The First Four 1 Things

Today I want to introduce to you the seven areas we each need to be pursuing goals in for 2008. These seven areas of life are spiritual, family, church, job, community, personal and supernatural. I will cover all seven of these in the next couple days, but today I want to focus on the first four. Let these challenge you to forget your baggage from 2007 and focus in 2008 to do 1 Thing. I want to challenge you to focus, to pray over daily, and to do 1 Thing in these seven areas of life.

1. Spiritually. Maybe you’ve really neglected God in 2007. You’ve pulled away from Him, haven’t prayed, haven’t ready your Bible. Then your spiritual 1 Thing should be to reconnect with him. Or maybe you need to go on the Holy Land trip with Jeana and me in March. Maybe you need to establish a daily prayer list of family and friends who need God’s touch in their lives. What’s your spiritual 1 Thing for 2008?

2. Family. Family is one of the most important things we have in this life. It’s easy to run off track if you aren’t focused on 1 Thing for your family. I try to spend one day a totally focused on my family. Sometimes it’s difficult, but if I’m not intentional with this one day a week, my schedule is so crazy that I could end up barely seeing my family. For some of you, the best thing you could do for your family in 2008 is get them back in church instead of being distracted by sports, or personal things, or whatever else is keeping you away.

3. Church. God has called us to be involved in the local church. That means YOU need to be involved in a local church. I don’t care whether that’s one of our two campuses or not; you need to invest yourself in a bible-believing, evangelical church. You could renew your commitment to attend worship services every week. You could get involved in a connection group. Maybe you need to find an area to serve others with your talents. Some of you need to be faithful to give 10% of all that God gives you financially. Whatever it is, identify it and do it!

4. Job. It doesn’t matter whether you work in the church or the marketplace, your job is important to God. He has placed you there to reach others for Christ. What needs to be your 1 Thing for your job in 2008? Have you lost focus and need to consider changing jobs? Maybe you just need to change your attitude. Do you need to be more open about your faith in the workplace? Do you need to be more ethical?

Think about these things over the next few days. Ask God what he wants you to change in 2008 in each of these areas.