South Shore Pentecostal Church

Announcer: Welcome to the Apostolic Truth Radio program with Pastor Craig Ouellette, a radio ministry of South Shore Pentecostal Church located in Whitman, Massachusetts. At a time when many Christians do not know what to believe, South Shore Pentecostal is honored to bring you clear biblical teaching on which you can confidently build your faith. Thank you for joining us.

J. Craig Ouellette: Well, let's go to this lesson here this morning. From belief to commitment. From belief to commitment. Let's read these scriptures here. Psalm 31 and verse 5. And Psalm 31, verse 5 says, "Into thy hand I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, oh Lord God of truth." This is David speaking. He's committing his spirit to the Lord.

A few pages over to Psalm 37, verse 5. "Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass." Proverbs 16 and 3. "Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established. Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established."

And then in Second Timothy 1 and 12, a scripture that I say quite a bit, others around here say it quite a bit. It's an important scripture and concept. Second Timothy 1 and 12, Paul says, "For the which cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded... I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."

Now, I looked at a bunch of different translations, not as many as normal, but a lot of them say convinced, but I think persuaded's got more strength than convinced. Persuaded means I've come to the edge and God's proved himself more than once. Persuaded tells me the evidence is leaning on God. Hallelujah. Praise God. We're talking about from belief to commitment today.

The meaning of commitment in that verse, Paul writing, "I know whom I've believed," the word commitment has the meaning of a deposit, a trust, or thing consigned to one's faithful keeping. A putting with. So Paul was saying, "I've committed my life and soul to Jesus and I'm persuaded he's able to keep it against that day."

In other words, Paul was saying, "I've been through enough. You cannot convince me that God's not going to keep me. I've been through enough problems and obstacles and hardships and ups and downs that you cannot convince me, persuade me to change my mind. He is able to keep what I have committed unto him against that day." In other words, he's able to keep me till I take my last breath and raise me up at that trumpet call. Hallelujah.

Amen. So when we're talking about committing, he's talking about making a deposit. Amen. When we trust, we're consigning something to someone to keep faithful. Now, sometimes we won't deposit to God. We will not consign to God. Or we'll consign certain areas to God but we won't give him the whole thing. Amen.

Oftentimes, we'll consign some areas to God but other ones we want to manage. But that's not what Paul's saying. Paul said, "I've consigned the whole thing. I'm giving it all to you. I'm persuaded that he's able to keep everything against that day." Amen. We're talking about from belief to commitment. Again, there's a difference between belief and commitment.

I think there's a lot of people today that think because they believe, they're committed. But look at this. A person can believe in the benefits of a degree of education but not commit to getting an education. Right? Someone can believe they have the ability to be a good athlete but not commit to being an athlete, or a musician, or a scientist, or whatever.

A person can believe in deep sea diving is going to be exciting but not commit to it. So we see that there's a difference. A person can believe in Jesus without ever actually committing to Jesus. Yeah, you can. You can believe in Jesus without committing to him. What God is looking for is a commitment from us.

Hallelujah. Look over in James 2 and 19. In James 2 and 19, James says, "Thou believest there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble." Now, don't just say, "Well, it's the devil, he can't be saved." He still believes. He believes the truth. He knows the truth. He just can't appropriate the truth in his life.

So a person can believe without being committed. And you know what? Living for God, God will allow our commitment to be tested. If you're going to live for God, God is going to allow our commitment to be tested. Why? The trying of your faith. There will be tried with fire, as more precious than gold that perishes.

Sometimes we think we've committed it all and we haven't. So God lets us go through a trial, and the trial reveals the level of commitment. Amen? The trial will reveal our level of commitment. Amen. And so just because a person believes does not mean they are committed. We looked at Psalm 31 and 5 and David said, "Into thy hand I commit my spirit, thou hast redeemed me, oh Lord God of truth."

Now, if you search this Psalm out, you see that it appears this Psalm was written at a time when David had just with his men gone down and delivered a city called Keilah from the Philistines. And Saul heard that they were down there and so they sent from Keilah up to Saul saying, "David's down here, come and get him."

David heard about it. David went to the priest and asked God, ask the Lord what's going to happen. Is Saul going to come? "Yes." Will the people of Keilah, are they going to deliver me to Saul? "Yes, they're going to deliver you to Saul." So here's David, amen, and even though he's done the best thing, he's helped these people, they've turned against him, he commits himself to God.

