A New You in 2016 (Part 4)

Originally Posted on July 29, 2016

To be a new you in 2016 you must stay on course. You stay on course by prayer, tithing, Bible study, and witnessing (soul winning).

(A.) Prayer (1Thess. 5:17 NKJV): “Pray without ceasing.”  WOW! The living God wants to hear from us all the time: at home, on the job, at play, and at church.  God wants to hear from you every day.  We talk to God through the privilege of prayer.  Prayer is your communication to God.  Pray about everything.  Nothing is too big or too small to talk to your God about! God is a God of details.  In Matt.7:7 (NKJV) Jesus states: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”  One of the reasons prayers go unanswered is when the person praying has unconfessed sin in their life.  Psalm 66:18 (NKJV) states: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.”  Confess your sin first to Almighty God, make it right with your fellow man, and then walk on with Jesus.  The strongest Christians I know are people of prayer.  God has raised some great people to do great work in His name, but they had great prayer lives.  They also had great prayer warriors praying for them daily.  Jesus prayed.  He has taught us how to pray with the model prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. Billy Graham states: “Heaven is full of answered prayers for which no one ever bothered to ask.”  Pray without ceasing.  To stay on course in 2016, pray.

(B.) Tithe.  A tithe means a tenth.  Deut.14:22 (NKJV) states: “You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year.” Everything you own is God’s, and all he asks is that you give 10% back to Him.  People cannot understand that this is a commandment of God!  God founded the church to equip the believers for the work of ministry and He funds the work of the church with the tithe.  Malachi 3:10 (NKJV) states: “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.’”  God’s work cannot function on a prayer and a shoestring.  That is why He designed the tithe.  God wants to bless us.  Mal.3:10 tells us that if we tithe, we won’t have enough room to hold all God sends us…Almighty God opens the windows of heaven!  The way we prompt God to do this is by obedience to His commands to give 10% of all He gives to us!  Glory!  People get saved!  People grow in their walk with their Lord!  People in the church are happy!  You reach your community for Christ!  You give to missions!  God blesses and He raises up committed men and women to go into all the world to proclaim the glorious gospel message from your church.  Paul tells us in 2 Cor.9:6-7 (NKJV): “But this I say: ‘He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.’” So let each one give as He purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.”  Remember this: God doesn’t need our money to function, because He owns it all.  The tithe is His plan to fund His work in the world of making disciples of all nations.  When God commands us to tithe, we are to tithe!  He then blesses it and uses it greatly!  Our great God cannot, nor does He bless a people who do not tithe.  Pastor Blevins said: “Do your givin’ while you’re livin’ so you’re knowin’ where it’s goin.”  To stay on course in 2016, tithe.