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Part 7 of 10
Commitment 2.0: An Upgrade to Your Promise
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Commitment 2.0 means staying loyal to what you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in left you. Commitment is not based on how you feel—it's a principle that keeps you faithful even when emotions fade. Many of us break our commitments to God when we encounter hurt from people, but your breakthrough depends on your ability to stick with what you promised.
Consider this: Where would you be three years from now if you stuck with your commitments? Who would you become? Whose life would be impacted? These questions matter because they reveal what's really at stake when we abandon our promises.
When we experience rejection—from family, friends, mentors, significant others, jobs, or even churches—it can cut us deeply. But here's what's critical: if you allow cuts to remain unaddressed, cuts become infections.
Think of it like a wound that needs cleaning. Peroxide isn't just for pain—it's for cleansing and preventing infection. When you're exposed to the wrong people, they don't just hurt you; they have the opportunity to infect you with dysfunction you didn't even know was possible.
Often we pay attention to the cuts we can see while ignoring the infections we can't. Spiritual infections happen when we allow pain to linger so long that pain morphs into a personality. We start saying, "This is just the way I am," when actually we're infected, not identified.
When infection exists in your body, it comes out as discharge. When infection exists in your soul, it comes out as dysfunction. Many things we've embraced as part of our identity are actually infections:
Here's the powerful truth: if God can use you infected and all to get you this far, what will your life really look like once you actually get free from the infections trying to hold you back?
Your neighbor might see your external blessings—your house, your car, your progress—and think you've got it all together. But internally, you're still fighting to get free from infections that have been holding you back. Praise God this year not just for new houses, new cars, and new clothes, but praise God for a new identity—for becoming all that God has called you to be.
Entitlement is a spiritual infection, but only blessed people can have it. Here's why: some of us our biggest problem is that God has been so good to us. He's given us so much, and now we expect even more, the way we want it, when we want it.
Consider this scenario: my youngest son loves video games. When a new game comes out, suddenly his whole identity changes. He feels like he has to get it. He does extra chores, gets up in my face with kindness, does everything to manipulate the situation—all for something he wants but doesn't need.
Here's what I understand as a parent: I have to put something in him that he needs, even though he's focused on what he wants. For a season, he has to wait on what he wants so he can embrace what he needs.
Everybody can praise God when they get the blessing. But can you praise Him in the hallway? Can you praise Him in the process? Can you praise Him when everything isn't perfect, but things are progressing?
Entitlement is what happens when you give people too much too soon. This is what I call reckless generosity—the mistaken idea that your generosity will make people more grateful. The truth is the opposite: the more you give, the more they want.
This applies to relationships too. Some of your relationships have been frustrating you consistently because you've been giving away too much too soon. You need to understand the difference between a partner and a parasite. A partner pours into you; a parasite just drains you—your peace, your joy, your money, your sanity.
If you have parasites in your circle draining you, it's time to get honest with God about your relationships. Meanwhile, praise God for the real partners in your life—people who pour into you, not just take from you.
Even the greatest prophet to ever live struggled with entitlement. John the Baptist had one assignment: prepare the way. One message: "Repent, the kingdom is at hand." He preached this his entire life and Jesus called him the greatest prophet ever to live.
But then John got thrown in jail. And from prison, he sent a message to Jesus essentially saying, "Hey, I know you walk on water, turn water into wine, heal the sick, raise the dead—can you help me out? I'm locked up here."
Jesus didn't respond the way John expected. In Matthew 11:3, John asks: "Are you the one or should I be looking for somebody else?"
He was excited at the announcement, but disappointed in the fulfillment. Your personal preference can turn your excitement into entitlement. This is important: entitlement is not what the enemy uses to attack us—the enemy uses entitlement in our people to tear down our circle.
Entitlement isn't a weapon used by your enemies in battle; it's a weakness exposed in your partners in building. Most builders never build, not because of the enemy, but because of entitlement—people in their circle who don't appreciate who they've become because they're stuck on who they used to be.
People who can't get over your past should not be in your future. Just because you have history with someone doesn't mean they get automatic access to your destiny. You can know people a long time without it being a strong connection. If someone has been with you but hasn't been for you, that's not your person for this season.
In Joshua 7, we see the spirit of entitlement rise up, infect one person, and affect an entire nation. But before we get there, we need to understand Joshua's starting point.
Moses has died. God taps Joshua on the shoulder and says, "I know you're grieving. I know you're crying. I know it hurts, but I need you to get up and take these people into the promised land."
I know you're grieving, but don't allow your grief to become a grave. If you're dealing with loss—loss of a loved one, loss of an opportunity, loss of things that didn't work out—hear this: grieve, but don't allow it to stop you. You serve the God that on the third day makes dead things come alive. In the kingdom, we don't settle for death—we have the principle of resurrection.
