Good morning, Lighthouse. A few weeks ago, we finished up another great vacation Bible school. One of the things that we did to promote the attendance was to give away two new shiny bicycles to two lucky kids. How do we choose to give away those bicycles? We used a form of an age-old method we call casting lots. For every night of attendance, each kid got his or her name placed in a basket. For each guest they brought, they got another name placed in the basket again. On the last night of the Bible school, we mixed up all the names and drew out two of them. And those two lucky kids got the bicycles. The more guests they brought, the more chances to win. This is a variation of a system that was often used in old times. There are about three dozen references to it in the Bible. It's based on a scripture from the Proverbs. Proverbs 16, 33 says, the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. In the Bible, the way it was used was each man would take a pebble marked to identify him and all the pebbles would be cast into the lap of the loose rope of some neutral party. The pebbles would be stirred around and then one pebble would be drawn. This system was how Joshua chose which piece of the promised land was given to each tribe This is the system that the Roman soldiers used to see which one of them would get Jesus' robe without it being torn when they crucified our Lord. And we have all used many variations of this system many times, giving away bicycles, door prizes, various games and the like. So let me ask you something. Is it luck or chance or destiny or fate or is there something more to who gets picked for what? If each of you writes your name on a white marble and casts it into someone's lap or pieces of paper in a basket, who or what will determine which one gets drawn for the bicycle? I know what we're programmed to think But what does the Bible say? You just read it. The Bible says that the Lord chooses whose name gets picked. Well, if you had a way that you could influence the Lord as to who he chooses, what name is picked. It's not just picking out names put in a basket. You cast your lot every day in all kinds of different ways. You're gonna go to the store, you're gonna buy some bread and some milk, and you may come back with bread and milk and COVID. I mean, there's a whole lot of different things can happen. You can head around the block to go check on one of your neighbors and have two flat tires before you get back to your driveway. That no good contractor that lives down the street left his tailgate open, a bunch of nails fell out, and you were the lucky receiver of those nails. Was it luck? What if you have a way to influence what does or does not get chosen? Young people are planning to get married, planning to start a family. That's a scary thing. What if you could somehow Do something about how your marriage is going to turn out. Some of you are venturing into new jobs and new business opportunities. What if you could truly influence how that new career turns out? Tomorrow morning when you get up and you go off to work or off to school or whatever it is, you are casting your lot. You're likely doing whatever it is you're going to do in the hope of some progress or some good or some gain that's going to come of it. Some of you will do things you don't like to do or things that you don't wanna do. Some of you are gonna do things that you know you shouldn't do because you think you have no choice. I understand that there are always aspects of what we do in life that are not necessarily pleasant, like paperwork. I don't like that part. Many of you feel the same way. But life in the Lord is not meant to be labor and misery. It's not. And it's certainly not meant to be loss and defeat. You pray You do everything you can to influence how you cast your lot is going to turn out. The problem is we're just not smart enough to know which pebble to choose. We're not. You cast your lot every single day, but it is the Lord that determines the whole disposing thereof. Do you believe this? It's what the book says. It's not usually hard for believers to accept this as a fact, because we know who really is in control of everything, don't we? What's his name? That's right, we know who's in control, we do. That's why we pray asking the one with all the power to step in on our behalf Then all too often we forget the part that says to wait on the Lord. And we jump ahead of the Lord and try to handle it ourselves. Next question from a wise man or woman ought to be, what can I do to really influence how these things are gonna turn out? Is there anything that I can do? What if you could cast your lot like you do every day and then turn it over to someone who really loves you and that also has the power to determine the outcome. Do you believe the Lord is committed to your good like he says he is? He declares in his word that he wants what's best for you. Do you believe that the Lord is able to handle the outcome of whatever you're involved in? Is he able? Maybe a better question would be, do you actually want the kind of outcome the Lord would choose for you if you actually did place him in charge? We cannot determine the outcome. We have already proven this. There's not an adult in here, but what has already proven over and over and over that you don't have control over the outcome of the lots you cast. But we can place the Lord in charge. He's made it simple enough and He's willing to do this for us. There are three passages of scripture that tell us what to do in order to influence the Lord as He indeed does determine the whole disposing of each lot that is cast. In the Bible there are three commitments that we are admonished to make. Some of you have made all three and you are living the absolute best that life has to offer. Not a lot of you, but some. Some of you have begun, but need to act on the rest. And there might be somebody in here who hasn't started at all. These commitments must be made in order. This does not work any other way. The first one we find in Psalm 31, verse five. That Psalm says, into thine hand, David writes, I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O God, O Lord God of truth." Committing your spirit unto the Lord, that's talking about getting saved. That's talking about our spirit that is dead in trespasses and sins until we come to know Jesus. Ephesians 2 and 1 says, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. These Ephesians were not physically dead. They were spiritually dead just like every other lost person, just like I was, just like most of you were. Physically dead people can't do anything about being dead. Neither can those who are spiritually dead, but thankfully Jesus can. When you place your trust in Jesus to save you from the penalty of your sins, when that happened, You actually committed your spirit unto him to do what he and only he can do, and that is to give you a new life, to bring your spirit alive again