Faithfulness, priorities and the Great Commission

Matthew chapter 28. I certainly appreciate each one that's come along again this evening. Matthew chapter 28.

We've been thinking about the subject of commitment and faithfulness and last night we were looking at the Lord Jesus as the supreme pattern of faithfulness. Now I want to think a little bit about what we might call the missionary mandate or the Great Commission as it is often called and a glimpse of the first local assembly and then the assembly at Thessalonica which is called the model assembly at times in the Word of God. So we want to look at a little bit more of the idea of the pattern given to us in the Word of God.

Matthew 28 and verse 18. Now this is in resurrection shortly before the Lord would return to heaven. And Jesus came and spake unto them, that is the disciples, the Apostles, saying all power or authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations. That word teach is literally to make disciples. Make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

And lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world or the consummation of the age. Amen. Now I think most of us recognize that this is a very powerful mandate, a very extensive mandate given to the disciples.

And as we think about the Lord Jesus the last glimpse that the world had of him from Matthew chapter 27 is upon a cross. Whipped, brutalized, shamed, robed with a robe of mockery and then stripped of everything on the cross. The last thing that you would expect is to consider him as the sovereign of the universe.

But there he is in resurrection. God has overturned the verdict of men. God has taken away their evaluation and replaced it with his own.

And he is about to place his son at his right hand in the position of absolute sovereignty over everything. So as the one who is the sovereign of the universe he gives to his followers this mandate. Worldwide go and make disciples.

Now we know that they fulfilled this by preaching the gospel. In Mark chapter 16 that's the way it's expressed. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.

Here it's put in the framework of making disciples. And it's interesting that in making disciples, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son of the Holy Ghost, teaching them. You notice baptizing and teaching with the ING verbs.

That explains the making of disciples. Of course the gospel had to be accepted. But baptism is that initiation into the life of a disciple.

It has been well called the pledge of discipleship. And I understand that you're going to be having a baptism here shortly. So you'll get to think about this again.

My challenge tonight is not so much for whoever will be getting baptized, but for all of us. Have we fulfilled what baptism represents? Are we living in the attitude of what we might call a baptized life? Because baptism expresses the end of one kind of life. It's a funeral.

It's the termination, the setting aside, the cutting off of all natural relationships, all earthly strings, the relinquishing of everything that belongs to that old life, of the connection to sin, and the acknowledgment of a new life, a new relationship to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, the one risen from the dead. So it's a funeral and yet it's also the celebration of a new beginning. So it's quite a paradoxical idea, a baptism.

Now baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Here we have an identification with a revelation of God. God has revealed himself to mankind in this revelation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

And so we are being united to this one who is the eternal God into association with him and his work, his kingdom. Verse 20 really expresses the ongoing issue that we are to be taught everything that the Savior ever commanded, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And so baptism isn't the end of our responsibility, it's just the initiation into this new relationship.

And so there's a whole life to live of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is the mandate that we are given in evangelism. Now I remember some years ago being at an assembly where I was giving some teaching.

I don't even remember exactly the subject I was giving teaching on, but there was a Christian came in whom I didn't know who was actually from the land of Egypt. At least that was his origin. And he wasn't too sure about what we taught and believed.

He had heard that we were a closed fellowship, and so he thought he wasn't sure whether he was even welcome to come to a ministry meeting, which I assured him that there was certainly no problem about that. And the idea of a closed fellowship has really to do with the breaking of bread and the idea that the breaking of bread is associated with that assembly and its functioning, its privilege, rather than just an open table. But anyway, he was a little bit debating with me about the validity of what we believed.

And so he made this comment to me. He said, well, why can't we just work together for the sake of the gospel? And I said to him, well, let's think about it. Let's rent a neutral building here in this community, and we'll preach the gospel.

And let's assume that the Lord graciously blesses and there's a good number of people get saved. Wonderful. Where do we go from here? Well, what are we going to teach them? Well, the mandate is here in Matthew 28.

First thing you should do is teach them identification with the Lord, to associate with him as a follower, to be baptized into association with him, and then to teach everything that he has given to us, everything that's in the New Testament, the Apostles' Doctrine. And this man, this, I believe, is a true Christian. He began to recognize that there is a problem, because he said that what he was associated with was kind of like an interdenominational mission, and they were actually going to the area of Egypt, and they were going to do some mission work.

