Priorities

I have a question as the lights are coming up on the side over here to Kevin. I have a question for this man in the front row. Have you been in the word today? You just stay in your seat, dad. I know you’re about to preach another sermon here and you’re awesome.

I knew the answer to that question. If you weren’t here last week, shame on you. But actually, if you weren’t here last week, ask my dad after church or my mom or go online and you can hear a wonderful kind of memory of last week. I had a couple of people say some really wonderful personal things. One man stopped me at the health club and said, I want you to know your dad’s sermon Sunday changed my life.

For the record, my sermon was 40 minutes long. His was about four minutes long. But he says, and I said, you’re not the only one that said that. He says, would you please tell your dad that? Because it really was.

Very powerful and very sort of simplifying and clarifying. Was it not? Amen. It was really cool and it has to do with what we do every Sunday together as we read God’s word and we take in what he has to say and hopefully it will make a difference in our lives. Can I say a footnote real quick?

Doug did a great job of talking about this afternoon. We want to give all of grace and we want to give this point a chance to come tonight at the both of four and the five o’clock ice cream social time to love on the guys. And let me encourage you when you do come, if you’re able to bring a card and any expression of love, there will be a basket there for those things and a wonderful opportunity for us all to really leave them with a wonderful blessing and a sense of honor. They have served very well. You have done.

I read a story and I’m not sure about its truth. I think it is true, but the best I could tell didn’t lend me the absolute certain results about a frightened woman on the Titanic who found her place in a lifeboat that was about to be dropped into the raging North Atlantic. She thought suddenly of something that she needed in light of the obvious and eminent death that had breathed down her neck and the necks of all those on board. So she asked quickly in desperation for permission to go to her state room, which was not far from the rescue wrath that she was about to enter. She was granted just a very quick moment to do so and she raced toward her state room.

They reminded her that they would leave without her if necessary. She ran across a deck that was already in a dangerous angle. If you’ve seen images or have them in your mind. So she’s running against all of that through a gambling room, the parlor on board that by this time had a pile of money kind of at one corner of it. With the with the slope and she she had to actually brush past that and and claw her way forward making her way now in ankle deep water.

She came to her state room and she pushed aside her extensive collection of jewelry above her bed. She reached for a box that had in it. It was a basket had in it three small oranges. And race back to the lifeboat and got in in time. Death had boarded the Titanic.

One blast of its awful breath had transformed all values instantaneously. Priceless things had become worthless and priceless things had now become priceless. And in that moment, this nameless woman preferred three small oranges to a crate of diamonds. That had my attention and I I wondered why so deeply I was left thinking about it. And it occurred to me that a crisis brings clarity.

See, a lot of heads nodding like that is so true. A crisis has that effect on people, does it not? You’re kind of in a fog ahead of it. Maybe you’re doing your best to see straight or clearly. But when this crisis happens, it’s like you had cataract surgery.

I’ve heard it described and boom in the moment. A short time later, you’re like brand new. You can see a crisis brings clarity. Ask the Israelites, for example, of the lessons that they learned in the 325 year span of their history from the time where they entered the promised land till Samuel, their last judge and prophet arrived on the scene. Get this with monotonous repetition.

You can check all that I just said in the book of Judges. They walked with God. And many of us in this gathering do that very thing. At least we aim to, we wish to. It’s our purpose to walk with God.

Prone to wander, Lord, I fear it. Prone to leave the God I love. You know that song too, not just because it’s a good song, because it’s a statement of truth. How many times have I said that? How many times have you thought that?

And Lord, I was on a path and then I wandered and then I repented. And yet again, I found you welcoming me back, inviting me to be the Lord. Indeed, as Luke 15 would suggest, throwing a party for me. And then that nasty word happens. Repeat.

And I go from walking to wandering to repenting to restoration. Each time, I think a crisis brings clarity for a time. And I think you would agree. Let’s make it modern for a minute, okay? And then we’re going to open to two passages scripture that will have timeless effect on us as the Holy Spirit leads.

Let’s just say you learn you have a 75% blockage in the LAD coronary artery. Yes, the widow maker has come knocking. You catch it in time. The details aren’t important, but you catch it in a sort of a desperate moment. And you have surgery.

