We live in a society where every word is measured through a humanistic and atheistic political correctness. God is being legislated, taught, and ridiculed out of society. People that fail to remember history are doomed to repeat it. Where the God of the Bible is absent man’s inhumanity to man reigns and the greatest atrocities have been done. Many in order to maintain their lifestyle of pleasure that is evil have given themselves over to mocking anything good or moral. (Rom 1:16-32) We are teaching our children to fail by disrespecting anything with moral value. It is just a matter of time before anarchy will reign. The teachers of this moral vacuum will become the next victims of the generations they have instilled this violence against good into. The mentors will receive no compassion from their students as they will have learned their lessons well. The very democracy we live in and trust needs a moral center to not become a mob rule. The foundations of our society are slowly being eroded as godless men revise history to suite their own godless ends. (Psalm 11:3)

We also live in a society with meaningless buzz words. Words like religion, spirituality, open, and paths are all cover ups for mankind’s decision to disobey God. The Bible teaches clearly and succinctly PUT GOD FIRST. After rebellion, Satan’s second greatest invention was religions that please men and not God. Satan is worshipped through innumerable religions that have men and the agendas of demons as their gods. We have sanitized religion. We have made it another satisfier of flesh and appeaser of the conscience. False religions were created by Satan to bring about a false sense of security. A person will plunge into the depths of hell while believing they are secure and in no way going there. All references to hell, punishment, judgment, sin, and evil are removed from our vocabulary. We will not scar the psyches of our children by making them accountable but deliver them from unconscionable lifestyles. Accountability is becoming a thing of the past unless it suites a humanistic or atheistic agenda.

Evil begins in the Bible with Satan who fought a battle in heaven to usurp god and lost. We then see him tempting the first man and woman to be as gods. Put you first, every need, every whim, every selfish and cruel self seeking thought. Don’t worry about tomorrow or the future suffering of millions of people in future generations. Go take God down from His just and good place and be your own god. Write your own rules, laws and religions that please you. Satan’s plan was to enslave people to their lower nature. The flesh would rule instead of the human spirits and its power to bring moral virtue to the consciousness of people. So evil begins by removing God from being first, the ultimate and first temptation. Satan knows if God is not first mankind cannot succeed. Satan knows the human race will be blind of its purpose, its meaning, and its future. It will be bound by a need for selfish immediate gratification and he will be their god and he will satisfy them. He did not want them to be gods only slaves of appetites and dark imaginations.

The entire Old Testament was a battle to put idolatry the worship of false gods and religions out of the world. God called a people a nation to Himself to accomplish this noble task. God viewed other religions as the worship of demons or nature as an abomination. Over and over again Israel through the pleasures of the flesh worshipped other gods who could supply their lustful needs. God depicts Himself as a lover with an adulterous wife. (Hosea 2:16-20) God was a husband scorned through idolatry. In the wilderness after God delivered them from the cruelty and slavery of Pharaoh the people would rather eat quail then love and serve God.

The New Testament deals with mankind’s evil heart as the god that must be pulled down. It is Christ made Lord the God of the heart that creates the power of New Testament life and witness.

John 4:23-24
23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
NIV

Apostle Peter tells us we will be a kingdom of priests. (1 Peter 2:4) The purpose of the priesthood was to teach the people to enter into the very presence of God. This could only be accomplished by a people who have PUT GOD FIRST. To PUT GOD FIRST is to seek Him in spiritual knowledge and truth. To PUT GOD FIRST is to know what He requires and what He desires. To PUT GOD FIRST needs truth. It will be God pleasing truth not man pleasing truth. The Bible is unique in that it does not seek to please man but God. The New Testament teaches mankind is blessed when we choose to please God and put Him first. The same principle was taught in the Old Testament in innumerable ways and in innumerable scriptures. (Deut 28) The operative word is to choose. Choose who you will serve God or sin. Choose what you will serve truth or error. Choose eternal death or eternal life. Jesus taught this principle in the sermon on the mountain.

Matt 6:33
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
NKJV

When I think of evangelism I want to ask people, have you ever made a decision to put God first once and for all and forever? Are you ready to put God first? Do you know How to put God first? Did you know your eternal destiny rests upon this truth?

The sad tragedy is our church is filled with unchanged, unregenerate people because they failed to make this commitment to PUT GOD FIRST hindering God’s Spirit from truly giving them eternal life. Jesus talked about those losing their life will find it. Putting God first will reap eternal life. It will bring of blessing not just temporary ones that end in death after the many sorrows of this world. Christianity is about nurturing this new relationship with God that has been restored because we have chosen to PUT GOD FIRST. We now live in the blessings of what He has done for those who put Him first. He will remove their sinful and idolatrous hearts. He gives them a new heart replacing a heart of stone. He gives them access to Him and eternal life. He pours His love and blessings upon them.

We all can determine from a person’s life by their commitment to PUT GOD FIRST if they are walking with God, lost, or in a backslidden condition. Every true saint of God must make this determination to do all we can every day to PUT GOD FIRST. In terms of evangelism it is quite clear to those who have not made Jesus Lord or PUT GOD FIRST of their spiritual condition. If someone would have asked me before I became a Christian if I PUT GOD FIRST or lived to please God, regardless of my darkness or deception I would have answered no. Most honest religious people will answer no. The actions of those who fail to PUT GOD FIRST will be marked by certain behavior. This behavior and heart attitude is listed in the Bible.

2 Tim 3:1-5
3:1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
NKJV

God speaks to generations of people through His prophet Isaiah when He says,

Isa 1:18-20
18 "Come now, and let us reason together,"
Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; 20 But if you refuse and rebel,
You shall be devoured by the sword"; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
NKJV

Beloved the decision is yours begin the new year PUTTING GOD FIRST.