know who responded. The
Lord knows.

It doesn't even matter to me or anyone else here if you respond at home.
You know, I had to respond alone. There's nothing wrong with responding
to the Lord alone.

You know that. There may not be enough time for some of you tonight to
do business with God. You might need to do business in the quietness of
your bedroom or your living room or drive away somewhere in some remote
area just to get away and be with God.

That's okay. Folks, God's grace will meet you tonight or tomorrow or
next month. The devil is going to tell you, you should have gone
forward.

If you don't, you're not going to get revived. That's another lie. The
Word of God is powerful.

He will remind you of all things through the Holy Spirit that you have
heard tonight and through the other messages. But today, if you hear His
voice, do not harden your heart as you did in the rebellion. Make every
effort to enter that rest because those who enter the rest, what do they
do? They cease from their own strivings.

They cease from their own work. And if the Holy Spirit is speaking to
you tonight and saying to you, I want you to submit to me. I want you to
surrender.

We're going to have a time of silent prayer. You just, right where you
are, the Lord will meet you there. The Father is coming to meet you,
prodigal, tonight, right where you are.

Some of you may want someone to pray with you up front. You're welcome.
This is not an altar call.

This is a call to prayer. And if you'd like to come forward and you'd
like someone to pray with you, I and others, we would love to pray with
you quietly. And sense as the Lord is leading on this meeting, for the
Lord to move on your hearts.

And if the Lord should so choose to move, you know, we're on God's time
now, not man's time. If you must leave, feel free to leave. There's no
manipulation or pressure here.

But after we pray, as the Lord gives opportunity, I would like, if God
leads, for anyone, just to share a testimony as to what God spoke to you
tonight or during this conference. So you might give praise to the God.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

You know, I love Revelation 12, 11. They overcame Satan, what? By the
blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Do you know that some
of your testimonies here tonight are more powerful even than what I've
preached in the sense that it's the outworking of the word of God that
you've heard.

Some of you tonight, God burdened me today so much that some of you have
been abused growing up. The Lord told me to tell you this. Maybe this
isn't what we're supposed to say.

I don't know if we're supposed to say that in this denomination. Late on
my heart, He wants to pour His love out on you. He loves you.

Your father and your mother and others, they didn't love you. They
treated you. They abused you.

And you know, your response to that is what anyone would respond. You
have a spirit of rebellion on you. And rebellion is the sin of
witchcraft.

But you know what? Jesus died even for the sin of witchcraft. He sets
the captives free. He'll free you tonight.

He'll free you tonight if you will just look to Him and put your faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Confess your sin of unbelief. Your unbelief
that your Heavenly Father loves you so much.

Your unbelief that He will free you through the power of the Holy
Spirit. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. If you
believe in your heart that Jesus was raised from the dead, that God
raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

That same power that raised Christ from the dead is the power that will
raise you from the dead tonight. He'll give newness to your life. I
don't care what you've done.

And I don't care what's been done to you. I do care what's been done to
you. I'm sorry I weep.

I often weep with people when they share with me what they've been
through. But you know what? The Lord can heal you tonight. He can give
you a garment of praise instead of that spirit of despair.

He'll do that tonight. Let's just bow. I'll open in prayer.

And if God is leading any of us to pray, you pray where you are
silently. You may come up if you'd like to. And we'd be glad to pray
with you.

Even not to say anything. We don't want to say anything. Why do we want
to interrupt what God is doing in your hearts? We'll just kneel beside
you and pray along with you.

And then as the Lord directs, we'll allow for an opportunity of sharing.
But anyone that has to go, please, just you may leave. We don't want you
to feel compelled here.

This is God's time for God's honor and glory. Let's pray. Heavenly
Father, tonight we just thank you so much that you loved us so much that
if any one of us here tonight was the only man, woman, or young person
in the world, you would have had to come and die for my sin, for our
sin.

My sin, our sin, puts you on the cross. And Lord, you loved us so much
that you've given us this gift of the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace of
your Spirit. And Lord, tonight we want to come to you because you're
coming to us.

You want to meet us halfway. We draw near to you as we approach you like
the prodigal son. You're approaching us.

And you've bid us come. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened.
I will give you rest.

Lord, may we come tonight, hear our prayers. Heavenly Father, just
descend upon us by your Holy Spirit, your loving, gentle Spirit, your
convicting Spirit, and do a deep work in our heart. If we're ready
tonight, if we've really surrendered, Lord, do that work.

And if someone is not, I pray, Lord, they will get no rest, they'll have
no peace until they come to an end of themselves. And at the end of the
road, they're going to find the Lord Jesus Christ there, ready for them
to love them and to cleanse them and to free them. Lord, hear our
prayers tonight.

We pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear us as we pray.
Would anyone like to bear testimony to anything the Lord has laid on
their hearts tonight? But on whom the stone falls, it will grind them to
powder.

Please, if the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart tonight, just fall
on Him. He'll heal you. I've had the sin of unbelief for a long time.

I was a false convert for a long time. I thought that I could speak in
tongues. I've had the sin of unbelief for a long time.

I thought that I had manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I thought that I
was living a godly life. I lived that way for most of my life.

I'm 29. I thought that I was doing everything that God called me to do.
And He found me in November.

And He brought me to repentance. I wasn't around anybody. Nobody was
feeding me.

And God became my teacher. And after I was converted, though, I had a
deep sense I needed to get baptized. And for the next few weeks, God
revealed Himself to me through the Word.

But then I struggled with the sin of unbelief. And it wasn't until I
came here that I was freed from that. And it was through a public
confession of my sins, which is something that He laid on my heart a
long time ago, but I never did because I was too ashamed.

I was too ashamed, like you said, to tell somebody because I didn't
think anybody would understand. And I knew that maybe He could forgive
me, but I didn't believe it. And in this conference, He allowed me to
understand and to believe and to be freed from that.

And I've been freed from that sin of unbelief. And breakthrough has come
in areas that I did not see before, places that I didn't even know I
needed deliverance from. That's come.

And it's already affecting me and my daughter. Praise God. Thank you
very much for sharing.

========================================================================
Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/LMQ648kpGhs.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/mark-greening/full-surrender/
========================================================================