Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
folks I'm just going to tell you right now skyfalls would not happen if it were not for this lady right here all right it's a fact um she is amazing her gifts are amazing she truly does have a gift of administration I mean she knows how things need to go and they they need to get done and so uh I I love that and I can just and one thing about her is I can just say just tell me later just do what you got to do and don't tell you or don't tell me it gets done but uh I just appreciate my wife and I thank you for all that you go through because she does so much for our church and for everything we do it's just uh I couldn't even imagine trying to do what we've done for the past 16 years without her it just couldn't have happened so thank you oh that's sweet that's so sweet do it for the Lord and I love my church family and my husband all y'all so I'm Pastor Nancy Odell and what the Lord has put on my heart for you today is called surrender s surrendered definition of surrender is the action of yield in one's person or giving up the possession of something especially into the power of another um it the verb surrender is to give oneself up into the power of another especially as a prisoner doesn't that sound Pleasant does it sound familiar Paul Ephesians 3:1 I mean and it goes on and on for this cause I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ the prisoner of the Lord right um it just goes on Paul a prisoner of Jesus Christ he was he was referring to himself as a prisoner quite often so I recently listen I don't listen to a lot of things because I just I just don't I don't care to spend a lot of time on YouTube I just don't but I was listening to a podcast uh the other day by I don't know if any of you know Rita Springer she's been around she's a worshipper she's been around for a long time I love some of her stuff so I was listening to her podcast with another worship artist because I wanted to check out that other worship artist because I was had kind of suspicions about him so it was really research that's what it was anyway and she said this this quote right here and it really threw me for a loop because this woman has been you know living for
the Lord and worshiping the Lord and in churches for many years and she said I think that's religious nature talking about you know what they were talking about we just have to hunker down and do whatever God says he's probably going to make us go to Africa and make us do something we don't want then she says I've never encountered a God that would make you do something that you didn't love to do I'm not sure who she's talking about I wonder if she's read the Bible I don't know but a lot of stories came to mind and a lot of my own stories came to mind but we'll use this one as an example Genesis 22 and it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him Abraham and he said behold here I am and he said take now thy son th only son Isaac whom thou lovest and get thee into the land of Mariah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the the mountains which I tell thee of that sounds like something that he wouldn't love to do right and Abraham rose up he's immediately he's o obedient he said Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son and clav the wood so he goes on we'll skip on down here it says and Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said my father and he said here am I my son and he said behold the fire and the wood but where is the Lamb for a burnt offering and Abraham said my son God will provide a lamb for a burnt offering is't that prophetic and he said so they went uh both of them and they came to the place where God told them and Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood just one one little example here of things that God has told people to do that may not make sense to us and may not be pleasant Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son and the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said Abraham Abraham and he said here am I and he said lay not thine hand upon the lad neither do thou anything unto him for now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou Hast not withheld thy son thine only son from me and Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him a ram caught in a Thicket by his horns and Abraham went and took the RAM and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stad of his son and Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Gyra as it is said to this day in the Mount of
the of the Lord it shall be seen and the angel of the Lord called un Abraham Out of Heaven the second time and said by myself I have sworn sayith the Lord for because thou Hast done this thing and Hast not withheld thy son thine only son that in that in blessing I Will Bless thee and in the multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is upon the Seashore and thy seed shall possess the Gate of his enemy and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because thou Hast obeyed my voice because he obeyed but he was not he was willing to give his all to the Lord he was willing to do the thing that he didn't love the thing that was not comfortable he was willing to sacrifice his son you know we think about sacrifice and and giving up things it's usually bad things we think about oh I'm going to give up that habit I'm going to give up smoking I'm going to give up whatever uh but there was nothing wrong with him having a son but the Lord called him to sacrifice that this is a really good book there's some things I agree with U Mario Millo on and some things I don't but the seven stages to critical mass he says so then what is the Lord really looking for and he's talking about Revival and critical mass being you know with nuclear fusion nuclear EXP explosions how the critical masses when things