First Things First

Speaker 1: 0:00

Well, I'm so glad you guys are here with us today. It is a new year and it is our first service of the year. Welcome back. We have been gone for two weeks because of the school being closed there in winter break, so it is great to see your faces in here today. I'm so glad we're kicking off this year with a new series called Pray First. Come on, pray First.

Speaker 1: 0:26

So with this starting tomorrow, we are going to do our church-wide 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting, which we're so excited for that On our website, localvenurechurch has all the information about how you can participate in the 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting this year, like Aaron mentioned, we're going to have prayer Monday through Friday morning at 6 am. Anyone in the early risers in here Am I the only one? Yeah, I get up at like 4 30 every day. It's wonderful. We're going to do prayer at 6 in the morning through Google Meet, so there's a link on the website for that and then we're going to have weekly prayer focuses as a church things that we're all together as a church going to be praying for for our city, for our church and for our lives, and then we'll also have some resources like some devotionals. You can do some awesome apps on your phone that I love to use, like the Pray First app and other things like that that you can do, and then we're going to have a list of ideas of ways that you can fast or abstain from things during the 21 Days, for example, like social media or cable news. Come on, it'd be good to take a break from that. And then, like Aaron mentioned, we're going to end 21 Days of Prayer on January 28th at a prayer. We're going to have a prayer night at our house and we're so excited and invited to church out to that.

Speaker 1: 1:50

Okay, so let me go ahead and jump into this message today as we kick off our series. Now, if you've been to LVC for any amount of time, you know one thing that I desperately, desperately desire. Okay, now, if you're new with us today, I'm going to let you in, or something that I, just like I, desperately wanted every single year, and that is what I call hashtag HSB, which stands for hot summer body. I haven't got it yet. I've been trying since I was like 19 years old. It ain't there yet. I love pizza and beer too much, you know. I guess in the way, but here you go. I've been trying to do this, see. I enjoy working out. Actually, I primarily do those HIIT workouts on Apple Fitness. I love Apple Fitness, but you know.

Speaker 1: 2:35

But the challenge for me has always been to eat right. So last year my wife, aaron she actually got us on a better eating plan because we would eat dinner and for dessert we will always have a thing of tons. So we're like I don't think that's how life is supposed to be. And so she she started doing this thing called Noom it's awesome thing, I definitely recommend it to everyone and we totally started to see results from the way we changed the way we eat.

Speaker 1: 2:57

Now here's the thing, though I have a problem with the gym. I have a problem, okay, I have a problem with the gym. I wish, when I went to the gym, did some arm curls, did some dead lifts, did some bench press, I wish that every time I left the gym I looked like this, Like if every time I left the gym I looked like Dwayne Johnson, I'll be in there all the time. But every time I leave the gym I still look like this. It doesn't work out for me. It doesn't work out for me, see, I think. I think if I left the gym and every time I left the gym I looked, I saw the results that I wanted after I left, I think I'll be in the gym all the time. I think if you went to the gym and you left and you instantly saw the results, you would be in the gym. You'll work out every day. But that doesn't happen right. And I think the same thing can actually be said about prayer.

Speaker 1: 4:03

As we start this new series about praying first, I think one of the hard things that we have with prayer is we don't instantly see the results from it. We pray, we do our best to pray and we're like is God listening to me or am I talking to myself? You know what's happening here and I think if we instantly saw the results from our prayers, we would all be praying. Like before you go to a work meeting and you're about to deal with your difficult boss, god, I pray that you just uppercut him and make him do what I want to do. And you walk in and it said hey, johnson, I'm giving you the raise. Thank you, god. I'm always going to pray. You know you have pray instantly. You will always pray.

Speaker 1: 4:41

But what I've learned about prayer, which is similar to the gym. Consistency develops the results you want. Consistency develops the results you want, and what I want to do today and during the course of this new series is I want to show you how to develop a lifestyle of prayer that will change everything about your life. I know it's a big statement, but I mean it. That would change everything about your life. I don't think I need to motivate you to pray. I want to help you know that you can pray and actually enjoy prayer, that you can enjoy that time.

