COMMITTED CHRISTIANS
(ALL my sermons use illustrations found on sermoncentral.com and I use the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted)
This morning I would like to share with you from God’s inerrant and infallible Word on the subject of Commitment. Commitment is quickly becoming a thing of the past as evidenced in the extremely high divorce rate amongst Americans and even among Christians. People just don’t treat a commitment the way they used to, professional athletes make a commitment to one team and then search for a better deal with another team, Politicians and business leaders forsake their promises to find personal gain and glory. A handshake and a promise are no good today unless there is a signed contract that has been witnessed and notarized. Unfortunately, Christians and churches are falling by the wayside as well, due to a lack of commitment.
I personally struggle with commitment in the area of diet and exercise, I make a commitment to get in shape, I start out with excitement and passion, but when the stomach grumbles and the muscles ache, . . . well you know!
It reminds me of the fella who’s wife gave him a one week membership to the local health club. He called and made reservations with someone named Tanya, who said she was a 26 year old aerobics instructor and athletic clothing model. His wife seemed very pleased with how enthusiastic he was to get started. This is how he described the ordeal.
DAY 1. They suggested I keep this “exercise diary” to chart my progress this week. Started the morning at 6:00 am. Tough to get up, but worth it when I arrived at the health and Tanya was waiting for me. She was something of a goddess, with blond hair and a dazzling white smile. She showed me the machines and took my pulse after five minutes on the treadmill. She seemed a little alarmed that it was so high, but I think just standing next to her added about ten points. Tanya was very encouraging as I did my sit-ups, though my gut was already aching a little from holding it in the whole time I was talking to her. This is going to be GREAT!
Day 2: Took a whole pot of coffee to get me out the door, but I made it. Tanya had me lie on my back and push this heavy iron bar into the air. Then she put weights on it. Legs a little wobbly on the treadmill but I made it the full mile. Her smile made it all worth it. Muscles feel GREAT . .
DAY 3: The only way I can brush my teeth is by laying the toothbrush on the counter and moving my mouth back and forth over it. Driving was okay as long as I didn’t try to steer. I parked on top of a Volkswagen. Tanya was a little impatient with me and said my screaming was bothering the other club members.
DAY 4: Tanya was waiting for me with her vampire teeth in a full snarl. I can’t help it if I was a half hour late, it took me that long just to tie my shoes. I hid in the men’s room until she sent Lars in looking for me.
DAY 5: I hate Tanya more than any human being has ever hated another in the history of the world. If there was any part of my body that was not in extreme pain I would hit her with it. She thought it would be a good idea to work on my triceps . . . . well, I have news for you Tanya, I don’t have triceps. And if you don’t want dents in the floor stop handing me those barbells.
DAY 6: I got Tanya’s message on my answering machine, wondering where I am. I lacked the strength to use the TV remote so I watched eleven straight hours of the Weather channel.
DAY 7: Well, that’s the week. I am so grateful it’s over. Maybe next time my wife will give me something a little more fun like a root canal or a kidney stone.
Now as amusing as this story might be I think it speaks volumes about the walk many Christians have with Jesus and the journey of many a church as well. We start with excitement and passion but when the aches and pains of growth come, we simply forget our commitment. All of us here this morning understand that in order to achieve success there must be unwavering devotion, this is not a NEW concept. Great athletes must be committed to practice, successful students must be devoted to study, and vibrant growing Christians and churches must be committed to following the example and direction of God’s infallible Word.
With this in mind please open your Bible and turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter 2. Here we are going to look at the end of Peter’s first Holy Spirit filled sermon. He preaches to the people on the Day of Pentecost and it says the people were cut to the heart and then starting in verse 41 it says:
Acts 2: 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
PRAYER
Now folks, would you not like to see 3000 added to God’s church in a day? I believe that everyone of us sitting here this morning would love to be filled with AWE and surrounded by wonders and miraculous signs. AMEN?
The first thing that I would like to point out to you is that these people accepted the message, they listened to Peter preach and they accepted the truth, verse 37 says “they were cut to the heart and asked, brothers what shall we do? Peter replied “repent and be baptized.” Those who accepted the message were BAPTIZED and that church grew 3000 people that day! But the story does not stop with the church growing 3000 in one day, it says they devoted themselves to four simple things:
Now, I feel that this example of commitment is placed in the Bible to teach us today what we need to be committed to, in order that our lives, and our churches, might be filled with AWE and surrounded with wonder and miraculous signs.
Those four things are the Apostle’s teachings, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer.
Let’s start with the breaking of bread or what we call the communion part of our worship service. Some might ask, “Why does the Christian church partake in the communion service each and every week? I think it is because we are committed to the example of the Bible. I believe that we are striving to be a church that is filled with AWE, and therefore we will do as the first church did. ACTS, 20:7 says; On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.
