In Touch Ministries

Guest (Male): A committed man or woman committed to Jesus Christ. The answer to the call of Christ is always yes, yes, yes, yes. Whether I like it or not, whether it's painful or not, whether it's hurtful or not, whether I'll be understood or not, the answer, Lord Jesus, if that's your call on my life, the answer, Lord Jesus, is yes.

Guest (Male): Most Christians genuinely want to serve and honor God, but it doesn't seem to take much to distract us. Today's message on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, reminds us of the character of God and why we're obligated to respond quickly to his instructions. Our series Unfailing Commitment continues now. Let's join Dr. Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Now I want you to listen to me very carefully because there are four basic questions that are essential for all of us who intend to live obediently before God, to honor his lordship, to live a life committed to Jesus Christ. If I don't answer these, I won't understand the foundation of what commitment is all about. All of these are found in this passage—the third chapter and the fourth chapter of Exodus—as God deals and as he calls Moses.

Now listen, if I'm going to be committed to Jesus Christ—I mean truly committed—lay myself down before him, acknowledge his headship, his lordship, his governorship, his control, his rightful place as authority, supreme, final authority in my life, I need to answer these four questions. And the first question is this: Who is this God? Who is this God who is challenging you and me to live in submission to his divine authority?

Now, my friend, it was very important to God that Moses explain to them who their God was. Whom shall I say sent me? When you became a child of God, you were born into a new family. You became a part of the living God. Christ Jesus became your life. It was no longer your right to make choices about your life except under the final authority of the person of Jesus Christ.

It is the fact that we have forgotten who God is. He isn't a grandfather sitting up in heaven just watching us do our thing and turning a deaf ear to our language, closing and winking his eyes to our sinfulness. God Almighty is the final authority in our life. How could you ever reserve any portion of yourself, your possessions, your time, if this is the God of this universe and he's the God of your life? My friend, what right do you have to exercise authority in your life that is in opposition to, rebellion to, the God of this world? The truth is we have no right.

The second question you and I need to ask: Who am I? God said to him, first of all, here is who you are: you are in relationship. You have a relationship with me because I have chosen you as a servant. I have chosen you to go to Egypt and to release my people. Who you are, you are in relationship to me. I'm your God. I'm the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Moses, I am your God.

Now listen to me carefully. If the God of this book is your God, he's the final authority. If you are who you say you are in Christ Jesus and who this Bible says you are, then my friend, you and I are the servants of the living God. While we are friends of Jesus, we're his servants. You and I are those sons and daughters of God who are living in submission to, in subjection to, in honor toward Jesus Christ, who is our very life. That's who we are.

And if Jesus Christ is my life, how do I have the right to tell him what I will do and what I will not do, what pleases me and what does not please me? No, God, I can't do that. I draw the circle. I don't mind serving God to a point, but inside this little circle of mine, I have put up this sign. It says, "To God: No Trespassing." And on the other side, "Private." I want to tell you, my friend, that's not commitment.

If I know who God is and I know who I am, then I know that my only rights in life have been subjugated to the person of God in Christ Kyrios. He is Lord of our life. That doesn't mean he's somebody up in heaven who simply knows my needs and as a result of knowing my needs is always meeting my needs. He's doing that, but he's Lord. That is, he is the final authority in my life. Whatever he calls me to do, I have no right to argue with God about it or to tell him what I will or what I will not do.

When somebody says to me, "Well, I believe you ought to give, but here's what I believe," that's not the issue. The issue is: What did God say? The truth is not one thing do you and I own. If I understand who I am, I understand I am the purchased—listen, if I am the purchased possession of God, all that has my name on it belongs to that same God.

Third question: we've already begun it. To whom do I belong? Now let me show you how God got this message to Moses. Moses naturally began to tell the Lord, "Now, Lord, wait a minute, hold it, just hold it right there. Must be somebody else better than me you could call on." And so he begins to do what all of us would naturally do, and that is to give excuses why we couldn't obey God. All of us do that at times in our life.

"Lord, now wait a minute, you've got the wrong person." You see, we don't stop to think, now hold it, he's omniscient. That means he knows everything. Then we turn right around and tell him, "God, you've got the wrong fellow." What we're saying is, "Lord, you know almost everything, but you've blown it this time. You don't know it this time because I'm not the right fellow."

If he's omniscient, he makes no mistakes. Listen to what God said to him. The Bible says he called Moses, and Moses had to face up to what was going on. To whom does Moses belong? First of all, let's go back. Who brought Moses into this world? God. Who preserved him when they were killing all those little Hebrew children? God preserved him there in that little ark that his mother wove out of the weeds by the Nile. Put him in that basket.

God sent Pharaoh's daughter's servant to find him in the bullrushes. God sent Pharaoh's daughter a love in her heart for little Moses. It was God who saw to it that Moses grew up in the household of Pharaoh. It was God who equipped him, who gifted him, who blessed him, and who made him ready for the call that God had issued him.