straighten down to almost nothing right before the big boom right and so he's comparing it to Revival and what it takes to get Revival he says so then what is the Lord really looking for a servant who knows that the cup cannot pass take heart if you wish that it would pass even Jesus asked if it was necessary to drink but he did not ask to escape because of fear or of pain pain or selfishness he asked because For the First Time in eternity he would be separated from his father he knew that the the plan to save man would have to break his father's heart only Abraham and Isaac on Mount Mariah could begin to understand the grief here in lies the truth that releases the glory in repenting of sin we rid ourselves of evil but in the Dark Night of the Soul which is when everything looks like it's going in the opposite way that you want it to In The Dark Night of the Soul we surrender the things we dearly love things we can't readily identify as being in conflict with God just like with Abraham and Isaac him having a son that was part of the promise you know God had promised that so that wasn't a bad thing that he was having to to sacrifice and give up here the issue is not right and wrong but high and low purposes of living Spiritual Awakening is not simply
getting rid of sin it is giving God what he wants again and again I've tried to stress that we must conclude with iron resolve that there is no substitute for Revival is that how y'all feel you know is that is that what you wake up thinking about I want the Lord to pour out his spirit is that what consumes you there's no substitute for Revival and it begins with each one of us not a huge group it is the higher ground we must reach because the flood is rising no point of return can exist no alternative can be considered for fire to fall and consume the sacrifice it must be innocent and without blemish but most of all it must be on the altar to stay so now we'll get into to my own personal Abraham Isaac story before Pastor Dean and I ever met I had lots of friends I had I had so many people that just love me now and then Dean came along blew up my world when the Lord put us together he called me to lay my whole life on the altar everything that I that I felt made me who I was but it wasn't it was all you know who I was was God what God wanted me to be but I had a family over in Georgia I had never lived in another state um I had my my two older children you see on the right I had a a good job at a Ministry and I had all these all these friends and and people that just you know we would have Bible studies and it was just a really active you know good life but when we met the Lord basically said that's over that's you're done and for the first time in my life he picked me up he had me move well first he had me move into Washington DC so I praise God that that didn't happen but he had me moving out of Georgia for the first time well along with that now my daughter my oldest daughter cuz I we have from 35 down to 14 but my oldest daughter was already she was getting married so she had her own life going on but at that point my son lived with me I had custody of him um you know I had been through just a crazy divorce with his dad who had been on on meth and had had adulterous Affairs and and things like that so I you know had I had done a
lot of the raising and I had custody of him he it was my rights you know that was my right well when we decided that we were well when God decided we were moving to Alabama one of the things one of the most devastating things for me was after prayer and a lot of discussion my son didn't want to come to Alabama Alabama has a bad rap for a lot of places for some reason um but he didn't want to come to Alabama and so what happened was the Lord laid it on my heart that I had to hand him over to his father his dad and his father and that I had to trust him I had to trust the Lord with my son because at this point um my son was my son's father was married to the lady who had broken up our marriage so that was a pretty devastating blow but this you know this was one of the scriptures that came to mind I said All or Nothing Matthew 10: 37-39 he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me and he that taketh not his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me he that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it and that's basically what I did in that season is I I lost I I no longer had that job which was fine which was fine but I had I had worked since I was 16 so it was quite a a transition for me I no longer had the job my daugh old oldest daughter was getting married and moving on the Lord was calling me to give up my son right and so we're driving to have dinner with my um ex-husband and his wife that broke up our marriage and this song comes on so I just want to play a little snippet of it for you and then we'll move on but this song comes on and I'm literally Drive we're driving down the road to go have dinner and I'm just literally literally just balling just balling and things are just you know it's just like the Lord is just doing a work in me and so we're going to go ahead and do the song real quick and then we'll move [Music] on heart all that is within lay it all down for the sake of you my king giving you my dreams I'm laying
