MELVIN NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
Scriptures: Ephesians 4:11-14; Hosea 4:6; Romans 13:11,14; Psalms 37:1-6; Luke 9:57-62, Acts 2:42
Long ago, the prophet Hosea cried out, “my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6)
As Christians, or as Americans even, have you been disturbed by the demonstrations that have swept across our country during the past few weeks?
Despite your own private feelings, how have you reacted to the chants & signs “From the River to the Sea” & “Hitler was Right!”?
Yes, some in the crowds were Muslims, but many more were not, & the majority seemed to be college & university age, along with instructors & faculty members. But some were those who are often seen whenever there is a protest going on.
It seems to be a diverse group, yet they are all united in their chants of “From the River to the Sea” & “Hitler was Right.”
Do they mean what they are chanting? Do they know what “From the River to the Sea” or “Hitler was Right”
means? And do they really believe it? Are they committed to what they are chanting? May God help us if they do!
Did you see the TV reporter mingling with the demonstrators ask a girl, holding a sign declaring “Hitler was Right!”, if Jewish babies & children should really be put into gas ovens? Her answer was “No, of course not!”
Then why was she holding up that sign? Well, that was what somebody had handed her to hold up.
Then he asked another one holding the sign “From the River to the Sea” if every Jew should be killed, & she refused to give any answer. But since then I have heard some saying, “Yes, all Jews, everywhere!”
Further investigation revealed that some of the demonstrators were familiar faces. In earlier demonstrations they had carried signs saying “Black Lives Matter” or ”Defund the Police”, & had been seen trashing & setting fires.
I believe this kind of thinking is what the apostle Paul was talking about when he told the Ephesian Christians (Eph. 4:11-14) that God “gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, and some to be pastors & teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service…
“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”
What the apostle Paul is concerned about is exactly what is happening in our country today.
A lack of knowledge, a lack of loyalty runs rampant in our world today. Many truly do not stand for anything or are even committed to anything. They are blown around like fall leaves in a windstorm, swirling around, going this way & that.
ILL. Poet G. S. Kennedy tells of an explorer who brought back a chameleon which his household named Billy the Lizard. The explorer left Billy in the charge of his butler, who showed him to many of his friends. When the explorer returned, he asked how Billy was.
"Well, sir," said the butler, "it was like this. We put Billy on the green rug & he turned green as Ireland. We put him on the red rug & he turned as red as Russia. Then some fool put him on a patchwork quilt, & poor Billy burst into a million pieces." (Chameleon Commitment By Neal Gracey Copied from Sermon Central)
What do the words “loyalty” or “commitment” mean? They are defined as “the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause or activity.” They can also be translated as “Allegiance, or Faithfulness.” And we need whatever you call them.
So ask yourself, “To what am I loyal today?” If we want to get our world back on track, we need to commit our lives & ways to God!
ILL. There was a Danish philosopher named Kierkegaard (keer - ku - guard) whose writings are deep & complex. But that deep thinker told a simple parable that describes how easy it is to slide into complacency.
Listen to his parable, ”One Spring, a duck was flying north with a flock. In the Danish countryside that particular duck spotted a barnyard where tame ducks lived. The duck dropped down & discovered these ducks had wonderful corn to eat.
So he stayed for an hour....then for the day....a week went by & a month. And because the corn & the safe barnyard were so fine, our duck ended up staying the whole summer at that farm.
Then one crisp fall day, some wild ducks flew overhead, quacking as they winged their way south. He looked up & heard them - & he was stirred with a strange sense of joy & delight. Then, with all his might he began flapping his wings & rose into the air, planning to join his comrades for the trip south.
But all that fine corn had made the duck both soft & heavy - & he couldn't manage to fly any higher than the barn roof. So he dropped back to that barnyard & said to himself, "Oh well, my life here is safe & the food is good!"
After that in the spring & in the fall, that duck would hear wild ducks honking as they passed overhead - & for a minute, his eyes would look & gleam & he'd start flapping his wings almost without realizing it. But then a day came when those others would pass overhead uttering their cry - & the now tame duck would not pay the slightest attention. (Kierkegaard's Complacent Duck By Dean O'Bryan from Sermon Central)
Sadly, many churches have been attacked by the disease of complacency. It seems that just like that barnyard duck - many American Christians have been spoiled, & in the process, forgotten Whose we are & Who we are to be. The church has fallen asleep!
It didn’t happen overnight. Complacency is a disease that sneaks up on us. We’ve just dozed off into dreamland.
It’s time to wake up & get serious about our commitment to God. Fortunately, there are many examples of people in the Bible who demonstrated complete & total dedication to God.
For example, back in the O.T., Daniel was taken into captivity in Babylon at a young age. But even in his youth, he was fully committed to God. He committed himself to not eating the unclean food in a foreign country.
He committed himself to the commands of God, even though they were strange to those around him in Babylon. He committed to only worshipping God, even when almost everyone else worshipped the king of this foreign land.
In the N.T., John the Baptizer was fully committed to God, having no fear when he preached openly against the adultery of the king. It ultimately cost him his life.
Consider Stephen. He preached to the Jews about what they had done to Jesus, completely loyal to the gospel message, & it cost him his life.
Paul was completely committed to God, even in his days when he was persecuting Christians! When he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, his loyalty to God was as solid as ever. However, he needed a change of vision to see Jesus for who he really was.
