PUTTING GOD FIRST (PASTOR MARLUN HART) 9AM

amen amen amen all right well the title of that message this morning is called putting god first putting god first we're going to be in luke chapter 10 looking at verses 38 to 42. luke chapter 10 verses 38 to 42. i noticed some of you out there this morning are wearing your nfl jerseys y'all ready for some football wow it seemed seemed like it took a while for the season to get here you know i see some of my eagle fans out there too i always love to see my eagle fans but i know some of y'all ready for some football so i know y'all be like don't be too long i got it i got to get ready and well we'll see about that but putting putting god first so this morning i want to bring to our attention the importance of evaluating our christian walk i mean with everything that's going on in the world many believers are struggling to keep their commitment and dedication to the lord which is putting god first in our lives many of us are worried and concerned about many things such as this epidemic crisis we're in our children being exposed to this thing as they return to school our jobs our social status now these worries and concerns has become such a distraction that we're no longer sitting in the presence of the lord and instead of putting the lord first in our lives he has become our second option this poses a question of did we misunderstand or forgot that we made a commitment to the lord when we surrender our lives to him i want us to take a minute to go back and think about the day we surrendered our lives to jesus when god removes sin from our lives when god convicted our hearts of where we were individually and the lord showed up and came to us he'd say are you ready for me to come into your life we made a commitment to jesus when we say lord i make you my lord and savior help me live for you from this day forward i surrender i give myself away to you have we forgot that have we misunderstood in other words what we were really saying watch this it's not about me but it's about you our lives it's about jesus christ we were bought with a price our lives are not our own they belong to jesus christ but when we made this commitment to jesus to be our lord and savior what we were really saying was it's no longer about us it's about him it's no longer about our will it's about his will and what he wants to do in and through our lives and if we understand this commitment then we should know that god has to be first in our lives amen and so in the busyness of our lives we expect often and most of the time we expect the lord watch this to adapt to what we have going on and the lord is saying hold up i thought i was first hold up i thought i was first my wife reminded me this week when i was studying and in prayer on this message she said you just make sure you put god first and not rush that message to get home and watch football or something i say when the eagles play let me see i got to work on this message he said you better make sure you put god first and don't rush that message trying to watch some football so even i had to be reminded of that but this morning we would meet a lady who loved the lord how many of you love the lord we're going to need a lady who loved the lord inviting him to her home as a guest for dinner but as she's in the kitchen preparing his meal watch this though she puts jesus on the back burner she was she was worried and concerned about many things and too busy to even acknowledge that he was there now just to give us a little background in verses 25 to 37 jesus confronted a lawyer which was a scholar of the old testament seeing jesus as a threat and wanted to trap him now being a scholar of the law and living under the law walking in the law jesus answered him according to the law when asked what must i do to have eternal life jesus asked what was written in the law and he said to love god with all your heart soul mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself but when it came to loving his neighbor he wanted to justify himself and so jesus spoke a parable about the good samaritan the point that jesus made to him in that parable was that anyone who comes to contact who has a need we are to show mercy and care for that person that was the whole point of the parable about the good samaritan now we pick it up in verse 38 and 39 look what it says now what happened as they went that they entered a certain village and a certain woman named martha welcomed him into her house now many of us are familiar about mary and martha mary and martha were intimate friends of jesus we see these sisters several times in the gospel the most well-known occasion being when jesus raised their brother lazarus from the dead in john chapter 11 but i want you to notice that jesus was welcomed in their home is jesus welcomed in your home is he welcomed in your home or are you too busy and have too much going on to have company is he welcome welcomed in your home i mean what would jesus observe if he entered your home what do you see a family of chaos and everybody doing their own thing you're just too busy got too much going on what do you see a marriage in conflict and say what in the world is going on in here i just wonder if what would the lord observe in our homes is he welcomed in your home let me take it a little step closer is jesus welcomed in the home of your heart i mean he is supposed to be what living there right god lives in us how can you live somewhere where you're not welcomed see god lives in us jesus lives in us but most of the time he's not welcomed and so what do we do we look for a way to evict him because we have too much going on god has to be first in our lives and this is what the lord wants us to see he he wants to not only live there he want to sup with us he want to he want a relationship he want to keep that connection with us this is the lord's desire for you and i and i believe the reason why many believers don't sense god's presence is because they have evicted god from their heart because of the rat race we have going on some of us just got too busy and got too much going on i want us to also notice what mary did the minute jesus entered the home and sat down she said right at his feet wow she barely gave jesus a chance to sit she would she probably was rushing jesus hurry up and sit down i'm going to sit right at your feet because i'm not gonna miss this opportunity to be in your presence lord i don't have all that going on i know what it means to put you first lord i'm ready to sit at your feet but also every time this wasn't nothing new for mary because every time we see