Last week we talked about resolutions and renewing and how any life change you want to see in 2023 has to start with Jesus. I made a comparison to dieting, which is a common resolution

5 reasons why New Year resolutions mostly fail
1. Setting unrealistic expectations
2. Not going step-by-step
3. Having too many goals at a time
4. Inability to identify the obstacles
5. Stress

Let me say it like this:
1. We commit to ideas not reality
2. The product of our commitment takes too long
3. We overcommit
4. We overlook things that cause us to de-commit
5. Stress

This is a main reason why our relationships suffer and/or fail, too. It isn’t because of bad intentions. We INTEND to do good, but intentions only do so much and go so far. If you want to lose weight this year, you can’t just intend, you have to commit. And that commitment can’t just be in word. You actually have to do something.

You have to develop a plan and put it in motion.
You have to prepare for the issues and problems.
You have to prepare for those mornings when the bed makes you happier than the workout.
You have to enlist people to help you stay the course.
You have to realize there will be a moment where a Texas Roadhouse roll will speak more life to you than the high protein low card option.

It is funny how we know this in losing weight, but we don’t so much in our relationships.

One of the most satisfying things about being married is that I know when I wake up in the morning, Monique will be there. Hey, we’ve had our fights, our struggles. I know I am not always easy to live with. But even in the midst of our toughest times, we always sought help and refused to even breathe the D word. Why? Our commitment was too important.

Your commitment should be enough to keep you engaged.

Is your commitment to God strong enough to weather the storms that may come?

Before you just answer out of habit, be real.
- What if God doesn’t come through like you thought he would?
- What if God doesn’t keep you safe?
- What if God fails to meet your expectation?
- What if God doesn’t heal your kid?
- What if God doesn’t fix your spouse’s problems lol?

Is your commitment to God strong enough to keep you engaged with him? Or are you wavering? Why does our commitment waver?

With dieting, maybe because it is just too hard, or we don’t love who we’ll be more than who we are. With relationships though, meaning with God and others, maybe you don’t feel like the commitment is reciprocated. Maybe you feel like they aren’t holding up their side of the bargain. Ever felt like that? We see this wavering commitment in the Prodigal son’s brother. I call him the Entitled Son.

Luke 15:25-32
25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

“Dad, I’ve been faithful and loyal. I’ve been obedient and served you well. Why are you neglecting me?”

This is a man who felt like he was getting overlooked, neglected, taken advantage of. The problem is the entitled son wasn’t committed to his father. He thought he was, but he was really committed to the idea of what he thought his father wanted, and not to his father. We know this because if the entitled son had been committed to the father, then what moved the father’s heart would have moved his own. The entitled son’s unrealistic expectations caused his commitment to waver.

Now, there are plenty of other things that cause our commitment to waver, things like pride and disobedience, anger, bitterness, offense, misunderstandings, etc. This list can go on.

But today we are talking about re-committing.

What can the secular world show us about our commitments?

Setting unrealistic expectations
We have to learn to manage our expectations of what God is going to do, and perhaps, even who he is! He’s no genie! He doesn’t do what we want! But he is who he promises he is, and the only place we find that is in the Word. If we are going to temper our expectations of God and his actions, we have to be constantly in the Word, learning his nature and character so we can have healthy expectations when God does something that we don’t understand. Has he ever hurt me? has he ever lied to me? Has he ever promised one thing and not delivered it?

Not going step-by-step
This is all about the process. Too many people want what the process produces but refuse to stick to what the process requires. This is a commitment issue! Are you trying to cut corners in your relationship with God?

Scenario: You pray to trust God more. God allows some struggles that are designed to build your endurance and character and hope. He has you on a process where you will lean into him to discover his faithfulness and tap into the faith and trust others have in God so that you can trust in him yourself. But rather than enjoy that process, you get mad at God because you tried praying to trust him more and all you got was trouble. Now you don’t trust him and you’re mad at him when all along he was answering your prayer, just not in the way you expected. You wanted a gift and God gave you the opportunity for an education. But trust comes with experience and because you’ve refused to commit to the step by step process, you miss the product.

Having too many goals at a time
Let me say it like this: are you trying to fix too much at once? After we encounter Jesus for the first time, it can get really easy to try to correct every issue. Sometimes when we do this, we get disheartened because the more we see of the beauty of Jesus the more we see the nastiness of sin in ourselves and it can cause our hope to diminish and our commitment to wane. In situations like these we need to step back for a moment and realize that new isn’t immediate and the process takes time.

Inability to identify the obstacles.
Maybe you are at the opposite end of that argument where you are not adjusting because you can’t see issues within yourself. Your inability to identify obstacles in your faith walk is creating a sense of lessened need of God, and let’s be honest, things you think you don’t need don’t get your attention. In moments like these we need objective third parties to help us see what we cannot see.

Stress
Maybe it is just too hard. Dealing with sin is too hard, forgiving is too hard, this life is too hard. So you get disheartened and find it easier to disengage.

