"SDG" -- Soli Deo Gloria, "to God alone be the glory." On each manuscript he completed, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote these three letters. When we imprint those three letters on everything we do, we are living as God would have us live. Soli Deo Gloriato -- God alone be the glory.
A teacher of the law asked our Lord, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: `Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'" As soon as the teacher heard Jesus' answer he knew the Master answered correctly.
Ten times a variation of the verse Jesus quoted appears in the Old Testament. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." When something is important, we repeat it. So does God. Four more times this same command is repeated in the New Testament. Fourteen times God's Word says, "Love the Lord your God...." That is the first and great commandment.
The question for this morning is, Do we keep this commandment first in our lives? What if I asked you, "What is your number one priority in life? What is your personal mission statement? What are you living for?" Would you answer, "To love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength?" "Soli Deo gloriato God alone be the glory?" How do we make such a commitment to God in our society today?
Commitment is certainly not the strong suit of our generation. Adlai Stevenson once told of a pastor who so moved one of his congregation that the man jumped to his feet and cried, "Oh Lord, use mein an advisory capacity." That's how most people would prefer to be used todayin an advisory capacity. How do we buck the trend and live for God alone?
WHAT IS COMMITMENT? In it's simplest form it is doing what we say we will do even when we don't feel like it.
That is what marriage vows are all about. Traditional vows include the phrasing "for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, `til death do us part." If there was only `for better,' or `for richer,' or `in health' and only one person in all the world that we ever found attractive, we wouldn't need marriage vows. But we make the commitment for those days when things are `for worse,' `for poorer,' `in sickness' and when we might find someone else appealing. The commitment says that the circumstances may change, but the marriage stands.
In a recent wage dispute in Diyarkakir, Turkey, 1,070 employees of Turkey's Highway Authority filed divorce suits. Their grounds? They claimed that $70/month was insufficient pay to allow them to support their wives.
That's an interesting approach to marriage. Have money problems? Get a divorce! Why not? After all, a marriage license is only a piece of paper, isn't it? Not for the Christian. We are committed.
Commitments are made to rule our feelings. Commitments keep us on the right track when our feelings would cause us to veer. Commitment means if I say I will do a job, I do it. If I say I will show up, I show up. If I say I'll pay, I pay.
Commitment involves unselfishness and sacrifice. It involves making painful choices. A pastor took his sons, ages 12 and 9, on a canoe trip in northern Michigan. The younger boy learned too late that once you embark on a canoe trip down a swiftly flowing river, it's too late to turn back. As soon as you push off you are stuck. There is no way out. You have to go to the end, like it or not. About half way on their journey this young man decided he didn't want to go the rest of the way. At the start of the trip, however, he and his father and brother made a commitment. They didn't have to get in the canoe. But, once committed, there was no alternative to finishing. That's the way certain commitments are.
Our commitment to God is different from a canoe ride in one respect, however. We do have the freedom to turn back. There are other options every step along the way. Thus, we are constantly confronted with difficult choices.
That is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31, "I die daily." You will never meet a fully devoted follower of Christ who doesn't die daily to a host of things that would like to have a grip on his or her lifepersonal ambition, the approval of others, greed. etc. Our culture ferociously maintains, "You can have it all." That slogan is a lie. Commitment means dying to, walking away from, or giving up many things that might appeal to us. Commitment means consistently using our time, talent, and treasure for God. What is commitment? To live "soli Deo gloria," to God alone be the glory!
HERE IS A SECOND QUESTION WE NEED TO CONSIDER. HOW DO WE KEEP OUR COMMITMENT TO GOD? I saw a poll recently that disturbed me. According to this poll most people go to church because they want to feel good. Now, there is nothing wrong with feeling good. Is there anyone in this room who does not enjoy feeling good? Feeling good is nice. However, we might ask the question whether that is sufficient motivation for a Christian. Many contemporary church-goers want what Jim Packer calls a "hot tub religion." They go for the peace of mind, or to meet people, or because it's good business. Commitment to Jesus Christ is far down the list of their priorities. Some churches are catering to this comfort-oriented religion. They offer not only padded pews, but padded crosses as well.
How do we live for God alone? WE DO IT, FIRST OF ALL, BY SUBJECTING ALL OF OUR OTHER CONCERNS TO THAT ONE GRAND CONCERN. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God," said Jesus. Some of us have a real problem at this point. The drive for material possessions has almost taken over our lives. There is even a popular song stating our obsession with accumulating wealth. "I wanna be rich," says the song, "have love, peace and happiness."
