But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33

There needs to be a unity between the Christian life and Christian work. So where will you find the bond of unity between the life of the church and the life of the individual believer? The true expression for that unity is Seek ye first the Kingdom of God. That does not mean- seek salvation, then thank God and rest there! No, it means, let the Kingdom of God in all its length and breath, in all its heavenly glory and power – be the one thing you live for and all other things will be added unto you.

Why should the Kingdom of God be first? Why does God say, “Seek ye first”? If you want to know the reason look at God!

Who is God? He is the Great Being for Whom alone the universe exists. There’s no rest, peace, or joy but in Him.

Oh, that Christians understood and believed that God is a fountain of perfect everlasting blessedness! What would the result be? Every Christian would say, “The more I can have of God, the happier I will be. The more of God’s will, God’s Love, and God’s fellowship the happier my life will be.” If we believed that with our whole heart, we would with utmost ease, give up everything that separates us from God!

Why is it that we find it so hard to have fellowship with God? The reason is we don't have a good conception of what God is. The right fellowship with Him will come naturally and will be a delight. Yes, if we believe that God is pure joy and a fountain of unlimited blessing, then we should give up all for Him! Does joy not have a far stronger attraction than anything else in the world? Is it not the joy in every beauty, in every virtue, in every pursuit, that draws us toward it? If we believe God is the fountain of joy, how our hearts would come aside from everything else and say: "Oh, the beauty of my God! I rejoice in Him alone!"

But to many, the Kingdom of God looks like a burden, like a strain, and we seek some relaxation in the world. Then God is not our chief joy. I come to you with a message. It is right. Because God is infinite love and infinite blessing, and it is our highest privilege to listen to Christ's Words, we must seek God and His Kingdom first above everything.

What was man created for? He was created to live in the likeness of God and His image. Now, if we have been created in the image and likeness of God, we can find our happiness in nothing except in what God finds His happiness. The more like Him we are, the happier we will be. In what does God find His happiness? He finds His happiness in everlasting righteousness and everlasting beneficence. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness" (I John 1:5). The Kingdom, the Dominion, the Rule of God will bring us nothing but righteousness. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness" (Matt. 6:33).

If mankind only knew what sin really is, and if they really longed to be free from everything like sin, what a great message this would be! Jesus comes to lead me to God and His righteousness. We were created to be like God, in His perfect righteousness and holiness.

The Kingdom of God means this: There is in God a rule of universal love. He loves and loves and never ceases to love. He longs to bless all who will yield to His pleadings. God is Light. God is Love. Now the message comes to man. Can you think of a higher nobility? Can you think of anything more important than to take the position that God takes and be one with God in His Kingdom? Oh, my friends let us not just try to get a few of the blessings of the Kingdom every now and then. But, the glory of the Kingdom is this: where God is all in all. If we realized what it means-our God takes us up into His Kingdom, puts His Kingdom into us, and with the Kingdom, we have God Himself possessing us and adding and blessing us! Surely there is nothing more exciting that that!

Look at man. I'm not talking about man's sins, man's wretchedness, and his seeking everywhere for pleasure, for rest, and for deliverance from sin. But I'm saying, think about what man is by creation, and then think about what man is now by redemption. Let every heart say, "It is right. There is blessedness or glory like that of the Kingdom.

Then think about what man is now by redemption. Let every heart say, "It is right. There is no blessedness or glory like that of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God ought to be first in my whole life and being."

How can I make God's Kingdom first? Here is the great question that is troubling the lives of 10's of 1000's of Christians throughout the world. It is strange that it is so difficult for them to find the answer. How are we to attain to this blessed position in which the Kingdom of God will fill our hearts with such enthusiasm that it will spontaneously be first every day? The answer is: first of all, give up everything for it. Have you not not heard of the Roman soldier who gave up his soul, his affection, and his life? In our day, The Islams will give their life for their cause. Even so, it must be with you and me, if you want this wonderful Kingdom of God to take possession of you. I pray by the mercies of God, give up everything for it. You may not know at the moment what that may mean. But say in your heart, "Anything, and everything, for the Kingdom of God." Persevere in that, and by the Holy Spirit, your God will begin to open to you the double blessing: · The blessedness of the Kingdom that comes to possess your heart. · The blessedness of being surrendered to Him and sacrificing and giving up all for Him.

The second step I need to take to make the Kingdom of God first in my life is to live every day and hour of your life in the humble desire to maintain that position. Many hear this text, which say it is true, and we need to obey it. But never spend any time with God day by day. They wonder why the blessedness of the divine life is absent! We prove the value we place on things by the time we devote to them.

