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ប្រតិចារិក
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This is God's inerrant, inspired Word given for the good of His people. Let us all listen reverently. 1 Samuel 11, Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh-Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make a covenant with us and we will serve you. And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition, I will make a covenant with you. that I put out all your right eyes and bring reproach on all Israel." And the elders of Jabesh said to him, hold off for seven days that we may send messengers to all the territory of Israel. And then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you. So the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and told the news in the hearing of the people. And all the people lifted up their voices and wept. Now there was Saul coming behind the herd from the field, and Saul said, What troubles the people that they weep? And they told him the words of the men of Jabesh. Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, and his anger was greatly aroused. So he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen. And the fear of Yahweh fell on the people, and they came out with one consent. When he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were 300,000, and the men of Judah 30,000. And they said to the messengers who came, Thus you shall say to the men of Jabesh-Gilead, Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall be saved. Then the messengers came and reported it to the men of Jabesh, and they were glad. Therefore, the men of Jabesh said, Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you may do with us whatever seems good to you. So it was on the next day that Saul put the people in three companies, and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch, and killed Ammonites until the heat of the day. And it happened that those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together. Then the people said to Samuel, Who is he who said, Shall Saul reign over us? Bring the men, that we may put them to death. But Saul said, not a man shall be put to death this day, for today Yahweh has accomplished salvation in Israel. Then Samuel said to the people, come, let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there. So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before Yahweh in Gilgal. There they made sacrifices of peace offerings before Yahweh. And there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly." To understand what we're looking at this morning, we need to look back one verse into chapter 10. At the end of chapter 10, after Saul has been chosen by the casting of lots and made king, it says in verse 27, but some worthless men, some sons of Belial, some rebels said, how can this man save us? And chapter 11 gives us the answer to that question. Now they said it faithlessly. They said it meaning there is no way that this man can save us. He should not have been made king. But in fact, God does use this man to save his people. So we want to look at that this morning. In verse one of chapter 11, it says Nahash, whose name translated means snake, A leader of the Ammonites, and the Ammonites were descendants of Lot, the nephew of Abraham, through an incestuous relationship, came up and encamped against the city of Jabesh Gilead. Jabesh Gilead is on the east side of the Jordan, the territory given to Gad and Manasseh prior to Joshua crossing the Jordan and conquering the west side for the rest of Israel. And so the Ammonites were trying to do what they had done earlier during the time of the judges, which is annex this land for themselves. And so they came up and camped outside the capital of the area, Jabesh Gilead. It says, all the men of Jabesh Gilead said to Nahash, cut a covenant with us and we will serve you. And it's debatable whether this was a good thing to do or not. They were supposedly already under covenant to God, but they wanted to see if maybe they could sue for terms that he might accept tribute from their hand, go home, And they would say, well, you know, we can pay taxes to the other side of the Jordan and we could pay taxes on this side of the Jordan just so long as he leaves us alone. But Nahash was not out for money. He was not interested in just getting a new tax base. He hated Israel. He said, on one condition, will I cut a covenant with you? The Hebrew literally says, I want to scoop out the right eye of each one of you. Pretty gruesome terms, but certainly not new and we think about it, many of the despots of this world is known, the cruelty that they have shown. This cruel despot said, I want your right eyes. Now, why would he want just one of their right eyes? Well, blind men can't do much farming, but one eyed men can still plow. They can still herd. They can still produce crops. What they can't do is fight. You have one eye, you got no depth perception and specifically the right eye, because most men would have fought with a shield on their left arm. covering their left eye. If you've got no right eye and the shield's covering your left eye, how much are you seeing? You can't