Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - First Things First, Part 1: First Things First

Episode Date: December 27, 2014

The most important thing doesn’t always get the first priority – but it should. What will it take to stop being distracted by the urgent and start focusing on the meaningful? Today, let’s decide to put First Things First. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody. I just want to tell you that next week, we're starting a brand new four-part message series called Jesus and we. We're going to talk about four different values of the church, and I promise you this will build your faith, inspire you to seek God like never before in 2015. And as we move toward a new year, I just want to invite all of you to consider joining our staff in fasting for 21 days. We're going to deny ourselves something important to us. Many people are taking a full food fast. Others are fasting different things. I'll be doing kind of a Daniel fast where I eat fruits and vegetables for 21 days. And I would love for you to join us as we seek God prayerfully in a fast for 21 days, starting on January the 2nd.

And today, I've got a very good friend who's going to be teaching. He'll tell you more about the fast. He's the campus pastor of the campus where I actually teach. He is a great man of God, has an awesome family, a powerful story. You'll be blessed today as you hear about first things first. Would you join me in welcoming Pastor Chris Beale? I'm so excited that you guys are with us today at literally all of our campuses. Those of you at network churches, we love you guys so much.

And for those of you literally all over the world, worshiping with us at church online, it really means a lot that you've given an hour to be with us today. I pray and believe you had a wonderful Christmas. As Craig said, my name is Chris Beale and I'm the pastor here at the OKC campus. I got to be honest. Filling in Craig Groschell's poll, but who in my opinion is probably one of the best communicators on the planet kind of feels like I'm coming off the bench for Kevin Durant. No pressure, right? Just no pressure. But all joking aside, I've known Craig and Amy for 13 years and I'm not the same person because of his investment in me and my relationship with him.

We are blessed to have amazing leadership at Life Church. Can we show a little honor today for Craig and Amy and all that they are for us? I want to ask you a question. How many of you as you look back at the end of a year, you look back at 2014 and may say to yourself, you know, 2014 is over and I am not sad in the least. see it go and never come back. Anybody would be honest about that several of us? How many of you would say, you know, for me, if I'm honest, 2014 may go down as one of the best years of my entire life. Anybody's having an amazing 2014 hands, a little cheers in the house today. Isn't it interesting?

That in a room full of people, all of whom on some level or another, believe in God, believe in the Bible, are involved in church on some level because you're here today, can have such radically different experiences. I mean, we know those people that it almost seems like every aspect of their life is completely God-breathed. Even when challenges come, it's like nothing shakes them. And then there are those of us that it seems like life is just this ongoing process going from one tragedy to the next drama to the next conflict, and when does it end? And all of us believe in God on some level.

All of us believe in the Bible, yet why is there such a polar difference in what I would consider the Christian experience? I'd like to submit to you today that it really comes down to order. Order is important. Order, honestly, is everything. The way that we prioritize our world and our lives, it creates and impacts the lives that we experience.

Now, any of you who are married know that order is pretty stinking important. Like, for example, let's just talk about something simple, loading the dishwasher, right? Now, okay, I feel you already. So there are those of you that it's your turn to do the dishes. And so you'll grab things out of the sink. and you'll just grab whatever and you'll put them wherever. And so some of you will grab cups and put them on the bottom shelf. Like small cups, people, what goes on the bottom shelf?

Big plates, pots, pans, big things. There's an order to things. The rest of you, they just put stuff wherever they go. I believe that God simply tolerate you, all right? There's an order to things. The grocery shopping, some of us, when we go grocery shopping, I'm not allowed to shop for a whole different set of reasons. But some of us when we go grocery shopping, we have no list, right?

Anybody want to admit, I don't go shopping with a list, anybody at all? Several lists. So what do you do? You walk every aisle, and most of the time, you're hungry. And so the things that you're putting in your cart are not the things that need to be in your pantry. They're the things you want in your stomach. And so it's a really bad approach to shopping. There are others you like my wife, Cindy.