The Kingdom should be first every day and all the day with God. God Himself will maintain His Kingdom in your heart. Do you believe that?

Ah, friends, a man cannot have the Kingdom of God first (if only occasionally) and throw it off and seek his enjoyment in the things of this world. Most people believe life will become too solemn and too great a strain to have the Kingdom of God first. The presence of the love of God The must, every moment, be our highest joy. Let us say, "By the help of God, it will always be the Kingdom of God first."

How can the Kingdom of God be first? It can only be by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's remember that God's Word comes to us with the language, "Be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18). If you are content with less of the Spirit than God offers, not utterly and entirely yielding to be filled with the Spirit, you do not obey the command. God has made a wonderful provision. Jesus Christ came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and proclaimed, "The Kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2). "Some," He said, "are standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom" (Matt. 16:28).

He said to the disciples, "The Kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). When did the Kingdom come-that Kingdom of God upon earth? When the Holy Spirit descended. On Ascension Day, the King went up and sat down upon the throne at the right hand of God. The Kingdom of God in Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth was inaugurated. When the Holy Spirit came down He brought God into the heart and established the rule of God in power. In speaking of the Holy Spirit, we forget one thing. the Holy Spirit is often spoken of in connection with power, and it is right that we seek power. However, the Holy Spirit is not as often spoken of in connection with the graces. Yet, these are always more important than the gifts of power. Holiness, humility, meekness, gentleness, and lovingkindness are the true marks of the Kingdom.

We speak rightly of the Holy Spirit as the only One who can breathe all this into us. What we often forget is that "in the Spirit", the Father and Son themselves come. When Christ first promised the Holy Spirit and spoke about the Spirit's Coming, He said, "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him" (John 14:23). If my heart is set on a thing, and even if chains bind me, the moment the chains are loosened, I fly toward the object of my affection and desire. And likewise, the Kingdom must by within us, and then it is easy to say: "The Kingdom First". But to have the Kingdom within us in truth, we must have God the Father and Christ the Son, by the Holy Spirit, within us too. There is no Kingdom with the King.

You are called to likeness with Christ. Oh, how many Christians strive after this part and that part of the likeness of Christ. Then they forget the root of the whole! What is the root of all? That Christ gave Himself up entirely to God and His Kingdom and Glory. Do the same today. Give your life to God to be a continual living sacrifice, and the Kingdom will come with power unto your heart.

Give up yourself to Christ. Let Christ the King rule in your heart, and the heavenly kingdom will come there. Oh, think of that wonderful thing that is going to happen in the great Eternity. God has entrusted Christ with the Kingdom, but there is coming a day when Christ will come Himself again. He will give up the Kingdom to the Father that God may be all, and in that day Christ will say to the world: "This is My glory. I give back the Kingdom to the Father!"

Christians, if your Christ finds His glory here on earth in dying and sacrificing Himself for the Kingdom, will you and I not come to God and do the same? Will we not count all things but loss that the Kingdom of God may be manifest and that God may be glorified?
 

The Saving Power of Jesus Christ!

A Testimony of a Changed Life

At the age of seven, I had made a profession of faith and thought that I was all right. But one time during chapel services Bro. Tully was preaching and he preached on making sure that you have an eternal home in heaven. That got me thinking because I didn’t have the Holy Spirit dealing with me. But I would go back to when I believed I had gotten saved and I couldn’t see what I had done wrong. When I turned 15 years old, Bro. Parker was preaching and he didn’t even mention salvation, but I remembered back to when I was seven and figured out what I had done wrong. My friends had talked me into “getting saved” and not the Holy Spirit convicting me. I wanted to go immediately up to the altar but Bro. Parker had just started preaching so I had to sit all through church knowing my condition. Right when he gave the invitation I went up to the altar, found my brother, and told him that I needed to be saved. He was a little astonished, but made it through the whole thing. Now the Lord is working in me and helping me through my daily life.

Katrina Goodall
Patterson, MO

Useless or Usable?
Associate Pastor, Scott Miller

The other day my wife related to me a conversation that she had with a dear mother while visiting for the church. In the midst of the conversation the lady said, “My son (23 years old) is useless!” What a sad and shameful commentary of a mother concerning her son. While I mused upon this  conversation, my mind wandered to my own relationship to God. Could God say of you or me, “He’s useless”? Now when I say this, I’m not referring to salvation. At salvation the Holy Spirit places us in the USEFUL category and begins a supernatural work in us so that we are empowered to become like Christ (sanctification) in order that we might become useful to Christ (service). In other words: the more sanctified one is, the more useful he becomes! What should frighten God’s children more than anything, ought to be the fear of becoming useless to God.