There’s no option and it was successful. Post op you meet with your cardiologist and nutritionist and you pay riveted attention, do you not? To what they’re talking about. The council they’re giving taking copious notes. You’re there with your spouse if you have one, with a best friend if you have one.

And you’re making sure they’re there with you because you don’t want to miss a thing. There’s important stuff shared you just about died. You are now clear. I would suggest clear about what matters most. Talked a lot of people pre op and post op in our church.

People who had the scare like I just described and they often talk about, wow, I can see clearly now. Man, I hope that never leaves me. Another example. You are stunned to learn that your spouse is tired of trying. Told we’re going to make it modern.

They want to walk away from the marriage. And the only thing that you could think to do and you didn’t really think about just happened, you freaked out. You just went, no, and you collapsed and you fell apart. And you were totally blindsided. We could argue were you not, were you, were you not?

But the fact is, you’re devastated and somehow along the way, you both agreed to counseling. And you make your way into a counselor pastor’s office and you don’t sit there with your arms folded. I’ve seen the look. I’ve seen it lots. You sit there in a kind of a creepy, intense way hanging on everything being said.

You just do. You pay careful attention. It’s hard work, and then the process, a new birth of trust emerges. And I’ve seen that too, plenty. And then the divorce is called off in some cases.

You’ve become alert and maybe for the first time, or it feels that way, you are attentive to your spouse’s needs because you have your priorities straight. And if you have your way, they’re going to stay that way, right? Crisis brings clarity. So this morning in our series called healthy, let’s give some thought to a fourth habit of healthy Christians. I’m calling the talk today priorities and you can see where we’re going with this.

God first. Okay? If you have your Bible, I’d like you to turn it on. Turn in your Bible to a place that’s recorded and it covers three chapters in Matthew’s gospel. You know it by its sort of popular label.

It’s the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew five, six and seven. Let me just tell you something that I have every week, but I don’t always tell you about it. All right? And that is an ambition. If you were to interview me ahead of this sermon and say, Steve, what’s your goal?

What’s your end goal today? What’s your ambition this morning? It’s to try to bring clarity to our priorities before a crisis forces the issue. All right? So you’re going to hear me talking about this list for the next few minutes.

And I’m hoping in the process, you’re going to find your way to God and God first. And my ambition is pretty big. That you will come to that place before a crisis forces the issue with me. All right. Jesus is preaching a sermon, this sermon on the Mount.

And right in the middle of the three chapters, chapter six, I want us to imagine ourselves sitting on the northern slope of the Sea of Galilee. There’s a sort of a natural location. I’ve sat there actually. Actually read the Sermon on the Mount quietly, privately to myself. We were encouraged to do that and to kind of take it in and imagine ourselves sitting there as Jesus shared these words we’re about to read.

Listen to what Jesus taught on what we could call the distraction dilemma. You and I live in this world. And because of that, we have a daily battle. With distraction. And it’s a dilemma for us.

So he reaches in this part of his sermon right into our, may I say, wallets. And he calls attention to what most of us would describe as our biggest distraction. Money. We think about it a lot. It’s money, but it’s more than money.

And you’ll see that in a moment. And let’s, let’s read now his words and see if you can kind of detect some of the other money related things. Verse 24, would you turn to those words? No one can serve two masters. Jesus says, either you will hate the one and love the other or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

There is no middle ground here is what he’s saying. Okay. There’s a choice that he’s pointing to and pressing for. You cannot serve both God and money. Verse 25, therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life.

What you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear is not life more than food and the body more than clothes. It’s a rhetorical question. Of course it is. Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns.

Yet your heavenly father feeds them. Much more valuable to him than they. Can any of you by worrying at a single hour to your life? I don’t know how many times I’ve shared those words in a conversation with somebody, sometimes for my own sake. And we all know the answer.

No, I don’t. That doesn’t add life. That doesn’t give me more years or months or moments, but we still tend to worry. Can any of you that Jesus asks, by worrying at a single hour to your life? Of course not.

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. He switches the metaphor from birds to flowers. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon and all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

In other words, Solomon had the big bucks. He could buy any clothes, have any shoes, have any wardrobe he wanted. And he was never as well garmented, dressed as these flowers. If that is how God closes the grass of the field, which is here today and gone tomorrow and thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith? So do not worry saying, what shall I eat?

