Introduction:
A. Happy New Year! This is the first Sunday of 2025!
1. It is hard to believe we are halfway through the third decade of the 21st Century!
2. For many people the first week in January is the most depressing week of the year and that is the case for a number of reasons.
3. One reason is that the holidays are over, the family and friends have gone home, the Christmas presents have been opened, and now its time to go back to work and school!
4. Another reason, perhaps even more depressing, is that many make new year’s resolutions and then so quickly break them.
5. We tell ourselves, in the new year I’m going to be more active in church and read my Bible more, or I’m going to get my finances in order, or I’m going to eat more healthy and get into better shape.
6. But then December 31st, turns to January 1st, and the rubber meets the road and we find it difficult to follow through with our resolutions.
C. There’s an old Irish New Year’s toast goes like this, “May all your troubles in the coming year be as short as your New Year’s resolutions.”
1. I would really like us to think more positively than that.
2. Certainly, God offers us more hope than that.
3. In 2 Cor. 5:17, Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
4. Paul also wrote, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Phil. 4:13)
5. As we approach this new year, I want us to be praying a prayer of thanksgiving, “Thank you, Lord, for fresh starts.”
6. The new year and each new day gives us fresh beginnings to build and change our lives.
7. Every new year and every new day is an opportunity to get it “righter” than the day before and the year before.
D. So, on this first Sunday of the new year, I want to encourage us to make a commitment to focus more on spiritual things in the coming year.
1. Today, I want us to consider making a resolution and commitment to three spiritual priorities for the new year.
2. I believe that if we focus on these three priorities, then they will help us experience a healthy spiritual life and have a blessed year.
3. Today, I’m going to do what the preachers of old used to do: they would announce what they were going to tell them, then they would tell them, and then they would tell them what they told them.
4. So, let me tell you what the three simple and concise priorities are and then we will explore how to put them into practice in practical ways.
5. Here are the three priorities:
a. First, Live in God’s Love and Grace.
b. Second, Seek First God’s Kingdom.
c. Third, Live a Life of Love.
I. Live in God’s Love and Grace.
A. In my preaching over the years, I have repeatedly tried to help us embrace God’s love for us and live in the grace God has given us.
1. If we aren’t convinced of God’s love and grace towards us, then we struggle to have a relationship with God and feel secure and accepted in that relationship.
2. The truth of the matter is that God loves us and has given us His grace through Jesus.
3. God’s love and grace aren’t something we deserve or earn, but are God’s gifts to us.
B. And how do we know that God loves us? Answer: The Bible tells us that is the case.
1. John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world…”
2. Romans 5:8 – “But God proves his own love us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
3. Romans 8:37-39 – “[nothing]…will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
4. 1 John 4:16 – “And we have come to know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.”
5. I hope these verses help to solidify in all of our hearts and minds that we are loved by God and that God’s love for us doesn’t change or run out.
6. God wants us to know that He not only loves the world in general, but that He loves each of us specifically and individually as a parent personally loves each of their children.
7. God wants us to allow His love for us to embrace us and fill us.
C. Let’s spend a minute talking about living in God’s grace.
1. The Bible is clear about the importance of receiving and abiding in God’s grace.
2. One of my favorite verses about God’s grace is Ephesians 1:7-8 that says: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”
3. God isn’t stingy with His grace – He lavishes it on us – other versions translate that phrase “lavished on us” as “abound to us” or “richly poured out on us.”
4. Picture God’s grace poured out on us like Niagara Falls, rather than an eye dropper.
5. John 1:16 says “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.”
a. Other translations describe it as “grace upon grace.”
6. Another important verse about grace is 1 Peter 1:13 – “Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
7. Our hope and our security is in God’s grace and not in our performance or faithfulness.
a. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be striving towards obedience and faithfulness, but it means that our obedience and faithfulness don’t earn us salvation, only the grace that is in Jesus can do that.
8. God wants us to live in God’s grace and be motivated by God’s grace.
9. Paul wrote that the grace of God teaches us to say “no” to ungodliness. (Titus 2:11-12)
D. So, this is where I want us to start the new year with the priority of abiding in God’s love and grace.
1. Our relationship with God is one based on His love and grace towards us – it is His offer to us, but we must believe it, receive it and abide in it.
2. I hope that all of us understand the difference that living in God’s love and grace makes, rather than living in fear and feeling that we have to prove ourselves or earn God’s love and grace.
II. Seek First God’s Kingdom.
A. Because of the gift of God’s love and grace, our priority must be to seek first God’s kingdom.
1. This is something that Jesus taught us to do in Matthew 6:33 – “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.”
2. That command and promise of Jesus is couched in Jesus’ teaching about not worrying about tomorrow and the challenges it might bring.
3. The cares and concerns of this life can distract us from the important spiritual things we need to be focused on.
4. God knows that we have basic needs and God has promised to supply those basic needs as we abide in God and seek first His kingdom.