down my rights I'm giving up my PR for the promise of new life and I surrender all to you all to you and I surrender all to you all to [Music] you singing you this song waiting at the cross and all the world H it count it all as love for the sake of KN you the glory of your name to know the Lost In Joy even sharing in your and I surrender all to you oh to me and I Surrender oh to you oh [Music] to okay so that's the song you can imagine with those words that song comes on and I'm just like oh my goodness losing it my poor s he was my soon to be husband at that point no yeah no that was after I'm sorry I'm getting old um anyway but it even sharing in your pain and that's the thing that you know we as Christians I guess Rita Springer doesn't doesn't get is that there are things that we are supposed to go through that are supposed to draw us closer to Jesus identify with Jesus feel his suffering feel his pain and this was one of those things for me it was definitely sharing in the pain I had to surrender something that was rightfully mine you know that that really really was tough because it was my right I had legal right to have my son um it broke my heart and it was humil ating and there's things that we go through that you know take our pride down a level and
that's what the Lord wants he wants our pride to be gone he wants us to be humble he wants us to realize I mean he was humiliated who are we to not to think that we shouldn't have times like that that that refine us and cause us to grow um to to the people around me I felt like I looked like a failure which I know usually that's a woman thing a lot of times I'm such a failure you know if anything goes wrong I'm such a failure but I did I felt like a failure because here this was my child that I was having to just hand over and you know the people around me not all of them understood they thought I was abandoning him you know they I I had some people who you know even later on a family member that that basically said I abandoned my son but the Lord had me laying him on the Altar and and the Lord knew what he needed too because he needed to have a relationship with his dad and his dad eventually um got born again and active in church gave up the meth gave up the all of that and so and that was through prayer that was through prayer so he needed to have that relationship but at the time I looked I looked ridiculous I felt like I looked like a total loser this is the interesting thing about where Abraham went to to sacrifice uh Isaac the same place that Mariah which was chosen by Jehovah that's what that means that same place is the same Mount Mariah where the the Temple of Solomon was built so the place that was a sacrifice right laying it all down ends up being a place of worship right a place where God's presence comes down and that's what that that's really like the main message that the lord gave me uh for this group today is that sacrifice there's things that y'all are hearing from the Lord that you don't want to hear from the Lord there's there's things in your life and it it's probably not even like major sins like my son it wasn't a sin for me to have uh you know custody of him but the Lord told me to lay him down it would have been a sin to disobey so the Lord is telling you things and if you will just be obedient to whatever it is whatever it is that the Lord wants you to lay down it may be the area that you're living in that you love and you don't want to you know move from he may be calling you to a different area he may be calling you to give up a group of friends he may be calling you to you know stop seeing a person I mean it it's just all personal but if you will do that just like this Mount Mariah your life can become a mount
Mariah you lay down and you sacrifice these things on the Altar and his presence will come down his presence will be there and that's what happened when the ark was brought into the the Temple of Solomon it says it came even to pass as the trumpeters and singers we're as one I think about this body how we come together worshiping as one wouldn't it be cool if this happened here tonight when we worship you know get your hearts clean and clear and and seek the Lord and tell him you're going to put that thing on the S on the alter and we may have we may not be able to stand tonight we may not get out of here at 9:30 she may have to be dragging each one of us one at a time out of here just to get us out but it came even to pass as the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the lord and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and symbols and instruments of music and praised the Lord saying for he is good for his mercy endureth forever and then the house was filled with a cloud even the house of the Lord so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud and and the for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God everybody has a fork in the road so this is First Kings 1820 through 39 it's a story of you know the Battle of the Gods and each one of us have a battle the the dark side and the light side they're battling for you so Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel and Elijah came unto all the people and said how long halt ye between two opinions or how long will you hesitate between two opinions and that's when I read that it just stuck in me to ask you that how long how long will you waver Between Two Worlds how long will you go to church and do this but not go all the way in how long will you come to a conference and get pump you know pumped up but go home and let it fizzle out how long will you waver between two opinions if the Lord be God follow him but if bail then follow him and the people answered him not a word then said Elijah unto the people I even only remain a prophet of the Lord and but baal's prophets are 400 and 50 Men Let Them therefore give up two Bullocks and let them choose one bulock for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on wood and put no fire under and
