Surrendering our will to know God (8/5/18 The Book of John #36)

ATTN: Have you ever had this experience? When you were in high school, have you ever had to prepare for a debate? Teacher tells you to pick a topic and a side that you want to defend – such as for gun control. But then she tells you that your assignment is to defend the opposing side rather than the side that you picked. Well, you do it reluctantly because you don’t really believe in the other side, but since it’s homework, you do it. But as you are doing the research, trying half-heartedly to defend the other side, you come to see things you have not seen before. And after a while, you are not sure whether you are still holding your original position any more because the arguments you have researched are so good for the opposing side. Now, how did we get there? We used reason. We are trying to line up evidences and arguments and determine which side makes more sense.

Now, most of us believe that we make our daily decisions by using reason to determine what is better for us. I believe that too. Recently I bought a tennis racket. I researched online extensively before I finally chose one. I went on Amazon to read reviews. Some tennis sites to see what the pros are using, and some even had scientific testings done on the rackets that I was interested in. I even played with rackets that were similar to what I eventually wanted to buy. What am I doing? I am using reason to make an informed decision that would be best for me.

So, when it comes to believing in God, a lot of us assume that it is a matter of reason whether we should believe Him or not. Does it make more sense to believe in God or not? And the two sides – atheists on one side and Christians apologists on the other – have been debating for centuries now all under the assumption that if they can just prove rationally that God exists or He doesn’t, then people will simply follow the more logical conclusion. But my assessment of it is that both sides have failed. The atheists certainly have not succeeded in converting believers into being atheists – there may have been a few here and there, but the masses have not caught on. But also the Christian apologists have not converted atheists to become Christians through their arguments either. They are pretty much in a stalemate.  

I think the mistake is in thinking that people make decisions about God based on reason. But when it comes to a decision about God, we do not make it based on reason, but something else. Why is that? Because for everything else, we are choosing what will serve us. Whether it’s a tennis racket, a job, a school, or which restaurant to eat at after church, we are choosing what will serve us. But when it comes to God, we are choosing someone that we will serve – our master. God is unique in this. Everything else, we employ reason to choose that which is best for us, but when it comes to God, since we are choosing someone who will rule over us, we cannot employ reason to choose Him. It’s not a question of “will choosing Him good for us or not?” but rather, “Will serving Him and being under Him right or not” Let me ask you, who in the right mind – or using the right reason – choose to be under someone? No one. We want to be in control ourselves and be above others and not beneath someone. That is why I’m saying that when it comes to believing in God, it is not reason we are employing but something else. What is that something else? It’s the calling of God. It’s the process of God choosing us. Here’s another way to think about it: If He truly is God and He is the master, we do not choose Him. He chooses us. The master chooses the servant; not the other way around.

So, although if we are Christians we may think we chose God, it was really God who chose us. It was God who superseded our reason to bring His reality to our blind soul and woke us up to the spiritual reality that we weren’t aware of before.  

But what does that look like on our end? What does God choosing us so that we choose Him look like? What is that experience? It looks like we are giving up our will, surrendering our will to God’s will.

I said all this to get to one verse that caught my attention in John 7:17. All this insight came to me as I was reading John 7:17 and meditating on it. It says: v. 17 7 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

Jesus says, the way to know whether Jesus is the Son of God or not is not through right reasoning, but through right willing – namely to do God’s will. In other words, how we find out whether God is true or not is not through our intellect or reason or evidence, but by surrendering our will to God. We can reason all we want and present evidences for and against God, but unless our will bends to do God’s will, we will never arrive at the conclusion that God is real. Let me elaborate further from the Scripture…

CONTEXT: The context is Jesus teaching people at the feast. If you remember, last week, Jesus had an encounter with His own brother’s unbelief. They wanted Him to go to the feast and show Himself to the world to gain fame and fortune. But Jesus said He will not do so because that is not His way. So the brothers go to the feast on their own. However, Jesus goes to the feast later on, which could possibly be a head scratcher because He said He will not go at first and then goes a little later. What He really meant was that He will not go publicly like the brothers thought He should. But He goes privately without fanfare and rather than performing miracles to gain attention, He goes to teach people quietly. And while He was teaching the people quietly and privately at the feast, some people said, “How is it that this man has learning when he has never studied” So, obviously they were very impressed by the kind of learning and teaching that Jesus was doing when He was never formally trained at a university, for example, since he was just a carpenter’s son. So they are asking how Jesus was able to know so much. What they are really displaying was again unbelief. How so? Because they didn’t believe that He was the son of God – just like the brothers of Jesus. If they had believed that He was the son of God, then they wouldn’t ask how He knew so much even though he never studied. He is God – so of course He would know much!

To this unbelief Jesus says, “7 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

This is truly stunning. What Jesus says is the reason they do not believe. The reason those people did not believe in Jesus then, and the reason people do not believe in God today. And that is that their will is wrong. Their will is do do their own will and not to do God’s will. Jesus is saying that if their will is to do God’s will, then they would know whether Jesus is the Son of God or not. But the reason why they couldn’t see Jesus as the Son of God is because their will was wrong.

This is a stunning revelation because we think that we determine whether God is real or not through rationalistic means – or using reason – or looking at evidences. But Jesus is saying that it is not by reason you know whether god is real or not but by the submission of your will to God’s choosing. So, what it looks like on our end is that we are surrendering our will to him. But how do we surrender our will to Him when it hasn’t been proven that he is God or that He exists? Are you willing to surrender your will? Are you willing to live according to His will rather than yours if He proves to be true?

