Sunday Notes: Christ and Commitment

Today, our pastor delivered the last part of a series titled "CHRISTLIKE" which we have taken up for the past four weeks.

Now, we reach the final riveting message regarding our spiritual walk with God and how Jesus modeled the life that we ought to live.

The last topic ties the past three messages together and befits the call to be like Christ in every aspect of our lives but more importantly focusing on Jesus' unwavering commitment and devotion to the Father.

Perhaps the biggest struggle that we humans have in our lives is honoring the commitments that we have made before God, before other people, and even those that we make for ourselves.

Something we often fail to do is to stick it out until the end because when the pain of fatigue sets in or when we fail to see immediate results of our labor, we start to think that all our effort have been for naught.

It is worthless to continue especially if the path of our lives become steeper and more difficult to travel but we have to keep pressing forward and keep on keeping on!

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9

I like the metaphor that Dr. Richard Blackaby used in his book Unlimiting God where he says that every Christian is invited to go on a journey of climbing a majestic mountain.

He says that, "People respond differently to such a glorious opportunity. Some never leave the foot of the mountain. They gave up at its grandeur and feel overwhelmed and inadequate to take on such a challenge. So they remain where they are."

For those who do ascend the mountain, they shall see majestic sights and views that stretch far beyond their wildest imaginations.

As they go higher up the mountain, these hikers would discover much greater and more marvelous sights but only a few would be able to witness and experience the beauty of it all.

At every point up the slope of the mountain, only few people can dig deep and find motivation to continue forging on while the rest would simply plateau and stay behind, passing on the opportunity of experiencing more wonders hidden from the view of those below.

Many times in our lives, when we begin to feel the pain and sores on our feet as we walk in a long, arduous journey of spiritual growth and maturity in Jesus Christ and understanding more of God, we begin to become comfortable with what we have already experienced and stop climbing higher up the mountain.

We miss on so much potential and greater things that God has in store for us to experience and witness His unlimited power and wisdom coursing through our lives.

How committed are we to God? Are we really prepared to lay down our life for him or to give up the comforts and achievements that we have gained in our lives so that we can truly live for His glory and live a victorious life of testimony and service for Jesus?

Or are we simply content with superficial Christianity - buying a Bible but not really reading it or just taking snippets of it; or maybe, talking the talk but not really walking the walk - not wanting to know more and experience more of God in our lives and truly see His mighty hand at work?

How often we ask God where He is in times of adversity yet how about us? Where are we in our commitment to God and in our walk with Him?

Taking a look at John 13:31-38, we see three things that we should be committed to:

1. We must be committed to the glory of God.

In our lives, just as we see in Jesus' life, God the Father must be before and above everything else.

We need to place God at the center of our lives and as our top priority because it is He who knows the wonderful plans that He has intended for our own good and it is He who brings meaning and purpose in our lives.

Even Jesus places the will of the Father before His own as in Luke 22:42, "Father if You are willing, take this cup from me; yet not My will, but Yours be done."Jesus puts God as His number one priority above all things because that was the very reason why He came to the world, to obey the Father's will and of course, to save the world through Him.

John 13:31-32 shows this commitment:

"When he (Judas) was gone, Jesus said, 'Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will glorify the Son in Himself, and will glorify Him at once."

Remember that our lives were not made to be self-serving but to serve God who created us and thought of us even before we were born. We need to yield the self to God and let Him be the center of our lives.

Throw out whatever idol you still hold onto in your heart and enthrone God in your heart.

Let Him direct your paths and have His way in your life because every success, every blessing, and every gift that we have all comes from God and they must be used to serve His great purpose and to give glory to the One who gave them to us.

2. We must be committed to loving each other.

The greatest commandment for us is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength and also to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Loving our neighbor does not only refer to those around us but every single person whether he has been good or bad to you, whether he is an enemy or a friend of your family; whether you like it or not, to be Christian or a follower of Christ, we need to learn how to love just as Christ loves us.

John 13:34-35 clearly tells us that:

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another."

1 John 3:16 goes further in saying:

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."

We need to love sacrificially for others, knowing full well that loving them may cost us our wealth, our time, or any other comfort that we have in life just so that they may see clearly the love of Jesus manifested in our lives and so that we can share that same love to them that they may experience the overflowing warmth of God's love and care for them.

3. We must be devoted to living for Jesus.

Something that we ought to live by is the way that Jesus has set out for us and the life that He has modeled for us. Jesus did not only teach and preach but He practiced everything that He taught.

He modeled the life of righteousness and genuine devotion for the Father as He obeyed the commands of God and served God with every breath of His life.

Paul said in Philippians 1:21:

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Living for Jesus, we need to surrender our whole lives to Him and let Him take full control of whatever the will of the Father is for us. We need to be imitators of Jesus and truly follow the path that He has marked for us and follow His example in every area of our lives.

We need to keep His words close to our heart and let it flow in our lives and let it grow in our hearts so that we may bear fruit as we remain and abide in Him.

Mark 8:34 tells us:

"Then He called the crowd to Him along with the disciples and said: 'If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.'"

Essentially, when we live for God and for Jesus, we deny ourselves and accept Him in our lives and let Him work through us and use every talent or gift that He has given us to bring glory to Him.

Our lives were created by God and for God. To live a life of victory and righteousness that glorifies and pleases God takes a lot of courage, dedication, commitment, and humility so that in due time He may lift us up and reveal Himself to us in due time.

It is God who nourishes us and supplies all our needs every day and it is only right that we serve Him with all our lives and be devoted to Him in all ways. We need to continually fix our eyes on Jesus as the Bible tells us to do so that we may have a guide to live by.

Let Jesus Christ be our mentor in our every day lives; let Him be our refuge and strength, live under His grace, and draw power from Him in times of adversity and in dealing with temptation.

Let us develop a deep communication and knowledge of Him as we continue to learn how to pray and listen to His still small voice that whispers in our hearts and tugs at our innermost being and let Him be our example in all circumstances to trust in God and to cast all our cares on Him.

Let us learn as well to care for others just as Jesus cared for us and to love them with the love that we experienced from God.

God Bless!