Prioritize

15 So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. 16 Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. 17 Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

We are told to make the best use of our time so that we can do the Will of the Lord. How do we make the best use of out time? We have been learning from the lIfe of Jesus … looking at his life and to how his example will help us to Make the best use of our time. Even though life in the 1st century was drastically different from today, Jesus did have to deal with human limitations of time and place. He had people pulling him in hundreds of different directions so he had to figure out what was most important to his mission just like we do.

So far we have looked at three different principles from Jesus life for managing our time.

Begin with the Word of God.

Keep Your Commitments

Silence the Kingdom of noise.

This week we will look at the fact that no one in Jerusalem had more things competing for their attention than Jesus did, and yet he always seemed to be able to figure out the essential from the noise. Think about it. how could he say not to the multitudes who came to him for healing ad deliverance? He had the power to heal them all… to restore creation to it’s original state. So

How did Jesus decide what was most important?

Mark 1:29–38 NLT

29 After Jesus left the synagogue with James and John, they went to Simon and Andrew’s home. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. They told Jesus about her right away. 31 So he went to her bedside, took her by the hand, and helped her sit up. Then the fever left her, and she prepared a meal for them. 32 That evening after sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. 33 The whole town gathered at the door to watch. 34 So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases, and he cast out many demons. But because the demons knew who he was, he did not allow them to speak. 35 Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. 36 Later Simon and the others went out to find him. 37 When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 But Jesus replied, “We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came.”

After driving out some evils spirits, Jesus healed Peter’s mother in law, who then fixed them some dinner, and then he healed a bunch of neighbors. It’s understandable that the town wanted him to keep on doing what he was doing, but Jesus said no. Why? Because he had already committed his time to a “bigger” yes. Listen to vs 38

Mark 1:38 NLT

38 But Jesus replied, “We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came.”

Jesus knew why he was here and what he had to do. Understanding his purpose allowed Jesus to prioritize the things he could do and things he wasn’t going to do.

John 17:4 NLT

4 I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

His purpose was to complete the work of his father. Once Jesus prioritized his work, he focused relentlessly.

So how does that relate to us today? So many of us get paralyzed with trying to decide where to spend our time and energy. We are inundated with options, many of which are good things.

Someone once said,

The people on this planet who end up doing nothing are those who never realize they cannot do everything.

As people, we know

We have been created for… a purpose

1. For a relationship with God - worship

2. To be part of a spiritual family… church fellowship

3. Grow more and more like Jesus in our character and values - Discipleship

4. To serve God by serving others - Ministry

5. To spread God’s love to other people - mission

For us as a church we want people to

Our Purpose as a Church

1. Know God

2. Find freedom

3. Discover their purpose

4. Make a difference

When you know what your purpose is, you can organize your life around that purpose or purposes.

Jesus example leads us to the 4th principle of Making the Best Use of our Time…

4. Prioritize your yeses.

To make the best use of your time like Jesus did, we all have to decide what matters the most and allow those choices to prioritize our commitments.

Just like Jesus recognized, not every good work is equal. Not everything on your “to-do” list carries the same weight. How can we be more like Jesus and do the work that really matters most and ignore everything else?

As we saw last week, we have to make room in our schedule for reflection and evaluation. But solitude and reflection are not enough. We have to understand the truth that you and I have the power to choose what matters most, rather than allowing others to choose for us.

Big Rock discussion

We all know that most of us operate under the assumption that we can’t control our priorities. Most people are reactive and not proactive in their priorities.

You may be thinking what does prioritizing my to do list have to do with following Jesus, but when you read the Gospels, it is obvious that Jesus was crystal clear on which work was the most important, and because of that, he was able to prioritize his short time here on earth.

When you are clear on your purpose, you can prioritize your work

So why did Jesus have to prioritize? He was God after all, couldn’t he have just made it happen like he wanted to?

5. Accept your limitation to time and space.

When Jesus was born and became a man, he laid aside his omnipresence and was limited to a time and place just like we are. As God, Jesus is every where at the same time. When Jesus became human, he became like us in that he was limited to time and place. He could not be in two places at one time.

Jesus had to deal with a lot of the same stuff we have to deal with and he had to deal with them just like we have to. He had to prioritize his time, deal with frequent distractions that competed for his attention. Remember these...

Mark 10:17 NLT

17 As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Mark 5:27–30 NLT

27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. 28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition. 30 Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”

Luke 5:17–20 NLT

17 One day while Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law were sitting nearby. (It seemed that these men showed up from every village in all Galilee and Judea, as well as from Jerusalem.) And the Lord’s healing power was strongly with Jesus. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus, 19 but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in front of Jesus. 20 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.”

Some times Jesus welcomed distractions. But other times, Jesus made a significant effort to eliminate the distractions and cultivate depth in relationships. Here is an example in Matt 12:46-50

Matthew 12:46–50 NLT

46 As Jesus was speaking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 47 Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, and they want to speak to you.” 48 Jesus asked, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” 49 Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. 50 Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!”

Picture this. Jesus is doing what the Father sent him to do… preaching, teaching, and healing people. All of a sudden his family shows up, but he doesn’t stop preaching and tell the folks he has to go, he keeps doing what he came to do. When it was announced that they were here he continued because in that moment, he was called to do the work of the father and he remained focused on the task at hand.

Now, when he was with his family and friends, he was fully focused on them. After a hard days’ work,

Mark 9:30–31 NLT

30 Leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he was there, 31 for he wanted to spend more time with his disciples and teach them. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days later he will rise from the dead.”

When he was done preaching and healing, he was focused on pouring into his disciples.

Conclusion

Here is what we have learned so far.

Start with the Word

Keep your commitments

Silence the Kingdom of noise

Prioritize your yeses

Accept your time and place limitations.

This is simple, but not easy. It is hard to prioritize and focus on what’s important when we have so many things coming at us from all different directions. And that’s why I want to leave you with this.

Jesus offers us peace before we do anything.

We don’t have to do any of these to be completely and perfectly loved and accepted by the Lord. But it’s because of his love for us, and our love for him that we want to make the best use of our time so we can do what he wants us to do… the will of the Lord.