.Putting First Things First…
Luke 10:38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. v39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. v40 But Martha was encumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.v41And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things.v42 But one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
The word “encumbered" which is used in verse 40, in the original Greek, is "periespato," which means "to be dragged all around by something" or "to be dragged away by something" We don’t use this word anymore, because instead we use instead the word “distracted”. So, Jesus was saying to Martha, “You are distracted by your serving”… Instead of hearing and learning from me, your mind is on all the details of preparing and serving.
Now Jesus on one occasion said, that “the greatest among you are those who serve” so what He’s saying here, is that she has allowed her serving, to sour her
attitude, and trouble her spirit, and pull her away from receiving and learning
from Him, which would bring peace and contentment into her spirit.”
Jesus had great praise for the church of Ephesus, but then ended up with a word of correction because something had happened to create a distance in the relationship. We can see this n Revelation 2:3,”You have been faithful and endured with patience and labored for my name's sake, and you have not fainted. v4 Nevertheless I have something against you, because you have left your first love”.
So, having read the words of Jesus, for the remainder of my time, we’re looking at the subject of “Putting First Things First…Therefore”
Therefore is a very biblical word, and I’m finding myself experiencing more and more “Therefores” in my life. I go outside in the yard, and try to figure out what I’m “therefore”… I go to the store and find myself looking around, trying to remember what I’m “therefore”… or I go to the store for two items and end up with a basket full, then get home and realize the I didn’t get what I originally went therefore!
Distractions can really make life interesting! Distractions can be like a big hole that stuff just disappears into!!! I was very distracted as I prepared this message on distractions…The problem with distractions is that they distract us!!! (I’m getting very deep here)
Jesus told Martha that she was being dragged around by many things… .what is it that we are allowing to drag us around and keep us from the commitments to Christ that we know we should make. Our friends, our job, our recreation and fun… is it our fears of what it would cost us to really sell out to Christ? What is the hole it all disappeared into? We can’t allow the noise of the world to keep us from hearing the voice of God.
What distracts us can begin to define our lives and identify who we are. As the great hall of famer, Joe DiMaggio said, “You don’t have to swing at every pitch”.
How often are we the willing victims to distractions, so, we can avoid dealing with those things we know we need to confront. How much further along would we all be, if it weren’t for the distractions? How much could we have accomplished, if we had remained true to ourselves? How many good intentions lie in the graveyard of distractions, still quivering and awaiting some chance at resurrection?
Distractions wait like hungry beasts,to devour our time, our energy, our dreams, and our very lives….Our lives get filled with so many urgent things, that we have no time for the eternal things. We have occupied ourselves with a million little things and left undone a lot of the things that have real lasting value. We have filled our days with things that are just about survival and neglected the things which could really develop and expand our lives for the better. We have done what was necessary and neglected what was essential. Days turn into months and months into years, and our lives have become gobbled up by distractions.
It’s happy hour at the local sports bar, and the cops are waiting just outside the parking lot, ready to catch any unsuspecting drunk drivers. A woman comes stumbling out of the door and gets in her car, clearly drunk. The police request that she do a breathalyzer test, and she complies. The test comes back positive, so the officers are escorting her to the police car, when the woman begins to laugh and said “It worked, it worked”… When the Officers inquired, she said “tonight, I am the Designated Distraction”. You see I’m here so my drunk husband could go out the back door and drive home!
Designated distractions can take you from good intentions to a train wreck!
You intended to go to church, you intended to help someone in need, you intended to pay your tithe, you intended to follow through, but you encountered some Designated distractions from the enemy.
Sometimes we need to say what the little boy said to the Devil, “Get behind me Devil and don’t push”…..that’s what designated distractions will do, they keep nudging you and pushing you and dragging you around in the wrong direction if you let them….
There are times when you have to take a firm stand against distractons….
We’ve got to push back by moving from pragmatism to passionate living. Where you are no longer being pushed around and driven by the world around you.
Passion is the craving of a heart that wants to experience the fullness of life in the Spirit, no matter what the cost. Passion is about being committed to a cause that is bigger than yourself and will shape you into a person who is larger than the distractions of life. Passion is like a fire burning hot at the core of your being. It means that your life is defined and directed by higher goals and purposes that have captured your heart and are directing what you do and where you’re going with your life. It means something is driving you that has liberated your will and set it ablaze. The fire in your soul, will burn through the distractions it encounters.
A pragmatic does things simply because they’re practical. It is more practical to get your needed rest than it is to get up a little earlier and make time for God. It is more practical to make the expected compromises at work than to take a stand and be resolute for what is right. It’s easier to go along with what everyone else is doing and thinking than to be different and have a God centered mindset. Pragmatism can easily choose the path of no confrontation and least resistance.
The fire of the Holy Spirit in our lives creates passion — a passion for God, for righteousness, for no compromise living, and for transformed lives. It makes all other passions seem unworthy and undesirable. When that happens we find that we are not just passing through life, but we are living with higher purpose.
Take a coal from the fire and soon it will dim and grow cold, but place it back in again and soon it will burn with intensity….STAY IN THE FIRE OF GOD’S SPIRIT!