I can understand that. Some of us were poor as children. We are committed to not being poor again. Anyone who went through the Great Depression understands this psychology. You don't have to be around a person who grew up in the Depression very long to hear what real poverty is! One fellow said his family was so poor they used to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and lick other people's fingers. Another said the garbage man would back up to his house and ask, "Pick up or delivery?" Another said, "My sister got married just to get the rice."
Some of you know about poverty. Poverty brings pain; therefore, you are committed to having money which brings pleasure.
That was Howard Hughes' obsession. There was only one thing he wanted in lifemore. He wanted more money, so he parlayed inherited wealth into a billion dollar pile of assets. He wanted more fame, so he went to Hollywood and became a film maker and star. He wanted more sensual pleasures, so he paid handsome sums to indulge his every hedonistic urge. He wanted more thrills, so he designed, built and piloted the fastest aircraft in the world. He wanted more power, so he secretly dealt political favors so skillfully that two
U. S. presidents became his pawns. All he ever wanted was more. And yet this man concluded his life emaciated; colorless; with a sunken chest; with fingernails which resembled grotesque, inches-long corkscrews; with rotting black teeth, and innumerable needle marks from his drug addiction. He walked around nearly naked most of the time with his beard and hair to his waist. He kept his own human waste in quart jars which he stashed around his 15 by 17 foot apartment. He lived in darkness, wore rubber gloves, sterilized everything in his junkfilled room. He spent most of his time watching old movies and drinking soup. He talked on the phone for 10 to 15 hours a day, he was so lonely. Howard Hughes died weighing 95 pounds believing the myth of more. He died a billionaire junkie.
Donald Trump admitted recently on 20/20 in an interview with Barbara Walters, "Nothing is what it's cracked up to be." Jesus said, "You cannot serve both God and money." That truth forces some difficult choices on those of us caught up in a material world. However, if we are to live soli Deo Gloria, we must subject every concern in life to this one great concernloving God.
KEEPING OUR COMMITMENT ALSO MEANS CONSCIOUSLY AND CONSISTENTLY FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THOSE WHO HAVE GIVEN THEIR ALL FOR GOD. I don't even have to tell their stories. Abraham, Joshua, Miriam, Jonah, Elijah, Jeremiah and a host of others. They were not perfect people, but they were committed people.
Jesus, of course, went beyond all others in demonstrating the nature of commitment. He confronted the most painful death ever devised, crucifixion, and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as You will." His example and his Spirit permeated those who came after him. The apostles, though terrified by his crucifixion, were electrified by his resurrection and would not keep quiet. Though they paid for their powerful testimonies with their lives, they were also committed!
First century Christians knew what it is to be committed. Caesar demanded that his subjects bow to him and call him Lord. Conscientious Christians could never do that even though such a stand sometimes meant their death. Our generation wonders why they couldn't cross their fingers under their togas and mouth words of renunciation, but these men and women had made a commitment. They made Jesus Lord of their lives. They would not betray their Lord regardless of the cost. They died with this truth on their lips: "Soli Deo gloria!"
Through twenty centuries of time faithful children of God in every generation have lived and died with that same singleminded commitment.
Now, it is our turn to take center stage in the drama of life. How will we perform? Will we live for money, popularity and power by playing to the masses? Or will we perform for the ultimate spectator, God? I pray that God will give us the grace and power to perform for Him alone! People in this no-commitment society will not understand. Living for God is a kind of fanaticism the world can do without. Who, they wonder, would be foolish enough to voluntarily suffer loss, refrain from pleasure, or lower their comfort level in life for an idea that cannot be proved? That seems like squandering the precious few days we have on this earth. But as martyred missionary Jim Elliot once said, "He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." To such a standard of life each of us also is called.
The composer Verdi stood in the shadows of the concert hall in Florence during the performance of his very first opera. Though he would later garner the acclaim of the music world, at this point in his career he was unknown. Throughout the performance Verdi waited in the darkness with his eye on one person in the audience: the master composer Rossini. Verdi did not care whether the crowd would cheer him or jeer him. All he wanted was the smile of approval from the master. So it is with us if we would follow in the footsteps of Jesus and the saints of every age. Only the Master's approval matters. Soli deo gloria. To God alone be the glory.