Praise the Lord. We’re going to continue on this morning in our series on Make Christ Your Foundation.

It is imperative that all that’s going on throughout the world - in these we’re seeing a lot of calamity, turmoil, political unrest going on the world, but no matter what, Christ needs to be first in your life.  We have seen in recent days how your life can be turned upside down in a matter of moments.  You can have plans for the coming week, the coming month, and everything in your life can be turned around overnight, but no matter what happens, you’re going to need Jesus. So let Christ be your foundation.

Turn with me to Luke 14, how Jesus talks about what’s important, because Jesus always speaks to us from the eternal perspective. You know, our lives as folks that what’s going around in our natural life as far as working, family, events and so forth and we’re concerned about that.  And there is a place for that in our lives, but there’s nothing more important than your relationship with Christ.

Here in Luke 14:15 see what Jesus is saying to us.  And He says here, “Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

What Jesus was always speaking to us about is getting to the Kingdom.  See, this time here on earth is short.  Some people spend more time on this rock as it were than others, but you’re not going to be here forever.  The key thing is to get into the Kingdom.

He says here in verse 16 “Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuses. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.  And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.”

Luke 14:21 “So that servant came, and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.”

The most important thing is to get into the Kingdom, or are you making excuses why you can’t show up? The affairs of life caused these people who are bidden to come, to say I need to be excused, but the most important thing is taking that time to break bread with the Lord.

See, we always got something going on.  There can always a reason why you can’t come.  There’s going to be always be affair or a challenge or an issue or a desire that will always cause you to say, “Ah. Not this time.” But there will come that day where you want to show up and you have an excuse and your time is up. God is not looking to hear the excuses.

Here he tells them, he invites them and he refers to this passage really to the Jews--why they can’t accept Jesus. So he goes up to the world and as all they come in, as what’s going on today.  God’s house is open to all.  But when we say “Lord, my time with you is the highest priority - work, family, all these things they have a place and they’re good.  But if you don’t put God first, you pushing out before him, you’re going to lose out.  And God is not accepting excuses.

Let’s go on and continue on to see what Jesus says about this.  Let’s go on down to verse 25. “And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, if any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife,

Praise the Lord church.  We are going to continue on today, and today’s message is titled Signs of the Times.

We have to take a look and see what‘s going on as it were in the Holy Spirit chronicles, to read the Word of God and how it’s impacting us today. I submit unto you, and I’ll show you in the Word this morning that the Lord has set up signs to indicate what He’s doing in the world, and we need to be able to understand and read those signs to see what God is doing so that we can be in tuned with God, so that we can always know what’s going on. God is not mysterious to his people if we stay in fellowship with Him, amen?

Turn with me to the book of Genesis 1. Say amen when you’re there. Praise the Lord...signs of the times. Now here in Genesis 1, if you’re there say amen? Praise the Lord. The Word of God tells us here in Genesis 1:14 it says, “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.”

So what God said here now... what happened is, He set up the lights in the heavens and the stars and for us locally here, the sun and it be for a sign when there is day; when the sun is down, the moon is up or the moon can be seen, it will be night.  And actually, what we do is we measure our life by that. We tell one day from the next. We use the time for the earth to make a rotation as a 24 hours, we divide our day. People in the old day use a sundial to tell what time it is.

So what happened is God has set a president and He says in his Word here that He’s using part of nature to go ahead and tell us, and use it for signs. He uses for seasons, for days, and for years, amen? What happens is, now since the fall of Adam, all of creation is off balance. See, when God created the earth, He made everything was good. Look further down here in Genesis 1:30 “And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

So what happens here, God tells us when He created everything, everything was VERY good, okay? And so, there was as it were perfection, praise the Lord. But man through Adam and Eve -- disobedience caused everything to fall off whack, wasn’t functioning as it was designed to function. We weren’t functioning as we were designed to. We were created to have a relationship with God, to love God. We were to be holy and to live without sin, but Adam and Eve made a mistake and it is passed on to all of us, but praise the Lord He has a plan of restoration, amen? But during this process of restoration, we are going through a process where now we have to get back to that and praise God through the shed blood of Jesus, He has made a way for us, but everything is out of whack.

