WEBVTT
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So today our word comes from Mark chapter 12, the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12, and I'll be reading verses forty-one through forty-four from the New King James Version.
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And this is what the word says.
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Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury.
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Many rich people threw in large amounts, but a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a few cents.
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Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
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They gave out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty put in everything all she had to live on.
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The word of God for the people of God.
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Thanks be to God.
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Our word today, the subject of our sermon for this noonday is I surrender all.
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I surrender all.
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Many of us grew up singing this beloved hymn of the church.
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All to Jesus I surrender.
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All to him I freely give.
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I will always love and trust him.
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In his presence daily live.
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I surrender all.
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All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.
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The problem is not that we don't sing the words or even that we do sing the words, but the problem is living out those words in our daily lives, applying them to every day that we live and all that we do.
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The song says I surrender all, not some, not part, but all.
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Do we really yield all of ourselves to God?
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Let me make it personal, and then you make it personal.
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Do I yield all of myself to you, Lord?
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And if we would be honest, the answer is no, because many times I fall back on my own self reliance, not trusting God for things I cannot see in the physical.
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And at times I don't even wait to confer with you, Lord.
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I take matters into my own hands, and then when they don't work out, I come to you to fix the mess.
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I'm sorry, Lord.
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Help me to do better.
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So today I want to highlight three things, three main things.
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We know there are probably many, many things, but three main things that are keeping us from growing in God and being the people that He has purposed us to be.
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The first thing is our inability to allow God control.
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Yes, we see, we say, Lord, I give my life to you, I make you the Lord of my life, but is He really the Lord of your life?
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Because we simply want to hold on to the controls of our lives.
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We want to be the one to say what goes and what comes.
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We want to be in the driver's seat.
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That's the reason why we see all of those bumper stickers that say, God is my co-pilot.
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No, the correct way to put that is to say, God is my pilot.
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Put God in the driver's seat.
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Allow Him to control your life.
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And I'm sure you'll be surprised at what can take place.
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The word says, Lord, you can do more than we're able to even think or imagine according to your power that worketh in us.
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So the first thing is to allow God control.
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The second thing we need to do that keeps us from growing and being who God purposed us to be is that we've got to fix our prayer lives.
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Do we pray?
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Yes, most of us pray when we wake up, we pray before we go to bed.
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But a lot of times in our prayer lives we pray amiss.
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What does it mean to pray amiss?
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It means we pray for the wrong things.
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We pray to have things that make us look good in man's eyes.
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We pray for material things over spiritual renewal and eternal rewards.
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We pray with pride and unforgiveness and hate and malice and envy and jealousy and resentments in our hearts.
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God doesn't hear those prayers.
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They don't get above the ceiling.
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Because we're not praying, communicating with God the way we should.
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We pray that our will be done, not God's will.
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All of this kind of behavior when it comes to our prayer life is praying amiss.
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Basically, we miss the mark of prayer, which is to communicate to God our love and worship to Him, our concerns and desires, and then to listen to Him and heed His guidance, even if it is contrary to what we want.
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That is surrender, true surrender.
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It takes guts to yield to God.
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Just ask Jesus.
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Did he want to go to the cross?
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No.
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He was sweating blood.
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And I've read, I don't know if it's true, but I've read that that's a real condition that occurs when a person is so tense and anxious and edgy that their nervous system actually breaks tiny blood vessels in the skin that literally sweat out streaks of blood.
00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:12.560
We are born as selfish creatures, but we must learn to curb our appetites for what we want and what we desire.
00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:26.960
Beat that flesh so that it will be in line with what God says for what is best for us, for what God wants for us.
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And then the last thing that we need to do in order to grow and be who the be the people who God purposed us to be is we need to stop making excuses over obedience, trying to justify our own wrongdoings, throwing other people under the bus.
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Well, it's their fault.
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You know, the man won't let me do this and I can't do that, and she and he.
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God's word is clear.
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Love him and love our fellow man, and when we do otherwise then we are sinning and we are wrong.
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Sometimes we sin out of omission, meaning that we don't know any better.
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But the majority of the time we sin out of commission, cooperating with sin, knowing that it is wrong, but we justify it and we do it anyway.
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But two wrongs don't make a right, and God doesn't give us a pass because we know the right thing.
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We need to pray that God will give us the strength to choose to do the hard right over the easy wrong.
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So to surrender all, we must allow God to control our lives.
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We must not pray amiss, and we must stop making excuses, but be obedient to the word of God.
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Now remember the poor widow that we read in the text today, who only had two copper coins worth a few cents to give.
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But remember she put it all in the collection plate.
