Priorities

What are the priorities in your life?
As Christians it is important that we have the right priorities in the right place. We have family, friends, work, school and our faith. Are they in that order for you? Or maybe they are a little different order.
As we get older, it is amazing how our priorities change. Two years ago, marriage was not even a side thought for me but now starting my own family is something that is just on the horizon. Many of you are going off to school in September you will notice how things will become prioritized in your life. Things you thought were important will seem more like a distant thought and things that were never really had a concern for will rise to lead the pack.
Throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, in the Bible, we see a small picture of Jesus’ life. As one begins to read through these books you see situations where Jesus’ priorities, the things that were most important to him, were very clear.
Even as a child, Jesus knew the things that came first in. In Luke chapter 2 we read about how Mary and Joseph, Jesus’ parents, would go to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover every year. Jesus is twelve and after they do their Feast of the Passover thing Mary and Joseph head home, the problem is that while they were on their way they realized Jesus not is with them.
Picture the conversation if you will, ‘You know, Jesus, you were so well behaved today; you were just a little saint, so how did you enjoy the feast this year? Jesus…. Mary where’s Jesus’, ‘I thought he was with you’. ‘Clearly, Mary, I asked you to watch him’. ‘You’re always doing this, always blaming me’. Anyway you get the point… they forgot their child in a city that was far away from home. It is a good thing there was not social services back then because I think they would have taken Jesus away.
Anyway, eventually they go back to Jerusalem and look. After three days of nothing they finally find Jesus in the Temple, sitting among the teachers.
Mary sees Jesus and says, ‘Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you’, basically the crap was scared clean out of her. Jesus’ reply, at twelve years of age, is ‘why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my father’s house?'
At twelve Jesus knew, first off that the Lord, adonia, was his Father, but he also knew that at that moment the most important place he needed to be was in His Father’s house.
Many years later, 21 to be exact, Jesus is fasting and praying. While Jesus is doing this Satan comes and tries to tempt him. Satan says, ‘make these rocks into bread’, ‘jump the angels will catch you’ and ‘if you bow down to me I will give you all the kingdoms of this world’.
You see when Jesus came as man to this earth He knew His purpose. Jesus knew that he would have to sacrifice his own life and that it would be the most horrible thing on earth, which is why he prayed in the Garden ‘take this cup from me’. Satan also knew this because it was prophesied in to Older Testament.
When Satan was offering Jesus the entire world in return for Jesus to bow down at his feet, he was offering Jesus a way out of horrendous pain.
Jesus knew the priority was the Father’s will and that the God the Father did not want to dictate over His creation but to persuade them with love to follow him. Jesus, although it was the hard way, made God the Father priority and did God’s will.
Later Jesus is at a house, he is healing people, and His mother, brothers and sisters come and send someone in to call Jesus to them. Okay, I am going to try to illustrate this in a kind of story form. Keep in mind this story section is not in the Bible.
There is a man he feels like a cast away, an island, he essentially feels alone. He has a disease that makes him unclean according to the rules that the Pharisee’s and religious leaders have put in place. Not one person will give him the time of day.
The man hears about this man named Jesus who embraces the sick and heals. He hears that Jesus will be in his town at quarter past the sundial. The man goes to the house, it is crowded but he makes his way to the front. He sits and listens to Jesus talk.
The man is moved and compelled toward changing his life as he sits and listens. Jesus begins healing people. He is two people away, one person; the man is next in line. He is filled with anticipation. The moment that will change his life forever is approaching. Finally, there is a person who seems to care.
Just as Jesus is about to pray for the man the message comes through the crowd, ‘Jesus your mother, brothers and sisters are here they want you to come now’.
The man’s dreams, hopes, the man who is inflicted with disease and feels alone, his ideas of what could have been, what would have been, hang in the balance. Like a glass inches from shattering on the floor, the man’s hopes of what could have been looms in the air.
Suddenly shock fills the room as Jesus opens His mouth, ‘who are my mother and brothers’, pointing at the inflicted man in front and those around him, Jesus states, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother’.
At that moment, you could not begin the read the mixed reactions on people’s faces. Some were repulsed, ‘how could a man do that to his family’. Others were confused.
The man, the one with the disease, the one who felt alone, at that moment never felt such love, never felt such a high. Suddenly he had friends and a family. He was no longer alone. That day the afflicted man was healed not only of his physical affliction but also an affliction of the heart.
At that moment Jesus made the people who he was with his priority.
Later Jesus says to a different group of people, “If you want to be my follower you must love me more than your own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters- yes, more than your own life.” You may say that it sounds more like Jesus does like family. Actually what he is saying is that God needs to be the first priority. If God did not like family he would have never said honour your mother and father, or do not cause your children to wrath or wives honour, your husbands and husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church.
God should be number one in your life. Family, education, work, security and other such things should not come close to taking God’s place.
You may say but I need to work every Friday and Sunday so I have money for things, I need to save for school, I have to buy my own clothes. Jesus said, ‘What good will it be for a person if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”
You can have all the stuff, the best education but it means squat if Jesus isn’t the leader of your life.
Even at 12 years of age Jesus knew that the things of most importance were to be with God, to be in God’s house and to do His will.
It is time we begin to re-evaluate our priorities. Even I screw up the things that need to come first in my life. You, me and Dupree need to begin making God first in our hearts and lives.
It's time to let God take hold of our hearts and minds and lives. Let him direct our path. Be faithful to god and waht he desires and have the faith that he will provide for us in our faithfulness to him.