The Doors of Priority & Distraction | Doors | Pastor Brad Wilkinson

And what starts as a small distraction leads to a bigger addiction. If your life revolves around pleasure, watch how your appetite increases for the things of this world. Sin is tasty at first, but sin opens you up to other things of this world. You taste one thing and, oh, well, let me just... This is how your spiritual adversary works. But when you seek first the kingdom of God, it's amazing how everything else finds its proper place. Thank you, Jesus! You know, it's the reason why we start our services with worship, because He alone is worthy. It's a reminder to you and I... See, sometimes we forget, and we like to try to take some of the credit for what we've done in our lives. What I love about worship is that it focuses our minds and our hearts, and it's a reminder that we didn't get here without the help and the grace of God. In fact, if it weren't for God, we wouldn't be here. And so He alone is worthy. That's why we start with worship, to let Him know how grateful we are. And a reminder to ourselves, you know, today is Pentecost Sunday, which is 50 days after Easter, and in the book of Acts, 120 gathered in an upper room, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit was poured out. And so today, I'm just grateful that we are a Spirit-filled church, that we are so grateful that wherever the Spirit of the Lord moves, that's where we're going, right? Like, I'm grateful that we allow the Holy Spirit to move in our lives and in our church. It's amazing, the Bible says that 3,000 were added to the church that day. There's nothing like living a Spirit-filled life. By the way, for those of you that attend Christian Life, and you're coming, and you're like, man, I don't even know why I go to church, like, I've never gone to church, let me tell you the reason that you're drawn to an environment like this.

It's not because the worship team and band are phenomenal, and they are. It's not because whoever's preaching that Sunday just brought an amazing word, no, and maybe every once in a while that happens. But the reason that you're drawn here is because of the Spirit of God that is in this place, that you may not be able to explain, but it's His Spirit that is drawing all men unto Himself. It's so good to be with you on this holiday Sunday. Thank you for being in church today. Hey, before you're seated, why don't you turn around? If you know the person next to you, man, pull them close and tell them how happy you are to see them today. If you don't know them, introduce yourself, and you can find your seat. While you're finding your seat, let me take a moment, and I wanna give you, before I dive into the Word today, I wanna give you a quick update on our Kyle location. For those of you that have been around Christian Life, you know that in the fall of this year, we are gonna launch a second campus in the Kyle-Buda area, and yeah, it's coming. It's right around the corner. It'll be here before you know it, but I haven't shared with you any updates recently, so I just wanna fill you in on where we are. So for those of you that don't know, we have leased a warehouse of sorts. I mean, it's pretty awesome, but it's a shell right now, so it's got a foundation, and it's got walls, but there ain't nothing on the inside. So we are in the process, and we have been for the last month or so, working with architects and engineers to get our build-out on the inside ready to turn into the city of Kyle, and what we've been told is that we should have those plans turned into the city of Kyle by the end of the month, and we're hoping that we can have a turnaround in a couple of weeks is what we've been told. So pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. Man, I love the city, but any time you're dealing with the city ... Now, truthfully, the city's waiting on us to turn our plans in, so it's on us right now. We gotta get them turned in, but hopefully by the end of the month.

plans will be turned in, and we will be able to start the build-out process. Now I mentioned this Wednesday night, and I mentioned it at all three services today. We were looking at, again, we don't own this building, so we're leasing it for three years, and it just wouldn't be wise stewardship to come in and just dump a bunch of money in to build out this space, knowing that it's not ours long-term. Now, we'll have the ability to lease it after three years if we want, but truthfully, I got a little bit bigger vision than that. I think the Lord's gonna bless this endeavor in a mighty way, and I'm excited. I think God's gonna do such an incredible work that maybe in a year, we're gonna be looking to purchase land and to build a building, like a permanent space, and so I think then it would be more wise stewardship to sow into something that we actually own, right, instead of something that we're gonna have to give back to the owners of the building. So, listen, we know, we've had people come up to us and talk to us about this, so it's the reason that we're bringing this to you guys. If you own a contracting service, whether that's electrical, plumbing, I don't speak that language.

