Right priorities make for good decisions

Transcription

1 Right priorities make for good decisions Genesis 13:1-18 January 19, 2014 Travis Collins In Genesis 12:1 we find God s call to Abram, whose name later became Abraham. God called Abram to leave his homeland and travel to a place I will show you. As a gift of grace God promised to make from Abram s descendents a great nation, through whom God would bless the world. Those people would be the people of Israel. So Abram left Harran and took Lot, his nephew, with him. Lot s father, Abram s brother, already was dead. Eventually they landed in Israel, or Canaan, at a place between Bethel and Ai, north of Jerusalem, and Abram built an altar where he worshiped God. Both Abram and Lot had become very wealthy, such that each had so many sheep and cattle there wasn t enough water and grass for them both. Their hired hands began to fight over resources for their herds. So Abram said, Look, we obviously can t stay together. So you go and live anyplace you want, and I will occupy the land you do not choose. Lot did a survey of the surrounding countryside. Lot looked southeast of Bethel down toward the Jordan River, a plush valley of green. That was a land of opportunity, of resources. His herds would be expansive. His house would be expensive. His portfolio would be impressive. His social circles would be selective. He could be somebody. With no regard for the impact on his uncle, Abram, but purely out of consideration for his own well-being With no regard for the fact that the people of the nearby city called Sodom were known for their rebelliousness, recklessness and decadence Lot said, Uncle Abram, you can have the hillsides here. I ll head to the prime real estate, the Jordan Valley. Good luck, Uncle. It was a terrible, and selfish, decision on the part of Lot. Lot made a selfish and reckless decision. And lived to regret it. Not only had he selfishly taken the best land for himself. The decadence of Sodom so impacted Lot s family that he was willing one night to offer his own virgin daughters to a bunch of perverted men. He lost his wife and his home in the wake of God s destruction of the city. Lot had his priorities way out of order. His priorities were selfish. And bad priorities resulted in a bad decision. We are often faced with big decisions. Of course we can, and ought to, pray about those decisions before they arrive. But perhaps, most importantly, we can establish the right priorities so that we will, by nature, make the right decisions. 1

2 So what are those priorities? God Jesus was clear on this one. Seek first the Kingdom of God. I believe that if we will, in Jesus words, Seek first the Kingdom of God the rule, or lordship, or mastery of God, then all the other things will fall into place. Including decisions. Richard Burr wrote, (Some) are looking for a faith that deals with the real issues of life marriage, vocation, family, education, retirement and more. While these things are important, they are secondary issues secondary to cultivating an ever-consuming vision for what God intends our lives to be. When we focus on this primary issue, our loving, faithful and infinite Provider puts all secondary issues in their proper place at His appointed time. This is the life of faith that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 6:25, 33: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Our priority our passion must be the pleasure, the plan, the purposes of our Father. Then right decisions will come naturally. Family 1 Timothy 5:8 reads, Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Furthermore, Jesus said to religious folks, as quoted in Mark 7, The Bible says, Honor your father and mother, but you guys are taking money that should go to helping your parents and giving it to the church and feeling all high and mighty about it. You nullify the word of God you re missing the biblical boat by doing that. Some of us might be doing a great job for those whom we barely know and not so great a job with those under our own roofs. They need you to serve as PTA President and on the neighborhood association and on three teams at church and to stay late at work every night this month because it s a really important project. So if you aren t careful you will end up like a stray dog at a whistler s convention running here and there while your family misses and needs you! Don t let anything, including Bon Air Baptist, take the place of your family. And you ll make better decisions. Others In Philippians 2:3&4 we read, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. All the cards on the table completely honest here most of us are pretty self-centered. Most of us are megalomaniacs; we have an over-inflated sense of our self-worth. 2

3 All the cards on the table I know am. I know what it is like to be self-centered I struggle with that. When I hear about some change coming, my first thought tends to be, Is this good or bad for me? When my needs and desires conflict with the needs and desires of someone else, my first (and second) inclinations are to try and arrange things so that I get what I want. I, for one, could use a sermon about priorities. If we will consider the needs of others first, we ll make better decisions. Self When they asked Jesus what is the greatest commandment, Jesus answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. As long as you get yourself in the right order, there is nothing wrong with valuing you. We all of us are people of great worth. We are God s treasures... His children... His handiwork. In Psalm 139 the Bible says God wove you together like a quilt in your mother s womb. God brought the particular cells together that made you you. When He strung the strands of your DNA He was intentional! Psalm 139 reads, Your eyes saw my unformed body. God lovingly watched your arms and legs and mind and heart develop. Now that is cool. So I m not saying you shouldn t prioritize yourself. Just make sure you are #4 on the list neither #1, #2, #3 nor # 20. And you ll make better decisions. But a lot of us look a lot like Lot chasing the wrong dreams I m a few years behind, but I finally read the book, Into Thin Air. It s the story of Jon Krakauer s climb to the summit of the highest mountain in the world, Mt. Everest. He succeeded with tremendous sacrifice, great cost, amazing skill and terrible risk. In fact, by the following morning, eight members of his expedition would be dead and others badly injured. But at the moment, he was on top of the world. In the opening paragraph to this bestseller Krakauer describes straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal. He was at the summit, literally, at that moment, looking down on everybody else in the world. As a climber he d had an insatiable desire to be at the top, for the thrill of the summit. This was the fulfillment of a dream, paid for at great cost. Krakauer continued I d been fantasizing about this moment, and the release of emotion that would accompany it, for many months. But now that I was finally here, actually standing on the summit of Mount Everest I couldn t summon the energy to care. Did you ever reach a summit and think it was not worth the sacrifice? Did you ever achieve something you d worked really hard for and wondered why it didn t feel as great as you d anticipated? 3