And with that change of vision, his loyalty grew even stronger! Throughout his ministry, through all the times in prison, & attempts on his life, Paul remained loyal to his Lord & Savior Jesus, when others might have thrown up their hands & said, “I quit! Enough is enough!”
These just scratch the surface of the stories we find. Each gave total loyalty & dedication to God throughout their lives.
In each of these stories I see four things that we can use in our lives today to awaken our loyalty to God.
1. First, each one made a deliberate decision to be loyal to God. It didn’t happen by accident.
In the same way, we too must make a deliberate decision to be loyal. Loyalty does not come from indecisiveness.
ILL. Consider this poem by Dr. Seuss:
Did I ever tell you about the young Zode,
Who came to two signs at the fork in the road?
One said to Place One, & the other, Place Two.
So the Zode had to make up his mind what to do.
Well…the Zode scratched his head, & his chin & his pants.
And he said to himself, “I’ll be taking a chance
If I go to Place One. Now, that place may be hot!
And so, how do I know if I’ll like it or not?
“On the other hand though, I’ll be sort of a fool
If I go to Place Two & find it too cool.
In that case I may catch a chill & turn blue!
So, maybe Place One is the best, not Place Two.
“But then again, what if Place One is too high?
I may catch a terrible earache & die!
So Place Two may be best! On the other hand though…
What might happen to me if Place Two is too low?
“I might get some very strange pain in my toe!
So Place One may be best,” & he started to go.
Then he stopped, & he said, “On the other hand though…
On the other hand…other hand…other hand though…”
And for 36 hours & a half that poor Zode
Made starts & made stops at the fork in the road.
Saying, “Don’t take a chance. No! You may not be right.”
Then he got an idea that was wonderfully bright!
“Play safe!” cried the Zode. “I’ll play safe. I’m no dunce!
I’ll simply start out for both places at once!”
And that’s how the Zode who would not take a chance
Got no place at all with a split in his pants.
Indecision will keep us from committing ourselves to God.
2. Secondly, all the examples I mentioned gave up something to dedicate their lives to God. We must be willing to sacrifice that which gets in the way of commitment to God.
ILL. Consider what the Spanish explorer, Cortez, did when he & his ships landed in Mexico with his 500 men. He burned the ships on which they had traveled. His men now realized that they must be committed to staying & succeeding because there was no turning back.
Families have to have that type of commitment… no holding back, no turning back. But in our world today, marriage has become a sort of temporary thing; if it doesn't work out we'll just walk away. No commitment. No sacrifice.
For many, Church has become a temporary thing - jumping from church to church when we feel offended. No commitment. No dedication & sacrifice.
Worshipping God has become a temporary thing - we worship God when it’s convenient, but we turn our backs on God, doing things our own way, or worse yet, the way of the world when there’s the least bit of opposition from the world. No commitment. No sacrifice.
That’s what Jesus was talking about in Luke 9:57-62, “As they were walking along the road, a man said to Jesus, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens & birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’
“He said to another man, ‘Follow me.’ But he replied, ‘Lord, first let me go & bury my father.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go & proclaim the kingdom of God.’
“Still another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back & say goodbye to my family.’ Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plow & looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’ (NIV)
We may have to give up things. We may have to give up people. We may have to give up our selfishness. We may have to give up our self-centeredness. Loyalty requires giving up anything that hinders our dedication to God.
3. Third, loyalty to God meant a total commitment, not just a contribution.
Paul didn’t just preach the message of the gospel when it was convenient. He didn’t just give a contribution. He gave his life literally to & for God. As did Stephen. As did others throughout history who committed their lives to God.
What is the difference between contributing & committing you may ask?
ILL. Perhaps it can best be explained by thinking about eggs & bacon. With eggs, the hen contributes. But when it comes to bacon, the pig is totally committed. There’s a very big difference. (By Martin Dale, from Sermon Central)
God has called us to commitment, not to a contribution. Being committed is so much more than just attending, helping out around the church, or giving a good offering. We need to stop playing church & start living church - being faithful to God as the head of the church. We are his bride – we have made a commitment to Him.
Now understand that I’m not speaking badly of contributing to the church & its activities. Those are definitely things we need to do.
But we need a loyalty in our spiritual lives that is obvious in our behavior, in our personal integrity, & in our faithfulness to home, family, community, as well as to the church & God.
Being loyal to God should be evident in the way we live, the things we say, the things we watch, the places we go, & in every aspect of our lives.
4. Finally, they remained loyal to God regardless of how other people acted or treated them. Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den because he prayed to God! John the Baptizer was beheaded. Stephen was faithful unto death.
Paul & Silas remained loyal regardless of the times they were imprisoned because of their commitment to God & the message of the good news of grace.
Satan wants the church to just be committed to God when it’s convenient, when it’s easy, & when it really doesn’t make a difference in our lives.
The world wants us to roll over & give up at the first sign of difficulty. The world doesn’t want us to remain faithful through times of adversity, struggles, & personal attacks.
But if through these tests of our faith & our loyalty we remain true, our faith will be stronger, & we can be examples to others, just as those we’ve talked about today are examples to us.
INVITATION: It’s time to wake up! It’s time to re-examine our loyalty to God. That time is today & now!
HYMN
(Some of the illustrations and points have been adapted from a sermon contributed by Duane Wente to Sermon Central.)
