What’s Important
Luke 9:57-62. James 1:22-24
Intro. This morning we are back into our core values that we identified in our vision casting sessions. Out of these sessions we defined our mission as a church which was “ to encourage and develop those we meet into committed followers of Jesus.” In these sessions we also cast our vision and identified six core values that identify who we are as a church. What we feel is important in our church.
. A couple of week’s ago we looked at two of these core values which were Preaching and Teaching Scripture, and Prayer.
. Today we will look at Bible Knowledge and Obedience.
. We identified Bible Knowledge as one thing that is important to us and we defined this as:
. A daily commitment to understanding and applying God’s word.
. As I contemplated and prayed through how to present this core value, the word commitment stood out to me in our definition.
. Commitment is an elusive concept some time.
. In our rapidly moving society it gets hard to commit sometimes.
. A few weeks ago we had our mother daughter banquet and after it was over I wanted to leave as soon as possible because I had talked with my son’s earlier in the day and we had agreed to go fishing. After the banquet as I was going to the lake to meet them I called them to tell them what time to meet me there. They informed me that something had come up and that they no longer wanted to go fishing. It seemed that they had gotten a better offer from someone else. Even though we had committed to this time it seemed that something else was more important. That’s typical in our society today. It seems that commitment is a tough thing.
.It seems that sometimes commitment is circumstantial. Let me illustrate.
. This was a letter sent by a young lady who just couldn’t seem to commit.
. "Dearest Jimmy, No words could ever express the great unhappiness I’ve felt since breaking our engagement. Please say you’ll take me back. No one could ever take your place in my heart, so please forgive me. I love you, I love you, I love you! Yours forever, Marie... P.S., congratulations on winning the state lottery."
. Her commitment was contingent upon something.
. It’s much like the two men that were talking to Jesus as they were walking along the road as recorded in Luke 9: 57 -62.
. As they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to even lay His head.” He said to another person. Come follow me.” The man agreed but he said, Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.” Another one said, “Yes Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family.” Bur Jesus told him, “anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”
. They said that they wanted to follow Jesus but they had some conditions.
. Our commitment cannot be conditional.
. Our commitment must be to the teachings of God.
.I know I talk a lot about commitment from the pulpit.
. That’s because that’s what these core value are . A commitment to something.
. We as a church must stand for something.
. We must commit ourselves to these principles or core values.
. Jesus says we must commit.
. In regards to this core value of Bible knowledge, we say that it is a commitment to first, understanding Gods word.
. How can you understand something if you don’t know what it says.
. It kind of like reading directions.
. At my house we have two distinct personalities when it comes to reading directions.
. Pam and Andrew have the same personality. When we get something new and it needs assembly, it automatically goes to Pam and Andrew. They are very meticulous and they read the directions.
. On the other hand, DJ and I are just the opposite. We don’t read directions and sometimes give up on something that needs to be done because we don’t want to read the directions. Notice I didn’t say we didn’t have time nor that we didn’t have the ability to read the directions. We just don’t want to. Were not really committed to doing what needs to be done.
. How can you expect to live a Christian life when you don’t know what the Christian life is.
. The story is told of a man who was walking down the street and saw a young mother walking toward him with her young son and his puppy. As the puppy danced around the little boy playing, the boy began to giggle and laugh. The mother turned to the boy and put her hand over his mouth, telling him, “Oh no, don’t laugh!” The man was curious and asked the woman, “But why shouldn’t he laugh?” She said, “Oh, the Bible says, ‘Woe to you that laugh now! For you shall mourn and weep.’”
. One of the issues that I run into all the time as I talk to people is how restrictive they think the Christian lifestyle is. I’ll ask them why they think this and they say that people are always telling them what not to do if you are a Christian. They get this from so called mature Christians.
. Folks many professed Christians don’t understand the Bible.
. The reason for this is biblical ignorance.
. I was talking to someone recently and we discussed the biblical ignorance in the church.
. Now don’t get your feathers all ruffled and say that the pastor says we are ignorant.
. We are. We are all ignorant in so many things.
. I am ignorant. You see, all ignorance is, is a lack of knowledge.
. Ignorance can be fixed. All a person needs to do is commit to learning and their ignorance can be fixed.
