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“FIRST THINGS FIRST” (2/27/11)

SCRIPTURES: Isaiah 49: 8-16 & Matthew 6: 24-34
KEY CONCEPTS: Priorities enable people to focus on what’s most important; spiritual
priorities enable us to focus personal growth & service to God & others.
OPENING ILLUSTRATION:
Many years ago, back in 1988, I was sent to Houma, LA to speak for a week at a mission
conference. It was my first time at such an event & I’ll never forget some of the things I
learned during that week. One of the key lessons I learned that week was the value of
sacrificial giving. At the close of an evening’s event, I was standing around talking to people
& answering questions – when an elderly woman came up to me. She was small in stature &
in some ways she reminded me of my Grandma Cooley, who had died only 6 years earlier.
When it was just the two of us, she reached out to shake my hand & as she shook my hand,
she put something into it & then walked away. I opened my hand to see money that had
been folded up & in that moment I felt something in my heart that – to this day has stayed
with me. It was the struggle to “receive something that I knew the other person very much
needed themselves.” And as she turned to go, other people came up to me to thank me for
coming to their church.
I caught up with her & tried to give the money back, because I knew she was retired, on a
fixed income with very limited resources. She refused to take the money back saying that
she had learned to trust God to provide for her needs & that she felt like God wanted her to
give me that money. She told me that she believed in my ministry & that I should use the
money as I saw fit. I DID accept her gift because when God asks something of a person, we
cannot stand in the way or try to talk them out of it.
You know, I never spent the money because it became a tangible reminder of this woman’s
faith AND because even though the actual amount was small ($2.00); it paid for an invaluable
lesson in my life & subsequent ministry.
WILL YOU PRAY WITH ME? PRAYER:
LITERARY EXAMPLE:
Maybe today’s sermon title is familiar to some of you, for it comes from a book entitled,
First Things First: To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy, authored by Stephen
Covey who also penned the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Briefly, some key thoughts of Covey’s First Things First:
 Sometimes - The enemy of the “best” is the “good.” (Page 17)
 In one of Covey’s illustrations of the clock & the compass: (Section 1 – pg. 15)
 Clock represents our commitments, appointments, schedules, goals, activities – what
we do with & how we manage our time. (Page 19)
 Compass represents our vision, values, principles, mission, conscience, direction –
what we feel is important & how we lead our lives. (Page 19)
According to Covey, the gap between these 2 items causes us to feel trapped, controlled by
other people & situations. Often times, we feel as though we’re always responding to crises.
We spend most of our time putting out fires & never getting around to those things that will
make a real & lasting difference. (Page 20)
And then…we have what Covey defines, “wake up calls”….those situations & circumstances
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that offer us an opportunity to reprioritize our lives for the better – IF we’re willing & IF we
make the conscious decision to put “FIRST THINGS FIRST”.
Wake up calls include, but are not limited to:
The death of a loved one, a health crisis for us or for someone we know & love, issues with
our children, a child on drugs, a divorce or change in our primary relationship, job loss, etc.
You get the idea, I think.
Ideally, wake up calls afford us opportunities to confront the critical issues of life. However,
many times instead of looking for deep chronic causes & a more lasting & healthy resolution,
we look for a quick-fix, using merely Band-Aids & aspirin to treat the acute pain. Once we
feel the least bit of relief, we rush back into our crazy schedules – doing “good things” &
ignoring the “best things”.
TRANSITION:
Like those of us living in the 21st century, Jesus sounds like He also knew something about
“good” being the enemy of the “best”. He spoke about it in today’s Gospel reading.
GOSPEL READING – MATTHEW 6: 24-34:
In today’s reading from Matthew, chapter 6, verses 24-34, Jesus spoke of the “good things of
human life” – food, clothing, how we look, what we eat & drink – our daily lives…..All “good
things”…that when elevated to being “our lives” become worrisome & all consuming.
In Jesus’ own words, He posed these questions:
 Is life not more than food & the body more than clothing?
 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?
Then, Jesus proclaimed that indeed your heavenly Father/Mother knows that you need all
these things & therefore, our spiritual priorities – if we live a deep & abiding faith – we’re more
attuned to God’s “FIRST THINGS BEING FIRST” – which according to this reading are:
1. Strive FIRST for the dominion of God & righteousness, & all these things will be
given to you as well.
2. Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.
Today’s trouble is enough for today.
ONLINE READING: Religion & possessions
These verses form a unity devoted to the topic of possessions. The heart is the center of our
will. When we live an undue focus on possessions, our judgment can become distorted.
These verses offer a warning against allowing concern for basic needs to supersede God’s
rule. The summary in Matthew of how to balance human needs & priorities with service to
God illustrates the disciple’s overall trust in God.
ONLINE: Personal Application:
So, as we apply these spiritual truths to our daily lives, what might we learn in how to balance
our human needs & priorities with service to God & God’s kingdom? Can we agree that?
 Some people in the world do NOT have enough food, clothing or basic human
needs – maybe due to the country they live in, resources, etc.
 Although some of us in this room DO stress about finances, a place to live, etc – that
for the most part, we do not fall into the category of being homeless, hungry or naked?
 Some of our stress & worry over possessions is because we “overspent”, overcharged
& tried to live in a way that was/is not in keeping with God’s overall plan & purpose for
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our lives? Our key priority was to “appear a certain way” to other people – maybe to
impress them or to prove we were worthy?
 Do you think that it’s sometimes true – especially for Christians in the United States –
to go light on spiritual depth & maturity & as a result we seek to fill our lives up with
“stuff” to prove we’re important? An external fix using possessions because our
internal life isn’t what we think desires it to be?
 First Things First – dares to realign our priorities to make room for God’s way FIRST,
followed by those material items God gives us to improve not only our lives, but the
lives of others
 Verse 24: Are we at a place in our spiritual maturity where we can “love & be devoted
to God” & then use possessions to move us closer to God’s plan, God’s people &
God’s purposes?
 Will we love God (& others)? And will we use things to help God’s kingdom &
others? OR….will we merely love things & use God & other people for our own
purposes?
CLOSING:
Years later, because of this anonymous woman in Houma, LA & because of my Grandma
Cooley – who gave her tithe to God BEFORE paying any of her household bills, I have a
tangible example of how to love God most, while using money for God’s purposes.
And I am forever indebted to not only this wise & faithful woman from LA – who by now has
gone to be with her God – who taught me, by her life & faith, that a disciple of Jesus Christ
aligns ALL the aspects (especially money) of one’s life with God’s purpose – even when it’s
hard….and even when the rest of the world doesn’t understand. For the total truth is – if God
has YOUR money & financial possessions, then God has you! 
In closing, as your pastor, I will never know what each of you has sacrificed to be here this
morning (time, energy, effort, gas costs), to give your morning offering and/or to follow Jesus
Christ each & every day in a sometimes hostile world. However God knows AND God
delights in you.
For some of us, we rock on in life, like we’re really doing something for God & we wouldn’t
know what true sacrifice was if it walked up & introduced itself. We “think” we’re living
a sacrificial life, but we’re not…not really.
So, as the Lenten season approaches, will each of us consider, asking God to help us find
ONE way, ONE action or ONE spiritual discipline that would draw us closer to Jesus
Christ? Instead of subtracting something (or giving something up) for Lent, what if we
added a spiritual discipline or practice to enhance the dominion of God? Just think
about it…we’ll discuss this more than week.
Thank you, Church! Amen & so it is.