Life’s Number One Priority

Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. Does it always seem like your to-do list is jammed full? How do you make sure the right things get the most attention? Stay with us now as God's Word teaches us what life's number one priority ought to be. How do you respond?

That is, which one wins over the most? What do you want to do or what do you know in your heart you should do? And when you do what you want to do rather than what you know you should do, how do you feel? Do you feel guilty? Feel defeated? How do you feel? When you do what you know you ought to do rather than what you want to do, how do you feel? Victorious? Like you conquered temptation?

Feel good about yourself? Well, life is full of decisions and therefore life's going to be full of tension. And sometimes when these decisions are absolutely crucial in our life and we have two alternatives and one looks just as good as the other, or we know that one is right and one is not right, what we want to do versus what we should do, and the tension is so strong, oftentimes we discover the strength of our heart, the strength of our life. And so since life's just full of those things, it's one of those areas that all of us have felt and do feel tension in in our lives. It's something so very simple but something so profound. It's the one area that has the most awesome impact upon our life of everything else. And yet you would think that after we've been saved for a while we would have learned and therefore there wouldn't be any tension in this at all.

But there is. And that's the area that I want to talk about in this message and I want you to turn, if you will, to the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Tenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke. It's amazing how God could put so much truth in so few words in something as simple as this incident to identify to us what is the number one priority in the life of the believer.

Now if you should ask people what is the number one priority, you'd probably get lots of answers. But it's very clear in this passage from Jesus' perspective what is the number one priority in our life. So if you'll notice that he's just been talking about the Good Samaritan in this chapter and the parts before this and then beginning in verse 38 he says, Now as they were traveling along, that is Jesus and his disciples, he entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister called Mary who was seated at the Lord's feet listening to his word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations and she came up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister's left me to do all this serving alone? Then tell her to help me. But the Lord answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, now probably it would mean the same thing as dear, dear Martha. Now you're getting all upset.

You're worried and bothered about so many things. But one only one thing is necessary for Mary has chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her. Now, this is such an important passage of scripture and I want to talk about these three primary people of Mary, Martha and Jesus in just a moment. But just to remind you that Jesus has gone to this home probably oftentimes and he's on his way to Jerusalem as disciples. And he has decided to stop off at Mary, Martha and Lazarus home where he felt welcomed and certainly he felt love. And in the process of doing so, an incident happens here in which he identifies for us what is the number one priority in our life.

And so let's see what happens here. So here is Mary seated at Jesus feet. And the Bible says that Martha came in and she said to Jesus, she said to him, she said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone?

Then tell her to help me. And here's what he said to her. He said, Martha, the most important thing, number one thing, Mary's chosen that and I'm not going to take it away from her. And so let's think about this for a moment. What was Jesus saying? He says, number one priority in our life is our time we spend alone with him. Now, I want you to listen very, very carefully. You have a priority in your life. Maybe you're the only person who knows what it is, but you have a priority in your life.

And the question is this. Do you value your relationship with Jesus Christ enough to make him time alone with him? The number one priority in your life. Is he that valuable to you? Is he that important to you?

Where does he rank in your life? Well, if you don't give him time alone with yourself and he desires that for you. If you don't spend time alone with him doing what?

The same thing she was doing. Well, we have the awesome privilege of having the word and that is meditating upon his word. That's how we learn from him. Listening to him. Learning from him. Longing in our heart to be like him. Desiring in our heart that his character would become our character. Desiring that Christ would be manifest in our life. That is that our life would be a living expression of his life. That is, if we don't have any interest in spending time with him, then he's not a priority.

Now, think about this. That is that Jesus, who went to the cross, laid down his life for you. You mean to tell me you don't have time for him? To listen to him and to learn from him and to love him? You don't have time for that? What is it that really matters most?

And so, as you look at the scripture, it's very evident that Jesus was saying to Martha, Martha, there are lots of things in life that are very important. Let me ask you a question. When you get down to pray, do you ever get distracted?

