WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU?

� 2000 William R. Cunningham
August 20, 2000

I recall watching a movie called the Green Mile starring Tom Hanks. The movie centered on a very large man, John Coffey (played by Michael Clarke Duncan) that was gifted with the ability to heal and how he was wrongly accused and sentenced to the electric chair for the murder of two little girls. One of the death row prison guards, Paul Edgecomb (played by Tom Hanks), "saw" what really happened to the two little girls by interacting "spiritually" with John Coffey. Paul knew that John was innocent and he reasoned that God gifted John because he had healed him of a urinary track infection earlier. Before the execution, Paul asked John a question that I will never forget. First he asked John what he wanted him to do? Then he asked John the question of all time. He said something like "What do I tell God when He asks me why I let one of his angels die? What do I tell Him.? It was my job?"  This question struck me like a bolt of lightening. What was more important? Was his job more important than doing what was right in the sight of God or was doing what was right before God more important than his job?

What is important to you? How far are you willing to go in order to serve God? We tend to be sensitive to things such that we become insensitive to God. What God wants is of no consequence because there are too many other things that are important to us. We place our jobs before God. We place our jobs before our spouse and children. We place our own desires ahead of the needs of a neighbor. What have we become? In this day and age of "what's in it for me" even in the Christian community, it is hard to imagine that anything could be more important than those things that pertain to our own personal enjoyment.  After all, prosperity is preached so much that one would think that the purpose of becoming a Christian is so that you could live a better life.

Well in this lesson we are going to talk about this very topic. What is important to you and perhaps what should be important to you? Are your priorities right? Do you love life at the expense of the needs of others around you? Let's discuss this and hopefully you will take an objective look at your own life and make any necessary adjustments. First we will discuss the importance of God in your life and the implementation of that importance. Then we will apply what we learn from placing our priorities correctly in relationship to God to everyday life.

Let's discuss a few scriptures so that we can learn something very important that I have learned from reading the Bible and extracting overall principles.

Solomon says here that our whole duty or the thing that we must do is to fear God (revere or respect Him) and do what He says. Nothing else matters in life. No riches, prestige, or possessions can supersede our duty to obey God and to revere Him.

We discussed this scripture in a previous lesson/sermon. The number one thing that we must do is to love God with all that is within us.

Psalm 39:6 through Psalm 39:7 (NCV) People are like shadows moving about. All their work is for nothing; they collect things but don't know who will get them. "So, Lord, what hope do I have? You are my hope.

David says that the collection of things is meaningless. The only hope that he really had, and the same for us, is hope or faith in God. God is our deliverer, not our wealth or resources. All the things that we accumulate are in vain. I encourage you to read Proverbs and especially Ecclesiastes and your outlook on life itself will change.

Here is a classic scripture. Don't store up things that are important to you or those things that you consider to have great value on this earth because they can be taken from you. Rather, store for yourself those things that are really important where no one can steal nor will they corrode. Our focus should be heavenly and not earthly.  Consider yet another scripture that really reveals the true number one priority of our lives.

I really like the way the New Century version of the Bible renders this verse. I will quote it here for reference.

What is the thing that we should want or pursue most of all? The Kingdom of God and doing what God wants. All else will follow if we do these. It's rather interesting because striving to obey God automatically means that you have to pursue His kingdom otherwise how would you know what he wants you to do.

Therefore, I present to you that the number one priority in a person's life is to obey God. What does this mean? Well, the fullness of this is beyond the scope of this lesson but suffice it for me to say that obedience to God means living a life according to His ways especially since Christians do not live by the letter of the law, rather, the spirit of the law-the Word of God.

I think it is expedient that I do at least overview the method of our obedience because this topic can be taken to an unbiblical extreme and it may make one paranoid. Obeying God does not mean that you look for every commandment in the Bible and then do it or try to. Not only is that impossible, it is also unnecessary. How many of you would present animal sacrifices to the Lord? How many of you would present the first fruits of the harvest from your crops? How many of you have land that produces a crop? Do you understand my point? Consider the following scripture that summarizes this thought.

