Nehemiah and the 7 C's: Commitment

I'm glad you can appreciate absolute silliness.

Can we just say thank you to all who volunteer and serve so faithfully here to make this place go?

If you were to go on our website and click on serve, you would see that we talk about serving three primary ways.

We talk about serve the world, serve the city, serve the church, serve the world is through our strategic global partners in India, two in Africa, one in Mexico, Kingdom Builders.

We just had a team in Mexico last weekend.

So grateful for them.

If you looked at the uh serve the city, you could see a list of our partners in areas like food insecurity, shelter and recovery, uh, vulnerable groups, and then even our Hillside Handyman's group, which I am banned from, the use of uh uh hard, uh strong equipment.

Um, and then serve the church.

It's just this option that we believe that when you are a part of God's work, God calls you to a local church and he wants you to use your gifts and your talents to be a blessing to others.

And we want to help you find a place to serve.

Um, would you do this with me?

Could we just start before I preach uh with a word of prayer?

Asking God to speak to us.

I'm gonna ask you just maybe to whisper the words, God, would you meet me here?

And speak as only you can.

God, would your word and your truth come alive?

And give to us ears to hear your voice, God, through Scripture.

We pray that you would be honored, we pray that you would be glorified, and that we would be equipped to live the life you have called and designed us to live, Lord.

It's in your name, Jesus.

We pray.

Amen.

Does anybody ever go to restaurants where you like you need an RSVP to get a table?

You you do that occasionally, right?

Um I was reading some uh percentages of what's going on right now in the restaurant industry, and uh one uh survey was saying 3.7% of people who make an RSVP are no shows.

15% cancel, and it's costing businesses on average about 15% of revenue a night because people who say they're gonna show up and cancel.

I was reading um about dating apps, not because I need one, I'm married, but I was reading about dating apps, that 20 to 40 percent of first dates on dating apps are canceled.

Uh they say because of last-minute bailing, cold feet, and ghosting, people are just like, no, thank you.

Um, one of our staff was telling us about a high school reunion that that they have coming up pretty soon, and they're asking you to RSVP for your high school reunion.

And she was telling us it's really interesting because the yeses are like 30.

The maybes are way over a hundred.

And and the reason was you can't find out who's going to be there until you pick some kind of option, and nobody wanted to say yes until they knew who else were going to be there, so they chose maybe.

You know that Bible verse, let your yes be a yes, let your no be a no, and let your maybe be a maybe.

You know, that last part's not in there.

But we're dealing with in our world commitment issues, uh a fear of commitment or commitment phobia, and and I was just looking it up, like, how would that even be defined?

And in one place was saying it's a person's reluctance or inability to commit themselves to someone else.

Listen, here's this is like AI definition.

To commit themselves to someone else and then alter their behavior to reflect that commitment in their words, deeds, and attitude.

That a commitment requires an adjustment.

A commitment requires choices to be made to follow through on that commitment.

So here's what I've been wrestling with this week.

I put it into a chart.

Now I created this chart, it's not scientifically proven, okay?

So like don't like take it to the bank, but this is how I've been wrestling with this truth.

How does this apply?

Look at this chart.

That we have commitments that we make, that then on the other side of commitments, there's choices.

And if we want to reinforce those commitments, we've got to make choices in alignment with the commitment.

But there's this zone in between commitment and choices where things often go wrong.

It's the conflict zone, that's what I'm calling it.

But look, it's dotted lines.

That the problem is we don't often have a commit a connection between commitment and choices, and when we face conflict, it goes astray.

So, for instance, commitment.

If I have a commitment to be healthy, to eat healthy, um, I've got to make choices that are healthy.

But the problem for me in the conflict zone is I love French fries.

Like, I mean, I like really love French fries, and then I'm addicted to ketchup.

So I love French, I mean it's like a double whammy.

I love French fries, but I'm so did you note in and out you can get them lightly well done?

Like perfect.

I mean, so the problem with my commitment to eating healthy is that the the conflict zone leads me to make bad choices that don't honor the commitment I've made.

You know what I mean?

Uh uh I have a commitment to be married, uh, to have a good marriage.

I celebrate my 26th wedding anniversary this coming week.

That's pretty amazing.

But my commitment is worthless if it doesn't have choices that reinforce that commitment.

And the conflict zone can be I'm tired, I'm angry, I had a bad day at work, my wife and I could fight.