. What we are saying here is that we don’t want to be ignorant when it comes to biblical knowledge.
. Folks we will commit to understanding what God’s word has to say. That’s what our core value states.
. You do that through a daily time in God’s word.
. I heard a sermon on this subject once and what the preacher said made sense.
. He said that there was a progression to this commitment to understanding the bible.
. See if this first part fits your experience.
. We commit to studying our bible and to spending time with God. We decide to get up 30 minutes early to do this.
. We get up the first morning ready to go. As the week goes on, we find it more and more difficult to get up and find reasons why we can’t get up. Eventually within a week or two we stop.
. When a person is committed, they wrestle through this human nature to find something else to do or to sleep a little while longer.
. The committed person will continue on their quest and eventually it will turn into a habit and from a habit to a passion in our lives.
. Folks, our core value of Bible Knowledge is a commitment to understanding what God’s word say’s.
. Along with that, our core value states that once we understand God’s word that we will apply His word to our lives.
. This leads into our next core value which is Obedience.
. You see if we understand Gods word and apply it to our life, we will be in obedience to God’s will or as our definition states, we will be Faithfully doing God’s will.
. James 1:22-24 say’s: 22But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.23For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.24You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.
. James says that we need to understand God’s word but that we must be more than listeners. We must be doers. We must be obedient.
. Now how cab we be obedient to God’s will when we don’t know what His will is for our lives.
. God’s will is easy folks.
. You all know what Jesus tells us in the Bible are our commandments right?
. You have heard me state them many times.
. Say them with me. Love God, Love each other. Jesus said that everything is encompassed in these two commands.
. We also have a directive or mission. Make Disciples.
. So if we love God and Love each other and go about our lives obeying the directive to make disciples, we are in God’s will and by our definition we are in obedience to God.
. I want to end with a story this morning that illustrates this obedience to God.
. Edward Kimball was a Sunday School teacher at a little church in Chicago, his class was for teenagers. It wasn’t the biggest church in town; actually, it was a rather tiny church. Kimball had a small Sunday School class that consisted of just a handful of kids.
One Sunday a new kid showed up in church all on his own. This kid just showed up at church, he didn’t come with his family and no one from the church brought him. He just appeared.
He went to Edward Kimball’s Sunday School class that morning. Kimball quickly found out that this kid had never been to church before and was completely unfamiliar with the Bible and Christianity, compared to the other teens.
Edward Kimball realized that he needed to talk to this kid one on one about Jesus Christ and so that same week Kimball walked down to where the young man worked, a shoe store. Kimball saw the kid through the window working but hesitated to go in. He knew that he needed to really talk to this kid; again Kimball turned to enter, but again, he hesitated.
I mean who was Edward Kimball anyway? He was just a guy at one of the least significant churches in town, a guy with a relatively ineffective Sunday School class that only attracted a few teens, he wasn’t brilliant or especially articulate, he was just a part time Sunday School teacher and not much more. Has anyone here ever heard of him?
Still, this kid needed to hear about Jesus, and so, one more time Edward built up the courage to enter the store and talk to the kid - this time he followed through. Edward presented the gospel to the new kid as best he could….and the kid responded by giving his life over to Jesus Christ, right there in the store.
Now, chances are fairly high that a good portion of us here today in this church this morning know Jesus Christ as a result of this single act of Edward Kimball. This small act that Kimball almost let pass by, quite possibly could have been the demise of our chance to hear about Jesus, if he had not acted. Chances are, we owe our gratitude to this man for our opportunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
You see, that kid who gave his life over to Jesus Christ that day was none other than Dwight Moody who later became one of the greatest evangelists in the world with hundreds and thousands becoming Christians as a result of his witness.
One of those who came to Christ as a result of Moody’s ministry was the Reverend Billy Graham, who in turn brought millions to Christ, worldwide.
A man few people could name today, a man who wasn’t really anyone, a man who didn’t stand a chance to win the Sunday School teacher of the year award, yet, in one single act, this man set in motion the creation more followers of Jesus Christ, perhaps, than anyone in the history of Christianity.
. When we are in obedience to God’s commands and directive, God’s will is accomplished here in this place.
. Bible knowledge and Obedience, two of our core values.
. Two of the characteristics that we strive for here at “The Creek”
. Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
