(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now in Matthew chapter 6, the main verse that I want to focus in on is there in verse 33, the famous verse which says, But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And those things that he talks about being added unto them are of course, if you go up a few verses, talking about food, clothing, just the necessary things that we need to live in this life. What I want to preach about this morning is having the right priorities and putting the right things first in your life. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of things always going on in my life, and there are so many different areas of life that I have to try to balance, and it seems like something always has to be sacrificed. You know, you can't give 100% to everything it seems like. Certain things have to go on the back burner at different times, and so how do we make the decisions in our life about what is a priority and what is not? What should come first and what should come second? And I'm talking about often times things that are both important, but which one has to come first and take priority? Well, let's back up first of all to verse 19, and let's deal with the actual context of this chapter. The Bible says in Matthew 6 19, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Jump down to verse 24, the Bible reads, no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And so what the Bible's teaching us there is that money and laying up treasures or riches upon this earth and serving God cannot both be the main thing in our life. They can't both be the priority. They cannot both be our master. We must decide which of those things will take a back seat. Is it going to be making money and becoming wealthy and rich and laying up treasures, or is it going to be serving God, seeking the kingdom of God, his righteousness, searching for truth, searching for the hidden manna of God's word, searching to seek out and to save that which was lost out on soul winning, and seeking the lost sinner to win him to Christ. You know, what is the most important thing in our life? Is it serving God or is it serving mammon? Is it laying up treasures on the earth or is it laying up treasures in heaven? And God's telling us here that in verse 33 that we need to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these other things, all the physical needs of our life, will be added unto us. He said in verse number 32, for after all these things do the Gentiles seek. He says, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. God's not telling us to do without food and clothing. He's telling us that if we put him first, he'll provide. Now is making money important? Is working and earning important? Well if you would, go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, toward the end of the New Testament, 2 Thessalonians chapter number 3. Because when we're talking about priorities, often we're talking about two things that are both important and we have to decide which one is going to come first and take precedence. What is the main thing going to be? Now does that mean that we should not work just because we're seeking the kingdom of God first, does that mean that we don't work, we don't make money? Well stop and think about it. In order to seek something first, wouldn't there have to be a second? You know you can't have a first unless there's a second. That would just be the only. He didn't say seek only the kingdom of God and his righteousness, is that what he said? No. He said seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things. That means there's other things that need to be sought. There are other things that we spend our time on besides seeking the kingdom of God, but what is the priority? What comes first? What is most important? And if something has to give, which one is it going to be? Treasures or serving God? You see how both are important, both are necessary, but one comes first? Not alone, but first. Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 10. The Bible reads, For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. For now then that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. Now this is just one scripture. We could turn to a whole multitude of scriptures and it would take the whole sermon to show all the admonitions to work and to go to work and to earn and to pay your bills and to buy food for yourself. And here he says that we are to with quietness work and eat our own bread. He's saying eat the bread that you paid for with your money. Work and eat your own bread. All throughout the Bible, in Proverbs, he tells us over and over again to work, work hard, work, work, be diligent. In Exodus he said, you know, when he was given the law at Mount Sinai, six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest unto thee. You know, there is a time and a place for work and we as men especially need to work and pay the bills and put food on the table. Now the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 8, you don't have to turn there, it's just a few pages away, but the Bible reads, but if any provide not, are you listening? Provide not for his own. He had denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. So can you see how God could be so upset with someone for not doing the work that they're supposed to do and not providing for their family that he would actually say they're worse than an infidel? That's a pretty strong insult when you're saying, hey, you're worse than an infidel. So God definitely commands us to work so that we can eat our own bread, to put food on the table. God commands us to provide for our family, but does he command us to become rich? Does he command us to lay up treasures? Does he command us to, you know, he said labor not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom. And so if work and making money were the priority, yeah, we'd spend our lives endeavoring to be rich, endeavoring to have the nice things and the fancy clothes and the fancy cars and the fancy house and that would become our God, the Bible says. It would become mammon in our lives. But the Bible says, no, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and I'll allow you to provide for your family, I'll allow you to provide for yourself, I will provide you with food and clothing, he said in Matthew 6. I know you need those things, I know you need to pay for your wife and children, I'm not telling you not to go to work, I'm not telling you not to work a long day, I'm not telling you not to work six days a week, but he's telling