You're like, you're a pastor, you can't do that.

No, you can actually.

And so I have to have choices that honor the commitment that I've made if I actually want to have a healthy marriage, right?

And so today we're going to wrestle with what are the kinds of commitments that we see both in Nehemiah and in Scripture, that we need choices to honor and fulfill those commitments.

Real commitment is when our choices line up with what we say is truly important.

Christian version of that.

Real commitment is when our choices line up with our confession for Jesus.

It's not enough to just say, I'm gonna follow Jesus.

We have to have choices that honor that commitment, that align our lives to actually walk and follow Jesus.

A general commitment, it's not enough without specific choices.

And without specific choices, we won't have the strength to endure that conflict zone.

I don't think I'm the only one, but let me just ask a few questions.

Have you ever looked at your life and realized there's a little bit of a gap between who you desire to be and where you are in life?

Maybe for some of us, you want to be a present parent, but your phone keeps getting a lot of your attention.

You may miss moments to cultivate conversations or get a depth of relationship with your children, or you want a strong marriage, but uh work keeps getting your best energy.

And you slowly, if you're not careful, can grow apart.

And you say, I'm committed, but your choices could tell a different story.

Or you want to grow spiritually, but but prayer and and engaging in scripture are the first things to go when life gets a little bit busy.

We we want to be generous, but then we make these other commitments that that sort of squeeze out the ability to be generous because we've got payments and we've got debt, and we've got to we've got to align our choices to the commitments if we want to realize exactly um who it is that God wants us to be.

And so as we've been going through Nehemiah, we've seen this a few times.

I just want to give a quick review in a couple areas.

That Nehemiah makes not just uh um, he doesn't just have a value like compassion, he makes a commitment to it.

You see in Nehemiah chapter one, Nehemiah is revealed that there's trouble in Jerusalem.

His brother and another come to him and they said to me, Those who survived, the exile are back in the province, and they are in great trouble and disgrace.

And the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, its gates have been burned with fire.

And here's what happens when Nehemiah hears this.

When he hears this message, I sat down and I wept.

And I mourned and I fasted and I prayed before the God of heaven.

His instinctual response was not to, I gotta do something.

He turned to God.

He fasted, he prayed, he mourned.

God, what do you want to do?

He didn't turn away from the pain of others.

He didn't say, Oh, I can't handle this, I want to avoid it.

He allowed his heart to be broken and he made a commitment to compassion, like God has a commitment to this, and he joined God in his work.

A couple weeks ago, we talked about community and how God was bringing a group of people together.

And Nehemiah has a commitment to community in chapter 2, verse 17.

He goes to Jerusalem, he surveys the city, and then he tells some of the citizens of the city this.

I said to them, You see the trouble we're in?

Jerusalem lies in ruins, its gates have been burned with fire, and he gives them an invitation, come, let us rebuild.

Let's do this together, and we will no longer be in disgrace.

And I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me.

And they replied, Let us start rebuilding.

Let's do this, join together for this task.

So they began this good work.

Nehemiah invites the people of God into God's work of restoration, and they commit.

They commit to being together.

It's their city, they're the people of God, and they're going to join together to be a part of this.

Can we put that chart back up real quick?

I want to outline what we just saw in Nehemiah.

He makes a commitment to do what God says, to be a part of what God wants.

The choice on the other side is if he's going to do that, then he's going to have to obey God no matter what.

But the conflict zone is what if him saying yes to God means he gets in trouble with the king?

What if him saying yes to God means he's going to disrupt his comfortable life?

He's living in the palace in luxury.

He's going to have to sacrifice those things.

Or, look, commitment.

If he's, I'm going to join God in helping hurting people.

The choice is going to be, if he's going to help God in join in serving hurting people, he's going to have to sacrifice.

And the conflict zone is sacrifice isn't easy.

Surrendering, giving up the right to yourself, it's difficult.

And what we see in Nehemiah again and again and in scripture again and again is we have to have choices that line up to our commitments, no matter the cost.

And following God, can we just say it up front?

Following God always requires sacrifice.

It always requires surrender.

It just does because God's ways are not always our ways, right?

That's why that you even see Jesus teaching us to pray with this posture that we would be open-handed.

Your kingdom come, your will be done.

Not just like way out there, but in our lives and in our church as well.

And so let me give you a little tip if you're reading the Bible, especially narrative passages.

Here's a practice.

Look for repetition.

