God First

Transcript

Pastor Rickey D. Dixon 0:00

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise God. We bless the holy name of God this morning. And we just thank God for blessing us to see another beautiful, blessed day. That we are yet alive. For he has kept us one more time. We thank God. We welcome you this morning to the Holy City Spirit of Truth Ministry, bearing witness to the truth podcast this morning, on this Sunday morning, where we come together to hear the word of the Lord and feed our spirits and hear what his spirit has to say unto us. So, as always, I'd like to go get into the word because I don't like to hold people's time up. This morning, let's get into the word of God, into Bibles, your pen, your paper, whatever you need to follow along, because I truly believe this word will be a blessing unto you this morning. I'm your host, Pastor Ricky D. Dixon. And so glad to be a servant of the Lord. If we are those people who are called by the name of the Lord and claim to follow God, if we say that our Lord and Savior is Christ Jesus, then we must also be those people who seek Him and place Him first in our lives daily. We must have God in our lives daily and seek to keep Him there on a daily basis, y'all. This is an everyday fight. This is an everyday lifestyle that we must live if we want to one day see his face. We are taught by the Word of God. And the Word of God urges us to seek Him first. More than anything else, and more than everything else, God's kingdom and His righteousness. This putting God first in our lives and seeking Him must be continually and with intentional purpose. We must seek God with a purpose. To put forth our efforts to doing this, we must come to the realization and understanding of why we must keep Him first and seek Him first in our lives. We will never put God first in our lives if we don't know that the Word of God instructs us to do so. And we won't understand why we must put Him first in our lives more than anything else if we don't understand what the Word of God teaches us. Our Holy Father and His only begotten Son Jesus, they are the Godhead, the Father and the Son. Nothing else in all our existence should ever be first above or put before them. Nothing. Jesus says this as John wrote this in the book of Revelation. Jesus Himself says, I am Alpha and Omega. Hallelujah. The beginning and the ending, says the Lord, which is and which was and which is to come. The Almighty. He the first and the last, and he must be first in our lives. See, we we as mankind coming into this world in sin, see, we lack knowing God when we first come to the world, as we ought to know him. And we lack in the knowledge of knowing that he must be first in our lives. We didn't see him as being first because sin blinded us from seeing him and knowing him of being first. This is where God stepped in. I'm gonna show you a beautiful, beautiful picture of what God did. This is what God stepped in through his precious love, hallelujah, of which he has for us. God commended his love toward us and made the first move of our spiritual relationship toward us, that we may come to know him and love him. It is the Lord who has taught us through his love for us just how we must put him first and love him first. He did this by first loving and showing us love first. He was the first one to show love, not us. We must now love him back by seeking him first, showing our love for him. Seeking him first and putting them first, y'all. I'm talking about according to what his words say put them first. Not putting them first the way you want to put him first, or when you think you need to put them first when you need something, or when you're going through some traumatic situation. No, we got to do it the way the words say do. Because nothing, no other way gonna work. It's got to be God's way. And he has laid it out in his word for us how to put him first and keep him first in our lives. John also wrote in 1 John 4, 19. He said, John wrote to, he said, we love him because he first loved us. Come on now. That's how we love, that's why we love God. We didn't come here with the love of God and the horse automatic. God has, if that's in you to love God, it has been put in you by God. He said, We love him because he first loved us. We do not come into this existence already knowing how to seek God or put him first in our lives. We don't know. But God is merciful in that he has taught us how to put him first and given us the understanding of just how this is done through his great holy love, his word when he first loved us. He put that in us to love him. He put that in us to put him first. Now, many gonna kick against that, and many gonna not want to do that because you'd be surprised how many people don't want God first in their life because they feel they got to do a whole lot of life changing. Well, yes, you do. And that's necessary because you can't live for God any kind of way. You should want to, if see, if you love them, you want to change for. I remember Jesus said this in the word of God, and I believe it's in the book of John. He says, if you love me, he says, My father will love you because you love in me. He also goes on to say this. He said, and my father and I will come and make our abode with you. That means we'll both come live in your life. We'll both come and be with you because you showing your love toward me. Then he also says this if you love me, you will keep my words. If you love me, you'll keep my words, meaning you'll keep and do whatever I said for you to do. Whatever I ask of you to do, you'll do it because you love me. See, now through Christ Jesus, we can not only love him back, but because he loved us first, we now know that we can also have a desire to put him first in our lives and keep him first in this life which he has given unto us. This morning's message: God first. Just simply, God first. This is why Jesus himself expressed in the gospel of Matthew that we are to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Jesus goes on to say this. He said, This is the first and great commandment. That's Matthew 22, chapter 22, verses 37 and 38. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind, everything in you. That means you put. He said, but what's amazing to me is he tells us that this is the first out of all the things God done said in his word, out of all the commandments and instructions God done give us, this here is the first one. To love God first. Do we see? Hallelujah, hallelujah. Do we see the under and understand just what Jesus is saying unto us? God must be the first thing in our hearts. The first thing in our souls. And the first thing in our minds. And y'all know God so ain't the first thing a lot of people mind, Lord know. Not so many mind, some of us got. You know that ain't God first, but we got to find a way to get him to be first in our mind. Because we got to, let's see, that's what John had to tell the church in Rome. Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Too many of our minds got to be renewed. How you renew it? With the word of God. The word of God, and I know from experience, I'm telling you one to know. The word of God, if you get into the word of God like you ought to, it will filter out all that mumbo jumbo, that gobbledygoop that's in your mind, that craziness, that uh that unsafe stableness, that lack of peace of mind, the word of God will filter all that out and replace it with the calmness and the truth of God's word. And it will keep your mind. See, if God is not found in us to be first in these areas of our lives, we, my brothers and my sisters, are in error. We in wrong. If we ain't got God first, we live in wrong. And we live in those disobedience of the word and commandments of God. Because one thing I know, when the word of God tells us to do a thing and we are not doing that thing, we are in disobedience. And we are in spiritual error of God's word. Because if we ain't doing what he said do, that means we are outside of his word. We're not doing his word, and some of us are willfully knowing that we ain't doing what God told us to do. Come on now. Come on. Let's look at it. What is a commandment? Commandments are God's autitative rules. Authoritative rules, his orders and laws, his word, and whatsoever does saith the Lord. That means whatever he says. That's God. That's God's rules. That's his commandments. Those are his instructions for our lives. And our lives will be the better when we start following his instructions. When we start living our lives based on what he said. Well, who knows better for your life than he? Come on now. He created us and made us. So would it not be good sense to understand that God will know the best thing for us and all we got to do is just do it? We don't know the best thing for ourselves. We might as well tell the truth. Only God knows what's best for us. And he would lead and guide us to that place if we would just obey by putting him first. That's the first thing we got to do, put him first. Have we ever wondered why our lives seem to go a certain type of way, year after year, month after month? Why certain things just don't appear to be happening for us, no matter what we do, no matter what we try. Now understand me. There are many reasons why things are happening in our lives that are not because of something bad all the time. So don't misunderstand me. But there are those things which we come short of because we are not putting God first and seeking Him first in our lives. This is a spiritual fact. A lot of things happen in our lives because similar to how we're living before God, living foul before God and in disobedience of his word. And no godly blessing come from living an ungodly life. The blessings that God wants to give us come from living a godly life. I think that was Solomon wrote about in the book of Proverbs. He said, there are benefits to living righteously, benefits to living holy. But we never get them because we won't live better way before God. And we can't, you ain't gonna make God bless you with the blessings of those that's living right when you're living wrong. You don't get them till you start living right. Jesus says this in the book of Matthew, and this is one scripture I really use as a foundation for my own life to help me keep me focused. Matthew 6 and 33. Really, that whole chapter, that whole sixth chapter of Matthew is one of my favorites. But I'm gonna give you just a little, I'm gonna give you just one of the crumbs out of in that 33rd verse, Matthew 6 and 33. And this is Jesus talking, and he does most of the talking in that sixth chapter. But this, verse 33, he said, but seek ye first. Just like that. Too that slow. Don't, don't, don't too fast. He said, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. I mean what he says is right, what God considered was right, because the stuff we think is right ain't right to God. So you got to see his righteousness, not your righteousness. I remember when Paul was talking to the church, I think in the book of Philippians, he's praying, said, Lord, not having my own righteousness. I don't want to have my own righteousness. I want to get to know you, not having my own righteousness. The third chapter of Philippians. And we can't go to God having our own righteousness. It's got to be his righteousness, which means what God says is right. And how you gonna know what God says is right? The word God is gonna tell you. It'll tell you everything God says right and what he considers to be right in his eyes, not ours. Jesus said, but seek ye first before you do anything else. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God is God. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And what's gonna happen when you do that, Jesus? And all these things shall be added unto you. All the what then? All the blessings that come with putting God first, all the blessings that come with seeking his righteousness, they'll be added to your life. Because God still said in his word, I know what you have need of before ye master. But I can't give it to you because you ain't got me first. You ain't doing right. But if you do, and you come to yourself and put God and his kingdom first and his righteousness, see, Jesus said you got to seek it. Seek it, in other words, you gotta want to know how to put God first. You got to want to know how you can put him first. You just can't haphazard thing where it's gonna drop out the sky, it's gonna come to you now. You got to seek it, which means that shows God how bad you want it. How bad you want me to be first in your life. How much do you really want me to be first in your life? And if you dare to tap into that, I got a blessing for you. Because if you dare to seek me and my kingdom and my righteousness, oh, I'll add blessing to you, you ain't never realize you get. And when Jesus says it, see, people of God, let me tell you something. See, I don't tear the pages out of my Bible. I don't do that. And I receive all of God's word as truth, because it is the truth. And when I read in the book of Numbers, you gotta go all the way back to the Pentateuch, them five first books that Moses wrote, the book of Numbers. If you ever read the book of Numbers, you're gonna read this if you get to that 23rd chapter. The word of God says this. The man of God was talking to this man that wanted, he wanted, he wanted the prophet to curse God's people. He said, I can't curse what God done blessed. But this is one thing I like about what he said in that 20. It's Numbers chapter 23, in that one verse, 19, I'm gonna give this Quran. Read the whole 23rd chapter of Numbers. But this 19th verse is what got me, what the man of God told. There's no good person that won't want him to curse God. People he said, God, in that 19th verse, God is not man. Come on now, that he should lie. Tell some men do we, the people, do we lie? God don't lie. He said, God is not man that he should lie. Neither the son of man, neither is he man's children. Y'all descendants, because your children, you raise your children to start lying like you. The son of man, that he should repent. He ain't nothing like man, ain't nothing like man's children, and ain't nothing like man, the descendants that came from man. Has he said, listen what the man said the man said, has he said and shall not do it? God don't say something he ain't gonna do. Or has he spoken and shall he not make it good? If God done said it, he's gonna make good. He's gonna do it. Because God ain't a man, he's gonna lie. God don't lie, he can't lie. God is truth, which is the opposite of lie. And what I'm talking about, why that's why I brought that up in Norman. Because if Jesus telling you that if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you, that means you just look for them, keep the faith, because they're coming, because God can't lie. If his word doesn't say that, and if you follow the instruction of what the word told you to do and done your part of it, God gonna show enough fulfill his part. If you just believe. If God's word says that if we seek him and his kingdom first and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto us, then that is what will happen. But we must be shown and very sure that he is indeed first in our lives. Or our lives will very well continue down the same old road. Let us examine ourselves. Let's let's let's the Bible say let a man examine himself. So let us examine ourselves for a moment and ask our own savings. What is among the first things? Ask yourself, don't go answer, just ask yourself this in your in your inside voice. What is among the first things we do when we rise up every morning? This is gonna tell you something about yourself in a minute. See, this will most definitely tell you and show you who or what is first in your life. This will show you what is first in your heart. This will show you what is first in your soul, and it will show you what's first in your mind. What's the first thing you do every morning when you get up? Do you get up fussing and cussing, barking and shouting, throwing stuff, mad at the whole wide world because life ain't going the way you want to go? Or do you get up with attitudes of complaining and grumbling? We ain't gonna never have next. Or do you get up thanking God first? Hallelujah. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Do you get up thanking God for the blessings of a new day, for sparing your life and your children's life, your grandchildren's life, your husband life, your wife's life, for allowing you to be a part of this new day's blessings? Do you with a purpose make time for him in the morning for your personal devotion and prayer time before you go out into this wicked and corrupt world, preparing yourself for what you may have to face? Many of us yet don't get it. We yet don't get it. We fail to notice and even realize that God cannot be in any other position or place in our lives but first, number one, if we expect our lives to be blessed by Him, this is the place in our hearts where He must be. What am I attempting to teach this morning? What I'm trying to teach us this morning is that in our simplest of mindsets and understanding, we must see ourselves as putting God first and loving Him as our first love. When someone in our life is our first love, we don't have any problem putting them first in our life. So I say unto you, let God be your first and everything, and let every Everything and everybody else be second and third. But let God make sure God is first. I don't care if it is your children. I don't care if it is your husband wife. They cannot be before God. You cannot have them before God. Ain't nothing wrong with them being in second place. Ain't nothing wrong with them being in third place. You still love them. But let God be the first. Let us not be ignored of these facts of truth. Going to church, and listen to me good now. Going to church is not a sure definition of God being first in your life just because you went to church. I know it's gonna bust a lot of people above us, but I got the busting. Reading the Bible is not a sure definition that God is first in our lives. A lot of people read the Bible, but they don't mean God's first in their lives. Saying your prayers is not even a sure definition that God is first in your life. Yeah, thank you, God, that you're praying, but it still means you got God first. Saying that God is first in our lives with our mouth is not a sure definition that God is first in our lives. Truth be told, we must live the lifestyle, y'all. This is what this is how you can tell when somebody truly loves God got them first. They live the life every day, every time you see them. We must live the lifestyle which defines that God is truly first in our lives. Your actions and your living speak to God louder than your words ever will. When He sees you living the life. Because talk is cheap. And anybody can, your mouth can say anything. But living it, when are we going to admit to ourselves that the things which we have put first in our lives ain't working? The stuff we've been putting first, the people we've been putting first over the years, it ain't nothing, it ain't working. It don't work. And they never will. Because we have them in the spot where they don't belong. You trying to put them in God's spot. You can't put nobody else in God's spot, it ain't gonna work. Your whole life ain't gonna work. As long as you keep doing that. Foolishness and ungodliness. We have placed in God's first place spot. And God, we have placed him in the last spot in the corner of our lives. You know what? Ashamed we should be for doing this after all that he has done for us. When God is first in your life, it is a true, heartfelt, spiritual, passionate love for the God here of the Father, the Son, and the Kingdom. Jesus says this also in Revelation chapter 22, verse 13. He's saying it again. I am Alpha and Omaker, the beginning and the end. Listen to this. He says, the first, the first and the last. You got to start this thing with me so they'll end with me when you see my face. But I got to be, I'm the first. Whether you put me first or not, I'm the first. I'm still gonna be Alpha and Omega. I'm still gonna be the beginning and the end, I'm still gonna be the first and the last. Whether you got me there or not, because somebody's gonna have me first in their life. Somebody gonna recognize me as the Alpha, the beginning. See, God first is when we love his truth and strive each and every day to live it. And we pray to God, Lord, give me the strength to live it. I got to keep you first. Give me the strength so that I can maintain keeping you first in my life. It is when we are totally devoted to him, living our life in purity and godliness, pure before God. God first is when we commit ourselves to obey everything his word says for us to do. And we're glad to do it. Not complaining, not being reluctant, not being stubborn and stiff-necked, but willingly, the Bible said, willingly and obediently, glad to do what God tells you to do. Because when you ask him something, you're gonna want him to be glad to do what you want him to do. So why not you be glad to do what he asked you to do? There is an obedience. Listen to me. There is an obedience which comes as a result of us seeking God first. That spirit of obedience got to be in you. And a personal, and when you don't do it, at least I'm gonna speak for myself. When I find myself not doing it, especially when I was struggling as a young minister and still want to put one foot in, one foot out, a personal conviction will come over us and let you know. You know you shouldn't have done that. You ain't supposed to say that. That personal conviction that lets you know that that ain't what God wants you to do. You ain't putting him first. When you fall short of it, what you're supposed to be doing, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ loves the Father and always puts him first. He was adamant in letting the people know why he was here on earth, that he always does those things that please God. Come on now. When we put God first, our love for him will compel us to live our lives pleasing in his sight. Let me read a little bit what Jesus said. You find this in the book of John, chapter 8. I'm gonna give you just one verse of this too. You read the whole chapter in your time. John 8, 29. This Jesus talk. He said, the Bible said, and he that