Totally Committed
Notes
Transcript
Thesis: We achieve more in our life and our walk with God when we have persistent commitment.
Anti-Thesis: We value commitment over persistence and falter with resistance
Resolution: Persistent Commitment results in Passionate Pursuit.
Intro
Intro
An early published version of the story, "Story of the Engine That Thought It Could", appeared in the New-York Tribune on April 8, 1906, as part of a sermon by the Rev. Charles S. Wing.
There were several other version published … but
The best known incarnation of the story "The Little Engine That Could" was written by "Watty Piper" in 1930.
And many of us learned the story as a bed time story to teach us to keep trying. Y’all remember the story don’t you?
A little steam engine had a long train of cars to pull.
She went along very well till she came to a steep hill. But then, no matter how hard she tried, she could not move the long train of cars.
She pulled and she pulled. She puffed and she puffed. She backed and started off again. Choo! Choo!
But no! the cars would not go up the hill.
At last she left the train and started up the track alone. Do you think she had stopped working? No, indeed! She was going for help.
"Surely I can find someone to help me," she thought.
Over the hill and up the track went the little steam engine. Choo, choo! Choo, choo! Choo, choo! Choo!
Pretty soon she saw a big steam engine standing on a side track. He looked very big and strong. Running alongside, she looked up and said:
"Will you help me over the hill with my train of cars? It is so long and heavy I can't get it over."
The big steam engine looked down at the little steam engine. The he said:
"Don't you see that I am through my day's work? I have been rubbed and scoured ready for my next run. No, I cannot help you,"
The little steam engine was sorry, but she went on, Choo, choo! Choo, choo! Choo, choo! Choo, choo!
Soon she came to a second big steam engine standing on a side track. He was puffing and puffing, as if he were tired.
"That big steam engine may help me," thought the little steam engine. She ran alongside and asked:
"Will you help me bring my train of cars over the hill? It is so long and so heavy that I can't get it over."
The second big steam engine answered:
"I have just come in from a long, long run. Don't you see how tired I am? Can't you get some other engine to help you this time?
"I'll try," said the little steam engine, and off she went. Choo, choo! Choo, choo! Choo, choo!
After a while she came to a little steam engine just like herself. She ran alongside and said:
"Will you help me over the hill with my train of cars? It is so long and so heavy that I can't get it over."
"Yes, indeed!" said this little steam engine. "I'll be glad to help you, if I can."
So the little steam engines started back to where the train of cars had been standing. Both little steam engines went to the head of the train, one behind the other.
Puff, puff! Chug, choo! Off they started!
Slowly the cars began to move. Slowly they climbed the steep hill. As they climbed, each little steam engine began to sing:
"I-think-I-can! I-think-I-can! I-think-I-can! I-think-I-can! I-think-I-can! I-think-I-can! I think I can - I think I can - I think I can I think I can--"
And they did! Very soon they were over the hill and going down the other side.
Now they were on the plain again; and the little steam engine could pull her train herself. So she thanked the little engine who had come to help her, and said good-by.
And she went merrily on her way, singing:
"I-thought-I-could! I-thought-I-could! I-thought-I-could! I-thought-I-could! I thought i could - I thought I could - I thought I could - I thought I could - I thought I could - I thought I could I thought I could --"
We value commitment over persistence and falter with resistance.
Your commitment is evaluated by your persistence when confronted with resistance.
Let me remind us that Commitment is the act of dedicating oneself to a particular cause, goal, or person.
Persistence is the act of continuing to pursue a goal or task despite facing obstacles or setbacks.
Denzel Washington was correct, “Without commitment you will never start, but more importantly without consistency you will never finish.”
And our text this morning is meant to help us add persistence to our commitment.
Background
Background
Paul founded the church in Philippi when he travelled there with Silas and Timothy in about ad 50. This was in the course of Paul’s second missionary journey.
When they arrived in Philippi, Paul and his friends found a group of women praying by the river. One of them was Lydia, a businesswoman who traded in purple cloth. She became a Christian and welcomed the missionaries to her home.
While they were staying in Philippi, Paul and Silas released a slave girl from an evil spirit. This ended her ability to tell fortunes, and enraged her owners! Paul and Silas were flogged (a punishment that was illegal for a Roman citizen) and thrown in prison, with their feet fastened in stocks. Despite their suffering, they sang hymns until midnight.
When an earthquake threw open all the prison doors, Paul and Silas refused to escape. Instead, they preached the gospel to the jailer and baptized him and his family.
So the church in Philippi was founded—from an extraordinary variety of people
Paul is writing from prison. He is probably under house arrest in Rome, in about ad 62.
Paul teaches us that if we are going to have persistence in our commitment then we need to do an honest assessment of ourselves.
