May 29th, 2011 - Putting God First

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Sometimes we put our eyes on the problem instead of focusing on the solution, such as the drought we may be experiencing. We need to focus on God because HE is the answer! We need to talk about how great He is and know that when we call out to Him, He hears us and He answers.

In Romans 5:5 we learn that hope doesn't make us ashamed because the love of God is in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is in us. God's love is poured out on us in abundance!
Who or what is the first love in our lives? What do we love the most? Hobbies, vacations, spouses?

John 3:16 says hat God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son so that if we believe in Him we won't perish but have EVERLASTING LIFE! If God didn't love us, He wouldn't have Christ sacrificed for us.

In Luke 10:25, a lawyer asked Christ what he would have to do to inherit eternal life. Verse 26 says that Christ asked him what the law said and how did he interpret it. In verse 27 we hear that the lawyer said to love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This first part is the same as in Deuteronomy 6:5, which tells us to love God FIRST.

If we love someone, we don't desire to hurt them, do we? No, of course not! Do we desire to please and obey them? Sure! So when God says to love Him first above all things, if we really love Him, we will want to gain His favor just like when we fall in love with a person.
We need to see Him for who He is and fall in love with Him. And when we do, we will want to gain His favor. We already have His favor, though, because He gave it to us in Christ!

Revelation 2:1-4 tells us that the church of Ephesus was commended for their works, patience, intolerance of evil, diligence in finding false apostles and for laboring for the Lord's sake and not fainting. BUT, in verse 4, we learn that God held something against them for leaving their first love: HIM!

What do wives want from their husbands? They want love, respect and ATTENTION. Marriages go through seasons or stages when we might become separated by work or other distractions. If our husbands work forever, what are we going to do? Pretty soon, this can cause a separation because of lack of attention! The same thing can happen with our love for God.

If winning people to Christ is our first love, it can lead to pride, like in a contest on who led the most people to Him and we don't want that. Our first love is to be Him and Him alone. Christ, God, Him! If we love Him first, we WILL lead people to Christ because they will see us loving Him. We could win more people to Christ in this way than going out and TRYING to win people to Christ!

We want to please God and win His favor. When He wants us to do something, we will do it because we love Him. People will see this and become curious about what is going on. They will find that it is GOD going on in us! Just as there are seasons in marriage, there are also seasons with God. There will be cooling off periods where we are working hard for the Lord but have forgotten to be with Him. He wants us so we should spend time with Him. Mary and Martha had Jesus Himself for a visitor and while He was there, Martha was so cumbered and burdened with serving the food that she missed the most important part; spending time with Jesus! She wasn't doing anything wrong, she just didn't make time to be with Him. We need to keep an eye on our lives and keep HIM first.

We get so busy sometimes that we forget who God is. This is especially true with Pastors because they get busy with helping people that they can lose focus. We all need to get back to something more simple: with fellowship and hanging out with God. Let the rest of it fall into place, because it will.

1 John 3:12 teaches us that we are God's children because of His love that led us to Christ. In Christ we became His children and He is not ashamed of claiming us! That's amazing! The world will not know us if they don't know Him. WE are the children of God! It doesn't even appear what we will be in the future. What will we be when we get to heaven?

We will see Christ as He is when He appears. All we have to do is love HIM the way He loves us.

We will court Him with favor. He is supposed to be first in our lives; everything else is secondary.

Revelation 2:5 shows us that we should remember where we fell and repent or God will remove our candlestick or light from us. We are getting in our own way of loving God first. We can repent and start putting Him first again. He is giving us the opportunity to do this. In verse 7 God tells us to Hear and overcome and He will let us eat of the Tree of Life that is in the midst of His paradise!

We have to assess our lives every so often and repent and make adjustments because putting GOD first is our goal.