the subject this morning, the three Bs of commitment. What are you committed to? In Psalms 37, verse five, the psalmist said, commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. I like that verse, don't you? Notice the promise of that verse. In Psalms 37, verse five. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Whatever I'm doing, commit that unto the Lord. Trust also in him, and notice what he said. And he shall bring it to pass. Proverbs. In the book of Proverbs, we want to look at a verse or two. In Proverbs chapter three, Proverbs the third chapter, verse five, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, Lean not unto thine own understanding. In all ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. Notice verse 16. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor. So where does that verse fit in? When we believe the Lord and he tells us to be faithful, to lean not to our own understanding, but in all ways acknowledge him, he promised that he would give us limp of days. This is a little research I did over the past week. There are close to 100 million church members in America, and yet, why are we not making more of a moral and spiritual impact? Why is it that on Sunday morning, hundreds of churches have empty pews? Thousands of churches close their doors. Why are so many churches having just few services on Wednesday night, which is almost a thing of the past? Now, God knows if you can't be at church for whatever reason, and he knows that reason. I'll say what a nurse said over the television last night I heard. If you're sick, you shouldn't be at church. You got a fever, you shouldn't be at church. I take mine, you know, when my kids was in school, they were sick, they stayed home. And everybody around me said, but what? They're my kids. If they're sick, they belong at home. God will take care of whatever's necessary. Now, the reason I say that, because we are considered mostly a source of age, and I found out that the older I get, the lesser I can take. My immune system is lower, and I take so many vitamins, I'd make Dr. Spot happy, you know. But still, when your age comes, your immune system goes. So it's hard to be commitment. And for us to do what I believe God would have us to do, we need commitment. So we elected this morning to study the three Bs of commitment. The three Bs of commitment, and the first one is, is be committed to God. We all know John 3.16 without even looking at the book. I read it a little different than some, but for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. I believe that God so loved me. Because if he didn't love me, then really the rest of the world has little concern. But God did love me. He said in Mark chapter 12 and verse 30, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. Then he says in Matthew 6, 33, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. What are all these things? Everything that we need. Didn't say what. Everything that we need will be added to us if we seek first the kingdom of God. A little further now. And his righteousness. Nowhere in the Bible can I find out that God made any promise that he's gonna bless the unfaithful like he will bless the faithful. A real commitment does not have an on and off switch. You ever talk to somebody having marriage problems? And one of them or both of them will say, well, I'm pretty good most of the time. You want a refrigerator that works part-time? You want electric in your house that works part-time? See, a real commitment does not have an off and on switch. And if my marriage is gonna be everything that it can be, I'm gonna love my wife when she's in bed so sick she can't get up as much as I do when she's able to cook me a meal. I'm gonna love the Lord Jesus Christ and proclaim His name throughout every place I have opportunity to proclaim it. Real commitment is not a Sunday thing. It's a 24-hour day, seven weeks, 365 days a year with no vacations on or off. That's what commitment is. Commitment is not go on vacation and go on vacation and leave God out of your vacation. If we are really committed to God, he will show, others will see the fruit of your commitment. For a moment, can you visualize any couple, a couple, anywhere, somewhere, that you've known them for years and it seems like that couple grows closer and closer and closer? Can you visualize that? That's total commitment. But our churches are filled with I used to, used to be. I used to read, I used to study, I used to pray. But as the poem that I made a copy of a while back, I drove to church, I listened, I drove home. That's what Christians do now. That's not commitment. That's not commitment. If we are really committed to God, it will show others will see the fruit of your commitment. We got to be committed to God and his work and his church. See, as I said in Sunday school, There's only two divine institutions, and that's the church and the family. And both of them are falling apart. Maybe not yours. But as a whole, they are falling apart. No wonder that 50% of all marriages end in separation and divorce. Children see no commitment to family from their parents. I hear children make some of the most ridiculous statements why they don't want to be around their parents. Let me ask you, it's a simple question. How long since you kissed your spouse and told them I love you? If we look at Ephesians chapter five, what a beautiful verse it is to compare the church and the home. In Ephesians chapter five and verse 22, Paul said this. Wives, submit yourself unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Verse 25, husbands, love your wife even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Wives, love. Husbands, love. When was the last time this is Thanksgiving? We ought to be thankful for some things. When was the last time you bought your spouse a gift for no reason? When was the last time? I don't always buy gifts when everybody else think you are to. I like that gift when somebody gives it to me for no reason. Except, I thought about you. I had you on my mind. You know what's the gift we can get the job? It's this. I said, Lord, by your grace, I wanna reach one of your elect. I pray that the next