(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, the part of the chapter here in Matthew chapter twenty-two that I want to focus in on is near the end here starting in verse number thirty-six by his master which is the great commandment in the law. Jesus said unto him thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment and I'm going to be preaching a little bit about this. This is just segueing into what I'm really talking about but this morning and this evening both sermons are going to have to do with your heart. Both sermons are going to have to do with how you perceive things, how you do things but all internally so I'm not going to be preaching as much necessarily on external sins but on just who you are, what motivates you and how you ought to be motivated and this morning specifically more of where your priorities lie. In the title of my sermon is seek ye first. When Jesus is asked, hey what's the great commandment, we know there's all these commandments in the law. You've got this whole Old Testament, you've got lots of rules, you've got all these different things, the law, the prophets, you've got all this information here but what is the great commandment in the law? If you could just say what's the biggest commandment? And Jesus answers that, he says, you know what, there is a great commandment. The great commandment is you've got to love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. Now when you break that down, that's a lot, I mean, he's saying look, ultimately this is the great commandment is that you love God and not just love God in word, not just love God, oh yeah of course I love God, hey do you love God, oh yeah, I mean who's going to say they don't love God other than people that don't believe in God, right? People say you believe in God, you better believe everyone you ask, well do you love God? Well yeah of course I love God, but for the vast majority of people I think it's all just lip service. I mean you say you love God but you're doing nothing to show that you love God at all and the great commandment is that you not only say that you love God and you not only just love God but the Bible says love God with all your heart. You don't have your heart partial or split up, hey you need to give God all of the love in your heart, all your soul, all your mind. Now we know we don't measure up to this, this is a very high standard, but that is the great commandment. I mean this is something that your thoughts, your heart, your soul, this is your being. We ought to love God with every bit of our being. That is the first and great commandment. You say well you know what does that even fully mean though, right? I mean obviously you could start to get some idea over this. Go back to Exodus chapter 20 because he's bringing up the great commandment and this has to do with the commandments. This type of love starts to manifest itself and God gives more details and more explanation through his law and specifically we're just going to be looking at the 10 commandments here, the first four commandments because in another passage where Jesus said, he's asked about the commandments, the first and great commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, spirit, mind, strength and then the second is like unto it to love your neighbor as yourself. So loving God is first and foremost and then supreme and then loving your neighbor as yourself, loving man is second and Jesus said upon these two commandments hang all the law of the prophets. So basically all the details that God points out can just be summarized and encapsulated in one form or another into loving God and loving man. But the first commandment and the most important and the great commandment is to love God and to love him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and we're going to see a little bit on how this plays out where basically if you're breaking these commandments then you're definitely not loving God because that's a summary kind of these various laws that God has instituted where he gets more specific so that we know okay well God doesn't like this and we're doing things that God doesn't like we're not really loving him. Verse number one Exodus chapter 20 the Bible reads and God spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage thou shalt have no other gods before me. Commandment number one this should make the most sense right well if you're gonna truly love God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength then you can't have any other gods before him I mean he needs to be God needs to be the object God needs to be the the object of your attention and focus and love and if there's anyone else in the picture then you obviously don't love God I mean you think about it this way because this is the way that God mentioned this over and over again through the Bible when when Israel go whoring after other idols and false gods and the gods of the other lands and things like that what does he say they're doing they're committing a whoredom they're committing adultery they're going after some other God right when when he's the one that's supposed to get their attention and think about how you know if you're if your husband or your wife is going up and committing some adulterous relationship with some other person it's pretty easy to say yeah they don't really love you because if they really love you they wouldn't be going and giving of the oh that type of attention to some other person because it's dedicated wholly to one and this is the way our marriage ought to operate how much more our communion with the Lord how much more our relationship with God right God doesn't want us going after anyone else but him and I say any other God you know false