WESTSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH
PASTOR: TERRY VAUGHAN
SERMON TITLE: HAVE YOU MADE CHRIST NUMBER ONE?
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
TEXT VERSE: 2 CHRONICLES 15:1-15 “And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded: And he went out to meet Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; the Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law. But when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them. And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries. And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity. Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded. And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the Lord, that was before the porch of the Lord. And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. And they offered unto the Lord the same time, of the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; That whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets and with cornets. And all Judah rejoiced at the oath: for they had sworn with all their heart , and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and the Lord gave them rest round about.”
I want you to look at verse 12. They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all of their heart and with all their soul. Now I want to preach to you today on making Christ number one in your life. It seems like we’re living in a world where Christ is always last in someone’s life. He’s not a Sunday God. I don’t just seek the Lord on Sunday. If you put on your best clothes to come to the house of God just so you can find God here, you’re looking for him in the wrong place. I believe he’ll be here but I also believe he’ll be with you all ways. But we have a lot of people in the world today who want to leave God out of everything. God’s not going to be somebody’s left overs. People today think because they know Christ, that God is automatically going to be with them in everything that they do and every where that they go. He’s not. Most of the time we’re in that old natural mind. Most of the time we’re doing natural things. Most of the time we’re serving in this old natural world but we’re not serving a natural God. We’re serving a Spiritual God and the Bible says we must worship him in Spirit and in truth. Don’t you think for a minute that every thing you’re doing is approved by God. It’s not. We’ve got to make Christ number one in our life. He’s not going to automatically be number one. He’s not going to force himself to be number one if you’re not seeking for him with all your heartand if you’re not making a covenant with him. It’s a shame what people are putting between them and God. Church on Sundays is good but what kind of relationship do you have with him when you’re at home by yourself? Is he number one in your life? (Preacher....we’re having all kinds of problems. If God is last on your list you’ll continue to have them problems.) People get to thinking in their carnal mind that they have him in their life and they’ll just get things right later. You know what makes a good Christian? One that will get on fire for God and realizes that we don’t have much time left. What we’re doing for the Lord has to be done right now. Don’t plan on waiting 50 years. We need to help win lost souls now. Right Now! Every day that goes by that we don’t do that, we’ve set God aside. When he’s number one in your life, you’ll feel good no matter who you’re around. You can be sitting in a Baptist Church somewhere with about a thousand dead beats and you’ll still feel good in the Lord. You know why a smile isn’t on your face? Because Christ isn’t number one. If Christ can’t lift you up...nobody can. I’m not looking for my blessings in this world. I’m looking for them in the Lord. Is he number one in your life? (Preacher, I’m having all kinds of financial difficulties) Put Christ first in your finances and you’ll be the richest man who ever walked spiritually and not have a dime on you. If he’s not number one in your life how can you expect him to be number one in the things that you do?
1 Corinthians 10:21 “Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of the devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.” You see, these two fold Christians will never get anywhere with God. James said a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. You can’t be for God one minute and against God the next. You can’t live for God on Sunday and then live for the devil on Monday. You cannot put Christ first in your life some of the time. He’s got to be first in your life all of the time.
Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
There’s good Christian people in the world today that have been saved by the grace of God trying to serve two masters. They want to do things their way and they want God to things his way. Your way will always get you in trouble. God will always win and he will always have his way. We can defeat the devil if we’ll put Christ as number one in our life.
Matthew 12:30 “He that is not with me is against me.” You know when a Christian gets in the most trouble? When they get off by themselves somewhere, where there aren‘t any other Christians around and they separate themselves from the church and other Christians and the devil comes. Jesus was by himself when the devil came to him in the wilderness. It was just Jesus and the devil. When you‘re by yourself and the devil comes along, you better have Christ as number one. But instead they‘ll get off by themselves and they‘ll say, nobody‘s watching me so I‘m going to do this or do that and they start dipping in that sin. They act like it‘s lays potato chips. They can‘t have just one. Jesus said, Sin no more lest a worst sin come upon you. They start dipping in sin and they start getting into trouble. Then after a while they start bringing the sin home with them and it starts getting in their family and their family starts sinning. The Bible says that one sinner destroyeth much good. (this is why I like spending time with my church family. I like to fellowship. Somebody said let’s call off fellowship dinners that we have once a month because we don’t have time for it. I prayed about that. I’m not going to do it. I believe we should have more of them. It keeps us out of trouble. I’d much rather you be at fellowship than sitting in front of your televisions)
NUMBER ONE: Everything that we do and everything that we are and everything that we say has to be accepted by the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12:28 “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear.” Is he accepting who you are today? Is God accepting you as the Christian you’re supposed to be? Because if he’s not then he’s not number one in your life.
NUMBER TWO: He has to approve of all that we do. A lot of Christians don’t ask for his approval. The Bible says to pray without ceasing. We’re supposed to get God’s permission before we do just any old thing. Christians get out in the world and they act like God is way off in heaven and that he’s not watching them and he’s not listening to them and they get off by themselves and they start making their own decisions and they get in trouble with God. He has to approve of what we do. (Preacher, the majority of the church agrees with me.) Bless God, you don’t have to give account to God for the church. You have to give account for yourself.
NUMBER THREE: He needs to be pleased with everything that you do. One place in the Bible says that with many of them, God was not well pleased. Because they fell in the wilderness.
1 Thessalonians 2:4 “But as we are allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.” We have to please him. Are you pleasing God with what you do? We’re living in such a sin sick world that people don’t even know what pleasing God is anymore. They don’t even know what being close to the Lord is. You get around people and you’ll find that it’s very unusual to see people shout in the house of God anymore. Thank God there’s still a few of them that will. They get away from God and they’re still trying to be Christian because they’re saved and they can’t do it. It will not happen if he’s not number one in your life. If Christ is number one in your life you’ll be an effective Christian. You want to be an effective Christian? Read Psalms one. It says, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. But the ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”
Whatsoever a Christian does, shall prosper if Christ is number one in your life.
