The title of today’s message is ‘Placing the Lord First in Every Area of our Lives’.  So this is first Sunday of the New Year, we want to offer to God our first fruits as it were in every area of our lives. We are going to offer our God first fruits in our priorities, amen? We’re going to offer our God first fruits to our giving, amen? We’re going to offer God first fruits in our commitment in our lives and also through prayer.

See, what happens is, I want to go to the Word with you this morning. How the Lord when he spoke to the children of Israel, go into their new land. How he told them how to prosper and succeed in the land through the giving of their first fruits and what I mean by that is—the first of everything that come to your life, give it to God.

Put God first and when you do this God will prosper you, protect you, watch out over you, remove sickness from your life, stop your enemies from prospering against you. Every area God offers is protection and what I’ve noticed through this scripture, it comes to giving him first fruits, amen?  And I’ll show through the scripture we’ll apply this. I know this is first Sunday, but some of these things you only need to do today, next Sunday and everyday throughout the year and this will give you the breakthrough, amen?

Now turn with me to Proverbs 3. We read this here all the time, but we need to set the background, amen? Praise the Lord. Now, look what it says here in Proverbs 3:5 it says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.” I mean, we got to trust God when we can see what’s going to see especially when we don’t.  Hey, we’re not able to see what’s going on. We have to trust God. You don’t know what’s going to happen to you later on today. You don’t know what’s going to happen to you next month or six months from now. But I tell you one thing, you’re going to have trust God, make sure that’s going to work out.

I don’t know what’s going to happen ten minutes from now or an hour from now or later on this day, but my faith and trust in God that He’s going to take care of me. See, people took a plan everything out in their life. There are some things that happen from day to day that you’re so unaware of. A lot of people didn’t even make it to this Sunday and they were alive just last week. They were planning on being here, but stuff happens. You have to walk by faith church. And walking by faith means you’re going to trust God. You’re going to trust God for your employment. You’re going to trust God for food on your table. You’re going to trust God for your health. You’re going to trust God for everything.

The person that thinks they are self-made is the man or woman that is deceived. It says “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him…” Now we get in to do this, our first fruits. Well, you give them the first of what you have. You say, “Lord, I’m acknowledging you. First of all, I’m acknowledging your sovereignty over my life. Lord, I’m acknowledging that you are worthy to receive first.  See what happens is when we acknowledge God, we honor him.  And God is worthy to be honored. It is a good thing to honor the Lord, amen?

And we had just communion this morning. God did all give us the best that He had.  He sent Jesus down here to die for our sins.  You know that we should be paying that price?  He did that and he did that when weren’t even thinking following His ways when we want to know Him when we are doing our own thing. So, “in all thy ways, acknowledge him.”  Acknowledge Him through given that first fruits and look at the benefit in acknowledging God, “and He shall direct thy path.”

Now here we go, were going to a journey in 2011 and we don’t know how 20111 is going to play out. But I do know one thing by putting God first, acknowledging His ways. He is going to make a path for me and see,