Seven Ways to put Jesus First - Part 4

If you were here last week, we were looking at part one of the series we have been looking at to kick off the New Year. And it is simply about seven different ways that we can go about putting Jesus first in our lives. The heart of the series is how can we look again at our priorities, and how can we make various adjustments to different areas in our lives to get Jesus first. Here is the premise. I believe that when Jesus is first, then God takes care of the rest. Jesus said it like this; when the root of the tree is good, then the whole tree will be good. If we can get the first right, then God will take care of the rest. And one of those great life scriptures, and I think it is a great motto to live by, is Matthew chapter six verse thirty three, remember that verse where it says: “But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you also.” When you are putting Jesus first, God takes care of the rest.

So, last week looked at the foundation step which really starts with our heart, of course. Is Jesus really your great passion in your life. God wants us to be an obedient people, but not obedient by law, not obedient because we have to, not obedient by fear, but by obedient by passion and faith. When you are in love with someone or something, it is just natural obey. Even if you are in love with your fishing rod, you will naturally get up at four o’clock in the morning to get your line in the water. Your passion, your actions follow your passion. And God has created us to have a relationship with Jesus, when you love Jesus, it would be natural to follow Him, and obey and do what He has called us to do. So, that was last week, and if you missed that by downloading that episode. What I want to speak about today is deeply spiritual, it’s all about dominoes. When last have you had a good game of dominoes? I’m not talking about trying to match the sixes and the fours, I do not even know how to play dominoes, I don’t even know how to play engineer, I have an engineer background, so when I get dominoes, I am not interested in matching numbers, that is my wife, she is the accountant. I am the engineer, I want to stack them up and I want to topple them over.

Maybe you have done that with your kids, maybe not even with your kids, but you have just done that. And you have built those long trains of dominoes; I like to take them down the stairs, over this around that, around the circles. I love that feeling of you knock that first domino, and then gravity takes over. And you just, there it goes. If we think about our lives for a moment, the reality is our lives consists of a whole string of habits that we do, some of them are the basic, boring ones like you brush your teeth every morning, but the reality is that even our character and behaviour comes down to a set of habits. How do you respond when someone cuts in on you in traffic, or you do not get your own way, some people would manifest with anger, some get kind, some are generous, they all are habits in our lives. So when it comes to changing our life, ultimately, God wants to address and change the various habits in our lives. Some are good, some are bad, and some are missing.

 As soon as you start about changing your habit that sounds like a new year’s resolutions and lots of work, and lots of effort, and it probably is. But what if that one habit, like the first domino. If you can just knock that first domino, then gravity does the rest. What if there is one habit; “Let us work on this thing. Let us just start off the year by working on this one habit. “I believe that there is a habit like that, there is this one habit, if you can get that right, kind of knock that domino over, it would produce a knock on effect. It would produce a whole lot of change in our lives, in a whole lot of different areas. I think that habit is one Jesus had in His life, and I think it is such a simple habit that many of you might have been doing that habit for years. But some of you might not have. And it is a simple habit, of saying Jesus, I want to put you practically first in my day. When the sun comes out, and I ease my way out of bed, I want to very strategically put Jesus first.

And what we are going to look at this morning, it is a simple message, and it is super practical, but I hope it is going to inspire and challenge us To say God, I need to just work on this one area, I have faith that it is going to have a knock off effect into many areas in my life also. I want to read to you this morning, a story about Jesus in the book of Mark chapter one verses thirty two to verses thirty nine: “³² That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. ³³ The whole town gathered at the door, ³⁴ and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.” Let us think about that context for a moment. Jesus has been travelling around, and he gets to this village, and it says the whole town arrives. I do not say how big the town was, the Bible does not say. Let us be conservative, maybe there were two thousand or four thousand, I’m not sure.

