you
All right brave and welcome to church tonight
Hope you're ready to sing some praise to the Lord. So grab your hymnals. Let's start with hymn number two
Please turn to hymn number two. We'll begin by singing glory to his name after this
I'm gonna ask for a favorite. So if someone's got a favorite, please let me know
But let's start with hymn number two glory to his name. And when you have found it, can you please stand hymn number two?
Glory to his name. Thank you
Hymn number two
Down at the cross where my Savior died
Down where for cleansing from sin I cried there to my heart was the blood applied
glory to his name
Glory to his name
There to my heart was the blood applied
Glory to his name
I
Am so wondrously saved from sin
Jesus so sweetly abides within
There at the cross where he took me in
glory to his name
Glory to his name
There to my heart was the blood applied glory to his name
Oh
precious fountain that saves from sin
I am so glad I have entered in there Jesus saves me and keeps me clean
glory to his name
Glory to his name
There to my heart was the blood applied glory to his name
Come to this fountain so rich and sweet
Cast I pour soul at the Savior's feet
Plunge in today and be made complete
glory to his name
Glory to his name
There to my heart was the blood applied glory to his name
Alright great singing. Let's go to a word of prayer Heavenly Father Lord. We want to be
Lord we want to be in your house tonight. We want to be thankful for everything you've given us our Lord
I pray you've been our presence and you receive our worship and Lord
Will you just help us to to sing praises unto you Lord the way that we ought to Lord help us not to be people
That come near to you just by the words that we speak Lord
But that our heart will have the right condition towards you Lord
I thank you so much for giving us a church that we can be gathered with our brothers sisters in the Lord and
Our Lord once again. I just pray you'd help us tonight
Help us to hear your word clearly and teach us great truths from your Bible. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen
You may be seated
All right, who's got a favorite?
Okay, let's go favorite
Sorry
No, okay almost 102
112 be still my soul. Have we got music for that. All right, cool
112 be still my soul
One one two
Be still my soul
My soul the Lord is on thy side
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain
Leave to thy God to order and provide
In every chain
He faithful will remain
Be still my soul thy best I have Lee friend
Through thorny ways leads to our joyful land
Be still my soul
Thy God
Undertake
To guide the future as he has
We shall be bright
Be still my soul
While he dwells below
Be still my soul
The hour is
When we shall
When
Love
Be still my soul when change
All right, was it 102 yes, okay 102, please
Let's sing 102
He hide of my soul
102 we'll just do the first two. Sorry the first dancer and the last dancer
So rams and just have to pause it after the two two sentences. All right, the first and the last he hide of my soul
Ah
Wonderful Savior is Jesus my lord
Wonderful Savior to me
He hide of my soul in the cleft of the rock
Where rivers of pleasure I see
He hide of my soul in the cleft of the rock
That shadows hard dry first in flesh
He hide of my life in the depths of his love
And covers me there with his hand
On the last
When clothed in his brightness
Transported I rise
To meet him in clouds of the sky
His perfect salvation
His wonderful love
I'll shout when the millions are high
He hide of my soul in the cleft of the rock
That shadows hard dry first in flesh
He hide of my life in the depths of his love
And covers me there with his hand
All right, great singing. We'll do one more song before the Bible reading
So if you've got your Bibles turn to Psalm 19. We'll sing Psalm 19
Or take out your Bible app. Whatever you've got Psalm 19 on, turn to Psalm 19. This one's just a cappella
I feel like I haven't sung this one with you guys for a little while so let's do it. Psalm 19
So we start with verse number 7 and we're going to sing verses 7, 8, 9. Verse number 10 is the chorus
So we do 7, then 10, then 8, then 10, then 9, then 10
We're also going to sing 11, then 10, then 14, then 10
You guys ready? From verse number 7
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb
Verse 8
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoice in the heart
The commandment of the Lord is pure and light in the eyes
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb
Verse 9
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb
Moreover by them is thy servant warned
And in keeping of them there is great reward
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb
Verse 14
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be accessible in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb
Alright, great singing. Now take your Bibles.
Well, you've got your Bibles ready, don't you?
So turn to Matthew 6, turn to Matthew 6 and Brother Matthew is coming up for the reading.
Matthew chapter 6, thank you.
Matthew chapter 6
Take heed that ye do not your arms before men to be seen of them
Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven
Therefore, when thou doest thine arms, do not sound a trumpet before thee
As the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
That they may have glory of men, verily I say unto you, they have their reward
But when thou doest arms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth
That thine arms may be in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly
And when thou prayest, thou shall not be as the hypocrites are
For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet
And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret
And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do
For they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking
Be not ye therefore like unto them
For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him
After this manner therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses
Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance
For they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward
But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head and wash thy face
That thou appear not unto men to fast but unto thy Father which is in secret
And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly
Lay not up yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt
And where thieves break through and steal
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt
And where thieves do not break through nor steal
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also
The light of the body is the eye, if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness
No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other
Or else he will hold to the one and despise the other
Ye cannot serve God and mammon
Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what ye shall eat
Or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on
Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap
Nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them
Are ye not much better than they?
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin
And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these
Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven
Shall he not much more clothe you, or ye of little faith?
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink?
Or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you
Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof
Let's pray
Holy Father, thank you for this opportunity to be gathered in your house, to pray and to worship you and to learn from your holy word
Please bless past as he preaches from your word and give us the spirit to understand and to grow in the knowledge of the Lord
Let it be so in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen
Amen, thank you very much
Alright, look, apologies for running a little late today
My flight was delayed and it's all been rush, rush, rush
I did get to have lunch, I did have dinner with Ramson though, which was a blessing
But yeah, when I'm rushing, it's hard, there's a lot of things that need to be done, especially when I'm travelling to Sydney
But if you look at Matthew chapter 6 and verse number 31
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Let me stop there for a moment. Do you think it's important as to what we decide to eat? Do you think it's important what we decide to drink?
Do you think it's important as to what we decide to clothe ourselves with? It's pretty important
It's something that you're doing every day, it's something that you're doing constantly throughout the day
But you notice that it says take no thought of these things
In what sense? Is God saying, look, who cares what you eat? Just go ahead and eat McDonald's every single day
Breakfast, lunch and dinner for the rest of your life, is that what God is saying?
And who cares what you get dressed into? Who cares if it's revealing? Who cares if it's lacking modesty?
