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First Love, First Hour, First Day, First Dime
January 6, 2008 Rev. Dr. Christopher Carlson
(Video Presentation:)
“A new year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.” -author unknown
- It’s time once again for new year’s resolutions. These are, by definition, promises we make for the coming year to either fulfill or sometimes not to fulfill; and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some people resolve to lose weight. Some people resolve to gain money. Some people resolve to quit smoking, or chewing, cussing, drinking, at least in front of the kids. And, some people resolve to read the bible more, pray more, give more. You get the idea.
-So, Let’s take a crack at the question you are probably wanting to ask - last year’s resolutions - “How’d you do?” Really? Honestly? At the risk of sounding like I’m against new year’s resolutions, let me say once and for all, I am. I hate them. Let me tell you why.
-When we resolve to do something different this year, we are really willing it into existence; and in my experience, I can’t will myself into doing anything good, at least over the long haul. It seems to me that resolutions rely on my strength, to be strong-willed about my resolution. I don’t know about you, but my will isn’t always strong, especially when it comes to living the kind of life Christ calls me to live. Maybe, just maybe, we need to find help to do the right thing. Actually we need more than help; what we really need is life, the very life of Christ, living, breathing, reacting, and responding in us, through us.
- Now we are on to something. Paul calls it a mystery. Jesus, He calls it abiding, and it flies in the face of that production based Christianity; you know, the legalistic rules that seem to be reserved for religious elites – you know, those kind of people that look like they were weaned on a dill pickle. These are the folks who say no to everything and yes to nothing, But, I digress.
- So, back to the point. What if we made every day a chance for Jesus to live in his resurrected life in and through us? What if we decided every day to get up and say, “Lord, now what”? And then when we ask that question, we stop to listen, really listen; and, after we listen, we go ahead and do what he says.
- I bet we’d loose weight. I bet we’d quit smoking. I bet those around us would experience true life when they brushed against us at work, at home and at church.
- So, you could follow my advice, or not. I probably won’t even follow all my advice, but this one thing I know. I know that we were called to follow close in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, not in the footsteps of some man-made rules and regulations. So…
- New Year’s resolutions – good luck with that.
Well it is that time of year, again, to think about resolutions. Every year I notice that the diet places always have a sale - you can join for free. And all the places that you go to exercise in, you can usually join for less because they know that this is the time to make resolutions. Now, I am going to preach on resolutions for the next three weeks. The series of sermons is called The Wisdom of Firsts because I don’t think resolutions are all that bad, but it just depends on the ones we make. Today I want to talk about the first thing that is first in the bible because the bible does talk about firsts. It says, often, this is the first importance…. And I bet you know what the first one is; or if you can’t think of it, it really isn’t a quiz, when you see it you’ll say, “Oh, yes, I knew that.” It is of course this one. “What is the first commandment or greatest commandment”, Jesus says. “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence” (or in another translation, your heart and your mind and your soul.) This is the most important, the first on my list.” (Matthew 22:37-38) Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had a little bit of a problem with this. I like to listen to a guy on the radio, his name is Dennis Prager. Now Dennis is a Jew but he is a very religious Jew and he says this is impossible. It started out in the Old Testament, actually, and Jesus repeats it. I don’t agree with Dennis but I understand what he’s trying to say, because, how many of us have loved the Lord our God with all heart, mind and soul, very much. I am suspecting that we can probably measure it in seconds, or minutes at the most. The question is how do we love God? That’s what I would like to talk about today. I’d like to give you some very practical things that you can do to love God. But first I think we need to address why we don’t love God much. First, of course, is that we are, by nature, egocentric which is a fancy way of saying self-centered; and we are in fact born that way. You know I really do love babies. When I walk around here and see a new baby I am always trying to get it to smile at me. They’re cute. You go “ooooh” and “aaaah” but there is something else about babies. It is all about them. They come into this world being egocentric – feed me, change me, love me, hold me; and if you don’t, “Waaaaaa”. I want to suggest to you that maturity can be measured in how we grow out of me-centeredness. Just plain old maturity, growing up, is the process by which we teach our children; and we ourselves learn which I think continues until we die, how to be less me-centered. You can measure it. This is how you do it. Of course, there are lots of folks that never really learn that, do they? I’ve learned that in this life there are givers and there are takers. Sometimes people, all they really learn is how to manipulate others and how to get their way. But maturity is becoming other-centered; and, from a Christian point of view, it is really the same thing, a little bit more the idea that we learn how to love God. Maturity I think is measured in our love for God and being Christ-centered and being God-centered. Then, of course, the next part of that command is to love others as we love ourselves. But how do we do this. Well I want to suggest to you some more firsts, and I will continue this in the next couple weeks, as well. I’d like to talk about it from a personal point of view and then in two weeks from today talk about how we do that as a church as well -- but, a series of firsts. Before we begin, I’d like to ask you to join me in prayer.
