Because I'm looking for a harvest for my God is real. Hey everybody, welcome back spiritual impact. I'm the Associate Pastor Steve Rose. Today I'm here with my pastor, Tim Parton.
And we're just sitting around the table talking about the wonderful Word of God. And you know what it says, when we do this, we're putting into a book of remembrance and we said talk about the Word of God. So I'm looking forward to what topic you've got for us today. So what's that topic going to be?
Well, we're going to talk about the proper order. You know, I think in life that's one thing that if any area of our life is out of balance, then it affects the rest of our life. And that can be true on your job and your home life and your community, in your church. If we don't have everything in its proper place and its proper position, then something will fall through the cracks.
And most of the time it becomes our spiritual walk. We don't have God in his proper place, which should always be first in our lives. We're going to read from Matthew chapter 6 and we'll read verse 33 if you'd like to read along with us. And we'd like to take a moment before we get into the Scripture and just say how much we appreciate everyone that has been watching the program and has let us know and just continue to pray for us.
And Pastor Steve, it's amazing that how fast our audience is growing and we thank God for that and thank you for taking the time to be with us. Matthew 633 says, but seek ye first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things shall be added unto you. Well, first off we break that down.
Seek ye first, the kingdom of God. There again, he is God. He is our Creator, Pastor Steve. So he always has to be number one in our life because if anything else is number one, instead of him, that becomes what?
That's an idol. And when you look at the 10 commandments, what's the first commandment? The house shall have no other gods before me. And then the second one says, you know, you're not supposed to create any graven image nor worship that image.
So there you get into those first two. Well, the Bible also tells us that he's a jealous God. And what that means is he will not allow anything to come before him. Israel got in trouble a lot for following after the pagan gods of the other nations around them.
They enjoyed the blessings of God as long as they followed God's rule in law. But when they started straying off, sounds familiar in our life today. And as long as we follow what we're supposed to do, we don't get in trouble. But it's when we stray.
That's when you talk about consequences and that's what people don't really understand. You know, the choices we make have a consequence. And consequence is the best definition I have is, you know, it's the result of something you do or choose not to do. You know, when you get into the Old Testament, you look at that, it's just blessed.
You'll be in the city and blessed in the country. And I'll tell you, I like those things. But the blessings comes with following God and again, putting him first. You know, I was, and when you read this, this is one verse, but it really breaks down into quite a different bunch of things here.
But I was, I was reading, seek your first, the kingdom of God. And when we look at the word seek, it means to relentlessly pursue without ceasing. If we're not relentlessly pursuing God and His word and the things that He has for us, and there's no place to stop because God continually wants us to grow in Him. So how do we do that by being obedient doing the things that He's called us to do?
But we have to have a passion and a heart for God. We have to desire the things that be from Him more than anything else, more than any fleshly desire we have. It's like church, I can't wait to get to church. You know, I will push everything else aside so that I make sure that I'm in God's house.
Why? Because He promised that He would meet us. That's right. And faith comes by hearing and hearing is by the Word of God.
Amen. So we have to relentlessly pursue Him with a passion and heart and let Him know that we long for Him more than we need our next breath. And when He sees that passion, He returns so much more. When we seek God and His kingdom, that's a promise.
When you seek Him, you get His kingdom. And I keep thinking as the deer and the foremook the water. So I'm so long after the seeking Him first. And you know, I like what you're saying right here, but you know, a lot of people have God as a Sunday and a Wednesday God.
But you know, that's not really relentlessly seeking Him. I mean, this is an everyday thing. This is a relationship. It is.
And that ain't a good relationship if you only talk to the person twice a week and I can give you maybe an hour if you don't push me or, but you see, seeking first the kingdom of God. And we've talked about it so many times. Are we really serious? And how do you really know you're serious about something?
I think that you really know when you're serious about something is when you obey. That's it. That's it. You know, this next part, I think this is kind of where we'll say the rubber meets the road and his righteousness.