Speaker 1: 5:15

What it would look like if you were doing your prayer time and you knew the next thing on your schedule was coming up but you were kind of like oh man, I got to stop praying. I love praying so much to do the next thing. That doesn't typically happen, right? Typically, when we think about prayer, we're like, uh, I guess I'll pray, I guess I have time. And isn't it funny that when we start to pray, all of a sudden all of us become old English men and we're like thy God, please help thy Jordan love win today, so thy packers will go to the playoffs. Like, why are we talking like that? Like what happens, darren Prayer here's the thing Prayer is not as complicated or as mythical as you might think it is. Prayer is more natural than the air you breathe. So a lot of what I want to do during this series is help us, as everyday people, learn how to connect with Jesus on a regular basis.

Speaker 1: 6:11

Prayer is not just a morning time thing, it's not just in your quiet time. That's a part of it, but it's not just that. The apostle Paul tells us that we can pray without season. What does that mean? It means we can always pray Like pray, all the time. How in the world do you do that? That's when you understand that prayer is not an event that you go to, but it's a lifestyle that you have throughout your day. It's the open communication with God.

Speaker 1: 6:36

You pray first and you pray first, with one synthesis here and there, like I said, stepping into a meeting that you're about to have Maybe it's a difficult one, maybe you need some things you say, god, I need your favor and wisdom. Before you go into the meeting, maybe you're about to send a serious text message and before you send it, you say God, should I send this? You're like no, I shouldn't do that. You know whoever sent a text message now. You wish you didn't. But now they got the delete thing, which is great. But then it gets a notification that someone deleted your text message. What did they say to me at first? You know, before you go to work or turn on your computer to start work, ask God, god be in my work day today Before school, help me learn and focus. When your kids are being difficult, before you walk into the room and before you want to chew them out, you say God, help me, be gentle and kind, give me favor in there. See, here you go.

Speaker 1: 7:26

The first thing I try to do every morning when I wake up is the first thought that I try to have run through my head is Jesus, I need you today. I try my best to do this. Sometimes I don't do it, but for the most part I try to. Before I check my phone, before I check anything, I say Jesus, I want to be with you. What would it look like if you had a pray first kind of lifestyle, a pray first kind of lifestyle? And why should we? Why should we pray first? What's the whole point of it? Here you go. Prayer should be our first response, not our last resort. And here you go. Most people's prayer life, and mine too, for a long time, was I don't pray until I desperately need God. I don't pray until I need God to bail me out of a situation I put myself in. Then I pray, and here you go. God does listen to those prayers, but imagine if we prayed first.

Speaker 1: 8:21

So what I want to encourage you in this message is to do the prayer first. The message is to become a person that prays first. But today, though, that's what I'm going to talk about there in this whole series. Today, I'm actually going to talk about something different. I'm not going to talk about prayer. I am a little bit, but not really Today. I'm going to talk about the second word in the new series title, and it's that word first.

Speaker 1: 8:45

Today I want to talk about first things. I want to talk about first things because there's something powerful about first things and what I'm about to teach you here at the first service of the year, in the first month of the year. I want to teach you about first things because there's power in first things. So we're going to go to the first book of the Bible, on the first page of the Bible, and look at the first sentence and look at the first four words of the Bible, and it says this in Genesis 1-1. It says in the beginning God. In the beginning, god, this might, this ought to become a life model for you. In the beginning, god, not in the beginning, I'm anxious In the beginning, I'm fearful In the beginning, I don't know what it's going to do. But in the beginning, god, in the beginning of starting marriage, counseling, god, I need you. In the beginning of going back to school, god, I need you In the beginning of my day, god, I need you In the. What if we got God a little bit more involved in our days? What if we got God a little bit more involved in your life? And so typically, typically what happens?

Speaker 1: 9:53

God is a part of your life. Sometimes we this is kind of how we we have our mindset welcome to church on Sunday. I have this God's a part of my life. But may I say to you today that God doesn't just want to be a part of your life. God wants to be the center of your life. God wants to be the center of your life. He wants you to actually. He wants to actually be involved in every aspect of your life, including including things like you're shopping. God wants to go to Target. For some of you, if you took God to Target, you spend a lot of time with God. That was a good one, okay, okay. But the God wants to be a part of your extracurricular activities, your hobbies, your conversations, your friendships. He wants to be a part of all of it. He wants to be first, so he doesn't require us to only have him. This is important to know. It's not like, oh, I just only have to serve God and worship God and I have no other hobbies in my life. No, no, no, he doesn't mind you having other things, but the principle of first. You can't avoid it. You can't avoid it.

Speaker 1: 10:59

So the next place first is mentioned in the Bible is two pages later. And now we see Adam and Eve, their kids, cain and Abel. Abel was a shepherd and so he had flocks and Cain worked in the soil. So he was a farmer. And notice what it says. Notice what it says what the two boys did with their relationship with God. Check this out.

