It is very important to put first things first. It’s important to get things in the right order. If you don’t get first things first, life just does not work out right.
For example, speech. Language is tricky, and if you don’t get the words in the right order, the meaning can be drastically changed.
My cousin, a very fine singer, used to do a folk song entitled, "Black is the color of my true love’s hair." Fine. Nice little song in praise of the beauty of one’s beloved. But it took on a whole different meaning one time when she got the words in a different order, "Black is the color of my love’s true hair." First things first; else the meaning is changed.
Dr. James Langley, the former Executive of our D. C. Baptist Convention, is one of those people who has had so many irons in the fire he was late to almost everything. When someone would grumble about his being late, his standard reply was, "I’d rather be Jim Langley late than the late Jim Langley." First things first; else the meaning is changed.
But, as I have suggested, if you don’t get first things first, things just don’t work out right. If you try to do certain tasks in the wrong order, you find yourself in trouble. The temptation is always to do what seems to be easiest and let the tough things go. The temptation is to de what appears to be the most pleasant thing, and leave the harder things behind.
Like some of you, I started using a computer late in life. They sure didn’t have them in the schools when I was coming along. We were barely above quill pens and Number 2 pencils and counting on our fingers. Here in D. C. that meant you could only count to ten; but we Kentuckians had available the equipment to get us up to twenty! Well, now, suddenly I am expected to be computer literate.
The truth is, I’ve learned just enough about a computer to be dangerous! When I get a new application loaded into the computer, what I want to do is to turn the thing on and start pecking away at the program. I don’t want to read any manuals. I don’t want to press the F1 help key. I certainly don’t want to print out any README files. I just want to hack. But you know what happens, don’t you? I spend two hours on trial and error, mostly error, trying to learn the program; but if I had put first things first and read the instructions, I could have gotten started in fifteen minutes!
First things first, or else life doesn’t work right. What tempts us is doing the easy thing, the apparently pleasant thing. But life doesn’t work that way.
By the way, with Christmas only six weeks away, here is a hint for parents assembling Santa’s bounty: when all else fails, read the instructions.
And that’s not a bad prescription for life, either. When all else fails, or better, before all else fails ... read the instructions.
There is a story in the Old Testament that teaches us the importance of putting first things first. This story reminds us that we are always tempted to do what seems easiest or most convenient or most pleasant, but that life works best when we put first things first.
I Kings 17:1-16
I
The rule is: First things first. That means: Use what you have before you ask for more. Use what is given you before you insist on having more. Even when the circumstances are not promising and not pleasant, use what you have before you press for more. First things first.
She had very little, but she did have something, this widow in Zarephath. A handful of ground meal, a few drops of cooking oil, some hastily gathered kindling wood. Not much. Not much at all. But it was something. And God’s prophet Elijah urged her to use what she had rather than waste her energies crying out for more.
Listen to the desperation in her voice, after Elijah asked her to feed him: “[Sir], I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” She was down to almost nothing financially; but what is worse, she was down to almost nothing emotionally and spiritually. “I’m going to use this up and then turn over and die."
But Elijah, God’s prophet, counseled her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said ... for thus says the Lord the God of Israel, ’The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail …’” And indeed, so the story reports, “The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord ...•
No one can explain why some people fall into desperate circumstances. I cannot interpret why there are people who suffer awesome financial problems. I certainly am not able to say that God is punishing them or that it is a result of sin. If that were true, some folks would be living in shelters instead of mansions. I cannot explain why some of us find ourselves unemployed or underemployed or just unable to pay the bills.
But I can suggest that when those circumstances come, it is possible to count them as a blessing. It is possible to find blessing even in financial distress, because when that happens we have the opportunity to learn how to depend on God, how to trust Him for our needs. In such circumstances we can learn how to use first what we have before we run around crying for more.
"More" has become the watchword of American society. "More” has gotten us into a lot of trouble. Whatever we have, we always want "more". It is almost considered unAmerican not to want more and get more. You think about that as you listen to the arguments over NAFTA: more and more for us, for us ... and who cares about the poverty of Mexico? We want more.
The phrase that came up a few years ago was, "conspicuous consumption". Conspicuous consumption meant that we spent and spent, mostly on status symbols ... cars and houses, clothes and jewelry, trying to convince ourselves that we were somebody. More.
The issue is that instead of using what we have, we are always tempted to cry for more. But remember, first things first. The temptation is to do what seems to be pleasant, easy. But first things first. If we use first what God has already given us, then we will learn to trust Him for all our needs.
Several years ago I was working with a young couple who wanted to be married here. They are not a part of our church in any way ... they just wanted to use the building to have their wedding. And that’s fine. We are here to serve.
But they spoke often about how little money they had. They wanted to cut corners wherever they could. How could they make this wedding as cost-free as possible? Well, first I volunteered to officiate for no honorarium. That was easy. And since it was to happen during the time our sexton was on vacation, one of our members was willing to tend the building without being paid. But that wasn’t enough.
Could the program bulletins be copied without cost? Well, all right. Do we really have to buy new candles ... don’t you have some used ones around? Done. Now about the rental of the church building … and even though we have one of the lowest rates around, I appealed to the appropriate committees and got the rates cut. It was a lot of work to get this couple married on the cheap. I felt a little like the old cartoon character named “Marrying Sam", who offered a two-dollar special. We about had it down to a two-dollar special.
Came the no frills wedding day, and what to our wondering eyes should appear but a bride arriving in a limousine that stretched a city block and the groom waving under my nose a pair of honeymoon tickets for the south of France!