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She didn't keep one and hold back one.
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She put in all she had.
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And there were many wealthy people around her giving so much more.
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But Christ said she gave more than all of them because she gave all she had out of her poverty, and they only gave a portion out of their abundance.
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Why does this matter?
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It matters because we're willing, because when we are willing to give God our all, like the widow did, then God responds in kind.
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Have you been holding back on God?
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Think about it.
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Have you given him your all?
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I'm giving you a minute to think.
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Give him all that you have, even if it costs you everything, and watch God supernaturally provide for you.
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Remember the little boy that gave the disciple Andrew his entire lunch, two fish and five loaves of bread, not knowing what he was going to eat after that.
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But what happened?
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In return he saw Jesus multiply it to feed over five thousand men, not mentioning the women and children that were present.
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God can do anything if we just trust him.
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This week we lost a cultural icon.
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Dolly Parton died at the age of eighty.
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She was born a young girl with twelve brothers and sisters who grew up dirt poor in the mountains of Tennessee.
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But God gave her a gift of musical talent.
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Using her voice and guitar, she was able to make it out of those hills of Tennessee.
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And as God blessed her, she blessed others.
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She amassed a fortune in her lifetime, but she always gave to those around her, making things better, making lives better, helping not only her family but so many others.
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It's impossible almost to talk about her life without remembering how she built houses for the homeless, people who lost their houses, who didn't have homes.
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She sent children to college.
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She almost single-handedly stopped the dropout rate in a poor county because she told two children, two of them that's partners, that were friends, if you graduate when you walk across the stage, I'll put five hundred dollars in your hands.
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And they did.
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And the next year there were more.
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And not only that, she sent them on to college, and within a few years the dropout rate had almost completely declined in that county.
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She gave books to young children.
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She wrote songs that blessed others and helped them in their lives.
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She inspired people with her kindness and her genuine authenticity, always smiling, always upbeat, forever talking about her faith in God.
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But these days, we often think that there's so much evil all around us, that kindness and goodness don't even matter.
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We say it's just a drop in the bucket.
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But I want to remind you that little is much when we place it in the Master's hand.
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So today let's surrender to God our all and watch Him multiply it for our good, because God values the sacrifice of a sincere heart more than He does the physical amount of the gift.
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If we give it with the right heart, no matter how small it is, God will bless it.
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Our motives matter.
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Not that we're trying to be loud and flashy and with what we do and showy, but that we truly want to honor God and make a difference in the world around us for the upbuilding of the kingdom of God.
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The widow trusted God to take care of her daily needs.
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What about you?
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You say you only have a little to give?
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Don't worry about the size.
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Give whatever you have, even if it's just a word of encouragement, a word of prayer on the behalf of others.
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And know that God will receive it and He will bless it.
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God bless you.
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Let us pray.
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Lord, we thank you today for your word that reminds us that we need to give all we have to you, Lord.
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Give it to you, surrender to you because you know what we need, and you know how to increase what we have.
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And we just say thank you, Lord, for who you are in our lives.
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You're not some evil somebody out up in the sky that's looking to knock us down and to step on us to get what we have and mistreat us.
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But Lord, you love us more than we love ourselves.
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You created us and you know all about us.
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You know the number of hairs on our head, and you're able to give us just what we need in order to be successful.
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You will heal our bodies, our minds, and our souls.
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And we thank you for that, Lord.
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We thank you for who you are.
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We thank you that we looked all over and we couldn't find nobody.
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Nobody greater than you.
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Nobody greater than you, Lord.
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We thank you we ask these things in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
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In His mighty name we pray.
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Amen.
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Amen, everybody.
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Thank you for joining us today.
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We hope that you will be inspired and encouraged as you finalize the last days in this month of August and step into the month of September.
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Lord, we thank you for what you have done all these months.
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And as 2026 comes to the downside, we hope that each one of you will be encouraged, that you're growing, and that you're being better each and every day.
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Now unto him who's able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power both now and foremore, let us all say Amen.
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Now go and be great for God and go to church on Sunday.
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God bless you.
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So today our word comes from Mark chapter 12, the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12, and I'll be reading verses forty-one through forty-four from the New King James Version.
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And this is what the word says.
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Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury.
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Many rich people threw in large amounts, but a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a few cents.
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Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
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They gave out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty put in everything all she had to live on.
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The word of God for the people of God.
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Thanks be to God.
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Our word today, the subject of our sermon for this noonday is I surrender all.
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I surrender all.
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Many of us grew up singing this beloved hymn of the church.
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All to Jesus I surrender.
