Most people want to be successful in this life. They just do – and the idea of being an overnight success is a pretty seductive one. Problem is, it rarely happens that way. Because success requires commitment. So … what are you committed to?

It’s so easy isn’t it? Just to drift through life. We get up each morning, we have breakfast, and we do whatever it is we do. We come home, we have dinner, we go to bed, and we get up the next morning. You know what I’m talking about. We’re like a bit of driftwood just drifting through life without purpose, without direction. And before you know it, you kind of look at life and think to yourself, “You know something? My life is slipping by.” Sure, maybe it’s punctuated by the odd holiday or a promotion at work or something interesting or exciting, but by and large, life can be lifeless. And just like that piece of driftwood, all the colour gets bleached out of us and we end up grey and cracked and washed up on a beach somewhere. There’s got to be more to life than that, surely?

The life that I’ve just described is one that so many people relate too; it’s a life without purpose, a life without commitment. Today we’re going to take just a few minutes to unpack that, to explore what, if anything, we’re committed to. When we look at our lives and we ask, “What am I committed to?” There’s always something, that’s the way we’re made. There’s always something we’re committed to, it’s just that so often the things we are committed to, the things that drive us, the things that make us tick, they’re not satisfying.

I know people who are committed to shopping. We’ve all heard that statement, ‘born to shop’. There are some people who are addicted to shopping, glitzy shopping malls and people milling around and buying stuff and taking it home; so what? There are people who are committed to working, on the treadmill. It starts off being a great job and they end up working crazy hours and then we talk to them about it and they go, “Well, it’s just the way life is.”

I sometimes have coffee with my wife Jacqui at a little coffee shop that’s outside a day spa, which is one of these places where women get their fingernails done and spend a fortune on themselves. Some people are committed to luxury and comfort and pampering themselves. There’s always something that drives our lives, what is it? That sense of drifting comes because none of those things I’ve talked about are actually worth being committed to. They don’t give anything back in return, they might give a bit of a short buzz, a bit like having a sugar fix when you have a candy bar or a chocolate. You get a high but it only lasts a short time and when you come off that high you’re down on a low.

Consumer debt in the developed world is at record levels, and in the developing world it’s getting worse. Let’s just think for a moment about this whole consumer debt thing, credit cards, personal loans, mortgages that are being extended to pay for plasma screens or holidays. I was reading in a newspaper just the other day, as interest rates were pushing up, about a couple who are a million dollars in debt just for their house in the suburbs. Debt means we owe someone something. Owing money costs us money, and it’s called interest. So we pay for the privilege of being in debt for the things we’ve consumed. So not only do we pay to purchase them we pay because we bought them on the ‘never, never’.

The question is, consumer debt, when you look around at the things that people are in debt for, you say, “Are those things actually worth the debt?” Good question, come on, debt is such a way of life for many people that they have no comprehension anymore of being debt free. Debt free, free of any debt, what a radical concept, not owing anyone any money for anything.Now we’re blessed. Our household is by and large debt free and it’s a wonderful feeling. It gives me the option not to have to go out to earn a six figure salary to pay for all my interest but to be able to live on a minister’s salary; to be able to do what I’m doing right now. So often we spend money on things that don’t matter and we end up paying interest for the privilege. What’s the point of all this?

It comes back to what we’re committed to. Jesus had this to say,

Don’t store up for yourself treasure on earth where moths and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal but instead, store up for yourselves treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust consumes and thieves cannot break in and steal because where your treasure is, there also your heart shall be. (Matthew 6:19-21)

Jesus knew we’re all committed to something. So often it’s money, it’s physical things that just won’t last. People buy it on three years interest free, and four years interest free, and by the time they’re not even using it anymore they’re still paying it off. But let me take that one step further.

Inside where we laugh and cry, in that deep place where we live, deep inside where we’re either satisfied or not, we can’t take those physical things into that place. They’re not allowed in; they don’t fit; they don’t bring satisfaction. We think they can, so we go and spend money but ultimately they don’t fit through the doors of our hearts, they can’t live in there. That deep place is a spiritual place. Worldly things can’t get in, and they can’t make a difference. That is so profound and that’s what Jesus was talking about. Have a think about it. What am I committed to? Go on, be honest, be brutally honest with yourself.