mary in the scriptures she was at the feet of jesus did you know that in john chapter 11 verse 32 she fell at the feet of jesus in john chapter 12 verse 3 she anointed to jesus feet and here in luke she's listening at his feet always at the feet of jesus there was something about the feet of jesus i don't know if i can sit you know near some of you guys feet you know some dogs y'all yeah but she was always sitting at the feet of jesus see you have to understand here's the thing to sit at one's feet during this time was the position of a student submitting to the teacher mary loved jesus and wanted to absorb everything he had to say she didn't want to miss anything that the lord wanted to speak mary knew what it meant to put god first and she immediately jumped at the chance to sit at his feet let me ask you this morning how often do you sit at the feet of jesus is it only when you in and when you have a need or you're in a crisis see we're quick to call on upon the lord when we need something we're quick to call upon the lord when we're in a crisis how often do you sit at the feet of jesus is it only on sunday morning when you come here but the rest of the week we don't even acknowledge he's there we're not sitting at his feet this is this is what the lord wants us to see and i believe the lord is heartbroken when we when they when we neglect putting him first by not spending time with him i'm reminded of genesis chapter 3 when god walked with adam in the cool of the day spending time with him the lord looked for adam daley and couldn't wait to walk and spend time with him for adam to be in his presence for adam to be at his feet the lord couldn't wait to walk with adam every morning god showed up for his walk with him until one day adam didn't show up he didn't show up here's the thing he didn't show up because he was caught up this is why adam didn't show up is that you are you too caught up in your job on social media the business of this life to see that defeat of jesus what is distracting you from putting god first from spending time in his presence from sitting at his feet learning the ways of the master what is distracting you what is keeping you from doing that we have to re reassess reevaluate where we are because god must be first in our lives amen mary and martha the sisters but they were very different very different mary loved jesus and so did martha but she had a little different perspective than what mary had oh but martha look at verse 40 but martha was distracted with much serving and she approached him and said lord do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone therefore tell her to help me martha was distracted in the midst of her preparation of the meal she was preparing for jesus huh it dawned on her that she was preparing alone her sister was listening to the sermon and martha was becoming fed up with making dinner for jesus all by herself and so what does she do she storms out of the kitchen ignores her sister to approach jesus see this is what happens when we're too busy and have too much going on we become angry frustrated bitter and then we begin to lash out oh let me just tell you parents please be aware be careful of this parents be aware not to lash out and take it out on your children because you have too much going on it's not their fault we need to slow our role and yet we can have so much going on and we're trying to fix this and do this and do that and we take it out on the children because we don't even have time to sit we don't have time to sit or anything and so here it is martha martha was so caught up in making the meal she was so caught up in making this meal that she forgot the most important part of the meal which was the bread the bread of life huh you making this meal but you the the most important part of the meal is the bread how many of you gotta have bread with everything you eat you love them biscuits boredom rose martha making in the kitchen making this meal but she forgot the best part of the meal which is the bread jesus christ how you gonna eat without him he's the bread of life that's why what we sit down we give thanks for our meal i'm not sitting having a meal without jesus lord thank you for this meal i'm about to put it down you can join me sit here with me i'm about to you know but she forgot the bread of life then she rudely interrupt jesus certainly with mary no she didn't in other words mary martha said um did you see do you care and do you see that my sister's not helping me tell her to help me hold on [Music] i'm reminded of the disciples when they said the same thing in the boat lord don't you care we're perishing why is it that when we're going through something we assume that the lord doesn't care he's right there he was right there with the disciples when they were in the boat jesus said oh don't you see i'm with you why are you so worried and concerned about this boat sinking i'm with you martha martha you you caught up martha you got you you're concerned about many things i'm right here you're missing it you're missing it martha we always assume that the lord doesn't care he's right there he was with the disciples in the bowl he was with martha and he's also with us as well amen amen but hold up martha first of all do you know who you talking to this see this was my question i mean here's the watch this here's the thing when i was reading what how martha's approach was i was like do you know who you talking to i mean she made me mad for a moment i had to pause my study and take a deep breath and i almost grabbed my belt like if i can get a hold of martha boy you know you talking to uh um move move mary do you care that i'm in making this meal can you tell her to help me jesus said hold up i'm in the middle of a sermon i'm talking to your sister what come on martha what are you doing whoa she lucky there was the lord i tell you that because anybody else would have flipped the script on him i mean come on martha but see here's the thing just like that martha went from welcoming jesus to blaming him for not caring about her isn't that something sometimes we we praise the lord but the minute something goes wrong we're blaming them lord why did you allow this to happen to me lord why has this happened that's what the bible calls fickle people you know that the bible says that we're fickle people we're one way one minute the next minute we're somebody entirely different you know something we're very fickle and so here it is she she just i couldn't believe how martha approached the lord right here but notice her inference jesus if you really cared you wouldn't be talking