I use the New Century Version in order to eliminate the need for documenting the word study since the word study results in the wording of this version. Anyway, the point that I wanted to make is that our covenant with God is not established on a written law. The Spirit establishes our covenant with God. Paul says that the written law brings death but the Spirit of God gives life.

So the method of our obedience is therefore to live according to the Spirit of God, which is consistent with the New Covenant, also known as the New Testament. Consider the following verse.

If we are going to live our lives according to God's Way then we will have to live according to the Spirit of God. Consider yet another scripture.

The Spirit of God gives life. The words of Christ are spirit (note the small "s") and they are life. Why? Because Christ is anointed with the Spirit of God and therefore what he says to us, being in total obedience to God, brings life. This is especially evident when we consider the deity of Christ, which is beyond the scope of this study.

So again, I submit to you that the method of our obedience is to live according to the Spirit of God. Follow the Spirit and seek the Kingdom of God. Following certain rules of your church or rules that you conjure up yourself is no substitute to simply discovering the Word of God and then doing it.

Obedience is not the simple act of acquiring knowledge. It is discovering God's word and living it and living by being guided by the Holy Spirit as opposed to following a set of rules and regulations.

The number one priority of our lives is to obey the Lord. What does this encompass?

1. Seeking God for the edification of your personal relationship with Him

2. Studying your Bible to know the Word of God

3. Fellowship with other Christians to act as, among other things, a "orthodoxy" check

4. Adjusting your life to correspond with the Word of God that you have discovered

Now I have shown you from a bird's eye perspective that obeying God is the number one priority in our lives. Nothing else can have a higher priority than doing what God says. Therefore, obeying God has to be important to you. This means that God has to be important to you.  Let's look back at the scene that I mentioned earlier that was in the movie, "The Green Mile." Paul, the death row guard, said, "What am I going to say when God asks me why I let one of his angels die? What am I going to tell him.? That it was my job."  Paul might have been trying to resolve a war that was going on inside of him.  He knew the truth and believed God was behind it all but his job, which is part of an overall system, said otherwise.  What would you do if you were in a similar situation?

At the very least, the importance of God and His word may cause great wars on the inside as you fight with your conviction. The interesting thing is that it is not always a matter of right and wrong. Sometimes, it could be totally acceptable to do things one way but that way may be contrary to God. For example, Paul, in my example, would have been right according to his occupational responsibility to go ahead and let John Coffey die. However, in his mind he seemed to think that there was something higher than his occupational responsibility. It wasn't a matter of right and wrong. Rather, it was a matter of standing on his conviction to do things God's way or do something else. If doing things God's way is not important to you then you will have no problem compromising what you know from His Word. You can always justify your actions. However, if God and His word are indeed important to you and the number one priority of your life, then you will have great difficulty doing things any other way except God's way.

How important is doing things God's way to you? Would you cheat or trust God? Would you steal or rely on God to meet your needs? We will talk more about these types of questions shortly.

I think it is also expedient that I discuss distractions from the faith. What can deceive you into pursuing something else besides God? What could present itself in such a way that that thing becomes the most important thing in your life? Consider the following scripture.

You cannot be loyal to God and loyal to something else concurrently. We already talked about loyalty to God in a previous sermon. Jesus said that things and God cannot be the number one priority of your life at the same time. It is impossible to be loyal to seeking riches and possessions and at the same time seek the Kingdom of God. You can't do it. Your pursuit of riches will tend to take you away from the pursuit of God. You may begin to become dependant on your riches instead of on God. Likewise, your pursuit of God will tend to take you away from your pursuit of riches. You will tend to become dependant on God instead of riches and possessions. Your heart is wherever your treasure is. Treasures are those thing that you deem valuable or of great importance. For example, your treasure may be your appearance so you do all you can to "look good." I don't mean to forgo grooming and wearing nice things because we all want to look nice. What I am talking about are such things as having a brand new Mercedes Benz or lavish clothing that say, "Look at me!" This attitude clearly identifies the focus of your heart, which is not heavenly.