What is driving your life forward everyday? Is it the next promotion? Is it the next car? Is it the bigger house? Is it the renovation? Is it recognition? Is it something that ultimately will go away? Something that’s not a turn on, something that is not worth bowing your life down to? At the end of the day, does that thing really give you that deep satisfaction?

For the remainder of this week, because we’ve been looking over the last three weeks or so at living the life that God always intended, we’re going to look at four types of commitment because commitment is so important in living a life.

The first one is a commitment to love; love can be a tough gig can’t it? Some people are so hard to love and yet if you want to live the life that God always intended, God wants us to live a life of love. The most important thing to God is our love walk.

The second commitment we’re going to look at is a commitment to humility, to being humble. Not one of the top ten business buzz words is being humble but when we meet someone who’s humble, it’s such a delight.

The third thing we’ll look at being committed to is a commitment to hope. We all have hopes and dreams but we have to be committed to them to see them through.

And then the last thing in, Friday we’ll look at is a commitment to Jesus himself, things and people that are worth being committed to.

Living the life that God always intended is about living a life of commitment; a life of passionate purpose; having something to be passionate about that’s worth it – a purpose in life – a life with a purpose. If someone asked you, “What’s the purpose of your life?” What will you say? Me?

The purpose of my life is to bring abundant life to as many people as possible by sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in a way that makes sense in life. To see other people’s lives transformed and I can’t do that unless I have a commitment to Christ himself.

Come on, what are you committed to? What’s driving your life? What’s pushing you forward and is it delivering? Is it worth it? Is it bringing you that deep satisfaction or is there something more? Stick with us for the rest of the week.

It seems that 90 percent of the songs that have ever been written are about love, romance … isn’t it wonderful. And yet anybody who decides that they’re going to love someone pretty quickly comes to realise that if they’re going to be successful at love, it requires commitment. I mean, serious commitment.

When you listen to the radio most of the songs that they play, even today, are about love. Love, they say, makes the world go round. Why are so many songs about love? Because love is our most important emotional need, to be accepted unconditionally, to be encouraged and nurtured and held. And my hunch is that there are so many songs about love because we all want it, but very few people ever really experience it. Hollywood’s told us that love is a romantic feeling, but that sort of love can be elusive and temporary. Life tells us something quite different. We don’t like to talk about it much these days but love is a commitment, unconditional love, the kind that encourages and nurtures and holds. Love’s even when the other person isn’t lovable and that kind of love ain’t easy, anybody who’s married or has kids will tell you that.

Living the life that God always intended is a life that’s full and rich and abundant and vibrant. It’s an incredible paradox that the more we try to pour stuff in, when we’re talking about the life God always intended, people often think it’s about me being filled and satisfied, having things poured into my life. But the more we try and pour in, the less satisfied we become. The more we pour out into other people’s lives the more satisfied we become. If the advertising industry told that truth it would send our economy broke. It’s a perverse paradox, that commitment which leads to sacrifice, is actually the path to satisfaction. Paul the Apostle puts it a bit differently but it’s the same idea, he says,

Suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and that hope doesn’t disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who’s been given to us.

It’s in the book of Romans chapter 5, verse 3.

In a sense, to love is to suffer. If you love someone, falling in love feels quite wonderful but when you get to know them they have weaknesses and now once we really understand the weaknesses of people, now we have some choices. There are 3 basic options. There’s the ditch them and divorce them plan, there’s put up with them under sufferance or there’s love them deeply through their ups and downs.

The three plans, ditch them and divorce them, put up with them or love them deeply. Option 1 is like when you have finished with a disposable coffee cup, you throw it away and it’s a popular choice these days, 40 percent of marriages end in divorce. You have to be happy, you have to look after yourself. Well let’s face it, if it’s not a good fit, better to end it now.

Divorce is entirely about our choice, look after numero uno. They cite irreconcilable differences as the reason for divorce. Why is a difference irreconcilable? Because people are too high and mighty to sacrifice for the other one, they have to win. Differences are only irreconcilable if we choose not to reconcile them.