Now I am not planning on talking until midnight, so you can all breathe a little easier, but see in this scripture that they came together to “break bread,” this is the reason they gathered. In the wake of the great tragedy of 9-11, we have a remembrance once a year. Living in Oklahoma for the past couple of years, I have noticed that on the day of the great tragedy of the Oklahoma City bombing people gather to remember. Jesus did for us something NO hero in our world has ever done, He took the sin of the WORLD upon him and died in our place. We remember the fallen, we remember our heroes, we are told to make a commitment to remembering our Lord.
Paul knew how important this was to the church, he said this: 1 Cor 11:23-24 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me."
In other words, we must make a commitment to remember what Jesus did each time we gather and break bread. This is first and foremost if we are to be successful as a church, because without knowing WHY, we are just going through the motions. We MUST remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us, and each week as we partake in the breaking of bread that is exactly what we are doing. Now I know that when you do something over and over you might lose focus of why exactly you are doing it, but this time in the service is designated to REMEMBER, it is set aside to give us perspective, and making a commitment to purge ourselves of all other thoughts, and do some remembering, is one perspective we must have.
Now, let us look at the first one mentioned, they were devoted to the teaching of the Apostle’s. GUYS, let me pick on us for just a moment. How many fella’s here have ever had to put something together, and just decided that they really didn’t need to follow the instructions. Yes, I have my hand raised because, once you get on a roll, who needs directions. I have built car and airplane models since I was a small child, I thoroughly enjoy putting models together, yet, when I think I know what I am doing, I inevitably end up having to take the model apart to put a piece on that I had forgotten. Christmas presents always seem to have extra parts when I am done assembling. Most of you know what I am talking about, I’m sure that I am not the only one that has failed to read the instructions only to find out I really needed to.
As Christians we can not be a complete model of what a Christian should be unless we follow instructions carefully. The Apostle’s were teaching what Jesus Himself had taught them, the people were devoted to this, and in turn they had a growing vibrant church. I am afraid to say that the main reason so many churches in our time have problems is that they feel they do not need to directions anymore. They have this thing under control, and unfortunately, like a car model done without instructions, many churches are missing some parts, or just don’t look right.
I recently had a Buick LeSabre as our second vehicle, it was a good car but one of the teenagers needed a car and he bought it from me. I discovered something about the keys to the Buick, you cannot just go down to Walmart and make a copy of the key, it seems there is a chip in the key that will allow the car to start and if you don’t get the key from the manufacturer it will not work. I think that many Christians come to church hear the Word and then try to make a copy of it to fit their needs, but unless you do it exactly as the Word says it will not work. One such thing is learning that in God’s eyes we are all precious, that God loves ALL of us equally, no matter what we have done, no matter what we look like, no matter our faults, our God wants us to love ALL people the way He loves them. I think we hear this in God’s Word and we try to make a copy of it to fit our needs. Now God does not love the sin of people, He abhors the sin, but He loves his people and would never give up on them.
Dave Galloway told of a soldier who had just returned from Viet Nam. His parents were socialites, very well-to-do. It was near Christmas, and they were getting ready to go out to the first of the round of parties of the Christmas season. Just then the phone rang, & it was their son on the phone. "Mom," he said, "I’m back in the States." She said, "That’s wonderful! Where are you? Will you be home for Christmas? Can you get here in time for the parties? Everybody will just love to see you." He answered, "Yes, I can be home for Christmas, but I want to ask you something first." "What is it?" she asked. "Well, I have a friend with me from Viet Nam. Can he come?" "Oh, of course," she answered. "Bring him along. He’ll enjoy the parties, too." "Wait a moment, mom," he said, "I need to explain something about him. He was terribly wounded, & lost both legs & one arm. His face is disfigured, too." There was silence on the phone for awhile. Then the mother said, "That’s all right. Bring him home for a few days." "No, mom, you don’t understand. He has nowhere to live. He has no one else. I want to bring him home & to let our home be his home." The mother was quiet again. Then she said, "Son, that just wouldn’t do. What you’re asking would be very unfair to us. Why, it would disrupt all our lives. I’m sure there are government agencies that would be more than glad to take charge of him. Look, just you hurry home for Christmas now, & then maybe you can visit him once in a while." "Darling, I’m sorry, but we’ve got to rush or we’ll be late for the party. Call us again as soon as you know when you’ll be home. Goodbye." When the parents returned home from the party that night, there was an urgent message from the California police asking them to call. They telephoned, & the officer said, "I’m very sorry to have to call you, but we just found a young soldier dead in a motel room. His face is disfigured, & he has lost both legs & one arm. From the documents on him it would appear that he is your son."
