I’d like to begin our thinking together with a quote and a question. First the quote: “Life is too precious to waste!” Now the question: How do we prevent wasting our life? It is a great question.

1. Paul writing to the church in Ephesus says – in Ephesians 5:15 –17 “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”

--The text is saying

            Life is too short…too important to waste.
            Be careful how you live.
            Don’t be careless.
            Don’t stumble through it.
            Know what your life is about.
            Know what matters and know what will truly last.

2. And then Paul adds an incredibly wise word of counsel, “make the most of every opportunity. Be wise. Try to understand what God wants you to do.”

--We’re being encouraged to ask the questions that really make a difference when answered. What is life really all about? Is it all about me and should I live my life for the here and now? Is this all there is? And the most important questions of life: Who is God? What is He like? What Does God Want From My Life?

3. You can summarize the Bible’s teaching on this question in just a few short words. He wants your whole life! There is no verse in the Bible – and I have read it all – that says you can follow Christ and live your life – any part of it – any way that you want to. The truth is that the Lord God wants all of you: Not 10%, not 20%, and not 50%, and he wants all of you because He is selfish or possessive. He knows for sure that He is the very best thing that can ever happen to you.

--Mark 12:30 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” What does that leave out that I can withhold and not give wholly to the Lord?

--To choose to give one’s life to God wholeheartedly is definitely a win/win thing to do. The Lord God reveals Himself in the Bible as a loving, merciful, gracious Lord, and so giving someone like that access to our whole being means that we significantly bettered!

We take on the characteristics of those with whom we spend a lot of time. So it is wise to chose good friends. And friendship with God is the best decision any of us can make!

4. C.S. Lewis once said, “The only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important.” If Christ is for real – if faith is for real – then it deserves everything we’ve got. The hard truth is our walk with God by faith is either true, life changing, and should determine the rest of our lives… or it should be chucked out. Following Jesus as our Savior and Lord was never intended to be lived with a “go through the motions mentality.”

--Deuteronomy 10:12 says “And now, O Israel, what does the Lord you God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul.”

--Jeremiah 29:12 –14a “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord.”

5. One of the significant issues confronting Christianity in our culture today is compartmentalizing our lives. We often try to sit on the fence. We often try to follow God in our spare time. Here we have our social life…here’s our career life…our family life…sex life…retirement life….and over here I have my spiritual life. Our spiritual life is not one piece of the pie. Following Jesus as Lord and Savior means that God is at the center of the pie!

--Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

--Jesus is simply saying it is impossible to have two # 1 priorities in life. You and I will have a #1 priority in life and everything else will be by default…priority 2, 3, 4, or 5. There are a lot of things that will seek your attention for first priority in your life –

Money
Work
Sports & Hobbies
Friends
School
Dating/Marriage
Family

6. And God has no problem with any of these things – except when they become First Priority in our lives. This is really getting at the whole issue of what we really and truly cherish in our hearts. What I choose to cherish in my heart will be what I think about and give energy to. Jesus is simply saying that you and I don’t have the capacity or strength to serve two masters. Only one will have the highest priority. So the question is simple: What is going to be first place in your life? What does your life say:

Career is number one?
Saving for retirement is number one?
Raising good children…is that going to be number one?
The maintenance of great health and physical condition is going to be #1?

7. Each of these things is good. God created them. God desires them to be a part of your life. But he doesn’t want them taking first place. Why? Because each of these things can fail us. Everything that takes first place in our life can leave us disappointed – unless it is God.

--This I so true! Even good things disappoint.

I. Putting God First in My Life:

Proverbs 3:5, 6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.”

Mark 12:30 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

1. Where in your life has something taken first place over God? What has first place in your heart? What needs to be relegated to its proper place in your life? Is there any reason that you continue to give to God for putting your wants and desires first?

Is there an area in your life where you are saying, “God, first this and then I will sell out to you?”
Where are you saying, “God, let me have this, reach this, see this happen, accomplish this, meet this person, let me do this and then you will have my heart?”

2. The truth is if you put God first place in your heart – if God was promoted to first in everything – he would and he will take care of the rest. It is his promise. Solomon had it right in Proverbs 3:6 when he said, “In everything you do put God first and He will direct your paths and crown your efforts with success.” Knowing the Lord Jesus personally is the greatest decision any of us can make. He is a wonderful Lord and Leader. Knowing Jesus as my first priority in life invites Him to live with me and to bless what I do with Him. He will do what He has promised to do!

3. That is why Jesus told all of His followers in His marching orders found in Matthew 6:33 “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.” To seek the Lord first in life is to make the choice with certainty and finality that what I can provide for myself is absolutely nothing compared to what my life could look life if the Lord Jesus leads me into paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake.

--Knowing His blessing in life, His anointing on what we do is a powerful picture to the world around us that God really does love and care about people!

II. What Does It Take To Place God First?

1. The question is simply another way of asking… What would it take to become all that God wants me to become? What would it take to develop to my fullest potential? To live life with God in the center – and every part of my life related to Christ in its proper way?

