26 Mar First Things First (Worship is not just the song that I sing, but the life that I live) Part 6

Over the last few weeks I have been asking you a very urgent question.

Your life revolves around ________ ?
Then we began to share with you “10 First Fixes.” Just for a few moments, would you be so
kind as to honestly reflect on this question? So many times what we think our life revolves
around and what our life actually revolves around are two entirely different things.

Our life actually revolves around our:
1. Time
2. Talent
3. Treasure
4. Thoughts
5. Talk

In other words, our lives actually revolve around what we spend most of our time, talent,
treasure, thoughts and talk on. Notice what Paul said by the Holy Spirit, “When Christ, who is
our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.” Notice this phrase “Christ,
who is my life.” Not Christ who is part of my life…but Christ who IS my life! Paul’s life revolved
around Christ and His kingdom.

In this question I asked earlier, there are so many things our life could revolve around:
1. Money 6. Social media
2. Career 7. Your spouse
3. Sports 8. Your children
4. Power 9. Your phone
5. Sex 10. Acceptance

On and on our list could go. If your time, talent, treasure, thought and talk revolve around any
of these things, you will never experience the peace, joy, purpose and fulfillment, destiny and
satisfaction God wants you to enjoy. So let’s see if we can’t fix some of our priorities. Let’s put
first things first!

We began to share with you “10 First Fixes”:

1. Worship is not just the song that you sing, but the life that you live.

2. When you come to church on Sunday…don’t come to worship, bring your worship
with you. Then take it home on Monday!

3. Quit treating God like a spare tire…you only pull Him out in emergencies

Please don’t mistake me if you are in an emergency, the best person to “pull out” is
certainly God. The Bible tells us, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord
delivers him out of them all.” (Ps. 34:19). Notice the plurality of problems “Many are the
afflictions of the righteous.” Notice the singularity of the answer, “THE Lord delivers us
out of them all.”
So please, call upon Him in emergencies! However if that is the only time we ever call
on Him, we are inadvertently ensuring our next emergency! Imagine if the only time
you ever talked to your spouse was in an emergency…you would not have much of a
relationship!

4. Once you pull God out…keep Him out!
Don’t treat God like Aladdin…a genie in a bottle!

At Joy Church, we always encourage people to give God their “first 15.” Everyday spend
five minutes in the Word, five minutes in praise and five minutes in prayer. This is no
place to end but a good place to start! Anybody can give God his or her first 15! That
way you can be proactive in life instead of reacting to life!

This week we continue with…

5. You will always become like what you worship.

The Bible tells us in James 4:5, “Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit
who dwells in us yearns jealously?” Here the Bible tells us something very unique and
powerful. God is a jealous God. Therefore, that tells us while there clearly is a sinful
jealousy; there is also a Godly jealousy. To understand this let us define “jealousy” as “I
want what you’ve got.”

If I am jealous of your car, position, income, etc…I want what you’ve got. This is of
course sin. If God is jealous…what could He possibly want that He doesn’t already have?
He wants YOU! Not for His sake, but for yours! The only thing we can offer an all-
sufficient God is our worship.
When the creation is connected to the Creator, things always go best for the creation!

6. The man molds the idol…then the idol molds the man.

The Bible tells us in Isaiah 44:14-17, “He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the
cypress and the oak; He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a
pine, and the rain nourishes it. Then it shall be for a man to burn, for he will take some
of it and warm himself; yes, he kindles it and bakes bread; indeed he makes a god and
worships it; He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it. He burns half of it in the

fire; with this half he eats meat; he roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He even warms
himself and says, “Ah! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” And the rest of it he makes into
a god, his carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, prays to it and says,
“Deliver me, for you are my god!”

In context, Isaiah tells us where idolatry begins. Man cuts down a tree, starts a fire,
roasts some food, sees the fire and warms himself….all legitimate uses of God’s
creation. However, then he takes the other half of that tree and molds it into an idol
and says, “Deliver me.” Knowing full well it is man-made, he now tries to use it
illegitimately to fill some void in his life.

We laugh and think how unsophisticated can one be? Yet in America, we do the same
thing in a more sophisticated way. We try to download from a person, money, career,
sports, or even ice cream…something it was never hard-wired to give us. Please don’t
mistake me…people, money, sports, career and even ice cream is not sin, but when we
turn to any of them to fill the emptiness in our heart, we have done the same thing the
man in Isaiah’s day did…just in a more sophisticated way!
The only Person Who can fill that hole in your heart is Jesus!

7. “I’ll do anything you want God”…until He asks you!

There are times when we sense the presence of God and we are caught up in emotions
as we worship God. In those times, it is often easy to utter, “I’ll do anything you want
me to do, God.” Then He tells you to give that person in your church your favorite
dress, or tip that waitress fifty dollars on a $50 dinner when you need a raise.
People literally watch us online from 22 different countries and all around the United
States. Well, one day I received a text from someone who watches from Florida. In the
text he complimented my shirt. As I was reading this, I sensed the Holy Spirit whisper
“give him that shirt.” Sounds easy but it was one of my favorite shirts and was a gift
from someone special. I had received many compliments when wearing that shirt
(when you look like me, those compliments are rare and appreciated ).

Well, I deliberated back and forth with the Lord. What eventually gave me the incentive
to give him this shirt was a mental picture of him opening up a package with this shirt in
it! The joy and value that this man would experience would far out-weigh some
occasional compliments I might receive! Therefore, we washed the shirt and sent it to
him, and much to my excitement, he sent me a picture of him wearing the shirt and
holding a microphone in his hand. In the background was a big screen TV with me on it
in that same shirt! He was posing in an identical fashion as I was on the TV. He
expressed to me that with the size of our ministry and me taking time to send one
viewer in Florida my shirt…it made him feel so special and loved and valued by God!
Plus now he can say, “I know a preacher that will literally give you the shirt off his back!”

Next month we’ll continue our series.