Radical Commitment

Radical Commitment
Sermon Notes – Ps. Jim White
Sunday 1st November 2009
• We spoke last week about the fact that we are all on a pilgrimage. It’s called the journey of life. But pilgrimage is a good word, because the bible speaks about men and women of faith being strangers and “pilgrims” on the earth (Heb 11:13).

• We have an understanding that life is like a journey through a foreign land – we have this sense that even though we live here – we don’t really belong here – we are merely passing through. Our real home is somewhere else. And if you feel sometimes like things should be different, that not everything is as in place as you would like it to be, that you even have a bit of unsettledness and frustration about where you are at – it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just shows that you are not actually home yet.

• Then we looked at Ps. 84:5 – “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.”

• And we talked about the pilgrimage really being a matter of the heart. The most important part of the journey is what is going on in our heart, and then getting the heart stuff outworking or manifesting in our outward expression of our life.

• But the thing that spoke to me the most out of the whole message last week, was what it says in the Message Bible in Ps. 84: 5-7 - “And how blessed all those in whom You live, whose lives become roads You travel; They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! God-travelled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!”

• Think about that again for a moment. Your life becomes a road that God travels. And that road goes through some lonesome valleys – but it also winds along brooks and cool springs and pools brimming with rain. Remember I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about the sound of an abundance of rain? It’s coming.

• And then it says – God travelled, these roads curve up the mountain – and at the last turn – Zion – God in full view.

• That’s our ultimate destination – the fullness of the presence of God. That’s when we know we have arrived home. Everything up until then is just all part of the journey, or the pilgrimage.

• This morning I want to add another dimension to our thoughts about the pilgrimage. To manoeuvre our way along the road of life, and to successfully find our way to the end – it will take a radical commitment. That’s what I want to talk about this morning – radical commitment.

• And I want to ask you some powerful questions about your own life this morning. I’m not going to tell you the answers – primarily because I don’t know what they are. But apart from that – these questions are for you to know or find out with God.

• Paul and I had a couple of days in Brisbane this week with a group of mainly Apostolic pastors – pastors from the Apostolic movement – and Gary Hourigan was taking us through one of the last stages of training on our journey to becoming accredited coaches.

• Not football coaches or soccer coaches – but Christian life coaches. And one of the fundamental skills of a coach, is the ability to ask powerful questions at the right time. So I have a couple of powerful questions to ask you this morning.

• But first, let’s have a look at what radical commitment is.

• To start with – Rom 12:1-2 is a pretty good description: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

• Let’s break this up a bit: to beseech someone, you are not commanding them to do something, you are pleading with them – basically begging them – because it’s a choice that we make. And the choice is based on the mercies of God. In other words, just have a think about the things that God has done for you. When we really understand His goodness and faithfulness and kindness toward us – why wouldn’t we commit ourselves to Him?

• Where it says, to “present” yourself – it comes from a Greek word which is used for offering up a sacrifice. And then Paul says – this is our reasonable service.

• Would you not say that that concept of commitment is fairly radical? That we are to be living sacrifices to God?

• This is definitely not talking about a partial sacrifice – or of somehow being kind of committed. A sacrifice is all or nothing.

• You have probably heard the story about the chicken and the pig walking along the road together, and as they walk along, they see a sign advertising a breakfast to benefit the poor. The chicken says to the pig, “You and I should donate a ham and egg breakfast.” The pig replied, “Not so fast; for you it would be a contribution, but for me it would be a total commitment.”

• The commitment that God is looking for is complete. And I think that many of us come unstuck in our Christian life because we have made a “decision” to follow Christ, but not actually made a full commitment. A decision is different to a commitment.

• Gary Hourigan said this week that compliance is also very different to commitment. How many of us are compliant to the Christian life, but not fully committed? We like the concepts. We like the fact that God loved us so much that He gave His Son for us – we like the concept of grace and unconditional love – but what about the call on our own lives to commitment?

• Why do we make it so hard on ourselves because of our wishy washy, double-minded approach to life and godliness? I believe God wants to raise up such a standard in our life and pour out His blessings in immeasurable ways – if only we would be committed.

• John Maxwell says this in one of his leadership books: “Until I am committed, there is a hesitancy, a chance to draw back. But the moment I definitely commit myself, then God moves also, and a whole stream of events erupt. All manner of unforseen incidents, meetings, persons and material assistance which come my way begin to flow toward me – the moment I make a commitment.”

• Think about Ruth and Naomi for a moment. In Ruth chapter 1, after losing her husband and her two sons, Naomi releases and blesses her two daughters-in-law to go back to their own people. It says that one of the women kissed Naomi, and left. But the other, Ruth, actually clung to her.
And she said some of the most beautiful words that were recorded in the bible. She said to Naomi, (v 16,17), “ Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me.”
• This is the heart of commitment. This is the heart of what pilgrimage is all about. Ruth loved Naomi. She was committed in relationship to her – but not only to her – but also to her way of life – her culture – her God – her family... She was willing to sacrifice everything of herself to follow after Naomi – closing every door – inevitably cutting off all her opportunities to return to her old familiar life and ways.