ILL: When I was 17, I thought that it made more sense not to believe in God than to believe in God. Smart people – scientists and engineers and professors – were largely atheists and I thought their explanation of how the world came to be made more sense than what the Christians said. So, I claimed myself to be an atheist and I would make fun of my Christian friends who didn’t understand science. But a friend had approached me and told me what God has done for him and how He made Himself so real to him and he challenged me seek God truly. So, during that time, a question that came to me – later I realized that it was the holy spirit – “Why aren’t you believing? Is it that you can’t believe or you won’t? – as in you WILL not?” The answer was, I was not willing. I did not want to believe. It wasn’t so much the lack of arguments for the evidence of God, but that I was not willing to believe.  I wanted to be my own boss and control my own life. I did not want to submit to anyone. But I realized that if God is God, and he gave His son for me – I knew that much since I grew up in a Christian home – then His way might be better than mine… So, I carefully and gingerly decided to take a plunge and surrender my will to Him. I was willing to let go of my will. So, that night I prayed, “God, if you are real, then show yourself to me. Let me know somehow that you are real and I will serve you.” The next morning I woke up, I had this unusual peace that I never felt before. I just knew that I was different. It was obviously subjective, call it feeling or conviction or whatever, but I knew that from that point on the trajectory of my life would be different. I had a new and better master than myself.

What Jesus said was true. I surrendered to do God’s will and He showed Himself to me to be real. And soon I started going to a Korean Baptist Church that taught me to have a Quiet Time and never miss church – although done legalistically – I did it because I was hungry for God. I wanted to know more of God. Then I went to college and my college was 2 ½ hours away from home, but I came down as often as I could because I wanted to help with the youth group. Since I met God as a youth, I wanted to invest my life into the lives of the youth so that they may also experience the God that I experienced. And it was through serving, teaching and mingling with those younger than me that my faith really grew. I thought I was helping others’ faith grow, but by doing so, I was growing my own faith. It is true that when you teach, you learn the most. When I graduated from college, God granted my wish and got me a job right near my house so that I could continue to serve at that Korean Baptist Church. Two years, I worked as an engineer but I thought that my life would be better spent in investing into things that are eternal rather than temporal. So, I quit my job, I enrolled in seminary, not to be a pastor, but to simply equip myself better so that I can serve the young people better. So, I commuted 3 ½ hours every week for 3 years, came down every weekend to serve the church, and the church paid me $100 a month! But it was when I started moving toward that direction, God confirmed to me that that is indeed my calling – to shepherd and feed God’s people with His word. He called me to be a pastor. My faith grew as I was surrendering my will to Him, and moving toward where God was going. Not by just sitting at home and watching TV preachers, but by mingling, serving, sacrificing, and loving.

And there is something else that happened as my faith grew. And that is, I genuinely, although imperfectly, developed a desire to make much of God over against making much of myself. I think I can honestly say that I’m happier when people who were somehow influenced by me – be it my former youth or church member – display their love for God more so than their love for me.

ILL: I thought about this scenario to prove my point. When my children are grown and I’m on my deathbed, if my children said to me, “We love you daddy with all our heart. You have been the best daddy anyone can have. Thank you for your sacrifice and dedication to us.” But if they didn’t love God, I would be devastated. But if they didn’t come to my deathbed, but they were serving God somewhere in the world because they truly loved God, I would die happy.  

And this is what Jesus said will happen to those who surrender their will to God. v. 18The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

Jesus was referring to Himself when He said this, but this is true of everyone who surrender their will to Christ and see Him for who He really is. Once we see Him, experience Him and taste Him, we want Him to be all in all and we want Him to be magnified. And our joy comes from Him being made much of and loved. This is how you know whether your faith is maturing. Are you happier when you are made much of or when God is made much of?

If you’ve ever been in love, you know how this works. When you are in love, you don’t want the focus to be on you. You want the focus to be on your beloved – be it your children, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc. Parents, are you happier when you are praised or when your children are praised? Lovers, are you happier when you are praised or your lover is praised. If you said, “when I am praised,” you are not in love! There is a greater joy to be had than our becoming famous and made much of, and that is our loved one being famous and made much of, namely God.

That is why the first and the greatest commandment is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.” And then “Seek first the kingdom of God and all His righteousness.” and the Lord’s prayer starts out, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Do you see the pattern here? God first. God first. God first.

Why? Because there is greater joy in it than in rejoicing over our own good fortune. There is a limit to how much joy we can have on our being praised. But there is no limit on how much joy there is in praising that which is most worthy.

The angels crying day and night “holy holy holy..” It is not because they are commanded to do so like robots, but because it gives them so much joy to do so! Young ladies talk about the korean boy band BTS at ad nauseam and they have so much joy doing so. What are they doing? They are praising. They are glorifying BTS. And they find so much joy in praising.  

APP: How do we find this joy in making much of God? First by surrendering our will to God. Second, by discipline. It’s summer. For some of us, students especially, you have a little more time, read good books (“Don’t waste your life” by John Piper), listen to biographies of great godly men, listen to sermons on podcast – mat chandler, francis Chen, Tim Keller, etc. I want you to increase your joy! Don’t you get tired of mindlessly combing through snapchat, FB, or instagram? Don’t you get bored? Don’t you want to have a greater capacity for joy? First, surrender your will. And then discipline.

Challenge. Wean yourself off from internet for one day a week. For me, it’s Tuesday. Every Tuesday, I will fast break and lunch, and not go online at all. Instead, I’m taking extra time spending with God, reading good books, and reflecting on what god is doing in and around me.