Put the Right Thing First (Trailview Sermon)

Hello…

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Have you ever put the wrong thing first?

My wife and my daughter are always watching “Worst Cooks in America,” and in it these inexperienced chefs are teamed with culinary giants who are competing with one another to turn terrible cooks into restaurant worthy chefs. Early on in each season the famous chefs walk these recruits through a series of recipes where the correct order matters immensely. In fact, the primary way they can ruin a meal is by doing the correct tasks at the incorrect time. Mixing dry ingredients with wet ingredients too early. Putting meat into the oven to cook before they have seared it on the stove or grill. Or overcooking any number of items by starting them at the wrong time. They put the wrong thing first.

And my middle son Phoenix is 14 years old and plays a lot of baseball. We often see parents and players alike, put winning over integrity which shows in how they interact with the umpires, the other team, and even their own coaches. They put the wrong thing first.

And my oldest son Ryder is 20 and works as a special missions aviator in the Air Force, which essentially means he acts as the eyes and ears for helicopter pilots. He tells me often that the most important task for the crew is the preflight check list. If they attempt to bypass this process, the result could be a fatal disaster.

It matters what we put first. If our actions are out of order we will become unclear on next steps, and as a result we will end up lacking confidence, lacking commitment and lacking direction.

Transition

And in our text today in Deu 6 we find an ancient prayer called the Shema, which begins: Hear, O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one. A Hebrew word which can also be translated as first. So, this prayer is intended to remind the Israelites that God is first. Something that we see them constantly failing to believe in the Old Testament.

But this prayer is also for us today, reminding us the danger of putting the wrong thing first.

So we need to Shema. Or hear.

And that’s what the Hebrew word Shema means…to hear.

And in our context and culture to hear is usually a passive action, meaning it can be done without any response.

I often ask my kids, “Did you hear what I just said?” And they say, “I hear you, I hear you,” but they have no intention to respond beyond the acknowledgment of “Dad you have been heard.”

But in Hebrew the word Shema not only means to hear, but also to obey. So, in their context and culture, to hear, was intended to be met with action. With obedience.

And that invitation remains. To not only hear from God in his word, but to obey God in his word. But that cannot be done without action. We must actively Shema And put God first.

And when we Shema, and put God first, this allows him to RECLAIM OUR HEARTS, RESTORE HIS ORDER, & REDIRECT OUR PATHS. And those are the three ways we are going to unpack this ancient prayer this morning. First he RECLAIMS OUR HEARTS.

Only when we put him first can we commit to each other in community with a clear vision of who we are and where we are going.

But so many even in his church today, want community, but lack commitment to any one church. They keep their options open, attempting to curate their own discipleship pathway. They like the bible study at one church, the small groups at another church, the youth events at a third church and so on. They are keeping their options open.

And that will never allow us the time to become rooted And love anyone over ourselves.

And you cannot expect the fruit of community without the root of commitment.

By putting our self over God, ourself over neighbor, and ourself over his church we are attempting to gain a false sense of security and safety by putting the wrong things first.

And if he is not first, then others will know. Because what we love the most, we share the most.

Just consider real quick those things that you often find yourself sharing with others. For me this can be; stuff that really makes me laugh, good books, good food, sports, and anything my wife or my children are doing.

I share about these things because I love these things. I don’t have to think about why I love them. I just love them. And the world forms us in this same way. It doesn’t care about what we think. It cares about what we love. It is laying claim to our hearts in many different ways.

By developing spaces, practices and rituals, be that social media, politics, entertainment, the stores we shop in, the stories that we hear, they are all claiming our hearts! And whatever has our heart, determines our direction, and commands our allegiance. This is why Scripture says,

Proverbs 4:23 NIV

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

The world has this sinister ability to disorder our loves and turn good things into God things. This is what the Bible calls idolatry. Theologian D.A. Carson states that,

Idolatry is anything and everything that displaces God, that keeps us from hearing from God, and makes us try to find our identity and place in the universe by appealing to something or someone other than God.

That’s what many of us are attempting to do. Find our security and direction in the wrong things. Our work, our finances, our kids sports’ team, our spouse, even our church programs, and they will never be worthy of our worship because they are bad gods.

If we do not Shema, and put God first, we cannot rightly love him and worship him. And we will always find something else to fill that void. Something else to love and worship. And it will always let us down. But when we Shema, he RECLAIMS OUR HEARTS.

This is the kindness of the Father, he says, Shema, love me first, it is the greatest thing you can do. Jesus tells us this.

In Matthew 22,

Matthew 22:36–40 ESV

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus Christ says that the entirety of Scripture depends on us loving the Lord our God with our whole being, and as a direct result of that, we will be able to love our neighbor (which is everyone, believer or not) as ourself. He is restoring order by putting God on the throne. By teaching us that this is the greatest commandment, he is warning us of how easy it is to fall into the trap of idolatry, or placing anything, good or bad, above him. So, Shema, put him first and he will RECLAIM OUR HEARTS.

Because he is a God of order. A God of peace.

And Sin loves to disorder our lives, and loves to disrupt our peace.

But he insists if he is first, then order will be restored.

And that brings us to the second thing this ancient prayer teaches us. When we actively Shema, by putting him first, he will RESTORE HIS ORDER.

