Balancing Life's Demands - How To Keep First Things First, Part 1

Most of us are working on something in our lives. You know, some of us, it's a diet.

Others, it's working out. For others, it's family devotions or getting into God's Word or praying more deeply. But what I know is true about all of us is that we start off well and we make these commitments that are very sincere and then we seem to fade quickly.

Usually we don't last more than three or four days or maybe a week. If you want to learn how to not just put first things first, but keep your faith in God's Word, keep your faith in Him. Keep Him first. Stay with me.

That's today. Stay with us as Chip lays out what God's Word has to say about maintaining our priorities. Now before we begin, let me encourage you to use Chip's message notes while you listen. They'll help you get the most out of what you're about to hear.

Download them under the broadcast's tab at livingontheedge.org, app listeners tab, fill in notes. With that, here's Chip with today's talk from Hebrews chapter 12. Putting first things first is one thing. Keeping first things first, now that's a whole other thing. So we're going to talk about, well, how do you keep first things first? The problem is many start well, but few finish well. It's one thing to make a commitment and to really mean it. It's quite another thing to keep it sustained over a significant period of time so that those things that you know you want to do, you know God wants you to do. You find yourself little by little by little putting a week together into a month and a few months into a year and a few years into a decade and a couple decades and that's how you leave a legacy.

That's how life really plays out. It's what I'm doing today with a view to God's calling, His purpose and legacy in my life. Whether it's scanning, you can read the characters in this book and a lot of them start well.

I'm reading through right now just my personal devotional time. Just finished 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings. I've got news for you, there's a lot of Kings that start well, but I can only find a handful that finish well. Samson starts well, doesn't finish well. Solomon starts well, doesn't finish well. Demas started well, didn't finish well.

In the second half of life, some people that we all have admired seem to, something happens. A lot of churches start well, don't finish well. A lot of businesses, I mean remember the book In Search for Excellence by Tom Peters? There were 10 companies he profiled in that book. This is excellence.

I could be mistaken, but at least 9 out of 10 of those currently are out of business. They started well, in a season they were doing some things well, but it wasn't sustainable. So, you know that's really, you can kind of look at me like, well gosh I'm glad there's the good news for this session. No one else is finishing well, but somehow, right? That's the problem. In fact, closer to home, a lot of marriages start well. A lot of parenting starts well.

A lot of it doesn't finish well. And now that we've got the problem isolated, what's the solution? I'm going to suggest that the solution, apart from your own relationship with God, there's no quick easy. But for people who really want to follow Christ, for people that want to honor God, for people who want to balance their life and do things God's way for His glory and for their good and for others, the two words I would give you is biblical accountability. Biblical accountability. Let me give you a definition. Biblical accountability is enlisting the support of those who love me to help me keep my commitments to God. In other words, it's biblical.

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. It's not simply accountability. That's in some ways a negative word too. This is not getting a group of people that harass you. This is not getting a group of people that you can meet with on a regular basis to make you feel guilty.

This is not calling it, we're involved in accountability group, but everyone goes a little past the first superficial layer, but you never really get down to what's really going on. This is where you ask, you invite people into your life and you say, this isn't about expectations of other people. This is where you say, I want to be, in my case, I want to be a man of God. I want to be a great father. I want to be a great husband.

I want to be, in the eyes of God, a great pastor and a great friend. Will you help me keep my commitments to God? I don't want to fulfill your program.

I don't want to fulfill what you think. I'm asking you, would you enter into my inner world because of our relationship and our trust, will you help me keep my commitments to God? I'm going to open my life. I'm going to be honest. I'm going to be vulnerable. I'm going to share my victories. I'm going to share my struggles.

Will you help me? That's biblical accountability. And I'd like to suggest that there is no way to fulfill anything we've talked about without it. It's powerful. Ecclesiastes 4, 9 through 12 says, two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity, notice that pity the man, pity the woman who falls and you know you're going to fall and has no one to help him up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A chord of three is not quickly broken. We have an American individualistic mindset about spirituality and walking with God that is rooted somewhere deep in the heart of John Wayne. All right pilgrims, it's me.

