Introduction
Over the last three weeks we have been looking at what it means to have a purpose-driven life - a life lived with clear, God-given aims. We have looked at what it means to be purpose-driven, we have seen the importance of determining what our values are and we have looked at the God-given Shape which each of us have - our shape is a mixture of our spiritual gifts, our heart, our abilities, our personalities and our experiences. Through our sermons we are spelling out an acrostic - where each letter of the word purpose stands for one of our themes - Purpose, Understanding and now this week we are going to look at our Resolve.
Step three in living a purpose-driven life is finding the Resolve to live the rest of my life fulfilling the purpose God made me for.
Commitment
What we’re talking about this morning is commitment. We live in a society that fears commitment. Many people in our society fear commitment, many more people in our own communities seem very fearful and distrustful of commitment. We don't commit to organizations, we don't commit to relationships and often don't commit very hard to friendships. We have, as a culture, become so individualistic that the value of commitment seems rather quaint and old fashioned. People are afraid to make commitments. Because people in our culture are very cynical, very skeptical, we don’t really want to commit ourselves to anything. That’s sad because commitment is the secret of effective living. Without commitment there is no focus. Without commitment there is no persistence. Without commitment there is no achievement. Without commitment there is no success. Commitment is the secret of effective living.
The Biblical basis of this third step are the two verses out of Romans 6 & 12 which Darren read to us: “Throw yourselves whole-heartedly and full-time - remember you've been raised from the dead - into God's ways of doing things. .” And then from Romans 12, “So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for God.”
What we’re talking about here is not some one time commitment where I say, “Ok, I give my life to Christ.” This is a moment by moment, daily decision, that you’ll be making every day for the rest of your life, where you get up in the morning and say,
“Ok, God, am I going to live my life today? Or am I going to let You live Your life through me? Am I going to do what I want to do or am I going to do what You want me to do? Am I going to do what I think is best or am I going to do what You planned me for, Your purpose for my life?”
When we think about this what we really want is we say, “God, show me Your plan and purpose for my life and if I like it, I’ll do it.” We want to know it in advance and God says, “No way, Jose! You make the commitment. You say, ‘God, I’ll do whatever You want me to do with my life. I want to fulfill the purpose that You made me for.’” And once you’ve made the commitment, God says, “Now you’re ready for Me to tell you what it is.”
Why does God do it like that? Because God wants to teach you faith. God wants you to learn to trust.
Why Should I Commit My Life to God?
There are three reasons for committing my life totally to God.
1. It’s what I was made for.
2. God knows what’s best for me.
3. It’s the key to satisfaction and success in life.
We’ve looked at all of these before. You think you know what will make you happy. We all do. But God really knows what will make you happy. God knows more than you do. There are whole areas of your life that you don’t even know about. There are areas in your life that you don’t even understand, you’ve never even thought about. God, who created you, wired you up. God knows the good, the bad, and the ugly. God knows every part of you. And God knows what will make you happy more than you do. God made you for a purpose. We’ve talked about this every week. God has a plan and God knows what’s best for you. And on top of that, God’s promised if you follow this plan and purpose, it will produce enormous blessings in your life.
Those are the reasons. The big question, then, comes up, if it’s what I was made to do, and if God knows best, and if it’s going to produce all kinds of blessing in my life, why isn’t everyone giving their lives to God completely? And obviously that’s not happening. Why?
Emotional Barriers to Commitment
The reason is there are four emotional barriers to keep you and to keep me from giving everything we’ve got to God.
1. RESENTMENT TOWARD GOD.
I may be angry with God because things haven’t gone the way I wanted them to. A lot of us think that God is kind of like a vending machine. You put in a prayer and you pull out whatever you want. And God owes you every wish and desire you want. And so many people have prayed and didn’t get what they wanted and they get mad or resentful to God and say, “Forget God! I prayed to win the lottery and it didn’t happen. Or I prayed, `God, make that person fall in love with me.’ And they didn’t. Or, `Make them stay with me.’ And they didn’t. or I prayed, `God, don’t let my friend die.’ And my friend died.” So we start getting angry at God because not every wish we have is fulfilled.
If you don’t get anything else, get this, God is not a genie. A genie has to give you everything you ask for. If God gave you everything you asked for you’d be the most spoiled brat in the universe. You’d have no character. You’d be impossible to live with. You’d be rotten to the core. Because you’d be so indulged. God doesn’t owe you everything you want. You ask for things that you don’t need sometimes and that God knows won’t help you. God is not a genie and you don’t just put in a prayer and rub the little lamp. God is not some genie that will just give you anything that you want.
Don’t get resentful against God. Don’t blame God for what other people do or what you do to yourself. God has given you a free will. I’ve talked to so many people who’ve made one stupid decision after another, bad, bad… then they go bankrupt or they go through a relationship breakup and they get mad at God as if it’s God's fault. God didn’t make those stupid decisions. They did.
