Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - The Problem is Your Priorities - Luke 14:15-24

We are in the series going through the Gospel of Luke.

We've called this series Luke the Orderly Account of Truth,

and we've named it this because the gospel writer Luke

had a specific intention in writing this gospel account about Jesus,

and the purpose of that was he wanted the reader

of this gospel to have confirmation and certainty concerning all

the things taught about Jesus. And we have a similar

hope and goal and going through this series. We want

and hope that as we go through this gospel series,

as we examine the life and ministry of Jesus, that

our faith would be built up, that our certainty would

grow as well. So I'm hoping that as we've kind

of jumped back into Luke, we took a little bit

of a break over the Christmas time, and now we're

back in Luke.

Chapter fourteen is where we're going to find ourselves today.

And so if you have a Bible, go ahead and

turn to Luke chapter fourteen.

That's where we left off last week.

And if you do not have a Bible, you can

either follow along on the screen, which you can do that,

but I would much rather you go grab a Bible

and follow along with us.

We have some. If you don't have one, we have

ESV Bibles out in the.

Lobby for you to take. Please take it. Follow along

with us. But we're going to be turning to Luke

chapter fourteen, and we're going to start in verse fifteen.

All right, I think I gave you guys enough time.

I stopped hearing pages turn so let's read this, pray

and get into today's message. Says When one of those

who reclined at table with him heard these things, he

said to him, blessed is everyone who will eat bread

in the Kingdom of God. But he said to him,

A man once gave a great banquet and invited many,

And at the time for the banquet, he sent his

servant to say to the who had been invited, come,

for everything is now ready. But they all alike began

to make excuses. The first said to him, I have

bought a field, and I must go and see it.

Please have me excused.

And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen,

and I go to examine them.

Please have me excused.

And another said, I've married a wife, and therefore I

cannot come. So the servant came and reported these things

to his master, And the master of the house became

angry and said to a servant, go out quickly to

the streets in lanes of the city and bring in

the poor and crippled and blind and lame. And the

servants said, Sir, what you have commanded has been done,

and there's still room. And the master said to the servant,

go out to the highways and hedges and compel people

to come in that my house may be filled. For

I tell you none of those men who were invited

shall taste my banquet.

Let's pray, Lord God, as we've read your word, as

we've opened it.

We just asked that as we spend this time in

worship of you, not only through song, but in studying

and hearing of your word, Lord God, that it would

ignite faith in our hearts, that we would know you better,

that we would see you clearly, Lord God, that you

would start to reap a harvest in our lives. That

you would make yourself known to us who do not

know You or God, and that you would grow our

affections for those of us who already know you, who

love you. So Lord, refine us, mature us, and just

have your message and your word today not return void

to your glory in Jesus name.

Everyone said a man.

Okay, So I needed to do a little bit of

a background for those of us who were not here

last week, and just a reminder of a refresher for

those of us.

Who were here last week.

Last week we left off in a scene Jesus is

kind of at like a like.

A dinner party.

He's at someone's house, leader of the Pharisees, having a meal,

and they just as Jesus has been sitting at this meal,

everyone's looking at him intently.

They're watching him, trying to catch him.

That's what the Pharisees has been doing, is we've been

studying the Gospel of Luke. The Pharisees have been waiting

to trap, to catch Jesus in his word, to see

what he would do.

Well, what's actually.

Funny is Jesus was doing the same exact thing to them.

He was sitting there and he was watching them, And

as he was watching them, he starts to call them

on the things that he sees them doing. He starts

pointing out, I notice that you like to take the

greatest seat of honor. I notice that you don't think

it's right to help people on the Sabbath, and he

starts to call them out specifically, he starts to call

out their self righteousness and their self exalting behavior. So

that's what we looked at last week, and last week

Pastor Greg preached an excellent message titled You're not the

main character. Now, some of us at the church, it's

kind of funny we've been saying that to each other,

and we've been saying that about one another has we've

been going throughout our week, and I think it is

a good reminder that you are not the main character.

Pastor Greg reminded us of the fact that life is

not about us, but that Jesus is the main character.

He's the main character of the Bible, he's the main

character of history, and he's the main character of our lives.