Now let me discuss some practical aspects and applications of this lesson. What are some things that keep God from really being the most important thing in your life? I am also going to discuss how the misplaced priorities can also lead to other problem areas in our lives such as marriage relationships.

The pursuit of things is a major distraction in the Christian community. There are so many teachings that focus on acquiring things that we tend to think that God is in the business of making us rich. God becomes our genie instead of our heavenly father. God becomes the grocery store instead of our loving provider-the Great Jehovah. We become so focused on getting stuff that we don't even think about our relationship with the Father and living His Word. The only thing we really want is for God to give us the stuff that we "have faith for."

When was the last time you simply talked to God and not to get stuff? When was the last time you just spilled your guts out to your heavenly Father. When was the last time you prayed for someone else or just to have communion with God without asking God for more stuff? Our pursuit for more and greater things chokes the word in our lives and overall we become unfruitful because true fruit comes from the Spirit of God. If we do not live according to the Spirit of God then how should we expect to reap anything from that Spirit? How in the world can we expect to look up to God with all the stuff that we have accumulated and then say to God, "Thanks God for blessing me? My faith has gotten me these things." Do you understand my point?

Now please understand that I am not suggesting that we pursue nothing except Bible knowledge or to live a monastery life. I am only pointing out that these other things should not be the focus of our lives. Acquiring things should not be the goal of our endeavors because any of these things may be taken from us at any time. However, our relationship and experiences with God can never be removed. The only thing that we really have of any value is the faith that we have in God. Faith not to get more stuff but faith to know that God loves you, cares about you, and that He will never leave you though sometimes you feel like He has. True faith is knowing that regardless of my situation (good or bad) that God is right there to direct me and that I can always look up to him.

So one of the greatest challenges we have in this life is to protect ourselves from the deceit of riches and the abundance of stuff. We have to keep the pursuit of other things from keeping us from pursuing the one thing that means more to us than anything, namely, God and His Kingdom.

Now you may wonder how in the world can church become a stumbling block to God in your life. It's a very simple principle. Anything can become a hindrance, even those things that seem good. There is nothing whatsoever wrong about the true fellowship of believers in what we call a church environment (though the true church is indeed that body wherever they should happen to be). The problem is when our commitment to church supersedes our commitment to God. The problem comes when we are so dedicated to our local church that we don't spend time to enhance or edify our relationship and fellowship with God and other Christians in general. Our life becomes focused on an object instead of God. Now church is good but the pursuit of the church above all else is not good and might be detrimental to your spiritual development and fellowship with God.

If church is the driving force in your life such that you are always there instead of spending significant time with your spouse, family, and God, then church to you is a hindrance.  You should not be so dedicated to your church that it controls your life.  You should not be so committed to your church that you family does not see you that often and most of your activities, except some household chores, then church to you is an obstacle for your relationship with God and your family.

I included this one because of the movie scene that I mentioned earlier. This is an interesting one because our job is how we make money to sustain ourselves. Of course there will be those that say that God sustains us and they are right. However, try going to the grocery store without any money and proclaim your faith in God to provide. At the very least you will not get out of there with the products that you desire unless someone purchases them for you. My point is that we should not think lightly of our job because it too is a gift from God.

Here is where the problem comes. What if your job says that you have to work on Sundays and you are active in your church? This creates a problem because in your mind church attendance on Sunday is of most important. Some people may erroneously quote Sabbath laws in the Old Testament. I won't get into a discussion on that at this time but suffice it for me to say that doing such is definitely wrong when we consider what the Sabbath was (the seventh day of the week), the day that we typically go to church (the first day of the week), and the historic activities and decisions of the Apostolic fathers concerning meetings. So now what do you do? Do you tell you boss that you will not come to work and jeopardize your job? I think that would be foolish since your boss may not care about your church service convictions. He or she is only concerned about a job that has to be done, which you agreed to do when you were hired. Your decision is a simple one. Either you will make the decision to not come to work on Sunday no matter what your boss says or you will find another solution for Christian fellowship.