see, you can't fight. And he wants ultimately to bring reproach upon Israel, that here is a part of the territory that your God has given to you. Ha ha ha, I've got you in my clutches and you can't do anything about it. The elders of Jabesh said to him, well, wait seven days. Give us a week. Give us a chance to send messengers across the Jordan to see if anyone will come to our aid. Now, most despots tend to have a great deal of pride. I think Nahash is no exception. I don't know what commander looks at the enemy and says, sure, I'll give you a week. Why don't you have a week to prepare? Call in reserves. Yeah, why not? Let's make the battle tougher. He must have thought very little of the Israelites, of his enemies, if he thought, yeah, take a whole week. Send all the messengers you want. Bring on all the troops. The end result's going to be the same. I'm going to win. You're going to lose. And I'm going to get your right eyes anyway. I have no idea what was going through his head, but it had to be pride because that's pretty idiotic to say, sure, go send messengers out. Now it's possible, I'm not saying it's for certain, but it's possible that Nahash knew that Jabesh Gilead was not exactly on the best of terms with the rest of Israel. It had a rather bad history. And what they didn't count on, though, was even though they had a bad history with the rest of Israel, they had it in good in one place in Israel. There was one place in all Israel that if they heard Jabesh Gilead was in trouble, they would rise up in a heartbeat. And that place happened to be Gibeah of Saul. This takes us back into the book of Judges. And at the end of the book of Judges, we're related a story that probably occurred early in the time of the Judges, but it's put at the very end of the book of Judges for a strong theological purpose, because the end of the book of Judges says there was no king in Israel in those days. Every man did what was right in his own eyes. And they picked the worst possible case scenario to show just how bad it was in Israel when there was no king. Basically, a Levite finds himself on the road with a runaway woman, his concubine. They weren't married and they were trying to head home. And as they're approaching evening, they need to find a place to stay and they could turn one way and go to Jerusalem and turn the other way and go to Gibeon. And the servant says, let's go to Jerusalem. And the Levite says nothing to him. There are a bunch of pagans there. It would be bad for us. Let's go to our brothers, our fellow Israelites here in Gibeon. And when they get there, a man receives them into their home, and the Levite is probably congratulating himself, saying, yes, see, good southern hospitality. Here we are in Gibeah. We're headed to the north. This brother took us in. We're in good hands. But midway through the meal, there's a knock at the door. All the men of the town have turned out and said, give us the Levite that we may know him in the biblical sense. It is Sodom and Gomorrah right in the middle of Israel. Well, the Levite being a discerning man of compassion, threw his non-white woman out to the men and said, do with her what you will. And they did. She died in the morning. And the Levite said, well, this is horrible what they've done. And so he cut this woman in 12 pieces and sent her throughout Israel and said, look what has been done in Gibeah. And so all Israel, excuse me, almost all Israel turned out to fight the Benjamites living around Gibeah. And they fought and fought and fought until they had whittled the tribe of Benjamin down to 600 men. There was only 600 men left. And they started thinking, OK, we've won this battle. We've punished them. We're practically minus a tribe. It's down to 600 guys. We've all taken an oath and a vow that none of us will give our daughters to these men to be their wives. That's it. Benjamin's going to die out. What do we do? And someone said, hey, ask around real quick and find out if everybody showed up for the battle. Is there anyone who didn't come when we set out to summons? Oh, lo and behold, one town didn't send anybody. Guess which town that was? Jabesh Gilead. Well, those horrible Jabesh Gileadites can't believe it. They didn't send anybody to battle. I know what we'll do. Muster the army. We're going to march across to the town, and we'll kill everyone in Jabesh Gilead except for the marriageable age women who have never been married. We'll take the women who've never been married, who are of the appropriate age to get married, and we will give them to these leftover Benjamites, and they came up with 400 women that way. Well, we're still 200 short. They went on to find another 200 women, sort of a seven brides for seven brothers thing where they went to a festival and each man grabbed a woman and ran off. Benjamin did not die out, but Saul is the direct descendant of Benjamite men and Jabesh Gileadite women. If there were ever two towns in all Israel that loved each other, These were the two. They had a strong history. It's the women of that town who joined with the men of this town and produced Saul and kept the tribe of Benjamin alive. So, when J.B. Gilead says, let's send messengers