Seven ways to put Jesus First - Part three - In Your Week

Well, it is a great privilege as ever to get to preach God’s word again this morning, so thank you so much for coming along to listen. And if you have been here over the last couple of weeks, then you would know that we are part of a series, we are in week three out of seven. Looking at a series called “Seven Ways to put Jesus First.” Now here is what I believe. This principle of what you do with the first determines what God will do with the rest. So, what if by faith, we have looked at a whole areas of our lives, and we have strategically said; “Okay, I am going to take a faith risk here. I am going to readjust my life, and reprioritize my life in such a way that in every area of my life, I’m going to put Jesus first.” You see, when you put Jesus first, God takes care of the rest. The Bible says, in our key verse we are looking at in Matthew Chapter six verse thirty three says: “Seek first His Kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things will be given also.”

Jesus said it like this; in a tree, when the root is good, then the tree will be healthy. What we do with the first will determine what God does with the rest. So, in week number one, we started by looking at giving Jesus first place in our heart. That is the foundations, but what that really means is when Jesus is really the first in our hearts, our first love, first passion, first priority, it boils down to putting Jesus first in every decision we make. And that is the habit that I hope you grab from that first lesson we looked at. What happens if in every time I have to decide, should I do this or that, should I go here or there, the first thing that comes to is Jesus, is this putting you first. Is this prioritising you, is this what you want me to do. That is habit number one. Habit number is putting Jesus first in your day. And I challenge you if you were here last week, to have a look at this simple habit, and I believe that this is the most powerful habit we could put into our daily schedule of taking just twenty minutes of your day and starting your day with Jesus. That means getting up twenty earlier and going to sleep twenty minutes earlier so that you can wake up in the morning, take out your Bible, you notebook and pen, and spend fifteen to twenty minutes just reading God’s word, spending time connecting with your Father, allowing God’s word to speak to you.

 What I said is for the rest of the series, I’m going to challenge you week after week after week. If you have not yet started, tomorrow is another day. I want you to get up a little earlier, it is not a law, but I want to challenge you for this series, and to see if your day is not affected. See what happens when you put Jesus first in your day. You can download that episode and hopefully catch up. What I want to look at today, we are moving on now. We looked at first in our decisions; we looked at first in our day. Today I want to look at first in our week. Sunday, is the first day of the week. Now, I want to guess that in some of the households represented here today, a certain conversation took place this morning. It goes along these lines; “Honey, shall we go to church today? You see I bet this is what happens in every household on every Sunday in every conversation, should we go to church? You see what is happens is, how do I feel? “I am a bit tired, let us sleep in, and look at the weather, what are my options?” And you go through a list of things, should we or should we not, and then you decide, should we go to church? Or do we not?

 My intention this morning is to preach you out of a place of ever having that decision or conversation again. Basically, there are three types of people, or Christians. Type number one is; they consider that option once a year, normally at Christmas time. “Well, it is Christmas day, should we or should we not, I guess we probably should, and make a decision once a year to go to year once a year. For some of you, you are the weekly time, every week it is; “Should we should we not?” Then there is another type of believer who makes the decision once. And they make a decision that actually Jesus, as a believer, I am part of your church, I am part of your family. And this is what we are going to look at today, this is your church, your bride, your people, and you are part of that. And I am hoping that by the end of this message, is that you would make one decision once, no matter where you are in this world, no matter how you are feeling. If you can get out of bed and breathe, then you will try to meet with God’s people and be encouraged and refreshed and strengthened.

