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Commitment
A sermon by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Let me call your attention to Luke the fourteenth chapter. Jesus told a
story, a parable. It was about a man who gave a great banquet. Finally
everything was ready. Verse 18 says, "But all of those that received invitations
began to make excuses. The first said I have just bought a field and I must go
and see it. Please excuse me. Another said I've just bought five yoke of oxen.
I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me. Still another said I just got
married, I can't come. The servant came back and reported this to the master.
The owner of the house became angry and he said to this servant, go out quickly
into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor and the cripple,
the blind and the lame. Sir, what you have ordered has been done but there is
still room." This is the word of the Lord.
Few things are more essential and effective than commitment. Show me a life
that has no commitment and I will show you a life that has no direction,
purpose, or excitement. A life without commitment is like a stream without
water. Like a car without gas. Like a computer without an operating system. Like
a curriculum without students. Show me a person without commitment and I will
show you a life that is absolutely going nowhere. Now commitment is one of the
things that sets us apart from all of the rest of God's creation. We're at the
time of the year when birds are beginning to migrate southward. Now during the
summer months one of those birds did not go up to the registrar bird and say
"I'd like to take a course in Spanish during the summer. And then when we fly
over Mexico I'll just land there and spend the winter." You see, to be a person
is to be made in the image of God and that means choice and commitment. That's
what Jesus is calling forth in his parable. Not many responded.
I saw in a national survey...took all of the states of our union. And they
surveyed how many regularly attended church on Sunday morning. I was interested
and a little distressed that Virginia was close to the bottom. Only eighteen
percent of Virginians attend church regularly. That means eighty-two percent are
those Jesus was talking about. Not many show up you see it's inconvenient. And
Jesus spoke of one who had bought some property and he had to go see it, that is
his business was so important that he had no room for God. Now do you know,
there's nothing wrong with buying property. But do you know anybody who buys the
property first and then go see it. Signs the contract before ever looking at it?
No, no. He gave an excuse not a reason. The second of these bought five pair of
oxen. I tell you what let's make it a little more contemporary. Let's talk about
buying a car. Okay? Reminds me a little bit of the wife who inherited a great
sum of money and the husband went to her and said, “ You know, honey, I’ve
always dreamed of being behind the wheel of something that would go from zero to
200 in four seconds.” And she said, “Let me get this straight. You would like
something that goes from zero to 200 in four seconds.” He smiled and nodded
affirmatively. So she got him a bathroom scale.
Now a third had married a wife. Couldn’t come. Must have been newly married.
Because anybody who’s been in it very long knows you need all the help you can
get. Besides that you need all the food you can get. A free banquet. You know of
all people marriages need love and togetherness and understanding and patience
and joy and peace. That’s what the Lord sets at his banquet. All of the made
excuses here is the truth, the core truth, nothing but the truth. To follow
Christ you have to move something out of the way. It may be an obvious problem
like anxiety or worry. Or it may be business or it may be habits or it may be
friends. Or it may be that you just don’t think you have time for God and you
can handle everything by yourself. But before you turn all of this down. Jesus
does not describe the kingdom in terms of convenience. Wanna show you something.
Look over there in verse 27. “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow
me cannot be my disciple.” Well sometimes, sometimes commitment means coming
home. Coming home to where you used to be. One of our distinguished educators in
a book speaks of his listening to a group of university professors who were in
nice ways, but definite ways looking askance at people of faith. And one of them
spoke of it. Went against the grain. Said let me tell you something. Hadn’t been
too long ago that I was flipping through the TV and came across a television
program. And I stopped for just a little bit and I listened to the scripture.
And his interpretation of it. And I decided that I’d look at that scripture and
I went to my bookcase and I’d pull off a Bible that I hadn’t looked at in years.
And when I opened it up there were some notes from when I was a teenager. And I
used to go to youth retreats. I looked at the notes and I looked at the
scripture. And all of a sudden I remembered how it used to be. And all of a
sudden I remembered what was missing in my life now. I had all the information I
needed. I had all the kind of academic education that I could get but I was
spiritually dead. And said he to his colleagues on that faculty, it took me
awhile but I’m back home.”
Maybe it’s time for you to consider being back home. Oh. You’ve never had a
home. Let me tell you about it. The way in which you become God’s family is to
receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior. It is when you commit
your life to the Lord. You see, Jesus began his ministry and ended his ministry
with a call to commitment. He began with only two words. He ended with only two
words. Here are the two words, follow me. He went to his disciples and guess
what he didn’t do. He didn’t give them a plan. He didn’t even give them core
values nor a belief statement. He said two words, follow me. All of Christianity
revolves around the commitment to Jesus Christ.
And the last book, the last chapter of John’s gospel, this is after the
resurrection and Jesus is having a final recorded conversation with Simon Peter
and Simon Peter’s asking the kind of questions I would ask. What’s going to
happen when? Why is this going to happen to this guy? What are you going to do
now? And let me paraphrase. This is the Flamming paraphrase. Simon, mind your
own business. That’s God business. Here’s yours. Follow me. Let me tell you when
you come to the Lord and you follow him, you follow him into the great banquet.
The great banquet hall. And the Lord Jesus serves you. Can you imagine? He was
not above putting a towel around his waist and over his arm. And he comes to you
and he says let me tell you what I’m going to offer you. I’m going to offer you
the menu of salvation. The appetizer of hope. The entree of faith. The main
course of love. And because you’re going to fail along the way, the dessert of
forgiveness. You’re going to walk off and leave that? You’re going to say that’s
not for me? Sooner or later in your life you are going to come up to the time
when you’re just desperately going to need good news and hope and faith and love
and forgiveness. And all of this the Lord himself provides through his cross,
his presence, his person and his resurrection. You’re going to walk off and
leave that? Let me tell you where home is. Home is when you receive Jesus Christ
as your personal savior. Here’s the way he put it. “But as many as received him,
to them gave he the power to become part of the family of God.” Home is where
the Lord is.
Some of you when it comes to commitment might take a third option. And that
third option is bearing your cross. I’ve already read the verse. “And anyone who
does not carry his cross...” I’ve been so helped by that, that verse has always
kind of bugged me. I’ve never even seen a cross except you know in church, that
sort of thing. What did Jesus mean? There’s a Christian of some centuries ago by
the name of Francois
Fenelon, a Frenchman, got a hold of this better than anyone I’ve ever read.
And he says what Jesus is saying is dear friend, you’re going to have some
crosses to carry in your life. And you better get ready for it. And he’s going
to say to you, here’s what your options are. You can complain about it. You can
wish it wasn’t there. You can pretend it’s not there. You can run away from it.
Or you can pick it up and you can carry it like Jesus carried his cross. And
when you do you’re going look over to the side and there’s Jesus carrying his
cross right alongside of you. And if you stumble remember he stumbled also on
the way to Golgotha. Then says Fenelon, something’s going to happen to you. When
you’re willing to carry your cross as your own and as partnership with Jesus say
I’m part of his team and I’m joining him. Changes you. Something happens inside.
The other thing he says is you get strength beyond yourself to carry it.
And I have experienced that when I do this and I do it because Jesus did it.
And I do it for Jesus sake that there is a peace that passes understanding that
comes from above and settles in the soul.
Some of you walked in here this morning with a heavy load. Tough, tough cross
to carry. I wish you didn’t have it from a human point of view. But God knows
its there. He hopes against hope you’ll pick it up and carry it out of this
place with you and join him because that’s the way to redeem the toughest times
of life.
There is a fourth commitment you can make and that is the commitment of
affirmation. The affirmation of love, the affirmation of thanksgiving, the
affirmation that hey, I don’t need to begin the journey because I’m already a
Christian. And I don’t need to come home because I walk with the Lord everyday.
And the Lord has blessed me and I don’t have a heavy load and I don’t have a
cross that’s just so heavy to carry right now. What do I commit? I’ll tell you
what you commit. You commit your love. You commit your wonderful, wonderful
thanksgiving and gratitude. I tell you what it is like. It’s like Mother’s Day
and Father’s Day. You who are mothers and you who are fathers when it comes,
you’re mother you get flowers, candy. You’re a father you get cards or ties on
occasion but mostly you get cards. Let me tell you about cards. They don’t make
you anymore committed. I mean you were committed before you got that card. And
it doesn’t make the person who sent it even more committed. I don’t think so.
You know what that person who sent it is doing. That person who sent it is
saying I love you. Thank you. Thank you for all you’ve done. Thank you for being
who you are. I went through mine this week in preparation for this, to
illustrate it. My father’s day cards from last June. Now in our family I know
there’s a Grandfather’s Day but I don’t even know when it is. So I get not only
cards from my sons but I get them from my grandchildren. And I pick out three
because you see they don’t make me more committed to them. I couldn’t be. It
doesn’t make them more committed to me. I don’t think that could be. What it
does it says thank you. One of them was a letter...thanks dad for all you have
taught me and for all your patience through all of the years. And thank you for
not giving up on me when I probably deserved it. And I cried. Another one
said...thanks dad. And it was one of these Hallmark cards that some guy or gal
in a Hallmark booth put together you know with the cute little verses. But this
one I kept. Here’s what it says, “thanks dad for being a dad we can brag about.”
And of course one of my granddaughters, “Poppy”, that’s what they call me.
Somebody last time I used that, at the front door after, said that isn’t very
dignified. And I said listen, having a granddaughter isn’t dignified. “Poppy”.
Our relationship means so much to me. Hugs and kisses and more hugs and kisses
and I can’t wait to see you. Do you think I was more committed to her after I
received that card? No.
Did it matter to me? You betcha. If I am and earthly father, how much more
does the heavenly father respond with tears when we take the time to say thank
you. I love you Lord. You’re mine. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for
not giving me what I deserve sometimes along the way. One of the commitments
even today you could make is simply saying thank you.
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