He's the main character of your life. Pastor Greg is

currently in Guatemala helping do the work that they are

doing down there, and so him and a couple other people,

so we should.

Just be praying for them. They're almost done.

I think they come home tomorrow, so just be praying

for them that they continue to work hard and safe

and get home safely. But last week's text, Jesus tells

the fairest that life isn't about them. He calls them

out for only looking out for themselves in their own

I can hear it getting quieter in this room, and

I love it here. It's not about me. I thought

we were over that last week. Well, today Jesus is

going to touch on a similar note. So welcome back.

It's round two, all right. See what Jesus has in

store for us. We see one of those who were

dining at the table here everything that Jesus just said

from last week, and Jesus he just finished saying, everyone

who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles

himself will be exalted. And now this man, hearing this,

decides to pipe in. He wants he's got something to say.

He wants to share it with Jesus. Now it is

a true statement, but it's from a potentially misguided place,

this man says. Looking in verse fifteen, he says, when

one of those who reclined at table with him heard

these things, he said to him, blessed is everyone who

will eat bread in the Kingdom of God. That's what

the man says, blessed is everyone who will eat bread

in the Kingdom of God. Now this is a true statement,

but the reason it might be from a misguided place

is because everyone sitting at that table would have thought

themselves the blessed ones who would be eating bread in

the kingdom.

Right, It's like it's gonna.

Be a good time, isn't it, Fellas sitting there with

all the Pharisees. Do you remember, if you remember correctly,

the Pharisees are the ones who are considered by others

and also consider themselves as the most righteous.

In Israel.

And not only that, they considered and to some degree,

were the best laws.

In Israel in Jerusalem.

But with Jesus's response, he shows that these men should

not be so quick to think that they have everything right.

And Jesus is going to do this through a parable

that is a story that teaches a lesson, And much

like Jesus is sitting at a banquet, Jesus starts his

story off with another person who throws a banquet. We

see that in verses sixteen and seventeen. But he said

to them, a man once gave a great banquet and

invited many, and at the time for the banquet. He

sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, come,

for everything is now ready.

So Jesus tells him that he starts a story.

There's a man preparing a banquet, and he sends out

initial RSVPs to let the other knows that he's going

to be throwing a party. And once everything is ready,

he sends out a second invite, going to those people

who were already invited, telling them that everything is ready

and prepared, and now.

Is the time to come. It's ready.

We told you there's gonna be a party. The party

is ready now. But then the unthinkable happens. It says

that everyone begin to do what make excuses? Make excuses.

We see that in verse eighteen. But they all alike

began to make excuses. The first said to him, I

have bought a field, and I must go out and

see it.

Please have me excused.

And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen,

and I go to examine them, Please have me excused.

And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore

I cannot come now. Not only would it have been

unthinkable to the Pharisees to turn down such a great

offer of coming to this banquet. But even more unthinkable

were the reasons that these people gave the reasons as

to why they couldn't come. Let's look at him, it says.

The first one says, he just bought a field and

had to go look at it.

That was his excuse. I just bought a.

Field and I need to go look at it. But

obviously this is ridiculous. Think about it. This is ridiculous.

First of all, most people don't buy land sight unseen.

I mean, he's a I would figure you probably got

a lot of money if you can do that. You're

just like, I don't even care, just buy it, you

know what I mean. Like, but most people don't just

buy property without having first seen it. And on top

of that, the land's literally not going anywhere, right, so

come to this party. He's like, oh man, I got

some dirt to go stare at. So that's not really

a good reason. Same goes for the second. He just

bought some oxen and he wanted to go look at them.

They also weren't going anywhere. And lastly, and maybe it's

something that makes more sense to us now, but back

in the day would have seemed more laughable a reason

to turn down such a great opportunity is that of

just having gotten married.

So all of these people make excuses as to why they.

Can't come, and all the reasons are completely bogus, completely bogus,

especially in contrast to what they're being invited to go

stay at third rather than go to a party. So

this messenger returns to the master who invited the first

group and tells him that they won't come. So the

master of the banquet becomes angry, and he orders the

messenger to go out and say, you know what, invite

everyone else, Invite the lowly, invite the outcasts, invite the

least in society. And then that still wasn't enough. He

tells them to go out into the highways and outskirts

and start compelling.

