Commitment. Commitment is to flow out of love, isn't it? That perhaps is the overriding
theme of the skit that we've just seen. Today we want to think about the community of the
saints as a community of commitment. I invite you to open your Bible with me to the book
of Ephesians chapter 4 where we'll look at verses 14 through 16. As a result, maybe it'd
be good for us to stop for a moment and ask as a result of what? The answer is found in
the last few phrases where he tells us that Jesus Christ has given leadership to the church
to equip it for the work of service so that the body of Christ may be built up to oneness
of faith and to an intimate knowledge of the Son of God. As a result of that, we are no
longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about with every wind
of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth
in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from
whom the whole body being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies
according to the proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the
building up of itself in love. A lot of modifying phrases in those two verses, three verses.
Let me just strip out for you the essence of what they're saying. We are no longer
to be children, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him from whom the whole body causes the
growth of the body. The purpose of Jesus Christ in the community of saints is that it mature
into a strong, well-developed body through which Christ touches the world. While God's
purpose cannot fail for the new community, the fact is that we who are in the community,
we its saints, can fail God's purpose. In order not to fail, we must understand the
commitments that are involved in saying that we are a part of the church of Jesus Christ.
It seems to me in the text that is before us this morning, there are at least three
commitments that we need to understand if we would participate and help Him fulfill
His purpose for the new community. The first commitment is to growth. To become a strong,
well-developed body by which Christ touches the world, we must be committed to growth.
Now, He talks here about growth really in two dimensions. He talks about growing up,
growing up, verse 15. The thought here seems to be to develop into a mature understanding
of spiritual realities, to grow up into Him who is the fullness of everything. It seems
to connote that we are to mature or to grow up in our understanding of spiritual realities.
We are to grow up spiritually. There is a second aspect to growth and that is in growing
out. He speaks about the whole body causing the growth of the body for the building up
of itself. This is more than simply growing up into Christ spiritually. This is growing
out, becoming larger, more developed, extended in our size and influence. It is the same
way that we grow as human beings. As we mature, we grow in our understanding of the world
and how we relate to it. But we also grow up physically. We extend ourselves as it were.
We grow in our development, our size and our influence. The same is to be true of the body
of Jesus Christ, the new community of the saints. The growth of a human being to some
degree happens automatically. It is built into us genetically to grow. But if you stop
to think about it, it also does require some commitment on our part. We have to be committed
to go to school, to study under teachers, to do our work, to take our tests, to grow
intellectually. We have to be committed to learn how to get along with other people and
grow socially. It takes commitment to grow up in that sense. And while our bodies will
mature naturally if they are healthy, if we want them to be strong and well-developed
bodies, that also takes commitment on our part. We have to exercise. We have to eat
the right kinds of foods. We have to be sure that our bodies are growing as strongly as
they can. The body of Jesus Christ requires the growth, the commitment of its members
to its growth, to growing up and growing out and becoming all that Christ wants it to be.
The alternative is to remain immature or undeveloped like a child. There are two verbs used here
that describe the immature. They are unstable and undependable. Unstable like waves that
are driven by the wind and tossed. Undependable like something that is blown by the wind and
carried around. This happens, he says, especially by false teachers, crafty people who use cleverly
disguised ideas and methods to deceive and to lead the immature away from the truth into
error. Their goal is to instill within the immature child of God a false system of values
or beliefs that will preclude growth. We need to be aware of false teaching that is so prominent
in our world today that robs us of our maturity in Christ. If the church will mature and grow,
it requires a mindset on our part for growth. That involves discipline, sacrifice, commitment
to make it happen. There is a second commitment that is required if the church is to become
strong and well developed as a body through which Christ touches the world. It is a commitment
to truth. He says, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up. Literally, he says, truthing
it in love. Truthing it in love. It may have a couple of aspects. Number one, objective
truth. We are to speak objective truth. That is the revelation of God. What God has told
us. What is true because God has said it is true. We are to speak that in love to one
another. We are to preach it. We are to teach it. We are to disciple with it, truthing it
in love. The probably closer to his meaning here is subjective truth. That is honesty,
transparency about ourselves. We are to truth it in the church. It is easy for us to develop
masks behind which we hide so the people can't see the real us. We come to church dressed
up in our finest with our plastic smiles and our faces and our warm handshakes. Yet we
never allow anybody to see back behind that facade to understand the struggle and the
burdens and the disappointments and the tears that are there. If we want our body, our community
of saints to grow up and be well developed, if we want to touch the world as Christ lives
through us, then we need to truth it. We need to be honest. We need to be transparent. That's
hard to do when there are four or five hundred people in a place. But when we get into smaller
groups, now there is an atmosphere. There is a place where you can begin trusting. You
can learn to know that it is okay to be yourself and even let your pimples show. You remember
that stuff you used to put on your face when you were a teenager? It was not only a medication
to dry your skin, but it was made in the old days to be flesh colored so it covered up
and blimish. What we didn't realize is that too often we put it on thick and by the time
we got to school it was cracked and everybody could see we had this thing on our face anyway.
