MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
CENTRAL CHRISTIAN, BROWNSVILLE, TX
A. Psychologists tell us that there are 3 major "wants" in life. The first "want" is to want comfort - to want food when we are hungry, to want something to drink when we are thirsty, to want a cool place when we are too hot, to want shelter from the storm. We want to be comfortable.
The second "want" is to want to be accepted by our peers, to be respected for who we are & what we are.
The third "want" is to want to find meaning in life, to understand what life is all about, & that we have a part to play in it.
B. Now it has taken us generations of self-study to come up with those three brilliant conclusions. Yet Jesus knew that all along. That is exactly what He is talking about in the Sermon on the Mount.
He said, "I know that you are concerned about comfort. I know that you are concerned about what you are going to eat & what you are going to drink. Here is my advice to you, don’t worry about that."
And we say, "Sure, Lord. Easy for You to say, hard for us to do."
He says, "I know that you are also concerned about how you come across to other people, whether they accept you or not. I just want to tell you this, all of your worrying is not going to add one moment to your life. It will not make you any more beautiful or handsome or anything else. So just don’t worry about that.
We say, "Sure, Lord. Easy for You, not that easy for us."
Finally, He says, "You are concerned about life & I just want to tell you this that life is more than all of these things."
C. A lot of people have read this scripture & shook their heads & said, "The only way we can do what Jesus tells us to do here is if you built a hut on top of some mountain, a thousand miles away from civilization, & sat around with your arms folded & just thought wonderful pious thoughts all day long."
But I suggest that the opposite is true. Jesus is saying that this is the way to live life in a very busy world, where there is corruption & all kinds of pressure upon us, where we must raise our kids in the midst of an evil society, where we wrestle with finances in a very materialistic world.
He is saying, "Here is the key & the secret to living in every Century."
D. I don’t know about you, but the hardest thing I have to do is not to decide between right or wrong. While I am certainly not perfect, I can pretty well leave the harmful & questionable things alone.
The hardest thing I have to do is to try to decide which of the good things I should do, to put the emphasis in the right place, to use properly my time, my talents, & my energies. In all of the busy activities of life I have a very hard time setting my priorities & following them, of putting "first things first."
Look again at Matthew 6:33 where Jesus emphasized the importance of putting "first things first." "But seek first His kingdom & His righteousness, & all these things will be given to you as well."
In this verse there is a command: "Seek."
There is an object: "His kingdom & His righteousness."
There is a priority: His kingdom & His righteousness are to be "first."
And there is a conditional promise: If we do that, then "all these things will be given to us as well."
SUM. To sum it up, Jesus is saying, "Don’t put second things first & first things second. Put first things first & second things second." For example, let’s put "first things first" in the home.
I. LET’S PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST IN THE HOME
A. Why does the home exist? What is its purpose for being? Can it be that we have failed many times to place the emphasis where it should be placed? Have we gotten so involved in the mechanical processes of providing a house & groceries that we have forgotten why the home was established?
The home was not established simply to give a man a place where he is to be waited upon, leaving all responsibilities behind at the job. Neither was it established so that a woman might have something to do to keep her occupied.
No, the home was established to be a haven of love, to be the cornerstone of society, to provide the environment in which children are to be born & raised & trained for an eternal inheritance with God!
ILL. Someone defined "home" as a place "Where each lives for the other, & all live for God."
B. The first few chapters of the book of Genesis tell us about the establishing of the first home. There was one man & one woman.
"For this reason a man will leave his father & his mother & be united to his wife, & they will become one flesh" [Genesis 2:24].
ILL. Oftentimes when I perform a wedding, after they have made their vows to each other, & have given & received rings as symbols of those vows, & just before I pronounce that they are now husband & wife, we pause for prayer. In that prayer I usually say something like this:
"Father, we don’t know what the future holds. Undoubtedly, in the days, months, & years ahead there will be times of great joy & times of sorrow. There will be times of victory & times that will seem to be defeat. I pray that these events in life will not drive them apart, but draw them even closer together. And that the love that they have for each other will grow even stronger & deeper as they face the events together, as they come to know each other’s strengths & weaknesses, & that they will help each other to be everything that you want them to be."
God made man & woman to be a help to each other, that they might be one.
C. And to this first couple, God said, "Be fruitful & increase in number; fill the earth & subdue it" [Genesis 1:24].
One of the highest joys of working with God is in the bringing of a new life into this world. It also brings about the greatest of all challenges, the molding of that precious life in the way it should go.
ILL. Daniel Webster said, "If we work upon marble, it will perish. If on brass, time will efface it. If we rear temples, they will crumble into dust. But if we work upon immortal minds & imbue them with the just fear of God & love of our fellow man, we engrave on those Tablets something that will brighten all eternity."
We need to stop from time to time to ask ourselves whether or not we are really putting "first things first" in the home. Do we take time to love & train & teach & play with our children? Do we set the right examples? Or do we let outside activities crowd out the time we spend? Are we more concerned about keeping a house than in making a home?
SUM. May God help us to fulfill our God-given responsibility of helping to mold lives into the image of His Son.
II. LET’S PUT FIRST THING FIRST IN OUR LIVES
A. In order to do that, then we must also learn to put "first things first" in our lives.
Why are we here? Why do we exist? Why has God placed us upon this earth?
ILL. Someone asked, "How can man justify his being on the earth? All other creatures contribute something, but what about man? Apart from his cycle of helping himself, he contributes absolutely nothing to this world & takes much away. Why then is he here?"
Now I am not sure that I agree with is person’s statement about the uselessness of man. But maybe the best answer is that man exists because of the will of God. God placed us here so that we might reflect God, & thus glorify Him. When we fail to do this, we lose our reason for being.
It is easy to get so involved with so many things that we lose sight of things that are really important. People were that way in Jesus’ day, so He said to them:
"Do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?’ or `What shall we drink?’ or `What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, & your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom & His righteousness, & all these things will be given to you as well" [6:31-33].
With Jesus it was a matter of the physical vs. the spiritual, of the temporary vs. the eternal. "Stop fretting about these things that are physical & temporary," He said. If you start putting first those things that are spiritual & eternal, then God will make sure that we have those other things.
B. But how far short we fall!
1. Think of our use of money. Think how much we spend on bread for the belly & how little we spend on the bread of life. Think how much we spend on clothing for our physical bodies & how little we spend that the world may put on the robes of righteousness.
Think of how much we spend to shelter us from the storms of this life & how little we spend to shelter us from the storms of eternity. Think how much we spend on vehicles to get us from here to there, & how little we spend to help humanity get from here to eternity.
Think how much we spend for entertainment to make us laugh & how little we spend to give eternal joy!
2. Or think of our use of time. How much time we spend making a living & how little time making a life. How much time reading the paper & how little time reading the Bible. How much time talking about sports or weather & how little time talking about Jesus & the souls of men. How much time feeding our family’s stomachs & how little time feeding their souls. How much time working for others & self & how little time working for the Lord.
3. Or think of our use of our talents & abilities. God placed within us certain abilities & potentials. But how have we used them? Too often we use them only for our own personal gratification, to make a living, to astound our friends & neighbors - but how much for the Lord?
ILL. As someone has said, "Too often today we find ourselves minoring in majors & majoring in minors."
CONCL. So what are you putting first in your life? When a decision has to be reached in your life, which consideration comes first, the material or the spiritual, the temporary or the eternal?
May God help us to re-evaluate our lives, to look at ourselves & our schedule squarely in the face, & to ask ourselves, "What really is most important in my life?" And may we readjust our lives, to do as Jesus commanded, "Seek first His kingdom & His righteousness."
INVITATION:
