Setting Your Priority Right

TOPIC: SETTING YOUR PRIORITY RIGHT

Main Text: Matthew 6:25-34

Memory Verse Text: Matthew 6: 33

Many things clamour for priority, and we need to know how to assess their value and not to give the first place to secondary things.  For example, the soul is more important than the body (Mark 8:36); the things of eternity are of greater importance than the things of time (Hebrews 9:27); life itself is far more important than possessions (Luke 12:15-21); moral strength is far more important than physical strength (Ephesians 6:10).  

Much of our trouble arises from the fact that we have reversed the order and in many cases we are “majoring in minor things and minoring in major things”.  This is true nationally, religiously and individually.

How can we know what God wants us to put first?  The Word of God is our all-sufficient guide.  Study the following ‘first things’:

(1) The first and greatest commandment – Matthew 22:36-38.

(2) Why we love Him – 1 John 4:19.

(3) The prerequisite to discipleship – Luke 14:28,31.

(4) Where giving must begin - 2 Corinthians 8:5.

(5) Where piety (consistent living) must begin – 1 Timothy 5:4.

(6) Where soul-winning must begin – John 1:41.

(7) Where judgment must begin – 1 Peter 4:17.

The Gospel of Matthew records our Lord’s five-fold law of priorities:

1. In Matthew 5:23-24 – FIRST your Brother, then your Gift.

To worship Him, bring gifts to Him or enter into His service are all in vain if we fail to obey His requirement in Matthew 5:23-24.  God’s work is often paralyzed, and His servants are frequently powerless, because of an unwillingness to seek and secure the reconciliation that is commanded and that will alone glorify Him and release His blessing. 

2. In Matthew 6:33 – FIRST the Spiritual, then the Temporal.

Here is a wonderful promise:  if we will put God’s claims first and seek to do His will first, then we need have no anxiety about anything else, for He will provide for us, even in days of shortage! It is possible to be in the kingdom of God and yet not really seeking His righteousness;  saved, but not going on with the Lord –  2 Peter 3:18. 

3. In Matthew 7:3-5 – FIRST judge Yourself, then your Brother.

How blind we often are to our own faults, and how quickly we observe the faults and failings of others!   Nearly every time we criticize someone else for a certain thing we unconsciously criticize them for the thing of which we ourselves are guilty.  Be careful how you use your critical faculty.

4. In Matthew 23:25-26 – FIRST the Inside, then the Outside.

The Christian life is not just an outwardly reformed life; primarily it is an inwardly cleansed life – 1 Samuel 16:7, Psalm 51:6,10.   When the inward cleansing is thorough, the outward transformation is soon evident.  God does not want outward profession merely.  First He wants inward possession. 

PRAYER NOTE:

God help me to set my priorities right, and to put first everything you want me to put first