People, which is like you gotta be there.

You like, you're trying to compel them to get in

to come to this party because the master wanted to

fill his house to the fullest for this banquet, and

we see this in verse twenty one through twenty three.

So the servant came and reported these things to the master.

Then the master of the house became angry and said

to his servant, go out quickly to the streets and

lanes of the city and bring in the poor and

crippled and blind and lame. And the servant said, Sir,

what you have commanded has been done, and there's still room.

And the Master said to the servant, go out to

the highways and hedges and compel people to come in,

that my house may be filled. So what was first

going to be a blessing to those initially invited becomes

a blessing to everyone else as a result of the

excuses and rejection of the blessing that they were invited

to are we're seeing that just trying to make it

really clear what Jesus is talking through and walking us

through in this story that he's telling. And then to

finish his parable, Jesus makes his point clear by saying

what became of those who originally invited?

We see that in verse twenty four.

He says, for I tell you, none of those men

who were invited shall taste my banquet. Now here's something

that's really really interesting about this part of the text.

Is the you.

Is a plural you, which indicates to us that Jesus

went from telling this story and gets to this point

and Now he starts talking to those at the table

and says, and I tell you.

That none of those men will be invited to my banquet.

Jesus in response to the man's proclamation that blessed are

those who will eat bread in the Kingdom of God?

Is this story to recap where men get invited to

the banquet, but once things are ready, the people reject

his invitation, And so in turn, two things happen. The

Master invites everyone else, and those originally invited are now

excluded from even tasting the banquet. What we're really looking

at today is kind of asking a question, why did

those men reject the invitation when the time finally came,

why did they reject this invitation? Well, just like last

week where Jesus pointed out the fact that they only

cared about themselves, now here Jesus is pointing out the

problem of their priorities.

It's the problem of their priorities that those who.

Were invited ended up caring more about their stuff than

the true blessing that was being offered to them. They

cared more about their stuff than the true blessing that

was being offered to them.

So when the time finally came. They chose their stuff

over the master.

Is what we're gonna be looking at today and today's

text that was my intro. Okay, yeah, uh oh no,

that's what we're looking at today, our priorities. And if

you're taking notes, today's message is titled the problem is

your priorities.

The problem is your priorities. Now.

When I was a teenager, I was involved like all

kinds of music stuff, and I had a friend who

offered for me to go see the band Coldplay with

him and his mom, and which is really cool opportunity.

I don't know if if you've ever like listened to

the music, you can have your own opinions about that.

That's fine.

But their shows are incredible. They're huge, they're massive, and

they go all out. So he invites me if I

want to go see it with him and his mom,

and I'm like no. I told him no, And I

told him no because in my pride, I'm not gonna

go see a concert with you and your mom. Come on, like, right, really,

it's not a good reason. And here's the deal.

I'm not one to have like tons of regrets about

my life. Right.

That's not to say I get everything right, I'm just

saying I try not to regret too much. Right, this

is one of those opportunities I know I messed up on.

I know I messed up.

Looking looking back at I'm like I missed out on

a huge blessing, a free ticket.

To go see to really experience this huge blessing.

Right, So he invited me, But because of my own pride,

my own stubbornness, I cared more about how I looked.

I turned down this opportunity that was given to me.

Now today, that's exactly what Jesus is getting out.

In regards of the religious leaders here, they say one thing,

the most.

Righteous people, they put God first.

But when it comes down to the world, their priorities

prove otherwise. And Jesus's example here is exactly what happens

in his day. This story is a story of God's people.

God had a people, the Israelites, whom God had given

promises to. He had told him to be waiting and

watching for when the time was ready that would represent

the banquet. In the first invitation, John the Baptist comes

along the way and he starts saying, guys, it's almost time.

Jesus shows up and says, it's time. It's time to calm.

Everything's ready, the promise, the blessing, the banquet is here,

the kingdom is here, the kingdom is near. But the

religious leaders and their pride and the wrong priorities rejected

the invitation. And so God took that promise, and then

after Jesus's death and resurrection, extended the blessing and promise

to the least, to the outcasts into the.