But they were forbidden to teach anything beyond the strictly gospel message. They weren't even to mention baptism, because there were differing views held by the sponsoring churches. And so even though he was thinking that we were being very restrictive in our thinking to not work together with everybody all at once for the sake of the gospel, he finally came around to acknowledging that he couldn't fulfill the Great Commission.

He couldn't fulfill what we are given to preach and to teach, because of this incompatibility of belief. And so yes, things are complicated today, but our basis must always be the Scriptures. It must be the truth that has been committed to us.

And so that's the foundation that we must work from. Now let's go to, I'll give you a little bit more in Acts chapter 20, just a couple of references that are speaking about the responsibility of evangelism and of shepherding. Paul is speaking to the elders from the assembly at Ephesus who have come to meet him.

And he says in verse 20, Acts chapter 20 and verse 20, says, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. So here's again some of the basic fundamental concepts of repentance and faith that are essential in the preaching of the gospel. But you notice that he says, I have taught you publicly and from house to house.

So in other words, there's both public proclamation of the gospel and there is personal witness, individual conversation. And so the gospel is to be spoken, it is to be shared, it is to be proclaimed, it is to be declared. And so we have a tremendous responsibility.

And we can never be satisfied just to say that we have a Sunday night gospel meeting. And if anyone wants to get saved they can come to our gospel meeting. We have an ongoing, unending responsibility to bring the gospel to as many as we can in whatever avenue becomes available to us.

But that is also emphasized in relation to the assembly. And from verse 28 now, he says, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the church or assembly of God which he has purchased with his own blood. For I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock.

And also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every one night and day with tears. Now I could have mentioned the tears back in verse 19 as well.

The life of the Apostle Paul has always been not only an inspiration to me but a rebuke to me. He did not settle down. He did not accept the status quo.

He didn't just let the world go by. He didn't live and let live as we seem to be getting accustomed to today. Whether it was to the unsaved or whether it was to the Saints of God, he had an unceasing interest and concern, a very deep compassion to seek out, to seek to help every one that he could.

And again I just want to draw attention to this. In many assemblies we seem to be content to just carry on the public gatherings, and I'm not minimizing the public gatherings, but there's a tremendous amount of work among the children of God, among the Saints, that has to be done personally. Personal interest shown, personal shepherding, and that is one of the greatest weaknesses that we see.

And so the pattern that we have in the Scriptures is of people who devote themselves to fulfill the mandate of the risen Christ, to be faithful to him, to be faithful to those that we come in contact with. Let's go back to Acts chapter 2 just for a glimpse of the life of the first assembly. Acts chapter 2, in Jerusalem Peter has preached and there's a tremendous response.

Verse 41, Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls, and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine or teaching, and in the fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers. So here is what you might call almost a communal life that is expressed. Of people who have embraced the gospel, but we're not satisfied to just say, now I'm saved.

Now I know I'm going to heaven. Now I know I have eternal life. They recognize there's a horizontal relationship as well as a vertical one, and they not only acknowledge the teaching coming to them from God through the Apostles, now we would say through the New Testament scriptures, and taught by those who teach the Word of God today, but also to be part of a fellowship.

Now fellowship always involves a sense of sharing in common, of participation together, of a partnership together. Fellowship is a very active concept, and I know that in some businesses there are those that are called sleeping partners. That isn't the kind of partners that really God is looking for in his work.

He wants those who are actively interested and involved in him and his work. And so the emphasis I wanted to just give from verse 42 is this, they continued steadfastly. You know, I wish we could grasp the value of good habits, of establishing disciplines of life, doing things because we ought to do them.

Not deciding on the whim of the moment whether I feel like doing them or not. I often said when it comes to going out to meetings, when you don't feel like it is when you need it the most. We really need to set a priority, and that's what I want to really touch on in just a few moments.

But here is the pattern given to us in the scriptures. The work of God is sustained, it is successful in the measure that we continue steadfastly. That we persevere, that we establish habits of life that keep this priority and emphasis of the truth of God being followed and a fellowship being expressed.

