The Biggest Factor in Your Success or Failure

Introduction
Today, I want to talk with you about something I believe is of utmost importance.  The subject of this blog is so important it determines the direction of your whole life and is probably the biggest contributing factor to your success or failure.

I want to talk with you about priorities.  A priority is value, goal, relationship, or cause of leading importance in your life.  It’s what you live for—what give focus to your life.  It’s a value that shapes how you live day to day, moment by moment—for better or worse.  A priority what has first claim on your time, energy, and resources.  And here’s the thing, a priority can either be consciously chosen or set by outside circumstances.  And whether you know it or not, your priorities determine what you achieve in life, your wins and losses, and even your eternal destiny.

I want to share a single verse to you from God’s Holy Word.  It spells out my number one priority.  It's what I live for and what I try to let direct everything I do.  This is why I became a minister.  It’s been the guiding force in how I have pastored every church I’ve served for the last 23 years.

Matthew 6:33
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

My Number One Priority
God is good.  I already knew God was calling me to be a minister before I finished college.  I did not go to college to be a pastor.  I was planning to be a textile engineer.  It was my plan.  But God had a different plan—a better plan. 

At first, I tried to ignore God’s plan.  My wife didn’t want to be married to a pastor and I didn’t want to give up a promising career in engineering either.  So God indulged me.  He allowed me to find a job do exactly what I thought I wanted to do.  My first job out of college was the director of quality assurance at a textile mill.  It's what I wanted to do, but I thought it would take me several years to work up to.  But I started in this role right out of college.  

The only catch was a one-hour commute to and from work every day.  It gave me a lot of time to think and pray.  And I soon found my 24-years-old self thinking:  Is this what my life is really going to be? I will get up everyday and go to work and help this company make the very best towels they can.  And I will come to the end of my life—however many years God gives me—and this is what it will all have been about. And it just felt deep down like something important was missing.  It felt meaningless.

So, I would work all day to make money for my family, and then come home and volunteer at church because that's what I really felt called to do; it felt like my real purpose and it gave meaning to my life.  But we all have the same 24 hours each day and I found working full-time and then volunteering at church and also being married and having a child was exhausting.  I was doing too many different things and not being effective or fulfilled at any of them.  And that’s when God’s Holy Spirit led me to Matthew 6:33.

It was as if God Himself were whispering Matthew 6:33 in my ear:  “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be given to you as well.”  And through a season of prayer and discernment, I realized I needed to reorder my priorities.

For me, Matthew 6:33 states my life’s purpose and my number one priority – Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.  From this priority, I began to reevaluate and reorder my life to make sure everything I do—as much can I help it—supports the top priority of my life.  The most dramatic effect was that I decided to leave my career in engineering and become a United Methodist pastor.  I officially answered God’s call to be a minister in 1999.  I was appointed as a student pastor in December of 2000 and it took me until 2008 to fully complete the process to become a fully ordained elder in 2008.  

All along the way, Matthew 6:33 has been my guiding priority—Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and He will take care of everything else.  And He has.  My life is not perfect.  My family is not either.  But, I have no regrets about answering God's call and no doubts that we aiming for the right target.  Sometimes we hit the bullseye and sometimes we miss.  But at least we’re pointing in the right direction.

What’s Are Your Priorities?
For the Christian—a person who follows Jesus Christ as Lord—His Kingdom should be our top priority.  But there are other priorities that guide our lives.  Some other priorities may be:  your family, your health, your career, your hobbies, making money, getting recognition, or many other things.

Most of us have more stuff competing for our attention than we know what to do with.  We rarely take time to evaluate our priorities.  We just let life happen.  Outside forces set priorities for us.  Your boss tells you what to do and you do it.  The company you work for has goals and you strive for them.  Marketing companies spend billions of dollars every year to tell us what we want so we’ll buy their stuff--and we buy it!  The social customs of our broken and fallen society shape what we think is important and we just accept it because, “Hey, it’s what everyone’s doing so it must be right.  Right?”

Often, we think our priorities are one thing, but our lives show they are something else.  Our actions don't match values.  So if we're honest, we realize it's we're lying to ourselves about what's most important.  

