Holy Ambition - Exercise Personal Commitment, Part 2

Rarely in my life have I experienced such pain as when I make a commitment I know God wants me to make, and then I blow it.

I don't follow through. Today, three keys to keeping your commitments that matter most. Stay with us. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry featuring the daily Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drouin, and in just a minute, Chip will pick up in his series, Holy Ambition, Turning God-Shaped Dreams into Reality. In this program, Chip continues emphasizing how we can keep our commitments even when everything in us wants to cut and run. Now before we begin, if this is your first time listening to Living on the Edge or you just want to learn more about what we do, go to livingontheedge.org.

There you'll find tons of resources on a wide range of topics and countless programs for you to enjoy. Or if you prefer, the Chip Ingram app is also a great way to get plugged in with our ministry. Okay, if you have a Bible handy, turn now to Nehemiah chapter 3 for the second half of Chip's message, Exercise Personal Commitment. Part of what we've learned about motivation and sustaining commitments is that when you get isolated and feel like you've got to lose weight on your own, break an addiction on your own, keep a commitment to God on your own, take a new step of faith on your own, usually it will last two days to two weeks.

But if there's people, if there's accountability, if there's encouragement, if you know you're not alone, then you hang in there. Next observation is each group worked near their homes, or at least was whenever possible. In verse 10, verse 22, verse 26, 28, 29, and 30, and so they didn't have to travel.

And the other is there was sort of a godly vested interest. Can you imagine saying, okay, we're going to rebuild this part of the wall right here, and the walls were—I mean, don't think of a little wall. These were huge walls. You could drive a chariot on top of these walls. And then inside the walls, the housing would be built. So, my living room might be here, and then the external wall be here. I'm thinking I'm going to do a pretty good job on this part of the wall if, you know, the catapults and the stones start coming, and the arrows and the spears.

I think I'm going to make it pretty thick and pretty good. I'm not going to do one of those, well, this is good enough for government work. Right? And so, he motivates them not only by the great intrinsic, we're doing this for God, but he puts them in a place that highly motivates them to work in a way that has their best interest in mind. Notice the context. It's preceded by the apex of motivation, and then it's followed by a big section of opposition.

You need to remember that. At the end of chapter two, it's let us arise and build. Nehemiah's here. We're going to do it. Come on, gang. Let's make a difference. You'd have been in those moments, right? You know, people stand on top of chairs, and this is what we're going to do.

Let's go for it. Well now, this is how you sustain it. You can get fired up, but he has them with people. They have clear roles. They make a very specific commitment. They're doing it someone before them, someone next to them. We're going to learn in just a second that some people are going to repair, and other people are going to build, because our giftedness are different.

Some people are really great at fixing stuff, and other people think I can't fix anything, but they're great with a clean sheet of paper, and they can build stuff. But then in the context, chapters four, five, and six will be about opposition. I mean, any time you take a step, whether you decide to start really reading your Bible, or really praying, or working on your marriage, or saying as a family, we're going to do something radical. We're going to try and eat together like at a table with nothing blaring like two or three times a week. I'm going to actually tuck my kids in and read them a story.

I'm going to get with a group of single people, and we're going to make a covenant about making a difference in our workplaces, and we're going to be sexually pure. Every time you take any kind of step of faith like that, it'll usually get worse before it gets better. So chapter four, you get external opposition.

In chapter five, there's internal opposition, and then chapter six, he gets personal attack. So people who make these kind of commitments, they change. They change people around them, and they change the world. But it usually starts with some very significant time of motivation, and it gets clear, this is what we've got to do.

And then they start this process, and usually it's followed by things that are very difficult. Notice who started the work. It's the high priest. Different people have responsibility. The high priest was the highest representative of God, and notice the very first line. He models that. The ragtag group finished it in 52 days, and I have a friend who's an engineer who said, this is an absolute engineering miracle.

It's an impossibility. And then notice they worked in affinity groups. If you could study it a little bit longer, the priests worked together. The merchants, the goldsmiths worked together.

They worked in families, servants, and then they worked in geographical areas. So they knew each other. I mean, when you work, you're more motivated to work with people that you kind of have some kinship with.

I mean, it's true today. Like, some of you are like real techy, and you can talk in languages that I don't understand. And some of you are more artistic, and some of you are more athletic, and some of you come from different parts of the country, and some come from different countries. And there's just an affinity of culture and background that as we work together with people that we can understand, it helps us sustain motivation. It helps us keep our patience.

We understand one another. And then the final thing here is that notice there were two special commendations. In verse 5, if you skip down there, you can see that he talks about the nobles. They didn't put their shoulder to the work. So now imagine, first imagine all these individual names. God doesn't accomplish His will by some big blanket thing. Think of all the individual names, and imagine maybe the very next generation.

These people are like your father or your grandfathers. God accomplishes things not by groups and movements and programs. He does it one person, one life at a time.

And so that's how important individuals are, all these specific names. And He knows. He knows who's slacking off.

And then if you skip down to verse 20, notice the Stalaburuk. It says, He works zealously. God sees people's motives. He sees people's hearts. He knows where you're at. He knows where I'm at. And in all this long list, He says, you know, this fellow really didn't carry his weight, and this person over here. And so all those are observations, right?

Is that fair? I mean, it's in there, right? We'll turn to the back page, and let's turn those observations into some very specific principles about how you can help make and sustain your personal commitments. And as we do, can I ask you to lean back? I mean, when I study the Bible, that's just what I do, okay? When I studied this for the first time, I read it over a bunch of times. And then I started looking, and I put a line under all the gates. And then I started thinking, there's a lot of people, so I circled the different people. But then I began to ask, why? Why is chapter three here? Why did this particular group at this particular time with this particular leader actually accomplish the task when others had failed? What is it that I can learn about these groups and the affinities and building and repairing and after Him and next to Him that would help me personally make commitments and sustain them?

I mean, because at the end of the day, God didn't put this in His Word just so that we could understand Nehemiah 3. He knew that we'd be sitting in this room in this day with the issues that you face and I face. Now before I go on, here's what I'd like you to think about. Where are you at in your personal commitment to Jesus Christ?

I mean, is it an emotional one, an intellectual one? Is it, yeah, I'd like to be more committed, but boy, you know, I'm kind of afraid to because I'm three steps forward, nine steps backwards. Where are you at?

I mean, privately, no hands or anything. But for those of you that are married, down deep in your heart, where are you at in your commitment to your mate? Or like I shared, I mean, there were times that I just felt like God, this isn't working. I'm really frustrated. I mean, I went through the I'm not very fulfilled right now. I'm not very happy. In fact, I'm not happy at all. And then the enemy comes in and tries to tempt you, right? So where are you there?

Or how committed are you, some of you that are parents, to really saying, I will own the moral responsibility of raising my kids that regardless of their SAT scores, how well they do in athletics, they're going to be godly kids. See, that changes stuff. And I don't know where it is. I've got my journey when I'm thinking about, God, what do you want me to really refresh and renew my commitments? But I want you to think about that right now. I mean, for some of you, maybe as a single person, you're saying, you know, I'm sort of committed to sexual purity. You know where that lands you, don't you? I'm sort of committed to only dating someone who really walks with God, unless he's very good-looking, or unless she's really hot. And I think there's real spiritual potential, and I could help her, right? Been there and done that. So with that, what I want to do now is I want to walk through these three principles, and I want you to pray.

I want you to pray and say, God, would you help clarify in my mind and my heart where you want me to make, or where you want me to further sustain personal commitments in my life? How to make and sustain personal commitments, number one, is the principle of cooperation. We never get beyond how we're getting along.

Everything that ever gets accomplished in life is done in the context of relationships. And so here's the key. Recognize people are different.

Nehemiah did that. Recognize people are different. Second, recognize the immense value of every person.

Realize that whether it's at work or whether it's your family, I mean, you're human. Some of your kids frustrate you in some seasons, and some make you very happy. Some are very easy, and some are very hard. Some people in your small group you connect with.

Some make you nuts. But just recognize that it's not bad or good, it's they're different. And third, recognize that our common goal or common vision is greater than our individual differences. It's the principle of cooperation. You will never get beyond how you're getting along. And if you find yourself and your heart critical of people, even if it's only in your mind, if you find yourself always pointing out what's wrong with your mate, or what's wrong with some of your kids, or what's wrong with some people in this church, or what's wrong with this, or what's wrong with that, or if you find yourself in little coffee shops talking about other people that sort of have this little negative slant, I will tell you what.

You won't make progress. Personal commitments are fostered when we feel like we belong. I believe when those people started on that wall together, they felt like I belong.

I'm a part of the team. Nehemiah, God's got His hand on Nehemiah. God brought him here. We know it's God's will to rebuild these walls. We know what God promised to do in the city. We know we're God's people, and I belong. I'm going to be a part, and I'm going to do my little section on the wall. And when you feel like you belong, it fosters commitment.

When you feel like you're visiting, when you feel like it's them working on the wall, when you feel like it's that church, when you find yourself in conversations talking about what they're doing—and it's not negative. I mean, it's a journey. It's a process, but there's not that sense that you belong. It's sort of an evaluative, well, this is what they're doing. Here's what they're trying to do. Here's what—that's a lot different than this is what we're doing. This is where we're going. This is where we have challenges. So, let me ask you, do you feel like you belong?

And maybe the second question is, what do you need to do to take that next step? Because otherwise, we've created this culture, especially in America, but many places around the world where we actually think, quote, church is a building, and that church is an event that happens sometime usually on Sunday morning. And you go and sit and listen to someone talk and sing some songs, hopefully feel a little bit better about yourself, because you've done it.

And then live the other six days almost totally apart from that experience, but feel like I went to church. Therefore, what do you think, God? It's that subtle consumer mindset versus church is us people together, connected together to accomplish His purposes. And His purpose here in this church is to help us love one another and love people outside this room and help Christians live like Christians.

That's God's call, and that's a 24-7-365 event. The second principle is the principle of coordination. The multiple efforts of a group are far greater than the sum of its parts. It's synergy. In other words, this group couldn't get anything going. They had a catalytic leader in Nehemiah.

He cast a clear vision. People understood, I want you to do this part, this part, this part, this part. You come from different places.

You can work with people that you know, but from this section to this section, you do this. They do that, and the sum of the parts in 52 days did a miracle. That's how God has always worked. It's true in Acts chapter 2. It's true in the early church. It was true in the Reformation. It was true with Wesley and Whitfield.

It was true in the early days of America, and it's true in different parts of the world now. It's the principle of cooperation. Well, how do you do that? Well, first we recognize we need each other. There are no lone rangers. You can't make it on your own. I can't make it on my own.

I mean, even the 12-step people know that. You can't make it on your own. Recognize there's a job that only you can do. Personal commitments grow when we know that we are needed. Do you understand there's this amazing connection between commitment and love? Jesus said, he that has my commands and keeps them, he it is that loves me, and he that loves me will be loved of my Father. And then here's the promise, and we will disclose ourselves to you. You get close and meet and touch and feel and experience and get transformed by God, not by just soaking in information.

It's by receiving truth, and then I respond to the truth, and I connect with other people and I discover my gifts, and then together we do this thing, and he creates something out of it. Here's what I want you to hear. You're needed.

You're needed. What happens in the church and the life is just the byproduct. What happens is the most fulfilled people, the people that had their names written in this chapter, were people who saw God could use an ordinary person like me.

And what they did is they moved off of looking at the rubble and assuming that this is the way it's going to be, and they aligned around a vision, and the sum total of the parts did something beyond what they could ever dream. Third principle is a principle of motivation. The value of the project to the worker will determine the value of the worker to the project. You might have to think that one over very carefully, but I mean think about the value of the project to the worker.

How important is it will determine how important that person is? Some people walked—when's the last time you walked 17 miles? Anyone? I've gone up that quick silver trail. I've done four or five miles, and uphill and downhill.

It's like, man, you've got to be kidding me. These people, in this text, they walked 26 miles. They didn't take the bus. They didn't take their bicycle. They didn't say, hey, let's take a little scooter. I mean, if they were rich today, maybe they had a donkey.

But they walked 26 miles to get to work, to get to help, and they left the harvest behind. You understand that you are sitting in a room that's been paved by the sacrifice and the commitment of people that have given their time, their energy, their money, and many places all around the world their life so the Gospel could reach you and reach me. And our responsibility is to take that baton and move forward and do it for the next generation. The motivation must begin with leaders and influencers.

I mean, it's just life the way it is. And if you're the head of your home, dad, you're an influencer. If you're the glue of the home, mom, you're an influencer. If you're a student, and people kind of look to you because of academics or athletics, you're an influencer.

If you're a single person, and you realize that when you move, everyone says, what are we going to do tonight? And you say, let's do this, and people do that, you're an influencer. It always begins with leaders. There's a stewardship there.

You're not better than anybody else. If you're a business owner, if you're an entrepreneur, if you're a CEO, if you're a manager, you need to understand that where you move, networks move with you. So you need to really examine the stewardship and say, what vision am I going to align my life, my time, and my energy around?

