As the Sorenson tells the story he shares of a new acquaintance, a member of the Rotary Club who approached him asking him if he would consider joining the group. Naturally, Sorenson wanted to know what kind of a commitment would be required from him. The Rotary member replied, “There are weekly lunch meetings - but you gotta eat during that hour anyway, right? We also are involved in various fund-raising and service projects during the year. It’s a good outfit."

Pastor Sorenson seemed interested but was concerned being somewhat new in his current parish, that he didn’t get himself over extended with too much outside responsibility. He asked the Rotary member, “You don’t think anybody would mind if I just came to the weekly meetings for a year or so and didn’t do much with the other projects. I’m still getting my feet on the ground with my church and don’t need another thing to do these days."

The Rotary member thought and then began to say, “No, I don’t think . . ." Pastor Sorenson interrupted him saying, “You don’t think anybody would mind?" You see, he finished his sentence because he was pretty sure he had guessed what he was going to say. However, the Rotary member came back with a surprising answer. "No, I don’t think you’re quite ready to join," he said. "It’s easy to get people who will come for lunch with friends. The hard part is getting people who will do the work. It is a service organization, you know."

Pastor Sorenson writes, “I wasn’t put off by his kind, but firm response. I was impressed. I’ve thought a lot about it in the past twelve months and now I'm ready to join and to commit myself to the work of serving our community. I had to wait until I was ready to invest the time. . . .”

Commitment, dedication, allegiance, devotion, loyalty. I’m wondering if these words still have meaning in our culture today. Or are they relative like promises that are made and not kept.

Brethren people, along with many others in the early part of this country’s history, were known as being people of their word. Many would often sealed their promises with a handshake and nothing else. That was the level of their commitment to their promises. They were people of character; their word was their bond.

At times that commitment to character and integrity was quite a sacrifice. In 1927 a real estate and insurance company in Savannah, GA, failed. Some 500 sotckholders in the firm were out several hundred thousand dollars.

Both the owner of the company, a man named Mercer, and his young son, vowed that if it were in their power someday the stockholders would be repaid their losses. The company was never able to get going again and some years later the father died. His son, however, never forgot the debt - someday, somehow, he would repay it.

Twenty-eight years later the son deposited a check for $300,000 in a Savannah bank to repay the debt to the stockholders. It had taken a long time for the son to fulfill his father’s promise, but finally it was done. That young man was Johnny Mercer, the songwriter and singer. One of the many popular songs that he wrote, and from which he earned enough in royalties to be able to pay off the debt, was the song “Accentuate the Positive.”

If you and I had to measure the amount of our dedication and commitment on a scale from 1 to 100, what number would represent it? More importantly, if we had to represent out dedication and commitment to Jesus Christ, what number would represent the level of our devotion to our Lord.

The season of Lent is a great time to evaluate our devotion to Christ, is it not? Some of you may be practicing the long standing tradition of Lent by giving up something during the Lenten season. I read recently of a church who encouraged its members to try a different practice during Lent. Instead of giving up something, consider taking on something. For instance, instead of giving up chocolate, trying giving of yourself to a soup kitchen. Or instead of saying, “I’m going to give up complaining for Lent,” try saying, “I’m going to start being more appreciative for Lent.”

Jesus said in John 15:13 - “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” And that means laying down our lives for the greatest friend we can have - Jesus.”

Oswald Chambers writes, “The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend (Jesus), not fling it away, but deliberately lay my life out for Him and His interests.”

That is an incredible level of devotion and sacrifice, to lay out my life for Him. Many of us would have trouble taking a check out of our checkbooks, signing it and handing it over to someone else to fill in the amount. Yet, in a spiritual sense, that is exactly how Oswald Chambers describes our devotion to Christ. We write our spiritual check to Jesus Christ, we sign it and then hand it to Christ and let him fill in the amount.

How much of our lives are we willing to give to Jesus? How much of our time are we willing to lay out before Christ and say, “here it is, Lord. Do with it as you please?” How much of our hearts are we willing to give?

The apostle Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthian people - “14Now I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. . . . 15So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well.”

What commitment Paul exhibited through this statement. You see, Paul was willing to spend everything he had, even expend his very self, because he wanted the Corinthian people to know of the love of Jesus Christ. His delight was in seeing people come to know Jesus Christ as Lord. And if it meant sacrificing all he had, even his very self, it was worth it to see the joy that knowing Christ would bring to another.

He did not want them to think or believe that he was using them, or using their gifts, or using their money, so he reassured them that what he wanted was not their possessions, but their hearts and souls to know of the love of Jesus Christ. Paul lived sacrificially. His motivation was that others would come to know of Jesus Christ.

What does it mean to live a sacrificial life? What does it mean for you to live sacrificially? What would it mean for us to lay out our lives for Jesus Christ and his interests?

Psalm 51:15-17- “15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.” If your attendance at this worship service today is the only thing you do this week to relate to God and to Christ, would God see that as a mere sacrifice or burnt offering?) Verse 17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” A broken spirit, a broken and humbled heart, these are the sacrifices that are pleasing to God. A spirit within us that says, “Here is my day Lord, you tell me what you want me to do with it. You tell me where to go. You tell me what to do and I will do it, Lord.”

Romans 12:1 tells us that our spiritual act of worship is to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. Right there it is in black and white. “1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”

There is no end to our spiritual act of worship. Romans 12 doesn’t say offer your bodies as living sacrifices, unless you have to go to work right now. It doesn’t say, your spiritual act of worship is on Sunday only. It doesn’t suggest that we only offer our living sacrifices, unless we have something more enjoyable we’d rather do. To offer our bodies as living sacrifices suggests that we do that constantly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The very living of our lives, is a spiritual act of worship, given to the God who has breathed life into our lungs, and who caused the heart within us to beat.

In a few moments, we will sing hymn #512, “If all you want, Lord.” This very hymnal that we use came out in 1993. It was the first time I ever heard this particular hymn. Since that time, I have been so intrigued by this simple song of faith.

Verse 1 says, “if all you want, Lord, is my heart, my heart is yours alone, providing I may set apart my mind to be my own.”

Verses 1-3 are all very similar in their message - suggesting that I a willing to give God a small part of me, as long as I can keep the rest and do with it as I please. But then we sing verse four, which reminds us that God wants everything. “But since, o God, you want them all to shape with your own hand, I pray for grace to heed your call to live your first command.”

May that be our prayer today and everyday, that God may give each of us the grace to turn over our lives for him to shape with his own hand. May it be our desire to give heart, soul, mind, and strength to God each day, that he may use us to share his love with the world.