TOTALLY!
INTRODUCTION: Bill Hybels, Pastor of Willow Creek Community church, was talking with one of his members about some of the "tough topics" he had taught on over the years—hell, money, sex, relational confrontation, self-discipline. The man asked, "Of all the topics you’ve preached on, which has been the hardest to get across?" Bill states, ‘I didn’t even have to think about it. Becoming totally devoted to Christ.’ Bill considered getting across the aspect of a completely self-sacrificial lifestyle was his greatest teaching challenge. He states that for many people, total devotion to Christ means squandering the only life they have. What about us? Do we consider total devotion to Jesus a goal worth striving for? Or do we see complete commitment as something that would infringe on our comfortable lifestyle? Let’s take a look into living totally devoted to Jesus.
1) WHAT’S INVOLVED IN TOTAL DEVOTION? What does a totally devoted Christian life consist of?
· Daily death. 1ST Corinthians 15:30&31. What did Paul mean when he said, ‘I die every day’? Paul was living out Luke 9:23 when Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” When Jesus said, take up your cross, he didn’t mean a literal piece of wood. The cross represents death. Therefore, we need to die to self. Paul said in Rom. 12:1 we need to present ourselves as living sacrifices to God. Every day we need to sacrifice our desires and our will for the sake of God’s will for us. Paul spent a lot of time denying himself in order to do God’s will. If we are going to be totally devoted to Jesus we will need to die to self every day. And we’ll be better prepared to die to self when we define the areas where we haven’t done that. What areas of my personal and spiritual life need improvement or even an overhaul? What do I need to do in order to become totally committed in my marriage, character development, health, work ethic, prayer life, church service, bible reading, etc. It’s important to remember that becoming totally devoted is a process. The key is to have a definitive plan and then stick to it.
· Giving it your all. Jesus said in Matt. 22:37 that the greatest commandment is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. I used to downplay these words. I convinced myself that this was impossible and therefore, Jesus couldn’t have meant it as he said it. I wanted to believe that half-hearted was good enough. I wanted to give credit to my good intentions. Some people make a genuine decision to follow Jesus without a whole-hearted commitment to follow him. A decision is in a moment, a commitment is in a lifetime. Sometimes our commitments lack enthusiasm and we have a tendency to be fickle. A college man walked into a photography studio with a framed picture of his girlfriend. He wanted the picture duplicated. This involved removing it from the frame. In doing this, the studio owner noticed the inscription on the back of the photograph: “My dearest Tom, I love you with all my heart. I love you more and more each day. I will love you forever and ever. I am yours for all eternity.” It was signed "Helen,” and it contained a P.S.: “If we ever break up, I want this picture back.” Jesus said in Matt. 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both ‘God and Money.” You can’t have it both ways. You can’t have one foot in the kingdom and one in the world. That’s not even half-hearted devotion. Jesus said you can’t be devoted to both. You will be devoted to one and despise the other. Ill. What would you think if I said, we’ve decided that sometimes instead of having praise and worship music we’re going to listen to Marilyn Manson? And sometimes instead of celebrating the Lord’s Supper with bread and juice we’ll celebrate it with Jack Daniel’s. And why not every once in a while instead of having a sermon we’ll watch an X-rated movie instead. You know, not all the time, just once in a while. If we did that, would you think Cornerstone was a church that was totally devoted to God? If we wouldn’t tolerate such behavior on Sunday morning, why would we tolerate it on Saturday night? If doing those things would be considered an abomination to this temple (gesture to the church building), what would convince us that it’s no big deal to do that to this temple (gesture to self)?
· Prioritizing. We need to prioritize our lives if we are going to be totally committed Christians. Colossians 3:1-3. Having our hearts and minds on heavenly things allows us to have a lasting and eternal impact. This involves having a proper handling of the three “T”s: Time, Talents and Treasures. Jesus said in Matt. 6:33 that we need to seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness. The main purpose in God giving us the gift of time is to use it to serve him. He has given us specific abilities in order that we would use them to bring glory to him. And he has blessed us with money and material things in order to use them to benefit his kingdom. Too often our priority regarding the three ‘t’s is ourselves. “My time is my time; don’t infringe on my time.” Or we realize we have a certain talent and we think, ‘how can I use this to my benefit’? Then there’s our treasure. Money and material things can have ‘self’ written all over them. Committing these things to the Lord isn’t easy. But if we set our hearts and minds on prioritizing our lives correctly, we’ll become totally devoted to Jesus.