Here are some ways to determine what are your real priorities.

What do you think about?  What do you day dream about?  What do you plans for most?  What do you worry about?  These indicate your priorities because a priority is something you think about a lot.

How do you spend your money?  Taylor Swift was in the news a few months ago for the high price of her concert tickets.  Tickets were originally $49-$449, but because they sold out so fast, people started reselling them and the average resale cost was $1,605.  I don’t know if you would pay $1,000 to go to a concert or not, but what would you pay $1,000 for?  What would you pay $10,000 for?  The answer tells you a lot about what’s really important to you.  In fact, if you go through your bank statement for the last year and figure out what all you spent your money on, it will reveal a lot about your true priorities.  Jesus said in Matthew 6:21,  “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”  A priority is something you spend your money on.

How do you spend your time?  When I was in college, I had a lot more time than money.  That’s not to say I wasn’t busy.  It’s just that since money was scarce, time was something I had to give.  Now that I’m older and money is not as scarce, time seems much more valuable to me.  In fact, quite often I’d just assume pay a little extra for something if it could save me time, because time is more valuable to me now than money.  Does that make any sense?  Time valuable.  You can always make more money, but you can never make more time.  So is you are willing to invest your treasured time in something, it is a priority for you.  A priority is something you spend your time on.

Conclusion
Now I promised you at the beginning that this blog was of utmost importance.  That the subject of this message is so important it determines the direction of your whole life and is probably the biggest contributing factor to your success or failure.

If you feel like you just can win, you can’t succeed, no matter how hard you try, chances are you’re not focusing on your true priorities.  You want this , but you're doing that.  You need to either change your actions or change your priorities so they line up with each other.

If you feel unfulfilled, like your life has little meaning, like you’re just not making a difference, chances are there’s a problem in your priorities.  God has given us all a purpose and a reason for being.  God doesn’t make junk.  So if He made you, you’re here for a reason.  But if you’re living for something else—whether intentionally or unconsciously—you’re not going to feel very fulfilled.

But, there’s nothing more powerful than a person who knows their priorities and intentionally lives them out.  It’s like the difference between a soft glowing light bulb and a lazer cutting through metal.  A lazer is just light that’s extremely focused.

Most people just sort of wander through life with little or no direction or intention.  And they come to the end having made little difference or at least having less of an impact than they could have.  But if you figure out why you're here and you intentionally order your priorities to match your purpose, you will be like a lazer.  

Maybe you need to spend some time evaluating your priorities.  What do you think about? What do you spend your money on? What do you invest your time in?  Do these things line up with what you think are the priorities of your life?  

And what about what God thinks?  Are your priorities what you think God wants for you?  Do you think your priorities are more important and valuable than God’s?  He made you.  He designed you and gave you your abilities, quirks, and even your deep desires.  He did it on purpose.  So you can strive to fulfill His plan—a plan that fits you like a glove, or, you can chase your own selfish desires—which will always feel out of place somehow.

Give Hope to the Hopeless

Luke 4:18-19 

Introduction

The people of Pleasant Grove UMC are on a mission from God to tell people about Jesus and the Holy Spirit empowers us to do it.  Say it with me:

·       “I am on a mission from God

·       to tell people about Jesus

·       and the Holy Spirit empowers me to do it.”

 

