Website: http://www.destinycovenant.org

A Disciple is COMMITTED to Doing Life Together with Christ and His Church

Romans 6:3 Throw yourselves whole-heartedly and full time – remember, you’ve been raised from the dead! – into God’s way of doing things (The Message)

The second Foundation for effective living is COMMITMENT. COMMITMENT means to PLEDGE yourself to a position NO MATTER WHAT THE COST.

There are 4 emotional Barriers to Committing completely to God:

1. RESENTMENT TOWARDS GOD
Proverbs 19:3 People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord (NLT).

We often get angry at God for the foolish things we choose to do. Or sometimes, we blame God for bad things that happen to us. God has given something vital to human existence called ‘freewill’ which means bad things do happen to good people. If God was to eliminate freewill, we would reduce to being merely ‘robots’ with no sense of autonomy in making our own choices in life.

2. DISTRACTIONS IN OUR CULTURE
Mark 4:19 The attractions of this world and the delights of wealth, the search for success and lure of nice things come in and crowd out God. (NLT)

There are 3 stages of Life:
· Under 25 years is pursuit of PLEASURE. Everything is driven by what gives us pleasure.
· Between 25-50 years is gaining POSSESSIONS. We are at a state of establishing ourselves and want to accumulate as many possessions as possible. We are not satisfied with what we have, we have to compete with others.
· Above 50 years we desire PRESTIGE, which makes us feel important and that we have arrived to a position that demands respect from others.

It is not that God does not want us to have these things, but he does not want us to RUN after these worldly values. If we put God first, he will also add these things into our lives.Don't get seduced into the value system of this world, which is based on pleasure, possessions and prestige. If you get seduced into the world's system then you would spend your entire life trying to get more pleasure, more possessions, more prestige and you will have no time to fill the reason you were created for in the first place. In other words, you will miss God’s purpose for your life.So the first step in building a foundation is choose your source. Where am I going to get my values?

3. DESIRE FOR INDEPENDENCE
Proverbs 10:8 The wise are glad to be instructed, but self-sufficient fools fall flat on their faces. (NLT)

There are two tragedies in life OVERCOMMITTED and UNDERCOMMITTED people. OVERCOMMITTED people try to do too many things so they never end up giving 100% to anything. UNDERCOMMITTED people never commit to do anything significant in their lives. They just live for themselves.

4. FEAR OF COMMITMENT1 John 4:18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear (NIV).All these barriers are just excuses. In Ecclesiastes 11:4 it says if you wait for the perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. (NLT)

How to make a TOTAL COMMITMENT to Christ:
• Give up your RIGHT to do whatever you want with your life.• Give up control of your RESOURVES.
• Give up pursuing WORLDLY VALUES.

What are the costs of not following Jesus?
• You will LOSE the ultimate meaning of life.
• You will LOSE the joy of expressing your God-given purpose.
• You will LOSE eternal life and rewards in heaven.

** A Big Idea from Pastor Paul's sermon on 5th March 2006, titled "The Call of Jesus to 100% Commitment".