Take a look here in Genesis 3. Now the fall of Adam and Eve He says here in regards to what’s going on, Genesis 3:9 He says, “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” Here is the first time we see where man was scared to be in the presence of God, he hid himself. God used to walk with Adam in the cool of the day. There was a relationship. There was fellowship. Verse 11, “And He said, who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle,

The title of today’s message is “How Strong is Your Faith.”

...In area of our life that we can be stronger, that we can seek and search God for more, that we can walk with God and to have God do more through us. See, there’s nothing that you do in your life with God that’s not done by faith. You get saved by faith. Faith is what gives you the strength to get up the next day, keep going forward. Without faith you don’t have hope. See, in Romans 10:17 the Word of God says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

We are going to talk about today, acting upon hearing the Word of God, faith for salvation, faith for healing and faith and action and also that there’s degrees of faith. Some people have strong faith, some people have little faith. But the degree that you can strengthen your faith you can see God do more in your life and more through you, amen?

Let’s take a look here in Hebrews 11:1. Now, I would say this to you every day, every year you should be having something that you believe in God for. You should never be staggering in your life where you just kind of say that you just arrived. There are things that you have needs of, amen? There are things that you want to have accomplished, so it’s going to take faith. See, if you already have it and you already know about, you won’t need faith, but faith is a hope, it gives a vision of something that you don’t already have, that you need to have in your life, amen?

Somebody may even say, I need faith for economic opportunities. You don’t have the economic opportunity or the job or whatever it may be, the money right now, but you have a vision for and you believe God for it. So, what happens is, faith paints that picture upon your heart, amen? And if you truly believe it, it will work out and you’ll see it explained in your life, is through actions. We’re going to see that, we’re going to talk about that about that today.

But here in Hebrews 11:1, the Word of God says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Now, it tells us that faith is the substance of what? Things hoped for. One thing about being a Christian and being a believer, you got to always be full of hope. If you don’t have hope in you, you’ll be depressed. If you don’t have hope in you, you won’t want to live. Hope always gives you a yearning for something more and better, amen? “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” or not perceived by your senses. In other words, thing that you can see, touch, smell or taste.

See, what happens is, when you start having faith for something, you know what you want.  Faith always knows what it wants, why? Because it has that picture what it’s hoping for, okay? And when you have that picture, you say, “Okay. I know what it looks like. I just can’t touch it, taste it, smell it,” but you have a picture of it. Like for example, you may be hoping for a house, maybe a spouse, maybe some money, money a certain job position.  You have a vision of it because you will know it when you see it. You will know it when you touch it.

So what happens now is, we need to see in every area of our life there’s something you’re hoping for. There is something that you want God to do in your life. But one thing is, you want to have your faith in line with God’s word. You won’t have faith for something that’s contrary to the Word of God and people do that all the time. You also, when God is involved in you, you want something that’s in line with God’s Word, but you also want something that’s going to be a blessing to you and through you, that it will be a blessing to other people. God will always meet your needs faster he’ll meet your desires, okay? God will always bless you and enable you when you want to be a channel of blessing rather than it just be about yourself, amen?

Now, the Word of God tells us here in Romans 10. Now, here in Romans 10, it’s the key verse here,

Praise the Lord. Today’s message is titled “The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Turn with me in your Bible to Matthew 18. Here in Matthew 18 starting in verse 1, Jesus was asked the question by his disciples, “who would be the greatest in heaven?”

Here in Matthew 18 starting at verse 1, the Word of God says, “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receives me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

What we need to do is, Jesus told us that the childlike characteristic of dependency and receiving information is the characteristic of one that will be great. So often, we come to a point as adult that we now get full of pride, we come to a point where we want to acknowledge. We come to a point where it becomes about us, but what God is looking at is our trust in Him.

So I want to take some time and break this down about some of the characteristics of a child and being humble is very important that we become humble before God, amen? Let’s take a look here at some of the values of what it means to be childlike before the Lord and I’ll show you in scriptures where people have sought God that way, God’s promoted them. See he said, “One must become childlike.” You must be childlike in your faith.

You tell a kid “next weekend, we’re going to Disneyland.” Do you know that child is going to hold you to it? Do you know that Friday night – you tell him you’re going next Saturday. Friday night the child can’t go to sleep. He/she is so excited they’re dreaming about Disneyland, dreaming about Minnie and Mickey Mouse, they can’t wait because of their faith in your words. Do we have the same type of faith and belief in what God says?

