Beginnings
Part 1 - Reorder
I. Introduction
2011. That is the stuff of science fiction. I can still remember when we peered through the living room blinds at the stroke of midnight watching to see if all the lights in the neighborhood would suddenly go out due to the Y2K bug. A new year. It seems all you hear and read about is people making New Year’s resolutions, turning a new leaf, and the goals they have are setting for this new 365 unit of days.
Although I am not a huge new year’s resolution person, I do think it is an appropriate time to talk about beginnings.
Over the course of the next few weeks I want us to go back to the beginning to see if we can’t learn some needed lessons.
II. Text
Genesis 1:1a – “In the beginning God. . .”
III. Reorder
Before creation God. Before order came to chaos . . . God. Before rhyme or reason . . . God. Prior to sense or sensibility . . . God. In this simple statement . . . “In the beginning God” we catch a glimpse of the right order, the necessary order, the divinely approved order of the universe and, although we tend to forget this truth, the only order for our lives that actually works!
I want to begin this year by issuing you a very serious challenge. What if we got back to this place in life? What would happen if we got the order right again? Before we begin a relationship . . . God. Before we end a relationship … God. Before we quit our present job for the new job . . . God. Before we quit church or slept in rather than going to church . . . God. Before we spent the money . . . God.
I wonder if we would get the order correct if we would see the end of chaos? I didn’t say we wouldn’t face trials. Those are guaranteed. However, too many of us are living in chaos! That isn’t our heritage! We don’t hear peace be still because we are still trying to drive the boat!
I submit to you that if the order in our life was adjusted to make sure that our agenda, our motivation, our dreams, our pursuits all began with God we would see sense, fulfillment, and purpose return to our lives. I tend to believe that God in the beginning was not only the prerequisite for creation, but is also the key ingredient in the recipe for creation in our lives!
God ordered an entire universe! He can be trusted to order your life. If He could handle the complexity of designing the human body, then He can design a plan for your life! If He could pull off the balance of light and dark, then surely He can select a mate for you. If He could structure the planets and stars, then surely is able to order your path, provide for you, and position you correctly! Why is it that we believe He can pull off the impossibilities of creation, but we think, live, and behave as if He can’t handle the impossibilities of our life? Could it be that we sing His eye is on sparrow and I KNOW He watches me…. But fail to actually believe that this truth extends to our life and our situation? We sing further, “Why should I feel discouraged, Why should the shadows come, Why should my heart feel lonely?” And the implied answer is we shouldn’t feel discouraged, shadowed, or lonely, but we do. I think if we would get God back to the beginning of our lives we would be able to remember that He is in control and is able to handle our issues.
So my challenge is simple in concept difficult in reality . . . reorder your entire life this year to put God at the beginning of every area of your life!
There are some challenges to this.
IV. The Challenges to Reorder
a. There is a battle for 1st place in our life.
I know you know this, but I want to put it back in front of you for realization. There is a natural and a supernatural war for your attention and your allegiance. Bad things will try to become first in your life. Good things will dominate God things if we are not careful. It is easy to talk about reordering your life. However, the reality is that to do so enlists you in a full blown, all out, blood and guts war! If you don’t embrace this fact, then you will drop out of this necessary and life-changing fight! This not for the faint of heart or the weekend warrior Christian. This is only for those who are so tired of chaos, confusion, and mediocre existence who are willing to fight back the advance of everything and everyone that would try to usurp God out of the throne of 1st place!
b. To put God at the beginning means that other things have to move towards the end.
Put another way the position/placement that God holds in our life is revealed by the allocation of our time, finances, energy, and attention.
We have become much too comfortable with God as #6 or #26. The only problem with that is that He isn’t comfortable with that position.
And since the order is wrong the benefits and blessings that come from the right order are lost and forfeited!
Who or what sits on the throne of your life? Check yourself. What holds first place? TV, car, house, him, her, them, job? No time for Word, but time for your show. No money to tithe, but new furniture or new clothes are secured without a second thought. No need for relationship in body, but dates and nights out are common place. To sick/tired/distracted for church, but faithful on Monday to get to the desk. Who is your life turned towards? What indicates that God is 1st in your life?
Please don’t take me for a fool. I know folks can fake it. You have met those folks that can quote chapter and verse, that make a show of worship and giving, that never miss a Sunday, but when you dig you discover that God is really not first in their lives. Visible indicators can lie or mislead. However, since what we see is what we can most readily judge, what visible part of your life indicates God’s position in your life? How would your neighbors know God is first if you roll out of bed at the same time that they do on Sunday? How would your co-workers know God is first if your attitude, topics of discussion, and statements about the boss is the same as theirs? How would your bank teller know God is first in your life you spend your money on the same exact things she does?
What needs to go down for God to come up?
c. God doesn’t become 1st by accident!
We have lost the discipline aspect of discipleship! I know of no one that has stumbled into a disciplined walk! You won’t accidently become a radical follower of Christ. You won’t accidently read thru the NT in a year. You won’t accidently attend church more. You won’t accidently fast. You won’t accidently witness to one of your movers. You won’t accidently invite someone to church. You won’t accidently pray more. Quit waiting on an accident and intentionally make a choice to reorder your life!
Matthew 6:33 reveals our disciplined duty and the blessing of order! “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and ALL (there’s that word again) these things will be added to you!”
We love to quote that in our weak attempt to convince ourselves that we are actually seeking His kingdom first. We fail to grab the meaning and implications of the word “seek”. Seek isn’t a passive, I hope to stumble into it by accident, I hope it happens concept. In fact, “Seek” means to “strive after” or to “require or demand”. Stated again for you . . . “The proof of desire is pursuit!” What are you going to pursue this year?
If we are going to begin with God it will be an intentional act. It will be because we force ourselves to make the right choices, right time allocations, right changes! What are you intentionally going to begin with Him?
Good intentions are worthless. Good intentions pile up at our feet. How many of you made a New Year’s resolution? How many have already blown it?
“We judge others by their behavior. We judge ourselves by our intentions.”
Intention speaks to an “I hope to” mentality. I am challenging you to discipline yourself and purposely reorder your life! Will it be easy? If it was everyone would do it. It will be the hardest battle you ever face. However, the benefits are worth the pain. Still for strife. Calm for chaos. Blessing for busted. Destiny for distraction.
Pastor Steven Furtick draws our attention to Colossians 1:15-20 because it screams to us about this reality:
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Jesus is first. He is first in order. He is first in importance, but He is so because He is the center of everything.
That’s what He should be in your life. Consequently, the thing that is at the center of your life is the thing that is ultimately first in your life.
This year, instead of worrying about putting Jesus first in your life, what if you concentrated on making Him the center or origination (beginning) of every area of your life? Not just the top priority in front of every other priority, but the top priority in every priority?
Not Jesus, then my family. But Jesus in my family.
Not Jesus, then my career. But Jesus in my career.
Not Jesus, then my church, but Jesus in my church!
Let’s get the beginning right. Let’s deal with the beginning from the beginning! Stop and consider for one moment what your life would look like on January 1, 2012 if you would take the next 356 days and begin every day, every choice, and every attitude with Him!