Why, sure you do. I mean, you start thinking about things, you think, where did that come from? Because Satan will do everything in his power to get you distracted from your relationship to him. And so, you can't spend time alone with the Lord with the TV on or whatever else. And people won't write us all the time and say, when in touch comes on, I take the phone off the hook. I don't answer the doorbell because I'm not going to be distracted. And I think about, I wonder how many of us love the Lord that much. I'm not answering the phone. And how many of you when the phone rings your first impression?

Go get it. If you're talking with the Lord, let me ask you a question. What you're saying is, I'm more interested in who this is than what he may be about to say to me. You see, he's made it so simple, but it's painful, isn't it? It's real painful to have to sit here and think, you know, God, do I love, do I love an hour and a half of TV more than I do you? Have I excused myself all these years of being so busy doing this and busy doing that? And listen, you can be busy doing good things.

I mean, the truth is, I can stay busy 18 hours a day, 24 hours a day, doing very, very good things, even as a pastor, and ignore private time with him and justify all of it. You know what the only problem is? It doesn't work.

That doesn't work. And you know what? It's not working in your life.

You say, I'm getting along, but you don't know what you're missing. And so the whole impact of the story is this, that there are always going to be those things that are good that intrude into our time. Those distractions will always be there. Listen, you're not going to ever reach the place where you can say, well, finally, I got all the time I need. Let me ask you, you folks who are retired, well, you shouldn't be retired, but some of you are wise enough to have been retreaded and you run through again and you're working and serving the Lord and doing other things, but let's think about it. What do you hear from people who are retired? Here's what they say. You know I retired and I am busier than I have ever been before, right?

That's what they're saying. But doing what? If you don't have to check in at eight o'clock in the morning, then you've made a choice in your priorities to fill up that time that God would now give you with something else. Now listen to what I'm saying. I'm not saying you shouldn't work diligent and do your best and be responsible and have a sense of responsibility about whatever you're supposed to do in life.

But what's first? And a long time ago I realized that no amount of excuses to God about sermons, visiting, counseling, administration, all those things that are very important, you know what? I can't say, God, I am a pastor and I'm serving you and I don't have time. You know what God says? Mm-hmm, I won't have time to give you a sermon next week either and that'll get you attention just like that.

Because number one's number one, God's eyes. And you know what the biggest problem is going to be with a lot of you? That for years and years and years and years and years your priorities have not been God. And for you to have to change is going to be tough.

It's going to be tough. You know why? Had it. Let me ask you a question. If you thought you were going to die tonight about six o'clock, what would be the number one priority in your life? Would it not be that you wanted to be sure everything is right between you and God? Well, God don't want to put us in that position. He just wants us to love Him enough that every day we want to come to Him. We desire Him. We long to know Him. There'll always be those things that intrude, always be those things that disturb, always be those things that would grab our attention and our time if we let it. Now here's the big question.

Well, okay, so what? I start giving my best time my first hour or my first period of time or I start giving the Lord time every day. What can I expect? What is the first thing that happens when you and I begin to spend time with Him? When we come before Him by ourselves with an open word and begin to ask Him to speak through our heart and to read the Scriptures, first thing you're going to happen, it happens this. He will quieten your spirit. I don't care how stormy your circumstances are.

I don't, it doesn't make any difference how difficult the situation is and what's going on in your life and who's on your case. You know what? When you get along with Him, it is absolutely amazing how He can quieten your spirit, shut out everything else in the world and it's just you and Him that will quieten your spirit. He knows how to do that. That's why David said, My soul clings to Thee.

He'd learn the secret. That's why he said He sat before the Lord and listened to Him and talked to Him. So number one, certainly it quietens our spirit. That means whatever troubles, frustration, anxiety, fear, where He's going to take it away. Secondly, we're going to sense renewed energy.

I cannot explain it. I just know that when you get on your face or sit or whatever it might be before the Lord and He's first, you shut out everything else and you begin to listen to Him and you begin to express your love and your praise toward Him. There is a divine energy that surges through this human body that physiologically something happens.

And I think certainly Mary must have learned some of this or because every time we see her, she's at His feet. And so first of all, there's going to be a sense of quietness, energy, but likewise a lot of other things and I want to just, I just want to give you a whole list here if I might. Number three, and that is it's certainly going to strengthen your faith because, and I have seen this and listened to this testimony so many times when somebody for the first time in their life realizes that they knew God had spoken to them and given them an answer or given them a sense of direction or said something specific they knew it was from Him, you're talking about surging your faith. That this God who controls it all is willing to speak to you. Listen, He desires to speak to you.

