matthew 6:33 (nkjv) 33 but seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness, and all these things...
TRANSCRIPT
Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Priorities of Life
From time to time we hear someone speak about the priorities of life
Our priorities are simply the order of importance that we place the things of our lives in
Everyone has priorities, whether they are verbally stated or not
Priorities of Life
Priorities are often identified by where we place our resources
How we spend our time, energy, money, etc. shows our priorities
Our priorities can change throughout our lives
Ex. Marriage, birth of a child, job, etc.
Priorities of Life
We can look at characters in the Bible to see priorities
Christ showed His priorities in Luke 2 when He was only 12 years old (v. 49)
That continued throughout His life, His ministry, and even in His death He showed where His priorities lay
Priorities of Life
Paul showed his priorities throughout the book of Acts, as he went on missionary journeys
He showed his priorities by what he suffered in the name of Christ (II Cor. 11:23-28)
There was no question as to what was important to him
Priorities of Life
We too have some things that should be priorities to us
Solomon put it this way in Ecclesiastes 12:13…
“Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all”
Priorities of Life
We too should be about God’s business
It should be the main essence of our lives here on this earth
Can we honestly say that God is our main priority?
How can we show in our lives that He is #1?
Priorities of Life
1. Prioritize our time
This is one area where we all can see some improvement
How many times have we said, “There are just not enough hours in the day”
There are enough hours in the day, but we must make better use of our time
Priorities of Life
1. Prioritize our time
How many of us get up an extra 15 or 30 minutes earlier in the morning, only to find that we still leave for work, school, or worship services at the same time?
The problem is that when we have extra time, we tend to waste most of that extra time because we know we have a buffer there
Priorities of Life
1. Prioritize our time
If a project at work is due that afternoon, we work non-stop to get it done
If it’s due in 2 weeks, we may waste time until the day before or the day of until we work on it
We do that at times with God’s will
Priorities of Life
1. Prioritize our time
How many times have we reached the end of the day and thought “I meant to read my Bible today but I just didn’t have time”?
Truth is we have the time, we just don’t always prioritize the way we should
What if we read our Bibles first?
Priorities of Life
1. Prioritize our time
That’s what Jesus wanted when He spoke what we read in Matthew 6:33
When we put God first regarding our time, we will see ourselves growing in our faith
Notice how many times Jesus rose early in the morning to get some prayer time in (Mk. 1:35-37)
Priorities of Life
1. Prioritize our time
Jesus time was in great demand, as is ours
Let’s not give God our leftovers, but rather our firsts
Jesus also taught us that at times, we must make the time to be with God (Matt. 14:23)
Whatever it takes, we need that time w/God
Priorities of Life
2. Prioritize our money
The money we have is a blessing from God (Js. 1:17)
We need to work hard to ensure that we are:
1. Giving back to God
2. Not living above our means
Priorities of Life
2. Prioritize our money
If we do not think that giving is important to Christ, then we should read Mark 12:41-44
It doesn’t matter so much the dollar amount we give
What does matter is that we do give and that we give with a gracious heart and thankful spirit
Priorities of Life
2. Prioritize our money
Much like our time, we need to be careful not to give God our leftovers
Our money is much like our time
If we have a good amount, we tend to be wasteful of some
We may end up wasting what we would have given to God
Priorities of Life
2. Prioritize our money
Remember what Jesus said about our giving in Luke 6:38?
When we give, God blesses us, more that we deserve or can even imagine
If we give God our firsts, we will surely be blessed in so doing
Priorities of Life
3. Prioritize our goals
Some like setting goals, others are anti-goal
It’s probably safe to assume that we all have goals, some may not be spoken or written down
For example, we all have a goal of getting to heaven when this life ends
Priorities of Life
3. Prioritize our goals
However, we need to be sure that we are prioritizing our spiritual goals over our non-spiritual goals
Jesus told of a certain rich man who had some goals in Luke 12:16-21
He had goals, and there was nothing wrong with them in and of themselves