If I were to go get drunk right now, go out on the road, run into a car and kill some children, the parents and the family of those children should not be mad at God. They should be mad at me. God didn’t do that. I did.
You might say, God could have stopped that evil. Yes, God could. And it would be very easy for God to get rid of all the evil in the world – take away your choice to do it. But to be fair, God would have to take away everybody’s choice. God has given you a free will. That’s how you’re made in God's own image. That means you can choose to do good, you can choose to do bad. You often choose to do bad. And so do I. And innocent people get hurt. God could have made us all puppets. They’d be all good in the world, no evil. And no choice. So your freedom to choose is not only your greatest benefit, it’s also your greatest curse. Don’t be resentful for all the evil in the world because God has given you the freedom to choose.
2. DISTRACTIONS IN OUR CULTURE
Distractions in our culture keep us from fully committing our lives to God. We get busy. We get caught up in the world’s value system. We talked about this two weeks ago – the world’s value system of possessions, pleasure and prestige. We spend all our time trying to acquire those three things and as a result we miss God’s purpose. You cannot discover and fulfill God’s purpose for your life if you are, at the same time, pursuing values of our culture. There’s nothing wrong with possessions. They’re nothing wrong with pleasure and there’s nothing wrong with having people look up to you. But if the ultimate goal of your life, if that’s what your whole life is built around getting more of those three things, you will miss the reason God put you on the earth.
In Mark 4, Jesus gives us a list of some of the distractions that keep us from committing ourselves completely to Him. He says “The attractions of this world and the delights of wealth, and the search for success and lure of nice things come in and crowd out God.” Jesus also said “Nobody can serve two masters. You’ll either hate the one or love the other. You cannot serve God and money.” The point is very clear. You cannot make these the goal of your life and make God the goal of your life, at the same time. You have to choose one or the other.
Solomon said in Ecclesiastes “A fool thinks only about having a good time.” There’s nothing wrong with having a good time. God wants you to have a good time. In fact, God created you with the ability to have a good time. In Timothy it says, “God created everything in the world for our enjoyment.” But even enjoyment is not the ultimate goal of life And if you make that your number one goal – “My goal in life is to be happy!” – you’re never going to be happy. It’s like a butterfly that’s illusive. You’re always trying to grasp it and it’s always just out of your reach.
Distractions will keep you from fully committing your life to God’s plan for your life.
3. A DESIRE FOR INDEPENDENCE.
We glamorize independence. We idealize it. And we idealize songs and turn them into hits. Any song that talks about personal independence – “I don’t care what you say. This is my life”, “Don’t fence me in”, “I’ve got to be me,” or that great theological classic “I did it my way.”
Can you imagine getting to heaven and God goes, “Did you fulfill My purpose for your life?” No, I did it my way! And God goes, “Huh? Let Me get this straight. I, God, the creator of the universe put you on the earth for a reason, for a purpose. I had a plan for your life and you didn’t think it was good enough so instead of doing My purpose for your life, you did it your way? What were you thinking?” When you come to God and say, “God, I did it my way.” God’s going to go, “What were you thinking that you thought My plan and My purpose – the one who made you and put you on this earth for a reason wasn’t good enough and said, ‘I don’t think I’ll do it God’s way. I think I’ll do it my way.’” That’s a major mistake, folks! It’s a waste of your life to go through your life ignoring what God made you for.
This personal independence, honestly, is not all that it’s cracked up to be. Europeans are some of the most independent people in the world, We’re also some of the loneliest people in the world according to studies. We weren’t made to be independent of each other. We were made to be interdependent. Not dependent but inter-dependent. Which means we help each other out. That’s what the church is supposed to be, that’s what the family is supposed to be – interdependent, where we help each other out. God never meant for you to be totally independent, on your own. It leads to a lot of loneliness.
There are two tragedies in life. One of them is to over commit to too many things and that’s where a lot of people are. They’re half committed to two dozen things that aren’t important.
The other is to never commit to anything of significance. What we need is figure out the one or two things that really matter in life and get on with that, head on, and invest our lives in the things that matter. And not worry about independence.
You see, independence really in many forms is simply ego. It’s pride. It’s saying, “I don’t want to admit that I need anybody, even God, to help me out. I can figure this out on my own. I don’t want any help.”
There’s a fourth barrier that keeps me from giving 100% of my life to God.
4. FEAR OF COMMITMENT.
This is the most common barrier and our whole nation is consumed with this fear of commitment. Many kinds. Often we don’t want to give our lives to Jesus because there’s the fear I might lose my freedom, there’s the fear I might lose all my fun, there’s the fear I might lose my friends – what if they start thinking I’m a nut, some religious fanatic, some kook, a fundamentalist of some kind that doesn’t think rationally any more. We have all these fears. What if I make a commitment to God and I’m not able to keep it? What if I stumble and fall?
