First Things First
Scripture Reading: Genesis 12:1-7 & 15:1-6
1 Now the LORD had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was
seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot
his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they
had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land
of Canaan. 6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth
tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.
7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And
there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid,
Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
2 But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my
house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring;
indeed one born in my house is my heir!”
4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but
one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” 5 Then He brought him outside and
said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He
said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
As our reading begins God tells Abram something to do and makes some pretty lofty
promises. He promised to make his name great, to make him a blessing, even to all
the families of the earth. But there was one promise the LORD Yahweh made that
likely stood out more than all the others. He promised to make of him a great nation.
That’s a pretty bold promise to make to a 75 year old man with no children. What’s
even more amazing is that Abram believed him! You see, God does that; makes bold,
unbelievable promises to His people.
I remember when God gave my mother the vision that she was going to preach and
teach the gospel. That looked pretty impossible at the time. She was over fifty, wasn’t
a strong reader, and wasn’t completely comfortable as far as public speaking was
concerned. I can remember us talking about how she would go to seminary or Bible
College. You see, that’s what we thought would have to happen. I can also
remember when she came to me and said that she didn’t understand but she felt God
was telling her not to go to a ‘school’. In retrospect, she did go to school but it was
God’s school and He was the instructor. The point is the promise didn’t seem very
probable by the world’s standards but we don’t live by the world’s standards. When
she got this promise, she didn’t go out and start looking for classes to teach either, as
many would have done. She didn’t start a congregation so she could start preaching.
Keep in mind that this was 7 or 8 years ago, she’d been reading her Bible for about
two or three years, she had already become very knowledgeable in the Word but not
nearly as much so as she had become when we began this congregation last year.
God had to lay a firm foundation on which to build. The bottom line though is that
when she received the promise it looked like an impossible dream.
When most people come to faith, they are looking for something. I mean something
other than a relationship with the Creator of the universe. That’s not usually what
people think they’re looking for when they come. You see here in the second part of
our reading, chapter 15, that God tells Abram not to be afraid and that He will be his
shield and his great reward. God is telling him that He is really what he’s looking for.
Even still, the first thing that comes out of Abram's mouth is what he thinks he needs
more than God. He asks God what He will give him since he’s childless. See, Abram
thought that having no offspring was his problem when that really wasn’t his problem
at all. What he needed was the same thing every man since Adam and Eve had
needed; the presence of God!
As I said, most people are looking for something other than God. Abram was looking
for a child. I know that I was looking for peace when I came to faith. Some come for a
physical healing. Some come to heal a broken relationship with a spouse or parent or
child. Some come to gain financial security because they heard somewhere that God
wants us to be prosperous. Some come for self-assurance, to find purpose in life, but
basically to fix something in life. That’s our human nature; to want something. It’s
unfortunate that many don’t realize what it is that they really need. Let’s listen to what
Jesus had to say about it. Matthew 6:31-33, 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What
shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the
Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. We
have to learn that what we need is to seek the kingdom and the righteousness of God
first, and the fix to the rest of the issues will come as a byproduct.
That’s what mom did. I remember when she gave up all the substance of her house
because she knew it was from ill-gotten gains. That was seeking God’s
righteousness. Spending endless hours studying God’s Word and listen to different
Bible teach. That was seeking God’s righteousness. And I will tell you that she and
her ministry have been abundantly blessed as a byproduct. You don’t read the Bible
and pray so you will find purpose or so you can be prosperous. You do those things
so you can be in the presence of the Father, and in so doing those other things will
just come. Too many come to Christ to get the stuff. Then when things don’t happen
on their timetable or when negative things happen, you when the storms of life come,
they fall away. I was having a discussion on the Christian message board this week
with a man who says he grew up in a Christian family but was now an atheist because
in his opinion prayer doesn’t work. I’ve spent the last couple of days explaining to him
that it does for me.
Think about it. If Abram had been just looking for some quick fix to his childless issue,
he would have gotten frustrated and turned his back on God long before his
breakthrough. He waited twelve years before he tried to get the son without God.
Then it took twenty-five years for him to see the son God had promised. If anyone
had the right to say pray doesn’t work, it was Abram. But in retrospect, knowing the
history, prayer did work didn’t it. That’s probably why Abraham had the faith it took to
lay his son, his promised son on the altar as a sacrifice. By that time in his life, he’d
figured out that prayer does work; that God is faithful! The journey that took him from
Abram to Abraham was part of the process. That why mom always says that we hold
down our own blessings by not being ready; not really getting it. Like when, as a
disciple of Christ, what was important to me was to get more kids to be active in the
youth group or to get more senior high boys to come to Sunday school. At that time in
my journey I thought those things were what was important. I wanted to please God
and I thought that would please Him. What I didn’t completely realize is that for me to
seek with all my heart the presence of God is what would truly please Him. You see,
although those things would be good things, they are just the byproducts of that which
is really important.
So, let’s say you’ve just gotten it. You’ve just figure out that everything you’ve been
striving for, hoping for, and dreaming for is really just some unimportant byproduct of
what is really important, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. So, now what?
