Priorities Nov. 3
PRIORITIES-WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT?
11/3 & 11/4/01
-If you have been here for any length of time you have seen this chart of a fountain or a bulls eye.
-The Lord gave me this as an example I could understand and pass on to others concerning priorities.
-Wisdom is knowing and doing what is most important.
-The dictionary says a priority is something that is prior. In other words FIRST.
2 EXAMPLES FROM DOBSON INSERT FOR THIS WEEK.
-Someone said, “Being too busy doesn’t make you important, it just keeps you from accomplishing important things.”
-I also heard one definition of success that fits: Success is being loved the most by those closest to you.
FRANKLIN EXAMPLE WITH WALKING THE BEAM.
-Another way to put it is WHO WOULD COME TO YOUR FUNERAL?
JESUS AND PRIORITIES
Luke 4
37 And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.
38 Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her.
39 So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.
40 When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them.
41 Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, "You are the Son of God!" But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.
42 At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them.
43 But he said, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent."
44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
-Jesus didn’t reject those people. He died for them. In order to help them, He had to follow His priorities.
Matthew 6
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
-Jesus determined His priorities in prayer and in wisdom followed them.
-Jesus didn’t do everything but He finished His job.
John 17
1 ¶ After Jesus said this, he looked towards heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
LOOK AT THE FOUNTAIN
-When I taught that as a target with God as the bull’s eye, we called it, “IS YOUR LIFE HITTING THE TARGET?”
-The word for sin in the original language is an archer’s term, it means to miss the mark.
-It means to hit somewhere other than the most important place.
-THE PRINCIPLE:
WATER FLOWS FROM THE CENTER AND FILLS THE TOP. IT THEN OVERFLOWS TO THE NEXT LEVEL.
1. GOD
-Our first priority is a relationship with God. This is reading the Bible, prayer and listening.
-Attending church and a lighthouse group enhances it but it is a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.
Luke 14 from the Message:
“Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters-yes, even one’s own self!-can’t be my disciple.”
-It is like getting married and the minister says do you forsake all others and you say yes except for Sally.
-Putting God first is acted out by time with Him and making every other decision in light of that relationship.
-The commandment is PUT GOD FIRST.
-I have a whole sermon on that in the BIG 10.
2. YOUR LIFE
Matthew 10:8
“….Freely you have received, freely give.”
1Co 11:23 “ For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you:….”
2Co 1:4 “who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”
-Your life ought to be different if Jesus is your Lord.
-Is your walk with God producing:
INTEGRITY
HOLINESS
LOVE
OBEDIENCE
COMMITMENT
????
-The real deal will draw you beyond casual or convenient Christianity.
Ga 6:17 Finally, let no-one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
-What does that mean? That means the sacrifices of God show up in our lives.
-This was clear to the Galatians as the mark of a slave. It could have been a band around their necks or a hole in their ear. It means they are captive to the will of another.
-I like the example of flying where they say if you are traveling with small children place your mask on first. (Or as Southwest says, pick your favorite one.)
-This seems selfish but it isn’t. You have to be strong first.
3. YOUR SPOUSE
-If God has not captured my heart, Becky can never catch it.
-The order of creation was God and man then the spouse, then children.
-Adam messed up when he listened to his spouse before God.
-A have a relationship with God by covenant. I have a relationship with Becky by covenant.
-I don’t have a covenant with my children, they partake of the one I made with Becky. They are the fruit of a covenant.
COVENANT: A MEANS OF ESTABLISHING A RELATIONSHIP (NOT NATURALLY EXISTING), WHICH IS SANCTIONED BY AN OATH SWORN IN A CEREMONY OF RATIFICATION.
(Old Testament Survey-Eerdman’s)
-Your spouse is your partner.
1 Peter 3
7 Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
8 ¶ Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.
-Notice “partner”.
Malachi 2
13 Another thing you do: You flood the LORD's altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands.
14 You ask, "Why?" It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
15 Has not [the LORD] made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.
-The best way to learn to treat your spouse is to treat them as a BIBLICAL FRIEND.
Hosea 2
16 "In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me `my husband'; you will no longer call me `my master'. –NIV
Literally:
And it will be on that day a declaration of YAHWEH you will call my husband (ISHI-a tender term) and you will not call to me again my baal (owner or possessor)
-Love your spouse.
4. YOUR CHILDREN
1 Timothy 3
1 ¶ Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.
2 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect.
5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?)
-Notice that God says you have to have your family in order to have a ministry.
-We decided to have Becky be with our children as preschoolers.
-The Charismania of the seventies and eighties was go to conferences and God will take care of your children.
-If you have children, how much more ministry can you stand?
MY EXAMPLE WITH EUROPE. GOING MONDAY TO STEP OUT AS EUROPEAN REPRESENTATIVE.
(I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR MY INTERESTS/PRIORITIES-NOBODY ELSE WILL/CAN BE.)
-You can do everything you are called to do, just not all at the same time.
Proverbs 22:6 Amplified
“Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
-That tells us that you have to know them. You can’t mass-produce kids.
5. LOCAL CHURCH/COMMUNITY
6. COUNTRY
7. WORLD
-We are to love God and our neighbor as ourself.
-We have a ministry to God, our church, and the world.
-We are to reach our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost.
-They are all important but they flow from the center of a life on target with God and spread to the world.