Priorities

Hook

"What's the first thing you do when you wake up? Be honest." (let a few answer — probably phone, Instagram, Snapchat) "Nobody said 'I roll over and pray.' No shade — I'm not that guy every morning either. But that's the whole lesson in one sentence: your priorities aren't what you'd list on a poster, they're literally the first thing your hands reach for."

If you want something with more shock value to open heavier into the Solomon/Job material, I'd go with #3 or #4 — they're fast, they get a laugh, and they set up "priorities = what actually goes first" without you having to explain the definition cold. Want me to build the full transition from one of these straight into the Solomon section?

What are priorities? A priority isn't just something you value — it's something you've decided goes first when everything can't happen at once.

Two working senses you'll hear:

— your top values or commitments (family, faith, work, health).What matters most

— the actual order you spend time and energy, which sometimes reveals a gap between stated values and lived ones.What gets acted on first

Tonight I want to show you two men from Scripture who lived on opposite ends of that spectrum — one who had everything and called it empty, one who lost everything and stayed full. And then I want to bring it all the way home to right now, to your life and mine.

BAD PRIORITIES — SOLOMON

Ecclesiastes 1:1 — "The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem."

Ecclesiastes 2:4-10 — "I enlarged my works: I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself... I bought male and female slaves... I also possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. I also amassed for myself silver and gold... Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem... All that my eyes desired, I did not refuse them."

If Solomon had Instagram, you'd unfollow him out of jealousy. New houses. Vineyards stretching to the horizon. Private gardens, man-made ponds, herds bigger than anyone before him. Gold. Silver. Live music at every party. Verse after verse of "I did this for myself... I built this for myself... I acquired this for myself." It's the greatest highlight reel ever posted, captioned in verse 9: "So I became great and increased more than all who preceded me."

Here's the twist nobody expects: he's not writing this from the outside looking in with envy. He's the guy who posted it — logging off and telling you what it felt like from the inside. Verse 11: "all was vanity and striving after wind."

The man with the most impressive feed in human history is the one holding up the sign that says it was empty the whole time. Solomon looked back at the end of his life — a man who had everything — and said: everything is futile unless you have God.

GOOD PRIORITIES — JOB

Now flip it completely. Job had 7 sons, 3 daughters, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and more servants than anyone — the greatest man in the east.

Job is wealthy, blameless, a man who feared God and shunned evil. In a heavenly scene, the Accuser challenges God that Job's righteousness is only skin-deep — strip away his blessings and he'll curse God to His face. God allows the test. In a single day Job loses his livestock, his servants, and all ten of his children. He still doesn't sin or blame God. A second round takes his health, covering him in painful sores. His wife tells him to curse God and die. He refuses.

Three friends come to comfort him, but comfort turns into accusation — they insist he must have sinned to deserve this. Job refuses to confess to sins he didn't commit, and grows bold, demanding a hearing with God. A younger man, Elihu, rebukes them all and points to God's greatness. Then God speaks out of a whirlwind — not to explain Job's suffering, but to overwhelm him with the scope of creation. The message isn't "here's why," it's "here's who you're talking to." Job repents — not of secret sin, but of speaking about things too wonderful for him. God restores his fortunes, doubled, and gives him a new family.

THE THREAD

Solomon had everything and called it empty. Job lost everything and stayed faithful. Two completely different roads — and they land on the exact same truth: without God, we are nothing.

So where do your priorities lie?

BRINGING IT HOME

Let me take this out of ancient history and bring it all the way to something recent. I have a friend who recently lost a friend — believed to have died from drugs. That person left behind a daughter. I bring this up to draw a straight line: when our priorities aren't where they should be, it doesn't just cost us — it can cost a kid a mom or a dad for the rest of their life.

Satan has trained us to have such a narrow, low view of ourselves. The world whispers, "no one cares," "it's just your body, your choice." Here is the absolute truth: the decisions you make in your life will affect generations. You might think, "nope, I don't matter, if I die no one cares" — but that death from drugs didn't just end one life. It reshaped an entire family, an entire childhood, for a kid who now grows up without a parent.

What you make a priority now will affect your life — and the lives connected to yours. Choose Christ. Choose life for yourself.

MY OWN LIFE

In this world you will be run ragged. Right now I have a wife, two kids about to be three, I'm flipping a house, working three jobs — Utili-Serve, D&B, rentals — trying to go to college, and running my ministry. My life is chaotic right now. But if all of that got taken away tomorrow, my entire existence would still matter, because of my relationship with Christ.

I don't want to be remembered as a big-time businessman. I want to be remembered for my love for Christ and how well I loved my wife and my kids. My priorities get skewed at times — but I have to keep Christ at the center.

So I'll ask you again: where do your priorities lie?