By

Shelby G. Floyd

Good morning! It is good to see all of you. We are ready to begin a new year. We pray that God will bless the Heartland church.  Seek to grow numerically and spiritually.

This is the time of the year that we make resolutions. But after a few weeks we forget all about it. I made two resolutions. First, I plan to read my Bible completely in 2024. And the second resolution is I will put God first. I have done that since I first began to preach the gospel about 63 years ago. And yet I fall short each year!

It seems to me that if we keep these two resolutions, we do not need to make a lot of other resolutions. Those two will take care of everything else. Read your Bible and learn what God wants you to do. It is a big book, so it will take discipline to read it completely. And if we put God first, that will take care of most things that we worry about.

Our text is Matthew 6:25-34. There are so many things that ask for our time and attention. And it becomes easy to leave off Bible reading and put other things ahead!

PSYCHOLOGISTS—THREE MAJOR WANTS IN LIFE

Psychologists tell us there are three major wants in life. Have you thought about what you want in 2024? We usually ask ourselves, “what am I going to eat today, what am I going to wear today, and what do we need to do to keep our house up to par? Do we have the money to live and save for our retirement? Those are the thoughts that usually go through our head.

Psychologists recognize these “wants.” We want comfort number one. And that includes food, clothing, home, and security. Number two, we want people to accept us. And we want people to like us, and we want to like other people. This is a basic nature. Third, we want to know the meaning of life. Why are we here and why being here such a short time? We create all these things and then we leave them. So, we ponder those questions.

The psychologist Abraham Maslow created the pyramid of our basic wants. At the base of the pyramid we want things that are physical like food, clothing, and shelter.

Then we want safety. And this is important today with all of the bad stuff going on – we want to be safe. Therefore, with all of the crime in the big cities, the people who want to be safe are moving out to the suburbs and the countryside.

Also we want other people to love us. That is part of our basic nature. God loves us and has commanded us to love one another – even our enemies! Above all he wants us to love him as our God and Creator.

At the top of Maslow’s pyramid is self-actualization. And that is the highest level of personal potential after we fulfill our bodily and ego needs. Then we can do what God created us to be and do. That is a wonderful pyramid, but Jesus listed all of those things before Abraham Maslow was born or wrote those thoughts down.

JESUS LISTED OUR WORLDLY WANTS

Let us take notice of the words of Jesus. “Do not worry about your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you will put on” (Matthew 6:25). So, according to Jesus we should not fret about food, drink, or clothing. God will take care of those “wants.”

And then Jesus gave us some illustrations of how he takes care of his creation.  Jesus talked about the subject of birds. I love to watch birds. In my previous home, it backed up to some beautiful woods. A neighbor who knew I was a preacher climbed up into a big oak tree and put a big cross and a birdhouse on the tree. I enjoyed sitting in the patio and watching the Cardinals, Blue Jays, Robins, and other birds playing in the trees. Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they” (Matthew 6:26)? I have seen birdhouses, but not “bird barns!” They do not need barns because God feeds them. So, we should not worry about our food.

Then Jesus changed the subject to lilies! “Consider the lilies growing out in the field. They do not toil or spin.” And then he drew the conclusion that even Solomon in all of his glory could not match the glory of even one of these lilies.

And then what about our stature? Now who is the tallest man we have in this auditorium? It could be Sam or Ed! Also, who is the shortest man. Usually, short people want to be taller and tall people want to be shorter! Jesus said, “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit (18 inches) to his stature” (Matthew 6:27)? The cubit is 18 inches. How would you like it if some morning you woke up and you were 18 inches taller? If true, it could be a curse and not a blessing.

The tallest man in the world was Robert Wadlow! We have a photo of him and his father. He reached 18 feet and 11 inches tall. He was born in 1918 and he died in 1940. His total life span was only 22 years. And he had all kinds of health problems. It was not healthy to be that tall. His body did not function properly. We have our “gentle giant” and that is what they called Wadlow. He was “the gentle giant.” Later, he toured the country with the Ringling Brothers Circus. So, Jesus said, “Do not worry about your physical makeup.” God made you just like he wants you to be.

SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD

But what should we really be concerned about? The Lord said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). This should be our number one resolution. God will add the other things unto you.

Memorize Matthew 6:33 this year and practice what it says to do!

1. Seek: We have an obligation. Jesus said seek! This verb means to seek in order to find, by thinking, meditating, reasoning, striving, and demanding.

