THE COMMITTED MAN
This is your Friend and Minister, Dr. Joshua Uhiara, bringing you healing word
from the Master, a program of the Master’s Vessel Ministry which lets you know
that Jesus loves you as you are, but loves you so much that He will not leave you
as you are.
PRAYER
Our Father, as we come to this topic, I pray that You’d give me insight, unction; may I speak as Your oracle to Your men today in Jesus Name.
Today, I want to speak on: The Committed Man: a thoughtful and spiritually relevant topic – especially considering the time we live in now. Let’s take these two texts. The first one is from Proverbs 16:3.
Proverbs 16:3, it says,
Commit your works to the Lord,
And your thoughts will be established.
Matthew 22:37-38
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment.
I’m going to break the topic down to four parts:
- The meaning of commitment,
- The model of commitment,
- Our manner of commitment, and then conclude with,
- The blessing of the committed man
I will try to keep each of them short.
What do we mean by a committed man or the committed man? What does that mean? The dictionary says that, ‘Commitment means the state or quality of being dedicated to a course.’ “Activity…” and I will add, “of being dedicated to a person”. And from the above definition I gathered from a dear servant of God, and I will conclude that the committed man, from that definition – from what I got from this servant of God: “the committed man is a man who,
- Is dedicated to a course, activity and to a person,
- A committed man has a mind set to stick to a course to the end,
- The committed man stands on his values even if others disagree
- The committed man determines not to compromise his ethics or biblical standards,
- The committed man takes responsibility for his actions,
- The committed man trusts God when he faces impossible situations.
It is important that we know what it means to be a committed man. So please bear those in mind. And then ask yourself, Am I a committed man?
The model of commitment
A man came into human history and modeled commitment to us. His Name is Jesus Christ. He is our standard for commitment. I will limit myself to His commitment to His Father and the course for which the Father sent Him to the world.
In John 14:31, we read:
John 14:31
31 But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do.
I hope we noted that word love? Let it not escape us. That is the foundation of Christ’s commitment to the Father – love: and that is the foundation for every commitment.
Jesus was not only committed to the Father and the work the Father sent Him to do; out of love He was committed to it selflessly, responsibly – without compromise, in holiness and sacrificially. His unsurpassed level of commitment is seen in the manner in which He concluded His Father’s assignment.
Luke 9:51 says,
51 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.
He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. That sounds like a man committed. And He was fully aware of what waited Him there. And that is commitment par excellence.
And in Matthew 26:39
Matthew 26:39, we read
39 He [Jesus] went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
And we read in John 19:30,
John 19:30
30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
His commitment to the Father and His Will was complete.
There are levels of our commitment; and Jesus claims our exclusive commitment. Our commitment is first and foremost to Him – according to Luke 14:26-27
Luke 14:26-27, Jesus says,
26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
That means then, when He talked about hatred, He’s talking in relative terms. What it means is that your commitment to Him when compared with your commitment to all these other persons to look like hatred. So He claims our first and foremost commitment. And since Jesus Christ is our perfect example of commitment the committed man is expected to be committed to Him as He Jesus was committed to the Father out of love, selflessly, without compromise, in holiness and with sacrifice.
You cannot call yourself a committed man when you do not engage in the course of Christ in this manner.
Let me wrap up the manner of commitment with two other levels, other areas, where God expects our commitment to be manifested as believers:
The Family and the Church.
The committed man must be committed to his family, his wife and children. But unfortunately, some of us are not committed to our families spiritually, materially, in loving, selfless, responsible way without compromise and with sacrifice.
It is imperative that we take 1 Timothy 5:8 seriously.
1 Timothy 5:8
8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
I will read it a second time: But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Committed man!
Are you committed to your family?
The second one is your church. I must confess that the level of commitment of many men leaves much to be desired. Please ask yourself, committed man: “If every man has the level, the same level of commitment that I have will the church survive?” Ask that question and ask it seriously. Are you committed to the work of God? Are you committed to the work of God lovingly, selflessly, responsively, without compromise, in holiness – are you committed sacrificially? Some of us are like Barak who would rather let women in Israel champion the course of God. Some of us want women to champion the course of Christ.
Listen to this sorry surrender of leadership in Israel to a woman by a man who was supposed to be the committed man.
In Judges 4:6-8
6 Then she [Deborah] sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun; 7 and against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude at the River Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand’?”
8 And Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go!”
This is in spite of the gracious assurance of victory God offered him. God said, I will deliver him into your hands.
In conclusion, what are the blessings of commitment?
When you are committed to God you have earthly rewards here and now; and you will have eternal rewards greater in the future.
When you are committed to God you are respected by others. People respect those who are committee to God; and if you are committed to God you will find that your life will bring changes in the lives of people. When you are committed to God you will bring hope to the hopeless.
And finally, when you are committed to God, God will honor you in return, and your commitment honors Him.
PRAYER
May the Lord by His Spirit and grace help us to be committed to Him, to be committed to our families, to be committed to the church and to do so like He the Lord did to His Father. That is, to do so lovingly, to do so selflessly, to do so sacrificially, to do so responsibly without compromise and in holiness…in Jesus Name. Amen!