Farthest reaches of the earth instead.

And specifically, you have the religious leaders who, in their pride,

would continue even after Jesus was raised, to oppose him

and never come to him, resulting in, as Jesus says,

that they would never taste of his banquet.

Yet here's the irony.

All of those pharisees, all of those religious leaders were

the ones who were most confident that they would be

the ones who end up in the kingdom. They're the

ones who and who were most confident that they would

make it to the banquet.

Are we seeing the problem now?

As much as that's what happened and that was relevant

for them, we are by no means exempt from the

meaning of this text. Jesus says that those religious leaders

excuses and wrong priorities were going to keep them from

entering the kingdom.

The same goes for us.

So if you're taking notes, you can write wrong priorities

will keep you out of the kingdom. Wrong priorities will

keep you out of the kingdom. And you can be

mad at me all you want, But this is what

Jesus said. Okay, this is what Jesus is trying to

make his point very clear here, and it's not just

Jesus but our gospel writer Luke.

He's the one making this point.

And all you have to do is flip back a

page and look forward a page. Because last week Luke

tells us that Jesus told everyone what it's not about you.

This week he's saying it's not about your stuff. There's

nothing more important. And next week it kind of culminates

it will be fun. Jesus tells us the cost of

following him. Jesus tells us the cost of being his disciple,

and spoiler alert, it's everything that we are to put

Jesus first. So it's not just Jesus who tells us this,

but Luke has put all of these events right next

to each other to make it very very clear.

He's building the case. Jesus is very.

Clear about who should be at the center of our attention,

who should be the center of our affection and devotion.

And that's not ourselves. It's not ourself, it's not our stuff.

But it's on Jesus. I think this is something very important,

he says. Jesus makes it clear. It's the difference between

those in the kingdom and those who are not. It's

the difference between those who truly follow him, as we'll

see next week, and those who are not.

So this is gonna be sobering, and it.

Would have been sobering for the Pharisees in Jesus's day.

They needed the wake up call, and we need the

wake up call.

He's just like them. We may presume too much.

Now. I don't know if you've ever seen the movie

The Patriot's hands down my favorite movie, hands down, my

wife's probably I think it's fair to say, yep, yep.

So we watch it every single fourth of July, and

then we watch it every single time. We can't wait

til fourth of July. That's how often we watch that movie.

We love that movie. But when I was going through

this message, one of the scenes that popped up is

there's a scene where this big like the big bad

guy of the movie. He's the leader of the dragoons,

you know, he runs the calvary and he comes to

his general and he's reporting.

About uh.

He comes to the general that he reports to and

he starts to speak of his hopes and dreams for

when the war is over. Right set in the Revolutionary War.

He starts telling the general about what he hopes and

one of those is that he presumes that once the

war is over that the king will recognize his victories

in battle.

And reward him for it.

But the general says, you may presume too much, because,

as was said, this officer was a bad dude. You

go watch that movie, dude, you will hate that guy

straight up. Just to be clear, he was merciless. He

acted on his own accord and without reg regards to

the rules of warfare, and specifically that was fighting like

a gentleman in those times. But because he had technical

victories despite the evil means, and he wore the badge

and he had a title, he thought he was going

to get rewarded. But the general corrects him because though

he had victories on paper, they were one from the

wrong place. He cared about victory at any cost rather

than victory with honor, and yet it was going to

cost him both honor and the reward he sought. So

much like today, we presume that we're following Jesus, that

we will be in his kingdom, but a lot of

us want to have our cake and eat it too.

It's just it's that simple because we say one thing,

but when the time comes to prove it, we show

where our loyalty really lies. Every believer, even some non believers,

have heard the invitation to come to Christ. That is

that everything has been prepared for them. There's a perfect

sacrifice for your sins. Redemption has been accomplished on your behalf.

There's a perfect mediator who stands between you and God.

He's taking your punishment, he gives you his righteousness.

That's Christ.

And so the invitation is to come to believe in him,

to put your faith in your trust in him.

But some of us hear this invitation and we take

it for granted.

We say, I'm glad to know that everything is ready,

But now's not really like a great time. That's how

we respond. Now's not really a good time. Maybe I

can start tomorrow, maybe I'll come next time. And the

danger in this thinking, well, Jesus shows us that those

who reject or make excuses for the offer to come

will in the end be excluded.