I am not going to go into a discussion of what is right and what is wrong here because that would take us into a whole different area or topic. Suffice it for me to say that this decision may have nothing to do with your commitment to God unless you are an active minister who has a responsibility to be at the church on Sunday. If your job interferes with what God has told you to do then you may decide that you cannot work at your current place of employment because of your commitment to your church, which in this case happens to correlate with a commitment and responsibility to God.   Your calling is more important then your commitment to your job. Perhaps you will look for another job that will not have these conflicts or perhaps you can work things out to fulfill both responsibilities without compromise.

A more definite conflict occurs when your job tempts you to practice ungodly things. For example, what if your job wants you to do something that you know will adversely affect the health of many people? What if your job requires that you lie in order to help spare the company from paying a penalty for something that it has done (broke the law in some way)? These are much more pressing issues then your commitment to a certain day of fellowship. These involve life principles that far out weigh what day you will meet or not meet for service. Even a pastor can decide to have church services on Saturdays or another time period on Sundays to accommodate the demands of his or her job. There is no law that says that Christians have to meet at a certain time on Sunday morning. The important thing is the fellowship of believers whenever that takes place.

What if doing your job requires that you do wrong? What if doing your job means that you have to practice ungodly principles? This is where true conflicts come into play in my mind. The point that I am trying to make here is that our commitment to God is based on life principles and not semantics. If your job pushes you toward ungodliness then you have to decide if practicing ungodliness to preserve your job is more important than practicing godliness at any cost. I am reminded of the following verses of scripture.

How far are you willing to go to obey God, that is, to live a godly life?

Things that are more important to us can adversely affect marriage relationships as well as our relationship and fellowship with God. For example, if you find that your card playing club is more important then your wife then you will prioritize that club's activity over the needs of your wife and therefore adversely affect your marriage relationship. This is also true when we consider our occupations. If our occupation supersedes our marriage relationship then that relationship will suffer. This again is the principle that we discussed earlier about not being able to server two masters. If your heart goes out for your job then your heart won't go out for your spouse. This doesn't mean that your job shouldn't be important. What it does mean is that your job should not be more important to you then your marital relationship. If there is a situation that affects your time together than the very least you should do is to discuss it and come to some agreement as a married couple. Nothing should be more important to you than your spouse except for your relationship with God. Let's talk.

Again, I would like to point out the same principle that I presented to you previously.  Why put your stock into things that are temporal.  Relative to God, everything is temporal (except for people).  This is why your marriage relationship or your spouse should not supersede God in importance.  Now relative to your marriage relationship, many other things are temporal.  For example, you job may betray you or otherwise get rid of you but you will still be married to the same person.  Why put more stock in something that is temporal (relatively speaking).  Put stock in your marriage because above all else, you can both encourage each other and hold each other up when all others turn their backs on you.  Above even this you have God who will always be there to help you.  Do you see my point?

There are things that can adversely affect your marriage and your marriage may adversely affect your fellowship with God. You don't want to be so committed to your spouse that you are not committed to God and his Ways. If your life centers around satisfying your spouse or being satisfied by your spouse then you will not nurture a relationship with God and the fulfillment that comes with it. Your relationship with God will suffer because of your commitment to your spouse. The key thing here is balance and proper priorities.  I am not suggesting that you should not be committed to your spouse because marriage is based on commitment.  Just don't let your commitment to your spouse supersede your commitment to God.

Again I want to emphasize as I alluded to earlier that your commitment to church is not necessarily a commitment to God. I was warned when I was a training deacon of my church to not let church get between my wife and I. That would be bad. By church I mean the organization. Next to God there shouldn't be much more important to you then your spouse, family and friends. That church organization may fail you but your relationship with God, family, and friends are priceless. Of course, nothing should out prioritize our fellowship with God, not even our spouse, family, and friends.

