THE KEYS TO LIFE

Matthew chapter 6






Today we are walking in: The Keys To Life








Matthew 16:19

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.



KEY


Today we look to the word-KEY- H4668 maphteach--key, opening instrument


The Torah testifies...............

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The prophets proclaim..................



Isaiah 22:22

And the key H4668 of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.






The writings bear witness...........................


Judges 3:25

And they tarried till they were ashamed: and, behold, he opened not the doors of the parlour; therefore they took a key, H4668 and opened them: and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.










“The greatest failure in life is being successful in the wrong assignment.”


THE KEYS TO LIFE


Every human is searching for the simple formula to a successful, fulfilled life. They want to find the one key that unlocks the door to the good life and answers the questions of their heart. Perhaps this is why The Secret became a sudden best-selling book even though its reign was short lived. This book promised the final key to life and success. (I was amazed to find when I read this book, that is was simply a restatement of all the principles already written in the Bible, and the same material I and many others have been sharing for years. In essence, the secret was never a secret.)


If you conducted a sidewalk poll in any city, anywhere in the world, and asked people, “What is the key to life?” you would get many different answers. Some would say the key to life is to make as much money as you can, as quickly as you can, and to hold onto it as long as you can. Others would “see gaining political power and influence as the key to life. Love would be the key for many.


Then there are always those who would say that there is no key to life. Life is an accident; it just happened and therefore has no key or significance. The fact is, most people don’t know the key to life. This is why so many people live tragic lives; they don’t know why they are here. They haven’t a clue about how to make their time on this earth count for something worthwhile. Their existence is, in many ways, a kind of “living death,” because a life without purpose is not really a life at all.


So what is the key to life? Finding your true purpose and living it. I know the word purpose has been almost over-used in recent years and many think they understand it, but I wish to advise that this most essential component in life has never and can never be exhausted. Let me sum this up in four statements that all relate to purpose—four “keys” to understanding the difference between a purpose-filled life and a life with no meaning.


The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but life without a purpose. Many people today are obsessed with finding ways to prolong their lives. They are so caught up with trying to live longer that they never stop to consider why they are living at all. Drifting from one day to the next without purpose, with untapped potential and unfulfilled dreams; this is for many a fate worse than death. The rising suicide rate in modern society bears this truth out. Many people, bereft of hope, take their own lives because they find death more appealing than continuing what is to them a meaningless existence. Finding our purpose in life is critically important.


Second, the greatest challenge in life is knowing what to do. We get up every day and go about our daily activities, but are we doing what we are supposed to be doing? With all the options and choices that lie before us every day, that can be a difficult question to answer. Do you know what to do with your life? What drive gets you out of bed every morning? What purpose propels you through each day? Are you living for a paycheck? Or are you living for a purpose? With each passing day you grow older and use up more of your time and energy. Are you doing what you are supposed to be doing? Do you even know what to do? These are tough questions, but learning the answers is vital to your future.


Next, the greatest mistake in life is being busy, but not effective. Being busy is a common human pastime. But just because you’re busy doesn’t mean that what you’re doing is worth doing. Many people deceive themselves into believing that being busy all the time gives their lives significance. Significance has nothing to do with busyness but everything to do with effectiveness. Yahusha of Nazareth was the most effective person who ever lived but He was never busy. Everything Yahusha did had purpose. He knew what He was supposed to do and did it, and that made Him effective. It is a tragedy to waste time and energy on unfocused busyness because those resources, once expended, can never be regained. We must learn how to live effectively without being busy.


And finally, the greatest failure in life is being successful in the wrong assignment. Success alone is not enough; you must succeed in the right thing. Sincerity alone is not enough because you can be sincerely wrong. Faithfulness alone is not enough and because you can be faithful to the wrong faith. Commitment alone is not enough because you can be committed to the wrong cause. Succeeding in the wrong assignment is failure.


If a teacher gives you a test and instructs you to answer only the odd-numbered questions, and you answer the even-numbered questions instead, even if you answer every question correctly you will still fail because you didn’t follow instructions. You succeeded in the wrong assignment, which means you failed. Yah is not impressed with our sincerity, faithfulness, commitment, or success unless we are pursuing the right assignment—His assignment. Anything else is failure.


ESTABLISHING PRIORITIES: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS


As any successful person will tell you, one of the fundamental keys to success in any field of endeavor is learning to establish priorities and then living by them. Any activity that does not fit into or advance any of those priorities is put on the backburner or even eliminated, even if that activity is good in and of itself. Even good activities, if they are incompatible with our established priorities, can become unnecessary distractions that hinder our progress toward success. A priority is the principal thing upon which we place our primary focus. It is that thing we consider to be of highest value and worth, first among all others. Establishing priorities means ranking everything in order of importance, determining which is most important, and then focusing our time, attention, and energy there. It is a matter of putting first things first.