And I love it, even when I was on holiday; I still want to meet with God’s people. Wherever I am in the world, good church, bad church, different church, let us go and find and meet with Jesus. So, that is where we are heading this morning. We are going to start way back in the Old Testament. Many thousands of years ago, you have heard of David, many of you, David was the person who killed Goliath; he had a son called Solomon. He was the wisest person who ever lived. God said to Solomon: “Solomon, I want you to build the temple.” Up to that point, God was represented by the Ark of the Covenant, something that God gave the Israelites, the law, and they had this tent that travelled around with them through the desert. Now that they are in the Promised Land, God said to Solomon; “Solomon, I want you to build the temple.” And God gave him the instructions and the blue prints, and they set out to build this incredible, probably to this day, the most expensive building ever built in the History of mankind. Literally, everything was overlaid with gold. So much gold was used, and silver, all the walls were covered with gold. It was probably incredibly beautiful, and was magnificently expensive. But this was the temple.

So, Solomon set about building this amazing building. There was no sound at the building site, all the stones had to be pre-cut, smooth, brought in and quietly laid into every place. And when it was finished, they dedicated this temple to the Lord. And as they dedicated it, the cloud of God’s glory came down upon this temple. And the priests could do their job, I am sure the people were in awe as something of the glory cloud of God’s presence came upon this temple. That is the Old Testament; it says that the Old Testament is a shadow, a fore taste of the true things that are to come. Now, fast forward, Jesus has come to the earth. Jesus has died on the cross for our sin, He has been buried, He has ascended and rose again, and He has ascended to the right hand of the Father. And what has left now, is about one hundred and twenty very ordinary, very scared, very confused and bewildered followers. And as they were meeting in the upper room, praying saying; “God, what do we do?” The doors were locked, they were terrified, and the Jews were going to persecute them.

 That same Glory cloud seems to come upon them. And it says; “The Holy Spirit came upon that early bunch.” They were so overwhelmed, they began speaking in another language, and they began praising God. But what happened right there is the church was truly born. Empowered, filled, not now or once off the cloud comes, but now the cloud dwells inside of us. The Presence of the Holy Spirit and the church was born. It caused such a sensation and such a stirring; I want to read to you just how the people responded. Peter, empowered by what he has seen happening, because the church can no longer stay in their little building. They are out in the streets now, worshipping and praising, a crowd gathers thinking; “What is going on here?” Peter gets up and he begins to preach. And at the end of his sermon, it says that with many words, in Acts chapter two and verse forty: “With many other words he warned them, and he pleaded with them saying; save yourself from this corrupt generation. Those who had accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to that number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.”

What we see now, is something like a photo at a wedding. I do lots of weddings, and I see beautiful brides walking down towards me, but they do not look at me, they go straight to the groom. This is like that wedding day, when the glory of God fell on this early church. And I want you to see something of the radiance; something of this is Jesus’ intention for His early church. This is like a vision, a snap shot that Jesus gave of what He wants His people to be. To shine with His glory, into the cities, into the communities and into the earth. It said they were devoted, there is something about devotion. Devotion speaks about a commitment that comes out of passion. This was the early church; you did not have to go to church if you did not want to. There was a burning intensity inside of them. It said they were devoted to God’s word and to preaching and to the fellowship, and to prayer, and breaking of bread. There was a desire, a passion inside of them. Verse forty three says: “Everyone was filled with awe. And many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.

 “This early church shone with a sense of awe. What emotion, what level of expectation did you come to church this morning? They came to church with this burning sense of awe. Awe speaks about anticipation, an expectation that God is going to meet with us today. They were really believing it, and it was such an environment that it supernaturally began to break out amongst them. The church shone with this anticipation. Verse forty four says: “All the believers were together, and had everything in common.” There was this incredible sense of community. It’s not just I am just a visitor, I am an outsider, there was a sense of love and community and fellowship that brought them together. Strange that they were drawn into fellowship and family, selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone who had need; there was an amazing sense of generosity. One of the most beautiful, radiant characteristics of God’s people is generosity. So, we have our community cupboard, the doors are open, I love that cupboard because it is kind of supernatural.

