From Priorities to Priority

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Wake-Up Call – "From Priorities to Priority" (March 10, 2026)

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Wake-Up Call, hosted by John David Walt, focuses on the transformative shift from juggling multiple "priorities" to embracing a single "priority": seeking first the kingdom of God. Drawing upon Matthew 6:33, J.D. Walt encourages listeners to see life not as a list of ranked obligations but as a daily reorientation around Jesus as the one necessary and unifying pursuit. The episode weaves personal reflection, biblical teaching, and authentic conversation—culminating with family memories and a spirited hymn—to inspire listeners to reorder their lives around God’s kingdom.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Invitation to Community & Consecration (00:05 – 02:30)

• J.D. Walt opens with humor (“it's Tuesday… tacos!”) and an invitation to join the Wake-Up Call field team.
• Special encouragement is directed toward pastors and ministry leaders, fostering a spirit of collective mission.
• He leads a consecration prayer, emphasizing the daily meeting with Jesus:

  “Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.” (01:52)

2. The Core Message: From Priorities to Priority (02:31 – 14:30)

• Scripture Focus: Matthew 6:33 – “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
• Reflection on Mary & Martha: J.D. revisits yesterday’s imagery—sitting at the feet of Jesus—clarifying that Luke’s account is not about personalities or tasks but about “the only necessary thing.”
• The Absurdity of ‘Priorities’:

  “This is one of the more absurd words of our time. Priorities. Priority means first. It comes from the word ‘prior’, which means to go before. Only one thing can be first. To say we have priorities categorically means we have no priority.” (07:08)

• The swap is outlined: Martha has “priorities” (many things), while Mary has “a priority” (Jesus).
• Proximity to Christ: True transformation comes not from better list-making, but from changing our relationship to Jesus—the “one necessary thing.”
• Jesus’ Words:

  “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (08:14)
  J.D. emphasizes, “He gave us the priority. He gave us a first only. There is no second.” (08:35)

3. Deepening the Concept (11:57 – 14:30)

• J.D. challenges the familiar hierarchy: “God first, family second, work third,” calling it “ridonkulous.”
• Instead, he advises: seek first the kingdom in all things—family, work, tasks.

• “What God wants is for you to seek first his kingdom in your family and seek first his kingdom in your work and seek first his kingdom in everything… his kingdom is first in all of it.” (12:56)

• He describes this as putting on a new set of glasses—seeing everything through the lens of kingdom priority.

4. Journal Prompts for Listeners (13:50)

• “What do you make of this notion of the absurdity of multiple priorities? Do you see it? And how might Jesus become the priority even in the midst of the many things?”

5. Family Conversation & Practical Living (14:31 – 18:44)

• J.D.’s father, David Walt, joins for a candid, generational reflection on seeking first the kingdom—especially in the context of working on the family farm.
• David Walt shares:

  “I did not plant a crop without asking God to help us. And all during the planting season, I'd go out there and dig around and I'd say, okay, God, here they are. And then they'd come up because we'd ask him to help us.” (16:30)

• Reminiscing about praying for family and workers, they emphasize how seeking the kingdom shaped their family and community, even if it didn’t lead to material riches.

6. Singing Scripture: “Seek Ye First” (18:44 – 20:38)

• The episode features a heartfelt rendition of “Seek Ye First,” directly quoting Matthew 6:33.
• J.D. remarks:

  “That's just singing the straight word of God and you can't really beat that. When the word of God comes into a song, you got a winner.” (20:17)

• The song serves as both a summary and a practical tool for daily focus.

7. Living it Out & Encouragement (20:39 – end)

• J.D. sums up the purpose:

  “That’s what we mean by sowing. We’re sowing for awakening…and when you seek first the kingdom of God people are…they see it, they’ll follow you. They wake up because you have awakened.” (20:57)

• The episode closes with a call to action—sowing for a great awakening, both individually and communally.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On false priorities:

  “To say we have priorities categorically means we have no priority.” (07:15 – J.D. Walt)

• On integrating the kingdom into every area:

  “[God] wants you to seek first his kingdom in your family and seek first his kingdom in your work and seek first his kingdom in everything…” (12:56 – J.D. Walt)

• On practical faith:

  “I did not plant a crop without asking God to help us…because we’d ask him to help us.” (16:30 – David Walt)

• On awakening others:

  “They wake up because you have awakened. That's what we're doing in this world.” (20:59 – J.D. Walt)

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Important Timestamps

• [01:52] – Consecration Prayer
• [07:08] – Critique of “Priorities”
• [08:14] – Matthew 6:33 quoted and interpreted
• [12:56] – Challenge of common Christian hierarchy (“God first, family second…”)
• [16:30] – David Walt on seeking the kingdom in farming
• [18:44] – Singing “Seek Ye First”
• [20:57] – Awakening through personal transformation

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Episode Tone & Style

• Warm, encouraging, and direct with a mix of humor and sincerity.
• Conversational and practical, featuring personal testimonies and simple, actionable insight.
• Rich in scriptural focus, with a heartfelt family dynamic and musical worship.

