Is God #1 in Your Priority?: Third Sunday in Lent

Listen to the homily here.

Notes:

I need eleven people come up here

·      Please stand here in a line to face our parishioners

·      Now, please tell me nice and loud, something you love in your life

·      Now, please hold this paper nice and high

·      What are those?

o   How much is this number?

o   What if we add more zero’s?  Actually, we could print out a line around our whole world…and how number is that?  Yep, still zero.

·      Now, add one other number…please hold this number (One)

·      Please walk over to the front of the line, and focus our parishioners

o   How number is that? 10,000,000,000: ten billion

o   Now zero’s, stay there

o   See what happens when 1 is before zero?

o   Start on the other side

§  1, 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000

·      Thank you, and grab your pew again

"I, the LORD, am your God, 
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
You shall not have other gods besides me.”

God must be #1 in our lives

·      If He is not, that thing: person, hobby, possessions, job, family, sports are still zero

·      But when God comes first in your life, everything else comes beautiful, powerful, opening to God’s support

As we listened to the 10 Commandments, these are the basic rules

·      Our life should go beyond the rules

·      Our lives must grow to excellence

Think of rules in sports, music, driving, owning a house, buying groceries, etc.

And the most important law in our lives: God

Matthew 22:37-38: “He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and the first commandment.’”