Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - A Faith That Puts God Second | Christian-ish | Part 3

Episode Date: January 19, 2025

Between work, family, and everything else, choosing your priorities can be tough. Finding time for God may feel like just another task. But what if faith isn’t about fitting Him in? What if there’s a better way to live? Let’s find out in this message.GET TO KNOW YOU—NEW!You get to hear our voices—now we want to hear yours! Check out this special survey for podcast listeners. It’ll allow us to get to know you better and hear how we can support you. Find the survey at: https://www.life.church/podcastconnectNEXT STEPSHave you made the decision to follow Jesus? You might be wondering what’s next for you. We want to help! Check out these resources to ​​discover what saying yes to Jesus means:  https://www.life.church/yesABOUT THIS MESSAGEWe all have an idea of what it means to be “Christian.” But what does following Jesus really mean? How do we move past the label and truly live like followers of Christ? Let’s talk about it in our new series, Christian-ish.ABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.churchFind locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/appFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@life.churchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/craiggroeschelFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #christianish Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Start with an easy question today. If you are a Christian, if you're a disciple of Jesus online, you can type this in the comment section. If you're a follower of Jesus, what should come first in your life? What should come first? It's an easy question. The answer starts with G and rhymes with bod. If you're a Christian, what should come first in your life? The answer is God should come first in your life, right?

Seek first the kingdom of God. and His righteousness, and that all these things shall be added under you. Jesus said, the most important command is to love the Lord. Your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength. If you're a follower of Jesus, what should come first in your life? The answer is, God should come first in our lives. Sadly, though, many of us claim that God is first in our lives, but our lives don't reflect God being the first priority.

And I'll illustrate this to you and ask you, what are some categories in life? What are some priorities? We know what? God is a priority in your life. What are some other categories in your life that would be something important? Someone shout something out. What else? God and...

Marriage and family. Very good. You've got the card right. Ding, ding, ding. Marriage and family. If you're married, you better prioritize your stuff. spouse, if you have kids, you want to prioritize your kids, you want to value your grandma, your grandpa, your brothers, or sisters. Families should be very important to you. What else would be in

there? I would say your career. You went to college. You borrowed $40 million to get a degree, right? You're paying off your debt. You'll be doing that for the rest of your life. It feels like because why? You want to have a good career. You want to have a good job. You want to have a profitable income. You want to do something that matters. What else do you have in your life? You're going to have your money and your stuff. Stuff costs money. You want to buy some decent stuff. You don't want your stuff to own you, but you want to have a good life, you want to enjoy it. And then I'm going to say, just to keep it simple, your hobbies, right? You want to enjoy some things that you do. Now, what I want you to do for a minute is I want you to imagine your life as a series of chairs. This would be your first

chair, first priority. The most important thing would go in share number one. The second share would be important, but not the top priority. The third share would be the third most important thing. The fourth share would be the fourth most important thing. And in reality, you're going to have 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18 different things like this and 8, 9, 10, 12, 15 different shares. But I didn't want to take up the whole stage or the whole talk setting up the sill. So we're just going to keep it simple. Now, let's go ahead and play along. If we're a follower of Jesus, what should go in chair number one?

And the answer is God. If we're a follower of Jesus, what should go in chair number two? What do you think? Probably your family. And let's just stop there. Because we could go on, but let's just do some real talk. Is this a reflection of most of our lives? probably not

I can't speak for you but a lot of people that I see or even in my own life there's often something else that seems to go in the first chair one of the most common things that I see that goes in the first chair would be what

your job, your career just takes up a lot of time and then hopefully you get home and you have some leftover for your family and you treat your family well and you yell at kids and you you have a decent marriage, hopefully so. And then after that, I'm going to say that for a lot of us,

you've got to pay the bills and you want to work hard, you know, you've got to have a nice life, and you've got to have money and stuff in order to enjoy your hobbies, and you don't want to miss whatever your hobbies is. CrossFit, video games, water coloring, competitive speed knitting, whatever it is. You want to have your hobbies. And then, God, I'll just put God there.

