Setting Right Priorities - Life of Christ Part 37

Boy, there's some pretty nasty stuff going on with the Olympic figure skating, isn't there?

What a mess. And that's why I think it's so refreshing to read about Kristin Talbot. Have you been reading about Kristin?

Kristin Talbot is a woman speed skater who made the Olympic team, but this past week she wasn't training with the Olympic team the way you would think she would have been. Actually, this past week, Kristin Talbot was in the hospital, in Johns Hopkins Hospital up in Baltimore. You say, well, what happened to her?

Well, the answer is nothing happened to her. She was in the hospital for her brother. Her brother has aplastic anemia and he needed a bone marrow transplant in order to live.

And when it was found that she had a matching tissue type, she went into the hospital right away because he needed it right away. And this past week, they took bone marrow out of her hip and gave it to her younger brother. Now, how is all this going to affect her Olympic performance? Well, experts say she won't be able to train as hard as she ought to for the Olympics next month. She won't be able to train as long as she ought to for the Olympics next month. The oncologist at Johns Hopkins, a fellow named Richard Iambinder said, she's going to be very sore for at least a few days. We say that giving bone marrow is like being kicked by a horse.

I've never been kicked by a horse, but I imagine it hurts. And most experts think that this is going to hurt her chances to get a medal. Well, when asked about this, when asked, how do you feel? I mean, you trained all these years to get to the Olympics and now something like this happens.

How do you feel about this? Here's what she said. She said, skating is skating and the Olympics are the Olympics, but life is life.

Skating is important, but nothing is more important than my brother's life. End of quote. What a great gal. And you know, as I read about that, I put down my cup of coffee and I kind of been keeping up with her for the last week in the paper. And I said to myself, this gal just made a priority decision. She just made a decision that her brother's life was to go ahead and was more important than Olympic gold.

That's a priority decision. And then there's the case of Michigan's Tyrone Wheatley and Ohio State's Joey Galloway. You say, well, who are they? Well, they're two of the best football players in the college ranks these days. And a week or so ago, when 16 of the other best juniors in American college football decided to skip their senior year and come out of college and turn pro and go in the NFL, these two guys, Wheatley from Michigan, Galloway from Ohio State, decided that they were going to stay in school for their last year. Wheatley's coach said, what we're dealing with here is life versus money. Tyrone Wheatley chose life and it takes a special person to do a special thing like this.

Galloway himself said, I wasn't brought up putting the emphasis on material things. Money is important, but it doesn't drive my life, end of quote. Now, here are two guys who made what kind of a decision? A priority decision.

Very good. Meaning that they had to choose what was more important. In this case, money or staying in school and graduating and they decided they were going to stay in school.

But Tyrone Wheatley and Joey Galloway and Kristin Talbot are all just examples of what you and I have to face every single day, don't we? We have to face priority decisions. When you look up priority in Webster, what you'll find is it says, ranking things in the order of importance. Ranking things in order of importance. And so making a priority decision simply means we look at a whole mass of things and we pick out the most important thing and put it first, the next most important thing and put it second and down the list. That's what it means. Now, I don't know about you, but I find in my life making priority decisions is one of the most difficult jobs I have.

Making sure I get number one thing number one and number two thing number two instead of getting number one thing number six and number seven thing number two, that is a real challenge for my life every day. And this is the whole issue that Jesus Christ wants to talk to us about. We sang in the song, the reason I live is to worship you.

We just got through singing that. Is that really true of your life? Say, well, I don't know. Well, by the time we're done, I'm going to ask you the question again, and we're going to evaluate how you do it.

Is that really true in your life? Let's talk for a minute. Here in Luke chapter 10, verse 38, as Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. Now we know the name of this little town was Bethany. Bethany is not very far from Jerusalem, maybe a 40 minute walk, 45 minute walk over top the Mount of Olives.