from the dead. If you're here in this place today and you've not yet been saved, the following is likely true. Up to now, you have likely not wanted the Lord to be in charge of your life. You've not desired him to be in charge of the outcome as you cast your lot every day. Even though he is in charge, whether you know it or not, he's still in charge. Maybe now you're starting to feel differently about that as you've come to church and you've learned that God loves you and that he wants the absolute best for your life. For those of us who know the Lord, It's hard to imagine why anyone would not want to be a real Christian, especially after we've watched the Lord at work in our lives for a while. Sometimes it takes hitting bottom to figure out that we really need Jesus to be in charge of our lives. David testified of this in his own life. There in Psalm 31, in verse nine, David said, have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. Mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing. My strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and a fear to mine acquaintance. They that did see me without fled from me. I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind. I am like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many. Fear was on every side. They took counsel together against me. They devised to take away my life. And then in verse 14, it tells us that David came to the Lord. He said, but I trusted in thee, O Lord. I said, thou art my God. That message to you today is you really ought to rethink this business of staying lost. Aside from the two small details of spending eternity in heaven and not spending eternity in hell, the Lord is just a better way of life. He's a better master than the one you have now. When you place your trust in Jesus to save you, you are committing your spirit into his hands. Your spirit, which is dead in sins, will be made alive by the power of God. Then Jesus takes over. And wow, what a difference. Getting saved is such a huge step that sometimes we think, yes, all right, now I have arrived. Well, in some ways that's true. Real trust in Jesus, committing your spirit unto Him, being raised from the spiritual dead, never to be condemned again. It is a great arrival, all right? I'm not arguing with that. However, it is really just the beginning. The second passage we're gonna go to is Psalm 37, verse five. This verse says, commit thy way unto the Lord. After you commit your spirit to the Lord, after you're saved, there comes a day when you need to commit your way unto the Lord. And committing your way unto the Lord is a life-defining moment. In some ways, it's much like the moment you got saved. Committing your way into the Lord is talking about the road you're going to travel on. It's talking about your path in life. This one here on earth. This is about choosing how you're going to live your life. Things like baptism and church membership and faithful commitment to stay in church and to stay in the Word, study your Bible. Salvation is so big, it is so grand, so awesome, so wonderful, this second step often gets little. if any attention. There are many commitments required of us in life. Marriage, mortgage, car loan, your job, promises made, all these are commitments in which you commit yourself to a duty, a task, or an obligation. We're all used to these kind of commitments. Most of you who drive an automobile made a commitment to get that automobile. We're all used to these and the burden of each one of those commitments lies upon us. Let me remind you of something. Both salvation and in this business of committing our way unto the Lord, they're different in that the burden does not rest upon you. The burden of this commitment rests on the Lord. and he is able to handle the responsibility. You must make the commitment, but the responsibility to make it all happen, the final disposing thereof, it's called in Proverbs, it's the Lord, it's not yours, it's him. It is the Lord's commitment to you that is going to take you to heaven. Most of you know that. Most of you studied your Bible and you understand that to be true. But it's also the Lord's commitment to you that will prosper the road in front of you with success and blessing. Paul spoke of this commitment in 2 Timothy 1.12. He said it this way, he says, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. That word way means the road, it means the path you're on. Committing your way to the Lord is a decision to walk the road that He chooses for you. You've been walking a path of your own choice. You're very familiar with that path. I might ask, how's that been working out for you? I think you know the answer to that. Just look at the degree of promise that comes with this commitment. This is one of my favorite passages of scripture. I know it's a favorite passage for many of you, at least some of you I know. It's Psalm 37. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. And here it is in verse number five. Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. You've not been very good at that, have you? Bringing it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noon day. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. You're not very good at that, are you? You know, when you pray, and you know you're saved, and you know that God loves you, when you pray, you know also that he hears you. It says, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospers in his way. because of the man who bringeth evil devices to pass. Yeah, you're looking at other people and you see them prosper and they're doing things their way and it's working out for them. But you don't know what's coming for them. Do you trust the Lord or don't you? Seems to me like if we can trust him to get us to heaven, we ought to be able to trust him for tomorrow as well. Verse eight says, cease from anger and forsake wrath, fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evil doers shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. That's a pretty amazing promise. Maybe one of these days we'll spend some time getting to know all the things that that means. If you're saved and you have never gotten on your knees and committed yourself to walk the road the Lord has for you, you really ought to think about doing that before you leave here today. I am your pastor. And the reason I'm your pastor is because a very long time ago, I committed my way unto the Lord. Not just my spirit for the Lord to save me and take me to heaven, set the path in front of me that he chose for my life. You could word it a lot of different ways. You could say, okay, Lord, I'll do whatever you say. For you to hold out on making this commitment, let me ask you something. Do you have people that you're praying for that you want to see get saved? You do? Well, for you to hold out on making a commitment to commit your way into the Lord is you acting just like them, who are refusing to trust Jesus to get