Agendas-Do You Have God’s or Your Own? Major Kelly Durant 12-27-20
Matthew 6:33
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you
2. The beginning of the year we always focus in on agendas. Every one sets goals and new resolutions of what they would like for their lives this year. To make more money, to work more or to work less, to buy a new car or not, etc. Goals, resolutions and agendas are like dreams; we all need them to survive. With God’s agenda though, we can have all of what we need!
There are many people, however, that live without a plan or an agenda, or a dream and they are like a cork on the water going one way one day and going the other way the next day. But nothing great was ever accomplished without someone making a plan, having an agenda and then being constant and faithful to make it happen. God does not intend for us to live without plans, His plans or doing His will!
Prov 29:18
18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. We all need something to live and die for. And Jesus gave us that vision, He gave us the vision to live as He lived, to extend the Kingdom of God by telling everyone the good news! But this means forsaking your self and your agenda in order to take up your cross to follow God.
3. Let’s examine 2 cases of people coming to Jesus with their own agenda. One was a rich young ruler.
Mark 10:17-23
17 And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.
20 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.
21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.
22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!
There are many people that come to the churches but very few are willing to do what it takes to have riches in heaven. They come to God with their agenda to be rich and the sad thing is there are many churches that do not ask people to give to the poor, to help them as the Salvation Army does; and to live in holiness!
These churches that misrepresent the will of Jesus Christ, that teach people to be rich and then ask them their tithes so they can be rich, will have to answer to God for this sin of accumulating selfishly with no heart for those suffering! There are people that have visited our church and they have not stayed because they do not want to leave behind their agenda of having money as life’s priority. They feel uncomfortable with our church with its history of serving the poorest of the poor. Some people have the agenda of being rich and our Salvation Army, our humble representation of the Kingdom of God, does not go with ‘their’ agenda.
4. The only agenda that will ever fill your soul is the one of Jesus Christ! What He said by, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, was a command to live forsaking your own plans to promote Him and His agenda. I had a friend that dreamed to own a chopper motorcycle and he finally got it, but God had called him to give it up to do mission work before he got it but he would not. He soon afterwards had a crash and the bike got totaled and now years later he thanks God that God took away his idol so he would go on to serve Him!
Jesus gave us the vision to reject this world and all its empty, unsatisfying vain abusive and material values, in order to gain a whole new world, now amongst ourselves, our brothers, and forever in the future! Jesus agenda for us is to promote God’s kingdom of love where we will spend eternity! He gave his life on the cross to be an example to show there is no limit to what you can give up for God!
Let’s look at some other cases of a people who would not follow Jesus because they put their family before the will of God.
Luke 9:59-62
59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
5. Jesus wants to be first in your life, even above our loved ones, and He takes no excuses! Your life this year must center around the will of Jesus and doing His will through you, you must be doing His agenda, not your family’s, nor your own will for wealth. Jesus wants us to obey His will here on earth and he needs to use you and me as his Soldiers and brothers to make it happen.
How do we do Jesus agenda? What was Jesus agenda? (people answer) He first wanted us to love and worship God! That is the main agenda and after that is in place in your life, once you are saved and reborn, and you are a new creature, everything else in your life will fall in line to start serving Him as He shows you.
There is the command to love God and the rest of the command is of equal importance which was to love your neighbor as yourself. How did He want us to love? He taught us to visit the sick and give to the needy and do unto others as we would have them do unto us. He also told us to go and preach the gospel to every creature, to leave all behind binding things in order to do that. Our agenda is to tell others about heaven and how they too can live in love and peace and happiness forever! This is the formula for happiness in this unhappy earth!
6. Now you have an agenda for 2021: You have Jesus’ agenda! People that do the will of God, which is Jesus’ agenda, the people that serve God and others are those that will be blessed! But what happens to those that put their own agendas before God? They get deceived and fool their selves that they are fine, but they are not. These same ones often get fooled by exploiters of false churches as well.
There are churches that have money as their God and there are people who are attracted to the big and prosperous churches thinking that they must really have a great spirituality because they are so rich but the reality may be to the contrary. And some churches today are like those of feudal times taking from the poor so they can live rich and oppress, and they are not representing the kingdom of God, and they expect all the poor people and middle class to give up everything to them so they can have huge buildings and live in luxury. We must be wiser and more mature in the Word of God than to accept this!
Many people come and leave church because we are unwilling to do the agenda of Jesus Christ! It is easy to just sit in a church and give money without any commitment and compromise, but that is man’s agenda, not Christ’s. Jesus invites you and me to give up everything, family, and money for Him and to get busy helping others and saving their souls!
7. Some people come to the church hoping to get a blessing on their own agenda, but God does not bless those with their own agenda, He blesses those with His agenda! Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you
All of us should only care about the agenda of Jesus Christ and winning souls for His Kingdom! Those that get the vision and get on board with us to create and do programs that get the unsaved interested in Jesus are those that are right with God! Do you have God’s plan & agenda doing His will and plans above your plans?
Don’t go away today sad as the rich ruler did. Do God’s agenda! Don’t give the excuse that you must serve your family or someone else first, reject that and do God’s agenda! Don’t make personal plans, find a plan where you can serve in God’s kingdom. Today is a day of rededication. If you want rewards in heaven, then dedicate this year to the Lord! Come and pray.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth (the Covid, the politics, etc) will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace!