out, they weren't saying, let's make a beeline for Bethel or Jerusalem or anywhere else. They said, let's go to Gibeah and let's tell them what's happening. And in the providence of God, there is a king now in Gibeah, Saul. And so, basically, they send messengers out. And they are looking for, it says in the text, verse 3, they want a Savior. The text in the English says, if there is no one to save, but literally in Hebrew it says, if there is no Savior of us, then we will come out to you. So they're looking for a Savior. Nahash agrees. The messengers go to Gibeah. The news is told in the hearing of the people. All the people start to cry in the midst of this weeping. Here comes Saul. And my New King James Version says, behind the herd, the word in the Hebrew can be translated cattle, herd, or ox. Most of your translations probably say oxen. So one view, the New King James Version, says he was herding animals. The other view says he was plowing. Doesn't matter. He's doing his farmer duties, not exactly something you'd expect of a king, but something we see very much happening in the lives of the judges. The judges were warrior farmers. So here's Saul still farming his land, even though he's been made king. He comes in from the day. behind his oxen or behind the herds, whichever it is, and there's all this crying. What on earth is going on? And they tell him the story of Jabesh Gilead. Well, this is my relatives. That's it. And it says not only did he hear the news, but at that moment, and this is key, this is central. It's actually in the right smack dab middle of the chapter in the Hebrew. The Spirit of the Lord, the Hebrew says, rushed upon Saul. That same word is used of the Spirit coming upon Samson. I mentioned this last week. And there's a lot of parallels in this text between what has happened under the earlier judges and what Saul is doing now. So the Spirit of the Lord rushes upon Saul, and he rises up in righteous anger and cuts his oxen up into twelve pieces. Here is the irony. When Gibeah of Saul, Gibeah of former times, had horribly sinned, the Levite, cut up his concubine into 12 pieces and sent the 12 pieces to the tribes and said, everyone turn out to fight Gibeah. Now here's someone from Gibeah cutting up oxen into 12 pieces saying, rise up so that we can go save Jabesh Gilead. And it says that when people saw this, and Samuel's name is invoked there too, they turned out as one man. 300,000 Israelites, 30,000 of those of Judah, all together saying, let's go. That is a sovereign work of the Spirit of God. Not only did the Spirit of God come upon Saul, but the Spirit of God drove terror into the hearts of the people so that no one refused to turn up. There was no city anywhere in Israel that could say, well, we're not going. We're not having anything of that. They all turned out. A massive army comes, and Saul says, you go tell the people who sent you. These are the messengers of Jabesh Gilead. Go home and tell them, before the sun is hot tomorrow, you will be saved. You will be delivered. Do they find a Savior? Yes. Saul. And so they go back and deliver the word. And of course, the people in Jambush-Gilead are thrilled. And they are clever. And they don't go, yeah, we'll see what happens to you tomorrow. They go out to Nahash and the army and they go, okay, you win. We'll surrender tomorrow. When the sun is hot, we'll come out. Well, what is that going to produce in the minds and the hearts of the enemy? We win! Let's throw a party tonight. We don't have to be on our guard anymore. No army's coming. They give up. And so between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., which is the last watch of the night, here is Saul dividing his army into three camps, much as Gideon did. Pounce on the Ammonites and just start slaughtering them whenever they started between 2 and 6 until the heat of the day so that there are no two left of them together anywhere. Great victory. Huge victory. The people of Jabesh Gilead, of course, are thrilled. And they say, well, that's it. Let's find those guys who said, there is no way Saul will be king over us. Let's put him to death. How dare they say that? Look how kingly he's been. Did they not say, give us a king like the other nations who will go out before us and fight our battles? Look what he did. He's a head and shoulders taller than everyone. He looks kingly. He led this massive army. He won. Find those rascals, those worthless sons of Balaal, and let's kill them. And Saul, in one of his better moments, says nothing to him. Yahweh has worked a great work of salvation today. No one will die. Way to go, Saul. You actually get it. You didn't do it. God did it. God ultimately... And this is a lesson that God has been trying to drive home to His people chapter after chapter through Samuel. They cry out for a king, and Samuel keeps reminding them, Now, tell me again, who delivered you from Egypt? Did you have a king then? Well, no. Who did it? The Lord. Okay, and then during the time of the judges, you didn't have a king then, did you? No. Who delivered you? The Lord. Right! And now what do you want? We want a king! Alright. A king you shall have, even though you already had one. The