you to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then go to work. Then go out and do your best and he will provide and meet your needs. You know, I'd rather seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then go to work next, knowing that God has promised he'll provide my needs if that's the priority I give things, than to go out and work my hardest and do my best and not have the promises of God to rely upon. Because I believe that God can do more for me than I can do for myself. And if I do it the other way, I'm going to fail in other areas of life. You know, I'd rather serve God first. So you see what I mean about priorities? Now what about women? You know, women have sometimes different priorities. Go to Titus chapter 2. Now there are many women today that are single women and single mothers or they're just single, they're divorced, they're in whatever situation they're in that causes them to have to be the breadwinner for themselves. You know, basically they don't have, you know, their husband is not providing for them. Maybe they don't have a husband or maybe their husband is divorced from them or whatever the case may be where women are in a situation where they are having to go out and work and provide their own needs, okay? They're not being provided by their parents or by their husband. They're in a situation where they're on their own. Now first of all, that is not the perfect situation. That is not God's perfect will, okay? That is a result of sin. You know, and I'm not saying that it's necessarily always the woman's fault because it could be the result of the man's sin. You know, if the man has forsaken them or if the man is not providing for them, you know, that, but what I am saying is that somebody's sin caused that situation because in a perfect world women are provided for by their parents and then by their husband. Now we don't live in a perfect world, but if we did live in a perfect world, that would be the situation, and so women today find themselves in a situation through whatever course of events where they must provide for their own needs and they must go out to work and pay that, and again, you know, I'm not blaming them because they need to eat. They need to pay the bills, but I'm saying sin is what got them in that position whether their sin or someone else's sin that led to that position, but it is what it is. So what I'm showing you right here in Titus is basically this is a woman that is married and her husband's providing, okay, which is what the Bible teaches, a traditional home where the husband, the breadwinner, and the wife is staying home, guiding the house with the children and so forth. Look what the Bible says in Titus 2 verse 4, that they may teach the young women to be sober, that's always a good place to start, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. So here we have the great scripture, I mean this could be a whole sermon in and of itself, just going down these bullet points of what women ought to be taught by the older women ought to teach them that they should be sober, that they should love their husbands, to love their children, and then he says to be discreet, chaste, you know, chastity, that has to do with purity, discretion has to do with, you know, what does discreet mean? What's the opposite of being discreet? Yeah, loud, there you go, loud, flamboyant, obnoxious, okay, going into subjects that you shouldn't be going into, not having the discretion to say, wait a minute, I shouldn't be talking about this, okay. So we have flamboyant, that's a good one, that's the opposite of being discreet. And then he's saying here, keepers at home, you know, that's the primary job that women have, and let me tell you something, it's a big job. It's a full-time job. You know, it's not, you say, oh, you know, your wife just, she just sits around all day while you go out and work your fingers to the bone. Yeah, right, she has to basically, first of all, she has to keep the house in order, keep the house, guide the house, the Bible says in 1 Timothy 5.14, guide the house, here it says keepers at home, you know, similar terminology there. You know, she has to basically keep the house operating, she has to raise the children, she has to prepare three meals a day, she has to keep the place cleaned up, she has to educate and train seven children, you know, and counting, you know what I mean? And so she has to teach them, she has to train them, she has to feed them, she has to clothe them, she has to do the shopping, there's a lot involved and it's a long, arduous day, it's a big job, it's a full-time job. But that ought to be the priority, according to the Bible, and we'll get into that a little bit more, but the priority ought to be caring for the house and caring for the children. Now my priority is first the things of God, secondly I better pay the bills, secondly I better provide, okay? My wife's priority is to first of all seek God first. She needs to be reading her Bible and praying. She can't say, oh I'm just so busy with the house and cleaning the house and I'm so busy with making the meals and taking care of the children and driving here and driving there that you know what, I just don't have time to read the Bible, I just don't have time to pray, I just don't have time to make it to church tonight, I just don't have time to do any soul winning. Basically that would not be seeking first the Kingdom of God. Or what about this, well I'm so busy homeschooling the children and teaching them about science, history, and math, and English that I don't have time to teach them the Bible. No, the Bible is subject number one when it comes to homeschooling. That's what I want my children to learn more than anything else. I don't care what this world thinks, listen to me, I don't go to the world to ask their opinion about how to raise my children. I don't care if the world says, ah that's not as important, they need this stuff to equip them for the workforce. You know, learning the Bible is going to equip them for the workforce more than any other subject. The Bible more than anything teaches you to have character and discipline and self control and temperance and diligence and to work hard. The Bible is going to make you a godlier person that's going to be a better worker and you will go out and succeed on that job because of godly biblical principles that you learned. That's why Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were ten times better than what the world had to offer. Because God's word was their foundation, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And so when my wife's homeschooling, she needs to make Bible study and Bible reading a priority and I thank God she does. Every day she reads them the word of God and many times she expounds it unto them. And that is what we need today. We need parents, and turn if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 11, we need both parents to spend time teaching and preaching the word of God unto their children. You say women preachers, well I don't believe in women preachers behind the pulpit because the Bible says that women should keep silence in the church for it is not permitted unto them to speak. It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, the same thing is taught in 1 Timothy chapter 2. But I will say this, the Bible says in Proverbs 31, remember that famous passage about the virtuous woman, Proverbs 31? The very first words of Proverbs 31 are this, the words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. And prophecy is synonymous with preaching in the Bible. You know, it is the job of women to not get behind a pulpit, cut their hair short and preach a sermon, but rather to in the home preach the word of God unto their children. I'm for women preachers when it comes to soul winning, preaching the gospel to every preacher. I'm for women preachers when it comes to in the home preaching and teaching the word of God to their own children, just like Solomon's mother taught him the word of God and preached unto him the word of God. That is important. That will make all the difference in the world. Yes, there's preaching that comes in the church, in the house of God, from the pastor. But you know what, there's also preaching that comes from mom and dad unto the children. And some of the best sermons that I heard in my life were preached by my mother and my father to me growing up. And some of the things that I know and believe and anchor my soul to today were not heard in church, but were heard from the mouth of mom and dad preaching to me the word of God. Preaching the truths of God's word to me as I grew up. You see, it's important that we put the kingdom of God first, always. And wives are to put child rearing, guiding the house, and teaching the word of God to their children, teaching other things to their children, very high on the list. Now did I have to turn to Deuteronomy 11? Let's continue on this point. Look at verse 18. It says this, Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul. You know, and I believe that that has to do with Bible memorization also. Not only reading, but you know, laying up. Not treasures on this earth, man, lay up a bank account of God's word in your heart and in your soul. He says, Lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes, and ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house, and upon thy gates, that your days may be multiplied and the days of your children in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them as the days of heaven upon the earth. You know, and this scripture right here is talking about both fathers and mothers teaching the word of God unto their children. And there are a lot of scriptures like this in Proverbs about a father teaching the word of God unto his children, and about a mother teaching the word of God unto their children. And if you were to just look up every time that the Bible talks about teaching your children, you'll find over and over again God's telling you, teach your children, teach your children, teach your children, teach the word of God. Now look, a lot of this teaching is taking place in the home, is it not? Because he says, when do you teach them? When thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way? When thou liest down and when thou risest up. Now here's where we need to be careful again, when we're talking about priorities. You know, is it a priority for me to make the money necessary to pay my bills and to provide for my wife and provide for my children? Yes. But I don't want to get carried away with that to where I'm working so much that I'm not able to spend time at home. You know, sometimes men can get so carried away with work, they're not spending any time at home. They're just gone all the time. And you know, I have to be careful of this because I'm gone a lot. Because I'm out working a lot and a lot of times I have to travel for business and so I'm gone a lot. So I have to make a point to make time to be in my house. Because teaching the word of God to my children needs to be a high priority in my life. And I can't do it if I'm not there. Now obviously my wife is going to have more time and more opportunity to do it because that's her primary job is to guide the house and to be there with the children. Just by nature, she's going to be there more. She's the primary caregiver. I'm going out to work. She's guiding the house. But you know what? Even as a husband, it's my responsibility also to make sure that I do spend time sitting in my house and lying down and rising up and that while I'm there, I'm teaching the word of God to my children. So let me say to all the men here today, be sure that you're spending adequate time at home. Make that a priority, not to just, oh I'm done with work, now I'm going to go out with my friends. I'm going to go out with my buddies. We need to spend time at work, yes, to pay the bills. Not to try to become rich and wealthy, but to make enough. And then we need to set aside time at home where we can teach our children and talk to our children. Just this morning I was ranting and raving to my son Solomon about things that I'd learned in the word of God. I was expounding it unto him. And that's what we need today. We need wives and husbands and mothers and fathers who talk about the Bible at home. Make it a part of your life. Let your children grow up with it always in front of them, as frontlets before their eyes. I mean, it's always there. It's always on our mind. Not where we just go days and days where God doesn't even enter our mind. The word of God doesn't even enter our mind until Sunday, go to church, hear about the Bible, hear about God. It should be a priority to talk about it at home, to be at home, to speak about these things, to go over these things. Now go to James chapter 3, let me change gears in the sermon here, James chapter number 3. So let's talk about what we've learned so far. Certain priorities need to take precedence. The things of God always need to come first before the things of this world. But the things of this world are important and do have a place, but they have to take