Skip to content 12. Simplify Your Priorities Sep 7 · 27 min ...more
The Spirit and Spheres of Simplicity 0:09 Shall we give the Lord a clap offering, church? Hallelujah. It is always a joy and a privilege for us to study the word of God together. Today, we're gonna be talking about simplicity of life0:21 part 2. Last week, we touched on the simplicity of life. We explored the spirit of simplicity and the spheres of simplicity. In the spirit of simplicity,0:33 we mentioned that we need to cultivate a singular inward focus. In other words, there must be a singleness of heart because the inward reality0:44 of singleness of heart will result in the outward lifestyle of simplicity. And so we need to have that 1 thing that Jesus speaks about.0:56 Seek first the kingdom of God. That 1 thing, this 1 thing that is needful, Jesus says to Mary and Martha. Paul says, this 1 thing I do. Psalmist David says, this 1 thing1:08 I ask of the Lord. Your life and my life should be characterized by that 1 thing. That's the spirit of simplicity. The spheres of simplicity, last week, we talked about1:20 simplifying your pace. Today, we talk about simplify your priorities. We need to do things,1:32 we need to evaluate the kind of things that we do because there are things that are urgent that requires our immediate attention. And then there are things1:44 that are important that we sometimes neglect until it is urgent. So think about this. Have you noticed this? There are things that are important but1:56 not necessarily urgent. There are things that are important but are not urgent yet. But there are things that are urgent, but they are not necessarily important. There are things that are2:08 priorities in life, but they are often important, but they are not urgent. So as a result, we ignore them. Let me give you some examples.2:20 Can you think of examples that are important but not urgent? You know, my time alone with god is important, but it's never urgent. My time2:32 alone with my wife, I need to date her to keep her. I dated her to marry her. Now I date her to keep her, to stay married to her. Now that is important, but it's not urgent.2:44 Discipling my children on a regular basis, having time alone, and building the family altar, these are important, but they are not urgent. But if we2:56 only fall under the trap of doing things that are urgent, that are screaming for attention, what would happen is we would tend to ignore the things that are important.3:08 So 1 of the core things that you and I, we need to pay attention to is how do you simplify your priorities? You know, in Mark chapter 1 verses 16 to3:20 verse 34, if you read the gospel according to Mark, gospel according to Mark characterizes Jesus as the servant, isn't it? It's the3:32 suffering servant. That's why the 1 word that will be repeated throughout the gospel of Mark when you read it is that sense of urgency. It will say immediately, Jesus did3:43 this. Immediately, Jesus went there. Immediately. The word immediately appears so many times. Why? To characterize Jesus was serving the people as3:55 a servant. He was the servant of the Lord. And that 1, you can read in the book of Mark. Now Mark chapter 1 is where Jesus calls his disciples. Now if you have your Bibles,4:07 open it to Mark chapter 1 and just look at the headings. You know, in some Bibles, they give you headings. It will talk about the headings of call of the disciples where he called the 12. Then it will4:19 talk about how Jesus was ministering to various people that required healing. And the Bible says many were brought to him, and he had a long4:31 day of healing people, ministering to people, casting out demons, and doing all that. Do you know you will find in Mark chapter 1 that Jesus4:43 healed the mother-in-law of Simon Peter? No wonder Simon Peter denied Jesus. That's just a joke people. The reality is4:54 this, it was a busy day. He was healing the sick and there were multitudes of sick people that were brought to him and he healed them. He ministered to them and he cast out demons. Now I'm not5:06 sure if you ever have an experience of casting down, casting out demons. Demon possess people and you cast out the demons. Now I have experience in this, and I can tell you5:18 from experience that when you do just 1, it already drains your energy because it requires an intense warfare.5:30 Now Jesus was doing this the whole day. I'm sure he was depleted in his resource, in his energy. But the reality was this. That night, he went5:42 he goes to bed very late. But the next day morning, the Bible says in Mark chapter 1 and verse 35, while it was still dark, Jesus rose and went for a went to a solitary place5:54 to pray. Now, if you and I had a long day of ministry, the next day you wanna sleep in. You wanna just take it easy. But Jesus knew the sense6:06 had a sense of priority. What was of greater importance? And he did that. He kept to it. And from that place where he had an encounter with the father, he comes down with a6:18 clarity to say, we are moving to the next village. And I'm sure it would have puzzled all the disciples because the disciples would have gone. But there are so many people who are coming here to see you. They6:30 need healing. They need deliverance. Why are we going to the next village? See, you and I, we need to stop and ask this fundamental question. Why did Jesus come into the world? Of course,6:41 if you are looking at a man centered perspective, you would say Jesus came into the world to save sinners, to save sinners, to die for my sins. That's6:53 what you and I will say if you