More. Priorities. First things first. Use what you have first, however little it may be, for the things that matter. And trust God for the rest. Know that when we have been brought to our knees financially, at least we have been brought to our knees, where we belong spiritually. And like the widow of Zarephath, using what God has already given us, we will trust the one who knows when every sparrow falls. We will trust the one who taught us not to be anxious about tomorrow.
First things first. Use what you have first, for the things that matter, before you clamor for more. And trust God for the rest.
II
But now something else. First things first also means setting a priority on sharing. Share what you have for God’s work. I know that this sounds idealistic. I well understand that coming from the pastor, it may even sound self-serving. But on the strength of the word of God, I have to say: First things first means sharing first what you have for the work of the Lord. Do not be tempted into taking the apparently easy way, the pleasant way. Life works best when you put first things first.
Elijah’s counsel to the widow of Zarephath seems selfish, doesn’t it? He has asked her for a little water and a bite of bread, and she has told him that she has very little. Just a handful of meal and a few drops of cooking oil, and of course ... of course ... they will have to be used for herself and her son. That’s just obvious, isn’t it? That’s called, "Taking care of number one."
But listen to Elijah. "Do not be afraid ... first ... first ... make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son." First share what you have with God’s work. And then wait for God’s blessing.
First things first means putting God first. Not second, not third, not last, not leftovers, but first.
I am going to speak very directly and bluntly here. I have to. Conscience forces me to. The word of God constrains me.
Putting God first means the tithe. The tithe is a Biblical practice which is designed to help us put God first in our lives. Turn over your bulletin cover and look at the Scripture verse which is printed out for you, Deuteronomy 14:23. Read it with me: "The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your lives."
Now let me unpack this word tithing just a little bit. The history of it, in brief, is that in ancient Israel, a rural society, everyone earned his living by farming, raising either crops or livestock. When the fruits of their labors came in, they shared a tithe ... that is one-tenth ... with the work of the Lord.
Two things I want you to notice about tithing. First, it was a definite proportion of a person’s income ... a tenth. And second, it was the first fruits. The first ... not the leftovers, but the first. You did not wait until you had consumed as much as you wanted and sold or stored the rest. You brought the tithe to the tabernacle. Why? To put God first in your life.
First things first. Otherwise we will be tempted to take the easy way. We will be tempted to go with what seems more pleasant. We will forget to put God first. Elijah said to the widow of Zarephath, I know you don’t have very much. I know you think the top priority is to feed yourself and your son. But I want you to try something. I want you to try taking care of the Lord’s work first. "First make me a little cake and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. "
I’m going to ask you this morning to put God and God’s work first in your life and in your budget. I ask you to give the tithe. We all know that there are a hundred different demands on our resources. Nonetheless, the tithe is the Lord’s.
By now I have heard every reason and every excuse on God’s green earth for not tithing. All boil down to one thing: "I don’t want to, I don’t trust it, I don’t trust God, I’m afraid to.”
But God’s prophet Elijah says, "Do not be afraid. First give to the Lord’s work, then take care of yourself. First things first. Give the work of the Lord top priority.
III
But now if you have been very observant, you may have noticed that I began my message in the middle of the Bible story. I began talking about the widow of Zarephath and her needs, and then moved to Elijah asking her to share in his need. But that’s not where the Biblical account begins. It begins with Elijah, the servant of the Lord, out in the wilderness, fed by the ravens, drinking from a little stream. The story begins with God’s prophet in need himself.
"The word of the Lord came to [Elijah], saying, ’Go hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith ... you shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. So [Elijah] went and did according to the word of the Lord; he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith ... The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the wadi. But after a while the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land."
Friends, if your church asks you to put first things first, you have the right to know that the church itself will put first things first. The church itself will live from the hands of God. The church and its laborers will be just as faithful, just as careful, and just as sacrificial as we ask you to be.
I spoke of living in the era of more, when we all want more. Let me remind you of the kind of "more" we have been visioning for our church. More new ministries to take their place alongside those we have already begun. A building more fully prepared to serve into the next century. More for missions, more for evangelism, more to train children, more to redeem young people, more to enhance family life, more, more, that kind of more.
Your church’s leadership will do its level best to set priorities and make sacrifices and live gratefully from the hands of the Lord. As Elijah lived from the bread brought by ravens and the water of the wadi Cherith until God’s people could support him, so we as a church will live modestly, carefully, land with integrity. We will wait and be faithful and work toward the day when God’s people catch the vision and support it fully.
First things first: we will put ministry to people ahead of comforts for ourselves. We will put the redemption of the hurting ahead of pleasures for the members. We will live aware that every penny comes from the hands of the Lord through the pockets of His people. If you will put first things first, your church will also pledge first things first.
Conclusion
When I set about planning this series of three Sundays, I wanted a theme hymn. The one we are using is, "More About Jesus." "More, more about Jesus ... more of His saving fullness see, more of His love who died for me." Once again more, more.
But I noticed in the hymnal index that there are, in fact, five hymns that begin with the word, "More”. Here is the revealing part. Four of the five hymns ask the Lord for “more" for us. Four of the five hymns want "more". "More, more about Jesus would I know." "More holiness give me." “More like Jesus would I be". "More like the Master". Every one of those hymns asks for more spiritual blessing. More.
Only one hymn speaks of more for the Lord. Only one hymn suggests that having been blessed we might turn that around and do more, more for Christ. Only one hymn out of five promises that we will do more. If God has already put us first in His creation, first in His plan of salvation, and first in His heaven, isn’t it time we sang and lived it, “More love to Thee, 0 Christ, more love to Thee."?
First things first.