Let me go ahead and tell you this. If you are like me, I changed the light bulb yesterday, and it was a miracle I didn't get electrocuted. So if you are like me, I'm not talking to you right now. Just amen, just. But if you do wanna be involved and you wanna sow into the kingdom of God through your giftings and your talents, again, we've had several trades already reach out to us and talk to us, and so that's the reason we're bringing it to the church. So if that's you, listen, immediately following our service today, head over to the Welcome Center. They'll capture some information from you. We'll reach out, we'll get in contact. Again, if you wanna sow into the kingdom by the Kyle location specifically, the build out of that, you can do that as well. That's all available online. But it's gonna be, listen, Lord willing, and the creeks don't rise, we're gonna be having church this fall in Kyle, Texas, and it's gonna be a beautiful thing. Amen. Okay, so we're in week two of a series that I'm so proud of my title on. I love creativity, and I got really creative when I was naming this series, Doors.

I know, you're welcome. Doors, I love Doors. Doors, in the word of God specifically, there's a lot of beautiful meaning behind doors. Think about it for a second. Doors represent access. Who comes in, who goes out, what comes in, what stays out. Doors represent opportunity. Doors represent transitions in people's lives. One season ends, another begins. Doors represent salvation, and relationship, and authority, and choice, and separation, and God's timing. There's so much that a door represents in the word of God. If you'll remember last week, we were in the book of Exodus, and we looked at the Passover, and how Pharaoh wouldn't let the people of God go, and the Lord was getting tired of it, and so he was using Moses to communicate with Pharaoh. And so we were talking about the 10 plagues. The final plague, the Lord instructed as a place of protection, that the families were to slaughter a spotless lamb. And it wasn't enough for the lamb to be dead, but you had to take the blood of the lamb, and the blood had to move from the basin that it was in, and it had to move to the doorpost.

And the Lord gave strict instructions on what to do to be protected from this 10th plague. And it's amazing, the Bible says that they had to stay inside for the night. So you apply the blood, and then you stay under the covering. And so thus we have Passover. You're familiar with the story. But we talked about the door of protection last week. And today, every single one of us, every day, has an opportunity to walk through either one of these doors. Both of these doors are open 24-7. They ain't closed on Sunday like Chick-fil-A. Every single day, you have the opportunity to walk through one of these two doors. These two doors are close to one another, but these two doors are totally different. These two doors, though they're close in proximity, they are actually at war with one another. One of these doors will bring order to your life. where the other will create disorder. One of these doors will bring clarity while the other creates confusion. So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Matthew chapter six. I'm gonna be in a specific verse, but as you're finding Matthew chapter six, let me give you a little bit of context so that you'll understand why Jesus said

what he said in our text today. But Jesus is preaching one of the greatest sermons ever preached known as the Sermon on the Mount. And as he's getting ready to preach this sermon, he realizes what the people are talking about and what's really on their mind because before he preaches this message, he recognizes what everyone's concerned about. And they're concerned about what am I gonna eat? What am I gonna drink? What am I gonna wear? How am I gonna survive this season that we're in? And Jesus sees it all. And please note that none of this is like, doesn't mean that those aren't important, but what we're gonna see is that Jesus really speaks to the fact that though they might be important, they're not the most important. And so Jesus would actually address this because he sees what they're really concerned about and he addresses it in Matthew 6 verse 33 when he says this, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and these things shall be added to you. All of these things will be added to you if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. What Jesus was saying was something like this, that you can spend all day, all day for the rest of your life, concerned and trying to fix the middle buttons

on your shirt. You're gonna get it in a second. But none of it's gonna matter. You can spend all day messing with the middle buttons, but the first button was always the problem. And you've been toying around with all the things that don't really matter and you've been trying to fix it and Jesus is saying, if you will get the first button right, all of the other things are gonna tend to work out. Here's another way of saying it, your priorities are out of line and when what should be first is no longer first, you're gonna see very quickly how your life moves from order to chaos. Some of you were looking at me and you were saying this, bless his heart. How come somebody didn't tell him? I mean, there's people that's gotta tell him backstage that he just walked out and his buttons are all jacked up. In fact, this is funny, my dad was in first service and he told me after, he said, Brad, I got a text message. As soon as you walked out on the platform from somebody that moved and they were like, somebody's gotta get a note to Pastor Brad that his shirt, his buttons are messed up. What's going on? Some of you don't even remember the text that we just read, the scripture, because you were like, why is that out of order? It's amazing how when things are out of order,