There's to be a life change. If we're going to truly seek Him the way that he wants us to seek Him and to live for Him, we're going to have to make changes in our life. We're going to have to all said the things I hate and I love. And you know, it doesn't mean necessarily that everything is wrong, but if you're going to put God first, that means everything.
Everything else has to come in the next order. And I tell you what, when you set your heart and your affections upon Him, it's a piece that you'll never know. It's a joy that you'll never know. It's a hope and we can go on and on and on.
But I tell you, I love serving God and do I fail Him? Sure I do. But because He knows our heart and He forgives us when we stumble and fall. And when I start thinking about that, it says, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
How do you know what His righteousness is? And what pops into my head is the word where it says, you know, be not conformed to this world. To be conformed means they try to push you into a mold. They want you to be a certain way.
It says, be not conformed to this world, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And how do we transform the renewing of our mind? And that's by the Word of God. It says the Word of God is an engrafted word.
That means it's not like any other book that you read when you read this book. It becomes a part of you. If you let it become a part of you. He says, you shall know the truth and the truth shall say you free.
Amen. I've got a verse here of Jeremiah 2913 as I was studying this. And this says, and seek and ye shall seek me and find me. God's not hiding.
He's not hiding me. Give us a condition. When ye shall search for me with all your heart. We can't put forth 20% effort or 50% effort, but if we're going to seek God, seek His face and seek His will, then we're going to have to submit our bodies a living sacrifice unto Him, hold it acceptable, which is our reasonable service.
God doesn't ask things that we're incapable of doing, but He will stretch our faith. Yes, He will. Yes, He will. And when I start thinking about how serious is this seeking because I like to try to give you a visual because we really think a lot of times in pictures.
You ever drop something from the seat when you're driving? You know what? I'll drop a lid of water bottle and I'll reach it down between the seat and try to find it. And if I don't, I'll go, well, I'll get it later.
But now if my daughter was missing, you think I'd be searching? That's the kind of searching I'm talking about right there. That's whole hearted searching out there. You want to find what you're looking for.
And that's the way we need to be seeking God. We want to find. I believe when I sit down, you know what? He'll show himself.
When you look in the Word of God, but you know what? I don't just walk by the Bible and it flies open. I have to get in it and I have to look and I have to read. I have to spend time.
That's nourishing that relationship with God. And I always say, you hear about it says pray without ceasing. People go, we can't pray without ceasing because you know you've got to work and you've got to do these things. But it's talking about a state of being.
That means when you're at work, you make a face of problem. You don't take a second or two to go Lord. I need your wisdom. I need your understanding.
I need your guidance on this. It's staying in that prayer every day asking what God will do because he said, you know what? How do we acknowledge him? He says, in all your ways.
And he says, he shall direct the path. Amen. And another thing, when we seek him, we should seek him with expectation. Yes.
And I think unless we have that expectation, we're not putting forth the due diligence. We're not seeking him with our whole heart because he doesn't promise. If you seek me, you shall find me. He's not going with hold anything good from them that walk uprightly.
But we have to go above and beyond just the ordinary. You and I were talking on the way over the studios today. And I stand here last night as I was out in the Word. And I just studied on a lot of different things and I never could get focused on one particular thing.
But you know what? What was the worst thing happened? I got to find out a lot more promises about God. But when I got up this morning, God said, now, open your Bible and it just started unfolding.
He took me to places. He brought scripture back to mind. But we can't get to that point if we've not been searching him and seeking him and studying his word and seeking his face and his righteousness. And sure, you're going to have to do some things aside.
But man, the things that he gives us back, Pastor Stee. How faithful he is. That's one of the things you tell me how faithful he is. You know, I've noted too, you know, there's sometimes you read and you've got things to preach about.
And you're just lying down and you're going, Lord, which one was you having for each today? And then there's other times you're going, hello, I'm here. But you know, he's still, that's the testing of our faith. And I remember me and called to church to preach one time and I had nothing.
