First Things First

Sermon from CCM:Kingsway

LISTEN

This sermon was preached by Claire Biggs at the CCM Kingsway site of Christ Church Manchester on Sunday 30th May 2021.

Christ Church Manchester · First Things First (by Claire Biggs)

SERIES

This message was part of the ‘SERIES NAME’ series, preached at Christ Church Manchester’s church in Burnage in EARLY/MID/LATE YEAR. The full series included the following sermons:

BIBLE VERSES

This sermon was based on Judges 6:25-32.

25That same night the Lord said to him, ‘Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.’

27So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.

28In the morning when the people of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly-built altar!

29They asked each other, ‘Who did this?’

When they carefully investigated, they were told, ‘Gideon son of Joash did it.’

30The people of the town demanded of Joash, ‘Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.’

31But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, ‘Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.’ 32So because Gideon broke down Baal’s altar, they gave him the name Jerub-Baal that day, saying, ‘Let Baal contend with him.’

KEY POINTS

The Problem

The Israelites had imported the practices of worship from the Canaanite people around them. They had put other things in God’s place.
God is a jealous God who requires that his people worship him and him alone.
We can often find ourselves importing the values and priorities, the objects of worship, of the society around us and allowing them to take God’s place in our own lives.

First Things First

The first thing God tells Gideon to do is actually the most important thing. This is the point at which Gideon becomes the hero, when he breaks down the idol in order to put God back in the place God belongs and turns the peoples attention back to the living God.
This is also the most important thing you and I can do, to put God in his rightful place as the one we value and worship before anything else in our lives.

Put God back in the Place God Belongs

There is never a vacuum – there will always be something that takes the number one spot in our lives.
The things which can be idols in our society and also in our own lives are not always easy to spot and not always bad in themselves. e.g. job, family, children, relationships, sport, politics, environmentalism and even our own comfort.
God must be valued above all other things. If he is not actually better than every single other thing which ever existed or could possibly exist he cannot be God and is not worth worshipping or following!

Our Advantage

We have Jesus! He has done away with the need for us to keep impossible laws and make regular sacrifices because he kept the law and made the perfect sacrifice once and for all on the cross.
He is God himself and through him we can have relationship with God as our father.
When we choose to put God first, to prioritise our relationship with Jesus the results are amazing. God is really the only place that we can find all our needs fulfilled Our security, identity, significance are all found in him.

This Current Moment

2020 and the Covid pandemic are a unique experience. It has been a really testing and difficult time but God works things for good and is able to use these moments.
One of the things that happened as a result of complete lockdown was that all our idols, whatever they may have been were stripped away. We have been painfully aware of the the things which had become of highest value to us.
We have a choice now to go back to things as they were and continue to prioritise those things in our lives or to actively choose to put God back in the place where God belongs. To choose to be the hero like Gideon was.

MORE SERMONS

To see more sermons from Christ Church Manchester, you can visit our sermons page, or why not consider subscribing on iTunes.