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All to him I freely give.
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I will always love and trust him.
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In his presence daily live.
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I surrender all.
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All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.
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The problem is not that we don't sing the words or even that we do sing the words, but the problem is living out those words in our daily lives, applying them to every day that we live and all that we do.
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The song says I surrender all, not some, not part, but all.
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Do we really yield all of ourselves to God?
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Let me make it personal, and then you make it personal.
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Do I yield all of myself to you, Lord?
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And if we would be honest, the answer is no, because many times I fall back on my own self reliance, not trusting God for things I cannot see in the physical.
00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:36.959
And at times I don't even wait to confer with you, Lord.
00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:45.759
I take matters into my own hands, and then when they don't work out, I come to you to fix the mess.
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I'm sorry, Lord.
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Help me to do better.
00:03:51.519 --> 00:03:58.079
So today I want to highlight three things, three main things.
00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:11.040
We know there are probably many, many things, but three main things that are keeping us from growing in God and being the people that He has purposed us to be.
00:04:12.160 --> 00:04:17.519
The first thing is our inability to allow God control.
00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:28.399
Yes, we see, we say, Lord, I give my life to you, I make you the Lord of my life, but is He really the Lord of your life?
00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:33.680
Because we simply want to hold on to the controls of our lives.
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We want to be the one to say what goes and what comes.
00:04:38.399 --> 00:04:41.759
We want to be in the driver's seat.
00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:49.280
That's the reason why we see all of those bumper stickers that say, God is my co-pilot.
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No, the correct way to put that is to say, God is my pilot.
00:04:58.400 --> 00:05:01.280
Put God in the driver's seat.
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Allow Him to control your life.
00:05:06.319 --> 00:05:11.040
And I'm sure you'll be surprised at what can take place.
00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:24.800
The word says, Lord, you can do more than we're able to even think or imagine according to your power that worketh in us.
00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:30.319
So the first thing is to allow God control.
00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:44.160
The second thing we need to do that keeps us from growing and being who God purposed us to be is that we've got to fix our prayer lives.
00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:46.319
Do we pray?
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Yes, most of us pray when we wake up, we pray before we go to bed.
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But a lot of times in our prayer lives we pray amiss.
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What does it mean to pray amiss?
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It means we pray for the wrong things.
00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:09.840
We pray to have things that make us look good in man's eyes.
00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:16.879
We pray for material things over spiritual renewal and eternal rewards.
00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:27.920
We pray with pride and unforgiveness and hate and malice and envy and jealousy and resentments in our hearts.
00:06:28.960 --> 00:06:31.600
God doesn't hear those prayers.
00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:34.480
They don't get above the ceiling.
00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:42.319
Because we're not praying, communicating with God the way we should.
00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:48.480
We pray that our will be done, not God's will.
00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:56.960
All of this kind of behavior when it comes to our prayer life is praying amiss.
00:06:57.920 --> 00:07:19.520
Basically, we miss the mark of prayer, which is to communicate to God our love and worship to Him, our concerns and desires, and then to listen to Him and heed His guidance, even if it is contrary to what we want.
00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:23.520
That is surrender, true surrender.
00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:27.040
It takes guts to yield to God.
00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:29.520
Just ask Jesus.
00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:33.120
Did he want to go to the cross?
00:07:33.520 --> 00:07:33.840
No.
00:07:34.960 --> 00:07:37.199
He was sweating blood.
00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:58.080
And I've read, I don't know if it's true, but I've read that that's a real condition that occurs when a person is so tense and anxious and edgy that their nervous system actually breaks tiny blood vessels in the skin that literally sweat out streaks of blood.
00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:12.560
We are born as selfish creatures, but we must learn to curb our appetites for what we want and what we desire.
00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:26.960
Beat that flesh so that it will be in line with what God says for what is best for us, for what God wants for us.
00:08:28.960 --> 00:08:49.439
And then the last thing that we need to do in order to grow and be who the be the people who God purposed us to be is we need to stop making excuses over obedience, trying to justify our own wrongdoings, throwing other people under the bus.
00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:51.039
Well, it's their fault.
00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:56.720
You know, the man won't let me do this and I can't do that, and she and he.
00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:00.240
God's word is clear.
00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:09.120
Love him and love our fellow man, and when we do otherwise then we are sinning and we are wrong.
00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:16.399
Sometimes we sin out of omission, meaning that we don't know any better.
00:09:17.919 --> 00:09:34.079
But the majority of the time we sin out of commission, cooperating with sin, knowing that it is wrong, but we justify it and we do it anyway.
