He Wants It All

October 16, 2011
Morning Worship

Text: Matthew 6:19-24

Subject: Priorities
Title: He Wants It All


I have been preaching in past weeks about how to improve on your relationship with God. I know that I am on the same page with God in this – if you are going to call yourself a Christian it has to be on His terms and not your own.

Last week I shared about how important it is to be consistent in your walk and how you need to stay connected to church. It is true that you don’t have to go to church in order to be saved, but I have to ask, “If you are saved, why don’t you want to be in church?”

Two weeks ago I shared from 2 Timothy 1 about the three things that God has given us in order to make us everything He wants us to be. Those three things are a spirit of power, and love and a sound mind.

Yet, in spite of the fact that we have everything we need to be the best, the church of Jesus Christ does not at all look like the church He intended to raise up. And I believe the reason for that is that we have misplaced our priorities and fallen short of our potential by holding on to and chasing after things that have no real importance in life.
Haddon Robinson points out that one old recipe for rabbit started out with this instruction: "First catch the rabbit." Says Robinson: "The writer knew how to put first things first. That's what we do when we establish priorities -- we put the things that should be in first place in their proper order.
Let me set up the sermon by going to Ecclesiastes 5:10-16, 10 Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
This too is meaningless. 11 As goods increase, so do those who consume them.
And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them? 12 The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep. 13 I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner, 14 or wealth lost through some misfortune, so that when he has a son there is nothing left for him. 15 Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand. 16 This too is a grievous evil: As a man comes, so he departs, and what does he gain, since he toils for the wind?
Money or material possessions do not satisfy. The truth is, that when you place an emphasis on the things that you can gain to satisfy you now, the results are only temporary. But when you focus on the things that have value to God, when you think His thoughts and know His will for your life, when those things become a priority to you, it is then that the church will be what it is supposed to be. Now. I have to say this, “for the church to be all that it can be, it has to start with you as an individual.

Our passage today deals with money or material gain, but the spiritual principle that is established here applies to all things that could become a hindrance in your life in Christ.

Read Matthew 6:19-24.

Everyone hold up your bibles.

I believe this is God’s word…

I believe that God intends the best for me…

His best is found in here…

I accept His word for my life…

And I appropriate it to my life…

In Jesus’