a back seat, they have to come second. So my number one priority is the things of God. My second priority as a man is to go out and provide and pay the bills, but only to the point where I still have time to spend some time with my family and to teach my children and to teach my family the word of God and so forth. You know, women, they need to seek first the kingdom of God, they need to make sure that they are in their Bible, that they are praying, that they are preaching the gospel, that they are doing what's needed, and then they need to then buckle down on their tasks of the home and guiding the house and so forth. Now you say, Pastor Anderson, that's pretty hard to balance even just those two things. You know, just to balance, or three things really, just to balance church and serving God. Let's talk about the men for a moment. Church and serving God, making money, and being with your family, spending quality time with your family. Quality time is not sitting in front of the TV together. Quality time is spending talking and conversation. Well, we don't have anything to talk about. Well, you know, talk about these things. This is a good place to start. You say, how am I going to balance those three things? You know, let me just give you some examples of things. You know, I've studied the Bible and I have opinions about these things. You know, let me just give you some scenarios where I would put these priorities into action. First of all, when it comes to serving God, there are certain commandments of God, right? And then there are other things that we could do for God, but they're not really commanded in any certain quantity. For example, let's think about some of the things that God demands that we do. He definitely tells us to read our Bible every day, isn't that true? He definitely commands us to pray every day. We know that. We know we have to do that stuff, okay? He definitely commands us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is. So coming to church is a priority because otherwise we're forsaking the assembly, we're not putting God's house in its proper place, okay? He definitely commands us to go out and preach the Gospel to every creature, does he not? He definitely commands us to do these things, but some of them can be done in varying quantities. For example, reading my Bible every day could be one verse or it could be four chapters or it could be ten chapters or it could be thirty chapters, does everybody understand? Praying could be have a little talk with Jesus or it could be, you know, five minutes, ten minutes, thirty minutes, sweet hour of prayer, you know, it could be varying amounts of prayer. Soul winning could be one day a week, seven days a week. It could be an hour, it could be two hours, it could be three hours, it could be four hours, okay? Going to church, you know, some people go to church on Sunday morning, some people go Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. So you see how all these things can be coming in various quantities, you say, well how do I determine what to make the priority, what to do? Let me tell you my priorities. First of all, I never miss church, ever. Because I believe that that is the most important thing about my walk with God, is assembling together with God's people at the house of God. That is important. We need it so much the more as we see the day approaching. So I don't miss church. I come Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, and you say, well you're the pastor, you have to. Yeah, but here's the thing, I made that decision a long time before I became the pastor, okay? I've been doing that now for the last 12 years or so where I just don't miss. You know, I'm just there. I just make it a priority to be there. Now, to me, I don't think it's that hard to make that priority because of the fact that there are 168 hours in the week. And you know, I've explained to many bosses that I've had at various jobs, I said to them, you know what, there are 168 hours in the week. I want to be in church for about three and a half or four of those hours. That gives you 160 some hours to work with. You need to find a way to have me work during those 160 some hours and not during just those couple of hours that I can't work. Then believe me, I've had bosses yell at me and tell me that I needed to work on Wednesday night, bosses yell at me that I need to work on Sunday night, that I need to do this, do that. If you have to travel, it's fine to travel, but go to church where you're traveling. You know, if you're out of town in a distant city, find a church and go to church in that city. A lot of times we have visitors come on Sunday and Wednesday here that are just visiting from out of town and they're just being faithful to church. They just want to assemble with the believers. I think it's important, I make that my number one priority as far as, you know, I build my week around that. It's like I got Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, I don't think that's too much to ask of my employer. So I've made that priority and I've always done that and I think that God has blessed that. It's really important to me. Now when it comes to Bible reading, you know, we've got to read the Bible every day. That's a real high priority for me also is to read the Bible. How much do I read it? I personally, to me it's a high enough priority where I'm going to spend a lot of time reading the Bible. I'm not going to read one verse, I'm not going to read a half a chapter. Now part of this, obviously I'm a pastor and before I was a pastor I was going to be a pastor so I would spend a lot of time in my Bible, okay? But I would recommend to you, no matter what level of Christianity you're at, a minimum. I think you should set a minimum that you should read the Bible cover to cover once a year. Now that's not in the Bible, that's just my opinion because I believe that at least if you read the Bible once per year, it's at least in your mind. By the time you get around to next year you haven't forgot what you've read, okay? But honestly for many years now I've read the Bible four times cover to cover a year and I've set that as my benchmark and that as my goal is just I read it four times a year which amounts to about an hour or so, a little over an hour a day. Other times I read it much more than that. Other times I might not be doing what I'm supposed to do and it slips or whatever. But that's pretty much what I do as a pastor and what I did leading up to being a pastor. Spend about an hour, okay, between listening to it or reading it and