Our first reading in Genesis just a few moments ago spoke about Abraham being called by God to leave his home country, to move away from the city of Ur, then the city of Haran, moving on his way to Canaan. And as he moved on that journey, from time to time, the scripture tells us, he stopped and built an alter and remembered quite deliberately the one who was leading and guiding his life, the one who was the first priority, had the first call on his life.

Our second reading this morning is from the fourth chapter of Revelation. Genesis 12 is down to earth, dealing with the nitty-gritty of life: a person moving here, there and everywhere, seeking God’s guidance. Revelation 4 takes us out of this world, up to heaven, to the throne room of God and in symbolic terms, describes for us what the presence of the living God is like. Revelation is known for all its symbols, for the mysteriousness of the way in which it is written. But when you read through those symbols allowing them to impact you like images from MTV, coming into your mind, one after the other, then the fundamental message emerges clearly: the big picture (of the sovereignty of God) rather than a confusing array of "small pictures." What you have in this chapter, then, is primarily an image of the awesomeness, the power, of an almighty, eternal God. We read then in the fourth chapter of Revelation, beginning at the first verse: (See Scripture Readings).

Last Sunday we began a new series of sermons in which we are looking together at the Ten Commandments. It is a series which should take us all the way through the spring of the year. These commandments were given by God to the people of Israel a long time ago, in our best estimate, 3,300 years or so ago, through their leader Moses. They were given to the people of Israel just after they had escaped from slavery in Egypt on their way to the Promised Land. These commandments played an essential part in the formation of their identity as the people of God. Indeed, these commandments, I believe, form the foundation of the whole of the Old Testament scripture, as if these are the "first principles" from which the rest of the scripture, the rest of the law of God, and the preaching of the prophets is just an exposition, an expansion.

Last Sunday as we looked at these commandments by way of introduction, I said that even though the God of Israel, the God of Moses, the God portrayed in the book of Exodus (where we read of these commandments) is often portrayed as a fearsome God, an awesome God, a God who expects moral and religious response from his people, a God who holds us accountable as a judge – even though we saw the God of Israel portrayed this way, yet what we also saw was this, that the primary purpose of this God in giving the commandments was not a negative one. It was not to limit our freedom or to make us feel bad because we inevitably fail in living up to the rules given to us by God, even though it’s true — we cannot live up to these rules. But God’s purpose is not to make us feel bad, but rather God’s purpose is to help us, to guide us, to give us principles by which we not only can live as individuals, but by which we can live together in community as best as possible, for our greatest good, in a community in which, and through which, we can live and glorify God.

You may remember that last Sunday I used an illustration from John Wooden, former coach of the UCLA Basketball team, who spoke about the importance in basketball, a team sport (and Christian faith is a team sport!), the importance in basketball of a game plan. And that’s how I fundamentally understand these commandments, as a game plan: they don’t tell us everything we’re supposed to do in every circumstance, but they set the parameters within which we live and through which we play the game of life to the fullest. Says John Wooden:

"It has always been my philosophy to follow our game plan. If we believe in it, we will wear the opposition down and we’ll get to them. If we break away from our style, and the commandments are our style, however, and play their style, whatever is going on in the world, we’re in trouble. And if we let our emotions command the game rather than our reason, we will not function effectively. I constantly caution our teams, play your game. Just play your game. Eventually, if you play, if you stick to your style, it will tell in the end. This does not mean that we will always outscore our opponents. But it does ensure that we will not beat ourselves.
                                        They Call Me Coach, Word, 1972, p.111

The ten commandments: a game plan. Principles for life. That don’t ensure that we always act the same way or do the same thing every time, but they provide the principles, the parameters, within which we live our lives and play this game in many different ways: the parameters within which we make sure we don’t in the process "beat ourselves."