What they don’t tell you is how empty it feels when you’ve ditched or been ditched by the one you love. What an incredibly lonely and destructive place. And it’s not just in marriage and divorce it’s in all sorts of relationships and friendships.

I was talking to some friends recently about this whole notion of community. A lot of us have forgotten what it means to be a family, to be a community, to have friends, to invite people over for coffee and just spend time with each other while having a sausage sandwich and some coleslaw. So option 1 is, “I’ve finished with the disposable coffee cup, I’ll throw it away.”

Option 2 is you put up with them under sufferance. I was sitting with a man recently who was complaining about his wife. He’s a good man, a really nice man. He was saying, “She’s not this and she doesn’t do that and I can’t believe she does this.” We all have those sorts of stories, incompatibilities they call them. But grumbling and complaining, you know what underlies that? Do you know what’s behind that?

This notion that in order for me to love them they have to change. In order for me to love them they have to fit into the mould that I want them to be in. And when I talk about this sometimes people listen to it and they say, “Oh he must be talking to the next person, he’s not talking to me, I’m pretty good at loving people.”

Come on, wake up, we all struggle with this and if we have this attitude that people have to change, then what I’m really saying is, “If they don’t I really won’t accept them”. So accepting people under sufferance is just not where it’s at.

Option 3 is really loving them. Option 3 is a God type of love. We know love by this, Jesus gave up His life for us and we too should give up our lives for each other. This is a tough love, it’s a dying to self love, it’s a love that says when this friend or this loved one or this kid, whenever that person doesn’t meet my expectations, whenever that person is ugly and horrible and difficult and yucky, I’m going to love them anyway.

This is dying to self love, this is putting others ahead of us, and this is on that day, when the rubber hits the road, when it’s hard saying, “I’ll put my arms around them anyway.” This love is living a life of commitment. It’s loving people when they’re lovable and when they’re unlovable, when they’re wonderful to be with and when they’re horrible to be with because ultimately the life that God always intended for us was a life of love, a life of walking in humility and gentleness and kindness and sacrifice. And when you look at Jesus’ life, he was so misunderstood. They did such horrible things to Him and even when he’s hanging on the cross looking down at the Roman soldiers who nailed Him there who are casting lots for His tunic, He says, “Dad, forgive them. Forgive them because they don’t know what they’re doing.” That’s love and we know love by this that Jesus gave up His life for us, so we too should give up our lives for one another.

Can I ask you? Who is the one person, right now, that God is laying on your heart and saying, “I want you to love this person”. Who is it? Close your eyes, look at their faces, let the Holy Spirit do something amazing in you today and change you and use you to pour the love of Jesus into that person’s life because the Holy Spirit has a plan and His plan is to use you to touch other people and to use me to touch other people. And we feel so unworthy some days and we look at ourselves and we think, “I’m just this cracked clay jar”. That’s the whole point. When God fills us up and His glory shines out, His love pours out of us, people look at us and they see a cracked clay jar. They know it’s not coming from us, they know it’s from God and that’s the whole point, that they should see God’s glory and God’s love and God’s mercy.

It hurts sometimes, it’s not pleasant some days, it’s uncomfortable sometimes but a life of commitment to that sort of love is a life of deep satisfaction. Relationships that mean something. These three things remain faith, hope and love and the greatest amongst these is love.

If we want to live the life that God always intended, it’s about living a life of love. Love is something you live out. It’s unconditional commitment, deep, rich satisfaction. It’s what God always intended for us.

In this competitive, cut and thrust world that we live in, humility isn’t exactly a quality that many people aspire to. It doesn’t have that ring of success to it, does it? And yet when you think about it, the people we love being around, really, are the humble ones.

I heard a saying once that’s always stuck with me. It goes like this, “There are two kinds of people in this world. The first is the kind that walks into a room and says, “Here I am!” And the second, the second is the kind that walks into a room and says, “Oh, there you are.”

Now if you were going to be marooned on a desert island with one other person and you could choose your shipwreck companion from one of those two types of people, which group would you choose from? Der, it’s a no-brainer, the second one because that kind of person cares more about us than they do about themselves. That kind of person is – wait for it – humble. And it turns out that humility isn’t a doormat kind of thing; humility is a deep expression of unconditional love. Humble people are the sorts of people who touch us deep inside, humble people are some of the strongest people I know.