But all we know is they were all there. It says He drove out demons and He healed the sick. Jesus pattern of ministry was not over the crowd. Jesus seemed to, one by one, deal with people. Laying hands on them, fixing their eyes, praying for them, raising them up. Jesus would have ministered, and it says too many. He would have preached to them that night. My question is this; it says He started the meeting after sunset, let us say six o’clock. What time would He have been finished? I don’t think that Jesus is like me, who can get through a meeting in an hour. I think having ministered to so many people individually; I think Jesus would have ministered later than ten or eleven, getting through to all those people, ministering to them. And here is the question; if that was me, and I had this long meeting and Ash and I was talking yesterday, especially, if you are ministering in this rural context, a long line of people, all of them want to be prayed for them. By the time it gets to the end, you say; “Thank you Jesus, that it is Sunday night, Thank you Lord that it is Monday tomorrow, the Pastor’s day off.”

 Jesus did not do that, because the scripture carries on and says in verses thirty five; “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went off to a solitary place where He prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for Him, and when they found Him, they exclaimed everyone is looking for you. Jesus replied; Let us go somewhere else to the nearby villages so that I can preach there also, that is why I have come. So, He travelled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues, and driving out demons. “So, here is the challenge; I think He would have been up the next morning before sunrise, let us say before five in the morning, so that He can go and connect with His Heavenly Father. For Jesus, it was such a priority, not to sleep in, but he starts His day getting connected with His Father again. I want to show you some of the fruit, some of the effect that this time had on Him. I believe that Jesus knew if I need to connect with my Father because that is my source of strength. Even physically, because out of that time, He says no, we are not staying here, we are moving on.

We have another walk, I do not know how many miles to walk that day, we are moving off to another village. He was not going to even take a day off; he seemed to even find physical strength, connecting with His Father. But even more than that, I believe Jesus drew all of his emotional strength from times with His Father. You see, Jesus was about a very unpopular decision. I mean, can you imagine? Peter comes to Jesus and says; “Jesus, I am so glad to find you, the three thousand people are already at the house, the crowd is there, they are seated, they already sung their songs, it is time for you to minister.” Jesus said; “I am not going to minister there today, we are going somewhere else.” So, Jesus had to go say; “Sorry, but I am moving on.” That is unpopular. To make unpopular decisions is an emotionally draining and difficult thing. But Jesus found that strength in His relationship with His Father to make unpopular decisions.

 I believe Jesus used those times connecting with His Father to do just that, to help make decisions. Sometimes I think He went to His Father with lots of options, but He came from His Father with decisions already made. Have you ever had to wrestle, trying to make decisions? I wrestle sometimes. Not when it is easy, good or bad, but sometimes you have to make good decisions. Jesus never had to face a good or bad, he faced to minister all these people, or do I go to another village where they are not even expecting me. Maybe there will be no crowd. Jesus went to His Father with options, and He came away with decisions. Jesus used those connecting times to hear His Father’s voice, to know what He should do. Jesus used to have His connecting time with His Father to have His purpose in life clarified. I love that it said; “After coming out of His time, He said to Peter for this is why I have come.” One of the things I find is as you wait on God and spend time with God, God can remind you; “This is what I have called you to.” This is what I want you to focus on. I go to God with my pen and paper, and that is normally my to - do list, even the day comes out of those times. This is the priority for today, He got His purpose clarified. He got His priorities set. The result was that Jesus made an unpopular decision, but from a place of emotional strength, clear purpose, and clear priorities.

For Jesus these were crucial and important times in His life. And here is the good news; we have exactly the same opportunity available to us also. God has made a way, for us, on a daily basis; we can get to start our day exactly the same way. I think it is crucial that we have an Isaiah nine six in our lives every morning. Have a look at this beautiful picture of Jesus prophesied so many years ago, it in Isaiah chapter nine verse six;      “For us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful, Councillor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Every day, I believe, we are needed to be reminded of this amazing gift that we have available to us. “For to us a child is born, a son is given. “ We have been given a saviour, we have been given an opportunity to have a relationship with our King Jesus, and we get to enjoy that day by day. And I believe that it starts with our connecting time in the morning. “Jesus. It is so good to know you.” But I love the fact it says; “And the government will be on His shoulders.”