Lord your God is your king. He delivers you. But fine, if you've got to have a king like the others, God will raise one up for you after your own heart, and yet the Lord will still use him. to save and deliver you because the Lord loves his people. He'll even use a crooked stick like Saul, an immoral man who's going to show himself in spades in later chapters to bring out this great salvation. So Samuel says, this is a great time then to renew the kingdom. And this is the heart then of what I'm going to talk about the rest of the time today. Let's go to Gilgal and there renew the kingdom, not the kingship, but the kingdom. And this is critical here that we see this. They go to renew the people's allegiance not to Saul ultimately, but to God. And this is seen clearly in verse 15. So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before Yahweh. They didn't just go and say, yeah, let's renew our commitment to Saul as king. but we renew our commitment to the kingdom under God and Saul as His sub-king." And it says they made peace offerings, fellowship offerings there before Saul. Were they offering animals to him? No, before Yahweh. They were renewing their commitment to God as the king over the kingdom and Saul as the Lord's anointed over that kingdom. So, what is the answer to the question that the men asked Verse 27 of chapter 10, how can this man save us? Not in his own strength, not in his own might, not in his own wisdom, not in his own army, not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. Saul could have gotten angry. and gathered his little guard around him and gotten some of the people from Gibeah maybe to go and fight the Ammonites. But to get the whole nation of Israel to turn out as one, took the Spirit of God, rushing upon Saul and putting the fear of God in the hearts of all the people, so that that great army came and defeated the Ammonites. The victory was the Lord's. And they knew it. They got it. They understood. And they said, yes, we will renew our commitment to God as our King and to His Kingdom first. And yes, Saul is the anointed of the Lord who will go out before us to fight the Lord's battles. But ultimately, it's to the Lord that they're to return. How can this man save us? By the Spirit of God. That's how. Now, when we look at this, we think, well, OK, great. That's an exciting story. I mean, there's combat. There's battle. God gets the glory. A great day of celebration and salvation. What does that have to do with me living here in the 21st century? We don't have a king. We don't live in Israel. related to Jabesh, Gilead and Gibeah and all that stuff. What does that have to do with me? And this is what I want to talk about in our time remaining this morning. There is a principle of application here for us as well that is repeated throughout the New Testament. We are much like the Israelites of old. Now, maybe not explicitly doing the same things they did, but our hearts are the same in that we often need to renew our commitment to the kingdom. The kingdom of God. There's been one Kingdom of God from the beginning until now. He's working with Israel. Now He's spread it out through the Gospel to include some from every tribe, nation, language, and people under heaven. There is one Kingdom of God. And if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ here this morning, you are a member of that Kingdom. And you have a King, King Jesus. But our hearts pull us in so many different directions. And this morning, I don't know if you're anything like me, but I'm going to use myself so that no one can come to me afterwards and say, you're picking on me, Pastor. I'm not picking on you. I am telling you out of my own heart how I see myself needing to recommit myself to the Kingdom of God and to Jesus as my King. If you're anything like me, what do you crave? Well, this is what I want. I like it when things go my way. When there is peace in my life. When there are no difficulties or troubles. when I have nothing to be fearful of or worried about. And frankly, I like the fact that I know the Lord God Almighty and I want Him to get on board with my agenda, with my campaign to make my life smooth, happy, peaceful, prosperous, comfortable. That's what I want. I'm being honest with you, okay? That's what Mark Gibson wants. But God comes to me and says, Mark, I'm not a part of your kingdom. You're a part of My kingdom. And this is what I want. with you and with what's yours and with your life. And if you're anything like me, there are times when we rebel against that and we say, Lord, fine, I'll get on board with your agenda if you'll just do these things first, okay? Just take care of these things and then we'll get around to your list. And God says, no, my list first and last. What I want, not what you want. We have to get ourselves to the place where we can honestly, sincerely say like Jesus did, Lord, not my will. but yours be done." We need to renew our commitment, not just individually and personally to our King, but to the kingdom corporately. We talk a lot about our individual need to walk with the Lord, and we do. You have to have an individual relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ through faith if you are to be saved. But it doesn't begin and end with just you. The Bible says God, through Christ, has delivered us from the kingdom of darkness. We were part of one corporate entity, this fallen world, and translated us, transferred us, brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, into the kingdom of light. Through faith in Christ, we are made part of a new kingdom. And God has a purpose for that kingdom, a purpose to bring glory to Himself and salvation to those that He has called, and ultimately to bring all things up under Christ that He might have the preeminence And here's the problem. Sometimes, perhaps even often, what God wants is at cross purposes with what I desire. And so things come into my life. Things come into your life that are painful, that are hard, that are difficult, that ruffle the piece of things, that create tension, that mess up the flow, that make me worried and fearful and fretful. If it sounds awkward for your pastor to talk about him being fearful sometimes, I'm just being honest. I want to tell you just a little aside here. I was listening to a sermon this week by John Piper, and I'm so glad that God has called John Piper to be a pastor. I'm listening to him preach. I mean, if there's anybody on this planet that I think of as a lion, it's John Piper. And he admitted, he said, well, I'm in the pulpit. You think me bold. But he said, I'm telling you the truth. I am little Johnny Piper. I feel like a little kid at the time, and I'm afraid. And he was preaching on the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ over all things to to make us strong and to give us confidence. And I was so glad to hear John Piper say that he struggles with fear sometimes. Well, of all the people in the world, you think, well, pastors shouldn't be afraid. They're the ones that seem to know God best. Well, look, I'm a person like you are. You may not struggle with fear or worry or other things, but I'm guaranteeing you there are things in your life that you want that are going to be at cross-purpose with what God wants. And when push comes to shove, we have got to say, King Jesus and His kingdom first. or we're not living like Christians. The health and wealth gospel will tell you God is on your team to make you healthy, wealthy, and wise, and isn't that great? It's a lie. It is heresy. It is false doctrine. It's not in the Bible. Does God bless us? Yes. Praise the Lord that He does. By His grace, He pours great things into our lives. But the fact is, at bottom line, God is for Himself, and it's good that He is. This is greatly illustrated for me, and I encourage you to meditate and study this passage. Joshua crossed the Jordan. The first city he comes to is Jericho. God, we have no siege engines. We have no chariots. They have walls to the heavens. We have no hope. God just says, do what I say and you will win. OK, Lord, we'll do what you say. And suddenly there appears a warrior on the scene. Joshua, the general, marches out and says, Are you for us or for our enemy? And of course, I'm expecting the answer. Well, I'm for you, Joshua. God has sent me to help you guys out. But that's not the answer he gets. The very first words out of the angel of the Lord's mouth is no. Excuse me? Let me ask that again. Are you for us or for them? No. But as the angel of the Lord, I have now come. Joshua, who are you for? Are you for the Lord or for yourself? Joshua took his shoes off and fell on his face in worship because God was present. That is what I'm trying to say this morning. When Jesus says, but seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, that's what He's saying. And we like to run to the last part of that verse, and I haven't gotten there yet. We like the part, and all these things will be added unto you. Because that's what we really want. All these things. But the Lord God Almighty comes and says, no, let's get the first part of that verse taken care of before we get to what I'm going to do by my grace. Seek first. First in time. First in importance. First place. My kingdom and my righteousness. And you leave those other things to me. Your job, your responsibility, your duty is to seek my kingdom first. So when they are sent to renew the kingdom, The call is to us today as well to renew our allegiance to Jesus and to His will and plan and purpose in His kingdom first, last, best, always. Lord Jesus, grant us repentance for putting our concerns before yours. It needs to be our prayer today. I can tell you honestly, there are so many times that I want to say, Lord, take care of this stuff for me first and then I'll get around to what you want. And God says again and again and again, no, who are you for? Are you for me or for yourself? I've got to say, Jesus, I need to be for you. Help me. If I can pull in one example from outside the Bible, if you'll forgive me for this, but it's too good to pass up. I love the scene in the Lord of the Rings when you've got the council of Elrond standing there Little Frodo in the midst saying, I will take the ring and I will go on this journey, but I don't know how to get there. One by one, different people pledge allegiance to Frodo and Aragorn says, if by