And I was sitting there and they sang the first song. You know, normally you've got three songs and then you're up to preach. You hit the second song and I'm going, Lord, you know, anytime now. And I looked up the bench and he says, do this in remembrance of me.
There was the message right? And the new time, but you know, that one come right on time. And I like to tell that story right there because you know what? He'll always give you the message in that hour.
He said to be instant in season and out of season. And that's what we got to be. You know, I was thinking there too that he said that we'd be known by the word of our testimony. So when we can't come up with something, stand up and testify.
Amen. We could testify about the goodness of God all day long. Why? Because we know him.
How do we know him? We've sought for him. That's right. And we passed the test when the test came.
Because you know, it says a lot of people say you're either in a storm, you're headed to a storm, you're coming out of a storm. But how do we get ready for the storm? How do we prepare for the storms? It's like we're talking about right here, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
And I like that. And I like that in the next part. And all these things shall be added unto you. All what things?
All these things. Everything. There's nothing lacking in the life of the believer. You know, we love Ephesians 3-20.
To him that's able to exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that we're going to finish. That power is him. You know what? When we read his word, we have faith in knowing that his word is truth.
So what he says, we can apply it to any circumstance we find ourselves. In any situation in life, we can go to the Word of God. Because we have sought him and placed him first in our life. Then when we cry out to him, we know where we're coming from.
We have that faith that he made that promise that he said, I won't ever leave you. I'll go with you always, even to the end of the world. So if I'm in the midst of a storm or I'm on top of a mountain somewhere trying to drive desert, he's with me. He promised he would be with me.
We like to quote the Psalms, our friends that follow us everywhere. Goodness and mercy. They follow us all the days of our life. They don't ever leave, Pastor Steve.
God's goodness and mercy follows us, overtakes us. That's so good. I mean, the goodness of God. There's so many things in our daily life though that compete for our attention.
It can be TV shows. It can be, well, have a yard needs mowing. God might say, yeah, it does, but I need to spend a few minutes with you. But when we lay aside everything else and we just get lost in him.
You know, talking about that lawn mowing, any place can become sanctuary when you walk with him. I've preached some of the best sermons of every priest when I was pushing mowing the lawn. I wish I could have recorded them. Because I'm telling you, because you're getting straight from him from heaven.
I tell you, it's so good when you spend time with him. But that's the whole thing. You know, your car can become a sanctuary. Your office can become a sanctuary.
That's it. I told this story to the church. This is a true story. I like to walk.
I used to do a lot more of it. I used to walk eight miles a day. But I spent a lot of time in prayer. And actually a guy that works for me had made me a walking staff.
And one day I was walking and praying and God was dropping some of those good nuggets into my spirit. And, you know, I've been known to just kind of raise my hands up on the side of the highway and maybe jump up down a minute. But anyway, a police officer showed up. And he said, sir, are you okay?
And I said, yes. He said, we got a call that there was a man in distress up here. And I said, no, I haven't seen him. And the officer kept looking at me and he said, are you sure you're okay, sir?
And I didn't really think about it until he got in his cruiser and left. But, you know, somebody saw me rejoicing God and thought that I needed help. They didn't realize I already had to help. I needed help.
I understand what they're coming from me and the next police officer. You know, I've seen people do that too. And they went out in the influence of the right spirit. But I tell you, it is.
And you see, you don't realize and understand. But you know, the word also says that we're a peculiar people. We're not like the world. That's why we do strange things.
Because they just can't figure out why we're like we are in this because of the love of God. It's in us a spirit of God that works through us. You know, and we're talking about order. And I think something that is lost in today's society is ordering the home.
And I know that I know growing up, we grew up in different times than we live in now. And fortunately, my mom, until we were up a little age on us, was able to stay within the home. There was a time that she had to come on out and get a job. But you know, I believe it was good when the dad could provide and the mother could nurture the children.
But you know, in the day in which we live, it takes two checks. I mean, just and that's just to get by. But God orchestrated that there'd be a proper order of balance in the home. And I believe that is if the man, the father, the husband is the spiritual head of the household.