door I knock on to, the next person I talk at the emergency room, the doctor's office, will be one of your elect. I mean, so, such a simple conversation, I took my wife to the doctor Friday to get her blood work. This guy came in, big old guy, you know. He looked at me and said, you ever seen a winter like this gonna be? You ever seen the snow this early? I said, it snowed right on time. He said, Are you a Christian? Yeah, I'm one of those, I'm one of those deplorables that love the Lord, love my country, love my gun, love my Bible. But I asked him, I said, are you a child of the king? He said, I'm 69 years old, I was saved 60 years ago. We'd go to church. I don't. And you think you're going to heaven? And you may be, but what make you think so? If your faith won't get you into the house of God, why do you think it's gonna get you to glory? And no, I don't think you have to go to church to be saved. See, I'm one of those who believe the thief on the cross went to glory, not because he was baptized, not because he was a church member, not because he did good works, not because he gave a lot of money. He went to glory because God said today, thou shalt be with me in paradise after he witnessed. So easy to witness. How about your mom and dad, your sister, your brother, your children? Are you thankful for your family? Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter five, verse 16. God said here in Deuteronomy chapter five and verse 16, he said, honor thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee that thy days may be prolonged and that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Wanna know what's wrong with our country? We've taken God out of everything. When you bring God back and put him in everything. He said honor thy father and thy mother. As the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. Looks like to me if I'm saved I don't have an option. He didn't say honor thy father and thy mother if you agree with him. God said to. But He said, if you do that, that thy days may be prolonged. Honor your father and mother. You don't agree with them if they're sin, you don't agree with them if they're wrong, but you don't exclude them. You stand for God's Word. But he said that thy days may be prolonged. You wanna live long? Honor your father and mother. That it may go well with thee. In the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. The Bible defines the way a family should be. That's why that when you're looking for that husband, don't date someone you wouldn't marry. Gerolash in chapter three in verse 18. Why submit yourself unto your own husband as it is fit in the Lord? See it, and some wives, you know, get all messed up because some preacher preached it wrong and some hard-headed husband think he's king. It ain't what it's talking about. Why submit yourself unto your own husband as it is fit in the Lord? Because God has given me the responsibility to take care of my wife. Husbands, love your wife. Be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things. Not what you agree with. I didn't agree when mom, you know, she'd make us go out and get our own switch. What kind of man, what's wrong with that? You do that today and they come and lock you up. But if we could do that today, we wouldn't have all the problems we got. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. Notice, fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Don't you love those parents that say, I'm in charge, you little blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You do what I say. I'm the king of this castle. This attitude. Brother, if you're a father, you're gonna stand before God and your judgment's gonna be a lot stricter than that wife. So I feel, you know, if I'm gonna be held accountable, I need to do it God's way. Servants, obey in all things your master, according to the flesh. See, God has blessed me. I graduated from high school, and I had one job, then another job, and another job, and that's all the jobs I ever had. Never drew unemployment. Never was one day out of work. Never did leave this job until I was going to a job that was better. Didn't leave that job until I went to a job that's better. Servants obey in all things your master according to the flesh. If you're working for the master, then you are to do what the master says if you agree to work. If you don't, then leave. I mean, it happened to Clayton's favorite employee. You know, went over there and got some coffee and I said, is it fresh? Yes, yes, yes, yes. Gave it to me and it started crawling out of the cup. And I said, would you take this back and give me some fresher? If that's a word. He said, I don't make that kind of money. Then leave. Did you agree to that salary when you said I want the job? That's why you don't want your parents in a nursing home. You don't want that. Because they are employed, but they don't make enough money to wipe her. Then get out. That's Bible. That's Bible. Servants, obey in all things your master. For eight hours, if he's paying me, he's my master. So what do you do? Well, I wanna study and advance until I can become a master. Till I can be the one that's in charge. God said, a husband has no problem loving a submissive wife. A wife has no problem being submissive to a loving husband. Children will love and honor parents who love them and teach them according to the Bible. Third, be committed to your church. This consists of four things. You gotta be committed to church attendance. Hebrews 10.25. not forsaking the assembly yourselves together as a manner as some is, but exhorting one another even so much the more as you see today approaching. What is your guideline for attending church? Well, if it was a work day, would you went to work? When I was sitting down there, I'd say amen and scare all of you. God needs to come first. God needs to come first. He's the one that's causing me to breathe my next breath. Does your family need to ask, are we going to church today? You should ask Anthony, you should ask Kim, you should ask Jessica, if they'd be honest, did you ever hear your dad say on Sunday morning, are we going to church today? Never was spoken in my house. Are you