I’d like to share a story with you of a humble man who took me under his wing and served me. He’s responsible, in a great part, for making me who I am. His name’s Graham. He was a Colonel in the Army when I was a Captain, (we’re talking the Australian Army not the Salvation Army) and he and I and one other Major decided to form an IT consulting firm.

Now Graham is very, very smart not just intellectually but he’s emotionally intelligent. Now Berni was very smart intellectually but he had some growing to do. This was twenty years ago. He was abrasive and egotistical and he talked over people, you know the sort, and I guess working with Graham, he went to Graham’s finishing school. And Graham took me under his wing and he taught me to listen and to reflect and to think and to empathise and to deal with difficult people and to ride through the rough patches. Over a period of seventeen years he mentored me. He taught me, through life, many of the things that I now share with people these days through radio in over eighty countries around the world. He was a huge benefit to me and it’s a benefit that I can now share with others.

But think about it from this angle, here’s this really smart guy, Graham, who had to humble himself to serve me, to put up with my tantrums and abrasiveness over many years to mould me and shape me and guide me and grow me and develop me and mature me. That took effort and it took humility. Now Graham is not some wussy, airy-fairy guy. Graham is a very strong leader yet he humbled himself to serve me. Humility, it turns out, pays huge dividends.

Over the last few weeks we’ve been looking at living the life that God always intended. We all want to do that but we often get it the wrong way around. We think it’s about what we get, what I get, what I’m entitled to. But in God’s kingdom, in fact in life, satisfaction comes through what we give and when we give we get in return.

Yesterday we looked at living a life of love, of commitment to other people and love, unconditional love, involves sacrifice and pain and hurt and tears as much as it does joy and happiness and relationship.

Today we’re going to look at humility because humility is an essential part of that, humility is taking a step down the pecking order and saying, “I am no longer at the centre of this universe. I am now longer the one whose needs have to be served here.”

What is humility? If we’re going to live the life God always intended, as we’ve been looking at over the last few weeks, what is humility? Jesus said, “I’m humble, I’m lowly of heart.” Jesus was no wuss, Jesus was the most powerful, charismatic, insightful man yet He said, “I’m humble and lowly of heart.” To be humble means to be meek, to be gentle, to be mild. The dictionary says it’s about putting others before us in behaviour and attitude and spirit and it’s not arrogant. Humility isn’t some sort of outward doormat kind of submissiveness, you know, bowing and scraping and grovelling. Humility is placing our incredible strength under control and putting others first.

It’s a work of the heart and for me it’s the work of Jesus, the work of the Holy Spirit in me, changing me, to give me the power to humble myself and to put others before me. To genuinely think of others as being better than ourselves, and to look after their interests first before our own interests.

Here’s a thing about humility, it’s actually a commitment to other people. So many people live a purposeless life, drifting and trying to fill their lives with stuff and wondering why it doesn’t work because that’s not the life that God always intended.

Want a life that works? Do you want a life that we can be passionate about? Want a life that’s exciting and livable and abundant and rich and full? Then let’s live the life that God always intended. And Jesus humbled Himself, even to the point of death on a cross, an ugly death, a painful death, a death as a common criminal even though He’s the Son of God. Jesus had every right to be sitting in a palace on a hill being worshipped but instead He humbled Himself and when we humble ourselves, we’re expressing the nature of God, when we humble ourselves and look at other people’s interests before ours. Do you know something? They notice and it builds a bridge into their hearts.

This Graham that I was telling you about before who for seventeen years humbled himself to serve me, to mentor me; I’d crawl over broken glass for that guy. He has certainly, for so long and so reliably and so honestly and so decently, through all the ups and downs, he’s built a bridge into my heart. If he rings me up to talk about something difficult or criticize me. Do you know something? He’s earned the right because he humbled himself. Have you noticed there are so many practical things that we can do to humble ourselves and to serve people and we’re not that good at doing it? So many people are too busy to write a ‘thank you’ email or a ‘nice to have met you’ email after going to a conference.

