Getting Your Priorities Right (August 14, 2022)
Pastor Andy Lambert
PASSAGES: Matthew 6:33; James 4:8; Jeremiah 29:13; Matthew 10:5-7; Hebrews 13:8; Matthew 4:17, 23; Matthew 3:2; Romans 14:17
In 1997, I graduated High School. My priorities then are a lot different than today. Then my priorities were: get to work on time, make sure I got to college class on time, make sure not to speed in front of the college campus and get campus police mad, LUNCH! Today my priorities are a totally different list, except lunch is still on that list.
Today, I juggle multiple schedules: Kati (karate, school, doctors appts, etc.), Sis. Kerri (helping her with errands, task, doctors appts, etc.), our family (trips, out of town events), extended family (doctors appts, visits), Church Activities and Events, home visits, work around church and house, PCMA, Ann’s New Life, Community Functions … oh and my doctor’s visits.
My how times have changed. My how schedules get busier. If we don’t priorities our lives, our lives can be very hectic and out of control. If your priorities are not in order, your life will not be in order. If your priorities are not right, you won’t be right. You don’t have to pray about what your number one priority in life ought to be. You don’t have to think about it. You don’t have to discuss it. You don’t have to look for it. You just have to do it. Because Jesus has already told us what our first priority ought to be, “seek ye first the kingdom of God.”
Matthew 6:33 ~ “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
The word seek means to “actively pursue” or “to go after.” It’s in the present tense. It means continuously. Every day of your life you ought to seek first the kingdom of God.
Now in order to seek the kingdom, you must first seek the King. Because you cannot have a kingdom without a king. The first priority of your life ought to be to seek the King of the kingdom.
Did you know that the Christian life is more than just excepting the Lord, it is seeking the Lord? The Lord is not just someone you passively accept. He is someone you actively seek. I can tell you something about your relationship to God at this very moment without even knowing you. I can tell you how much of God you have – you have all of God that you want.
God does not have any favorites, but He does have intimates. James 4:8 says, “Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you” and God has promised in His word, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)
Now that we understand getting our priorities correct in the sense of we must put God first, we must seek the King, we must draw closer to God, we must search with all our heart, what is next?
GO FORTH!!! WITNESS!!! BRING INTO THE HOUSE OF GOD!!!
Matthew 10:5-7 ~ “These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
Just a few thoughts on this passage of scriptures:
• A person is sent forth by Jesus; he does not choose to go forth. If he does, he goes forth in his own strength and power. He cannot expect the power of Christ.
• The ministry is not a profession; it is a commission. Christ calls and commissions. The man who chooses to be a minister without a true call and commissioning of the Lord experiences four things:
• He finds himself ministering primarily in his own strength.
• He often finds his heart void and feels the constant pressure of having to come up with human ideas and human programs. He has difficulty maintaining a sense of meaning and purpose for both himself and his people.
• He senses a real void and shortcoming in proclaiming the gospel and in doing the work of the ministry.
• He often wonders what good is really being done. He just lacks the sense of a real call within; therefore, there is no outside godly connection to comfort and assure him that he is in God’s will. He is left to seek comfort and assurance only from himself or from some other human source. There is no supernatural Spirit or power to encourage him.
• Why just to the “house of Israel” in the beginning?
• He is to demonstrate love for his own family and friends first. If he does not love those of his own household, how can he love those whom he does not know?
• He is to learn how to bear witness with those who are more likely to respond instead of reacting. Such knowledge better prepares him to face the world and its negative responses.
• Next, we need to understand what we are to do when we go…PROCLAIM!!!
• Proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Note, the message is a given message, given by the Lord Himself. The disciples were not to proclaim their own ideas nor the ideas of others. They were to preach the message given by the Lord. No matter the generation, the message needs to be repeated and repeated.
• It is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
• It was the message of Christ (Matthew 4:17, 23).
• It was the message of John (Matthew 3:2).
• It was the message of the apostles and ministers of Christ.
Romans 14:17 (ESV) ~ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
• As we minister, we must share freely.
• Their power was a given power. It came from the Lord Himself. God gives His servant the gifts and power to preach and minister as He has called him (1 Cor. 12:28f; Ephes. 4:11-13). The gifts and power are of God, not of the man himself. The gifts and the power of a man come freely from God; therefore, he is freely to give all he has. All the energy and all the toil necessary are to be poured into preaching the gospel and into ministering to people.
• Their power was to confirm that God does love and care for the world and that the message being preached was from God.
• God loves and cares for people.
• The minister is a minister of love and care.
• Several other things as ministers we must do. Will look at those later, but I wanted to get to the last thought. Not everyone will receive.
Pastor Andy Lambert ~ pastorandy@cvcog.church
Call/Text: 205.642.8744 ext 101