But the reason it's saying take no thought of these things is because there is something that is infinitely more important than these things
Even though these things are important, and it's something that we need to do in our lives, there is something more important than all of this
It says in verse number 32, For after all these things the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, there are two things, and His righteousness
And all these things shall be added unto you
And so what we see here, all these things are important, what you eat and drink and how you dress yourself is important
The kingdom of God is important, His righteousness is important
But when you look at priorities, what is the highest priority on this list, of course, is the kingdom of God and His righteousness
The title of the sermon tonight is Setting Priorities, Setting Priorities
And this is part of the Perfect Man series, I'm continuing through the Perfect Man series
Now one of the things that I get asked a lot is, and again I'm not trying to position myself some time a hero or anything like this
But how do you pass the two churches, how do you pass the two churches across the state, large family and all the other responsibilities
Now you work in other jobs as well, how do you make it happen? It seems impossible, but the truth is it's all about setting priorities
It's all about figuring out what is more important versus other things, and I'm telling you now there are things that drop off
Things that I need to get done, but I don't get done by the end of the week because it's got a lower priority
We've only got a limited time, we've got 24 hours a day and 8 of those hours you're asleep and then you've got 7 days in a week
If you try to do everything you possibly can in life, you can't do it all
This is why setting priorities are important, you've got to make sure that you're setting time for the things that are most important
In this passage of course it's the kingdom of God and his righteousness
Now this is something that I learnt when I was just working in the secular world and I had different positions
One thing that I learnt in the business world is that there is a difference between being a leader and a manager
Have you guys heard of that before? There's a difference between being a leader
A leader is focused on the here and now, what needs to be accomplished and getting a group of people to come along on that journey with you
But a manager, it's not so much about the here and now, the manager is looking at a distance, the manager is looking at the future
Preparing with a vision, preparing as to what are the requirements in order for my team or my colleagues to be able to achieve the goals that we set in motion
And it's a long term view, it's a long term view making sure that you've got everything in place to make sure you can reach that goal
But the leader is focused on the here and now, the leader is focused on making sure all the work gets done that needs to be done today
And I went from being a general employee to then a leader or a supervisor or something like team leader, sometimes they give you that term
And I realised as I'm a leader, I'm constantly putting out fires, constantly dealing with things that pop up day to day
And then when I was given a position as a manager, I really had a hard time adjusting because I found myself with all this time
And I wanted to be really busy, I wanted to handle the day to day things
But I realised I was given a position of manager in order to see a long term vision
In order to then give my leaders something to be focused upon and understand what their day to day requirements
How their day to day requirements and work affected the long term plan of the business
And it required a lot of adjustment and understanding what were priorities in my life
And I want to share some of these things with you
And I do believe that these things that I'm going to share with you do have biblical principles that I'm going to explain to you in a moment
But one thing that we definitely see in the Bible, at least in Matthew 6, is the importance of setting priorities
There are some things that are more important than others, but all these things generally need to be done
We need to eat and drink and put clothes on, obviously these are things that need to be done
There is a principle when it comes to organising yourself, and look you can apply this to your family, you can apply this to your work
I apply this to church as well, it's known as the Eisenhower principle
Has anyone ever heard of the Eisenhower principle? You've heard of it?
President Eisenhower of the United States, he gets credited for this
Even though it's pretty straightforward, it seems like maybe he's the one that standardises or characterises it in a clear manner that can be communicated
And basically when it comes to all of our tasks, according to the Eisenhower principle
We can put all our tasks and responsibility into four quadrants
Just four places that we can put our tasks that we need to accomplish
The first quadrant is known as the urgent and important
So if something that you need to do is urgent, it needs to be done today, and it's important
Do you think you can put that off tomorrow? No, urgent and important is something that needs to be done today
That's the first quadrant, the next quadrant is not urgent, but important
So it's just as important as the other one, but it's not as urgent
Obviously that's something that doesn't need to be done today, that is something that you can schedule in the future
You know, you can find an appropriate time, you don't need to feel rushed to accomplish it
But you can schedule it because it's not urgent, but it's important, it still needs to get done
That's the second quadrant
The third quadrant is urgent and not important
Urgent and not important, this is the worst way to live your life
This is the worst way to run a business, this is the worst way to organise a church, this is the worst way to run your family
Things are urgent, but not important, okay
You're constantly just dealing with problems and situations, but you're not really being productive
And what I learnt in my position from going from a leader to a manager
Is that these things that pop up that are urgent, hey we need to deal with this now but it's not that important
What's important is you're better off delegating those responsibilities to other people so you can focus on other things
Let me give you an example of mothers
You know of course my wife has a lot of children and you know for my children everything is urgent
Everything is urgent, mum, mum, mum, mum, dad, dad, dad, dad
But do you think it's important? No
But if mum just focused on the urgent and not important, just constantly, constantly, constantly
The laundry's not going to get done
The homeschooling's not going to get done
Because there are things that are vastly more urgent or more important
But for kids it's all urgent
And now you've got the fourth quadrant
Is not urgent and not important
Not urgent and not important
If something's not urgent and not important
Do you think that can just fall off your list of things to do?
Absolutely
You know what that is? Your video games
That's your time on Facebook
That's your time on YouTube
That's your time on social media, TV shows, video games, sporting teams
That stuff is not urgent and not important
And one thing that's going to help you in life
If you start to look at everything that you do
Or what you've done this week
And then put all those things into the four quadrants
And you say I don't have enough time to do things during the week
Well find out what's not urgent, not important
Stop wasting your time on those things
And make sure you focus on the things that are important
But the worst one
Not urgent and not important is the worst thing for you to be spending your time on
But you've got to be careful of the urgent and not important
That third quadrant once again
Because you're just constantly doing things
But it seems like you're never progressing
The sweet spot
The spot that you really want to spend most of your time on
With the task and responsibilities you have
Are things that are urgent and not important
They're urgent, you know
Sorry
No, sorry
Important but not urgent
That's really what you want to spend your time on
Things that are important but not urgent
Because you can take a breather
You don't have to rush
You can look and assess the situation
You know the things that need to be done
But you give yourself time
You give yourself time to do it
And you're looking down into the future
And making sure you're putting plans into place today
To be able to reach that objective into the future
Let me give you an example
Another example
If I was a pastor
If I were to just give you my responsibilities as a pastor
What are things that are urgent
And important
What are things that are urgent and important
Well for example tonight's church service
That was pretty urgent
It's got to get done and it's super important
Being in the house of the Lord and hearing God's word preached
And so of course you know
Making sure that I've got my flights booked
And I check it and I've got my parking arranged
And I've got my train tickets sorted out
And all that stuff in order to be here
Hey that's urgent and that's important
Okay writing sermons
So I've got to do that three or four times a week
That's urgent, that's important
Need to get that done so God's people
Are fed God's word
Then we have things that are not urgent
And important
What things are not urgent
And important
Let me give you some ideas as a role as a pastor
Number one soul winning
Say pastor it is urgent
Yeah but I don't need to do soul winning right now
We can do church right now
I can do church right now okay