We are all God’s children and if we make a commitment to God it means learning to remember the great sacrifice of Calvary, and it means following His instructions, the teachings we find in the Bible.
We are also called to be committed to fellowship, this is a word that is so often mis-understood. In the Bible the word for fellowship is koinonia, in the Greek this word is translated as fellowship and also as communion. While the breaking of bread was a direct act, by us, to remember what Jesus did for us at Calvary, fellowship is the act of togetherness, it is about being united for one common cause, it is about participating, partaking, being involved and part of a team. A church will only be as strong as its members and their devotion to fellowship allowed the first church to become very strong. True fellowship is about becoming a family, it is being understanding of the short-comings of others and allowing our masks to come off. It is about taking on the burdens of others and doing what we can to help. It is about understanding that Jesus is the reason for our communion and not self-gain.
“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all turned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship” SOURCE: A.W. Tozer in "The Pursuit of God."
When we are truly devoted to the cause of Christ, we are closer than we could ever be if we were to design programs and church functions that were aimed at unity. Fellowship is like a football team consisting of players that really don’t like each other, but because they allow the common cause of winning to be their goal, they look to be as one. When we work together to promote Christ, then we are devoted to the fellowship.
A Bible following church has the makeup, of a growing vibrant church and they are in turn devoted to the breaking of bread, remembering the sacrifice of Jesus, they are devoted to the teachings of the Apostles, following the direction and advice of the Bible, they are devoted, committed to fellowship, having one common goal and working together and they are committed to prayer:
I feel that a church that truly prays together stays together. Prayer is the greatest example of drawing from God’s unlimited power, and that example is continually given in the Bible. Our Lord not only prayed as an example of what we should do, He also told us how to pray.
Now prayer is asking God for the things we need; protection, good health, peace in the midst of chaos, but I don’t think some people understand what prayer should truly be about. A fifth grade boy who had heard a sermon on persistence in prayer was praying by himself in his room one night. As his dad passed his door, he heard the boy praying over and over again, "Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo." The next day, the dad asked his son what we was doing. The boy replied that he had given the wrong answer on a test for the capital of Mexico, and he was praying that God would make Tokyo the capital of Mexico.
Jesus taught us first to acknowledge our God, ‘Father, your name is Holy and your kingdom will come’ the KJV actually says that Jesus taught us not only to acknowledge that God’s name is Holy, but we should allow our selves to understand that prayer is about God’s will being done. When we pray, we acknowledge that our Holy and perfect God knows what is best for us and that even though we are asking for certain things, EVERYTHING is done according to HIS will. We need to be careful to ask God for those things we need according to HIS will, because God already knows what we need. The next line tells us this, ‘Father give us each day our daily bread’ or in other words give us Father what we need to survive and carry on your business. Then Jesus tells us about praying for forgiveness as we forgive others. Forgiveness is something of importance and making a commitment to prayer should be a daily reminder of how much forgiveness we need and how we should forgive others as well. And then Jesus ends this teaching by saying, pray that God protect us all from temptation. ALL these things are seen in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11:
Luke 11:2-4 He said to them, "When you pray, say: "'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.'"
Folks there is so much we could speak of this morning about each of these 4 things, but alas we do not have that kind of time. I hope that this morning we have seen some of the things we need to be committed to, in order that we should grow as Christians and as a church. Being committed to remembrance of the great sacrifice Jesus made at Calvary, the broken body and the shed blood that we symbolically demonstrate each Sunday morning as we break bread together. Being committed to the Apostle’s teachings as recorded in the Bible, especially that we are ALL sinners in need of a Savior. Being committed to fellowship, a common focus on Christ as the head of our church and a commitment to HIS bride the church. And finally a commitment to prayer, an acknowledgment of our most holy God, His will being done, asking for forgiveness, as we forgive others, and asking that He protect us from the temptation that lays waiting for us each day.
Now folks, as we prepare to offer an invitation this morning let me remind you of five simple things you will hear me speak of every Sunday morning. First, you must hear the Gospel message, the Bible tells us Rom 10:14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
Hear first, then believe. Rom 10:10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Hear the message and believe with your heart that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died for our sins, that we need Him for He paid the price for all, once for all.
Hear, believe, then confess - Rom 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. When we hear the message and believe it with our heart then it is time to make that move to the front and confess before men that we are sinners in need of the Savior. Hear, believe, confess, then comes REPENT & BE BAPTIZED. The crowd on the day of Pentecost, listened to Peter preach God’s message and it says in ACTS 2, vs. 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"
38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
HEAR, BELIEVE, CONFESS, REPENT & BE BAPTIZED!
Are you here this morning and you have heard the message and you believe, perhaps this is the day for you to come forward and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life, turn away from the sinful life you have been living and be baptized into a personal relationship with Jesus as Lord.
INVITATION