How do you really seek after the Kingdom of God? Well, the first thing I’ll advise you
to do is read the Bible. Yeah, that’s right, the whole thing; cover to cover, no
excuses. My first time through took about fourteen or fifteen months. It may take you
less time it may take you more time. That all depends on you. But read it. That is, I
think, the most important thing for a new believer to do. Remember, John 1 tells us
that Jesus is the Word. If you want to know Him, you need to know His Word. It’s not
an instant fix but it will be a crucial, a very necessary part of your journey. There’s no
way around it. All the Bible hopscotch in the world is not going to make up for you just
picking it up and reading it like the book it is. Let me put it to you this way, Jesus
resisted the devil in the wilderness by speaking God’s Word. How are we going to be
able to speak God’s Word, if we don’t know it? Our minds are like computers so it’s
very important that we scan all pertinent information in so it will be there when we
need it.
Next, and you don’t have to read the whole Bible first, then do this but you’ll do them
at the same time. You must renew you mind. Romans 12:1-2, 1 I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God. The world’s way of thinking is upside-down from
kingdom thinking. So we must stop thinking like the world thinks and start thinking like
a child of the kingdom. Ephesians 4:17-24, 17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord,
that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18
having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling,
have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by
Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man
which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your
mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true
righteousness and holiness. We have to stop walking like everyone else, in futility.
Remember, all the things that we think are important are really just insignificant
byproducts. We have to stop being led by our feelings and or greed and our pride.
Putting off the former things and putting on the new man created in righteousness and
holiness. I believe the story of the rich young ruler that came to Jesus, really puts
everything into perspective. He tried his best to follow the commandments. He
obviously wanted to do right or why else would he have asked what he needed to ask
what he should do? This story is documented in three of the four gospels; Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, so it’s obviously important. So, what did Jesus tell this obviously
religious young man, who had an earnest desire to do right and get to heaven? Mark
10:21-22, 21 Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go
your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven;
and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
22 But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
So, what did He lack? He lacked the wherewithal to put the kingdom first; before his
stuff. His stuff was more important than the kingdom. The Creator of the universe
had just told him how he could have everything that really mattered and he went away
sad because his stuff was more important. I think many read this passage and think
Jesus was saying that being rich is a bad thing but that’s not what He’s saying at all.
Valuing your riches above God is what is wrong. It wasn’t that the rich young ruler
had the wealth it was that his wealth had him. Let’s not let our stuff or our feelings or
our pride get in the way of the kingdom. Let us learn to value the things that God
values and not the things that the world tells us is valuable.
.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: October 29, 2006
Scripture Reading: Genesis 12:1-7 & 15:1-6
1 Now the LORD had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was
seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot
his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they
had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land
of Canaan. 6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth
tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.
7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And
there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid,
Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
2 But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my
house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring;
indeed one born in my house is my heir!”
4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but
one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” 5 Then He brought him outside and
said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He
said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
As our reading begins God tells Abram something to do and makes some pretty lofty
promises. He promised to make his name great, to make him a blessing, even to all
the families of the earth. But there was one promise the LORD Yahweh made that
likely stood out more than all the others. He promised to make of him a great nation.
That’s a pretty bold promise to make to a 75 year old man with no children. What’s
even more amazing is that Abram believed him! You see, God does that; makes bold,
unbelievable promises to His people.
I remember when God gave my mother the vision that she was going to preach and
teach the gospel. That looked pretty impossible at the time. She was over fifty, wasn’t
a strong reader, and wasn’t completely comfortable as far as public speaking was
concerned. I can remember us talking about how she would go to seminary or Bible
College. You see, that’s what we thought would have to happen. I can also
remember when she came to me and said that she didn’t understand but she felt God
was telling her not to go to a ‘school’. In retrospect, she did go to school but it was
God’s school and He was the instructor. The point is the promise didn’t seem very
probable by the world’s standards but we don’t live by the world’s standards. When
she got this promise, she didn’t go out and start looking for classes to teach either, as
many would have done. She didn’t start a congregation so she could start preaching.
Keep in mind that this was 7 or 8 years ago, she’d been reading her Bible for about
two or three years, she had already become very knowledgeable in the Word but not
nearly as much so as she had become when we began this congregation last year.
God had to lay a firm foundation on which to build. The bottom line though is that
when she received the promise it looked like an impossible dream.
When most people come to faith, they are looking for something. I mean something
other than a relationship with the Creator of the universe. That’s not usually what
people think they’re looking for when they come. You see here in the second part of
our reading, chapter 15, that God tells Abram not to be afraid and that He will be his
shield and his great reward. God is telling him that He is really what he’s looking for.
Even still, the first thing that comes out of Abram's mouth is what he thinks he needs
more than God. He asks God what He will give him since he’s childless. See, Abram
thought that having no offspring was his problem when that really wasn’t his problem
at all. What he needed was the same thing every man since Adam and Eve had
needed; the presence of God!
