Make A Commitment Series

Make a Commitment

Making a Commitment is Good.

It helps us focus

It shows our love

Make a commitment to Submit to God’s Word

Make a commitment to Stay Pure in our relationships

Make a commitment to Sabbath rest

Make a commitment to Support the Lord’s work

Support it systematically

Support it with first fruits

Support it proportionately

Slide 1

I heard about this man who bought a parrot. It was a beautiful parrot but he had a really bad mouth. He could swear for five minutes straight without repeating himself. The man was embarrassed because the bird was driving him crazy in front of people.

He tried to appeal to the bird by asking him to clean up his language. The parrot promised to change but nothing happened. In fact, his swearing increased in both volume and frequency.

It finally got to be too much, so the guy grabbed the bird by the throat and started shaking him and yelled, “Quit it!” But this just made the parrot angry and he swore more than ever.

Then the guy got really mad and locked him in a kitchen cabinet. That really aggravated the bird and he started clawing and scratching and making all kinds of racket. When the guy finally let him out, the parrot let loose with a stream of swear words that made the man blush.

At that point, the guy was so ticked off that he threw him into the freezer. For the first few seconds the bird squawked and screamed and thrashed around. And then there was silence.

At first the guy just waited, but then he started to wonder if the bird was hurt. After a couple minutes of not hearing anything, he was so worried that he opened the freezer door. The bird calmly climbed onto the man’s outstretched arm and said, “I’m really sorry about all the trouble I’ve been giving you. I make a solemn promise and commitment to clean up my language from now on.”

The man was astounded. He couldn’t believe the transformation that had come over the parrot as a result of being in the freezer for only a couple minutes. The parrot then turned to the man and said, “I just have one question…what did the chicken do?”

We are going to be talking about commitments today.

We, like the bird, are only willing to make a commitment when we see what is in it for us.

So generally, People have a difficult time making commitments.

We see it in marriages – There are people who don’t want to be married because they fear commitment, or at least they fear the obligation that commitment brings.

We see it in churches – people do not want to commit to things that will require anything of them.

We are a world of people wanting to keep their options open all the time, so they don’t commit.

Making a Commitment is Good.

But commitments can be scary.

Slide 2

The Bible talks about commitments that we make in

Numbers 30:2

2 When a man makes a vow to the LORD or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.

And commitments are not to be taken lightly. Both the Old Testament and New Testament talk about that.

In the New Testament, Jesus warns against making empty promises

Matthew 5:33-37

33 "Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ’Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ 34 But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 Simply let your ’Yes’ be ’Yes,’ and your ’No,’ ’No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Jesus is not saying that you can never make a vow. Some Pharisees lived very hypocritically and they said you only had to keep those vows or oaths or commitments made to the Lord.

Jesus is saying no. He is saying your character should be as such that when you say you will do something, you should not need to swear that you are going to do it to get people to believe you. Live in such a way that when you commit to something, you don’t have to back it up with all kinds of oaths and promises to have people believe you.

He is not saying never make a commitment to the Lord.

The Old Testament tells us not to lightly enter into commitments to the Lord.