And you come down the other side and you're right there. And Jesus and his disciples, it was the end of the day and they had shown up in town. Now, Martha was somewhere, I don't know where she was. Martha was maybe in the village square shopping, or maybe she was in the supermarket, or maybe she's just walking down the street and she ran into Jesus and she ran into his disciples. Remember there were 12 of these big burly fishermen who'd been walking all day long and she invites them to come to supper. Now that was kind of a different ending of the day, I think, than Martha had planned on. Martha had only planned to feed herself, her sister whose name was Mary, and her brother whose name was Lazarus.

There were three of them. That's all she planned to feed. All of a sudden she's got Jesus and 12 hungry guys who've walked all day and are ready to sit down and chow down. Now when I think of this, I think of what it would be like if, let's say, after the Super Bowl last year, they had interviewed Troy Aikman as he came running off the field and said to Troy Aikman, where you going now, Troy?

And he would have said, I'm not going to Disney World, I'm going over Martha's house for dinner and I'm bringing the whole offensive team with me. That's kind of like what she was getting. Now, do you think that was stressful for Martha? How is it when guests are coming to your house? Is it stressful? I'll tell you what, it's stressful in my house. You know those things where they rate stress?

You know, they have 200 points for this thing and 100 points for this thing. I tell you, if they rated us for guests coming to our house, we would be right up there with moving, losing your job, and finding out you're pregnant at 39. That's where we would be with guests coming to our house. I have learned never ever to tell Brenda any bad news within three days of guests coming over. So how did you learn that? Because I did it. And after I did it, I was sorry I ever did it.

And I said, Whoa, man, I'm never doing that again. I mean, we are stressed three days in advance when we got guests coming over. And that's if we only got friends coming over. Can you imagine here's Jesus whose name is on the front page of every newspaper in Israel, and 12 burly fishermen who've walked all day long and are starving and are all coming to Martha's house for dinner. You think she was a little stressed out? I think she was. And that stress is about to blow all over the walls here in just a second.

Watch. And verse 39 says she had a sister named Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. Jesus enters the house. Remember, it's just a little crackerjack box house here. This is not a big house. And he comes in with all of his 12 disciples.

People are plastered all over everywhere. And Jesus sits down and begins to talk. He begins to talk about spiritual things.

He begins to teach spiritual truth. And Martha is running around trying to get everything ready for dinner while Mary is just kind of plopped down, crossed her legs, and is sitting there listening to Jesus. Now, Martha is just completely frantic. The Bible says here that if you look at it that she was distracted by all the preparations that she had to make. She was washing the dirty dishes from lunch, and she was setting the table and she was putting ice in the glasses, and she was making sure the hors d'oeuvres were running in and making sure she got them in there while they were hot.

And she already sent Lazarus back to town three times to get more food so she was sure she wouldn't run out. She had to make sure the rolls came out at the same time, the green beans, so everything was hot on the table at the same time. And she was just a wreck. She was a wreck. And she blew into the living room to bring in a new plate of hors d'oeuvres. And there she sees her sister Mary sitting down, crossed leg on the floor, chomping down on hors d'oeuvres and listening to Jesus while she's out in the kitchen working her heart out. And it just did not go down well. Martha was not a happy camper.

Look what happened. And it says she went up to the Lord and she said to him, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to get up and get out there and help me. Man, she walked in and she said, now Lord, I want to tell you something. I'm really upset.

I mean, I'm downright ticked off. I'm out there in that kitchen and I got sweat. You see the sweat? I got sweat rolling down my face. Look at this messing up my makeup. See my mascara.

It's running all over everywhere. I'm out here sweating like a pig in the kitchen over that hot stove and my sister's sitting out here. I'd love to sit down and relax.

Yes, I would. I'd love to sit down and eat some of these hors d'oeuvres. I would love to do it if I could, but if I do it, we're not going to get anything to eat. You know that we're not going to get any food if I sit down and eat. And here's my sister Mary sitting right here just sitting down and eating and I want her out in the kitchen. Why should I have to sit in the kitchen and work as hard as I'm working while she's in here? Just listening to you, tell her to get up and get her lazy body out there and help me. It went something like that. Martha was having a bad day.

