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Commitment Piece by Piece
A sermon by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Friends, commitment is crucial to who we are and what we’re
about individually and as a church, no matter our goals, however lofty our
visions, however emotional and motivational our expectations without commitment
it all comes to naught. Why is it that two enroll, one graduates, the other one
does not? Likely it all has to do with commitment. Why is it that marriage
started with such enthusiasm at an altar sometimes doesn’t make it? Ordinarily
it is because one of the two didn’t follow through on commitment. What about
following the Lord, why is it that so many who begin well and so much enthusiasm
of the following the Lord Jesus and yet they drop out? Why is it? Chances are
it doesn’t have to do with knowledge; it might but not likely has to do with
commitment. To his friends at Colossi Paul was writing to brand new
Christians. They had no background. Most of them were Gentiles. They got
involved in all kinds of doctrinal stuff and Paul tries to straighten them out
but the truth is most of that letter has to do with commitment. And I can
almost see the Apostle, he’s been jailed in Rome and in that jail, by the way
they let the prisoners in, it used to be an old cistern, they let the prisoners
in by letting them down by a rope. And then they put on the top a grate so they
couldn’t get out. A miserable place and yet some of the most positive things
Paul ever wrote are in the letters he wrote from that place. Amazing. And when
he wants to talk to his Colossian friends about commitment I can almost see him
scratching his bald head, it is said he was bald, that’s some comfort to some of
us, and saying how can I tell them about commitment? And what he does he likens
commitment in life, commitment to the Christian faith and to the Lord Christ
with taking off and putting on clothes.
Turn in your Bible Colossians the third chapter, Colossians
3. If you have a pew Bible it’s page 1834. In verse 8 I begin reading, “But
now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice,
slander, filthy language on your lips, do not lie to each other since you’ve
taken off your old self.” In verse 10 it says, “You have put on the new self
which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of the Creator.” And here
there’s no nationality, no language difference, “not Jew, Greek, circumcised,
uncircumcised, barbarians, Scythian, slave or free but Christ is all and in
all. Therefore as God’s chosen people clothe yourselves with compassion.” I
tell you what let’s do, I’m going to name one of them, there are nine of them,
you name it after I name it, ok? Compassion (compassion), kindness (kindness),
humility (humility), gentleness (gentleness), patience (patience), forgiveness
(forgiveness), verse 14 love (love), verse 15 peace (peace) and finally
thankfulness (thankfulness). Wow. Now friends how is it the Holy Spirit comes
in and changes us to this kind, is there anybody here who’s got a PhD in any one
of them? Now I can tell you lots about them but to live them out in commitment,
that’s something else again. How is it that the Holy Spirit comes and begins to
transform us little bit by little bit?
I was helped by an experience shared by the late Arthur
Gordon who editor of Guide Post for many, many years. He was in Egypt
and he visited what is called the Valley of the Kings. And far underground in
the burial place of one of the pharaohs he was absolutely awed by the fact that
the ceiling of that place was midnight blue and after 3,000 years was clearly,
distinctly blue. And the constellations were on the blue as if a night sky, each
one of them etched in gold after all of those centuries still there and they
were able to see that wonder because of the electric lights that had been taken
in there. And so he and others said how did the artists do it 3,000 years ago?
Turn off the lights in this place it is so dark we can’t see the fingers in
front of our face. How did they do it with torches? The guide said no, let me
tell you how they did it. The south entrance faces where the sun will be midday
and that sun will come in the south entrance and then they used finely polished
metal mirrors. And as the sun came in reflecting off of one mirror down the
walkway to a corner and that mirror turning the light another direction and down
that walkway. And so it was that the light from above striking all of those
many mirrors finally wound up in the room that they were and then beamed it up
to the ceiling where the constellations were so vividly portrayed. What a
parable of our lives. Of our lives with the Lord from above the Son, S-o-n
comes through the power of the Holy Spirit. Remember the Holy Spirit is Jesus
without a body, same Spirit indwelt Christ as is indwelling us now. And the
Holy Spirit takes the Son and through all of the experiences, walkways, corners
of our lives begins to show it on the ceiling where the constellations of our
lives begin to make sense.
Dear friend, as you look at the clothing of your own life
what is it maybe that the Lord is trying to focus the light on right now? Now
friends unless you know something I don’t know when you dressed for church this
morning you did it one garment at a time. You see commitment breaks down into
little pieces. To talk about commitment generally is easy. To talk about
commitment specifically, that’s where it pinches. Commitment broken down into
little pieces is what Paul did except he likened it to clothing. Little pieces
like students, commitment means going to class and doing assignments and
studying for tests and taking tests. Little pieces, commitment is little
pieces. Or football players who do battle on the gridiron Friday nights,
Saturday afternoons. They may do it before hundreds and universities thousands
of people but nobody sees the little pieces that go into that gridiron event.
Nobody sees, you see, the incredible work that’s gone in to running those plays
time and time and time again and the conditioning and the getting well and the
studying the movie from last game and studying the movie of the opponent this
week. All of those little pieces are what makes the difference on Friday night
or Saturday afternoon. And behind me this marvelous, marvelous choir. How
often we are lifted up by what they sing but nobody sees what’s behind it all.
The little pieces of having to learn how to read music, of how to sing a part,
of how to follow a director. The little pieces of knowing what this annotation
means or that annotation mean and then when on Sunday we hear them we say wow.