See everything that we do with God is done by faith. All we have is the Word of God. Do you believe his Word? Do you believe his Word? Because for God to do anything in your life, is going to take you to trust Him and believe Him, but if you don’t believe what the Word says, you won’t act in faith, but a child simply believes what the parent or adult says and takes it and basis his whole life on it.

Our life should be based upon the Word of God, amen? Our life is a walk by faith, as it should be. Everything you do when it comes to God is by faith. But the characteristic of a child is one of faith. What are some of the characteristics of an adult who’s been around a long time, skepticism? “I don’t really believe that. My experiences tell me this...”

I believe God is real. I believe Jesus is real. I believe the very words that Jesus spoke and if Jesus is who says He is, then what He said, we should listen to and take heed, okay? But it takes faith. Because I tell you something, I’ve never seen God. I’ve never touched God, so I’ve got to accept His Word. It does take faith to believe God’s Word because sometimes when the Word of God says I walk by sight, and walk by my senses, Lord it doesn’t look like that. But faith believes more about what God said than what I perceived with my senses and to have that childlike faith become great.

See the world will tell you, why do believe in Jesus? You go to church? You read the Bible? You go all the time? Come on now, that’s 2000 years ago. That’s the skepticism. But the Bible tells us, if we believe that He is the Son of God and that God raised Him from the dead and believe He died for our sin, then we become the child of God. And so what happens,

Today’s message is titled “A Christian’s Role in the World.” What we need to recognize and understand is that your life in Christ is more than just the immediate needs in your family. That as believers in Jesus Christ, we are to be engaged in the world...

The title of today’s message is “Purpose to Walk in Excellence.” We need to walk in excellence in every area of your individual life okay? Your professional life, your home life, your work in the church, and not only just in this area, in leadership of private organizations, corporations and governments. Everything that we do must be done in excellence and if it’s not done in excellence, it’s not going to last.

Follow me here. What’s happening is, if you do not walk in excellence, your talent and the giftings that you may have won’t last. You got to get this. God is the God of order. He wants things done right. He wants it done in excellence; He doesn’t want it half done. He doesn’t want it part way. Jesus told us in Luke 9:23, He said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself,” that means your personal goals cannot come before Him.

People want things. People want to see things done, but when God has you to do something and especially for Him, it must be done in excellence. As a matter of fact, if it’s not done right with people, it’s still not going to last. I don’t care what it is. Right now, we currently see going on in the world, a lot of turmoil right now, a lot of issues. And a lot of these issues start with just the basic things and these basic things starts around food, shelter, economic opportunity. It’s tearing the world apart. If the government can’t do it right, it won’t last.

If you don’t do it right with God, it won’t last. Turn with me to 1 Samuel 2. Now, if you work in this church, everything you do has to be done right. You shouldn’t give God leftovers of your time. You shouldn’t put God as it were His stuff is half done, not done right, just do it how you want to do it. No, we’ll talk about this because what happens is these things become straight in characteristics of people, okay? And God is a God of excellence, amen! And when you proclaim to know God you need to walk in excellence.

This church needs to be a church in excellence.  I’m telling you one thing, I want to get it together because you’re not getting on your job right, you can be seeing me. If you get upset and want to walk, I don’t mind. I don’t mind because I’m not going to stand and pastor that’s halfway done. I’m not. And I’m telling you something, your job is not going to improve when you’re getting stuff’s halfway done right. They’ll let you go in a minute and won’t even think twice about it. I love you. You know, I’ll talk – I’ll work you, you know what I mean?

But people want everything done in excellence. Look here in 1 Samuel 2. Now God is going to do with high priest Eli because stuff wasn’t done right in the synagogue, in the temple and He had to deal with him. 1 Samuel 2:18 it says, “But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod. Moreover his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice and Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, The LORD give thee seed of this woman for the loan which is lent to the Lord. And they went unto their own home.”

Now what happens is, Elkanah and his wife gave Samuel as a baby to the priest Eli to be in the house and to serve God and God used this young kid to have him trained up to be a new priest for him, to be over the people of Israel, because the old wasn’t doing right.