I can go soul winning tomorrow
Or I can go soul winning on Saturday or I can go soul winning on Sunday
Or I can go soul winning on Monday
It is important
But it is not urgent
I can schedule a time for that
Another thing could be my Bible study
My own Bible study
It's not necessarily something I need to do right now
You know reviewing the church finances
It's something that I do constantly
But it's not something that is urgent
It needs to be done immediately
But all these things are important
I need to make sure that I allocate time for these things
They're not urgent but they're important
What things are urgent
And not important
Now I've got to be careful with how I say this
Because I'm saying that it's not important in the sense
Of the big picture
But it can be important for some people
That's why
When this is illustrated for some people
Instead of saying not important I say it's less important
And it's the same example
That I gave you as a mother
Things are urgent
For the children it's urgent
And it's important but for mum they realise
This is not urgent nor important
And this is the part that you've got to be careful
Not to just get bogged down
Because it will take up all of your time
Like I said
If mum is just constantly answering the children
Mum mum mum mum
She won't get anything else done
So as a pastor what are these things
These are phone calls
Emails
Text messages
I've got phone calls, emails, text messages
People that I still haven't gotten back to
I do my best to get back to everybody
But if I just focus on these things
I will be doing this all day long
Just answering phone calls
Answering text messages
Answering emails
It is something I want to get done
But if I just spend all my time on this
I'm just going to be putting out fires
I'm just going to be constantly dealing with people's issues
Just to make sure that I focus on
Those are things that are
Sorry
Urgent and not important
And then we have the final thing
Not urgent and not important
What's not urgent and not important
I'll just give you an example
During COVID I had two phone calls from two different organisations
Saying, pastor will you come and speak at our anti-vax rally
Because I preach some sermons against vaccinations
Will you come and preach to our anti-vax rally
You know that's not urgent
And that's not important
I mean look
If I convince all of Australia not to take the vaccination
They're still going to die and go to hell
What's urgent
What's important is salvation
It's the gospel, it's God's work
That's important
I'm just giving you an example
So you guys can think about your own lives
And look at your priorities
What are important things to you
What are urgent things to you
Now we come back to Matthew 6
I want you to notice again in verse number 31
There's no thought saying what shall we eat
Or what shall we drink
Or whether we all shall be clothed
For after all these things to the Gentiles
God knows that everybody has a need
Of eating and drinking clothing
These are basic human needs
You need these things
But it says for your heavenly father know that you have need
Of all these things
So God is saying it's not wrong to desire these things
And to address these things
God knows that we have need of these things
These are needs
But seek ye first the kingdom of God
And I do believe seeking God's kingdom first
Is speaking about bringing people into the kingdom
I do believe that soul winning
Is important
Doing the work of the kingdom
But sometimes we forget the next part
And his righteousness
It's almost like we can excuse bad behaviour
We can excuse wicked behaviour
Amongst Christians
Oh but they go soul winning
No, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
And all these things shall be added unto you
God says look if you prioritise the right things
You make the right things urgent and important
Then God's going to make sure
All the other tasks and responsibilities
That we have in life
God's going to help us make sure
We meet those needs
Okay, so setting priorities
Is an important part of life
Come with me to
Actually look at verse number 34
Look at verse number 34
In the same chapter
Verse number 34
It says here take therefore
No thought for the morrow
For the morrow shall take thought of the things of itself
Sufficient unto
Unto the day is the evil thereof
Now when you look at verse number 34
Take no thought of the morrow
That's things of the future
For the morrow shall take thought of the things of itself
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof
God is saying in verse number 34
That these things are things that he wants us to be
Focused upon on a daily basis
So where would you set that if it needs to be done today?
Urgent and important
Things that we need to do today
But things that are not urgent and important
You can schedule that for tomorrow or some other day
Now let me explain to you a few things
Let me explain to you the danger of
Living in urgent mode
Where everything is urgent
Where you feel like you've got just too many things to do
And you start to categorise everything as urgent
This is urgent, this is urgent, this is urgent
When you start making everything urgent
Like this is why it's so important that you set
You know, look at these four quadrants
And you decide what are the things I need to prioritise
When you try to prioritise everything in life
You're going to increase stress
Because you can't do everything in life
You can't do it all
There are some things that you can't do
Number two, it leads to a lack of motivation
Because things are not getting done
And you're like, man, I just can't achieve what I need to achieve
They're not getting done
And maybe it'll cause depression
It's going to cause you, because things are not being done
That you believe are urgent
It's going to cause you to live an unfulfilled
Or an unsatisfied life
And again, I just say to mothers
Especially mothers with a lot of children
Be careful
Because it's so easy to fall into the mindset
That everything is urgent and important
Urgent and important
It all needs to be done
And I can't get it done
It becomes stressful for mothers
But really you need to learn
About what is urgent and not important
You need to make sure that you set these things
In the right quadrants
Now I mentioned earlier
That the sweet spot
Is things that are not urgent
So you have time
You focus on things that are not urgent and important
Because you've got the time
It's going to help you not stress out
It's going to help you with careful planning
There are times when
I used to
When I'm booking my flights
I used to book them on a weekly basis
And I found myself being stressed
What I do now, I wait for the sales
And then I just buy four months of plane tickets
To travel to Sydney
Because I just save money
And even if I have to cancel a flight
I still save in the long run
I'm given all that attention at one time
And then I don't have to think about it
For several months again
It's just about being careful planning
It leads to higher productivity
And more efficiency
And more satisfaction
And greater motivation
Because you feel like you're getting important things done
You know
And if you can come with me to Luke 14
Come with me to Luke 14
Let me show you how this sweet spot
Where you can plan
For something greater
Something important but it's not urgent
Let me just show you how this is a biblical principle as well
Okay, Luke 14 verse number 28
Luke 14
And verse number 28
And again these are the words of Christ
He gives us an example here
For which of you
Intending to build a tower
Has anyone ever built like a
Like a tower, a house
Has anyone done that?
Do you think that's going to require quite a lot of work?
Quite a lot of time
Quite a lot of stress
I worked in a construction company once
And everyone's stressed
The builder is stressed
The contractors are stressed
The business owners are stressed
The workers are stressed
The customers are stressed
Because it's such an expensive work
And it takes so long to get done
And if you have poor weather it gets delayed
Or you can't get contractors on time
It's going to push back other work
And it is a stressful time
So when Christ says these words
For which of you intending to build a tower
Sitteth not down first
Whether he have sufficient
To finish it
Jesus Christ say look before you start
A major work
Don't you just first sit down
And just figure out that you've got everything you need
First before you can get the project done
This is what I'm trying to
Say to you brethren this is an example
Of not urgent
And important
Building a tower is important
But look if I decide to build a tower today
I'm not going to start building it tomorrow
Am I?
I'm going to make sure do we have the resources
Where are the finances going to come from
Where are the workers going to come from
This might take weeks this might take months
And finally once we know that we have
What we need then we start the project
Once we have the approvals
Then we start the project
Look at verse number 29
Lest happily
That's not being happy by the way
After he has laid the foundation
He is not able to finish it
All that behold it begins to mock him
Saying this man began to build
And was not able to finish
See what happens
When everything is urgent
And you don't give yourself that sweet spot
Where you can just give time
You sit down
I'm struggling with that right now actually brethren
Don't feel sorry for me again
I say that all the time
I've taken on secular work
I'm trying to do Mondays, Tuesdays
Some Thursdays and Fridays plus the churches
I'm struggling at the moment
This is why I wanted to preach this as well for myself
But I'm struggling at the moment just to find that
That quiet time to sit down
Look we've run out of tracks brother Rams
Is that right?
Why have we run out of tracks though?
Do you know why?