right now you would do things my way isn't that something this caused a conflict with her sister mary as well because she refused to even address mary directly and had the nerve to ask jesus to do it i'm just going to bypass her oh can you tell them martha was busy and not blessed because her busyness caused her to miss out on her blessing isn't that something her business caused her to miss out on her blessing because the meal took priority over jesus see this is what happens when we have too much going on and we're not sitting in the presence of the lord we're not sitting at the feet of jesus we don't put god first watch this when we begin to miss out on our blessings and you wonder why you're not blessed because god is not first in your life that's why you don't take the time to sit at his feet you don't take the time to sit in his presence martha missed out on her blessing because of this because she was more caught up in the meal than caught up in jesus and if we don't put god first in our lives we would miss out on many blessings as well also we become distracted by other things like martha here's this watch this here's the danger even when we serve the lord here's the danger in that also when we can become distracted by other things like martha our service to the lord will become a burden see we begin to serve god with a bird it's a drag to serve the lord oh i got to go to the church of minnesota today what wish i ain't have to go today it's a drag now it's a burden you're not doing it with joy anymore because you have too much going on because you neglect being in the presence of the lord now your service to god is a bird is a drag and the question becomes has it become a burden or a drag for you to serve the lord and if so we need to go back and reevaluate of what matters most which is putting god first in sitting in his presence amen we got to reevaluate the son of man didn't come to be served but to serve god has called us to be servants we can't serve the lord like as a with a burden or like it's like as a drag we have to have a desire to want to serve him and the more we at his feet the more uh the way the more the way we do things when it comes to serving the lord the more he's going to be involved in our lives and this is what martha had to learn and try to understand look what it says in verses 41 and 42 and jesus answered and said to her martha martha you were worried and troubled about many things but one thing is needed and mary has chosen that good part which would not be taken away from her you have to love the lord amen you have to love the lord at the martha's rampage right jesus calmly says to her mother martha i mean jesus wasn't moved by her approach only the lord can do that amen only the lord can do that he said martha martha you're worried and concerned about many things mary has chosen the best thing which is to be in my presence see this is what the lord was trying to get martha to see and see the thing is jesus wasn't wasn't suggesting to martha that there was no work to be done rather he was saying that when you your work or your business damage your relationship with him we need to reassess what we have going on that's what that's the point he was trying to make mary chose what matters most relationship that's what mary chose her relationship was more important than anything she had going on around her any person any place or anything jesus was more important he was first in her life because she knew her relationship with the lord is what mattered most what matters most to you today is it your job is it your house what what's more important than having a relationship with jesus are some of the distractions that we're going through that's causing us to have a gap in our relationship with the lord martha chose what matters most she put her relationship before anything else even before the dinner meal even before her own sister you're gonna be in there cooking that meal by yourself i'm sitting with jesus my relationship is more important that meal see this was the mindset that mary had and she wasn't going to miss an opportunity to sit in jesus presence to hear him teach he was teaching he was he was doing a sermon now even though it was a big gourmet meal mary understood that man does not live by bread or law isn't that something that's not lived by bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of the lord deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 3 tells us that i don't care how good the meal is how big the meal is in other words it don't matter how much work you put into something how busy you get how much you got going on you can't live off that but we live with the words that proceed from the mouth of the lord because the lord directs our steps this is how we live mary she understood this jesus was telling martha you're fixing this big meal martha with all these side dishes but don't you understand i just want a simple meal the simplicity of who the lord is see the lord doesn't ask for much from us he gives to us he blesses us don't the only thing he ask is have a relationship with me and put me first i just want to be first we're wrestling with the busyness of life the cares of this world the cares of this life we're wrestling with these things we're so caught up with wrestling we're trying to fix things in our own strength to do all these things like it reminds me of jacob jacob wrestled with the lord but it wasn't to jacob laid down and had a dream god said man i can work isn't that something some of us need to sit down somewhere lay down lay down for a minute you got too much going on you're too busy and you're wrestling in your own strength it's like thanksgiving you know every year boy thanksgiving lord willing i see my mom she's making that big thanksgiving meal like many of you spent all day cooking boy and then when the guests arrive we're exhausted too tired to eat too tired to eat to even interact to socialize oh i'm beat see this is what's the cares of this life and the business of this world do to us because we got so much going on and when it's time to sit at the feet of jesus we're exhausted let's say lord i ain't got time today i'm going to sleep i'm tired we got to slow it down see this was this was martha she cooking this big old meal and when jesus arrived as the guest she was too exhausted and it showed in her frustration we have to get somewhere and sit down my mom used to tell me all the time boy get somewhere sit down get somewhere and sit down with all we got going on we too exhausted to put god first all these things we're trying to do and fixing our own strength