Renewing Your Priorities 1

Who Is Leading You Priorities?

Text: Luke 4 & Revelation 4:11 “11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

Introduction

Quote: (Harry Walls) “Christianity is the best life you can have.”

Quote: (Harry Walls) “The blood that He shed released me from judgement and the life that He lived enables me to live a life I couldn’t imagine.”

What Adam forfeited in the garden, Jesus Christ reclaimed for me!

John 10:10 “10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

The message you paint with your priorities expresses from what source(s) you believe the best life will come from, the most joy will come from, a more lasting peace will come from, etc.

Anything that takes priority over Jesus’ providence has become a priority you have willingly accepted from Satan! So, who’s priorities are running your life today?

Satan is here to tell you this age old lie — “I can have a better life doing what I want with whatever I want whenever I want.”

Psalm 84:10 “10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.”

If you are going to really enjoy the abundant life Jesus purchased for you at Calvary, you must enter in through a personal relationship, and then allow Him to be Lord over your life.

The reason many of your priorities are draining your life of following Jesus, growing in Christ, health, rest, is because those priorities where not approved of by God.

God has called you to be salt and light. The effectiveness of your impact demands spiritual consistency! This is why our priorites must reflect the priorities of the kingdom above.

“They kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…”

Context of the passage

Jesus is not just the pure man, but he was preparing Himself to be our representation on earth.

1) You must be led by the Spirit

You life and your priorities will never be in step with God’s desires if you are not first yielded to be in cadence with God’s Spirit.

2) You must be immersed in God’s Word

3) Be Determined to do God’s will

Not just having a mind on the matter of scripture, but being committed to carry out exactly what it says.

If you have no resolution of heart to determine yourself to live for God’s will, it will never happen.

4) Surrender your independence in order to trust God.

You must live within the realm of God’s providence.

Jesus in the wilderness teaches us that what we legitimant need must come from God’s providence and His timing.

Jesus is tempted with ligament needs.

Ligament needs within the temptation

Purpose

You were created for a unique purpose

Genesis 2:7 “7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

Psalm 139:13–16 “13 For thou hast possessed my reins: Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Marvellous are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from thee, When I was made in secret, And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; And in thy book all my members were written, Which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”

Child birth always speaks to God’s sovereignty!

Sarah, Hannah, Elisabeth experienced this reality.

The designer built significance into my humanity.

Personal significance

Security & Safety

If you don’t look to God to set your priorities, you will take matters into your own hands and rob God of His glory

Revelation 4:11 “11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

1) Temptation — Since you are capable of meeting your own needs…

Satan begins by saying, “Do what you are capable of doing.”

The issue is not what you want… “it is written.”

Jesus emphasizes our humanity… “man shall not live by bread alone.”

Here is the mind you must have:

In order for me to supply my physical needs is to put into action resources that I can’t find down here on my own.

GET THIS…Your physical needs are supplied by God’s declared means and timing.

“by every word of God”

Trust upon God’s declared provision and declared timing for the provision to arrive.

Example: God gave manna to the Israelites; something only God could provide.

Don’t start grabbing your own satisfaction!!!

What happened to their food when they prioritized their own plan over God’s instructions? It rotted!

God is going to allow you to remain in the wilderness until you learn not to prioritize certain means of provision over Him.

Quote: (Harry Walls) “If the Living Word; Jesus Christ, needed to use the written Word to defeat the enemy of the Word, how much should we who have never written any word need to use the very same word to deal with the enemy of the Word.”

Be deeply connected to God’s Word or you will find ways to justify the priorities that lead you to making your own bread out of stones.

2) Temptation — Prioritize other means to bring significance to your life

You have a inner desire to have something significant or to become someone significant.

For the Believer, the attack of the devil is not you coming into relationship with Jesus, but rather the depth of His fellowship with you.

Jesus at this time was not really noticed by anyone or had yet to be significant in anyone’s eyes (other the Father, Spirit, and John the Baptist).

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

The blue-collared worker was seen as someone not to be regarded.

Q — How vulnerable are you when you are isolated and the overwhelming feeling of insignificance comes rushing in? That’s where Jesus was physically.

Notice what Satan was tempting Jesus with:

I will let you bypass all the pain that will come from this world as you go forward to deliver this world.

I can transport you passed all the milestones the Father has prepared for you and get you to where you want to be.

Satan had a power to show Jesus in one moment of time all the kingdoms that would value Him.

Satan said, “I will give this and it will be painless.”

Personal recovery

Marriage restoration

Satan is good at adding enticing imagery to get you to change the direction of your priorities.

Adam gave the authority to Satan that God gave him when he prioritized a different means of significance than giving glory to God.

Satan truly has power to give you things of significance (the kind that vanishes away)

You don’t have to wait for the attention you know you deserve.

I can get you to a place that will give you the significance you desire.

Q — How many of you parents are teaching your children to look everywhere to find personal significance? You then prioritize your entire family in a rat race of an all-consuming schedule.

Everyone has a natural desire to be validated.

“Well done” or “Good job”

Q — Where are looking in order to feel significant? Wherever that is, that is exactly where you are worshiping!

Quote: (Unknown) “If you praise God but you don’t look to Him for your needs and your life issues, you don’t have to join the First Church of Satan to worship Satan.”

You worship to whom you look too.

Illustration: movie stars and music stars get elevated but then later on find themselves considering overdosing or ending their life in some way.

Proverbs 10:22 “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, And he addeth no sorrow with it.”

Quote: (Harry Walls) “You will have stress if you are manipulating instead of waiting; compromising instead of trusting.”

Jesus replied — I can’t worship or serve anyone else.

Deut. 6.13 & 10.30

True significance is when you prioritize God’s glory over you own.

Illustration: You purpose is like that of moon (reflecting the light of the sun), your purpose is to reflect the glory of another!

You and I have no glory of our own apart from God!

Either you are living your life to give glory to or take glory from God.

3) Temptation — Tempt God to prove His promise of protection

Satan presented a arrogant and careless approach to the Father’s protection.

Jesus quotes from — Deuteronomy 6:16 “16 Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.”

Exodus 17:2“Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?”

Exodus 17:7 “And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?”

Here is what the people had come to believe: “The Lord has not prioritized protecting us from depletion.”

Just because you have reached an uncomfortable place, does not mean God has stopped prioritizing His promises to you.

1 Corinthians 10:9 “Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.”

Satan misquotes Ps. 91.11-12.

Psalm 91:11–12 “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.”

Jesus responds with, “My ways rest in God’s sovereign protection over me.”

Jesus rejected the temptation to prioritize any ounce of doubt regarding God’s ability to provide His protection.