obviously the false gods but he is to be number one we can't put anything in between that verse number forces thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or those in the earth beneath or those in the water under the earth thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation of them that hate me so you say not only can you not have another God before him you can't even make any images unto these other guys so it's like this you imagine you know you definitely don't want your wife going around and and whoring around with some other guys but what if she just had a picture of some guy up that she puts up in your living room and just fawns over that picture you know every day and and you'd hate that right we had to be like you don't love me now maybe you didn't go and commit the act but your heart's not there your hearts with someone else right and God's saying look don't even make these images don't even make these idols these faults don't have those in your house those are representative of these false gods you should have nothing to do with that don't bring that garbage in your house so that you know don't bow down yourself to him definitely don't have anything to do with that because I'm a jealous God and I don't want to see that you belong to me I've redeemed you with the blood you know this is what it me oh these this is where we start to get a picture and understanding well the Bible says love the Lord I God with all thy heart all thy soul and with all thy mind we can start to get a little bit of a grasp on that humanly speaking when you think about marriage right because you have these emotions you have these connections and you think about and you're drawn to your spouse but again it needs to be on another level with God but it ought not to be less than that with God so you think about your you know especially if you have a really good marriage you've got a good relationship and you do love your spouse how you feel about them how you think about them how you try to do things for them is your relationship with your spouse better than your relationship with God the second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself the first commandment is to love God let that sink in because look and you all know how important it is to love your spouse and to do things for them to care for them and provide for them your man you provide for your wife and women you love your husbands and you know you have this relationship where you're both end up doing things for each other and you're caring about each other and thinking about each other you know and loving each other and as important is that family is and is that union is you need to have a stronger union with God you need to have a stronger relationship with him even than you do with your spouse and if you really start to think about it I bet probably everybody in this room can say I think I'm lacking in that department I don't think that I'm loving God the way that Jesus said that I ought to love God I think I need to do something about that I think I need to make some changes in my life I think I need to re prioritize my life because I'm starting to feel like maybe I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing because my that love isn't quite there so those first two commandments pretty obvious pretty easy I think that that of course you don't love God if you're if you have these other gods and these other images and these other idols set up but those are number one and number two in the Ten Commandments and then it says let's see continue on here verse number seven the Bible says thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless I take it his name in vain how about showing respect to God instead of throwing around the name of the Lord throwing around Jesus Christ throwing around oh my god throwing around these terms you don't really love them if you're just treating that name like it's nothing how about showing a little respect unto God God's not just your buddy your homie your you know someone that you just just talk to you on this really casual basis you have you should have a relationship in a close relationship with God you know what that relationship is one of father and child and just like it's not right for children to just be disrespectful to their parents and talking to them like they're their friend down the street no you talk to your parents kids with respect and as children of God we ought to be treat talking to our Heavenly Father but not just our Heavenly Father but Creator and Almighty God with the respect that he deserves and commands and Redeemer of your souls how about that add that to the list of things of God and attributes of the reason why you show respect and you start treating even just the name of God without that respect you don't love God you don't love God and it's it's amazing how this is just accepted in the culture it's actually kind of bizarre when you really think about it since when would the name that is greater than every other name the name of Jesus Christ start being used as a curse word or an expletive how in the world that ever even come into being I mean you would never say that about anyone else I mean imagine imagine how silly this would be is if I'm at home and I you know I'm working I've got a hammer going and boom I smash my thumb and I go Oh Leslie my wife right it and just and just like oh you know I just get real angry they won't even make any sense but but think about how silly that is I'm just throwing out that name she had nothing to do with that I hurt myself I got angry it doesn't even make sense to you know and you know what that's what using a name in vain means I'm not calling her there to oh can you help heal my wound