We weren't hiding much. There of course is a sense when all of us come to church with
that spiritual clercil on our faces and we are hoping others can't see, but there has
to be some time in our lives when we wash our faces and for our spiritual health we
let others see what we are struggling with. You know why? Because they are struggling
with the same things and then we help each other. If we want to grow up and be a strong
force that is powerful in the world, then we need to learn to commit ourselves to being
honest and transparent with others. A third commitment is called for in our text if we
would be a body that would be strong and well developed through which Christ can touch the
world. It is a commitment to work, to work. He says, from whom the whole body being fitted
and held together by that which every joint supplies according to the proper working of
each individual part. The body to be a healthy well developed body requires the work of service.
He gives us a hint as to what this involves and using those two verbs that we just read
of being fitted and held together. To be fitted means to be joined together. It is used only
here and one other time in the whole New Testament back in chapter 2 and verse 21. It means to
be brought together, to join together. That's what God wants to do and through the work
of service as we are ministering and serving Him in the body we are bringing people together,
connecting Christians to other Christians, something we all need. It takes work to do
that. It's worth it. When I am involved in serving the Lord in the local church it makes
me connectable. And there is somebody else who is serving the Lord and because he is
serving he or she is connectable and we can get together. It talks about being held together.
This refers to those parts of our bodies that hold the rest of us together. I feel like
I am coming apart this morning. I was doing some work around the house on Friday and got
up apparently the wrong way and pulled something in my back. It's okay when I sit down. It's
okay when I stand up but getting in between the two is a problem. I think that some of
what is holding me together is beginning to come apart as I get older. He is talking here
about those parts of us, the joints, the ligaments, the muscles that hold our body together. We
are out there working, serving the Lord in ministry in our local church. What are we
doing? We are not only connecting people and ourselves but we are holding the body together.
We are pulling it together. That's the work that we must commit ourselves to. He tells
us here that the head supplies what we need. That which every joint supplies he says. Literally
says that which every contact point supplies. It seems to mean that as you and I come together
in our service, in our work for Christ and there is a contact point, the head provides
right there what we need to be cemented together. Our head, the Lord Jesus Christ, knows the
nourishment, the direction, the life that we need so that this work can take place.
We can be connected as each individual part of us does the work. Each of us is some part
in the body of Christ. We each have some role to play. What I do, what you do, it's all
important according to the proper working, he says, of each individual part. If some
part isn't working then the body is going to lack something. To some degree the body
is not going to grow up as healthy and as well developed for Christ's use as it ought
to. But he tells us when every part is working properly, the result is that the body promotes
its own growth in love. And the body then grows into Christ and the body grows from
Christ outward so that God's purpose is realized. His purpose, I repeat again, is that the community
of the saints mature into a strong, well-developed body through which Jesus Christ touches the
world in which we live. It doesn't stop with our being built up. That's the means to the
end that Jesus Christ be able to touch the world around us with His grace, His saving
grace. Now that purpose, I again repeat, will be fulfilled and realized to the extent that
you and I are willing to commit ourselves to what we've talked about. We're willing
to commit ourselves to growth. And instead of saying, we don't need to do anymore, we've
done enough to say, Lord, I commit myself to grow spiritually into Christ and to grow
outwardly in my influence for Him. Lord, I commit myself to being truthful, to speaking
the truth of God's Word to others, but also being truthful and honest in my relationships
with others. Lord, I commit myself to work, to doing my thing, what You've gifted and
called me to do in the body. I commit myself to that. We're living in a day when commitment
is a dirty word. That's why the skip this morning was so especially powerful, because
historically in our culture at least, marriage has been based upon a mutual commitment that's
been strong. And today that's slipping. And even the marriage vows are being changed many
times to reflect the fact that this is not a commitment till death do us part. This is
a commitment as long as we love one another. But commitment is what God calls for, not
only in marriage, but in the church. Commitment. There are three or four observations about
commitment that I'd like to make in closing. One is that commitment is a mindset first
and then an action. First, the will determines commitment. Following that, the actions of
the life fulfill it. It's a mindset first. This is beautifully illustrated in a young
man in our junior high group. I would like to have called him up here this morning so
that he could share his story personally with you, but he's on retreat. Junior high retreat.
But a few weeks ago, our students were challenged to go to the flagpole to pray. Some of you
read about that in the newspaper. They showed pictures of it, in fact, in the media of students
all across America, millions of them, went to their flagpoles to pray for their schools.
This one student goes to a local middle school where there's not a strong Christian presence.
And that morning, having made up his mind, he was going to evidence his commitment to
Christ by going to the flagpole. He went to the flagpole alone and stood there for 20
minutes by himself praying for his school. To me, that young man is a hero. That young
man shows the kind of commitment that I want to emulate in my life, and I hope you do too.
