Introduction: Today we are going to talk about priorities. Whether you are a family in a fix or one of our students with a future, your effectiveness in life depends on the priorities that you set in your home and your life. Our problem is that our priorities can be lost in the clutter of our living and when that happens we need to refocus by making what I call a "clean sweep"!

One of the home shows on The Learning Channel is called, "Clean Sweep." The idea behind the show is that someone submits his or her home as needing a "clean sweep" because of the amount of stuff in order for it to become functional again. Two rooms of the home are selected and experts in home design, organization and carpentry are called in to transform the disaster area into functional, stylish, organized living spaces. They do this by having the owners take everything out of the rooms, placing the items outside, forcing the persons to throw away useless stuff, sell or give other items away, prioritize and organize what they do keep in order to make the space useable and livable.

"Clean Sweep" is very much a metaphor for our culture, homes, families and lives. Our material consumption has reached the point that it is sinful that persons would hoard so much worthless junk that they can’t live in their homes. At the same time, our families and our lives are so overloaded and overwhelmed that they make our homes actually little more than a resident motel than a place where we feel we really belong. Our individual lives are filled with more choices, options and demands that we find ourselves struggling to find the purpose in what we do and how we live. Statistics show that in the last thirty years the "happiness quotient" for Americans has declined by 5% or 14 million persons. In a time of great affluence and prosperity we are more than ever clinically depressed. Social scientists are now indicating that increased choice and increased affluence have been accompanied by decreased wellbeing. (Parade Magazine, "When It’s All Too Much," Jan. 4, 2004)

So what is the answer? Well, these first two responses are not answers as much as they are observations. One observation is that this issue will always be one we face. As the quantity of the demands on our life grows so does the battle for a clear direction and purpose for our life. The second observation is that this will not be resolved by merely a better use of time. We are in the condition we are in not because we are poor time managers but because there is just not enough time. There will always be more to do than you can get done. Whether you are juggling children, career, college or a changing future, there is just not enough time. So how do you make a clean sweep of your life in order to have a focus for a satisfying life?

There’s a story in the Gospel of Luke that I believe confronts us with the reality that distractions from our priorities is not a 21^st century problem. It is a human problem. The story is of Jesus’ visit to the home of Mary and Martha. We do not know how Jesus, Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus became such close friends. John records how much Jesus loved them and they are mentioned at least three times in the New Testament. On this particular occasion Jesus is invited into the home of Mary and Martha for a visit. Martha is the one who invites him and it is probably because she is the older of the two sisters.

The conflict occurs when Martha notices that Mary isn’t doing anything to help prepare food for their guest. Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to him teach. The words are very graphic because they describe Mary as hanging on every word Jesus spoke. Martha, on the other hand, is distracted from focusing on Jesus by her preparations. The word for distracted literally means, "to draw around." In other words, her distraction twisted her face out of proportion. As she sees Mary sitting and knows all that has to be done, she gets angry and bursts in on Jesus’ teaching and then blurts out, "Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me!" (v. 40). Her words actually mean, "Have her take hold of her end of the line."

Jesus’ words to Martha are so revealing. He tells her she is divided, distracted and outwardly agitated over so many things. Now this meant more than just the amount of food that she was preparing. He continues by saying that all they need is one dish but that "one thing" was also a bridge statement to his comparison between her and Mary. Jesus points out that Mary had made a decision about her priorities and that her choice was fellowship with him. That choice was one that wouldn’t be taken away from her.

Understand that Martha loved Jesus just as much as Mary. It was that Martha had allowed that moment of her life to become filled with other things. Mary had made a "clean sweep" of her priorities and decided at that moment listening to Jesus was what was most important. For Mary, sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening took priority over the activity of serving. For our families and our lives, we will be continually faced with the same choice. Our problem is that our activity can clutter up our listening and when that happens we lose our focus and our priorities become confused. The continual focus needs to be for us to do as Peter advises and that is to "follow in his steps."

What are the priorities that we find in Jesus’ life that can simplify the complexity of our own? There were five that I find that I organized around the acrostic "SIMPLE." I believe if we as families and students will choose daily to reflect the simple life of Christ then we’ll not come to the end of our days with lives filled with the clutter of a wasted life.

The Gospels reveal to us that no matter how big the demands or how great the need, Jesus carved out regular portions of his day and life to spend in prayer with his Father. Luke records, " Yet despite Jesus' instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer."

If you are going to have any hope of maintaining the focus of your life on Jesus Christ, you will not do it without regular, consistent time alone with God. I wish that I could say that I wake up every day with a passion to read the Bible and pray. Some days I do but many I don’t. Yet, I know that God is waiting on me to speak to me and waiting to listen to me. I do it because it is the anchor for everyday of my life. It is a discipline of my life. It started when I was in college and it continues as a daily part of my life.

Moms and Dads, your lives are full but either you are going to decide that spending time with God is essential or it is not. Students, your lives are not going to get any simpler. You will either decide that spending time with God is essential or it is not. If you say that it is essential then it will be a well of life for you that will never be exhausted. If you want to simplify the complexity of your life, then chose to spend time with God.

Jesus understood that the purpose of his coming to our world would never be accomplished by himself, so he chose twelve men in whom he would primarily and uniquely invest himself. Luke writes, "At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles." (Luke 6:13). It’s interesting that he called all the disciples together but only chose 12 to be apostles. Mark said that he did this so "that they might be with him" (Mark 3:14). He chose to invest himself in leaders who would shape and change the world after he departed. Of all the things that Jesus knew were demanded of him this priority was vital. He never let life pressure him to forget to invest in others.

It is easy for us to get so wrapped up in our own lives and our own needs that we forget that we have the chance to multiply our life by investing that life in someone else. Keith Jackson retired from a successful career in the NFL nine years ago to come back to his hometown of Little Rock and invest his life in inner city kids. One of those kids was Rachel Williams, who last Saturday was the first college graduate from his program. He said she came in as a teenager with a "bad attitude" but nine years later graduated from Ouachita Baptist University. That happened because he chose to invest his life in someone else. Where are you investing your life? In your family? In a friend? You can be the difference in someone’s life if you will only invest your life in theirs!

Jesus said about his own purpose that he had come to "set the burdened and battered free" (Luke 4:18 Msg.). Luke tells a story of Jesus meeting a funeral procession of a young man who had died. The young man was the only son of his widowed mother. When Jesus saw the woman and the depth of her grief "his heart overflowed with compassion" and he raised the young man back to life. The man sat up and Luke adds this comment: "And Jesus gave him back to his mother." He repaired her broken life. Jesus chose to use his life to mend the broken places in the lives of others.

Whether as a family or as a student, you have the opportunity to do the same thing as Jesus and that is to mend broken lives. I know some of you have been in an emergency room. Emergency rooms are mainly used to treat people who are sick, hurt or injured and require immediate medical attention. When someone’s life is in the balance they do everything they can to save that life. When they are finished the room can be quite a mess—things on the floor, equipment moved around. Their concern is mending a human life not how neat the room is.

Mending a broken life is messy. It costs you. It’s uncomfortable. It’s time consuming. It’s painful. Yet if you, as a part of the body of Christ, do not do that then who will? That broken life may be someone you work with or one of your kids’ friends. It may be your roommate or suitemate or someone in your class. Their life is broken and can be brought into yours. You may not be able to solve all their problems but they will never know you care unless you show that you want to help mend their broken life.

Jesus knew that persons who followed him would have to make a clear choice as to who would control their life. He would say about his own life, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work" (John 4:34). Every day he had one singular priority and that was to do all that God wanted him to do. He did that so fully that just before he died he said he had "accomplished the work" that God gave him to do. In the same way he tells these disciples that daily they would be asked to put themselves aside and do what he desired. He said, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me."

Families have great problems when they all want what they want. When a husband wants only what he wants or a child wants only what they want, you have set the stage for deep conflict. When you as a student chose that you will want only what you want you have planted the seed for a life of failure in God’s eyes. Rick Warren’s statement in his book The Purpose Driven Life begins with, "It’s not about you!" That understanding is something you will need to reinforce daily. Prioritizing daily is not about merely making a "to do list" and checking it off. No, it’s about beginning your day, every day, knowing "It’s not about me!" So, if it’s not about what I want, then it is about what God wants. The greatest thing you can say about your life is to say, "I have done the will of God." You won’t be able to say that unless you prioritize your life daily.

Service marked Jesus’ life from start to finish. He served through sacrifice, putting the needs of others above his own. So when he said in Luke 22:26-27, "But among you, those who are the greatest should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Normally the master sits at the table and is served by his servants. But not here! For I am your servant." Jesus led his disciples by his service. His service culminated at the cross where he paid for our sins with his life.

With all that you do as a family or all that you will do as a student, do not neglect to serve people. In our careers we can become so driven by results that we forget that we are to be driven by our service. We want to lead and be in charge. We have ambition and our dreams. Yet that ambition and those desires will be worthless if you have used standing on the backs of others to make yourself higher. If you want to lead, then lead by serving others. It is not stealing your life to serve. Jesus said it is the only way you can have a life!

When Jesus called his first disciples he told them that if they would follow him he would make them "fisher of men" (Mark 1:17). They were fishermen who spent their life catching fish. Jesus gave them a vision of something greater—being involved in the eternal destinies of people. He assured his followers that if they would make God’s purpose and God’s vision their primary concern, then all the day-to-day things would be taken care of. "He will give you all you need from day to day if you make the kingdom of God your primary concern." What is the kingdom of God? It is the place where people are doing what God wants done. What does he want done? He wants the eternal destinies of people to be redirected.

Those three words, "day to day" tragically become all we live for. As a family, we get caught in the trap of the "day to day" routine of living: we get up, we go to work, we eat a hot dog at the ball park, we go home and go to bed. As a student, the "day to day" of living your life can become all there is. You get up—if you went to bed—you go to class, you study, you hang out, you go to bed. Routines, whatever they are, wear us down. Jesus tells us that the "day to day" isn’t all there is! There is something greater: God’s vision! When we choose to see our life and our day as something greater that God is doing, then it changes the "day to day." God’s kingdom is waiting for your enlistment. It is a venture that will never become routine. It is the most thrilling reason for your existence! He calls you to make the eternal destinies of people your life’s purpose. When you embrace God’s vision, nothing is routine anymore!

Conclusion: I do not know about the spiritual life of Pat Tillman but when you think of someone who made a clean sweep of their life and determined their focus, it was Pat Tillman. Pat Tillman died on patrol with the 75^th Army Ranger Regiment near Spera, Afghanistan in late April. Pat Tillman’s story is dramatic because of the choice he made to sacrifice success, comfort, security and fame and enlist in the United States Army. You see, Tillman at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks was guaranteed a $3.6 million dollar contract with the Arizona Cardinals as a safety. On the day after the attacks he began to see his life differently. He saw the sacrifice of his family in serving their country and decided that everything he had done with his life up to that point was worthless. So he enlisted in the U.S. Army along with his brother Kevin.

Pat Tillman never gave an interview after that. He left his wife, his career, and his success to do one thing—serve his country. He died from wounds received in an ambush in the pine forests of Afghanistan. He died doing what he felt he was compelled to do. Gary Smith writes of Pat Tillman, "Anytime a man listens to his inner voice, refuses to wall if off with all the mortar and bricks that his culture can possibly offer, it’s a moment to stand in wonder as well as to weep." (Sports Illustrated, May 3, 2004, p. 46).

Pat Tillman saw life as having only one focus. Jesus said, "There is really only one thing worth being concerned about and it is the only thing that lasts--me!" As a family and as a graduate, I challenge you today to listen to the inner voice of God’s Spirit calling you through the distractions of your life to follow in his steps by following a S I M P L E life: Spend time with God, Invest in others, Mend broken lives, Prioritize daily, Lead by serving and Embrace God’s vision. If you do, then you will give the world a reason "to stand in wonder!"

Sunday, May 16, 2004

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org