Putting First Things First
Ephesians 5:15-17

I saw a bumper sticker one time that said, “Life is too precious to waste.” Easier said than done! How do you prevent wasting your life?

Well, our text in Ephesians gives us a clue … “Be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do.”

Did you get that?  It says, “Be careful how you live.” Now the opposite of careful is what? Careless.  So, I guess it’s saying: don’t be careless. Literally in the Greek it means “don’t stumble through life; don’t just drift through life.”

The text goes on to say: “make the most of every opportunity, be wise” and “try to understand what God wants you to do.”

If I would ask you to be honest, how many of you would say, you really would like to know what God wants you to do with your life?

To tell you the truth sometimes I am afraid to know what God wants me to do – because then I’d feel compelled to do it … and what if I didn’t like what God wants for me? I guess that’s where faith comes in.

But most of the time I think I want to know.  I don’t think I am unique in that regard.  Wouldn’t you like to know???

Well, we’re in luck…because starting next week, we’re going to look, intently, for 40 days at what God wants us to do with our lives.

But before we do that, I just want us to think for a few minutes about three important questions of life. They are: What does God want from me? What does it take to obtain it? and Why should I do it? Wouldn’t you like to know the answers to those questions?  Might make life a little easier …

Let’s get started.  First Question: What does God want from my life? The way I read the Bible, I think it is pretty clear. He wants my entire life.

It says in Romans 6:13, “Give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God.”

However, there’re a lot of people who don’t give it all they’ve got because they’re not sure what God wants them to do.

The next verse addresses just that concern: “This is what the Lord your God wants you to do: Respect the Lord and do what he has told you to do. Love him. Serve the Lord your God with your whole being.”

Most people still try to sit on the fence. They say, “Well, I’ll serve God in my spare time.” It’s like I have this pie – I have my social life, and I have my career life, I have my family life, my retirement life and over here I have my spiritual life - as if my spiritual life is just one more slice of the pie.

Wrong. See, God’s the whole pie. He doesn’t want to be pigeonholed and have you say, “You know God, I’ll give you 10 percent of my life.” He wants it all. He wants your whole being.

That means that God needs to be NUMBER ONE in your life. But so often there are things in our lives that push God out of that #1 slot.

Money is certainly a prime culprit. Work, play, sports, hobbies, friends, school work, even your own family can push God out of first place in your life.

The fact is whatever is in first place in your life – that’s your primary god.

One time Jesus told a story about this; he said, “It’s like a king who plans a big banquet and he goes out and invites everybody to come to this wonderful banquet. He said people began to make excuses.

“And the first said, ‘I just bought a field, and I must go and see it – please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way out to try them out – please excuse me.’ Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’”

Now, think about this. These three guys are invited to a banquet by the king; they all turn him down. The first guy uses his wealth as an excuse – I just bought some land and I have to go look at it. The second one used his work as an excuse – I’ve got to go and plow my field. The third guy used his wife as an excuse – I just got married.

So here’s my question to you – what excuse do you keep giving to God for not putting him first?

Question #2 – What does it take? What does it take to not waste my life? What does it take to become all that God wants me to be? What does it take to develop myself to my fullest potential?

Well, I’m going to say it in one word. It’s a word you’re not going to like. It’s a very unpopular word. We cringe when we hear this word. It’s the word “discipline.” (And a groan went out across the land.)

Proverbs 10:17 says, “Whoever practices discipline, is on the way to life.” You cannot be a disciple without discipline. The two words go together - disciple and discipline. You can’t be a disciple of Jesus without discipline.

Now, what in the world is discipline? Discipline is doing the difficult now, in order to enjoy the benefit later. We call it delayed gratification.

Some of you are very disciplined. In your work, your career. Some of you are very disciplined in your physical workouts. Some of you never miss a favorite TV show.

You know where you’re disciplined? In the areas you want to be. The things that are important to you, you get done. What if you were as disciplined in having a daily quiet time as you are in getting up and going to work everyday? What if you were as disciplined in attending church as you are in watching that favorite TV show that you never miss?

You know, there’s another word for discipline – we like this one a little bit better, so you can use this one if you’d prefer. It’s the word “habits.”

Habits are, simply, disciplines. You are the sum total of your habits. Tell me what you do habitually, and I’ll tell you what your character is. If you habitually tell the truth, you have integrity. If you are habitually faithful to your spouse, you are a faithful person.

It’s what you do over and over and over without even thinking. If it’s a habit, it’s a part of your life and actually your whole life is designed, shaped, controlled, developed by your habits.

If you want to change your life, all you have to do is change your habits. Now one of the major goals of 40 Days of Purpose, which we’re going to begin next week, is to help you develop some new spiritual habits.

