Did You Really Mean It?
Do you guys ever watch OETA ? I think it stands for the Oklahoma Educational Television Administration. On my Television it is channel 11. They have some shows you don’t get on commercial tv. I really enjoy a cooking show they have called America’s Test Kitchen. I have made some of the recipe’s from the show and picked up a lot of good tips on cooking. They use to run some British comedies on Sunday nights starting at about 10:30. I haven’t watched them for a while now but Brenda and I use to watch them every week. If you get to be a regular viewer of OETA it won’t be long before you tune in to find your regular programing interrupted by a pledge drive. They will have a telethon on in place of the show you were expecting to see and they will be taking pledges live on the air to keep the channel financially afloat.
They do a lot with old musical acts from the 50’s and 60’s. The old bands will get together and preform their old hit songs to help raise money for the station. If you pledge a certain dollar amount they will send you Cd’s of the performance. While the bands are playing a message scrolls across the bottom of the screen listing the first names and town where the donors live. You guys have all seen that scrolling at the bottom of the screen haven’t you? 100 form Pat in Vinita, 50 dollars from Ted and Mary in Oklahoma City, 200 dollars from the Agnes and Floyd in Claremore and it just keeps scrolling name after name town after town, it seems endless.
They really seem to do quite well with their pledges. I have always wondered what percentage they collect, I mean how many people that call in a pledge actually follow through and send the money. I have never called in a pledge and consequently I have never sent them any money. I’m one of those thousands of flakes that occasionally tune in and take advantage of their programming without paying for it. Just for fun, a kind of moral test of the human condition, I decided to call OETA and just ask what percentage of those pledges they actually collect. I didn’t know if they would share the information with me or not but I thought it can’t hurt to ask so I got on the computer and went to their web site, got their phone number off the Internet and gave them a call. For all you Deacons in the service let me assure you it was a toll free 1-=800 number. You don’t have to check the phone bill.
Anyway the folks at OETA were quite gracious with me and after being transferred to someone who deals with the telethons I was given the figure of about 80 per cent.
That seems pretty good to me given my understanding of the public as a whole, most people will follow through on what they tell you they will do. There is really no accountability to an OETA telethon pledge they may send you a few reminders in the mail if you don’t send it in but no ones going to sue you. They could run a message across the bottom of the screen during regular programing of the names of the deadbeats that don’t honor their pledges but that would probably be counter productive to the success of the telethons.
So when it comes to making pledges to public television about 20 percent of the people find it easier to pick up the phone and make the pledge than it is to actually get out the old check book and get a check in the mail. There are about 20 percent of the people who enjoy seeing their name scroll across the bottom of the screen more than they like sending in the money.
Before we stand ready to stone that 20 percent who refuse to honor their pledge perhaps we should consider how Christians honor their pledges. I am not talking about Christians that pledge financial support to OETA or even to Jerry’s Kids. I wonder what percentage of Christians honor their pledge to make Jesus Christ Lord and Master of their lives. If you are a Christian then you have pledged to surrender your life to Jesus Christ. I wonder what percentage honor that pledge. Paul calls us to honor our pledge as Christians in Romans 12:1
Romans 12:1 (NIV)
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.
When we become Christians we are to surrender ourselves to his will, his good and perfect will. Is that not the pledge we made to Christ as we surrendered our lives to Him? We are to offer ourselves up as living sacrifices. We are no longer our own but we have been bought with a price.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul tells us:
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
“I no longer live but Christ lives in me.” It would appear that Paul understood the importance of honoring his pledge to Jesus. Do we?
We pledged our lives as living sacrifices, but what have we actually done to honor that pledge?
James understood the importance of our actions supporting our words. He knew there was a difference between talking about something and doing it.
James 2:16-19
16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?
17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.
It’s easy to speak the words, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but quite another to take action to bring substance to those words. It’s easy to profess Him the Lord of your life it’s quite another thing to live in such a way as to make Him the Lord of your life.
I think many pledge their lives to Him not fully understanding the commitment they have made. In the ancient world if you made a pledge to make someone the Lord of your life you were offering yourself up as a slave to that person. Today living in America we don’t have a clue what it would be like to be in servitude to another. We have no clear picture of what slavery looks like and I believe that shows in our pledge to make Jesus Christ the “Lord” of our lives.