So there's an urgency.

But in Christ, everything has been prepared for us, redemption, peace,

a new life. And most of us say, well, maybe

I can start tomorrow. They ever tried working out, they

ever tried getting in a regimen, you know. And it's Friday,

when a you're gonna start, You're starting today.

Now I'm starting Monday.

I'm gonna make sure i'm gonna get my weekend first,

and then I'll start Monday. And then what happens three

weeks go by, it's Friday again, You're like Monday.

Right. It doesn't change, It doesn't.

Ever work, because until we decide to start today, nothing's

gonna change.

Today is all we have. But we try so often

to go like, oh.

Well I will start, I will start, But that doesn't

show us that we have a heart that says I'm

going to start. I'm actually ready to start, because we

just do it now, it doesn't matter. Stop eating donuts,

go pick some, go for a walk, you can literally

just do that. But we put these things off, and

everyone who puts their faith in Jesus, here's Jesus's call

to follow him, obey him, be a part of his church,

to share the gospel.

But then our real priorities start to show their heads.

As soon as Jesus says this needs to be your priority,

our real priorities.

Go like, well yeah, but no, it starts to our

real priority starts to put up a fight and go.

Like, I don't know about that. Hold on, can we

have both? Can we work it out? Like you get

this weekend. I get this weekend. You get this weekend.

That's how we treat what Jesus has commanded us to do.

That's how we treat our relationship with Jesus. And we

see that Jesus is parable. He actually lists for us

the three most common reasons for why people reject or

make excuses for following and coming to Jesus.

So we're gonna look at those. The first one, it's our.

Stuff, stuff, we love stuff, our material possessions. The first

person in verse eighteen who makes an excuse to someone

who had just bought a field, This man would rather

go look at a field that isn't going anywhere, then

come be a part of the massive blessing that he's

been invited to. And it's easy to go like, ha ha,

what a dummy. He'd rather look at dirt. We do

it too that if we were to really put it

into to if we were to perspective, we were to

put it into perspective, we're choosing dirt. We choose dirt

all the time compared to the massive blessings that we've

been given. We let our stuff take priority over following Christ.

That could be our hobbies that we let rule our lives.

It's anything that we let take first priority over Jesus

and the things He's called us to. I mean, I'll

make it to church in the gathering of God's people

if an opportunity for my true passion doesn't come up.

I mean, i would read my Bible way more regularly.

But I'm like really into this True Time podcast. That's

just got me on the edge of my seat.

I mean, one other day has as much football, and

it's the playoffs that only happens. You know, we could

go on and on.

That's just one excuse our stuff, our entertainment, and the

next one is also materialistic in nature.

That's our jobs or financial pursuits. Verse nineteen.

The man has bought some oxen that he wants to

go examine. Oxen were one of the most important means

of lively hood in a Jewish culture, as it plowed

fields and did other laboring tasks. But this is another

example of those who would put their financial pursuits first

instead of following Christ. They would rather chase what comes

on the other end of a final a financial pursuit

than pursue those things of eternal value and produce eternal results.

We take jobs with bigger paychecks because.

We can do more cool things, though it's going to

eat into the time or opportunities to be a part

of what Jesus call is to like going to church,

serving fellowshiping with others in your home, evangelizing with those

around you, or how about something simple like leading your

family and worship. Leading your family and worship both of God,

both in your home and at church. This is these

things that steal your attention and your energy away from

the main thing, which leads us to the last and

probably biggest thing in our culture, that is relationships. In

verse twenty, we have the man who just got married

and so declines the invitation. We all know this one,

all right, A lot of us, right many? How many

of you have used your spouse as an excuse or

a reason.

You've used your.

Child as an excuse or a reason for not having

to do something that you don't want to do. But

more specifically, specifically, if there's one thing that I've seen

people chase after harder than Jesus, it's relationships easily, hands

down every single time. Specifically those are the romantic kind.

And then second would probably be like their families. People

will throw everything they believe and hold dear to the

wind just for a shot at a relationship. In many

of us, we got to be fair, right, we can

point fingers, but many of us have done this. Maybe

we are doing this, but we for seasons have been

led astray by friends that we put more value in,

by potential future spouses who don't follow Jesus, by family members.

