"One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment."
Mt 22:35 (NIV84)
"The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him."
2 Chr. 16:9 (NIV)
I. Here, the Lord makes a commitment.
A. Those who are fully committed to him, he will be committed to. He will be committed to strengthening them.
1. In other words, if you honor him he will honor you.
2. If you sow to God, he will allow you to reap from him
3. This is too important for us to miss.
B. We must learn the message of being committed, no not just being committed, but being fully committed to God.
1. Notice, he said to love him with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
a. Many people have a commitment to God, but they are not fully committed to God.
2. Remember the parable of the talents?
a. Two were fully committed to doing what the master said. They went immediately to put the master’s gifts to work.
b. One did not commit to doing what the master told him.
c. Look at the consequences.
C. If we are fully committed, then, he said he would strengthen us.
1. Don't we definitely need his strength?
2. To make through each day.
3. Life is too hard by ourselves!
D. It is time we learn what being fully committed means.
II. Why does God want us to be committed to him? Two things:
A. GOD WANTS YOU TO BE COMMITTED TO HIM SO THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW HE IS IMPORTANT TO YOU
A. Our commitment to him is our witness. Our commitment to him shows others how important he is to us.
B. The more commitment, the more we show the world how important he is to us.
C. If something is important in our life, we commit ourselves to it.
1. If you like or love something, you commit to your time to it.
2. If your job is important to you, you commit yourself to it.
3. If your family is important, you commit yourself to it.
4. If a person is important to you, you commit time, to be spent with them.
5. If your health is important to you, you commit yourself to working out.
6. What ever it is important to you, you will commit yourself to it.
7. We may say something is important but if we do not commit time to it it obviously is not important.
8. If it is valuable to you, you make the effort to commit whatever resources you need to appreciate it.
D. If serving God is important to us, we must commit ourselves to serving him.
1. What we commit and how much we commit shows how much we value our relationship with him. Really, how much we really love him.
E. When we are committed to coming to church, we show others that God is important to us. It is our witness to the world.
1. When you come to choir rehearsal, Sunday school, classes or do things around God's church, you are witnessing to the world by the commitment of your time that God is important to you.
a. You are saying to the world you love the Lord enough to give the most valuable commodity you have.
b. Your time
2. You show the church is important and God who created it and gave his son for it is important to you.
F. The 2nd Reason God wants you committed to him:
B. GOD WANTS YOU TO BE COMMITTED TO HIM SO THAT HE CAN STRENGTHEN YOU TO BECOME WHAT HE CREATED YOU TO BE
G. Commitments affect what your life will become or will be.
1. Today, your life is the sum total of your previous commitments.
2. Whatever you are today, is what you have spent your time on becoming yesterday.
a. If you are a doctor, it is because you committed time to studying medicine.
b. If you are a lawyer, it is because you committed time to studying law.
c. Whatever you want to be successful in, you will have to commit time to it.
d. If you are not committed to anything, you will not amount to anything.
3. Satan knows these things and does not….DOES NOT!...want you to make any commitment to serving or honoring God in any way!
a. Why? Because he knows…
"The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him."
2 Chr. 16:9 (NIV)
H. God will help you to become what he created you to be. If you give him something to work with.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Je 1:5 (NIV84)
"But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.
Je 1:7 (NIV84)
III. To be fully committed, Jesus has to be first! Absolutely first!
37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
How much are you to love him?
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple."
Lk 14:26 26
IF YOU ARE FULLY COMMITTED, JESUS MUST BE FIRST IN YOUR LIFE!
A. He's saying, "I expect to be first place in your life. You have to love Me more than anybody or anything else if you want to be My follower."
1. He says you've got to love Him more than your parents,
a. more than your husband,
b. more than your wife,
c. more than your kids,
d. more than your own life,
e. your car,
f. your job,
g. nothing can be in front of Him.
2. He said…
a. “You shall have no other gods before me." (NIV84) Ex 20:3
B. He has a right to ask for first place in your life!
1. He made you
2. He loves you
3. He has a plan for you. He will help you accomplish it.
4. He died for you and wants you to live for him.
5. If you will be fully committed to Him, He will completely restore the relationship that Adam had with Him in the beginning.
a. He will strengthen your body.
b. He will strengthen your soul.
c. He will strengthen every area of your life so that you can experience life abundantly.
6. Oh this is if you will be fully committed to Him and make Him first in your life.
C. Jesus must be first
37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
IF JESUS IS NOT LORD OF ALL IN YOUR LIFE, HE'S NOT LORD AT ALL IN YOUR LIFE!
D. Jesus cannot be almost first, He must be always first.
1. You cannot say He is almost first
a. It is like saying you are almost pregnant
2. He is either all or nothing at all
E. It is time out for playing church
1. God does not want a part-time lover!
F. You must be fully committed to him!
MAKE JESUS FIRST IN YOUR LIFE!
IV. Make a commitment to Jesus being first in your life
A. Tell Jesus you're going to make them first. You will need his help!
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: 6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Ps 37:4 (NIV84)
B. Remind yourself of the Scripture:
Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; 10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.
Pr 3:9 (NIV84)
1. If I commit myself to putting Him first, then, I will be storing up treasures in heaven, and on earth I will receive blessings every day.
1st TALK TO JESUS THE FIRST OF EVERY DAY
C. Make the commitment to Talk to God the first of every day
1. Talk to God in prayer before you talk to anybody else each day.
2. It will help you keep everything in focus.
3. it will remind you who's in charge of your day.
a. He becomes a partner of what you are to accomplish that day
b. Many people have a hard day because they get up to an alarm. An alarm clock!
c. No wonder they are stressed out and things go bad in their life. They have no one there to strengthen their life.