            A few years ago, a device became popular that has revolutionized travel--the GPS.  No longer do you have to ask for directions.  You can just enter an address and a friendly voice will give you turn by turn instructions from where you are to where you want to go. 
            I bought my first GPS back in 2007.  It was very handy.  I even used it to visit my sister when she lived in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  I just programed in her address and the GPS took me right there.  After a couple years, I decided to get a new GPS.  So, I gave my old GPS to my Mom, who was planning a trip to see my sister who had moved from Ft. Lauderdale to Raleigh, North Carolina.
             I wanted to make it easy for my Mom, so I put my sister's address in the GPS before Mom left on her trip.  After a couple of hours, Mom stopped to get some gas and use the restroom.  She turned off the car and went in a convenience store.  When she came back out to the car, the GPS had reset to the home screen.  So Mom looked up the recent entries and found the one that said, "Lisa's House" (Lisa is my sister).  So Mom selected "Lisa's House" and was very proud that she'd figured it out all by herself without having to call her son for help.  Well, after about an hour of driving, Mom was concerned the GPS was giving her the wrong directions.  So she called me and said, "I think something went wrong. Maybe I missed a turn or something."  I said, "It doesn't matter Mom.  If you miss a turn, the GPS will recalculate and give you new directions.  Just follow the GPS's instructions and you'll be OK."  Well, she did for another 30 or 40 minutes and then called back, "I still don't think this is right.  I seem to be going south when I should be going north."  So I guided her to look up the map on the GPS and we figured out what happened.  Mom and selected my sister's old address from Ft. Lauderdale, which was still saved in the GPS!  The GPS was giving her directions to Florida, not North Carolina!  Mom had wasted about 2 hours going in the wrong direction!

Every now and then, it's good to reflect on whether we are heading in the right direction.  Back in 2011, Pleasant Grove UMC determined the three primary goals we believe God wants us to focus on are:  1) give hope to the hopeless, 2) build new relationships, and 3) help our community.  Our mission and these three goals should guide everything we do at Pleasant Grove.  So I want to spend some time over the next few weeks looking at each of these goals.  My hope is to remember our goals and reflect on our attitudes so we can make sure we are all going in the right direction.

Today I want to reflect on our first goal – Give Hope to the Hopeless.  As we consider this, listen to Jesus words in Luke 4:18-19.  Quoting the prophet Isaiah, Jesus explained why he came: 

Luke 4:18-19

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
    that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
¹⁹     and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.

Jesus Gives Hope to the Hopeless

Isn’t that amazing!  Jesus came to give hope to the hopeless.  He made it clear from the very beginning of his ministry.  He said in Luke 4:18 – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… He has anointed me…” In other words:  God set me apart and empowered me for this special task.

What task?  “…to bring Good News…”  Jesus didn’t come to bring judgment or to scream “God is angry!”  “God sent [Jesus] into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)  What an amazing, uplifting message! 

Context

Let’s look at the context our scripture reading (Luke 4:18-19).  It is very near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  Luke 4 begins with the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness prior to his ministry.  Then in verses 14 & 15, Jesus begins his ministry by teaching in Galilean synagogues and his reputation starts growing rapidly.

In Luke 4:16 it says, “When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures.”  Nazareth was Jesus’ hometown and he was going to preach in his hometown church.  This tells us a couple things.  First of all, he is speaking to church people.  Usually we read about Jesus out preaching in the community or in people’s homes; he is usually with sinners and non-church people.  In this story, Jesus is speaking specifically to church people.  And Jesus is speaking to the church people he grew up with.  He knew them and he knew their hearts.  He also loved them.  He is about to speak the Truth in love they need to hear.

Luke 4:18-19, the scripture he read was the same passage we read, though he read it from Isaiah 61:1-2 and 58:6).  Then he is ready to begin his sermon.  Verse 20 says, “He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down.”  I used to think when it said he “sat down” it meant he was done, but I was wrong.  It really meant was Jesus was about to start preaching.  In those days Rabbis sat down to teach. 

The Sermon

Verses 20b-22 say, “All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. ²¹ Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”  ²² Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

It’s fascinating to watch this scene unfold, to see how the people are reacting to Jesus’ sermon in real-time.  As a preacher, I’m always wondering how my sermon is being received by you.  I’m looking out at you wondering what you are thinking.  Here in these verses, we are getting the play by play of how Jesus’ sermon is being received. 

At first, they are delighted in their hometown boy.  “Boy, he’s a good preacher!  We raised him right.  Can you believe how graciously he speaks?  That’s our boy! No wonder his ministry has been doing so well!”  Everything would have been fine if he’d stopped right there, but Jesus had to cross the line.  In verse 23, we find the pivotal word.  It reads, “Then he said…”  The word “then” is the turning point of the whole story.