Speaker 1: 11:18

Genesis 4 says this he kept flocks and Cain worked the soil in the course of time. Check this out. So when it came around to in the course of time, cain brought some fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord, but Abel brought fat portions from some of the what Firstborn of his flock. So he took his first things and gave it to the Lord. Notice what Abel brings to God the first things.

Speaker 1: 11:43

The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering. But on Cain, he said why did you bring me some mushy strawberries? So no one likes that. You brought me all the bananas with the bruises on it. And Cain said you can make banana bread.

Speaker 1: 12:01

Wow, okay, it's been a while since I preached. All my corny jokes are coming out all at one time. Okay, okay. So here you go. Now, here you go, here you go. This is what I'm going to say. You can go to heaven without believing what I'm about to tell you. Okay, I want to make this clear. You can have a relationship with God without believing what I'm about to tell you next, what I'm about to tell you.

Speaker 1: 12:24

But I am going to tell you this. What I am about to tell you next will set you up not just for a decent life, not just for an okay life, but it will set you up for the best that God has for you. I'm serious. This is a big statement. I'm making some big statements today, but I'm serious about it and, trust me, what I want for you is the best that God has for you. And so you know, I've been doing this job for over 13 years now, and one of the tragedies that I see is being a pastor. It's people who just try to make it by and they miss out on what God really has for them, and I don't want that for you. I want you to get all that God has for you, okay. So I'm going to give you three principles and four practices, and then we'll go to get some lunch, because chicken fiesta was smelling good out there when I was greeting today.

Speaker 1: 13:06

Okay, here you go.

Speaker 1: 13:07

First one is this God must be first. Okay, god must be first. God requires to be at the top of your list the priority relationship. Now, here's the thing, when it comes to first things, there's a friend of mine who comes to our church, me and him. We got some coffee early. Early people come on. The best things happen in the early times.

Speaker 1: 13:28

We got some early morning coffee and he asked me a very simple and, honestly, a life changing question. It was awesome. And he asked me. He said what are your top five responsibilities in your life? Not the top things, not things I'm concerned about. We're all concerned about things, but what are the top five things that you, jacob, are responsible for? And over some time, I began to think about them and from that conversation, I've been able I made a list, I've been able to I made this list and now to operate my life through these responsibilities. I'm going to share them with you today. They're not like sacred or anything, but I believe they can help you. And here you go.

Speaker 1: 14:04

Here are the top things, in this order, that I'm responsible for in my life. I'm responsible for my relationship with God. Here's the thing, and no one can help me have a relationship with God but myself. No one's going to wake me up to spend time with God but me. Here you go. I got three little kids in my house, so my house is always noisy, and so the only time that I have dedicated time to spend time with God is I have to wake up early. That's why I started becoming an early morning person, not because I wanted to, but because it was the time that I could spend with God, and it's been beneficial because I had to be. It's not my wife's job for me to grow close to God. It's not my parents. It's my responsibility.

Speaker 1: 14:42

The second thing is my responsibility, my relationship with myself. This is the biggest truth. No one's going to eat healthy for me but me. No one's going to force a salad down my mouth, right? But if I have to care for myself and be in all seriousness, god, be in all seriousness. Our mental health, our mental, our emotional health something must be in. Our mental health is so bad, but we're still trying to raise our kids and work and we're not even addressing the things that are going on in our hearts and in our heads. And that's why I'm on the edge of burnout. That's why you're on the edge of burnout, because your mental health is low.

Speaker 1: 15:17

You go, I'm responsible for my relationship with me. I have to do it. And then it's my relationship with my wife, then it's my relationship with Aaron, and then my relationship with my kids, and then my relationship with my family and close friends. And then, notice, number six is LVC. It's my church and pastor. And why is that? It's not because I love you guys less Definitely not that. But if those other things are out of whack. I can't pastor well, and the same is said for our marriages. If we're putting our work or our kids above our spouses, man, you're going to have a hard time at home. Same thing with you the way you align your responsibilities and operate. From that matter, I hope I'm being practical today. I hope I'm being practical today.

