First Things First
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Biblical Passage
33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
LAUNCH
Priorities Discussion
A. Pass out paper and pens. Read each question below, allowing young adults to write their answers before moving to the next question.
B. Outside of school, work, and sleep, how do you spend your time?
C. Where do you want to be in one year? In five years?
D. How is the way you spend your time helping you meet these goals?
E. Share answers.
F. We all have priorities. Some are right, and some are misplaced.
G. Today we will discuss how priorities affect the course of our lives.
UNLOCK
A. Review
So far in this series we’ve talked about leaving the past in the past.
We’ve learned that we cannot effect long-term change on our own.
Lasting change comes only by the work of the Spirit in our lives.
We must learn how to walk in the Spirit and yield ourselves to God.
3. Consecration helps us walk in the Spirit.
We must build an altar of consecration in our lives.
Bible study and mindful prayer are vital to the altar-building process.
B. Priorities
Today we will discuss the importance of well-placed priorities.
As we venture into a new year, it is important to go with purpose and direction, following God’s will.
If your priorities are in order, God’s will and direction for your life will often fall into place.
What is your idea of the perfect year? What could happen this year that would make it the best year ever for you?
C. The Best Year Ever
Things will happen this year that you can’t control—some good and some bad.
Regardless of what this year holds for you, this can be the best year of your life—in all the ways that count.
First, you must understand that everything in this world is temporal.
On the day of your death, money is worthless.
Prestige and popularity do not matter as you slip from this world to the next.
Intelligence is great, but death does not discriminate between the smart and the simple.
The things that have true eternal value are often considered less glamorous:
spiritual wealth
solid, meaningful relationships
wisdom in spiritual matters
By the world’s standards, this year could be the best ever.
Prince Charming could knock on your door with an armful of roses, proposing marriage.
A rich relative you’ve never heard of could leave you a massive inheritance.
Your YouTube video could go viral and propel you into overnight fame.
Amazing things could happen to you over the next twelve months. Yet if at the end of the year you find yourself—
still discontented,
still restless,
still addicted to food,
still bitter over what she did to you,
still far away from God
— what have you really gained?
D. What Really Matters?
Do you know anyone who likes heartache? Probably not. As humans, we don’t generally enjoy pain.
Even so, it is possible to emerge from a year of heartache more fulfilled than if everything had gone your way.
In many ways, you can choose to have the best year ever.
The secret is to learn to value those things that affect more than the here-and-now.
What does our culture value? What does our world point to as evidence of success?
There is nothing wrong with enjoying good things, but we must learn to manage our priorities.
In Matthew 16:23, Jesus rebuked Peter, telling him that he did not have his mind trained on the things of God, but on human concerns.
23 Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
In Matthew 16:26, Jesus said, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?
What do you think Jesus meant by His words in Matthew 16:26?
Life goals are good.
There is nothing wrong with spending hours studying so that you can stay at the top of your class.
There is nothing wrong with getting a lucrative job.
There is nothing wrong with making tons of friends and being a popular person.
We should make the most of our lives; we should live them wholeheartedly.
Read Ecclesiastes 9:10
10 Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
Read Colossians 3:17
17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
We must keep life in proper perspective.
Our greatest goals should center on who we are in Christ.
Our dreams should have the ultimate target of honoring Christ.
You cannot be in God’s will or sense His direction for your life chasing after materialism and selfish ambitions.
When you woke this morning, what was one of your first thoughts (other than about chucking your alarm clock through the wall or finding a toothbrush stat)?
E. The Important and the Trivial
Your first thoughts of the day can be revealing.
Do you wake up and start stressing over everything you need to do?
Do you fantasize about how awesome you’re going to look in that new shirt?
Do you immediately start planning breakfast (and lunch and dinner)?
Before your feet hit the floor, are you already daydreaming about you-know-who’s amazing smile?
The things you dwell on throughout the day show a lot about your priorities.
the things you daydream about
the things running through your mind as you fall asleep
the things you spend a lot of time praying about
Our worries also reveal our priorities.