Because in many of our lives, what happens is we say that God is first, but our actions say something very different. The title of today's message is a faith that puts God second. Let's all pray. Father, we acknowledge that you are the king of all, you are the supreme Lord, and your loving heavenly father. and God, according to your word, we are to put you first. And God, I acknowledge that I don't always do that. So today we ask that by the power of your living word and the convicting grace of your Holy Spirit,

would you draw our hearts to you that we could put you first in all that we do? We pray this in the name of Jesus. and if you agree, say amen, amen. We are in the message series called Christian-ish. If you missed maybe the last couple of weeks, you say, what in the world does it mean to be Christian-ish? Well, Christian-ish would be somebody, there's a lot of people like this, I've been like this,

that might have a half-hearted faith, and it's someone that would wear the label Christian. Of course, I'm a Christian, but they don't fully follow Jesus. And one of the most common qualities of someone that is Christian-ish is someone that has what I call a faith that puts God second. How would we define that? Our working definition would be this. A faith that puts God second reflects a divided heart where God is first in your words, but not in your life.

It's a faith that puts God second. Like we say, yeah, I truly want to honor God. I want to live for God. I want to please God. And what I do. Jesus gave his life for me. I want him to be the Lord of my life. And so I'm going to put him first and I'm going to love him. But then life starts happening and distractions start taking over. And we claim that God should be first in our life. But God actually often gets left out. A faith that puts God second. The Bible says any time that we put something ahead of God, do you know what it's called? that's actually called idolatry. Someone said, hey, Pastor Craig,

why are we hitting it so hard New Year? Why aren't you preaching this is the year of breakthrough? New Year, new you. And you're doing idolatry? Why? Because I believe the Holy Spirit wants to say something to us. Convict us, transform us. So what I want to do is I want to show you two Bible verses on idolatry.

The first one is the very first command of the Ten Commandments. If God's going to give you the first of ten commandments, one that comes first, all of them are important, but one comes first. This one comes first. In Exodus 23, God says, you shall have no other gods before me. You shouldn't have any idols. There should be nothing in our lives that we rank as a higher priority than the Lord our God. That's the Old Testament. We see it in the New Testament as well. John said this. He said, dear children, what should you keep yourselves free from? You should keep your lives. lies free from idols. Now, if you're like me when you think of idols, what do you think of? I tend to think of someone bowing down to a golden statue. It's an idol, it's a golden calf or something like that. And that would be an idol, but an idol, according to God's word, is actually much different from that. I would say to you this, idolatry isn't just bowing to golden statues, is putting anything before God. It's anything, even a good thing, that we put before God.

And when we take a step back and we look at this, okay, if God is who he says he is, he is the creator, the sustainer, the Lord of all, the king of all kings, if he is that, then he has the right to ask us to put him first. But practically speaking, let's just be real. like practically speaking that's a big ask because we all have priorities right we all have dreams we we have interests we have a lot going on in our lives we got a lot to do why is god being so

demanding why does god want to be first well i can give you a hundred reasons we're going to focus on one of those reasons today besides the fact that he is worthy of it one of the things we need to understand is that god wants to be first in our lives because god is a jealous God. God is a jealous God. I'm going to ask you for your honesty. I'm going to get a drink because I need to, I need some, I need some, because it could get hot in here. How many of you would be honest enough to say, and you may not feel this way, but how many of you when you hear that God is a jealous God, that metaphor doesn't sit well with you? Anybody say, I don't really like God as a jealous guy? I don't really, I don't really, I don't really don't like that. Like, is it got God is petty like that?

somebody goes like, hey, I had a jealous X and that didn't go well. I'm not bringing God into this conversation. I'm sitting out of it, right? And no way. I don't really love that idea of God being a jealous God. But when we look at scripture, scripture is really, really clear that God is a jealous God. Let's look at three verses. We're going to start in Exodus. Exodus 34, verse 14 tells us, do not worship any other God. For the Lord, what is his name? whose name whose name is jealous is a what? He is a jealous God. Let's look again at Exodus 20.