Speaker 1: 16:04

So here's what happens most of the time by not being intentional, not malicious, but just not being intentional, we confuse concerns with responsibilities. We're concerned about a lot of things that are happening in the world, but we're not responsible for everything. But what you are responsible for, god can use and I know this sounds kind of intense and whatever, but that's all right. But God must be number one If you want to live the life he's called you to live. If you don't, that's fine, that's okay. And I know some of us are in here. We're exploring, we're trying to figure out this whole faith thing and I hope LVC will always be a safe place for you to explore faith. But I'm going to tell you this when you say God, I'm going to go all out for you, it makes a difference.

Speaker 1: 16:49

And we see this in the Hebrew Bible. Exodus 20 says this and God spoke all these words. I am the Lord, your God. Notice what he says. Notice how God puts the Israelites first. He puts us first. He says who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery? You shall have no other gods before me. He says put no other gods before me because I went after you. I came after you. But notice this, this is a big thing I want you to notice. He does not say you can have no other loves. He does not say you can't have other things. God wants you to be passionate about your family. God wants you to love your spouse. God wants you to have a career or a hobby that you're passionate about, that you go all in a cause that you go all in for. He's not saying none of that things is bad. It's only bad when those things take God's place, because then then you're out of alignment. God is saying when our responsibility is out of alignment, it doesn't work. The second principle is this you put God first by giving God the first of everything.

Speaker 1: 17:57

Now, this doesn't get taught enough, and I'm gonna teach it today, and this is I'm gonna take us to the deep end of the pool. Sometimes people say are you one of those churches that just do all that surface fluffy preaching, or do you go deep? And I say by deep do you mean, do I speak Greek or something? I don't know what that means, but here's my interpretation of deep teaching. I'm about to take us to the deep end right here with this. I'm gonna bring you to the deep end. The deep end says this God doesn't just wanna be your Sunday God, only. He wants to be your everyday God. He wants to be your everyday God. He wants to show up at your work, he wants to be involved in your family. He wants to be a part of your life. And preachers come on, man. I'm a preacher, but a lot of times preachers teach this mostly with the idea of money. And it's not just a money, it's just not a money principle.

Speaker 1: 18:47

Tithing is not just a money principle. Take this out Leviticus 27 says this a tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord. It is holy to the Lord. Now, a lot of times we just say, oh well, give 10% of your money. I'm gonna tell you this. Can I take you to the deep end? I'm gonna want you to consider giving God the first of everything. God, I'm gonna give you the first of my year, I'm gonna give you the first of my week, the first of my day, the first thoughts of what I have in the morning, the first words that come out of my mouth every day, and it's gonna be holy to the Lord.

Speaker 1: 19:24

Hebrews 3 says this honor God with everything you own. Give him the first and the not as good. No, give him the first and the best and the best. Not just things, not just some things that we give to God first, but God wants us to put everything first. And the last one is this, and this is where you'll see the benefit. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 19:43

Last principle is this Whether you like it or not, this is kind of how God works in my interpretation. The first now has the power to bless the rest. When we give the first now, it will bless the rest of our lives. It has the power to bless. In my life in this church, it's a living testimony of that. Whenever I put God first I can't even explain it all the time Things just work out. Things just work out. I'm just telling you guys, I'm just telling you from my testimony when I made decisions to put God first, even when I didn't want to, things worked out. That doesn't mean things are easy. That ain't definitely ain't the truth. It'll be easier to do things my own way sometimes, but things work out.

Speaker 1: 20:29

Proverbs 3 says this way honor God with your wealth, with the first fruit of all your crops. And there's always that if okay. It says that because if you do that, then if then, then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with some new wine. Come on, I can take some new wine. That sounds good. No more of that, too, buckchuck. Come on, get some good stuff.

Speaker 1: 20:54

What about Jesus? What does he have to say about our first fruits? What does he have to say about this whole idea? First, he says this. He says but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and what. All these things will be given to you. Given to you as well, be given to you as well. Basically, jesus is saying when you involve me in your life, watch how involved I'll be, Watch how involved I'll be, I'll be all up in it, and this is what I want for you. So badly, okay.

Speaker 1: 21:18

And now I decided. I decided to go a little strong today, not doing Johnson strong, trying to, but I'm a little strong today. Okay, I'm gonna ask you. I'm gonna ask something from you today. It's a lot, it's a big one. It's up to you to do it. You don't have to do it, but I'm gonna ask it anyways. You can still be a Christian and go to heaven and do all that stuff if you don't do what I asked you to do. But I'm gonna ask you today. It's gonna be a strong ask. Okay, you ready for it? I mean, the ask I'm gonna make from you today is a big one, okay, and I mean it's one of those things that typically, only I will want our staff team to do it or my family do it.

