Okay, let's use our imagination. I'm going to buy a new car, and I'm going to pay for it with cash in full. That's the imagining part. So I pay Mr. Dealer lots of thousands of dollars for the new car, and he tells me it will be there in two weeks. Those two weeks crawl by like a turtle, but finally the day comes when I can show up for my hot new wheels. So I shake hands with the dealer, and he says, "Hey, I'll be right back!" A few minutes later he comes out, carrying a big box. He sees my bewildered expression. He says, "Here it is. Go ahead. Open the box." I do, and inside I find two new hubcaps, a new carburetor, and a new steering wheel. This dealer and I have a problem!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Our Commitments to Jesus Aren't Working."
I'm going to tell that dealer in no uncertain terms, "Hey, buddy, I paid the whole price! I should get the whole product, and not just your spare parts!" Jesus knows that feeling. A lot of us have tried to fulfill our commitment to Him by giving Him the spare parts of our life that we don't really care that much about. You see, He paid the whole price for us when He poured out His life for us. He should get what He paid for.
And Jesus isn't any more impressed with getting spare parts than we are. You can tell from our word for today from the Word of God in Malachi 1, beginning with verse 6. That's exactly how He feels - no spare parts. God's people in that day worshiped Him by bringing spotless livestock as an atonement for their sin. And God says, "'It is you, O priests, who show contempt for My name.' But you ask, 'How have we shown contempt for Your name?' ... 'When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?'" God goes on to tell them they might as well literally shut the temple doors and all their religious exercises are, in God's word, "useless." Wow!
It's pretty clear that God isn't impressed with sacrifices that cost us nothing with the spare parts of our life that don't matter that much to us anyway. But far too many of us try to get by with what I call selective Lordship. We may sing, "I surrender all," but we live, "I surrender some." And while the Christians around us may be impressed with our spirituality, God says, "You're giving me your spare parts and you're holding on to the important things for yourself."
And honestly, that is an insult to Jesus - because He held back nothing as He paid your eternal death penalty. He paid for all of you. Are you hanging onto your business, your finances, your love life, your entertainment, that wrong relationship, that sinful attitude or way of doing things? What parts of your life can't Jesus have and why? You're doing it your way there, not His. Because you love it more than you love Jesus? Is that it? Because you don't think you can trust Him with the stuff that really matters; you can't trust the Man who gave His life for you?
When David had a chance to get for free the land that God had commanded him to acquire, he said to the owner, "I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing" (2 Samuel 24:24). David knew you don't try to get off cheap with God, because cheap is basically worthless when it comes to giving to the Lord our God.
So what's it going to be in your relationship with Jesus Christ, your spare parts, or your whole life? Remember, Jesus paid the whole, awful price for you. Shouldn't He get all of you?