The breaking of bread is part of that fellowship. This is one of the reasons why as assemblies that we work among and serve God among, we follow this principle that we don't simply receive people to the breaking of bread. We receive them to the fellowship of the assembly, into a full partnership with all that the assembly is and represents.

And the breaking of bread is one of those beautiful privileges of that fellowship. And in the prayers, and that is the emphasis of our collective dependence upon God and our willingness to serve God together. Let's just have a glimpse of how this is fulfilled more fully in the evangelism and establishing of assemblies in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, there are three evangelists who have been involved in seeing the assembly begin at Thessalonica.

Verse 2, he says, we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father, knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God. And notice what he says from verse 5 down, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that you were or you became examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.

For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God word is spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything. Now there's a lot in this chapter, but just to draw attention to this, and the emphasis I want to give here is similar in a way to Acts 20, but it's simply this, the message and the messengers. There is a tremendous message, a wonderful message of hope, a message of salvation, a message of a Savior, but what about the character of the messengers? What about the character of the people bringing the message? The challenge presented here is this, is that we must live the message.

We must live in the good and the power of what the message of Christ is, the gospel of Christ is. He says, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. In other words, we were the living expression of what the gospel is, so that when these people heard the gospel, they first of all followed or imitated the gospel preachers.

They gathered their understanding of the importance of all that they were being taught from the character of the men who brought it to them. Now you say, well we're not supposed to just follow people. No, we're not just following people, but isn't it wonderful when the people who bring us the truth are not a contradiction of the truth, are not in conflict with it.

This is one of the greatest hindrances to the gospel today. People don't know what to think of the gospel because they see so much contradiction in the lives of those who claim to be followers of Christ. And the reason why I call this a model assembly is because not only did they embrace this truth, as chapter 2 says, verse 13, for this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually works also in you that believe.

They embraced it as God's truth, God's message to them, and then they experienced the power of God's word in their lives. So not only did they accept it and believe it and put all their confidence in it, but they themselves experienced the blessing of God at work within them. And so he speaks about their work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

So what happened after that? Well they had a nice little assembly, maybe a nice big assembly, and they just lived happily ever after. Well not quite. They were immediately confronted with persecution.

Some of them had already died by the time he writes to them in this first epistle just a few months later. They were in the fire and yet they were growing, they were developing, and they were spreading the name of the Lord so that he said we can stand back and just wonder at God at work in you. So that's the pattern that we see in the scriptures of those who believe the gospel, who embrace it personally, and who not only individually seek to live to honor the Lord but recognize that we are part of a fellowship, that we work together with fellow Christians to become a testimony for the Lord.

Now I want to take up the last part of the meeting just thinking about the challenges that we face today in maintaining this commitment and faithfulness. Matthew chapter 6. I want to start out with the idea of priorities. I want to think about priorities, pressures, and perils.

Matthew chapter 6, this is a familiar passage. From verse 25 down he's speaking about our anxieties, the things that we worry about, the things that we're concerned about. Verse 25 he says, therefore I say unto you take no thought, and that's really no anxious thought, for your life what you shall eat.

What you shall drink, nor yet for your body what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? So he goes down through this section and emphasizes this idea.

Verse 32 he says, for after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knows 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, or no anxious thought for the moral, for the moral shall take thought for the things of itself.

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Your father, how well do you know your father? How well do you know his heart? Enough to let you relax, to know that if he knows about it, he'll take care of it, or he'll enable you to take care of it. The emphasis in this section is that we are so prone to be overtaken with worry, anxiety, concerns.

They preoccupy our minds. They make it so we don't have room left in our thoughts to have an interest or concern for God's things. And it's really making us an unbelievable deal here.

He is saying, you worry about my things, and I'll worry about yours. You take care of my interests. You seek me and my things.

I'll add these things to you. If you seek these things instead of me, you'll never be satisfied by them. You'll never be secure, no matter how much you accumulate.

But if you seek me, and give me the priority of your life, trust me, I'll add these needs to you. I will add to you the things that you naturally desire or need. Sounds like a good deal, doesn't it? Your heavenly Father knows.

So there's a priority and a promise that is given to us here. Now some time ago I learned something about the brain which has fascinated me, and I just want to pass it on to you because this is so, to me it's so interesting, and it just highlights why we have so much trouble with our thoughts. You know, the brain is an amazing, amazing organ.