4 In quiet moments do you ever wonder if the things you ve always thought are so important are really that important? Have you ever felt like you are chasing the wrong things? Fred Craddock is a preacher s preacher, a master storyteller. He said he once went to the home of some folks who owned a greyhound dog. You know those greyhounds, he said; they run that mechanical rabbit around the ring. (In case you didn t know, the greyhounds aren t really racing each other; they re just trying to be the first one to this fake rabbit that runs on a track just ahead of the dogs. The dogs run themselves crazy trying to catch that rabbit.) Well, you might know that adopting greyhounds is a pretty popular thing. The owners, when the dogs can no longer race, put an ad in the paper offering them for adoption and, if no one adopts them, they are put down. So, Craddock said he was visiting in a home the family of which had adopted one of those greyhound dogs. He was a big, spotted greyhound and was lying there in the floor of the den, with one little kid pulling its tail and another using the dog as a pillow for his head. The dog seemed very happy. Here is how Craddock described his conversation with the greyhound. Craddock asked the dog, Are you still racing? No, no, the dog said, I don't race anymore. I said, Do you miss the glitter and excitement of the track? No, he replied. Well, what was the matter? Did you get too old to race? No, I still had some race in me. Well, what then? Did you not win? I asked. I won over a million dollars for my owner. Well, what was it? Bad treatment? Oh no," the dog said, they treated us royally when we were racing. Did you get crippled? No. Then why? I pressed. He said, I quit. You quit? Yes, he said, I quit. Why did you quit? 4

5 I discovered that what I was chasing was not really a rabbit, and I quit. He looked at me and said, All that running and running and running and running, and what was I chasing? It wasn't even real. Anybody here ever feel like a greyhound? Oh, by the way, one day Ginny Lou, a greyhound, was in a race the Finer Fruit Stakes in Australia. Suddenly, Ginny Lou faced a decision. From out of nowhere, as a complete surprise to everyone, a real, live rabbit ran across the track in front of the dogs. All the other dogs ignored the real rabbit and continued their relentless pursuit of a fake. All except Ginny Lou. You can watch the video on YouTube. The video shows Ginny Lou veering dramatically off course in hot pursuit of the real deal. She abandoned an illusion for something real something her heart and instinct said, This, now this, is worth chasing. That s as clear a metaphor for repentance as I ever have seen. Chasing something phony and deciding to abandon that pointless chase to pursue what is real. And you can do that. Starting today. I want to add a little epilogue to the sermon. I m not sure it quite fits with the rest, but I ve given a lot of thought to this topic over the last few days. In preaching class in seminary they told us never introduce a new idea in the conclusion of a sermon but, with apologies to my preaching professors, I want to add this addendum of sorts. And it fits, I think, in the category of what really matters. This week one of our best friends from the last thirty years died in Newport, Tennessee. We went to college with her and her husband, who is a pastor. We ve been to more meetings together than we could count. We used to go to Conventions and all four stay in the same room to save money. You get close that way. Two years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Week before last she declined significantly, so after worship on Sunday Keri and I drove to Tennessee. Keri stayed up with her all night Sunday night, giving her morphine on the hour. We returned on Monday. Debbie s struggle ended on Wednesday. We returned to Tennessee on Friday and drove back to Richmond last night after the funeral yesterday afternoon. It was early on Monday morning, when Debbi was so terribly weak, that I walked into her room where her oldest son, about 26, sat at her feet. He was singing Jesus loves me, this I know. I thought to myself, That s kinda odd. Debbi s fifty-six and holds a Doctor of Education degree. Jesus loves me? The famous Swiss theologian Karl Barth was on a trip to the United States. He was speaking at the University of Chicago Divinity school when, during a question and answer time, he was asked what is the most profound truth of the Christian faith. Barth, considered by many to be one of the greatest theologians since the apostle Paul, answered: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. 5

6 If you forget the right order of priorities, remember: The Bible lays out our priorities pretty clearly: God, Family, Others, Self. And if you have trouble remembering the definition of premillenialism, forget whether Philemon comes before or after Colossians in the New Testament, and can t remember for the life of you who St. Augustine was remember the most profound truth, the priority, of the Christian faith: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. 6