Father, thank you, that you first loved us. We know that we fail and fall down in loving you, but we ask for your help. We know we can’t do it by ourselves. Give us the gumption to take some steps and with your help to complete them. We pray that in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, what’s a first we can do to learn to love God? Well I think another reason we don’t love God is not just that we are sinners, but we also don’t know what love is. I’ve said it many times that I believe that our culture has defined love as more a feeling than anything else. So love is this hole you fall into, you can’t help it, you just fall into love; and, conversely, some people fall out of love and again you have no will in the matter, it just happens to you. That’s the message of our books and our culture and our music. It is the way we define love. But the bible doesn’t say that love doesn’t involve passion, it really does; but passion follows action. Passion follows action, because passion comes and goes. So you can learn to love God first by acting. John himself says, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (1John 3:18) In the bible, real love is what you do and that is what is true, no matter what you feel like. Feelings are great, but it starts with action. So what action can you do? Well first, I want to suggest to you that you need to give God the first hour of your day, the first hour of your day. Everywhere in the bible Jesus says pray. (Luke 18:1) Paul says it. John says it. Peter says it. Jesus says it. Paul says, “Pray all the time.” But Jesus went up into the mountains to pray. It begins as the first thing that we do. You know I have learned something about myself. I am not a morning person, but if I don’t exercise in the morning it doesn’t get done. And if I don’t do this in the morning, it doesn’t get done. Now we could do it during the day and there is nothing wrong with that, but we should start the day that way. This is a quote from Charles Spurgeon, notice what he says. “It should be our rule to never see the face of men before first seeing the face of God. The morning watch anchors the soul so that it will not very readily drift far away from God during the day… He who rushes from his bed to his business without first spending time with God is as foolish as if he had not washed or dressed, and as unwise as one dashing to battle without arms or armor.” Hear what he is saying. This is our first act to get ready for the day. And as not a morning person, I know it is hard to do; but I fear in our time we have lost the concept of sacrifice. We have come to believe that grace is just easy; we just get it for nothing. I am going to talk about this next week. We are saved by grace through faith and grace is the undeserved mercy of God and love of God; undeserved, unearned mercy of God that we receive through faith and that our relationship with God is based on that. So I am not talking about earning brownie points. But I am saying that in order to express love for God and to grow in love for God we have to work at it some. We forget even though we have a cross in our sanctuary that our grace was bought by blood and death and sacrifice. And we are called to the same thing, even a little thing, like getting up in the morning. But what do you get out of it? I said it is not about you but, you know, you do get something out of it. Well, you get maturity by learning the ways of God. If you read the bible just a little bit every day, you will learn more. You’ll draw closer to God and know Him better. Even if it means you do it and you don’t it feel just yet, but you will along the way. I would just encourage you. Give God the first hour. It may not be an hour but spend time, spend time.
Another first, give God the first day of every week. Now I know this is radical in our time, especially the way we spend our Sundays. You know, we tend to go a little too far in things. Jesus came along and said to the Pharisees, “You have made the Sabbath what it is not supposed to be. You have made it just by keeping the rules. So you don’t do anything.” Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath. But we have taken it way too far and we have made it all about ourselves. Sunday has become no different than any other day. Frankly, I am appalled. I am appalled at how many parents who will never miss a soccer game no matter what time it is but you’ll certainly blow off church. I am appalled at the fact that we will go sit for three hours in freezing weather at a football game and if the weather is not quite right we won’t come to church. For a lot of people, that’s very true. Now I am not against soccer or football. I love football; I have the scars to prove it. And I would do it again. I would do it again. Literal scars and a back that doesn’t quite work very well and bad knees, but that’s another tale. I am not against these things. God is not against these things. But what’s first. Again that’s a sacrifice to get up and get dressed, get your kids together; and if they’re teenagers, it’s bordering on hell, sometimes, excuse me. No offense. I understand that. God understands that. But coming here as a discipline and worshipping as a discipline is good. It goes against the culture. You know, Bill Gates said he finds that of all the things he has to do on Sunday morning, worship seems like a waste of time. Well, as one book I read has a title, they called it, The Royal Waste of Time; and it is in some sense, from the world’s perspective, a waste of time; but it is God’s waste of time. That doesn’t mean that we are legalistic about what we do on Sundays. I had a friend of mine that I went to visit a long time ago and we both went to a seminary and went to a lot of people we call Sabbatarians and they were like the Pharisees; they couldn’t do much on Sunday. He had a brother like that. He was a nice guy but his brother was kind of legalistic about Sundays. He said, “Chris, you know what I like about you? You’ll go fishing with me on Sunday.” Well you can go too far with that too. But this is God’s day and I really challenge you to make this day God’s. Listen to what Isaiah said: “If you watch your step on the Sabbath and don’t use my day for personal advantage, If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy, God’s holy day of celebration, (listen to the last sentence) If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’ making money, running here and there (and that’s what we do on Sundays all the time) – Then you will be free to enjoy God! Oh, I will make you ride high and soar above it all. I will make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.” (Isaiah 58:13-14) That promise is in the scriptures. In the Ten Commandments there are mostly three or four words, “Thou shalt not steal.” But the fourth commandment about the Sabbath has ninety-four words, ninety-four; there is something significant about that. Why would God do that if it wasn’t important? And it is. It is.