And he takes that lead. And sometimes men fail to take that lead. And women have to take that lead. And I believe if things are in line in the home, and this is no chauvinist statement, everybody's important.
I'm going to take being a mother is one of the greatest Collins women could ever be called to. Because she spends more time with that child because she carried that child. And that child, you know, listens to mama. And she has the ear of that child.
She has the ear of that child. So it's important. But when things are in the proper balance and you have dad who is teaching his children, I heard a preacher on Facebook the other day, man, he was lightening up. And I really got excited with what he had to say.
He said, it's not my job to teach your children about Jesus. Father, that's your job to get into Word of God. Find out what it says and teach your children. Now that's what we call being the spiritual head of your household, doing the proper things.
And when it's like that and there's harmony, the kids feed off that. When there's disharmony in the house, the kids feed off that as well. And you see it play out so much in today's society. You turn on the TV and you see things that have happened.
You wonder why they would do something like that. You don't know, and you know, sometimes it would raise great. Sometimes it would raise hard. But I believe with all my heart when there's proper unity and balance in the home, it greatly affects the children, which in turn greatly affects our communities.
And when you're talking about that, it's so true. What you're saying is it's by example, cross-game is an example to the flock. Paul says, listen, I'm an example. He says if God can save me, then he can save anybody.
He said he was an example, but there's a thing I like to do, and a lot of times I do this with crowds and I go, okay, make the okay sign. I say, okay, everybody wave it around. Now, I say, now look around. Is it on your chin?
And everybody giggles because there's this on your cheek too. I said, you did what I did, not what I said. And see, that's the way we can tell people all we want to. But really, how do we really show them?
And there's, like I said, there's a saying in the world that says, you know, act. You know, your action speaks louder than your words because it really does. You can say something so long, but you really have to practice what you preach. You have to walk it.
You know, and as when we proclaim to be a child of God, people are watching our life. And they see that when we have things properly in perspective and see how that we deal with circumstances, how we deal with situations that arise, we are an open book. And I know you've preached on that many times. But it's so true.
And people watch. And I've even had people comment that, you know, I admire how you came through that situation. And of course, our response is, well, it was by the grace of God. It was his help.
It's because we have proper order in our lives where God is in his proper place, which is number one. That doesn't mean that we're always perfect because we're in flesh. So we do struggle. We do stumble at times.
But we try, if we're putting forth the best effort that we can, even though we may stumble, God honors that. And when we're keeping him where he should be, that lets him know that we do acknowledge that we do acknowledge that we're in flesh. That we do acknowledge him as our God, as our Creator. You know, the potter has control over the clay.
God has control over you and I. And he daily loads our lives with blessings, brother Bob, who I think you had last week on the program. And I thought you guys did a fantastic job. That's one of, he quotes that scripture a lot.
But you know, when you think about it, you can't even number the blessings God puts in our life each and every day. Why would we not want to seek him, to serve him, to live for him, and to abide by his rule, by his righteousness for all these things? And then you say, we couldn't name them if we had to, they're too numerous. When you talk about the potter, that brings back, you know, Jeremiah, he told Jeremiah, he says, go down to the potter's house.
He says, I'm going to show you work. And he was showing you the grace of God because he says, there the potter was, he's working that clay on the wheel. He said, all of a sudden it came marred. It messed up.
It came loose. He says, but what did he do? He didn't throw it away. It says he began to mold it again.
And I tell you, ain't that something that's the grace of God right there? He doesn't throw the clay away. He begins to mold it and make it. And you know, one of the greatest teachers, and this is what people hate.
They don't like failure. But failure is one of the greatest teachers because when you look at failure, you have to look at why you failed, how you keep from doing that again, and see he can teach you from failures that we've had. But a lot of times we get, I guess what we do is we let the failures mold us. But you know, we can't let those be a stumbling block.
We've got to let those failures be stepping stones. Then we step up in him because we can do all things to Christ. So that's good. That brought to mind many years ago, I had to go to Muskegon, Michigan.
