Prioritize God: Compassionate Obedience from Haggai and Malachi

Some of you just gotta do that one thing in the moment, the impulsive yes to God. If I heard you say it, it didn't necessarily make sense, but you get my yes, and I'm going to obey you in the biggest way right now. What happens second? I don't know. But I can at least obey you today. I can go from nothing to something. So many of us just gotta get started. [00:54:52] (22 seconds)  #SayYesStartNow

It's not about taking an old testament rule and saying it's for us today, but it is very much the principle of, like, is is god first in your finances? Or is he getting the last and the leftovers, like, you handing him the the lame and blind animal? Like, it's god's gotta go first. God always has to go first. And if you don't have him first, then the rest of your life is out of order. [00:53:01] (27 seconds)  #GodFirstFinances

Or for others of you with that thing of obedience on your heart from God, you need to move from something to repeat it. I I love the story of the good Samaritan where not only does the good Samaritan help the person who's hurting alongside the road, he says, you know what? I I come by here often. So anything that needs to be given next time, put it on my account, and I'll do this all over again the next time I pass through. [00:55:16] (22 seconds)  #RepeatActsOfMercy

What what is your system going to be so that when you give this is a giving of yourself. Like, god, I'm not just doing it because you told me to. I'm doing it because this is me giving myself to you. And it's holistic enough, it's structured enough, it's repeated enough, it's all those things enough that when this act of obedience comes out from me, you know you have my whole heart. [00:56:14] (24 seconds)  #HolisticGenerosity

It's not really what the book of Malachi does. It's just like, here's all these little everyday life scenarios ranging from your money to to to your marriages, to your sincerity, that everything's off if you didn't have God first and get around to obeying him. And so can we take anything of the compassion that you've experienced in your heart with God after seven darn weeks of us talking about here at Lake Point Church and say, here's the change that needs to be made so that God gets my first and God gets my obedience and whatever needs to be done next. [00:53:27] (36 seconds)  #CompassionIntoAction

Is is God first, or is God something other than first? And it's really built on that that example of don't build your house until you've build my house, thus saith the Lord. In other words, your your sense of safety, your sense of security, your foundation, which you think is really important in life, like, build your worship with me first, build the rest of that second. [00:45:50] (24 seconds)  #BuildWorshipFirst

For others of us, the obedience could be moving from repeated to prioritized. There's all sorts of examples of disciples in scripture who out of allegiance to a God who gave his first and his best to us when he gave us his son. They they practice their first and their best in in giving it to God. That is that is where the old testament principle of tithing came in. At the end of the day, it was a system. [00:55:51] (22 seconds)  #GiveFirstBest

The gospel of Jesus is supposed to have this everyday life component, an incarnation that makes it into every nook cranny of the decisions that we make. The gospel of Jesus is supposed to have this restorative effect. It's supposed to save the way that this work world works and everything around us, and we get all that over to the place it needs to be in this world that god loves so much that he sent his one and only son. [00:29:51] (22 seconds)  #GospelInEverydayLife