how it's hard to focus on anything else besides what's out of order. If you're taking notes, jot this down. What you seek first will organize the rest of your life. What you seek first will organize the rest of your life. Again, in Matthew 6, 33, Jesus is addressing people who are exhausted mentally, physically, and spiritually, and they're worried about their survival. They're worried about what they're gonna eat, what they're gonna drink, what they're wearing. They're worried about how they're gonna make it. And again, none of those are not important, but they are just not the most important thing. And do you notice what Jesus addressed? He doesn't address their money, their financial situation. He addresses their priorities. He addressed the things that are first in life. I know that you're exhausted with everything going on. I know you're frustrated. I know you're worried about how you're gonna survive. In spite of all of that, Jesus says, the way that you come out of this victorious is to get your priorities in line. I know what you're worried about, but make sure your worries don't become the priority. Because if you're prioritizing the wrong thing, everything behind it is chaos, no matter how long you try to fix the chaos. If you don't address the first thing, nothing else that you address will really matter.

So every day, every day, you have to make the decision to walk through the door of priority. Every day, these two doors are open, open 24-7. Every day, you gotta wake up and make a decision to make the main thing the main thing. And some of you are like, why are we talking about priorities? Can we talk about something more spiritual? For some of you, the most spiritual thing you can do is get your life in order. Let me tell you why you have to make a decision. Some of you, when we talk about priorities, like, well, that's easy. I mean, I know I need to do blah, blah, blah. It's easy until it isn't easy. And what's interesting, these two are at war, and the enemy will use door number one to make, or door number two, excuse me, to make door number one not effective. Every day, you have a decision to walk through the door of priority, but your spiritual adversary is fighting for your first. He's fighting for first in your life, and he fights for first by entering door number two into the picture, the door of distraction. These two are close. They're close in proximity, but they couldn't be further from one another.

They're open 24-7, and every day, you have to make a decision whether you are gonna walk through the door of priority or are you gonna walk through the door of distraction. And your enemy will try to keep you from walking through the door of priority by introducing to you the door of distraction. You still don't believe me, let me prove it to you. I want you to go back all the way to the beginning. I want you to remember everything that you know about your girl, Eve. Some of you are very familiar with her story. Some of you know bits and pieces, but let me tell you, wherever you are, chances are, you know this part of her story. Genesis chapter three, verse six. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and she ate it. Most of us know this part of her story. We know the sin part of her life. Isn't it interesting how we tend to know those parts of people's lives? Oh, you know what they did? We know the part where she took some and she ate it. We know the story of sin, but I want you to understand that her story did not start with sin. Though it may be the part that you understand

or you know or the first piece that you go to, it's not where her story started. It started when she walked through the door of distraction. The serpent didn't start with fruit. The serpent started with the conversation. The serpent started when he tried to get her mind and her attention and her focus off of what really mattered to things that don't matter as much. He started with this. Watch. Did God really say that you must not eat from any tree in the garden? What is he doing? He's shifting her attention from what she had to what she lacks now. And this is a tactic of your spiritual adversary. Some of you have one thing going on wrong in your life and all you can do is focus on what you don't have instead of everything else that's going on that God has done and the blessings and the favor that he has worked in your life. Oh. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Start with saying it started when she walked through the door of distraction as the enemy shifted her attention and her focus and her Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. priorities think about all she had She was living in the Garden of Eden She had provision She had purpose she had relationship with God. She had access to God She had everything that you could have wanted. You talk about abundant life. She was walking in it But what happened? The enemy got her to walk through the door of distraction By getting her to focus on the one thing that she did not have This is how your spiritual adversary worked then and He still works the same way today watch this he doesn't need you to hate God He just needs God to stop being first in your life Let that sink in for just a second Because there's a lot of great people in the room who would say man. I love I love the Lord But your priorities are way out of line while you may say it with your mouth You do not believe it or live it in your heart and I will tell you that the enemy has introduced the door of Distraction and he started to get your mind and your attention and your focus. Maybe not even on sinful things But things that don't matter as much as God being first Man this works I Wish I could stand up here and tell you that this tactic of the enemy doesn't work, but it works and It works really well and let me tell you why he continues to do it and why it works so well Because rarely at the beginning is distraction ever dangerous It's why it works so well because on the surface Distraction does not seem dangerous at all. In fact distraction is often masked in words like this I'm just busy. Oh Really you're busy. No, I