He says, "Into thy hand I commit my spirit." David doesn't throw his hands up and run. David commits to God. It's not working the way I thought. "God, I thought I'm anointed, I'm supposed to be king, and here I am helping, doing good things, and they're turning against me. King's against me, the regular people are against me, Philistines don't like me, I'm running for my life, nowhere to turn... I commit to you, God. I commit to you, God."

Oh, come on, hallelujah. He commits to God. He commits his soul, his spirit to God. On the day of Pentecost, we look over there and we see in Acts chapter 2, we see the beginning, the birthday of the church. We see God pouring out his spirit to start the church. And we hear Peter preaching a great message about Jesus being crucified, resurrected again, sending back his spirit.

And what they see is the spirit of God. And in verse 37, while the people are listening, they're convicted. They say, it says when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and they said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Now, Peter doesn't use the standard answers that people give today.

"Come pray the sinner's prayer. Come accept God. Just confess him with your mouth and you're going to be okay." Peter says, "Repent, be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Now, let's put this into perspective. Up to this point, Jesus has been an object of question, ridicule, people for and people against.

It does not have this super great following. They've got 120 disciples there, some that weren't there on the day of Pentecost in the upper room that maybe should have been. Amen. And so all of a sudden they're preaching Jesus to people that know the Pharisees are against it, know the Pharisees just crucified Jesus, knowing that the government in general is against this.

And Peter says, "Repent, get baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ." And in verse 41, it says, "Then they that gladly received the word were baptized." What did they do? They made a commitment to God. They didn't just say, "We believe and it's okay, we'll come back later."

They made a commitment to God that marked them right there on the spot. They showed up as followers. They separated themselves from everybody. They took the name of the one that had been crucified, they put it upon themselves. Commitment, amen, belief has got to lead to commitment. Amen. Hallelujah.

If your belief doesn't lead to commitment, it's debatable if you really do believe the Bible way. Now, you might believe, but believe in some other way doesn't get you to heaven. You've got to believe the Bible way. Amen. Now, let's look at some of the value of commitment. Value of commitment. James 1 and 8 says, "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways."

What's it saying? It's saying if I'm double-minded, I'm not committed. I haven't made my mind up in that area that I'm double-minded in. I've got two opinions. I'm in between. I'm on the fence. And when I'm double-minded in that area, I am unstable because I don't know to go to the right or the left or to stay or go forward or back or what.

And so the Bible says a double-minded man is unstable in all ways. Now, that word minded there is a Greek word that really means two-spirited, meaning they're vacillating in opinion or purpose. So James is saying, God is saying through James, a person that vacillates in their purpose or their opinion is going to be unstable.

He goes on to say when a person's not committed, you're like a wave. He says in verse 6, "But let him ask in faith..." we'll start at verse 5, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given to him." Most men? Some men? All men. All men. That means you and me and anybody.

If I can trust God and I need an answer, God will give me the wisdom. God will give me the wisdom. God will give you the wisdom. Amen. But, but, to get the wisdom, I've got to ask in faith, right? "Let him ask in faith," verse 6, "nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man think he's going to receive anything from the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways."

Listen, the devil wants you to be double-minded. God wants you to be single-minded. Amen. If you can get single-minded, you can get focused on God, you can get what you need from God, you can get the strength of God. God will lift you up, God will help you, God will bring you through, God will make it all new. Amen.

God will bring you out the other side. Hallelujah. And you won't be crying tears, you'll be shouting for joy because God did what he said he's going to do. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. So if I'm going to receive from God, I've got to be committed to God. I've got to be committed in faith. Not blind faith, but faith according to the word of God.

Not faith according to a denomination, but faith according to the word of God. Not faith according to philosophers, amen, or anybody, theologians, but faith according to the word of God. So if God says, "If you seek me with a whole heart, you're going to find me," if I just start getting my heart right and seeking God, I'm going to, not might, going to. Not may, going to.

Thank you, Lord. Yes. Not possibly, going to. I'm going to find God. You need God? Get your heart right. The Bible says if I seek him with a whole heart, I'm going to find him, hallelujah. Amen. Just start seeking, hallelujah. Get all the other stuff out of the way. Put it out of the way, put it in the closet, send it out to the dump or something, but get your mind on God.

