I heard a couple of people sort of nervously clap and wonder, you know, they haven't ever seen the verse in the Bible, it says it is a sin to clap in church. Come on, stop that, please. There you go, thank you. That's right, it's all in the hard attitude as everything is, and when we clap, we're thanking the Lord for the gifts He's given the church as in the choir, so praise be to the Lord. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you have brought the light of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world to those of us who walk in darkness, and we thank you, Lord, that there is new hope and new life, increasingly so, as we enter into the presence of our Lord Jesus. Help us to see this this morning, Lord, and we commit this time and your word to that you would open it up for your care, Lord, in our lives. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. The German philosopher of the 19th century Friedrich Nietzsche in his book Beyond Good and Evil said this, the essential thing in heaven and earth is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction there, there, by adults, and as always resulted in the long run something which makes life worth living. Now with today's sermon, we conclude our fall sermon series and sort of open up the Advent season. I'll talk a little bit later about how Advent fits into this. This sermon was supposed to have been for each two Sundays ago, and then we had to cancel church, something I never thought we'd have to do, because it turned out a battery on a golf cart, a security golf cart, into giant warehouses out there was leaking and they assumed it was gas. They couldn't find it until we had to already make the decision to cancel. So this is concluding the sermon series that we have been going through called modern problems, ancient solutions, these that last several months. And essentially what that series has been about is this, that we have surveyed our modern culture and seen that there are some very powerful unhealthy shaping influences out there in our modern culture. And yet there are, at the very same time, ancient solutions found right here in the Bible, we've been focusing on the Old Testament really prophets and books like Psalms and Proverbs. A section often neglected by the church today, but boy, if you look at sermons that were preached in any other era, I would venture to guess this was, this section was emphasized above all, particularly Psalms and the prophets. And what we've seen is that there are these ancient solutions to all of these problems, so that if you think of life as a road that you travel down, we need to be aware that on this modern road there are many potholes there. And before we plow over them, they either need to be avoided or filled in. And that's why God has given us the scriptures to see the way that we're going and be able to choose wisely over against the path that would shape us in an unhealthy way. This sermon, the problem of commitment, is last intentionally, because what we see, once we surveyed all of these problems, is that there's still one more that sort of affects all of the others, because though we can arrive at a solution to any of the problems that are out there by looking into God's word, one of the problems that really infects us across the board is this problem of commitment. We see that our society today does not prepare us to be committed to the solution sounding God's word. The Bible urges us to be steadfast, to persevere, but our culture doesn't prepare us to persevere and to be steadfast. The culture around us leans against an attitude of dogged determination to pursue the way of the Lord. And so we want to focus on a couple of passages of scripture, several that are listed there right below the sermon title from the Book of Proverbs, and then also look at a passage that isn't listed in your order of worship from the Book of Titus. We'll get to that in a few minutes. What we see is that not only did the non-Christian philosopher Nietzsche have it right, but the author of Proverbs did as well. Proverbs 13-4 personifying this problem of commitment in a person they called a sluggard says this in Proverbs 13-4, the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. Now the sluggard, and I just kind of like that word, don't you? The sluggard, I mean, I never feel like a sluggard before. One of my roommates in college gave me this little side note being yet here. I think it was my sophomore year, and we shared a room. I remember when the alarm would go off, you know, we would hit it and kind of do the snooze thing, you've done that. And then we, if it kind of went on several times and one of us would quote to the other from the Book of Proverbs, as the door turns on its hinge so the sluggard in his bed. Very good verse, we're talking about that. That has nothing to do with the sermon, but I think of that anytime, I think of the word sluggard. I love the word sluggard, okay? Now the sluggard is the sloth, it's the undisciplined person, it's the person who lacks commitment in their life. They do not follow through on a course, on a course of obedience. And this is something that is incredibly indicative of our day. So we want to look first of all at how our modern culture tends to breed in us this lack of commitment, this sluggard mindset. And then we want to do what we've done throughout the series and look at the biblical solution, the ancient solution. So let's look first at the problem of commitment. We live in an uncommitted age. As you look around you in life, you see this. Politicians tend to, not all of them, but many of them, tend to, you know, sort of look at the pulse of the people, get a feel for what's popular in the air, and then base their decisions upon that. So it's very little regard to principle. And being committed to the principle, even when it gets difficult and you're ready to land the polls. That's indicative, I think of our age. It's commonplace for people to commit their lives to a person in marriage, only to when the going gets tough to give in. Here's some sad statistics. The percentage of teens, that is, the people who are characterized, the modern culture today, the percentage of teens who think it's easy to get a divorce is 75%. The percentage of that same group who consider it likely the day will one day divorce is 44%. That's before they've ever gotten into marriage. And it's like my wife likes me to tell any couple that I counsel on premarital counseling. Divorce cannot be an option for you when you go into marriage because if you go into marriage with divorce is a viable option, you will, and to exercise that option. That's just the way things are today, and it's extremely unhealthy. And these are just a couple of areas in which we see this. Though hard work and dedication in certain spheres, like maybe career or sports, professional