THE DEMANDS OF COMMITMENT 

LUKE 14:25-33

          Too often the call to Christian discipleship is given with a focus on the great benefits and advantages offered by God. Yes, there are eternal benefits and advantages, but salvation and discipleship involve much more than what we acquire from God.  Here in this passage we see a large crowd of people following Jesus.  Jesus was not at all impressed by the numbers that followed him because he knew that there was a great cost to truly being one of his disciples.  The statements made by Jesus here are to point out that a person must pay the ultimate price, which is, all that one is and all that one has in order to follow Christ.  When Christ says here that a man who does not hate his family can not be his disciple he is not saying that a person can not love his family and still follow Christ.  What he is saying is that Christ is to be first in our lives even before family and self.  The words “hate not” mean to not show preference, to disregard.  In other words Christ is saying the person who comes to me and is not willing to disregard his family and show them no preference over me, that man cannot be my disciple.     All—even family and self—are to be put behind Christ and His mission. All must be denied and put behind a person's love and devotion to Christ and His cause.

          Often when we accept Christ as Savior, we do so without understanding the great commitment we are making.  We did not know and did not use the wisdom of the tower builder in verse 28.  In other words we did not sit down first and count or consider the cost of discipleship.  Because we do not count the cost before hand, many still approach their relationship and responsibilities to Christ as something they are trying.  If it does not work, if they are not comfortable with it or if they don’t like it, they will just quit and try something else.

      Now I don’t want this message to be discouraging to anyone, but I want to let you know that being a disciple of Christ can not be just something you are trying.  It must be a way of life.  It must be who you are.  So if you have not counted the cost before, today I want you to stop and begin the process of doing so.  Just as Christ wanted the multitudes following him then to consider the cost of discipleship, he wants us to do likewise. Why is this important?  It is important because a false profession damages the Kingdom of God. A false profession causes the world to mock and charge true believers with being hypocritical.  False professions cause prospective believers to turn sour and turn away from the hope salvation.  False professions cause true believers to become discouraged and to be hindered in their ministry for Christ.  False professions in no way bring glory to God.  So today even as Christ told those following him to count the cost, I want to encourage you today to consider your commitment to Christ.  The title of today’s message is “The Demands of Commitment”.

ROMANS 12:1-2

Paul starts this passage by saying “I beseech you brethren”.  The word beseech is stronger than just to encourage. He says “I implore you, I urge you, and I beg you to devote yourselves to God. Note that Paul is saying this not to the world, that is, to the lost but rather it is directed to brothers in Christ.  Paul is strongly urging, and I would go as far as to say he was begging believers to show total commitment to God.  In that total commitment he gives three things that believers must do.  If we, then are going to count the cost of discipleship we must understand these 3 demands of commitment.

1.  The believer is to present his body as a living         sacrifice to God.

This lets us know that God demands the believer's body. God is not only interested in man's spirit He is vitally interested in having our bodies also. We are to present our body to God. The dedication of our body is not be made to self. In other words we cannot be dedicated to living for God and living as we want or doing our own thing.  The dedication of our bodies is not to be made to others: living for family, wife, husband, children, parent, friends or even employers.  We are not to dedicate ourselves to living for anything else, not houses, lands, money, cars, possessions, profession, recreation, retirement, luxury, power, recognition, or even fame.  Our body, i.e., our life is to be offered to God and to God alone.  We are to sacrificially be living for God and God alone.

  The believer is to present or offer his body to God as a living sacrifice. God will not force us to do this.  We are to offer our bodies as a       sacrificial free will offering.

LEVITICUS 1:3-4

The burnt sacrifice was a voluntary offering. It was sacrificially given by a man to acknowledge his sinfulness and show his recognition of the need for forgiveness.  It like salvation is voluntary because God does not force man to seek relationship with him. He invites us to relationship.  We voluntarily accept that relationship.  This agreement to enter into and maintain relationship with God in the Old Testament was shown through the burnt offering.  For the believer today we show our agreement and commitment to entering into and maintaining a relationship with God by our sacrificial dedication of our lives to him. The Old Testament believers took animals and offering them to God as sacrifices. The New Testament believer is to make the same kind of sacrificial offering to God, but the believer's offering is not to be the sacrifice of an animal's flesh and blood. The offering and sacrifice of the New Testament believer is to be his own body, his own life.  We are to offer our body as a living sacrifice.