So without a commitment of faith, you become like a wave. Amen. You've got a lot of power, but the wind's blowing you this way and then the wind's blowing you this way, and then you've got nothing because there's no wind and you've got no control over the wind. The wind is controlling your life, not God. Amen.

But if I've got faith, doesn't say the wind's not going to blow, but it does say I can stand. I've got a rock, hallelujah. I've got a hand to hold me up. God's going to hold me up. Amen. God will hold you up. Amen. There's going to be wind, hallelujah, but I don't have to go with the wind. I can stand till the wind passes or God will hide me in the hollow of his hands, or God will let me run to the tower of his name.

Amen. And I'll have a place where I can be safe in God. Thank you, Lord. So commitment will stabilize you. Commitment will stabilize a person. Amen. Commitment will give you an anchor in the storm. Commitment will give you a tower to run to. Commitment will lift you up above the storm. Like an eagle, you can float on the wind of the storm and watch what's going on while you are up there by the hand of God floating in the spirit and everything's going on below you. Come on, amen.

Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Isaiah 40:31, familiar scripture, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall... shall what? Renew their strength. What's going to happen? They'll mount up with wings as eagles." Hallelujah. Come on, an eagle likes the storm. When the storm comes, the eagle gets out and gets up and cruises and knows how to handle the wind currents.

It's just up there floating around above the storm. The storm is not upsetting the eagle. The eagle can walk and fly, it can fly in that storm. Amen. If I can wait upon God, God will lift me up with wings of eagle. He can lift me up above the storm. Hallelujah. I can be out there floating around, all kinds of things going on below me, hallelujah, but I know that I can float. I'm not even struggling, I'm just floating on the current by God.

Amen. And when it's all done, I can come in. They that wait upon the Lord. Oh, that means you get into your prayer place. You're waiting on God. You put out your petitions, you didn't feel God. Okay, I told him what I need and I believe that he heard me. Now I'm going to thank him. Now I'm going to worship him. Now I'm going to give him glory for being faithful.

Now I'm going to praise him. I'm not asking him anymore, I already gave it to him. Now I'm going to let him be God, I'm going to praise him. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Amen. So you can mount up in God if you wait on God. Commitment will give a person direction. Sometimes we don't know what to do because we're not committed.

Recently had an opportunity to baptize somebody and they said to me, "I struggled with this decision, but once I made the decision, all of a sudden everything became clear. All of a sudden I started to understand things in the Bible." See, sometimes we don't understand the Bible because we're not committed to God. We're not committed to what God said to do.

But once like this man that I was talking about, once he made the commitment, he said a lot of things became clear to me that I was wrestling about. When you commit to God, God will make a way. Read it here in Proverbs 16 and 3. He says, "Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established."

What does that mean? That means if I'll commit my works, in other words, I'm going to let God direct my works. Right? Thank you, Lord. Yes. It's not I'll choose what my works are and I'll say, "God, here they are." Doesn't mean that. It means I'm going to commit my life unto God. He's going to direct my life. And when I commit my life unto God, God will give me the works I'm supposed to do with my life.

And once I'm doing what he wants me to do, he's going to give me the thoughts that I need to accomplish what he's asking me to do. Hallelujah. So when I commit my thoughts, my works to God, God starts to work and direct my mind. Sometimes we're trying to find out, "Is God saying that? What's that? Is that the voice of God or is that just my imagination?"

Make a commitment to God. Commit your works to God, commit your life to God, commit the ups and downs to God, commit the ins and outs to God, commit the dark nights to God, commit the victories to God, commit all the path to God, and God will establish your thoughts, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, let's give him praise. It's time to praise him right now.

Lord, you are worthy. You are worthy. Oh, we praise you here today. We thank you here today. Hallelujah. So when you commit your works to God, you're really saying, "God, you be the author of my works. You direct my life." See again, every one of us is here for a reason. We're not here by accident. It doesn't matter if your parents didn't expect you to come along but you came along.

Doesn't matter if your mother was raped and you came along. It doesn't matter if your mother wasn't married and you came along. You're only here because God let you be here. No one lives unless God says live. Nobody. Otherwise, the devil would be filling the world with people he wanted. Nobody. If you're alive, it's because God said live.