Speaker 1: 22:02

But I'm gonna ask you today. You ready for it? You ready for the thing that I'm gonna ask you to do? It's a strong one, it's a big one. Feel no pressure. Don't feel any pressure to do it. You'll probably see the results really fast. If you do do it, though, like you'll be like, wow, shaunty abs in 30 days, like one of those results. If you do it, but don't feel any pressure, you ready for it?

Speaker 1: 22:33

The ask I want to make today is this I want you to give God the first of your year with joining us for 21 days of prayer and fasting. That's what I want for you. That's what I want To join us for 21 days of prayer and fasting. Meet us online on Google every morning if you can, and it's 15 minutes. Be there. Start your day with prayer, be there. I encourage you to find something that you can fast from on our website. We made it so easy for us this year for you to find some things you can fast from. Here you go. I'm gonna be honest with you guys.

Speaker 1: 23:08

I have to admit, fasting from food has been a regular, has been a newer regular spiritual habit of mine. You know, I've been doing 21 days of prayer, 21 days of prayer and fasting for over five years now, and our church, this very church, was started with the 21 days of prayer and fasting Before we had our first service. We did 21 days of prayer and fasting before we launched. But you know but here's the main thing I've done I've always abstained from something which is more like a soul fast. I was staying from things like social media, coffee, alcohol, things like that, to kind of, and instead of doing those things, I would pray, but regularly. But fasting from food has become a regular part of my spiritual habits and friends. I gotta say it's been life changing. It's been life changing. It's not easy. For some reason, when you fast you're like so hungry that morning I'm like man, I want steak right now. But what I've been doing, what was common in the early church, was where people would fast from wake up to sundown. From wake up to sundown. They would do that twice a week and that's what I've been doing and it's been going pretty good. And so, like I said, on our website we posted five different invitations to fasting and I encourage you for this 21 days to try one, to try one of them. Like I said, we have. I won't go over all the invitations right here, but they're on our website, but here's what I want you to say. Here's what I want to say.

Speaker 1: 24:31

Jesus, in his early ministry, was baptized and the next thing he did before he started his ministry was to fast. And when he fasted, his identity began to get shaped. And I'm gonna tell us a lot of us. We have an identity crisis. We don't know who we are, what we are, where we're going, what we're supposed to be doing and I'm not again. I'm not selling like some guarantee money back, guarantee type stuff, but I'm gonna tell you this is if you want to experience God, step out of faith. Like, let me put it this way If you're already not 100% happy with the direction that your life is going, what do you have to lose by putting God first? Like, if you're already kind of like man, this isn't really working out the way I hoped and I had these dreams but it did not seem like they're coming to reality and I got these stress and I got this anxiety and I got this fear and I got this drama and I got this problem. What do you have to lose For the next 21 days to put God first?

Speaker 1: 25:38

It says this check this out and James, you can come on up. It says this in Acts 10. It says God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit in power and check this out and how he went around doing good and healing good and healing all those who were honored the power of the devil because God was with them. I love this. It says that God anointed him to what To do good and to bring healing to the world. Friends, may I be audacious again today. It's say to you, what God wants for your life is for you to do good, for you to do good with your life, for you to look at your life and say, man, I am making a difference with my life. I'm loving people. That is difficult to love. I'm helping people who are in need. I'm loving my family. I'm putting them first. I got my responsibilities on alignment. I'm trying my best to do good, and when I do good I can bring healing to the world.

Speaker 1: 26:48

Friends, some of you there's been generational. There've been patterns of generational curses From generation to generation just struggling with depression, struggling with fear, struggling with anxiety, struggling with mental health. What if God, it must heal you and your kids from that? What if? And what if it just starts with a simple act of obedience? My wife Erin and I, we were talking last night and we said and Erin said this thing, and she said it way better than me, because she's so much smarter than me and she's so much more beautiful than me too. I'm just kind of goofy looking. I don't know what I'm talking about right now, but anyway, she said this to me. She says, may I'm messing it up, but your habits will follow your direction. And if you're the kind of person that's saying, I'm going to go after God, I'm going to go after what God has for me, your habits will begin to get in line with that. But if you're the person that says, man, man, this doesn't work out for me, I'm always the last. Nothing ever goes the way I want, guess what? Your emotions will begin to follow that too. Friends, let's go after what God has for us. Let's go after his heart for us to see what he has. And in this, fast, and I encourage you again, this is a strong ass. Maybe just do it once a week, maybe fast once a week something.

