Camp Elim - August 31, 2008

DATE: Sunday, August 31, 2008

SPEAKER: Michael Fedunec

WORSHIP SERVICE: Camp Elim

TITLE: Faithfully Committed

TEXT: Psalm 37:5

INTRODUCTION

As I thought about this weekends service, I was drawn to the book of Psalms.
“ Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make you’re your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.” Psalms 37:5-
In this day and age there is a word in the English language that seems to have lost its definition and meaning to most people. We know the word, we read the word, we understand the meaning of the word, however we often fail to live this word.
We place our hopes, desires, and expectations on this word.
We have others to believe in this word and they too place their hopes, desires, and expectations on us because we use this word.
However we often damage, hurt love ones and destroy lives because we fail to fulfill the definition of this word.
What is this word? It is a word that means: an agreement or pledge to do something in the future or to continue something until completion.
This word indicates something pledged. It is a word that alludes to the state or an instance of being obligated to a cause, task or purpose.
This word is “Commitment”.
We prefer to think of commitment as something that doesn’t require any sacrifice
No sacrifice really’ means no commitment, and in a world where there’s always something bigger, brighter and newer around the next corner, most people find it less and less beneficial to commit.
To make things harder we often perceive some things to be better to or for us than they actually might be ’and so we are, confused as to what to commit to.
Nowadays it’s a big deal to make an honest commitment because we don’t like being obligated.
Commitment is at the very heart of what it is to be a real man or a real woman. Commitment is to agree or pledge to do something in the future or to continue something until completion, see something through, regardless of the cost - not halfway -but all the way through.
Life is full of necessary and required commitments.
It is virtually impossible to live life and not commit to something.
Throughout this life we live, we commit to:
Jobs, Banks, Creditors, Relationships, Marriages, Dreams, Our Pastor, Our Church, and Jesus Christ.
But all too often we fail to live up to our commitments.
So what if we break a commitment?
We’ve all done it and sometimes we have even felt bad about it.
We’ve all made wrong turns and bad decisions in making commitments.
I mean, it looked and sounded good when we heard it.
We truly thought that this was what we wanted or the right thing at that time and place and we felt that we could truly do and was willing to do what was required.
However, when things got uncomfortable or the way got hard, or things didn’t go as we thought they would, we began to have second thoughts about what we had committed ourselves to doing,
And thus began the breaching of our committed contract.--Our given word.
At that time we began to search for reasons to justify why we should not be obligated to honor or hold to the commitment we made.
As Christians we at that time fail to follow the example of Jesus Christ, who was the best example of true commitment

- a real man who gave up everything for love till the end.
A man who committed his life from the beginning so that we would not be bound to eternal damnation.
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

What if Jesus would have reneged or breached on his word, on his commitment to mankind?
Throughout this life you will find that there are different levels or types of Commitments that you will make and encounter from others.

THREE LEVELS OF COMMITMENT

1. Carnal Commitment:

To commit to the work of God without spiritual understanding to bring about a personal desire without relaying or waiting on God to make it happen.
Let me illustrate this by using this glass of water and an egg.

Glass represents our bodies
Water represents the Holy Spirit
Egg represents our hearts

Even though we have the Holy Spirit around us we do not respond any differently than the world.

33 But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”

34 Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

35 Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”

“Nothing,” they answered.

36 He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. 37 It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’b and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”

38 The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.”

“That is enough,” he replied. Luke 22:33-37

Here is Peter displaying Carnal Commitment
Peter was committed to Jesus in the establishment of an earthly kingdom.
That was what he wanted, and he was willing to follow Jesus to the end-even to the point of dying in combat against the Romans to have this earthly kingdom,
However, when he saw Jesus arrested and tried and seemed to be powerless, Peter’s personal ambition was crushed.
Therefore, his giving in to temptation to strike out and cut off the ear of a solider was a natural worldly reaction.
The way the world would do things to achieve what they wanted.
Peter resorted to his might and his ability to bring forth the kingdom.
Peter’s commitment was true, but carnal because his purpose and motive for committing himself was wrong.
Have you ever committed to a purpose or cause or a situation, with the wrong motives in your heart?
Have you ever committed because you thought that it would bring about the things you wanted, but when things got heated and the situations were not handled the way you thought that they should be handled, instead of trusting and leaving it to God you took matters into your own hands, only to make a mess of the whole situation?

6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty Zechariah 4:6

A carnal commitment purposes and desires to have earthly and material things.

A spiritual commitment purposes and desires to have spiritual and heavenly things.
“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this” Psalm 37:5

2. Half-hearted Commitment.

57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”

But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.”

62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:57-62

In this section we see three applicants who want to become disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus gives them a test of what is required to become a committed follower, a disciple of Christ.

The first applicant is a young man.