In verse 5 says, You shall not bow down to idols or worship them. Why? Because the Lord your God, he says, I am a jealous God. The next verse says this, Deuteronomy 424. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire.

Everybody say it with me. You could type it online. What is God? God is a jealous God. Now, if it comes across to you kind of like negative, like why would God be jealous? I mean, that's some kind of petty human emotion. Makes God sound insecure.

If you have that reaction, so did I. We step back and we recognize, who is God? God is infinite in power. God is perfect in holiness. God is sovereign over all creation. Why would a God like that be jealous. Well, when Scripture describes God as a jealous God,

it's important to understand that metaphor in a biblical and a relational context. I'll show you something powerful from the original language. The word that's translated as jealous in the Old Testament is the word cana. Kna. It's a very interesting word. If you look at this word, Kana,

the root word actually only has one end. That one has two. The root word cana with one end describes human jealousy. But when there's a second in or noon, that's Hebrew, if you want to impress your friends, say, it's got a second noon, that's a second in. And when it has a second in, this word becomes a word that is only ever used for God. The second end is what's known as an intensifier in Hebrew grammar. The second end intensifies jealousy to the infinite degree.

There is no jealousy in the world greater than when Kana has a second end. The second end says it's reserved for God and God alone. It's not human jealousy, which is flawed and self-serving, like my jealousy or like yours. No, God's jealousy is rooted in his covenantal love for us. In fact, the word Kana, with two ends, it describes God's righteous, consuming, covenant-keeping jealousy that relentlessly pursues and protects his relationship with people. It's a righteous, holy, consuming jealousy from a God who gave it all for you and want you to give it all back to him. It's his covenantal jealousy.

In fact, in the New Testament, God describes his jealousy this way. He says, I am jealous for you, not with a petty jealousy, not with a human jealousy, but with what? With a godly jealousy. It's a different kind of jealousy that is holy and righteous. It's pure. It's passionate and is protective. Why? Because God loves you.

and God wants what's best for you. And any time you put something, anything before him, it hurts you. David said this. He said, those who run after other gods, those who chase after idols, those who don't put God first, those who run after other gods,

will suffer more and more. Can we slow it down for a minute? If you're struggling, you're hurting, you're dissatisfied, there's something in you that you know it's not the way it should be. If you're hurting, maybe it's because you're putting something before God in your life and that idolatry is taking a toll on your life. Maybe you find yourself you've got constant tension all the time. You always feel overwhelmed. You're anxious. Maybe you battle with depression. It might be that you feel disconnected from God. You'd like try to talk to him, but you don't sense him. Or maybe you feel disconnected from people. You don't have anybody that you really trust in your life, anyone that you can open up

and bear your soul and don't know if they're really going to be there for you or love you or accept you. Maybe you spend more money than you make trying to fill some void on the inside. Or you drink too much, smoke too much, get high trying to numb the pain. Maybe you get angry and you lose your temper. Or you feel bored and empty so you look at porn. And you think that, whatever that is, you think that's your problem. I would suggest that whatever that is is not likely your problem. That is likely a symptom.

of your problem. And the real problem is very likely idolatry. It's that we're putting something in God's place. You may say, okay, Craig, I was with you the last two. You get in my business. You're ticking me off this time. And you might push back. I get it. You might say, hey, I'm not getting high. I'm not looking at porn. I'm not battling with idolatry. I'm just enjoying my thing. Don't mess with my thing. This is my thing. It's not bad, this is my thing. You might say golf's my thing. God created golf courses.

Don't mess with God created. This is my thing. Or you might say, no, my house is my thing. Love my family. I want to have a good house. I want everything to match. I want to be a good host. I mean, you know, what's wrong with my house being my thing?