Hallelujah. And that means he's got a purpose, a reason why you are here. And the fullest life any human being will ever live is when they find God's purpose and start to live it. Because you're made for that. You might find some satisfaction in certain areas. This is what happens in the entertainment areas and sports and stuff.

People get caught up in areas that they've got some ability that God's given them, but they're not really committed to God. So now they're off track because they're getting a measure of fulfillment. But they're not really in the place that God wants them to be. So they're never going to have all the communion or the things that they need from God.

But if you get into the place that God has got for you, and I'm telling you, God's got a place for everybody. Our name is written in the book. When the second coming comes and the Lord opens up the great white throne of judgment after that, opens up the book, he's not going to find out, "Hey, who's this standing in front of me? He's not in the book."

They're all in the book. There's not going to be anybody that's there that God didn't have in the book. Come on, Lord. Amen. Let's give him some praise. God, we thank you, we worship you, we magnify you, Lord God. We give you glory, we give you praise here today. Hallelujah. If you'll commit to God, God will start to establish your thinking.

He'll start to direct your steps. He'll start to show you where to go, where not to go. Amen. He'll establish your thinking. Amen. Commitment will give a person direction, as we've already said that. Notice we don't think of this so much as commitment, but look over in the book of Revelation chapter 3, verse 16. Jesus is talking to the church at Laodicea, which is a backslidden church. It's a church that thinks they're right with God and they're naked and don't know it.

So Jesus says to them in verse 16, "So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth." Well, when you're lukewarm, you don't know if you're cold or hot. You can't go either way. If I'm cold, I'm going one way. If I'm hot, I'm going the other way. If I'm cold for God, I'm going away from him. If I'm hot for God, I'm going towards him.

But when I'm lukewarm, I'm not going towards him or away from him, I'm just kind of there. Right. So I've got no direction. Even though I need some direction and I'm happy to sit there and not getting anyplace, and God's going to move on and I'm going to be left because I'm not going either way. Right. So the lukewarm, they have belief, they're just not committed. Right? Yes.

Yeah, they believe, that's why they're in church. He's talking to them. It's God's church. It's the church of Jesus. Letters to the seven churches. They're real churches. They're not imaginary churches. Those were real churches with real people. And they believe, that's why they're in church. But they're not committed.

If I'm cold, God can reach me. Because when God talks, I know I'm not right with God. And if I'm hot, I'm going the way God wants me to go. But when I'm lukewarm, God talks to me, I think, "I'm okay. I still believe. Amen." And so I don't have any direction. I don't know where God's going. Amen. He says, "Behold, I'm standing at the door knocking and if you'll open the door I'll come in."

Right? He's knocking at every heart. But so oftentimes we're lukewarm. "Was that a knock? No, it was just a woodpecker at the door." And we sit there when it was God. It was the Lord. Hallelujah. Bible says Jesus is coming for them that are looking for him. Read that in Hebrews 9:28. "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."

Guess what? If I'm going to be looking when he's coming, I can't be lukewarm. And I can't be cold. I've got to be hot. I've got to be committed. Because that means I've got to look when I don't feel like looking. That means I've got to look when it's hard to look. That means I've got to look when nobody else seems to be looking.

I've got to look for my own soul. He's not coming for everybody that believes, he's coming for them that are looking for him. Amen, Lord. And that's why he says in one place, "Not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord's going to enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven." Amen.

So commitment will give you direction. And Jesus says it's better to be committed to be going away from me than it is to be sitting there lukewarm. Coming to church half committed. Not really committed to the body of Christ and the church and the purpose of God. You understand that coming to church services is part of being committed to God. Amen. Yes, sir.

Coming to church services is part of being committed to God. And if we can come, we ought to come. Because you don't know what God's going to do. But the Bible does say that he dwells in the midst of his people, doesn't he? That's right. He inhabits the praise of his people, or Israel it says, but we're spiritual Israel. And so I've got to seek God with people of like precious faith.

Being committed to church is being committed to the body because the church is the body. Don't say you're committed to the Lord when you're not committed to the body. Amen. Don't say it because you're lying to yourself. Commitment opens doors. Sometimes we want a door, we're asking God which way to go, "Show me what to do," and we're asking for a door and we won't commit.

Sometimes you've got to commit to fasting. Sometimes you've got to commit to some more prayer. Sometimes you've got to commit to withdrawing from some things in your life that don't have to be done all the time and spend some more time seeking God. Commitment will open some doors. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Amen. And so the doors are opportunities.

But if I don't commit to the path where the door is, I never see the door. So I've got to make a commitment. We have paths all around us. And I'm saying, "Should I go here, here, here, here?" Well, the first thing to do is evaluate. If I go down this one, let's see, there's all these things that are not God down there, so that's not where God wants me to go, I don't think.

Let's go here. This seems like this is where God wants me to go. I go down the path and God is able to talk to us. But I don't see any doors until I get on the path. But I've got to make a commitment to get on the path to see the doors. So commitment will open doors. Right? Amen. Probably a great example is in the book of Acts and you've got Paul, Silas, and they're going through... they're going through Galatia and different places and the Holy Ghost says, "Don't go up to Asia and don't go to Bithynia."

So now they seek God and Paul gets a vision. And he doesn't know, he's going to a place he's never been. They're going over to Philippi, they're going over to Asia, or not Asia but Europe. They're going to Europe. And when they get there, they start, doors start to open for them. But they would not know those doors till they made a commitment to go there. Amen.

So we've got Esther. Esther 4:15, 16. Here's a... here's a story of commitment that opens the door of deliverance. Hallelujah. Esther 4:15 and 16. "Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, Go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast ye for me, neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast likewise, and so I will go in unto the king which is not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish."

So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther had commanded him. He said, "You need to go to the king and petition for you and your people." She said, "The king hasn't seen me in a month, and if I show up in there and he doesn't put out the golden scepter to me, I'm going to be killed."

But we're going to be killed anyways, so I've got to go down a path. I'm going to have to go down a path. I'm going to have to commit to a path that I don't know what's down there, but I won't find out if there's a door till I make a commitment. So they seek God. And she puts her robes on on the third day, comes into there, amen, she's made a commitment. "If I die, I die. Otherwise, whatever God's going to do, he's going to do it. So I'm walking down this road."

I've got a commitment and she gets in there and a door of deliverance opens up. "Esther, what is your petition? Bring your request to me." Hallelujah. God opens up a door of deliverance because she's willing to commit to a road. To a path. Yes. And you've got people trying to find God but they won't commit to the path.

You've got people that want to, they want to know more God but they won't commit to the word of God and the spirit of God, the path of God. I've got to go down the path that God says. Amen. And if it's written in the book, I can believe it. The book's older than me, older than you, older than your parents, your grandparents, amen, back a hundred generations.

The book has been there. It's true. If it's in the book, you can trust the book. Amen. It gives you a direction of a path that you can walk down. Give him praise. Again, Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." Not partially seek me. Not just seek me for good things.

Not just put away the obvious sins out of your life and seek me. Seek me, seek the kingdom of God. "God, what do you want? God, how's your kingdom supposed to work? God, where do I fit into the kingdom? God, do I need to change something so I can be in the kingdom?" Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added. Amen. A lot of times we're living meager lives, impoverished lives, because we're not really seeking God. So we're not in the place where God's adding all the things that he wants to give to us.

Quiet now. Commitment brings focus. Once a person commits to a plan, a direction, or a path, it becomes easier to focus. Again, when you've got all these things, you're constantly scanning, you can't focus. "Should I go here? Should I go there? Should I stay here? Should I go up? Should I go down?"

And when you're going like this, you don't see details. But when I make a commitment, now I can focus. And when I focus, I start to see things I didn't see before. A picture becomes clear. Sometimes the answer we've been looking for is right there in the picture, but we were shifting around so much we never took time to actually focus. But commitment will bring focus.

Commitment will help you focus on the word of God. Amen. Commitment in a certain direction eliminates the other paths, doesn't it? So now I don't have to think about that path. I don't have to think about those other ones. Amen. So I can... I can unload a lot of things out of my mind. I mean, so many of us, we think we're in the circus. We think we're jugglers.

We're juggling all these things rather than doing what God wants us to do. And we can't focus on where God wants because I better... I've got to keep my eyes on juggling all these things or I'll drop one. And if I'll just focus on God and his way. Notice that Paul said Paul could do what he was doing because he had committed. He said, "I'm persuaded that he's able to keep what I've committed unto him against that day."

Look over in Philippians 3:13. Here's Paul. Paul in Philippians 3:13, he says, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended." In other words, I haven't arrived. "But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before. I'm committed to reaching. I'm pressing for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ."

Hallelujah. I'm not pressing for the preacher's position. I'm not pressing for a position in the church. I'm not pressing for a pat on the back. I'm not pressing for a miracle. I'm pressing for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And I'm not focused on what's behind. I know they're back there. But I'm focused on what's in front. I've got a commitment to where I'm going. My eye's on the prize.

I'm letting go of the past and I'm reaching for the high calling of God in Christ. And what he really means is, "I'm going to run the race, finish my course, and I'm going to keep the faith." He says, "I'm not trying to be an apostle. I'm just running for God. I'm not trying to be a miracle worker. I'm just running for God."

This is Paul. "I'm not trying to be a prayer warrior or the writer of a good portion of the New Testament. I'm just trying to reach for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ." And while I do that, these other things just happen because God does what needs to be done on the road I'm on. Oh, let's give him some praise here right now.

Hallelujah, Lord God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. See, commitment will bring things into focus. Notice when I commit, now I believe the word of God. We start to believe the word of God. Psalm 119, verse 11. He says, "Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee."

See, a commitment to God will bring focus to the word of God. And now all of a sudden the word of God will start to mean something to me. If I'm not totally committed to God, I'm going to be committed to some other things. And when I've got a problem, I might commit my problem to the world rather than God. Amen.

"But thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." If I'm committed to God, I'm going to put the word in here. It's going to guide me. It's going to give me focus. Again, in verse 105, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." In other words, the word is going to show me how to go, how to walk, where to stand, how to live, how to think.

The word will show me that. Right attitudes, wrong attitudes. That I can trust God. That I can believe in God. The word will show me. And when I feel like I'm out by myself and it's all alone and it's more than I can believe or handle, I can go in the word and find somebody that went through the same thing or more.

And God was faithful. And as the scripture says, you have not yet resisted unto death. If I'm still breathing, I'm still alive. I've got hope in God. Amen. Commitment is required for intimate relationship. Again, sometimes people want to know God, but they don't know him. And the reason they don't know him is they're not really willing to commit to the relationship that God wants to have with them.

Do you understand God wants to have a relationship with each, every one? Not just the preacher, not just with elders, not with people that been in the church a long time, not with people that somehow know more Bible or whatever. God wants a relationship with every person. That's why God robed himself in flesh and came down onto this... came to this planet.

Let himself be born into this planet. It's not he came from heaven to here because God is everywhere. God cannot leave point A and come to point B. God is everywhere at all times. There's no place where God is not. That's what makes him God. But he does manifest himself so we can understand. So God allowed himself to be incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ.

Same time he sat on the throne and ruled the universe as the Father, but as the Son he's walking in human flesh. That's why you baptize in the name of Jesus. That's why the name of Jesus is the only saving name. It is God manifest in flesh. It is the Father manifest in flesh, walking in flesh.

If you got Jesus, you got the name of the Father. You got Jesus, you got the name of the Son. You got Jesus, you got the name of the Holy Ghost. You got them all. You got Jesus, you know who to pray to. You're not confused about, "I got to give third to them, third to them, third to them." If I'm praying to him and I know it's all in him, the fullness of the Godhead is him. Amen, and my prayers are good. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.

Hallelujah. Amen. So you can mount up in God if you wait on God. Ephesians 5:25 through 27, intimate relationship. God is looking for a church. He's looking for a bride, I should say it that way. Ephesians 5:25, "Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it."

So the church is the body of Christ, but it's also the wife. The church is going to be the wife. Amen. Book of Revelation, the church will be the wife. Where did Eve come from? She came out of Adam's side. Where did the church come? The blood and water came out of Jesus's side. Then he sent back his spirit and caused it to be born.

Amen. "That he might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." So that's water baptism, it's not only the word of God but it includes water baptism. It sanctifies you, cleanses you. "That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish."