Just I can't because I'm I'm just I'm I'm busy Do you know? that That God didn't put all those things on your calendar Judith Oh my god, I mean I got I would love but I just so busy You signed your kids up for 900 things It's not God's fault It's our fault and we get get make we get mad at God. I'm just so tired Don't get mad at God You've walked through the door of distraction They're not bad things, but they're not the best thing and they're keeping you from the best thing The door of distraction is often masked in Words like this. Well, it's it's not that serious. I Got a hold of this. I got a handle I can stop anytime I want. I Mean, it's not a deal for me. Oh, okay Yeah, yeah. Yeah, if you got to say that it's a deal for you if somebody's having that conversation with you It's already a deal. You just have failed to see it The door of distraction is often masked I'll I'll I'll ask God about it later. Oh I'll delay my obedience because that's cool. No, I know I shouldn't I I'm gonna I mean God Or Wow, I know God said But I Mean this book was written so many years ago He couldn't surely know what I would be going through and what I would be tempted and it doesn't really hurt anybody else it the door of distraction is good It trying to get you to see things in a different way. The door of distraction is good at getting you to justify Areas of your life that you know, you need to change

because rarely Does distraction look dangerous at the beginning? Oh But you let distraction go on long enough You let distraction continue in one area of your life over and over and over See, here's the the thing sin man Sin generally tastes pretty good at the beginning. Distraction usually tastes pretty good at the beginning. I'm gonna use this to get my mind off of what I'm dealing with. But man, sin and distraction leaves a really bad aftertaste. You ever taken one of those chalky pills? You know what I'm talking about? Like the big old, they're like horse pills, they're massive. Y'all don't know what I'm talking about? And you, you ever had, I don't know where this is coming, I've not said this in any story. You ever take one of those pills and it doesn't matter how much water you drink, like it's still there? You're like, please, go, I'm gonna choke. And then it goes down and you're like, oh, good Lord, what is in that? This is sin. Like it leaves this aftertaste in your mouth. It never tastes bad at the beginning. But the wages of sin is death. Distraction left undone over time

will lead you and allow you to drift in areas of your life and you'll waste a decade of your life thinking how did I get here? Every day, you've been walking through the door of distraction. Every day, the door of priority is there, but you're like, I will do that tomorrow. We'll keep walking through this door. So the door of distraction is introduced and I want you to recognize what Eve sees when her attention and her focus is off of the main thing. Watch this, we've already read the text. Genesis 3.6, when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and she ate it. So what did she see? She saw that it was good for food, it was pleasing to the eye, and it was desirable for gaining wisdom. This is what the door of distraction allowed her to see, but I want you to see there's always more going on with the door of distraction. The enemy is getting you to look up here and trying to, hey, check it, while he's doing something behind the scenes that you're not aware of. Because watch, as she sees those three things, I want you to watch what the serpent was appealing to.

