Finding the Right Priorities in Life
John 4:31-38
Are any of you busy?
One of the great revelations of life is that while some folks will spend a lot of their later years relaxing, many people retire only to discover that if they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have had enough time to hold down a full-time job anyway!
My experience has been that at every stage of ministry I believed that I was a busy man. When we were youth pastors I believed that I was really going after it. We were really pushed for time. Then we became “real pastors” of a small church and there were weeks when I didn’t know how I would get everything accomplished.
About three years ago we moved to Rock Falls and it took me six months to get some sort of a handle on my life. It felt like I was treading water in those moments right before you know you can’t do it any longer. It was crazy!!
We’re busy people. Before and after the service I’ll talk to some of you and that’s the sense I get – your lives are filled with kids, grandkids, errands, ballgames, work, doctor visits, on and on.
Sometimes it becomes so much that the pressure begins to build and we become stressed. These next few weeks we’re going to talk about what it’s like to be under pressure and what we the Bible says we can do to deal with it.
No matter what stage your life is in, student, single, married, parent, grandparent, working, retired, there is pressure out there for you. I know it’s there. I feel it. Let me tell you that some weeks, as much as I love preaching and the fellowship of our Sunday services, I’m living for Sunday night. After about 8pm on Sunday there’s a window of time without pressure that I enjoy so very much!
Amazingly, those are some of the moments – when the pressure is off – when I’m most able to hear from God. He’ll just drop ideas and thoughts into my head during those times that get me moving toward the next goal or the next Sunday. That’s what helps me understand that maybe under pressure is not the most healthy and productive place for us to live.
One of the keys to dealing with and in many cases releasing the pressure we face is “Finding the Right Priorities in Life.” That’s what we’re going to talk about this morning.
If you have your Bible with you, turn with me to the book of John, chapter 4.
How many of you think that Jesus was busy?
We’ve talked in recent weeks about the fact that he was in fact inundated with requests for prayer and healing wherever he went. As a matter of fact, it became so difficult that he and his closest associates would enter and community and be swamped from the moment word of their arrival got out, so much so that there would not even be time for them to eat.
As a result, Mark 1:45 tells us, “As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.”
Jesus was a very busy guy! Often when people get busy, even in the ministry, they lose focus, or get easily upset. There can be times when they’re very difficult to deal with. But not Jesus.
How did he do it? He was clear in his priorities.
Read John 4:31-38.
What is the first thing that most of you will do today following this worship service? Most of us will have lunch. We’ll eat. Outside of the fact that I obviously enjoy eating, why would I make time to have lunch. Why would I eat?
Because eating helps me have the energy and focus I need to remain on course for the rest of my day. There are things to be accomplished that I’ll be unable to do unless I have energy provided through food.
What do Priorities Do For Us?
• Establish goals give us direction in life
• Provide meaning for our activities
• Eliminate unnecessary complication
If priorities help us to remain on course to accomplish the most important things in life, they’re like food. Jesus said his food was what? “My food…is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
Where Do We Find Our Priorities?
• Dictated by work or family responsibility
Work priorities are not always the same as personal priorities, are they? But during the hours you are at work, they have to take first place.
Do you want to be a good Christian at work? Then do everything in your power to please your employer and do a good job. Be the best employee in the place!
• Things we love and enjoy
• Provide lasting value or have great importance
Jesus understood why he was here. His priorities were dictated by the fact that he loved nothing more than to do the will of God.
What Happens When We Fail to Prioritize?
• Become “Whelmed” by life “Mission Impossible”
• Good crowds out the best “Busyness” crowds out accomplishment
• Aimless drifting
With all the things screaming to be a part of our calendar, if we fail to correctly prioritize, it’s no wonder when we become overwhelmed. You never see that from Jesus, not because he was “Superman” but because he understood what was most important for today, right now. He had a firm grasp of what would be a good thing to do and what would be the best thing, the thing that would take him farthest toward his goal of doing the will of God.
Let me show you from this passage some keys for prioritizing your own life.
1. Set Priorities by Choosing Eternal Things over Earthly
Jesus said in verse 35, “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.”
Those who participate in bringing others to faith in Christ are doing something of eternal consequence. You may be useful at any point in the process – sowing to reaping – but all who participate will share in the joy of accomplishment in heaven.
Setting of priorities in our lives should begin with understanding the importance of eternal over earthly concerns.
Don’t think for a minute that I’m being unrealistic or living in a fantasy world when I say that. I know you have bills to pay and kids in school and there are only so many minutes in the day. I live right here in Rock Falls right alongside you.
Here’s a principle of God’s Word: You can give priority to chasing the things of this world – Money (even to pay bills), stuff like houses and cars, planning for the future, be it school or retirement, and keeping up with the Joneses of your world. And do you know what? You’ll never get finished.
In Matthew 6 Jesus had a better idea for prioritizing.
Matthew 6:25-34
Set Priorities by Choosing Eternal Things over Earthly. Start with just one this week and see if God doesn’t bless your efforts.
2. Set Priorities by Looking for the Obvious over the Hidden
Again in verse 35, Jesus says, “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.”
Planning for the future is a great thing. One of my best friends and mentors in ministry was the first one to show me how to plan at least far enough ahead so that my family would not suffer in the case of some unforeseen event.
But our planning, especially as it concerns ministry as believers in Jesus Christ, is often made with statements like, “One of these days I’m going to get involved in that ministry!” We say that because we know that we should be involved in ministry – that’s one of the five reasons the church exists – and because some tiny part of us still believes the myth that the perfect day to get involved will come along. You know, the day when we don’t have anything to hinder us and all the time in the world.
Jesus said to people like us, “You’re always looking toward some future event. But the future is now! Look around! People right here, right now need God!”
If we will Set Priorities by Looking for the Obvious over the Hidden, and by Choosing Eternal Things over Earthly, we’ll find out that there
3. Set Priorities by Being Active, not Passive
Verse 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.
There are two active words Jesus uses to describe disciples in this verse:
The first is “sent”. We are sent by none other than Jesus Christ. Where we might question if sent by a church or a pastor or even a denomination, there is no question when it comes to the authority of Jesus to send us. He quite literally owns us – he bought our lives with his blood and body on the cross.
1 Corinthians 7:23-24 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. 24Brothers, each man, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation God called him to.
The second word is “reap”. Not only do we belong to Jesus, he has God-given authority with which to send us to make disciples.
Matthew 28:18-19 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…
