What does First B Jackson teach about surrender?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on surrender that came through Anders and Brooke's visit starts not with a formula but with an honest confession. Anders described moving to Zambia full of genuine excitement and yet carrying something quietly wrong underneath it: anxiety rooted in fear of leaving his life behind, fear of the unknown, and fear of losing comfort. For a long time he managed that fear by drawing energy from ministry wins and from the encouragement of friends in Christ, but Brooke told him plainly that he had been letting others spoon-feed him his encouragement instead of picking up the spoon himself, and that he needed to rely on the joy of the Lord as his strength. The point was not that the ministry fruit was false, but that it was functioning like a bandage over something that had not yet been brought before God.
The image that cracked things open for Anders came from Ezekiel 47, where a river flows out from the temple and rises from ankle depth to knee depth to waist depth to a depth that cannot be crossed on foot at all. A leader named Rick preached from that passage at their leadership camp, and Anders said it landed on him because he recognized himself wading in just far enough to keep his footing, leaving himself room to breathe, rather than surrendering to the current. That image gave shape to what he had been doing and to what God was calling him out of.
What followed the surrender was not ease but a harder season of actually pressing into God rather than waiting for a feeling to arrive. Anders described a dream during a month when the team was writing fresh Bible study lessons for every village they visited. In the dream he led a salvation prayer for the first time and was frightened doing it. Weeks later, at a village meeting, everything unfolded exactly as he had dreamed it. His conclusion was straightforward: that kind of closeness with God is what close pursuit of God produces. The call he left with the congregation was direct: don't leave unchanged.
Taught from Ezekiel 47:1-5 · 2 Corinthians 9 · 1 John 4:9-11
The passage taught · 1 John 4:9-11
9 By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- March 16, 2025 Barefoot in the Bush Missionaries Anders and Brooke share how God is changing lives in Zambia through camps, schools, and village Bible studies, and call their home church to deeper surrender.
- March 16, 2025 Surrender to the Current Missionaries Anders and Brooke share stories from Zambia and challenge their home church to surrender fully to God and go deeper in faith.
Mentioned along the way
- September 1, 2024 The Ones Who Looked Lived A Wyoming pastor walks through Steps 6 and 7 of the 12 steps, grounding them in Numbers 21 and John 3: sin, sorrow, and the salvation God makes possible by looking up.
- August 23, 2015 Thanks Be to God Who Always Leads Us in Triumphal Procession Paul shows that carrying the gospel means being led like a prisoner in Christ's triumph, not marching as the victor. Sufficiency comes from God alone.