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Bottom Line:
This episode calls listeners to set aside the cultural obsession with “priorities” and embrace a single, transformative priority—seeking first the kingdom of God in every arena of life. Through scripture, personal story, prayer, and song, J.D. Walt and his father invite you to shape your day and your world around this unifying invitation from Jesus.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Sower Nation. It's Tuesday, March 10th, in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm John David Walt and this is your wake up call. It's time to rise and shine and give God the glory today. Tom. And good news, it's Tuesday. You know what that means? Yep, tacos. We're looking for tacos today. So we got that to look forward to. The other thing I always try to do on Tuesdays is make an invitation to join the field team. There'll be a link in the PS and the field team are the people who love the wake up call so much they want to share it with everybody they know. And if you'll click on that link and let us know who you are and where you are, we'll help you do that. We want to send you some stuff that'll help you share it. We really appreciate it. That's how this spreads. And then the other thing I like to do on Tuesdays is say a word to pastors out there. I had an email the other day from a pastor. From a pastor, actually, he was a regional superintendent in the Free Methodist Church. And he said, happy birthday. I'm a wake up call pastor. And I'm like, thanks for that. I've never heard anybody say that before. I said, what does that mean? He said, well, my wife and I, we're on it every day and we love to share it and we believe in it and we appreciate what you're doing. And so I liked, I'm a pastor and so I'm one of you, you're one of me. We're, we're in this work together and I'd love to be in touch with you. So if you click on the little link in the PS today in the email, let us know. We'll, we'll go from there. Well, it's time to consecrate ourselves on this Tuesday. That's the most important thing we're entering into the meeting with Jesus. The meeting's going to last all day long. It's going to be filled with all kinds of good things today. Not saying it's going to be easy, but it's going to be good because he's going to be with us all the way. So wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, we're in. Game on. Today's entry is entitled From Priorities to Priority. And our text is Matthew 6, verse 33. Hear now the word of the Lord, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. The word of the Lord. Now consider this. We left off yesterday with you sitting on the floor at the feet of Jesus. Let me remind you what he was saying. Insert your name here. John, David has chosen what is best and it will not be taken away from him. Now, I know what you're thinking. What about the many things I still have on my plate? They didn't go away. Correct. And they won't go away. And if anything, the more you yield yourself to Jesus, the more you will experience even more things getting added to the many things. You see, Jesus holds enormous gravity. And the more he is in you, the more gravity you will have. The change you need is a change in your relationship to all the things, the many things. This change won't come with a better task management system or a new getting things done approach. This change will only come as we change our relationship with the one thing, the only necessary thing, Jesus. It is precisely at this point where we make a left turn when we must make a right turn. The wrong turn looks like this way of thinking. I need to be less like Martha and more like Mary. This is not a story about Martha and Mary. This is a story about Jesus. These are not personality types, as some want to think, with Martha being the doer type and Mary the contemplative type. No, this is a story about the only necessary thing. This is a story about the core matter of priority. And notice I did not say priorities. This is one of the more absurd words of our time. Priorities. Priority means first. It comes from the word prior, which means to go before. Only one thing can be first. To say we have priorities categorically means we have no priority. This is why Martha is, quote, worried and upset about many things. Martha has priorities. Mary has a priority. So how do we change our relationship with the many things always swirling around and about us? We must change our relationship with the one necessary thing, our proximity to Jesus. Why are we worried and upset about many things? It's an important question we will save for tomorrow. Today we must focus on the one thing, the priority. Hear Jesus out on the priority, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Did you see what Jesus Just did there. He gave us the priority. He gave us a first only. There is no second. And then in the span of 11 words, quote, and all these things will be added to you as well. He changed our relationship to all these things. Remember where you are. You are still sitting at the feet of Jesus. Ponder this offer. Jesus is making this exchange of the many things for the only necessary thing. It's real. Let's pray. Our Father, thank you for your Son Jesus and Lord Jesus. We have many priorities. We want one priority. You are the priority. Something tells us you will take care of the many things if we can just choose you. This is our consecration. Praying in Jesus name. Amen. The journal prompts. What do you make of this notion of the absurdity of multiple priorities? Do you see it? And how might Jesus become the priority even in the midst of the many things? You ready to wrestle today? That's challenging stuff. I mean, I cannot tell you how many times I still say, you know, even working in seedbed, I'll say, you know, our priorities are. And I catch myself and, and, and the, in the real issue. The reason that I say that, there's a couple of reasons, but the main reason is probably because I don't know what our priority is. Let's just, let's just be honest. And it's easier to have multiple priorities. But it's so, it's, it's, it's a farce because only one thing can be first. And of course, even the way I'm talking about this, it's, it's a miss. Because what Jesus is saying is like, I'm not asking you to pick up all the many things and rank them in order. Order of importance. That's, that's kind of the way I was going right there in that conversation. I just was saying that. No, he's saying, just put all these things in one box. Now you can rank the importance of those things, but none of them are your priority. Okay, he's saying you have one priority. If you're in my. On my team, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And I'll take care of that whole box of things. You know, I'll help you sort it out, I'll help you organize it, I'll help you order it in terms of what's level of importance and urgency. But the way we're going to do it is by me becoming the priority in everything. It's like, it's like putting on a different set of glasses and everything you see, you're seeing through the priority of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I won't get into this too deep, but like a lot of times, people say, well, here's my priorities. God first, family second, work third. I'm like, that is ridonkulous. That makes no sense. It has a certain sense of wisdom to it. No, what God wants is for you to seek first his kingdom in your family and seek first his kingdom in your work and seek first his kingdom in everything that you're doing. Some of those things have more weight than others, but his kingdom is first in all of it. And what is his kingdom? You say, in his righteousness? Well, I'd love to go back now and just go back through the gospel series with us and. Because that's what Jesus is doing. Everywhere he's going, he's seeking heaven. The resources, the power, the love, the glory, the grace of heaven to break through, through his life into the world. On earth as it is in heaven. That's the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Seek that. And he brings it himself, which says, seek him. All right, I gotta cut off. We got dad coming in to sing this week. We got several days together and looking forward to that. So here we go. Go. All right, guys, guess who's back. Say hi, dad.