He repeats himself. What shall I drink? What shall we wear? For the pagans run after all of these things. And your heavenly father knows that you need these things.

So before we read on to the remedy, you just stop right now and let’s digest what we just read for a moment. We’ll get to the remedy. Let’s be clear about a couple of facts. I’m calling this list of things, distractions. And the distractions to which Jesus refers aren’t trivial.

They are important. That’s why we started at verse 24. “Most anybody here can tell me how much money is in their wallet or purse, or how little is in there, or in their bank account, or whatever.” We know that because we live that, that’s part of life. And may I say this, it matters.

The Bible is not making a disparaging point about this. In fact, it’s calling attention to something that knows well. The Bible and its authors and the God that inspired them know well that you and I think like this a lot. And the Bible, by the way, if you want to know just how important this is to most people, by talking more about money than about heaven and hell combined, even a casual listener right now has to go, serious? You know that Jesus taught more about money than prayer?

I don’t care where you’re coming from. You gotta stop and go, whoa, there’s something here. Now notice that money isn’t all the Jesus places on the list of things that distract us. He talks about concerns of everyday life. What could be more basic concerns than food?

I need food. Drink? Gotta have something to drink. Why did I just say that? I need a drink.

That’s not phony, I do. Food, drink, and clothing, right? I’m reading a book about Alaska right now. And this young guy decides to go up there and he’s gonna make it big in the days of gold. And when he got there, he was so excited, he just thought maybe this is the river.

And sure enough, he pulls up in his first gold miners, what’s that tray or thing? Looks like a plate. Pan, there we go. That’ll work. And he’s doing the swish and the jiggle and the move and everything.

Guess what? He got a first time nugget the size of a marble. Fast forward. He’s there for, this is all summer. Having a good time.

Thinking he’s gonna make it rich, it’s all taken care of now. And then fall came. And it came quickly. And it left quickly. And what comes after fall?

Winter. And it wasn’t long in this story I’m reading before this man could not care less about the gold in his pocket. He resorted to eating porcupine. And even at that, nearly starved to death. ‘Cause even porcupines are smart enough to take a hike, go to warmer country and have winter in Alaska.

So these other concerns are pretty important. It’s not just money, how much you got or don’t have. It’s food, it’s drink. It’s something to clothe ourselves with. I was freshly impressed with this idea.

My dad and I went to lunch last Sunday after I praised him for a killer sermon. When we were at lunch, we’re having lunch at a mall down in our area, the outdoor mall that’s down in Twalitz and Tiger. You know that mall. Anyway, right in the middle there’s some food joints. I guess they’re scattered around, but we grabbed a burger and we’re sitting there.

And as I sat there, I couldn’t help but observe these very things. We’re there eating. ‘Cause we were hungry. Shake. ‘Cause we were drinking something and figured let’s go chocolate.

We shared one. And then I looked up and I’m watching and it was, I thought malls were dying or something. This mall was craziness. And there were people and I’m thinking either your shopping didn’t say this to anybody, but I’m observing people. Do you watch people, anybody else?

And I’m watching them carrying enough boxes of clothing and shoes for their neighborhood easily. A meldomarkos would have been proud, right? She’s the shoe lady, remember? And it was crazy. So it told me that these things are still on people’s mind.

This isn’t an ancient thing that those poor first century folks had this problem with needing food and drink and clothing. I’m serious. I wanted to help people carry the load. So concerns of everyday life are still with us. Notice a handful of times in this sermon, did you catch it while I slowed down?

Jesus points to the potential impact of these distractions in a single word. Worry, worry, anxiety, a close cousin. Five times. He says these things are attached to something that’s not good for you. It’s not my intention for you at all.

But because you have so many priorities on your plate, it’s gonna affect you in things like worry, verse 25 and 27 and 28 and 31. And we didn’t read as far as 34, but it’s there again. Talk about preoccupation. Making what Jesus does next incredibly timely. I had to stop at verse 32.

He doesn’t just correct people for having excessive concerns about all their distractions and priorities. He points to a fix. A better focus we’re about to read right now. Life giving rather than life sucking or taking, verse 33. But seek first, kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.

Therefore don’t worry, that’s the fifth time he says it about tomorrow. It’s out of your control. For tomorrow we’ll worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. What’s the remedy here?

What’s the better focus? He says seek first. May I make it really personal? Seek first me. All that I’m about.

Put your focus on that and it will fill your cup, not drain your cup. That’s the effect that that has. And notice these things. He says that the ones we just got done talking about at length, the stuff of food and drink and clothing, you could put housing in there. Doesn’t matter.

It’s just a list in that day. Notice all those things are brought up in verse 33 where the cure has just been offered. If you seek first is kingdom and righteousness, then what happens to those things? They go away? No, they just get met.

They get taken care of, not by your fret, not by your fuss, not by my worry, not by my anxiety. They get taken care of by him. C.S. Lewis famously said, aim at heaven?

Him? The kingdom? Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth. The stuff on this list, the stuff we’ve just read about and you will get neither.

That’s big. Aim at heaven and you get earth thrown in. These things will be given to you. So on what are you focused today? What priorities have your attention?

It’s okay to have priorities. What seem to be sort of consuming to you? If there’s a lot of stuff, a lot of priorities on your list, there’s a possibility and a pretty good one at that. That it’s going to result in you missing out on the pleasures that he has for you. See effect that has on me.

So seek the kingdom of God and see him provide these things I think is the good summary of verse 33. We got a minute to see what this looks like in real life. So I want you to turn in your Bibles to a chapter 10. He’s having dinner with a couple of friends. He’s having dinner with a couple of friends.

That’s kind of a stop off spot on his way to Jerusalem from Galilee. He’s just outside the city of Jerusalem when he stops to visit with two sisters. They actually have a brother as well. He tells an aboy in that family. The sisters are Mary and Martha.

The boy is Lazarus. He’s not part of this particular night or at least he’s not mentioned. But he’s invited to dinner with the sisters. And here’s how Luke retails that evening. So I’m reading from Luke chapter 10 and look at verse 38.

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, traveling south to Jerusalem. He comes to this village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations they had that had to be made. She came to Jesus and asked, Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself.

Tell her to help me. That moment. Ever had kids in that moment. You know, I have to do it all. Why do I have to set the table on it?

Okay. So tell them to help me. Verse 41, Martha, Martha, the Lord answered. You are worried and upset about many things. But few things are needed or indeed only one.

Mary has chosen what is better. And it will not be taken away from her. My question, as I read this, when was the last time when you had too much on your plate? This week, if that was you, raise your hand. If you still have the energy to raise it, okay?

Okay. Too much on your plate. Both of these ladies, let’s be clear about something. They love Jesus. They really did.

He, they would save him would save them. We’re besties. We’re best friends along with Lazarus. In fact, when Lazarus died, people said, Hey, you’re, you’re bro just died. I mean, they, he was, they were tight.

They were close friends. So they both love Jesus. Okay. Let’s get that straight. And both, I think we’re excited.

You see it from the story we just read. They were excited to have them over for dinner that night. Would you agree? But that’s where things diverge. So about as much as I came up with in common and then they diverge.

And Mary is described as contentedly visiting with Jesus, listening and learning. I’m tempted to go down a path right now and say, that’s hard work for some of us. It really is. You’re looking at one of them. When I’m alone, I start thinking of options.

You know, like I got to go to Costco and see my people, you know, I don’t know. Do you have this moment? How many are okay alone anytime, anywhere? We need you. You get to teach us how many hate it anytime, anywhere.

Okay. Being alone. No, not the people that raise their hand first. No, that’s not what I meant at all. How many find that being alone is really a little bit of a stretch.

A little challenge for you. Okay. So you’re thinking of faking an injury and going to the hospital to be around friends, right? Whatever. So, okay, I get this.

Okay. So Mary was distracted, described rather as contentedly listening, calmly visiting with Jesus. I don’t know if she was trying to write things down, but maybe so. Or maybe just take it in. Incredibly peaceful description here.

And in every way positive. Martha was not. In contrast to Mary, Luke calls attention to Martha in the negative, decidedly negative. Look at verse 40, and it’s a very powerful word in the story. Distracted is the word new international translates.

A word for weighed down and pulled away. I think that was true literally. She’s in the kitchen. Mary’s over there, hanging in the family room or whatever. That’s one way she’s distracted or pulled away.

The other is more relationally. She’s distract, she’s weighed down, and she’s stepping back relationally. She’s not happy, certainly with her sister, and well, let’s let the text answer it, but she’s frustrated. And that’s what I get from reading verse 41. And the tone of her words in the Greek is not, look, don’t you care, Lord, that my sister left me to do the work by myself.

Could you like ask her to help, please? No. Even that would have been passive aggressive, we would call it, right? She blew a fuse. She’s thick, she’s thinking of throwing food at this point.

Right? Hey, Mary, you having a good time? We’ll have some more good time, right? Get up ya lazy, Lord, you know, and help out in the kitchen, right? She’s not having fun at all.

Martha is just, just tick, kicking the cat, and they didn’t have cats in, but anyway, you get the idea. She’s not pleased with this whole scene at all. And she’s not pleased at both her sister and her best friend, Jesus. The bother extends to him as well. Lord, don’t you care?

You see? It’s not just dumping on Mary. That was Martha saying, excuse me, Jesus. Are you not seeing this? Somebody’s gotta be in the kitchen.

She just goes on, and why do I know her? Never mind, never mind. And I’m not talking about my wife. I’m not talking about me, but, and then look at verse 41, would ya? She was upset by all, he calls attention to many things, all the details.

So Jesus says, with compassion in his voice, I love how verse 41 begins, Martha, Martha. The repeated term in Greek has this tone, my dear Martha. You didn’t get mad and go, hey, step off. No, this is my dear Martha. The things you’re bothered by, they matter.

He doesn’t say food doesn’t matter, I’m above food. Those things matter, hospitality matters, but they matter less than what you’re saying. My sister has chosen me. Are you hearing that? People, would you look at me right now?

This list, if I could pass it around, I would. Please come up and look at it, and it lists, I don’t think there was a thing on there that I could say that doesn’t really matter. I mean, some of you are gonna say remodel, are you kidding me? That’s a first world problem. Okay, let’s, but you know what?

We remodeled our kitchen, I’m really glad we did. That point, this stuff matters. Martha and her stuff mattered. It just mattered less than what mattered to Mary. Jesus.

He was calling attention to Martha’s misplaced priorities. And the takeaway to me this morning is clear. She and we have a lot of choices in day to day life. And I know this about your choices, ’cause they’re just like mine. Many of our choices are good.

Many are. But I think the Bible and the story of Jesus and his very words are saying, I want you to choose better than good. I want you to choose great. I want you to choose me. The words of Colossians three come to mind and I’ll close with them.

Since then, you have been raised up with Christ. Verse one says in Colossians chapter three, keep seeking the things above where I am seated at the right hand of the Father. There’s more. Setting your mind on the things above, not on the things that make up this list. God help us to do that.

Better than we do. And help us to fight through it all the time. It’s worth it. Because you’re the one we want to be the choice we make all the time. And that will deliver us life instead of take it from us.

You bow with me. As we pray, would you just think of your list right now in your mind? Since then you’ve been raised up with Christ. That’s telling me something. Would you listen to this?

You can’t do this on your own. You will stumble. You will fumble. You will give it up in defeat. So since then you have been raised up with Christ.

If you do not know Jesus, how can he possibly be your choice in all matters of life? That’s not an insult. That’s just an observation of fact. There’s only one throne on your life just as there is in my life. And that’s a throne that somebody gets to sit on.

If it’s Jesus, it comes this way. You say, Jesus, I want to surrender to you. I want to be one of those that has been raised up with you into new life. So that the rest of that statement in Colossians three is true. And I can live more life.

And I would keep seeking the things above where you are. So you did the right hand of the Father. And then I would set my mind. Well, that’s that’s in play all day. I would set my mind on the things above on you, your kingdom.

Not on the things that make up my other priority list. And Lord, I know that the results of this, you’re hearing people talk to you right now about their lists. Would you just say, Lord, take a look at my list this week of priorities. Help me to revisit this deeply and honestly. And to listen to you if you’re saying that list is good, but there’s something better.

And then with your help, help me to live differently with my life ordered by you. And every way. Because I want to be a person where you’re the priority. And that makes me a healthy person. So rain in me in every way.

In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Ushers are going to come and they’re going to gather those prayer requests now. We’re going to sing a song. Fit for what we’ve been talking about this morning.

So as they make their way down here, would you make your way to your feet and let’s sing a final song together?

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 5,169 words.