Call it a machine if you want, call it an organ. It's the most amazing piece of equipment in the world, and one of the things that researchers have discovered recently is that they call it plasticity of the brain, which doesn't mean it's made of plastic, but that it is extremely adaptable, and that when you begin to think about something, your brain automatically begins to focus more and more of its brainpower, its neurons, to fulfill that need. Now you know this very typically when you go shopping for a car, or for a house, or for anything else, a computer, or whatever else you may think you happen to need, and you start focusing on this, what do you do? Pretty soon you're seeing every for-sale sign that relates to that, and then eventually you make your decision, you make your purchase, and you'll find for the next month, two months even, you still notice every sign, but then it gradually diminishes, and you can drive by those signs, it doesn't mean anything to you, and that is just some of the adaptability of the brain to the direction that you have focused it upon, and the reason I'm bringing this out is because whatever we worry about is going to become more and more and more powerful in its control of our thinking.

Whatever you desire and allow to control you and draw you out begins to take more and more and more control. That's the power of habit, and that is why to develop a habit of seeking God, of giving God priority, is such a valuable thing to do, because it will literally reshape your brain, it will reshape your thinking, your desires, your concerns, your occupation of mind. So when he says, take therefore no anxious thought for the moral, for the moral shall take thought for the things of itself.

Sufficient under the day is the evil thereof. He is saying every day comes with its own amount of difficulty, challenges. Don't multiply and take unto yourself all the past and keep dragging that into your present, or anticipation anxiety, where you're worrying about what may be tomorrow.

Now it doesn't mean you shouldn't study for your exams, or prepare for what you need to do tomorrow, but it is to be preoccupied. So here again he is emphasizing, seek ye first. Give, he says, me priority.

Let me be first, and I will meet your need in other areas of life. Now much of this is expanded in 1st Corinthians chapter 7. I'll just read through some of these again, and it really comes to much the same thing, but just shows that it covers every part of life. 1st Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 29, and this I'm going to label the pressures of competing concerns, but this I say, brethren, the time is short.

It remains that both they that have wives be as though they had none, and they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not, and they that use this world as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passes away, but I would have you without carefulness. That's again the very same sense. He that is unmarried cares for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord.

He that is married cares for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife, and so on. Now this is not a conflict between good and evil, but this is a conflict or a competition, you might say, for our time, our energy, our interest, our concern between the natural and the spiritual. I always try to caution people not to take these as absolute statements, but rather as balancing statements.

The Lord certainly doesn't want you, if you are married here tonight, to act as if you don't have a wife, to completely neglect your responsibility and interest and care for your partner in life. That's not what he's saying, but he is saying that whatever you have in relationships of responsibilities, to recognize that these are temporary, they are transient, they are only yours for the time being as a stewardship. In reality, there is something that is eternal that you are involved in, and certainly there is an eternal connection, an eternal consequence of even these natural relationships, if they are Christians especially.

But what is he trying to get us to appreciate? That we must put value upon what is of God, what is of his kingdom. Could I just, linking this with Matthew chapter 6, suggest to you that you ought to think of the gospel and of the assembly service as being basically the sphere of the kingdom of God that he's talking about. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

Now, whenever I say this, some people will sort of challenge me afterwards, to imply that the gospel and the assembly takes precedence over a family. How do I mean that? I mean that in the sense that we are to acknowledge a first responsibility to the Lord. At the same time, your family is your primary spiritual responsibility.

Your family are those that you are first responsible for spiritually. So I'm just trying to balance what I'm saying here. But the reason the Apostle is giving this balancing emphasis is because it's so natural and instinctive for us and right for us to be occupied, to be concerned with taking care of our families, to be taking care of or pleasing husband or wife, to be concerned about our employment.

All of these things are normal, they're natural, they're good, and they need to be taken care of responsibly. But he is emphasizing that the time is short, and that literally is the season has become narrowed in, hemmed in, straightened, just like the harvest season around this time of the year when the rain could turn to snow anytime. And if you don't get out there and get the harvest in, you won't get it.

And so you have to give that priority, and that's what he's trying to say to us here. For us to see that the eternal things, the service of God, is the greatest thing for us to be occupied with. And so we are to temper our enjoyment of everything that we have, and even the griefs that we experience, they that weep as though they wept not.

Now that doesn't mean that we should pretend that nothing's wrong, and just try to live as Stoics. But it is to recognize that whatever sorrow, whatever struggle, whatever hardship that we are going through, is just for a season. And not to be totally overwhelmed by it.

You know, it's so easy when personal sorrow or family sorrow comes upon us, for us to be so completely overtaken by it, that we just don't have any heart left to be involved in God's things. And he wants us to be controlled by what is eternal, rather than what is temporary. They that buy as though they possess not.

They that use this world as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passes away. Now let me go with you to our Second Timothy chapter 3, to something that really is almost parallel to what we've just been looking at, only this is the, you might call the evil side of the world, and what is in the world. Second Timothy chapter 3, not only we have the pressures of competing concerns, but we also have what is called the perils of the last days.

Second Timothy 3 verse 1, this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful and holy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures, more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such turn away. Now this expression, in the last days perilous times shall come, treacherous, difficult times.

What makes the last days so perilous? Well I'm just going to point out basically five things here connected to love, and I'm going to suggest that essentially the problem with the last days, which is what we are moving into and are in today, is the corruption of love. And each one of these expresses a distortion of reality. Something is distorted, something is twisted.

It's not what it ought to be. The very first one is men shall be lovers of their own selves. And this really this really defines everything else that follows it.

If I make myself and my interests, my desires, if I make that the reason for everything, the foundation of everything, the basis for everything, I'm going to be one wicked treacherous individual. The more you seek to live strictly for yourself, the more unreliable and useless you will be for any good to anyone else. This is one of the greatest reasons why there is such a problem today with commitment and faithfulness in our culture.

If you are living for yourself, if you place yourself first, if you give yourself priority, that's the greatest possible corruption. Lovers of their own selves. So what is that a denial of or a distortion of? Well, it's the distortion or denial that God is first.

Everything works right. Everything flows out in harmony from this essential foundation that God is first. Everything is for his glory.

Everything is unto him. And if you make God your goal and to glorify him and honor him, to love him, that will form you in the right way of godliness. Lovers of their own selves.

The very next one, covetous or lovers of silver, lovers of money. That goes along with another one about being unthankful. What's wrong with covetousness? Well, go back to Matthew chapter 6 where we were reading.

I didn't read that part of the context in the verses just before the ones that I did read, where you cannot serve God and money. Loving money is a denial of God's provision for us. God is the one who richly gives us all things to enjoy.

All things come from his hand. When we crave and set our course to accumulate, to achieve for the sake of accumulating, we let that become our God. We have denied that it is God who is in control.

It is God who provides. And so that expresses the what's wrong in our materialistic culture, where love of money has so corrupted life that we are bankrupting ourselves, destroying ourselves in our grasp for more, forgetting that God is the one who gives God's provision. Now the next one is without natural affection.

Without natural affection. This is one of the saddest things in looking at the lives of people today, and to see that what should be there instinctively. You know, you just look at the animal realm, and it's instinctive.

It's built right into, you know, a mother of any part of the creation, to care for the young. Without natural affection is the drying up of that instinctive family care, family affection, family loyalty that is protective, that seeks to provide. So this is what we see today breaking down.

Fathers aren't providing for their families. Mothers are not devoting themselves to their children and their husband. There is the breaking down of this natural affection that bonds together and builds and protects the family unit.

And it all goes back again to lovers of self. That's the origin of it. But this is really a denial of family love, of family responsibility and family care.

Then the next one is a little bit obscure in our English translation, but despisers of those that are good is literally without love to good. Without love to those that are good, without love to what is good. I would consider this to be a denial of the distinction between good and evil.

The denial of the superiority of virtue in contrast to vice. There's one thing that is being systematically destroyed today is the clear-cut distinction between right and wrong. We're not allowed to think in those terms anymore.

That's being judgmental, that's being moralistic. Isn't it amazing how words begin to carry a negative connotation? What are you if you aren't moral? What do you have left that is any meaning or value if you have lost your morality? Well, you become worse than an animal, more base, more destructive. And yet to moralize is looked at in a very negative sense today, to make a distinction between right and wrong.