look at it anthropocentrically. But, you know, Jesus always thinks theocentrically. In other words, he came to this world to fulfill the7:05 will of the father, to glorify God, to to bring about salvation of mankind for the glory of God. That's why he came to do the7:17 will of the father. So when he has done a whole day of ministry, he goes before God in the father the very next day, and there he receives the fresh mandate to go to the next village. He carries7:29 on. He lived with a higher sense of calling and a sense of priority. Otherwise, we will be caught up with what is urgent and neglect7:41 what is of importance. So 1 of the core things you and I need to learn from Jesus' life is this. He was never dictated by the tyranny7:52 of urgency. He lived with a clear sense of priorities. You never read in the gospels, Jesus ran.8:04 It always says he walked from place to place. He was never in a rush because he knew that he was in the center of the will of the father. And whatever he did, he8:16 already said, I only do what I see my father do. Hallelujah. So when Jesus says this to us, in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 19 all the way to8:28 34, the whole summary of that is in verse 33, isn't it? And he culminates everything and he says here, seek first the kingdom of God8:40 and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. So when Jesus says, seek first. What does he mean by that? He means this, that8:52 you put God as the top priority in your life. Isn't it? That's what many people will say. But can I humbly say this? It is not9:04 just about putting God as the top priority in your life. He is calling us to have God as the only priority in our life. Listen to me carefully. God is9:16 not competing with your wife or your children or your work or your ministry. He's not competing with you for allegiance. He wants your allegiance, your loyalty, your pledge completely,9:28 wholly, totally. He said, love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your might. Why? Because he wants your loyalty completely.9:42 And then he dictates the terms upon which you live your life. That's why when you read this text, seek first. That seek first is not about a sequence of priorities. It is about9:53 a statement of purpose and a statement of preoccupation. Be preoccupied with Christ and his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these thingsLiving with Purpose and Planned Neglect 10:05 shall be added to you. So listen carefully. What do we learn from this? He says seek first. Whenever the Bible talk talks about seek first, you gotta ask yourself,10:17 what does it convey to me? It conveys a sense of urgency. See, when you read in the English that word seek, it's the word for search,10:29 isn't it? Now Mary and Joseph in the bible, they brought Jesus to the temple, and then they went back to Nazareth. There10:41 was a 3 day journey. And after 3 days, they discovered that their son was not with them. So they rushed back. So they went in search10:53 of Jesus. Now you pause and think about this. If you are a parent and you lost your child, how would you search? There will be a11:05 sense of urgency. There will be a sense of preoccupation. Nothing else matters until I find my child. Now that is the same11:17 thing here. What Jesus is communicating to us is seek first the kingdom of God. Not just it's 1 of my top priorities, it is my only priority. It is my only11:28 preoccupation. Nothing else matters. Everything else can wait because I need to go find Christ and his kingdom and his righteousness.11:40 That's what we've been establishing. Simplicity is about to will the will of the father. To be simple means to will 1 thing, and Jesus's model is to will the will11:52 of the father. And so he says, how do we do it? We do it by simplifying our priorities. You know, life coaches and12:04 executive coaches and leadership coach, in all their coaching, they will always say to their mentories or disciples that you can't have too many priorities in their life. You can't take12:15 a sheet and write down 10 priorities of your life. You have to focus on only the top 3, they say. I know because I'm a I, I coach a lot of people,12:27 including businessmen in the marketplace. So we always give them a top 3. What is the what is the top 3 priorities for this quarter? For the next 90 days, what is your top12:39 3 priorities? For the whole year, what's your top 3 priorities? For the next 5 years, what's your top 3 priorities? Because we need to focus on only a few key things. But you12:51 and I, we need to ask ourselves, who determines the few key things that you need to focus on? Because it's not a matter of my will. It is a matter of13:03 his will. It is not my choosing. It's his choosing. That's why you and I, we need to understand that when you when you prioritize, you're coming before the13:15 Lord. See, in my previous study, I shared this as a illustration, but that's my practice. At the end of every year, I go before the Lord, and I say, Lord,13:26 here is my life as a blank sheet of paper. And I place before the lord everything that I'm involved in, the commitments that I have said yes to.13:38 Maybe it's a international conference that I need to speak in or the men people that I'm mentoring, senior pastors that I'm journeying with, there are people that I need to walk13:50 with, have to start walking with. So I bring everything before the lord and say, lord, these are the commitments that I have. These are the things that are on my plate. Now I want you to help14:02 me to discern what are the things I need to remove and what are the things I have not even thought about to put on my plate.14:15 As as you know that we walk with 8 to 10 groups of people every year. My wife and I, ever since we went on the journey of moving the church14:26 towards intentional disciple making, we started with about 7 groups of people that we mentor. And that has continued even today. And we continue to do. And so on an14:38 average, within the church, I have about 5 to 7 groups. And outside of the church, as part of the global church, we have many groups of14:50 pastors that we journey with. And so when you have all this, there's so many competing agendas and and pursuits that you have. So how do you discern who gets your15:02 time? What do you do? And what is the priority? It always comes back to this, to come before the father and to say, Lord, help me to recognize what needs to be strengthened, what15:14 needs to be let go, What do I need to remove? What do I need to place in my schedule? What do I need to do? And I've always experienced this by the grace of15:25 God. When you seek for that clarity, God gives you that clarity. I said to you, how do you simplify your pace? You simplify your pace by not slowing15:37 down, but centering down. That was our last study. It's true. You don't cut down for the sake of cutting down, so I have manageable schedules.15:49 All my mentors are people who are international speakers. They speak in conferences worldwide. They do things globally. They're very busy people.16:02 And when I look at the scripture, people like apostle Paul, Jesus and all the other apostles, they were very busy people. They had so many things that they were concerned about and they16:14 were drawn to. So how do you live a centered life? How do you live an anchored life? How do you live a rested life? You do it because you're16:26 not ceasing from work, but you're working from rest. You're not resting from work, but you're working from rest. Listen carefully.16:38 That is why we need that sense of priorities. So we go before God and we examine this. And 1 of the tools that have really helped me in my life personally is this,16:51 the art of planned neglect. What do I mean by planned neglect? There are things that are in our priorities, but life17:03 is not so neat. Life is like a a a there's a rhythm of life. You need to be able to prioritize certain things right now, and then it can take a back burner. So that means we need to17:14 have an understanding of planned neglect. Let me give you a practical illustration. Like I said, in the in the early days of our ministry, we used to have a lot of groups17:26 come through come to our place for meetings. And so 1 of the things that I usually tell them is if I have a group coming in on a Saturday, I tell them, when you when you look around in17:38 my house, it'll be messy because I have 2 growing children, and they create a mess, and we haven't had a chance to tidy it up. So on Saturdays,17:50 I don't spend time cleaning and putting things in place. My wife and I, we wait upon the Lord and we prepare our heart and our spirit for service on Sunday. So usually,18:02 when people come in on a Saturday or even on a Sunday afternoon when we have mentoring groups, I usually say to them, please ignore the mess in the house. If you come on a Monday18:14 night, it will all be perfect and clean. But today, no. Why? Because Saturday, for me, is sacred. I need to prepare my body, my soul, my spirit to serve God's18:26 people, God's word. So we wait upon the Lord. We pray, and we study the scriptures. We we we contemplate upon things, and we are we wanna we wanna wait upon the Lord for his unction, for18:38 his timely word. So I'm not going to be busy doing other things on Saturday. So we we plan our neglect of looking after the house on Saturday. But on Monday,18:49 if you come in, everything will be in place in order. Why? Because now we are free. We can do that. So this is a planned neglect. You know, the story was told19:01 of a famous concert violinist who was asked the secret of her success. And she revealed when she was in school, she used to live in the hostel.19:14 Every morning, she would make her bed, dust her room, wash her dishes, then rush to practice. She found that she was not progressing. Then she decided19:26 to go for practice first and ignore all the rest until she finishes. And as a result, she improved, and she became the best violinist, and she19:38 was the famous concert violinist. Now she was practicing planned neglect, and success followed her. So listen carefully. Sometimes we need to know what19:50 are some of the things that can be neglected for some time, not all the time, but then you come into that rhythm of life so you know how to prioritize. The only way you20:02 and I know this is by waiting in the presence of God and being led by the spirit of God. The Bible says in Romans chapter 8, the sons of God are20:13 people who are led by the spirit. You and I, we are called to walk in step with the spirit. Walk in the spirit. In other words, we have the resident godhead with us.20:25 We have the holy spirit in our hearts. He is the 1 who is able to influence us, nudge us, prompt us, give us the inward witness of what we need to be focused on.20:38 And when we do these things well, there will be a sense of priority about our life. Now as I bring this message to a close, I want you to listen to me20:50 carefully. Ask Guinness said this, do you live a saturated, overloaded, fragmented life?21:02 Are you pulled around by the nose through appeals to need? Are you frustrated at yourself over the times the best in your life is diverted by the good? Do you long to know the overriding21:14 passion and purity of heart of willing 1 thing? Listen to Jesus of Nazareth. Answer his call. In other words, when you come to Christ,21:26 you would have that sense of purpose restored, that sense of preoccupation restored, that sense of passion restored. And as a result, there21:38 will be a sense of clear priorities. There are 5 things that usually help a person to grow in their spiritual21:49 walk, and these 5 things should become a priority in the life of a disciple. Now in our church, this is something that I often say in22:01 our mentoring of our leaders. 