But you see it’s made possible by commitment to the little pieces. If you were
a clothier, a tailor and you were going to prescribe clothing for the Lord’s
disciples what would you prescribe? White robes like we picture angels? Blue
robes like our choir has? It is said in the scripture that John the Baptist
wore clothing of camel’s hair. What would you come up with? The Apostle Paul
says: don’t worry about the clothing for the body, worry about the clothing for
the soul. And then he goes and he begins to list them.
I’d like to read the translation that is given to us in
The Message by Peterson: “So chosen by God for this new life of love, dress
in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet
strength, discipline, be even tempered” oh that’s patience. I wish he’d left
that one out, right? Anybody mastered that one yet? Ok. “Forgive as quickly
and as completely as the Master forgave you and regardless of what else you put
on wear love. It’s your basic all purpose garment. Never leave home without
it.” Now friends if we look at our own soul attire we need to be aware that it
is the Holy Spirit who is tailoring these clothes for us. And the Holy Spirit
knows your life through and through and He knows what you need. He knows the
stage of your life you’re in. He knows the week that’s ahead. Which one of
these pieces of spiritual clothing would he like for you to walk out with this
morning?
Sam James, one of our own, has written a new book titled
Servant on the Edge of History. It’s about his service as a missionary in
Vietnam both before and after the war. And he and his wife, Rachel and Lewis
and Toni Myers were servants of our Lord as our missionaries during that
critical and tumultuous time. They were and are as are all of our missionaries,
many retired missionaries in our own congregation, they are amazing people. And
I just happen to be so blessed and so are you that we have the great gift of
having them among us. Sam writes about the time that he was sent to a village
about 12 kilometers north of Saigon. He was to start a seminary there to train
pastors. New Year’s Eve came and he and his family played games on up past
midnight. Some of those games given as Christmas presents, went to bed. About
5 in the morning he became uneasy and he got up. As he observed the back door
open he looked around and virtually everything they had had been stolen. Not
only had he been robbed and cleaned out it’s always a feeling of intrusion. Two
weeks later seminary students wakened him in the morning to say that the
seminary had been broken into and just about everything in it had been taken
including some new office equipment. He said to himself with a sense of
bitterness I have traveled 12,000 miles from home to Vietnam, help people
minister to them and what do I get for it? They steal me blind. He went to the
police about these robberies.
A couple of days later a policeman young, frightened came
to see him and said don’t probe. Please leave it alone or something bad will
happen to you. Later the Protestant chaplains at the military base nearby
contacted him and said we’d like to start an orphanage. There are so many
children whose parents have been killed and they have no place to go but we’ve
got to have governmental approval. You can speak the language and you know the
people see if you can help us. He agreed, went to the appropriate government
agency and the lady handed him what he said looked like a stack of papers three
inches high to fill out and she said do it in duplicate so he did, brought it
back, she looked at him and said I’m sorry it’s not duplicate it’s triplicate.
So he had to start all over again, brought it back, got a receipt for what he
had delivered. Six weeks later the chaplains called said check and see what the
progress is, went back to the place inquired about it showed them the receipt.
The lady, gone an hour, came back and said I’m sorry we can’t find it. He said
it’s there, look here at this receipt. Gone another hour, came back and said
I’m sorry we must have lost it. He was so furious. That night he went to bed
and he couldn’t sleep.
The next day when he went into Saigon the VW wagon that he
had wouldn’t start on the way home and he had to take a taxi and the taxi driver
knew he could speak fluent Vietnamese and said you’ve been here a while haven’t
you? He said yes. Many years? Yes. You must like Vietnamese people. He
swallowed hard and then said yes, I love them very much. But that night with a
sense of deep hypocrisy he couldn’t sleep at all and he got up and he got down
on his knees and he said God I can’t do this anymore. You sent me here because
I had a love and a call for these people and I don’t love them anymore. I can’t
stand what’s happening and he listed everything that had gone on as if God
didn’t know it of course and then he said I tell you what God I am going to pack
up my things and go home because I can no longer be a missionary without loving
the people. He would go back to his bed but he couldn’t quite make it and the
Lord would drive him back to his knees. He would pray some more and out poor
his anger and his bitterness only to try to make it to bed and not make it. And
in the wee hours of the morning the breakthrough happened and he and God as the
Lord does became one. It is feeling as if suddenly you have been immersed in
His Spirit and suddenly you’re clothed, as you ought to be clothed with the
right love and the right compassion and the right kindness. And he wept. And
God said to him Sam I didn’t send you to Vietnam because you loved Vietnamese
people. I sent you to Vietnam because I love Vietnamese people and I need to
love them through you. Let me do it.
The next day when he was walking into the village there by
the gate was a lady with leprosy. She was grotesque, her face mostly eaten
away. Rough rags tied around the limbs that were no longer there. He had
walked by many times but had always turned his head because he couldn’t stand to
look at her. And on that day he knelt beside her and talked about Jesus and His
love. And the next day and the next time he went into the village always
stopping sharing Jesus love and on a day a tear trickled down her cheek. Sam I
didn’t send you here because you love Vietnamese people but because I love
Vietnamese people. Let me love them through you. Paul says be clothed with
compassion and it is love that binds everything together.
Let me ask you a question today. What garment, what piece
of commitment does the Lord want you to leave with here this morning?
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