Because I've not had time to just sit down
And just think about the things that we need
For tomorrow or next week
Because everything right now for me is kind of
Urgent urgent urgent urgent
And I need to find that sweet spot again
When you come to prioritizing all
Of your responsibilities
Now look again when it comes to building
A major project like building a tower
You know it should not be something that is
Urgent
You know we think about building a house
You know the Bible also speaks of the house of the Lord
The church as a house
You know when we started blessing our Baptist Church
We didn't just go alright guys let's start the church tomorrow
You know or when we started
When I started New Life Baptist Church in Queensland
I just didn't go alright guys I'm going to Queensland tomorrow
It took in fact
The New Life Baptist Church took many many years
From the time that I decided
That we were going to go to Queensland that was I think 2012
To the time that we started the church
2017 it took five years
You know to start that church
You know five years to find people that were
Looking for a like minded church
And to connect with different people
And to find a place that we can meet
And all those things took five years
When we decided to start this church
You know had met with different families
Starting this church and you know we had a meeting
Discuss all the different requirements
Of starting this church and should we do it should we not
You know what would be the long term solution
What are the short term plans
And what could be the long term solution
Like all these things need to be discussed
Before you start a major work
Otherwise people are just going to mock you
Alright he started he's laid the foundation
But that's it he's got nothing else done
Brethren what else is called a house in the Bible?
Your family right
When you have a believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
And thou shalt be saved and thy house
Speaking about your family
Before you start a family you need to sit down
And figure out hey you know men
Do I have a job am I able to provide
Am I able to lead a better wife
And you know the woman before she gets married
Is this a man that I'm willing to be submissive under
You know is this a man that
That I'll follow and is leading
These are things that are important
And you can't just rush things
Just make sure you sit down and figure out
You know is this going to work
Last thing we want is for us to go halfway
And then it all collapses
And then people start mocking us
And if you can come with me to Luke
You sit there in Luke 14
And Jesus Christ gives another example
In verse number 31
Or what king going to make war against another king
Sitteth not down first
And consulteth whether he be able
With ten thousand to meet him
That cometh against him with twenty thousand
Or else while the other
Is yet a great way off
He sendeth an amperage
And desire of conditions of peace
You know again Christ has given us an example of a man
You know he's got a ten thousand strong army
But he wants to go to war against
A twenty thousand strong army
You know are you sure each of your soldiers
You know are worth more than two times
The soldiers of the opposing force
Are you sure that you've got the tactical
Advantage of that
Stronger army over there
And then you go to war
And then if you find out that you can't win that war
Don't you just go and make sure you have peace
So they don't destroy you
It's about finding that sweet spot
Where you just sit down and think about things to come
Okay planning ahead
That is a sweet spot
I want to encourage you
Because we all have responsibilities
We all have tasks
I want to encourage you
You know yes you're constantly putting out fires
Every day of your life
If you have children delegate the housework
To the kids so mothers and fathers
Can spend time to just sit down
And focus on what is important for the future
For the long term
Come with me to Matthew 21 please
Come with me to Matthew 21
Matthew 21
And while you turn to Matthew 21
Just continue that thought of the king
That goes to war
You know if the king that has a ten thousand strong army
Goes to war knowing full well
That the twenty strong army is going to destroy him
Wouldn't you say that king is pretty foolish
To go to war against that king
Okay
Well what Christ is teaching us here
Is that sometimes we can over commit
We can over commit
Okay and by over committing
By saying yes I'm going to go ahead with this
Too many times
You can destroy yourself
You know in my heart
I'd love to start a church in Melbourne
I'd love to start a church in Brisbane
I'd love to start a church in WA
You know I believe
Churches can be started in these locations
But I know if I went down
That road today
I would burn out and I would not be able to do it all
Okay
And so as much as there are tasks
And responsibilities that I would
Like to accomplish
I realise sometimes it can't be me
It's got to be someone else
You know and I'm praying to the Lord
Lord are you going to raise men
Are you going to raise men at New Life Baptist Church
That will step out of their comfort zones
And go and find people
That are desiring a church like ours
You know a soul winning church like ours
A doctrinal preaching church like ours
Are people willing to do that Lord
Where are they
And as much as I'd like to do it
I know that I'd be stretching myself too thin
And you know it's like going to war
And then you'd lose
Because you haven't got the resources
You don't have the power to get it all done
So learning to say no
Is important as well
When it comes to setting priorities in life
You can't do it all
You know one of my biggest problems
I know it's a problem, a weakness that I have
Is that I have a hard time saying no
Okay someone asks something of me
I want to get it done, I want to do it
Honestly in my heart I want to do it
There were a few times, different jobs
Where my managers put me aside
And said look Kevin
You're always saying yes to everything
But you've got to learn how to say no
You've got to tell me
You say yes to this but you're not going to get it done
I already know that but you said yes
And you've got to be able to say to me
Boss no I can't get it done because I've got these other responsibilities
To get done
These are projects that you've given me and I can't get them accomplished
This time and so I've got to refuse
That other task and responsibility you've given me
Otherwise instead of being able to give
100% to everything
I'm only going to be able to give 50% to everything
The work's not going to be done
As well as if it could
If I could give 100% toward it
So where did I get to turn?
Matthew 21
You know don't over commit
And learn to say no
And we learn this principle here in Matthew 21 verse 28
This is the parable that Jesus Christ speaks
In verse number 28
But what think ye?
A certain man had two sons
And he came to the first and said
Son, go work today in my vineyard
He answered and said
He answered and said I will not
So this son says no
I can't do it dad
But look at this he says no
But then he says but afterward he repented
And went
That's pretty good
At first he goes no but you go well hold on
You should your dad's asking you
He says no dad I can't
But he repents he goes you know what I am going to do it
And he gets out there and he actually gets the job done
Look at the second son verse number 30
And this is me sometimes
Just in life
And maybe this is you too
And when he came to the second he said likewise
And he answered and said I go sir
And we're not
That's me
You know our pastor we're running out of tracks
Don't worry I'll take care of it
Today we've got no tracks
Yeah I go sir I'm going to get it done
Where are the tracks? Not done
Verse number 31
Whether of them twain did the will of his father
They sang to him the first
Jesus saith unto them
Verily I say unto you that the publicans and the harlots
Go into the kingdom of God before you
Now Christ is of course speaking about who
Is going to be saved and not going to be saved
But he uses this illustration
Of you know making sure that you don't over commit
That you don't say yes when you can't
Accomplish certain tasks
And I still find that a hard time and again I find it a hard time
Because I feel like I'm putting out fires
All the time at the moment
I don't have that sweet spot where I can just stop
Okay what do we need next week? What do we need next month?
What does the church need in six months time?
What are we going to do for the church anniversary?
What are we going to do when we go soloing in Perth?
I haven't been able to sit down and just assess those things
I'm giving you examples of my life
But I'm sure you can think about your own life
Where you over commit and you don't get it done
You say yes sir I'll get it done
And it doesn't get done
This is a principle that I learnt on the job
Where I got taught at this time
When they said Kevin you know
You're committing yourself and you're not getting it done
This is a principle that I learnt
What are we going to do?
You have to under promise and over deliver
Has anyone heard that before?
Under promise and over deliver
Instead of over
What's the opposite?
