How many of you, let me just ask a simple question, how many of you like YouTube videos?
Yeah, a fair amount of you.
One of them, the person who I know loves YouTube videos didn't raise her hand.
Oh, and nothing against those of you who do like YouTube videos, and especially, I forgot about this,
those of you who are watching us on YouTube right now.
But I have never really found YouTube to be a particularly worthwhile use of my time.
Lisa, on the other hand, the person who did not raise her hand, happens to love YouTube,
and she will spend hours watching YouTube on her tablet.
I was, yeah, look at them, they're pointing at each other.
I was talking with Lisa a couple of weeks ago, and she mentioned to me that she had watched a YouTube video.
Here we go again.
She had watched a YouTube video of music being played of Johann Sebastian Bach,
and they were playing it on different violins.
One was a $5,000 violin, and one was a $1 million violin.
They were doing this to see if you could tell the difference in between the music on it.
She actually last night made me listen to it after the service, and you could tell the difference.
But I did not go out and immediately rushed to look at that YouTube video.
What it did instead was it got me thinking about masterpieces and what makes a masterpiece.
So I thought we would take a look at just a few masterpieces here today.
I'm going to show them here on the screen for you.
This first one that we're looking at, that is a Strativaris.
That is worth $40 million.
The next one that we're going to look at, that's the Mona Lisa.
Everyone knows that.
We had a couple of folks just came back from Europe.
I don't know if they made it to France or not.
Did they see the Mona Lisa?
The next one that we're going to look at is, this is God creating Adam.
It's on the Sistine Chapel there at the Vatican.
Lisa goes on and on and on about what a masterpiece this piece is.
Then we have the next one.
You don't know what that is.
That is St. Matthew's Passion.
It is written by the same artist Johann Sebastian Bach of YouTube fame.
Then finally there's this one here.
This is my personal favorite, Calvin and Hobbes.
Oh come on, it is the best comic strip in the history of mankind.
If you don't like Calvin and Hobbes, there is something wrong with you and I will pray for you.
This is how much I love it.
Brianna drew this for me today.
Someone knows that I love Calvin and Hobbes.
Then we do have one final one.
That's what we're going to show up here next.
That's intentional.
For those of you who are here today, it is what is on the front side of your notes.
Everybody should have a copy of their notes.
It is not a mistake if you don't have a copy, you should get a copy.
It was left intentionally blank for you today.
I know it does not look like a masterpiece.
For many of us, in truth, it isn't.
But if we choose to, we could make what that piece of paper represents into a masterpiece.
That is what we are going to do today.
Before we begin with that, and this is why you need a copy of this in front of you.
Before we begin with that, I want each of you to copy something that the composer of St. Matthew's Passion, Johann Sebastian Bach, practiced.
If everyone has got their pen, I would like you to write these initials up in the upper left-hand corner of those notes.
I want you to write JJ up there.
In the bottom corner of it, I would like you to write these three initials.
SDG. That is what we are showing you right there on the screen.
It should look like that.
I see the day that I am not ushering, the usher's slip.
I am throwing Randall under the bus.
JJ and SDG.
Bach is notably one of the greatest composers in the history of the world.
He lived in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Lisa was looking him up last night after the sermon and really got interested in it.
He wrote up to an estimated 11,000 pieces of music, three fourths of which were devoted to worship.
But Bach, his life, could be encapsulated in that music.
His life, his legacy, is a result of his direct commitment to bringing glory to God.
With every single one of those 11,000 pieces of music, we see this also in the life of the apostle Paul.
We find it in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31 where Paul writes,
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Now the apostle Paul and Johann Sebastian Bach both lived a life of commitment to Christ.
Now it is obvious from Paul's life and from his letters that are now in the Bible that he was committed to Christ
and it was a resolute commitment.
But how do we know the same about Bach?
We'll address that here a little bit later on as well as those letters that you wrote, the S, S, or I'm sorry, the JJ and the SDG.