And one of the repetitions you see when you read Nehemiah, even these first five or six chapters, is there's conflict.

He tries to do what's right and there's conflict.

He tries to do what's right and there's conflict.

And there's probably five different ways conflict takes shape.

Look at this.

First, the conflict is internal, it's his own fear.

If we're going to follow God, we'll have to deal with our own fear, our own anxiety.

But it's not just that.

Then he has conflict from his own people.

It's not even the enemies, it's the people of God.

Like, what are you doing, man?

They're creating opposition.

Isn't that weird that sometimes the very people of God that we think we're following God with are the ones who are difficult to get along with?

That would never happen in church today, but you know, hypothetically.

Um, distractions.

Distractions.

He's trying to be a part of a building project, and people are like, hey, come down from the building project.

We got other things we got to talk about.

And part of conflict is dealing with distractions.

There's uh threats against him.

People are literally saying, if you do this, this is what's going to happen, and they're threatening him, they're accusing him, and sometimes we have to deal with those.

And then there's religious lies, there's even deceit in the form of, well, God said, or God wants.

And Nehemiah has to learn how to navigate, staying committed and focused to God, following God through his word, despite the conflicts that will come.

Can we just be honest?

Can we just say it up front?

If we're going to follow God, there will be conflict.

We've got to prepare for it.

We've got to be ready.

We've got to have discernment.

So then we get to chapter six.

If you could join me in Nehemiah chapter six, if you have a Bible.

I'll read starting there in verse 15.

After lots of opposition through chapter six so far, we get to this triumphant place in verse 15.

So the wall was completed on the 25th of Elu in 52 days.

That's written so that you'd be like, oh.

Can we try that again?

And you're impressed, like really impressed when I read that, okay?

Uh so the wall was completed on the 25th of Elu in 52 days.

See?

Okay, that's great.

Um, I wish 8:30 could be more like you at 10 o'clock.

You're definitely my favorite service of the day so far.

Verse 16, when all of our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and they lost their self-confidence.

So it's so miraculous, it's so amazing a work that the surrounding nations hear about it, they they they're like losing their self-confidence, like, oh my goodness, we can't go against these people.

And they um here it is, they became afraid because they realized that this work, this work, had been done with the help of our God.

They're like, even the enemies that didn't believe in God saw what God did through us, this ragtag group of people who were exiles, divided and separated.

Now they're being brought back together and restored, and in 52 days they were able to rebuild the wall.

Now, scholars may have different opinions, but something like 1.7 miles of walls were rebuilt.

Like a hundred acres, 75 football fields, back to back to back to back.

In 52 days, this little group of people working together rebuilt the walls.

I know you're not that impressed because you watch HGTV and in 22 minutes they restore an entire house.

But this was more amazing than that.

This made all of these surrounding nations say, only God could do something like that.

Only God.

It just made me wonder would you rather live a life that somebody's like, look what you did, good for you, or would you rather live a life full of experiences?

Only God could do that through somebody.

And God is inviting us into the kind of work that only He could get credit for.

And it made me wonder early this morning, what am I doing?

What are you doing to try to obey, to try to honor God, that if He doesn't come through, you can't finish on your own.

But to posture our lives in such a way where we do say, God, your kingdom come, your will be done.

And so the wall is complete, the nations are amazed, but the story isn't over.

There's no ribbon-cutting ceremony, at least not yet.

There's still much to be done because the story of Nehemiah is never just about walls being rebuilt, it's about people being restored to God.

Because God cares about people.

Look at chapter 7, verse 1.

Nehemiah writes, After the wall had been rebuilt, and I had set the doors in the palace, the gatekeepers, that's an interesting group of people.

We'll talk about them in just a moment.

The musicians and the Levites, priests, priestly people, religious people, were appointed.

I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hananiah.

So this is the same guy that came to Susa a thousand miles away and told Nehemiah how bad things were, and then Nehemiah followed him to Jerusalem.

Hananiah means uh gracious or favored.

So uh I told about my brother Hanani, and then Hananiah, which means the Lord has favored or the Lord is gracious.

He's the commander of the citadel.

Because he was a man of integrity, that's important, we'll come back to that, and feared God more than most people do.

Okay, can we leave that verse up for just a second?

I want you to say two things with me, because this really matters.

Um, Nehemiah appoints these two men because here's their character qualities, here's their commitment.

First of all, they were men of integrity.