sent me, he's talking about Jesus talking about the Father. He that sent me is with me. Okay what y'all do, y'all run off and leave me all want to. God ain't, my father ain't gonna never leave me. He said, He that sent me is with me. The father has not left me alone, and he never will. This is what Jesus said. He said, For I do always those things that please him. Always do what please him. I ain't got no problem believing the father. Because he first in my life. Now, if Jesus got God first, come on now. You and I show love, know we need to have him first. And we striving each and every day to do those things that please him. By keeping his word. That's how you do it. Before I let you go, before I let you go, open your hearts and minds and receive this truth, for it will make you free. The raw truth is this. If we are living our lives in this world according to the flesh, we will never put God first, nor will we ever please him. For it is impossible to please God and put him first if we live according to the world and according to what our flesh and this world wants us to do. You cannot want to hold on to the world and his ways and still say you're putting God first. That's a contradictory and that's a lie, and it cannot be done. You got to be one or the other. How can we put God first when our flesh and the ways of this world are the first things most important to us? I want us to put God first. I could care less about what's second and third in our lives, as long as I know that God is first and that his people have him first in their lives. Whatever else comes after that don't make really much matter. Paul tells the church in Rome this, in Romans 8, chapter 8, Romans verses 7 and 8. Let you know why you can't hold on to the word and still say you got God first. He says this in verse 7. Romans 8, 7, and 8. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. That word enmity, Greek word means enemy. When you live a carnal means worldly mind thinking. You think like the world, you act like the world. That carnal mind, carnality is what that is. Because the carnal mind, that worldly mind, a worldly mind is an enemy against God. Thinking like the world. The world will tell you to do what you want to do in the world for it. This is your life. Do what you want to do. No, it ain't your life. God gave you that life. And he can take it, he can give it, he can take it. Now, when he gets ready to take it, how is it what kind of shape if you're gonna give it back to him? Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, the law of God being the word of God. A worldly lifestyle will not live subject to the word of God. Neither indeed can be. What else you got to tell them, Paul? Verse 8. So then they, whoever they is, it might be you. So then they that are in the flesh, meaning who live after the flesh, according to the flesh, according to the world, cannot please God. Because God go in and go, God does not get no pleasure out of seeing you living in sin. God does not get no pleasure out of seeing you living according to the world, acting like the world, or talking like the world. He gets no pleasure out of that. So how can we be pleased with that? If you want to live like that, well, you just know the truth. That know that your life is not pleasing to God and that you don't have him first. Some more wrong truth. Let me give you some more wrong truth. That for a fact, if God is not first in our lives, it could very well be that our minds and lives are carnal, which means our spiritual lives are an enemy against God, whether we realize it or not. Because this is what the word teaches. This is what the book says. If we are not pleasing him in our lives, he sure enough is not first. If you live like the word, you show that ain't God first. I'll say it again. All we need to do is observe our own day-to-day life and count how often do we walk around each other, around our homes, around our jobs, being used and being full of the devil. How many times do I say that you let the devil use you and you walk around there full of the devil and not full of God? This will tell you that it is not God who is first in your life, but in fact, it is that old dragon, old slewfoot his self. Paul had to had to check the people in Rome again, and had to give them some hard truth. So I'm gonna get to you in Romans verse, in Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6, verse 16. I'm gonna let you know who you're serving. Romans 6, 16. He says, Know you not that to whom you yield yourself, servant to obey. His servant you are to whom you obey. Whoever you're giving your time to, whoever you're giving your life to and serving, that's who you serve. What is God or the devil? I read it again. Know you not, in other words, whether you know this or not, that to whom you yield yourself, serving to obey, his servant you are. If you listen to the devil and you do what the devil tells you to do, you just serve the devil. His servants you are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death, that's the devil, or obedience unto righteousness, that's God. Now, which in your serving? That's who you obey. I leave you with the foundational verse in Matthew 6 and 33 once again. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. God got to be first, y'all. Ain't no way around this. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. That the word of God says will be added unto your life. That's a blessing of you having put God first, and a blessing of you having loved Him first in your life. God first, God first, every day and at all times. God bless you. God bless you.