and just saying it out of anger it's foolishness and it's also just disrespectful to now start associating her name with something bad something that you know something that I did to myself and then just just associating that with her and that's what's happening every single time people are just using the name of God the name of Jesus and you're not actually talking to God or like talking about God talking about Jesus in a respectful manner the way that you you ought to and you know this goes far and wide and you better start thinking about all the ways that you deal with God in God's name in your life you hear it all the time that's why it's easy to start repeating the things that you hear and that's why you shall to be careful with what you're intentionally bringing in years because you know some things out in the world you have no control over to some extent what what you're gonna hear right you go to a job you go to a grocery store you're gonna hear conversations you're gonna hear people saying things because you're just out in the world right you can't control that you know you can't control the TV shows that you watch or people just going oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god over and over and over again and then you might not say it but what about your kids they're hearing that's going on they're here in that language oh and then they're gonna start saying that they're gonna learn it from somewhere God forbid they'd learn it at your house where you have the control over what's being said you have the control over what's being spoken and don't sit there and say well it's not really that big of a deal your heart's not right with God if it's not that big of a deal to you you don't love God you know I say that because it's a big deal to God because he put it number three in his Ten Commandments obviously we could see it may not be as bad as committing adultery going after some other God but he put it right after that basically saying you reverence my name you respect my name you do not use my name in vain you're gonna tell me you love God and you just throw around that name like it's nothing or even worse like it's an expletive or curse word we see in verse number eight remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter thy manservant nor the maidservant nor thy cattle nor thy stranger that is within that gates for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and held it now there's a lot that I can teach on the Sabbath day in general I'm not going to get too deep into this but this also goes to respecting and loving God also because God commanded on a day for you to get rest there's a lot of symbolism here that Jesus Christ is representative of that rest that we enter into we render into his rest because he did all the work for us so just as God did all the work of creation and then rested Jesus did all the work for our salvation and we enter into that rest so there's a respect for that and this is symbolic with the Sabbath day of dedicating that day because God commanded it so he said hey you've got six days to work but I'm commanding you not to work on this day now I would say even though we don't have this same Sabbath day commandment in effect in the New Testament as far as not being able to do any type of serval work you can show your love to God by dedicating him time where it's devoted on it because I hope you know what are people gonna be doing when you're not doing other work you're not gonna be focused on the things that you need to get done you can be focusing on God and the rest that he's given you and just dedicating time to God we're gonna get to that in just a minute so if you went to Malachi chapter 1 we're gonna get into that a little bit further and we're gonna we're just we're just at the beginning oh we just we're just touching on this you could look at the commandments of God I chose the Ten Commandments and we only looked at the first few okay all the commandments are summarized by the two great Commandments loving God and loving your neighbor so you can go through the whole Testament and start realizing where am I not loving God as I should I mean there's not enough time in a day to go through all of them this morning so I'll let that be your homework be thinking about that be thinking about that but there's a problem when your priorities get out of line with God especially if you don't even realize that and and and I'm hoping I'm hoping that this morning something will trigger in your heart or in your mind going I know exactly where I'm not loving God as I ought to and I'm gonna change that today because what happens is that we have a tendency to get in routines we have a tendency to get into habits and we oftentimes get in a tendency into thinking that I'm doing pretty good I'm doing pretty much all that I could of course I love God of course this of course that and then you don't even really stop and take a step back and kind of analyze and be like wait do I really is it how poor does this really to me are you coming to church because you have a relationship with God or because your spouse does or because you just want to please someone else are you are you actually going because because you love the Lord or you're going because you just think it's something you need to do where's your heart in Malachi and we went over this just recently a couple weeks ago I preached through Malachi chapter 2 and chapter 3 a little bit and how the priests were just being derelict and responsibilities but if you remember and you remember the book of Malachi you know they didn't think they're doing anything wrong did they of course we love you God of course we're doing everything what do you mean we're not serving what do