As I said, most people are looking for something other than God. Abram was looking
for a child. I know that I was looking for peace when I came to faith. Some come for a
physical healing. Some come to heal a broken relationship with a spouse or parent or
child. Some come to gain financial security because they heard somewhere that God
wants us to be prosperous. Some come for self-assurance, to find purpose in life, but
basically to fix something in life. That’s our human nature; to want something. It’s
unfortunate that many don’t realize what it is that they really need. Let’s listen to what
Jesus had to say about it. Matthew 6:31-33, 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What
shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the
Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. We
have to learn that what we need is to seek the kingdom and the righteousness of God
first, and the fix to the rest of the issues will come as a byproduct.
That’s what mom did. I remember when she gave up all the substance of her house
because she knew it was from ill-gotten gains. That was seeking God’s
righteousness. Spending endless hours studying God’s Word and listen to different
Bible teach. That was seeking God’s righteousness. And I will tell you that she and
her ministry have been abundantly blessed as a byproduct. You don’t read the Bible
and pray so you will find purpose or so you can be prosperous. You do those things
so you can be in the presence of the Father, and in so doing those other things will
just come. Too many come to Christ to get the stuff. Then when things don’t happen
on their timetable or when negative things happen, you when the storms of life come,
they fall away. I was having a discussion on the Christian message board this week
with a man who says he grew up in a Christian family but was now an atheist because
in his opinion prayer doesn’t work. I’ve spent the last couple of days explaining to him
that it does for me.
Think about it. If Abram had been just looking for some quick fix to his childless issue,
he would have gotten frustrated and turned his back on God long before his
breakthrough. He waited twelve years before he tried to get the son without God.
Then it took twenty-five years for him to see the son God had promised. If anyone
had the right to say pray doesn’t work, it was Abram. But in retrospect, knowing the
history, prayer did work didn’t it. That’s probably why Abraham had the faith it took to
lay his son, his promised son on the altar as a sacrifice. By that time in his life, he’d
figured out that prayer does work; that God is faithful! The journey that took him from
Abram to Abraham was part of the process. That why mom always says that we hold
down our own blessings by not being ready; not really getting it. Like when, as a
disciple of Christ, what was important to me was to get more kids to be active in the
youth group or to get more senior high boys to come to Sunday school. At that time in
my journey I thought those things were what was important. I wanted to please God
and I thought that would please Him. What I didn’t completely realize is that for me to
seek with all my heart the presence of God is what would truly please Him. You see,
although those things would be good things, they are just the byproducts of that which
is really important.
So, let’s say you’ve just gotten it. You’ve just figure out that everything you’ve been
striving for, hoping for, and dreaming for is really just some unimportant byproduct of
what is really important, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. So, now what?
How do you really seek after the Kingdom of God? Well, the first thing I’ll advise you
to do is read the Bible. Yeah, that’s right, the whole thing; cover to cover, no
excuses. My first time through took about fourteen or fifteen months. It may take you
less time it may take you more time. That all depends on you. But read it. That is, I
think, the most important thing for a new believer to do. Remember, John 1 tells us
that Jesus is the Word. If you want to know Him, you need to know His Word. It’s not
an instant fix but it will be a crucial, a very necessary part of your journey. There’s no
way around it. All the Bible hopscotch in the world is not going to make up for you just
picking it up and reading it like the book it is. Let me put it to you this way, Jesus
resisted the devil in the wilderness by speaking God’s Word. How are we going to be
able to speak God’s Word, if we don’t know it? Our minds are like computers so it’s
very important that we scan all pertinent information in so it will be there when we
need it.
Next, and you don’t have to read the whole Bible first, then do this but you’ll do them
at the same time. You must renew you mind. Romans 12:1-2, 1 I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God. The world’s way of thinking is upside-down from
kingdom thinking. So we must stop thinking like the world thinks and start thinking like
a child of the kingdom. Ephesians 4:17-24, 17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord,
that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18
having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling,
have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by
Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man
which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your
mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true
righteousness and holiness. We have to stop walking like everyone else, in futility.
Remember, all the things that we think are important are really just insignificant
byproducts. We have to stop being led by our feelings and or greed and our pride.
Putting off the former things and putting on the new man created in righteousness and
holiness. I believe the story of the rich young ruler that came to Jesus, really puts
everything into perspective. He tried his best to follow the commandments. He
obviously wanted to do right or why else would he have asked what he needed to ask
what he should do? This story is documented in three of the four gospels; Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, so it’s obviously important. So, what did Jesus tell this obviously
religious young man, who had an earnest desire to do right and get to heaven? Mark
10:21-22, 21 Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go
your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven;
and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
22 But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
So, what did He lack? He lacked the wherewithal to put the kingdom first; before his
stuff. His stuff was more important than the kingdom. The Creator of the universe
had just told him how he could have everything that really mattered and he went away
sad because his stuff was more important. I think many read this passage and think
Jesus was saying that being rich is a bad thing but that’s not what He’s saying at all.
Valuing your riches above God is what is wrong. It wasn’t that the rich young ruler
had the wealth it was that his wealth had him. Let’s not let our stuff or our feelings or
our pride get in the way of the kingdom. Let us learn to value the things that God
values and not the things that the world tells us is valuable.
.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: October 29, 2006