Just look at the prayer. It states that when we Shema, and love the Lord with our whole being, his word will be on our heart, he will RECLAIM OUR HEART (verse 6). Then the prayer moves to our household in verse 7. Suggesting when our hearts are formed by the word, we will naturally teach it to our children when they lie down, when they rise up, when they walk by the way, when we eat dinner together each night, in natural moments of rest, the Lord will RECLAIM the hearts of our household, with the same word that has RECLAIMED our heart. Then, it will naturally overflow into our community (verse 8 and 9). The word will be bound as a sign on our hand and be as frontlets between our eyes, and on the door posts and gates of our homes. He will RESTORE HIS ORDER, by RECLAIMING our hearts, and RECLAIMING our households, allowing his transformative word to be on display with how we live our lives in community.

And this REDIRECTS OUR PATHS. Our third and final point. When we actively Shema, putting God first, he RECLAIMS OUR HEARTS, and RESTORES HIS ORDER, which REDIRECTS OUR PATHS for our good and his glory. And this is the direction behind the Garden. The church we are planting in Weatherford. But you can’t properly plant a garden if you put the wrong things first.

Think of sowing seeds before you’ve tilled the soil, or watering before you’ve removed the briars and the weeds. The things you do not want to grow require no effort to make grow. The three things that grow best at my house are stickers, briars, and poison ivy. They do not need my help. But to grow beneficial fruit in our garden it takes real time, real commitment and real effort. That absolutely requires great trust and great patience, but God is working through the tilled and weeded soil. He is working through the seeds that have been planted and watered. He is at work, even when I am at rest. That is the paradox in the garden. We plant and we water but it is God who makes grow.

It is the same with the church. There is no fruit of community without the root of commitment. This takes time. This takes effort. This takes putting God first, and waiting on him patiently.

And the church, the bride of Christ, the household of the living God, should be the place where this is actively modeled. The place where the gospel is rested in, relied upon and radically displayed.

And the gospel simply is:

Jesus:

Loved us to make us lovely.

Died for us that we might live.

Rose and released us on mission, sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, to RECLAIM every HEART who might have faith enough to believe all he has done.

The Garden church’s vision is to continually move people toward the gospel, toward this transformation in Jesus. We long to become:

A family proclaiming the gospel of Jesus through transformed hearts, transformed households, and transformed communities.

We want to join Jesus on his mission to make disciples, or students, or learners, or apprentices who sit under his teachings, not the world’s. Where the world is forming us by creating spaces, practices and rituals aimed at our hearts. We want to create spaces, practices and rituals that are aimed at discovering and deepening our love for Jesus. Allowing him to REDIRECT OUR PATHS. For he tells us in

Luke 6:40 ESV

A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

So, we must always be asking ourselves, what are we being trained by? What are we abiding in?

The practices of the world? Or the practices of Jesus.

And at the Garden the term abide simply means to realize our need for him, return to him and repeat as often as necessary.

Those things that we abide in or focus on, disciple us. They conform us to their image. But Jesus says abide in me. Focus on me. And you will be transformed by me. Born again into the holy image of God.

When our hearts are transformed our habits are transformed.

I spent a good deal of my adult life playing music for a living because I loved it. But when I first began playing music I was 10 years old, and it was because my grandmother made me. I didn’t like it. It was boring, and I was ready to quit every week. But some years later I fell in love with music, and wanted it to be my whole life. You could not keep me away from spending time with it, and deeply forming my knowledge and habits, because it had my heart.

That is what Jesus wants us to know about God. That his love for us is profound, and when our hearts receive that love, they will never go back to the elementary things of this world. We will want to put him first.

We will develop new habits, and new rhythms, that allow others to see that we are a new creation. And only out of this Spirit led transformation, can our households and communities begin to have their hearts softened by the power of the gospel on display.

We will be helping people know Jesus by living lives that show Jesus.

And where gospel lives and gospel community are being shared and modeled, people can taste and see that the Lord is good, and they want more!

But you cannot have the fruit of community without the root of commitment!

You cannot put the wrong thing first.

If we try to preach with our voice and not practice with our lives, Jesus says we are hypocrites who will be found out.

He teaches us, what the Shema prayer teaches us; to put God first.

This takes commitment. This takes faith. This takes love. This takes the church.

There is no plan B, brothers and sisters. Nothing in this world can ever bring us security and safety except him.

When we shema, or HEAR and OBEY the Word of God, we put him first, where he belongs. This allows him to RECLAIM OUR HEARTS, RESTORE HIS ORDER, & REDIRECT OUR PATHS to ABIDE in Jesus, be TRANSFORMED by Jesus and PROCLAIM Jesus with not only our voices, but also with our lives.

It matters what we put first. If our actions are out of order we will become unclear on next steps, and as a result we will end up lacking confidence, lacking commitment and lacking direction. We will lose sight of where we are headed.

Pastor Eugene Peterson translated the Bible in a version called the Message. In it, he so often paraphrases scripture with such beauty and simplicity. This is what he wrote in

Hebrews 12:2 (MSG)

Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed

Don’t lose sight of where you are headed. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Abide in him, put him first,

in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

LET’S PRAY.