my life or by my death I can aid you, I will. You have my sword. It just moves me because I think that's what God is calling us to, to say, Jesus, If by my life or by my death, if by me losing everything I hold dear, if you want to treat me like Job and destroy my family and take it all, if that's what you want, if that's what brings you glory, do it. That's the kind of surrender that God wants from us. Until we get there, I think we're sinfully playing games with the Almighty. Not all desires are wrong to want peace and provision and all these things. They're not wrong in and of themselves, but the problem is that they become consuming. God, I have to have this. And You have to provide it. No. God, I don't have to have this. And You're not required to provide it. Thank You that You do. You know, Spurgeon was preaching on a text in the Sermon on the Mount. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. And he was preaching it to a bunch of bankers. It was a phenomenal sermon. I commend it to you. If you want to know the reference, I'll get it for you after the service. But he takes the place of the people listening and says, but we must live, right? And Spurgeon says, no, you don't have to live. But you all will die someday and stand before the Lord. And what do you want said on that day? That you pursued your interests and your kingdom and what you wanted. Or that you put first his kingdom and his righteousness and left the rest to him. It's a challenging thing for me to preach this morning because I know my own failure in these areas. We must put ourselves at God's disposal. I mean, this really puts teeth to what we hear so often, you know, it's not about you, it's about Him. Yeah, it's really all about Him and not about us. Those aren't just words. That puts feet to the whole idea of putting His Kingdom first and His righteousness of saying, yes, Lord, Whatever is best for your interests in this world, whatever that may cost me personally, I'm ready to do it. I'm ready to do it. The reason the health and wealth gospel, I think, gets so much play, and so many people listen to it, is because it really does play into that selfish craving for peace, prosperity, and all things going good for me, and it co-ops God into what I want, selfishly and sinfully. But Christ comes to us in the Scriptures and says no. You be for me first, and I'll take care of the rest. And the things that we are so worried about, when we look back from eternity, will they really have been that important? I mean, yeah, some things are caring for our families and stuff, they are important, but we give an awful lot of time to stuff, which I do. We don't take any of that stuff with us. And we're not going to look back and go, I wish I'd had more stuff. My life really would have been complete if I could look back and go, wow, I had more. It's those things, unfortunately, that grip our hearts that we're going to regret. You know, we're like the man who had the bumper crop that Jesus told the parable about. What should I do? I'll build bigger barns. Jesus said that God looked at that man and didn't say, oh, that's good. Good thinking there, buddy. I gave you a bumper crop and you built bigger barns so you could take it easy. Good thinking. He said, you fool. This very night, your soul will be required of you, and who will get what you've laid up for yourself? I want to add something to this that's very clear in the text, and I think will help motivate us to this. I don't know that any of us would disagree with the idea that we must be committed to God first and foremost in all things. But what should motivate us to want to do that? God could do it and just say, look, I'm God and you're not, and this is the way it's going to be. And we would be bound to say, yes, Lord. But God is kind, gracious, loving and merciful to His people, what motivated the people in Saul's day to renew the Kingdom? It's so clear in the text. Saul said, today the Lord has accomplished salvation in Israel. Why should you recommit to the Lord? Because He just saved you. Why should I say, Lord, You first in everything. I'll give up all for You and I mean it. Take it. If You want it, it's Yours. What's going to motivate me to really do that and not just religiously say it, because that's what we're supposed to say, but really mean it from the depth of my soul is thinking about, meditating on, bringing to mind all that the Lord has done for me in Christ. What has the Lord done for us? He has saved us from our sins. He has delivered us from His divine, just, and holy wrath. He has set us free from death, from hell, from the curse and power of sin. He has delivered us from the power of Satan who ruled us. He has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son. He has given us life instead of death. He has given us breath and all things. The list goes on and on and on. When the hymn says, count your blessings, name them one by one, that is really a good thing to do, because you will be amazed at what the Lord God has done for you. And when He says, look at what I have given you, and all I ask in return is your allegiance, who wouldn't? Who wouldn't readily say, yes, Lord, whatever I give up and