Not a good day. Now when I look at Martha, I think of OC people. You say OC, yeah. Obsessive compulsive people. Does that strike you as Martha? You say, I don't know Lon, I'm not a psychologist. I'm not sure I understand. What is an obsessive compulsive person? Well let me tell you, because some of you are one and as soon as I describe them, you know the person sitting next to you is going to punch you and go, that's you.

Okay. Now how do you know if you're obsessive compulsive? Well listen, you're obsessive compulsive if when you go on vacation, you still sit down every morning and make a list of things to do. You're obsessive compulsive. You're obsessive compulsive if you're always doing a whole bunch of things at once, like dictating letters into your micro cassette as you drive home in rush hour traffic eating a Big Mac. You're obsessive compulsive if you like to take psychological tests every single year just to see if you've become more obsessive compulsive, then you got it bad folks. You're obsessive compulsive if you take all your children in order from oldest to youngest and name them in alphabetical order. That's obsessive compulsive behavior.

Obsessive compulsive people are people who thrive on doing, not being, but doing. That's where they get their jollies. That's where they get their self-esteem strokes is from doing, doing, doing, doing, doing.

Now I saw some of you punch some of you. You say I'm sitting right next to one of those people. Well you probably are. Obsessive compulsive people are usually perfectionists. They're consumed with making sure every little detail is right. They can't just sit and relax. You say sit and relax.

They can't sit and relax. You say just sit down and talk. I don't want to talk. I want to do something. What's nothing to do?

Well I'll find something to do. Projects are more important than people. These obsessive compulsive people are critical of themselves which wouldn't be so bad except they're critical of everybody else which is bad. They have a need to control everything. They want to control everybody and everything and they're obsessed with control and all of this put together means that they're always in the middle of interpersonal conflict.

They're always in the middle of power struggles. These are obsessive compulsive people. You got a good handle on Martha now? Okay. If Martha was living today we would say that she's a prime candidate for OCA.

Obsessive compulsive what? Anonymous. Right.

You got it. And here she blows into this room and she got steam rolling out of her ears. She's completely lost it.

Her blood pressure is running 200 over 150 and she is so upset because things are just not going the way they're supposed to go. Well now look what Jesus said. Verse 41. He says, Martha, Martha. Can't you just hear him saying that? Martha, Martha, would you calm down? Would you relax?

You can blow a gasket, dear. Calm down. Calm down. Martha, you've let your priorities get all scrambled up. You've lost sight of what's really important here tonight. Eating supper is not the most important thing happening tonight here, dear.

You've lost perspective. You are worried about so many things, Martha, but there's really only one thing happening here tonight that's really critical. It's really needed. Mary's chosen that. To sit and listen to me. To sit and concentrate on me. To drink my words in her soul. To feed her spiritual nature. More than worrying about feeding her physical nature. That's what's really important.

She's chosen what's better and it's something that won't be taken away from her. You know, Jesus said the same thing earlier. He said in Matthew chapter 4, man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

That's what Mary had chosen. Now did Jesus condemn Martha for trying to put on a great supper? No. Was he angry at her? No. Was he mad that she ran in the room like that? No. Was he upset that she was out there working so hard trying to get dinner on? No. What she was doing was good.

It wasn't bad. But he was trying to get her to see there was something better that she was missing which was sitting and listening to him. And he said to her, Martha, look, there's a right time to work for me.

Yes. But there's also a right time to just sit and listen to me and feed your soul and commune with me. And of the two, Martha, sitting is more important than serving. You need to sit down, dear. We'll get to dinner later.

And if we don't get to dinner and if it's not perfect, it's no big deal. Just sit down. Now that's where the passage stops kind of abruptly. And it leads us to ask the question, so what? And then when we're done, I'm going to answer the question, now what?

But let's do so what first, okay? When you look at Mary and Martha, which one of these two do you kind of most identify with? Don't raise your hand.

