The meaning and
importance of prioritizing the Kingdom of God in our life is the subject of
this message.
And only the Bible can help us to set
priorities that lead to eternal life.
What is Priority first?
Today we live in a
world that is obsessed with the myth of success.
Many motivational
speakers and corporate trainers assure us that setting priorities in our life
is a clever way for time management, task management and success.
To help us
numerous business self-help books are available in book stores.
They offer a lot
of help to manage your resources like health, wealth and time.
One of their common
advice is to prioritize our interests and commitments.
It is true that we
need to plan and organize our interests and commitments in our life so that we
get the most important and urgent things done in time.
Everybody has priorities but
often those priorities are not obvious and clouded by nonessentials.
Most of our time we spend doing
things that are not essential and we go to places that are not necessary.
Many seem to be just caught up in
the rat race.
Jesus Christ,
during His wonderful ministry on this earth taught us to prioritize our
interests.
He commanded us to
keep the kingdom of God and His righteousness at the top of the list.
Not only that, He
advised us to forget everything else.
That means there
is no second item in the priority list.
He assured us that
if we prioritize the Kingdom of God as the first, everything else will follow
us.
So no second item
is necessary in our priority list.
Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (NKJV)
Kingdom
of God
There are more than 80
references to the kingdom of God in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
The Book of Matthew alone
contains more than 30.
Just from the sheer volume of
times Jesus taught about the kingdom, we see how important it was to Jesus during
His earthly ministry.
‘Kingdom of God’ speaks of God’s
rule and reign.
The Kingdom of God is God’s
dominion, and the recognition of and submission to God’s authority and God's
sovereignty.
That means, God is the One in the
position of power and God is King.
It also means that we are not in
power.
Everyone who believes in the Lord
Jesus Christ has been placed by God into his Kingdom.
Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the
power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, (NKJV)
Kingdom priority defined
What is the cannon for the
Kingdom priority?
The priority of God's kingdom
demands that we make every decision with God’s Kingdom in mind.
Setting Kingdom priority is based
on Kingdom beliefs.
We believe that Yeshua is
recognized as Lord and God over all that exists.
All that opposes God and works
that are against Him and His rule should be either subdued or terminated from
our life.
We believe that the rule of God
will come into individual hearts as people submit to Jesus Christ as their Lord
and their God.
We believe that we ourselves have
to acknowledge Jesus as our King in obedient response to His promises and
commands at every moment of our lives.
We believe in the coming of Jesus’
ultimate and eternal kingdom.
All opposition to Him will be
ended and eradicated forever.
We should constantly ask
ourselves:
Is this choice I am about to make
submissive to my King and his command?
Or is it a personal power play?
Will this choice extend his
kingdom in the world? Or will it hinder the increase of his kingdom?
Does this choice express my
belief that he is
indeed the King?
Or does it give sovereignty to my
own weakness, doubts and fears?
Is this choice made in the light
of the certain, immanent and powerful coming of Jesus as the King of kings?
Or does it reveal that I view His
Kingdom and his coming, more as a topic of theological debate only.
Setting
priorities
Setting the right priorities is a
Biblical principle.
It is vitally important for
success; for material as well as spiritual success.
The Word of God tells us that it
is vital to put our priorities in the right order and then carefully cultivate
each one with zeal and enthusiasm.
And only the Bible can help us to set
priorities that lead to eternal life.
Priorities of a non-believer is
different from that of a true Christian.
A non-believer is running after
material things while a Christian races after eternal life.
It is because the heart of the
first is in this world and that of the second is in heaven.
We are living between the Cross
and the Second Coming of Jesus.
Here we live as the ambassadors
of Christ and His Kingdom.
In fact we live in the
inaugurated Kingdom of God.
Everything changes when you enter
the kingdom of God.
The heart, loyalty and priorities
are different.
All of these changes add up to a
radical readjustment of priorities for those in the kingdom.
Yet most of us still struggle to
have a kingdom-driven agenda for our lives.
So we must learn to set Kingdom
priorities.
Sermon
on the Mount
In His famous ‘Sermon on the
Mount’, Jesus called for a radical commitment to a kingdom way of life.
The ‘Sermon on the Mount’ is
recorded in Matthew chapter 5 to 7.
The verses that commands us to
set Kingdom priority is Matthew 6:31-33.
Matthew 6:31-33
31 "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What
shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
32 "For
after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that
you need all these things.
33 "But
seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall
be added to you. (NKJV)
Jesus is not limiting His command
to food, drink and cloth, rather they represent all that we are worried about
in this world.
