Priorities

First Sentence

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Chesire Cat in a tree. “Which road do I take?” she asked. “Where do you want to go?” Was his response. I don’t know answered Alice. Then it doesn’t matter.

If you don’t know where you want to go. Then it doesn’t matter the path you take.

Move 1: If we don’t know what our priorities are, our priorities and lives will get disordered.

Move 2: Slowing down helps us see Jesus’ priority of the ordinary reorders our priorities around him.

Move 3: Jesus’ humility is good news for people with disordered priorities

Move 4: Time with Jesus restores what’s been disordered.

1. It’s so easy to look down our noses at the residents of Bethlehem. How could they not see that the long awaited Messiah was finally here? We need to be a little more gentle with those folks because as easy as it was for them to miss it, we miss it.

2. If we don’t know what our priorities are they quickly go astray.

Luke 2:1–7 NIV

1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

Luke 1:64 NET

64 Immediately Zechariah’s mouth was opened and his tongue released, and he spoke, blessing God.

Luke 1:41–45 NET

41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.42 She exclaimed with a loud voice, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child in your womb! 43 And who am I that the mother of my Lord should come and visit me? 44 For the instant the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.45 And blessed is she who believed that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

Luke 2:20 NIV

20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Luke 24:53 NET

53 and were continually in the temple courts blessing God.

What am I asking them to do?

Slow Down this Christmas to take note of the ordinary

Saying yes comes with a trade off

Bronnie Ware- cared for people in the last 12 weeks of life “I wished I had lived honestly, instead of the life others expected me to live.”

What we pay attention to is what we become.

Our relationship with Jesus takes time.

Podcast and walk in silence.

Journal

Silence

Track your time

Stop speeding

Stop at stop signs

Prayer is not simply asking God for stuff. It’s learning to pay attention to God.

Stop Comparing Christmas Experiences

Parents

Lights

Churches

Quarantine

Be Gentile With Yourself When You Don’t Prioritize Jesus

His arrival is ordinary

Dane Ortland- nursing our hamstring

No one can see all that Jesus is doing

Background

Harrison Ruffin Tyler

Zachary Taylor 12th

John Tyler 10th

The Gospel according to Luke The Birth of Jesus (2:1–20)

Augustus was born in 63 B.C., the son of Julius Caesar’s nephew, and named Octavian. Octavian joined Mark Antony after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. to punish and defeat Brutus and Cassius at Philippi in 42. Octavian became the sole ruler of the Roman Empire after defeating Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31.

The Gospel according to Luke The Birth of Jesus (2:1–20)

An inscription discovered at Priene and dated to 9 B.C. hails Augustus as a god whose “birthday signaled the beginning of good news

Inscription on Tablet in British Museum that says he brought world peace

Augustus built the Roman Forum, founded libraries, sponsored lavish spectacles for the populace, and boasted that he had found Rome “built in brick but left it in marble

Source- James R. Edwards

Why Won’t They Do It?

We don’t make time for Jesus

Young men by the time they are 21 will have logged 10,000 hours of video games.

I don’t have time- keep a time journal

Everyone has time to pray- if you don’t maybe a relationship with God isn’t for you. (Marriage)

Sounds Legalistic

Can’t we just get this from Silicon Valley

Clocks come from monasteries

Without paying attention to our priorities we will lose them. Others will set them.

Life is hard

Next Steps

Podcast

Dead Dog Story-Soichi Yokoi

Last Sentence- At the first Christmas we see power coming with intimacy. When real power shows up and offers love that gets our attention and realigns our priorities.