God isn't just calling Joshua to lead people to a promised land; He's calling him to get them through. Moses could only get them there—he gave them survival. But Joshua was tapped to help them thrive.
The biggest shift you're going to have to make is from a survival mentality to a thriving mentality. When God says "Get up," He's also saying, "Be strong and be courageous"—because this is a different level of warfare. The stuff you used to fight with willpower, you now need to fight with wisdom.
When you get to work tomorrow and encounter that coworker who talks about you behind your back, when they send emails that degrade your value and work you like a janitor but pay you like a CEO—the battle isn't won with words. Some arguments you used to have, your silence is going to win because you're fighting with wisdom, not willpower.
Be still and let the Lord fight your battle. Walk and shut your mouth. While they're talking, you keep walking. While they're posting, you keep praying. While they're laughing, you keep living.
God gives Joshua a specific strategy: walk around the wall, but don't say anything. Do it in circles. This may feel like you're going in circles, just like the people did for 40 years in the wilderness—but there's a crucial difference.
The wrong thing was coming out of their mouth in the wilderness, so God says, "I'm going to have you do the same thing the right way. You'll walk in circles, but this time with no complaining, no gossiping—just walking."
Seven is the number of completion. On the seventh day, do it seven times. God needs to make sure He gets the infection out before you enter the promised land, because if you don't complete this work, you'll get into the promised land and walk right back out infected.
On the seventh time, release a shout. This is the moment when your praise aligns with God's timing, not before. That's when the walls fall down.
They took down the hardest city, Jericho, with ease because they all were committed and on one accord. They had only one instruction from God: "When you get in the city, don't take nothing out of it." Why? Because first is faith. He said, "Everything in the first city belongs to me. Don't touch it. If I'm giving you everything, at least trust me with the first thing."
But there was a problem. They took the wrong person into the promised land. Have you ever got a blessing and told the wrong person about it, only to find yourself blessed and stressed at the same time? It feels like the best of times and the worst of times all at once. God had finally done it for you, but now you can't enjoy what He gave you because you got an aching in your circle.
While God said don't take nothing out, Joshua didn't realize Achan was hiding stuff in his tent. And it feels like we're winning until the next battle shows up, because the enemy will allow you to win long enough to make you feel like everything is perfect. He'll allow the relationship to feel good long enough.
They go from the hardest city, Jericho, to the smallest battle they'd ever have to fight—the city of Ai. The whole promised land is now in front of them, and they're arrogant. They say, "Hey Joshua, you sit this one out. We good. We got this. We'll just take a couple thousand soldiers. We're going to knock them out easy."
They get to this small city and get routed. They get beat so badly that all they see is their enemies' feet, and they're running back to Jericho. They won a battle that they should have lost and lost a battle that they should have won.
Here's what nobody is remembering: They did not used to be soldiers. They used to be slaves. God allowed them to win battles so long that they start to mistake the spirit with their skill. The only reason you're winning right now is because God has been fighting with you. Everything God has been doing in your life is not just because of you—God has had His hand on your life.
Joshua begins to pray as a leader. Some of your men are dying and you're panicking. "Father, I need you to do something. I know you ain't bring us this far just to bring us this far. Lord, I need you to show up like never before."
He's on his face praying: "Lord, I need you. I cry out to you. Have mercy on us, Father God." And God answers his prayer with the craziest answer in the Bible. God says, "GET UP. Stop praying."
Watch this carefully: You don't have a prayer problem. You got a commitment problem. The problem with most saved, sanctified Christians is we try to replace prayer with character. We try to replace prayer with practice. You don't have a prayer problem. Somebody broke commitment.
Because one person lacked commitment, everybody suffered. My question is: Who's struggling in your house because of your lack of commitment? Who's struggling in your community because of your lack of commitment? What is the church, our local spiritual family, unable to do more of because you have an aching heart—because God has given you everything you wanted and you're not trusting Him with the first?
I'm trying to get you to see that entitlement is when you're loyal to yourself. Commitment is when you're loyal to God. My question to you in this room today is: Are you more committed to yourself than you are to God?
You've been coming here. We've been serving you faithfully. We've been pouring into you. There's no such thing as a perfect church. You don't get that until you die and go to heaven. Every church you go to will have something that you will want more of. But what kind of church would this church be if everybody served like you? If everybody gave like you, if everybody prayed like you, would we be getting routed? Would we be experiencing defeat?
Achan comes forward and said, "Joshua, it was me. I've been a slave all my life. I ain't never had nothing. So the moment I saw something, I ain't know how to act. I took what God told us not to touch, and I hid it under the ground in my tent."
You will always be as sick as your secrets. I ain't talking about physical sickness. Some of the mental and emotional distress that you are experiencing in your life is coming from what you keep burying in your heart. Remember: A cut lingers, becomes an infection. Pain morphs into a personality. And now you're saying, "This just the way I am." No, you're infected.
I was born introverted—were you? Or did you experience something in your childhood, and when you tried to speak out, your family told you to shut up and you never started talking again? That's not pain. That's not an identity. That's an infection.
I'm highly extroverted—are you? Or did you not get attention as a child, so you learned to fill the space with noise to get noticed? That's not a personality trait. That's an infection.
He's hiding what God told him not to touch. And he's from the tribe of Judah. Judah means praise. So he's praising God and robbing God at the same time. Having good church and a bad life all at the same time. Speaking in tongues but cussing everybody else out. Saying, "God, I trust you," with your mouth but not trusting him with your heart.
I'm saved, but I'm not submitted. And when I'm infected with entitlement, I always wrestle with trust issues, authority issues. Do you want to be free? Can God trust you with the promised life? Can he trust you not just with surviving, but can he trust you with thriving?
Some of you, your soul is crying out: "God, I know there's more in me. What's holding me back?" It's not the enemy. It's something going on in your heart that God wants to disinfect out of you. But you have to stop hiding it.
But you get an opportunity that Achan didn't get. You get an opportunity to recover. Achan died because he did this before Jesus. He didn't have a substitutionary atonement. He didn't have the blood that could cover him. He was not under grace. He was under the law.
Why don't you praise God for grace? Where would you be if it was not for the grace of God? Don't just clap your hands. Grace saves you. Grace sustains you. Grace strengthens you. Where would you be if it had not been for the Lord who is on your side?
I would be in jail. I would be no good, nothing if it had not been for His grace. We have to check our entitlement before we come into the presence of God. Because often times you will come into God's house and not have the same encounter as the person you're sitting on the same row with because you're in the same room but you don't have the same posture.
Whenever pride is present, praise will be absent. It's hard to truly praise God with a heart full of pride. Because the root of entitlement is pride. God, you owe me more than this. I deserve more than this.
Your prayer life is going to go to another level when you learn how to be real with God. Prayer is not therapy, but it is therapeutic. Sometimes you're trying to be real with your friend when God is saying, "When you going to be real with me?" You're trying to overspiritualize conversations and prayer time when God is asking, "When you going to really tell me how you feel?"
Admit the emotion. God, I'm hurting. God, I want more. God, I'm tired of living week to week. I'm tired of living check to check. I'm tired of being married and miserable. I'm tired of looking at my child's struggle. I'm tired of settling for mental health issues. I'm tired of living with a sickness or a doctor's diagnosis over my body when you say that by your stripes I'm healed.
I have to admit the emotion. I'm angry. I'm frustrated. When was the last time you actually allowed your tears to flow and you stopped trying to be the strong friend with God?
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy is coming in the morning. Because once you admit the emotion, that emotion should provoke a praise where you're saying, "I know this is how I feel, but now I'm moving past my feelings and stepping into faith. I know that I'm not okay, but I'm not going to stay this way. I believe that you are the God that will come through."
Some of us stay infected because we're not willing to acknowledge the dysfunctional parts about ourselves, and we're offended whenever someone tells us the truth.
If you want to hurt a healthy person, tell them a lie. But if you want to hurt an unhealthy person, tell them the truth. It's one thing to be a truth teller. My question is: Are you a truth hearer? When someone presents you with truth, do you twist it and manipulate your way out of it?
Jesus says there can never be freedom without truth. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
Acknowledge the entitlement. God, I know I was supposed to touch that. But there's a me in me that I'm still trying to grow out of. Forgive me. Yes, I repent.
But here's the real question: Are you repentant or are you remorseful? Are you hurting because you let God down or are you hurting because you got caught? Repentance is not just an announcement. It's also an adjustment. I'm changing the way I think, feel, and act towards something. It's not just saying, "God, forgive me." That's an apology.
The God you see is the God you get. We have to adjust our expectation from entitlement to appreciation.
The principle of gratitude suggests that what I have is just as valuable as what I want. I dare you to drive the devil crazy and not praise God for what you want, but praise him for what you already have.
You may not have the house that you want yet, but praise him that you got a roof over your head. You may not have your dream car, but praise God you have the ability to get to and fro. You may not have the marriage or family that you want yet, but praise him for what you already have.
Let everything that has breath praise God. Not for what's on the way, but for what's already here.
Entitlement says, "I don't have it, but I deserve it. You owe me this." But you got to adjust that entitlement to appreciation because appreciation says, "I don't deserve what I do have." I don't deserve the activities of my limbs, but I thank God that I have it. I don't deserve breath in my body, but I thank God I have it.