I will dress the other bulock and lay it on wood and put no fire under and call ye on the name of your gods and I will call on the name of the Lord and the and the god that anth by fire let him be God and all the people answered and said it is well spoken so he challenges them I'm sure you're all all familiar with the story so they start just going off crazy acting like lunatics so much so they leaped on the altar they cut themselves they danced around and acted like total fools and their God of course never said a thing and Elijah mocked them and said cry aloud for he is a God either he is talking or he is pursuing or he is in a journey or paraventure he's sleepeth must and must be awakened he reminds me of my husband kind of just that I'm going to pick pick pick pick pick because because I have the truth and you don't sometimes it's hilarious to watch but and they cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lances you know that's a definite demon thing cutting yourself we've seen so much of that in this culture till the blood gushed out upon them and it came to to pass when midday was passed that they prophesied unto the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice and there was neither a voice nor any to answer nor any that regarded and Elijah said unto all the people come near unto me and all the people came near unto him and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken and Elijah took 12 Stones according to the number of the tribes of Sons of Jacob unto whom the word of the Lord came saying Israel shall be thy name and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord and he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two measures of seed and he put the wood in order and cut the Bullocks in pieces and laid him on the wood laid him on the wood and said fill four barrels of water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood and he said do it the second time and they did it the second time and he saidd do it the third time and they did it the third time and the water ran about the Altar and he filled the trench also with water and what happens of course and it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said Lord God of Abraham Abraham Abraham Isaac and of Israel let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant and that I have done all these things at Thy word hear me oh Lord hear me that this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou H has turned their heart back again then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt o burnt sacrifice and the wood and
the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench and when the all the people saw it they fell on their face and they said the Lord he is the god the Lord he is the god I have here sacrifice is about you you know you read read all through the Bible about about the Lord instituting sacrifices sacrifice for this sacrifice for that and some might might think that it was because he wanted sacrifices but really it's all testing us it was testing them like in Deuteronomy 8:2 it says and thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God LED thee these 40 years in the wilderness to Humble thee so that's one of the things that this is for these times in our lives when we have to lay it all down lay down good things as well as the bad things is to Humble us to prove or test us um to know what's in our heart whether we will keep his commandment whether when he says something we'll do it and will we will we do it immediately you know or will we just kind of blow it off and keep on going on with our life it's all about us he's trying to refine us so that we make it and that's going to be more important as we you know somebody said earlier today that we're in the the tribulation we're there we're we're at that end point and we've got to be tested and get all of this stuff we got to lay it all down David Wilkerson said everything you go through as as Christians is a training exercise behind which God has a Divine Purpose he did not save you so that you could go on a cruise into Paradise on a luxury liner he saved you to prepare you to be of use in his kingdom the moment you were born again he enrolled you in his school of suffering and every Affliction every trial is another lesson in the curriculum ain't that good to know when you were born again you were enrolled in his school of suffering praise God that we can be like Jesus why do we push it away I said here if you have already laid your life down on the altar then there is nothing to fear what is there to kill steal and destroy if it all belongs to Jesus Matthew 10:28 fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and Body in hell so you have a different attitude when you realize nothing you have really is yours if you Sur surrender at all you don't care about where you're living you care about being in his will you know you don't you don't care not that I didn't care about my son but I
knew that the Lord was doing a new thing and in order to do that in you know if I had not done that if I would have held on to that it could have caused issues with us it could have caused issues with trying to start a church um you know some of this may not be happening if I had not been obedient cuz he said I'm responsible for the whole conference somehow I'm just kidding sorry so I go back to this statement that Rita Springer said I've never encountered a God that would make you do something that you didn't love to do and I'm going to have to call Bull on that one I just wanted to see the dog again really and he Luke 9:23 and he said to them all if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me the cross is a load or burden of pain sorrow or sacrifice that could be laid down but instead is chosen in order to follow Jesus and bring others to him Jesus chose the cross to save us he chose it we choose it we either choose it or we don't and it affects others and I like this AA Allen quote Christ never took a vacation from his cross so are you taking a vacation from yours you know do you live on it daily do you say Okay Lord what are you what suffering are you putting me through this week or Lord what can I give up for you this week or Lord where do you want me to go this week everybody has a fork in a road in the road and the Lord wants you this weekend and as you go forth because as I said we're we're in some interesting times he wants you to surrender all to him he wants you to I'm G to have do I have time I think I do I'm G to have Johnny and Julie just come up and they're just going to an oldie and I want you all to if you want to come down here if you want us just be in your seat and do it I want everybody to just start thinking about the things that the Lord's called you to surrender you know or is there something else am I missing something um is it am I am I putting my kids before God am I putting getting married before God am I putting my spouse before God what is it that I need to lay down on the altar so sorry to do it so quickly anyway that that's I'm going to