gonna brave the day? If it's Sunday, you go to church. If it's Sunday night, you go to church. Now, see, we use common sense. I live in Carlisle now. A storm come up, it may be bad over there. It may not be anything over here. It may be clear over there and not bad over here. You use your own judgment. I don't want you putting your life out on a stressful road, you know. I don't want you doing that. I don't think I ever missed a day's work, but it had been a long time. See, there's a disease, it's called Sundayitis epidemic. What's wrong with you? I got Sundayitis. But in a few hours, it'll be over. I'll feel good. It only lasts about a couple, three hours. One sneeze, back to bed you go, but on a Monday, you grab a hanky and go to work. Just so tired on Sunday night when you get too busy to go to church, you are too busy Wednesday night, too many things to do. God can take some things away so you won't have all those things. This is the honest truth. I'll get to this point. He was a member right here for several years. He was out of a job. We prayed and God gave him a job. You gotta think now, this was several, several years ago. And he said, I got a job. That's good. I make $100 a week. I said, hey, that's great. What's your time? He said, it's $10. I said, great. He faithfully gave. But over the years, he got raises, raises, and raises. And he came to me seriously. And he said, Pastor, you know, when I started here, I was only making $100 a week, you know, and it was not that hard at the time, but now I'm making real good money. And I just don't think I have the time. I said, well, we really can't do a lot about that except I tell you what we can do, and I believe God will honor it. I mean, you do want to be faithful, don't you? And he said, oh, yeah. So let's get down here on our knees and pray that God will give you a job making $100 a week. True story. wasn't long after that prayer, he was gone. That's not saving faith, people. Got to be committed to the church. First, committed to church attendance. You gotta be committed to church growth. How many people did we talk to this week? How many did you talk to about Christ? How many friends do you invite this week? Didn't have time, not committed to church growth. You know, have you ever prayed, Lord? You know I'm not good at talking to people. You know, one of the things, I don't think I've told you this, one of the things that Dora and I found down there at the cancer center, they got one very big hall, it must be 200, 250 foot long, and couches and chairs on each side, and on any given day, you can find cracks all over that, up and down that way. You know, when you're sitting out there waiting for an appointment, he reads down and here's a track. Maybe that's the track that God before the foundation of the world knew that God would pick up and read. I mean, you know, I've even told people, you know, If you're ashamed, you know, you don't wanna promote the church, I'll find this white sticker that says, take my name and address off. Because if God saves them, they're gonna be in the church that God wants them to be, whether they know it or not. Committed to church needs. Mt. Kyle chapter three verse eight, 10, you know, You know, this is in the Bible, been there, every time I turn to the book of Malachi, it's still there. But in the book of Malachi, chapter three and verse eight, God said, will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me, but ye say wherein have ye robbed me? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for he hath robbed me, even this whole nation." The founder of IBM, and I believe today that IBM has been as successful as it has been, was a child of a God and a tither. See, God said, ye are cursed with a curse. Why? For ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all ye tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Either you believe it or you don't believe it. See, God has a way of making that $9 grow more than the 10. So God makes it very clear here. I'll open you the windows of heaven and pour you out blessings that there shall not be room enough to receive it. You know, it's just amazing, just simply amazing when we look at what God can do. This building is amazing. Almost every other independent missionary Baptist church has had help from other churches. One in Paris, one in Frankfurt, one in Versailles. I'd go on and on and on. You know, I must, this church had, when we started to build the building, not one church. Not one church. You know why? We had members, like the lady standing back there with the white hat on, and Sister Reed, Sister Wilson, Brother Young, had to go on and on and on. gave to this church. And I'll tell this story again because I really enjoy it. I don't know really what Nazarenes are, what they believe, I just know I'm not one. But we had a little Nazarene guy that would, when we'd be down on 2nd Street, it was in those times when, you know, our offering was $75, $80 a week, you know. And we were at a point where we weren't meeting our bills and, you know, we made them but didn't have anything left over. And this little man would come on Sunday morning and he would drop a, usually a hundred dollar bill in the, in the, every time. He'd keep showing up and, you know, and when people say, what do you think it was? I've had the same answer for now for many years. I believe in angels, do you? I believe in angels. Drove by the road and there's a wreck. There's five people in the car and four of them died and one of them didn't get a scratch. How do you explain that? I spelled it A-N-G-E-L-S. Every one of us has a guiding angel. He kept you from getting hurt. He kept your big mouth shut when if you'd said something, you may have got shot. Who you talking to? Oh, me mostly. You know, because I really did good the last couple days, you know. I used to say things that be better not said. They were true, but had been better I hadn't said them. And God protected me. And God has protected every one of us. God said, I will open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. I don't know who it is against me, but I know who's for me. And the one that is for me can subdue all my enemies.