Let's make it plural men, men of integrity.

Could you say men of integrity with me?

Men of integrity.

Okay, something, something key there.

And then this line, and feared God more than most people do.

That's that's a fun line.

Will you say that with me?

Feared God more than most people do.

So there's something unique, something distinct about them.

So what Nehemiah is telling us that we wouldn't understand, I don't understand unless I study and get background information, is that these gatekeepers that were put there to guard the gates that they had just assembled on the wall, they were in charge of the temple doors, the temple gates.

These are like uh it's a weird combination, like special forces meet super religious people.

They're religious special forces.

They guarded the temple.

And Nehemiah is like, what is happening here is so profound.

We put the religious special forces at the gates to make sure there's protection and provision, but there's something else.

He says also, there's musicians and there's Levites.

So this isn't just a building project, it's a worship service.

This is something, it's not just a build, build some walls.

This is, we are doing this for the honor and glory of God and the good of people.

And so they have musicians, they have Levites that are maybe it's some background worship music.

They have the guardians of the temple standing there, and then he puts these two guys, and it's really important that Nehemiah would say, Here's what's special about these two guys.

First, they're men of integrity.

That word integrity can just mean they're faithful.

They're faithful.

He doesn't say, I put them at the gate because they're strong, or I put them at the gate because they're wise, or I put them at the gate because they're successful, or I put them at the gate because they're influential, I put them at the gate because they're faithful.

And what God is looking for in his followers, above all other qualities, is that we're faithful.

Isn't that interesting?

There's all kinds of things like don't you want to put the smartest?

Don't you want to put like no, no, no, the faithful ones.

In this really famous parable, the parable of the it's either called the talents or the bags of gold in Matthew 25, where Jesus is setting sort of this scenario of what really matters in the end.

There's this famous statement in verse 23 where the master replies, Well done, good, and what's the word?

Faithful servant.

You have been faithful with a few things.

I will put you in charge of many things.

Come and share your master's happiness.

Jesus is letting us know what all throughout scripture is true.

God is looking for people who are faithful above everything else, faithful to their commitments, faithful to their word.

But here's the thing: we we've got to understand the context of Nehemiah.

Every time Nehemiah has a conflict, he responds with, God is faithful, God is good, God is trustworthy, and it's out of the faithfulness of God to us, his people, that we can then even be faithful in return.

That when our commitments and our choices are united, we're living with integrity or faithfulness.

But when our commitments and our choices are not united, we're living fractured lives.

And there's a cost to unfaithfulness.

There's warnings about unfaithfulness.

There's a sort of humorous warning in Proverbs 25, 19.

The Proverb, the writer writes, like a broken tooth or a lame foot is reliance on the unfaithful in a time of trouble.

He's saying, like, you ever had like a broken tooth?

You chew on the other side.

You do everything you can to avoid that side of your mouth.

He's like, That's what you do with an unfaithful person.

You do everything you can to avoid them.

Because if you rely on them, they'll let you down.

Or a lame foot.

He's like, Have you ever had one of those and you're like putting all your weight on your right foot because your left one is hurt?

He's like, You're not putting any dependence on your left because you know it will let you down.

And he's like, an unfaithful person can't be relied on when times are hard because they'll be unfaithful.

And we're to be the kind of people who are faithful.

We're faithful in our commitments, we're faithful to our God, and we're faithful to those God has connected us with.

And so this hallmark of they are men of integrity, is out of the work that God does in us.

He's faithful to us, so we can be faithful to him.

He's um desiring that we're becoming, we're being shaped into faithful men and women, young and old, who have deep commitments to him, deep commitments to each other, and we make daily choices that align with these commitments, despite whatever conflict.

To me, come that were faithful.

But secondly, it says they feared God more than most people do, which is a funny way of saying it.

They were exemplary in that they did this thing.

They feared God.

Now, I don't know if you know a lot about the Bible, and the use of that word is quite strange because there's like some scholars say 365 times or so in the Bible where it says, Fear not, fear not.

Some people say there's like a fear not for every day.

Fear not, don't be afraid of other people, don't be afraid of their threats, don't be afraid of hard times.

And then there's time after time also in Scripture where it says, but fear God.

Same word in the Hebrew, interestingly enough, but radically different concepts.

Because fearing others or fearing outcomes or whatever is terror-based, it's anxiety-producing, it's worrisome.

But fearing God has another thing.

It's reverence, it's an awe.

