It’s Time To Fully Commit Ourselves To Jesus

Colossians 3:15-17

Adapted from a Jeffery Anselmi sermonhttp://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly.asp?

ContributorID=&SermonID=94163

The workers at a fuel squadron at an Air Force base complained about the

superior attitude of the pilots. One day the fuel crew decided to put things in perspective for the proud pilots. They

all came to work wearing shirts inscribed, “Without fuel, pilots are

pedestrians.”

In the same way humans without the power of Christ Jesus who was raised

from the dead, are just hopeless bodies, pedestrians wondering the

earth.

1 Corinthians 15:17 ESV And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in

Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all

people most to be pitied.

I want us to consider our relationship with Jesus.

Have you been giving 100% of yourself to Him?

Jesus expects nothing less than we whole heartedly dedicate & commit

ourselves fully to Him.

Luke 14:26 ESV "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father

and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his

own life, he cannot be my disciple.

27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down

and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all

who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, 'This man began to build and

was not able to finish.'

It is time for us to commit ourselves to Jesus whole heartedly.

You may tell people you gave your life to Jesus when you were baptized for

the forgiveness of your sins.

Did you really dedicate yourself fully to Him?

It is time for us to allow Him to really work in us and through us.

There are great blessing in store for us when we fully commit ourselves to

Jesus.

Let’s study Colossians 3:15-17 & look at some areas we need to dedicate

ourselves to Jesus.

Colossians 3:15 ESV And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed

you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and

hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And

whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks to God the Father through him.

I. The Peace Of Christ We need to fully commit to:

15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

Jesus gave to His own His peace that they may not be troubled.

John 14:27 ESV Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the

world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let

them be afraid.

He wrought peace between us. Ephesians 2:14 ESV For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the

dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments

expressed in ordinances,

that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making

peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross,

thereby killing the hostility.

And He obtained peace with God for us through the blood of His cross.

Colossians 1:19 ESV For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood

of his cross.

It is this peace in its many aspects which must rule all our decisions,

peace with God, peace with each other and peace from God, the peace that

passes all understanding. Philippians 4:7 ESV And the peace of

God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts

and your minds in Christ Jesus.

We must make decisions as those that are at peace with Him and are at one

with each other, for this is our calling, to be one body. And as this one body is united with Christ in His body, it is thus

right that His peace should make the decisions with respect to it. (Pett)

How many of us are stressed out with lives that seem to be in turmoil all the

time. Does it seem EVERY time we turn

around we are in the midst of some crisis?

Do you feel tension around you all the time?

Are you stressed out by your children, your spouse and your job?

In the context of our passage there were some issues in the church.

There were people complaining against one another (verse 13) and it was

causing problems.

What is it that gets your blood boiling?

Where do you lose your patience?

What situations seem to set something off in you if you’re not careful.

We really have to guard against getting all worked up over nothing.

I like the little book Gayla gave me to read when we were dating.

“Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”

Why does this happen to us?

It is because we have not opened ourselves up to the peace of Christ.

We are trying to live life on our own power.

Do you think that Jesus wants us to live in turmoil, chaos and crisis?

NO!

God has a solution for you!

John 16:33 ESV I have said these things to you, that in me you may have

peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have

overcome the world."

Peace is an inner state of tranquility that comes from knowing that you are

right with God.

We are able to have this inner state of tranquility because we feel secure in

our position with God.

We feel safe in Christ.

Jesus wants us to have this inner tranquility.

When we are at war with God, we will not have the inner peace He desires us to have because we do not feel secure

in our salvation.

If we realize who we are and what we are in Christ, then we will be able to

deal with whatever the world throws at us because we know who we are in

Christ.

When we put on Christ, one of the blessings is peace.

We are not called to be at peace at ANY price.

Having peace means to be under God’s control as we make courageous moral

decisions for the truth.

This peace that God offers to us has a purpose.

The purpose is that the peace is to rule our hearts.

This word translated “rule” means to umpire or referee.

Paul uses a vivid picture. "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.“

Literally what he says is, "Let the peace of Christ be the umpire in your heart.“

He uses a verb from the athletic arena; it is the word that is used of the umpire

who settled things in any matter of dispute.

If the peace of Jesus Christ is the umpire in any man's heart, then, when feelings clash and we are pulled in two

directions at the same time, the decision of Christ will keep us in the

way of love and the Church will remain the one body it is meant to be.

The way to right action is to appoint Jesus Christ as the arbiter between the conflicting emotions in our hearts; and if we accept his decisions, we cannot

go wrong. (DSB)

We have to make sure what we do is in line with being at peace with God and

being at peace with one another.

Can you imagine a major league baseball game or an NFL game without

referees and umpires?

The games would be chaos.

A life without the peace of God ruling the heart will be a life in chaos also.

Not only is our peace to be subjective, but it is to be objective.

We are called to be at peace with one another. We are called into one body!

