The Air Commitment

The Air Commitment

GOD IS MY AIR:

In every aspect of my life, God comes first. His Word is my only authority. His Son is my only Salvation. His glory is my greatest desire. I give him the first of my every opportunity. Matt 22:37-38 (Gen 2:7 :: Acts 17:28-31)
Specifically, I have given my life over to Jesus as my Savior and Lord, I have followed him in the waters of baptism. I will submit my life to the mandates of the Bible, stand up for God’s honor, and invest the first portion of my time, talent and treasures in the work of his Kingdom.

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The best definition of Worship that I know is this: Worship happens whenever you demonstrate by words and actions that God is the most important thing in the universe to you.
At its core, worship is simply putting God first, and that is ultimately what we were created as people to do. God IS the most important thing in the universe, and so failing to acknowledge that is the most foundational of all sins. Whenever we begin to look beyond God for something good or pleasing, we are communicating that God is not enough, that he is not good enough, or that his goodness doesn’t meet our needs.
Yet, God is the source of our life.
He is the one who breathed life into us (Genesis 2:7), and he is the one who sustains us even now (John 1:4, Colossians 1:17). The best metaphor we have for our total and complete dependence on God is that same metaphor from Genesis 2:7. God breathes life into us—he is our air!
The first half of the Air Commitment expresses the teaching of the Bible regarding the attitude of dependence and worship that we should have toward God. The first half expresses the theory of what it means to put God first.
However, the second half of the statement is where it really gets personal. The second half of the commitment describes specific behaviors that believers should have as part of their lives to demonstrate that the first part of the statement is really true for them.

Getting Specific

I have given my life over to Jesus as my Savior and Lord…

The first line of the statement reminds us that we are not born followers of God nor do we develop into followers of God on our own. The Bible is clear:

(2) The LORD looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. (3) All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. — Psalm 14:2-3 NIV

 
It is clear that none of us can measure up to God’s perfect standard, but the Bible is also clear that a right relationship with God (righteousness) is possible through Jesus.

(22) This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, (23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (24) and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. — Romans 3:22-24 NIV

However, this gift only applies to those who believe, and Paul is very clear when he teaches people what he means by “belief.”

(9) If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (10) For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (11) As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” (12) For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, (13) for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” — Romans 10:9-13 NIV

Therefore, the most fundamental behavior a person must do to put God first is to receive the gift of salvation and forgiveness by calling on him in prayer, repenting of sin and surrendering to Jesus as Lord.
If a person hasn’t taken this fundamental step, everything else in their spiritual life is inauthentic at best. This is the only way a person becomes a follower of Jesus, and Jesus is the only way a person can come to a right relationship with the Father.

(6) Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. — John 14:6 NIV

I have followed him in the waters of baptism…

On the amazing day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came in power upon the apostles and other disciples of Jesus, Peter stood before a crowd of people and proclaimed the message of a savior who was crucified and rose again. The people who heard the message were cut to the heart and pleaded with Peter to tell them what they should do in response to this amazing message.

(38) Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. — Acts 2:38 NIV

Peter’s immediate response was twofold. He told them to repent and to be baptized. Repentance is simply the turning away from a life of selfish independence from God and turning toward a life of surrender to God. It is the single word that best represents the concept I just described in the previous section.
However, Peter knows that repentance is something that is inside a person, difficult to verify, and easy to fake, so he adopted a practice initiated by John the Baptist (actually it existed before John, but for different reasons) and commanded by Jesus: baptism.
Jesus’ final words to his followers were these:

(19) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” — Matthew 28:19-20 NIV

It was presupposed by Jesus that being one of his followers (disciples) involved three things: having been baptized, having been trained in obedience to Jesus, and repeating that in the lives of others.
Peter simply realized that in Jesus’ own words, a person could not be considered a disciple unless that person had been baptized. Furthermore, when Jesus and Peter used the words baptism, they most certainly would have been thinking of the baptism John started and they continued: a symbolic bath, immersion in water, in the presence of others, as an act of repentance.

(4) And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (5) The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. — Mark 1:4-5 NIV

Therefore the primary public behavior of a person who is putting God first is to be baptized.
If a person hasn’t taken this basic step, then there is no biblical precedent for considering that person a disciple.
Through the centuries after those first followers died, baptism was considered so important that it was practiced earlier and earlier in people’s lives in the hope that somehow the waters of baptism would provide a kind of spiritual protection for people before they came to a place of repentance in their lives. Those were well-intentioned people, but there simply is no biblical precedent for that either.
Throughout the New Testament, it is assumed that every disciple has surrendered his life to Christ and has been baptized. It is assumed that everyone who has surrendered to Jesus has been baptized, and it is also assumed that everyone who has been baptized has surrendered his life to Jesus, and further, whenever one of these is found without the other, immediate steps are taken to rectify the situation.

(1) While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples (2) and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
(3) So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.
(4) Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” (5) On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. (6) When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

Acts 19:1-6 NIV

If you have been baptized without a surrender to Jesus, the baptism was not a New Testament baptism.
If you have surrendered to Jesus without being baptized, your surrender is not yet complete.
Those who put God first in their lives, have not only surrendered to Jesus, they have also been baptized according to his command.