Over promise and under deliver
You say yes I'll get it done
I promise and then you don't get it done
You're better off saying look I can't
But if you then can you do it
Or you do a better job than what you
Initially said you'll get done
That's much better
And we need to learn how to
Christ has given us these principles in the Bible
And I hope you can see
That you know of course Jesus Christ is not saying
Alright this is the Eisenhower principle
You know this is how you allocate your task
But you can see that these are biblical principles
Of how we make sure that we prioritize
Our responsibilities or we're careful
To what we commit ourselves to
It's important because
It touches on your testimony
It touches on your reputation
And you know for me personally
One of the most important things in my life
Is to have a good testimony and a good reputation
A good report
That's really important for me personally
And when I can't get something done
That I said I want to get done
It just nags at me
It bothers me
I would just rather have said no it can't be me
It's got to be someone else or something like that
And it's so important
I believe I already built up a decent reputation
And testimony
So if I neglect certain things
You know the better side of the things that I've been able to accomplish
But it still gets under my skin
When I can't do what I've promised to do
Or things that were urgent
You know I focus on things that were not urgent
When I should have been focused on the things that were urgent
So I want you to be careful
I want you to be Christians
That set priorities in your life
I'm not just talking about church
I'm not just talking about soul
I'm not just talking about reading the bible
I'm talking about your day to day life
I'm talking about your marriages
Your wife is important
If you're married or your husband is important
And so you need to make sure
That you spend time
And think about how you can enrich
And strengthen your marriage
It's so easy to get busy in life
And you're constantly
Kids have this activity or that activity
And we need to cook dinner at this point in time
And then we've got to go to bed early
Because we've got these other responsibilities in the morning
And then you've got medical appointments
And you've got all these things that need to be done
In your married life
And you forget to spend time together
Something that I've set for my life
Is at the end of every month
The Friday of every month
Is the month that I take my wife out
It's not urgent
I don't have to do it today
But I've allocated a time the last Friday of every month
I'm going to take my wife out to a restaurant
We're going to go on a date together
We're going to spend time together
Because that is important
Strengthening my marriage is important
It's just something that you can schedule a time for
And so I'm just trying to show you
How you can apply this principle
In all areas of your life
Come with me to Matthew 23 now
You're there in Matthew 21
Come with me to Matthew 23
Matthew 23
So let me just speak to you
About things
About setting the right priorities
There are things that we need to do in life
I just want to give you some
Biblical principles here
Or Biblical lessons
Where certain things are of a higher priority
Than other things
Matthew 23 verse 25
These are the words of Jesus to the scribes and pharisees
Woe unto you
Scribes and pharisees
Hypocrites
For you may clean the outside of the cup
And of the platter
But within they are full of extortion
And excess
Now blind pharisee
Cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter
That the outside of them
May be clean also
Christ gives us an example of dishes
If you were to
My kids sometimes don't do the best job
Of washing the dishes
And you might take out a bowl that looks clean on the outside
And then when you're about to add your food to the bowl
You go, what are all these marks?
It's all food that's stuck on the inside
It's not as seen
As what is on the outside
They did good on the outside
But it's the inside that matters
Because that's what I'm going to eat from
That's where my food's going to go
I'm going to eat from the inside
Jesus Christ is not saying the outward doesn't matter
He's saying there's a greater priority
For that which is inward
One example that I've given you before
Is
Right now I've got my nice jacket
I look nice on the outside
I've cleaned the outward, haven't I?
I've got a nice tie
Nice tie
It's not really an iron shirt because my mum's not here
It's in South America, Chile
But still I think I look decent and presentable on the outside
But what if I got behind this pulpit
And I'm far from the Lord
And I've got all this sin
Unconfessed sin against the Lord
And I've not been walking with him
I've not been reading my Bible
I've not been praying to him
And you guys come on a Thursday hoping to hear a sermon from your pastor
And your pastor's far from the Lord
Do you think what I'm going to preach is going to be helpful toward you?
Do you think God's going to be able to use his Holy Spirit
To use me as a clean vessel unto him?
No
Yeah, we might go through the motions
There might be some things that I preach
That are decent
Because any time you talk of God's word
There's going to be some profit to it
But really I'm not going to be able to harness the power of God
To help you in life
Or to give you some good teachings
I won't be able to
I'll be preaching of my own wisdom
I won't be using the power of the Holy Ghost
I say to the preachers
Yes, come and look presentable on the outside
But before you get up to preach
Before you come and read the scriptures
Before you song lead
Whatever you do
Before you do any service
Before you go soul winning
Make sure that you spend a moment with the Lord
And say, Lord, if there's anything that is not right with me right now
If my heart is far from you, Lord
If I've got unconfessed sin
Lord, please clean me on the inside
Because I don't want to be like one of these Pharisees
I don't want to be like one of these hypocrites
That make the outside of the cup and of the platter clean
But inwardly full of extortion and excess
And so, don't forget the inner man
In fact, prioritize the inner man
You know sometimes we wake up in the morning
What's the first thing I guess we do
We wake up in the morning
First thing we do is look in the mirror
Whatever your practice is
Fix up your hair, brush your teeth
You're kind of fixing the outside
You know what we should prioritize in the morning?
Wake up in the morning and say
Lord, I just want to give you thanks for the new day that you've given me
Lord, I'm just going to open up one chapter of the Bible
Or one Psalm and I just want to read that
And Lord, I'm just going to meditate on that
And Lord, I'm just going to say a quick prayer
Lord, you've given me a new day, thank you so much
Lord, help me this day to walk in your ways
Help me to prioritize you
Get that inner man, put on the new man
The inner man, first prioritize that
And then get up and brush your teeth
And then get up and fix your hair
And do everything else that you need to do in life
But we don't often do that, do we?
We'd rather check Facebook before we read the Bible
You know, so
This is what I'm just trying to tell you
What I spoke about before was just the introduction
This is how we can apply it in our day to day life
If you can turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 15 verse number 3
You know one of the biggest
One of the common mistakes a lot of new Christians
New believers
One of the common mistakes that new believers often make
They get saved
And praise God for that
And they get very zealous
Very excited
They want to be able to share the good news of the Bible
To their family and friends
And there's nothing wrong with that
And in fact that is the priority
But sometimes I notice with new Christians
Is
Even if they don't succeed in giving the gospel
It's kind of like they want to give
The whole Bible
Like everything they've learnt in the Bible
They want to give instruction to their family and friends
Of how to live a clean and righteous life
But I want you to notice this
In 1 Corinthians 15 verse 3
1 Corinthians 15 and verse number 3
So we've got Paul
Here
Writing to the Corinthian church
And brethren the Corinthian church was really messed up
If you've ever read 1 Corinthians
You won't believe that church is even functioning
It's so messed up
But I want you to notice what he says
In verse number 3 to the church
For I delivered unto you
First of all
That which I also received
How that Christ
Died for our sins according to the scriptures
And that he was buried
And that he rose again
The third day according to the scriptures
What are we seeing there?
Christ dying for us, being buried
Rising from the dead, what is that's the gospel?
Paul says to the Corinthian church
The very first thing that I prioritized with you
Was the gospel
You know make sure that you understood
What Christ has done for you
And then as you read 1 Corinthians
You'll notice that he's constantly trying to fix them
In their errors, in their mistakes
Sometimes
What I observe with new Christians
Is that they try to fix
Their parent's life
Or they try to fix their sibling's life
Or you know my brother
Is an alcoholic pastor
So I told my brother
The Bible says not to drink alcohol
It's the poison of vipers
And he thinks I'm an idiot
Because you should prioritize the gospel
He's not going to get all of that
He's not going to understand God's instructions
He's not going to understand God's will
He's not going to understand the Bible
Until he's saved and has the Holy Ghost
Living inside of him
If I go to work and I work with
Non-believers
I work with people that are worldly
They're getting married and they're getting divorced
And they're committing for an occasion
And whatever it is, look it's not for me to go up to them
And try to fix all their relationship issues
There's no point
What's the point of fixing all their relationship issues
And they still die and go to hell
I said earlier, the priority is the gospel
You know it's so
I don't think there's any newer Christians
Maybe there are some newer Christians here
But I want to encourage you
There's all you need to focus on
If someone's not saved
In your family and you love them or your friends
Forget everything
You learn the Bible
You fix yourself
But when it comes to speaking to your friends and family about anything
Speak to them about the gospel when you have the opportunity
Then when they're saved and they're a child of God
Now
The work of the Holy Spirit
The chastisement of their Heavenly Father
And with you as a help, bringing them into church
Now they've got everything necessary
To further themselves into growing and maturing
As a Christian
Come with me to 1 Kings 22 please
1 Kings 22
So right now I'm just going through
Scenarios
Certain things that you need to prioritize
You prioritize the gospel
Over all of the teaching of the Bible
When it comes to non-believers
1 Kings 22 please
Now I won't go into all of the context here
But Jehoshaphat is the king here who's deciding whether he should go to war or not
It's a big decision
We saw what Jesus Christ spoke about earlier
It's a big decision
Before you go to war, make sure you sit down first
And you know you're going to win that battle
In 1 Kings 22 verse 5
And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel
Oh yeah, Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah
Anyway, the king of Israel is a pretty wicked man
He says,
Look, before we go to battle, can we just check with God
Can we just go to God's word
And by the way, for you brethren, they're going to go to the prophets
For us, we've got the Bible
Before you make a big decision in life
Go to God, inquire of God's word
Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together
About 400 men
And said unto them
Shall I go unto Ramoth, Gilead to battle?
Or shall I forbear?
And they said
Go up, for the Lord shall deliver it
Into the hand of the king
You know Jehoshaphat
You can see his heart
He wants to make sure before he does a major decision
That he seeks the Lord
Well, the king of Israel finds 400 preachers
Now look, the land of Israel at this point in time
Is far from the Lord
The 400 preachers
They're not really prophets of the Lord
And again, would it surprise if I said
Most pastors and most preachers today
In Australia are not preachers of God
Are not prophets of the Lord
We can find 400 men
They'll tell you whatever you want
You know, some of the phone
I'll share with you, some of the phone calls I get from people
I'm not talking about my church members
I'm talking about other people
They're like, oh, I'm just calling your pastor, I've got this situation
And I'm like, so, um
My first thing is that you're saved, right?
I often say, so, do you go to church?
Oh, you got a pastor
So, have you asked your pastor? Oh, yeah, yeah
I didn't answer this, but I didn't like his answer
So, I'm ringing around
I'm ringing around 400 pastors, as it were, right?
Your number, 399
Because I'm trying to find a pastor
I'm trying to find a man of God
That will tell me what I want to hear
That's what the king of Israel had set up
400 preachers that would just say, yes, sir
They're just yes men
Whatever the king wants, yes, the Lord says, go ahead and do it
But Jehoshaphat is different
Because in verse number 7 it says
And Jehoshaphat said
And Jehoshaphat knew these guys aren't really men of God
Because Jehoshaphat was a good man
In fact, he makes a mistake
But, anyway, I won't get into all the context here
But he's seeking to hear from the Lord
Before making a big decision
And that's my next point for you, brethren
Inquire from the Lord before making big decisions
Inquire from the Lord
That's what the king of Israel had set up
400 preachers
That's what the king of Israel had set up
400 preachers
That's what the king of Israel had set up
Inquire from the Lord
That's your priority
What's your priority? Is it your preferences?
No, it's not your preferences
Is it a decision where I can maybe make more money by choosing this job
Or by going to this location
Seek the Lord first
Ask the Lord, Lord, is this the right decision in my life?
And one of the things I've prayed about
When I want God to help me with a decision
Is Lord, can you make it easy
Whichever way you want me to go
Is easy
And Lord, if there's a way that you don't want me to go
Can you make it hard?
Can you make it difficult? Can you make it impossible?
And then I pray those things
And then I seek my own will
And it's very hard
It's very impossible
But I keep trying to knock down those doors
And I remind myself, hold on
It's hard and impossible
Because God does not want me going that way
He does not want me making that decision
I've already prayed this to the Lord
What is the easy way then, Lord?
What is the right way?
Which is the way that lines up with your word?
Enquire from the Lord before you make big decisions
Can you come with me to Matthew 7
Matthew 7 please
Matthew 7 verse 1
You know there's a pride in man
There's a pride in all of us
And if you might think you're not proud
It's there
The moment you start saying to yourself
I'm not a proud person
It's pride that says those words
You know
I think I've used this example before
But I remember
One of my last days at a job
And you know sometimes when you serve the while
They give you gifts and they do a little party
You know last day of the job they do a little party for you
Anyway I had some employees come to present me a gift
And the person that came to give me the gift said
Alright you know Kevin
We're going to miss you
You know
We know you don't want to be celebrated
We know that you would not want a gift
Because you're a humble man
And you know what happened in my heart
When those words were said
I was like yeah I am humble
I go hold on
That's not humility
That's pride
Pride and humility
It's always there
And you know what happens
When you as a Christian you learn the Bible
You learn doctrines
You know what's going to happen
You're going to become proud with what you know
You're going to be looking at pastors
You're going to be looking at other Christians
Christians that have been serving the Lord for 20 years
Maybe you've been saved for 5 years
And you go I know more than they do
You know I can tell them what to do
You know I can call the shots
You know I can criticize this family
I can criticize this pastor
I can criticize that church
It happens very often
Very often
It's amazing just how easy
Pride to creep in
And I want to show you this here in Matthew 7
Because there is a right way to do things
You know when you see a fellow believer
Not living the right kind of life
And in Matthew 7 verse 1
Jesus Christ says these words
Judge not that ye be not judged
Now let's read it
For with what judgment ye judge
Ye shall be judged
And with what measure ye meet
It shall be measured to you again
I want to stop there for a moment
Before you pass judgment
Before you criticize someone
Are you sure you want the Lord
To pass judgment on you in the same way?
Are you sure about that?
Like honestly
Your pride sometimes will say yes
I've got this right
I know the way I'm doing life
I understand this doctrine is right
And they're wrong
Now there's nothing wrong because in verse number 3 it says
Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye?
Is there sometimes a mote in your brother's eye?
A mote there is just a small speck
You know if I can look at my church
Are you all just wonderful perfect people that always do the right things all the time?
Of course not
I'm sure we've all got issues in our life
We all don't walk righteously all the time
Right?
But it says here
Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye?
What Jesus Christ is saying is that we often focus
On the weaknesses
Or the struggles
Or the defects of other people
Like why are you always looking at other people?
It says there
But consider us not the beam
That is in thine own eye
Jesus Christ says we've got our own beams
It's a plank of wood
For construction
It's a huge piece of timber
That's in your own eye
Sometimes as Christians we just focus on the little things
That everybody else has
Forgetting the big piece of timber that's in our own eye
And Christ knows this is the truth
This is human nature
We are like this
It's not nice to think that we are this way
But we are
And then verse number four
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother
Let me pull the mote out of thine eye
And behold a beam is in thine own eye
Thou hypocrites
First cast out the beam out of thine own eye
And then shout thou see
Clearly to cast out the mote
Of thy brother's eyes
What do you think is going to be easier
To take out of someone's eye?
