Setting Our Priorities

Last week, we spoke of preparation as we begin this new year with the goal of building the church. We were reminded that we have spent the past couple of years growing in Christ, growing spiritually and that it is now time for us to grow as a church. We compared our church to the Israelites when they were first formed into a new nation. We saw how they had to first go through their desert experience before they could be ready to receive the promise of God, then they had to do their part in taking the land. We saw the parallel between our growth period over the past two years and the desert wanderings of the Israelites. Then we saw ourselves at the entrance to the promised land, like the Israelites. The question was posed: are we willing to do what it takes to take the land? Or are we going to be like those who died in the desert, who saw with their eyes and spoke with their mouths but did not remember the great things that God had done for them and forgot that He who created all things can deliver what He has promised?

This week, we are going to continue with our faith building towards this new year’s goal of building the church. Once we have decided that we are going to do God’s work, that we are going to step out in faith, that we are going to leave the outcome in God’s hands, then we need to move forward into recognizing where we are and where we need to be.

Let’s start in Isaiah 1:11-15.

11 "The multitude of your sacrifices—
       what are they to me?" says the LORD.
       "I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
       of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
       I have no pleasure
       in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

  12 When you come to appear before me,
       who has asked this of you,
       this trampling of my courts?

  13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
       Your incense is detestable to me.
       New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
       I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

  14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts
       my soul hates.
       They have become a burden to me;
       I am weary of bearing them.

  15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
       I will hide my eyes from you;
       even if you offer many prayers,
       I will not listen.
       Your hands are full of blood;

Again, we will compare ourselves to the Jewish nation. We see that God, through His prophet Isaiah, is telling the people that He is not pleased with religion per se, but He wants His people to do more than that. He scolds them for doing their sacrifices. But aren’t these sacrifices that He Himself has asked them to do? How can God not be pleased that His people are doing what He asked them to do?

Too many churches have become like this – it’s all about “doing things”. Do this, if you want to get that. Do that, if you want to please God. You’ll get to heaven if you do this. We call it “being religious”.

But “doing things” is only a part of what God wants. He wants us to do these things, but more importantly, He wants us to have a relationship – a relationship with Him and relationships with each other. We need to hold Him up as number one. We need to remember that it is He who gives us our lives and He who will take it up when His time is come. We are completely at His mercy as to how long we live. Yet we do not treat him with the same respect we give someone who gives us so much less. We are more respectful of the person who holds our door open, gives up a seat or a place in line, pays for our groceries when we don’t have enough, gives up the best parking space.

But when it comes to giving us life, we don’t think twice about it – we take it for granted and take the giver of it for granted as well. Then when the day comes that our time here is up, we complain that we didn’t know how short life is and that we didn’t have enough time. Meanwhile, we know that these are lies – we chose to ignore the truth so that we would not have to be indebted to the one who gave us everything. We chose to keep our eyes closed to the one who gave us life so that we could continue to be our own gods – doing what we think is right and what pleases us. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can choose to have a relationship with Him. We can choose to treat each other the way Jesus taught us to. We can feed the hungry, clothe the naked and give the Good News of our new life to all who don’t know. It up to us to decide. We can be like the Jewish nation that God says, He will not listen to, He will hide His eyes from, or we can be the kind of people who God wants to build His church on, the ones that want to have a relationship with Him and with each other.

John 4:23, Jesus says, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” Let’s not be like those who worship God by what they do. God has already told us that He is not pleased with that alone. But God is looking for us to worship Him in spirit. He wants us to truly know Him. To truly want Him. To be in a relationship with Him.

Turning to Luke 14:25-34,

25Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

  28"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'

  31"Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

  34"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

Here we read that Jesus gives us the recipe for being in relationship with him. What we learn here is that we need to first prepare. Preparation for a relationship with God is much like preparing to cook a recipe. You need to get out the ingredients, have the tools to measure, cut and cook, and make sure you have the ingredients. You also want to have a good idea of what the outcome is going to be, otherwise, what’s the point of making the dish?

Here Jesus compares it to building a building or fighting a war. In any case, what are the expectations? How many floors is it going to be, how many square feet? Is it going to be an office building? An apartment building? A Mansion? A Church? You need to know what you are going to end up with and what it will take to get there.

What’s your inventory? Do you have what it takes to do what you need to do? If you are building a tower, do you have all the materials? Do you have enough land to build on? If you are fighting a war, do you have the weapons that you will need? Do you have enough men to do battle with? Jesus tells us that we need to take heed of these things, we need to be properly prepared.

Notice that Jesus asks us if we have determined the cost. Sometimes, we can come up with the greatest idea ever, but if it costs more than we have, then we may as well sell the idea and at least get something for it, because we are not going to be able to do anything with it ourselves. Have we determined the cost? How much is this going to cost? Sometimes money isn’t the only cost – although that is one of the most obvious costs. Are you ready to pay that cost? But there’s also the cost of time, are we ready to give up the time we need to be successful? Are we ready to give up our free time to do this work? There’s an emotional cost – are we ready for the hurts and pains that come with making this happen? Are we ready for the insults or mockery, the disbelief and anger? Jesus asks us to sit down and estimate the cost. It’s easy to say we will do something, that something is a great idea, but it’s another thing to sit down, estimate the cost and say, we’re ready to take the hit and make this happen.

Think of something that you tried to do but were unsuccessful. Was it because you didn’t have the right expectations? Was it because you didn’t know what it would take to get you there? Was it because you never sat down and estimated the cost, in money, time and effort? We need to do this right. And the only way it will happen is if each of us are ready to do these things. Last week, we learned that we were at the entrance to the promised land – this week, we’re going to take inventory and estimate the cost. We’re going to become prepared. We’re going to understand the expectations.

And here, Jesus tells us what to expect. We are expected to give up all we have. What does that mean? Well, first we need to determine if we understand the first commandment. In Exodus 20:3, it says “you shall have no other gods before me”. Jesus says in Matthew 22:37, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” We are to put God first. We are to love Him above all else. There is to be nothing that comes before Him. Do we have anything that we have put before our God? Do we have something that is more important to us than God? Our work? Our money? Our friends? Our family? If there is ANY thing that we place before God, we have done less than God expects from us.

Once we realize this, the next thing for us to understand is that when Jesus says that we should give up all we have, he is not necessarily talking about all our possessions. If your possessions are things that you place before God, if you are unwilling to give up your possessions, then it might be exactly what he means. But he really means giving up those things that we hold ahead of God. Our possessions, in this understanding, mean those things that we hold of higher importance than God. The family, friends, work, money, things.

We see that the giving up of anything we hold more important than God is the prerequisite of being disciples of Jesus. Are we ready to be disciples? Are we ready to give up all we hold above our God? If not, we need to lift those things up in prayer, asking for God to remove those things from our lives. Then God will be able to use us to complete the plan He has had for us since the beginning of time. Then He will allow us to fulfill the purpose He has made us for. Then God will bless us as we build His church. Psalm 127:1 “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.” Only God is going to be able to build this house. If we try to do it ourselves, it will be all in vain. But if we are in proper relationship with God, not just coming to church and doing all the things that a good Christian should, then He will bless us and use us to build the house for us.

Send mail to david@TheArkNY.org with questions about the church or comments about this site.
Last modified: January 22, 2006