you mean we're doing this wrong what do you mean what do you mean by this guy and God's going like you guys are way off track here I mean you're just disrespecting me left and right you're not doing anything the way you're supposed to be doing then we're gonna read in chapter one so we don't really cover this when I preached on it before on their sacrifices and they're just thinking well I mean we're making your sacrifices God we're making sacrifices you what do you mean what's the problem their their love has been corrupted they don't really love God the worst part about is they're blind to it now it's bad enough to not be right with God with the things that you do but it's even worse to not even realize it and that's one of the reasons why you come to church hopefully is to see clearly and go well yeah you know what I need to fix that and Malachi this is you know God speaking to these people so we're gonna look and see his rebukes to them and see if it applies to us at all verse number six and we're gonna start reading in Malachi chapter one Bible reads a son honoreth his father and a servant his master if then I be a father where is mine honor and that goes also hand in hand with the name of the Lord you use the name of Lord in vain say hey if I'm really your father where's my honor where's my respect you showing respect unto God unto your Heavenly Father and if I be a master where is my fear right and again in our society in our culture these things are like getting just eroded and wiped away there's a healthy fear of being a servant for someone else of them and like being humble being a servant and being appreciative and not wanting to lose the job that they're offering to you and he's saying if I'm your master if I'm in charge of what you do shouldn't there be some fear there that if I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing there's gonna be a there's gonna be a punishment there's gonna be repercussions for that I mean that just makes sense right I mean if you're if you're working at a job and you're not doing the duties that you're hired to do and you're not you ought to be afraid of what's gonna happen because you're not doing your job but these days there's everything so backwards it's like you're gonna get some lawyer there's some Union it's gonna be like well I don't care if he was asleep on the job I don't care if he showed up drunk I don't care you know he still has to keep his job it's ridiculous you think that like all passive urges you're crazy look this type of stuff happens it happens all the time it does and it's insane and and you know what it's it's it's becoming turned on its head towards like I thought I was your master where's the fear so where people can't even understand where's God coming from here what do you mean you're my master where's my fear I don't fear I don't fear anything anyway I don't you know I don't fear lose my job why would I have to worry about that with you and this is this is the problem when we stop doing things God's way just like the Bible says you know hey if you spare your rod you hate your son and and that's you know if you chasing him and and you and you beat your son with the rod you're gonna deliver his soul from hell because from a young age when people start when children start receiving painful infliction because they've done wrong that's gonna introduce a fear of doing wrong and it's gonna help them understand that there's painful consequences for actions that helps them understand that hell is a real place that there is a place of punishment and judgment that happens after you die and that's not some foreign concept well I mean nothing never bad ever happened to me in my whole life where reality is not reflecting the truth like your reality right your your existence you're getting through this life because of this manipulation and people not doing things God's way is causing you to be blind from a truth that is truth that's reality that's going to happen like hell hell's existed you don't see it but you know what's real if you start doing all these things to make sure there are no consequences for actions you know you're not getting spanked don't worry about it you won't lose your job nothing bad's gonna we'll just prop you up and just make sure that whatever you want to do whatever filth and wickedness you want to get into we'll just keep supporting you and other people will pay for you and oh you don't want to go to work well we'll pay for you oh you want to just do get into some perversion you want to murder your child we'll pay for you go ahead do whatever you want wicked people are making it so that these things happen and then there's no consequences and then you start thinking like well there must not be a God then not the God of the Bible because that's not the way our world operates at all it may not be the way the world operates but as the way God operates back closer to the text what we're talking about here God's saying if I be a master where's my fear do you fear God you have a fear of the Lord a healthy fear of the Lord you ought to you ought to you thinking about that sin you know don't get so caught up Oh God's just this loving and forgiving and long-suffering and look he's all those things and we need to appreciate that and thank God for all those things and give God respect for all those things but don't just abuse those things into thinking it'll be okay I don't know about you but if my kid my children I started having that as you oh dad or mom they're just a pushover they they're really nice they forgive that you know and start taking advantage of our mercy you better believe that mercy is gonna be stopped real quick real quick why start losing that respect and then you start