sports in particular, though these are prized in our culture, it's not so in the moral realm and in the spiritual realm. Instead, we tend to do what's expedient, delayed gratification is a foreign concept to our culture, and so this mindset of doing what pleases me now is what tends to govern our thinking. The end result is sort of a laziness, spiritually, that looks very much like the sluggard who craves and gets nothing as opposed to those of the diligent people who fully set us up. And this is a problem for anyone, but especially the Christian. Now how is this a problem for just anyone, maybe not even a Christian? Because there's a theme through the Bible, you certainly see it in the book of Proverbs that runs true regardless of what your faith commitments are, and that is this. You will reap what you sow. And so maybe because we live in a culture that prizes the external and doesn't prize the cultivation of the internal, we have a whole generation of people that cultivate the exterior, the physical appearance, the physical appearance may be a career, anything that's going to be visible before others, but tends to neglect the cultivation of the interior, the inner person, the soul, or what the Bible calls the heart. Let me read you another passage as you think about that from Proverbs about the sluggard, Proverbs 24 verses 30 to 34. The wise man is surveying the field of a sluggard, and he says this. He says, I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment. Thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw. Here's the lesson, a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a bandit, in scarcity like an armed man. It's a very vivid picture, isn't it? It's the individual, of course, in an agrarian society. This was a very easy picture for people to understand. It might be foreign to many of you today, but just picture the lawn that you drive by if someone's yard that has not been tended to, and there's weeds growing up everywhere, the grass has died, and it's not well taken care of. It's what ours would look like if I wasn't married to my wife, and he surveys the sluggard's field and says this is a picture of someone who has ignored their responsibilities. Apply that to the inner person, the soul, and you see an entire culture that has ignored developing the deepest part of their person. And the result is there's weeds everywhere, and it eventually shows up. Maybe not when someone is young, but down the road it begins to show up. A very penetrating example is with Charles Darwin, who was the one, of course, that spawned the entire concept of evolution. Darwin knew the end of his life, wrote a letter to his children, and he said this. Up to the age of 30, or beyond it, poetry of many kinds gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare. Formerly pictures gave me considerable and music very little, but now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry. I've tried to read Shakespeare and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. Now some of you are there now, and that's even more dangerous. I have also almost lost any taste for pictures or music. I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formally did. My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts. But why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone on which the higher taste depends, I cannot conceive. The loss of these taste is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character by infeebling the emotional part of our nature. Isn't that amazing? Here's Darwin who views human beings as machinery. He lives his life consistently, according to that principle, fails to recognize that we are in fact creations of our creator, and that the inner part of us was designed to be in harmony with our creator, to love and adore him to be the engine of our soul, because he denied that the very word he used. The word he used, atrophy, his soul atrophy, like a field that was ignored full of weeds and useless. How is your field? How is your heart? Don't even need to be that you're a Christian this morning. What's happening with the inner cultivation of your person? The Bible says that unless you are rightly connected with your creator and cultivating that relationship, then the inner part of you is if that field is growing wild with weeds because you've ignored it. This is a problem for anyone, but it's a particular problem for Christians, this lack of commitment. Why? Because it is part and parcel with being a follower of Jesus Christ. The followers of Jesus Christ are called what? They're called disciples. Now just think about that word a little bit. Disciple sounds very much like another word, discipline, for a very good reason, because a disciple is one who is a disciplined or dedicated follower of Jesus Christ. Jesus put it this way. He said if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9.23. He said if you want to save your life, lose it. And it's this idea that Christianity is not about a one-time decision. It's not about simply walking an aisle or doing some religious experience and thinking that everything is okay from that point forward. It's about a lifestyle of commitment to a master, not a consultant, not first a friend or buddy or pal, though Jesus is all of that, but to one who is the king, your sovereign and mine, who commands all areas of our life and says bow and follow me. To one who might be contemplating, not taking this seriously, Jesus said again using agrarian terminology, he said if anyone puts his hand to the plow and looks back, that one is not fit for service in my father's kingdom. That's pretty powerful. It's this dogged determination to seemingly focus upon God and his kingdom and his calling upon our lives and not look back. And so this problem of commitment, you can see covers over all of the problems. And yet there is great hope for us that even if you're sitting there right now and you're feeling miserable, you say well I'm going out of very committed Christian, there is great hope for us. And that comes in the New Testament passage from Titus chapter 2. I'd like to read Titus 2 11 through 14. Proverbs tells us look, don't go the path of the sluggard. Walk down the path of the diligent because if you do, you will be fully satisfied. This is the path of true life and satisfaction or in Nietzsche's term, the life that is truly worth living. How do you get to that committed life? Paul the Apostle instructed a young pastor named Titus to instruct his people this way, Titus 2 11 through 14. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to announce on godliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. It's just a fabulous passage. And this is where God, I think, is so interesting in causing the events two weeks ago to where this sermon couldn't be preached that Sunday that delayed the first Sunday of Advent. Why? Because this is a great Advent passage but I never would have thought of it in such light. Why? Because of the use of the word, the repeated use of the word appeared. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. What has appeared? What is Paul speaking about when he speaks about the grace of God having appeared? Well, look at verse 4 of chapter 3. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. He's talking about the first Advent, the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, when Jesus Christ, the person of grace, appeared. Salvation ushered in. And this same grace, the same person of the Lord Jesus Christ who loves and accepts us, not because we're good. That same grace actually becomes a tutor, a master, a trainer in the way of righteousness, in the way of diligence, in the way of being committed. You see, to kind of twist the phrase a little bit, being a truly committed follower of Jesus Christ, being a truly committed person, begins with the recognition that we are not truly committed people. Admitting that, that I am, as the hymn says, prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love. But what draws me back is that God Himself is committed to me. You see, the one truly committed Christian is Jesus Christ Himself. He thoroughly committed Himself to a life of perfection and obedience to His Father. 33 years He lived in obedience to His Father, and then went to the cross ultimately in obedience. That is a life of commitment, and even now He lives, and at the right hand of the Father, praise for you and me. That we would not fail. He said to Peter, I prayed Satan as asked to sift you as weak, but I prayed for you, Peter, that you would not fail. The reason you and I can be committed people, and not just sluggers, is because of this grace of God that moves us and teaches us and trains us and disciplines us. And so it begins not so much by trying, but by trusting in what God has done for us and what He has promised to continue to do for us. Look at the second advent that is mentioned in the Titus passage. It says in verse 13, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing, there is the word again, of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Both the incarnation are mentioned, the first advent as well as the exaltation of Jesus Christ in His second advent when He comes again in great glory. And it's a life lived between those two advent, between those two bookings of grace that fuel our hearts to be more committed people. Did you know, I did not know this sort of embarrassed until this week, but did you know that every one of the Apostle Paul's letters begin and end with him meditating or charging the people with the concept of grace? Every one of his letters, because he understood none of these administrations, none of these instructions and commands can be possible unless they are clothed, unless they are encompassed by God's grace to you in Jesus Christ. St. Augustine said back in the fifth century, Lord, command what thou will but grant what thou commands. Oh, Lord, ask of me whatever you will for your God and I'm your servant, but Lord, you must enable me by your grace. Think of it this way. Two people are walking on a path and unbeknownst to them as a giant cliff fast approaching. One of them falls off the cliff. And as he's falling off, he throws his hands up and the other man reaches down and grabs hold of him. Now who between those two individuals is truly committed? Well, they're both very committed. The man who has fallen off the cliff is thoroughly committed to the strength and goodness of the man who's holding on to him. In a sense, he's not really committed. He's trusting, committed to trusting in the strength of that man and his goodness. The prophet Isaiah said, the Lord's arm is not too short to say. Do you believe that some of you for the very first time in the day, in that God whose arm is not too short to save you? By admitting that you're not a committed person, that you have fallen away from God and sinned time and again without number and yet God is so gracious in Christ to come to you, would you simply trust in his goodness and power to save you? Now someone said, well, Leo, what about having a quiet time? What about reading your Bible and praying and coming to church? Isn't that important? Absolutely. This is why the reformers called all of those things means of grace. You see, there's a wrong way to look at all of those things. The wrong way is sort of with a performance mindset and it happens so subtly. Boy, if I read my Bible this morning and pray my prayers, God will really love me for it. I'll feel better about myself because God won't be looking down shaking his head at what a miserable sinner I am. Does that thinking sort of find its way into your mind? It certainly does mine. But the beauty of the gospel is that I am loved and accepted in Christ. God looks at me because of the favor that he bestows upon his son. And so God is smiling upon me and that grace engenders in me a desire to spend time with him, that quiet time or Bible study or coming to church or coming to the Lord's table as a follower of Christ or all means or avenues through which the Lord gives me more grace to love him more deeply, follow him more thoroughly, throw off the idols of sin that cling to my heart like a leech. Think of it this way. What does fire need to spread and flourish and take over? It needs oxygen. What you and I need for the Lord Jesus Christ to take over our lives and spread foreign wide in our lives, we need more oxygen, gospel oxygen. And so when we have our devotional times and read the Bible and come to church and all of these things, it's like we're hooking air hoses or God is hooking air up to us from heaven through which he funnels the oxygen of his grace once more that we might afresh love him. So that we would as Titus says here in verse 14, verse 13, excuse me, that we would be those who live on wedding for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Because it's not talking about a principle of grace, it's talking about a person of grace, Jesus Christ, that you and I can know that we can be more committed people because we are linked to the one who is truly committed. And as we focus upon him, as we set our hearts upon him, as the oxygen of his grace leads us to do so, then we become more excited, more thrilled, more eager as the Titus passage says to be people who do good things because they're done out of hearts liberated to love and serve the Lord. Let's pray together. Oh Lord, we so desperately need you to work in our life in a fresh way this day. Would you give to us the oxygen of your grace even as we come to your table that we might welcome into our life the Lord Jesus Christ in a fresh way. Oh God, prepare us to that end as we joyfully worship you. Amen.