From the Pulpit ...Everything and everyone else should always come second

can lose focus and get ahead of ourselves. Suddenly we find that we are not putting God first; we are putting ourselves first. This is a very dangerous thing to do. We lose sight of God and now we are doing everything on our own instead of giving it to God.

Matthew

6:33:

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

This scripture says it all: We are to always put God first in our lives, without exception. He is our Father in heaven and we are to seek Him as a child going to his father for help, asking if he or she can have this or that, asking what to do; we should always seek this from God our Father in heaven. When we do this, He will reward us; as the scripture says, it shall be added to you.

It's amazing how we

A woman went to a pet store and bought a parrot. She wanted some companionship, she wanted someone to talk to. But the next day she returned to the store and said, "He won't talk." The store manager asked her, "Does he have a mirror in his cage? Parrots love mirrors." So she bought a mirror and left. The next day she came back and said, "The bird is still not talking."

"How about a ladder?

Parrots love ladders. When he is happy, he will talk." She then bought the ladder and went home. The next day she was back in the store complaining that even with the mirror and ladder, the bird was just not talking. The manager said, "I know what you need, the bird wants a swing. He'll be happy when he has a swing and he'll talk." The woman then reluctantly bought a swing for her parrot and left the store. Sure enough, the woman was back in the store the next morning. She had a very sad face. She said, "The parrot died."

The manager said, "Please tell me, did he say anything before he died?" The woman said, "Yes, in a weak voice he asked me, 'Doesn't the store sell any food?'"

Sometimes we forget what we need the most, don't we? The woman in the story was so concerned with trying to get the parrot to talk, that she listened to someone else say what would make him happy. By buying all this material stuff, she forgot the one thing that would keep him alive. We are a lot like this woman, aren't we? You start at times without even realizing it, we fill ourselves with worldly stuff, little things like watching movies, reading books and listening to music, smart phones, internet, pleasures, power, sex, drugs, money... any addiction. You're going to be deceived, you will find yourself feeling empty.

You can be rich with lots of money, but if you don't have God in your life, then what do you have? I will tell you, we don't have anything. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:17-19: "Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life."

We should never set our sights on the uncertain things that money can buy. We should always put our hope in God, as Jesus told us to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33 says, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

This generation of young people who are able to express themselves more than any other generation, especially with the internet and smartphones, they can communicate at any moment all they want through technology. But they are deceived and sometimes they blame the older generation for all the problems, but the older generation was also deceived. The devil will always deceive us if we are not careful to live in the spirit with God. So let's blame the devil, not everyone else. When we are deceived, depression becomes a very heavy burden on a young person. Anyone can fall into depression, but it is especially hard at the ages of 16 to 24. This can leave you with a sense of insecurity.

You need to follow Jesus Christ; give your life to Him, listen to Him and follow Him for the rest of your life. God loves you and wants you to come to Him now. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

We put all this stuff first, when we really should put God first. His Word is the only food we need; He is our manna. When we put other things above God, they become our gods, we must never do that. We cannot serve two masters, for you will despise the one and love the other. Matthew 6:24 says, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."

We should always put God first, others second and ourselves third. Even though this saying sounds good, we need to know exactly what it looks like to make God number one in our lives. Should we pray and read our Bibles first thing in the morning? Should we study our Bibles every night? Well, I think if we don't do these things, then we really are not putting God first over other things, are we?

We really should read our Bibles every day. I know work can get in the way from reading in the morning, but whenever you get a chance or a break, you should read. Donna and I read five psalms and one proverb every morning before work. By reading our Bible, we find out what God is like, what He desires for us, and how we can please Him.

I study the Bible in the morning. Studying the Bible every day is also important, diving into God's Word to give us strength and hope and to know His Word. This is important, so that you know whether what others are saying is from scripture, or just their own words. Here is a quote from Pastor Adrian Rogers: "Now you cannot love someone that you do not know. And you cannot know someone that you don't spend quality time with. To know Him is to love Him. To love Him is to trust Him. To trust

Him is to obey Him. And to obey Him is to be blessed...And it begins with quality quiet time, daily communication with the Lord."

Prayer: So very important to talk to God every day. It is good to pray at least three times a day...morning, afternoon and night, but we can also pray continuously throughout the day, which is even better. That is how you strengthen your relationship with Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:15-17 says, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." Through prayer, we open our hearts up to Jesus. We ask Him to give us strength, and encouragement, to refresh us and give us courage. We pray for the power of obedience, we pray for the things we need and we ask Him to lift us up in our weakness, because through our weakness, God will show His strength. When we pray, God responds. He works in our lives to inspire us; He does great things that will help us to live in such a way that is pleasing to Him.

Well, let's see what the Bible says. I can't emphasis enough how crucial it is to put God first in our lives. Some people may ask if it is really that important to have God your top priority. Can't we just have God as part of our lives so we can balance Him with our careers, finances and hobbies? Well, the answer to that is, NO; it is all or nothing. It's like having your children grow, and many families are like this...they grow up and they put their careers, finances and hobbies above you. How would you feel about that? That's right, not too good. That is how God feels about you; He loves you, and wants you all the time. Deuteronomy

6:4-5 says, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."

This scripture shows us how important it is to have God in our hearts. Our deepest love and desire ought to be with Him at all times. If we love something other than God, not only is that then an idol, but we are saying that the thing we love more is better and more valuable than God is. We must be careful NOT to do that. Exodus 20:3 says, "You shall have no other gods before Me."

What really insults and hurts God deeply is when we give our time and love to other things that we deem important in our lives. It doesn't matter what it is...it could be a sports team, where we spend all our time watching games, and buying collectables. It could be we love our career more, we spend hours at work. It's like when someone spends more time at work than with their spouses, or children; it hurts them deeply. It's the same when we make something a higher priority than God, we are saying it's more important than God is. We should always love God more than anything else in life, because He loved us first. 1 John 4:19 says, " We love Him because He first loved us." You will see a big difference in your life; you will have more peace and joy.

Romans 14:17 says, "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

The Bible makes it very clear that God is the greatest thing in our lives; Jesus talked of God's immeasurable value.

Matthew 13:44-46 says, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. "

When you think about it, when we don't put God first, it's as if we found some priceless item in a field. Instead of trying to selling everything that we own so we can buy the field, we decide to bury the priceless item and never bother with it again. It's like the treasure is only trash.

Pastor Adrian Rogers also said: "The scourge of the twenty first century is half hearted Christianity. Half hearted Christianity will not do it. It never could. But surely not in these times. Are you seeking Christ with all your heart? Is there anything in your life you love more than the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, then my friend, that thing, whatever or whoever it is, has become an idol in your life. Realizing that, what steps can you take today to remove it from the throne and put Christ back in His proper place in your life?"

How many times do we think that idols are just harmless statues of perhaps false gods. But the truth is, those idols are actually anything that we love more than God.

The Bible has a lot to say about putting God first in our lives. Here are a few of those verses.

Matthew 6:31-33 says, "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things." It's obvious that food, drink and clothing are very important to us all. But what this verse is telling us is that we are to seek God first; we are to trust Him to provide all that we need. It's easy to lose sight of that, to become distracted with meeting our own needs that we forget our most important need, who is God. When we seek God above anything else, He will always meet every need that we will ever have.

Matthew 10:38-39 says, "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it."

Jesus calls all of us to take up our cross and follow Him. To take up your cross simplly means to die to ourselves and to follow Jesus Christ above all else. If we put ourselves first we will suffer in the end. But if put Jesus Christ first, seek Him, no matter what happens to us here on earth, we will win and be with Jesus for all eternity.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths." We are supposed to acknowledge God in all our ways. This means that everything we do and every decision we make in life should always be made with God. We must have God first, and He must be put high in importance and our lives should always reflect that.

Putting God first in our lives is a lifelong learning process. There will be times when we do this and there will be times when we get carried away and do things on our own, and fail. But the good news is that we know where our hope lies, and it's not in ourselves, it lies in Jesus Christ. Jesus lived a perfect sinless life. 1 Peter 2:21-22 says, "For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth." He always put God the Father first as He truly did love God with all His heart, soul, mind and strength.

If we continue to believe in Jesus, then God will always credit Jesus' perfect righteousness on to us. He will look upon us as if we have always put God first. Even if we stumble and fail, as long as we repent of our sins then we are still completely righteous in Jesus Christ. Because of this, we know when we stumble, and we will, we can still come confidently back to Him, knowing He will full accept us. Acts 3:19 says, "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may and be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord."

The more we read our Bibles, pray and have fellowship with other Christians, the more success we will start to have in putting God first.

After all, Jesus is the only way to heaven; there is no other way. But through Him, John 14:6 says, "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." This scripture says it all, if you don't know Him, then you're not going to heaven, but if you have a relationship with Him, then you can rest assured that you will be with Him for all of eterntiy.

WOOD Ministries

Publisher/Sales/Graphic Designer/Writer: Rob Wood wood.ministries.2020@gmail.com

Editor/Writer:

Donna Wood

Writer:

Lynne Wood