losing that love we need to love God and have that healthy fear of the Lord where is my fear said Lord the host unto you a priest that despised my name and you say where even if we despise thy name he's saying you've despised my name what do you mean what do you mean we despise your name how have we despised your name I mean we're always talking about your name then he explains all these two cuz they have these questions he makes these accusations and and he's you know rebuking them and then they're going what do you mean verse number seven you offer polluted bread upon mine altar and you say wherein have we polluted thee in that you say the table of the Lord is contemptible so they've despised his name because they're not honoring his name and fearing his name they're offering polluted bread upon the altar which also despite shows they despise his name and they're like well what do you mean it's polluted he says when you say the table Lord is contemptible like oh man we got it we got to offer this up but we got you know and having this bad contempt for God's altar like you ought to be thankful and appreciative and loving your service not having contempt for it you know it should be I was happy when they say it to us let us go into the house of the Lord when they said to me let's go in the house of the Lord right that should be we should be happy to come to church we'd be happy to do things not like oh man I gotta do this I gotta do that despising the name of the Lord verse 8 and if you offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evil and if you offer the lame and sick is it not evil what they were doing is they're like oh well we're making sacrifices but what are they doing they're picking the worst of their flocks the blind the lame the sick now God had rules and a law establishing what was allowed to offer the sacrifice and what was not and this idea of going and saying oh well I mean this is just for a sacrifice for the Lord I'm gonna keep the good so I want to keep the good stock I want to keep this back for myself I know I have to give something so hmm yeah let's use that one that one broke its leg and it's starting to get sick he's probably gonna die anyway so we might as well just offer that up as a sacrifice right there you go made my sacrifice I'm all good right it's wicked and see the worst part we can look at this and be like wow that is shameful that's disgraceful that's horrible and that's God's attitude towards it but they didn't even realize it they just become part of their normal behavior someone started doing it and someone else said you know that's a pretty good idea that you know I'm looking at their flock nose block looks pretty good they start getting rid of their excess they start getting rid of some things pretty soon before you know it they just become a habit for a lot of people and I could go off on that too and on how that's also why there's standards within church it's also why there's standards on who's even allowed to come in you know if they're guilty of grievous sins that we don't just let that leaven spread within the church because those things have a tendency to happen but look what he says here he says offer it now unto thy governor will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person said the Lord of hosts see people treat God differently because it's like oh I can't see God and well the sacrifice I don't see anything happen bad or whatever so I must be good it's not the way it's not the way to view it that's that's wicked to hear the thing because God is merciful long suffering but you know when he decides to cloud up and rain down on you it's already it's already done you better you know even if you run for cover it's not gonna it's not gonna help you at that day but the point is here and this is a good point okay if you're thinking about your own relationship with God how important is it to you obviously their sacrifices weren't that important because there's no way they'd be offering the lame and the sick sacrifice to try to gain the the approval of some high up real the governor or the you know someone who's who's famous or powerful like oh look I mean I got the sacrifice for you come over we're gonna have a feast for you I'm gonna throw this party for you I'm gonna have this banquet for you and this is what we're gonna have look at what I have for you right when you're trying to impress people what you're gonna offer the best or if you have respect for somebody you're gonna give them the best oh so-and-so is coming over oh man is my yo let's roll out the red carpet let's yo get everything real nice let's let's go the extra mile and let's do that for this person he said you would do this for your governor and you know this wouldn't be accepted of him but this is what you're giving me this is what you're giving me is God getting your leftovers and your scraps in your life ask yourself that is God getting your leftover in your scraps when you make your schedule for the week oh what am I gonna do this week well I'm gonna go to work I'm gonna go shopping I'm gonna go here I'm gonna go on this okay we're gonna go spend time over here what we do on Sunday well I've got something else going on maybe we could make it well no Saturday night we're going out real late so let's just go to church on Sunday evening is that how you is that how you plan now I'm happy if you come to church I'm gonna church once it's better than that come in church at all but where does God fit into your plans where does God fit into your schedule how important is your sacrifice that you give to God how important is that now I'm not saying there's not a reasonable time to you know rearrange your schedule for some things right I'm not I'm