Because that's how that thing happened on the wall then, and that's how it's going to happen on the wall here. Motivation is sustained by godly vested interest. We want to help people serve and volunteer. We want to help them serve and volunteer in a way where they get refreshed. We want to help them serve and volunteer so they become better parents. We want to help them serve and volunteer where they get loved and encouraged. We want to help them serve and volunteer where they discover their gifts, where they learn about how to align their finances so that five years from now, instead of being debt up to here and feeling under pressure, they'll say, you know what, I paid all that stuff off. I just applied biblical principles. There's people that really helped me. We want people to volunteer and serve in such a way where they say, you know what, I didn't tell anyone about that kind of little private porn addiction or that drug addiction or that little alcohol addiction or that people addiction or that workaholic addiction, but when I got involved and it got saved and I got that out there and the word of God and the grace of God and the people of God, I'm free.

That's how it works. Notice what happens. The completed wall would mean protection from their enemies.

The completed wall would mean provision for a better life, and the completed wall would mean productivity and impact in their world. Personal commitments are sustained when the vision becomes our vision. So where are you at in your personal commitment with God? Are you a little fair weather, like when there's a kid in ICU or you need a job? I am very committed to God.

Help me, help me, help me. Or have you signed up and said, you know what, I get one little trip through this thing called time, and I'm going to live forever, and I'm really glad my sins are forgiven, and I'm really glad I'm heaven bound, but I don't want to waste this. I want to do exactly what you want me to do, and I want to pay whatever price because the rewards are astounding now and eternal later. At the end of the day, whether it's in your marriage or your parenting, whether it's in your singleness, whether it's at work, it really boils down to having the heart of a servant that said, Lord, use me. Why don't we take a moment and do that right now? There are a few things that can overwhelm us with guilt, like knowing that we've made a commitment to God, to a mate, to a friend, and then just dropping the ball and knowing we've blown it. And so I want to pray for you right now.

You may not be able to close your eyes. You may be on the highway or you might be listening to this as you're doing something in the office, but could you pause mentally with me and let me pray for you? Holy Father, we want to thank you that you are a good God and that you are a merciful God, that you are slow to anger and your abounding and loving kindness. And you are mindful that we are people of dust and people of flesh and that we make the best of intentions and we tell you we want to do what's right and then we find ourselves blowing it. We do exactly the thing we said we didn't want to do, or we don't follow through on the very thing that we promised we would do.

And we want to own that. We want to come to you and say that we're sorry. We ask you for your forgiveness.

We would plead the blood of the Lord Jesus in our behalf as the forgiveness and the cleansing of our sin. And we want to be restored. And Lord, we also want to draw near to you now. We want the grace and the strength to renew our commitment to find people that we can team up with and get support and help so that we can be the men, be the women that you want us to be. Lord, I pray for those that have given up on their marriage and that is not your will that you would give them the grace at this moment to be committed and do what's ever necessary to make it work. I pray for those that have made a commitment to you and have wandered and know that today's the day they need to return and know that you will forgive and restore. Lord, will you give them the grace to do that right now?

I pray for those kids that have wandered away from their parents and their family in the faith and they need to do a 180, do a U-turn even as they're hearing my voice. Will you give them the grace right now at this moment to decide, I'm going back. I'm going to make it right with my folks. I'm going to do what I know is right. Almighty God, we pray for your grace to keep the commitments that we know are your will. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Thanks, Chip. Well, if you're looking for some help in recommitting your life to Jesus and developing a deeper relationship with Him, we have a great resource for you. It's Chip's series, True Spirituality, Becoming a Romans 12 Christian. Through his teaching, you'll discover a clear blueprint to become a genuine follower of Christ. And besides the broadcast, let me encourage you to order the book or get the small group resources. There's a lot of ways to experience the foundational truths found in Romans 12.

To learn more about all of the series resources for True Spirituality, go to special offers at livingontheedge.org or on the Chip Ingram app. As we wrap up today's program, I have to tell you that one of the greatest things that happens through Living on the Edge is people make Jesus the Lord of their life. I've read literally thousands of emails, and the change that happens is just absolutely amazing.

It's a chain reaction. I just want to thank all of you that support the ministry financially because when someone makes Jesus Lord, their marriage changes, their parenting changes, who shows up at work changes. Thank you very, very much for your financial support. If you have not supported us or haven't supported us in a while or would just kind of like to make it a habit and maybe do it monthly, today would be a great day to say, you know something? Christians need to live like Christians, and I'd like to help Living on the Edge.

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Again, that's 888-333-6003. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. As we close, if you're looking for a way to get more out of the teaching, let me encourage you to download our message notes. This helpful tool is available for every program. These notes include a clear outline, all of the scripture references, and lots of fill-ins to help you remember what you're learning. You can get them at livingontheedge.org, under the broadcasts tab. App listeners, just tap fill-in notes. Well, until next time, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.