I was recently at a conference, a Christian conference and I took the time to write to each person that I’d met or sat with or had coffee with and just to say, “Hey, you know something? It was wonderful to meet you.” Less than a third responded. I used to be such an arrogant so and so, committed to my own interests and you know something? When we let that go, when it lets go of us, when we go to God and say, “God, I don’t want to live my life like that anymore. I just don’t want to be selfish anymore but I can’t change it. Lord, will you change it? Will you change this for me?” what an incredible harvest of blessing as the days and weeks and the months go by.

And God moves in with this humility and this love and just this gentle peace and the satisfaction, you know something? When we let God do that He sets us free from our foibles and our insecurities and our stupidities. Come on, do you want to live the life that God always intended? This is where it’s at, God’s humility, God’s presence and Spirit and love and grace right in the middle of our lives.

So many people these days want to become an overnight success. It’s a lie that we’ve been sold, and so when it doesn’t eventuate, they become dejected, empty. And it’s in that place that we need hope. Not a wishy–washy, maybe kind of hope. A certain hope – a hope that doesn’t let us down. Ever.

Can I ask you a question? What are you hoping for in life? Are you hoping for a husband or a wife or are you hoping for a better husband or wife? Or are you hoping for a job or a better job or a promotion or a baby or a holiday? What are you hoping for in life?

Hope. Hope is such an important thing but life takes its toll. We have hopes and dreams but in the reality of life we sometimes give up on them. We have a dream to do something significant but in the cold, harsh, bleak reality of life, when the storm clouds come rolling in as they always do, when the dark seems to go on eternally we sometimes let go. We let the spark, the flame go out. During those times hope takes commitment. I’m not talking about the hope that says, ”Gee I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow”, that’s uncertain hope. I’m talking about a certain hope, a deep knowledge inside that just knows a candle won’t go out in a storm.

Over these last few weeks we’ve been exploring the whole question of living the life that God always intended. God has a plan, it’s a step of faith to believe that, but God has a plan, a good plan, a plan that He wants to realise and see unfold in your life and my life. Now faith and hope are close bedfellows, the Apostle Paul writes a really well-known part of the New Testament, 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, talk about love, he says,

These three things remain faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love.

Hope. Hope is a confident, joyful expectation, a certain thing. It’s like putting our hope in something, in this case God’s plan. Hope isn’t hope however unless our circumstances tell us it’s not going to happen. A few months after I became a Christian I had a call on my life, God said, “Go and tell others about me. Use your gifts and your talents.” I’d spent years speaking at conferences travelling all over the world speaking. God just laid it on my heart to say, “Take that, now that you know Me, take that and use it to tell other people about me.”

So a few months after I became a Christian I went to Bible college, I knew absolutely nothing but I had this certain hope and through my studies at Bible college I became involved in this Ministry, in Christianityworks, and I did a few small radio programs here and there, but there were no real possibilities, but I knew somehow I was living out that dream that God had put in my heart.

The former CEO of our ministry had taken us off radio, it looked hopeless but I still had hope. And then there was a conference, a broadcasting conference that I didn’t really want to go to because I was so tired and I said, “God, I know you want me to go but I’m too tired.” And God just spoke into me and encouraged me. And a few days before the conference I was invited to speak at this conference. I went, “Ok God, ok I’ll go.” And I met a man there, a man called Dennis Adams. Dennis was the head of a Christian radio network called HCJB and Dennis had heard a few of my earlier programs, the little ones I did. And he’d never met me and he walked up to me, as you do at conferences and you look at name tags and he said, “You’re Berni Dymet!” And with tears in his eyes he said, “You have to start doing these radio programs again.” And I knew then that he was speaking God’s call into my life. So I stepped out and we started producing radio programs again. That takes money to do and at that point not one station was going to take our programs. And today, just eighteen months later, over 370 radio outlets in 80 countries are taking these programs. And I truly believe that God gave me a hope and He took me through those days that were darker than I wanted them to be, to teach me to be committed to the hope that He lays into our hearts. And if we let that hope die it just won’t happen.