If you ask a Christian if Jesus is the Lord of their life I truly believe that most people will proudly proclaim without hesitation: yes! Jesus is the Lord of my life.
This morning I don’t want us to answer without hesitation, this morning I want us to hesitate, to contemplate, to carefully look at our lives and then decide if we truly live our lives in submission to Jesus Christ, as willing slaves, bought with the price of His blood.
When we claim Him as Lord have we truly made him the Lord our lives? Is He the Lord of our time? Have we made Jesus the Lord of our talents? Have we made Jesus the Lord of our desires? Have we made him the Lord of our finances?
Is He the Lord of your time? Do we make time for Him each week? Not just time for church, but time to experience God in a personal way, in prayer, in praise? How do we choose to spend our time; with our Lord or with the world? I know you have obligations and responsibilities and God knows it too, but how do you spend your personal time, the time you have where you get to choose what you want to do? Do you spend it building a relationship with the one you claim as Lord do you spend it toiling in His service for the advancement of His kingdom or do other things occupy your time.
Do you spend more time reading the local newspaper or studying the word of God? Are you more familiar with the sales flyer’s in the Sunday paper or the truths found in God’s word. Where you spend your time can be a good indicator of where your heart is, but it is not the only indicator. How we use the talents that we have is another indicator of who really owns us; the one we claim as Lord, or the world.
Another big indicator in honoring your commitment to God can be seen in how you use the talents that your Lord has given you.
Each and everyone one of us has been given a talent in one area or another. Some are talented in many areas others are more limited. It doesn’t matter what your talent is, my question is this; are you using that talent in the service of Jesus Christ, your Lord and your savior. Are you taking advantage of the skills that God has given you for the advancement of His kingdom or do you use them exclusively for your own benefit. God gave you every ability that you have are you using those God given talents for His benefit?
Another trustworthy indicator of our desire to honor our pledge to God can be seen in how we handle our finances.
Do we honor God with our finances? As humans we look at finances in terms of amount, in terms of dollars and cents, not so with God. As humans we look at the bottom line and ask how much. God looks at the sacrifice that your tithes and offerings represent, thats what matters to the Lord, not how much do you give but how much did you sacrifice, how much were you willing to give up to give it.
If you don’t think so turn with me to the book of Mark chapter 12 verses 41-44.
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.
But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on."
We can’t give enough in dollars and cents to impress God, His eyes are not drawn towards silver or gold, but he takes great joy when what we offer up to Him has come by great personal sacrifice on our part. God doesn’t care about the bottom line but He delights in those who are willing to endure hardship to provide for His kingdom.
So what becomes of the man who honors his pledge to God in this world. So what benefit is there in this life to one who honors His pledge as a Christian to surrender his life to Jesus; to surrender his time, his talent and his finances to his Lord and savior, Jesus.
Submission to the Lord, honoring your pledge as a Christian does not bring about a life of easy living. I don’t care what that preacher on tv told you. I want you to listen to what Timothy would tell you about the worldly fate of a Godly man.
In 2 Timothy 3:12
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
I want you to know, right up front how the world is going to treat you if you decide to honor your commitment to Jesus.
I will not promise you a life of wealth and prosperity because our hope as Christians is not in this world but in the one to come. Don’t set your sights so low as to concentrate on the temporary things of this world. I can promise you this, those who truly surrender themselves to Jesus will receive eternal life.
The Bible gives us many accounts of men who dedicated their lives to honoring their commitment to Jesus, none stands out in my mind more than the apostle Paul. Paul knew what it was to honor a commitment. In 2nd Corinthians 11 starting in verse 24 Paul shares with us some of the things that he had to go through in order to honor his commitment to Jesus.
2 Corinthians 11:24-28 (NIV)
24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,
26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers.
27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.
The apostle Paul knew what it meant to honor a pledge. When he gave his life to Jesus he gave it all.
We have to decide when we surrendered our lives to Jesus were we like those 20 percent who make a pledge to OETA, you know that 20 percent who made a pledge just so they could receive the satisfaction of seeing their name scroll by on the bottom of the screen or are you like the apostle Paul, did you really mean it? Are you willing to honor our commitment.
Invitation..............................................................