 I do not know if you are like me, but you probably are, here is how it works; we come to Jesus when we first become born again. And we open our hearts in faith and say; “Jesus please forgive me of my sins, I dedicate my life to you. I surrender, you are now my Lord and saviour, I give you the steering wheel of my life, here it is Jesus, I am going to flout by eleven o’clock that morning, when the pressure is on, it is so easy to take the steering wheel back, it is so easy to take the burden back, and the worry back, and taking the decision process back. I think what all of us, certainly what I need, every single day, is to say Jesus, I want to surrender completely to you. I want to hand over control of my life to you. Remember Jesus taught us to pray, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

It is about giving God back, letting the government, the weight of decisions be on Jesus and not on us. And I love the ministry that we need I think on a daily basis, He will be called wonderful, councillor, we need the wonderful councillor to guide us day by day. Nudging and directing us. It says that He is the Mighty God; we need to taste of His strength day by day. Everlasting Father, we need His love to embrace us day by day. It says He is the Prince of Peace; we need to unburden our hearts day by day. This is the bottom line, I am convinced the strategic habit of putting Jesus first, connecting with Jesus first. How can you sit in the front row, distracting me? What kind of church is this? Go away! I believe that habit of putting Jesus first. Some of you have done that for years, some of you just do it, I have to read the Bible, get through it for the day. I want us to catch a vision this morning, of how we can turn that time with God every morning into what Jesus found. Something will strengthen, direct, clarify, inspire and help us to live our lives more strategically, fruitfully and effectively for God. I want to run through a checklist. What is it going to take, practically, for you to start connecting well with God every single morning.

1.      It is going to take some time. And sadly, this is the hurdle that most people trip over. Easy for you, you are a pastor. If you knew the schedule I face. Well, all of us live busy lives. This is the difference; busy people live their lives at the his is not a huge investment of time, fifteen to twenty minutes a day is what it is going to take. So, that is going to mean, take out your cell phone, adjusting the alarm clock function to twenty minutes in the morning. So that is going to mean, is that you need to go sleep twenty minutes earlier than the night before. So, if you are an eleven o’clock person, you go to sleep to get up at six in the morning. From tomorrow, I would encourage you to go to sleep at half past ten, and wake up at half past five. Investment starts with the investment of time. You might say; “You do not understand, I am a night person.” That is awesome, because Jesus would spend whole nights in prayer to His Father. So, I am going to encourage the night people, do both. Start the day with Jesus, and you can spend the whole day praying also if you want. I believe so passionately, what we do first determines what God does with the rest. The way to kick off your day is to start it off with a time with Jesus. Time is a step of faith; faith means taking an action step and believing that our action step is going to open the door for the supernatural. And who knows, for getting up that twenty minutes earlier, God might begin to bless you with a whole lot more effective sleep. You might actually sleep better, and be more energetic and enthused and be encouraged by the morning.

2.      You need a good spot. At home, I am very privileged; I have a balcony next to our bedroom. I am the only one who uses it, it has a little table, a small chair, it overlooks the golf course and it is just my happy place. And that is where I sit every morning, connecting with God. But it is not always the case. My now, fortunately now, they are twelve and ten, they have got at the age where they can look after themselves in the morning, and get themselves ready. But I have been through the ones and twos and three and four year old stage, where kids have absolutely no regard to what time it is in the morning when they get out of bed. And they have a huge list of demands, and they expect you to fulfil them immediately. So, I understand that for many of you that it is not so easy to find a good spot. But I want you to try, nonetheless. I know what it is like to travel, where I have been with my family in small hotel rooms and we all sleep in one tiny room, and I have to connect with God because I have to preach, and I find myself eventually sitting on the toilet with the shower door right in front of me. “Jesus, I need to connect with you.” What I am saying, is if you want to be creative, but find a place. But find a place that has to be alone. Find a place where you can get away from distractions. That is the time to switch off the cell phone, or just ignore the cell phone. It is the time to just be alone with God, and a cup of coffee.