I. Do A Self Assessment
I. Do A Self Assessment
When Dr. W. Brad Johnson, was undergoing radiation therapy, he wasn't worried about whether his medical situation was affecting his performance as a professor of ethics and law at the U.S. Naval Academy.
He said, “I had an inflated sense of how well I was doing," his concerns about his health blinded him to the fact that he wasn't doing his job as well as before. "Things were slipping through the cracks.”
Here’s something to consider. For most of your life you have people keeping an eye on you, gauging your competence and identifying areas that need of improvement. From grade school through college… others assess you. But what happens when the report cards stop?
What happens when there’s not outside assessment? Are you prepared to assess yourself?
The verb consider indicates that his admission of imperfection is not the result of an emotional upset or chronic melancholy. It means “to give careful thought to a matter” and “to hold a view about something” after thorough evaluation. After a careful assessment of himself, Paul draws a perfectly rational conclusion: I have not yet taken hold of it.
Paul’s self assessment serves as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, Paul is correcting an attitude of moral perfectionism by stressing that he himself has not already obtained all this or already arrived at [his] goal (3:12).
Unlike his previous attitude when he considered himself to be faultless as to righteousness based on the law (3:6), he now ardently denies any claim to perfection.
His denial of perfectionism contradicts not only those Jewish Christians in his day who were claiming and promising perfection by way of membership in the Jewish people, but also perfectionists in every age who are advertising their procedures as the way to procure instant perfection.
On the other hand, Paul is also correcting an attitude of moral libertinism by emphasizing that he is passionately pressing on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called him. Paul offers his example to counter many who live as enemies of the cross …: their god is their stomach, their glory is in their shame, and their mind is on earthly things (3:17–19).157 The pressures of the surrounding pagan culture dampen and even extinguish the enthusiasm and determination of Christians to press on to maturity in their obedience to the call of God.
Some of us struggle with persistant commitment… because we are so business assesing everybody elses failure and failing to asses our own.
You can tell me whats wrong with everybody else...
Spouse
Children
Co-worker
Parents
Teacher
Neighbor
Your best friend
But when asked… about ways you need to do better you can’t think of anything.
You need to look at you!!!
There are times when you have to pause and look at the person in the mirror and say to the person in the mirror… you messing up… you can do better than this.... you’re more mature than this.
It wasn’t their fault … It was mine
Self Assessment is necessary
II. Accept Where You Are and Strain Forward
II. Accept Where You Are and Strain Forward
The authenticity of faith in Christ cannot be measured only by the intensity of one’s initial decision to receive Christ. Receiving Christ is a lifetime adventure.
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.177 These two clauses give a dramatic portrayal of a runner who refuses to look back over his shoulder, but keeps straining every fiber of his being forward toward the goal.
What is behind is everything that he has already achieved and attained in his walk with Christ.179 For a long time, for at least twenty years, he has known Christ and served him. He could easily point back to a long list of achievements in his ministry as an apostle, to special revelations given to him by the Lord, and to major theological arguments developed in his messages and in his letters. He has already accomplished so much, taught so much, and walked in the Spirit so faithfully that he of all people could say that he had reached the goal, arrived at the apex, and fully apprehended all that he was called to attain.
But instead, Paul forgets what he has achieved so far. Of course, he didn’t forget these things in the sense that he was unable even to call them to mind. In fact, his letters are full of references to his past experiences as a believer in Christ.180 But he did not let his mind dwell on these things; he did not keep turning over in his mind the good old days of active service before he was imprisoned; he did not constantly remind himself of all his achievements nor continually recount those special high points of his intimate relationship with Christ.181 He forgets, continually and intentionally forgets, what is behind in order to press on. He is not distracted by all the trophies of the past.
His imperfection, however, does not discourage him from pursuing growth in his relationship with Christ: but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. The adversative conjunction but reveals Paul’s unrelenting determination to press on despite the limitations caused by his present imperfection.
Rather than causing him to give up and quit, Paul’s sense of incompleteness compels him to press on. This term press on means “to move rapidly and decisively toward an objective.
III. Model Persistence
III. Model Persistence
A river cuts through a rock not because of it’s power but because of it’s Persistence.
Close
I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining every day;
Still praying as I onward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.” Lord, lift me up, and let me stand
By faith on Canaan’s tableland;
A higher plane than I have found,
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
2
My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Though some may dwell where these abound,
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.
Call to Action
Be persistent in your commitment to God:
Church
Bible Study
Prayer
Giving
Serving
Notice your thoughts about stopping a task, and make a conscious effort to dismiss them.
Find a system that works and actually use it.
Set a goal and create a plan for sticking to it.
When you wake up in the morning, spend time with God, make a list of things that you want to get done that day that could be put off until the next day.