Priorities-Part two

As I said on Monday, part two of this study is going to be on what God's priorities are so that we know what is to be our focus.

1. Soul-saving. From the beginning, God's ambition was and is to save mankind. I Timothy 2:4 states that He "will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." In Hebrews 2:9 the writer says "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." Jesus tasted death for me and for you. He tasted death for all so that they could be saved. Shouldn't we care about souls if they were all important enough for Jesus to die for them? Of course we should! Soul-saving should be our ambition too!
2. The church. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus says to Simon Peter, "And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The church Jesus built is the church. Acts 2:47 tells us that "the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." Who were the saved? Those in Acts 2:38 who received the teachings of Peter and were baptized for the remission of sins. Jesus gave himself for the church. (Ephesians 5:25-26). The church is the body of Christ (Ephesians 5:23) and so it is a priority to God. We should make the church our priority too. We should care for the church and do what we can to help her grow and be as Christ would have her to be. 
3. His word. God's word should be our priority. Not only is it our instruction book but  it is how God communicates to us! It is how we examine ourselves and how we know how God wants us to live. Hebrews 4:12 describes the word as "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword" and it also "is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." He has "given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue." (I Peter 1:3). Psalm 119 describes what our attitude towards the word should be. We should never be too busy to study the word of God or too busy to share it with others!
4. Worship. In John 4:23-24 we learn that we are to worship God "in spirit and in truth." We are to worship God how He wants to be worshiped; not how we want to worship Him. It isn't about entertaining ourselves or doing what we like. It is about doing what He has instructed us to do. We are to praise Him in song with our voices and not with mechanical instruments (Eph 5:19, Col 3:16). We are to remember Christ's death, burial and resurrection through the Lord's supper on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7, I Cor 11:24-29). We also take up a collection (I Cor 16:2). There should be prayer and preaching of the gospel (Acts 20:7, Acts 2:42). Emphasis should be placed on John 4:23 where it states that the Father seeks true worshipers. He isn't interested in our half-hearted attempts to show up on Sunday morning and check a box. He isn't seeking our selfish attitudes when we feel like the service would be better with musical instruments. He is only interested in the true worshipers; the ones who worship Him in the correct way and also with the correct attitude.  

Let each of us examine our lives and make sure that our priorities are aligned with God's priorities. If they aren't, then the perfect time to fix that is now!

-C

*Again, credit goes to my local preacher for these points!