As we begin to read the first chapter of the book of Acts, not the second or third, but the first chapter, and we compare the New Testament church to the modern church, we are aware that something is missing.
We cannot help but ask, “Where is the evidence of those things that so characterized the early church, those things that had such an enormous impact on society?”
WHAT IS MISSING IN TODAY’S CHURCH?
As we compare the New Testament church with today’s church, we cannot help but notice that the missing ingredient is COMMITMENT.
When I speak of commitment, I am talking about A NON-NEGOTIABLE SURRENDER TO THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST, AND TO THE AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURE. This type of commitment is missing in today’s church.
But COMMITMENT is not only missing in the church, it seems to be missing also in other places in our society, such as:
(1) IN THE DATING OF OUR YOUNG PEOPLE
Illus: Going steady has become accepted in our society. It has not always been acceptable!
Older folks in this congregation can remember when whether it was good or bad for the youth of this nation to be going steady with each other was discussed at great lengths.
Going steady meant that a young man and a young girl agreed they would take themselves out of circulation, and devote their time and attention to one person.
WHY DID SOME PARENTS THINK THIS WAS NOT SOMETHING THAT YOUNG PEOPLE SHOULD DO?
• Some felt that “Going Steady” is too much like an engagement period. The only difference is that no date has been set for a wedding.
• Some felt that “Going Steady” is not good because they are playing around with the word “Commitment,” and they are not old enough to appreciate this word yet.
For example, we have young people today who will fall madly in love with each other, and agree to start “Going Steady”. This is their commitment, but then two weeks later they can not stand to look at each other. This happens in the lives of young people, over and over again. These young people do not have the slightest idea of what the word COMMITMENT means.
They know what:
• A one day commitment is
• A one week commitment is
But they do not have the slightest idea of what a lifetime commitment is.
Commitment is a problem with the youth of this nation. The attitude of many youth today, concerning a girlfriend or a boyfriend, is, “If it does not work out, I will find another one!” And that is exactly what they do!
This same lack of commitment can be seen-
(2) IN THE WORK FORCE OF OUR NATION
We have people who are going from job to job. Why? Because they have never found a job they could be committed to doing.
Now we all recognize there are lots of jobs we would not want to do. But there are some people in our society that are 40 and 50 years of age, and they have never in their lifetime had the same job for more than one or two years.
You would think that at some time in their life they could find some job they felt good about, and they would commit themselves to sticking to that job. The attitude seems to be, “If this job does not work out, so what! I will find another one.”
We see a lack of commitment IN THE DATING OF OUR YOUNG PEOPLE, and IN THE WORK FORCE OF OUR NATION, and also we see a lack of commitment -
(3) IN MARRIAGES
Again, the attitude seems to be that if one marriage does not work out, they will find someone else.
It is difficult to find COMMITMENT anywhere these days! But one place you should be able to find it is in the house of God.
I. WE SHOULD BE COMMITTED TO HIS COMMANDS
When Christians allow commitment to rule their lives, it solves a lot of problems.
Once this surrender is made:
• A multitude of daily decisions and struggles may be eliminated
• This deep seated, lifetime commitment settles future decisions, once and for all
For example, there are Christians in this congregation that go through a struggle when church time comes.
• The Holy Spirit of God encourages them to come
• The devil does everything he can, to give them a reason not to come
But the committed Christian does not have that problem. They have committed their life to Christ, and when church time comes, they will not allow anything to come before the worship of the God they love, as the Bible teaches they should.
The Bible says in Daniel 1:8, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”
Daniel committed himself to living a certain kind of lifestyle, and he was not going to allow anything to come between him and the God he served:
• He had to deal with peer pressure, but he refused to let that affect him
• He had to deal with whether it was popular or unpopular, but he still refused to let that affect him
He made a commitment, and that was the way he was going to live his life. HE PURPOSED THIS IN HIS HEART.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LIVE A COMMITTED LIFE?
In the Old and New Testaments, we have many examples of God’s people living the committed life. They were committed to following God whatever the cost might be.
When God sent Elijah to anoint Elisha to be the next prophet of God, look what he did.
Look at 1 Kings 19:19-21, we read, “So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.”
This fellow burned his bridges behind him. He killed the oxen he was plowing with and boiled them. He left the devil no place to forward mail to him.
Illus: He was not like a famous evangelist who was known as the chaplain of Bourbon Street. Some enemies who wanted to destroy his ministry sent a very attractive prostitute to talk with him. She even went so far as to proposition him, but he told her he was not interested (this was good). But then he said in a joking manner, “But If I ever backslide I will look you up!”
GUESS WHAT! That is exactly what he did, he backslid and fell into sin with a woman like her.
One of the reasons we have so much backsliding in the church today is because the people in our churches are not committed to following Christ. They talk like they are committed, but their lives do not match their talk.
Illus: A Sunday School teacher stood before a class of adults and taught a wonderful lesson on how Christians are to be committed to God, and how nothing the devil places in our path should stop us from putting the Lord first in our life. Within a month after he taught this wonderful lesson, the devil put something in his path in the form of a church problem, and rather than show commitment, he walked off, causing everyone in the class to think he was ALL MOUTH!
Illus: We have to be like that little pink bunny rabbit that they use to advertise flashlight batteries on television. If we are committed to God, we just keep GOING, GOING, GOING, AND GOING!
God greatly used Elisha, but he never would have been able to be used of God had he not been committed to following God.
As a symbol of his wholehearted surrender to God’s call, Elisha took the oxen with which he had been plowing his fields, killed them, and boiled their flesh. He was making a public statement that he would never (and could never) return to his old way of life.
WE ARE TO BE COMMITTED TO HIS COMMANDS, and …
II. WE ARE TO BE COMMITTED TO HIS CHURCH
If we are going to be committed to His church, we must first define WHAT THE CHURCH IS.
We have many definitions of the church today.
• Some head for the beaches on the Lord’s day, and in their skimpy bathing suit, they meet for a few minutes under a tree or a picnic shed while someone reads a few scriptures, and they close in prayer and leave claiming they have been to church.
• Some head for the lakes to go fishing on the Lord’s day, and do the same thing, and claim they have been to church.
• Some sit at home and watch a preacher on television, and call this a church service.
Illus: Martin Luther said it well, many years ago. He said, “No man should be alone when he opposes Satan. The church and the ministry of the Word were instituted for this purpose, that hands may be joined together and one may help another. If the prayer of one doesn't help, the prayer of another will. (Martin Luther, "Martin Luther--The Early Years," Christian History, no. 34.)
The church is not a building. You may have the most lavish church building in town, and God may not be there.
WHAT IS THE CHURCH?
In Matthew 18:20, we read, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
• The church is a place where people meet each week, for the specific purpose of worshipping the God they love. It is not an inconvenience, it is a privilege
• The church is a place where we come together, week after week, to hear the Word of God taught and preached to us.
• The church is a place where we bring our tithes and offerings, to send the gospel around the world.
• The church is a place where we train young boys and girls who will share this gospel with others around the world after we are dead and gone.
The church:
• Is a body
• Is an army
• Is a race
• Is a war
It is all this and much more.
But I am afraid many folks have been misled by people trying to get them in church. They have been told things about God’s church that are not true!
Illus: If I was a car salesman, I would want to sell you a car. You pull up in the parking lot and I show you all the features of that car. That is something I should do as a salesman.
But suppose, in order to sell you a car, I tell you some things about the car that are not true, such as:
• This car will get seventy-five miles to a gallon of gas
• This car has a life-time warranty on parts and labor
• The paint on this car is a special kind of paint that will never rust
• This car will never have any squeaks or rattles
If I as a salesman could convinced you of that, you would be thinking this is really some kind of a car! And it would be!
So you buy it, and you find that you have been sold a bill of goods that is not true.
This is what has happened to many churches. They want to grow in number, but in order to get people into their churches they start selling them a bill of goods that is not true.
All over this nation, people have joined such churches and within a year or two they are leaving these churches in large numbers. Why? Because they were given the wrong impression of what the church was.
God’s church has done so much for so many. For example, we can look at families today, and we can see many good things that have been done because of the church.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger and his wife were in a small town, eating breakfast at a restaurant. A man in his thirties, with two young girls, kept looking at him. Finally, the man walked over and said, “Hi, I am ( ). I just wanted to say hello to you.” He then said he just want to say that he was thankful for what the church did for him when he was a young man growing up. He said, “I probably would be in prison today had the church not lovingly taken me and cared for me the way they did!”
This is true for so many today. The church has reached out and saved:
• Many from a jail cell
• Many from a life of prostitution
• Many from a life of addiction
Many good things have come from families who have committed themselves to the Lord’s church. Every born-again Christian ought to join and be committed to the Lord’s church.
Is it possible to be a Christian and not be a committed member of God’s church? Yes, it is possible, but it would be like:
• A student who will not go to school
• A soldier who will not join an army
• A citizen who does not pay taxes
• A salesman with no customer
• A seaman on a ship without a crew
• A businessman on a deserted island
• A tuba player without an orchestra
• A parent without a family
• A football player without a team
• A politician who is a hermit
• A scientist who does not share his findings
• A bee without a hive
Every child of God ought to find a Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church, and commit his life to serving God in that church.
We can look at some families and see many good things that have come from God’s Church to help those families. But we can look at some families and see why many bad things have happened, because they have forsaken the house of God.
• Many divorces would have never taken place had they stayed in the church!
• Many men and women would not be incarcerated today had they not forsaken the house of God
• Many young people would not be hooked on drugs and alcohol had they stayed in the church
In Hebrews 10:25, we read, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
All week long people hear what the lost world thinks about things, but when they go to a Bible-preaching church, they will hear what God says about things from His Word.
We are to be committed to LIVING FOR GOD, and WE ARE TO BE COMMITTED TO HIS CHURCH. The church is here because it was God’s plan, and God knows that we need His church.
Conclusion:
Commitment is the missing ingredient in the life of many Believers. Are you a committed Christian?
Daniel purposed in his heart to obey God. He was committed to serving God. May the Lord help us to make the same type of commitment.
I. WE ARE TO BE COMMITTED TO HIS COMMANDS
II. WE ARE TO BE COMMITTED TO HIS CHURCH
Copyright © November 2002 by THE EXPOSITOR MINISTRIES