Let's kind of take a little poll. But don't raise your hand. I don't want to embarrass you. How many of you identify with Mary and how many of you identify with Martha?

Well, I'll tell you without any attempt to explain it. I'm a Martha. I mean, that's all. I mean, I don't have probably 1% of Mary in me. I mean, I'm Martha all the way.

Maybe you are too. And I suspect that a lot of us here are Martha's because Washington D.C. attracts obsessive compulsive people. In fact, if you are obsessive compulsive, Washington D.C. is kind of like Mecca. You know what I'm saying? This is where everybody wants to make their pilgrimage to if you're obsessive compulsive.

The adrenaline is in the air. It's in the water. You know, testosterone just kind of floats around this place.

It's an incredible place. I'm not saying it's good. I'm just saying that's the way it is. And even if you're not naturally this way, even if you don't want to be this way, even if you don't want to live this rat race obsessive compulsive pace, Washington makes you live this way whether you want to live this way or not, just to survive. I mean, at your office, you've got proposals and hearings and all kinds of time-sensitive documents that have to be done that drive you to bring work home at night, to go back to the office late, to work on Saturday, to work on Sunday, to work all the time. You've got financial strain of living in one of the most expensive areas in the world where you almost need two incomes just to survive. You've got eternal gridlock everywhere you go. It's gridlock.

There are cars everywhere. And if you've got children, whoo, man, add that on top of it. And you've got school meetings and basketball and baseball and ballet and piano and soccer and no doctor ever makes house calls.

And how come you picked a pediatrician so far away from you that you've got to drive all that distance? I mean, it is unbelievable what this place does to people. You know what I found about people who are obsessive compulsive? They have a very hard time setting good spiritual priorities, just like Martha had a hard time. You know what I find about people who are being forced to live like obsessive compulsives? They have a very hard time setting good spiritual priorities, just like Martha had trouble.

See, obsessive compulsive people, they get their strokes by doing things. See, that was Martha's problem. Martha wanted to do things. She wanted to put on a dinner that was so good that the apostles would get up and Peter would say, best meal I ever had since I was a fisherman. And Jesus would even get up and come over and go, Martha, that was superb. That was exquisite.

Best meal I've had in a long time. Man, her self-esteem would have gone right through the roof. But to sit and listen while the rolls burned? No, that is not a self-esteem builder if you're obsessive compulsive.

And yet, do you understand what was happening? Martha was running around like a crazy woman, feeding her self-esteem while her soul was starving. That's the problem obsessive compulsive people have.

And if you're living in an obsessive compulsive society like Washington, DC, you're going to be pushed into trying to live just like that. Now, whether you consider yourself obsessive compulsive or not, Jesus Christ is challenging us here to examine our priorities when it comes to feeding our soul. Everybody knows Psalm 23, right?

Just about. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green, what?

Pastors. He leads me beside still. He restores my. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no. Hey, you guys know it.

That's great. Now, you know what? In this Psalm, David is using some metaphors to describe what happens when we set aside time for our souls to be with God. Listen to what he said. He said when you set aside time for your soul to be with God, it's like you're a sheep who doesn't have any needs.

All your needs are met. It's like you're in green pastures. It's like you're in still waters. It's like you can walk through the valley of the shadow of death with everybody around you terrified and you're calm as can be.

He summed it up by saying your soul is restored. You say, but Lon, in this crazy world that we live in with all the turmoil and the upheaval and the confusion, this is a pipe dream. This is a fantasy. Nobody can have that kind of life in this world. Oh, wait a minute.

Yes, they can. I believe that what David is describing is available to every single genuine Christian. You can have it if you know Christ, but folks, listen, it doesn't come to Martha's who are scurrying around in the kitchen spending all of their time just trying to do, do, do, do, do. No, it comes to Mary's who have dedicated, who have carved out some time to sit quietly at Jesus's feet and feed their souls. That's why Jesus said, Mary has chosen the better thing.