A piece of timber?
Or a little splinter
Or a little speck that's in someone's eye
It's going to be easier to take out the speck
Of someone else
But God wants you to prioritize
He wants you to prioritize the
The beam, the beam that is in your own eye
These are the words of Christ
Now look, is there a time to help your brother?
If you've got no beams in your eye
Again, you say
I've got no beams in my eyes pastor
Pride is the beam that you've got in your eye
That's what it is
Pride to think that you know better than
Your brother or sister
And you can correct them, you can criticize them
And you need to be careful
It's not ever wrong to pass judgment
It's not ever wrong to come alongside
Someone and help them out
In fact, come with me to Galatians chapter 6
Let me just show you
And I'll give you what the priorities here are
But come with me to Galatians chapter 6 and verse number 1
Galatians chapter 6
And verse number 1
I better hurry up
But Galatians 6 verse number 1
Here we have some instructions
From the Apostle Paul
How to deal with people
That are struggling
Brothers and sisters that are struggling
In life and it says in verse number 1
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault
You know, someone's struggling with some issue
It says, ye which are spiritual
You better make sure you're spiritual
You better make sure you're right with the Lord
You better make sure you're walking with the Lord
Before you start to interfere in someone else's life
Ye which are spiritual
Restore such and one, look at this
In the spirit of meekness
It's the opposite of pride
Of being prideful
Considering thyself
Take the beam out of your own eye first
Lest thou also be tempted
You know, we have to be careful
About, you know
Focusing our attention on the defects
And the weaknesses of other people
You know, in our church
Or other churches or whatever it is
You know, when we look at priorities here
What I want to say to you
Is that we need to focus on what is spiritual
Before what is critical
You know, focus on being spiritual
Before being critical
Alright, we are to judge all things
We've got God's word for perfect judgment
Okay, but we need to make sure
That we apply this to ourselves first
Before we go and apply it to other people
You know, when you hear a servant preached
And in your mind you say
Oh yeah, brother so-and-so needs to hear that
That's a problem
You say, sister so-and-so, yeah I'm glad pastor's preaching on that
Because sister so-and-so needs to hear that
How about you need to hear that
How about it's for you
Okay
You know something that blows my mind
I reckon this happens
At least every fortnight
Multiple times a fortnight maybe
Someone rings me up or someone contacts me
And says, pastor that sermon that you preached
Whichever sermon
Were you talking about me?
Was that about me?
Because I'm a little bit offended by what you said
I'm just preaching God's word
And look, if you think it's about you
Then it's for you
You know, if the Holy Spirit said that
You know, you believe it's for you
Then it's for you
Okay, I don't know everybody's life
I'd rather not know everybody's life
I'd rather not know every single issue in your life
So I don't accidentally, purposely
Preach about your life
I'd rather just preach God's word
Without compromise
Just because I'm up to this part in a series
In my chapter by chapter study
Through certain books
And look, if he hits your life, he hits you
And just take it on board
You know, when you have that attitude
Pastor must be talking about me
It's not me, I don't know anything about you
It's God's word, it's the Holy Spirit
That's telling you there's something that you need to fix
You know, it's the Holy Spirit saying to you
You've got a beam in your own eye
Pull out that beam before you focus on everybody else
Be spiritual before you're critical
Fix your own life
Before you go and fix the lives of others
Or so-called fix
It could cause damage
I'll quickly read to you just a passage
Can we read to 1 Timothy 4
1 Timothy 4
1 Timothy 4 verse 8
What else should we prioritise?
We should prioritise spiritual health
Before physical health
I won't go into this one in great depth
But 1 Timothy 4 verse 8
So, is bodily exercise good?
Yeah, it profits a little
It can help you in life, right?
It can help you now
It can maybe extend your life, it could make you stronger
It can make you do more for the kingdom of the Lord
That you can achieve in this life
But godliness is profitable unto all things
In what sense? Having the promise of the life that now is
And of that which is to come
You see, if you just hit the gym
That only profits your life now
But if you hit the gym spiritually
You know, you focus on godliness
It helps your life now and it will help your life
In the life to come, in eternity
So again, I'm not going to expand that
Because I'm just focused on time
But you want to focus on spiritual health above physical health
Nothing wrong with being physically strong
You know, I wish I had the time to work on
My physical strength a little bit more
But, you know, for the time being anyway
You know, I know that the spiritual matters
Are vastly more important than the physical
Now, you're in 1 Timothy, come with me to chapter 3
1 Timothy chapter 3
And this is something else
That I learnt in my life
Going to church for most of my life
And, you know, knowing pastors
And having uncles
I've got two uncles that are pastors in Chile
And it always, it always troubled me
And it's partly one reason I didn't want to become a pastor myself
Is I would see pastors' families fall apart
You know, I'd see situations where a pastor might commit adultery on his wife
For example
Or the wife, hats off, the wife committed adultery on her husband
I'm talking about IFB pastors
You know, some of you guys have heard of a pastor in America
That started to stick around with prostitutes
And, you know, taking, I think, marijuana or whatever it was
Some type of drugs
What do these things happen or
The children of the pastor
Hating their family or hating church
Hating the things of God
Why does this happen so often?
People often say, oh, we always know that
Pastors' kids are always the worst kids
I don't think that's true
It's just that the pastor's family
Is usually in the limelight
And the pastor's family
Is always in the limelight
And the pastor's family is usually in the limelight
A lot more than the average family in church
Okay
But, why does that happen so much?
And what I've concluded
And what I've observed
Is that too many pastors prioritize their church members
Over their own families
Too many pastors prioritize the ministry
Over their own families
You know, they start to see
Cracks developing in their marriage
Children pulling away from their parents
Disobedient children
The pastors are like, well, I've got a ministry
I've got to go here, I've got to go there, I've got to be careful
I've got to go to Sydney, I've got to go to Queensland
You know, I'm away from my family for a period of time
And I want you to notice this in 1 Timothy 3
Verse number 5
These are the qualifications for a pastor
But, it says this
For if a man know not how to rule his own house
How shall he take care of the church of God?
According to that verse, what has a higher priority?
What has priority for a man?
His family?
Or his church ministry?
His family
His family is a higher priority
And I'm telling you, if my family is falling apart
Because of ministry
I will step down as a pastor
If I find problems in my marriage
Because of ministry
I will step down as a pastor
Because that is my priority
If I don't have my family in order
How can I be a pastor?
God, leading God's people, teaching God's word
Trying to tell you what is right
When I can't even get my own family right
That is the testing ground for a man
Is his family in order?
You know, does husband and wife love each other?
Are the children obedient to mum and dad?