Yet, this is exactly our Enemy’s strategy. He desires to separate you and me from our Master’s fellowship in order to make us useless in Christ’s service. To Satan, a useless Christian is a good Christian. The only thing he thinks would be better is to have us separated from our body so that we may no longer be useful here on earth for our Lord!

The Apostle Paul, a man used greatly by God, feared that He would become useless. In First Corinthians 9:27 Paul states, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” —useless.

The following are a few of the pitfalls that we each need to avoid in order that we might remain useful to God:

• Pride will render a man useless.

Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” In the beginning pride made Lucifer useless to God. The same spirit of Lucifer will render any one of us the same. Humility is the highway to usefulness for God. A humble person realizes that he needs God at all times.

• Praise may render a man useless.

Proverbs 29:5 “A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.” Someone has said, “Praise is like chewing gum; enjoy it briefly but don’t swallow.” Many a man or woman has allowed praise to go to his head, which may have caused him to “think of himself more highly than he ought to think.” (Romans 12:3) The same verse admonishes us to think soberly. Whenever you are praised, carefully deflect it to the Giver who allowed you to do as well as you did. John the Baptist, the greatest man born among women had this response when people told him that Jesus was stealing John’s “thunder”: “He must increase, and I must decrease” (John 3:30). Praise has made many men useless.

• Covetousness will make a man useless.

Ephesians 5:3 “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints.”

Colossians 3:5-6 “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;…and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:”

The Scriptures are clear that if the wrath of God will come upon the ungodly for this sin of covetousness (along with others), then we must deduce that it will also render a believer useless. The sin of covetousness takes us deep into the interior of our souls. We must root out this deadly desire. Its various forms take the shape of coveting possessions, people (i.e. someone else’s wife, husband, child, or parent), position, or accomplishments. We are instructed that the way to usefulness it to “…be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).

Useless or Usable? We should, like the Apostle Paul, determine by the grace of God to keep our spirit, soul, and body under subjection to Christ to that we might be usable vessels in His service. There is no higher calling or privilege!

The Lord Is My Shepherd
Is He Yours?

1. Realize God Loves You.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.” John 3:16

2. The Bible Says All Men Are Sinners.
“For all have sinned, and come short of the
glory of God.” Romans 3:23

3. Sin Must Be Paid For.
“For The wages of sin is death…”
Romans 6:23

4. Christ Paid For Our Sins.
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

5. We Must Personally Pray and Receive Christ By Faith
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10:13
 

From My Heart - The importance of the local church

and its Ministry  by Dr. Andy Tully, Evangelist

I am not going to preach a formal sermon, or teach a formal lesson, in this article. I just want to discuss with you – from my heart to yours – the importance of the local church and its ministry.

Every serious student of the Bible knows that God has created THREE INSTITUTIONS on the face of the earth:

1. The home, created in the garden in Eden
2. Civil government, created in Eden and expanded in Genesis 9 when Noah and his family descended from the Ark
3. The church

Not one time in the Bible does God ever say, “I love the home and died for it.” Not one time in the Bible does God say, “I love civil government and died for it.”

However, read what the Bible says in Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” Yes, Jesus Christ died for “the world” (John 3:16); and He died for the individual (Romans 5:8). However, there is a very real sense in which He died “for the church.”

Now ponder this: If Jesus loved the church enough to die for it, should not I (a Believer) love it enough to live for it? To most “Christians” the church is something they can either take or leave. It is not priority in their lives.

However, your attitude toward the church is highly indicative of your attitude toward Christ. Consider this: In Acts chapters 7 and 8 we find that Saul of Tarsus (later known as the Apostle Paul) persecuted “the church.” He had never met Christ, and you cannot persecute someone you have never met.

If Jesus loved the church enough to die for it, should not I (a Believer) love it enough to live for it?

In Acts 9 Saul was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus with permission from the Jewish high Priest to arrest, imprison, persecute, and even execute those who believe in Jesus Christ. As he rounded the last turnpike, suddenly his journey was interrupted. A bright light shone from Heaven (Jesus Christ Himself), knocked him off his donkey, and there with his nose in the sand he heard this voice, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou ME?…I am Jesus; whom thou persecutest.”