Food, drink and cloth represent
our wants in this world.
Whatever we worry about is the
first in our priorities.
We are holding those things in
high esteem and urgent.
So Jesus wants us to place the
Kingdom of God and its righteousness as the first and the only priority.
The promise from Jesus is that if
Kingdom of God is the first priority in our life, there would be no second
priority, because God will provide everything else.
As kingdom people, God is calling
us to live by the values of His kingdom.
Kingdom values should shape every
aspect of our lives.
We are called to be so single-minded
concerning the kingdom that everything else should pale in comparison.
Martha and Mary
We know the story of two sisters,
Martha and Mary, who were loyal friends of Jesus Christ.
When Christ visited them at their
house, both of them wanted to serve Him in the way each considered was most
important.
Martha was distracted with
preparing food and serving, while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to His
words.
So Martha came to Jesus and
complained about the behavior of Mary and requested Jesus to instruct her to
help her in preparing and serving food.
Jesus gave a surprising answer to
her.
Luke 10:41,42
41 And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are
worried and troubled about many things.
42 "But
one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be
taken away from her." (NKJV)
Of course, Martha had been doing
a good work and do not think that Jesus was belittling it.
Serving others is highly
commended in the Bible, and it is certainly not wrong to serve.
But Jesus was teaching her a
lesson about Kingdom priority.
The wonderful thing about the
Kingdom is that once you have achieved it, no one would take it away from you.
What is Priority first?
Establishing the correct priorities in our lives is
vital for a successful Christian living.
It is putting the first thing
first.
The Bible records many instances
to teach us how to set the Kingdom of God as first in our priority list.
The calling of Peter, James and
John to follow Jesus is a Sunday school story.
Though we repeat it often, we
miss the important message of priority setting.
When they we called to follow
Him, the fishermen left everything they had and followed Him.
That means, the value of their
fishing properties, the bright future of a successful catch, the concern about
the future of their family, nothing was set above the Kingdom.
They just believed that
everything else will follow.
The Bible also tells us about some
other people who failed miserably to prioritize the Kingdom of God.
We read the story of a young rich
man in Luke 18:18-23
A young and rich man came to
Jesus with an intention to justify Himself.
But Jesus gave him an advice to
prioritize the Kingdom in his life.
This young man was a righteous
man according to the religious practices of the time.
He was living carefully obeying
all precepts of the Mosaic Law.
But Jesus was not ready to offer
the Kingdom of God to him on the basis of his religious life.
Jesus asked him to sell all his
wealth, give it to the poor and then follow Him.
Here is a lesson on prioritizing
for the rich young man and for all of us.
Riches, health, material
possessions, farm lands, houses, father, mother and nothing else should be the
first in our priority list.
It must be the Kingdom of God and
the Kingdom alone.
Unfortunately the rich man failed
to prioritize his interests and left Jesus frustrated.
Seeing him going disappointed, Jesus
made a general comment that, it is indeed very hard for a rich man to enter the
Kingdom.
But Jesus was not closing the
doors of the Kingdom to all rich people.
This tragic story is followed by the
miraculous story of conversion of another rich man.
The story above is about a rich religious
man, but the story that follows is about a rich person who was a sinner and a
social outcast.
It is the story of Zacchaeus.
The story, recorded in Luke 19:1-10, is very popular even among the children.
Zacchaeus was rich man, the chief
of a group of tax collectors who worked for the Roman Empire.
His job was a dirty job of
corruption and betrayal of his own Jewish community.
So he was a sinner and a religious
and social outcast.
It is amazing to note that this
man wanted to see Jesus as he passed through the street.
Jesus offered Zacchaeus more than
he expected.
Jesus stopped for him, invited
him to the company of his disciples and friends, promising to stay in his house
for that day.
A miraculous change happened to
his life.
He decided to prioritize his
interests and placed the Kingdom of God as the first in the list.
Whenever the Kingdom of God comes
to the first in the priority list, all other tasks disappear.
And he decided to give up his
greed for money and other worldly materials.
This is what happens when you
prioritize the Kingdom of God in your life.
Now let us go another man who was
invited by Jesus to follow Him, but miserably failed.
The story is recorded in Luke 9:59 and
60.
He asked for permission to stay
back at his house until his father died and buried.
But Jesus rejected his petition.
Luke 9:59, 60
59 Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said,
"Lord, let me first go and bury my father."
60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you
go and preach the kingdom of God." (NKJV)
What does Jesus
really mean here?
Caring an aged
father and burying a deceased father was a sacred duty to his son.