1 Timothy 4:7 (LB) says – “Spend your time and energy in the exercise of keeping spiritually fit.”

There are lots of exercises we can do … but let me just mention two. The first is one I call the discipline of letting go. That means you let go of some things … because you can’t keep adding things to your schedule without weighing yourself down.

So … what weighs you down? Well, I imagine it can be all kinds of things. It could be a relationship, it could be an expectation, an activity, a club, a memory that you refuse to let go of, it could be a fear, could be a job.

There are 1,000’s of different kinds of weights. To grow, I must learn to say no. And sometimes you have to say “no” to good things in order to have time for the best things. You have to say “no” to things that are not bad. In fact, they’re quite good, but you say “no” to them because you cannot do it all and have it all.

If we are serious about fulfilling our purpose in life, we have to make space for God in our life. And if we’re going to make space for God in our life, we’re going to have to cut some stuff out – sometimes good stuff.

We’re getting ready, next week in 40 Days, to add three new habits to your schedule. A daily devotional reading of about 10-15 minutes a day; a weekly meeting in a small group for six weeks; and a weekly verse to memorize that probably will take you all of about five minutes … all three of which will help you understand God’s purpose for your life.

To add these three habits, you are going to have to decide what you’re going to cut out before you start the 40 Days of Purpose. Any time you take on a new habit, a new skill, a new commitment you should say, “What am I not going to do?”

Maybe you’re going to need to give up an hour a week of TV during the 40 Days. Maybe you need to go to bed 15 minutes earlier during the 40 Days, so you can get up 15 minutes earlier to do your daily reading. Maybe you need to cut back on your workout and work on your spiritual workout for 40 Days.

Now, here’s the second discipline I think you might consider as we get ready to go into this 40 Days of Purpose and that’s the discipline of putting first things first.

A good example is found in Luke 10:40-42. It talks about a couple of friends of Jesus, Mary and Martha, who are sisters. Jesus had come to visit at their home. And the Bible says, “Martha was distracted by her many tasks.”

Let me stop there. Do any of you identify with that phrase? Martha was distracted by her many tasks. So, she came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me.”

You see, Mary had gone and just sat at the feet of Jesus.

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you’re worried and distracted by many things, but there is a need of only one thing and Mary has chosen the better part.”

What’s he talking about? Jesus said, “If it comes down to spending time with me, or washing the dishes, there’s no competition.”

Let me ask you, do you find yourself like Martha? Do tasks on your to-do list distract you from focusing on God? Is your life so busy, you don’t have time to stop, even for 40 days and focus on God? You will live an average of 25,550 days. At least that’s what the average person lives. Don’t you think it would be smart to take 40 of those days to figure out what you should do with the rest of them? I think so. I think that’s pretty wise.

Remember the phrase, “Mary has chosen the better part.” You know why I like that? Because it means it’s a choice. You say, “Tom, I just can’t get it all done.” You’re right. But let me let you in on a little secret – it isn’t all worth doing. You don’t have to do it all. Nobody’s holding a gun to your head, saying you have to do it all. God doesn’t expect you to do it all.  You have a choice.

If you really want – you’ve got the time to grow spiritually. If you get serious and you make the choice and say “God, in these next 40 days, there are some things I will cut out of my life in order to make time to develop some new habits so that I might grow closer to you, and that you might have all of me, not just part of me, but all of me.”

If you’ll just make the choice to let some stuff go, to put some stuff on hold, to put God first, to focus on some things for 40 days – God will help you and you’ll find amazing things happening in your life.

That brings us to Question #3: So, why should I do it? Why should I make the effort to grow spiritually? Why should I let go of some things to make time for God in my life, to make space for God in my life?

Well, there are many benefits and we could spend hours just talking about those. Benefits today in your life right now and benefits forever in eternity.

But even if there were no benefits, for doing what God tells us to do. Even if there were no benefits at all, right here on earth – I can tell you the reason why you ought to do it in two words – the Cross.

Because of the Cross. Jesus gave his life completely for you and he expects we should do no less in return.

Romans 12:1 says this, “Brothers and sisters, in view of all we have just shared about God’s compassion, I encourage you to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, dedicated to God and pleasing to him.”

Now listen, it cost Jesus to die for you and it’s going to cost you to live for him. But he deserves it.  And you deserve it.

Now I urge you, don’t miss out on what’s going to happen next week. If you’re not in a group, get in one. If you don’t have the time, make the time.

God has given you the opportunity of a lifetime in the next 40 days – don’t let it pass by. Don’t sit on the fence. Don’t watch from the sideline.

It’s up to you.  It is my prayer that together we will do great and marvelous things. You can do it.

Let us pray!