As I meet Christians and talk to Christians everywhere, what I find is there are very few of us who are experiencing what David talked about. And the reason is there are very few of us who are really carving out the kind of time that it takes to get there. And the reason is that we live in a society of the quick fix. We all want the quick fix. Not only do we want it physically, we want it spiritually.

Everybody wants a quick fix. You know, we want God to zap us with some burning bush experience. We want to be walking along one day and all of a sudden the boxwood in our front yard is on fire. And God talks to us from the boxwood and then for six months we go on the strength of that experience and we don't have to do anything.

But folks, it doesn't work that way. We want some kind of dramatic spiritual moment that fixes us for months. But the truth is that David had a spiritual life that came from regular spiritual discipline. In many senses he was like an Olympic gold medalist who got that gold medal because of years of regular athletic discipline. It didn't just happen because the speed skater or the ice skater walked on the ice and said, oh, this is fun. I think I'll do it in the Olympics. No, no, no. There are years and years and years of training and preparation and hard work behind the scenes before they ever get out there and perform like that.

And that was true of David's spiritual life. I work out at a gym here locally. I try to work out three days a week.

I usually make it sometimes a little less. But I ride the life cycle right up by the front desk where new people come in. I love to listen to new people come in. They come in and they look around at all the people working out there. And you know, I mean, I'm telling you, I'm a shrimp compared to most people who work out in this gym. Not the gals, the guys. I'm a shrimp compared to most of the guys.

Some of the gals actually. But anyway, there are some incredible specimens that work out at this gym. And I watch people and they walk in and they look around and they look around and you sense them say, I want to be like Mike. I mean, here they're looking around and going, wow, this is what I want to look like.

And then they ask this kind of a question. How many weeks am I going to have to work before I begin getting in shape like these people? And you watch the instructors try not to giggle because these people didn't get in that kind of shape in a matter of weeks.

Do you understand what I'm saying to you? These people are in there four days a week and five days a week, year after year after year. And that's why they look like that. They didn't get to look like that in three weeks. But we have people who walk in the gym and want the three week fix. Now there are some of those people who after year and year and year and year and year are never going to look like some of those people, but they're going to look better.

They'll look better. And the point that I'm trying to make to you is, folks, there is no quick fix to looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. It takes time and discipline and hard work and consistency and regularity. And that's the way it is in the spiritual realm. We watch people who get out on the football field. I don't know if you enjoy it. Are you enjoying watching football games this weekend? I mean, this is kind of like, this is the best time of the year. You know, this is like heaven if you're a sports fan.

And football games, basketball games, this is awesome time. But anyway, when you watch those guys out on the field, I love to sit and listen to my kids comment. How could he miss that pass? What an idiot. He dropped that pass. I could get out there and catch that pass.

Oh, really? You could get out there and catch that pass? Absolutely.

After Lawrence Taylor's hit you twice, you could catch that pass. You bet. Right. If you've ever sat home and said that, God bless you, but you know, you need to go home and confess that you lied. You can't get out there and do that.

And neither can I. And we watch these people go out on that football field and do incredible stuff. And we say, oh boy, would I love to go out there on that field and be just like them.

But wait a minute. What we don't see is the years and years and years those guys spent off the field, in the weight room, in the training room, on the practice field, getting themselves prepared so they could go on the field and do what they do. Now the same thing is true in the spiritual life. We look at the Apostle Paul, we look at Moses, we look at Ruth, we look at Deborah, we look at some of these great men and women of the Bible and down through church history and we go, oh, I want to be like them. How can I get to be like them in three weeks? You can't. You see, these people had years and years and years of spiritual discipline that made them the men and women of God that they were.

And there is no shortcut to that. They had their priorities right. And when it finally came their opportunity to go on the field, they were ready and they were able to perform correctly because of all the time they had spent off the field before that, preparing themselves spiritually for that moment. We don't want to prepare ourselves but we want to go on the field and do what they do. Can't do it.

Won't happen. Friends, we got to make some priority decisions if we want to be the men and women that God want us to be. We have to decide to put our time with Jesus Christ ahead of some other things that may be good things but they're not the best things.