listening intently to it. But I think 15 to 20 minutes you'll get it through in one year. I think that's very reasonable for anybody to put into their 24 hour day, 20 minutes of pure reading, at least read, and that's four chapters. You know, I think it'd be way better if you did eight or 16 chapters or 32, whatever. But what I'm saying is I think that's a good just minimum right there. That every believer right here in this room, if you're not doing that, I would challenge you to do that today and to make a decision, you know, I'm going to read it through once a year, I'm going to spend that 15, 20 minutes to get through those four chapters and crank this thing out once per year. That'd be a great goal and if you're not doing that right now, you need to make that decision today to do that. And maybe others that are more seasoned believers, yeah, you need to be up in that. I think that that's a beginner level right there. Okay, but so far we haven't really cut into your week that bad, have we? You know, I mean we got a few hours for church, 15, 20 minutes a day for reading your Bible and then prayer, you know, same thing. Spend 15 minutes in prayer, you know, whatever you can do. Set aside a time either, you know, and sometimes you can spend, I know some people, they walk to work and basically pray on that walk or pray on a drive or pray, you know, getting on your knees is a good way to pray, I find, just to get on your knees and pray, you know, I like to do that. I like to pray out loud personally, so I like to go to a place where I can pray out loud without being heard or without disturbing the people around me, kind of like the Bible says, you know, when that prayer is enter into thy closet, shut the door. But you know, sometimes you're in a situation where you pray silently. That's also biblical. Nehemiah chapter 1 talks about Nehemiah praying silently in his heart. God hears the thoughts of our heart, obviously, but I think it's helpful to stay focused when you're praying out loud on your knees. Now when it comes to soul winning, here's the thing, God commanded us to go out and preach the gospel to every creature. He commanded us to go soul winning. He commanded us to be a witness unto him of, you know, both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and in the uttermost part of the earth. That needs to be a part of every believer's life. Every single believer should be a soul winner, should be preaching the gospel to every creature, should be winning people to Christ. To be fruitful and multiply, he commands us all as believers to be fruitful, to reproduce, to give the gospel. Now, here's the thing, God did not command us a certain time or a certain place or a day that that has to be done. So, you know, for example, we have our main soul winning on Sunday afternoon and I find that's a pretty convenient time for a lot of people because then the day they just kind of set aside the whole day to do church and to do soul winning, they've already got the clothes on, they're already in this part of town. I think it works out pretty well, it's pretty convenient as a time to go soul winning. But here's the thing. Soul winning is something that can be done at other times during the week as well. And so maybe you say, you know, that Sunday afternoon just doesn't work for me, okay? And you know, there's a soul winning time on Monday night, well I work on Monday nights or I work on Tuesday nights. You know what, that's fine because soul winning, the great thing about soul winning is you don't have to be assembled with all the believers to do it. Now the church is an assembly of everyone. That's why we have certain times that are set in stone, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, you're going to have to work around that. We're not going to work around you. We're not going to bring it to your house at a time that's convenient for you. You've got to be here when it's going on. But when it comes to soul winning, the great thing about soul winning is, let's say you get busy, let's say things get crazy or your schedule changes every week. You know what, you need to just find time to go soul winning, get out there every week and if it's not on Sunday or Monday night or Tuesday night, you need to find somebody in this church that you can organize soul winning with at a time that's convenient for you. But just find a way to get it in there. You know, you can go soul winning any day, any time. I mean don't try to go in the middle of the night. That's not a good idea. But you know, if you had to go soul winning in the middle of the night, you could probably go to certain neighborhoods where there's people out at that time and you could probably walk up to them and give them the gospel. I've done it. I've gone soul winning at midnight in Chicago before and there were about 40 people outside on the street, you know, and I've done it. Now I'm not recommending it, but I'm saying, you know, you can find a way to work these things into your schedule because soul winning needs to be a priority of our life. Why does soul winning need to be a priority? Because one day you're going to get to heaven and a lot of the other things you're spending on your week aren't going to be as important as how many people are there that you brought with you. You know, that's going to be important to you someday and I would suggest that you make it a priority now to win souls, to be fruitful, to multiply, to bring forth fruit unto Christ. And so, you know, you say, I'm busy, I can't make it to soul winning so I'm just not going to go soul winning. No, you need to find somebody to go with at another time and another day. You know, maybe somebody who lives in your area if it's too far to come to Tempe. You know, we've got people living pretty much in every direction. You know, try to find somebody to get together with. And here's the thing, you know, if you're a young married couple and you don't have a bunch of children yet, you know, you and your wife can go soul winning. That's your built-in soul winning partner right there. I mean, you know, and if you're to the point where you have more children, then that means your children are older. That means you can grab one of your older children and go out soul winning and there's your soul winning partner right there, an older child. If you don't have that many children, go with your wife. You know, strap the baby in the sling and go. And so what I'm saying is that there's a way to work these things into our schedule. There's a way to make these priorities work in our life and to spend