Verse 22: “Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” Now his sons were supposed to be priests and they were supposed to be servants unto the Lord. But, what they’re doing is, they’re sitting at the door of the synagogue, of the temple checking out the women who they can sleep with.  Get your house in order.

Verse 23: “And he said unto them, why do you such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. No,

Zoe Christian Fellowship of Long Beach | ZCFLB

Pastor Keith Jones

We are going to continue on with part 2 of “The Lord’s Guide to Abundant Living.”  Let me say this, God wants you blessed, amen? He wants you on top, but one of the things that we have to do is understand that and understand that first of all, we want to be blessed and empowered to succeed, we will have to have a God-given purpose in that blessing. Just being blessed to be blessed in order for yourself to put all your blessings on you, it’s more than that. You have to say "Lord bless me so I can be a channel of blessing to help rich people who are lost,  to help people who are saved to grow, to help do more good works," amen?

See, turn with me for just a moment to Matthew 5. I got some idea I want to share with you this morning about blessed, amen? Some from my experience and something I think people can do. But first let’s read this in Matthew 5:13, it says here, “You are the salt of the earth: but if the salt has lost his savior, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”

See what happens is, you’re unique. You’re different. You’re not common, but you need to understand that and our purpose should be to understand that I’m a blood-bought believer in the name of Jesus and I’m going to ahead and conduct myself holy, live for God. And look what He says here in verse 14, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

You have to have a purpose to say, “I am here to do good works.”  You cannot focus on good works if you’re constantly burned down with issues. You can’t! But God had called us to be a light and our light – any light should be visible according to what Jesus just said here. People should be able to see our good works. People should see what God is doing in your life, okay? Understand that. There should be some evidence that you’re a Christian. There should be some evidence that God is at work in your life. It is not about where you came from, it is what God has brought you from and we have to get our thinking in line with the Word of God. That God, “I know you want me to prosper, I need to prosper so that I can be about your business to help establish further the Kingdom of God.”

See there’s much work to do for people at the purpose conference on Friday night when you saw Pastor Guido put up that YouTube about how Islam and fascists can be taking over Europe, you guys saw that? Wasn’t that incredible? It gets through birth rate. The birth rate, not a single gun or whatever is to be fired. You know that we have to reach those people with the Good News of the Gospel?  See, we have to understand that we are the light of the world. See, you know what the church really is? The church is the governing-it should be the governing body here on earth. The world should come to us for permission. We are the light. At one point it was like that. We have to get back...

Let me share this with you. All the European kings used to be coroneted by the Pope. You are ordained to be a king, unless the Pope agreed upon it. That means any secular king was not recognized without the Pope’s coronation. Now, how about that? For being the light of the world and establishing God’s Kingdom on earth, we need to get back to that. The church should be the governing body. The world should be coming to us.

This is my goal, is what I look to see in Zoe of Long Beach that this church here has such influence throughout the community that the elected officials come to us and we give them godly insight and direction. That’s what the church should be doing. You have to understand that’s the goal of the church.

This morning we will continue on with our topic about ‘Placing the Lord First in Every Area of Your Life’. Now, last Sunday we spoke about giving and how that giving of the first fruits and giving of the first fruits is what God did with the children of the Israel when they went into the land that He promised them.  He told them to give their first of their harvest unto the Lord so that He would bless them. But this principle of giving first in whatever we have in our life back to God allows Him to bless all of what you have. This is important. It’s not only in the area of giving that we should give first, but we are to give our lives first to God. This is important, to start this New Year.

Many people want something from God. They want God to bless them with more money. They want God to bless them with a maid. They want God to bless them with a house. They want God to bless them with a job. People are looking for something out of God. But what are you going to give to God? If you get what you want from God, it’s not even really yours. See people thinks it’s mine, you really don’t own anything. You don’t control anything forever. You only have stewardship of it and what happens is, with God you want to have more stewardship, you got to show him that Lord, this is yours. You are in control. I am just managing it under your direction, that’s important.

Your life is not your own. You were bought with a price. Somebody died for you. Somebody shed blood for you to get into the Kingdom. You have to understand your body is not your body. What are you talking about Pastor? This is my body.  If it’s your body, then you’re going to be very responsible for all that’s actually in your body and you’re responsible that is in your body that displeases God.  See, when you became a Christian and got saved, you were purchased with a price by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? So you don’t even own yourself.