But for right now what I'd like us to talk about is the other 10 letters that define Paul's and Bach's life.
And that's what we're going to address today.
Those 10 letters are the ones that are up here on the screen, C, O, M, M, I, T, M, E, N, T commitment.
The difference between the apostle Paul and Bach and most of us is that they acted on what they knew to be true.
On the other hand, we find it very difficult to act on what we know we should act on.
And that's because to act on something is to be committed.
And to be committed is to be in danger, in danger physically, emotionally, and financially.
Our society has developed a fear of commitment.
We would rather leave than last. We would rather throw in that tiled and stay in the game.
It's so easy for us to go the way of least resistance and effort.
And why is that?
It's because we fear those 10 letters that symbolize accountability, integrity, and discipline.
We fear commitment.
Now finding people to volunteer one day a year to go help feed those who live on our beaches, finding that's fairly easy.
Finding people to love those very people, day in and day out, who live on those beaches is extremely difficult.
One is a day of involvement. The other is a commitment.
We even fear commitment in areas that demand commitment to make them work, from marriage to raising children, to deep friendships, to discipleship, and to following Jesus.
If there's one single defining characteristic of our society, of our culture, it is characterized by our lack of commitment.
And that's because commitment means pledging yourself to a position, regardless of the price tag, pledging yourself to a stance no matter what the cost.
Commitment will always entail a sacrifice, and it will always cost you.
So what do we choose instead?
We choose a commitment of convenience.
We will stay faithful as long as it doesn't involve risk, rejection, or criticism.
Instead of standing alone in the face of challenge or temptation, we check to see which way are my friends going with this.
But God, how many times have you read that in the Bible?
But God wants us to make a commitment, the right commitments, in life.
So God sent Jesus on a great search mission for people who would be willing to make an unswerving commitment to follow Him.
God wants to change us from fair weather followers to committed followers of Jesus.
So today what we're going to do is we're going to take a look at Jesus' call to commitment.
And we find this in Luke chapter 9 verses 57 through 62.
Luke interdaces to us three individuals who wanted to join Jesus on His journey.
And in those verses, Luke teaches us that being a disciple of Jesus requires a focused commitment.
I want to preface this with, I got some feedback like these are not the easiest verses in the Bible.
Some people don't like these verses, but they are in the Bible.
So you need to pay attention to these verses.
So they're not the easiest for us to take and to accept.
But what we're going to do is we're going to take a look at them in order as Jesus is dealing with each one of these individuals.
We're going to begin this with Luke chapter 9 verses 57 through 58.
And if you would, I would like all of you to read this along with me.
Okay.
So as we begin, as they were walking along the road, a man said to him,
I will follow you wherever you go.
Jesus replied, foxes have dens and the birds have nests, but the Son of man has no place to place his head.
Now, in these first verses, Jesus addresses mere involvement versus commitment.
The first individual does not understand the depth of commitment that is necessary to follow Jesus.
The man in this passage makes a very powerful and profound promise to Jesus when he says, I will follow you wherever you go.
I believe, I believe that that man was very sincere.
He wanted to follow Jesus.
He wanted to be a part of what Jesus was doing and he wanted to make a difference.
And all of those intentions are good things that might even motivate some of us who are here today.
But as a desire to be involved in the action is not enough, a desire to serve must also be coupled with the right reason and the right motivation for serving.
It would seem that the man described here was willing to be involved with the ministry of Jesus and there's nothing at all wrong with that other than the fact that Jesus was looking for something more.
Jesus was looking for his full and total commitment.
And that's because if your desire for material gain or for recognition is greater priority than following Jesus, eventually it will stall out your commitment.
Jesus's response was that a person desiring to follow him must give up what others consider to be necessities.
Jesus addresses this when he replies, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nest, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.
The man wanted to follow Jesus, but Jesus challenged him to understand the commitment to self-denial, sacrifice, service, and suffering that would be necessary.
Now a lot of you know that I'm from Nebraska, I'm from the Midwest, grew up on a small farm, not in the middle of nowhere.