You might say, my image is my thing. I want to look good. I want to be fly. while I walk in the room, I want people to say, I want it to match, I want to look good, I want to take care of my skin. I want everybody to say, hey, yeah, she looks good. It might be your kids.

My kids are amazing. Have I told you about my kids? Your thing might be your kids. Your whole life is your kids. What's wrong with that? You might say, hey, of course I want a boyfriend or girlfriend. I mean, of course. I mean, like, what's wrong with that?

Or, hey, so I'm into fitness. It's like, this is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I should honor God with my fitness. It's just my thing. Don't mess with my thing. It's not, it isn't a bad thing. It's a good thing. And I want to say, you might be absolutely right.

Very possibly. Your thing, whatever that is, may not be a bad thing unless you're putting it before God. Unless you're putting it before God. And even good things become idols. when they take God's place in your heart. Even if it's a good thing, it becomes a bad thing. It becomes more important in your life than God is in your life. So if you're like me, you're going to raise a question like,

so how do I know if my thing, my interest is like an appropriate passion? Or is it something that's becoming an idol? For example, you might really want to be good at your career. You're trying to succeed professionally. And you're saying, that's a good thing, right? Or am I, like, obsessed with it? And it's become my identity. You might say, I love my hobby.

Like, I'm really good at video games. And besides, you can actually make money doing that today if you're really, really good at it, right? Or you're into fantasy sports and, like, that's your release, or you're just trying to grow your YouTube channel, whatever it is. You're not going, it's okay, right? I mean, it is, isn't it? Or do I love it too much?

Like, I love my kids. And sure, I've designed my whole life around them. I think I'm still married, but I haven't seen my spouse in nine months because I'm pouring my life into my kids. That's okay, right? They're my kids. I'm supposed to do that, right? How do I know if my thing is an appropriate interest, an appropriate passion? Is it healthy?

is it harmless or is it idolatrous and dangerous? What I want to do is I want to give the Holy Spirit just a chance to speak to you and we're going to wrestle with three very, very important questions. You may write them down. You can even take a photo letter if you want. And we're going to talk about these in our life group. If we're not in a life group, we're going to be in a life group because we need community around us. But we're going to let God work on us through these questions.

If you're ready, say I'm ready. Are you ready? Question number one is this. We're going to ask, does this, my thing, whatever it is, does this lead me closer to God or distract me from God? This interest, my hobby, my passion, my thing. Is it something that is complimentary and blesses my relationship with God and helps me enjoy and appreciate him and make a difference in other people's lives? Or is it so strong that is actually taking me away from the heart of God and destroy. extracting me from putting him first. Second question, do I rely on this thing, whatever it is, more than God, for my comfort, my identity, or my worth when I am hurting or alone? Do I go to this thing as my soul source of comfort? Or do I go to God who is my comforter? Do I need

this thing to have meaning in life? Or is God the one who gives me, Meaning. Third question would be this. If God asked me to give this up, my thing, whatever this is, would I give it up without hesitation? If God asked me to stop, would I say, well, of course, God, if you're asking me to stop, beyond a shadow doubt, I would do that because I love you and I trust you. Or would you say, not that God, no, don't make me do that. Let's look at them again and just ask yourself and let the Holy Spirit speak to you. Does this lead me closer to God? or distract me from God? Do I rely on this more than God for my comfort, my identity, or my worth? If God asked me to give this up, would I give it up without hesitation? And now I'm going to ask

you, is God trying to show you something? Is God nudging you? The point at which you kind of get mad at me might be an indication of where God is reaching out to you. And I'll go first. first, 29 years into leading this church, I still battle with the idolatry of wanting to be liked. Wish I didn't. Wish I didn't care at all. I wish I put God's opinion above everything else. But to this day, there's a part of me that still wants to be light and even respected, liked and respected. And maybe even loved, if you're in the mood to love me, like me. respect me. And the problem is, like, a lot of people don't. I mean, even some of you, it's kind of crazy. Some people go like, yeah, I go to a light trip, I don't want to like Craig. I go, really?

