Audio Length: 57:09
Preached on 12/28/14 @ Grace Community Church in Arroyo Hondo New Mexico (morning Service)

Notes from the pulpit:

  • Mature in Jesus Christ
  • Reflect on past successes & past failures
  • Crossing over the Jordan into the promise land

Opening Scripture: Psalm 101 I will sing of mercy and justice; To You, O I will sing praises. I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will You come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.

I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness.

Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, Him I will destroy; The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, Him I will not endure. My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land, That they may dwell with me; He who walks in a perfect way, He shall serve me.

He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who tells lies shall not continue in my presence. Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land, That I may cut off all the evildoers from the city of the LORD.

Commitment: ‘To bind as a pledge or promise.’
Bind: ‘To hold in subjection.’
Subjection: ‘Under authority or control of another.’

Example: (Exodus 40:36-38)

What Does Commitment Looks Like?

2 Timothy 1:6-14 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.

For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

The word committed in the New Testament is the same principle in the Old Testament as “Fear of the Lord,” which means to be afraid to sin against God. And be committed to the relationship with God our Heavenly Father that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to us through His blood, through the ministry of reconciliation and by loving and honoring the Lord (John 14:15).

Psalm 34:8-16 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life, And loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth

Job 28:28 And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
And to depart from evil is understanding.’”

Holiness & Fellowship

Sin separates us from God and severs our communion with God. Why? God is light and holy. Sin is darkness and God cannot fellowship with darkness (sinners) at all (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). But praise God for His promises if we fall short of glory of God

2 Chronicles 7:14 If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Commitment takes patience, endurance and continuance to obey God in faithfulness. Continuing with Jesus Christ with uncompromising faithfulness even in the face of all opposition, persecution and all adversities, even to the point of death. That’s what real commitment looks like.

How Do We Become Committed Children of God?

  • Decision
  • Getting our priorities straight:
  1. God (beginning of our days)
  2. Family
  3. Church
  4. Work
  • God (last of our nights/Rev. 22:13)
  • Grounded and rooted in the Lord
  • Faithfulness

Loyal, reliable, having the power to lay down our life and learn from Jesus Christ (2 Chronicles 31:18-21)

2 Peter 1:5-10 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;

If we’re committed, loving the Lord, honoring Him, He will prosper you and you will never stumble, that’s God’s promise. “Blessings” should never be the basis of repentance… We need to be committed to Lord at all cost no matter the reason, in order to be used by God Almighty, powerfully according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord.