The greatest enemy of “best” is not “bad”, it’s the “good”
Matthew 16:26 – 27
Pastor John Bloch, pastorbloch@hotmail.com
Cross Community Church, crosscommunitychurch.net
26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Matt 16:26-27 (KJV)
Thank you everyone for joining us tonight, I’ve got a prize for each and every one of you for making it to service. I am going to give each one of you $2,400.00 each and every day of your life from now on but the deal is this…everything you don’t spend at the end of each day has to be returned to me your only allow to spend the money on items that are of equal or greater value. How would you spend your money in order to get equal or greater value? The word I’m looking for is “invest”. You have to invest your $2,400.00 each day in order to earn more value and worth.
God has given you 24 hours a day that you are spending down, their just went a second that you’re never going to get back. Their just went a minute that you’re never going to have the chance to spend again. How did you spend it? Did you waste it away by day dreaming how nice it would be if I really did give you $2,400.00 each day? Or did you let that minute burn away because something happened this past week that you can’t let go of, it’s still on your mind and it’s keeping you from true worship? Or are you investing that minute by listening carefully so that you might find a better understanding?
The greatest enemy of the “best” things that God has for your life are not always the “bad” things, they usually are the “good” things that you want in your life.
the “best” things God has for your life come from God and living your life for His Son Jesus Christ but sometimes we think we know what is best for our lives and get things all mixed up. Family time is good however, when we let it get in the way of God its bad. I love hunting and fishing, it calms me, revives me and gives me time to be by myself and relax but when I put those things first in my life, when I put those things before the things God has for me they become bad things that can mess up my priorities.
Let’s look at verse 26 ” For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” what do you think the word “soul” means in this application? What’s the difference between “soul” and “immortal soul”? would God have to make this separation of “soul” and “immortal soul” if they mean exactly the same thing? No, the use and application of the word “soul” in verse 26 is your life here and now. Looking at verse 26 in this way it would ask us 2 very important questions. 1. What can you really profit by gaining all you want to gain in this world if it costs you your life? 2. What are you willing to exchange for your life?
This is so very important to understand before you can get a grasp on what Christ tells us in verse 27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
“then he shall reward every man according to his works”, we are saved by grace and not by works however, this verse very plainly tells us that we will have to give an account of our time here on this earth and we will be rewarded according to how we invested our lives.
Jesus wants us to prioritize our time so that we can understand what is best for us and so that we can invest our very lives into His service. How many times have we taken away from Gods time so that we can spend that time making something better just to have more struggles come into our lives that put even more of a demand on our time? How many times have we taken away from God by doing what he tells us not to do, “forsake the gathering of the brethren”? we try to put the good things in our lives by spending our time the way we feel so that our lives can be better but by doing what we feel is good for our lives we often replace Gods best.
Prioritizing our time in the light of God will change your very life.
Prioritizing makes you do what is really important, not what makes you feel good. I want a stronger family life, better relationships with my wife and kids. That’s a good thing to have, and God wants us to have that as well. God wants the best family relationships that we can possibly have, but he has a plan of making that happen and way too often we replace Gods very best by doing what we think is good.
Human nature: the path of least resistance and greatest comfort.
We are constantly messing things up by trying to take the path of least resistance. It’s so much easier to do things our own way. It’s easier to hold on to hurt feeling than to forgive, it’s easier to sleep in than being on time, it’s easier to give in to the worlds standards than is to live your life for Christ. It gives us the greatest comfort to do things our way; it’s more comfortable to live the way our hearts want, it’s so much easier and comfortable to keep things simple and give in to the devils influence than it is to stand up and live for Gods standards.
Prioritizing makes you do the hard things first.
It’s hard to do the right things, nobody, not even Christ said life is easy and carefree. It’s easier to stay up late Saturday night and take the chance of not getting up on time for church on Sunday than it is to putting the kids to bed at a decent hour, getting clothes ready in advance and being sure everyone is ready. If we prioritize Gods way, and purpose just as Christ did we will be able to see the harder things in our life that need to be done first.
Let’s play a game of cause and effect. Little Johnny is very hard to deal with and get ready for church, and because he makes it so hard for me I just give up and miss church all together. What’s the cause for me missing church? Johnny not getting up on time, not getting ready on time and not listening to me. Is that the cause of the effect? Or is little Johnny not getting to bed on time? What’s the cause of him not getting to bed on time? He doesn’t listen to me about bedtime, he doesn’t go to sleep when he is told. What causes little Johnny not to listen to me and follow instructions? It’s that little Johnny has a heart issue; he is rebellious and wants to do things his way. What’s the cause for little Johnny to have a heart issue? It’s my heart issue, it’s my rebellious heart against God, I haven’t taught little Johnny to respect, honor and serve the Lord. I haven’t shown him how to live his life for Christ because I’m not living in my life. If I was honestly doing what God wanted as my best, I would be raising little Johnny up in the Word of the Lord daily, teaching him acceptable worship and being sure that he is being raised up in the church every chance I have so that one day he can lead his own children in the way of the lord.
So back to original issue, why does little Johnny not listen, prepare and respect? Because I don’t. do the hard things first, get your relationship with God right, then all the other stuff becomes easy.
The first thing to understand in order to have Godly prioritization is to work on our relational values first. Let me ask you 2 questions that may help us get a better understanding of what that is.
1. Who would you die for?
2. Who will you live for?
Everyone here would say they would die for something, I would die for God, Christ, my wife, my children and even die for extended family and friends. But death is easy, it’s simple, and if I lay my life down I know where I’m going so I would win anyways.
The hard part is who will you live for? Will you live for God by investing your time in Him, His best for your life, even if it means taking time away from something else? Are you willing to live for your spouse? Even if that means telling them the honest truth about Gods will? Are you willing to invest the time in your children and raise them up in the Lord, just as His word instructs, even when they want something else? Are you willing to make a stand in the lives of your friends and invest your time into them witnessing?
Remember, God instructs us how to live for His Son Christ, and He will be on His throne when we must stand before Him and give an account of our works.
God has given each of us 24 hours a day to invest, for equal or greater value. To invest into our families, friends and the lost. Don’t remove Gods best in your life, by ignoring His instruction, by not listening to His desires and instruction. Don’t settle for what you think is good in your life, your good is nothing compared to Gods best, don’t be foolish and think you know even the first step in making things better, your better is just simply the path of least resistance and comfort. Gods best means you will have to be responsible for something, for your actions and at times its going to be hard but Gods best will be given to you when you figure this all out. Anything but Gods best is the enemy, and its too often that you are your worst enemy.