A gift of God. That’s what they are, these commandments. A source for thinking about life. The basic principles, the game plan that God has given to us for our blessing and for our good. And it’s with that thought in mind that we turn this morning to the first commandment. But before we even do that, let me ask you to pull out one of the inserts in your bulletin in which the commandments are written once again and let us put the first commandment in context by reading responsively from the commandments as we find them in Exodus. The people of Israel have just come out of slavery. The God who gives the commandments is a God who longs to set people free and the commandments are given in that context. And so, the reading goes:

"Then God spoke all these words, saying I am the Lord your God who
      brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol.

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

Honor your father and your mother.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet anything that is your neighbors."
 

My friends, this is the word of the Lord! Thanks be to God!

No other Gods before me. As if to say God is to be our first priority. Nothing should be as important to us in life as God is to us. Nothing should claim or govern our lives as much as God. Not people, nor things, nor ideas, nor hopes, nor dreams, not a thing. Our first priority is to God and God alone. Which, of course, is easy for me to say but it’s hard to do. And it’s especially hard to do in the world in which we live, here in the twenty-first century in this country, in which we are faced with a myriad of choices, each clamoring for our attention, each clamoring for our devotion, each one saying to us, "Make me your first priority. Put me first in your life."

And some of these ideas and thoughts and hopes and dreams clamoring for our attention are not wrong. They are not evil. Some may be – but many are good. And so we are faced with choices and priorities, many of which are right but they may not be right for us at this time. They may not need to be, at this time, a high priority in our lives. Life is complicated, filled with many choices.

It’s hard for us today with all our choices, but it was also hard when you go back in time, for those who had very few choices, to make this one choice: to make God our first priority. Let me take you back to the Garden of Eden, to the very beginning. It’s the story of Adam and Eve, and they only have one choice to make. Life was simple in those days! They could eat the fruit from any tree in the garden but they were commanded not to eat the fruit of one tree – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because in the day they did it, said God, they would die.

One choice to make, one priority to set: will it be God’s voice humans listen to, or our own voice? And what did they choose when life was simple? Even then, they chose another priority than God! Fruit looked so good: good to the eyes, good to the stomach, and so they took and ate it, as if it were more important to them than God. And unwittingly, they break that first commandment right there and then.

No other Gods before me. Aah, yes, the fruit of the tree chosen above God, above what God said. And if that occurred then, with only one choice to make, when life was simple, how much harder for us these days to keep that first commandment when we, don’t we have thousands of choices to make? Each clamoring for our attention and our devotion? And especially here in our country, where there are more choices to make about more things than anywhere else in the whole wide world.

We’ve got choices to make about schools. We’ve choices to make about colleges. We have choices to make about careers and about courses to study. We have choices to make about places to live, and shows to watch, and clothes to wear, and gadgets to buy. We have choices to make about companies, what gas company we need to choose, what phone company we’re going to register with, what water company we should have in our city. We have choices to make about hospitals and doctors and nurses, and who knows what else the choices are there that we face every day.

More than in any other country in the world, our lives in this country are filled with choices. Opportunities, if you want to put it positively, and it’s wonderful. It’s wonderful. It’s the joy of our land. It’s the pride of our land. Freedom of choice, and numerous choices that we can choose. It’s our blessing, but at the same time, as with some many good things, is it not at times also our curse? How can we decide? How can we choose? Where in the world do we start, with so many choices ahead of us? How in the world do we settle in and not be side-tracked from making God our first choice, our first priority, priority number one?

Back in 1967, not quite back to the time of Adam and Eve(!), but thirty seven years ago when maybe life was a little more simple than it is now, Charles Hummel wrote a little booklet about the problem. At the time he was President of Barrington College in Rhode Island, and I guess he was inundated with choices! His booklet is called The Tyranny of the Urgent (IVP, rev.1994). It’s a wonderful title — the tyranny of the urgent. And he puts the issue like this. He phrases it in the form of a question (pp.3-6).

Have you ever wished for a thirty-hour day? Surely this extra time would relieve the tremendous pressure under which we live. Our lives lead a trail of unfinished tasks, unanswered letters, unvisited friends, unread books haunt our quiet moments when we stop to evaluate what we’ve accomplished. We desperately need relief. But would that longer day really solve our problem? When we stop long enough to think about it, we realize that our dilemma goes deeper than shortness of time to basically a problem of priorities.