The last first may be the hardest of all. This sentiment is expressed throughout the scriptures. It is the idea of giving God your first dime. The Wisdom of Firsts. “Honor God with everything you own; give Him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over.” (Proverbs 3:9-10) Now, this verse, particularly, has been misused by the health and wealth’s gospel crowd, some of the T.V. folks; but there is a promise that God will bless you if you give to Him. Now, I need to talk to you very candidly. This year our church has been blessed in a couple of different ways, I think, many different ways, but two particularly. You really had a role in the first one and thank you. We paid off our debt. We paid off our debt and we no longer have a huge mortgage payment to pay in our budget. It is great. It is wonderful. Thank you so much for your generosity. We have raised more money in this church this year than ever before; but there is a paradox. There is a paradox of that and I will talk about that in a minute. And the second blessing we have received, I think it is a blessing, is that God has brought us a school. We are housing a school this year and maybe a couple more years, but we don’t know; but it is a blessing. And yes we receive rent from it and we are about breaking even with it; but the paradox is that, maybe this is human, we, from an operational point of view, are going to be about fifty thousand dollars short. We have given to this paying off, and why is that so. Well a lot of different reasons, but again I think we have been wrapped up and have lost the idea of what Christian giving is all about. There is a secular way of giving. People pull out their check books and respond to a need…... We have to build a hospital. We have to do this….. and these are all good things. Don’t get me wrong. These are all good things. We see it when people give, “This is my money and I am going give a little bit of it to this cause and then I’m going to be honored for it.” We put their names on the walls, because you’ve given your money for this. The Christian point of view is totally different. The Christian point of view is that God owns everything, including your money. You know why I talk about tithing or giving a percentage? It is not simply because of the need for the church, it is because when we give that percentage, up front, ‘says give him the first,’ we are acknowledging God’s ownership. It is an act of worship. It’s an act of saying “I am yours, and what I have is yours, and I am acknowledging that.” So when we set aside that percentage, we do it despite need. We are going to give it anyway. The other way is a secular form of giving. This is the Christian way. We set it aside and we give it, no matter what. Now, when we set aside that percentage, yes, we divide it out to needs and needs are not all bad; but we give this anyway. I have been a little bit disturbed. You know pastors hear things. I have heard people say, or at least that people have said, “Oh, we paid off the mortgage. Oh, the school is giving us money. We don’t need to give as much this year.” I say to you, that is not a Christian way of giving. We need to give, not on the needs of the church, which are great – we’ll talk about that a little more – but because we have set it aside. Now my personal practice, Cindy and I give about seven percent of our income to the church. We give the majority of our tithe to the church and the rest goes to other parts of the kingdom. You can do it as you wish. I’m not going to come and check on you. But the whole thing is that we give God the whole thing, the first, the first dime, not what’s left. You’ve heard me say that and I want you to get it. The Christian way of giving is the idea of acknowledging to God that I am yours and what I have is yours and whether we believe that or not we are going to find out at the judgment. I guarantee that. We will go “Oh, my. I see some things now.” Well let’s not wait until then. Let’s not wait until then.
Now in the end I really do agree with the video we watched. We don’t have the power to do this consistently in and of ourselves. So there is a little bit of a paradox in the Christian faith in that we resolve to do things but we need a lot of help from God to do it. That’s what I want you to do today is to say to God, “You know I really do want to love you some more. Help me do that. Help me do that.” Because we will need His help in order to be consistent in our faith. We need the Holy Spirit to help us. We can’t do it as an act of will. On the other hand we do make choices and we do have acts of will, but to sustain them and be consistent in them we need God’s help. So as we approach communion today as we come to His table and remember again all He has done for us, ask God for His help. I know you all want to love God more, I do and I wish I loved God more than five minutes. I want to make it six, maybe ten; I want to grow in it. We need God’s help. So I encourage in that.
Would you pray with me?
Lord God thank you for the fact that you loved us first and you came to us and we could count on that. We are so glad that your love for us has very little to do with our love for you; but we want to love you more and we ask your help in it. Help us Lord, help us to put first things first – first loving you and then the first hour, the first day, the first dime. We do pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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