5 things. What are those? Number 1, private disciplines practice daily at home. Do you know this is 1 of the things that get neglected?22:13 What are some of the private disciplines? To read your bible. Do you know that many people don't have a regular habit of reading the bible? See,22:25 I I mentor pastors, and sometimes I'm saddened to say this. They only open this in order to preach a sermon. They don't open this to feed their own soul.22:37 In other words, we neglect this. We are people of 1 book. If there's 1 book that needs to be mastering our lives, we need to be mastered by this 1 book.22:49 Read it. So have a plan to read it. Don't just read it. Let it read you. How? By reflecting upon it. So when you reflect, you record23:01 the things that the Lord is saying to you through the scriptures. And then you respond in prayer. So you read, you reflect, you record, and you respond in prayer. Right there, you23:13 have spiritual discipline of silence and solitude, spiritual discipline of study of scripture, spiritual discipline of surrender before God because you're yielding23:25 yourself. You're surrendering yourself back to him. You're responding to his word. And right there, you have a mandate to serve him. So there is a discipline of service. Lord, I wanna serve you today.23:37 I wanna serve my family. I wanna serve the ministry, the people that you've called me. So you get that priority, that sense restored back. Spiritual disciplines. How often do you find23:49 that neglected? Develop that. That should be a priority. The life of Jesus, that was a priority. In our life, it should be a priority too. So private disciplines24:00 practiced daily at home. See, if I don't read the Bible for 1 day, no 1 will know. Only I know. The lord knows. If I don't read the Bible for a week, my24:12 family will know. If I don't read the Bible for 2 weeks, my whole church will know. Why? Because in in people around you will start to pick up.24:24 You haven't been in the presence of Jesus. People around you will know you're getting irritable. You're getting annoyed. You're getting frustrated. You're getting agitated. You're getting flustered. You're getting24:36 angry. All these are signs of the flesh dominating a person's life. So if you want to be spirit empowered and spirit controlled and spirit led,24:48 then the whole thing is you develop private disciplines at home. Don't ignore it. So that's the first thing. The second thing is personal involvement in your local church.25:00 We always say, where your treasure is, your heart will follow. Your treasure, the most important treasure in your life is time. Where you involve your time, where you invest your25:12 time, your heart will follow. So 1 of the core things is get your hands engaged. Personal involvement in the life of your local church. What do we25:24 do in the local church? How do you engage in the local church? How often do you go and be part of what's going on in your local church? I hope you do it weekly through the Sunday25:36 services. I hope you do weekly with your small groups where you are either in an IBM in between meetings or you are in a meeting to study the word of God together, that you have a25:48 regular time of accountability to be able to get your life accountable with somebody. Now these are important personal involvement in our local church. In other words, it's also to be25:59 able to serve, not just to receive, but also to serve. To serve in a local church, in a ministry, to do things, that's a personal involvement. I26:11 usually tell people, you may say that I don't have a heart for the young people. No. No. No. Start getting involved. The heart will follow. Oh, I don't have a heart for outreach. No. No.26:23 No. You start doing it, the heart will follow. I don't have a heart for missions. You go on a mission trip, your heart will follow. In other words, start getting engaged, then everything else will flow.26:36 And here, in this sense, this is a important priority because without this, you won't grow in spiritual maturity and you will not have that time to be able to say, I have that inner restedness.26:47 Thirdly, practical teachings received through active listening. What is practical teaching? What you're receiving today is a practical teaching, but I hope you're doing an active listening. What is26:59 active listening? Taking down notes as you listen.In this video 0:00 The Spirit and Spheres of Simplicity10:01 Living with Purpose and Planned Neglect316K followers
Rev. Paul Jeyachandran leads the Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC) Movement, which is all about calling churches back to its disciplemaking roots. Visit us at idmcmovement.com
316K followers
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Habakkuk | Part 02 | Moving From Reason to Revelation | Rev Paul Jeyachandran Paul Jeyachandran
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