That's the message Jesus Christ is trying to communicate to us this morning. I want to close with the story of two men that ended up in prison. Very different though what happened once they got there.

And it all depends on how they were prepared. Listen to the story. The first is of a man named Howard Rutledge. Howard Rutledge was an Air Force pilot who flew during the Vietnam War. He was shot down over North Vietnam.

He was captured, put in a POW camp, spent a number of years in North Vietnam and when he got out he wrote a book entitled In the Presence of Mine Enemies. Here's what he said and I quote. He said, before I was downed, I usually worked or played hard on Sundays and had no time for church or God. I was too busy. I was too preoccupied.

For years my wife would encourage me to join the family at church but I wouldn't. Now that I was in POW camp, the sights and the sounds and the smell of death were all around me. Now I wanted to know about eternal things. Now I wanted to talk about God and Christ but in solitary confinement in North Vietnam there was no pastor, no Sunday school teacher, no Bible, no hymn book, nothing to guide and sustain me.

I had completely neglected the spiritual dimension of my life and it showed. One man in jail. Listen to the story of another man in jail. And after Paul and Silas had been beaten, they were thrown into prison where the jailer put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks and about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God so loudly that all the prisoners were listening and suddenly the gates to the prison swung open and the chains dropped off of all the prisoners and the jailer rushed in and terrified. He fell at the feet of Paul and he cried out in fear, sir, what must I do to be saved and know God the way you know him and Paul said, you need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you can know God just the way I do.

Hey, kind of different experiences in jail, huh? And what was the difference between the way one man went to jail and the other man went to jail, the attitude of one man in jail and the attitude of another man in jail? You say, well, Paul had different stuff going through his veins than Mr. Rutledge. No, he didn't.

I don't know what blood types they were but it was hemoglobin all. You say, well, Paul was just more of a man, that's all, just more of a man. Now, wait a minute, here's a man who shot down and spends years in prisoner of war camp in North Vietnam and survives and comes out to write about it. He's not a man.

Come on, get real. No, Paul wasn't any more of a man than Mr. Rutledge. What was the difference? Listen, the difference was spiritual preparation.

Do you hear what Rutledge said? I didn't have any time for God. I didn't need God. I played games on Sunday and then when I really turned the corner and suddenly there was the biggest crisis of my life, I had no preparation. Paul had been preparing himself for years and years and years and years with regular disciplined spiritual walk and when he turned the corner and there was jail, he was ready. He was prepared.

He had the resources to deal with it. You say, Lon, what's the point? The point is, my dear friend, how about you and your priorities? Are you setting aside regular time to read your Bible and to spend time with God in prayer and to listen to God talk to you back? Or are you so busy feeding your ego and your career and your ministry and your personal ambition that you're starving your soul? You know, it is so sad. I see people everywhere who have all the money they want, all the fame they want, all the prestige you could ever get, all the power you could ever want, all the material possessions, their career is at the top, but their souls are starving to death and their lives are falling apart. See, they neglected the best thing, maybe for some good things, but they missed the best thing. If I ask your best friend or your wife or your husband or your children, are you a Martha or a Mary, what would they tell me?

Well, Mary chose the best thing. I hope you will too. It's never too late.

I don't care how bad you've neglected your spiritual disciplines, it's never too late to start. You say, but Lon, I don't know how to do it. Hey, give me a formula, Lon.

Would you stop with the quick fix? Give me a formula. I need a formula. What do I read? What do I do? No, no, no. It's not like that. Just get your Bible out and read it and let God talk to you and get on your knees and tell him about what you're facing and talk to him. And then while you're on your knees, shut up for a while and let him talk to you. Simple. God will do the rest.

The reason most of us don't have that kind of time with God is not because it's hard, but because we don't discipline our lives to carve it out and make it a priority. Well, I'm going to close with now what? My question is, so what are you going to do with what we've talked about today?

What are you going to do with it? You say, well, I'm going to walk out and say, Lon was right. Yeah, but what are you going to do about it?