An experienced manager once said to me, "Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important, letting the urgent things crowd out the important." Those things that demand our attention but they may not need to be the most important things in our life.

(This advice has) often returned to haunt and rebuke me by raising the critical problem of priorities. We live in constant tension between the urgent and the important. The problem is that many important tasks need not be done today or even this week. But often urgent, though less important tasks, call for immediate response. Endless demands, pressure every waking hour.

He concludes by saying,

A person’s home is no longer a castle, a private place away from urgent tasks (and this was first written in 1967 before telemarketing!), the telephone breaches its walls with incessant demands. The appeal of these demands seems irresistible and they devour our energy.

And by default, almost, they become priority number one. So many choices. So many decisions. But God, through Moses, through the Ten Commandments, speaks to us now as God spoke to the people of ancient Israel so many years ago and says to us that only one choice should top the list. There should be one priority above all others. Make no mistake about it: You shall have no other gods before me! No other priorities. No other first priority than God.

Which begs the question, first of all, as to how, how do we do it? How, if Adam and Eve couldn’t do it and life was simple? How, if we have so many choices, how can we do it?

And then the next question which is in some ways even more important, why? If it’s hard, if it’s difficult, if it’s challenging, why? Why should we examine our lives to discover what our first priority is and then consistently, repeatedly, make God our first choice. Our first priority. No other Gods before God.

Let me share with you briefly four reasons why, why it’s worth bothering, why it’s worth trying to set God first, and then three words on "how."

WHY? Let’s begin with those four reasons for bothering and trying to keep the first commandment, to put God first. The question of motivation. Why should we do it in this busy world when all these voices are clamoring for our attention? Why should we put God first?

My first reason is what I call the rational reason and that is this: That God is God. That’s why. Because God is God. Whatever we think of God, wherever God is in our life, God remains God. That’s the ultimate truth. To live our lives in any other way is to live a lie. It is to deny the truth, which the Apostle Paul says (as he begins the letter to the Romans) is the ultimate sin: to deny that we were created, to deny the existence of, and honor due, to our creator. . . . which we’re tempted to do at all kinds of times.

In fact, the book of Revelation that we read in our second reading was written at the end of the first Christian century because there were many Christians at that time who were tempted to believe that God was not God, that the Roman Empire was God, that the Roman Emperor was God: so dominant, so forceful in every part of life, as if Rome alone was eternal, controlling their lives, controlling their faith, telling them what to do. And St. John writes Revelation to say to people that "beyond what you see, there is another dimension to life in which God is still God. God is on the throne no matter what."

No matter what images you hold in your mind, it is the simple truth. The rational reason for putting God first: not to live lives which are a lie, but to live according to the truth.

The second reason, I call it the realistic reason, for putting God, for listening to this commandment to have no other Gods but God. The realistic reason is this: That life is short. We may not think of life as short. We get caught up in life and we think it’s going on forever so that we choose this priority or that priority . . . but because life is short, my friends, make sure you choose priorities which will last, and that will not fade as life itself fades away. And one such priority, of course, is God!

California pastor Rick Warren says that we need to think of this life as a "temporary assignment." Just a short period of time. What are we going to do with this time that God has given to us? Surely we need a priority in life that is eternal in the midst of our lives which are short. Here, in God, at least, is one priority that is eternal. Let’s link our lives, hook our lives to something that is far greater than anything we can see around about us. In the midst of the shortness of life, the realistic reason: find a priority that lasts.

Reason number one: The rational reason. God is God, whether we acknowledge it or not.
Reason number two: The realistic reason. Life is short. Choose your priorities wisely.

Reason number three: What I call the Reformation reason. It comes from the sixteenth century and then onto the seventeenth century, when what we call the Westminster Confession of Faith was written. And this reason says quite simply this, that we were made to function best when we put God first. That’s how we were made. It’s how we were created. It’s what we were made for. We were made to function best when we put God first. Our greatest joy comes from that as our priority in life.

