How many of you have had someone break a commitment they made to you?
How many of you have ever broken a commitment you made to someone else?
If you're like me, I dislike having someone break a commitment to me,
but even more, I dislike having to break a commitment I've made to someone else.
Now there are times, when things happen beyond our control, our circumstances change and we cannot help but to break a commitment we've made to someone else.
Today, I want to talk about commitment.
Whatever happened to commitment?
Why is it that there are close to 100 million church members in America, yet we are not making more of a moral and spiritual impact on the world today?
Why is it that, on any given Sunday morning, thousands of churches have more empty pews than full?
Why is it that the average Sunday School in America has less than 66 in attendance and that the average worship service has 84?
Why is it that only 50% of the number on any church membership roll can be expected to attend?
If Christians really believe in a real heaven and a real Hell, how can we be so silent?
I'm afraid that the answer to all of these questions is tragically simple! God’s people have made a decision about Jesus …. but they have never made a commitment to Him!
Let's face it, we are living in a generation of shallowness!
"So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain."
Ezekiel 33:31
Our text this morning, tells us that the people, in Ezekiel's day, had no deep affection for God.
They had a shallowness of sentimental hearing.
And I'm sorry to report, that it's no different today..
The hard truth is there is of course a difference between a decision and a commitment!
Perhaps this cannot be seen any clearer than it is in the failure rate of marriages in America today.
According to statistics at least 50% of all marriages will end in divorce.
Why do you suppose that is happening?
It is because these couples made a decision to get married, one or both of them, did not make a commitment.
Every person who gets married made a decision! Not everyone makes a commitment!
Most of them stood before a preacher and made promises and recited vows. They made a decision, they kissed each other and walked out together to live but not necessarily “happily ever after” and not necessarily together.
So why do so many marriages end in divorce?
The answer is that they both made a decision, but at least of them did not truly commit their lives to the other. At least one of them, made a shallow decision, rather than a commitment to marry.
The same is true in the church. The reason that the church is not making more of an impact in our society is that many church members made a decision about Christ, but have not made a commitment to Christ.
For the purpose of illustration, let's look at a pilot.
When the pilot of a airplane is speeding down the runway, there comes a certain point where staying on the ground is no longer an option. When the airplane crosses that line, he has to make a decision, a commitment to the air, and he will take off and become air bound or a disastrous crash is imminent.
At the point the pilot can no longer change his mind he is committed.
Unfortunately many churches today are filled with members who have never got off the ground.
They have been sitting there, idling, revving their engines, making a lot of noise but going nowhere!
Perhaps, they have been wanting to, maybe they've been trying to,they were going to, aiming to, they were meaning to, hoping to....
But tragedy of tragedies, they have never committed themselves to getting off the ground!
"These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness."
Mark 4:16
A shallow generation, without roots...
"But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”
Luke 6:49
A shallow generation without a foundation…
"And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.
John 6:65-66
A shallow generation with the inability to receive the deeper message...
"that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting."
Ephesians 4:14
A shallow generation without deep convictions...
Commitment:
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."
Romans 12:1
Real commitment is a highly prized commodity and those who have experienced it know how gratifying it can be to receive such loyalty.
God loves commitment!
"Commit your works to the Lord,
And your thoughts will be established."
Proverbs 16:3
"That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us."
2 Timothy 1:14
I’m part of the proud fellowship of the unapologetic, the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. The commitment has been made.
My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, I won't look back, I won't stand still,I won't let up, I won't be silent!
I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by His power.
I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotion, applause, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, at the top, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded.
I cannot be bought, persuaded, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed!
I will not wince or flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate or back up or back down in the presence of the adversary, negotiate or compromise at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity....
I am a COMMITTED follower of Jesus Christ! A SOLDIER in God's ARMY!
PREPARED for the battle! In It for the LONG HAUL!
A FIGHTER to the FINISH! And I'm NOT ABOUT TO QUIT!
God dislikes, those who are forever weighing their options, who can never settle on a course of action. He isn't pleased with fence - walkers, by people who can’t quite make up their minds!
God isn't calling us to act without any thought to the consequence.
But what He wants are people who are willing to commit!
To follow Him with joyful abandon, without regret, without looking back.
Listen to and take to heart, the words of Jesus:
"Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”
But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”
But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:59-62
I know it sounds at that Jesus was being insensitive.. Jesus was asking him to let the dead in Christ, the spiritually dead, bury his father.
Joy in Christ requires a commitment to working at the Christian lifestyle. Salvation comes as a gift, but the joy of salvation demands disciplined action. Most Christians I know have just enough of the Gospel to make them miserable, but not enough to make them joyful.
They know just enough about the biblical message to keep them from doing the things which the world tempts them to do; but they do not have enough of a commitment to God to do those things through which they might experience the fullness of his joy!
"Then the Lord said to him: “Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
1 Kings 19:15-18
When our Lord Jesus Christ, hung on the cross at Calvary, that was His marriage proposal to us!
That was Him getting down on one knee, asking each and every one of us to be His bride!
The bride of Christ.
As the last drop of blood drained from His beaten, tortured body, Christ, made a commitment to us.
To be our Savior, to sit at the right hand of the Father, intercede on our behalf.
We have a decision to make, to refuse His proposal or to accept it...
To commit our hearts and lives to serving Him, fully, completely...
"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.."
Revelation 3:15-17
So, in closing, let me ask you this question:
What do you need to do to be completely and totally committed to Christ?
What "bridges" is God calling you to burn?
What doors is He asking you to slam shut and walk away from?
What are you waiting for?
Brian Monzon Ministries