It began in a mindset. He said, I'm going to do this, and he followed through. The second
observation about commitment I'd like to make is that commitment should flow from love.
As we saw earlier in the skit, commitment should flow from love. But if love is not
there, commitment is still right. I hear some people say, well, if I don't really feel
like doing it, I shouldn't do it. It doesn't do any good anyway. God isn't pleased with
it. Wrong. Wrong thinking. Commitment should flow from love, but if love isn't there,
commitment is still right. We ought still to do it. That's true in a marriage. Sometimes
I hear a spouse say, well, I don't love her anymore. I don't love him anymore. So what?
You committed yourself to marriage. Till death you do part. Love can be rekindled. You may
have to work at it, but it can be rekindled. The same is true in ministry. You may get
tired teaching that Sunday school class. You may get weary working in the nursery. You
may feel like you don't want to do this or that anymore. The point is that commitment
is commitment. And if on a certain weekend I'm tired on Sunday and I just don't show
up, that's failure on my part. Because I've made a commitment to be there. Now, commitment
ought to flow out of love. That's the ideal. That's where it ought to be. And most of
the time is, but even if love isn't there, commitment is still right. Commitment is still
commitment. Now, there are those who say, well, that's legalistic. I hardly think so.
It's godly. Thirdly, commitment is second nature to a genuine Christian. Commitment
is second nature to a genuine Christian. Why? Because Jesus Christ loved us and gave Himself
for us. He made a commitment. And when we come to Him, we receive His nature. Therefore,
it is part of our nature to be committed. Not that we always follow through the way
we should. But a Christian without commitment is like making a promise with one's fingers
crossed. There's something wrong there. Finally, commitment to Christ should go hand
in hand with commitment to His church. You cannot separate Jesus Christ from the new
community of the saints. It's impossible. To be committed to Jesus Christ means committed
to the community of the saints, to His work in the world. It means being committed to
work, to truth, to growth. A few weeks ago, I was privileged to be in the church in Covington,
Kentucky where I had pastored back in the 1970s. We were in the area because of taking
our son to college. But on that particular weekend, they were honoring a staff member
who's been in that church 35 years. He's been through five pastors since 1958, serving
God, faithful, wonderful man. I was invited to come to the reception to say a few words
regarding my experience with Bob. And afterward, we were in a receiving line in this room.
And in came the saints, people that I've known in years past and worked with side by
side. I was impressed with how many of them are still serving Christ. I think of one man
who's 88 or 89, was on our staff back in the 70s, had been in the 60s and the 50s having
joined the staff back in the 40s, a maintenance man. And there he was up in his upper 80s
still coming into the church, volunteering time, working that way. And then there came
some of the ladies in the Fidelis class. Fidelis means what? Faithful. They're appropriately
named. When you graduate from the Fidelis class, you're with the Lord. That's the
group it is. And a lot of them have graduated. I'm telling you, some of these ladies, 90,
92, 94 years of age out there that evening for the reception, in Sunday school almost
every week, they let them out of the nursing home. If they're not sick in bed, if they're
able to be there, they are there. Mabel wasn't there though. I've told you about Mabel
before. She's gone to be with Christ. She's one of the graduates. Back in the 70s, we
honored Mabel for 35 years of not having missed Sunday school once. The last number of years
of that 35, she lived 35 or 40 miles away in Glencoe, Kentucky and drove summer, winter,
and made no difference by herself all the way to Sunday school, 35 years. She was there
several years longer than that without missing, went to be with the Lord a few years ago.
I want to tell you something. When I looked at those saints coming through the line, I
knew why Calvary Baptist Church is the church it is. It's not because it's had famous
pastors. It's not because it's had wonderful deacons. It's because the people of that
church are committed to it. The people who call themselves members of Calvary Baptist
Church are committed to its growth, committed to truth, committed to work, and are willing
to lay down whatever price it takes so that Jesus Christ can touch northern Kentucky through
the ministry of that community. There are skeptics who say that you can't have churches
like that anymore. I hope they're wrong. And from what I see in the lives of some of
you, I'm encouraged to believe the skeptics are wrong because I see the same kind of commitment
from young and old in Grace Church, Roseville. This morning I want to call all of us to that
commitment. It's not enough that some be committed. We must all who name the name of Christ, who
say we are the bride of Christ, it is for all of us to be committed to Him and to the
church that He loves. Let's pray. Would you stand with me please? I hope this morning
that you sense in your heart a drawing of the Spirit of God to commitment so that you
no longer are willing to stand on the sidelines if that's the case. You want to get into it.
I hope that you sense a drawing to commitment so that as you are committed, others will
join you. And together with each individual part, properly working, this body of Jesus
Christ too will be built up in love. Let's sing from our hearts.