So without love to good is an animosity towards what is distinctively good as opposed to what is morally corrupt. And then finally in verse 4 it says, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. This is an amazing statement.

Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. I don't think in some ways I don't think we could have understood it until this generation. Maybe because in past generations, I'm sure this isn't true all over the world in all generations, but there was most people were just concerned with surviving, with just getting through life.

People didn't have the luxury of just devoting themselves to the pursuit of pleasure. But we have this emphasis today. You go almost anywhere and you sit down in a doctor's office or you sit down in some office where you're waiting for something and you look for something to read and almost anything that there is sitting there of magazines to read are all just celebrities.

People magazine and whatever else there is there and and there's hardly anything that you would want to pick up and spend 15 or 20 minutes looking at. And there's this whole world built around entertainment and pleasure. We are so plugged into pleasure that it's almost impossible to to think of in a generation or two ago.

Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. What is this really saying? It's really saying that you would rather spend two hours watching something just for entertainment than you would seeking God. That it is more attractive, that it is more compelling, it has more interest for you to just be entertained.

And when you're done you're as empty as when you started. It does absolutely nothing for you and you could have devoted that time, that interest to God. Something of his truth, something that is valuable.

So to actually think that God's awesomeness, God's attractiveness could be displaced so easily is so tragic. It shows what evaluation is being made today and the struggle is going on in all our hearts. It's not just in the world around us.

This same pleasure-oriented world is trying to sap every ounce of spirituality out of our hearts to make us pleasure-seeking rather than God-seeking. So we start out with the priority that we really need is to seek ye first the kingdom of God. Seek the Lord first.

Give him the chance to manifest his glory to your heart, to get to know him, to get to enjoy him, to be filled with all that he is. And then you'll find pleasure. Then you will find what can give you joy for the rest of your life.

You know, what you learn of God, what you get to enjoy of God, you actually get to enjoy for the rest of your life and eternity. It has eternal value. So let's not make the mistake of committing ourselves by default to what evaporates as soon as we've listened to it or watched it or been involved in it.

And to recognize the difference of giving our lives moment by moment, day by day, to what is of God that we ourselves may develop spiritually. Remember what 1st John chapter 2 says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, for all those things that are of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, they're not of God, not of the Father, and they don't last, and they leave you empty, and it's passing away into oblivion. But He that does the will of God abides forever.

So in other words, if you give value to God, if you treasure Him, He will make you valuable. He will make your life precious in His sight, worthwhile, beneficial to others, and you will know the value that commitment and faithfulness to something real, genuine, something of God can be, shall we pray. Our gracious Father, we draw near to Thee, recognizing that our hearts have often been stolen from Thee, and sometimes by the most trivial things.

Our Father, we are rightfully ashamed of ourselves when we contemplate what we could be for Thee, and unto Thee, and what we are. And so we would beseech Thee that Thou might be able to retrieve something, and turn us into what is of God, what is of glory, and honor, and praise in Thy presence. Our Father, we thank Thee for the Lord Jesus, who manifested Thee so fully, and who is of such value to us.

We acknowledge freely that we could not come to Thee without Him. We could not serve Thee without Him. We couldn't please Thee without Him.

But we pray that Thou might help us to understand that Thou hast also called us to serve Thee, as Thy children, to manifest the Father's heart, to reveal the nature and character of God to the world around us, so that there might be someone else that we come into contact with who will be drawn and attracted to our Lord Jesus, who will gain an appreciation of the beauty of the Gospel as they come to know us, and that they might actually follow us to the door of salvation, and seek Thee for salvation. Our Father, we would pray, as we think of fellow Christians, that we might be an influence to one another, that will strengthen and encourage what is for Thee, that we might be preserved, and our lives might be a refreshing to Thee and to one another. We call upon Thee to seek Thy help, that we may not have to lament, as the psalmist did so long ago, help, Lord, for the godly man ceases, for the faithful fail from among the children of men.

Help us to be godly people, faithful men and women. We beseech Thee for this, in our Saviour's worthy and precious name. Amen.

Let's sing together 398. I think this hymn captures much of what we've been trying to talk about. Jesus calls us, o'er the tumult of our life's wild restless sea, day by day his sweet voice soundeth, saying, Christian, follow me.

398.