Colossians 3:23 “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.”
Ephesians 5:17 “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”
Do you understand what the will of the Lord is in your life? There’s going to be a time when the Lord calls me to be at home with him. We’re growing older every day. According to the word of God that’s a good thing. The Bible says our youth is vanity and not our eldership. I might be laying in bed one day getting ready to go home and be with the Lord and I’m going to be thinking back over all the times I’ve stood and preached and all the ones I’ve helped and discipled and I’m going to remember all the ones that said that they were Christians but they never put forth that effort...that heart....that mouth to live for God. I’m going to pray...Lord, please forgive them. I said that to say this...I see more Christians not doing anything for the Lord than I do Christians that are doing something for the Lord. You say, preacher there are big churches in the area with thousands of members. True. But how many of those thousands of members have ever knocked on your door and said, “Hey do you know Jesus?” We have a couple here today, The Biddy’s, that live half a mile from our church and they live directly in front of another church. They’ve lived there for years and not one soul from that church has ever knocked on their door. If that house isn’t in their community, what house is? We have work to do for the Lord right now. Everything we do has to glorify him and edify the body of Christ. Now listen to this verse. James 4:7-8 “Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he’ll flee from you. Draw nigh to God and he’ll draw nigh to you.” Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these other things will be added unto you.” Seek ye first the Kingdom of God. I wonder how many Christians are doing that? We’re living in such a sinful world that Christians are living 90% of it for the devil and they don’t even know it. They think they are right where God wants them to be. Let me give you an example. Every day of our lives we turn on our television and don’t even spend time with our families to have Bible studies. We see nudity, hear cursing and allow our children to see it and hear it. We don’t even shut it off to have time to study the Bible and share in prayer. I’d like to know how many of you turned everything off just one time this week and had family prayer? It’s sad to think of how many of you didn’t. But yet when we’re asked if we’re doing what God wants....we say absolutely. Let me tell you how you can tell if you’re the Christian God wants you to be. Paul said, though I be free from all men, yet I’ve made myself servant unto all men. You can tell how good of a Christian you are by how effective you are in ministering to other people. We’re not limited on where we can share the gospel. Church isn’t this building. Church is people. Jesus said, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. It isn’t what a Christian looks like on the outside that makes a church but what’s on the inside.
Philippians 3:14 “I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Everything Paul did, he did for the high calling of God.
Enoch walked with God and he had a testimony that he pleased God.
Noah found grace in the eyes of God. There’s great men in the Bible that did great things. You know why? Christ was number one in their life. There were great women in the Bible too. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have Christ in my life. I’d have no life. Everything I do, everything I say, everything I think...I do for his sake.
Have you made him number one in your life? If he is....
NUMBER ONE: You will love him. Mark 12:30 “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” Do you love the Lord? If you do, he’ll be number one in your life. It doesn’t matter if anybody else loves you or not. As long as you love him, everything will be all right. If you don’t love him, how can you love anybody else? If you love him, everything else will fall into place in your life. Preacher....I love him when I’m feeling good. I love him when I have money. I love him when things are going my way. No you don’t. If you loved him, you’d love him all the time. It makes me sick to see Christians who say they love God yet they won’t even come to the house of God. They sit around the stool of do nothing at home expecting to be the Christian that God called them to be and it won’t happen. Seven days in the week and they can’t even take a few hours to come to the house of God. Backslid is what they are. They come up with some pathetic excuses too. Their in trouble with God and they’ll have to answer to him.
NUMBER TWO: If we have him as number one in our life we’ll live for him. Now that’s a kicker there. Paul said this in Philippians 1:21 “For me to live is Christ.” Now how many of you are living for the Lord? Really and truly? Well preacher, we have so many things that come up that I just can’t make it to visitation, sunday school, fellowship dinners, I can’t get down to the hospital to visit that member. I wonder will you make it to heaven. When I got saved, I enjoyed working for God. Still do. Christ has to be number one. I’ve been at this church three years. Look at all those leaves on that tree and yet sunday school attendance has never been over 25. In three years. You know what that makes a preacher want to do? It makes him want to pack his bags and go where somebody cares. Some members will come Sunday mornings and some will come Sunday night and some will come on Wednesday night but you can’t get them all in one place at the same time for nothing. Then you’ve got the ones that have just given up on God. They get sin in their life and instead of staying where God can help them, they leave the church and get out in the world and further away from God. You cannot get closer to God by being out of church. You can read your Bible all you want to but unless you have that fellowship and are hearing God’s word, you’ll slide further and further away until one day you find yourself not caring if you’re in church or not. If he’s not number one in your life.....you life will never be in order.
NUMBER THREE: If you have Christ number one in your life you’ll look to him. Hebrews 12:2 “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” He started this thing and he’s going to finish it. We need to look to him. Let us come boldly to the throne room of grace that we may obtain mercy. What’s Christ got going on in your life. Is he with you at your job or are you all by yourself? You can hide it from me but you can’t hide it from God.
Psalms 73:25 “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.”
Now I want to go back and read this verse again. 2 Chronicles 15:12 “And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers will all their heart and all their soul.” I wonder, would you be willing to make a covenant with the Lord today?
LET US PRAY: Father, I have put you last in my life for too long. I want you to be number one now and for ever. I pray that you would forgive me of my sins casting them all into the sea of forgetfulness, never to be remembered anymore. I vow now to put your first and to do that which you have called me to do. I vow to pray before I do anything so that I might know it is your will. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen
