Being a Committed/Dependable people

 

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Big Idea: The Bible calls the people of God to be a committed/dependable people.

The initial weeks of a new year are the often weeks where we do some evaluating of the previous year and some dreaming about the year to come.  It’s a time where we have some fresh perspective, a spark of optimism and we resolve to get some things right this year that we felt were wrong or not as good as they could be last year.

[Illustration] – The New Year issue of U.S News and World Report has a cover story entitled, “50 Ways to Improve Your Life in 2008.”  The list includes all sorts of interesting and in some cases bizarre ways that you can improve your life over this next year.  Let me share some of them with you:

• Take a swim in some cold open water.
• Try and cut back on foods with the corn based High Fructose Corn Syrup.
• Dance more and foxtrot your way to better health.
• Eat more dark chocolate
• (Here’s an interesting one...) Get yourself tested for an STD.
• Yawn freely when you feel the need, it increases heart rate, sends a wave of cool blood to the brain and activates key muscles.
• Take time to smell more things.  (Let’s try that...lean over and smell the person next to you.) 
• Before you make a list of “to-dos” for the New Year, write down at least three “not to do’s” which will create the bandwidth for you to accomplish your “to-do” list.

 

• A New Year is a great time to asses our lives and dare to dream about how we can make more of our lives this year than we did last year.
• It’s a time to think about the status of the relationships in our lives and dare to dream about how we can make them better this next year. 
• It’s a time to think about the kind of person we are and dare to dream about the kind of person we want to become. 
• It’s a great time to revisit the kind of people we are as a community of believers here at Church of the foothills and dare to dream about where God might takes us in this New Year. 
• It’s a great time to reflect, rethink, recalibrate, resolve and perhaps retool. 

Over the next 6 weeks or so, I want take us through a series of messages that help us think about these questions.  I want to examine what I am calling Biblical Ways of Being.  I want us to look at the Biblical call on our lives to be:

A Committed/Dependable people

A Unified people

A Maturing/Growing people

A Generous People

A Balanced People

A people of Vision and Hope

These Biblical ways of being are Biblical virtues that each of us are called to build into our lives and our ways of being and living and relating to God and one another.

Bill Bennett in his Book of Virtues in the introduction to the section of writings on Responsibility says, “In the end, we are answerable for the kinds of persons we have made ourselves.  “That’s just the way I am!” is not an excuse for inconsiderate or vile behavior.  Nor is it even an accurate description, for we are never just what we are.  As Aristotle was among the firs to insist, we become what we are as persons by the decisions that we ourselves make.” (p. 186)

As we enter a New Year we have some decisions to make.  As we start a New Year, we have a fantastic opportunity to make any necessary adjustments in the kind of person we are, in the way we live and in the way we relate with others.  Most of us have some room to grow.  Most of us need to make some changes this year.  This series might get a little personal.  This series might get a little annoying.  Because, in love certainly, I want to challenge us to really think honestly about the kind of people we are and bring alignment between that and the kind of people the Bible calls us to be. 

This morning, I want to begin with the first Biblical Way of Being: Being a committed/dependable people.  In this first Biblical way of being, I want to address the importance of being a person of your word, a person who is dependable, a person who is intentional and does what they say they are going to do.

Let’s do a little personal inventory. 

What kind of person are you?

Are you known for being a person of conviction...a person of commitment?  Are you known for being a person whose word is reliable?  A person who follows through on what you say you are going to do?

Or, What percentage of a chance is there that you would be considered flaky in your commitments?

Is there a chance that those who know you best might say, “Good guy...good gal, but you can’t depend on him/her?

Here’s a test; when you say you are going to help a friend move...do you actually show up?

How often do you say you are going to do something...or be somewhere but then not follow through?

Are you an “all promise-no deliver” type of person?

These are annoying questions aren’t they?

During this series as we look at these 6 Biblical Ways of Being, you might really be courageous and ask those around you what they think about you.  Now, if someone asks you...be loving...but, be honest.

It’s important to think about how committed and dependable you are.  It’s important because it impacts every relationship in your life.  Think about it: It impacts your marriage....it impacts your kids....it impacts your employer/employees or those you serve with around the church...it impacts your friendships. And most importantly, it impacts your relationship with God. 

[Quote] – Michael Levine, founder of the celebrated public relations firm, Levine Communications Office in Los Angeles, writes, “Flaky people are a hindrance both professionally and to the productivity of my firm. These people cause stress, they bring us down--they breed failure, not success.”

Have you ever been friends with or worked with someone whose word means very little?  Their commitment, intentionality and dependability is flaky.  It can be a real challenge to be married to someone like this.  Few things are more disheartening to others and to God than when you routinely say you are going to do something and then you don’t do it, you don’t follow through. 

Now, I’m not talking about perfection in this series...I’m not talking about the reality that all of us from time to time forget, or say one thing and do another...that happens to all of us.  President Emeritus of Denver Seminary, Vernon Grounds said, “People are congeries {bundles} of contradiction.”  In other words, at times we all contradict our selves.  I’m not talking about the occasional stuff...I’m talking about trends in your life...the reputation you have with those closest to you.