not saying that so you know I'm not gonna go into every single possible example and every little detail you do that for yourself like I said I'm happy every time we have people in church and I'm going to be happy every time people show up to church and whether they show up once a month once a year every service I'm happy to see people come to church right but you have to decide for yourself where is God in your life what what is it just the leftovers is it well I'm gonna pray to God and talk to God as long as I'm not too tired at the end of the day is he getting your leftovers in your time your Bible reading I'm gonna hear from God well again you know I've got all these other things to do I've got to go to work look we men you do have to go to work right but is going to work more important than serving God is it more important is it important yes but what's more important to you and think about that right you know people go through these all these extra steps oh man the governor's coming we're gonna do this and this but it's just God it's just God's sacrifice how about what while we're on church is your boss gonna tolerate you showing up to work five minutes late ten minutes late 15 minutes late oh sorry I'm late again oh sorry I'm late again or do you make sure that you're there five minutes before ten minutes before because you don't want to lose your job because that's important to you because you need to make sure that you're there on time oh but it's just church it's just church if I make it I make it it's not really that big how do you feel if I came in oh well it's five minutes past sorry guys it's ten minutes past how important do you think this would be to me if I came in here oh I'm just running in right baby hold on I'm gonna preach and let me let me pull up some notes maybe I can do something here how much respect would you have for me if I operated that way how much love do you think I have for God and treat the work that I have to do if I operated that way how much love do you have for God if you treat God that way our assembly times haven't changed in a long time but what's more important to you well I'm tired I love that one I hesitate even bring this up but you know you know how many times I've stayed up till about 4 in the morning on Saturday nights because I'm preparing sermons I'm doing the work and and you know things have to get done you think I just don't come to church then because I know I'm not gonna get enough sleep look I've showed up a bunch of times getting two or three hours and I do that during the week sometimes and I do that you know what I do that whenever I have to do that because it's important and it needs to get done and I'm not trying to lift myself up it's just look these excuses they're only excuses in your mind because other people are able to do it stop making excuses and honestly just to give a little bit of explanation to you know people again these days everything with the culture is just being you know informalized even to the church service start times you know the trendy churches oh we started we started 1037 right it's like that's so stupid because the people who can't make 1030 as soon as you say it's 1037 they're not gonna make 1037 either right it's a it's just dumb and you know it ought to just be this is the time but how about even just with it with the dress in the sanders and oh you go to the one of those old-fashioned churches oh I bet you guys you dress up now look there's no dress code here okay and we don't look down on other people's are judging them and and because here's the thing people can come you know dressed as you see fit but how would you dress if you were going to a job interview how would you dress if you were having some other events in your life and if we're going into the house of the Lord this is why you know you're gonna see people in suits and dresses and things that are a little bit nicer wearing your Sunday's best as it's called there's a reason for it it's not to impress other people if you're coming to press other people that's a completely the wrong reason and your heart's not right I said the very beginning you know the sermon is gonna be geared towards your heart and just because people do things for the wrong reasons doesn't make doesn't make it wrong for you to do it for the right reasons and it shouldn't steer you away from doing things for the right reasons oh well they would do this just to be seen a man so we just shouldn't do it at all no I mean the Pharisees like to wear their garments and say their long prayers and stuff and and to give money and do all you know and to tithe to be to be seen of men but it doesn't mean all of those things are bad things inherently right if you have a lot to say unto God and say a long prayer but it's not to be seen of man it's not to show off your intellect it's not to do those things but it's to be real and to pray to God if you you know coming into church again there's no dress code and if you think that that you know you know whatever you believe on that with with God's expectations and look not everyone has everything has all the same resources either which is another reason why you don't you definitely don't judge people because you don't know their situation you know what people have what they don't have and things like that but see God sees your heart are you and the whole point the whole point is this it's not it's not to be looking on everyone else's outward appearance it's how do you treat your relationship with God how important is it to you is it important enough to show up one time is it important enough to to look good because here's the thing there's gonna be an extreme you could say oh well that's pretty extreme we're okay maybe