Oh, I'm going to get in the car on the way home and I'm going to say, Lon was on today, wasn't he? No, no, no. What are you going to do about it? Well, I'm going to go upstairs and buy tape and give it to my best friend.

They need this. No, no, no. Wait a minute. What are you going to do about it? What am I going to do about it? Yeah, tomorrow morning at 6 a.m., what are you going to do about it?

Well, I don't know. Well, folks, if it's not going to change what you do tomorrow in your daily schedule, Lon wasn't on and this didn't do you a bit of good. It's got to change our life. What are you going to do about it?

God will help you, but you got to make the commitment and do something. And let me say now in closing one other thing, if you're here and you're like Howard Rutledge, you know the fellow I read about that pilot, and you're kind of like too busy and too preoccupied and you don't have any time for God in your life, and you're pretty much going along just kind of putting right along with the rest of the world. Can I read you the last sentence? I skipped the last sentence in his quote.

Let me read the very last sentence. He went on to say, it took prison in North Vietnam to show me how empty life is without God. And if you're here, I hope it doesn't take prison in North Vietnam or something like that in your life to show you how much you need God in your life. If you're tired of trying to struggle it out yourself, if you've tried to do it the way the world tells you to do it and it just hasn't satisfied, before it takes tragedy to wake you up, this morning would be a great time for you to say, God, let's try it another way.

Let's try it with you in my life. I hope you'll think about that. And I hope even this morning you'll say, God, it's time for you to become a part of my life. I've been too busy, too preoccupied, but that's going to change. Let's close our eyes and bow our heads and let's pray. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed this morning, if you're here and you're a Christian and you know you're a Christian and you really feel there's a need for some change in your daily schedule, God has spoken to your heart about the need to make sure he is a priority and you're willing to go out and do something about it, do something about it, then I want you to make a commitment to the Lord this day.

Ask for his help. You'll need his help, but he needs your commitment. And I want to pray with you and I want us to do more than just kind of have a nice idea or a nice resolution. We need to make a commitment.

If you're willing to do that, that beginning tomorrow morning, you're going to make a change. Then with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, nobody looking around, I'd like you to slip your hand up so we can pray together. Anyone like to do that? Thank you. God bless you.

Lots of hands. Anybody else? Anyone else? Thank you. If you're here this morning and you've never in a real and authentic way trusted your life to Jesus Christ, ask him to come in and be a personal part of your life, but you want to. You feel like Mr. Rutledge and you really know you need a change with God.

I wonder if you'd slip your hand up so I could pray for you. Thank you. God bless you. Anybody else? Thank you.

Thanks. You can receive Jesus Christ right where you're sitting. You can ask him into your life right where you're sitting. I hope you'll do that this morning as we pray. Heavenly Father, I want to pray for these folks who raise their hands indicating that they need Jesus Christ as part of their life. I pray this morning in very simple terms that they would simply come to you and open their life and invite you in. Lord, I know that that prayer doesn't have to be theologically polished.

It just has to be honest. I pray that you would help them to do that and that you would enter their lives. Lord, that you would let them know you've taken up residence in there and you'd begin changing their life from the inside out.

Thank you for them raising their hands. God, may they sense your presence coming into their life even this morning. And I want to pray for all of those folks who raise their hands saying that they're going to make a change in their schedule so that there's time for feeding their soul as well as feeding their career and feeding their ambition and feeding their ego. Lord, I pray that you would help us to make that change. Give us the discipline we need. Give us the sense of priority that we need. Give us the sense of sticktoitiveness that we need. And make this valuable time, Lord, so much so that in the days and months and years ahead as we begin seeing change from us feeding our soul every day, that as people watch us be calm in the middle of the storm out in that world, they'll be coming to us and saying, What have you got?

What's different about you? Lord, I pray that that would be true of our lives because we've been with Jesus Christ before we entered the storm. Thank you for speaking to our hearts this morning, and I pray that our lives would be different because of what we've heard here today, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.