It's a wonder at who God is.

Let me give you some examples from Nehemiah.

In chapter 1, verse 5, Nehemiah prays and he says, Lord, Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome, but I think I put it in parentheses.

Uh, in some translations, it says terrible.

A translation for awesome is terrible.

That's like an old school, old language way of saying, you're terrible, but it means you're awesome.

The great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of love to those who love him and keep his commandments.

In chapter 4, Nehemiah is looking at the people of God and he's talking to the people in the midst of conflict.

And I looked over these things, I stood up and I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, don't be afraid of them.

Don't be afraid of our adversaries.

Instead, do what?

Remember the Lord.

He anchors this truth in who God is.

Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome.

Same word, terrible.

And fight for your families and your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.

There are numerous Bible verses that say, Don't be afraid.

Instead, trust God, have faith.

And there are numerous Bible verses that say, fear the Lord in reverence, in awe, in respect.

One example, probably the most famous, Proverbs 1 verse 7, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Proverbs 1:7

But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

That the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, meaning if we don't understand God in his rightful place, we may think we know best.

We may not acknowledge, like Isaiah does in chapter 55, your ways are above my ways, your thoughts are above my thoughts.

As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are your thoughts above my thoughts and your ways above my ways.

Isn't that right?

And so we we fear in the sense of we revere God because we're not God and his ways are different and his thoughts are different.

And so what the proverb here is saying is if we can't humble ourselves and say, God, you are all knowing, you are all powerful, we we surrender, if we don't do that, then guess what we'll do?

We'll despise wisdom and instruction.

But if we have God in his rightful place, we can learn, we can be instructed, we can receive truth from God's word and align our life.

See, there's a vast difference of being fearful from others for doing the wrong thing or whatever, and living a life of reverence and an honoring posture of our great and awesome God.

One is the posture of worry, the other is the posture of worship.

And God is inviting us to trust him and to worship him.

A fear of God is a reverent devotion that leads to both committing our lives to him and choices that honor him day by day.

Look back at Nehemiah chapter 7, verse 4.

Nehemiah 7:4

And so Nehemiah has sort of appointed these to these guards to watch over the gates and the walls.

Verse 4 Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it.

And the houses had not yet been rebuilt.

So they still have building to do, even on the wall, because they'll build some of the houses into the wall.

Um, so my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials, and the common people for registration by families.

And I found the genealogical record.

He went on ancestry.com and found that of those who had been the first to return.

So he gets the names and he gets a list of people.

And he's like, okay, here's what we're going to do.

We're going to repopulate the city because just get this.

It was never, this whole story is never just about rebuilding walls and gates.

It's about restoring people to God.

It's never just about a building project, it's about a city flourishing and the people of the city flourishing in their relationship with God and with each other.

That's what exile does.

It separates us from one another, it separates us from God.

But this is a picture of being renewed, not bricks and mortar.

It's about people, because people are at the heart of God all the time.

And you can keep reading and you'll get to chapters 9 and 10, and you'll see what it takes the form of a covenant renewal ceremony.

I talked about it a couple of weeks ago.

But in this covenant renewal ceremony, the people recommit to God.

They recommit to God and say, we're going to make some choices that honor that commitment.

Look, there's three examples.

They commit to honoring marriage, they commit to honoring the Sabbath, they commit to honoring God with their wealth.

Isn't it interesting that in 2026 that list seems eerily similar?

We could probably add a couple things to it as well in our lives, but they recommit.

We're going to honor God in these ways.

But at the heart of the matter, and this is really where I want to spend the rest of my time, this is not about Nehemiah giving us another list of what we need to do.

It's not for those of you who are checklist-minded.

This is not walk away with another checklist.

Oh, great, now I need to do that, do that, do that.

What this story in Nehemiah is doing in the context of scripture, it is calling us to let God examine our deepest commitments.

Do we care and are we committed to what is ultimately important?

Have we arranged our lives so that we're making choices daily that are the right kinds of choices to fulfill the right kind of commitments?

So let's go to the New Testament and see what Jesus says about this.

In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked in verse 36, Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?

So this rich young ruler is saying, I want to list, I want commandments, I want something to do, and I want to make sure I'm doing the one right, the one best thing.

What's the greatest commandment?

And here's Jesus' response Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind.

This is the first and the greatest commandment.

And he didn't ask for a second one, but Jesus, it's a bonus day.

And the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself.