our lives on things that are really important, yes to pay our bills, yes to provide for our family, yes to be in church, yes to read our Bible and pray and to get out soul winning. Look, there's a way to get it done, but we just need to make these things the priority in our life and if they're important to us, we'll get them done. So you say, well what's going to be sacrificed? Well your video game might need to be sacrificed. You know what I mean? Your sporting events might have to get sacrificed. And you know, I'm not against playing sports or exercising or being healthy. And you know, I actually like to exercise and stay in shape, but you know what, sometimes exercise goes out the window because guess what, it's going to go outside the window before Bible reading does or before soul winning does. Do you see what I mean about priorities? It's going to go out the window before spending time with my children. I mean, something's got to give sometimes and it needs to be sometimes recreational things, sporting things, okay, fun things like that sometimes have to go out the window so that we can get the things done in our life that we need to get done, that we must get done, we must be in church, we must read our Bible daily, we must pray, we must get out soul winning at some point, you know, we must spend time with our children teaching them. They're the next generation. You know, some people, they're so busy serving God and they neglect the children. Well, the next generation is going to blow it and ruin everything that you've created and destroy everything that you've built and you know, I'd rather multiply into, you know, seven more Stephen Andersons that will grow up and do what I have not done in my life. But we need to balance these priorities, my friend. The children need to be taught and you know, sometimes you can combine these things. Bible reading, you know what, here's how you combine Bible reading with your children. You sit down with the children and you read it out loud to them, ladies. Now you're killing two birds with one stone. You're teaching the children and you're doing your own personal reading. You know, soul winning and time with the children. Take them out soul winning with you. You're killing two birds with one stone. And you know, when you go soul winning with your children, you share a lot of fun experiences together. A lot of crazy, you know, you ask my children, they'll tell you all kinds of weird stories from being out soul winning with dad and all the crazy things that happen and to them it's fond memories, it's fun. They fight sometimes over who gets to go with me. I'm going, it's my turn, I want to go, you know. They want to see the action, you know, when they get out. And you know, if you've been soul winning long enough, you've seen some action. You know, you've seen some crazy stuff, right? He's nodding his head, you know, they love it. You know, it's a fun thing. Now look, you say, well Pastor Anderson, you know, I'm a lady and sometimes I find it hard to get out knocking doors because, you know, I don't have anybody to watch the children. And you know, I try to trade, I like to trade off with my wife where I watch the children so that she can go soul winning. But you say, oh, you know, I can't go, it doesn't work. But you know what? A lot of times though, and look, let me say this. To me, door to door soul winning is non-negotiable. I mean, I think it's biblical, I think it's the best way to go soul winning. I think it's critical. You know, I will be a door to door soul winner until the day I die, okay? But I will say this though, a lot of times there's other soul winning that you could work into though, especially, you know, ladies, and really even the men, where you could work in some extra soul winning if you're not getting out door to door as much as you'd like to. But you know what? And again, don't use this as an excuse, well I'm not going to go door to door, I'm just going to do this other soul winning. But you know what? How many unsaved people do you come into contact with, ladies and men both, in the course of the day, in the course of work, in the course of your life, where you come into contact with unsaved people? You know, we need to seize those opportunities. You know, when you're in the work truck and you're on a long drive, that's a great opportunity for soul winning. Just the two of you, long drive, I can't even tell you how many people have wanted the Lord that way, on a long drive, on a long airplane flight, talk about a captive audience. I mean they're not going anywhere. And you could preach the gospel. You know, you could preach it on the job. And I'm not saying neglect your work, but when you're driving down the road, you know, there's a time there where talking is going on. You could shut off the hip hop and shut off the garbage that's on the radio and actually preach unto them the unsearchable riches of Christ. And you know, ladies come into contact with other ladies and they go to the park and they're taking the kids to the playground and there are other ladies there that they could be preaching the gospel unto and they could be winning souls and they could be seizing those type of opportunities as well. And again, it's tough to balance these things, but I think if it's important enough to you, if you're seeking first the kingdom of God, you'll get it done. You'll find a way to do church, Bible, prayer, and all these different things. But let's hurry up. I'm almost out of time and I want to touch on a couple other quick points here. James chapter 3 verse 17 says this, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. So we talked a little bit about priorities with your time, priorities with what you spend your time doing. But what about this priority, putting purity above peace, putting purity above gentleness, putting purity above being easy to be entreated, putting purity above having mercy and having good fruits, putting purity above being without partiality and putting purity above being without hypocrisy. Here's a priority about having integrity in our lives. So first of all we have a priority with how we spend our time and our schedule, right? Of spending the most times on the things that matter most and not letting work become our God and the treasures and the money becoming our God. But what about the priority of putting what's right above these other things? Purity, righteousness, godliness. Now peace is good. Isn't peace a good thing? The Bible says as much as is possible we should try to dwell at peace with all men. The Bible says