Why Commit? (Part 1)

Why Commit? (part one)

Thesis: Why should I commit my way to the Lord’s way? Because I will then dwell in the promised land of safe pasture and God will give me the desires of my heart. All I have to do is commit my way to Him and he promises he will do these things.

Text:

Psalm 37:1-5

1 Do not fret because of evil men

or be envious of those who do wrong;

2 for like the grass they will soon wither,

like green plants they will soon die away.

3 Trust in the LORD and do good;

dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

4 Delight yourself in the LORD

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD;

trust in him and he will do this:

Introduction:

Many today say they don’t want to commit. But the truth is they make a commitment to not commit which is a commitment. They commit to not commit.

The truth is you can decide to commit or not decide to commit which is a commitment any way.

Webster’s Dictionary tells me that - Commit means to entrust, to give charge, to perform, to pledge.

In my search for the definition of Commit I actually looked at one dictionary which did not even have the word commit in it. I guess they were not committed to commitment.

As I continued my search for an explanation of what it means to commit I discovered that commit also means to hand over for safe keeping. In other words to commit something of value to someone else to keep safe secure. I paused for a moment and thought that’s what the Lord does when I commit to him – he takes my life and keeps it safe and secure.

I pressed on in my search committed to finding out what commit meant. I also realized that commit means to pledge allegiance to something. In essence it’s like when we use to pledge allegiance to the flag in school every morning. The flag and saying the Pledge represented our commitment to the United States of America but then I thought but many today feel it’s Unconstitutional to commit to saying the pledge because no one should be forced to commit to a country if they don’t want to. So many schools have done away with committing to commit to the pledge of allegiance and to the USA.

I pressed on in my research to see and understand that to commit means that you become involved. Webster’s Dictionary told me that you commit only when you become involved. I paused after reading that and thought I agree you can only be committed when your involved in that which you are committed to.

I then explored another Dictionary called Thorndike and Barhardt’s Advanced Dictionary. They told me that commit usually means and is applied to a person who commits to doing something wrong. This means they commit to criminal behavior or they commit to sin. Wow I thought this advanced dictionary implies that to commit usually applies to doing something wrong rather than doing something good.

As I continued my study of what it means to commit I came across a story of Michelangelo from Maxwell’s book 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader pages 16-18.

(Read the Story)

I discovered that Michelangelo was committed to painting the Sistine Chapel and doing his best because “God would see!” if he really was committed to this task for the Lord.

My week moved on and I stayed committed to discovering what commitment really was. I was surprised to receive a letter from my Brother-in-law Tim this week: Reference parts of it to the Church!

Tim had to learn in life that since he rejected the Lord he then committed to doing things his way which was the wrong way, the way of sin, the way of evil and he has discovered that evil ways lead to repercussions that pay heavy prices. I praise the Lord he has re-dedicated his life to Jesus Christ. I believe the Lord has forgiven him and he is happier even though he is in the worse jail in the country. Learn a lesson here church – sin pays a a heavy price! You may make a commitment to liver your life apart from God but believe me soon as you cut the root from God you begin to wither!

Illustration of my Model Building Class.

I had an interesting week this week teaching a model building class. I had a bunch of students ranging in age from 9-13. I became a little frustrated with some of them this week when they refused to follow directions and as a result they where always confused and lost in building their models. Sometimes they would do it wrong and say “I am missing parts!” I would bring them back to the directions and say did you follow directions “No they would say I skipped that part.” I would point them back to the right step and they would say “Know I get it!” and proceed. Others would say, “My models messed up, it’s defective.” “No” I would say it’s because you skipped steps 1-3! GO back and do it right. Amazingly when they followed directions the model looked great. When they did not they got lost, frustrated, upset, discouraged, and some wanted to just quit. All because they refused to follow the directions and work the process through as designed by the blue print.