All the law and prophets hang on these two commands.

Here's what Jesus does.

He says, You want to know one thing.

I'm going to talk about the totality of everything.

This is what a holistic, wholehearted devotion looks like.

Jesus says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind.

And the second is, and then love other people.

Love other people.

And so these are commitments.

Love God, love others.

But here's what I want us to note.

They're specifically, they're uniquely relational commitments.

Relational commitments.

It's not commit to your job, nothing wrong with committing to your job.

It's not commit to seeking success, not necessarily anything wrong with that.

It's not commit to a list of doing things.

It's relationally commit to loving the Lord with all your heart and your soul and your strength.

And then loving others out of that.

Jesus is calling us out of this busy, like doing nature to say, no, no, no.

At our core, we are relational beings, and our ultimate commitment is to God in an authentic relationship with Him through Jesus and a relationship with others.

And then Jesus in other places starts to even clarify this more.

Matthew chapter 6, verse 33.

Matthew 6:33

Jesus says, seek first his kingdom, God's kingdom, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

That's a chapter talking about people worrying, people having anxiety, people having fear, specifically in that chapter about what are we going to eat?

What are we going to drink?

What are we going to wear?

Human needs, basic human needs that are important things to be concerned about.

But Jesus says, don't worry about those things.

Your Father in heaven will provide for you.

But instead, here's the unique Christian approach: seek first the kingdom of God.

Seek His ways, not just your own plans.

Seek what God is up to.

And it's a revisioning our commitments and then an examination of our choices so that we can be aligned with what God is wanting to do in our lives and through our lives.

If he indeed knows best, if he indeed is faithful.

And then one more passage where Jesus says, okay, now let this affect your choices.

Matthew 16, verse 24, Jesus says to his disciples, so just think about it, it is specifically to those who are already following him, but he makes it conditional.

Matthew 16:24

The choice is theirs.

Whoever wants to be my disciple, it's like Jesus asking, Hey, disciples, do you actually want to be my disciple?

He says, if you do, here's the path.

You must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.

You've got to do this.

If you want to be my disciple, Jesus says, Here's how that happens.

Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me.

Just like as we're studying the story of Nehemiah, there's no following God without surrender, right?

There's no following God without sacrifice.

Welcome to church in 2026.

Isn't this exciting?

It actually is when you know what's at stake.

The life that God invites us to, the eternity that He has for us, the mission and the purpose that He calls us to.

And the realization, the most important commitment that any of us can make is to trust and follow Jesus.

If you've never trusted and followed Jesus, here's the good news: there's an invitation for us today to turn from our sins and to turn to Jesus and to accept him as Lord and Savior, and he gives us a brand new life, forgiveness and grace, and joy in his spirit that lives inside of us.

That is the starting point, and it's worth everything.

But maybe you're also here and you need a recommitment to the ways of Christ, and then have choices that follow that commitment.

Here's the problem.

If you're anything like me, you're like, but I have 22 commitments in life.

And I have 12 priorities.

And can I just say, if we have 12 priorities, we have no priorities.

The very word itself means there's a limit.

You can't have 12 priorities and honor 12 priorities.

That's just too much.

Nothing's a priority.

That's why Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God.

That's why he says the first command is love the Lord your God.

There is priority that is to be above all other priorities.

Can we put that chart up there?

Because if we're going to say, My commitment is this, I want to, let's say, follow God, whatever.

Well, then we have to have choices that honor that.

But the reality is there will always be a conflict zone where we have to sacrifice something in order to honor that commitment.

And are we willing to do that?

So here's me.

Um I I've got a renewed commitment in the last few years.

I want to I want to sit with God in prayer in the morning, not just talk, not just read.

I want to sit with God and I want to listen and I want to linger.

And so the choices are I have to get up early, I have to get my Bible, I definitely have to get my coffee so that I'm awake to hear my Bible.

I I want to do that, but the conflict zone is I'm so easily distracted.

And it doesn't help that my phone's beside of me.

The conflict zone is I've got so much work I need to do today.

And so every morning there's a choice.

I'm committed, I want to listen, I want to linger, I want to hear.

anybody else?

The conflict is real?

The struggle is real, and we have to say, I'm gonna keep pushing through, I'm gonna keep seeking God no matter what, because it matters so much.

And the reality is this there's no such thing as half-hearted commitment when it comes to following Jesus.