· Guarding against distractions. 2nd Cor. 11:2-4. Satan is going to throw distractions at me from every angle. He’s going to try to be a time stealer. He’s going to tempt me to sin so that I’m pulled away from my sincere and pure devotion. He’s going to try to get me to compromise on my convictions. One of the ways he tries to get us to compromise is in our devotion to God’s local church. Author Jerry Bridges comments in an article on commitment, “As I have watched the parade of people through our church, and other churches, I wonder why so few commit themselves to a local body of believers in a significant way. Many sit and soak and do little else, and they flee at the first sign of trouble or pressure. They fail to become involved or to give; the priority for corporate worship falls far down on the list. They criticize all that is wrong with a specific local congregation. What can we do besides comment or complain? We need to accept the challenge to commit ourselves to responsible membership.” Jerry understood that making a commitment to the local church is a priority. The local church is the main avenue through which the Lord accomplishes his work. Through the church’s teaching and fellowship we gain strength and wisdom to carry out Jesus’ instructions. But some people just do not see being committed to church attendance as a necessity. They see recreation and entertainment as a necessity. They see yard work and projects as a necessity. But church attendance is just something to do if I feel like it or if there’s nothing better going on. We have to guard ourselves from distractions that get in the way of our total devotion.
2) WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME? Total devotion comes at a cost. It will cost me some luxuries, some comforts, some gratifications. Therefore, what’s my incentive to move beyond comfortable Christianity and into self-sacrificing total commitment?
· The fullness of life. Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” All he ever really wanted in life was more. He wanted more money, so he parlayed inherited wealth into a billion-dollar pile of assets. He wanted more fame, so he broke into the Hollywood scene and soon became a filmmaker and star. He wanted more sensual pleasures, so he paid handsome sums to indulge his every sexual urge. He wanted more thrills, so he designed, built, and piloted the fastest aircraft in the world. He wanted more power, so he secretly dealt political favors so skillfully that two U.S. presidents became his pawns. All he ever wanted was more. He was absolutely convinced that more would bring him true satisfaction. Unfortunately, history shows otherwise. This is how this man concluded his life—emaciated; colorless; sunken chest; fingernails in grotesque, inches-long corkscrews; rotting, black teeth; tumors; innumerable needle marks from his drug addiction. Howard Hughes died believing the myth of more. Howard Hughes thought the fullness of life was found in self-gratification. Jesus said the fullness of life is found in him. We can experience the fullness of life when our life is fully devoted to Jesus.
· Opportunities and experiences. There are areas of the ministry that take me out of my comfort zone. I’m more comfortable sitting in a seat than standing at the pulpit. So why am I up here? Because that’s where God wants me. Because of my willingness to take on this commitment I’ve experienced spiritual growth I would’ve otherwise missed out on. I’ve been able to be bolder in my witness for Jesus. And because of that I’ve been able to see many people baptized in the name of Jesus. All because I stepped out in faith and allowed God to use me more fully. And I don’t regret it. In fact I challenge you to find anyone who regrets their decision to become a totally devoted Christian. And because I’ve decided to strive for total devotion, I’ve encountered opportunities and experiences that I would’ve otherwise missed out on. The greatest of which is found in the opportunity to experience a deeper relationship with Jesus. How could any of us not want that?
CONCLUSION: In an article for Decision magazine, Samuel Kamaleson illustrates the difficulty of submission through a Christian folk story. ‘There once was a young boy who loved to play marbles. He regularly walked through his neighborhood with a pocketful of his best marbles, hoping to find opponents to play against. One marble in particular, his special blue marble, had won him many matches. During one walk he encountered a young girl who was eating a bag of chocolate candy. Though the boy’s first love was marbles, he had a weakness for chocolates. As he stood there interacting with the young girl, he thought to himself, I have got to get my hands on those chocolates. Concocting a plan, he asked the girl, "How about I give you all these marbles for those chocolates?" She replied, "Sounds fair to me." He put his hand in his pocket, searching for the distinguishing cracks on the surface of the blue marble. Once he identified it with his fingertip, he carefully pushed it to the bottom of his pocket and pulled out all the other marbles. As he handed them to the girl in exchange for the chocolate, the boy thought his plan was a success and turned to walk away. As he began to eat the candy, he suddenly turned to the girl and asked, "Hey, did you give me all the chocolates?" Our fallen nature persuades us to posture ourselves in the same deceptive and defiant attitude as the boy in this story. We want everything the kingdom of God has to offer. We want to have a secure sense of God’s presence, we want all our prayers to be answered, we want to "feel close" to Jesus, we want to flourish in the riches of God’s glory—we want it all. But we are unwilling to give up everything for it. Many times there is a "blue marble" in our lives that we seem unwilling to offer to the control of Christ. Until we can fully turn ourselves to God’s will, our participation in God’s kingdom will be limited.’ Don’t let a little blue marble keep you from experiencing the totality of God. As we begin the New Year, let’s commit to taking the blue marbles out of our pockets and hand them over to the Lord. So that, when someone asks, ‘Are you a Christian?’ you can answer, ‘Totally’!