 We use that cupboard to pack together lots of parcels and give them to folk as they need, and I watch that, and it looks empty, and I open the door the next day, then it is full again. I do not know how it works. But I know how it works, it is because of you. You walking in the aisles of the supermarkets, and the Holy Spirit knocks on your shoulder and says; “Don not forget the community cupboard.” And you grab a bit of extra this and extra of that, as you come to church, you quietly slip it in the cupboard and next time you open it up to put a few more bags of groceries together for those in need, and the cupboard is full again. Thank you for that, and if you have never done this before, you are going to feel the nudge next time you are in the supermarket and prophesying. When you get that nudge, it is not always those specials, no, it is the Holy Spirit, and it is time to remember the community cupboard. The radiant church, that would be awesome, we need a bigger cupboard. Our dream is not a bigger cupboard; it is for one of our rooms. I am just telling you, that is our dream.

 When the library shelves are actually full, we move the library and we use all those shelves to pack groceries in there so that people can be refreshed and provisioned. Verse forty six; “Every day they continue to meet together in the temple courts.” This was a lifestyle. Not just an add on to their week, but a lifestyle. Praising God, they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of the people, and the Lord added to their number daily those who have been saved. That is just a beautiful picture of the radiant church. God has given us a glimpse of Outlook Church. This is where we are heading. This is what God is doing among us. This is the bride of Jesus. What Steve is alluding to is you get married, and you do your pre – married and, here is the reality if any of you have been married. You have the honeymoon time, which is great, and then the reality of living with another sinner kicks in. There are potholes along the way, and this is what happens. That glorious church was persecuted, that glorious church was attacked. Throughout History, the church has gone through the dark ages, the middle ages, times when it felt like the religion was squashed out the very life of God. When organisation took over the organic life of God. And the church has been through some tough times, but this is the bride of Jesus. And Jesus said He is coming back for a radiant bride without spot or wrinkle or blemish.

 As Paul wrote to the Ephesian church about thirty or forty years later, in the book of Ephesians, he pulled out a few photos from the family album, looking back at the wedding photos and saying; just remember Ephesian church, I want to show you a few pictures of what you are part of. Here is a couple of them very quickly, one, we looked at the bride. It says in Ephesians chapter five verses twenty five to twenty seven: “²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing^[b] her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to PRESENT her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” When we understand this, we are the apple of His eye. I mean, as ugly as some of us are sitting here today, in Jesus eye, we are beautiful. In Jesus eye we see this incredible love. The love as a bride walks down the centre of the aisle, I love looking at the groom as well, I love looking in his eyes, with that sense of wonder as he looks upon his new bride.

 We are the bride of Christ; we need to know just how much He loves us. But how that affects us, which means, church, that we like the bride, men we need to embrace some of our feminism here, we need to realize we are the part of the bride; we have a husband to whom we should submit. We have a husband, we should come willingly and support and respect and honour and yield to. Here is another picture, let us show the body. We are not just on her wedding day; we have a job to do. It says in Ephesians chapter four verses eleven:” ¹¹ So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” The body is supposed to do something, not to be paralysed in a chair, we are the body that Jesus wants to be fit and strong. Here is the beauty, God takes a husband and wife, and He says the two will become one flesh. So, the glorious mystery is that Jesus is the head, and we are the body, one flesh to continue and carry out the ministry of Jesus here on earth.

Prepared for works of service. So that the body of Christ may be built up until we reach the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves, blowing here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men and their deceitful scheming, instead speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the head that is Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. I want to tell you today, you are crucial to the body of Christ. Without you, the body is not complete. You are not just a random attender of the church. No, you are part of the body. You might think that you are just a tonsil, no one really needs you, but it is not true, every part of the body of Christ is needed.