Well, I don't get it, but it's the thing. And what I have to understand very sincerely is that people pleasing is idolatry. That's a form of idolatry. And so what I have to do is I have to take that before God and say, okay, I occasionally am trying to get my comfort or my mother. meaning from what people think instead of from what you think. And so I tell myself over and over again, okay, Craig, you cannot please everyone, but you can please God. You can't please everyone, but you can't please God. I'm not called to please everyone, but I'm called to please God. I can't please everyone, but I can please God. I'm not called to please everyone. I am called to please God. And that's a bit of the idolatry that I have to crucify over and over in my life.

So I went first. What about you? Like, what's God trying to show you? And I just beg you. I mean, my heart's like, I just want to like, just, I want a church to get it. If there's something more important than God in your life, acknowledge it. What have you been putting in the wrong Is there something in the wrong chair? And if God is revealing something to you, listen to him. Lean into it. Pay attention. Let him convict you with a righteous conviction so you'll repent before him and put him first.

And if you find yourself fighting back, oh, shouldn't have come to church this weekend. I don't like this measure. If you find yourself defending your thing. No, you don't understand, Craig. Stay away from that thing. If you find yourself defending or rationalize it, Remember, what you resist the hardest often reveals what controls you the most.

Wherever you're pushing back, if you're pushing back, say, no, not that thing. That may be the very thing that's in the place where God should be. So, when you know you're putting something ahead of God, don't just fight the symptoms. Attack the root. The root is idolatry. call it what it is. Then, if you recognize you're putting something ahead of God, what do you do? You don't just remove it, you replace it.

You don't just take it away, but you put God first. Now, why haven't you done this? Why haven't you? why haven't I, why aren't we always putting God first? And the reason is we don't really want to. Because we all pursue what we want most. Don't we? We prioritize our time around what's most important to us.

I mean, this is what I want to. This is what I do. And we try to get whatever it is that we want. And the reason why God isn't first is because we don't want God that much. I think it's been this quiet maybe like 10 years ago, but it's been a long time. Why is it that deep down so many of us don't really want God?

The reason that we don't really want God is because we don't know how good God really is. Only way to know how good he is is to put him first. the only way to know how good he is is to taste and see that the Lord is good to seek first

his kingdom and his righteousness above anything else above your hobbies, your wants, your desires, your preferences to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then everything else will be added unto you.

You delight yourself in the Lord. You delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Not just as he gives you what you want, but he gives you his desires in your heart, so you want what he wants when you put him first. Why don't? So many of us want God because we don't know how good he really is.

And the only way to know how good he really is is to put God in the first chair, first chair priority of your life. So if there's something distracting you from him, replace whatever that is with more of him because I promise you he loves you he cares about you and God is not trying to take something from you he's trying to give you something indescribably better he's trying to give you himself he's the supreme Lord who still calls you friend and he's not calling us to be Christian

sort of kind of, well, yeah, I mean, I go to church every now and then, yeah, I kind of believe in God. Yeah, I mean, you know, yeah, I'm not. I mean, I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I'm kind of Christian. I mean, you know, I mean, yeah, I kind of have faith and all. I want to go to heaven when I die. No, no, no, no, no, no. Seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. We're not going to love him halfway. We're not going to put him on the ground when there's not room for him. God is a jealous God. with a righteous, covenantal jealousy that's protective of you, a jealousy that says,

love me with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. So the question is really, really simple. Are you ready? Like, are you ready? Are you willing? Are you ready? If you ask you to give it up, would you give it up? Whatever it is.

Are you ready to put God in the first chair of your life? It's time to stop treating the symptom. The time to attack the root. And the root is idolatry. It's anything we put before God. And we don't just remove the idol. We replace it with God. And the only way to know how good God is to put Him first.