[A]

Hi. Now I'm here.

[B]

He's back. We missed him for a couple of days, but it's Taco Tuesday and we're pulling out all the toppings we have got. David Walt is going to help us sing today. We're going to sing. Tell them what we're singing today.

[A]

We're going to start out with Seek ye First.

[B]

What's our number?

[A]

The number is 341 in this, our Great Redeemer's praise book.

[B]

Yes. So it's number 341. Seek ye first. And we're going to sing. When we sing it, we'll sing first verse, second verse, and we'll close out again with the first verse. Comes right out of our text for the day. Matthew 6:33, I believe it is. Which says first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And what else? All these things will come, Will come to you. It will be yours, will be added to you. And you know, dad, it's. We all know that it's very easy to seek all these things and not seek first. The kingdom of God.

[A]

Right? Yeah. We tend to put the kingdom of God last.

[B]

I know.

[A]

Instead of first.

[B]

And the thing about that is the kingdom of God is not over. Here it is actually in the midst of all these things.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And so if we'll seek first the kingdom of God and our family. Bring our family to a new place or on the farm. You tried to seek first the kingdom and farming, didn't you?

[A]

I did. I did not plant a crop without asking God to help us. And all during the planting season, I'd go out there and dig around and I'd say, okay, God, here they are. And then they'd come up because we'd ask him to help us.

[B]

And then, you know, you'd be praying. I remember every night, dad, when you come in and we'd say our prayers. We would pray for our family and then we would pray. You would always say for the people on the place. On the place that was the farm.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

And of course so many of them lived out there.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And they were like our family.

[A]

Exactly. They were so em.

[B]

Every day they were just like worked with them.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Extended family. Yeah. And we would pray for them and if any of them were in trouble, we'd name them by name. We still go see them, don't we?

[A]

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know where they all are now. I don't know where Hot is. If Hot lived or not. He probably is not living.

[B]

Yeah, Hot passed on Mobile.

[A]

Mobile.

[B]

And then Leon.

[A]

Leon. We still got Dwayne Wayne still with us.

[B]

But Frog.

[A]

Frog's probably gone.

[B]

Early Joe.

[A]

Early Joe's probably gone. Boots.

[B]

Boots.

[A]

He's probably gone. In fact, seems like I talked to somebody out there and they said they've died.

[B]

Yeah, we had good men.

[A]

Oh, they were good as gold. They would have been. Just do. But you know, we never did ask them anything we wouldn't do.

[B]

Exactly. And you know they would. They would do anything for us because we would do anything for them.

[A]

That's exactly right.

[B]

That Seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And we had. You know what? We never really got rich, but we made it fine.

[A]

And they did too.

[B]

And they did too. That's exactly right. That's a great lesson today. And so how about. Let's sing. We're going to sing one, two and then we'll sing one again. Let me see if I can pitch us three. 41.

[C]

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things will be added unto you. Hallelujah. Ask and it shall be given unto you. Speak and ye shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you. Allelu. See, there's the kingdom of God. And live righteousness and all these things shall be given unto you.

[B]

That's a good one. That's just singing the straight word of God and you can't really beat that. When the word of God comes into a song, you got a winner. Well, that's what we're going to keep doing and every single day is another opportunity to do just that.

[A]

Amen.

[B]

And that's what we mean by sowing. We're sowing for awakening. And that's the thing.

[A]

Sowing for a great awakening.

[B]

Great awakening. And the thing about that is when you seek first the kingdom of God people are.

[A]

They see it, they'll follow you.

[B]

They wake up because you have awakened. That's what we're doing in this world. So we're gonna get our seeds and we're gonna hit the fields today for The Awakening. I'm J.D. walt.

[A]

And I'm David Walt.

[B]

And we'll see you where in the field on.