• And what happened in Ruth’s life after she took that step of commitment was absolutely amazing. God stepped in and blessed her life beyond either Ruth or Naomi’s expectations.

• I have another story to share to help us understand what true commitment is. Firstly though, do you remember our friend Sir Earnest Shackleton? He’s the explorer to the Antarctic who put an ad in a London newspaper seeking new crew members. The ad said, “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages; bitter cold; long months of complete darkness; constant danger; safe return doubtful; honour and recognition in case of success.” And hundreds of men immediately answered the call.

• Well there must be something about these explorers. There’s another fellow by the name of Hernando Cortez, a Spanish explorer, who landed on the coast of Mexico in 1519. (By the way Patrick, if you ever need a history teacher in your class – I’m the man. I’m starting to get a handle on this stuff.)

• Anyway... the Spaniards had tried to settle on Mexican soil before, without success. But this time, Cortez, with his 600 men, over the next two years, defeated the Aztec warriors which vastly outnumbered his own men, and they eventually conquered all of Mexico.

• Why did they have so much success? They were committed!!! Do you know why I know they were committed? Cortez knew the men faced incredible odds. He also knew that they could be tempted to abandon their quest and return to Spain. So, when the 600 men offloaded everything from the ships they were on, he ordered that the entire fleet of eleven ships be destroyed. The men stood on the shore as their only possibility of returning to Spain, burned and sank. Nothing lay behind them but an empty ocean.

• When the prophet Elijah called his successor Elisha, in 1Kings 19:19-21, it was a similar story.

• “...he... found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. 20 And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?”
21 So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.”

• What a powerful call that must have been, for Elisha to slaughter his animals in the field, and burn the equipment to cook the meat. That was his livelihood – his life. And he laid it all down for the sake of the call. There was no turning back, no changing his mind. That is radical commitment.

• I want to ask you this morning, is there anything in your life that you are holding on to, that is a way of escape – a road back to old familiar ways – a hindrance to you fully and wholeheartedly following after the call that Jesus Christ has placed on your life?

• Is there anything in your life that represents double-mindedness?

• James said (James 1:6-8) – “...he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

• Is there any area of unbelief or doubt, that would be causing your life to be unstable?

• Jesus said in Luke 9:62, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

• What would your life look like if you wholeheartedly followed after what you believe is the call of God on your life? What changes would you need to make? What things would you need to let go of? Sacrifice?

• Remember, we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices...

• The other way of asking the same question is this: What will happen if you don’t enter fully into the call of God on your life? What will happen if you don’t let go of those old familiar areas of security and familiarity? Who will it affect?

• It’s not only the call of God we need to consider. What about our commitment to our family? Our commitment to one another? Our commitment to giving? Our commitment to the life of the church? Our commitment to holiness?

• The grace of God towards us may be free, but it’s not cheap. Jesus said in Luke 14:27,28 – “27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it...”

• Have you really counted the cost of commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ – or have you just made a decision to follow Him?

• Peter was one of Jesus’ most radically committed disciples. When many of the other disciples were finding it increasingly difficult to keep following Jesus, because His teachings were difficult to understand, in John 6:66-68, it says, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” 68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

• And yet this is the same Peter who later rebuked Jesus for saying that He would be killed and three days later be raised from the dead. And the same Peter who denied Jesus three times when he was captured by the Roman soldiers.

• And do you know where we next see Peter? Back on the fishing boat – back in the old familiar place of the past.

• But even in all of that, Jesus comes again with a call to commitment. It’s all part of Peter’s pilgrimage. Remember? The pilgrimage is first of all of the heart.

• And Jesus asks Peter three times if he loved Him – to bring healing and restoration to their relationship for the three times Peter had denied Jesus. But it was again, a call to commitment. A commitment of love.

• This morning is not about condemnation because you have fallen short. I believe it is a fresh invitation from Jesus to come and follow Him wholeheartedly again. He is saying do you love Me? Then feed My lambs. Do you love Me? Then tend My sheep. Do you love Me? Then feed My sheep.

• To love Jesus is to follow after the call. Love demonstrates its response.

• Jesus demonstrated the biggest commitment of all when He started the journey toward the cross. He did it because He loved us. commitment is not duty, not something you “should” do, not compliance, and it’s more than a decision. It’s a response from the heart – and it’s part of the pilgrimage of life.

• I believe Jesus is saying to us this morning – “Do you really want to see?” “Do you really want to discover the things that go beyond what you see with the natural eye?” Three of the most committed disciples, Peter, James and John, had their eyes opened to the supernatural when Jesus allowed them to come up to the Mount of Transfiguration.

• There are special things that God wants to reveal to those who are truly committed to Him – those that truly love Him with all their heart and are willing to follow the call of God upon their lives without hesitancy.

• 1Cor 2:9 – “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”