Who are hostile to Christ.

We put more precedence over our children and their hobbies,

or by are worshiping our own family and our family

time instead of leading them to worship Christ as He's

called us to. We like to define well God. I mean,

this is worship. This counts right. I think God will

accept this right rather than just doing what he said,

what He's called us to. But why do people do

these things? Why do we do these things? We just

talk about other people. We need to talk about ourselves.

I need to talk about you, and I'll talk about you,

but talking about me. All of us prioritize things above

Jesus in various aspects of our lives, in various areas

of our life. And there's a reason that we do it.

We do it because we believe that those things are

better than anything Christ has to offer. The reason we

choose those things over what Christ offers is because we

believe that those things will be better. And the way

I put it in my study this week was like this,

The things you say yes to are the things that

you believe are best for you. The things you say

yes to are the things you believe are best for you.

When we prioritize any one thing, any financial pursuit, or relationship,

above Jesus, when we put those things first, we do

so because we believe that they are better than what

Christ has to offer. If we choose our stuff, our job,

our relationships, over the banquet. We are showing that we

believe that those things can give us something better than

the banquet could ever offer. We're turning those things into idols,

and what's worse, we're going to lose the banquet. I've

read a kind of a variation of this and this week,

just saying that we have this problem with taking our

priorities and putting second things first, set of first things first.

So this message is a wake up call for all

of us to examine our own lives. And that's exactly

what we need to do. We need to take a

sober look at our lives and see what we're putting

before Christ.

What in your life? What in our.

Lives do we have that takes priority over Christ? And

there's a few ways we can do that. Look at

where you spend most of your time, most of your money,

most your energy, how about most your thoughts? What's the

time what you listen to? Those things will very quickly

reveal what you prioritize in your life. You spend more

money on Pokemon cards than on the Lord's Mission, I'd

say that's maybe an indicator. Oh, I know, if you

take a job that makes Church and your involvement impossible.

That might be a warning sign if you'll throw away

following Jesus because of a relationship, I'd say.

That's a pretty massive red flag.

But one of the most simplest ways I could think

of helping us examine our lives is to look at

the things we say yes to. Look at the things

you say yes to. Look at your own life. What

are the things that are no brainer yeses?

What do we say yes to?

Do we say yes to stuff, relationships, jobs, before we'd

ever say yes to serving in God's church? Do we

say yes to things that make us go back.

On our prior commitments to Christ? Well, I was going

to do that, I'm not. I got this other opportunity

that came up.

Do we say yes to things that will eat up

all our time for the things that Jesus called us to?

The flip side of that, do we say no to

the things that Christ has called us to? Maybe because

it's out of our comfort zone and we rather just

save face. Do we not repent and admit my wrong

because that would shatter my pride? Every excuse has an

underlying priority. You're late to work, but it's because you

prioritize staying up late watching your shows, playing your video

games rather than getting good sleep. You put on too

much weight because you'd rather find your comfort and food

than giving up those late night snacks.

To get in better health.

Or the flip side, we'd rather spend all of our

time working out rather than growing in.

Our walk with Jesus.

For Timothy four seven through eight says nothing to do

with the reverend silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness.

For while bodily training is of some value, it's of

some value. Godliness is of value in every way, as

it holds promise for the present life and also for

the life to come. All of us have priorities, and

all of them will show themselves in how we live

our lives, what we put first, what we say yes

to and as we will see next week, Jesus makes

it very clear that there's nothing more important than him

being first. Many of us live our lives for just

right now, not considering this life and our next, and

that's what Jesus parable has shown us today. People have

made excuses and rejected his invitation because their focus was

on today, Their priorities were on their life now, rather

than what's best for this life and the one to come,

which is truly shocking and unbelievable, because when off the

privilege of being invited to come be a part of

this banquet, they chose something less important. It's just not

as important in the face of eternity. We can't point

fingers because we do the same thing. We settle for

the lesser in comparison with the promises and blessings God

has invited us to be a part of. We too

often choose this life over our eternal life. And God

has prepared a blessing and a plan for his people,

but they rejected it because they had other focuses, other priorities.