Speaker 1: 28:22

There's this Bible verse that's really interesting too. It says faith the size of a mustard seed. Jesus says this you can say to that mountain go from here to there. And the mustard seed is a little itty bitty seed. It's a little small seed, but faith in God's economy, a small seed of faith is bigger and more powerful than the largest mountain of doubt that you have in your life. It's a small measure of faith. Well, I take a small measure of faith and I'm going to encourage you. Join us on for this 21 days of prayer.

Speaker 1: 29:06

Now I'll close out with this. I also want you to consider this Give God the first of your month. Give God the first of your month, again with tides and offering, as I was talking about. Yeah, that is a financial thing, but it's also just with your life, like, I'm going to give you the first, I'm going to give you the first, I'm going to give you the first, and my day and my morning and my words I'm going to give it to you. And again, we don't teach this a lot from the pulpit. We talk more about giving and stuff at our local basics class, which is step one, is happening right after this service today.

Speaker 1: 29:39

But tithing is not really a New Testament law and you're free not to tithe. Honestly. It's a principle that still works and Jesus validates it in Matthew 23. But you don't have to tithe, but check this out. This is why we talk about tithing, and I'm talking about our money and with our time. It says it's. Deuteronomy 14 says this the purpose of tithing is to teach you to always put God in the first place in your life and for some of us, that's what we need to get to God. I want to put you first. I want to put you first in my life and a couple of things I just want to share. Specifically about my story was when I started to tithe and again, I'm not just not a message about tithing. If you take that away from this, that's awesome and you and I challenge you to do that, but this is not a message about tithing. This is the illustration I want to use. When I started to tithe financially 10% it changed my whole world. It changed everything, because it wasn't about finances. It was about could I really trust God with my life? Could I trust God to provide for me? Could I trust God to meet my needs? Could I trust God? Here you go to actually be God in my life instead of me trying to be God. And it changed me. Two stories I want to share just about that.

Speaker 1: 31:00

When Aaron and I moved up to Richmond to start this church, we knew that I wasn't going to be taking a salary from the church when we first moved up here. So we did some things to prepare for that, but it still was difficult. When we first moved up, I wasn't taking a salary. It was the first time since I was 17 years old I wasn't going to pay and I still worked 40, 50 hours to start this church, to do it. But the cool way, the first job that Aaron got when we relocated to Richmond, the first job she got the base salary that she got was the combined salary of what we got paid when we lived in Virginia Beach. God provided a way so we didn't have to worry about it when we got here. Another interesting thing again, this is my story about me trusting God and I hope it encourages you and another one was when we knew we wanted to move our church to the Midlothian area.

Speaker 1: 31:51

During COVID we originally were in Shortpump but we knew we wanted that God was calling us down here but we just bought a house, we just bought a zoo. It's a bad movie, I don't even know why. I said that we bought a house and we were like, oh, I guess we're kind of stuck here in Shortpump but we're just commuting to Midlothian to do the church. And then my sister-in-law we're just talking to my brother and my sister-in-law. My sister-in-law randomly texted a friend of hers that she really didn't even talk to that much and asked her if she was still thinking about selling her house, which I guess she talked about months and months and months ago. And no joke. Right when we were in there, my sister-in-law texted her. The friend texted her back and said we just took a job in Denver today and we were going to start the process of selling our house and check this out. They end up because we were Jesus followers and we wanted to start a church. They sold us the house well below what they could have got for it. And then our house in Shortpump, we blessed it to a family in our church.

Speaker 1: 32:48

And I say that. Why do I say all that? Because there's something powerful when you trust God first, and I can't explain it. There is a little bit of this thing. Ok, I wish it could all just be head knowledge. I wish it could all just be logical and my world is so logic-based. Kind of a little bit. I try to say it is, but it's not really. But there is actually this miraculous step of faith that it comes to following God and that he moves in mighty ways, that things that are impossible become possible through God and when it takes a little bit of faith to do it and we go after it. But some of us we got to say God, I trust you with my first. I trust you. I put you there. Last thing I'll say is this Give God the first of my week with consistent church attendance and taking a true Sabbath, taking a true Sabbath and that's what I want to say to us today. I want you guys here at church I mean, if you're sick, don't come, you can watch online but if you just wake up and say, oh, I guess I just do laundry today, no, no, no, no, get to church. Get to church Because it's a habit that you can build in your life. That would lead to other good habits in your life, and then I encourage you to take a real Sabbath.