There's no such thing as I I want to follow you, Jesus, but man, I have some things I really want to do all on my own.

And Jesus, will you honor me?

Honor the things that I want to do.

It's Jesus, I'm gonna follow you wherever you go, whatever you say.

This is, I'm just trying to get real with you today.

Is that okay?

Trying to get real today that following Jesus is serious business.

He's not joking around.

And one of the beautiful things that we have an opportunity to do is come together as a church to say it's not an individual sport that we each have to figure out on our own.

God is asking us to do this together.

This is a journey that we we take together.

We commit to God and we commit to each other.

We commit to loving the Lord with everything in us and we commit to loving each other.

But like it's going to take all of us, most of us, a lot of us, in order to do this together.

Yeah, there's personal commitments.

You have to make the decision will you follow Jesus?

Nobody else can make that for you.

You have a personal commitment to turn to Jesus for salvation and away from yourself.

Nobody can do that for you.

You're gonna have to make a personal commitment to read scripture, to pray if you want to grow spiritually.

But there's also corporate commitments.

There's also corporate commitments.

We we celebrated volunteers.

It's a commitment that many of us have made to say, I want to serve the church that I'm a part of.

There's corporate commitments.

We want to pray for each other.

That's why this engagement card has a prayer request, because our prayer team, our staff, people assemble around to say, we want to intercede for the needs among us.

We want to pray together.

That's why there's 1,700 of you in some kind of group, discipleship group, right now, saying, I want to grow together.

We can all read the Bible on our own, but there's something powerful about when you grow with Jesus and others together.

And so there's an invitation where God is saying, Are we going to commit?

And are we going to follow through on our commitment?

Are we going to say, these are the kinds of things that matter so much, and we get that order right in our life?

And again, I am not saying that Hillside or any church is the answer, nor am I saying his engagement card like a magic like document.

Now, now you're committed.

This is going to be amazing.

But I'm saying God has placed us together in a church and we need each other.

And I need you.

And some days you need me.

We need each other's the point.

When times are hard, when things are good.

When we're seeking like to grow in life, and when we're seeking to survive a day.

You know what I mean?

We need each other.

And part of what it means to be a church is we want to be stewards.

We want to be faithful in who's here.

We want to be faithful in the needs among us.

And as much as I would like this, you may not like it, but as much as I would like it, to be in a personal discipleship group with every single one of you, that is just impossible.

And so we need to be in life with others.

We need to be in groups together.

We need to be serving with the unique gifts and opportunities that God has given us.

And if it's not at Hillside, my plea would be then find a place where you can connect and you can serve God and you can grow spiritually with others.

Find a church, a family to grow closer to God with.

To practice out these loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

To practice out love others as yourself and commit to it.

Did you hear me?

Commit to it.

Don't be like people who RSVP at a restaurant and then later decide, will I be hungry?

Don't be like the people who make a commitment and then like, nah, I'm out of it because something better came up.

Let's be people who are committed to God and committed to each other and let it mark our lives and make us stand out in this world where people would say, I don't know that I believe everything those people stand for, but it is obvious God's hand, his gracious hand, is on their lives and on their church.

Amen.

Would you pray with me?

God, thank you for the truth of Scripture that is sometimes encouraging and in sometimes so deeply convicting.

God, would you speak to us today of the power of what it means for our own personal commitment?

But God, I pray this most importantly, would you speak to us, reminding us you have committed yourself to us?

You you are so committed, so faithful to us that you've sent your son Jesus on a rescue mission.

Jesus, you were so committed to fulfilling your path.

You died on a cross for our sins.

And you promise us that in you we can have life abundantly now, life eternally with you.

God, would you meet us in these moments?

Give us your Holy Spirit.

Would you examine our hearts?

The things that we've committed to.

Maybe for some of us, we would just have to confess we're over-committed.

We have too many priorities.

Maybe others of us would say we've almost become commitment phobic.

We don't want to make a commitment because what if a better option shows up?

Would you help us to and search our hearts?

What is truly worthy of being committed to, giving our life to?

What are the choices that would then be honored and integral to us fulfilling the commitments we've made?

No matter the conflict, no matter the opposition, knowing it's your strength, it's your gracious hand, it's your presence with us that allows us to continue.

We want to trust and follow you.

We want to see you do in our lives, through our lives, in our church, through our church, what only you can do, God.

Have your way.

Have your way.

In your name, Jesus, we pray.

Amen.