We have our big worries:
health problems
divorcing parents
the death of loved ones
emotional scars
We have our small worries:
bad hair days
obsessions over whether or not we wore the right outfit
fears about the surprise quiz in that hard class
that aching desire to fit in with a certain group of people
In and of themselves, most of our worries are not inherently wrong.
The problem is that we often get wrapped up in trivial concerns when our hearts should be wrapped up in Jesus.
If most of your thoughts center on the cute girl in English class or whether or not you’ll be invited to that party, you will have a hard time becoming aware of God’s will for your life this year.
F. Brimming with Promise
Many young adults are brimming with potential but will never experience God’s best because their priorities are tied up in stuff that doesn’t matter.
Samson was a great example of this.
Read Judges 13:5, 7, 24
5 You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and his hair must never be cut. For he will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.”
7 But he told me, ‘You will become pregnant and give birth to a son. You must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink nor eat any forbidden food. For your son will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from the moment of his birth until the day of his death.’ ”
24 When her son was born, she named him Samson. And the Lord blessed him as he grew up.
Samson’s mom was barren, so you can imagine her joy when an angel told her she would have a son.
From birth, her child would have a special calling on his life.
He would begin to deliver the Israelites from their dreaded enemies, the Philistines.
Samson was set for a life of success, honor, and blessings from the Lord.
Read Judges 14:2-3
2 When he returned home, he told his father and mother, “A young Philistine woman in Timnah caught my eye. I want to marry her. Get her for me.”
3 His father and mother objected. “Isn’t there even one woman in our tribe or among all the Israelites you could marry?” they asked. “Why must you go to the pagan Philistines to find a wife?”
But Samson told his father, “Get her for me! She looks good to me.”
Early on, Samson showed little regard for his Hebrew heritage.
As a consecrated Israelite, Samson certainly would have been expected to marry within his own heritage and faith.
Though he recognized that God had gifted him with great physical strength, Samson’s spiritual strength was weak.
Read Judges 14:8-9
8 Later, when he returned to Timnah for the wedding, he turned off the path to look at the carcass of the lion. And he found that a swarm of bees had made some honey in the carcass. 9 He scooped some of the honey into his hands and ate it along the way. He also gave some to his father and mother, and they ate it. But he didn’t tell them he had taken the honey from the carcass of the lion.
As part of Samson’s vow, he was not to have any contact with a dead body. (See Numbers 6:1-21)
We see that Samson’s commitment to the Nazirite vow, a vow that was supposed to set him apart, was low on his list of priorities.
Higher on Samson’s list of priorities were women.
Read Judges 16:1, 4.
1 One day Samson went to the Philistine town of Gaza and spent the night with a prostitute.
4 Some time later Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the valley of Sorek.
After Samson provoked the Philistines to anger, they burned his pagan wife and father to death.
Samson then kept the company of random women until a woman named Delilah caught his eye.
Most of us know the story:
Philistines bribed Delilah to discover the source of Samson’s supernatural strength so that they could enslave him.
Delilah was not subtle about her intentions. A cycle followed:
Delilah nagged Samson to tell her the secret of his strength.
Samson fed her a tall tale.
Delilah tried whatever it was Samson said would make him weak.
It didn’t work.
Delilah pouted.
The cycle restarted.
We can only scratch our heads at why Samson hung around until Delilah wore at his resolve.
Sick to death of Delilah’s crying and nagging, Samson told her the truth: if his hair was cut, his supernatural strength would leave him.
When Samson fell asleep, the Philistines cut his hair.
Read Judges 16:20-21
20 Then she cried out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!”
When he woke up, he thought, “I will do as before and shake myself free.” But he didn’t realize the Lord had left him.
21 So the Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They took him to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze chains and forced to grind grain in the prison.
G. Misplaced Priorities
Samson’s story could have been one of victory and triumph, victorious battles, and great feats.
