Level of Commitment
give in to him to get more of him
A strong young athlete was wading waist deep in the shallow part of a lake. Unknowingly he stepped off an underwater ledge and plunged fifteen feet beneath the surface of the water. After several seconds he bobbed to the top of the water flailing his arms and gasping for breath.
The lifeguard attentively watched the situation from a nearby bank. A friend of the struggling young athlete grabbed the lifeguard by the arm and cried out, "Bob can’t swim, you’ve got to help him." The lifeguard remained unmoved as Bob continued kicking and splashing wildly. The young man’s friend furiously yelled at the lifeguard, "If you won’t go after him, I will."
Calmly but firmly the lifeguard said, "No one can help him yet. I’ll help him when he’s ready for my help." After a couple more minutes the young athlete stopped his struggles, as his body became limp. The patient lifeguard suddenly dove into the water, swam out to the young man and brought him to shore for a successful rescue.
Later the friend asked the lifeguard, "Why did you wait so long to help my friend." The lifeguard responded, "As long as Bob was trying to save himself there was nothing I could have done for him. Only when he was weak, weary and exhausted and had given up, was I able to save him."
There was a point in my life where I was just “doing” religion. I don’t know if any of you have ever been there but I was just showing up to church. God had a place in my life but it wasn’t making a difference.
I was doing faith the way I wanted to. If you are or have ever been in a place like that you know that you’re never quite sure where you stand with God. It’s the not knowing that eventually wears you down and leaves you frustrated and before long you just stop altogether because you know that what you’re doing is ridiculously worthless. You’ll begin to ask questions like, “What am I even doing this for?” “I’m just bored when I read the Bible because it just doesn’t make sense to me?” Some of us may even find a church that makes it interesting to us but before long that doesn’t work because we can’t reproduce for ourselves the same plain truths that the pastor does. So we hop from one occasional church to another without ever really “getting it”. All we really get is that doing the religious thing is not working for me!
Just like that athlete who was drowning we are barely staying afloat in our faith. We unknowingly believed that if we work at this God thing that everything will fall into place. We then realize that there is much more to being a believer in Jesus Christ than we first thought.
Jesus knows something that we need to know. He knew that if you attempted to find him the way you find success in this world you’d come up short. He knew that man would wear themselves right out of their faith trying to reach him their way. How have you been trying to get to Jesus the wrong way? Have you decided that he has to meet you half way? Have you decided that it’s way too hard for a single man to stay sexually pure in a sexually perverse society? Have you left him some conditions in life and if He fulfills them then you’ll relinquish and believe Him more? Have you been setting yourself up for a drowning trying to do it your way?
Just like that lifeguard Jesus is waiting for you to give in and exhaust all of your attempts to get to Him. Jesus wants to know;
When will you Give In to Get to Him?
READ. (Matthew 11:25-30) PRAY.
The last time we met we said that there is nothing worse than a committed non-committal in Jesus Christ. We said that there were some things we had to do in order to have a real commitment. Remove our conditions of the commitment, ignore the distractions that tempt to keep us away from making good on the commitment and don’t look back.
Today the Bible tells us that Jesus is frustrated with mans attempts at using their brand of religion to get to Him.
I want us to understand today that in order for you to go to a deeper level in your commitment to Jesus Christ you need to;
Give In to Get More of Him
The statement, give in to get more of him, flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom says I have to do more to get more. But Jesus was anything but conventional.
There’s nothing conventional about what Jesus does at the beginning of the chapter: Jesus lists all the things he’d been doing like; the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, dead are raised and the wretched people on the earth find out that God is on their side. None of that will show up on a conventional resume.
We are pursuing an unconventional God with conventional wisdom. The Bible tells us that the wisdom of the world is foolishness (1 Corinthians 3:19).
Jesus is saying to us now, Put down your idea of getting to me, your attempts at working towards me your conventional thinking is of this world. In the Gospel of John Jesus tells us that he is not of this world His kingdom is not of this world and He chose us so we are returning to our intended destination. Romans then tells us, "...be not conformed to this world..."
We are attempting to get more of Jesus through the thinking of the world and it won’t work. People are receiving Jesus Christ and becoming disillusioned because they are working their tail off when the work has already been done on the cross, it is finished. Jesus has a command for us with a result.
“Come to me...and I will give you rest”
The success you have on the field you attained from your work ethic, but if you use that same method to attain a living savior, you’ll be flailing in pool of meaninglessness. Jesus says come to me and don’t include any of the worlds methods, not thru a particular church, or 10 step program, not that those things are bad but in and of themselves, they can be meaningless unless you bring your heart with you to meet God. Showing up is admirable yet meaningless in and of itself. In order to come to him he requires we come on a heart-level. Give your heart to him in order to get more of him. We know that we’re there when we are experiencing the result of coming to him: rest. Rest is the sense of accomplishment a man feels when he's put in a hard days work, yet he has worked heartily for the Lord not for his oppressive boss. When we commit to Jesus from a heart llevel our wives may accuse us of disregarding them for the workplace but His word convicted us already and she just confirmed it. Think of rest not in sleeping but enjoying the blessings of God His eternal salvation now. When you can enjoy salvation now what difference do the circumstances make? Many of you may have heard of a man that I work with who is suffering from ALS, OJ Brigance. OJ has not allowed the circumstances to dictate how he lives because he's convinced from a real commitment that by the work done on the cross he is healed! The only question left is when. "Come to me..." Jesus says and He will give you rest in the dire circumstances of life.
So v.29 moves us to His next command,
“Take my yoke and learn from me...”
In biblical days farmers would yoke an older, experienced ox with a young, inexperienced ox so the younger could learn how to pull the plow. The older ox would do most of the work until the younger one grew accustomed to the yoke and became productive. (Now you know why your 1st Training Camp is always your hardest; you weren't used to the yoke. It hadn't gotten any easier, camp is camp, you just got experience with it now)
In 1994 the San Diego Chargers drafted a 2nd round offensive guard from the University of Arkansas. Ike Davis was 6’5”, 320 lbs. could move the way men 100lbs. lighter than he could. Talented, bright, physically gifted and ready to play at the next level Ike Davis was a lock to have a long and successful career in a run oriented offense that was perfectly suited for his tough style of play.
That was the good news about Ike Davis. The GM at the time, Bobby Beathard and the whole organization were head over heels for Ike. I wasn't at all excited because I knew I’d be pulling him along, mistakes and all, until he matured and met up with his potential. This new level of football was going to need a new level of commitment. Until that time however I would be the one “yoked” to this rookie as he grew accustomed to his position.
Jesus has a custom made collar for two. Two because he’ll be with you every step of the way as you commit. Just like I was with Ike. Any burden he puts on you is for your good. Jesus wants to teach us his ways, who he is and in turn who his father is. He wants to give more of himself to you, but will you expose more of yourself and give in at a heart-level? In order to put on the yoke of the King you gotta take off the yoke that enslaves, thats why the Bible tells us we must "die daily to self". God wants to take you to another level in your commitment to him but we must have a burning desire to learn from him. It's right there that this burden becomes light because we trust that His way is right and good and produces in us
closing
Here’s what I want you to know: the world wants you to work for everything. They know you’ll come up short, and so they will offer you an easy way to get him. there is no easy way, HE is the way. the world wants you to modify your behavior to show man that you know god.
Here’s what I want you to do: decide that you’re going to come to him from the inside out. That you’re going to seek the mind of god, spending time with him in his word until it seeps into your heart. It’s right there, that you get more of him and more of you gets to enjoy the rest of God. So give in to get more of him.