Verse 23-27, ““You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ ²⁴ But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.  ²⁵ “Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land. ²⁶ Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. ²⁷ And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.”

The Jews of Nazareth in Jesus day were engaged in a great debate: Should they teach Gentiles in nearby gentile cities about God or should they keep separate from them because they were “unclean” people.  The Jews of Jesus day believed they were God’s chosen people, beloved more by God than any others.  Surely, they were God’s favorites.  Jesus addresses this attitude directly in his sermon.  Jesus recalls another dark time in Israel’s history from the OT when Elijah was prophet.  It was a time when Israel rejected God, so God took His mercy to the Gentiles.  

I want to make sure you understand something:  Neither your nationality nor your church membership entitles you to God’s favor.  Being a “good person” does not earn you God’s mercy.  Jesus came to offer hope to those who humbly recognize their hopelessness rather than those who think they are somehow specially favored by God. 

That’s what Jesus told the religious Jews of Nazareth.  In fact, Jesus had the audacity to imply they were actually in a worse spiritual state than the Gentiles!  It made the people in the synagogue so mad, they tried to throw Jesus off a cliff! 

The Gospel is Not for “Good” People

Notice what Jesus said (verse 21), “The scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day.”  In other words, it’s been fulfilled just now.  What has been fulfilled?  Good news has been preached to the poor, release to captives, blind will see, oppressed set free…  Jesus just proclaimed this message to the synagogue people.  In other words, Jesus was saying these good church people were all of these things—poor, captive, blind, and oppressed.  It was not “should we good people reach out our merciful hand to help those poor, unfortunate Gentiles…”  It was that the good Jews of that synagogue were no better than the Gentiles and just as poor, captive, blind, and oppressed.  Wow!

Here we are 2,000 years later.  The Church in America finds herself full of people who are trying to be good.  In fact, we’ve become so good, that we often no longer feel comfortable being personally involved in ministry to the poor, imprisoned, blind, oppressed sinners of our community.  Oh, we might give a little money to help, but don’t ask me to be personally involved.

 Why do we have this us and them mentality?  The Truth is:  We are them and they is us! 

 

 Goal #1 – Give Hope to the Hopeless

Jesus came to bring hope to the hopeless.  Let us, therefore, go out and give hope to our brothers and sisters as we receive hope ourselves. 

In the movie “Finding Nemo,” there is a moment when a school of fish are caught in the net of a commercial fishing boat.  At first, they are all frightened and each individually swimming in all different directions trying to escape the net, but it is hopeless.  They are trapped.  Then little Nemo has the solution.  He tells them to all swim together.  And so the whole school of fish swim downward together.  The net begins to go back down into the ocean.  Up on the surface, the fishing boat strains to pull up the net and then the beam holding the net breaks under the tremendous force of the whole school of fish swimming together.  The net opens and all the fish go free.  In the same way, when we all strive for the same goal together, God can do amazing things through us to bring hope to the hopeless.

What are some ways we could “swim together” and bring hope to the hopeless?  Some things we are already doing: our sack lunch program provides meals for hungry kids over the weekend when they are out of school.  Through Family Promise we house homeless families in our church for a week.  But what else could we do?  What about some ongoing ministries?

              My purpose is not to tell you what you should do, only to get you thinking about the possibilities.  I also have another purpose.  I want you to reflect on your attitudes. Giving hope to the hopeless is a principle we members of PGUMC seek to live by.  It should guide the way we minister, the policies we make, the way we worship, the way we think and everything we do.  I challenge you to reflect on your own attitudes and actions.  Are you truly committed to giving hope to the hopeless?  What needs to change in you so we can all swim together and give hope to the hopeless? 

Invitation

Christ came to give hope to the hopeless.  If you find yourself in a hopeless situation, there is good news for you today.  Jesus came to give you hope.  No night is too dark.  No battle is too hard.  No situation is too hopeless.   No chains are too strong with Jesus by your side.  Jesus invites you to come to him today and lay down all your burdens before him.  Let him take control of your life and you will find hope you never knew before.  Then, you will be inspired to do the same for others--to give hope to the hopeless.