And it's honestly a bit of a sickness. She has, like, the blueprints of the store in her phone. and her list is categorized by the aisles that she's going to walk. So she only goes, it's a sickness. There's an order to things. It's sick. Now, in a marriage, let's talk about sex. Now, I have to tread lightly here.

There is an order matters, right? So most of us know this, that men are microwaves, like ready in an instant, you know. Women are crockpots. It takes a little bit more time to simmer and get there. And so when we talk about first things first, my best advice to you hear, like, what turns the crock pot on, gentlemen? Let's go back to step one. Load the dishwasher properly and load it frequently, and your chances of love and later go up dramatically and all the ladies said. Amen.

Order matters. Order matters. I would say that a life that God blesses. A life empowered by His Spirit is not just about what we offer to God, but the order in which we offer it. Let me say that again. A life that God moves through, a life that God blesses is not so much about the things in our life that say, okay, God, I'm going to give you a part of this area of my life, and I'm going to give you a part of this area of life. But it's that when we come to him and say, God, I'm going to offer you it, but I'm going to offer it.

in an order that pleases you. Here's the truth. God must be first. He cannot not be first. And when God is first in every area of your life, the rest of your life will be filled with order. But if God isn't first in any area of your life, I would argue that your life will be full of disorder. Order matters. Look at what Jesus himself said in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6. These are the words of Christ. He says, but seek what? Seek first. Seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness and then, you see that conditional statement, and then all these things will be added to you as well. Seek God first. Today, we're going to look at four firsts. And with every bit of faith and belief in me, I believe that these truths and really the

spirit behind God being first applied to your life will not just change your 2015. It'll change absolutely the rest of your life. And so if you're taking notes, the first, first that we're going to talk about today is the first of our day. In the first of our day, write this down, we're going to seek God. In the first of the day, we're going to pursue a moment with our creator. Now, we don't want to be legalistic and ritualistic. If you wake up and nature is calling, by all means, go to the bathroom before you open your Bible. That's perfectly fine.

If your breath is nasty, please brush your teeth before you pray to God. If you need to make great coffee, all those things are okay. but nothing significant is going to happen in my day before I spend time with my Savior. In the first of the day, I'm going to seek God. We get this picture in Psalm 63, verse 1. Oh, God, you are my God. When? Say it with me.

Early will I seek you? Time matters. Priority matters. Order matters. matters. Early will I seek you. My soul thirst for you, my flesh longs for you, in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. You know, when we look at the four gospels in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four accounts of the life of Christ, we see all kinds of repeated behaviors in his life. We see Jesus performing miracles all the time. He's preaching hope

to the multitudes all the time. He's healing the sick all the time. But there's one behavior I think we often miss when we're talking about his life. And is that he repeatedly and consistently got away and got alone with the father. Even in moments where people were still sick and needed him to heal them, he still got away to connect with his father. And it's not even just that we know that he got away. we know often when he got away.

Look at this. In the Gospel of Mark chapter 1, Scripture says very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. Before anyone was awake,

before the sun rose in the east, before nature and creation woke up, the son of man needed to connect and be filled and empowered by the presence of his father before he started the day. And if the son of God needed to connect with the father before he started the day, how much more do you, who are not the son of God? How much more do I need that? When you seek him first, it's not that you can't pray on your lunch break or read scripture in the afternoon or before you go to bed. All of that is fine. But there is something special about God getting the first of your day that sets the tone for the rest of the day. It matters and it'll change you.

In the first of the day, I'm going to seek God. Cindy and I made a decision to take this seriously about five years ago. I was sitting on the front row Pastor Craig was teaching a message on this very topic of seeking him first and seeking him together with your spouse and for me I sit through seven messages

every single weekend and so if God wants to convict Chris Beal of sin he has seven opportunities to do so or to encourage me to employ something in my life And I went home that day and I repented to Cindy. I said, you know, I haven't led you. I haven't led us in this area. I don't know why. You know, we're about to celebrate 22 years of marriage next month.