And I was there for three weeks training for a new bunch of equipment we were getting in for work. And the instructor there, he had a, he would tell us about a test. Don't stress about a test. He said, what is a test?
He said, a test is simply, if you missed the question, something you didn't know, but now you know the answer. And sometimes when we're going through that test, we don't always know the answer is Jesus, but we don't always look there first. That's the problem. That's why we fail in the test at times is because we don't look in the proper direction for the answer.
But you know, we learn from that. And hopefully, hopefully we don't fall into the same snare a second time. But if we do, we have an advocate with the father. That doesn't mean we continually jump in the same hole with the father.
And we're constantly jumping the same hole that we keep climbing out of. I mean, he gives us enough sense to know that hole's there, go around it. But, you know, seeking God, trusting God, living for God, even in a world that's so upside down and full of so much turmoil and trouble and distress, I have peace. God, why?
Because my peace comes from God. And the Lord says it's a peace that the world cannot take, no matter how hard it drives. Maybe you're watching the program today and you say, you know what? I'm a little out of balance.
I understand now that maybe I've not always kept God where he should be. And we all guilty sometimes of trying to put him on a shelf. But it doesn't work that way. He has to be number one in our life.
If, you know what? All we have to do is say, Father, you know what? I'm out of balance. I need help.
I need your direction. And he'll send it. He'll tell you exactly what you need to do to get back in step, to get back in line. Just like a natural father or mother with correct child, he tells us exactly what we need to do in his word.
And he doesn't keep beating us over the head with it. As long as we'll do it, he'll take care of it. That's the name of the Lord. As long as we come to you, Lord.
And again, we do fall short of the glory of God each and every day. And that's why we're glad that we have the ad of God, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And then we're followed by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are made whole.
But then we follow the word of God says, be a holy as I am holy. That we are destroyed for holiness even though we fall short. But then we follow the day, Lord, I pray that, Lord, we understand that the word of God is true. The word of God says that we can walk by the Spirit of God.
And we can learn by the Spirit of God and be led by the Spirit of God. And then we follow the day, Lord, help us by the Holy Spirit. Increase wisdom, understanding and knowledge in our lives. Then the only Father we draw closer to you each and every day.
And Father, I just want to pray for those that are watching here today. Lord, I just want you to touch their lives. They may have many needs, but the only Father I know there's no shortage in the storehouse in heaven. And Father, I know that you can meet each need as they confess their sins to you, as they confess their problems to you and believe by faith.
Lord, I know the word of God says nothing is impossible for those that believe. Father, I praise you and I thank you and we give thanks for these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
You know, while you were praying that prayer and you said the word nothing, and two words come to mind that brings us so much comfort in God. Nothing is impossible with him and he gives us everything that we have need of. What a God that we serve. You know, it's great to be on the program again and I always look forward to it.
But we would like to invite you to our church pastor Steve. Yeah, I met at Life Worship Center where 932 Dolly Parton Parkway. You also visit our website where alwcsevereville.com. And check out our website and we'd love to hear from you.
We just love to hear what's going on in our partners and friends lives and it's something that we can rejoice together. Because we've got so many things that seems like in this world of data. It gives us trouble and causes us pain. But it's good to rejoice together with our friends and partners.
Amen. You know what? Program's over, but we'll be back next week. So pray for us, we'll pray for you.
Keep seeking God. Hello everybody. This is Pastor Tim Parton of Abundant Life Worship Center. For those of you that live in the Subribival area, or maybe you just visit from time to time, we'd like to take a moment and invite you to come visit us at the church.
We're located at 923 Dolly Parton Parkway right here in Subribival. Our service times are Sunday morning at 11 a.m. Wednesday evening at 630. We just love sharing the Word of God.
We're just a family church. So we invite you to come, grow with us. God bless. God bless.
We can overcome with just a little faith. We are never alone. So this battle I won't fear, cause I can hear the sound of heaven's drawing near.