You know, of course we understand
Any family has problems
We understand there's always going to be some tension
Between husband and wife
You're not always going to see eye to eye about everything
We understand that kids become teenagers
And they start to want to rebel a little bit
They want to start living their own life somewhat
We understand all of that
But it really bothers me when I find that
Pastors' children
No longer want to be in church
When pastors' children want nothing to do with mother and father
And it just happens too often
Happens too often
And a lot of pastors
They prioritize church over their family
You know, they'll say
They'll say something like
Let me tell you what the priorities in your life are
Number one, it's God
And that's correct, God is your priority
And they'll say number two is church
And number three is the family
Wrong. Number two is the family
God created family
Before he created the church
On day number six when he created Adam and Eve
Family came first
Before the church was established
You can't get your family together
Why are you leading the house of the Lord?
It makes no sense
And I'm telling you now
If I step down as a pastor
It's because my family is super important to me
I'd rather not serve as a pastor
And have my family together
Loving my wife
Having faithful children
Than being a pastor, look at me, big shot with a title
And my family's falling apart
What kind of testimony is that?
Why would you want to listen to me anyway?
It's worthwhile listening to this preacher
So, your house
Before the Lord's house
And look, if sometimes
When things come up in family
Emergency situations
I don't expect you
If you have some emergency important decision
To make with your family
I don't expect you to be in church if it falls in the same time
Church is important, don't get me wrong
All these things are important
But what I'm trying to say to you is
Some things have a higher priority than others
And your family has a very high priority
There's a reason why families in Australia
Are just breaking apart
Why divorce is at 50 or plus percent
It just seems like
When I talk to people
I feel like there are more broken homes
In Australia than there are families that are together
Because we don't prioritize anymore
But it's a huge priority
For the Lord God
Another passage, come with me to James chapter 3
I'm almost done, thank you for your patience
Come with me to James chapter 3
Now while you're turning to James chapter 3
I'm going to read to you from Romans 12 verse 18
Romans 12 18
Romans 12 18 says
If it be possible
As much as lieth in you
Live peaceably with all men
So does God want us to live peaceably with all men?
Yes
If it be possible
In other words there are times that it's not possible
It says as much as lieth in you
Give it your best effort
Meaning there are going to be times that it's not going to work out
But give your best anyway
Okay
Look, I want to be at peace
I want to be at church
I want to be able to worship God in peace
I want to be able to go soul winning in peace
I want to be able to read my Bible in peace
I want to be able to talk about God's word in peace
There's a lot of things that I want to do, right?
I don't want to be
I never want to see the laws of this land prevent us
From being able to worship God the way that we want
But there is something that is more important than peace
And that's why you're in James chapter 3
Now again, is peace important?
Yeah
If it be possible as much as life in you
Give it your best
But there's something more important than peace
James chapter 3 verse 16
For where envy and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work
Look at verse 17
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure
Then peaceable
Is there something more important than peace?
Yes sir
Purity
That's more important than peace
The wisdom that comes from God is first pure
Then peaceable
Gentle and easy to be entreated
Full of mercy and good fruits without partiality
And without hypocrisy
And the fruit of the righteous is sown in peace
Of them that make peace
So again, James 3 is about being peaceful
But more important than peace is purity
How many times have I spoken to you
About the importance of having a pure conscience
Or a clean heart
That is more important than being at peace
You know
Let me give you an example
You might be at work
At the end of the work
I always use this example
Because it happens to me sometimes
Sorry they don't have original material all the time
You work together
You try to do the best you can at work
In the afternoon
I say okay Kevin let's go hit the pub
I'll buy you a beer
You've been a good help to me this week
I'll buy you a beer
If I went to the pub and had a beer with him
I'd have peace with my colleague right there
We'd develop a good friendship
We'd spend time together
But is peace more important than purity?
No, first pure
So I've got to say
I've got to keep myself pure
I can't defile myself
I can't drink that alcohol
I can't partake of wickedness
I can't partake of sin
Even though it might bring peace
Peace is important
But more important than peace is purity
And you know what? When you keep yourself pure
It's not going to create peace
It's going to cause tension
When people see you trying to live a righteous
And clean life for the Lord
People are going to hate you just for doing good
Not that you're rubbing it in their face
And look at me I'm so much better than you
But they're going to hate you for it
Because you're the light of the world
And they're in darkness
And as you're the light
You shine brightly, you kind of blind them
It's uncomfortable for them
When they see someone living a pure and righteous life
And sometimes it's going to create enemies
But if that happens
So what? You do the best you can to be at peace
But again we're talking about setting priorities
Purity comes first
Before peace
If my family
If my family are putting on some party
Not that I have family like this anyway
But they're putting on a party
And there's just going to be drunkenness
And there's going to be all kinds of filthiness
There's going to be immodest clothing
And there's going to be
Corrupt communication there
Yes I could go
I'd make peace with the family
But I'd have to sometimes say you know what
I can't participate in that Mum and Dad
Not that my parents do that
But whatever family
I can't participate and they're going to think
Oh what so you're so much better than us
It's going to create tension
But purity comes first, don't forget
Alright brethren
The title for the sermon tonight was setting priorities
I hope I've given you some pointers
Not just in your daily work
Daily tasks, daily responsibilities that you have
Please be careful not to be someone that's constantly
putting out fire
Make sure you find that sweet spot where you can just stop
Give yourself time
Think about future things to come
Examples of where in your Christian life
You need to make sure you set the priorities
Alright brethren let's pray
Heavenly Father Lord I just want to thank you once again
That we can be in your house tonight
Lord we want to thank you for your word
Lord without your word there really is no wisdom
Worth preaching behind this pulpit
Lord I pray to help each one of us to
Desire being that perfect man
To continue to grow and mature in the Lord
And part of that Lord is to
Know how to set priorities
Lord how to make sure that we focus
On the things that are most important
Without always putting out fires
And feeling like we're able
Like we're not accomplishing anything
Lord I thank you for all the responsibilities and tasks
You've given us to do
Lord thank you that you have a desire for us to live a godly life
That will profit us in this life and also in the life to come
And Lord I just ask that you help us
With your Holy Spirit to make sure
We take the beams out of our own eye first
Before we look at the moats that's in our brother's eyes
Lord we pray these things
In Jesus' name Amen
Alright please take your hymnals
Please take your hymnals
Does anyone else have a favourite?
Does anyone have a favourite?
If you don't I'll find something
All hail the power of Jesus' name
167
All hail the power of Jesus' name
167
All hail the power of Jesus' name
Let angels prostrate fall
Bring forth the royal diadem
And crown Him Lord of all
Bring forth the royal diadem
And crown Him Lord of all
Ye chosen seed of His grace
Ye ransomed from the fall
Hail Him who saves you by His grace
And crown Him Lord of all
Hail Him who saves you by His grace
And crown Him Lord of all
Let every kindred, every child
On this terrestrial ball
To Him all majesty
And crown Him Lord of all
To Him all majesty
And crown Him Lord of all
To Him all majesty
And crown Him Lord of all
Oh that with yonder sacred throng
We at His feet may fall
We'll join the everlasting Son
And crown Him Lord of all
We'll join the everlasting Son
And crown Him Lord of all
Alright, great singing.
Brother Ramson, would you close this in a word of prayer?
That's great.
Our heavenly Father, thank You, Lord, for Your Word.
I pray that we keep our lives pure, Lord God,
and also abide by the light
so that therefore we can bring forth fruit
unto each other in life,
and in the world for You, all things of our life.
Lord, thank You for our salvation, and we love You so much.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen, You're dismissed. Thank you, Lord.