00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:43.439
But two wrongs don't make a right, and God doesn't give us a pass because we know the right thing.
00:09:49.919 --> 00:10:00.240
We need to pray that God will give us the strength to choose to do the hard right over the easy wrong.
00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:08.079
So to surrender all, we must allow God to control our lives.
00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:18.879
We must not pray amiss, and we must stop making excuses, but be obedient to the word of God.
00:10:19.919 --> 00:10:32.479
Now remember the poor widow that we read in the text today, who only had two copper coins worth a few cents to give.
00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:37.279
But remember she put it all in the collection plate.
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She didn't keep one and hold back one.
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She put in all she had.
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And there were many wealthy people around her giving so much more.
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But Christ said she gave more than all of them because she gave all she had out of her poverty, and they only gave a portion out of their abundance.
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Why does this matter?
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It matters because we're willing, because when we are willing to give God our all, like the widow did, then God responds in kind.
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Have you been holding back on God?
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Think about it.
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Have you given him your all?
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I'm giving you a minute to think.
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Give him all that you have, even if it costs you everything, and watch God supernaturally provide for you.
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Remember the little boy that gave the disciple Andrew his entire lunch, two fish and five loaves of bread, not knowing what he was going to eat after that.
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But what happened?
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In return he saw Jesus multiply it to feed over five thousand men, not mentioning the women and children that were present.
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God can do anything if we just trust him.
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This week we lost a cultural icon.
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Dolly Parton died at the age of eighty.
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She was born a young girl with twelve brothers and sisters who grew up dirt poor in the mountains of Tennessee.
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But God gave her a gift of musical talent.
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Using her voice and guitar, she was able to make it out of those hills of Tennessee.
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And as God blessed her, she blessed others.
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She amassed a fortune in her lifetime, but she always gave to those around her, making things better, making lives better, helping not only her family but so many others.
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It's impossible almost to talk about her life without remembering how she built houses for the homeless, people who lost their houses, who didn't have homes.
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She sent children to college.
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She almost single-handedly stopped the dropout rate in a poor county because she told two children, two of them that's partners, that were friends, if you graduate when you walk across the stage, I'll put five hundred dollars in your hands.
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And they did.
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And the next year there were more.
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And not only that, she sent them on to college, and within a few years the dropout rate had almost completely declined in that county.
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She gave books to young children.
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She wrote songs that blessed others and helped them in their lives.
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She inspired people with her kindness and her genuine authenticity, always smiling, always upbeat, forever talking about her faith in God.
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But these days, we often think that there's so much evil all around us, that kindness and goodness don't even matter.
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We say it's just a drop in the bucket.
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But I want to remind you that little is much when we place it in the Master's hand.
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So today let's surrender to God our all and watch Him multiply it for our good, because God values the sacrifice of a sincere heart more than He does the physical amount of the gift.
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If we give it with the right heart, no matter how small it is, God will bless it.
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Our motives matter.
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Not that we're trying to be loud and flashy and with what we do and showy, but that we truly want to honor God and make a difference in the world around us for the upbuilding of the kingdom of God.
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The widow trusted God to take care of her daily needs.
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What about you?
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You say you only have a little to give?
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Don't worry about the size.
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Give whatever you have, even if it's just a word of encouragement, a word of prayer on the behalf of others.
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And know that God will receive it and He will bless it.
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God bless you.
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Let us pray.
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Lord, we thank you today for your word that reminds us that we need to give all we have to you, Lord.
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Give it to you, surrender to you because you know what we need, and you know how to increase what we have.
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And we just say thank you, Lord, for who you are in our lives.
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You're not some evil somebody out up in the sky that's looking to knock us down and to step on us to get what we have and mistreat us.
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But Lord, you love us more than we love ourselves.
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You created us and you know all about us.
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You know the number of hairs on our head, and you're able to give us just what we need in order to be successful.
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You will heal our bodies, our minds, and our souls.
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And we thank you for that, Lord.
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We thank you for who you are.
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We thank you that we looked all over and we couldn't find nobody.
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Nobody greater than you.
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Nobody greater than you, Lord.
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We thank you we ask these things in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
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In His mighty name we pray.
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Amen.
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Amen, everybody.
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Thank you for joining us today.
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We hope that you will be inspired and encouraged as you finalize the last days in this month of August and step into the month of September.
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Lord, we thank you for what you have done all these months.
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And as 2026 comes to the downside, we hope that each one of you will be encouraged, that you're growing, and that you're being better each and every day.
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Now unto him who's able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power both now and foremore, let us all say Amen.
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Now go and be great for God and go to church on Sunday.
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God bless you.