We are called to this peace, to peace with God as our privilege and peace with our brethren as our duty. (Henry)

Being thankful helps us to maintain the peace we have been given by God.

We need to fully commit ourselves to:

II. The Word Of Christ

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

We are told to let the Word of Christ dwell in you RICHLY.

How do you think this happens?

It only happens when we allow the Word to penetrate our lives.

When we know and understand God’s Word, it fills our hearts, it moulds our thoughts and

feelings, and it guides our lives.

Notice that God does not just want you to have a little of His Word.

He does not sit in heaven and stop you when you have too much of His Word

in your life.God wants His Word to RICHLY dwell in

you.This tells us He wants it to reside in

you in abundant quantities.

To dwell means to permanently reside.

When we study God’s Word, it resides within us forever!

Our lives should be the place where God’s Word resides, it should be a

home for God’s Word.

Psalms 119:11 ESV I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not

sin against you.

Do you want to win the battle of temptation in your life?

SPEND TIME IN THE WORD.

When the Word of God dwells within us, we will be able to help other people

when they are struggling.

WE can then truly offer teaching that has some wisdom behind it.

Teaching is the impartation of positive truth.

When the Word of God is within us we will also be able to admonish people

when needed.

Admonishing is the negative side of teaching.

It means to warn people of the consequences of their behavior.

Both are the result of a life overflowing with the Word of Christ. (John McArthur

Jr.)

16b,c teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

One of the most effective ways to teach and admonish one another is by music.

(Eph 5:19).

People quickly learn songs and remember them. They hum and

meditate upon the music.

Ancient peoples taught and preserved the famous events in their history by ballads, before written material was

easily available.The ungodly people in our world today know the power of music. They keep a

tidal wave of suggestive, lawless, emotion-stirring songs coming on all the time, and see to it that the radio

waves are saturated with them.

Talented Christians should dedicate themselves to the composition,

production, promotion, and teaching of worthwhile gospel music.

Christianity has always been a singing religion.

Our music should be designed to teach and admonish, not just to appeal to the

emotions, or to vanity.

So often a hymn or anthem is just “rendered,” and is not used for

instruction and admonition of one another. (College Press)

III. The Name Of Christ

We need to fully commit ourselves to:

17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the

Father through him.

Earlier Paul listed a few vices and virtues to give the Colossian believers an idea of what was expected of them in their attitudes toward one another, but he did not want to regulate every

area of life with a list of rules. That would be like reverting to

Pharisaism. So Paul gave this general command to cover every area of life.

(MacArthur Jr)

Everything the believers said and everything they did should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, realizing His constant presence and bringing

honor and glory to Him in every aspect and activity of daily living.

When we give our lives to Christ we are to seek to excel in all we do because we’re doing it as if it were for Christ.

You are doing it for Him because you represent Christ to all who see you.

Christians should be the hardest working, most reliable employees a

company has.

When we serve, we are to do it as if we are directly serving Jesus.

We are to give God our best, not the leftovers.

I want you to think for a moment about your service to God’s church.

Are you giving it your best?

Now, if Jesus Himself were standing here today, what would He think about

how you are serving Him?

If Jesus were standing next to you as you serve, would you do it different,

with a different attitude and with different energy?

I know there are some believers who think or act like they have NO ministry

in Christ’s Church.

If Jesus were standing next to you would that motivate you to serve?

Guess what?Jesus is with you, He does know what

you are doing or not doing for Him.When we do something in the name of

Christ, we are to do it as if Jesus Himself were doing it.

We are to do things in such a way that we bring glory and honor to Him.

What impression do people have of Christ when they see or talk with you?

What changes would you make in your life in order to honor Christ?

I would like you to take note of something in verses 15, 16, 17.

In each of these verses you see a thought that is woven in each passage.

It is a key for us to understand.

Verse 15 - and be thankful

Verse 16 - singing…with thankfulness in your hearts to God

Verse 17 - giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

I believe the key to fully committing ourselves to Jesus and allowing Him to

work in us is being thankful to Him for what He has done for us.

This is all an issue of trust, but it is also an issue of being thankful!

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to

the glory of God.

Conclusion

The question for you today is this: “Are you going to allow yourself to fully

commit to God?”

I challenge you to try it this week.

I want to challenge you to fully commit your heart to God’s peace.

I want to challenge you to let the Word of Christ richly dwell in you.

This means you will actually need to spend some time this week in the Word

of God.

If you are serious about your faith please take at least 15 minutes out of every day and spend it reading your

Bible.Start perhaps in the Gospel of John.

John begins with the profound announcement that Jesus is God.

See what allowing the Word of Christ to dwell in you can do for you.

I further want to challenge you this week to do everything you do in the

name of Jesus.

DO whatever you do as if you were doing it for Jesus Himself.

Can you imagine what kind of Church we would have if we all would truly

fully commit to God.

Can you catch a vision of what we can do together for Him and the impact we

could have on this community?

Step up to the plate and swing away!