There are a million reason why we might be uncommitted or in the least not as committed as we should be. But there are three things we need to be committed to as we begin 2023.

If we define “commit,” we find “to be dedicated to something.” It comes from some old latin words that actually mean to join together. So to recommit is the act of rejoining together.

So here are three things that we need to be rejoined to in 2023.

1. Recommitted to God
You are in one of two camps: Either you are committed to God and want to double down on your commitment to him, or you have decoupled in some or all areas of your life and you know 2023 is the year to get back into communion with God.

1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Fellowship is "koinania." God wants a relationship with you, but there are so many things in this life that war against that. Do you feel like your relationship with God has taken some hits in 2022?How would you battle differently in 2023?

1 Kings 8:54-61 When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to the Lord, he rose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven. 55 He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying: 56 “Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. 57 May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us. 58 May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him and keep the commands, decrees and laws he gave our ancestors. 59 And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day’s need, 60 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other. 61 And may your hearts be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.

How do we commit to God?

You start with what you think:
Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

You move to what you believe about God:
John 1:1 ESV / 294 helpful votes
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Knowing him requires learning about him.
Learn about him through his word.

You wrap it up with what you do:
Proverbs 16:3
Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.Psalms 37:5
5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this:

Lastly, you make this a daily confession:
I choose you Jesus. You are Lord. You are my source. I am completely committed to you.

2. Recommitted to your spouse
Caveat: Jesus is and will always be the most important person in your life. But a very close second, is your spouse. Nothing is allowed to takes God’s place of importance in your life. The same goes for your spouse. The only person more important to you than they are is Jesus.
- Not your boss or coworkers.
- Not your kids or family members.
- Not your friends and buddies.

When your life is out of order, then nothing works right. A tell tale sign is that you seem to struggle more when your life is in chaos. Until you get your life back into godly alignment, you will never be able to commit to the level the other person needs from you.

Ephesians 5:22-31
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

If you want to see your commitment to your spouse strong this year, you need to do three things (minimum):

You have to prioritize your spouse.
Yes more than the kids. Yes more than the friends. Yes more than the job. Don’t get to the point where you use your job as an escape. You may get respect at the job site but remember, grass is greenest where it is watered. Fellas don’t you dare keep the job site green and the home site dead.

You have to prioritize your commitment to your spouse.
When you do what love does, you feel what love feels. Be as aggressive to maintain the commitment as you were in trying to secure the commitment.

You have to prioritize your marital health.
Restructuring so that the man is the spiritual leader of the house is a huge part of most marital problem solutions. Don’t let an issue become a problem. Get help. See a Christian marriage therapist. Keep your commitment to your spouse!

If you aren’t married, then your kids get this focus. If you have no kids, then lean into who God wants you to be so if and when a spouse comes a long, you are ready for them, not having to start the prep work for them.

3. Recommitted to the Church
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Jesus loves the church. Do you?

February - Series called “Church Hurt: Falling Back In Love With The Church”
If there was a segment of our lives where we felt we were not getting reciprocal commitment, people might say it is within the church. I get it that there are churches out there that use and abuse people. They treat people like a number. Their care about the person is congruent with their tithing record. I understand the church has problems and in many churches, liars and slanderers. But do you know one of the best ways to fight that mess? Be the person at church you want to see at church.

There isn’t an organization out there that is without people trying to take advantage. Even within our own families there are people who treat us with disdain. But we don’t have to be that way. We don’t have to carry that hurt. We don’t have to create that hurt. We can actually step into what the church was created for from the beginning:
- To teach people about Jesus
- To be an extended family
- To care for and encourage one another
- To serve and bless one another
- To create a place where we can come together and become who Jesus created us to be.
- To create an atmosphere where we can prepare ourselves to be the bride Jesus is coming for soon!

It will take:
Committing to being here.
Don’t forsake the assembly! We need you here!

Committing to serving.
It isn’t enough to sit and soak. You have too many talents and abilities in you to not be a part of helping move the Kingdom forward with your own hands!

Committing to godliness
God has called us to holiness, to righteousness, to godliness. When you are pursuing these things and you are here, you help create that atmosphere where God can do amazing things.

Matthew 18:20. "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them

I, Jason John Cowart take you, Monique Anne Danielle Dowdle
to be my wedded wife,
to have and to hold from this day forward,
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish till death do us part.
This is my solemn vow.

You’ve heard a commitment like this at a wedding. Your commitment means something. It is your word and your word matters.

If you want to be who God wants you to be in 2023, i believe it will take recommitting in some areas of your life.

It may sound like this:
I commit to daily prayer and reading so I can spend more time with and get closer to God.
I commit to making my wife my priority, not my job.
I commit to stepping into a serve team position because I want to honor God with my time and efforts.

Whatever it is, let’s make that commitment today.

It might need to begin with a first time commitment, or a recommitment to your relationship with Jesus.

Jesus, I confess you as Lord of my life. Save me. I believe in you and receive you Jesus as my Savior. Holy Spirit fill me to overflowing. I commit my life to you today Jesus.
In Jesus name, amen.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?