4. Talking to God starts the day off right.
5. Let your first thoughts each day be of God.
6. The way you honor Him will be the way He honors you.
a. You put Him first, He will put you first!
7. Make God first in the morning
2nd GIVE JESUS THE FIRST DAY OF EVERY WEEK
D. Acts 20:7 "On the first day of the week, the disciples came together."
1. We need to give God the first thought of every day.
2. Then, we should commit to give him the first day of every week.
a. We should call it The Lord's Day.
b. We should commit to him our time and devote ourselves to the study of his Word.
3. We should honor him this day.
a. We should honor him by showing love to one another and by serving one another.
"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
(NIV84) Jn 13:35
4. We should honor him on the first day of every week then
3rd GIVE JESUS THE FIRST OF OF EVERY PAYCHECK
On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.
1 Co 16:2 2
E. The first of of every paycheck
Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first-fruits of all your crops...
Pr 3:9 9
1. Not after you’ve paid all the bills. Why? God insists on being first!
2. This is probably hard to do but we must stop conforming of the ways of the world if we expect to receive the blessings of heaven.
F. Jesus also said:
"But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
(NIV84) Mt 6:20
1. You must make a commitment to honor God with your wealth.
G. If you want to know what's really important to a person, all you have to do is look how they use their money!
1. It doesn't matter what they say is important, the way they spend there money and the way they spend their time shows what is really important in their life.
H. If God's first in your life, He's going to be first in your time and first in how you use your money.
1. There are more promises about tithing than anything else in the Bible.
I. Tithing is not giving to charity and giving to charity is not tithing.
1. Tithing is when I give to the Lord as an act of worship at the house of worship on the first day of every week.
a. That's tithing
4th SEEK JESUS FIRST IN EVERY DECISION
J. First in every decision
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Pr 3:5-6 5
K. We must learn to go to God first before we make decisions. He will lead us in the right ways to go.
L. We can eliminate many problems we face in life, if before we make a decision we turn to him in prayer.
M. If we are fully committed to him he said he would strengthen us. Here he says he will make our paths straight.
1. Mean he will work things out for us
N. therefore, if we want to be successful in life we must learn to make a commitment to God.
1. He must be first!
2. He must be first in all things!
V. Now it is time to become fully committed to him!
A. Be fully committed to Jesus
1. to let the world know he is important in your life
2. so that he can help you become all he created you to be
3. to make him first in your life
4. 1st talk to him first of every morning
5. 2nd give him the first day of every week
6. 3rd give him the first of every paycheck
7. 4th seek him first in every decision
B. Now let this church help you do what he has commanded of you to do
“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. "
Mt 22:37 (NIV84)
"The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him."
2 Chr. 16:9 (NIV)
Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Ps 90:12 (NIV84)
“Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. 5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath."
Ps 39:4 (NIV84)
https://soundfaith.com/sermons/7473-the-lord-is-looking-for-opportunities-to-bless-his-people
Jesus said it like this, "What will a man give in exchange for his soul?" That's a very important question because every day of your life you're exchanging your life for something. We're all given just a certain number of minutes to live. The average human being will live 25,550 days. Every day when you wake up, you exchange your life for something. Some people exchange their life for tv. Some people exchange their life for trashy novels. Some people exchange their life to do nothing. When you kill time, you're committing suicide because your time is your life. Your time is far more important than your money. You can always get more money but you can't get any more time. You have a certain number of minutes.
Wise people use their time wisely. Wise people plan how they're going to exchange their life. You are going to exchange your life for something. Wise people plan that exchange by making what we call commitments. When you make a commitment you're choosing how you're going to invest your life. You're choosing how you're going to spend your time. You're choosing how you're going to use your resources. Wise people use their time wisely. Wise people plan how they're going to exchange their life. You are going to exchange your life for something. Wise people plan that exchange by making what we call commitments. When you make a commitment you're choosing how you're going to invest your life. You're choosing how you're going to spend your time. You're choosing how you're going to use your resources.
A. Tomorrow is a mystery, yesterday is history, today is a gift, that’s why it’s called the present
B. 86,400 seconds in the day. Time lost can never be found.
C. Commitment determines your Destiny
1. Jesus said it like this, "What will a man give in exchange for his soul?" That's a very important question because every day of your life you're exchanging your life for something. |
2. Whether you know it or not, your time is the most important commodity you have in your life. You commit your time to what is important to you.
3. We're all given just a certain number of minutes to live. The average human being will live 25,550 days.
4. Every day when you wake up, you exchange your life for something.
a. Some people exchange their life for tv.
b. Some people exchange their life for trashy novels.
c. Some people exchange their life to do nothing.
5. When you kill time, you're committing suicide because your time is your life.
6. Your time is far more important than your money. You can always get more money but you can't get any more time. You have a certain number of minutes.
7. Wise people use their time wisely. Wise people plan how they're going to exchange their life.
8. You are going to exchange your life for something. Wise people plan that exchange by making what we call commitments. When you make a commitment you're choosing how you're going to invest your life. You're choosing how you're going to spend your time. You're choosing how you're going to use your resources.
9. Life is choice driven. Every choice has a consequence.
a. It may seem the most insignificant choice, but in the grand scheme of things they all add up and all involve your time and they all influence eternity.
b. The choices and the commitments I make will show my values, will shape my life and will determine my destiny.
