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you you 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 All hail the power of Jesus' name 167 167 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.