So God, I'm going first. Forgive me, forgive me for all the ways that I put the cares of this world ahead of you and your kingdom. God, forgive me, God. Forgive me, God. Forgive me, God. Forgive me, God. Forgive me, God, for not putting you first. And God, draw us close to you now. Today, as you're praying, nobody looking around.

Those of you online at our churches, I'm just going to keep it real, real simple. Those of you who are a Christian, you've been changed by Jesus. You've been born anew. You've been baptized. You're a follower of Jesus. You know your name is written in the lambs, book of life, you know you belong to God, but you're not putting him first. Today you want to repent, and you want to put him first. All of our churches, don't think about it, don't rationalize it.

There's something you're putting ahead of God. You know you are his, you are a Christian, but there's something distracting you from him, and today you want to repent. Would you lift your hands high right now? Lift them up. Just lift them up, make it worship online. Type in the comment section. I am repenting. God, forgive me. I want to put you for you, first. If you leave your hands up and you just want to cry out to God, God, God, just forgive us. Forgive us, God. Forgive me. Forgive my failings at this church, God, as a leader, as a pastor, God, forgive us, as your people. Help us be a church that puts you first. God, help our families put you first. As parents, God, help us show our children and generations to come that we put you

first, God, at work. Help us to demonstrate you're the Lord of our lives and put you first. God, help us to live for you above anything else God forgive us anytime every time anywhere we don't put you first and God I just pray for my church family that that whatever it is we're putting before you you'd convict us and you'd show us and we'd crucify that and God we wouldn't just remove it but we would replace it with you God help us to put you first as you keep praying today at all of our churches without looking around, there are some of you, you would recognize you actually have never really put God first in your life. If we sat down and I just ask you like, hey, if you died today, are you certain that your sins have been forgiven, that you belong to God? If you said, you know, I'm actually not certain, I don't really know.

God's not first. Scripture tells us that anyone who puts them first, that anyone who calls them first, that anyone who calls on the name of the Lord would be saved. How are you made right with God? You're actually, the amazing thing is you're not made right with God by your good works or by your religious efforts or by giving money or by helping people. The only way you're made right with God is by stepping away from your sins and receiving the grace and the good news of Jesus. Who is Jesus? The perfect, sinless son of God who shed his blood and died on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins. And God raised him from the dead so that any of you.

And this includes you who calls on his name would be saved. We're saved by grace. We're saved by grace. But then when you're saved, guess what? You want to follow Jesus. You want to put him first. Today at all of our churches, if you recognize he's not first, maybe he's never been first. And you don't know where you stand with God.

Today, we're going to step away from our sins. We're going to step into the grace of Jesus. And when you do, God will hear your prayer. He will forgive your sins. Today, you're not just going to become better. you're going to become new. The old is gone, and you become new. And all of our churches are online. And those who say, yes, I need his salvation. He is not first today. I make him first today. I step away from my sin. And by faith, I give my life to him. That's your prayer. You

say, yes, Jesus, I turn from my sins. I give my life to you. Lift your hands high right now. All over the place and say, yes, that's my prayer. God bless you right here and over here. And over here, right back there and over here. Oh, come on, church. Praise God for you right here. God bless you. Others today say, yes, Jesus, I surrender, be the Lord of my life. Online type in the comment section. I'm surrendering to Jesus. I want to put Jesus first in my life. And in this holy moment, let's pause for just, just a moment and recognize that God is doing miracles. Pray aloud, pray Heavenly Father. I put Jesus first. Jesus save me. Forgive my sins. Make me new. I believe that you died and rose again so I could be forgiven

and so I could know you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit so I could put you first and show your love in all that I do. My life is not my own. I give it all. every bit of it, everything to you. Thank you for new life. You have all of mine. In Jesus' name, I pray. Come on, church, could you give God some praise today? Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

Welcome those born into God's family.