He will make it so crystal clear if you'll give Him the time. Not only that, but you're going to be refreshed in your emotions. He knows how to fuse within our emotional being. Listen, all that we need to fill us up, to fill us up. Now, anytime I preach and after I go home on a Sunday afternoon, I'm a little worn, a little weary, not too much, but enough to know that emotionally God has squeezed everything out of me and I need to be replenished. And so I just get on my face and say, Lord, you know what I need today. I just need a fresh new surge of your fullness in my whole emotional being.

I need you to feed my emotions and fill my cup once again. He's sitting on ready waiting to meet every single solitary need that we have. We say that He meets all of our needs and then we wonder why sometimes we don't have Him because we don't give Him a chance. One thing that certainly will happen when you spend time with Him is that He will purify your heart. I do believe that one of the primary reasons that most people will not get along with the Lord, spend time with Him, is because they don't want to face themselves.

They've got baggage they don't want to deal with, sin in their life they don't want to face, anxieties they can't deal with them. Purification sometimes is painful, but the purifying work of the Holy Spirit in their life and the presence of our Lord is absolutely precious to any child of God who wants the Lord's best for their life. Well, not only does it purify our heart, but something else I think that you'll find and that's this, and that is it is the greatest time saver in life. I do not know a greater time saver in life than the time you spend alone with the Lord.

I would challenge anybody anywhere in the world, if you're a believer, you spend time with Him and see what happens to your time. He will multiply those moments. He will multiply those minutes. He will multiply those hours. He will multiply those days.

You can't figure it out. It's just that you find yourself being more fruitful and accomplishing much more and the only thing you can credit it to is you spend time with Him. He's giving you direction for your life. Not only that, it also we'll find that we'll have insights and instruction from His Word.

We won't get any other way. One of the most exciting things in the whole Christian life to me is to study the Word of God and then when I'm not even necessarily thinking about something that I've read, God says something to me so crystal clear out of the blue that absolutely goes straight to my heart. I know that God is speaking. He wants to say something to you. He wants to protect you, to provide for you, to direct your life. We get instruction and direction from His Word. Not only that, time you and I spend with Him prepares us for conflict. Spending time with Him oftentimes prepares us, so quietens our soul that we are ready when something comes that would normally blow people off course that does not affect us because why? Because we know who is in control of our lives, prepares us for the storms of life.

Not only that, it anchors us for the storms. That is, when you and I spend time with Him, it's like He anchors us to the truth. He's in control. He's in charge.

He'll handle this and all we have to do is to follow Him, be obedient to Him, listen to Him, and watch Him demonstrate His awesome power in our lives. Certainly, when you and I are hurting, the place to go is to Him. When you're hurting and your heart's full of pain and you feel all alone and you don't have anybody else to go to, no one that you can tell those deepest, deepest, deepest thoughts of your life you've never shared with anyone, there's somebody you can tell and you never have to worry about whether he's confidential or not. You can unburden your heart. You can lay it all out and there's an awesome sense of comfort that you and I will never be able to understand.

One last thing I would say is this. When you and I spend time with Him, there is a joy in our life that has its source in nothing else in the world. There's this overwhelming sense of deep abiding joy that's deeper, stronger, and far more fulfilling than happiness. Happiness is dependent upon our circumstances.

Joy is dependent upon our relationship. Now, you think about this. If spending time with the Lord will cause all of those twelve things to happen in your life, let me ask you a question. Now, watch this. Can anybody anywhere in the world, name me any other experience in life that will give you all of that?

You cannot. Because we're relating to the Lord Jesus Christ who loved us enough to go to the cross and die for your sins and mine and then to send us the Holy Spirit to live on the inside of us to enable us to become godly men and women. Father, we love you and praise you. I pray the Holy Spirit will sink this truth into every heart that hears you.

Seal it tight. Let it take root. Let it bear fruit. And the fruit being transformed lives, people who love you, devoted to you, listen to you, long for you, learn from you, and walk in your ways is our prayer today in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to Life's Number One Priority. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.