“Making A Difference” – Pt. 2
“Becoming Fully Committed”
It is often times a funny thing being a follower of Christ. When you are fully committed to God and fully committed to His leadership in your life things sometimes happen that are beyond your control. But it is through these leadings of God that amazing and incredible God things take place.
Recently I was sharing with the leadership of our church a Sunday speaking schedule that I had made up back before we even had our first service. I mean, this schedule of topics was going to be carved in stone and couldn’t be changed for anything. I mean I thought it was a sure thing and to change it would be wrong.
Well, as I have said, when we follow Christ fully and turn our lives over to God’s leadership, God tends to carve out the path for our lives and He has a way of seeing that we go that way. So, God’s bulldozer crushed that schedule that I had almost carved into stone, as He begins to carve out the path for South Shore.
As many of you know, we had been planning on doing a series entitled, “Questions for God” in which we were going to look for God’s answers to some tough questions in life. We still may do that series, someday, but God has other plans for us now.
The well-known speaker and author Charles Stanley once said that his church began to be effective when he started to listen to God and the leading of the Holy Spirit and not Himself. Well, I fell as though I find myself in such a spot. I thought that I knew what God would have me to speak on for this year, but I guess that I was wrong. So we are beginning this series, actually we began last week, entitled, “Making a Difference”.
As a church, we are embarking on a new adventure; an adventure that will have us grow closer to God and closer to each other and most importantly will allow for us to make BIG changes in our lives and the world around us for God.
So there is a lesson to be learned here from my life, always trust God over yourself! I believe we talked about that a few weeks ago.
Friends, amazing things happen to you and in your life when you are fully committed to God, and I believe that God is going to do big things among us and to us and through us as a family here at South Shore.
Last week we talked about making a difference in the world around us by sharing with others good news of God’s love and grace. We were challenged to be world changers for God, and I hope that many of you began to make an impact in your world by investing and inviting and sharing God’s love & grace.
Today we are going to talk about being fully committed to God and His leadership in our lives, and in the future we are going to expound on some of what we hear and learn today. So before we begin, let’s ask God to clear our hearts and minds and allow us to focus on Him and His word and to teach us today. Let’s Pray.
Within the Bible we find some pretty amazing stories, lives and instruction. Included amongst these the Bible contains documentation and stories about the wisest and smartest man whoever walked the face of the earth and his name was Solomon. God gave Solomon great knowledge and God also gave Solomon great wealth. So Solomon was the wisest and wealthiest man to live.
What is interesting about Solomon is that even though God blessed him immensely, he did not remain faithful and committed to God. Solomon loved women and so he married many of them, 700 to be exact plus 300 concubines. But God warned Solomon about these foreign wives that he had. God said in:
1 Kings 11:2 – “ You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.”
But Solomon refused to listen to God and did his own thing and married these foreign women. And, as usual, God was right.
1 Kings 11:4 says, “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.”
1 Kings 11:6 says, “So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.”
As I read these verses and the story of Solomon’s life I am reminded that we, as followers of Christ, need to be fully devoted to God. If we want to do what is right and live life to its fullest and make it work right, we must be fully committed followers of Christ. We need to be people who accept God’s leadership of our lives and be willing to let Him lead.
You have heard me say it before and you will probably hear me say it again, “To be committed to God 99% is 1% too short.” God hasn’t called us to be partially committed to Him; He has called us to be fully committed to Him. God isn’t interested in something called our spiritual lives; He’s just interested in our lives.
Colossians 3:1-2 says, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your minds on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
God desires for us to be fully committed to Him and follow His leading in our lives. God requires complete and total commitment to Him.
Last week we briefly touched on the subject of passion. We learned if we are going to be effective world changers for God then we need to develop a passion for God. Developing a passion for God is part of what makes someone a fully committed follower of Christ and fully committed to God.
We need to be passionate about God & desire nothing more than to know Him more intimately
We must realize that as followers of Jesus Christ, that Christ is the only reason for living.
That may be a hard pill for many of us to swallow. We tend to think that there are many reasons to live. We have our families, our enjoyment, our contributions to society and our communities, but if we boil it all down to one central reason that we as followers of Christ have for living it is simply to please God and do his work.
God has given to each of us a family and loved ones and enjoyment and excitement in life; He has allowed us to make contributions to society and our communities, but the reality is that God has given these things to us so that among them and with them and through them we can do His work. So as a Christian, God is our reason for living.
When we realize this we become fully devoted to God and a fully committed follower of Him. So we need to ask ourselves this question, “Am I living my life this way”? “Is Christ my central focus in life?” “Does pleasing God and doing His will determine how I live my life?”
We all have to answer those questions and arrange the events and practices of our lives to make the answers to the questions an unmistakably resounding yes! One day we are going to have to stand before God and answer to Him for how we have lived our lives, and really all that will matter and last for eternity is what we have done for Him. So it would make sense and be very beneficial if we lived fully committed lives for god and followed His leadership so that when that day comes we will be able to answer God with a resounding, “I lived my life fully for you”!
The Apostle Paul in the New Testament book of Philippians said that Christ was his total reason for living.
Philippians 1:21 – “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Paul further emphasizes his point in:
Philippians 3:7-10: “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”
David said in
Psalm 73:23-26: “Yet I am always with you; you hold me by your right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into your glory. Who have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Are you passionate about knowing God more intimately or are you satisfied with simply going through the motions?
It is easy to fall into the pattern of what many refer to as “Casual Christianity”. I believe that if we were all honest, we would admit that at some point in our lives we have been there. And if statistics are correct, there are probably some in this room who are living this way right now.
Casual Christianity means to simply go through the motions of the Christian life. Go to church, sing and maybe even clap your hands. Occasionally pick up the Bible and read it outside of church. Pray before you eat and maybe one other time during the day. In other words, simply going through the motions without and emotion behind them.
The Bible does not condone such behavior. The Bible advises us to earnestly desire to grow spiritually by consistent feeding from the Bible.
1 Peter 2:2-3: “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
We need to be fully committed followers of Christ who desire to know Him better and joyfully live lives that desire nothing more that to do His work.
We Need to Train ourselves to Godliness and Pursue Intimacy with God
1 Corinthians 9:24-25: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”
Let me ask you a question, “If you want to be great at something in life, what do you need to do?” The answer is to train. Let me see a show of hands on this; how many people could walk out of here and run every step of a marathon? Okay. How many of you could walk outside and run every step of a marathon is you tried really, really, really hard? Maybe a few people. For the rest of you, what would it take for you to be able to run a marathon? You would have to train wouldn’t you?
To train means to subject to certain actions, exercises, etc. in order to bring about a desired condition.
As a follower of Christ we need to train ourselves to become more Christ like and fully committed followers of God. We need to arrange the events and actions of our lives in such a way as to condition ourselves to become fully committed followers of Christ who develop a passion for God and knowing Him better, and to become people who pursue intimacy with God.
When we have a passion for God that leads to a pursuit of intimacy with Him and intimacy with God combined with a passion for Him makes one into a fully committed follower of God. So we need to train ourselves to develop a passion for God and to pursue intimacy with Him.
As with physical training, if we want to be completely healthy it takes many exercises, so it is with spiritual training. We need to train completely by doing some “spiritual exercises” that will train us to Godliness and lead us to intimacy with God.
Intimacy with God comes through:
Time in God’s Word
We need to discipline ourselves to spend quality time in the Bible everyday. Not just going through the motions of reading something everyday, but genuinely spending quality time learning from the Bible. There is a big difference between reading and learning. It is possible to read a whole lot and not learn anything, ask any student that; yet it is also possible to learn a whole lot without reading a whole lot.
If an athlete is going to be the best or if you are going to stay in shape you must exercise. We need to train ourselves to become spiritually fit, and one exercise in doing so is reading the Bible. It is through the Bible that God speaks to our hearts as we learn more about Him. We read of God’s way to handle situations that we may be facing and it teaches us so that we may be able to help others.
As a fully committed, passionate follower of Christ, we need to make time in God’s Word a daily exercise. Ask God to teach you through it and speak to your heart through it. If it helps, keep a journal of what you learn so that you don’t forget anything.
Prayer
Another area in which we need to discipline ourselves in is the area of prayer. Prayer is how we speak to God. If anyone is going to have a healthy relationship with a friend or a spouse, it takes constant communication to make the relationship all that it can be. The same holds true in our relationship with God. So we need to communicate with God through prayer and then we need to read the Bible daily to hear back from God.
Jesus was the perfect example for us in showing us how to major on our relationship with God. We see many examples in the Bible. One of the major contributors to intimacy with God is talking to Him through prayer.
Luke 5:16 – “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
Luke 6:12 – “One of those days Jesus went up to the mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God.”
We need to spend quality time daily with God in prayer, not just going through the motions and presenting your wish list to God and asking Him to give you a lot of stuff. When we pray we need to ask God to speak to our hearts through His word and through the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts.
Time with other Christ followers
A number of weeks back I shared with you a verse from Proverbs about friendship. It was:
Proverbs 27:17 – “As iron sharpen iron, so one man sharpens another.”
When we spend time with other followers of Christ, we become encouraged and sharpened in our relationship with God. I don’t know about you, but I find that I am most encouraged in my relationship with God when I am able to talk about my progress with other Christ followers.
I want you to know that I am not always sharing great insights from scripture with those I talk with, nor am I boasting about my great spiritual gains all the time. There are many times that I share with those close to me how I have failed in a certain area or how I have not learned much or something like that.
But I am always encouraged because God uses those people I talk with to encourage me, pray with me and hold me accountable to improve in my relationship with God.
My point simply is that when we spend time with fellow Christ followers, it helps us and spurs us on to live more Christ like lives. So we need to discipline ourselves to become active in a small group or have a weekly time, one on one, with other followers of Christ to spur one another on and encourage each other.
Let me take this opportunity to encourage you to become part of a small group and join us on Wednesday evenings at 6:00 for our BBQ & Bible. If you can’t make it on Wednesdays we have a men’s & women’s Bible study which meet monthly, come out to the appropriate group and I guarantee that you will be encouraged and sharpened in your walk with God. If that isn’t your thing, there are many people on leadership here at the church that would be willing to spend time with you one on one to help you grow closer to God and help in your pursuit of intimacy with Him.