3.      A good Bible. I think that all Bibles are good, but all Bibles were good. Maybe you like Litton, if they spoke about thees and thous and but most people don’t live with that anymore. I encourage that you get a Bible that you can read and understand well. I prefer the NIV; you also have the ESV, but get a Bible that is easy for you to read. I always like to read with a pen in my hand, because I like to underline stuff, and make a mark, and make a note. So, this is a gentle word to our Afrikaans brothers and sisters. In many Afrikaans cultures, you have this big Bible, which is like a family heirloom that gets handed down, that is not the Bible to be using here. You do not need the four thousand Rand Bible; you need the forty Rand Bible. You need the one that you can scratch in and mark and adjust and write in, because it is such a precious tool for connecting with God. If you are even a newer generation, then you can do that on your phone. There are some great aps, there is a You version Bible, there are other Bible study aps. I use my phone a huge amount for reading and making notes, and you can do it straight off your phone if you are a part of that generation.

4.      You need a reading plan to get through. Here are a few options. Someone once said, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. And many Christians, without any sense of plan, “Where should I read today God, “and you drift back to your same old favourite passages. I want to suggest one of three options.

·         Option one; I have an alpha Bible in a year, this is my third year that I am reading through this, and basically what this does, is it takes the whole Bible, breaks it down to the Psalm for the day, the Old Testament for the day, the New Testament for the day and keeps me accountable because I know how difficult it is to catch up if I fall behind. This is another incentive not to fall behind. This morning, That date today, I did my reading this morning, every day it keeps me current  to make sure that I read. If you do not want a Bible like that, there are small starter packs; there are a few bookmarks which has exactly the same reading plan in them. You are welcome to get one of those free of charge; you can read your way through the Bible every year.

·         Option two; is a book at a time, which is what my wife does. She is not a big reader, reading a lot of chapters; she prefers a few chunks to work through at a time. And what she does is she will choose one book and slowly read through that book, and when she comes to the end of the book, she will turn to the table of contents and write the date she completed the book. And to look at the table of contents, you can see which book you have not read yet. And she would make her way, especially the New Testament, if you are a young believer, focus on the New Testament. Choose a book at a time, read a passage at a time, and work your way through lilt by little making sure you get through everything.

·         Option three; is a devotional three. There are lots of different types; there is the Faith for daily Living. This is in the starter pack also, and they are free of charge. And what it does is that every day it will give you a Bible reading. And it will give you someone else’s devotional insights into that text. So, it gives you some ideas, and inspires you, it is a great way to start. And for some people, what they do is what they do every day. I would encourage you to not make this your for ever strategy. It is like eating someone else’s pre – digested understanding. I want you, as you grow, to get the point where you can begin to dig into the scriptures for yourself, and begin to study and meditate on them.

5.      A note book. There is this supernatural, powerful principle when you take a pen and paper, and you actually start to write something down. You can use pen and paper, or you can use fingers and keyboard, whatever works for you. But I find sometimes, when you take a verse, and you write it down, and you begin to write down some thoughts about it, it is as if God begins to stir and challenge, and you begin to take it apart, and suddenly you look back you realize you have written a lot and, wow, this verse really does make a difference. So what I want to encourage you to do, is as you are reading, doing your daily reading, do it with a pen. And you underline any verse that stands out to you, you underline those verses, and then when you come to the end of your reading, you look back at all the underlined bits, and you choose that one verse that really stood out to you. Choose any verse that really stands out to you. Write it down, and write down any thoughts about that verse, that may occur to you. And you will be amazed at how it challenges and inspires you.