God is looking for relationship with you and me. That's why he gives you the Holy Ghost. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is a sign that God has taken up residence inside of you. Most people don't get it because they're not willing to commit to God the Bible way. You've got to commit to God to get the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Yes, you do. You can feel God, hear from God, talk to God, have God work miracles and not have the Holy Ghost. Right. Check your Bible. But if you're going to get the Holy Ghost, at least at the point in time when you get it, you had to make a commitment to God. "God, I've got to have you. I don't care what others think, I've got to have you.

They might poke me and say something, but I've got to have you. They may say you did it wrong, but I've got to have you. I don't care. I give up. I've got to have you." Commitment. You've got all these people on social media making all these kinds of proposals and big kinds of places, you know, in Times Square and on top of Eiffel Towers and balloons and all kind and flying out of the air and doing all kinds of things for weddings and that's great.

But what's God going to say? What's the Lord going to say to us? Those people were willing to do that for an earthly relationship, but you wouldn't commit to me for a heavenly relationship. You were afraid to show yourself on media that way. And I'm not saying you got to go do that. What I'm saying, they're not ashamed to do that. You got to commit to get the Holy Ghost.

Receive the Holy Ghost, the Bible says. Receive means I've got to get all the things in me blocking him out of the way. He says in, again, in Revelation 3:20, we already touched this verse, we mentioned it. He said, "Behold I stand at the door and knock. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me."

The Lord's knocking. He comes to every heart at least once and knocks. And I have said I believe he does it more than once. I don't think it's just once. I think there's many times that God'll knock. But when God sees that we've got our mind made up, we're not going to open the door, God will quit knocking.

He wants a relationship. And just like a marriage, just like a marriage, if you want a marriage to work, you really want a family, you got to make a commitment between a husband and wife. You got to make it. And that commitment means for better or for worse, in sickness and health, till death do us part. Now, remember, marriage comes from God, doesn't it? Right.

God invented marriage, not man. Not society. Not after thousands of years and this is the best way to do it. No, no. From the beginning, God made man and woman. So if God made man and woman and God made it that it should be one man and one woman and that's a type of the church, then that tells us as Christians we've got to be committed to him the same way.

Amen. He's knocking, he's knocking, he's knocking. On the day of Pentecost, we read in Acts 2:41, "They that gladly received got baptized." They made a commitment, didn't they? They committed to do what Peter said to do. In the book of Acts chapter 12, we see Philip preaching. And it says when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized.

They were making a commitment to God. They were making a commitment to the Lord. Again, these are Samaritans. They've been at odds. These Jews are preaching to them about Jesus. And I'm sure that they're aware that the political turmoil for the last two or three years has been involved, a lot has been around Jesus.

But here they are making a commitment to Jesus. They're not just believing. When they believed, then they got baptized. Amen. In Acts chapter 19, verse 4 and 5, Paul finds some people that are disciples of John the Baptist. Then said Paul, "John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus.

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." In other words, they got rebaptized because they hadn't been baptized in Jesus' name. They were making a commitment. They were committed to knowing God. And when they found out something that they hadn't done they were supposed to do, they did it because they were committed to God.

They didn't just stop at believing, they made a commitment. They were acting on the word of God, they were committing. So we've got to come from belief to commitment to receive what God has got for us. Amen. The end time church is going to require a commitment from Christians. Look over in Revelation chapter 12, verse 11.

Revelation 12 and 11, devil's been cast down to the earth, the beast is about to rise up, the Antichrist is about to come on the scene, and it talks about saints that have overcome. And it said they overcame him by the blood of the lamb, yep, by the word of their testimony, yep, and they loved not their lives unto the death.

What does that mean? They committed their life to God. If God lets us live, we're committed. If God doesn't let us live, we're committed. We've got to commit to God. We've got to commit. So commitment from the perspective of the Bible means to act according to the commands of the Bible. I can't say I'm committed to the word if I'm not doing what the word says to do.

Right? I can't say I'm keeping the Ten Commandments because I've got ninety percent of them covered. I've got to keep them all, right? So if the Bible says I need to do something, I need to do that if I'm committed. The New Testament church had the power of God in their lives because they were committed.

