New Year, New Priorities
Pastor Miles
1/3/16
1. Honor God with your time.
"Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil."
Ephesians 5:15-16 NIV
Take the time to meet with God, and His people.
A. Take the time to meet with God each day. Make this your priority. We need this for spiritual nourishment.
"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed."
Mark 1:35 NIV
B. Take time to meet with God's people each week.
"On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight."
Acts 20:7 NIV
"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV
Consider participating in a small group.
2. Honor God with your talents.
"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good."
1 Corinthians 12:4-7 NIV
"Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it."
1 Corinthians 12:27 NIV
Put God first by using your gifts and talents to serve others.
Find a way to be involved.
3. Honor God with your treasure.
A. Acknowledge that everything belongs to God.
"David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, "Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all."
1 Chronicles 29:10-11 NIV
Everything comes from God:
"Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all."
1 Chronicles 29:12 NIV
"Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name. "But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you."
1 Chronicles 29:13-16 NIV
B. Bring the "first fruits" of your work to God.
"Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops;"
Proverbs 3:9 NIV
"As soon as the order went out, the Israelites generously gave the firstfruits of their grain, new wine, olive oil and honey and all that the fields produced. They brought a great amount, a tithe of everything. The people of Israel and Judah who lived in the towns of Judah also brought a tithe of their herds and flocks and a tithe of the holy things dedicated to the Lord their God, and they piled them in heaps."
2 Chronicles 31:5-6 NIV
"" 'A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord."
Leviticus 27:30 NIV
""Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How are we robbing you?' "In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it."
Malachi 3:8-10 NIV
""Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God..."
Exodus 34:26 NIV
"Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always."
Deuteronomy 14:22-23 NIV
The "first fruits" belongs to God. Will we entrust it to God?
Will we put God first?