The things that God plants in our hearts that we call hope are just not going to happen unless we stay committed to them. If it’s a God thing then we can have a confident expectation and nurture that hope. That doesn’t mean that God relies on us to be there the whole time but ultimately God wants to call us back to be a part of what He wants us to be involved in. And my prayer for you is that if you have some certain hope that God has laid on your heart, whether it’s the hope of your eternal life in Jesus Christ or whether it’s a hope of something in the future that God has just laid on your heart, my prayer right now is, as we share this time together is that the Holy Spirit would just breath His encouragement into your heart. Just breath His gentle, kindness and wisdom and warmth into your heart and that you would hear God say, “That hope, that candle that you thought had gone out is still burning in my heart for you.”

Are you living the life God always intended? Because God has placed hopes in our hearts. And part of that hope, a huge part of that hope is our relationship with Jesus, knowing that we have a certainty of eternal life with Him. And a part of that hope are the dreams for the future. What are they? What are the ones that He whispered into your heart, months or years ago that maybe you’ve forgotten or maybe you’ve left behind or maybe you’ve thought they’re never going to happen? What are the ones you almost lost?

I just believe God is calling you today to step out into them, to remember that when God begins something in you He will finish it. It might take longer than we’d like it to but He will finish it because that’s what He’s like. Come on, step out in faith, believe the hope that God has placed in your heart. That’s our role in living out the life that God always intended.

Just yesterday I had coffee with a wonderful Christian called Richard. And he’s been a consultant for a while in the ‘not for profit’ sector and he’s had this dream, an idea for something in his heart, a new concept from God. And he’s just resigned one of his contracts which was over two-thirds of his income because he believes that it’s now time to step out. In faith and in hope he’s taken the risk to live the life that God always intended for him. Now it can be risky, it can feel dangerous but the beauty is for Richard is he’s not going to die wondering. He’s not going to get to the end and say, “I wish I’d lived out that hope, that dream. I wish I’d taken that risk, I wish.” Richard won’t have the pain of regret.

Our greatest hope is in Jesus Christ, in eternal life, in Him coming again but He wants us to have hopes for the future too. Quiet, confident, certain expectations. That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when we hang close with Jesus, when we spend time with Him and His word and praying and hearing His voice and believing that His Spirit is at work in us. And holding onto the hope and stepping out at that same time, taking the risk to live that hope. Are you living the life that God always intended?

Let’s talk about the rest of your life. How many years do you have left? How many birthdays? How many Christmases? How much time do you have left? That’s a sobering thought. So in the time that you have left, what are you going to make, the most important thing? What are you committed to?

This week we’ve been exploring what it means to live a life of commitment. Some people have wishy-washy kind of lives that just drift by, others are committed to something, everything from serving the poor, to the complete opposite end of the scale, terrorism and bombings and destruction and everything in between. Some people are committed to their favourite sporting team, or to a political ideology, or to themselves, or to animal rights. Let me ask you, what are you committed to? Bottom line, what makes you tick?

Personally I used to be pretty committed to myself. Earlier this week, we were looking at the fact that being committed to yourself doesn’t work so well the more we try and stuff stuff in, the less satisfied we become. Our lives are like the boundaries of the Dead Sea, all the rivers are flowing in and nothing flowing out and so inside it’s lifeless and dead.

We’d love to think it was different but it’s not, we know the reality. I was talking the other day about a day spa, I never knew what a day spa was until I started going to a little coffee shop, near our house, with my wife Jacqui. And a day spa is where women go, I presume mostly women, to have hair extensions for $1,300.00 and pampering with mud packs of stuff, wait for this, for a couple of grand in a day. People are prepared to spend extraordinary amounts of money to be pampered, and Jacqui and I just sit outside this coffee shop and we have our two coffees and one muffin to share between the two of us. I swear we’re having much more fun. It’s a sobering thought to say, who or what am I committed to? And actually how we spend our money is a really good indicator of that.

Now Jesus is a fascinating case study. It’s just fascinating to look at Jesus, God’s own Son, this healer, this teacher, this celebrity, this amazing life who went from carpenter, to celebrity, to criminal, to crucified. Question: Who or what was Jesus committed to? What made Him tick? Was it a religious ideology? No, because He railed against religiosity. He didn’t go and get His credentials stamped at the Synagogue. He spent more of His time preaching out in the fields, and eating in the houses of outcasts than He did in the Temple, and He really had a go at religious hypocrisy. So you could never look at Jesus and say, “He was driven by some religious ideology?”