And one of the most challenging things for us to do consistently is to pray together every day. I don't know why it's so hard. Well, maybe it's because we have a spiritual enemy that hates marriages that pray together every day. That's a threat to our spiritual enemy. And I went home and I said, babe, enough is enough. tomorrow we're setting the alarm an hour earlier and we're going to make some great coffee and you're going to read your U-Virgin plan I'm going to read my Bible plan and then there will be nothing that happens in our day until we hold hands and we go to the father together

and barring being out of town for some reason we have not missed a day in five years and it has utterly changed everything about our lives it will change you if you put him first in the first of the day, what are we going to do? We're going to seek God. The first of the week, write this down. If you're taking notes, we are going to worship. And not only are we going to worship church, we are going to worship God together collectively, communally.

Acts 20, verse 7. The Bible says on the first day of the week, we, the church, came together to break bread. Here's a shocking statistic. A survey recently conducted. of American churchgoer says that 48% of everyone that calls themselves a churchgoer in America attends church less than once a month. Once a month. You would say, oh, I'm so thankful Life Church doesn't exist in that statistic. Think again. Most of you have kids, and you have to check your kids into live kids before you come into big church. And so guess what? We know exactly

how frequently you come to church. And guess how often you come to church? 50% of you come once a month. The rest of you, a little bit more often. And then you look at the Book of Acts, at the genesis of the church. And to be honest with you guys, you see something very, very different.

The Bible says that the church devoted themselves to this. the Apostle's teaching, to the breaking of bread, to the fellowship, and to prayer, devoted themselves. It goes on to say that they ate and met together with glad and sincere hearts, and every day, everybody say every day, not once a month, people. Every day, the Bible says, they met together in the temple courts like this, in corporate gatherings of worship.

And then from house to house, not unlike a life group. every day they met together and as a result scripture says the lord added to the number daily those who were being saved why the drastic contrast between i come when i can i'm really super busy once a month is about all i can do and every day what's the difference i don't believe it's because they were more holy than we are i think they were more honest than we are about how desperately they needed each other. I met a lady a year and a half ago, Teresa. She came to our church on the product of someone's invitation.

They were hurting. Their marriage was falling apart. They're struggling with addiction. And all they knew was live church was a good place to come for hurting people. And so they came. And we met them. We got them into counseling. We literally gave of our own time to pour into this couple.

Next thing we know, they're involved. an unbelievable life group. They're serving now four, five times every weekend. Now we're starting to get close to the Acts passage. We're devoted. Every part of my life revolves around this community of faith that I call home. And then somewhere along the way, they had a setback. Things went poorly. They were embarrassed about it. They didn't want to be honest with us about what was really going on in their lives. And so the next thing we know, they disappeared. And it wasn't until a month ago that I saw her walk in our North lobby. It had been a year since I had seen her. And I was the first human being to watch her as she walked through the door. Why I was there, I'm not really sure,

but Teresa walks through the door. And the moment she got into the environment of our church, she broke and wept. And I walked up to her and I put my arm around her, and I said, Teresa, I've missed you. How are you? And I'll never forget what she said. She said, Pastor Chris, I cannot believe I forgot how much I need this place. Church, if I can be honest with you, we need to get better at needing each other. This is not just a value add to your week when you can. Your soul needs what is happening right now, and so does mine. It's not a suggestion. It is a priority. the author of hebrew says it this way let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing but let us encourage one another on the first of the day no one or nothing gets my time until i've had it

with the lord in the first of the week we're going to worship god and worship him together and third write this down if you're taking notes on the first of the month we worship god with the tithe write that down We worship God with our tithe. Pastor Craig, a few weeks ago, taught, in my opinion, the best message I've ever heard on the spirit of worshiping in our gifts and our giving. And if you didn't see it, and by the statistic I just read, none of you did. I'm just totally kidding with you. But if you didn't see it, I want to challenge you later today or this week, go online, lifechurch. dot TV and watch week two of our series come to worship.

Amazing message on giving. But let's look at this, Leviticus. This is awesome. Check it out. So scripture says that a tithe, everybody say a tithe. Of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord. And it is what?

