What’s Your Agenda?

Yet most of our Christian life is lived learning how to change our viewpoint to God’s viewpoint and focus on God’s interests instead of our own.

One of the strongest remarks Jesus ever gave was to one of His closest friends. He had just told His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer at the hands of the religious leaders, be killed, and be raised up on the third day.

Immediately, Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You (Matthew 16:21-22)."

Then Jesus actually called Peter’s point of view the viewpoint of Satan. He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s (Matthew 16:23)."

Remember, this is the context in which God had just given Peter amazing insight into who Jesus really was. Jesus had asked the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 16:15-17)."

Today, we might say something like, “Peter had it right on how to get to heaven and to have your sins forgiven. But Peter sure missed the mark when it came to making decisions about his walk with Christ.”

The problem was that Peter had elevated his agenda above God’s.

How many of us are engaged in postponed obedience because we are first and foremost pressing our interests and agenda over God’s interests and agenda?

The Jesus of culture has an agenda for Christians that involves:

• Safety first
• Security always
• Self-protection, no matter what

But the Jesus of Scripture says that being more concerned with God’s agenda than with ours is our call as Christians. He even said, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it (Matthew 16:25)".

The only way we will be willing to lose our life for the sake of Christ is by valuing our obedience to Jesus more than we value our own personal interests. This is a faith decision, but it’s God’s way:

• If we want to be first … we put ourselves last.
• If we want to gain true riches … we give.
• If we want God’s interests to be served … we say “yes” to Him and “no” to ourselves.

See, my friends, we will never get away from our own interests until we value God’s kingdom agenda more than our own agenda. No matter how many mixed messages we get from our culture, we have to prioritize God’s interests … no matter what.