To whom does he belong? He says to God, first of all, "Lord, who am I?" Secondly, "They won't listen to me. Whom shall I tell them sent me?" Then he says, "Lord, I'm not eloquent." It's interesting how he says this. Look over, if you will, in verse 10 of chapter 4. Moses said to the Lord, "Please, Lord." Have you ever said that to him? "Please, Lord, I've never been eloquent."

He says, "Neither recently nor in time past." He says, "In fact, Lord, the truth is," he says, "I didn't used to be eloquent, and I'm not eloquent now. You've got the wrong fellow." He goes on. He says, "Thou hast spoken to thy servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." The Lord said to him, "Who made man's mouth? Who makes him dumb, deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go. I, even I, will be with your mouth and teach you what to say."

Let me ask you a question. To whom do you belong? If you have been saved by the grace of God, you are the—past tense—purchased possession of none other than almighty God. You don't belong to you. You have a choice to obey or disobey, but it is God who has the final authority about your life. First Corinthians chapter 6—you know that verse of scripture by heart: you're not your own, you're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God with your body.

When people say, "Well, I'll tell you one thing, I'm going to do my own thing," they're talking apart from scripture. That's not scriptural. There's not one verse in the Bible that even alludes to a child of the living God doing his own thing. To whom do you belong? You belong to God. We need to instruct our children. "Son, I'm your father, but you are the purchased possession of almighty God. I am sent into your life in order to bring you up to the point that you and God can develop your own relationship to each other. But son, you belong to God. Sweetheart, you belong to God."

Your wife belongs to God. Your husband belongs to God. Everything that you are and everything that you have—your gifts, your talents, everything that you have—belongs to God. Let me ask you a question. Is it not true that all that you are and all that you have, every single bit of it, you have to look back and see: what is the source? The source of all that you are and all that you possess, the source of that is God.

We are indebted to him for every single thing. And I'll tell you, the height of pride is any man or woman assuming the personal authority over their life as to how they will live, where they will go, what they will do, how much they will give. That is an assumption of pride. If the God of this book is your God, and if you are who God says you are—and you are—and he is the final authority and you are his purchased possession, then my friend, you and I have no right to tell God how much we will give, how long we will give, where we will go, where we will not go.

It is not for us to set up the circumference around our life and tell God we're willing to do anything and everything he says do, except—but. If we're committed to Christ as Lord, we are committed to blindly saying, "Yes, Lord Jesus, now what are the orders?" My friend, when Jesus Christ is Lord in your life, you don't come to him saying, "Lord, now what is it that you had in mind so I can consider whether I want to do it or not?"

That's not commitment. That's decision-making. Listen, a committed man or woman committed to Jesus Christ—the answer to the call of Christ is always yes, yes, yes, yes. Whether I like it or not, whether it's painful or not, whether it's hurtful or not, whether I'll be understood or not, the answer, Lord Jesus, if that's your call on my life, if that's your call to me, if that's what you're requiring of me, if that's what you're saying, the answer, Lord Jesus, is yes, on the authority not of my strength but who you are, who I am, and to whom I belong.

Oh, but there's one final question, the fourth one, that is so very important. And that question is this: Why am I here? When I settle these four questions, then my commitment issue should be settled forever. Why am I here? Why was Moses there? God had rescued him as a little baby out of the bullrushes of the Nile River. God had rescued him and sent him to the backside of the desert to spend 40 years of his life in the most menial task of shepherding sheep, which would make him despicable in the eyes of the Egyptians.

Humiliating him until God had sanded down, sifted out, and sculptured out, and pruned out the pride and the arrogance that had been built up in Moses, the son of Pharaoh, as found by his daughter. Forty years on the backside of the desert. My friend, do you know why sometimes we have those dry spells in our life? We think, "God, what's going on?" Could it be that you have been doing your own thing and that God has put you on the backside of the desert spiritually?

You're not hearing anything, you're not feeling anything, you don't see anything going on. What's going on, God? What's going on is that God has you on the backside of the desert—sanding you, sifting you, pruning you, sculpturing you, working on you, removing that sense of pride, that sense of personal authority. God wants you humble to the point that you can say to him, "Lord Jesus, not my will but thy will. Anywhere, anytime, anything, you name it, and the answer, Lord Jesus, is yes, yes, yes, yes, Lord Jesus, yes." That's why he has you on the backside of the desert.

And the backside of the desert is a precious place to be, my friend, if you want to be used of God, because he'll put you there sooner or later for one reason or the other. Why are we here? Why was Moses there? Moses was on the backside of the desert in preparation for his whole ministry. Listen: 40 years of his life he lived in Egypt. Forty years he lived in the desert. Eighty years of his life had gone by. Only had about 40 left.