She saw good for food, but the serpent was appealing to her appetites. She saw pleasing to the eye and the serpent was appealing to attraction, things that are attractive to the eye. She saw desirable for gaining wisdom and the serpent was using ambition to get her attention. And so what she saw was not dangerous on the surface. The serpent was saying, if I can get you to walk through this door, if I can get your attention off of this, I'm gonna open it up to bigger appetites. I'm gonna open it up to things, this will lead you, if I can just get you to open this door, I know it doesn't look dangerous at the onset, but if I can get you to walk through this, I'm gonna get you to walk through some other doors too. And we know where it eventually led. And I wonder if there's anybody in the room today, don't raise your hand, who's ever been distracted by what feels good or what looks good or something that fed your ego. Yeah, a lot of us. I told you at the beginning of our time together that every day you have to choose which door you're gonna walk through. Every day, these two doors are at war with one another. The door of priority says God will be first in my life. The door of distraction says anything

but God will be first in my life. And it's why Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of these things will be added to you. Watch, if you seek money first, your life will start revolving around money. If you seek money first, don't be surprised when a deal is going awry and you cut corners and you start lying to close the deal. Because money, your life is revolving around money. Don't be surprised when your life revolves around money. And it seems to start as fun, a little sports betting on the side, and you bet on the cowboys. I should have known better. And what starts as a small distraction leads to a bigger addiction. If your life revolves around pleasure, watch how your appetite increases for the things of this world. Sin is tasty at first, but sin opens you up to other things of this world. You taste one thing, and I'm like, oh, well, let me just, this is how your spiritual adversary works. But when you seek first the kingdom of God, it's amazing how everything else finds its proper place. Does that mean your life is always going to be easy and there's going to be no problem? That's not what I'm saying. But let me tell you what happens when you get your life in order and you put God first, you're giving God now permission to work on every other area of your life. Okay, think about it for a second. When your life is out of line, you're asking God to fix the middle buttons that you've jacked up. God will not fix the middle buttons because it will always lead you back to where you are now. So now you get your life in line and your priorities in line and you're seeking first the kingdom of God. Now the ball's in the Lord's court. Lord, I've done what I know to do. My priority is on you. Doesn't mean everything is always going to be easy, no, but it means your life is in order now. What's interesting is how what we're talking about today applies so powerfully to relationships. Let's talk to married folks in the room, dating couples in the room. It's interesting how what we're talking about today, walking through the door of distraction, will cause couples to collapse under pressure. When your priorities, listen, when your priorities are not in line, when you are walking through the door of distraction day after day after day and you're

thinking on things that don't please God, it will start as a conversation at work and it will lead to something that you never anticipated and you'll wonder, how did I get here? It's amazing when you're distracted from what really matters most, how it affects your relationship. I don't know, it doesn't affect me. No, it does because when you're distracted, you'll start stopping on things on social media where you would have never sent a DM before. Now you're like, well, I mean, this doesn't really... And where we say it doesn't matter, let me tell you when it starts to matter. Let me tell you, not when it starts to matter, when it really matters, is when the person that you've built the last 10 years of your life is sitting on the other side of the couch from you, looking at you, telling you, I'm not sure I can do this anymore. The door of distraction will lead you down a path if you don't deal with the distractions of this world. And they're not all sinful. Some of them are, some of them are not. But if you don't get your priorities in line... You see, healthy relationships are not built on attraction alone, right? We know this. You know what makes a healthy relationship? Two people seeking after God. But when one person is seeking after God, and one person chooses to walk through the door of distraction, it causes friction. We got one person that's trying to get their priorities in line, one person who loves their spouse, but their priorities are on other things, whether they say it or not. Maybe alcohol is their priority. Maybe the boys are their priority. Maybe a girl's weekend is always their priority. That's why the Bible, listen, the Bible warns about being unequally yoked. Why? Not because the Lord is mean. No, but because the Lord understands the friction when your priorities and your values don't align. Some of us have allowed distraction to enter your life, and you continually walk through the door of distraction, and you're frustrated. You're frustrated on your job. You're frustrated in your marriage. You're frustrated with your finances. You're frustrated in your walk with God. You name it, and you're frustrated.

For most of you that would even find yourself in a frustrated season, my guess is the reason It's not because you don't love God. My guess is it's that your priorities are not in line. That there's some things that you've placed in front of God. Every single day you have the decision to walk through one of these two doors. I just encourage you today, before you seek answers, seek Him. Before you seek success, seek Him. Before you seek the relationship, seek the kingdom of God. You and I don't need another distraction. You and I need a reprioritized life.