Instead, it is a story of complacency.
It is a story of compromise.
It is a story of loss, regret, and spiritual incompetence.
Samson’s life was brimming with promise and favor.
Samson’s focus should have been on how he could be a blessing to the Israelites and use his gifts to honor God.
Unfortunately, Samson’s heart was not wrapped up in God.
His priorities lay with the women.
His priorities lay with convenience.
His priorities lay with whatever made him feel good in the moment.
From birth, Samson was set to be remembered as a great hero of the faith.
Instead, we remember him for holding the things of God in low esteem.
We remember Samson for losing everything.
INTERSECT
A. He Who Began a Good Work in You
Read Philippians 1:6
6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
You may not have had a solemn vow of consecration pronounced over you at birth.
You may not be living everything God intends for you—yet.
But if you turn to God, seeking His will for your life, He will complete His work in you.
There is no better time for God to begin a mighty work in your life than in this new year.
If you want to see better things this year, if you want to meet your potential, you must make God your top priority.
God should come before weight loss and fitness goals.
God should come before friends and relationships.
God should come before career and academic ambitions.
God should come before entertainment.
Read Matthew 6:33
33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
Allow Jesus to work in you, and everything else will fall into place.
B. By This Time Next Year…
It is important to ask yourself:
Where do I want to be in Christ in one year? In five years?
How do I want my prayer life to be?
How do I want my Bible knowledge to grow?
How do I want my application of God’s Word to be better?
How many Bible studies do I want to teach this year?
If you don’t decide these answers and develop a plan, hours will turn into days and days into months. In coming years, you will look back and see little has changed.
You will know little more about God.
You will have told few people about Jesus.
You will be in the same place spiritually that you are today—
Except it will be worse, because if you are not growing spiritually, you are dying.
C. The Important Things
Anytime you must make a decision about how to spend your time and energy, ask yourself: What is important right now?
If you never ask yourself this, you’ll find yourself moving meaninglessly from activity to activity, doing whatever grabs your attention for the moment.
You’ll check Instagram when you could be reading Scripture.
You’ll take a nap instead of going to young adult fellowship.
You’ll sleep in instead of praying.
Though spiritual matters are most important, physical matters are what most often grab our attention.
D. Never Too Late
If your priorities were misplaced last year, that’s okay: you can start fresh today.
Maybe you’ve gotten it all wrong up to this point: as long as you are breathing, hope and purpose are available to you.
Read Hebrews 11:32-34
32 How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. 33 By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight.
Notice a familiar name in this passage?
Samson is mentioned among the heroes of the faith!
Blind and in captivity, Samson finally came to his senses.
Samson realized what was important.
Samson got his priorities straight.
We may remember Samson for his failures and shortcomings, but that’s not how God remembers him.
In God’s eyes, Samson is a conqueror whose weakness was turned to strength.
No matter what you’ve done, no matter how much time you’ve wasted or how many years you’ve been running the wrong direction, God wants to make you a conqueror.
ARRIVE
Option 1 — All or Nothing
A. The story is told of a fireman who was held in high esteem in his small country town. One day he was called to a raging fire. As he and the other firemen arrived, they were surprised to find two hundred townspeople standing between them and the fire. As the firemen drew nearer, they realized everyone had water guns, and they were squirting water on the inferno.
B. “What are you doing?” the fireman called. “Get away from there!”
C. A spokesman for the people stepped forward. “We decided to get together to do something to help with the fire. We know it’s not much, but we’re willing to offer what we can.”
D. Enraged, the fireman began breaking up the crowd. “This is no place for well-meaning people to make small contributions! This is a place for people who are willing to give up their lives!”
E. The Christian lifestyle is not for young adults who want to make small contributions as they can.
F. The Christian lifestyle is for those ready to give their all—for those willing to die to themselves.
G. Are you ready to give one hundred percent in the coming year?
H. Allow for a time of individual prayer. Encourage young adults to consecrate their lives and reconsider their priorities.