Well, what about a political ideology? Was that behind Him? There’s no evidence of that. The Romans occupied Israel and they oppressed the Jews and on more than one occasion people tried to conscript Him to be their messiah. In the Old Testament the word messiah meant, “Their King, God’s anointed king.” And many people were looking for the messiah to return and they were looking for someone like King David to go and fight the Romans and kick them out of the land, and a couple of times they tried to conscript Jesus into that role and He withdrew and went, “No, that’s not me.” So I don’t think we could ever accuse Him of being driven by political ideology. And you know you look at Jesus and He certainly wasn’t driven by self-interest. Here was a man, a poor carpenter, He had no money, He just had the clothes on His back, He didn’t have a house, He didn’t have a car, He didn’t have a limousine, He didn’t have servants, He didn’t have anywhere. So He wasn’t in it for the money. What was Jesus committed to, this most extraordinary life, teacher, healer, celebrity?

Jesus said, “I came to set the captives free.” A beautiful story in the first chapter of Mark, the second book in the New Testament, Mark chapter 1, verse 40.

And a leper comes to Jesus, now remember lepers were outcasts, they weren’t allowed to come near healthy people, they weren’t allowed to come to the temple or synagogue, they weren’t allowed to sit at a table, they had to stay, you know, seventy paces away from other people and when people came close to them they had to yell out, “Unclean, I’m unclean.”

This leper comes up to Jesus and says, “Lord, if you’re willing you can make me clean.” Jesus had every right to say, “Get away from me you leper.” But this is what Mark records,

But Jesus, moved with compassion, reached out and touched the leper. (Mark 1:41)

It was against the religious law, handed down through Moses, for Jesus to touch the leper. They thought of leprosy as being highly contagious and so for Jesus to touch this man, spoke so much about Jesus and who He was, and Jesus, moved with compassion, touched the man and said, “I am willing, be clean.” Or the 5,000 who came to listen to Him and it was the end of the day and they were all hungry and the disciples said, “Jesus, what are we going to do? We’d better send them away you know.” And Jesus was moved with compassion and saw they were hungry and said, “Bring me whatever we have, we’ll feed them some fish and some loaves tonight.”

It seems to me that Jesus was committed to ordinary people, to little people like you and me. He prayed a prayer just before He was crucified. I mean, how would you and I have felt then, who would you and I have been praying for then. Me? I’d have been praying for me I have to tell you. He’d been praying for His disciples and then listen to what He prayed specifically about you and me.

Dad, my prayers aren’t for the disciples alone, I pray also for those who’ll believe in me though their message that all of them be one Dad, just as you and I are one. I want them to be with us so that the world may believe that you’ve sent me. I’ve given them the glory that you gave me that they might be one as we’re one.

I in them and you in me and may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and that you’ve loved them even as you’ve loved me. Dad, I want those whom you have given to me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory that you’ve given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. (John 17:20-24)

That’s what Jesus was committed to. He was praying just before He got nailed to a bit of wood for you and for me that we would have close fellowship with Him and then He went to the cross. He bought that at the cross. He was so committed to you and me that He died to pay for our blunders and our mistakes and our rejection of God so He could have the one thing that He was more committed to than anything else. You and me with Him for glory. You and me with Him for eternity.

Living the life God always intended has a whole new meaning because that’s the crux of what it’s all about. What about us? What are we committed to? If Jesus wanted you and me that much, how much do we want Him? For me, this message changed my heart, more than anything I’m committed to Christ, to Him, the one who died for me.

Can I ask you? What are you committed to? Who or what makes you tick? What do you live and breathe for? What would you die for? Jesus, His answer was simple. The one thing he’d die for was you and me.

Living the life that God always intended seems to me that it should be a mirror image of Christ’s passion for us. With every fiber of our beings, every breath, every step, every thought, every heartbeat to live for Him. Are you living the life that God always intended?