John Bevere - Is God's Will Really Your First Priority?
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Okay, we’re on chapter 23. I’m so proud of how you are journeying through this book, and this particular chapter is so important. I want to open it with this statement: if we delay our obedience to God’s word for personal excuses, we communicate that His will is secondary in importance. Now, if you look at Luke chapter 9, Jesus approaches two men; He actually approaches three men, but I’m isolating two. He looks at one man and says, «Come, follow me.» Can you imagine? The creator of the universe, God manifested in the flesh, looks at you and says, «Come and follow me.»
Now, what’s amazing is this guy’s answer: «Lord, let me first go and bury my father.» He’s saying, «I want to follow you, but let me prioritize what is important to me.» Now, a lot of people don’t understand that the firstborn son, when he buried his father, received a double portion of the inheritance. If he neglected it, it went to the second-born son, and he got nothing. So, this guy has money on his mind over obedience to Jesus; he delayed his obedience. Now, the next guy that Jesus approaches says, «Yes, I will follow you, Jesus, but first…» Listen to the word «first» again; we hear that word «first.» «First, let me bury my father; first, let me say goodbye to my family.»
Now, was it a sin to say goodbye to his family? Absolutely not. Was it a sin for the guy to go and bury his father? Absolutely not. But when we put our interests above God’s speaking into our hearts, we communicate to Him that His word takes secondary place. Now, this was costly for these two men because the very next verse says in Luke 10:1, «After these things…» After what things? These people made their decisions. The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them two by two before His face. Jesus makes a statement two times in the Gospels: «Many are called, few are chosen.»
What He’s saying is many have been called to do something; everyone is called to do something by God, but few are chosen, or few are appointed. What is He communicating? Few pay the price of putting God’s word first above everything else in order to be appointed. There’s a difference between being called and appointed. What you want to do is tremble at God’s word so that you are appointed to do what He has called you to do. And this is not a one-time thing; this is continual. There are several things that God calls us to do throughout life. We want to make sure that we stay in a place of holy fear, where we tremble at God’s word and put His interests above our own. Then we will see what He has created us to do fulfilled, and that is when we are most fulfilled.