Pastor Jeff Shortridge
April 2, 2017 - W1714

Matthew 6:33 KJV says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of god, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” My mom taught her children this scripture. She drilled it into their heads. If she ever taught this scripture once, she taught this scripture a thousand times growing up. And she would constantly say, "Jeff, if you will put God first, God will put you first. If you will seek God, you will find God." And she drilled it into her children until it became a part of our DNA.

In other words, if you will seek God first, everything else will fall into place. We get mixed up because we seek everything else first, and then we remember God only on Sundays or Saturdays or whatever day it is. But if you will seek Him first, you will find Him. And when you get the Word into your spirit, everything else will be handled by God. There are five major points to remember about loving God first.

1. How do you truly PUT God first? You LOVE him first.

Mark 12:30 KJV says, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”We've all heard of the Ten Commandments. But Jesus said the first commandment--before the ten??is that you love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. So when you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, you can't seek God first and put Him first unless you love Him first.

2. When you LOVE God first, you will PUT God first. You will then find a tendency to DO whatever He tells you to do first.

My father and mother were raising a young family of five children in Maryland. We lived in a little one bathroom "rancher" out in the country. My parents raised us children to love the Lord. And the one thing about them is that they both had very serious “drug” problems. They “drug” us to church every Sunday morning. They “drug” us to church every Sunday night. They “drug” us to church every Wednesday night". Both of my parents were also very involved in the church. They drove the Sunday school bus in the mornings. And at church, my dad would lead worship and my mother would play the piano. I would find my dad very early in the morning, before going to work, sitting on the couch in the living room reading the word of God and just absorbing His Presence.

But one morning, at the doorway leaving for work, my father suddenly collapsed with a severe headache. He had suffered a ruptured aneurysm of the brain. In a few days, he would slip into a coma and then into eternity. He left a widow and five children--ages 2-10 years. And no life insurance. We had no money to bury him. So the small church of about 200 people took up a collection for the funeral and burial. And I'll never forget how my mother relied upon the Lord. She called her children together and said, "You think you lost your daddy, but your real daddy is your Heavenly Father and He will never leave you. And if you ever need to talk to your daddy, you just go outside and walk that yard, and you talk to Him."

There are some fatherless children that need to understand that God is not just a "big dude in the sky with a stick ready to hit you over the head" but that He loves you and that you are His children. And there are some of you who have fathers in your life that have not done you right and you don't know what it's like to have a real father. I want you to know that God your Father loves you. And when I'm challenging you to love God first in your life, it's because He first loved you.

Our house didn't have city water because we were out in the country. We had a well. And we got up one morning, and when we turned on the water, the water wasn't clear spring water anymore. It had dirt in it! It was like mud mixed in with the water, and it was flowing through all the spigots (faucets). What in the world was going on? My family didn't have "two dimes to rub together", that is, no money for repairs. So my mother called for help from the church pastor (whose previous occupation was a plumber). He came out to inspect the property and concluded that the well had run dry! And he said, "You're going to have to pay a well-drilling company to come in here with one of these big rigs and go out in the backyard, and it will cost hundreds of dollars a foot to drill down until they can find a new spring." Now, you can't live in a house without fresh water. You can't even sell your house if you don't have water. What do you do when your well runs dry? Who do you turn to? My mother was a praying mother--so she went to church.

Now at the time, their church was undergoing a building campaign--similar to NHO. There was a new building, with rooms and chairs set up for the different ministries and classes. But the project ran out of money and there was no carpet on the floor. The church had a visiting Pastor for the Sunday night service. He came into the church, looked around and said, "It is not God's will that we all go home to a furnished house that looks good and comfortable and we come to God's house and there's not even carpet on the floor." He said, "The money is in the house. We're going to take up an offering. Just see what the Lord will do. I want you all to pray. I want you to seek the face of the Lord. Just take a couple of minutes and pray and say, 'God, what would you have me to do?'"

So, here's a widowed woman with five kids bowing her head and asking, "God, what do you want me to do?" And God spoke to her and said, "I want you to give a hundred dollars." A hundred dollars was my mother's entire savings account, and it was tucked in a wallet in the back of a purse that she had in the back of her closet at the house. Didn't even have it with her. And the Lord said to give it. And my mother tearing up replied, "God, how can you ask me to give that? We don't have any money. What if my children need a dentist appointment or they need clothes or new shoes?" And then she said, "God, we need a new well." And the Lord spoke to her and said, "How many feet do you think you can dig with a hundred dollars?"

So she pulled out a piece of paper and wrote an IOU commitment, "I'll give a hundred dollars," until she could get home and get that hundred dollar bill. She walked down and put it in the offering. We got in the car that night and drove home. I jumped out of the car and ran into the house. And out of habit, I just went in the kitchen, grabbed a glass, and turned on the sink faucet to get some water. And I'll never forget. I heard all this sputtering. And then fresh spring water started pouring out of that spigot.

