This week we are considering the importance of properly prioritizing our lives.  Solomon once said, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).  There is a right time and a wrong time to do most things.  A sign of maturity is knowing how to distinguish between those times.  Something may be right within itself, but it becomes wrong when it is done at the wrong time.  This brings us to the next issue we want to consider—practicing and preaching the Word of God.

We should all be committed to preaching God’s Word to the lost.

Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV)
¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

I like to say that these are the marching orders for all Christians.  Verse twenty makes the command to go and make disciples applicable to all of us.  This is not a command that we should take lightly because souls are at stake.  Only Christians can be used by God to make other Christians; and, if we do not do our job, how will people ever hear God’s Word and be saved?

Romans 10:13-14 (ESV)
¹³ For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” ¹⁴  How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

While preaching the gospel to the lost should be a high priority for all Christians, there is one thing that should be slightly higher on the list, and that is practicing it.  Preaching without practice is almost always futile, and it gives the cause of Christ a bad name.  The Pharisees were notorious for this.

Matthew 23:2-3 (ESV)
² “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, ³ so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.

Preaching the Law was something the Pharisees loved to do but practicing it was another matter.  They did not put a high priority on application, but we must.  Make sure that before you ever try to assist God in saving the lost that you are living the life of a Christian yourselves.

This is even true when it comes to encouraging one another in Christ.  Some are great at seeing the flaws in others, and more than willing to point them out, but they have a hard time seeing their own faults.  Jesus had some words about this as well.  Never forget them.

Matthew 7:3-5 (ESV)
³ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.