And if we are to fulfil all of the vision, and the entire dream that Jesus has for us, then every single one of us need to find our place. Get our hearts into gear; we are here to serve not just to be served. To volunteer for one of the ministries that God has called us, we have many different serving teams that are happening in the life of the church. And we want you to be a part of one of them. Some of them minister into the body on a Sunday, some of them minister out. But we want you to find your place; we want everyone serving somewhere, because we are the body of Jesus. We want a body that is fit and healthy, not like this one. Number two; we are a bride on a mission, the body of Jesus. Thirdly, if we throw up the next one, there you might recognise some of your faces, we are a family. We are not just members of a church, we are not just visitors or attenders, and we are family. There is an old saying that you can choose your friends but you cannot choose the family. God has chosen to bring us into His family. I love what it says in Ephesians chapter two, verses nineteen and twenty; “ ¹⁹ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”

 Friends, we are family. Sitting here today, are some lonely people who need family. There might be a crowd, but sitting in the midst of that crowd, you could be sitting there lonely. And God answers that cry of your heart by putting family around you. Now, let me speak to some of you who have been a part of the church for a long time. We are family that means we cannot just form little cliques, we have to constantly be saying; “Lord. Here am I.” What about making this a part of your way of serving Jesus, of being a part of the body, you look around and say; “Is not there someone I can draw closer. Is there not someone I can extend friendship to? Is there not someone I can bring into the circle of family?” God takes the lonely and places them in families. He looks at us as sons and daughters and He gives us all the privileges of sons and daughters of God. But with this comes the responsibilities also. We represent the family name. When people see us, they know that as Christians we represent Jesus. If you are a businessman, people expect you to do business in a certain way if you call yourself a Christian. They expect you to act with integrity and righteousness, and honesty and generosity.

They expect you to do that, and they judge you against that and they are right. Because we should. When people know you are a Christian, they expect you to be forgiving, and gracious and kind and merciful. And yes, we blow it from time to time, but yes, that is what the world expects. And they should, because we love Jesus and we have the Holy Spirit. We are the family of God; we represent the name of God. So, let us do it for Jesus. Let us be the family, not just enjoying the privileges but walking it out with integrity and honesty. Next picture, the temple. Here is a glorious thing. We have this great building, but it is not about the building. The church often speaks about the church building. But technically that is wrong; this is not the church, this is just some bricks and a building that we use to meet together that is convenient. This is the church, we are the temple.

 In the Old Testament, it was just a picture. The literally took rocks and bricks and put them together, and all the rocks and bricks were put together, the glory of God was there. Friends, it is us, when we are together, we are the temple of the living God. It says in Ephesians Chapter two verses twenty one and twenty two; “²¹ In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²² And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” You are sitting next to a rock or a brick today, think about it like that. As our lives come together, as the church knits together, we become the building in which God dwells by His spirit. And the purpose of the temple was to bring the glory of God to earth. The purpose of the temple was people could come and meet with God through the church. God wants to bring His love and His grace and His mercy to the world. And lastly, men this is for you, yes, the bride has boots on. We do not wear high heels, we wear army boots.

 Because one of the pictures of the church is that we are on a mission o see the Kingdom of God advancing. When Jesus said as recorded in Psalm two verse eight; “Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance.” When Jesus was on the cross, right there, right there he was conquering, defeating the works of Satan and sin and death. He rose victorious conquering. Now, as His bride he sends us to carry on that army mission. He sends us to take ground for the Kingdom. To take His goodness and His glory, to extend His church. That is why we go to nations, that is why we visit different places, and that is why we preach and teach and take the love of God to see His Kingdom established. But every time we take the Kingdom of light out, it means the Kingdom of darkness gets driven back. That is warfare, church that is why we have been called to prayer and fasting every month. I want to encourage you this year, will you step it up, put on some army boots, and come pray with the church. You do not have to, but I am encouraging you.

 This is who we are, put on your boots and we are going to pray, trusting God to drive back those forces of darkness, and see His Kingdom come. We are talking about, in this series, some practical habits in our lives, how do we put Jesus first.  Today I am talking about putting Jesus first in your week. The first day of the week is significant in scripture. Jesus raised on the first day, in Mark chapter sixteen verse nine; “Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb.” But they never found Jesus. In Mark chapter sixteen verse nine; “When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene.” Acts chapter twenty verse seven, the early church picked up on this. “On the first day of the week, we came together, the church met to break bread.” 1Corinthians chapter sixteen verse two; “On the first day of every week, each one of you shall set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income.” That is where the pattern of church came from.