B. I want to challenge us to make God’s kingdom and the spiritual things associated with God’s kingdom our highest priority this year.
1. Let’s not allow earthly things to get in the way of heavenly things.
2. The earthly things I am talking about are not necessarily sinful things, but they can crowd out spiritual things.
3. Working too much, or playing too much, can take us away from spiritual priorities, like worship, prayer, Bible reading, and service.
4. Certainly, there is a place for balance in our lives and times for work, recreation and entertainment, but those things have a way of taking over and crowding out the spiritual.
5. Don’t you think that seeking first God’s kingdom would include a commitment to gather with the church family for worship and Bible study?
6. Don’t you think that seeking first God’s kingdom would include making time for daily Bible reading and prayer to strengthen and focus our souls?
7. Don’t you think that seeking first God’s kingdom would mean that our financial commitments would start with our financial contribution to the Lord?
a. Once we determine what we will faithfully give to the Lord, then we can set the rest of our budget.
C. The writer of Hebrews warned his readers: “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” (Heb. 2:1)
1. If we don’t stay focused on God, God’s kingdom, and God’s Word, it is easy to drift away.
2. One of the lessons from Jesus’ parable of the sower is that the weedy soil can choke out God’s word and make it unfruitful.
3. A life overcrowded by the things of this world will have a negative impact on our spiritual well-being.
4. That’s why in the next chapter of Hebrews the writer admonishes us: “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Heb. 3:11-12)
5. It is so easy to be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness and by Satan’s diversions, and that’s why faithful participation in worship, bible study, prayer and daily devotions are so important.
6. A commitment to seeking first God’s kingdom will help us carry out another command in the book of Hebrews: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Heb. 10:24-25)
7. We need each other and we need to help each other stay focused on seeking first God’s kingdom.
D. So, let’s review before we look at our last priority for the new year.
1. First, let’s make it a priority to live in God’s love and grace.
2. Second, let’s make it a priority to seek first God’s kingdom.
3. And third, and finally…
III. Live a Life of Love.
A. This is such a simple, but important basic spiritual understanding and commitment.
1. Love is the defining goal for everything in our Christian lives.
2. Jesus said that the greatest command is to: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Mt. 22:37)
3. Then Jesus said: “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Mt. 22:39)
4. Jesus said that loving God and loving others is what its all about.
5. Paul summarized it like this: The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Gal. 5:6)
6. And in Ephesians 5:1, Paul wrote; “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love.”
a. Again, we notice that the motivation or reason for living a life of love is the fact that God is love and that we are God’s dearly loved children and we want to be like our God.
B. So, let’s make it our priority to love God and show it by loving others.
1. Loving others means doing unto others what we would want them to do to us. (Mt. 7:12)
a. That means treating others the way we want to be treated.
b. Treating others with the kindness and consideration that we want to be given.
c. To forgive others and give them the benefit of the doubt we want to be given.
2. Let’s start with living this life of love in our homes and in our church family.
3. Then let’s extend God’s love to our friends, neighbors and coworkers.
4. Then finally, let’s live a life of love even to our enemies – whether it be the up and close enemies in our lives, or the passing enemies who cut us off in traffic, or act rudely to us in the grocery store.
5. We are most like God when we live a life of love.
C. And one of the ways we live a life of love is when we serve one another and wash each other’s feet.
1. When we see someone hurting or struggling and we do what we can to encourage or help them, then we are living a life of love.
2. That can be as simple as holding the door for someone whose hands are full or asking if someone is okay when they are looking sad.
3. Love demands that we pay attention to those around us and seek to support and serve them.
4. But when we live a life of love, we realize how much loving and serving others blesses us.
5. Being self-serving is unsatisfying in the end, but being other-serving brings joy and satisfaction.
6. I see this happen over and over again as I watch our moving ministry at work, or our food sense ministry, food pantry and bread ministry, or when we do the MAGI boxes or the Christmas baskets.
7. When we love and bless others, we are blessed in return.
D. And one of the most important ways we show our love for others is when we share the good news of Jesus with them.
1. It is not loving to keep the gospel to ourselves or to know that someone is lost and not try to help them find their way to Jesus.
2. So, as we live a life of love this year, let’s share the good news of Jesus with others.
3. A great goal for this year would be for each one to bring one to the Lord.
4. Who will you try to love into the kingdom of God this year?
5. Be praying for the opportunity to share God’s love and good news with others this year!
Conclusion:
A. So, as we try to get our new year off to a good start, let’s focus on these three priorities.
1. First, Let’s live in God’s love and grace – let’s be secure in God’s love and grace and let it fill us, sustain us and empower us in our relationship with God.
2. Second, Let’s seek first God’s kingdom – let’s put spiritual things ahead of everything else – let’s make worship, Bible study, prayer and daily devotionals a priority.
3. Third, Let’s live a life of love – loving God and loving others – which is a summary of all of God’s commands – let’s show our love by serving others and sharing the good news.
B. Pray…