6.      A prayer strategy. Some of you might be one of those natural prayers where you can pray for hours, the whole community list, you can pray for every nation that has been persecuted, and you can just keep on going. But the other ninety nine percent of us are not like that. More distractions, the pastor’s kids, so, to all of you who are like me, I want to suggest some kind of prayer strategy to keep you focused. My default, I am a preacher, I love God’s word, I can start praying, and as I start praying, I think of a verse, and the next thing, I am in another sermon outline. So, I have to keep focused. And my prayer strategy is to use the prayer Jesus taught His disciples in Matthew chapter six verses nine to thirteen. It says: “This then is how you should be pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive those who have sinned against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” A simple prayer, and all of you probably memorized it somewhere along the line, we used to say it in high school every single Friday. So, it is in there somewhere. I know this might sound corny, but sometimes corny is good, because you remember corny stuff.

For me, I always used to remember a few P’s that come from that. One, start with praise. Our Father in heaven, how hallowed be your name. That is praise. Start the prayer with just thanking God. Thank Him for your family, for your home, for your job. For all the things He has done, remember the benefits that God has given us is salvation. Then it says; “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That is about planning, that is when you bring your plans every day and says God, your will. What do you want me to do today? I want to submit my day to you, what shall we do there? Those decisions, it is all about Your plans. “Give us each day our daily bread.” That is about provision. Please Lord, I need you to fill my heart, filled with your love, for my family, for the church, for this and that. I need your provision. God I need a new job, whatever you need, pray for it and ask. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who sin against us.” It is all about purification. God please, purify my heart, I lost it yesterday, and I blew it. God, please purify my heart. And lastly, it is about protection. “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” I pray for protection, from my life, the family, the church. And then finish up with some more praise at the end. That might sound corny, but for me helps to stay the course and cover the things I need to pray through and cover the things I need to pray for.

So, there is the checklist, except one thing; it is no good without consistency. Consistency is what turns into a good intention into a great habit. I remember being so inspired by a man called Dudley Daniel. He is the guy who started the New Covenant Ministries, the apostolic team that we were a part of the team, we worked together with them. He is in his seventies now, I remember him speaking once saying, he can only ever remembers two occasions in his life where he did not start his day with Jesus. With both times, he was in hospital and unconscious. But no wonder, when you look back now, you see but God you used him so mightily, as a pastor to the nations, but the Bible says you can be faithful in the little things, and then you will be faithful in the big things also. And this is one of the areas that we can be so super faithful with the little, and God can use us in the great things. Maybe for those who have been connecting with God on a regular basis, I want to finish maybe with some kind of a vision or, well this is my heart. And my desire when I connect with God every day. I am a believer in what is called Christian meditation.

When you hear about meditation, normally you think it is a bad thing, because you think of eastern transcendental meditation, they sit with their legs crossed in an uncomfortable position, make your mind and hum. That is not what I am talking about. The Bible speaks about meditating. But just as eastern meditation is about emptying your mind, but Biblical meditation is about filling your mind, and focusing your mind on the word of God. And I believe that as we learn the discipline and art of learning to meditate on God’s word is a powerful thing that takes place inside of us. My favourite song, Psalm chapter one verses one to four says; “Blessed is the men who does not walk in the council of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But His delight is in the law of the Lord. And on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season. And whose leaf does not whither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.” You see, on His word I meditate day and night. Biblical meditation is like treasure hunting. Do you remember when you were a child, you used to go Easter egg hunting?

 Now, if you had loving parents, they did not hide the eggs so that you would never find them. They hid the eggs so that you would find them. Our heavenly Father has treasures laid up for us in His word. And sometimes you would just read over the top of them, as you scan through the scriptures, and you will miss some of the rich treasures that God has for us. I believe that God has designed His word in such a way that just beneath the surface, if scratch a bit, ponder a little, and think about it, His deep and rich treasures. And when we discover, here is an Easter egg, you have this sense of delight, and it is the same thing when you meditate on God’s word. This is my favourite part about preparing and preaching. As you are pondering and meditating on God’s word, then suddenly the lights come on. Suddenly you see something in God’s word, you might have read that word a thousand times, but this time, the lights come on.

And whenever the lights come on, it is like faith rises up in you. That is biblical meditation. And that is what God wants us to do, I believe, on a daily basis as we come to His word. Biblical meditation is, I have used this picture often before, it is like e cow that chews the cud. You go do your reading, it is like a cow that eats and eats, fills itself with grass, and then it goes and finds its favourite spot under the tree. And as it sits under the tree, it begins to chew the cud. You can its jaw going, it regurges and chews through that grass, and somehow that green stuff becomes white milk. It is the same thing with God’s word. You can read and read, and fill ourselves, but as we sit pondering and meditating. We take some scriptures and underline it as we read. We wrote down that verse and so we begin to memorize it, and now we meditate on it. And think, “Why did you say that, God?” And as you begin to probe and think and ponder. You see, all of us can meditate. But we do it in a negative way, it is called worry.

When you worry, you lie in bed at night, your mind is filled with those dreadful thoughts that probably, maybe are going to happen one day, and you run those scenarios around in your mind. And what comes out the other side, is stress. It is the same process, but just reformats what you think about. Instead of those worrying thoughts, pop in the word of God. And as you run the wheels of your mind, shewing the cud, what comes not stress and worry, but life abundant. When we meditate, we meditate day and night. I want you to choose a spot. One good spot, as you fall asleep at night. Kiss the wife, turn off the light, it is time for sleep. I am a pastor, I do not count sheep, I pray for sheep. But even better as you fall asleep, you say now, is the time the Bible says; “I lie on my bed meditating.” What was that verse I was meditating on?

 And you begin to throw it around your mind. For you it might be while you are driving to work, I like to meditate when I run also. Whenever you have a spot, you can train yourself that is my spot to meditate on that verse I wrote down this morning. To me, there is a profound fruitfulness that comes with biblical meditation. Number one, when we meditate, it positions our lives for God’s blessing. It says he is like a tree planted by streams of water. If we can get this habit in place, we meet with God on a daily basis, we learn to meditate on God’s word, it is like taking our lives by planting it by streams of water. We can learn to draw from the life of God’s spirit. Secondly, it makes us fruitful. That tree produces fruit in every season. As we are pondering, we are allowing the Holy Spirit to speak and minister. And the Holy Spirit produces that fruit of love, joy, peace, patience. It produces that fruitfulness as the life of God into acts in our lives. And it says, its leaves do not whither. When the Bible speaks about leaves, it is always for healing. And there is a spiritual health that comes.

You can’t be pondering on fear and dread and bitterness, and pondering on God’s word at the same time. As we ponder on His word, it brings healing, not just to our lives, but we can bring healing to others also. I love that fact that says; “Whatever he does, prospers. “ This is my prosperity message. For prosperity, you need to meditate on God’s word. As you meditate, you are struggling with your finances, why do you not go and find what Jesus said about finances, and learn to meditate on it. If you are struggling with your health, why don’t you find what the word of God says about healing, and learn to meditate on that. If you are struggling with your marriage, why do you not find what God’s word says about marriage, and learn to meditate on it. As you ponder and meditate, it brings healing and fruitfulness and prosperity.

 And lastly, it says not so the wicked, they are like chaff that will be blown away. Those who learn to meditate on God’s word, they are like a tree anchored, it becomes stability and strength to our lives, as we learn to build ourselves. Not on our ideas and our thoughts, but on the solidness of God’s word. If we can knock this domino, if we can set up this one habit in our lives, I believe it would have a knock on effect as our relationship with Jesus grows and develops, I believe you will see the fruit of that, not just any relationship with God, but your relationship with others. With your work, with your family, with your health, with your finance. I believe with that one domino can send all of them tumbling also. So, here is my challenge. For the remainder of this series, to give yourself very intentionally to pursuing this one habit. And I am going to hold you accountable, week by week, and I am going to ask, “How are you doing?” And I trust that by the end of this series, those who faithfully taken God’s word, living it out, I believe you will be seeing the fruit of that by the end of the series.

Outlook Church, Richards Bay, South Africa

Senior pastor: Brent Brading

Website Address: Outlook Church