Small little town and in the town we had, you know, small church.
And in Nebraska, I don't know the farm, obviously, you know, you have cows, you have pigs, you have chickens, corn, and more corn, and lots and lots and lots of corn.
That's a different story.
But anyway, the pastor of our church there used to tell the story about some farm animals that described the difference between being involved and being committed.
And as I recall, the story went like this.
Now this is a Midwest story, okay, so bear with it.
One day, a pig and a chicken were out for their morning walk.
They do that in Nebraska.
And as they were walking, they passed by our church building.
When they noticed that the Sunday morning sermon that was posted on the outside bulletin board, they noticed that the title read, Helping the Poor.
Chicken and the Pig continued on their walk down the road a little bit, when suddenly the chicken came up with a brilliant idea.
And he says to the pig, hey, brother hog, why don't we give all those poor people a little bit?
All those poor people a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs.
Now the hog thought about that for a moment, to continue to walk on any thought, any ruminate on it, and any reply to the chicken.
You know, that's easy for you to say, because all it tells for you is involvement.
For me, it's total commitment.
Nebraska humor.
Now the sad reality of this is, is that most people settle for being involved without ever making a commitment.
That story about the chicken and the pig, kind of funny in a Midwest kind of way.
But it hits close to home, when we honestly look at the commitments that we've made.
As this church's missions director, I have been blessed to represent Jesus and you in some very challenging places and situations.
And I am always amazed and very humbled at how rich of a relationship the material poor have with Jesus.
And how they are blessed because of their resolute commitment to Him.
And then I see us and how shallow and how spiritually poor our relationship is because of our lack of commitment.
I can testify to you that it is far easier to get someone to volunteer to go on a mission trip at their own expense
than it is for me to get that same individual to donate money on a monthly basis to help those people that we go to assist.
One is simply being involved, the other, total commitment.
Being involved means that you can do what you want as you want, when you want, and as long as you want.
Being involved is an emotion. It is a feeling that you receive. It is nothing more.
Commitment means that you are on the call of Jesus 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
To make the decision to just be involved creates a system of falling short.
We cheat God by not giving Him our best.
And we fall short of fully offering ourselves and we cheat ourselves of the blessings of Christ that come from when we are fully committed.
Far too often we settle for being involved in the work of Christ without actually making a commitment to it.
God is not looking for you or for me to be involved.
What Jesus is looking for is commitment in all of our lives.
The story goes on. Luke recounts the second interaction between Jesus and the next individual immediately following this first one.
And we are going to find this in Luke 9 verses 59 through 60.
And again, if you would, if you would read this passage, it is here with me.
And begin, he said to a mother man, follow me.
But he replied, Lord, first let me go and bury my father.
Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead.
But you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.
What a blessing it is to hear Jesus call to you.
Follow me.
Jesus calls this man to become part of his inner circle.
But the man wanted to follow Jesus on his own terms and in his own time.
Now, if you know the context of the society then, it is quite probable that the man's father was ready to die.
Because if he was already dead, the man would have been involved in the burial proceedings that would have been happening that same day.
So it is probable that he was getting ready to die.
So his request to let him wait just a little while seems reasonable.
And perhaps like many of us, what he wanted to do was he wanted to receive his inheritance.
This man assumed that the commitment to his family came before commitment to Jesus.
He said that he would commit himself fully to Jesus in the future.
But right now, he had other priorities.
Jesus's answer shocked him and it shocks us as well.
Allow the dead to bury their own dead.
But as for you, you go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.
Now, as important as our commitment to taking care of our family members is, it is not as important as our commitment to Jesus.
Jesus's response was, let the dead bury their own dead.
The point is that proclaiming the kingdom of God is so important that it could not wait.
There is nothing wrong with caring for your family, but Jesus is driving at the point of priority.
Jesus wants to us to make him first in our lives and no other place will do.
Jesus did not teach people to forsake responsibilities to family, but he often gave commands to people in light of their real motives.
