In your heart most of the day, let me out of this relationship and responsibility. I just want my freedom.
Why do people long for retirement? The freedom to do what you want to do. Deep down inside of us there is a part of us that just want out.
Fear of commitment
When people just don’t want to commit
It is why people are in and out of relationships, why people come and go in churches, they want something and afraid of losing something, Something better might come along and they don't want to miss out.
Fear is what’s behind our inability to experience great things. People wanting something good but not wanting to commit to anything. Athletes doing steroids and not want to do the work. Why people don't want to come to Christ, because of the idea that if they commit they will loose their freedom.
Feel fear of failing,
Some people feel that you can never have good things because you are always thinking that there is something better out there, or last time I committed myself I had a bad experience and it was miserable so I made a commitment to myself that I wouldn’t commit.
It is a real fear and You see it in the people around you and if you look deeper enough you find it in yourself.
Ask yourself, “What is it in my life that I am afraid to fully commit to?” “What is it in my Faith that I am afraid to fully commit to?”
Commitment The Opportunity To Exercise Liberty And Avoid Futility
It is the opposite of what we ultimately believe.
We believe in our hearts and minds that commitment is really an opportunity to give up our liberties and to engage in futility.
We will be looking at this passage and the passage is about a rich young ruler.
Luke 18
18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
What do we know about him? We know he is a ruler and is wealthy, how did he get his wealth? by inheriting it. What do we know about people who inherit their wealth? Usually pretty entitled, don’t have to do much, don’t have to give much, they pretty much do what they want and they live with the expectation that it is all there for them for free. He says to Jesus what must I do to... work? commit? labor for eternal life? No, he asks “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
19 “Why do you call me good?”
Jesus ask this question because he realizes that this man wouldn’t know what was good, he didn’t understand what good really was because good takes hard work, good isn’t something you can inherit.
Jesus answered. “No one is good-except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”
21 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!...”
What happened? Jesus said if you want eternal life sell everything you have and follow me. Is that the secret to eternal life? Sell everything you have and follow him? No. He said this to the young man because he knew his ability to actually commit to something, or to give himself over to receive something better wasn’t there the only thing this young man was committed to was his wealth and his stuff.
Why don’t we make commitments? Because of self preservation. If I commit I will have to give up something. What every you hold on dearest is the thing God wants you to give up most. It is not because God wants your stuff, it is because wants you to commit to him. God wants you... We see commitment as a threat to all that we have.
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Liberty is freedom with responsibility. Being free means you have the ability to experience every good thing but you have to do it with responsibility.
Was this rich young ruler free? No, because he wanted what Jesus had but his money had a hold on him.
What is responsibility? It is the ability to respond back. Jesus was given him the opportunity to respond back to what he was offering him so that he may have freedom and liberty but instead he chose? Futility.
Whenever we don't respond back to God and commit to the things we are called to do, we choose the life of futility. We choose a life where we are not going to succeed in the areas where God wants us to succeed in, when you commit to something that God calls you to as you respond to him, he’ll lead you to greater psychological and spiritual freedom.
Commitment a burden? No, it is an opportunity.
Luke 9
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 dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
What was this man saying to Jesus? I would really like to follow you but I have a dad back home not doing so well and I’m going to hang back and when the time is right I’ll be there. “Hedging”
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 goodbye to my family.”
62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.
These people are coming to Jesus and asking for things and yet they are willing to commit to nothing just like to us.
How are you with commitment? Is it something you are afraid to do
It is a reflection on the quality of love you have for God, The Gospel ultimately requires you if you are to live a fully committed life to Christ to put everything on the table. Put your time, money, dreams and aspirations on the table. That he who calls you if faithful. He will give you a life that is prosperous in quality not quanity. If you put everything on the table God will turn it out to you in ways you can’t imagine. You can't be afraid to open up your house, heart and be afraid to open up your hands. The right things usually end up becoming the easy things and the easy things usually end up becoming the hard things that we never could fully account for.
Jesus left the tomb and created a path out of death for us to be free
How do we do it?
God first:
Put God first in your life, I will do what is right before God, knowing that whatever he calls me to, that commitment is not a burden but a freedom
Count Cost:
If you want to know God’s will just sit back and say, God what are you asking me to do? What are you asking me to give up? And is what i’m giving of greater value than what you are offering?
Keep your Word:
If you make a commitment to God keep your word. If you make a commitment to others keep your word. The Bible from Genesis to Revelation is one big promise.
Small As Well As Large:
If you give your word, your word is your word. We see small promises and large promises in the Bible and God honors all of them. If you say you are going to do something, do it.
Give Your Best:
If we lay on our deathbeds and have to live with the fact that we were selfish, afraid and not willing to trust God, that is a nightmare. I want to go knowing I gave it all and I have no regrets because it was worth it. That I lived a life of opportunity by exercising authority over my liberty and I never walked a minute in futility.
Notes taken by: lorelllawrence@comcast.net
The notes is for you to have for review in the series, also to reflect on during the week.
God Bless,
Sermon by: Pastor Frederick Williams