First Things First

Happy New Year! Listen, this first Sunday of the year is one of my favorite Sundays of the year to be honest with you. Why? Because something about it always feels New. Maybe it’s just me but I really think for lot of us, the beginning of a new year is a good time for us to look back and reflect but also to look forward to what is ahead for us. How many of us want to look forward with excitement and renewed purpose? I do!

We are going to be taking communion together at the end of service today as well.

This first Sunday of the year it’s fitting to talk about a new season. It’s fitting because even as a church as we step into this new season and roles shifting around with Pastor Michael and I. This is a new season for us as a church family.

Over the next few months we will talk about some of these new things that I believe God is leading us into but one thing I want to communicate to us today on this first Sunday in 2026 is this....we need to keep the first things first.

Why is important for us to keep the first things first?

Well, as we have all experience on a daily basis, all kinds of things are competing for our attention, our focus, our energy, and our priority. Right? And we only have so much time and energy every day to spend it on.

We’d like to think that we have limitless time, energy, and strength to do everything we want to...but we don’t.

Did you know Psalm 90 was written by Moses? In Moses psalm he is really comparing God’s eternal nature to mankind frailty. It’s the oldest PSalm we have and in Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

James reminds us in James 4:14 “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

King David knew time life was short and time here on earth is finite...

Psalm 39:4–5 ““Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.”

Now, I’m reading these scriptures to help us to be sober minded and realize that if everyday is a blessing, then what we choose to fill it with matters....

God instructs us in scripture to have a system of importance and structure. God knew that our lives here are earth are short compared to eternity so He counsels us to order our lives by putting first things first.

Let’s look at some the things that God says should be priotirtes for us as we start off this new year....

Matthew 22:36–39 ““Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

So Jesus Himself desctbes and order 1st and 2nd that we should follow as we start this new year...

1st - Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind.

2nd - Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

See, Jesus is instructing us on how to focus on making first things first. Jesus masterfully pointed back to Deuteonomy 6....This Pharisee tested Jesus in asking him what was the greatest commandment in the Law. There were a lot of different things to choose from...maybe they would think Jesus was going to say, thou shall not kill, maybe he would say honor your mother and father, maybe they thought he would say something about tithes and offerings, or working on the Shabbat....who knows what they thought his answer would be.

But Jesus’ perfectly answered. Love God first then love people as yourself.

Jesus gave us a great key for success for setting up our priority structure for this year and every year...Love the Lord with everything and then love others as yourself.

Amazing! Simple, but amazing.

Here, God is offering us a key that will unlock blessings and favor and all of the good things that come from His will.

For a lot of us, our lives feel like they are bound us behind closed doors. Many people feel like they don’t know how to prioritize. Our lives and days end up getting full with all kinds of other stuff, maybe we get caught up in just trying to make it through and survive, maybe we prioritize selfish things above loving God and loving others.....maybe we get bound up and consumed by fear and worry.

Jesus again has great counsel for us in getting caught up in worry....Here he is teaching the greatest sermon ever preached at the sermon on the mount and he says this as he’s talking to people about money and where are true treasure is...

Matthew 6:25–34 ““Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Seek first the Kingdom of God

Here it is…seek first the kingdom of God

This is something that I believe that the Lord is prophetically telling us for our church and for our lives....SEEK First

See Jesus wasn’t confused in what should receive most importance for us...This seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness expresses the same thing as saying the greatest commandment love the lord your God with all of your heart soul and strength .....

Seeking and Loving

Think about it....love the lord your God with everything....seek him first....

Seek is an action. It’s a verb. It means passionately pursue. Go after. Hide and seek. Chasing after. Diligently looking for. Actively pursuing. Active.

Seeking means going after something....chasing it, pursuing it, desiring it passionately...

Matthew 7:7–8 ““Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Look at the connection there between seeking and the heart from the greatest commandment...

Proverbs 8:17 “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.”

I’m hearing seeking the Lord loving the Lord is about action and that action is to be at the top of our priority each day this year and every year!

You know, Lots of people want to try to get more active in the new year. Great. Can you guess what month has the most new gym memberships? January…Memerships can increase up to 30% with attendincae going up 40% in January.....Hey that’s great to get our bodies in shape and want to be more healthy....But church....Do we want to get more active pursuing God in the new year first nd foremost? Seek the Lord, pursue Him! First and foremost. Seek his kingdom, his domain his territory and way of life. Seek righteousness of his, how he wants us to live. Seek this first.

We need to be a church of seeking first. A church of all in. A church of pursuing the Lord first and foremost at all times. Loving the Lord and seeking Him and His presence is who we are to be and what we are to do! I really believe as we do, all of the other things will be added to us, the building fund, the money we need to operate our church, the ministries that need to grow, the new things that need to be launched....all of it comes after we put first things first!

This is Jesus’ church, not Simon’s church or michael’s church, or our church, this is His church!. This is his ministry. We are his people. We are to pursue him first

Starting the day seeking him. Seeking him at work. What would that look like? Imagine what it would look like. Imagine what it would look like to seek him first at home. At school. Imagine it. Right now. Now let’s do it. Family.

A warning

When we don’t pursue God first and foremost, we miss the mark! It doesn’t matter how much other stuff we “do” for him if we are not loving and seeking the person of God! Knowing God, seeking and loving Him is First and foremost for us as a church. LEt’s be clear, the other stuff is great and sweet, ministry to the poor and needy, signs and wonders, outreach, discipleship, in-reach, ministry, community impact, social justice, all good things...But they’re not to be first! Doing things for God is not first. Knowing God, loving and seeking Him is first.

Remember the warning to the church in Epehesis in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 2:1–6 ““To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

Paul once commended this church for their love of God and people, In Ephesians 1:15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people,”

But after that first generation of believers past away, their zeal and passion for the Lord fell off. They were doing good things, but they had forsaken the love they had at first!

Ouch.

May it not be so for us! Listen, this is a time to let the Lord come and ask Him to ignite our hearts again for him. For us to dedicate ourselves to Him.

James 4:8 “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Joel 2:12–13 ““Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.”

This is a year to passionately pursue God. To take Him at his word. To surrender to Him. To place him first. To choose Him and love Him and seek Him.

***COMMUNION