you see that that way but then is it okay to just come in you're rolling around in the mud and oh I'm doing all this other stuff and who cares and and just you don't care about your appearance at all I mean is that would that do you think that's okay I'm gonna roll out of bed and wear my pajamas in this culture people are doing it but it I mean do you do you think that do you think God's okay with that if you're just like well here's what I got at least at least I made it here can we maybe decide to do a little bit more than just make it here now for some people that's a big step just making it here and God bless you right but I want to see you grow I want to see people come from just being able to make it here and then progressing to being faithful and grounded and planted and and and treating all of our service to the Lord with the highest priority in your life that's what I want to see see God gets angry let's keep reading here in Malachi chapter 1 verse number 9 about says now I pray you beseech God that he will be gracious unto us this has been by your means will he regard your persons that the Lord of hosts who is there even among you that would shut the doors for not neither do you kindle fire on mine altar for not look what says I have no pleasure in you set the Lord of hosts neither will I accept an offering at your hand their hearts not right they think they're doing everything right and they're great and they're completely failing I mean they're offering these lame sacrifices and he just says you know what I have no pleasure in you at all it doesn't please God you know for these people it doesn't even please them that they're showing up to the altar and that they're doing this service he has no pleasure in that at all so when your heart's just not right with God at all and you say whoa I mean I came to church didn't I he has no pleasure in that you know what I'm not gonna accept your your offering at your hand so we want it verse 11 from the rising of the Sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathen set the Lord of hosts but ye have profaned it in that you say the table of the Lord is polluted and the fruit thereof even his meat is contemptible he said also behold what a weariness it is and you have snuffed at it said the Lord of hosts and he brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick thus he brought an offering should I accept this of your hand said the Lord should I accept this stuff where is God positioned in your life when it comes to church when it comes to your Bible reading when it comes to your praying when it comes to soul winning when it comes to your appearance when it comes to your respect for the name of the Lord where does it fall turn to Romans chapter 1 chapter 12 excuse me Romans chapter 12 because the Bible helps us understand what's reasonable the Passover that's unreasonable is it though I think the things that I've mentioned today they don't even come close to what the Bible says is reasonable as you're gonna see in Romans chapter 12 look at verse number one I was as I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service the few things that I've even covered today pales in comparison to offering your body as a living sacrifice because that's every day that's saying I'm gonna offer up my body and you know it says holy holy what do you then what are you doing you're keeping your body holy because you're keeping the commandments because you're seeing what God says is unholy and what is holy and you're putting a difference between the two and you say you know what I'm gonna be holy that goes beyond showing up the church that goes way beyond how you dress for church I just mentioned a few little things how about we start getting those little things in place and then expand into every day of your life but if you can't even do the smallest of things how are you going to present your bodies holy as a living sacrifice every day unto the Lord which is your reasonable service and why is it what you're saying that doesn't sound reasonable be okay would you rather just go to hell because I think it's pretty reasonable I think after God has saved your soul from an eternity of being tortured and tormented in a lake of fire I think it's pretty reasonable to say hey I owe everything unto God hey maybe I should just start living for him and seeking him first and giving him the respect and the honor and the love and the attention that's due unto my Savior it's reasonable now I get passionate about this because it's important and I'm not standing here in any way as if I'm better than you look I have my own struggles in this area as well but we cannot let ourselves get comfortable in our habits and in our routines and thinking I'm great with God God's I'm sure is just perfectly happy with me and everything that I'm doing we don't want to get in that malachite priest mindset if we do have a lot of problems if we do have areas we're going you know what I'm really not serving the Lord as I ought to be turn if you would to Matthew chapter 6 I have this in my notes I'll just go over it real quickly but I was gonna I was gonna go over there earlier but it all goes hand in hand with this because we should be giving God our first and our best not our worst and our last that you get first that gets first dibs God should get the first devotion of your time in the morning God should get the first of how about your increase the Bible says in Proverbs 3 9 honor the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase you know when I when I pay my tithe to God that is the first amount of money that's allocated you want to look at my budget you know it's number one underneath my income is my tithe when I start allocating my money it