In this first Biblical Way of Being, I’m talking about being a people that seek to be a people of our word...being a people who are known for doing what we say we’re going to do as a rule.  I’m talking about refreshing our resolve to be a committed people to God and dependable to those around us.

[Transition] – Let’s look at the Bible’s call on us to be a committed/dependable people.

Proverbs 3:3-4 lays a good foundation for us in this “way of being” when it says: “Let love and faithfulness {could also be rendered reliability} never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.  Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.”

In other words, you and I are to seek be a committed/dependable people.  Love and faithfulness (or reliability) are to be part of the wardrobe of your life, worn as a necklace for all to see and anchored deep in your heart as a core characteristic of your life.  Being a committed/dependable person will enable us to gain a good reputation with the people around us and it will win the blessing of God.

[Transition] – The Old Testament has a good deal to say in regards to being a committed and dependable person.  It takes very serious the notion that you are to be a “man or woman of your word” in your relationship with God, certainly, but as the Proverb points out, we are also to be people of our word with one another. So, it’s a vertical and horizontal thing.

For example, in another passage in the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament, Solomon writes, “When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. 5 It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it. 6 Do not let your mouth lead you into sin.” -Ecclesiastes 5:4-6a

The context here is the meaninglessness of superficial religion, as reflected in making rash promises then not fulfilling them.  This is speaking about those times when we make promises to God, only later find ourselves wishing we had been more careful in what we said we would or would not do.

[Illustration] – It’s like the businessman who was late for an important meeting and couldn't find a parking space. As he frantically circled the block, the man got so desperate that he decided to pray.

Looking up toward heaven, he said, "Lord, take pity on me. If you find me a parking space, I'll go to church every Sunday for the rest of my life, and not only that, I'll give up drinking."

Miraculously, a parking space appeared.

The guy looked up again and said, "Never mind. I found one."

Submitted by John Beukema, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania

The intention of the Ecclesiastes text is not to teach us to never commit to anything so that we don’t ever violate our word...but, instead that we become a people who are thoughtful and intentional with what we say we’re going to do or not do and then having vowed to do it, we fulfill it.  It applies to commitments or vows of any sort...when you say you are going to give this or do that or go here or not go there, then fulfill your word...be a man or woman of your word.  Be dependable.

The Old Testament frequently argues that it is foolish to go around being flippant or rash and making all sorts of promises about what you are going to do or not do without thinking it through.  And I want you to see there in verse 6 of that Ecclesiastes text that saying one thing and doing another...being uncommitted and undependable is actually sin. That’s how important it is to be a person who is committed and dependable.

[Transition] - Now, in the New Testament, the notion of making vows to God or taking oaths to another are discouraged.  This is because vows to God and oaths to another were offered to show how really serious you were about whatever commitment or promise you were making.  Instead of there being levels of seriousness about your commitments...Jesus calls his followers to be people of their word, period.

Matthew 5:33-37- 33"Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' 34But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”

And James says the same thing, James 5:12, “12Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned.”

In other words, be dependable...be a person of your word.  Do what you say you are going to do.  Don’t do what you say you are not going to do.  Granted, we’re human...we’re going to blow it from time to time...but, the call on our lives as a rule is to be a people who are committed and dependable.  We are to be a people who let love and faithfulness never depart from us.  We never take them off or leave them at home.  We are to use the dependability of God as our model and be people of commitment and dependability.

[Transition] –   As we enter this New Year, If you are dependability deficient, here are some practical ways that you can practice being a committed/dependable people.

PRACTICAL WAYS TO PRACTICE DEPENDABILTY:

1. Follow through on your commitments. Embrace a fresh resolve to be someone people can depend on. Make it your primary goal.  Be on time. Be responsible.
   

[Illustration] - A new person to the area was scouting around for someone to do some work in their yard. Something to do with landscaping that might require some heavy equipment and hopefully, not leave a mess.

The phone book offered a whole list of names and fancy ads, but it was in checking, around and asking here and there that the right person finally seemed to emerge. “If he says he’ll be there at eight in the morning, he’ll be there at 10 to eight.” That was how one person described him.

Another said, “He never got rich through his work, but he was never out of work either.” Such “word-of-mouth” advertising was the only advertising he ever did. However, everyone who hired his skill and his labor became as good as a billboard. His main virtue was that he was dependable. Never took on more than he could manage, and always did more than what was expected.

That guy was committed and dependable and he lived out the proverb that says, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.” (Proverbs 22:1).

2. Admit mistakes and make amends. When you fail to follow through, own your mistake and resolve not to repeat it.

A sincere apology is of course, important.  But, if you find yourself constantly apologizing for being late or for not following through, it’s time to resolve to make some necessary changes to your way of being.

3. If your heart is not in it, don’t agree to it. Avoid giving people false hopes and committing to something you don’t want to do or aren’t able to do.
   

[Quote] – Owen Feltham, author of Men of Integrity said, “Promises may get friends, but it is performance that must nurse and keep them.” (Owen Feltham, author. Men of Integrity, Vol. 1, no. 1.)

4. Invite accountability. Invite a few trusted friends to help you monitor and grow in your effort to become a committed/dependable person

 

5. Depend on God. Make it a matter of ongoing prayer to ask God to help you grow in reliability and faithfulness.  (http://www.lcsnw.org/familyvalues/2005_04_Dependability.html)