It is holy to the Lord. A tithe, a tent, the first tenth. It's not even just 10%. of your income church, it is the first 10th. Remember what I said. God must be first. He cannot not be first. And when we put him first, the rest of our life is filled with order and provision and blessing.

A tithe, not only is it the Lord's, not only does it belong possessively to God, but he goes the extra mile to say it is holy to God. My 15-year-old, my oldest boy, Noah, just started his first job recently, selling Christian chicken. That's right, Chick-fil-A. He works at Chick-fil-A. And you know how it goes. We are all fully confident that the poultry are all born again at Chick-fil-A

before we eat them. And so he's working at his first job. He's making money. And we're at this restaurant as a family celebrating something. I don't remember what. But we're sitting around a table. And one of the unpardonable like sins in our home is that when we're at the table having dinner together, your phone is not out and your thumbs are not moving, right? I will, I'll lose it.

I will flip out. And so we're sitting there, you know, chips and salsa are happening. And I see Noah pull his phone out and his thumbs start moving. And inside, I'm becoming the Incredible Hulk. Like I feel my blood beginning to boil, but I kind of hold it together and I said, Noah, what the heck you doing? And he said, Dad, I'm sorry. I'm not supposed to have my phone out. But I just got a notification that my first paycheck hit my checking account.

And so I just wanted to text my tithe to the church. What? And this moment of anger became this moment of pride as a father, so much so that I took my phone out and took a picture of him celebrating that he just gave his tithe to God. And then Siddy was mad at me because now I'm a hypocrite because my phone's out as well. But isn't that awesome? Look at it. A 15-year-old, the moment a paycheck hits his checking account without even thinking about it, says,

before I do anything, before I spend anything, the first belongs to God. And I'll just tell you, my boys, when it comes to the tide, we've been teaching them this for years. they almost have this fear awe when it comes to the first tenth. They have this sense, this is holy. This is not mine to spend. And I know for some of you, it may be a stretch to get there. It was for me when I first became a follower of Jesus. But I deeply believe that when we put him first, it'll change your life.

And you may be listening to saying, wait a second. So, Chris, for me, me to give God the first 10% of my income first before I pay any other bill, I would have to utterly rearrange every aspect of my life to do that. Exactly. That's the whole point of all of this. The whole point is that we are choosing to rearrange our whole world so that God is first. You may or may not know this, but in the church world, December is always the largest month for giving. As people look back at a year that God's blessed them and they want to respond by giving something significant above their tithe in the month of December. And for those of you that do that, man, I just want to say thank you.

It matters so much. It enables God's church to help people, to build buildings, to buy land, to create more environments. It matters. But I wonder what it would be like if December wasn't the largest month of giving at Life Church. What if January was? What if before we even knew what our year would look like or how God would provide for us or how God would bless us? We made a choice to say, you know what, regardless of what you do, in the first of my year, not the last of it, I'm going to offer you a gift. to say that I love you. There's actually a family that has done this for years. They attend our

South Tulsa campus. We love all that's happening at South Tulsa under Tommy Dawson's leadership. But this family has impacted so many lives. Here's what they do. This is just unbelievable. They look at the end of the year at what the projected revenue of their company will be for the next year. And before their company even makes a dime, they tithe 100% on projection. Rejected revenue before they've made any revenue. Now, I'm not even saying that all of us could do that or should do that, but what I am saying is that when we have the heart to say, God, you are first before you ever even bless me, God, I worship you. What do you think that does to the heart of God for his kids? I think it inclines his heart to yours.

In the first of our day, we seek him. The first of our week, we worship him together. the first of the month, or whenever you get paid, we're going to offer and worship God with our tithe. And lastly, write this down. In the first of the year, we offer a fast. In the first of our year, we offer God a fast. Now, fasting is sacrificing like nutrition, like denying yourself physical nutrition

for the purpose of pressing in to God's presence. And people fast for all kinds of different reasons. they fast for someone who's sick to be healed. They fast because they have a big decision to make, and I'm going to offer this fast, God, to seek clarity. Others, I just want, I want to feel God's presence more in my life. I want to be more on fire for the things of God than I've ever been before. So I'm going to offer a fast to God.