Wait a minute! Saul had not persecuted Jesus; he had persecuted the church. Why did Jesus say, “Why persecutest thou me?” BECAUSE YOUR ATTITUDE TOWARD THE CHURCH IS INDICATIVE OF YOUR ATTITUDE TOWARD JESUS CHRIST. Whatever you allow to come between you and the church that thing is your idol, and that has come between you and the Lord Jesus Christ (amusement, personal comfort, another individual, etc.).

Thus, faithfulness and loyalty to the local church is an important matter. If Jesus Christ is to be first in my life, then that loyalty will show up in my attitude toward the church. (I am writing, of course, to the saved, not the unsaved.)

The writer of Hebrews said that we are not to “forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). It looks to me like that includes Sunday Morning Service, Sunday Evening Service, Wednesday Prayer Service, Soul Winning Visitation, and all the services and ministries of my local church. I am to be faithful and loyal to the church because Jesus Christ takes my attitude toward the institution for which He died personally. HE must be first in my life!

Now, let me say a word about my attitude toward the Pastor of my local church. I am a full-time Evangelist, and have been preaching for over 43 years as of this writing. However, as a member of Victory Baptist Temple I have a God-given responsibility toward my spiritual leader, the Pastor of my local church.

I am to pray for him; I am to support him; I am to show my love toward him. I am to even consider him “worthy of double honor,” as Paul told Timothy. He is my Pastor, my Shepherd, and my Overseer. He is the one who will one day “give account” as one who has “watched for your soul” (Hebrews 13:17).

Three times in Hebrews chapter thirteen the Pastor is called the “ruler” of the flock. That does not make him a dictator; but it does make him the leader, whom I am to hold in high esteem. See verses 7, 17, and 24.

Therefore, I am never to undermine his preaching and teaching. Someone asked me some time ago, “Bro. Tully, do you ever disagree with Pastor?”

My answer was quick and clear, “If I ever do, you will never hear me say anything that knowingly contradicts what my Pastor teaches and preaches. To do so is to cause division between the other people in the church and their Pastor; it is to be disloyal to the God-appointed office, and the man who holds that office. I make it my point never to preach, teach, or write anything that contradicts the doctrines taught and methods used by my God-appointed and Spirit-anointed Pastor.

In the Bible God puts a special wall of protection around the Pastor, by virtue of his office that He does not put around other believers. Let me briefly explain: If you and I have something against one another I am to go to you personally to settle it. Jesus taught that in Matthew 5 and 6.

However, the Bible says that I am not even to “receive…an accusation” against my Pastor, unless it is before two or three who have witnessed to the veracity of such an accusation (I Timothy 5:19). Thus, there is a special wall of protection around the Pastor by virtue of his office.

A good illustration of this can be found in the Old Testament, where David hewed in pieces an Amalekite who claimed responsibility (falsely so) for the death of David’s enemy, King Saul. David said, “Touch not the Lord’s anointed,” even knowing that Saul was out of the will of God.

It is wrong for a church member to refuse to support the programs, preaching, etc. that the Lord has laid upon the heart of His local church leader, the Pastor.

Wow! I can see that my article has gone on and on – Oh, well! I trust you get the point: BE FAITHFUL TO THE CHURCH, FOR WHICH JESUS DIED; AND BE FAITHFUL AND LOYAL TO YOUR PASTOR (OUR PASTOR), WHOM GOD HAS APPOINTED AND ANOINTED. The Lord will bless you for it.

Zane Gray has been teaching teen boys for 13 years. “The challenge of teaching is trying to make a difference in young people’s lives. Sometimes you can tell when you touch a heart. These young people hear the Word of God many times during the week. Trying to make it fresh is hard.”

Lucas Edgy assists Zane in teaching the boys. He has been working with the boys for three years.

“The class I have now is one of my best. They are well behaved and rarely cause any trouble. Pray for these young men that they will someday be what God wants them to be.”

“And daily in the temple, and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ” (Acts 5:42).

Teaching is a great responsibility that God uses in spreading His Word. May we take God’s Word to heart and pray for our teachers as they give out the Word of God each Sunday.

(left to right) Trey Livingston, Nathan Parker, Jacob Smith, Malachi McFadden, Aaron Miller, Andrew Miller, Steve Hassell, Zane Gray, Moses Ibarra, Lucas Edgy, Devin Cox, Corey Gray, Jeremy Crews

Announcements

Victory Baptist Adult Choir and Cast Present
Ten Thousand Hallelujahs

Featuring highlights from Handel’s Messiah and the Hallelujah Chorus

Thursday, December 14, 2006
7:00 p.m.

AND

Sunday, December 17, 2006
 6:00 p.m.