It's not a very good imitation by the way either. And God, and I'm going to do it all by myself, you see. That was a little bit better. I want you to know that every New Testament command that I can find is in what's called grammatically the second person plural. Hey, be this kind of a husband, you all men.

Be this kind of a wife. Walk in purity, you all. Second person plural means you can't do it alone.

It's not hard. It is impossible to be a man of God, a woman of God, the kind of husband, the kind of pure single person, the kind of employer, employee, church member, elder, deacon. It's impossible, impossible to do what God's called you to do. You, God, your Bible. You need people.

I need people. But not people that are at a length, not people that know you superficially, not people that you let in on just certain things and the real deep struggles and the secrets and the difficulty and the pain and the hurts never get out on the table. You were never designed, it is impossible for you and impossible for me to make it apart from other people. We all agree. I mean, at this point, I love your faces. You're telling me I agree with that. Intellectually, everyone agrees with biblical accountability. I mean, back to you are your brother's keeper.

Our experience affirms it works. Some of you will look back and you could say, you know what, I would not be the person I am today apart and you're either thinking of a real close friendship, a mentor, a small group, a season at times that it was just like wow. I mean, there was connection, open, honesty, you were motivated. History affirms. I mean, we've got the Moravians, the Westleys, the Korean movement, the small group movement.

I mean, they didn't call them Methodists for nothing. It was their methodology. You were in a small group. You shared. In Methodism, people would meet twice a week and they would have corporate confession.

This is where I send this week. We ought to reintroduce that and see how it works. The Moravians did something very similar. If you see the mushrooming of the church in Korea built around the small group movement of holistic small groups, really ministering to one another. In fact, the world has learned it. They know that overcoming certain things, you know, if you go to AA, right, if you go to Al-Anon, if you go to Celebrate Recovery, if you go to Weight Watchers, if you go to Jenny, I mean, what has the world learned? People don't make lasting change unless they are together with other people, loving, encouraging, and holding one another accountable.

And yet, the great majority of all the Christians do not have or experience biblical accountability. I mean, you know, what do they do in group counseling? Rehab centers. Isn't it? Have you ever been around someone who has been through a 12-step program? Unbelievable. I mean, the level of honesty, I'll never forget this.

Power of accountability. We started a Celebrate Recovery program. Santa Cruz is where I pastored for about 12 and a half years. I mean, if you had an addiction, we had you in our church. I mean, it's a wild, crazy, crazy place, and so we started this, and this guy I never met came up afterwards, and he had a notebook in his hands that says, excuse me, I said, hi. He said, could I do my fourth step with you? And I said, I don't know what the fourth step is.

He said, well, I go to the Celebrate Recovery here, and it was on Friday nights, and a whole group of people that, you know, they hadn't made it quite to church yet, and they were making a lot of progress, and, you know, doing worship, and God was working, and I thought, you know, I should know more about this. I said, sure. He said, well, it'll take two hours. I said, well, you know, why don't you get with my assistant?

We'll figure it out. So we blocked off from two to four, and later that week, he came in, and he came in over and sat down. He goes, I mean, no, like, hey, how you doing?

Are you ready? I said, yeah. I said, exactly what is the fourth step? It says it's a total moral inventory where I go back through my life and try and discern, and I've asked, you know, it's not the higher power here. We believe Jesus is the higher power. He is my God, and I've asked God to reveal to me anything I've ever done to hurt anyone at any time, and I want to own the responsibility for what I've done and stop blaming anything or anyone including God, and you've got to get specific.

I said, okay, and he had, you know, a yellow pad, all handwritten, because when I was seven years old, he started, when I was 11 years old, and I mean, he told me stuff I'm thinking, I would not, I mean, you know, and I'm thinking, here, I'm a pastor of a church. I have staff meetings. We talk about vulnerability, and, you know, I'm thinking, I think we're doing like a C-minus in terms of honesty and vulnerability compared to this guy, and that's why the secrets get out and strongholds are broken. We need one another.