along with the business of life we forget the one that has the power to see us through it all which is jesus christ if we will only put him first well pastor you don't understand i just have too much on my plate no i i understand i got too much going on with all this craziness in the world and i just it's too much on my plate i'm i'm poor this way i'm poor that way it's just too much well matthew chapter 6 verse 33 says seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you all with things all the things that you're worried and concerned about god would deal with if you seek first the kingdom first not second not third not fourth seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these other things will be added to you the things we so concerned with jesus say if you only knew if you only would put me first so i can fix those things i'm the one who has the power to fix it just put me first me conclude with this we learned in our text this morning that being a busybody distractions and being worried and concerned about many things causes us to put god on the back burner where he's no longer first in our lives also the cares of this life will cause us to serve god with a burden and do him a disservice because we find ourselves like martha doing it out of frustration amen as the worship team come up this morning i want to encourage you to come to the altar this morning i really want to encourage you to come to the altar this morning and do business with god some of us need to recommit our lives to the lord you remember i said at the very beginning we made a commitment to put god first in our lives when we surrendered our life to him some of us have moved away from that we need to reconnect we need to recommit our lives to jesus and say lord i'm sorry i'm sorry that i have put the cares of this life the cares of this world before you and you're no longer first in my life i'm sorry lord and you need to come up to the altar this morning and make it right that the lord may reconnect with you because you haven't been living up to your commitment the lord is very aware what's going on in our world and our lives personally on our jobs he's he's very aware of these things but the lord is saying if you would just come to me and sit at my feet and sit in my presence where i can speak to you to tell you everything is going to be okay if you just come to me will someone come to the altar this morning maybe you're here today you don't know jesus christ is your personal lord and savior you want to commit your life to jesus say lord i want to commit my life to you this morning i want to surrender my life to you lord i want to make you the lord of my life i want to make you first because i've tried everything and everyone and none of that didn't suffice it's only you lord that can do it will you come this morning to meet jesus would you come and reconnect with them and say lord i have mercy upon me i've blown it i have put other people and other things before you lord and this is the outcome that i have i'm struggling i'm wrestling [Music] the lord is saying when is enough is going to be enough let me know when you're tired of doing that when is enough is going to be enough my love for you is unconditional this is why i came that you may have life and have life more abundantly not to struggle in your own strength not to place the cares of this world before me not to be so busy you have so much going on that you don't have time for me anymore we got to put god first if god is speaking to you this morning i need you to come to the heart you got to get it right with the lord you got to get it right with them [Music] this is the time now and if you're here and you haven't accepted jesus christ you just repeat this prayer with me say father forgive me for my sin i believe that you lord died and was buried and rose again lord come into my life i make you my lord and savior help me live for you from this day forward help me walk in your truth in your ways i surrender i live my life for you have your way with me jesus in jesus name amen amen let's stand let's stand for those online again if you have repeated that prayer we'd love to hear from you again leave a comment we want to thank you for joining our service and thank everyone that was here this morning and allowed the lord to speak to your hearts as well and as you all know here at kyrie chapel we're committed to teaching you the word of god one verse at a time chapter by chapter verse by verse book by book amen god bless you [Music] small [Music] god when you rise up enemies [Music] [Music] you take our weakness [Music] [Music] you've an itch and you make a mile with nothing but ashes you start a fire [Music] you found us as captives you rescued our hearts jesus our victory how great you are [Music] [Music] well this is [Music] how [Music] yes [Music] jesus [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] enemy [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes you do we're [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] lord you make us stronger [Music] lord you are the healer you are the defender you are our comforter [Music] sometimes all we have is an issue lord and you make a mile [Music] you make a stronger lord take away this you make us stronger you take our weakness you make us stronger you make us stronger lord we cherish you and we thank you for the strength that only you can give lord so be with us on this day as we leave this place lord continue to shape our hearts continue to just allow us to meditate on your word and to put it into action and we just thank you for being here your presence with us today we honor you and we thank you in the mighty name of jesus christ amen amen can we give a great praise one more time before we leave praise god god bless you awesome message thank you for joining us today if you made a decision to follow jesus click the link we have a free gift we'd love to share with you as well as some information about next steps in your walk with jesus there's also a link if you simply want prayer or want to share some exciting news that god is doing in your life finally if you've been blessed by the ministry at calvary chapel newport news consider partnering with us financially you can click the giving link below or you can text calvary nn to 77977 your financial gift helps us to continue to reach the world with the gospel of jesus christ god bless you thank you for joining us and continue to reach up in around and out you

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Length: 37min 44sec (2264 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021