pray right now and then we're going to have the song like I said if y'all if there's anybody who wants to come down here and surrender something or put something on the altar that's fine you can do it in your seat while this is playing um but may have been a little scattered because the hard start and not having my stuff in front of me but I know that this is a word that the lord gave me for today so I just pray that you will take it seriously and that you'll go forth check in yourself and seeking the Lord and doing what he would have you to do so Lord I just thank you for this time Lord I pray for everybody here Lord and everybody watching Lord I just pray pray that you would speak to their hearts Lord just help them to know Lord if you've already called them to do something and they have pushed that down I just pray that you would just Holy Spirit just remind them Lord I pray in jesus' Name Lord that you would have your way in everyone here today Lord everyone that came just expecting a flat Earth conference Lord everyone that came seeking your face and wanting to Worship You Lord Lord God I just pray that your Holy Spirit would come down into this place as we all put things on the altar put our lives on the Altar for you Lord God and I thank you for your son who did that for us I pray in Jesus name All to Jesus I surrender all to to him I freely give I will ever love and trust him in his presence daily die [Music] surrend High surrender all all to thee blessed Savor [Music] surrender all to Jesus I Surrender make me save saor holy thine let me feel thy Holy Spirit truly
know that thou are M and I [Music] Surrender I Surrender [Music] all to thee my bless it savior surrender all All to Jesus I Surrender humbly at his feet I bow worldly pleasures all forsaken take me Jesus take me now and I surrender all I surrender all all to thee my bless sa your surrender all let's sing this uh last verse just sing it to the Lord All to Jesus I Surrender Lord I give myself to thee fill me with thy love and power let thy blessings fall on me and I [Music] Surrender sing it to me I Sur [Music] all all to the my BL save your right surrender all and all to thee my blessing savior I surrender just play quietly for a second I want to say something um you know there's always to do the will of God I'm just going to say this to do the will of God for your life
whatever his plan is whatever the destiny the calling he has on your life is there's always a sacrifice to be made always it's never going to be easy and right now I feel very strong that yeah God's dealing with some of you to give up that final little besetting sin that just keeps nagging and bringing you down but let me tell you what's really the big thing it's really the big thing and I found this if I could just get every Christian to do this we'd have Revival in a moment and that is you're willing to lay down everything you say Lord my life's over all my plans all my my dreams all my [Music] desires all of that stuff that none of and a lot of it's not sin it's not bad to have like the the Rich Young Ruler it wasn't bad for him to have wealth the problem was The Wealth had him and it kept him from letting go and following Jesus what's keeping you from letting go and following Jesus with everything you have it could be fear it could be a relationship it could be a sin it could be money it could be a job what does it take to lay down everything I remember when God called me when I was 19 it was laying down every plan that I had to play football to be in college and play college football and to the modeling career and the movies that were opening up and all that stuff to party and drink it can be big Sigma Kai fraternity and do all that stuff the Lord said you want me you have to surrender everything and I knew it he made it clear to me and when I made that surrender is when my life changed it's when I got filled with the holy spirit it's when the gifts of the Spirit started working almost immediately I started leading other people to Jesus it was about Jesus it was about doing his will and then I would spend times in prayer and fasting and I would hear what he wanted me to do next and I would go do that that's what I've been doing these years and I just say that's what to me it's not special it's what a Christian's supposed to do not what we want what he wants so I know the lord gave my wife this cu the Lord's been having me press this issue for like a year now maybe even longer just press this issue isue of surrender you don't want to stand before Jesus one day and he tell you there was one thing you wouldn't let go of and that thing kept you from doing my will for the rest of your life you don't want
that to be said because let me just tell you this it's not all bad when you surrender to the Lord fully there's also an adventure on the other side of that and it's actually is when it gets interesting or as I say sometimes it gets sporty out there right but that's where you want to be you want to be where God's moving and people's lives are being impacted you don't want to be just over here letting one thing hold you back amen all right thank y'all that's beautiful