Faith – The Key to Commitment

Do not let any part of your bodies become tools of wickedness, to be used for sinning; but give yourselves completely to God—every part of you—for you are back from death and you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for his good purposes.

That’s the highest commitment you can make in life.

To give yourself completely to God to be used for the purposes that he made you, that he created you.

Romans 12:1 NCV

So brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship.

What I want to do this morning is talk to you about how your five deepest needs in your life are met by five great commitments.

The Great Commandment and the Great Commission are the two great statements of Jesus where he says,

“Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself…

Go make disciples, baptize and teach them to do everything I’ve commanded you.”

From those two passages, the Great Commandment and the Great Commission there are five verbs and five things God wants us to do with our lives.

He Wants us to Know Him

He Wants us to Love Him

He Wants us to Grow In Him

He Wants us to Serve Him

And He Wants us to share Him With Others

You can call this worship, discipleship, fellowship, ministry, and evangelism.

It doesn’t really matter the words you use.

The fact is God has these purposes for your life.

But they’re worthless unless you commit to each of them.

You cannot fulfill God’s purpose for your life by yourself.

I’ll say it again: You cannot possibly – possibly at all, there’s no way you’re going to do this, fulfill God’s purpose for your life by yourself.

We were made for each other.

We were wired for community.

We’re made for relationships.

You need a spiritual family.

The first commitment is the one that causes your faith to be strengthened.

And unless you make this commitment your faith will not be strengthened on a regular basis for the rest of your life.

Here it is. Number one. The first commitment:

1. TO STRENGTHEN MY FAITH . . . I MUST UNITE WITH OTHERS IN WORSHIP.

Worship is for God but it brings benefits to you.

I could give you 50 benefits of worshiping God.

Let me just mention two.

It renews your faith and it restores your joy.

It renews your faith and restores your joy.

When you come to worship like this and you get together with other people to worship, it renews your faith and it restores your joy.

Let me show you two verses.

Isaiah 40:31 AMP

But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.

How many times have you gotten up on a Sunday morning or whatever and said, I am so tired.

I really don’t have any energy to go to church, to go to worship.

And yet you went to worship and afterwards you were more energized.

How many would say that?

Because it renews your strength.

You’re not going to get your strength renewed watching golf on tv.

That’s just going to make you lazier and lazier.

You get renewed, your strength gets recharged when we worship together.

So you come in here Sunday Morning and God kind of takes spiritual jumper cables and He renews your strength.

It’s not me.

It’s the Word of God.

It’s music and it’s worship.

And that’s what renews our strength.

Psalm 100:2 NIV

Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

I’ll let you know my bias… I think it ought to be fun to go to church.

That may be shocking to you.

But the Bible says I was glad.

Not I was mad, not I was sad, not I was bored, not I was guilty, not I felt like I had to go out of duty.

David said it this way:

Psalm 122:1 AMP

A Song of Ascents. Of David. I WAS glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord!

Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with singing.

This kind of commitment gives me spiritual strength.

And that is my commitment to be in worship regularly with other people.

That energizes me, restores my strength, renews my joy.

Number two, the second commitment.

This is the commitment that helps you discover your identity and this is the commitment that helps you discover your purpose in life.

It may shock you but this is how you discover it.

2. TO DISCOVER MY IDENTITY & PURPOSE. . . I MUST CONNECT WITH OTHERS IN FELLOWSHIP.

I must connect with others for fellowship.

We only learn who we are in relationship.

We only learn our true identity in community.

You’ll never learn who you really are by yourself.

You only learn it in relationships.

For instance, if you had been born and you lived your entire life to adulthood with no human contact, none at all,

You wouldn’t have the slightest idea who or what you were.

You wouldn’t even know you were a human being.

You only know that because you’re in relationship to other human beings.

You learn your identity by being in relationships.

If you had no human contact you wouldn’t know who you are.

The Bible says specifically we need to be connected to God’s family.

We need to be connected in fellowship.

We need to be connected to the body of Christ.

That’s the phrase that’s used for the church.

Romans 12:4–5 M:BCL

In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body,

This is kind of obvious.

My ear only functions, only fulfills its purpose by being connected to the body.

If my ear was cut off and was laying on the ground over there what’s the value of a cut off ear? None.

It can’t hear anything.

My nose, if it got cut off and it’s laying over there on the ground, what’s the purpose of a cut off nose?