Again, sometimes we don't have the power God wants us to have because we really haven't made the commitment God wants us to make. We can put it in our terms, Mario understand it. We want to be soldiers without going through boot camp. We want to have the Army or the Navy or the Marines or the Air Force commit to us the ability and have the firepower without being trained, without committing to the organization that has the authority to use that stuff.

So the New Testament church, they had power of God in their lives because they were committed to Jesus. They declared that their lives, by their lives, what did they declare by their lives? That Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life. That's what they declared. Their lives declare Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the Father but by him. There are a lot of people praying to the Father that don't know who the Father is because they haven't really come to Jesus. He's the one that said it. He says, "You don't know the Father but by me." In another place in Matthew 11:22 I think, maybe 23, somewhere in there, he said, "No man knows who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the Son will give him a revelation."

You know what that means? That means even if you know all the Greek, all the Hebrew, all the Aramaic, all the Chaldean, and you've got PhDs from all the Bible colleges, you're not going to have a revelation who God is unless God gives it to you. Let's stand here this morning.

Questions before us. Have we committed to the Lord according to his word? Or have we just committed according to how we feel comfortable? Have I committed to the Lord according to his word? Or am I committed according to how I feel comfortable or the culture I was raised in? Right? See, commitment to God may take me beyond my culture.

Commitment to God may require me to drop some elements of my culture. So if my culture is more important than God, I'm not going to be able to have the relationship that God wants me to have. So that means even being an American, okay, there'll come a day where Christians will have to choose, "Am I a Christian or an American?" And I love the country. Still get tears when they sing the Star-Spangled Banner. But the day will come where you have to decide, "Am I a Christian or an American?"

Has your belief turned into a commitment? Are you persuaded like Paul that Jesus is able to keep what you commit to him? Come on, this altar's open here this morning. Amen. Nothing's better than a commitment to God. Nothing is better than being in the presence of God. Oh, if you can just touch God today, everything will change. Amen.

If you can just touch God, you're going to get the strength that you need here today. If you can just touch God, you'll get answers. You'll get manna to go on further. You'll get the manna that you need. If you can make a commitment to God, a lot of the questions that you're wrestling with will drop to the side and it'll become clear what you need to do. Hallelujah.

But you've got to commit to him according to the word. Amen. You've got to go beyond belief to committing. Amen. The word, what you do with the word in your life shows your level of commitment. If you don't have a prayer life, you need to pray today, "God, help me establish a prayer life." And you don't have to base it on somebody else's, you get a prayer life.

If you don't have a prayer life, you need to ask God, "Help me establish that prayer life." If you're not reading your Bible regularly, you need to ask God, "Help me to read my Bible. Help me to understand it." Again, sometimes you're reading your Bible and not getting anything because you haven't made a commitment to God.

And what you're reading is in the area you're not committed in, so you can't apply it. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Come on, just start to praise him. Come on, the mighty God is here. He's hovering here, he's here. He's here to meet, he's here to help, he's here to strengthen, he's here to continue to guide. Hallelujah.

If you've already made a commitment, he wants to help you commit. He wants to help you to keep you in that commitment. Amen. If you're wrestling, he wants you to let go and let him direct it. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Committing to the Lord means committing to his way of thinking and not to the way of others.

Lord, we thank you, we praise you. Come on, he's here hovering. Come on, he's here, he's here to meet your needs. He's here to help you. He's here to lift you. He's here to strengthen you. He's here to give clarity to you, Lord. Hallelujah. Come on, open your mouth, thank him, praise him. Hallelujah.

Come on, open your mouth and give him thanks. Hallelujah, praise him. Lord, strengthen me. Help my mind, help my heart, God. Lord, if there's some area that I need to commit to you, show it to me, Lord God. Hallelujah. Give me strength to yield. Give me faith to yield. Help me to see, Lord God, that I've got to have you, Lord God. Come on, he's here. He's here.

He's about to do something great for somebody. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Come on, if you'll just praise him. Lord, I yield. Lord, I yield myself to you. Lord, I want to make a commitment. Lord, I want to be committed the way you want me to be committed.

Tina Ouellette: Thank you for joining us today as we have studied the word on Apostolic Truth Radio. My name is Tina Ouellette, wife of Pastor Craig Ouellette of South Shore Pentecostal Church, located at 58 West Street in Whitman, Massachusetts.

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