God First

The Calling

Matthew 16:24–26 KJV 1900

24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Let us just spend a few moments paying attention to what Jesus is saying here.

Jesus is making the cost of discipleship clear. One of the problems today is that we rightfully teach that salvation is free, and it is, but we fail to mention the severe cost of following Jesus.

Jesus s aid that to be a disciple we must “deny ourselves and take up our cross”.

To deny yourself means to remove yourself from the throne of your life. It means that God is in charge and he gives orders, and then when our flesh resists those orders, we have the cross to crucify the flesh.

He says that if we disobey God in an attempt to preserve our life or our lifesytle, or the pattern of our life then we will loose that which we cling too.

Are to ready and willing to remove yourself from the throne? are you willing to loose your life or way of life in the name of obedience to God’s Word?

Not so fast...

Matthew 8:19–20 KJV 1900

19 And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. 20 And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

Once agin, the cost of obedience and putting God First. Jesus asked this man a simple question: Following me will vcost you, and it will cost you some of the comfort and luxeriers of secular life - is that a price you are willing to pay?

are you? Not so fast...

Matthew 8:21–22 KJV 1900

21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

Putting God first is always a sacrifice. Jesus is not saying that we should not have servikces for family - Jesus himself attended a funeral.

This mans request was in favor of his inheritance. A son who never buried his father fortified his inheritance. Thisd mans request was not based on sentiment but on coveting.

Arte you willing to loose out on wordly treasures for the sake of folloing Jesus and putting God first?

Not so fast....

Perspective

When Jesus was on the cross, who was he putting first?

Was Jesus putting his comfort, needs, life first?

God held nothing back for you, not even His own son.

Philippians 2:8 KJV 1900

8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

With all this mind we can now turn to our Prophet.

Putting God First

Back stry - There is a great drought and thees is no food. Elijah had been fed by a raven and drank from a brook, but now the brook has driep up and the raven is gone.

1 Kings 17:7–9 KJV 1900

7 And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. 8 And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, 9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.

I want you to pay very close attention to this widow. This woman is our example and our rebuke.

Lets continue the story:

1 Kings 17:10–12 KJV 1900

10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. 11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. 12 And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.

This woman has nothing. She was on her way to fetch some water and then the prophet asked for some bread to eat.

She tells him that she does not have any bread, and the little flour she does have is only enough for a last meal for her and her son.

let me tell you, you dont die of starvation after missing 1 meal. This woiman and her son, we already on the bring of starvation.

She had nothing.

Now I want you to look very carefully what the Prophet told her to do:

1 Kings 17:13 KJV 1900

13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.

Make me a cake first. Then make for you and your son.

Give to me first, that was God;s command. When Elijah said make me one first he was saying to her: Put God First.

Elijah was not starving. He had been having regular meals twice a day thanks to the raven. But this was not about Elihaj, this was about the woman.

For this woman to make the cake for Elijah First, then watch him eat it, she had to know that unless God was faithful, there would be none left for her or her son.

Let me ask you: Would you take a meal out of your starving chiulds mouth and give it to a well fed strnger?

But God first.

This is where the command of God and the call to follow and be obedinet cvlash with unbelief.

Everyone of you have been called by God to put him first. And many of you are simply not doing that.

Proverbs 3:9 KJV 1900

9 Honour the Lord with thy substance, And with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

Malachi 3:8–10 KJV 1900

8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, Even this whole nation. 10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be meat in mine house, And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, If I will not open you the windows of heaven, And pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Do you want to kniow why people do not tithe? Its because they dont think they can offord to.

The cost of obedinece is now all of a sudden too high.

If i tithe, then i wont have enough money for x or y or z.

But if this woman Put god first, nore would she. But she obeyed and God provided.

1 Kings 17:14–16 KJV 1900

14 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. 15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. 16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.

Let me tell you something: You can always affoerd to tithe, because God always rewards obedience.

In fact, based on what God did for this woman and for many others - you cannot NOT afford to tithe.