Living From Gods’ Priorities

 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.”  

Matthew 6:33

Repeating our point from Tuesday: If you want to develop a life of love then what you

need to do is continually develop a life of self-discipline.

There are some specific ways that you can do this.

 We will look at some of these over the next three days.

The first, while obvious, is still something we must continually remind ourselves-

You live your life by living from God’s priorities, not life’s pressures.

Obvious yes, but, easier said than done, isn’t it?

Some might argue: “Well, it is easy!”

But the truth is that life has a way of applying pressure every day in each of our lives.

The unexpected emergency, the sick child that keeps you home from work, the flat tire on the way to an appointment you were already late for, the totally unreasonable deadline you are given by your boss and the list goes on and on and on…

Each of these pressures can quickly crowd out the best of intentions in making God and His kingdom our first and most important priority. 

You know that’s true because you’ve experienced one of those days recently.

So what did you do?

Without a doubt, your sick child needed you at home that day, but once there were you angry at him and blaming him for missing that deadline at work or did you take the time to pray and ask God to heal your child and help you to be His love and witness despite the change in your plans?

We can be sure of this – when we make God our priority and not the guaranteed pressures of life – He will come and strengthen you, equip you for all of the surprises and best of all, He will not leave you or forsake you in the midst of the pressures of life. 

Disciplined, Not Disqualified!

 “I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”

I Corinthians 9:27 (NLT)

Yesterday we said that if you want to develop a life of love then what you

need to know

is that it is your obedience to Christ that is proof of your love for Christ and not your proclamation.  

Today we will look at this statement:

If you want to develop a life of love then what you

need to do

 is continually develop a life of self-discipline.

Certainly, one of the most successful U.S. Olympic athletes is the swimmer Michael Phelps.

He has won 14 gold medals, more than any other Olympic athlete.

Today he announced that after this summer’s Olympics in London, he is retiring.

It is worth noting that his daily training regimen includes at least six hours per day in the pool, the equivalent of swimming eight miles each day. He trains six days a week bringing a weekly tally of some 50 miles swam each and every week.

As we have noted, his reward is more gold than any other athlete in modern Olympic history.

He has learned well the lesson of disciplining his body and training it to do what it should.  

Maybe there is a lesson for each of us.

Our reward, as we are told, is an incorruptible crown that will not fade away.

Considering that the value to us is an eternal one, how much more so should we develop that life of self-discipline?

And that eternal value benefits others as well – whomever the Lord should choose to minister to through us. 

I discipline my life and in so doing, Christ’s love is made real to me and to others. 

Disciplined and not disqualified!

Prove It!

 “Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

John 14:23-24

We were taught this morning that if you want to develop a life of love then what you need to know is that it is your obedience to Christ that is proof of your love for Christ and not your proclamation.  

I certainly can’t speak for you but I do suspect that, like me, you have a much easier time professing loves than demonstrating it.

Some have said: “Words are cheap!” 

More often than not it is much, much easier to say: “I love you” than it is too consistently and faithfully demonstrate and prove that love by our actions. Jesus recognized that our words may not always be the true barometer of our love and so emphasized in the passage above (and in many other places in scripture) that the definitive proof is in our obedience.  

Proof is defined as: anything tending to establish the truth of something.

We can say then that the truth of our love is established by our obedience.

Love is more than mere lip service.

Love is made clearer by what we do and not by what we say.

Does that mean I should never express my love to God?

Not at all, but it does mean that my expression is validated by my actions.

A love which is in ‘words only’ is a love that is superficial at best.

Francis of Assisi is credited with the quote:

 “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”

The same could be said of love –

Live, by your deeds, the love you have and then your words will express what your actions reveal.

God Spotlights a Nation and Blind Man!

 “Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.

Joshua 2:8-11

“As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

John 9:1-3

Do you see what theme might connect these two passages above together?

In both we find that out of very difficult situations God received the glory.

One is the story of the spies in Jericho. Rahab speaks to them of the fear those in her city have because of the Israelites:

She declares: “the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.”

The power, the might and the fear of the God of Israel had spread among the pagan nations but it was not without a cost. The young nation had spent forty years in the wilderness after their disobedience and they also saw the hand of God deliver them from the Kings, Sihon and Og, along with so many other times recorded that God delivered them.

They found themselves in a place of needing deliverance before they were delivered.

God, in His strength and might, delivered them and in the process was glorified.

So too, the man born blind suffered for all of his life, not just with his blindness but also with the stigma that his sin, or the sin of his parents was the reason for his blindness. Jesus set the record straight for the disciples and told them he was born blind, not because of his or his parents’ sin “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him”.

Do you find yourself in the place of needing Gods’ deliverance?

Have you lived with a stigma all of your life?

Maybe you have tried to ‘deliver’ yourself and find it is impossible.

Maybe there is a stigma you have lived with and it is far too great to erase simply with the passage of time.

It is, in situations like this, that God can receive the glory due to Him as you surrender and stop trying to do what only He can do.

Give Him the credit and give Him the glory by giving up on your own efforts and surrendering to Him!

Doing What Servants Do!

 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Hebrews 13:1-3

“…let us throw off…

“…let us run with perseverance…”

“…fixing our eyes on Jesus…”

“Consider Him…”

“…so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Have you ever been guilty of thinking of the Christian life as passive?

Do you know what I mean?

Maybe you’ve said to yourself:

“I am saved so I now I get to coast until heaven!”

As I read the passage above I am struck by the fact that it is a life filled

with action and purpose.

No ho-hum. 

No boredom.

No sedentary life.

You and I are in a race and it cannot be completed lying on the couch!

We are to be servants.

What do servants do? They serve!

Luke 17:7-10

 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep.

Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field,

‘Come along now and sit down to eat’?

 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 

Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?  

So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say,

 ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

One way we serve is by staying in the race! 

Don’t give up – persevere!

Lighten Your Load

 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Hebrews 13:1-3

Imagine running a race with a backpack loaded with bricks.

Do you suppose it might slow you down just a bit?

I have seen, and you probably have too, runners who routinely will prepare for a race by adding weight either on their back or sometimes on their ankles.

That is great for training but unwise on race day.

The writer of Hebrews admonishes us to throw off everything that hinders us in the race.

Sound advice, wouldn’t you agree?

 Still, we sometimes carry many burdens and many hindrances on our back and in our lives as we attempt to run the race.

Our perception of God is often some of that weight.

Instead of recognizing His love and encouragement as we run the race we instead accuse Him of tripping us or intentionally sabotaging our efforts.  

God allows trials in our lives but He is not cheering on our defeat.

He expects that through the tests and trials we will call out to Him and know Him as our strength, that strength we need to persevere.

So today, throw off that weight that accuses God of

indifference at best or being your adversary at worst.

Instead, understand that God is your coach, your trainer and the one who most wants to see you successfully finish the race!  

How Many Races Will a Lukewarm Runner Win?

 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?

Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

I Corinthians 9:24-27

Do you run to win?

Do you set out to do your very best or is second best good enough?

Paul doesn’t tell us to run in the hopes of at least, perhaps, maybe achieving an Honorable Mention.

We are encouraged to run in such a way as to win the prize.

How does an athlete do that?

The next sentence answers the question for us – it is done by strict training.

I can see a correlation between the verses above and the words of Jesus in Revelation 3:15-16

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”  

I would picture the runner who is determined to win the prize as “hot”.

The person, who cares less and does not even show interest in the prize, is “cold”.

For them, it is not even a race, it is a fun run.

Who is lukewarm then?

That would be the runner who is in it halfheartedly.

Maybe they entered out of obligation or at the insistence of family or friend but there heart is just not in the race.

Maybe they saw and heard the cheering crowds in the stands and got into the race for the applause and approval of man and had never taken the time for strict training.

The lukewarm runner is easily dissuaded.

The pace of the race becomes too brisk.

The pain and endurance required to faithfully complete the

race is no longer popular or fun.  

The lukewarm runner never really entered to win.

They certainly would not adhere to strict training or the self-discipline the training demand.

Are you running the race hot, cold or lukewarm?

Are you in it to win it?

“…run in such a way as to get the prize…”