Well, if we agree we need one another so much, we know it works. Question, why don't more believers have authentic biblical accountability that allows you to sustain the discipline and the arenas that God is revealing to you that you know you want, and you long for him to change in you? And I would like to give you five reasons why accountability is essential for spiritual success, and what you're going to find is we're going to start right where we were in the last passage. I'm going to make the case that the apostle Paul, one of the greatest Christians, if not the greatest Christian of all time, is going to say, here's my greatest desire, and here's my greatest fear, and his greatest fear is that he would blow it. And then he's going to teach us through 1 Corinthians chapter 10 the necessity and the reasons for biblical accountability, and then at the very end I'm going to say, okay, have you ever had someone say, I think they're trying to sell me, I think they're trying to persuade me right now, but I'm not sure? I want you to know, I am.

No holes barred. I'm going to try and convince you from scripture, and I pray the Spirit's energizing power in his word. When I get done in about 20 minutes going through these passages, I hope you'll go, I've got to have biblical accountability. I mean, whatever it takes, I've got to have it.

But I'm going to give you just a little game plan, some practical ways to get it operational, and then the ball's in your court, all right? Here we go. Five reasons biblical accountability is essential for spiritual success. Number one, because we never outgrow the need for personal accountability. We never outgrow the need for personal accountability.

And you say, Chip, where do you get that? Well, let's listen one more time to what the apostle Paul said. He says, verse 24 of chapter 9 of 1 Corinthians, do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you win. And everyone who competes in the games, those Olympic games, exercises, discipline, or self-control in all things, well, they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we do it in imperishable. Therefore, application, I run in such a way, not without aim, I box in such a way as not beating the air, clear-cut goal, I buffet my body, and I make it my slave, discipline, less possibly after I preach to others, I myself should be disqualified. Paul's greatest desire? Great use for Christ. Paul's greatest fear?

I think I might, myself, get disqualified. I'll get off track. Here's the principle. If Paul had those concerns, how much more should we? I'm thinking to myself, can you imagine, I mean, if it was possible, can you just imagine, what if the apostle Paul just showed up in the flesh?

And can you imagine sitting down across from him? It would never enter my mind that this guy, down deep in his heart, is concerned that someday, someway, through subtle deception, he might no longer be God's man and walk with him. But that's what he's telling us, right here. Leaders are among the most susceptible. And by the way, the more responsibility one gets, the more accountability that you need. Leaders have more time alone than others. The more you lead, and by the way, it can be in your family, it can be in your church, it can be in your company, people start assuming, you've been in the Lord a long time, people go for you for wisdom, and this and that. No one asks you the hard questions anymore.

In fact, it would be embarrassing to ask some of you people the hard questions because, I mean, you're so mature, you're so godly, you would never have those thoughts, right? Wrong. And so we never outgrow the need for personal accountability. And the greater the responsibility you have, either spiritually, family-wise, and by the way, when I say leaders, ladies, don't click into that, some of you will, you know, I do most of my leading at home. Is that not like the most important leadership role? Isn't that all future generations? So, you know, I need this, you need this, there's great pressure as you lead, and therefore a great opportunity for compromise.

So the first reason is you never outgrow it. The second reason that we need biblical accountability for spiritual success is because past successes are no guarantee of future faithfulness. Past successes, and this is very subtle, I've been walking with God for years, I read my Bible, I pray, I go to church, my family's done this, and you know what, I mean, I'm a man, or I have a few little struggles here and there, but I'm not having big problems with the internet.

I mean, hey, you know, lighten up, guy, I mean, I'm just, I'm okay. Past successes are no guarantee of future faithfulness, and you say, well, where do you get that? I get it from what Paul said. After Paul just finishing telling me, I'm afraid I might blow it, he reaches back into the Old Testament, and he's gonna go back and look at, wow, let's take a look at the Israelites, and let's get some lessons from them about people that had some pretty cool experiences. I mean, that's some past success.

How would you like to be on the, I went through the Red Sea team and got a t-shirt at the end, hey, I was there, or I was on the Manna team, 40 years, you know, little picture over here, you know, little logo that says, you know, I ate special kind of bread for 40 years and never, or how about I was on the, I watched Corey get swallowed up, you know, on team, you know, remember that part, or maybe the group that has a little insignia of a snake, remember when those people were grumbling, and the serpents, and I mean, oh yes, I was on the fire by night, and the Shekinah Glory by Day team. Do you realize how many amazing, overwhelming, supernatural experiences the children of Israel had? I wanna tell you something, but write this down. Your spiritual experiences will not sustain you. God's works will not sustain you.

Only His ways will sustain you. And this is in the notes, but jot down Psalm 103, seven. After that great introduction about not forgetting and blessing the Lord, there's almost a weird verse because, like, where does this fit? It's the hinge of that Psalm. And after it talks about remembering all of God's works, His works, His works, His works, His works, and then after verse seven, it's all about His character, His faithfulness, His love, as far as the east is from the west, you know, all that. There's this funny verse.

He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. God's acts, you know, He healed your boy of cancer. They came through the car wreck.

You didn't go into bankruptcy. I mean, these amazing acts, we could pile them up. God's done so many things, and yet, two months later, two years later, you have a crisis, what happens? Oh, God, where are you?

It's no different than the Red Sea and the manna and the serpents and all the rest. It's His ways that sustain you. That's why Moses wasn't saying, God, give me one more great experience. He said, Lord, I want to see your glory. I want to know you. I want to know what you're like.

I want to know your heart. So he reaches back in the Old Testament and notice the connecting word for. He's giving a reason. He says that I should be disqualified because Paul's looking back and saying, if those people with those amazing experiences can get disqualified, who am I? He says, for I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud. They all passed through the sea. And they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea. And they all ate the same spiritual food, the manna, and they drank the same spiritual drink. For they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.

Underline the next word. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness. Walking with God in the past is no guarantee that you'll walk with Him in the future. Yesterday's experiences do not make you useful for tomorrow. There's no such thing as spiritual autopilot. We now have 30 pheasant feet. If you can lean back, put up your sleigh tray, you will walk with God until you die.

Wrong. You're either growing or shrinking spiritually. For all of us, you could tell me stories of some of your great heroes. A pastor, a mentor, a church leader, that I mean, you just, I mean, somewhere in your spiritual journey, they were like, whoa, hey, someday, some way, I want to be. And right now, they're a moral failure, right? And you, we all have at least one, I've got more than a few, of people that I will tell you far more gifted than me, love God far more than me, who are not only not in the ministry, but they're not married to the same person or involved in horrendous things.

I mean, there's people that have led thousands of people to Christ and had amazing impact, who somewhere along the line thought there was a new set of rules for them. Doesn't really apply to me. I'm under a lot of pressure.

I have a little more freedom than other people. And, boy, it's sad. The third reason is because we constantly underestimate the power of our own sinful passions. I mean, it begs the question, well, how, how can some of the most committed, gifted people in all the body of Christ, both in Bible times and our times, how in the world can you get off track? And hopefully, in your heart of hearts, you're saying, I don't ever want to get off track, and I don't know how I could get off of track, but, gosh, if Paul thinks he could get off track, and if all those people, the nation of Israel got off track, and some people that were my heroes got off track, I guess I could. But how?

I mean, what happens? You and I underestimate the power of our own sinful passions. So let me ask you, how about you?

How are you doing? Do you have genuine, authentic relationships to keep you personally accountable? Have you faced those areas? You know, it says the very last point was we constantly underestimate the power of our own sinful passions. I mean, I use the illustration of David, a man after God's own heart. I mean, a man who knew God's word, a man that God used to actually speak God's word to us.

If he can blow it in the right circumstances, at a weak time, in a moment where his guard is down, that's true of all of us. And so I want to ask you two questions. Number one, where are you most vulnerable? And number two, do you have at least one person in your life that you can unzip your heart, literally lay it on the table, let them see the good, the bad, and the ugly, know that you will not be judged, and get the secrets out and say, I need help. Will you help me keep my commitments to God? Do you have that person in your life?

We all need that person. Otherwise, you do slip, you do struggle. It starts with a little thought. It starts with just an idea, and then it begins to germinate in your heart, and then you act on it in some very small little way. Maybe it's a visual issue, or a financial issue, or a coveting issue, and then it starts to grow inside your heart and inside your mind. And then the enemy creeps in and begins to bring the condemnation, and you call yourself a Christian, and then begins to entice what could happen and how sweet it would be and what you can have. And I will tell you, in a period of days and weeks and months, you can have an interior and an exterior life that are going two completely different directions, and then you think it could never happen to you. You would never seriously do that, whatever that is, and yet you find you make a mistake in a moment of weakness with the right circumstances that destroys your life, destroys your relationships, mars God's reputation.

And so I appeal to you today, what is the area where you're most vulnerable? Is it lust of the flesh? Is it lust of the eyes? Is it the pride of life? I mean, is it the wanting of more?

Is it work? Is it money? Is it sex?

Or is it being a big shot? I don't know what it is. We all struggle. Identify it today, and then find one close friend. Maybe you even have to make a phone call. Maybe it's an old college roommate.

Maybe it's a pastor that you had at the last church. Find someone that you can be honest with today and say, here's what's going on in my life. I just needed to share it openly. I've asked God to forgive me. Will you help me keep my commitments to God? Confess your sins to one another, James says, that you might be healed.

The only thing that keeps me from doing this personally is my pride, my pride that I don't want anyone to think that I would, quote, still struggle in that area or in that way. But grace flows toward humility. Humble yourself, therefore, into the mighty hand of God that he could lift you up. He wants to help you today. Deal with it.

You'll be glad you did. Thanks, Chip. You're listening to Living on the Edge and the first part of Chip's message, How to Keep First Things First, from our current series, Balancing Life's Demands. Do you long to get out from under the pressure to do more, have more, and achieve more? In this five-part series, Chip provides practical biblical steps to help you move your life from chaos to contentment. You'll discover what it means to prioritize your hopes around God's hopes for your life and how to not only put first things first, but keep them there.

You're not going to want to miss a single part of this series. For a limited time, the resources for Balancing Life's Demands are discounted and the MP3s are always free. For more details, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or LivingOnTheEdge.org.

App listeners, tap Special Offers. Well, Chip, it's no secret that this has been the most disruptive season in our history. And, you know, for a lot of people, it's become a real challenge to get plugged back in spiritually. Now, what do you recommend for people looking to find that rhythm again?

Well, Dave, I think most people would say start reading the Bible, spend quality time with God, take maybe some passages where you're struggling and memorize a short chapter. I think all of those would be great places to start, but most of us are struggling with the lack of community. Isolation has killed us.

The enemy, that's his goal, to get us isolated, to get us discouraged, to get us looking inward. And the only way to experience the life of the Holy Spirit is to be with people. We need to get in a room with a group of people centered around the Word of God and say we're going to meet every week or every other week. We're going to do life together. We're going to be open.

We're going to be honest. We're going to dig in. We're going to apply the scripture to our lives, and we're going to encourage one another.

It's been a really, really hard last 18 to 24 months. We need each other. And so let me encourage you to go to our website and choose the small group study that best meets the needs of your family or a group of men, a group of women, or a group of couples. We have studies to help you get back in sync, get in rhythm, get in community, because there's life there.

And God longs for us to experience the very life of Christ, but we can't do it alone. Thanks, Chip. Well, we have a growing library of small group resources on a wide range of topics, and they're so easy to use. Chip provides the teaching, then you'll have time to discuss what you've heard alongside our helpful study guides. We even offer some insights for leaders to lead their groups well.

So if you're not in a small group yet or you aren't sure what to study next, let me encourage you to check out our resources. As Chip said, for a limited time, we've discounted all of our small group resources so you can get into community starting today. To learn more, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or call us at 888-333-6003.

That's 888-333-6003 or LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap special offers. Hey, before we go, let me remind you of an easy way to listen to our extended teaching podcast. Hear Chip anytime on Amazon's Alexa Echo and Echo Dot. Just say, Alexa, open Living on the Edge, and you'll hear that day's extended teaching anytime you want. Well, for Chip and everyone here, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge.