Don’t make God a priority

“Don’t make God a priority.”[social_warfare buttons=”Facebook”]

 Sermon for the service of March 12, 2017 by Pastor Steve Hopkins

Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. A scribe then approached and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” (Matthew 8:18-22, NRS)

1. Did Jesus just reject two potential disciples
   • What did Jesus just tell him?? “Honor your father and mother, that you may have a long, good life in the land the Lord your God will give you.” (Exodus 20:12, TLB)
     • “Don’t misunderstand why I have come.  I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets.  No, I came to accomplish their purpose.” (Matthew 5:17, NLT)
   • Two possible disciples with two different responses: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.” (Isaiah 29:13, NIV)
   • Remember: “The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them.  People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7, NLT)

2. The Real Problem (and Solution)
   • Don’t try to make Jesus a priority: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40, NIV)
   • Loving God is everything.  Loving others is how that relates to the world around you. “But the gift is not like the trespass.  For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many.” (Romans 5:15, NIV)

3. God wants our heart. And if these disciples show us the wrong way, what might the right way look like?
   • Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.  Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. (John 19:38-42, NIV)

4. Following Jesus is a way of life, not a thing to do.
   • Everything you do, do it for God. So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31, NRSV)
   • Because God does everything for you. And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha (Α) and the Omega (Ω) – the Beginning and the End.  To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life.  All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.” (Revelation 21:6-7, NLT)

Δ?: Consider this, do I functionally treat God as though he is not real? Do I place him on the same level as my job, family, finances? How might my life look different if I placed everything under his authority and not after him on a priority list? So, what’s my next step?