57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Luke 9:57-58

Jesus answer to the young man revealed that when you are committed to following Jesus you will at times encounter hardships.
You will not always have the riches and comforts of the world.
At times you will even be opposed for no reason, by those whom you least expect.
At times you will feel like a wonder of the world without a place to lay your head.
This applicant had made a decision to follow Jesus, but he wanted to first bury his father.
The boy is saying that he would have to take care of his father until he died.
After his father was gone, he would be free to follow Jesus. The boy sounds like some of today’s Committed Christians.
You know:
Lord I’ll follow you; I’ll come to Church but only on Sunday morning, if weather permits.
Lord I’ll follow you, I’ll come to Church every time the doors open, but don’t expect me to teach a class or sing in the choir, don’t expect me to pray aloud or sit next to Sister so and so, and don’t expect me to sit through that long sermon without taking me a smoke brake.
Lord I’ll follow you, as long as it doesn’t cost me anything and I don’t have to give anything up.
I’ll follow you Lord until the day I die.

And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God [Luke 9:61–62].

This third applicant wanted to take a leave of absents to tell loved ones good-bye.
He wanted to be a disciple, he wanted to commit to being a follower of Jesus Christ, but he did not want to make any sacrifice.
No sacrifice really’ means no commitment.
The apostle Paul wrote,
13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phil. 3:13–14).

There are many halfway and halfhearted committed follower of Jesus Christ in the Church today.
Lets illustrate this with a second glass with egg suspended in the middle of the glass

Glass represents our bodies
Water represents the Holy Spirit
Egg represents our hearts

They don’t participate in any of the church activities; they don’t support the church functions. They don’t give freely their time or finances to assist the church in any way.
Many only do and give the bear minimum.
Yes they are for the furtherance of the Church and the Kingdom of God, but only when it benefits them directly.
I pray for the halfhearted committed for the bible says in Matt. 7:21-23 that Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

3. Faithfully Committed.

Paul gives and shows an example of one being Faithfully committed no matter the cost.
Paul traveled the known world at his time, preaching and teaching the Gospel.
Paul was talked about, stoned, chased out of town, beaten again and again, and placed in prison,
Yet he preached the Gospel. Paul fought the raging battle within himself and all created men, between the spirit man and the natural man.
Paul stated:

21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:21-24

7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Why and how did Paul yet preach?
Paul explains in 1 Tim. 1:12-16,

12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. 13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. 14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life

1 Timothy 1:12-16

Paul was faithfully committed to God, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit and The Church.
Lets illustrate this with a third glass and egg. Egg floating on top of the water
Regardless of your past or present sins, God does forgive.
There is no sin greater than another.
There is no sin in which Christ cannot or will not forgive.
We all were at one time Chief sinners or at least we felt that we were at one time or another in our lives.
It is a true saying, in which all may put their faith, that Christ Jesus came into the world to give salvation to sinners.
What I’m trying to say is that one can not be Carnally, Halfheartedly and Faithfully Committed to Christ, at one time or maybe even at present,
You may have been only Carnally Committed, serving Christ for personal gain and not understanding the spiritual aspect of being Committed to Christ.
At one time in your life or maybe even at present you may have been only Half-heartedly Commitment to serving Christ based on your conditions.
But now is the time to become Faithfully Committed to God, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit and The Church.
Now is the time to become Faithfully Committed to building the kingdom of God and doing the work of the Lord.
Do understand that though our lives may be riddled with failures and shortcomings, Paul assures the Christian in Romans 3:23-26 that all have done wrong and are far from the glory of God;
Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself.
A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.
God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin.
Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured.
This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right.
He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.

Therefore never the less our Christian life may be inconsistent from time to time and for that the Lord forgives as we grow in his grace,
but our commitment to God, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit and The Church must be consistent and faithful in every way and in every aspect.

CONCLUSION
I leave you with the words of Joshua in 24:14-15

14 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, (of being Carnally Committed or Halfheartedly Committed )and serve the Lord (Faithfully Committed). 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” By being Faithfully Committed

Joshua in 24:14-15

WHY SHOULD YOU AND I BE WHOLEHEARTEDLY/FAITHFULLY COMMITTED?

Because they placed a crown of 72 thorns upon his head
They beat and mocked him and lead him from court to court
They nailed him to a cross with outstretched arm in which he received all of my sins of the past present and feature.
Because as he hung on the cross he lifted his eyes unto heaven and said “it is finished” and his head fell upon the lock of his shoulder and my soul was saved from a eternal death.

BAPTISM SERVICE

This morning we are about to witness a baptism.

Baptism has four definite purposes:

it is a TESTIMONY: An outward sign of an inward change
It is a TEST OF OBEDIENCE:Christ commanded that we be baptized Are you carnally committed, halfheartedly committed or faithfully committed. If one refuses to be baptized one may also refuse tougher tests of faith.
It helps IDENTIFY one as part of Christ’s Church
It is a REMINDER of the death, burial and victorious resurrection of Christ

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

b Isaiah 53:12

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