Surrender ALLLLL to Jesus? Everything? Can’t I just toss Jesus a few crumbs of my life and be ok? What if I move Jesus all the way up to second or third place in my life – right behind my career or family or sports or entertainment or ????? Many prefer I surrender SOME.

It is a real challenge to consider the radical demands of Jesus for us to exercise reckless abandonment of our lives as we follow Him. Read Luke 14:25-35. Then listen to the song: I Surrender All. Finally, do some self-examination on where you are in your degree of commitment to follow Jesus by faith. Since we are saved by God’s grace through our faith we need to be sure we understand what faith really is.

Luke 14:25-35

Now large crowds were going along with Him, and He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who are watching it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This person began to build, and was not able to finish!’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to face the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Otherwise, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and requests terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

“Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or the manure pile, so it is thrown out. The one who has ears to hear, let him hear.”