Our Ultimate Priority

In this powerful return to the podcast, the Mike reflects on obligations in life—whether in family, work, or ministry—and challenges listeners to evaluate their ultimate priority. While society values dependability, the most crucial question remains: Can God depend on us?

Key Takeaways:

1. Obligations Are a Part of Life:
   • As we grow, we take on responsibilities—to our families, jobs, and communities.
   • These commitments are necessary and often biblical, but they must be rightly prioritized.
2. Obedience to God vs. Worldly Expectations:
   • What happens when following God contradicts societal norms?
   • Abraham’s test with Isaac defied all expectations—yet he obeyed because he feared God more than being misunderstood.
3. Sacrifices in Ministry and Life:
   • God still calls people to make sacrifices that others may not understand.
   • Missionaries, ministers, and believers often face difficult decisions—quitting jobs, relocating, or turning down opportunities—for the sake of obedience.
   • Being misunderstood in ministry is a sign you're truly following God’s calling.
4. The Cost of Prioritizing God:
   • You cannot satisfy both the world and God at the same time.
   • Choosing God first may lead to criticism, but it brings spiritual fulfillment and divine provision.
   • Abraham gained everything because he chose God over Isaac—are we willing to make the same choice?

Final Reflection:

Who is your ultimate priority? If the choice is between dependability to others and obedience to God, the answer must always be God.

Transcript

 Praise the Lord, everyone. I am back on the air. Hallelujah.  Thank you for your patience. Thank you for those that have reached out and encouraged me to come back   it was always my intention to come back. I just needed  a break to get things back in order.  So this is episode 42  season three.   Today's episode is titled, Our Ultimate Priority.  It doesn't take long and you'll learn that in your ministry  we learn to have  obligations.

And not just in your ministry, as you grow up, you're obligated to your friends, you're obligated to your family, you're obligated to your job and we don't mind those.  But today I want to talk about  sometimes  there's a greater priority,  and we're going to talk about that today. Let's get started. Like I said, from the moment you step into any role,  Whether it's an adult, you're living on your own, you got bills to pay.

You step into the ministry and now there's expectations there. If you get married, now you're a husband, you have kids. Now you're a parent.  It doesn't matter. There are always expectations beginning to take shape. And we're expected to live up to those. These expectations are not bad. Matter of fact, a lot of them are biblical.

Okay Some are traditional some are cultural but things like a father a mother can be expected to work extra hours if necessary to provide For the family, that's what it takes to  Pay the bills, put food on the table.  I'm not talking about the extra hours it takes to drive a nice car, to live in a nice house.

I'm talking about the necessities.  A minister is expected to be available to counsel, to pray, to lead.  A pastor, they're expected to be at the church every main event, if possible. .  A faithful employee, they're expected to step up when their supervisor needs them.  And none of these are unreasonable expectations. In fact, the more we meet them, the better we feel about ourselves and we take pride in being dependable. 

It's fulfilling to know that our families and our churches and our friends in our workplaces can count on us. Dependability is a virtue,  but only when it is rightly prioritized.  As much as we desire to be dependable for others.  There is a far greater question.  Can God depend on us?  What happens when our lifestyle's expectations contradict what God is trying to do in our life? 

What happens when obedience to God contradicts the expectations of those around us?  Abraham found himself in quite a hairy position when God said Abraham. Take Isaac, thy son, whom thou loveth,  and kill him.  That defies every expectation society puts on somebody. It defied the expectation of a dad. 

I love my son. I'm not going to kill him. It defied the expectation of a husband. I'm not going to kill our son.  It defied the expectation of a businessman. This is my heir. , I got a future I got to look out for. It defied everything and yet God said exactly that. Go and do that. 

There's a reason why the Bible doesn't describe Sarah's conversation with her because Sarah likely didn't know.  If she had known  in advance, she probably would have begged him not to go.  Abraham told  the servants, the lad and I go to worship and we could preach for hours about what God calls sacrifice.

Abraham called worship,  but the point is he didn't tell the servants what he was going to do because they may have refused to travel with them. No, we're not going to be a part of that.  But Abraham obeyed because he feared God. More than he feared being misunderstood. 

To me that is so crucial that you understand that.  You're going to be misunderstood in your ministry if you're doing it right.  If you never get misunderstood, you're probably missing something. If you never hurt someone's feelings, you're definitely doing it wrong. Okay. Because God's word hurts the flesh.

And I'm not telling you purpose will be purposely being mean. I'm telling you to look out for those moments and be prepared for when it happens, because it will happen. 

God still calls his people  to make sacrifices  and these sacrifices, they're real and they're painful but they're for his kingdom  sacrifices that other people may not understand  a foreign missionary when they get called to another country,  obviously I'm talking about the first generation and not the ones that  were brought up that way.

But  imagine explaining the first generation, To your secular boss, why you're quitting your job to go move to Africa.  They're not going to understand  your lost mom and dad may not understand, 

but that's what God called you to do.   Dear minister. I can tell you right now, God may very well call you to resign and move to another location and start something there. 

That hurts. I really believe any minister worth their salt in a situation is going to battle a moment at a minimum  of failure.  Did I let them down? Am I doing the right thing? I'm not excusing you to wallow in self pity or depression, but I'm telling you, there's going to be a moment where you have to ask yourself, what in the world, God, I thought you called me here.

I thought you wanted me to do this. And you have to be willing to say, yes, Lord, you called me here and now you're calling me there.  And it's going to hurt feelings. People are going to be upset. They're going to call me names. They're going to feel abandoned. They're going to feel betrayed. They're going to feel like I'm leaving them.

And there's nothing I can do about it if they don't understand because I am obedient to God.  You are never going to be able to satisfy your world and your God at the same time.  What about the business owner who feels led to? Close up shop and take on a full time ministry. I say full time because as if a  bivocational pastor is not full time, but say you feel led to travel, be a traveling minister  that happens all the time  or a pastor doesn't, feels led to not be bivocational no more.

So he gives up his  secular job and I'm just going to work at the church 100 percent of my time.  People are not going to understand that outside the church. Someone who hasn't been there before, they're not going to understand it.  Priorities. Your supervisor is not going to understand it when you tell them no, if they ask you to take on an extra shift that you don't have to take on, because, you know what, that, that keeps me out of church. 

And I'm not saying you should never work on Sundays, because I work on Sundays occasionally when they call me out. But I would hesitate, and I'm not trying to pastor you, but I would hesitate to take a job that takes you out every Sunday.  The world don't understand that concept. They're like, what?  What if it pays enough?

Nothing pays you enough to lose your soul.  Nothing pays you enough to disobey what God has called you to do.  And I'm not saying every job that does is disobedience. I don't know what God has called you to do.  Some may say that Abraham was a bad example because Isaac was spared.  Yes, Isaac was spared.  What a great ending for their story. 

We don't always get that testimony.  Sometimes God expects us to  fall through. follow through.  He expects you to actually leave. He expects you to actually resign. He expects you to actually give up your security to pay that price  and do so knowing that God is the ultimate priority.  So as I'm winding down, the final question is who comes first in your life? 

The world praises dependability, and rightfully but if the choice is between being dependable for others and being obedient to God,  then the choice must always be God.  It's important that your family can depend on you, but it's more important that God can depend on you.  If Abraham had chosen Isaac over God, he would have lost them both. 

But because he chose God over Isaac. He gained everything.  The question we must ask ourselves is this,  what is your ultimate priority? 

Who is your ultimate priority?  Are you willing to make that same choice that Abraham did?  That's the lesson I have for you today..  Love you. Bye.