Once in a while, young people come to me, they want to take a shortcut. I want to tell you something: Jesus took 30 years for three year ministry. Eighty years God was in preparation for Moses to spend the next 40 making him a man that the world would never forget. You can't rush God. Let me ask you a question: Why are you here? Once in a while, somebody says, "Well, here I am 73 years of age. I don't know why God's leaving me here."

Watch it. Listen to me. My friend, don't say that, because a long time ago you should have discovered why you're here. If you're 16, you ought to know why you're here. If you're 10 years of age, your parents should have taught you already why you're here. Why you're here as a single, why you're here as a married person, why you're here at 16 or 68 or 108? Why are we here?

You see, if I don't have that right, then who is he to tell me what to do? If I don't understand who he is, why should I submit to his authority? If I don't know who I am, why should I let somebody whom I cannot see dictate to me? If I don't know to whom I belong, why should I have somebody else running my life? If I don't know why I'm here, I'll tell you, my friend, Jesus Christ will never be Lord of my life until I understand why I'm here.

You and I are living in this world primarily for one ultimate reason: to glorify the living God. That means that we would so live our lives that we would reflect the life of Jesus, point men to the life of Jesus. That our very life, he says, our works, our voice, our conduct, that every aspect of our life would do what? Would cause others to want to worship and praise and submit to and live in obedience to God Almighty. That's why we're here.

Now let me ask you a question. If God is the God of this Bible, if he's your God, and if you find your true identity in your relationship to him, which every believer does, and you're the purchased possession of none other than almighty God—who will someday be our judge through his son Jesus Christ—and if you and I were created, gifted, talented, formed, preserved, brought to birth, saved, redeemed, kept, empowered, given opportunity, privilege, if that's who we are, and if our ultimate purpose for being here is to glorify almighty God, let me ask you this question: What right do you have to live your life doing your thing as you please when that is totally foreign to the word of God?

Some of you God is calling into the ministry, and you're telling him you can't go. You're forgetting who the authority is. Some of you God is calling into other areas of service, and you're telling God you can't do it. Some of you God is challenging you to give more than you've ever given before out of his resources, and you're telling God that you cannot do it.

Has there ever been a time in your life when you said to Jesus Christ, "Lord Jesus, all that I am, all that I have, I surrender, I entrust to, I commit to you, acknowledging you as my savior, my Lord, my master, the final authority in my life. Wherever you lead, I'll go. For how long? Wherever, whenever. My life is your life." Let me remind you of a real simple but profound thing. When you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, in the moment you did that, the Bible says that Jesus became your life. How you going to keep from him what is already his?

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. The Bible tells us that Christians have been bought with a price, and in loving gratitude, we're to maintain an attitude of surrender to the authority of Jesus Christ. For help with that perspective, search the resources at intouch.org. And that's where you can hear today's message again; just click Today on Radio.

Or order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, The Call to Commitment, from our online bookstore. It's also included in his teaching set, Unfailing Commitment. Again, log on to intouch.org, or you can call or text us at 1-800-INTOUCH. To write to us, address your letter to In Touch Ministries, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357.

Guest (Male): As Christians, we know it's important to surrender our entire lives to Christ. But do you ever find that you put in some little loopholes in your commitment to him? Well, today's Moment with Charles Stanley is coming up to talk about that.

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Guest (Male): The In Touch daily devotional is now available in large print. While other print seems to be getting smaller, ours is getting larger.

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Guest (Male): The In Touch daily devotional, now available in easy-to-read large print. Order yours today at intouch.org/largeprint.

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Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch. An incident from Dr. Stanley's life as a pastor will illustrate what commitment to Christ is like. Here's a Moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Some time ago, several years ago in the chapel, I married a couple. And a year, about a year later, this lady came back to me, or called me rather, and she said her husband was leaving her for another woman. And they had begun to discuss it, and she talked about divorce and asking him was he going to get a divorce, and he said no, he didn't need to. And in the course of the conversation, here's what he told her: that when he married her, I gave him the marriage license to mail in. He deliberately kept the marriage license just in case he decided to back out.

Now, my friend, that's not commitment. Let me ask you a question. The day you gave your life to Jesus Christ, I believe more than likely you at least understood that you were having a whole change of life, you were giving yourself to him. I wonder, did you keep the contract in your pocket just in case there were a few things in life you wanted to do? In case you wanted to be unfaithful somewhere along the way, did you keep the license, the commitment, the title deed to your life which belongs to almighty God? Did you keep that to yourself, or did you honestly and truly make a genuine commitment to him?

Guest (Male): The Christian life is to be a gratitude-driven journey of saying yes to God. Learn more at intouch.org. And if today's program gave you renewed motivation to obey God, we'd love to hear your story. Tomorrow on In Touch, believers can stay true to their commitment to Christ even when the result of saying yes to God means difficulty and pain. Learn what to do when commitment is on trial Wednesday on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on the station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.