L&H Ministerial Alliance "Give it Back" by Pastor Jesse Rogers

Pastor Jesse Rogers shares a story about a friend who was near death but found strength to sing when she surrendered to God. He emphasizes the importance of giving up control and submitting to God's will. He encourages listeners to rely on God's power to fulfill His purpose and to give everything back to Him. Only by giving it up to God can we truly give it back. Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is Pastor Jesse Rogers. My brother, Little Big Eagle, asked me to work with him on his Give It Back message and here is what I have to offer. To start with, when you give it back, you have to begin by saying, give it up. When I say give it up, I don't mean to give up as in quitting. I don't mean give it up as in offering a pause like we would do when Big Eagle is playing a concert. What I mean is to give it up in submission, to give it up to God. Paul explains this somewhat in his reference to himself in Ephesians 4.1 where he says, as a prisoner for the Lord, it's actually a prisoner of the Lord or in the Lord. Paul frequently refers to himself as a slave of Christ and that's where it starts, is realizing that we are not our own, we are God's and to give it up means that we are giving ourselves up to God to do what he has called us to do. It's a matter of submission and it's a matter of doing it out of humility. Let me tell you a story that kind of illustrates what I'm talking about. I visited a dear friend of mine in the hospital the other day and she said she had a wonderful time but it was a lot more than what I expected to hear. That morning she had come close to death. She was totally unresponsive. She could barely breathe, she couldn't speak, she couldn't move, she couldn't react to anything the doctors did. So the doctors decided they were going to take her down and test her for brain activity. She said that on the way down there she felt like they were treating her like a mannequin. No dignity whatsoever. They hooked her up to the machines and they left her there, there. During the test, she asked God, she said, God, if this is the way I'm supposed to go, I'm good with that, I'm ready to go. But if it's not what I'm supposed to go, if I'm supposed to do something, tell me what I'm supposed to do. God answered back, sing. Now this is a woman who played organ and piano in church for just about her entire life and she sang with the choir and she's lying there, she can't move, she can't hardly breathe and she says in her mind, how can I sing? My throat is dry, my mouth is dry, I can't possibly form the words. The voice came back, sing. I can't hardly breathe, she said, how am I supposed to have breath to sing? Sing is all that she heard. So she said, okay. And she began to sing. What she sang was the chorus from How Great Thou Art. It was all she could come up with and something that she relies on in her life all the time. So while she's singing, the person doing the testing said, wait, you can't be singing while we're doing this test without even realizing that if she was singing, she obviously had brain activity. When she finished the chorus of that, she began to sing the 23rd Psalm, but she couldn't get past the first verse because she couldn't remember the rest of it. So she just started singing, praise God, praise God, praise God over and over. The attendant running the test called the doctors in and the nurses and the doctor said, what's going on here? What's she doing? One nurse said, she's singing and I'm singing with her. Rather rapidly, she came out of what she was in, she was able to respond and the doctors were looking around and said, well, she's okay now, let's take her back up to the room. Well, before they could wheel her out, she turned to the doctor and said, wait a minute, I have a message for you. The message was pretty simple. How would you like it if your parents, your loved ones were treated the way you treated me with no dignity whatsoever? One of the doctors responded, we get your message. That changed things for them and for her. The point is that when she got to that time when it seemed like she was as close to death's door as one could get, she responded by giving it up. What she did was she relied on something beyond herself. In Ephesians 3 verse 16, it says, I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit and your inner being. She realized she couldn't do what she needed to do. She couldn't sing, but God gave her the power to do that so that his will could be done. He used her in a mighty way to pass the message on to the doctors and nurses there that this was a human being created in God's image. She deserved respect. Philippians 4 says, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. She was doing that. She gave it up and God worked his will and gave her the power and the strength to do what he needed to have done. So when you think about giving it back, you've got to realize when you say to Satan, I'm going to give it back, he just might laugh at you, but you can't do it on your own. To give it back, you have to start by giving it up. Give it up to God, because it's God who's going to work through you to enable you to force Satan to give it back, to take it back. See, Satan's going to submit to God. He doesn't care that much about us. So when it's time to give it back, remember, you can only give it back when you give it up and let God work. So let God work. In Ephesians 3, it tells us, Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory of the church and Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, amen. So go in peace, knowing that you can give it back when you give it up. To God be the glory, amen.