So what happens is, maybe you’re starting to understand a little bit that “I’m going to give you first in everything in my life because you’re worthy, because you deserve it, because it’s right. “  And when we do that, God responds all the time.  Turn with me in your Bibles to Mark 12. The first thing you have to do is consecrate yourself unto the Lord. Here in Mark 12…see, so many are involved in so many other things, but God needs to be first, amen?

Now here in Mark 12:28 where Jesus has been teaching and He brings his point home by priorities. He says here in Mark 12:28 “And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?  And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

What happens is that we are to love God. Now, for a lot of people when we talk about loving God, they get emotional, “Yeah, I love the Lord.”  They get emotional like they think it’s a relationship with a woman. “Well I love her.” Well, yes God wants you to be emotional but more than the emotion, God wants to see the action of love, you see? That’s what’s important. See I don’t want to hear myself “I love you” but I don’t ever see any love action. See? When we love God, I’d rather see the action more than the lip service. Now, the lip service is actually going to get any good, but if there’s no action of love it is only an emotional feeling. You know people get emotional about things one minute and in the next minute, it’s gone. They forgot all about it.  And so that what happens.

We say to a lot of people, “Do you love God?” “Oh Pastor, I love God. Yeah, I love God.” Okay,

The title of today’s message is ‘Placing the Lord First in Every Area of our Lives’.  So this is first Sunday of the New Year, we want to offer to God our first fruits as it were in every area of our lives. We are going to offer our God first fruits in our priorities, amen? We’re going to offer our God first fruits to our giving, amen? We’re going to offer God first fruits in our commitment in our lives and also through prayer.

See, what happens is, I want to go to the Word with you this morning. How the Lord when he spoke to the children of Israel, go into their new land. How he told them how to prosper and succeed in the land through the giving of their first fruits and what I mean by that is—the first of everything that come to your life, give it to God.

Put God first and when you do this God will prosper you, protect you, watch out over you, remove sickness from your life, stop your enemies from prospering against you. Every area God offers is protection and what I’ve noticed through this scripture, it comes to giving him first fruits, amen?  And I’ll show through the scripture we’ll apply this. I know this is first Sunday, but some of these things you only need to do today, next Sunday and everyday throughout the year and this will give you the breakthrough, amen?

Now turn with me to Proverbs 3. We read this here all the time, but we need to set the background, amen? Praise the Lord. Now, look what it says here in Proverbs 3:5 it says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.” I mean, we got to trust God when we can see what’s going to see especially when we don’t.  Hey, we’re not able to see what’s going on. We have to trust God. You don’t know what’s going to happen to you later on today. You don’t know what’s going to happen to you next month or six months from now. But I tell you one thing, you’re going to have trust God, make sure that’s going to work out.

I don’t know what’s going to happen ten minutes from now or an hour from now or later on this day, but my faith and trust in God that He’s going to take care of me. See, people took a plan everything out in their life. There are some things that happen from day to day that you’re so unaware of. A lot of people didn’t even make it to this Sunday and they were alive just last week. They were planning on being here, but stuff happens. You have to walk by faith church. And walking by faith means you’re going to trust God. You’re going to trust God for your employment. You’re going to trust God for food on your table. You’re going to trust God for your health. You’re going to trust God for everything.

The person that thinks they are self-made is the man or woman that is deceived. It says “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him…” Now we get in to do this, our first fruits. Well, you give them the first of what you have. You say, “Lord, I’m acknowledging you. First of all, I’m acknowledging your sovereignty over my life. Lord, I’m acknowledging that you are worthy to receive first.  See what happens is when we acknowledge God, we honor him.  And God is worthy to be honored. It is a good thing to honor the Lord, amen?

And we had just communion this morning. God did all give us the best that He had.  He sent Jesus down here to die for our sins.  You know that we should be paying that price?  He did that and he did that when weren’t even thinking following His ways when we want to know Him when we are doing our own thing. So, “in all thy ways, acknowledge him.”  Acknowledge Him through given that first fruits and look at the benefit in acknowledging God, “and He shall direct thy path.”

Now here we go, were going to a journey in 2011 and we don’t know how 20111 is going to play out. But I do know one thing by putting God first, acknowledging His ways. He is going to make a path for me and see,