All throughout scripture, you see fasting. And there's even three times in the Bible that we know of where people fasted for 40 days. Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. fasted for 40 days. Elijah, on the mountain, encountering the Lord, fasted for 40 days. Jesus himself in the desert being tempted, fasted for 40 days. And before I get into the why, I want to give a couple of rules of fasting. So the first rule of fasting is that no one talks about fasting. Okay, that's the first rule of fasting. Now, there's a point to this. Like, for those of us that are young in the faith, you know, we'll go to a restaurant and they'll say, can I take your order? Well, I'm fasting.

And so I guess just bring me whatever vegetables you have. You know, put a smile on your face. Say, I'd like a side salad. They'll say, on the side of what? And you'll say, on the side of my water. And you're smiling about it because you want to be happy about it, right? We don't want to post on Instagram a picture of your lentil soup and how sick to death you are of eating lentils. And I will give you this one bit of advice if you're going to do the Daniel fast with us as a staff, which starts January the 2nd, which is fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lots of beans because we need protein. Here's my one bit of advice. If you're going to do that fast, don't ever trust a fart.

I'm just telling you, don't ever do it. I can't believe I just said that in church. But it's true. That's the way our bodies work. It's just a lot of vegetables and beans. So we want to don't know if I'm going to get you back after the day. that but we want to be joyful when we're fasting. Matthew 6 says, but when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your

father who is unseen. And your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. It's something that we offer to God with joy. And I got to tell you, the last six or seven years that our church has started the first 21 days of our year with a fast, it's changed us. It's changed our church. It's changed what God has been doing through our church. But fasting is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the Bible because if you're new to this whole thing and you say, okay, I'm going to not eat and none of us are going to eat much, how is that going to produce anything but grumpy, hungry people? How does that bless God? Let me explain it with a scripture. Now, Paul in Galatians 5, this scripture has nothing to do with fasting, yet I believe it explains fasting

better than any passage in the Bible. Check this out. So in Galatians 516, Paul said, So I say, walk by the what? Walk by the spirit. And you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. He says, I need you to walk by the Holy Spirit that I've imparted to you so that you will not fulfill the desires of your flesh. He goes on to say, for the flesh desires, it hungers for what is contrary to the spirit. And the spirit desires what is contrary to the flesh. And then he ends this verse by saying, for they are in what? They're in conflict with each other. Some translations say that the spirit and the flesh are at war with each other.

and I'm pretty confident that everyone hearing this verse has experienced that tension between what our flesh wants. What is our flesh? It is what our physical bodies want and is what our sinful nature craves. That's the flesh. The spirit is the Holy Spirit within us. Both of them are hungry. The question is, which will you feed? Think about it.

Why do we fast? We are going to deny our food. fleshly appetite what it wants for the sole purpose of feeding what the Holy Spirit wants. The Bible says we are called to live spirit-led lives. How on earth are you going to be spirit-led if your flesh gets whatever it wants whenever it wants? Don't miss this. Whatever you feed will grow and whatever grows will become dominant. If you feed your flesh anything at once, you will be led in your life entirely by your flesh. But if we deny the flesh and we feed the spirit, what does the spirit long for?

Intimacy with the Father. God's holy word. Worship. A life of obedience and faith. When we feed the spirit, the spirit grows and now we are led and empowered completely and solely by the spirit. is why we fast so that we would be a group of people that don't only just profess a faith in God, but we live a life propelled by Him. It is a life led by God's spirit. Let me close with one clarification, church. I believe that God wants us to have a more faith-filled, God-empowered

year in this coming year than we've ever had in the past. But I think we need to recognize the idea of us putting God first, we don't put God first. God already is first. He has always been first. Before the earth was whispered into existence, God was church. He was there. Before he was there. Before he He said, let us create man in our image to have an object to love and to be loved by. He existed. Before sin even entered into the human experience, God was scheming a plan of redemption. Make no mistake. We don't put God first.