saved. That's you being just like them. There's one final commitment left to make that will assure the outcome of your path. This one's from Proverbs 16, verse three. And this says, commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. Commit your spirit to the Lord. It just means get saved, that's all it means. Commit your way unto the Lord. Let the Lord choose your direction and path instead of you choosing it. Then the Bible says, commit your works to the Lord. There's a basic truth revealed in this text that some of us have a hard time accepting. Proverbs 16.4 says, the Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. You were made for the Lord. Lost or saved, you belong to him. Colossians 1 verse 16 says, for by him, we're talking about Jesus, were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body of the church. That's talking about us folks. That's talking about Lighthouse Baptist Church. Jesus is the head of this church. I heard today that there are some who walked away from here because they don't like that we preach just the Bible. They don't like that we talk about these same subjects over and over and over again. Well, let me remind you of something. I'm not the head of the church. I don't get to choose what we preach. The book says we preach the Word. That's what we preach. And if you don't like it, Don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out, okay? If you're saved today, you are double bought. He owns you because he made you, and he owns you again because he bought you back from your sin. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 says, what? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Chapter seven, verse 23 says, you are bought with a price, be ye not the servants of men. We're full circle back to the same principle we started with here in Proverbs chapter 16. Verse one says, the preparations of the heart and the answer of the tongue It's from the Lord. All the ways of man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirits. Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. But by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged, and by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right. A man's heart devises his way, but the Lord directs his steps. You see, it is ultimately the Lord that determines the outcome of every lot that you cast. You're heading out today. Where are you going and what are you going to do? It's a lot that you're casting. You're hoping that what you're going to do this afternoon turns out well. I've got to go meet an engineer this afternoon and talk to him about the proper way to draw up a building that has to be redone. I'm sure hoping that comes out well. Those of you that are in the construction business, you know that you can walk out on a new job and that thing can go south a hundred different ways. And it can happen so quick, you didn't even blink and an OSHA inspector showed up on the job or there was a bunch of damage you found that you didn't know about yet. There's so many different things could happen. And there's only one, only one who knows what's waiting there to hit you next, only one. And he is the one admonishing us to commit our way into him, to commit our spirit into him. and then commit our works unto him. Only Jesus can control the outcome. The best decision for business, I'm talking about just from a business perspective, that I ever made in my life was to commit my way unto the Lord. And trust him. He's the one that makes the phone ring, and he's the one that keeps the wolf away from the sheep. Do you want it to turn out well? Living for Jesus instead of yourself is a big part of the solution. The scriptures, the Lord uses the analogy of marriage to describe his relationship to us. Israel in the Old Testament, the church is the bride of Christ in the New Testament, the mutual commitments of husband and wife in the book of Ephesians, It boils down to the fact that the husband is there wholly for the good and care and benefit of the wife. Likewise, the wife is there wholly for the good and care and the benefit of the husband. This is the level of commitment to which the Lord is inviting every one of us today. Three things, commit your spirit to the Lord. He'll save you, he'll do it all by himself without any help or participation from you. After that, how long, it depends on you. After that, you need to commit your way into the Lord. He will show you where to go and what to do, and he will prosper you on that journey You may have to wait on the Lord. That's what the Bible says to do after you commit your way to him, is to wait on the Lord. And then commit your works unto the Lord. When you do that, he will establish your thoughts, and that new thinking that he will bring will change everything about you. Yes, it will, Mason. Don't argue with me from out there. And that brand new you will be able to live for Jesus. And that brand new you will be able to honor the Lord. And you will love the new life that God will place you in. That's so simple. Commit yourself to live life His way. It's not the world's way. They don't look anything alike. And it's not your way. It's His way. Then get busy in what He shows you and commands you to do. And then the good part comes. You can watch the Lord bring it to pass. What I'm inviting you to do today, it's not just sit there and feel good about what you heard. I'm inviting you to commit your way unto the Lord. I know most of you are saved. You trusted Jesus, you made a public testimony of it, you followed the Lord in baptism, and then you became a member of this church. Now you have a whole life in front of you to live. You're either gonna do it the way the world wants you to do it, or you're gonna do it the way you sing about when you listen to Frank Sinatra, I did it my way. You're a fool if you did it your way, sorry. Or you can commit yourself, you can commit yourself to do it God's way. And most of the instruction in God's way is laid out pure and simple in the book. There's not a whole lot of big fancy decisions you have to make. Most of the instruction's right there. Commit thy way. I was talking to you from experience. I know what happens when you commit your way to the Lord. You do things differently than the world says. It's not the same. Let's stand together. I love this old song. It's actually a new version of the old song, but the message is the same. Jesus paid it all. He bought your ticket to heaven. He paid your sin debt in full, and he did it all by himself. He's not asking any help from you. And the same one who was able to do that is inviting you to trust Him for your way, for the road you're gonna walk. I know it'll make you look weird in the eyes of the world. I know it'll make you look weird from the perspective of most of your neighbors. But you won't look weird to Jesus. You'll look like an obedient child. He wants what's best for you. Don't you believe Him? Let's sing it and let's respond. Amen.