Romans 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the (higher) love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? v36 As it is written, For Your sake we lay down our lives all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the sacrifice. v37 For sure, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. v38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, v39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the “higher” love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
Paul was not going to be subject to the designated distractions of anything, because he was consumed by a holy passion. If the love of Christ is not something you can be passionate about, then please tell me what is?
To push through Satan’s designated distractions, we must move from being fragmented and fractured to being centered and focused. We can no longer allow ourselves to be controlled by the tyranny of the urgent. When we do, our lives begin to be controlled by a thousand little things rather than the grand controlling theme of our God given purpose. If you start your day running you will never stop running. If you start your day with a Kay-sa-ra, sa-ra approach, your day will be unproductive, bland and pointless! Focus on keeping the main thing, as the MAIN THING. The problem is that the main thing gets crowded out by a lot of things that are not even related to the main thing
The National Transportation Safety Board recently divulged they had funded a secret project where they installed black boxes in vehicles an effort to determine, the circumstances in the last 15 seconds before the crash. They were surprised to find in 48 of the 50 states the last words of drivers in 61.2% of fatal crashes were, "Oh, My God"
The other two states were different, in those two states 89.3% of the final words were, "Hey Y'all, hold my beer and watch this! (having said all that)
(We are not an accident)! God didn’t put us here to just exist, we are designed to have abundant life. We are designed to live a successful life….It doesn’t matter if you were born in Africa, Asia, India, or Europe….Every baby has God’s DNA stamped upon it….Every baby born from rape or incest, wanted or unwanted, was born for success. God has breathed a part of Himself, a piece of His own super- natural life, in every one of us from the moment we were conceived in the womb!
We all begin this life whole, with singular purpose and higher calling, and then Satan begins his work at trying to fracture and fragment us. His method is now as it has always been….to divide and conquer….to divide us from our God source and from the support and mutual benefit of one another.
It is first vertical as an effort to cut us off from our creator, then it is horizontal, to separate us from the wisdom and counsel of those around us who can help us maturity and balance in life’s choices. And we come to a place where we just exist and we go through day after day fractured and fragmented, never focused and dedicated to what life really means “? what our higher purpose truly is. Never seriously asking “What am I here for “What is my higher purpose in this situation or experience”?
The way we handle distractions can reveal what we’re really made of and how much input God actually has in our lives. For example let’s say the neighbor’s garbage keeps blowing into Your yard with the help of some racoons… now consider some of the options you have. You can:
1. Take the garbage back to your neighbor’s yard and shred it to tiny pieces on their front porch or their yard, while mumbling death wishes under your breath.
2. You can call the police or your neighborhood watch leader. 3. You can go to your neighbor’s house and scream terrible things at them. 4. You can cut off all contact with the neighbor and sneer when they look your way. 5. Or you can knock on the neighbor’s door and explain the situation in a kindly, non-threatening manner. (We won’t ask for a show of hands)
See what you don’t know is that God has been preparing your neighbor’s heart for you to share Christ with them and pray with them and give them some biblical advice about some things they’re struggling with! The danger is that we will not recognize the opportunity…and burn bridges before we get to them. The most dangerous enemy anyone can face, is the enemy we haven’t recognized yet. Designated Distractions can be your worst enemy!
Hebrews 12:1-2 says we must focus on Jesus: “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses,let us lay aside every weight,(distraction) and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Paying attention to this, will prevent a lot of missed opportunities….
A wife said to her husband, "There's trouble with the car. It has water in the carburetor." The husband was a little confused and said, "Water in the carburetor? That's ridiculous, you don’t even know where the carburetor is." But the wife persisted, "I tell you the car has water in the carburetor.” To this, the husband trying to humor her, said "Look, even though I know that you don’t have a clue, where the carburetor is. I'll check it out. Where's the car?" In a quite voice, barely above a whisper, the wife answered… "In the pool”.
So many people just stumble through life from one emergency to the next with no eternal goals or any great or challenging purpose. The end result is that they live to just survive and they are robbed of the joy, the thrill, the wonder and the opportunities of life.
We need to come to a place that we move from stumbling through life, in a survival mode, to living in the WOW kind of life! Your dreams should scare you a little, but excite you a lot…. If we sincerely seek the purpose of all the places of our life, it is there that we will encounter the awesomeness and greatness of God.
We talked about Designated Distractions….I want to submit to you that the way to overcome Designated Distractions….is through planned neglect….
Someone once asked a famous concert violinist about the secret of her amazing ability in playing the violin. She said,“There are many things that used to compete for my time. When I went to my room after breakfast, I made my bed, straightened the room, dusted, and did whatever seemed necessary. When I finished everything else, I then started my violin practice. That system prevented me from accomplishing all that I was capable of on the violin. So I reversed things and changed my priorities. I deliberately planned to neglect everything else until my violin practice was complete and I was satisfied with my session. And that program of planned neglect is the secret to my success.” Most of us need to reevaluate our priorities on a constant basis and implement “Planned Neglect”….