that Jesus is the Prince of Peace and we should try to have peace with the people around us. But do we have peace at all costs? Peace even at the expense of purity? Will I become impure in order to be at peace with those around me? No. See how purity is more important? Being right with God, being pure in our doctrine. Being pure in my doctrine as a preacher is more important than being at peace with the listener. Purity, my friend. He says purity is more important than peace and purity is more important than being gentle. Now is gentleness a good thing? Gentleness is one of the fruit of the Spirit. The Bible says thy gentleness hath made me great, speaking of God from David. You know I want to be gentle with my children. I want to be gentle and bring them up tenderly and gently as the Bible teaches. But let me say this, purity is more important. And if something has to be sacrificed, me being gentle or purity in my children, which one do you think is going to be sacrificed? The gentleness is going to have to take a backseat to the purity. And then he says here, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits. Now look, good fruits, you know bringing forth good fruit is really important, not at the expense of purity. This is where the neo-evangelical movement has missed the boat. They have made bringing forth fruit or getting people saved the number one priority of their church in their mind. It's all about reaching people. Whatever it takes to reach people, so we'll sacrifice purity. We'll sacrifice the purity of the King James Bible. We'll sacrifice the purity of ladies dressing godly and decently and modestly. We'll sacrifice the purity of biblical doctrine. We'll sacrifice the purity of living a godly, clean and righteous life and preaching it. And we'll have an anything goes, come to church in a Hooters t-shirt, come to church in a Metallica t-shirt, wear the miniskirt, be like them to win them, swing and sway and jam for Jesus, have the sensual seductive singers on the stage. And you know what, it's all in the name of just reaching people. And look, thousands of people are showing up, we're reaching people. You know what, I won't do it. I'm going to stay pure. No swinging and swaying and jamming and jiving. No short skirts, no short skirts up here being the backup singers. No effeminate men. None of this lifestyle where we're just like the world, we dress like the world, we act like the world, we talk like the world. You know, purity my friend is what I'm talking about. That comes first. Then we go out and win people to Christ. Then we seek to reach the lost and win the lost. You say, Pastor Anderson, you got your priorities wrong. We need to win the lost first. Quit worrying so much about purity. No, first pure, then full of mercy and good fruits. But first pure. Because it's never right to do wrong in order to get a chance to do right. It's never right for me to do wrong because if I do wrong, it's like the Bible says in Romans 3, let us do evil that good may come. You know, if we lower our standards of righteousness and purity, we'll reach more people. That is an ends justifies the means logic. That is not of God. I'd rather trust in the Lord with all my heart, not lean onto my own understanding, do the commandments that he told me when he said be ye holy as I'm holy, when he said be pure, when he said keep thyself pure Timothy, thou man of God, keep thyself pure. Be pure, first pure, then peaceable. And when you're pure, sometimes peace leaves. When you're pure, sometimes you don't reach as many people. So what? I think in the long run you'll probably reach more people by being pure. When you make purity, it's kind of like this, you seek first the kingdom of God, the other things are added unto you. You know, sometimes you do better financially when you put God first, sometimes. Not always, but sometimes. You know, but it doesn't matter, I don't really care, I'm not looking at the ends justifies the means, I'm just saying if it's right to be pure, I'm going to be pure. And if I can't balance purity and gentleness, I'm just going to go with purity. And I'll try second place to be gentle. And second, I'll go without partiality and without hypocrisy. I'd rather be accused of being a hypocrite than being accused of being impure. You see what I mean? Now, are both important? Hypocrisy is wicked. Of course, partiality is wicked. But you know what, impurity is even more wicked. Keep thyself pure. And lastly, I'll say this, 1 Kings chapter 17, this is the last place we'll turn. 1 Kings 17. So what I'm talking about is balancing a lot of good things in our lives, putting them in their proper order. Yes, gentleness, peace, and good fruits and mercy are all good things, but what comes first? Purity. Yes, going to work and working your job is good. Teaching your children science, math, and English is good. Teaching your children how to make a living is good. Cooking three meals a day is very good. It's very good, alright? Cooking three homemade meals a day is very good. Okay, you know, cleaning the house is good. Doing errands is good. But what comes first? You know, the things of God, teaching your children the Word of God, loving your husband, loving your children, teaching them the Word of God. These are the things that God emphasized. Not to say that the other things aren't important. We need to strive to do everything and to get it all done, but get it done in the right order, is what I'm saying. How about this? When we're putting things first and when we're getting our priorities right, how about putting other people first? Isn't that an important priority? What's the priority, myself or others? Here's a great illustration. I was going to read the whole story, but I don't really have time anymore, so I just want to give you just one little part of the story that illustrates this. The Bible says in verse 9 of 1 Kings 17, and just to give you the background, there's a famine in the land. People don't have any food. They don't have anything to eat and they're really struggling bad. And so the Bible says in verse 9, this is God speaking to Elijah, arise, get thee to Zarephath which belongeth to Zidon and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So God is commanding Elijah to flee Israel into a foreign nation and he says, when you get there, there's a widow woman there that I've commanded to sustain thee. She's going to feed you. She's going to take care of you. Look what it says in verse 10. So he arose and went to Zarephath and when he came to the gate of the city, behold the widow woman