People are God's Priority

For the past 5 weeks, I've been teaching this course at Fountain of Life called "Just Walk Across the Room" by Bill Hybels. It has been a privilege to see and speak into the lives of those who really want to be an honorable ambassador of Christ.

This past week I taught on how "people are God's priority."

That's a line you can quickly read over and not think twice about.

I will repeat that line after I share a few thoughts.

When Adam & Eve disobeyed God in the garden, God did not distance Himself from them but He pursued them!

When Jesus was being beaten, mocked and having his clothes ripped from his body while his hands and feet were being nailed into the cross, he could've cursed them, freed himself and brought unspeakable calamity on all those around BUT HE DIDN'T.

He said, "FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO!"

When Jesus was lifted up, he took the time to usher one of the criminals on another cross beside him into eternity by saying, "surely, you will be with me in paradise."

There's NOTHING that Jesus wasn't willing to give up for humanity.

The godliest and most Christ-like trait you can ever develop is to trust God with your health, wealth and well-being (everything in your periphery, everything you can easily see) and love others regardless of the situation you find yourself in.

When people hurt you, Christ tells you to pray for them.

When people lie to you, He asks you to speak truth in love.

When people betray your trust, He asks you to forgive them as He has forgiven you.

If you don't personally know Jesus as your Savior, then know that you have infinite value.

As Bill says, "you can only bring one thing with you to heaven and that's other PEOPLE."

How much do you love other people? The closer to God, the more you care for people.

In fact, if you don't care about people, I can assure you you're not close to God; it's that simple.

"While we were still sinners, Jesus died for us."

Let that sink in.

People are God's priority.

I'll leave you with this: God's love displayed through Jesus Christ is the only thing that can heal a broken heart and straighten out evil tendencies.

Why is it that the vast majority of inmates who are released from prison end up finding their way back to prison?

Why is the death penalty seemingly not a deterrent for violent crime?

Why did Jesus say the most important things you can do is worship God and love others as yourself?

That's because any version of any law (local, state, federal, Judaic, self-imposed, etc) can and will not reform any heart. Only the love of God, which is and was expressed perfectly through Jesus, can do that.

Your heart is God's priority, not your actions. We can all fake our actions and our intentions but you cannot fake your heart to a God that sees and hearts your monologue.

If you don't know Christ, stop following the rules and start following Jesus.

If you're a Christ-follower, stop worrying about your periphery and start reaching people, loving on people, forgiving people and serving people as Christ has done, is doing and will forever do for you.

Make people your priority and you'll find yourself square in God's will.