Essentially, our success boils down to the issue of how efficiently and effectively we use our time. Learning to establish priorities, or to put first things first, is a critical key to effective time management. Most of us are busy people for whom time is at a premium. Remember, however, that busyness does not necessarily mean effectiveness. Successful people are effective people because they know how to set priorities. Priorities help us avoid distractions, focus on the most important things, and get the most value out of our time every day.


Success in life is the effective use of time. Each of us is the sum total of what we spend our time on. The person you are today is a result of how you have used your time in the past. If you are overweight, for example, it may be because you have spent too much time sitting around eating and watching television, and not enough time exercising and being active in other ways. If you are ignorant and lacking in knowledge, you may be spending time on aimless and unproductive activities that would be better spent reading books or going to school. The way you invest your time determines the level of your success.


We need to pay close attention to time because time is the true measure of life. Our life on earth is essentially human consciousness residing in a physical body that exists in a linear but finite continuum of time and space. In the life to come, in eternity, time will not be a factor, but now it is. In our physical existence we are bound by the constraints of time.


Time is also the currency of life. Currency is the medium of exchange used in an economy to purchase goods and services. Just as money is the currency of an economy, time is the currency of life. And just as we use money to purchase things, we use time to purchase life. Financial success always involves the wise investment of money to get the biggest possible return for the smallest outlay. In the same way, success in life means receiving the greatest returns and benefits—to ourselves as well as to others—for the time invested. Every morning we all wake up with the same amount of time currency: 24 hours. Where we go and how high we rise in life depend on how we spend and invest that irreplaceable currency.


It stands to reason, then, that how we spend our time determines the quality of our life and death. How will people feel when you die? Will they be sad…or relieved? The way you invest your time on this side of the grave will make the difference. Our quality of life (and that of the people closest to us) is directly related to how we spend our currency of time. We will be healthy, wealthy, wise, and spiritually mature in direct proportion to the time we invest in these things. In a very real sense we become what we spend our time on. Time is a precious commodity that must be carefully and wisely invested.


Because time is currency and a precious commodity, it should come as no surprise to discover that everything and everyone is after our time. Modern life is a constant bombardment of voices, ideas, opinions, causes, and expectations, from people in every degree of acquaintance, all vying for our time and attention. Some of it is worthwhile and deserves our attention; most of it does not.


How do we tell the difference? This is where establishing priorities comes in. Without clear priorities, we run the danger of wasting precious time listening to the wrong voices or allowing ourselves to be drawn in the wrong direction.


Knowing your priorities will help you evaluate the voices pulling at you and identify those that are the most important. The best way to minimize confusion is to get into the habit of deciding beforehand how you will spend your time each day. Personally, I plan out my time and focus for each day the day before. I have found that knowing where I am headed as I go into each day helps me avoid unnecessary distractions along the way. You can’t give your time or attention to every competing voice, so let your priorities help you zero in on those that are the most important. Let the others go.


Coming full circle, then, we see that the key to success is effective use of time, and the key to effective use of time is correct priorities. The only way to spend your time currency effectively is to identify the correct priorities for your life. If you do not know what you are supposed to do, where you are supposed to go, or how you are going to get there, you are in constant danger of abusing your currency and allowing others to do the same. Take it from me, nothing is more rewarding than to wake up in the morning knowing exactly what to do and knowing that what you are doing is right and correct.


Notice that I did not use the word “good.” Good is not always right. Many times we end up abusing our currency because we are distracted by good things that take the place of right things, thereby causing us to be busy, but not effective.


Yah is not impressed with busyness. The only way to live effectively is to use your time on the correct priorities for your life. Some of your priorities may be good, but not correct. It is important to learn the difference. Time wasted on incorrect priorities is currency that is gone forever. It can never be regained.


THE PRIORITY OF PRIORITY


In addition to helping us use our time effectively, there are numerous other significant reasons why establishing priorities should be a priority for us. For one thing, preoccupation with priority preserves and protects life. What is life? Time. And what is priority? Doing the right thing at the right time in the right way. Priority will protect your life because doing the right thing at the right time in the right way keeps us from doing the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong way. Priority enables us to spend our days putting first things first.


Second, correct priority is the principle of progress. True progress is measured not by how much we get done but by whether or not we are moving in the right direction. We may accomplish many good things, but if we are focused on the wrong things, we will not make any progress toward our true goal.


If I set out to drive from Denver, south to Colorado Springs, but end up heading north toward Fort Collins, I may “progress” many miles, but in the wrong direction. I will never reach my intended objective. Movement is not necessarily a sign of progress any more than busyness is a sign of effectiveness.


It’s important to move in the right direction, and that means finding Yah’s priority. Aligning ourselves with Yah’s priority ensures that we will always travel in the right direction in life. And what is Yah’s priority? Kingdom first!


Correct priority also protects time. As we saw earlier, knowing and doing what is most important helps us avoid abusing time and wasting that precious currency.