In Judaism the
literal need to bury a father took precedence over everything else, including
the study of the Law.
But a Nazirite vow
and the office of a High Priest were exempted from this filial duty.
So it may be that
Jesus is equating the Kingdom of God to the office of a High Priest or a
Nazirite.
Jesus may be
placing the Kingdom above these two offices.
This is a fine
example of prioritizing the Kingdom of God.
What is prioritizing the Kingdom?
What is
prioritizing the Kingdom really mean?
As I have already
said, when you prioritize the Kingdom of God, there will be no more priorities
but only priority.
That means, there
will be no second or third item in the priority list.
It is only Kingdom
of God and nothing else.
Jesus spoke two
short parables to convey this idea.
One is about a
treasure in a field and another is about a beautiful pearl.
Let us read it:
Matthew 13: 44 - 46
44 "Again,
the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and
hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a
merchant seeking beautiful pearls,
46 "who, when he had found one pearl of great
price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (NKJV)
A man found a
hidden treasure in a field.
He went home,
gathered everything he had and bought that field so that he could inherit the
treasure.
In the second
parable, a merchant who was a seeker of beautiful pearls found one of great
price.
He also went home,
gathered everything he had and bought it.
The hidden
treasure and the valuable pearl represent the Kingdom of God.
Both the parables
starts by the statement that ‘the kingdom of heaven is like’.
So these two
parables reveals the mystery of the Kingdom of God.
The treasure was
hidden and the merchant was a seeker of pearls.
This conveys a
great truth about the Kingdom of God.
Kingdom of God is
not a phenomena that may suddenly appear before a man.
Rather, man has to
seek and find it.
In both the
parables, the man and the merchant had to sell everything they had in order to
purchase the great treasure and the pearl.
That means, after
the purchase they had nothing with them else the Kingdom of God.
It is the Kingdom
and Kingdom alone.
Apostles
prioritized their preferences in this way.
Let us go back to Luke
chapter 18.
From this chapter,
we have already read the story of the young rich ruler who met Jesus to justify
himself, but failed miserably to rise up to the standard of the Kingdom of God.
Jesus asked him to
prioritize Kingdom of God in his life.
Prioritizing the
Kingdom in his life meant to give up all his wealth and follow Jesus.
When he went away
failing to standardize his priorities to the demand of the Kingdom of God,
Jesus pronounced that it is very hard for rich people to enter the Kingdom.
Now the disciples
got the message about prioritizing the Kingdom.
They reminded
Jesus that they gave everything they had to follow Him.
And Jesus promised
them a good reward.
Luke 18: 29, 30
29 So He said to
them, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or
parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God,
30 "who shall not receive many times more in
this present time, and in the age to come eternal life." (NKJV)
Was Jesus
promising a good reward in a future time which is uncertain?
During that time,
a disciple who followed a Jewish rabbi give up everything in his life,
including his family.
A disciple was
supposed to travel with the rabbi wherever he went and lived as the rabbi
lived.
He learnt from the
life and teachings of the rabbi during the time.
When the rabbi
felt confident, he commissioned his disciple for an independent ministry.
After that the new
rabbi or the disciple can go back to his home.
This was the
religious and social practice of the time.
So the offer of a
reward by Jesus is not something that may happen in an uncertain future.
It is assured for
every successful disciples.
What is special
about Jesus is that He added here an increased reward for successful disciples.
This is the reward
for prioritizing the Kingdom of God.
So prioritizing
the Kingdom is putting the Kingdom in our priority list as the first and the
only one.
There will be no
second or third item in the priority list.
So that after
placing the Kingdom on the top of the list, we worry about nothing else.
And Jesus promised
that all else shall follow those who has prioritized the Kingdom as the first
and the only item in the list.
How
shall we prioritize the Kingdom?
How shall we prioritize the
Kingdom?
By witnessing the Kingdom
everywhere and all the time.
In another way, it is Kingdom of
God and nothing else in our life.
It is by living the Kingdom
living, day and night; in our private life and in our public life.
Kingdom living is Kingdom in
everything.
It is Kingdom in our speeches;
Kingdom in our action and Kingdom in our thoughts.
It is managing and doing everything
that are connected to our life for the increase of the Kingdom.
Nothing that harm the Kingdom in
name or act will come out of us.
So let us be honest with
ourselves.
Let us ask these questions to
ourselves.
Are we putting the Kingdom first
and all or are we allowing other aspects of our lives to come before the Kingdom
of God?
If the Kingdom is not the first
and all, take a decision right now to prioritize the Kingdom of God.
May God bless you. Amen.
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