See, we learned a thing there. We learned that when you take care of God's house, God will take care of your house. When you take care of God's business, God will take care of your business. And if you will take care of God's family, God will take care of your family. I want you to know you can't serve Him without Him serving you. You can't bless Him without Him blessing you. You can't give your all to Him and put Him first and seek Him first and love Him first without God doing great things in your life!

3. One of the greatest tricks of the enemy is to get Christians so concerned with their OWN LIVES and their OWN NEEDS that they miss the needs of the Kingdom.

1 Kings 17 says that the whole nation was in a drought. And God instructed Elijah to camp besides the brook Cherith so he would have water to drink and ravens would bring him food. But one day Elijah woke up and the brook had run dry.

Now what do you do when God gives you a Word and you're acting on that Word and you're living in that Word and you're doing everything you know to do to live for Jesus and love Him first and live for Him and seek Him first--and your brook dries up? When Elijah's brook dried up, it was not because he had missed the will of God. It didn't dry up because Elijah had sinned and done something wrong. Instead, understand that your brook can dry up, and it may not have anything to do with you making a mistake or doing something wrong. It may have nothing to do with God judging you. He is not holding His finger under your nose and wagging it and saying you shouldn't have done that and now I'm going to dry things up for you. But that is not why you lost your job. That's not why you lost your marriage. And that is not why you are experiencing difficulties and complications in your life.

I want to pull the covers off the devil who has been lying to you. He has been telling you that some of the negative things that happen in your life are because God is mad at you. The truth is God is not mad at you. God loves you. Why did Elijah's brook run dry? Read the scripture. God said, "Elijah, I'm tired of just giving you water and bread. I've got a widow woman in Zarephath. She's got a fresh hot meal in the oven and it's waiting on you."

Do you want to know why your brook dried up? It's because God has something better for you waiting around the corner if you will not give up on Him, and if you will not go into despair and listen to the lies of the devil. God has a blessing waiting for you.

4. God doesn't always call the QUALIFIED, sometimes He will call the UNQUALIFIED and then QUALIFY you according to His own means.

John 14:15 says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

Deut. 28:2 says, “And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.”

What is the voice of the Lord? He said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. If you keep this first commandment, when He asks you to do something crazy, just say, "Okay God, I'm going to try You on for size. I'm going to see if it works. You said if I'd take care of Your business, that You would take care of my business." There is something better waiting for you or something better over the horizon. Don't give up! Believe and remember that He loves you and your steps are being directed by the Lord. He hasn't brought you to leave you in the middle of nowhere without a plan. His hand is upon your life and God is going to do things for you that you don't have knowledge or comprehension of right now. Some of you are facing a wall and there's no door anywhere. God's going to kick the whole wall down for you and lead you out. If you believe it, shout, "Glory!"

Jer. 33:3 says, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” If only some of you could see what God has planned for you. But you're too busy looking at your dry brook. If only you could see what God has in store for you. But God can't show you because then you would feel unqualified. Still, love God and rely on Him.                                                                       

5. When you LOVE God first, you will PUT God first. When you PUT God first, you will OBEY God first. When you OBEY God first, you will see the miraculous (in your life).

John 2:11 says, “This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.”

Jesus and His disciples were attending the wedding at Cana. At the wedding they ran out of wine. So Mother Mary walks over to Jesus and says, "Hey, they're out of wine." Jesus replied, "What in the world are you telling me for? I got nothing to do with that." Jesus had never done a miracle and had not launched His ministry yet. But Mary turned around, looked at the servants and said, "Whatever He tells you to do, do it." So there's Jesus standing there, and He's got the servants standing in front of Him. And their hearts are saying, "Okay, whatever you tell me to do, that's what I'm going to do." So Jesus said, "All right. Because of your willingness, because of your willing heart, today, I'm going to launch something like this earth has never seen." So He said, "Guys, get every water pot you can find, fill it with water, take it up to that man sitting right over there and give him a cup of it and see what he says." And the Bible says that the water was turned into wine, and it was better than the wine they'd had before! Remember, Jesus had never done a miracle or launched His ministry yet. But now Jesus saw a bunch of guys (servants and disciples) standing in front of Him with willing hearts saying, "God, whatever you want me to do, I'll do it." This triggered Him to begin to manifest His glory in their lives.

In short summary, if you love God first, everything else falls into place. If you will put God first, God will put you first. If you will seek Him, you will find Him. If you obey Him first, He will see your willing heart. And you will see God transition to manifest His glory--the miraculous--in your life.

Study Questions:

1. Why should God be first in your life?

2. How do you truly put Him first?

3. What currently distracts you from seeking God first?

4. What do you do when your "Cherith" brook dries up (e.g., loss of job, divorce, severe illness)? Is there someone you can turn to?

5. How does the voice of the Lord speak to you today? (Deuteronomy 28:2 KJV)