Surrender to the Current

In one paragraph

This Sunday's message came from Anders and Brooke, missionaries with J Zone in Livingston, Zambia, who are preparing to return to the field in early April. Rather than a traditional sermon, they shared stories from their ministry and Anders offered a personal testimony about surrender and going deeper with God. The morning closed with a love offering for their work. Anders and Brooke walked...

Read together

1. Psalm 81:16 quoted as God speaking to Israel about feeding them with finest wheat and satisfying them with wild honey from the rock, explaining the song lyrics
2. 2 Corinthians 9 cited as the basis for giving cheerfully and from the heart, not under compulsion
3. Ezekiel 47:1-5 read aloud in full as the passage Anders used to illustrate surrender and going deeper with God, likening the rising river to the Holy Spirit

Talk about it

1. Anders described a period where he was relying on friendships, outdoor pursuits, and fellowship to fill his soul rather than going to the Lord directly. What are the things in your own life that you tend to lean on for encouragement or identity before you turn to God?
2. Brooke shared the story of headmaster Violet, who had dreamed the night before that people would arrive in a truck to tell her students about Jesus. How does that story affect the way you think about the moments in your own life that seemed like coincidence?
3. Anders read from Ezekiel 47 about a river rising from ankle depth to knee depth to waist depth until it was too deep to walk through. He said he had been surrendering up to his head, leaving just enough room to stay in control. Where would you say the water is at in your own walk with God right now?
4. Anders told the group about a man at a village Bible study who was fixated on judgment but had not yet come to salvation, and Anders told him, 'Now is the time of salvation, not the time of judgment.' Is there an area of your spiritual life where you have been putting something off until later that God may be asking you to deal with now?
5. Anders closed by saying surrender is not a one-time moment but a daily thing, and that he sometimes experiences a feeling of freedom and then stops praying and slides back into old patterns. What does a daily practice of surrender actually look like in a concrete, practical way for you?