It’s not “if”. You will. You will stumble and fall. You’re going to make mistakes. Committing your life totally to God doesn’t mean you’re going to be perfect the rest of your life. You won’t. That’s not it at all. But God will help you. God will help you with your decisions. The fear of the cost, what God might ask me to do is what acts as a barrier.
But the greatest fear of all that keeps us from really giving 100% of our lives to God – and you could be a Christian and still haven’t done this – the greatest fear is the fear of losing control. If I give my life totally to God I will lose control of my life.
I’ll let you in on a little surprise – you’re not in control right now! That’s why you have a thing called… PROBLEMS! Problems are things you can’t control. If they were, they wouldn’t be a problem. Part of emotional maturity is when you grow up and realize most of your life is beyond your control. You can’t control your control your partner, you can’t control the economy, you can't control your friends. Most of things are beyond your control. No matter how many self-help books you read that say “I am the master of my fate”, you’re not. There are things you can control but most of your life you can’t. That’s why you have problems and that’s why you get stressed out.
But there is somebody who can control them – God. So why don’t you let the one who can control them do it? It’s a myth that you think you’re in control of your life. You’re not.
Lack of Understanding
There is a common source of all these fears I’ve just talked about. We don’t understand God. We don’t really understand how much God loves you. If we did, we wouldn’t be afraid of God. The Bible says “There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out all fear.” (Neil has written a wonderful song looking at this verse)
The fact is, all these barriers are just excuses. Ecclesiastes says “If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything done.” Some of you have been saying, “One of these days I’m really going to get serious about God. One of these days I’m really going to sell out, be totally committed, give Him every area of my life – my hobbies, my friendships, my relationships, my past, my present, my future, my sexual drive, my finances, all my dreams, ambitions and desires. And I’m going to say, `God, what do You want me to do with my life?’ one of these days.” You’re kidding yourself. You’re waiting for perfect conditions and it’s not going to happen.
Have you noticed a common thing in these verses about the barriers. It says, “People’s own foolishness ruin their lives…. A fool thinks only about having a good time… Self sufficient fools fall flat on their face.” Are you picking up any theme here?
Here’s the point: It’s really stupid, to not live God’s purpose for your life. If you’re not living God’s purpose, you’re not living. You’re just existing. It’s silly.
God says to you in Proverbs 9:6 “Leave behind your foolishness and begin to live.”
God made me for a purpose. God knows what’s best for my life and following that purpose is the key to satisfaction and significance and success in life. So I’m ready, today, to give every area of my life even the shameful parts, to God.
How do you do that? You do two things:
Giving ourselves totally
1. Compare the cost with the benefits. Jesus is very up front about the costs of following Him. He says you ought to check it out. In every commitment you make there is always a cost and there are benefits of that commitment. The question is always, is the cost equal to or are the benefits greater than what the cost is? Are the benefits worth what it costs?
Imagine that your mind is like a ledger. As we close, I want to put on one side of that ledger what exactly it costs to follow Christ 100%. And to follow God’s plan for your life. I’m going to be very honest with you and tell you what those costs are. Then on the other side of that ledger in your mind I want you to put what are the costs of not following God’s plan for my life. Then you can make the decision, balance the books, look at the ledger. Because Jesus says there “Don’t begin until you count the cost.” And He’s talking about following Him. So what does it cost to follow God’s purpose? It costs three things:
1) If I’m going to follow God’s purpose for my life 100%, I give up my right to do whatever I want with my life. Really it’s a misnomer to say “my right” because where do you think you got that right in the first place? You got it from God. You wouldn’t even be alive without God. So the very fact that you have a life to do something with means it came from God in the first place. So it’s not really a right; it’s a privilege God gave you. But I give up my right to do whatever I want to with my life and then I start saying, “God, what do You want me to do with my life? How do You want me to live it?” And I stop looking at my dreams, my ambitions, my goals and first stop and say, “What did You put me here on earth for?” And I give up my right to do what I want to do with it. I become whatever God wants me to become.
2) I give up control of my resources, if I’m going to follow God completely. Again, they aren’t really your resources in the first place. They’re just on loan to you – your time, your money, your energy, your talent. Where do you think you got those? God gave them to you. You get to use them for 60, 70, 80 years and then you die and pass them on to somebody else. They’re not yours. They were here before you and they’re going to be here after you. But when you begin to follow God’s purpose for your life you begin to say things like, “God, what do You want me to do with my time? What do You want me to do with my money? It’s Your money, it’s Your time. What do You want me to do with my talents?” Instead of “I think I’ll spend my money this way, I think I’ll spend my time this way…” You start saying, "God what did You put me on earth here for?” And I give up control of my resources.