2. First: The order of our seeking the kingdom of God is first! It should be at the top of our list.

3. Jesus specifies what we are to seek. Are we to seek all the things in this world? No. “Seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” He specifies the object of what we are to seek first!

4. And then there is a conditional promise. There is something attached to the promise. When we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then God will attach something to his promise. When we do what he says he will add and throw in all of our material blessings for extra measure! You will not need to worry!

And I can tell you that this is true in my life. I went off to Freed-Hardeman College in 1961 with a wife and one child with $500 in my pocket. I was not prepared to live there in Henderson, Tennessee. When our furniture got there we did not even have a place to live and unload the furniture. I went to the public relations man, W. A. Bradfield and he had me a rental house within two hours. And we had one of the best places to live of all the married students. After that I have never worried how I would make it as a preacher of the gospel. God is always taking care of me to the present day. When we do our part, God will do his part to bless his children!.

And all the Bible spokesmen tell us the same story. Paul wrote, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Also, David wrote in the Psalms, “Oh fear the Lord, you his saints. There is no want to those who fear him” (Psalms 34:9). At this stage in life, there is not much that “I want.” I just want to do God’s will and enjoy life with my family and my church family.

A real-life example is Simon Peter who asked the Lord, “We have left everything to follow you. We gave up our fishing business and we gave up everything to follow you. What are we going to have? Are you going to take care of us?” Jesus answered, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Matthew 19:29-30).

BE CAREFUL ABOUT MAKING BIG PROMISES

And now I speak to you about making big promises. I have observed that people who make big promises do not usually follow through.

Disciple One: Once there was a disciple who said to Jesus, “Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:57-58). The Lord’s answer is, “Do you really want to follow me? You need to realize what you are getting into? Was he willing to put Christ first? We must not impulsively follow Christ from the wrong motive.

It is wonderful when we baptize one into Christ. But that is only the beginning of following Christ. In the old days when they baptized sinners who then did not serve Christ, they would say, “they sat down on the creek bank.” In other words, they quit serving Christ Jesus. Jesus warned this man about making big promises he would not live up to.

The second man said he would follow Christ but first he had to go bury his father. Jesus said, “Let the dead bury the dead, but you go preach the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:6). Therefore, we must be careful about making big promises that we cannot carry out. The answer is we must put Jesus first

PLACING OUR PRIORITIES FIRST

This brings us to the fact that we must plan in life to place our priorities. Here at the first of the year, what are those priorities?

• PRAYER

Like Jesus, we must place prayer first place in the morning. That is a good time to pray to the Lord. The Scripture says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed” (Mark 1:35). Jesus is our example. Get up early at oh dark 6:30 and find a place to pray!

• WORSHIP

we worship on Sunday, the first day of the week as a congregation (Acts 20:1-7). Sunday should be our favorite day of the week. We should put public worship on Sunday first on our list of things to do on “The Lord’s Day.”

William Gladstone was one of the great political leaders of England. He said, “Tell me what the young men of England are doing on Sunday and I will tell you what the future of England will be.” And we could apply that to America also. America will be greater when our young people put Sunday worship at the top of their priorities!

What are our young people doing on Sunday? Most are doing everything except serving the Lord. Even the news announcers are asking, “What is the future of America going to be?” And even the military is having trouble recruiting young people! Our country is crying out for godly young men and women to take the lead in putting Christ and godly living as top priority! 

• WORK FOR GOD

In the third place, we need to work with and for the Lord. God expects us to be busy in the kingdom. “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” (Hebrews 12:28). Let us all put God first and go to work in his kingdom every day!

PUT GOD FIRST

God must be first in everything,
In prayer and praise and song.
First in our hearts, to do his will,
Amid life’s busy throng.

He will not take a second place,
Nor in a corner dwell
”With all thy heart and all thy soul”
”And all thy mind,” as well.

God must be first, above our friends,
Above our work or play
Above our loved ones on this earth,
His love will all repay.

His righteousness, and not our own
His kingdom grand and fair
The soul that puts God first in life
Will banish worldly care.

The peace of God shall keep each heart,
In Christ we shall rejoice.
Until we see Him as He is,
And hear His loving voice.

God First–Hazel A. Dillehay

Copyright © 2024 Shelby G. Floyd, All Rights Reserved

Shelby G. Floyd delivered this lesson January 7, 2024, at the Heartland Church of Christ, 1693 West Main Street, Greenwood, Indiana 46142