was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water and a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called her and said, bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. So he says, go get me some water and she goes, okay, you know, she goes to get the water and as she's going, he says, wait a minute, can you bring me some bread too? Bring me something to eat. And he says to her, bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. Look at verse 12. And she said, as the Lord liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruise and behold, I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son that we may eat it and die. She says, wait a minute, I don't think you understand, do you want me to bring you a little bread? I'm gathering these sticks right now because I'm about to cook my last meal. All we have is this tiny bit of meal and a tiny bit of oil. She said, I'm going to put it together and I'm just going to cook what this little tiny bit of meal and oil, cook it and me and my son are going to split it and that's the last food we have and then we're both going to die. Look what he says next. And Elijah said unto her, fear not, go and do as thou said, but make me thereof a little cake first. He's saying great, but you know what, take that meal and oil, that tiny bit you have, and give it to me first. And watch what the Bible says, make it first and bring it unto me and after make for thee and for thy son. So he's not saying divide it up three ways. He said no, take all of it, take all the meal and the oil and make it for me, then bring it to me, let me eat it and then go back and make it for yourself and your son. And look what it says, for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. Now this took some faith on her part because he says if you make it for me and bring it to me, it'll still be there, you'll have more, it'll keep coming. Now that's a pretty, I mean if somebody told you that, would you believe it? So this is something that takes some faith, but remember God said he had already commanded her to sustain him. So she'd already heard from God that this is what she was supposed to do. So she has to have faith now by taking the last bit of food, she's hungry, her son's hungry, and give it to Elijah first. Take care of him first. And then look what happens, it says in verse number 15, and she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did eat many days, and the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah. This is an amazing miracle. Every time she came back and opened the cupboard and opened it up, there was just a little bit more left all the time. And she'd use it and then she'd come back and there's more. Kind of like when Jesus was dividing the five loaves and two fishes where he just kept dividing, just kept being there, just kept coming, kept coming, kept coming. Some atheists attacked me because they, you know, I preached that sermon about the loaves and fishes, you know, which is a biblical truth. And they said, oh man, you know, what do you believe? God makes fish and loaves fall out of the sky. And I said, well it's better than your religion where the fish get up and walk away. That's what your religion, you know, that's what your religion of atheism teaches, that fish grow legs and walk. You know, my religion teaches that the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, was able to multiply fish. Well, to me, multiplying fish is less of a miracle than fish growing legs and walking away, you know, but that's just me. But that's another sermon. But anyway, what I'm saying is that this woman, what we can learn from this, it's like she took care of someone else first. She put him first. She put Elijah first and God ended up providing for her. It reminds me of when Job, the Bible says, the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends in Job 42. So a lot of times we pray for others and God takes care of us. We give unto others and God gives unto us. The Bible says that whoso give it to the poor lendeth unto the Lord and the Lord will repay, I'm paraphrasing, but it says the Lord will repay what he's borrowed. And so when we give to others, when we look at others and put them first, then we will be blessed by God. He'll take care of our needs. But when we're always just concerned with ourself, my needs, what I want, what I need, what I've got to have, you know what, if she would have eaten that, think about the story. If she would have eaten that meal and that oil, that would have been her last meal and they would have died. But because she put others first, God blessed that and took care of her need. Be generous is what the Bible is teaching. So when it comes to priorities, who comes first in your life, yourself or others? Are you generous or are you a stingy tightwad? You know, if you're generous, God will bless. If you are seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be added unto you. If you're putting purity before peace and gentleness, God will bless. You know, we need to get the priorities right in our life. It's difficult, my friend, to balance all the things that we have in our life. But if we put the things that are most important and put them on the front burner, we can do it. We can make it happen. We can balance it. So let's use biblical principles to decide what's the most important thing to us. Are we going to move across the country because of that great job opportunity? And oh, there's no good church there. We have to go to some lame church. You know what I mean? Or are we going to put the things of God first? You know, are we going to just say, well, I'm too busy with X, Y, and Z. Well, wait a minute. Is that even something that God told you to do? Find a way to balance it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Lord, help us not to get our priorities out of whack. Help us not to get too much of a good thing. Help us not to get, you know, I was too busy reading my Bible so I didn't go to church. Help us to do both, Lord. Help us to get the things prioritized the way they need to. Help us not to go, you know, work's great. Help us not to just go work all day and not spend any time with our family or help us not to go soul-ending all day and we didn't go to church and we didn't read the Bible and we didn't pray and we didn't earn a living. Father, help us to balance these things. They're all important, but help us to do it in the right order and to put the right things first in our lives. Help us to put others first in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray.