Earlier today, I was meeting with someone and they wanted to share some confidential information that they were intent on keeping private. In other words, they wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t betray a confidence and “spill the beans.” I responded that there were really two choices. If I was trusted, then go ahead and share the information with me – it was safe. On the other hand, if I wasn’t to be trusted, then don’t share the information. And then, in the midst of all this high brow negotiation, I remembered a third option, from way back in my early childhood – we could pinky swear!
Now I don’t know if you ever heard of this or not, but my thought is that if you were from the midwest, this timeless practice was familiar to you. You see, when two or even three people wanted to enter into a promise or a pact, they could interlock their little fingers – their pinkies – and tug. That signified a bond that couldn’t be broken. If, by some unthinkable set of circumstances, one of the participants broke the promise, convention has it that they would have to cut off their little finger. So pinky swearing was a really important way to enter into a commitment!
As chance would have it, the person today had never heard of a pinky swear, but they were intrigued by the concept and, for the first time in probably 50 years, I made a pinky swear deal. We both kind of chuckled and later on this afternoon, when I spoke with our oldest daughter, Kristin, I asked her if she was familiar with the term. Sure enough, she used it as a child in school and to this day, enters into deals with her three young boys using this convention.
There are certainly many ways to enter into a promise, and God has already done that with each of us. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you have His promise that he will protect you and guide you and spend eternity with you. In fact, He will never leave your side. And to enter into the promise, you don’t even have to pinky swear. You can just say, quietly in your heart, that you acknowledge that you are a sinner and then ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart and be the leader of your life. That’s all there is to it. Once – all your sins are forgiven and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
So how do you know that God will never leave you? Well, because He tells us so. And we have never been given a reason to not trust the God of the universe. Our verse for this evening embraces His commitment to us. We are told, in Matthew 28:18-20, “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Did you get that last part? “I will be with you to the very end of the age.” That means that God will stay with us, period… My encouragement this evening is that God wants to enter into an eternal commitment with you. He desires you – He is pursuing you – He wants to spend eternity with you. My prayer is that if you have already entered into this commitment with God that you will try to entice others into accepting this gift of salvation. And if for some reason you haven’t yet done this, then perhaps now is the time to pray about it and contemplate an eternity with God. It’s easy – just say “yes.” You won’t even have to pinky swear! Have a great day in the Lord grace and peace…