Following Jesus has a cost and each of us must be ready to serve even when it requires sacrifice.
Jesus also wanted this man to understand the urgent nature of the mission.
Jesus came into this world to save us from the power of sin and death.
The mission of the church should be the exact same to reach a lost and dying world with the message of saving grace through Jesus.
We must understand that if we are truly going to follow Christ, we must get our hands dirty with the work of outreach.
There is a lost and dying world right beyond those doors that need the hope of Christ.
Luke closes his record of these three individuals with one more man.
This is in Luke 9.
If you would, I would like you to read these with me as well.
Begin.
I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.
Jesus replied, No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the service and the kingdom of God.
I'll follow you, Lord, said the third man, but let me talk it over with my family.
Let me see what they say about following you so radically.
It seems to us like a reasonable request, but Jesus searches the heart and he knows the mind.
He knew that it would be dangerous for him to return home for his priorities were not yet established.
He was not solidified yet that in all things Jesus must be preeminent.
But Jesus said to him, No one after putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.
Again, Jesus is making a statement here that sounds rather harsh when he tells the man that he is not fit to follow him.
Why would Jesus do this?
Notice that the first concern in the man's life was when he says to Jesus, But first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.
Jesus knows that there is something deeper here than that request.
The man's first commitment was to someone other than Jesus and our first commitment must be to Jesus.
Jesus understands that the man's request would end up in him going back to his old way of life.
Our commitment to Jesus means that he becomes our primary focus.
Other loyalties, there are lots of them and they are going to seek to divide our hearts.
There are always reasons to not follow Jesus.
And as I said before, following Jesus has a cost and each of us must be ready to serve even when it requires sacrifice, even when it is not convenient.
Honestly, if we were honest with ourselves, each of us are far more like that man than we care to admit.
Each of us is far too often focused on what we lose by following Jesus.
Instead of taking a careful look at everything that we gain by following Jesus, we gain his presence, we gain his peace, and we gain his power.
Now these three exchanges teach us that commitment to Jesus and to the kingdom of God is to be our first priority.
If the things and people of this world mean more to you than Jesus, then you will find the commitment of discipleship too costly, too inconvenient.
It's important here to note that what is not in the Bible, what Luke does not record.
Luke did not record the outcome of the conversations between any of these gentlemen and Jesus.
And I believe that's intentional. I believe it is because God wants each of us to give our own answer to Jesus.
Pavarotti, the opera singer, he once told a story about when he was young as he was growing up and that his father, when he was young, introduced him to singing.
And obviously Pavarotti took to with great passion, great skill, great enthusiasm.
But at one time in Pavarotti's life, he was enrolled both in vocal lessons with a professional tenor and in college learning to be a teacher.
When he graduated from college, he faced a dilemma. Would he become a singer or a teacher?
So he went to ask his father about which course to take. His father responded,
If you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them.
For life, you must choose one chair.
Commitment is the key. Choose one chair.
So we're going to jump back to that blank piece of paper that you guys had earlier today that I asked you to fill out the one with JJ and then SDG in the lower corner.
And what I would like you to do right now is I'd like you to take your pen or your pencil and draw a line somewhere in that rectangle going horizontally.
That paper represents the symphony of your life.
Everything above that line is in the past. That line is today.
Everything in the past, you can't do a thing about it.
Each of us, if we are honest, would admit that our commitment to our life, to our legacy, to our symphony is not what we had hoped.
It is not what we had planned, nor is it the masterpiece that we wished to leave behind.
It is certainly not the piece that we would want Pavarotti to sing.
But today, today you can choose to embrace a life of commitment and change that legacy.
How do you do that?
Well, there's a number of ways.
One way is that you could follow Bach's example.
Bach did not begin his compositions with a musical note.
Rather, at the top of his compositions, you will find the letters JJ.
And at the completion of his musical manuscripts, he penned SDG as the concluding statement to his music.
Those same five short little letters that I asked you to write down.
Now, a little bit of a lesson in Latin helps us to understand what Bach's intentions were there.
And these are copies of his original manuscripts.
The letters that Bach wrote at the beginning and the end of his music are prayers.
JJ is an abbreviation for Jesus Juvah, which translated into English means, Jesus, help me.
At the beginning of every work, Bach prayed for Jesus to guide him.
The SDG at the end of his music stands for solely deal gloria.
Here, Bach prays that each piece of music will proclaim to God alone, be the glory.
Bach did not write one note without seeking God's blessings.
He also wanted the world to know that anything he accomplished, he did so that God alone would get the glory.
It is a powerful, powerful reminder that he left with us.
That if you wish to live a life beyond your own, that is consumed with your own desires, your own wants, and even your own needs,
and instead be the legacy of life filled with meaning and purpose, then it begins with commitment.
So how do I incorporate this into my life?
As you know, I'm a little bit different.
I wear this bracelet. This bracelet reminds me of the 600 children in Myanmar that we take care of over there.
It is my constant reminder.
Every day on my phone and on my tablet, at the beginning of my day, I get a little message that pings on my calendar.
J.J.
Jesus, help me today. Help me to honor you today.
And at the close of my day, at 9 p.m. every day, I get another message on my phone.
S.D.G.
And that is a question that I ask myself.
Did I bring glory to God today?
I check my commitment daily.
If you were to walk into my restroom, you would notice it on the upper left-hand corner of my mirror is a J.J.
The bottom right-hand corner is an S.D.J.
It's the first thing I see in the morning, the last thing that I see at night before I go to bed.
It reminds me as I begin my day, Jesus, I need your help.
And it closes my day with, did I bring glory to God today?
I check myself daily.
It reminds me of this because I know that the life I live is the song that I am writing.
Every thought, every word, every intention, every action, and every non-action is a note in that symphony.
And like me, regardless of the song of your life, has written up to this point,
if you wish your legacy, your life's symphony to be the masterpiece that God intended,
then from this day forward, choose a life of commitment.
And before you write that next note, begin it with J.J. and end it with S.D.G.
If you would, close in prayer with me.
Lord Jesus, I thank you for all that you have allowed, both the easy and the not so easy, into our lives this past year.
Help us to grow in the awareness that you alone are our subsidence and nobody else.
Help us to continually increase in recognition that only you can make each of us somebody in life.
May we be solely and wholly committed to our walk with you all the days of our life.
May we not turn away from the path of righteousness for your namesake and may we be wholly contented with our life with you for the rest of it.
Amen.
So if you are one of those who are watching online or if you're here today and you have not yet made that commitment to Jesus,
you have not yet crossed over that line, over that bridge to a life devoted to Christ,
a life where you receive his forgiveness of your sins and where you're welcome into his family.
If you have not yet made that step of commitment to him, today is your chance to do that.
And it does not require any radical demonstration.
It requires something that is heartfelt, however.
It requires something that you stick to it, requires the commitment that from this day forward you will move forward in your life with Christ.
But if you would like to do that today, if you're online or if you are here, I would be glad to help you down that road.
And it is just a very simple process of making a honest, heartfelt prayer to Jesus.
So if that is you today, I would like to pray for you today.
And if you would bow your heads one final time.
Lord Jesus, I want to experience your mercy today.
I surrender my life to you today.
I believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for my sins.
Forgive me my sins.
I admit that I'm a sinner in need of a Savior and I'm inviting you to be mine now.
Come into my life.
Thank you Jesus for restoring me.
Thank you for saving me.
Amen. Amen.
And if you said that prayer today and it's your first time, if you're here in the ministry center, we have a welcome packet in the back.
If you're online, contact us and we will get something over to you.
You see that text number popping up right up there.
And that, thank you guys for your time today.
Have a great rest of the weekend.
So let's continue to grow and learn together as we pursue a life of purpose and impact.
Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time.
Aloha and God bless.