I know what you are probably thinking. How in the world can Bible study be considered as something that may hinder my relationship to God in the area of importance or priority? It is very simple, which I can personally attest to. If your pursuit for knowledge outweighs your fellowship with God then you will know biblical facts very well but you won't know your heavenly Father. The point is, which I was told in prayer one day, that Bible study is not necessarily the same as fellowship with God. So we want to be careful that our pursuit for knowledge, even Bible study, does not become more important than our relationship with God.

Again, the point that I am making here and previously is that nothing should be more important than your commitment to obey God and those things pertaining to that. Nothing should be more important than your pursuit for Him and not to get something from Him but just because of who He is. We love God because He first loved us and not because He gave us nice gifts. Don't let Bible study or any other thing for that matter hinder your relationship with God and living according to His Way.

I could go on and on with other examples pertaining to the important things in our lives. These may not be life threatening but they do impact our lives. How much television do you watch for example? The more television you watch means the less time you are using to do other things. How many sports activities do you participate in? Again, the more sports you play means less time to do other things. How much time do you spend doing your hobby at home? The more time you spend doing that hobby means the less time you spend with your family and for other things. Why don't you pray as much as you should? The answer is simply because prayer is not as important as the other things in your life. Do you see my point?

Our goal here is to pursue God above all else. God is eternal and we will live eternally with Him if indeed Christ has saved us. All the things that this world has to offer us and all of the things that pertain to this life are temporal at best. A Karate instructor of my youth once said that everything we see around us is an illusion. That is so true. Nothing on this earth will last forever so it is foolish to put so much confidence and importance on these things. Things are temporal but God and His Kingdom are forever.

Is God the most important thing in your life? Do you love God with all of your heart, soul, and strength? What do you place above living a godly life? Let me describe one last thing that may snare you in your attempts to prioritize your relationship with God. Let's talk about the efforts to not do the other things. I call this negative affections (I just made that term up as I was writing).

Consider this. To live a godly life means that you have to strive to not live an ungodly life. True or false? False! Even if by some miracle you were able to avoid all ungodliness, you would find that you would be no closer to God than when you first started. Why? Your focus was not on developing a fellowship and relationship with God. Rather, your focus was to not live ungodly, which in itself points to works alone. Therefore, the key to living for God is simply to pursue God. To live according to God's Way means that you are not living according to another Way. It's that simple. The principle is simply this: Do not strive to not accomplish the negative in order to reach the positive. Simply strive for the positive to reach the positive and you will find that the negative will not be an issue.

For example, we may strive to live a sinless life in order to live a godly life not realizing that doing so will not accomplish the desired goal. Living a life without sinful activities is only superficial. Living a life full of the Spirit and according to God's Way already means that you are spending less time with sin. Remember our principle of serving two masters that we previously discussed. If I am serving God and cling to God then I am already not clinging to sin. If I try with all my might not to cling to sin and succeed then I still have not clung to God. If anything I am left without sin and with nothing.

So in striving to make God more important to you, don't fall into the trap of trying to make everything else unimportant or less important. That will not accomplish the goal of godly importance that you desire. Instead, begin today to pursue God. Begin to actively and consciously do things that will make God more important to you. Of course this may involve personal fellowship time, Bible study time, and prayer time. Just learn to spend time with God and the importance of the Father will become evident and I believe that it will begin to grow in your life.

The number one priority in our life is to obey God. That is, we should live according to God's Way and accomplish what He wants us to accomplish. The method of obedience to God is through living by the Spirit instead of living by the laws (rules and regulations). We should remember always that the things that we deem as important would affect our lives and sometimes with us not being aware of it.

Establish God as the number one priority in your life and then determine the priority of other things in your life such as marriage and family. Don't place things that are ultimately unimportant in a place of importance because those really important things will suffer, such as your marriage. So I hope that you are sensitive to the things that you consider important in your life. Is God the most important thing in your life? Is your marriage important enough to fight to make it a great marriage? Is your family important enough to make time for it? I'm sure you get the point by now. Amen.