Commitment

Commitment

by Pastor Walt Scott, Let Go and Soar Ministries

August 3, 2014

Do we believe that God made a commitment to us at the time He created Adam and Eve? Yes, I believe He did. Whether we believe He created us in His image for fellowship and relationship, or because He just wanted us to share in this world He created, or something else. He made a commitment to us to prosper us and not to harm us and that commitment follows from creation through all the covenants right up through the New Covenant. Because Jesus Christ brought the New Covenant of grace and truth we can truly realize God's commitment to us. He gave His only son on the cross to give every one of us the opportunity through the forgiveness of all sin, by the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ just so we could all have relationship with Him and the opportunity of eternal life. God is love, and this is the proof of His love and His commitment to us.

Psalm 37:5-6

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come! 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.

What is commitment? I think the best definition, for our purposes, is to call it something pledged or a state of being obligated now or at some point in the future. Are we now, today, a people who take commitment seriously and consider this duty an honorable act? In other words, do we hold ourselves responsible and accountable for excellence in performance of our commitments? I believe many of us do honor our commitments, although I believe many more of us do not. And I think that the Christian world doesn't differ that much from the secular. If this was not true, then we wouldn't have the level of division in the Body of Jesus Christ that we have today. In secular society we have many names for division; lower, middle, upper class; the “less fortunate”; the “privileged”; black, white, brown, red, etc. We could go on and on. In Christian society we call it denominations. Each seems to think its interpretation of the Gospel is the only path to understanding and salvation. What did Jesus have to say about that?

John 14:6-7

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.”

Ephesians 4:11-13

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

So it seems there is only one true path for us to walk. That is the one path that follows Jesus Christ. He is our example. When we fully surrender our lives to Him we are committing ourselves to following His teachings and His example. How does that look?

Matthew 16:24

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23 (reference only)

We all have to believe the Word (Jesus Christ), accept Him into our minds and hearts and receive Him into our soul.

John 1:14

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

We need to make this commitment, and it has to be real. In order to have His authority and achieve our best level of excellence, we have to exist in the reality that Jesus Christ intended for us. What promise does Jesus Christ give us in relation to this?

John 14:12-14

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

There are many different parts in the body and each of us occupies a space and is expected (by Jesus as the Head) to perform to the very best of our ability in that position. We are to be satisfied with our position, and understand that the optimum performance of the body relies on each part equally. God loves us all equally.

1 Corinthians 12:24-27

But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

A cooperative genuine loving effort is what is expected of us. We should never envy someone else or strive to be like someone else. We are all individuals and our gifts are ours alone and we can all achieve excellence in our gifting if we can just follow our Lord Jesus Christ as the only example. Let the Holy Spirit be our guide and counselor.

Ephesians 2:8-10

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift from God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Fruits of the Spirit: Galatians 5:22-26

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

The covenant of grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Through accepting and receiving Jesus Christ we receive God's grace and will one day stand before him, as righteous and free from all sin, self condemnation, guilt, shame and fear. All we need to do is make that commitment to Jesus Christ. By doing this we obey His most important command. Jesus Christ reduced all 600+ Jewish laws down to just two.

Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The commitment we make to our Lord Jesus Christ, Father God and the Holy Spirit is the most important one we make in this life, although it is not the only one. All other commitments we make from the covenant commitment of marriage to the smallest offer of assistance are all equally important, and reflect our true Christian nature. We should always pray, study the Word, and ask for the Holy Spirit's guidance before pledging or obligating ourselves to anything or anybody. All of this so that being forgiven and with a clear conscience we can perform all the tasks involved in carrying out our part of the Great Commission.

Matthew 28:18-20

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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.”

Sounds easy to some and difficult to others. To a committed Christian it is an easy decision. Make a free will choice and commitment for Triune God. We become righteous through grace that we receive by faith in Jesus Christ.

Psalm 85:10

Love and faithfulness meet together;

righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Romans 3:22

This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile

Love and Peace, Amen.