In addition to protecting time, correct priority also protects energy. When our lives are correctly prioritized, we can afford to exert our energy with confidence because we know we are using it effectively, correctly, and for the right purpose. We should strive not to be busy but to be correct. Our energy and Yah’s priority are too important for us to wake up one morning and realize that everything we have done for the last ten or twenty years was wrong! Correct priorities give us the energy to put first things first—to seek first the Kingdom of Yah and His righteousness.


A fifth reason for focusing on priorities: correct priority protects talents and gifts. Knowing your priorities will help you avoid expending your talents and gifts on unimportant or unworthy endeavors. Most people today use their gifts and abilities in the pursuit of selfish and worldly goals that have nothing to do with the Kingdom of Heaven. Their top priority is gratifying their own desires. However, even good and honorable pursuits can become a problem if they distract us from other endeavors that are more important.


Imagine looking back from the autumn years of your life and realizing that you wasted your gifts and talents on the wrong things, never accomplishing what you were put here on earth to do. What a tragedy that would be! Establishing correct priorities in your life now will help ensure that never happens. Correct priorities means Yah’s priority, and Yah’s priority is Kingdom first! With Yah’s priority in place as your priority, you can pursue life with confidence and no fear of later regret.


Correct priority also protects decisions. Once you know what your priorities are, decision making becomes very easy because you understand not only what you should be doing but also what you should not be doing. This gives you confidence to say no to requests, even honorable ones that would distract you from your primary focus. Every decision you make either helps or hinders you in fulfilling your life purpose. Unless you know the priorities of your life, you have no guidelines to help you make the correct choice. Setting your heart on Yah’s priority will enable you to choose the right course and maximize your life’s effectiveness.


Along with decision making, correct priority protects discipline. People without priorities usually are undisciplined people. Since they do not know which direction to go, they shoot out in every direction, following every whim, going nowhere, and dissipating any possible effectiveness they could have. Establishing correct priorities injects automatic discipline into your life because it gives your life a sharp and narrow focus with laser-like intensity. Priority-induced discipline protects you from wasting your time, energy, effort, talents, gifts and, especially, your life.


It is easy to say no when you know what yes is. Having correct priorities takes the guesswork out of decision making and discipline.


This brings us to the final point for the importance of priority: correct priority simplifies life. If you want your life to become simple, simply find out what your priorities should be and live accordingly. That’s really all there is to it. The young country preacher, Yahusha Hamachiach, lived life more effectively than all others, yet His life was very simple.


What was the secret to His amazingly effective life? He reduced all of life to two simple pursuits: (1) a Kingdom from a place called Heaven, and (2) a concept He called righteousness. In fact for the entire duration of His earthly ministry He focused only on these two subjects and related all of His principles, precepts, laws, and instructions to them.


He had only one message—the Kingdom of Heaven and righteousness—and He promised that those who made this pursuit their priority would lead a full, successful, and satisfied life. The majority of those who claim to represent Him do not promote the message He taught, and many have never considered it. It is hardly ever heard from the pulpits or the classrooms of the educational institutions that claim to train professional speakers and ministers to represent Him.


I strongly admonish and encourage you as you read the rest of this work, to take time to read the record of His life and ministry on earth found in the four Gospels of the biblical New Testament. I am certain you will be amazed and perhaps shocked to discover His original message and focus.


Time after time Yahusha said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…the Kingdom of Heaven is like…the Kingdom of Heaven is like.” Without a doubt, the Kingdom was His priority and He instructed that it must be ours too. His priority was never religion or rituals, but the introduction of a heavenly Kingdom to the earth realm.


We tend to prioritize our lives around things: food, drink, clothing, a paycheck, a car, a house. A lack in any of these areas causes us to become stressed-out and fearful, and our prayers start to focus almost exclusively on our needs. Yahusha, however, tells us not to worry about these things because our heavenly Father knows that we need them (see Matt. 6:31-32). Instead, Yahusha says, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt. 6:33). In other words, if we take care of Yah’s priority—His Kingdom—He will take care of ours.


The Kingdom of Heaven was the singular focus of Yahusha’ life and message. It was His priority because it was His Father’s priority. It was His first priority.


And it must be our priority as well. First things first!


PRINCIPLES


1.We each have a built-in drive to rule and dominate, to exercise control over our circumstances and environment.


2.Yah’s highest priority is restoring the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.


3.When we understand Kingdom first! we will understand how to live effectively on earth.


4.The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but life without a purpose.


5.The greatest challenge in life is knowing what to do.


6.The greatest mistake in life is being busy, but not effective.


7.The greatest failure in life is being successful in the wrong assignment.


8.Success in life is the effective use of time.


9.The key to effective use of time is correct priorities.


10.Aligning ourselves with Yah’s priority ensures that we will always travel in the right direction in life.