INTRO. – ILL.- Sometime ago a woman who had just returned from a trip to Mexico called the Los Angeles police to report that a rattlesnake was loose in her overnight bag. Police went to investigate. They approached the bag, which the woman had heaved out of a window onto the sidewalk. Cautiously, they scattered the contents of the bag—only to find that the rattle was caused by an electric toothbrush, which had accidentally turned on!
Most of us are not too fond of snakes and are pretty cautious when we think one might be nearby.
ILL.- Jan 23, 2006. SYDNEY, Australia - Talk about unwanted house guests. A 78-year-old Australian woman was rushed to a hospital after she was bitten by a 5-foot snake - one of the world’s deadliest varieties - while watching television in her suburban home.
Valerie Makin, a great-grandmother from the southern city of Melbourne, was sitting on her couch knitting and watching television when she saw the unwanted visitor out of the corner of her eye. As she tried to flick it away, it sank its fangs into her left arm.
"She never even raised her voice," said Makin’s daughter, Janice Milinkovic, who was in her bedroom when her mother came in and said she had been bitten. "I got off the bed and I saw it slither off the couch and that’s when I knew she wasn’t (joking)," she added. Makin was rushed to a nearby hospital, but she did not suffer any poisoning because the snake’s fangs only punctured the skin and the venom did not enter her bloodstream. SHE WAS A BLESSED WOMAN!
The creature - known as a brown snake - crawled under the couch where it remained until a pest control inspector removed it from the house, the report said. ANYONE INTERESTED IN MOVING TO AUSTRALIA?
Brothers and sisters, this sounds so very much like our lives. We are going about our business, whether watching TV, working, doing what we are supposed to be doing and suddenly a slithering snake comes into our lives and tries to take a bite out of us.
That slithering snake, of course, is none other than Satan, otherwise known as the Devil, the murderer, the liar, the deceiver, the destroyer, the evil one, etc.
It seems like we can be doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing in life: working, raising a family, going to church, trying to honor the Lord, etc. and then suddenly, the evil one throws a wrench in the works and brings things to a halt.
What kinds of things does Satan throw at us in order to deceive and dupe us? Sometimes it is a blatant temptation to sin and other times, it’s very subtle.
ILL.- Jan 23, 2006, EASTON, Pa. - A woman fined $173.50 for throwing salad greens out of her car. Dawn Higgins, 47, was cited Oct. 18 while parked outside a Wal-Mart in eastern Pennsylvania. She said, "Lettuce comes from the ground, therefore it can go back into the ground. It’s biodegradable. I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong."
Higgins said she took her daughters and a friend to the store, and they stopped at a McDonald’s along the way. She said she pulled into a parking space to finish her meal but decided not to eat the half-dozen or so leaves atop her salad.
After failing to appear in court Dec. 22, Higgins discovered she had been convicted in absentia and owed the state $173.50.
Brothers and sisters, that was woman was guilty of throwing lettuce on the ground. BUT LET US (lettuce) NOT TO BE TOO QUICK TO JUDGE HER.
We’ve all certainly done worse things in our lives, have we not? Don’t you wish something like that was the worst of what you were guilty of?
Satan has a way of tripping us up in life and tempting us to do some naughty and nasty things in life. CONSEQUENTLY, we need someone to save us. We need a savior. Someone to save us from Satan and from a whole lot more. WE NEED JESUS! Being committed to Him is the only thing that will save us!
Education won’t save us. Money won’t save us. Intellect won’t save us. Only Jesus can save us!
PROP.- In this message, let’s think about our commitment to the Son of God who is our Savior.
1- Committed to His Position
2- Committed to His Life
I. COMMITTED TO HIS POSITION
ILL.- In one “Peanuts” comic strip one of the female small fry came to Charlie Brown and said, “Yes sir, Charlie Brown, Abraham Lincoln was a great man. Charlie Brown, would you like to have been Abraham Lincoln?”
“Well, now, I don’t think so,” he replied slowly; “I am having a hard enough time being just plain old Charlie Brown.”
Brothers and sisters, you need to be you and no one else. You need to fill your shoes and do your thing and not someone else’s thing.
ILL.- Singer Sammy Davis used to sing:
Whether I’m right or whether I’m wrong
Whether I find a place in this world or never belong
I gotta be me, I’ve gotta be me
What else can I be but what I am
I want to live, not merely survive
And I won’t give up this dream
Of life that keeps me alive
I gotta be me, I gotta be me
I don’t particularly agree that I have to be me, right or wrong, but we all should be the person that God intended and not someone else.
Matthew 16:13-16 “13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" 14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" 16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus apparently wanted to know what people thought of him. Was that His real intent? Probably not. Jesus was not into human accolades and praise like some Hollywood star. He wasn’t interested in getting an Oscar. He really wanted to know what Peter thought of Him.
And Peter was right and he was right on. He was right about who Jesus was. And he was right on in the direction he was heading in life.
What about you? Who do you say Jesus is? I believe that you would say with Peter that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the savior, the Son of the living God.
If so, you will be blessed every time you make that verbal confession before men.
WE NEED TO BE COMMITTED TO JESUS, TO THE PERSON HE IS! He is the person He claimed to be! He is not some child’s fairy tale. He is not some person in a history book. As someone once said, “HISTORY IS HIS STORY.” He is the Son of the living God who created the heavens and the earth! He is the Savior of the world!
