Prevent Being Out Of Order

After World War II there were five army dumps in France full of machinery. It was

too good to throw away, and yet not good enough to hall back to the United States. It was

a major problem. The Quakers saw an opportunity for service, and so they offered the

United States Army 200,000 francs for the machinery, and then they made an agreement

with the French government. They offered to sell to the French people the desperately

needed equipment of spades, saws, axes, trucks, and motorcycles at a fraction of the cost

if the government would provide free transportation on the French railroads, and give

them 200 German prisoners to help.

Everyone went along with the idea, and everybody benefitted. The United States

solved a problem and got some money. The French got needed equipment. The German

families of the prisoners who helped the Quakers receive money, and the Quakers used

the money they got to build a hospital in France to go on doing good and meeting needs

for generations to come.

With the motivation of love man can turn problems into blessings and bring order out

of chaos, and harmony out of discord. By cooperation men can make plans where

everyone comes out a winner. The key word is order. God is a God of order, and the

whole universe is a precision made work of order. Out of darkness and chaos God

brought forth light and order, and order is the sign of life and intelligence. Disorder and

discord are signs of sin and death. There is no such thing as a wrong note in itself. All

notes are good and a part of the harmony of music. A note is wrong only when it is out of

place, and not in the order of the laws of harmony.

ABC is right, but BAC is wrong, even though there is no difference in the content.

The same three letters are there, but in the second series they are in the wrong order.

AB and C are always right. They are always legitimate letters, for there are no wrong

letters, but there is a wrong order of letters. A word that is misspelled does not have any

wrong letters, but just letters that don't belong. They do not fit, for they are out of

order, and it is this lack of order that makes the word wrong. The difference between a

messy room and a neat room may not be in its contents at all, but rather in the order of

those same contents.

1-2-3 is the proper order of counting, and so 2-1-3 is out of order. Math, spelling,

music, and all of life are based on rules of order. Business meetings in churches usually

go according to Roberts Rule of Order because it is God's will that the church do

everything decently and in order. Order is a key factor in all of life. Dirt is just matter

out of place. In the garden, and in your pots for plants it is good, for that is its place. But

on your floor or face it is out of order. What I am driving at in all of these illustrations is

the paradox of how the same thing can be good or bad depending upon its place, or

proper order. Sin is often something good, but it is out of order, and that makes it bad.

Sex is not wrong until you get it out of order. Anything good can become bad just by

being out of order. My telephone number begins with 754, but if you dial 745 you have

used the right numbers in the wrong order, and the result will be you will not get my

phone to ring. How can the right numbers lead to the wrong number? It is because they

are the right numbers out of order.

The point is that a lot of good things in life become wrong, and their value is not only

lost but ruined and turned to a negative by being out of order. Jesus here in Matt. 6

deals with three good things the Pharisees ruined and turned into negatives by getting

them out of order, and they are giving, prayer, and fasting. How can you go wrong with

all of this good stuff? The same way you go wrong with good letters like ABC, and good

numbers like 1-2-3, you get them out of order. There is nothing wrong with giving,

prayer, and fasting, but they are good things that can be used in such a way that they

throw God's entire value system for man out of order.

Jesus makes it clear in 6:33 that man's first order of duty is to seek first the kingdom

of God and His righteousness, and then all else will fall into place. If you start wrong