goes to God we start allocating your time the first should go to God when you start deciding what you're gonna do how you're gonna live the things you do it ought to go to God first decide where are you gonna live you're gonna move how about you think about the things of God where am I gonna work how about you start thinking about the things of God right you can't work at a place that's gonna be just completely contradictory and sinful to work at for example it doesn't mean you have to find the most Christian place in the world but just you know you ought to be considering those things like yes I need to work you know it's more important to serve God than it is to disobey God and to make money and of course I was bringing up you know the Bible says honor the Lord with thy substance firstfruits of all the increase so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presence shall burst out with new wine Malachi 3 says basically the same thing that you know you're robbing God we're not paying the tithes and the offerings I'm not gonna get into all that except just you know this is something that God commands he demands the first demands the first fruits that's what the tithes is that first ten the first one out of ten excuse me goes to the Lord and this is all summed up in Matthew chapter 6 just in general and this is where the title of my sermon comes from verse number 31 the Bible reads therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed for after all these things do the Gentiles seek for your Heavenly Father know what that you have need of all these things but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof there's all kinds of worries and concerns and cares of this world that can draw you away from having God first in your life you know what God says seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness I'll take care of the rest you don't have to worry about the evil that might come tomorrow you don't have to worry about where you'll be clothed and fed from tomorrow you don't have to worry about those things because you just seek me first and I'll take care of you I'll take care of you and what a great relief and what you know with all the stresses and with all the cares that we could have in this world God says just give me your first give me now if you give God the last this promise doesn't apply because he says seek ye first that's why people are in a kid you think well I can't come to church because I've got to work because I've got this problem in this problem this problem this problem hey I would love to be there but you know I can't because I've got these other problems I was just out so when I got someone saved this week and I was really hoping to see him today because I was I was you know explaining you know they didn't have a they're kind of down on a lot of areas I said look what you need and I quoted this verse so I said you need to seek God first so you know I understand how important is to get a job and everything else but you know what you need to make sure that you make the time and you come to church because that's where you're really gonna be helped that's where it starts show God you're serious about serving him and you actually do it because he was talking about it one thing to talk about it one thing to say you love God it's another thing to do it don't be one of these people that just says you love God and then in all of your actions it's like I guess you could say you love God maybe I don't want there to be any doubt and again we all fail to some extent because the command is to love God with all of your heart and all of your mind and all of your soul and all of your strength so hopefully no one's sitting here going like that's a good sermon for this person internalize it okay where are you coming short where is God not first in your life and God knows you have the other things to do but put him first God knows there's all these other things God knows you have a job to go and do God knows that women have jobs to do and things to do at home you know there's so many things that need to be done but where's your priority where's your priority make God number one seek ye first the kingdom of God in his righteousness seek that first God deserves it it's due unto him and and if you'd really do search all right if you really do love God you know and you say no look I really do love God then show him that you love him show him it's not about showing everyone else show him that you love him as far as I've ordered prayer your Lord would love you we do love you Lord I know I know I know our church I know our church family here and I know we do love you and I know there's many people here making sacrifices Lord there's plenty of people making sacrifices even just to be here in this congregation Lord we do love you Lord help us to to identify the areas where we have been slacking know Lord I know some of the areas I've been slacking in my personal life and not giving you the first in in in Myers or I have prayed please help all of us to be aware of these areas so that we can make the changes so that we can start moving forward showing you more love and honor and respect that's due under your name because that is the first and great commandment Lord's love you with all our heart mind soul and strength that then we can just be more pleasing in your sight we want you to use us to be servants and and to help other people get saved Lord and to be a light that can shine and not just shine but could shine brightly in this world God we do love you please help us we're sinful we need your mercy and but just just help us to prioritize and get our get our act together and get our get our priorities straight we love you to Jesus name we pray amen