And while it resulted in those people being rejected it,

it also resulted in our inclusion, all of us sitting

in this room right now, that for anyone who did

hear this invitation, that they can now come and sit

at the banquet, that they can now come and partake

in the blessing that has been offered. That all of

us who were unworthy on the outskirts of town have

the invitation to come and sit and eat in the

Kingdom of God. But that is going to mean letting

go of whatever has our focus now. Just like when

Jesus called his disciples. You remember he was walking along

the way and there's guys in a fishing boat.

He says, come follow me.

They dropped everything and they followed him. When he calls us,

we're to drop everything and follow him, drop everything and

put him first. So when you look at our lives,

what do you let take precedence over what God has

called you to? What areas of your life have been

reluctant to come and obey Christ's invitation because you're holding

onto something else? What is that something else you're holding onto?

Life is very often decided by the choices we make,

no dubt right, But those choices are decided by the

priorities in our life.

What we hold on to, what we let go of.

But also, if you want to succeed in these things,

making those decisions as simple as possible is I think

very very helpful. Don't overcomplicate it. I remember when I

was kind of first reigniting my faith in my teen years,

I heard a pastor say, you can either make fifty

two decisions or one decision, and that blew my mind.

He was talking about it, and he was just talking

about one thing. You're just talking about going to church.

I can sit here and I can wonder every single

Sunday fifty two decisions is do I go to church Sunday?

Do I do something else? Do I go to church Sunday?

Do you do something else? Or you can make one

decision so I'll know where I'll be.

I don't. This is what I do Sunday is when

I go to church.

Making our decisions simple based off of the priorities in

our life. There are decisions that have made no difference

in my life, and there's decisions in my life that

have changed my life in dramatic ways, but all of

those have been based on my priorities. All of those

have been based on what I believe to be best.

And something I was thinking about this week as I

was looking at my own life, I was just trying

to process, like, what is the most simple answer I

could give to anyone who's looking for advice in life?

Like if I'm not really old enough to do that necessarily,

all right, but I have a caveat for that, so

just bear with me. But if I alread to give

anyone any advice in life based off the life that

I have lived so far, things that have changed my

life in dramatic ways, things that have most helped me

comforted me.

Simplest thing I could say is to do what Jesus says.

Sounds too simple, and I personally think it's I'm not okay,

this sounds there's my pride. Uh I think I like

that better than what would Jesus do? I don't want

to wonder. First of all, I have a hard knough

time thinking like Jesus in the first place. Like I like,

that's that's an impossible task. But he told us what

to do, so he just do that. I'm in a situation,

what do you tell me to do? I'm gonna do

that in every situation. That's my priority. It doesn't mean

I get it right. It just means like I actually

now have.

A foundation.

As a husband, as a father, as a man, as

a pastor. And that's to do what Jesus says. It's

what guides my decisions. It's what determines my priorities. Because

I want Jesus and what he says to be my priority.

So when Jesus says, come, I don't want to weigh

the options. I want to come. When he says sir,

I don't want to wonder if I will, but where

I will if he says, go, I want to go.

Our mission here at the church is that it's all

about Jesus, and Jesus says, before you presume too much,

check your priorities and make sure that they aren't keeping

you from coming to me, from obeying my call on

your life. We need to see what areas of our

life we need to make all about Jesus and adjust

those to make him our first priority. Because until Jesus

is what comes first in your life, you will always

have a reason to not follow him fully. Until you

decide make that one decision that Jesus is what comes

first in every decision, you will not follow him fully.

His unfortunate truth is that sometimes we treat Jesus and

his calling on our life like the thing that we

will do if nothing better comes up.

I will do that. Yeah, that sounds all.

Right, if nothing no better opportunity to show up. But

Jesus is warning in this passage that those who only

care about themselves and their stuff will be kept out

of the kingdom.

And I need the band to come up, please, And I.

Read a quote this week, right, because this is this

is heavy and it should be heavy. But I think

the reason that it would be heavy in our own

lives is because we don't want to let go. That's

why it's heavy. These You're like, ah, I hear what

you're saying. If I want to grab one to this

other thing, I gotta let it go of this other thing.