lose in this life, and Jesus said this as well, will gain a hundred times more in the world to come. Your kingdom first, Lord. Your interests first. And I will trust my care to your disposal. And if by my life or by my death, by my riches or by my poverty, by abundance or having nothing serves you and your kingdom, so be it, Lord, because you're first and you've saved me and I know it. The people were ready to recommit to the kingdom because God had saved them. That should be our motivation today, too. Lord, you saved me. Anything you want. Let's look at the front of our bulletin. And I want to remind us all that as we think about this today, we are just as much in need of the Spirit of God as Saul ever was to do this. It is by God's Spirit and by His grace that we are enabled to truly say, Lord, You first above all. Spurgeon says this. Follow along as I read. It is an important thing to know what we are living for. and to live for a worthy object with the undivided energy of our entire being? Shall we, when the end comes, have made a success of life? Has our object been a right one, and has it been wisely pursued? Are the results of our conduct such as we shall wish them to have been when this mortal life is over? These questions deserve our careful consideration. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness. Do this by acknowledging Christ as Sovereign over your life. And I want to stop there for a second and remind you of what we sang earlier in the service. In Christ alone in the last stanza, we sang, and I hope you meant it when you sang it, from life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. Not just my ultimate destiny, whether I'm in Heaven or not, But from my very first breath until I die, I should be under the command of Jesus." Back to the front of our bulletin. Do this by acknowledging Christ as sovereign over your life. The helm by which your life is steered should be in the hand of God. To glorify God and promote righteousness should be your master passion. Be first a man of God and after that, a banker, a merchant, a working man, whatever. Christ first and all other things in their due order. Let consecration to God always shine forth in your life. For Him who has redeemed us with His precious blood, we can never do too much. I had intended to take some time this morning to apply this practically. Let me just direct you to a couple of things. The principle, I think, is sound. What does it look like in your life? Let me just tell you plainly, if you're not married yet, what this looks like in your life is that you marry a believer and another strong believer. You don't marry someone of the world, for what fellowship is there between light and darkness? If Jesus commands your destiny and the Word of God says, do not be unequally yoked, marry in the Lord. What does it look like in your career? Well, what comes first? The Kingdom of God or my advancement through my career? If by advancing in my career I have to make some compromise or do something contrary to the Word of God or move somewhere where there's no church or do something that would make me work every Sunday and never get a break and never be able to worship with the people of God again, then I stop that and I do something else because it's His Kingdom first and what brings Him glory first and what His Word says first. And on and on the list goes. How do I spend my money? Well, who gave you the money in the first place? Who gives you the ability to make wealth? And whether you have a lot of it or a little of it, the answer and the question are still the same. Who commands your pocketbook? How do you use your resources? Are they spent for the Kingdom of God and what you need? And sure, there's entertainment and stuff. I'm not saying that's it. No one ever planned another vacation to Costa Rica or wherever. Enjoy what God's given you. Everyone needs a vacation. But overall, what does the picture got to be? Lord, you command my finances, my work, my marriage, my life. It's all yours and I want to conduct it according to your word. That's really where the rubber meets the road here this morning. Not just an emotional response that says, yeah, I think that's right. And then no change in our lives, but a real reordering of our priorities if it's necessary and saying, Lord, I really will put you first in all my decisions. I close with these words of scripture this morning, let us Repent and return that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, You are King. You are Lord. Forgive us, our Lord, for the times when we have said, Lord, Lord, You have answered back from your word. Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and not do what I say? We are part of your kingdom by your grace and your sovereign doing alone. Help us, our God, to live in the light of that reality. To forsake our kingdom and our agenda and our priorities and to take up your kingdom, your agenda and your priorities. May it show in our lives clearly, Lord God, May you receive the glory. Give us power by your spirit and work in us by your grace, I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Christ First
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