Every moment of every day you’re living out your commitment to Christ. Those around you that knows that you’re a Christian watches you to see if you’re really living the life.
I think the world really wants to see a real Christian, but so often they see those who profess Christ, but they don’t live it out in their life. They want all the blessings without any of the commitment.
Let me share with you, service and loyalty and commitment is high on God’s list of expectations for us.
There’s so many preachers preaching out there that It’s all about what we can get out of God, it’s all about how God wants to bless me, prosper me, never see me suffering, never having a bad day.
Don’t get me wrong, God does want to prosper you, God does want to abundantly bless you, God does love to give to His people, but here’s where we get it wrong, the focus should never be on us, it must be on Him.
Our prosperity, our blessings, our receiving things from the Lord is based on how focused we are on Him, not how focused we are on ourselves. Could I get an AMEN!
Just like Service is very important to us, it’s very important to God.
When we by a car we want to know what kind of service to expect from it. When we go shopping, we want service. When I use to work for AT&T, we were trained to provide a high level of service.
We have high expectations of service and are disappointed if we don’t get it.
So I want to ask the question this morning, what is your service plan like?
If God was to get surveyed on the commitment, and service He gets from you, how would you be rated?
So the first question on our questionnaire for you this morning is, what backs up your service? Your heart or your lips.
Isaiah 29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: KJV
We live in a day where we better get what’s promised in writing. I’ve seen enough Judge Judy shows to know if you don’t have proof, you don’t win.
A lot of times they bring up the fact that there was a verbal agreement, and now the person they’re suing has broken that agreement.
That’s the way it is with a lot of Christians. We’ve given God verbal agreements. God please get me out of trouble and I’ll never miss church again.
God if you will help me this time, I’ll start reading your word.
God if, God if, God if…
But what usually happens, as soon as God comes through, we go right back to doing what we were before we got in trouble.
Jesus said in Matthew 15 verses 8-9 “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. KJV
Jesus was giving us divine insight into the soul of man. Christ is looking for something more in our life than just words. He wants us to back up our service with our hearts.
I shared with the Church Sunday night what the Lord spoke to my heart last Sunday morning, that our Worship will never be right until our relationship is right. What the Lord was showing me was that some of your relationships with the Lord is not what it should be.
We can’t keep going through the motions church and expect God to be pleased with us. We can say all we want that we want to serve the Lord, we want the church to grow, we want to see people saved and if we don’t live that out in our life, then they are nothing more than empty words. Could I get an Amen?
When all we have is lip service all we have is a bended knee without a prostrate heart. It’s just mere mouth-worship, and God rejects that.
When all we have is lip service, its just honor of the lips without the devotion of our life.
Deuteronomy 6:5 says “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” KJV
When you get to this place, then nothing is more important to you than to do what God desires. This is exactly where God wants you to live.
The next question I have for you is, What does your service plan cover?
One of the biggest money makers for places like Circuit City and Best Buy and others is their service plan. They will tell you all the reason why you should purchase one, but when you read the contract, you find out all the reasons you shouldn’t.
When I first bought my Palm Pilot they tried to get me to purchase the warranty but I didn’t give in to them. I didn’t think I would need it. Well a few months after I had it, I stepped on the screen and broke it. My mind went back to I should have bought the warranty from them. I went back to the store and was discussing this with the salesman he told me their warranty wouldn’t have covered the broken screen.
So many times, service contracts are limited and only cover certain things.
That’s why we need to ask ourselves, what kind of coverage does our service cover when it comes to serving the Lord.
Most of the time, if it’s not any kind of inconvenience, if it doesn’t take much effort or time, we won’t mind doing it. We’ll gladly serve.
There are a lot of people who like position without responsibility. But when you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you received a new position and a new responsibility.
Turn with me to Romans 12:1-2 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Underline reasonable service. We are to give God every part of our life and anything less than that is below par service.
When you present your body a living sacrifice you’re doing two things.
First, you must sacrifice your feelings. The whole heart must be given to God. We must allow Him to strengthen the good things He’s begun in our lives and take out the bad things.
We can’t allow ourselves to be dominated by our feelings, but that’s where many of us live.
We give God an imperfect sacrifice by keeping back certain areas of our life and we try to excuse them by saying, that’s just our nature.
When Christ comes in, if your old nature isn’t replaced with His new nature, you haven’t gotten saved yet.
The second part of this sacrifice, we must sacrifice our affections.
Colossians 3:2-3 says 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
We’ve got to get to the place where we say, not my will but thy will be done. Sacrificing your affections doesn’t mean you’re not going to love anything else, it just means you won’t allow anything else to stand in the way of your love for Him.
Look at verse three, it says we are dead. Let me share with you a thought, dead men don’t complain. Dead men don’t say no. Dead men don’t do what pleases them.
They can’t they’re dead.
That’s why we need to sacrifice our affections, so we will be dead to the world but alive in Christ.
So our service needs to be complete coverage, from head to toe, especially the heart.
Finally, how long is your service plan good for?
It bothers me to no end when you pay a lot for something and they will only service it for 90 days free of charge. How many knows when you pay a lot for something, it should be lifetime service? Could I get an AMEN?
Look at 1 Corinthians 6:20 with me…
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
KJV
Your salvation experience cost God the Father, His son. The one who knew no sin, had to become sin for us. Your salvation cost plenty and our service for Him must go beyond just a quick start at the beginning to a solid commitment to serve Him to the end.
Jesus said in Matthew 10:22…
22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Conclusion
So let me ask you this morning, are you living out your life with a commitment that is pleasing to God?
Are you really committed to God? Are you sharing your faith, studying the Word, praying, being faithful to church?
Are you living your life out loud? This morning, God’s calling you to be fully committed to Him.
He can’t do what He desires in your life until you become fully committed to Him. He never asks you to give up something that He doesn’t replace with something greater than what you gave up.
Wouldn’t you like to begin today?
If all of us here this morning, would really commit ourselves to serving the Lord, there’s no telling what this church could be. But until we do, we can only dream about it instead of experiencing it.
I would like to find out. God’s challenging you this morning to take the next step. There’s no excuse you can make that will cover up your lack of commitment and service to Him.
This altars open right now for those who will honestly say, Lord, I’ve been putting my self first instead of you. I haven’t really been serving you whole heartedly like I should, and I want things to begin to change today.
The Lord knows there’s going to be some struggles and some issues that you’ll have to deal with. But God will help you through them all.