To distinguish from the Old Testament, they chose the first day of the week, the day of resurrection, for the church to come together. I want to ask you, church, today. Jesus loves His bride so much that He died for her. My challenge today is that you live for her. We give our lives to serve this thing called the church of Jesus. Three things it is going to take, this is what I am asking today. One, make a decision. I told you, there are three types of Christian, which one are you? Once a year, every Sunday decision, or are you the type who is going to make that decision once. And I am praying that today will be the day to say Jesus, today I’m putting you first into my week. Hebrews chapter ten verse twenty five says: “Let us not give up meeting together as some have the habit of doing.” It is a habit that is easy to fall into a habit, and it is easy to fall out of a habit.

 And it is the start of the new year where some people are motivated and encouraged, I would encourage you do not fall back into the habit of not meeting on a Sunday, work your way into the habit of prioritising it Sunday by Sunday. But let us encourage as we see the day approaching. I often told the story of the girl that came to me a few tears ago, she came to me and had an amazing Sunday experience and she said to me, wow, it was amazing, you are going to see me in church every single Sunday, unless it is hot, because then we go fishing. Then, I did not see her again ever. First in our priority. Not just to make a decision, but then you need to make it count. I do not have time, but. I just want to tell you the story of the sower of the farmer, he went and sowed seed, but only twenty five percent of that seed was effective. It said that some seed feel on hard paths, like our hearts can be so hard sometimes, you might be here in church physically, but you are not here with your heart.

 Your heart is turned off, dialled out, and it is like all the words of God, the songs we sing, it is like seed on the path, the birds come and take it away, and there is no change. Other seed, it says it feel on shallow, rocky ground. It says that quickly the seed began to grow, but because there is no root, no depth. These are the kind of people who put on their Sunday smile, and their Sunday clothes, and they sing out and they hear the word, and they rejoice because their husbands really needs to hear this, but their hearts, your hearts are not really open to actually take it in. You are shallow, not really opening your heart to be penetrated. It says still other seed, the soil was deeper, but there was also full of thorns and weeds. Those of that type of Christian, that say; “Yes Jesus, that is what I want.” But, they also want to keep on pursuing money and worries, and pleasures and this and that. Jesus, you are like one of the things that we pursue. That did not work either. And it says there is another type in Luke chapter eight verse fifteen; “But the soil on good stands for those with a noble and good heart who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering, produce a crop.”

This is a beautiful picture of soil so fertile, the seed goes in and the ground holds the seed until it begins to germinate and produces fruit. I love to see people sitting here with your notepad, and your pens and your phones, you are not texting I know, you are making notes. To remind yourselves, I find it is the best, as I make notes, I help myself to retain and to remember. So that I can go over these things again, that is what you can use in your family groups, our Tuesday night meetings at homes. So that people can be reminded, what did we talk about, how do we work this in, how do we make it part of our lives. So the seed is not wasted but rather grows and produces fruit. You have to make a decision; you have to make it count. And lastly, you have to make a difference. Do you know that as believers, you can only grow to a certain level of maturity by just receiving. It is good to sing, to hear God’s word; it is good to be prayed for. But if you really want to grow in your faith and love, and following Jesus, then there comes to a point where you have to click over to the next level.

Where you start giving and serving others. Our dream and you will hear me saying often throughout the year, everyone serving somewhere. There is a space in this church for you, and we need you. We would love to have you as part of our serving teams, in a roster in once a month or something, where it is kid’s ministry, door duty, making cappuccinos, parking duty, whatever it is, we would love you to find your spot somewhere. So that you can be part of the giving, not just the receiving. Make a decision, make it count, and make a difference. But we as the bride of Jesus are here to shine for the glory of God in Jesus Name.  


Outlook Church Senior Pastor: Brent Brading

Website : Outlook church