Craig Groeschel - A Faith That Puts God Second
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 God. If you’re a Christian, what should come first in your life? The answer is… God. 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 unto 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 would be something important? Someone shout something out. What else? God and… Marriage. Family. 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 spouse. If you have kids, you wanna prioritize your kids. You want to value your grandma, your grandpa, your brothers, your sisters. Family 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. 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 wanna have a good job. You wanna have a profitable income. You wanna do something that matters.
What else do you have in your life? You’re gonna have your money on your stuff. Stuff costs money. You wanna buy some decent stuff. You don’t want your stuff to own you, but you want to have a good life. You wanna enjoy it. And then I’m gonna 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, chair number one. The second chair would be important, but not the top priority. The third chair would be the third most important thing. The fourth chair would be the fourth most important thing. And in reality, you’re gonna have 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18 different things like this and 8, 9, 10, 12, 15 different chairs. But I didn’t want to take up the whole stage or the whole talk, setting up this illustration. So we’re just gonna 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? Family. 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. You yell at kids. You have a decent marriage, hopefully. And then after that, I’m gonna say that for a lot of us, you gotta pay the bills, and you wanna work hard, and you gotta have a nice life, and you gotta have money and stuff in order to enjoy your hobbies. And you don’t wanna miss whatever your hobbies is. CrossFit, video games, water coloring, competitive speed knitting, whatever it is. You wanna 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 You’re 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 is 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? A 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 wanna honor God, I wanna live for God, I wanna please God in what I do. Jesus gave His life for me. I want Him to be the Lord of my life.
And so I’m gonna put Him first and I’m gonna 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 anytime that we put something ahead of God, do you know what it’s called? It’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 wanna do is I wanna show you two Bible verses on idolatry. The first one is the very first command of the 10 Commandments. If God’s going to give you the first of 10 commandments, one that comes first, all them 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 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; it’s 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 all have interests. We have a lot going on in our lives. We’ve 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 gonna 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 gonna ask you for your honesty. I’m gonna 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 is jealous? I don’t really don’t like that because God is petty like that?
Somebody goes like, «Hey, I had a jealous ex and that didn’t go well. I’m not bringing God into this conversation. I’m sitting down on it, right? Ain’t 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 gonna start in Exodus. Exodus 34, verse 14 tells us, do not worship any other God, for the Lord… What is his name? Whose name is Jealous? Is a what? He is a jealous God. Let’s look again at Exodus 20:5 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 4:24: For the Lord your God is a consuming fire. Everybody say with me, could type it online. What is God? God is a jealous God.
Now, if it comes across to you kind of 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 relational context. I’ll show you something powerful from the original language. The word that’s translated as jealous in the Old Testament is word qanna, qanna. It is a very interesting word. If you look at this word, qanna, the root word actually only has one N, that one has two. The root word qanna with one N describes human jealousy.
But when there’s a second N or nun, that’s Hebrew… If you want to impress your friends, say it’s got a second nun, that’s a second N. And when it has a second N, this word becomes a word that is only ever used for God. The second N is what’s known as an intensifier in Hebrew grammar. The second N intensifies jealousy to the infinite degree. There is no jealousy in the world greater than when qanna has a second N. The second n 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 covenant of love for us. In fact, the word qanna with two Ns, 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 wants 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, is pure, is passionate, and is protective. Why? Because God loves you and God wants what’s best for you. And anytime you put something, anything before Him, it hurts you. David said this, he said, «Those who run after other gods, those who face 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 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 with and bear your soul and don’t know if they’re really gonna 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 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, is 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 what God created. This is my thing». Or you might say, «My house is my thing. I love my family. I wanna have a good house. I want everything to match. I wanna be a good host. I mean, what’s wrong with my house being my thing».
You might say, «My image is my thing. I wanna look good. I wanna be fly. When I walk in the room, I want people to say she’s got, he’s got a… I want it to match. I wanna look good. I wanna take care of my skin. I want everybody to say, hey, yeah, yeah, he 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 a 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 tip of the Holy Spirit. I should honor God, but my fitness, it’s just my thing. Don’t mess with my thing. This isn’t a bad thing. It’s a good thing.
And I wanna 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 gonna raise a question like, so how do I know if my thing, my interest is like inappropriate 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. 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. Or you’re into fantasy sports and 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, isn’t it? Or do I love it too much? 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 an idolatrous and dangerous?
What I wanna do is I want to give the Holy Spirit just a chance to speak to you. And we’re gonna wrestle with three very, very important questions. You may write them down. You can even take a photo letter as you want. And we’re gonna talk about these in our life group. If we’re not in a life group, we gonna be in a life group 'cause we need community around us. But we’re gonna let God work on us through these questions. If you’re ready, say, I’m ready. Are you ready? I’m ready. Question number one is this. We’re gonna 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 complementary 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 it’s actually taking me away from the heart of God and distracting 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 of a 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 Him 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 gonna 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. 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 liked and even respected, liked and respected, and maybe even loved if you’re in the mood to love me, like me and 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 light trip. I don’t wanna like Craig». I go, «Really»? Well, I don’t get it. But anyway, it’s a 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 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 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? What’s God trying to show you? And I just beg you. I mean, my heart’s like… I just wanna 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 chair? 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, I shouldn’t have come to church this weekend, oh, I don’t like this measure, if you find yourself defending your thing, no, no, you don’t understand, Craig, you 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 so 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 'cause 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. And the only way to know how good He is, is to put Him first. The only way to know how good He is, it’s 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 give 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 please, 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-ish, sort of, kind of.
Well, yeah, I mean, I go to church every now and then. I kind of believe in God. Yeah, I mean, you know. Yeah, I’m not. I mean, you know, I’m kind of Christian. I mean, you know… I mean, I kind of have faith and all. I wanna go to heaven when I die. 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 gonna love Him halfway. We’re not gonna 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’s really, really simple. Are you ready? Like, are you ready? Are you willing? Are you ready? If He asked 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. It’s time to attack the root. And the root is idolatry, is 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, is to put hip 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. 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 gonna 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 lamb’s book of life. You know you belong to God, but you’re not putting Him first today. You wanna repent and you wanna 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 wanna 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 wanna put you first». If you leave your hands up and you just wanna cry out to 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 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 am actually not certain, I don’t really know, God’s not first. Scripture tells us that anyone who puts Him first, that anyone who calls on the name of the Lord would be saved. How are you made right with God? Actually, 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 anyone, 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 wanna follow Jesus. You wanna put Him first. The day 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 gonna step away from our sins and we’re gonna 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 gonna become better. You’re gonna become new. The old is gone and you become new.
In all of our churches online, those who say yes, I need his salvation, He’s 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 higher right now, all over the place and say, yes, that’s my prayer. God bless you right here and over here as well. Others will be saying, yes, Jesus. 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 wanna put Jesus first in my life». And in this holy moment, let’s pause for just a moment and recognize that God is doing miracles. Pray aloud. Pray:
Heavenly Father, I put Jesus first. Jesus saved 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.