Michael Bassey Johnson wrote…“-We need more love,to supersede hatred.We need more strength,to overrule our weaknesses.We need more inspiration,to enlighten our core beliefs.We need more learning, to erase our ignorance,We need more wisdom,to live longer and happier.We need more truths,to counter-act our deceptions,We need more health,to enjoy our riches,We need more peace,to stay in harmony with one another. We need more smiles,to brighten up our day.We need more hero's,because we already have enough zero's.We need more change in ourselves,to positively influence the lives of others.We need more understanding, to revisit our misunderstandings.We need more sympathy and less apathy.We need more forgiveness, and less vengeance.We need more humility in order to be lifted up.We need more patience and not misdirected passion,We need more focus,to avoid distraction.We need more optimism, not the narrowness of pessimism.We need more justice, not more politics as usual. We need more facts, not fiction. We need more skills, not aimless dreamers. We need more challenges,to attempt greatness.We need more vision,to create the extraordinary. We need more helping hands, not stingy grabbers.We need more compassion,not social isolationism.We need more laughter, to pry us from our worries. We need more spirituality,not mere religion.We need more freedom, not the enslavement of entitlements. We need more peacemakers,not revolutionaries...and with these, we can have some sense of heaven on earth.”
And now in the “You came close but no cigar” category….Samson was called to be the deliverer of God’s people, but he got a “designated distraction”. Solomon was the wisest man to ever live, second to Jesus, but in his later years, he allowed himself to be undone by a “designated distraction”. Lot traveled with Abraham to the land of covenant and could have been listed among the heroes who paved the way for God’s people, but he let material possessions become his “designated distraction”. Adam and Eve could have enjoyed a perfect world, and could have passed that perfect world on down to all of us living today….but they caved in to a “designated distraction”.
I was thinking as I prepared this,of a guy who had a distraction sneak right up on him…and made him forget his priorities… He was driving through a residential area, when he saw the flash of a traffic camera. He figured that his picture had been taken for exceeding the limit, even though he knew that he was not speeding. So, just to be sure, he went around the block and passed the same spot, driving even more slowly, but again the camera flashed, so he drove even slower as he passed the area again, but the traffic camera again flashed. He tried a fourth time with the same result. He did this a fifth time and was now laughing when the camera flashed as he rolled past, this time at a snail's pace.Two weeks later, he got five tickets in the mail for driving without a seat belt.(check your priorities)
*….In our society of distractions…we have so many distractions that we are interrupting ourselves. The word no and wait, aren’t in our vocabulary. We must have the latest i-phone, The latest game program, the latest style… We are so used to instant stimulation and instant gratification, that society’s cry has become “I WANT IT AND I WANT IT NOW”!!!
*…..But If our priority is the knowledge of God, learning to walk with him through all of the conflicts, anxieties, difficulties, injustices of life, before you even realize it, you’ll be walking in miracles. Peter didn’t start out that day to walk on the water, but because that’s where Jesus was walking, he did too!! And we rob ourselves, if we let ourselves to be shaped by a culture of instant everything!
*….We must master our stuff and not be mastered by it. We must find a balance in all the things which compete for our time and attention. We must organize our internal world so we can distinguish the significant from the insignificant, the important from the mundane. We must learn the importance of spending undistracted time alone. And we must count the cost daily of walking with Him.
Only in thoughtful silence and meditation, can we order (or re-order) our lives by what God has revealed to us of himself in his love and his amazing plan. If you focus only on the shiny stuff that glitters for the moment, at the end of your life you will find that your hands are empty and your life is barren.”
Our greatest challenge in life is to become God-centered in our thoughts, God-fearing in our hearts and God-honoring in all that we do.
*…..The Lord groups all our distractions into 3 areas… There are the (cares of life or our worries) – The Greek word for worry is merinma, which means “pulled in different directions.” Then there is Riches (or the love of money) – You can be so busy making a living, trying to make money to pay the bills and get out of debt that you miss what God is doing.
And last on the list is Pleasures –pleasures, aren’t bad in themselves, they are usually a good thing. But you can get so busy pursuing pleasures and fun that you forget your purpose.
Let me ask you a few questions this morning. What is your main purpose in life? What is your second most important purpose in life? What is your third most important purpose in life? Now let me ask you, “Does the way you are living your life truly reflect those goals?” Today is a great day to move from pragmatism to Spiritual passion, from being fractured and fragmented, to being spiritually focused, and from wandering through life, to living a WOW kind of living!!!! *…..On the other side of your distractions, is your destiny. God is giving us some key principles that we can apply in making the transition from our current situation to our destiny. When you experience these distractions we have mentioned and others as well, know that you are getting close to achieving something that will take you to the next level in your life! God has brought us together at this time, to give attention to the price tag that is on our distractions, which stand between us and our destiny. He’s always near, to help us master our stuff and not be mastered by it. To give us balance in all the things which compete for our time and attention. Lord you’re here to help us to organize our internal world so we can separate the important from the mundane. To teach us the importance of spending undistracted time alone with you. To soak in Your presence and once again to hear your voice speaking into our inner being. To renew our purpose and rediscover Your plan for us in each situation and experience of our lives. For we give you the glory and ask that we might honor You with every area of our life journey.