John 14:6-7 “6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
ILL.- I would like to try a little experiment with you. I’d like for you to call my son Shane and talk to him a minute. Then I would like for you to tell me what you think. YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK? I think he sounds a whole lot like his father. Hopefully, he has some of my few and far between good traits.
Jesus reveals to us the Father. Like father, like son. Do you want to know what God the Creator is like? Then read the gospel accounts. Jesus is just like His Father, full of compassion and mercy. His heart is His father’s.
We also believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He is our approach to God the Father.
If and when someone asks, “How can I be forgiven for my sins? How can I go to heaven?” I hope you’ll point them to Jesus as the only way.
Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
ILL.- You can get to Jonesboro Christian Church by way of Rosemond Ave., Nettleton Ave., Munos Lane, etc. But there is only ONE way to God the Father and that’s Jesus.
ILL.- This story is told of Daniel Webster when he was in the prime of his manhood. He was dining with a company of literary men in Boston. During the dinner the conversation turned upon the subject of Christianity. Mr. Webster frankly stated his belief in the divinity of Christ and his dependence upon the atonement of the Savior.
One man said to him, “Mr. Webster, can you comprehend how Christ could be both God and man? Mr. Webster promptly replied, “No, sir, I cannot comprehend it. If I could comprehend him, he would be no greater than myself. I feel that I need a superhuman Savior.”
We need to be committed to Christ who is our Superhuman Savior.
II. COMMITTED TO HIS LIFE
How did Jesus live? What did He do when He walked on planet earth? We must live as He lived.
ILL.- You won’t believe this. Well, maybe. Feb. 7, 2006. ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - Sometimes a chicken does have lips, just not her own. Marian Morris saved her brother’s exotic chicken, Boo Boo, by administering "mouth-to-beak" resuscitation on the fowl after it was found floating face down in the family’s pond.
Morris, a retired nurse, said she hadn’t had any practice with CPR in years, but that she was interested to see if she "still had it."
"I breathed into its beak, and its dad-gum eyes popped open," Morris said. "I breathed into its beak again, and its eyes popped open again. "I said, ’I think this chicken’s alive now. Keep it warm.’" Morris said she was pleased to find that the bird she saved was an "exotic," and not just an ordinary chicken.
The chicken is called Boo Boo, because she is easily frightened. The family thought Boo Boo was startled and flopped into the pond.
Brothers and Sisters, I suppose that any chicken lover would rejoice in this story of salvation.
In Luke 19:10 we’re told that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, but this chicken story is not exactly what the Lord had in mind.
I do believe that the Lord made all creatures and that He takes care of them in his own way. I WILL NOT, HOWEVER, GET INTO A CHICKEN DEBATE.
Jesus’ primary mission earth was to seek and to save the lost. And we need to be committed to Him in that same mission.
What is our primary concern for others? Health, wealth, good job, or getting them to heaven?
ILL.- I remember a statement by the Baptist Preacher Vance Havner who left for glory in 1986. He said, “It has been a long time since I have heard parents speak of their unsaved boy or girl as being lost. That old word had departed from our Christian vocabulary. Young couples who are prospering materially and socially are admired and congratulated, but if they do not know Jesus Christ, they are not doing well. We act as though their lostness were incidental, that it does not matter much. Either it is a stupendous issue of heaven or hell or we might as well forget it. If our unsaved friends were in danger otherwise, we would go to their assistance without apology. Yet Jesus came to seek and to save the lost and died for their redemption. There is something hypocritical about claiming to believe that and acting as though it were unimportant.”
Brothers and sisters, we need to be committed to the mission of Jesus! The commission to seeking out people and pointing them to Christ who alone can save them!
One of our major priorities should be to see our children in heaven with us! What are we doing about that? Are we praying unceasingly for them? Are we talking to them? Are we pleading with them? Are we loving them with all our hearts? And what about others? Family members? Friends?
Here’s more about the life of Jesus to which we should be committed.
Acts 10:38 “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” He went about doing good. That’s what Jesus did. And we should do the same.
Matthew 9:35-36 “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
ILL.- Brothers and sisters, when I was a child I remember hearing my mother use a phrase that I don’t hear people use any more. Perhaps some do, but I haven’t heard this phrase in a long time. Mother used to say in regard to someone who had suffered in some form, “God love ‘em.” What a good way to say it and what a good phrase to mean from the heart!
We need to ask God to love people, to wrap His loving arms around people who are suffering and we need to do the same! We need to be committed to loving others just as He did.
CONCLUSION------------------------------
ILL.- D.M. Stearns was preaching in Philadelphia. At the close of the service a stranger came up to him and said, "I don’t like the way you spoke about the cross. I think that instead of emphasizing the death of Christ, it would be far better to preach Jesus, the teacher and example."
Stearns replied, "If I presented Christ in that way, would you be willing to follow Him?" "I certainly would," said the stranger without hesitation. "All right then," said the preacher, "let’s take the first step. He did no sin. Can you claim that for yourself?"
The man looked confused and somewhat surprised. "Why, no," he said. "I acknowledge that I do sin." Stearns replied, "Then your greatest need is to have a Savior, not an example!"
Brothers and sisters, Jesus is the Savior of the world! He is our Savior. He alone can save us. And we need to be committed to Him in all ways: His life, His mission, etc.
Will you make that commitment today?