He is, has always been, and will always be first, preeminent supreme in all things. It is the nature of his creation. So what are we saying? It's not that we are putting him first. It's we're recognizing that he's already first, and then we are going to then align every aspect of our lives to the order of creation. And when you do what Jesus did in Matthew 6, I'm going to seek you first.

I'm going to place you first because I recognize you have always been first. The rest of your life will be. be power, peace, clarity, provision, and then God is going to use you to impact other people's lives because that's what happens with a group of people that place God where he already is first. At all our campuses, would you join me in prayer today? Father, we are so grateful for your goodness and for this place and safely explore the claims of courage. Christ and a life of faith. In an attitude of prayer today, God, I ask that you would give us a posture of honesty with

ourselves and with you as to what place we've actually placed you in our lives. At all of our campuses and churches, I want to just ask you an honest question. As I've talked through these different areas of these different first, these different priorities that God longs to be placed in, I wonder how many of you is God speaking to? You know, there's an area of your life in the past where you have not put God first, whether it's in your morning or your finances,

or you haven't prioritized gathering together in the house of God, or even the idea of starting your year with a fast. As you look at 2015, you know with complete clarity, there's an area that you're saying, this year's going to be different. I'm going to have something I've never had because I'm going to do something that I've never done. And in this area, whatever that area is, God, I choose to place you first. If that's you, would you lift your hand as an act of faith before God today? Hands going up all over the place. So thankful, God, for so many people that are hearing your voice and responding to what you're burdening their heart with.

I pray that their year would be one of favor of power, of provision. And God, even when the hard times come, God, it would be a year of your presence, that there wouldn't be a moment of their day that they would not sense that you are with them. As we continue to pray, church, there are others of you at all of our campuses and those of you at church online that if you're really honest with yourself, God isn't first and you know it.

Not only do you know that he's not first, God knows that he's not first in your life. And we've all been there. Every single one of us have been in a season of life where we were doing life on our own terms, that our agenda was the agenda that drove everything about us. But I got to be honest, that does not end well for you. It just doesn't. And here's the great news.

The great news is that God has always been the initiator. You don't initiate a relationship with God. He initiated it with you. How? because in the midst of all of our sin that separates us from a holy God, God sent first his son, Jesus, who lived a sinless life, was tortured beyond what any human should ever endure. And he died a criminal's death as he hung on Calvary's cross.

That was his way of initiating a bridge that would cover the chasm of sin and bring you back into relationship with the five. mother. But church, it is not enough to just know that. You have to receive it. You have to choose to align your life with the fact that God is first. What does that mean? It means you deny everything. You surrender every aspect of your life all that you are to all that he is. What do you do? You call out on his name. The Bible says anyone who calls out on the name of Christ, they will be saved, forgiven, made new. In a moment of faith, the Bible says, you will be saved in true. You will be saved in

transformed by faith in the perfect work of Calvary's Cross. And for many of you, that is exactly the reason that you are here today. You're going to cry out to God. He will forgive you. He will save you. He will change your life. Not only 2015, but the rest of your life will be marked because you are a child of God. If that is your prayer today, I want you to boldly lift your hand right now and

meet me eye to eye. Just lift it up. I want to see you. God, I surrender my life, brother, right here and here. Hand lifted high right here in the middle section. Wipe away the tears. Hand lifted high here and here, I see it right here. Praise God for you.

God, I save you. Both of you guys together right here in the middle section in the back. Others of you, I need you. God save me. Hand lifted high. Church on the line, please click right below me if you're making this commitment to Jesus Christ. God, I need you to save me. Hand lifted high.

Right over here. I'm so proud of you. And right over there and right over there. Awesome. Hand lifted high right over to my right. So proud of you. All of us together are going to pray with those saying yes to the gift of God's grace. No one prays alone.

this out loud with me. Father, I need you. I have sinned. I'm asking you to save me. Jesus, I believe you died. On a cross you didn't deserve to pay for my sin. And I receive your grace. I surrender my life. Fill me with your Holy Spirit that I could serve you always. In Jesus name I pray. I would hope somebody in this place would make a little bit of today and worship a good God come on