You let go of it. It makes it easy. Well, I

guess I'm just doing whatever he said. Why I should

probab figure out what that is now, Maybe be around

people who know what he said, maybe read what he said,

maybe pray to him, talk to him.

But I read a quote this week that.

I also feel like was helpful and putting a lot

of this into to frame and to picture in our minds,

and it was that God doesn't care about you having stuff.

He cares about stuff having you, right, not mine? Barza.

It's like, yeah, shay up. I was like, it's good.

That's what Jesus saying.

Here.

Does this stuff have you? Or does Christ have you?

Where is your loyalty? Where does it lie? So what

is the main thing in your life? Christ in his

kingdom or you in your stuff? Assuming on the mountain

Jesus talks about people who might be worrying about.

Well, Jesus, if I can give up my stuff.

Who's gonna take care of me? And he tells us

what seek for Him and his kingdom. Everything else will

be added to you. Those things that you worry about,

he'll take care of them. You seek him first, You

seek his kingdom first. So where do you need to

repent and return to Christ to being the first thing

first in your life? And for those of you who

haven't put faith in Jesus, he is calling you. He

is compelling you to come to him for salvation because

everything's ready, just like the banquet, everything's prepared.

He died on the cross for your sins.

That you put your faith in him, all your guilt,

all your shame, the wrath do your sin for sinning

against a holy, righteous God has been dealt with on

the cross by Jesus. And he'll give you his righteousness

if you would but put your faith and trust in

Him alone, not your stuff, not your job, not your relationships,

but Him alone.

You'll be saved. It will be set free from your sin.

And I promise you that that is way better than

anything the world has to offer. For anyone who rejects

Christ and doesn't put them first, there is nothing for

them except for the wrath do their sins, and the

exclusion from the banquet that will be in the Kingdom

of God when Christ returns.

These.

One day Christ will return and there will be a banquet.

There's gonna be a feast where when Christ comes for

his church there will be a celebration.

We see a picture of this in Revelation nineteen.

It says, then I heard what seemed to be the

voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters,

and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, hallelujah.

For the Lord, our God, the Almighty rains. Let us

rejoice and exult and give him the glory. For the

marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has

made herself ready. It was granted for her or her

to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. For

the lenen or find linen is the righteous deeds of

the saints. And the Angel said to me, blessed or

write this, blessed are those who are invited to the

marriage supper of the Lamb.

And he said to me, these are the true words

of God. So there will be.

A blessing for everyone who gets to be a part

of this marriage shepher on that day. And so it's

my hope and my prayer that all of us would

put Christ first in our own lives and as a church,

that we would look to Him and say, Christ, what

you want from me? What you want from my life?

It's everything you've given me. I want to give it back.

I want to surrender to you. I want to put

you first. What you say goes, how you lead me,

I'll follow. I put you first. I think this is

also very important. We have people watching us, we have

our children watching us. What are we teaching them is

most important? Are families. There's lots of We got family

members who say, you do what every Sunday, every Sunday,

every Sunday.

It can't be that like what to do what? They

don't get it? Pray to God that they do. And

that's not And that's just one thing.

That's just one part of this walk that the Lord

has invited us to be a part of, and we

neglect so many different areas of it.

But we teach our kids what's most important.

We tell we show them by the way we live

our lives, by the way we make our schedules. But

what we spend our money on the things that are

a priority to us as a family.

So the question is is that Jesus.

Or is it something else? I think this is a

real question we have to ask. Is is Jesus so really?

Reminds us in Mark eight says for whoever would save

his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life

for my sake and the Gospel will save it. Ask

the question, for what does it profit a man to

gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? The answer

is nothing. You gain nothing, But then Christ, you can

gain everything. There's a banquet waiting for you with your

name on it. So my prayer, my hope, is that

we put Christ first. We don't make excuses. And when

we start to make excuses, when we start to say

yes to the wrong things, things that are opposed to Christ,

that the Holy Spirit would call these verses to our

mind and remind us and tell us, say.

Who do you put first? What comes first? That way

we won't be excluded what would be included.

As we hear this gospel call and we answer him

wou'd you guys, Please stand