3) I give up pursuing the world’s values. The world’s values are make a lot of money, get a lot of prestige, have a lot of fun. That’s not saying I’m not going to have those in life. That’s saying that’s not my ultimate goal. If you’re going to follow God’s plan for your life you’re going to do an about face and do an exact opposite of what all your neighbors are doing, what all the culture is doing. Which is live for possessions, pleasure and position. You say, I’m going to make a counter cultural move and I’m going to do what God wants me to do not what other people think I ought to do.
That’s the cost. And it’s a heavy cost.
What’s the cost of not following God? What’s the cost of not getting His plan for my life? Again, there are three costs. If I don't follow God’s purpose for my life:
1) I lose the ultimate meaning of my life. In other words, I’m just going to drift through life. I don't have any overarching purpose. In other words, I’ll set a goal thinking it will be fulfilling then I’ll reach the goal and three months later it’s, “Ok, been there, done that, now what?” You set another goal… and you go through life hoping for a few thrills here and a few cheers there and a few things to make you happy here. No overarching purpose and certainly no real eternal significance to your life. You lose the ultimate meaning and value of your life by not fulfilling your purpose.
2) I lose the joy of expressing my God-given shape. And there’s no greater joy than being used by God. I lose the joy of expressing what God made me to be because I spend most of my life trying to be what other people think I ought to be. Or trying to mold myself into what I think I ought to be. Instead of being what God made me to be. I lose that joy.
There’s one other thing you lose.
3) I lose eternal life in heaven and eternal rewards. Why? Because committing to God is about accepting eternal life. To life apart from God is about rejecting eternal life.
The point is this: There is a price no matter which one you choose. George Bernard Shaw said : “This is the true joy in life: to be used for a purpose, recognized by your self as a mighty one, being a force of nature, rather than a selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I’m of the opinion that life belongs to the whole community. My life. And as I live it my privilege is to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work, the more I love. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is sort of a splendid torch for which I have a hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
That is a purpose driven life.
The other step you need to take is this:
2. Trust God to help me keep my commitment. You say, “What if God asks me to do something difficult if I give my life totally?” God will give you the power to do it. God will never ask you to do more than God will give you the power to do.
Psalm 37:5 “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust God to help you do it, and God will.”
What if I make a commitment and I can’t keep the commitment? It’s not your job to keep it. I’ve done a lot of flying in the last few years. I have noticed that when a 747 or another jet starts to take off the runway there is a point of no return, a speed threshold at which the pilot is powering up and at that moment the plane either has to take off into the air or face a certain crash on the ground because it’s going to fast to stop. It’s either got to go for it in the air or it’s going to destroy itself because it didn’t take off.
As your pastor, I’ve looked out on you week after week and some of you have been sitting on the runway for years. Oh, you may have been revving your engine but you’ve never taken flight. My question to you is, What is it that’s holding you back from full on, 100% commitment to God and God's purpose for your life? Has there ever come a point in your life where you made a complete, whole hearted, unreserved, without hesitation commitment to your creator and to Jesus, and said, “God, I’m going to live my life the way You want me to live it.” Has that ever happened? If not, you’re missing it.
The real issue is do you want to be a casual Christian the rest of your life? We cannot be sort of committed to Jesus Christ. C. S. Lewis once said, “The only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important.” If it’s the truth it deserves all you’ve got.
Response
When you came into day you found a commitment card on your seat. If you’re ready today to make this full commitment to God, take this commitment card home and put it on your bathroom mirror or the dashboard of your car, put it on your refrigerator or wherever you’re going to see it on a daily basis. It’s not a commitment to me or this church. It’s a commitment to God. It says this.
“Realizing that God planned me before my birth, that God uniquely SHAPEd me for a purpose, I now resolve to live the rest of my life seeking to know and fulfill the life mission God made me for and to rely on God's power to accomplish it. This means that I commit to knowing, loving and trusting Jesus today, growing in Jesus by joining His church and learning His word, serving Jesus with the abilities He’s given me, and sharing Jesus with those who don’t know Him yet.”
We call that Membership, Maturity, Ministry and Missions.
“As best as I know how I commit my heart, my mind and my will to be used by God anywhere, any way, and at any time. We are God’s own work created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do.”
If you’re ready to take this step, sign it and date it when you get home.
Why should I do this? There’s something real about putting your name on the dotted line. You’re not doing this for me. Take this home. There’s something real about signing.
Will you pray with me?
Prayer:
Lord,
thank You that when we come to You and give you all of our lives
even the heartaches and the hurts and things we’re ashamed of,
You take it and forgive us.
You work in our lives and do something new and then You use us.
Thank You, Lord, that You can use us in spite of what we’ve done,
in spite of who we are,
thank you that You can make the rest of our lives the best of our lives.
Please do that in our case.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.