None.

It has no purpose.

It cannot smell anything by itself.

My eyes… if they’re not in my eye sockets attached to my body, what is the purpose of my eye?

None. It has no value.

It has no purpose unless it’s connected to the body.

The purpose that God made you for can only be discovered connected to the body, the body of Christ.

If you’re not connected to the church then you’re not going to know the purpose.

You’re not going to know your role.

You’re not going to know your function.

You’re not going to know your value and your meaning in life.

Disconnected… If my hand is cut off, it just withers and dies.

It can’t grasp anything.

It has no use at all.

The hand is only useful as it is connected to the body.

Your value, your use, your purpose, your identity comes in relationship to God’s body.

To God’s family. The church.

It’s all about relationships.

This by the way, is why when you’re in conflict with somebody your life sucks.

Everything could be going good in your life.

You’ve got a lot of money, you’ve got a lot of health, you look good, you feel good, all these things.

Then all of a sudden you have a conflict with somebody and they criticize you or they betray you or they reject you and you have conflict with that person.

All of a sudden no matter what else is going on good in your life your life stinks.

Because we don’t like conflict.

Because we get out identity and we get our purpose, we get all of these things in our relationships.

That’s why conflict is so miserable and so painful.

And it’s why once we accept Christ into our lives, God wants us to become peacemakers, reconcile-rs.

People who rather than create conflict in the world we create harmony in the world.

The Bible calls it the ministry of reconciliation.

Your job if you’re a follower of Jesus Christ is to make relationships better, not make them worse.

To create peace and harmony and love. Not conflict.

The Bible says this:

Ephesians 2:16 M:BCL

Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility.

God built the church as an agent for reconciliation in the world.

God wants the church to be the one place where there is no distinction between how you look, how much money you make, who you are.

When you get to heaven everybody is not going to look like you.

The Bible says every race, every language, every tribe, every nation, every skin color… will be there and God created that.

You look like you do because God wanted you to look like you.

And the person he made sitting next to you he wanted them to look like them.

When you reject your race or your background, or your gender you’re basically rejecting God.

You’re saying, God, you didn’t do a good job.

Because he made you.

He wants you to be you.

He doesn’t want you to be somebody else.

So we are to build harmony with each other.

By the way, that verse where it says Jesus brought us all together… Do you know the history behind this?

The temple in Jerusalem was the most segregated building in the world.

It was incredibly segregated.

None of us, not one of us would be able to go into the temple in Jerusalem.

Because inside the temple there was the Holy of Holies, there was the inner court and there was the outer court.

And no non-Jews were allowed in the temple.

We would be called Gentiles.

And we would be on the outside whether we were from Africa or Asia or Latin America or Europe.

We would all be considered Gentiles.

So none of us would be allowed to go in even to the outer court.

In fact, do you know what the law said?

That if you as an Asian or an African or European walked in… you weren’t Jewish and you walked into the outer court, they could kill you.

The death penalty.

You talk about segregation!

That’s the ultimate segregation.

Walk in here and you die.

The Bible says Jesus came to be finished with that.

When Christ died on the cross not only was physical veil in the temple destroyed between God and man but symbolically that wall came down and he said, now everybody has a chance.

He not only tore down the wall, he created an entire new organization.

And it’s the only organization on the planet for everybody.

It’s called the church.

Whether you’re red, yellow, black or white, all are precious in his sight.

The church is for everybody.

It’s a whole radical racial concept.

Amazing grace for every race.

2 Corinthians 5:18–19 NIV

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

Do you think either of those are needed in the world today?

In our country.

We have the answer. No that is a wrong statement. We are the answer.

Our way of life should be the answer – Unless our way of life isn’t consistent with biblical standards.

We have so many divisions in our nation right now between gender, between races, between economic status, between political parties.

Christians ought to be at the forefront saying,

“There’s one place where everybody’s welcome no matter where they are from.

It’s the church.”

We should be the place showing love, showing fellowship.

In an interview Ben Watson former NFL player.

He played for the New Orleans Saints, Baltimore, Cleveland and New England.

He was interviewed by Greta Van Susteren: After the Baltimore Riots.

Ben Watson: Honestly we all have a problem. I’ve said it before. We all have the same problem as human beings. It’s something we’re born with. We just see it manifest in different ways. In this situation it’s racial. It’s brutality. It’s people breaking the law. It’s the smoke, but the underlying fire is something that we all have to deal with. And that’s our sin, and only through a relationship with Jesus Christ can we really deal with these situations and deal with our problems. Then we can move forward and have reconciliation. Then we can move forward and create jobs. Then we can move forward and have better relations between the community and police officers. Then we can move forward and truly love our brothers with the love of God, once we have that in our own hearts. So when I see things like this happening I really hurt, because it is a heart change that needs to happen in America right now in order for us to be reconciled.

Greta: You know Ben we should have taken your message after Ferguson. Maybe if a lot of communities had taken your message to heart a little bit more and focused on some of the bigger problems that we have. Unfortunately we have to go through these different episodes. Now we’re watching Baltimore two nights ago burning of the senior center. The senior center was burned. And now tonight a very tense situation. What’s it going to take for all of us to really work on these problems?

Ben: First of all I think that there is great hope. I’ve said the Gospel gives us hope. It gives mankind hope. But I’ve seen people join together. I’ve seen pastors in these communities and I’ve seen different community leaders join hands. I’ve seen and heard myself, from people who are in the police force who don’t have these same feelings, who aren’t a part of the brutality, who want those things to change. While it may seem when we’re watching on tv that there’s nothing happening, nothing positive happening. I’m encouraged that there really are people out there who are trying to make a change. As soon as we understand that we all have the susceptibility to do these things and we address our sin problem I really believe we’ll be able to move forward as a country.

Wow!

Isn’t that amazing.

An NFL player and he’s saying it was a sin problem, the hope is the Gospel.

We’ve got to give our lives to Christ.

Until we’re reconciled to Christ, we can’t be reconciled with each other.

He’s saying all the right things. That’s what’s needed to be said.

This is the second commitment in life.

I’ll not only worship God,

I’ll build fellowship among other people.

The third life commitment is about developing your potential.

You will never develop your full potential as a man or as a woman until you make this commitment.

It is this: I must learn from others to grow.

3.TO DEVELOP MY POTENTIAL... I MUST LEARN FROM OTHERS TO GROW

There are some things you will never learn on your own.

You only learn them in community.

You only learn them from others.

There are some things you can only learn in relationship.

There are some things you can’t learn unless you’re in relationship in a small group of some kind.

For instance, you can only learn forgiveness in relationships.

You can’t learn that on your own.

You can only learn loyalty in relationships.

You can’t learn that on your own.

You can only learn love in relationships.

You can’t learn that on your own.

You can’t learn it without people.

You can’t learn kindness without others.

You can’t learn faithfulness without others.

You can’t learn graciousness without others in your life.

You can’t learn unselfishness without others.

In fact the most important things you need to learn in life require that you be in relationship to other people.

You can’t do it on your own.

And if I want to build my potential I must learn from others to grow.

And where is the best place to do that?

In the family of God. In the body of Christ. In the church.

Ephesians 4:16 LBP

Instead, we will lovingly follow the truth at all times—speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly—and so become more and more in every way like Christ who is the Head of his body, the Church. Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly, and each part in its own special way helps the other parts, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

You help each other grow.

I help you grow.

You help me grow.

The people on the row you’re sitting on right now, they need you.

You need them.

You need other people.

There are many things in life you cannot learn unless you’re in relationship with other people.

God wired us to need each other.

There’s a book that came out a while back called If I’m So Successful Why Do I Feel Like a Fake?

The book is actually about a well known phenomena.

It’s called the Impostor Phenomenon.

The Impostor Phenomenon says this: A lot of very successful people in life they’ve got wealth, they’ve got power, they’ve got good looks, they’ve got fame and all these kind of things.

Yet inside they feel empty. They feel hollow.

They feel unfulfilled.

And the reason why is success was never meant to fully satisfy you.

Success is not enough in life.

You’re taught from a little kid if you get successful you’re going to be happy.

No, not necessarily.

You’re certainly not going to be fulfilled because it’s not enough to fulfill you.

There are three levels of living.

You can live at the survival level.

You can live at the success level.

Or you can live at the significance level.

Most of the world lives at the survival level.

Survival level means I don’t know if I’m going to have a meal this evening.

Survival level means I don’t know if I’m going to have any more clothes than the ones on my back.

Most of us are at the second level.

You’re at what’s called the success level.

Success means you’ve got enough money for options.

So after the service today if you want to go eat something you can go buy it.

It may just be McDonald’s, but you have options.

If you have any money in your pocket, any, if you have any money in a cup sitting at home, you’re already in the top five percent wealthy in the world.

According to the world you’re rich.

So you’re not at the survival level.

You’re at the success level.

Success means options.

I can go to the movies, I can see what I want to watch… and the more that you have the more successful you are.

But that doesn’t fulfill.

Listen to this verse:

Romans 14:17 AMP

[After all] the kingdom of God is not a matter of [getting the] food and drink [one likes], but instead it is righteousness (that state which makes a person acceptable to God) and [heart] peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Peace, significance, joy, rightesousness come from a heart of pleasing God.

You were made for God type significance.

This significance comes from giving my life away to something greater than myself.

God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit

Here’s the fourth commitment.

4. TO EXPERIENCE SIGNIFICANCE . . .I MUST SERVE WITH OTHERS IN MINISTRY.

To experience significance in life I must serve with others in ministry.

Ministry is just the word for doing good to other people.

I must serve with others in ministry.

Significance does not come from status.

Significance does not come from your salary because a lot of people make more than you do.

Significance does not come from sex.

You can go from one sexual partner to the next thinking that makes you significant. It does not.

Significance comes from service.

God wired the universe that we only feel significant about our lives when we give it away.

You cannot be selfish and significant at the same time.

Significance comes when you stop thinking about you and you start thinking about other people and you give your life away.

The Bible says it like this.

1 Peter 4:10 NCV

Each of you has received a gift to use to serve others. Be good servants of God’s various gifts of grace.

The talents you’ve got, they’re not for your benefit.

Your talents were given to you to benefit the people sitting next to you.

And their talents were not given for their benefit.

Their talents were given for the benefit of you.

My talents, the talents that I’ve got, weren’t given for my benefit.

My talents were given to me for the benefit of you.

So we need each other.

Your talents aren’t meant for your benefit.

We are given these gifts.

We are shaped for significance.

Ministry is the path of meaning and service is the path of significance.

You’re not going to find it any other way.

You’re never going to feel as good about you until you start giving your life away.

Jesus said it like this.

Mark 8:35 LBP

If you insist on saving your life, you will lose it. Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live.

God has a lot to say about serving.

And he says we’re supposed to do it in a special way.

Here’s the way – with others.

We’re to do it together.

We’re better together.

You’re not meant to serve God on your own, by yourself.

You’re meant to serve God on a team.

You’re meant to serve God in a family, in a small group, in a church.

You’re meant to serve God in relationship.

Here’s what the Bible says.

Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 NCV

Two people are better than one, because they get more done by working together. If one falls down, the other can help him up. But it is bad for the person who is alone and falls, because no one is there to help.

Ecclesiastes 4:11–12 LBP

Also, on a cold night, two under the same blanket gain warmth from each other, but how can one be warm alone? And one standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer; three is even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.

There’s a lot of truth in that passage but let me just summarize it in three statements.

Write these down.

When we work together…

1. We Maximize our Impact v9

When we work together, we maximize our impact.

We get more done.

Let me just say it this way: What you do with other people in this church will far outlast anything you do on your own.

I guarantee it.

You want to make an impact with your life?

You want to make a world impact?

A global impact? Historical impact?

Do it with other people in this church.

Because what this church is doing is far going to outlast anything else that you do.

What we do together will be far more significant than what we do individually.

Far more significant than what we do individually.

One drop of rain doesn’t make any difference on a desert.

But a million drops of rain can turn a desert into a garden.

What you can do is not a lot.

What I can do is not a lot.

But together we make an impact.

We maximize our impact.

2. We Minimize our Failure v10

The second thing, verse 10, says we minimize our failure.

I like that.

When we work together, when we serve together, when we minister together, we minimize our failures.

It says, “If one falls down the other just picks him up.

But he said if you’re doing it on your own who is going to pick you up when you fall?”

So I like the fact that when we serve together in the church it minimizes our failures.

And the Third thing is:

3. We Mobilize our Resources v11

We pool them.

We put them all together.

Our funds go further.

It says if you’re sleeping outside together you can share the blanket and stay warm.

He says we can pool our resources and mobilize them together.

Jesus said that there’s no such thing as insignificant service.

There’s no such thing as an insignificant ministry.

Jesus said even if you say to a little kid, Have a drink of water, in Jesus’ name.

You give him a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name.

The Bible says that is significant ministry.

You will be rewarded for it in eternity.

It doesn’t have to be flashy; it just has to be service.

Jesus said this.

Matthew 25:40 NIV

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

You know what that story is about.

Jesus is saying there one day you’re going to stand before him in heaven.

And God’s going to say to you, “You know what? Good job!

Because when I was hungry you fed me.

And when I was thirsty you gave me something to drink.

And when I was sick you visited me.

When I was in prison you visited me.

And when I was naked you gave me clothes.” And you’re going to say to God, “Lord, when did I do that?

When did I feed you, clothe you, help you, serve you and all that?”

And Jesus will say, “When you did it to the least of these you did it to me.

In as much as you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did it unto me.”

The last or the fifth life commitment is the one that makes the eternal difference.

This is the one that you’ll be rewarded for over and over and over in eternity.

It is this, the fifth commitment.

To make an eternal

5. TO MAKE AN ETERNAL DIFFERENCE... I MUST JOIN WITH OTHERS ON MISSION.

To make an eternal difference I must join with others on mission.

God has a life mission for your life and you can only do it in the context with others.

A life message and a life mission.

God put you here to have a message to the world and a mission in the world.

And you do that in context with others.

Before Jesus goes back to heaven he gives his last words.

Last words of people are very important.

And the last words of Jesus are called the Great Commission.

I mentioned it earlier.

Matthew 28:19–20 NIV

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Follow me on this.

God has a purpose for all of history and God has a purpose for your life.

Why would God give you a purpose for your life totally unconnected to his purpose for history?

He wouldn’t.

That would be illogical.

So somehow the purpose for your life is connected to his purpose for history.

What is God’s purpose for history?

He’s building a family.

It’s the whole reason there’s a universe.

It’s the whole reason there’s an earth.

God wanted a family.

On earth that family’s called the church.

It’s also called the kingdom of God.

And when everybody has come into that family that God knows is going to say yes, has made the choice to love him back, then this period of history will be over.

We go into phase two, which is eternity.

So somehow, God says I want your purpose in life to be a part of my big purpose which is taking the good news to everybody else.

The whole reason we have New Creation Fellowship is the Great Commission.

It’s all about not just loving Christ, Its about loving His family, growing in Christ, serving Christ.

It’s also about sharing Christ.

Taking the good news.

And it’s the best news in the world.

Past forgiven, purpose for living, home in heaven.

Where else are you going to get that? Nowhere.

It’s the best news in the world.

In the Bible, Paul talks about a group of Christians in a part of Greece called Macedonia.

Macedonia is where Alexander the Great came from.

Paul was in Macedonia and had helped them start a church.

They were going through a very strong famine.

There was a drought, and the place was incredibly poor and they barely had enough food to feed themselves.

It was a very, very poor, poverty-stricken church in Macedonia.

Yet when the people in the church of Macedonia heard about the tough times that the church of Jerusalem was going through.

They were having a famine.

And on the top of that they were having persecution.

So the people who were in abject poverty themselves in Macedonia took up a generous offering and sent it to Jerusalem.

Paul, in the Bible, brags on the Macedonian Christians.

2 Corinthians 8:5 NIV

And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.

He Likens what they did to the sacrifice of Jesus!

2 Corinthians 8:9 NCV

You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know that Christ was rich, but for you he became poor so that by his becoming poor you might become rich.

In other words, if you settle the first issue, does my life really belong to God, the second issue is really easy.

Do I trust God?

So when it comes to an offering or giving the question isn’t “What do I want to give?”

The question is, “Does God really own my life?”

Only God can create significant waves – waves of revival, waves of growth, and waves of receptivity in your own life.

And our job is to recognize the wave of God’s Spirit and ride it.

It’s not our responsibility to go out into the world and make waves.

It’s our job to recognize how God is working in the world and join him in the endeavor.”

So our prayer at the start of every day should go like this:

“Father, I know you’re going to do some incredible things in your world today. I’d like to ask you to just give me the privilege of being in on some of them.”

In other words, stop praying, “Lord, bless what I’m doing!”

Start praying, “Lord, help me to do what you’re blessing.” Big difference.

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