Making the Important Urgent – Part 4 – Be Relevant
I Thessalonians 2:12-13 That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
As we conclude this four-part blog on making the important urgent, we are reminded Paul told us four priorities we needed to have, 1) Be Biblical, 2) Be Authentic, 3) Be Gracious, and finally, we will study 4) Be Relevant.
Paul was Relevant! There is a direct link between talk and walk. He stressed the fact that we need to follow the scripture, be real, and show kindness to others because that is what God would have us do “to walk worthy of God.”
Jesus was relevant, and it is shown by those He won during his ministry on earth. They included angry young men, blind beggars, proud politicians, loose-living streetwalkers, dirty and naked victims of demonism, and grieving parents.
Jesus took the time to met them where they were. Yes, they need to accept him as savior, but if their immediate needs were not met, they could not focus on their spiritual needs.
As an Illustration
I am in charge of high school programs around the state. One of those is Firefighting. We had a firefighter teacher several years ago pull me aside and told me this story. When he first started teaching, he decided that he was just going to teach fire, and that was it. He was not going to get involved in all the other things because he loved teaching fire, and that is all he wanted to do. Well, after a few months, he learned that he could not teach fire to a student if his mind were on being hungry, cold, afraid, lonely, or unloved. So he started loving his students. Caring for them about those issues and helping address those in need. Soon his program began to grow, and students began to succeed. But something else happened. He was forever changed by this experience. He had to become relevant to his students for his students to see the relevance in His message.
The message Paul brought was Urgent, but the relevance was important!
To Conclude this series of blogs on making the important urgent list look at a few points.
- God tells us today in His word that we need to stop focusing on the Urgent and start focusing on what is Important.
- We need to focus on being Biblical by putting it as a priority over everything else in our lives.
- We need to be Real – Authentic. This is more important in reaching others than the urgent need to be popular.
- We need to be gracious – taking the time to build relationships far out weight the urgency of condemning people of their sins.
- And finally, We need to see the importance of being relevant to the needs of those we serve in place of the urgency of serving.
- If you are not saved today, God’s message is urgent, but it is also important that you hear the truth, understand its meaning through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and then turning your life over to Him.
- If you are saved today but you have allowed the Urgent to take the place of the important. God has a message for you today also.
It is time to exercise the Eisenhower Urgent/Important Principle and stop placing the Urgent in front of the important.