So make it a point to discipline yourself in this area of your life. I can assure you that it will help tremendously in developing a passion for God and in your pursuit of intimacy with God.
I want to share one more exercise that we need to do as we pursue intimacy with God and train ourselves spiritually. This exercise is most crucial to developing a passion for God and developing intimacy with Him. If you don’t do this, the road to spiritual progress and Christ likeness will take longer than if you do it. This exercise is very simple, yet at the same time very difficult, and it is:
Application of the Bible to our daily lives
I say this is simple because the Bible is clear on how God desires us to live. I say this is difficult because it is hard for many of us to carry out God’s instruction. As followers of Christ, we are His disciples. A disciple is a learner, and we need to learn of God not just learn about God.
We can read the Bible and learn a lot about God but it does us absolutely no good to know a lot about God and the Bible and never live it out. To have a passion for God is to pursue intimacy with Him and live a life pleasing to Him. We cannot live a life pleasing to God and we will never be effective in doing His work if we don’t apply the Bible to our daily lives.
Personal Reflection
Friends, we need to be committed to God and committed to training ourselves to be fully devoted to Him. So let’s take a minute for some personal reflection and I am going to pause so that God can speak to our hearts. I am going to ask a question and then I want you to think about it for a minute and silently ask God to speak to your heart in response to your answer.
The question is this: How often do you plan your daily work in such a way that you forget to do the one thing that is needful – Spending time with the Lord?
If God has spoken to your heart in regards to your answer, then I want you to take action upon that immediately. For some of you God may have given you a pat on the back and said, “Good job, keep it up.” Still for others God may have said to your heart, “You need to change your schedule. You need to wake up a little earlier or stay up a little later so that we can spend time together.” Or He may have said to you, “You need to begin spending time with me.” Whatever it is, act on it; it will be one of the best things you can do that will count for all eternity.
God has given me the privilege of knowing and being close friends with a man who has done incredible things for God as a missionary in Russia. In fact he is one of my mentors in being a pastor and starting this church. His name is Bryan Thomas and God has used him to teach me a whole lot and Bryan has said some pretty profound things to me. I recently read something he wrote on this subject of becoming a fully committed follower of Christ and pursuing intimacy with Him. He said:
“We are not just to know facts about God, but we are supposed to know Him. It is easy to become so busy that we neglect our most important responsibility and that is learning of God.” – Bryan Thomas
Spiritual growth and intimacy with God is a life-long process, not an event. As we grow through various stages, God gradually changes things in our lives. Spiritual growth and intimacy with God is the transformation of our lives and takes place in the midst of daily struggles that we face.
The greatest priority in our lives should be our relationship to God. The ultimate priority in the life of Jesus was His relationship with the Father.
You may think to yourself, “Oh, that was Jesus he was divine, He was of God so it was natural for Him to make His relationship with God His top priority.”
That may be true but if we are going to be fully committed followers of Him, if we are going to pursue intimacy with God or if we are going to bear the name Christian then we must follow the example of Christ and make the number one priority in our lives our relationship with God the Father!
God desires and has called us to be fully committed, passionate followers of Him who pursue intimacy with God and a desire to live fully for Him. Today we have learned some steps in becoming the kinds of people that God wants us to be, and these should not be taken lightly. Instead they need to be taken seriously and followed daily. They need to be followed wholeheartedly, not casually and not by just going through the motions of doing them.
James 1:22-25 says: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves, do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word and does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has learned but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does.”
I firmly believe that God is going to do some big things in us and trough us that will make a huge impact in our lives and the lives of those around us and in this community. I also firmly believe that is going to use the family here at South Shore to be world changers and disciple makers in our part of the world and throughout the world, but it all starts right here.
It all begins with us. It all begins with you. It begins by becoming a fully committed follower of Christ and it begins by becoming passionate about God and doing His work. So today I want to ask you to begin to pursue intimacy with God and become a fully committed follower of Christ.
For some of you that may mean changing some things in your life. It may mean that you have to rearrange some things in your life so that you can train more effectively. It may mean that you may have to humble yourself before God and seek encouragement and spiritual help by way of a small group or one on one discipling.
But I am asking you today to make a commitment to God to become a fully committed follower of Him. When you make that commitment, God will draw you closer to Him and you will become more like Him and you will begin to realize that you entire reason for living is to honor God and do His work. Intimacy with God produces the best relationship you could ever want or have.
Still for others today may have opened your eyes to the fact that you have not been living a life for God at all. Today may have made you aware that you need to begin living for God and become a fully committed follower of Him.
Today I am asking you, if you have never committed your life to God and received His forgiveness of your sin and accepted His leadership of your life to make that commitment now. God loves you and wants to have a relationship with you. So why not turn your life over to him today and begin to pursue intimacy with Him?
Salvation Prayer
A few moments ago I shared with you a passage from the book of James about being hearers and doers. We have learned today how to become fully committed followers of Christ and so today I want to leave you with a question, “Are you going to be a hearer or a doer”?
Let’s Pray