Speaker 1: 34:18

Last year we kicked off the year talking about Sabbath. There's a whole message series on why it's so important to rest. We live in the world with the two-headed monster of production and consumption, and Sabbath is a way to say world. You won't get me. I won't be trapped in the circle of I have to produce and I have to consume. There's real rest for my soul. And so what I encourage us to do is be at church on Sunday, bring friends to church, Be apart, and then you get some rest. In our house we put our phones away, we don't answer emails, we work related things. We may have family or friends over for dinner to share a meal together, but that's the extent of it.

Speaker 1: 35:03

And here you go. People with families with little kids. They say, well, I can't do a Sabbath, I hope my kids aren't going to rest, that's OK. Start to teach them the principle of resting, because the world ain't going to teach them that, it's not going to teach them that. Our kids, they look forward to a Sabbath every week and for most Christians, sunday is a great day to do a Sabbath. You come to church and then you go home and you take it easy. I encourage you to do that. For me, I can't do it on Sundays. Sunday is a work day for me, but we Sabbath Friday night to Saturday morning and I look forward. And here you go. I can actually work harder during the week because I know I have a whole day of rest coming up. It actually helps me with that. And so this is the last thing I want to say to you guys with this On church on Sunday man, what you put in, you get out.

Speaker 1: 35:54

What you put in, you get out. So when our worship team is singing, let's not just do our golf clap. Oh yeah, that's kind of good. No, sing to God like someone saved your life, because he did save your life, like when you listen to it. When you're in the message, respond back, shout the preacher down, shout me down, come on and get something out of it, because what you put into it, you'll get out of it. And, guys, I want you to give God your first and watch him move in a mighty way.

Speaker 1: 36:27

Last thing, there's this story. There's a story that we all have. There's a story that we're all too familiar with, and I'll read it to you. Ok, it's one that we're all too familiar with and it's the story of our lives, how our lives often go, and I think it's time for us to change the story. Check this out. This is how it goes. Chapter one of our stories are like this I went out for a walk, I fell into a deep dark hole and it took me a long time to get out.

Speaker 1: 37:01

Chapter two I went out for a walk. I fell into the same deep dark hole and it took me a long time to get out. I think we've heard this story over and over again, haven't we? Chapter three I went out for a walk and this time I saw the hole, but I got too close and I fell into it and it took me a long time to get out. But then, when we begin to put God first chapter four I went out for a walk. This time I saw the hole and I walked around it. I'm not gonna keep falling in the same trap. I'm not gonna keep falling in the same thing that I've made promises that I'll never do again. I'm not gonna keep going to that same depressed thought. I'm gonna keep going to that same. And in chapter five, where I believe God wants to take us, I went down a different street. For some of us, it's time for us to go down a different street.

Speaker 1: 38:01

Would you pray with me? God, jesus, holy Spirit, we thank you for your goodness and your mercy. We thank you for your love and we ask for more of you, lord. We ask for more of you, god, god, we put you first. If you're in here today, you know there's certain things in your life that have first place and you don't even want them there. And I really feel like when we hit on mental health, there's some of you that you're really struggling with mental health and it dominates your life, that struggle, and I just wanna speak right now to you that God wants to bring healing to your life. So, in Jesus' name, bring healing. For some of you there's just worry and fear of the unknown, and God is saying I can be your peace, just put me first. And I feel like the Lord is making it very clear. It's not transactional, it's not. If you do this and I'll do that, I feel like the Lord is saying when you put Him first, then you'll see how I am working on your behalf. I want someone to hear that today, because this is not a transaction, it's a relationship. So if you're in here today and you're like Jacob man, that sounds all good and stuff, but I don't know this Jesus you're talking about.

Speaker 1: 39:47

If you wanna make a decision to trust Jesus with your life, just write where you are. I wanna pray for you. I'm not gonna call you out and I have you come up front, nothing like that. Just write where you are. If you wanna make a decision to trust Jesus with your life, I wanna lead you into prayer. Maybe you have made a decision before, but you kinda walked away. You wanna recommit? Just pray this prayer with me right now. Just write where you are. You can say it out loud or say it in your heart. Just say Jesus, forgive me for my mistakes, make me new Today. I trust in you. Today. I put you first In Jesus' name, amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today.