2. The first answer is that it is making the choice to repent of sin and enter into a relationship with Jesus as Savior and Lord in our heart and soul. Putting God first in my life means that I wake up, smell the coffee, and realize all the things I have been trying to do to bring my soul satisfaction are really human and cheap substitutes for the one thing I was created to do: Know God Personally. The essence of the Christian life is the miracle of new birth, that the Lord actually comes to live in each one of us as we invite Him to do so.

3. The second answer is also pretty simple and yet profound. Putting God first in my life means that I make the choice to live in Him and walk through life with an awareness of His presence in me every day! This involves a word we don’t like but is important nonetheless: Engaging in Spiritual Disciplines.

--In I Timothy 4:7 Paul says, “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.”

4. Discipline is making the tough choices now in order to enjoy the benefit tomorrow. We know this. In fact most of us live our lives in a way that respects the value of discipline. Some of us – most of us – are very disciplined in our work or our career. Others of us are disciplined in our time management. Others of us are disciplined in our physical work outs. Some of us – hopefully all of us – are disciplined in paying our bills on time.

--Some of us never miss our favorite TV show.

--All of us are disciplined in our eating – we never miss an opportunity for a big fat juicy burger.

--We are disciplined in the areas where we choose to be.

--What if you and I were as disciplined in having a daily quiet time as we were in never missing a meal?

--What if we were as disciplined in our worship and study of God’s word as we are in getting up and going to work each day?

--What if we were as disciplined in our serving the Lord and of deeply loving one another, as we are about our favorite TV show?

5. A major goal of our What’s It All About?, series of messages is to help you and me develop some spiritual habits: Some spiritual disciplines. In I Timothy, notice what Paul says, “Spend your time and energy in the exercise of keeping spiritually fit. (Living Bible)

He is saying there are things to do that will help keep you fit spiritually. Just like the body needs a regular routine of exercise to stay in optimal shape, so does your spiritual life. Let me suggest two disciplines that could help you:

1.) Discipline of Letting Go!

That means you can’t keep adding to your schedule without letting something go.
Hebrews 12:1 “Let us strip off everything that hinders us, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress.”
“Everything” means a lot of stuff – not just sin – hinders our progress spiritually.
Sin will hinder your progress spiritually…let it go.
But you know what else will hinder your spiritual life – stuff that isn’t wrong but is just not necessary.
In your life – it could be a relationship – it could be an expectation – it could be a sport – it could be an activity – it could be a fear – it could be a desire – it could be a club – it could be an attitude.
The Bible is clear…to grow I will need to say no.
There are times that I have to say no to good things in order to say yes to God’s best for my life.
In the next five weeks we are trying to add some habits to our lives…

A daily devotional reading that will help you understand the higher life God desires for you
A weekly meeting – a small group or a Sunday School class environment – where we can discuss and learn more about the higher life God desires for us in a setting where we can discuss and learn.
Regular attendance at worship to honor the Lord and to be challenged to know Him and His will for our lives

Friends, to make that happen, something will have to give. We all need to decide what to cut from our life to make these next 5 weeks really count for the betterment of our lives. What are you going to let go?

2. Discipline of Putting First Things First

Luke 10:40-42 says… [read passage]

Text says, “Martha was distracted by her many tasks.”

Do you ever feel that way? I do a lot of the time. So I have to make the choice to get up earlier and make time to be with Jesus to sit at His feet in the reading and meditating on the Scriptures I am reading investing time with Him talking things over in prayer!

The key to overcoming that sense of too much to do is to determine what must be done. To focus on the most significant first and then deal with the rest as the time permits.

Wouldn’t it be smart to invest the next 30 of them to figure out what God says about the higher life and how to live the rest of the days we (you and I) have left?

In light of eternity what is the most important activity our “to do” list? The truth is the most important thing on my list, and I didn’t even write down, is to discover what God says about my life!

But that is going to mean that some stuff just doesn’t get done. And that means I must make a choice.

6. Nobody’s holding a gun to my head saying I must do everything. God doesn’t expect me to do everything. He does expect me to do the most important things. And a lot of stuff that I fill my life with are important only because I say they are important. They really aren’t mandatory.

--The truth is that everyone in this room – me included – everyone in this room has the time in the next 5 weeks for intense spiritual development. The question is, do I and do you want to carve out the time to make it happen.

--Psalm 39:4 – 7 “Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.”

--Will you ask God to help you in this venture of putting first things first?

III. What Does God want from me?

This is the first question all over again.

ANSWER: He wants all of you, every part of you.

And it’s going to take discipline and a lot of effort to become the person Christ wants us to be. It costs to be the person Christ wants us to be. It hurts at times. But we do it because of the benefits in this life and in the life to come.

We do it because of the cross. Christ gave his life completely for us and in return he expects all of us.

He died to give us a new beginning.
He died to give us hope.
He died that we could be free from our sin.
He died that we could experience life – as it’s meant to be lived.

He knows you and me better than we know ourselves. And in the depth of his love and care for us he has a design for our lives surpasses match anything we ever dream of. He desires us to live with us and walk with us through each and every part of our day. Jesus desires to have every part of our lives to honor him – and that includes our finances.

And He knows that nothing else we commit our lives to will ever bring the kind of fulfillment and joy and peace that he can bring to our lives. And that is why you and I should commit the next 30 days or so to passionately exploring what God says about money and resources through the What’s It All About series.

Conclusion

Commitment Card

WELCOME