· A living sacrifice means a constant, continuous sacrifice, not just an occasional dedication of one's body. A person does not sacrifice his body to God today, and then take his body back into his own hands and do his own thing tomorrow. A living sacrifice means that a person dedicates his body to live for God and to keep on living for God. We know that Jesus said in Luke 9:23 that we must daily take up our cross and follow him.  We know that taking up our cross means surrendering our will to God’s will.  Counting the cost means deciding that we will not only know this, but that we will also do this.  Why, because sacrificing our lives is one of the demands of being committed to God?

·  I CORINTHIANS 6:20 - A living sacrifice means that the body sacrifices its own desires and lives for God. The body seeks only to glorify God and thus the body lives a holy, righteous, pure, clean, and moral life for God. The body does not pollute, dirty, nor contaminate itself with the sins and corruptions of the world: not with either the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, nor the pride of life. The believer's body is sacrificed to God and dedicated to live as He commands. 

·  I CORINTHIANS 10:31-33 A living sacrifice means that the body lives for God by serving God. Everything that we do is to be done only with glorifying God in our focus. It means that the body sacrifices and gives up its own ambitions and desires, and is dedicated to the service of God while upon this earth. The body gives itself to the work of proclaiming the love of God and of ministering to a world that desperately needs God. Paul said that he did not seek his own profit, but he sought the well being of many that they might be saved. The commitment that we have made demands that we sacrifice ourselves in service to others.  We must be committed to serving others because God has declared that this is how we serve him.  Jesus gave birth to a church of servants and if we are to be apart of that church we must be committed to serving others.

          Thus, the believer is to dedicate his body to God as a living sacrifice in the home, church, school, office, plant, field, restaurant, club, plane, car or bus, wherever and whenever. No matter where the believer's body is, his body is to be sacrificed for God. It is not just what we do at the gate of the temple or in church. Sacrificing to God is an offering of ourselves in every act of the human body. The world, that is, the whole universe, is the sanctuary of God; and the believer's body is the temple of God. Therefore, every act of the believer's body is to be an act of service to God.

PHILIPPIANS 3:7-11

          As believers we must truly understand in the depths of our heart that our commitment demands that we sacrifice every part and aspect of our lives to the glory of God. Once we understand this demand of commitment, we must count the cost.  We must ask ourselves, “Am I willing to meet this demand of commitment”.  If the answer is yes, then we will find ourselves like Paul, considering anything that we lose for Christ, any of our desires that go unmet, or our goals that remain incomplete we will consider them unimportant or valueless to us.  Why will we be able to see desires, goals and accomplishments that are motivated by self as valueless?  Because we have counted the cost and determined that nothing is more important to us than knowing Jesus, being changed into his image and one day being resurrected with him and by him to live and fellowship with God forever. 

          Yes, once we understand this demand of commitment, we must count the cost.  We must search ourselves asking ourselves, “Am I willing to meet this demand of commitment”.  If your answer to this question is no, then you are saying that you are not sold out to Christ and that you value your own desires more than you desire to glorify God.  Matthew 7:21-23 says “Not every one that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”  It is the will of God that we offer ourselves as living sacrifices to him, giving our lives completely and totally over to him.  If  we say that sacrificing our lives to Him is a cost to high to pay, then we disobey his will and forfeit eternal life with him.  Do not deceive yourself or be deceived by the enemy into believing that such a demand of commitment is not required.

          Be assured that one cost demanded by our commitment is the complete sacrifice of our bodies and thus our lives for him.  As you count the cost today I trust that you will see this demand of commitment, the sacrifice of your life as only a small price to pay for the great reward of knowing Christ and eternal fellowship with God.