I will submit my life to the mandates of the Bible…

This may seem like a generalized catch-all, but it is of central importance to a follower of Jesus.
Jesus said:

(14) You are my friends if you do what I command. — John 15:14 NIV

He also said:

(18) For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (19) Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. — Matthew 5:18-19 NIV

And then, we read what Paul wrote to a young pastor named Timothy:

(16) All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, (17) so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. — 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV

The New Testament is clear on this point: If God has said something in his Word, it must be obeyed by his followers.
Now, there’s only one problem with this. Sometimes the Bible is hard to understand:

(15) Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. (16) He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. — 2 Peter 3:15-16 NIV

Nevertheless, just because the Bible is sometimes hard to understand, or just because the Bible is sometimes distorted or misapplied, that doesn’t make us exempt from obeying what is clearly understood.
That’s why our statement is written the way it is written. Most of the teaching of the Bible is very clear and clearly understood. In fact, our problem is not with understanding the Bible. Our problem is in obeying the parts we do understand.
Therefore, another foundational behavior for those who would claim to put God first in their lives is to willfully submit to every teaching in God’s Word that is clearly understood and to adopt an attitude of submission for when new concepts are also understood.
This is the behavior that says, “As soon as I learn of a biblical mandate, I will bring my life in line with it, and I will not shy away from learning the next one.”

…stand up for God’s honor…

Strangely enough, we live in a world that does not honor God. Even though the vast majority of people in our country claim to “believe” in God, and even though most of them would claim that the God they “believe” in is “Almighty” or even the “Supreme Being” their willingness to honor God is almost entirely lacking.
There is a careless and cavalier attitude toward using God’s names to accomplish our own aims. God, Lord, Jesus, and Christ have all become words for swearing or exclamation. There is an additional careless attitude toward the work God has done on our behalf in this world. Some deny God’s role in Creating the Universe. Some have turned the memory of Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection into opportunities for commercial advancement and the telling of distracting myths.
However, I would never let someone do any of that if referring to someone I loved.
I would never let someone use my wife’s name as a swear word. I would never allow the creation of a Hallmark Holiday on May 17 to water down or distract me from celebrating my wedding anniversary. I would never allow someone to credit one of my wife’s accomplishments to “luck” or “chance” or “random processes!”
And I should never allow any of that to happen with regard to God and his honor!
It’s the second concept in the prayer Jesus taught us:

(9) “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, — Matthew 6:9 NIV

It’s the concept taught in the third and fourth commandments:

(7) “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. (8) “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. — Exodus 20:7-8 NIV

Standing up for God’s honor is more than simply refraining from doing the dishonoring acts. It means actually speaking up when those acts are being done by others!
If I claim to be putting God first in my life, then a fundamental behavior as I live in this world is to also put God first in whatever sphere of influence I may have.
I don’t need to offensively push my beliefs on others, but since I already stand up for the honor of those I love, I am a hypocrite if I do not stand up for the honor of God!

…and invest the first portion of my time, talent and treasures in the work of his Kingdom.

The final part of our statement puts the finger on the most practical behaviors of a life surrendered to God—how I use my time, my talent, and my money.
So here’s the deal: If God is really first in my life, then God and his will should make themselves evident by being first in my use of time, first in my use of my talent, and first in my use of my money! It just makes sense.
Not only does it make sense, it also is commanded:

(19) Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, (20) and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
(21) “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

Matthew 22:19-21 NIV

Jesus, when questioned about paying taxes used a coin to illustrate that Caesar has the right to ask for any amount of money he wants because the money actually belongs to him! However, the reason Jesus is making that point is to make the similar point that God also can demand whatever he wants because he owns that which bears his image! Can you see where this is going?

(27) So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. — Genesis 1:27 NIV

What is it that bears the image of God on this earth? People! Therefore, if God asks for my time, he can have it. If God asks for my talent, he can have it. And if God asks for my treasure, he can have it. He can have all those things, because as one who bears his image, I belong to him, and he has authority to ask for anything that involves me! It’s even more interesting that Jesus teaches this lesson using money.
So what does that mean for us practically?
Well, putting specific behaviors to this can easily turn into an exercise in legalism, but there are clearly defined biblical behaviors that make sense in this context:

• Putting God first in your finances means a commitment to returning to God the first 10% of your income (tithing), giving sacrificially from the rest to strategically advance his kingdom (offerings), and wisely managing the rest of your money to bless the people around you, care for your family, and secure your future (stewardship).
• Putting God first in your talent means a commitment to discovering the unique ways God has shaped you and pursuing ways to use those gifts to serve him.
• Putting God first in your time means simply recognizing that as the owner of your time, God can set your rhythms. There are times to feast and times to fast, times to work and times to rest, times to act and times to pray. Honoring the Sabbath by reserving one day a week for worship, reserving some time every day for devotional study and prayer, and viewing every moment in your day as a moment to put God first are just three specific behaviors.

Conclusion

Therefore, our expectation for those who would sign the membership covenant is that they would be people who have submitted their lives to Christ through a prayer of repentance and surrender, who have been baptized as a public affirmation of that repentance, who are worshippers of God in the way they talk and live, and who are employing a “God First” mentality regarding their time, talent and treasure.
As one final note, we do not require proof that any individual is tithing to the church for them to become a member, but the membership commitment implies at minimum a percentage-based off-the-top-of-income financial commitment to the church.