It’s the catechism of the Westminster Confession which asks this question: What is man’s chief end in life? And answers, Our chief end is to glorify God, put God first, and then surprisingly, from these Puritans who seemed to be so dour, so joyless, "and enjoy God forever." Our greatest joy comes from putting God first within our lives.

That’s the Reformation reason for putting God first.
The realistic reason is that life is short
and the rational reason is that whether we think it or not, God is God and that is the truth.

And the fourth reason is what I call the remarkable reason and it is this:
That when we do put God first, we can bring God pleasure. When we put God first, we can bring a smile to the face of God.

Some of you may remember the movie Chariots of Fire from some years back about the athlete Eric Liddell who competed in the Olympic Games in 1924, and who in later years became a missionary to China. In the movie, at least, this is what he says about his running. . He said,

"I believe God made me for a purpose. But I’m also fast. And when I run, I feel God’s pleasure. When I run, I feel God’s pleasure."

– Have you ever felt God’s pleasure, through what you’ve done, through what you’ve chosen, through what you’ve wished, through what you’ve said?

– Have you ever sought to bring pleasure to a mighty God, this God who shakes the mountain when the commandments are given?

– Bring pleasure to God? Did you even know that such a thing was possible, by setting God first?

By setting God first we can bring pleasure to God. It’s remarkable.
We can find true joy ourselves. That’s the Reformation principle.
We can avoid short-lived, dead end priorities because life itself is short and that’s realistic.
And we can live by the truth, only God is God. That’s the rational reason.

Four reasons for putting God first, but very simply, in closing, how are we to do this?

HOW? How in the face of pressing priorities do we make sure that God is first? I know of no other way than by following the example of Abraham, of whom we read in our Old Testament reading, and of our Lord Jesus Christ in the gospels, who no matter what they were doing, no matter how busy life became for them, made it a point to take time out for God.

On a weekly basis, Jesus went to the synagogue. And beyond that, on a regular basis, whenever possible, if you remember, Abraham built those alters to God. Stopped in his tracks and acknowledged God as his guide, as his Lord, as his master and as his friend. And Jesus, too, would do this quite frequently in his life: go to quiet places to pray.

The most famous of those is at the end of his life when on the night before he died, he went to the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives, there to make sure that his priority in life was God’s priority in life for him – which at that point was the crucifixion for you and me; and there he settled it once and for all; wrestled with it as we too will wrestle with God’s priority in our life, wrestled with it in this moment of crisis.

And the gospel writers tell us that it wasn’t just in crisis that Jesus did this, but it was at other times as well: He went to Gethsemane in crisis because that’s the place he used to go to before the crisis! To pray. And there are other times, we read, when Jesus did this as well.

Perhaps the most important was when his popularity began to skyrocket and the crowds began to gather around about him. In the fifth chapter of Luke’s gospel, we’re told that the crowds were flocking to him and no doubt the temptation to become an entertainer, to use his words, to use his miracles, to wow the crowd, were strong. And what do we read? We read that Jesus would withdraw, to a deserted place to pray, to focus on God as number one.

In my own life, for many years, I’ve made it my goal to take time out with God every day, to pray and read the scriptures. There’ve been times when I’ve done this less or more than at other times. Though my goal is at least fifteen to thirty minutes a day, five times a week. Alone. With others. By ourselves. Together. As we’re doing today. Or at others times, just to keep God in focus. And if God is in focus, then perhaps, just perhaps, God might become number one. Our first priority. Above all others.

You shall have no other Gods before me. Hard in a busy world. Hard in a world filled with choices, yet vital.

It is the truth.

This priority lasts forever.

It will bring us our greatest joy

and it can bring a smile to the face of God.

So take time. Make time. Make time to get your focus clear and as you do so, challenge whatever priorities you have within you so that God becomes number one. You shall have no other Gods before me.

Let us pray. Holy God, help us to place you first in our lives just as you place us at the very center of your being. For Christ’s sake. Amen.