When I plan a sermon series (sometimes a year out) I have no idea what events might unfold. Last week, a young man walked into a church in South Carolina and stole the lives of nine people. His actions sparked outrage. We saw headline after headline about the confederate flag, racism, the KKK, gun violence, hate, and mental illness.
But the biggest headline in my opinion was LOVE. It was how our dear brothers and sisters in Christ opened their arms to that troubled young man. . . and how their LOVE nearly melted the hate in his heart. . . it was grieving family members fearlessly looking this killer in the eyes and offering forgiveness, pleading with him to repent, and trust Jesus, that somehow his soul might be saved, and the evil in his heart destroyed. We saw the face of God in the words and actions (response) of those family members.
What does it look like to LEAD? Its turning to God in the face of national calamity and letting God speak and make himself known. Fools always rush in, the first to speak and act! Nehemiah trusted God. He first sat down, prayed, wept and fasted before the God of Heaven, our great and awesome God. Only after seeking Gods' heart and mind, was he ready to lead. And so he did! A lot of our fear in leading is for not seeking after the heart of God, or taking on the mind of Christ Jesus.
This morning we turn our attention to the FEAR OF COMMITMENT. Again, when I planned this message I had no idea what would happen this week! I didn't know the Supreme Court would legalize gay marriage in all fifty states. Someone said this week a war broke out on Social Media between the Confederate Flag and the Skittles factory. The deepest emotions of our nation are being stirred right now. Please be in prayer!
One of the ways we can think of commitment is that COMMITMENT is fundamentally a CONSTRAINT. A constraint is a limitation we put upon ourselves, usually for the betterment of ourselves and others. We're afraid of being limited.
An example of a constraint is when you go to college and declare a major--an area of specialization. Maybe its medicine, accounting, or business. Some put off declaring a major as long as possible! But why constrain yourself? Because limiting educational focus allows you to excel and make the maximum contribution to society.
When I was younger I joined the track and field team. I was a horrible runner. A race would be over, and then five minutes later I'd come chugging across the finish line. Half the time people forgot I was even in the race! People were like, "Whys that kid still running down the backstretch of the track?" Within a short time the coach banned me from the track and relegated me to the field. Instead of running, he got me throwing the shotput and discuss! Why? Because limiting me to that event helped our team and spared me unneeded humiliation! I had so much more joy throwing stuff! [Besides, they had a thirty minute time limit for mile!]
A similar thing happened in football. I wasn't skilled enough to be quarterback, powerful enough to be a running back, nor quick enough to be a wide receiver. So what did the coach do? He put me on the line! He constrained me for the benefit of the team, and for my own good! Of course I was too small for the line too! The bench ended up being the perfect place!
Your job is a kind of constraint. How many times in your life have you been given a specific role, assignment, or set of responsibilities? And why? It was so every member of your team could make their optimal contribution, you a paycheck, the company a profit, and the world a benefit. Could you imagine a college where no one declares a major? A track, football team, or workplace where everyone throws off constraint and assumes whatever role they want? It would lead to total anarchy and chaos!
Being an American citizen is a kind of constraint. Theoretically, to be a citizen, you must agree to abide by the constitution of the United States. Generally speaking, by accepting the constraints of citizenship, you're better off, right?
Another constraint is being a resident of the State of Illinois, Sangamon County, the city of Springfield, or a member of your home owners association. I saw where one homeowners association was fining home owners who parked their cars backward in their driveway! Federal, State, and Local Laws are also a kind of constraint. For the most part, laws advance the common good of the majority.
Obeying your parents is a constraint. In Exodus 20:12 God says, "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you." I hated discipline growing up. I thought my parents were way too harsh. Oh how I complained and moaned and groaned. I resented them, cussed at them under my breath, even dishonored them at times. But you know what, that discipline shaped the whole course of my life, for the better. The common lament of every devastated adult, almost without except is, "I should have listened to my parents."
You might not have ever thought of it this way, but marriage is a constraint. There are billions of people on the planet, but now you're going to share your life with that one other person. Should you be terrified, or excited? In their book, A Beautiful Constraint, authors Adam Morgan and Mark Barden write, "In lifelong relationships, we commit to one partner to the exclusion of others; the constraint we put on ourselves allows us to focus our emotional energy on building a life with that person, and gives us a deeper level of intimacy and security in return."
One of the enduring symbols of commitment in our culture is a wedding dress. This dress belongs to Jessica McCormick! In a Christian ceremony. . . (1) The white fabric symbolizes the purity that ought to make up the fabric of a marriage relationship. Marriage is designed for husband/wife to beautify one another, and never corrupt or stain or destroy each other. (2) Standing at an altar, in a church, conveys a desire to live before God and man, with complete integrity, and a clear conscience. A couples speaks vows to one another signaling their commitment to honor Christ. (3) The unending circle of a wedding ring, crowned with a diamond, signifies the unending beauty of two lives coming together as one, persevering in love, for better or worse, in sickness or health, even unto death.
The question people are wrestling with today is, "Should we be constrained by marriage, and in particular, by traditional-monogamous-heterosexual marriage, between a man and woman?"
I think a deeper question is whether we ought to be constrained by anyone or anything at all. This might be an AHA moment, a surprise discovery, but the "Kingdom of God" is yet another constraint. The Kingdom of God isn't a physical "place" but rather a posture of restraint before a Holy God. To inherit the Kingdom of God you pledge to constrain yourself. There are a million choices, but you limit yourself to what pleases the King of Heaven, our Great and Awesome God. When it comes to "God's Kingdom" you and I don't get to determine the conditions for membership. King does!
Let me give you a few examples. In John 3:5, Jesus tells Nicodemus, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit." Nicodemus bristles at Jesus' statement, because he is an independent minded man who has been religious his whole life, and he knows exactly what Jesus is implying. Essentially, Jesus is telling Nicodemus that to be part of the Kingdom of God, he must believe on the Son of God to receive eternal life (John 3:16)! He must go down to the Jordan River, and personally... publically... be baptized by John the Baptist.
Really, the whole of the Christian faith (the Kingdom of God), is one gigantic constraint. Romans 6:1-2, ". . .Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" God's offer of grace in Christ Jesus constrains us.
The question isn't whether the Kingdom of God is a constraint. The question is whether you believe the Kingdom of God is a necessary constraint, a beneficial constraint... a transformative constraint... for your life. Some constraints are life-giving. Some, not so much! But what do you believe about the constraints that the King of Heaven, the Great and Awesome God, might impose upon you? Do you trust that his constraint are life-giving? Will they harm you?
The Ten Commandments are one gigantic constraint. "Thou shall not have any other gods, not make graven images, not use my name in vain. Thou shall remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Honor Father/Mother. Thou shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, covet your neighbor's house--wife--servants--animals--gold."
The Lord's Prayer is one gigantic constraint. "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."
The constraint of doing God's will and pleasing him in every way, enables you to live long, flourish, and even leads to eternal life! Should we be afraid of making a commitment to God? Should we be afraid to accept whatever constraints he might put on us?
In the Bible, those who throw off all restraint, are considered lawless. Lawless people don't abide by any standards, least of not God's standards. The Lawless throw off all moral restraint. Jesus tells us exactly how the lawless operate:
In John 3:19-21, He says, "This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people loved the darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God."
People are afraid of "making a commitment", of being "constrained", by the Kingdom of God. Their afraid of the implications of believing on Jesus. They ask, "Does this mean I have to get baptized? Does this mean I can't keep getting wasted? Does this mean I have to forgive, because I'm just not ready to forgive. Does this mean I have to give my money to God?"
Not everyone belongs to the Kingdom of the God, by default. Why? Because not everyone wants to be constrained. Some rather be lawless than let God reign. In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Paul says, "Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with other men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."
Just because you sit in church every Sunday doesn't mean you're part of the Kingdom of God. Your relationship to the King... whether you accept God's constraints in your heart, and submit to him as Lord and God, demonstrates whether you're truly part of the Kingdom of God. Baptism is an pledge, a declaration of intent to live for God.
The spotlight is often on GLBT Christians. But why single one type of lawlessness out against another? A lot of sexually immoral, promiscuous churchgoers, will have a rude wakeup call one day. A lot of adulterous churchgoers. A lot of greedy, money-hungry churchgoers. A lot of wasted, drunk churchgoers. A lot of slandering, gossiping, swindling churchgoers. If you're a believer and think you can throw off all moral restraints, and still inherit the Kingdom of God, you are deceiving yourself.
Here is the crazy thing about the Kingdom of God. God allows us to be lawless. He allows us to throw off all moral restraint. If you want fifty examples of this, go read Romans 1:18-32. People refuse to glorify God, they refuse to give him thanks, their hearts and minds become darkened, they exchange the glory of God for idols, they give their lives over to sexual impurity/lusts, they exchange the truth of God for a lie, they worship and serve created things. They become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, depravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. They become gossips, slanderers, god-haters, insolent, arrogant, boastful. They invent evil. They disobey their parent, they have no fidelity in marriage, no love, no mercy. Not only do they do evil but they become propagators of evil.
The alarming phrase, repeated throughout Romans 1, is how at each stage, "God gives them [people] over" to their sinful desires. God doesn't stand in the way of what people most want. He releases us to reap from whatever we must sow. Some people are afraid of being constrained by the Kingdom of God. When I read my Bible, what we should be more afraid of, is throwing off all constraints of God's Kingdom.
When you're lawless, you only possess the illusion of freedom. You think you are free, but in reality the Bible says you are a slave to sin. You might want to be free, but you're being controlled by your passions, lusts, cravings and desires. We're only truly free when we offer ourselves to God. God enables us to escape the downward death spiral that inevitably comes with sin.
In light of everything that's happened this week, I think we still have the same opportunity we've had all along. The world is telling us that greater life is found in throwing off all restraint, whether in marriage, or even loving God. We're telling the world just the opposite. Life is found in following Christ alone.
I don't think it's productive to stand in people's path. We can warn people, we offer wisdom and counsel, we can pray for them, we can weep over the pain and brokenness we see, we can stand ready to restore them, should they be open. But ultimately God calls us to be salt and light, to shine like stars in a darkened universe, as we hold out the words of life. Our lives, our marriages under God, are to demonstrate the plausibility, the vitality, the beauty, the wisdom of this thing called the Kingdom of God. As our world grows darker, may Christ's light shine ever brighter in us.