Christ First

Pastor Corey delivers his weekly message titled "Christ First"

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Stand with me as we read Philippians 1, verses 15 through 26. I'm going to give you just three things today, and I'm hoping not to keep you too long. You know when I say that it usually doesn't end well. I usually don't live up to that, but I'm going to try to get to the point, okay? Philippians 1 15 says, It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel, meaning he's in jail. He's put there in jail for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice, yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. So Paul had resigned himself that it didn't matter what happened to him, as long as Christ was exalted. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in this body, in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know. I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it is far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith. So that through my being with you again, your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me. There's a lot there, but I want to give you three simple answers to the problems that we face and are going to face. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Help us to see your truth, and I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So the answer to dealing with problems, Christ first. So number one, here's what I want you to see in Christ being first. Critics will oppose you. But preach Christ. Critics will oppose you. Now, in Paul's particular case, he had those that were preaching Christ for selfish ambition, not unlike today. I mean, I'll be honest with you, as a pastor, there's nothing more frustrating and discouraging for me as a pastor than to see other pastors who preach Christ for celebrity and fame. And we see other pastors who are preaching Christ for personal gain and wealth. They may have started off the right way, but they became a celebrity, and in becoming a celebrity, they built them a mansion, and in building them a mansion, they began to live unlike their people and began to live a very wealthy lifestyle. And I'll be honest with you, I believe a lot of those guys do it for selfish ambition. You say, are you being judgmental of them? I make a judgment every day about a lot of things. And I see what's going on. Now, Christ ultimately, they have to answer to him, not to me, but I see some of that. So that shouldn't discourage me, Paul says. Paul says, some do it out of selfish ambition? Not sincerely, supposing they can stir up trouble for me, he says, while I'm in chains. But what does it matter? He says here, the important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preaching. So what he's saying is that even if a preacher stands up with the wrong motive and he's doing it for the wrong reason, if the message is being preached, God will still use it. God will still use it. God will deal with the preacher, but God's word will always be faithful and true. And so what he's saying here in Paul's situation is that he had these critics. They were opposing him. They were basically saying, don't listen to Paul. It's not by grace alone. You've got to do this and you've got to do that. You've got to follow some of the ceremonial uh Jewish customs in order to be saved. It's Christ plus this. And Paul was saying, no, according to Scripture, according to what Christ gave us, it's Christ plus nothing. It's Christ and Him alone. He's the only way. It's not through works of righteousness that we get saved, but it's through Jesus Christ, through a personal relationship with him. For by grace you have been saved, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says, and through faith, that it's not of yourself, it is the gift of God. And then verse 10 says, not of works, lest anyone should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. So Paul will say, you're not saved by your good works, you're saved unto good works. So when you get saved, you give your heart to Christ, what follows is good works, and you're saved by Christ and Christ alone. So critics will oppose you. You're gonna go to work, and you're gonna have that supervisor or that boss that despises your morality because you're a Christian. Preach Christ anyway. Live Christ anyway. You're gonna go to school and you're gonna have people make fun of you, and they're gonna criticize you, and they're gonna call you names, they're gonna try to turn it on you and call you a hater and call you a bigot or call you this or call you that because you believe in a biblical way of living. Don't stop. The second thing I want you to see is this circumstances will trouble you. And in the midst of that, trust Christ. Circumstances will trouble you. Verses 19 and 20. Paul reminds us of trusting Christ in all of that. He says, Here, what is happening to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. What Paul was saying was this circumstances will trouble you. The Bible says in this life you're gonna have trouble. You realize that? Who told you that when you became a Christian that all your problems ended? Because whoever told you that, it's a lie. When you become a Christian, the difference is this now you have an answer for the problems. Now you understand why they're coming. But they're coming at you. And problems happen, circumstances will trouble you. And in the midst of your troubling circumstances, you're gonna have to trust Christ. So 2021 could be a better year. I hope it is, but if it's not, and it gets worse, and life becomes more difficult, whether we live or whether we die, whether we're going through challenges or not, we have to trust Christ. I'll tell you something, this is just something that I struggled with during the year because I've seen people go through it. I've seen people get sick and go in the hospital, and you know, not with COVID, with something else, and nobody could be with them. The pastor at uh First Baptist Church of Chiefland, Brother Gordon Keller, has been battling cancer for almost a year now. And he's, you know, he stayed in the hospital for months by himself, and his family can only see him in the parking lot, and he can wave to them through a window. And then you see people in nursing homes for months and months and months and months that haven't been able to even see their family and all that they're going to do. And I'll be honest with you, this that scares me. And while I'm up here as a pastor saying, you've got to trust Christ and do all of this, I that it frightens me to think that I might get sick and die alone. I'm just being honest, it's a fear of mine. That I won't be able to have my family next to me. I remember when I had brain surgery and I woke up in um in ICU and one of my daughters was holding my hand. I remember that, and I remember the comfort that I felt with that. And then it seemed like I had closed my eyes and I opened them again, and I asked Penny. I asked her, I said, uh, why did Andrea quit holding my hand? Tell her to hold my hand. She said, Corey, that was eight hours ago. She's gone. I'm like, well, you hold my hand then. And she goes, I've been holding your hand for hours. I said, Well, don't stop. I like the touch. It comforted me, it brought a lot. And so for me, those things concern me and scare me. And then they concern me as a pastor for our people that our people are gonna have to experience that and maybe suffer and die alone. But you know, even in that, circumstances may come, and people have had to deal with those circumstances, and those might be the circumstances we ourselves have to deal with. And what God is saying to me in that situation is don't be afraid of what you can't control, and you're gonna have to trust me through the circumstances because I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will be with you. Trust me in it. I will be there with you. And so, whatever fear you have of what may or may not happen, trust Christ. Another thing, y'all, for me. I have asthma. I've had it for a long, long time, all my life, since I've been in the fifth grade, been through every kind of medicine. I'm on maintenance medicine called singular, it helps a lot. You don't put nothing on my face. I struggle to breathe as it is, and you put something, I get claustrophobic. And that's one of my big issues with a mask. You know, when I see people just wear a mask, it's not a big deal. I'm saying, it may not be a big deal for you, but for me, it drives me bananas and drives me insane. And it's not the stigma of the mask. If I could put a mask on and wear it and breathe normal and feel okay, I would be fine. But it's a I I got a fear issue with that too. I ain't getting on an airplane. It's gonna be a long time. Unless God puts me on one. Because I'd have to wear a mask the whole time. I told Penny, I said, I'm excited about the potential. I saw that our Timothy Barnabas conference is rescheduled, which we had it scheduled for last year in March, and I wanted to go to it, and it got canceled because when the whole COVID thing hit. And I've read all the material about the new one coming up here in 2021, and I said, if we got to wear a mask at the whole thing, I ain't going. I can't do it. But I know this if God puts me in a situation where I have to wear a mask and I just have to wear it, or I'll go to prison for a hundred years, I guess I'll wear the mask, right? And God will get you through it. I'm gonna just have to trust him. So, whatever it is that you go through, whatever circumstances you find, whatever fear that you deal with, circumstances will trouble you, trust Christ. So critics will oppose you, preach Christ. Circumstances will trouble you, trust Christ. And number three, which is the final point here, crisis will focus you. Live Christ. Live Christ. Verses 21 through 26. He talks about living Christ. For me to live is Christ, he said, and to die is gain. And he said, I want to go and be with the Lord. That's where I'm at at this point in my life. That's what he's saying. You know, I've as a pastor all these years, as a younger pastor, I didn't fully understand fully an older person who was struggling with a lot of ailments, and they were toward the end of their life and they're in the hospital, still fully had their mind, and I didn't understand why some of them I thought didn't want to fight anymore. And they were like, Preacher, I'm just ready. I'm ready. I I know my family's gonna miss me, and I'm gonna miss them, but I've lived my life, and I'm I'm just I'm just ready. I'm ready, I'm excited to go to the other side, and I'm like, I ain't. But they are. And now that I'm living a little longer, and now that I'm experiencing, I I get where Paul's at a little bit better now. I understand that concept now a little bit better to live as Christ had died. So what Paul is saying is this if I'm not going to die yet, and I'm gonna be here, then there's a purpose and a reason God has me here. And so I'm gonna spend the rest of my days. Whatever God has for me, it's gonna be for the glory of God. Won't be for Paul, but it'll be for the glory of Christ. And I think we see it. He says here, it doesn't matter what happens, as long as Christ is preached and he gets the glory. That's all that matters. So crisis will focus you. It'll either focus you or break you. And for a Christian, you gotta get focused. You you when a crisis comes into my life, rather than throwing a spiritual tantrum, rather than wanting to run from it, rather than getting angry at God, I go more into a thinking mode. And I, what is God doing in this? What does he want me to do? And what what happens is it focuses me. What instead of saying, why is this happening to me in my family? It's more like, okay, what? What does God want to show me? And it gets you focused. Then you can live. Now all of a sudden you realize that the crisis, the circumstance, difficulty I'm in, hmm, let's see. Is did this happen because of my sin? And then you sometimes it does. And then you repent and you get right. But there are many times you you it's not because you sinned, it's not because you caused it. You're actually being obedient to God, you're living for Him, and yet it seems like this bad thing is happening to you. What? Not why, but what does God want me to learn from this? And all of a sudden, now it changes your whole perspective. Now you're living for Christ. Okay, God. So, all right, so how can you get the glory out of this? I told y'all, you know, crisis and circumstances happen to us where we live in a real world, right? In real life. Like, you got a pickup truck, and all of a sudden, your um cruise control disables. You can't put in cruise control. And you got this annoying light that comes on. And if you drive any distance, you need cruise control. I know I was getting ready to go to Missouri. I'm like, I gotta have cruise control. Oh, I'm sure it's something simple, so I bring it to the shop. They call me back about two hours later. Yeah, we know what's wrong with your truck. They sounded excited about it, and that's when I should have known there was a problem. They knew they were gonna get paid. I'm like, well, what if? Oh, it's some kind of module, it's a computer module or whatever it is. Okay, what's it gonna cost? $770. I hung up the phone. That's my money to go to Missouri. I can't put it on the truck. Anyway, no, I said, What? And he goes, Yeah, and he started telling me, and I didn't understand at all. I said, I said, all right, have it done. On my way back from Missouri, all of a sudden I'm driving, coming through Tennessee, just driving, minding my own business. All of a sudden, poop, all the lights come on, I lose cruise control again. I said, I'm calling them. I call them. Hey, man, it's doing the same thing. I'm on my way back from Missouri. Bring it in at your convenience, sir. I said, okay, I will. So, waited a few weeks, brought it back. I'm not in town. The truck's at the place. I tell them to call my wife. My wife texts me and she said, Can we talk? I'm like, what happened? She goes, Your truck is gonna be ready. But we need talk. All right. So I called her. What's the deal? They're gonna fix it right, no charge. She goes, uh, $1,100. I said, who wants to die first? They said, it's it's a different module. I said, sure. That's what they all say. By the time it was all over, for some two stupid computer parts, two thousand dollars. Now, I don't know about you because I know a lot of you are very wealthy and you got money flowing all over the place. Man, that hits you, right? That's a crisis. But I'm gonna tell you something. I've been through money crises for my entire adult life. And I used to ask in situations like this, why? God, you know I ain't got that money for that. Why are you letting that happen to me? Is there sin in my life? And then I look, no, no, it's not he's not punishing me because of that, that I can tell. Uh and then you start going through it all, and then years ago I realized, wait a minute, God's just trying to teach me to trust him, and he will provide, and he's always provided, and I've never gone without. And somehow, somehow, when I didn't think we had it, we were able to, we were able to make it, and God took care of it. And guess what? He did it again in that situation. One of the reasons is we save we save money for things like that when we can. Well, all I'm telling you about that in my life was that that was a crisis for us. It was a financial crisis, like Christmas time. But it got us focused. It's like, nope, nope, we don't worry. Gotta have the truck, gotta work. So fix it. God always provides. So I learned that lesson long time ago that no matter what the crisis, you just live for Christ. You live for Him, you get focused, God will take care of it, God will get you through it. Paul was in a deep crisis. He was in jail. He had people working against him on the outside. He had the Judaizers coming in behind him wherever he would go and start a church, they would come in and try to try to teach a different doctrine. He had a lot of these things going on. He didn't know at any point whether he would be put to death or not. And he realized, well, he came to a place, so, well, you know, if they if they kill me tomorrow, to die is gain. And to be honest, I have a longing to go and be with the Lord. But I guess the reason God's not letting me go to be with him is he's got a purpose for me. And it's better for the people of God that I stay alive. And I'm so I'm gonna write this letter to them. And as it turns out, it became part of the canon of Scripture. It was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and now we have it today, and we're still preaching about it and teaching about it and learning from it because of what Paul went through in his crisis. I tell you, I think it accomplished what God had intended. So as you live, you live for Christ. Critics will oppose you, you preach Christ. Circumstances will trouble you, you trust Christ, and crisis will focus you. Man, as a Christian, live for Christ. Don't think it's strange when various trials come your way. Don't think that don't always ask, why me? Why me? Start asking, okay, God, what? What do you want to use this for in my life so that you will get the glory? It will radically change you, it'll help you sleep better, it'll help you live better, it will make a lot more sense to you. And it doesn't matter what happens in the world. I'm not holding my breath that 2021 is going to be better. If it is, amen. We'll take it as a blessing. But in the event that it doesn't, I'm not putting my faith in what this world does. I'm putting my faith and confidence in Christ and him first. And if it means more trouble, then it means more glory to God, more opportunities to preach Christ. So we're kind of talking a little bit about some of that in Sunday school, and Coach Preachett, you know, being a football coach, he goes, you know, it doesn't discourage me. He said, it motivates me. It's a competition, you know, to spread the gospel for good, right? To do great things. And so it's important to realize that we may have, you know, 2021 could be just like 2020. And if it is, you and I have a decision to make. How too shall we live? And for Christians, we have the solution. We have the antidote. We have the answer. We know how we should live. You say, well, Pastor, how in the world can we be happy through all of that? Have you ever been through something that hurt you deeply, but yet deep within you, inside your heart, you still had joy? I know I can't tell you what I know about all of you in here because then I would be revealing a lot of things, but I'm looking in the eyes of a lot of people, and I know a lot of things about your life. And you know that I know, and a lot of other people don't know, and I know this about your life. I know that when you were in some of the most painful moments in your life, you kept your hand on the plow and you kept serving God. You were living this out to live as Christ. And you realize what's the worst that can happen to me? Well, my life can be taken. Well, to live is Christ, but to die is gain. Well, Pastor, don't you feel that you should be more compassionate about people? You know, you don't want people to get sick? Of course we don't want people to get sick. I don't want to get people sick. I don't want all that either. But at the same time, I care about people's livelihoods. I care about people being able to survive. I care about people's mental health. I care about what's going on behind the scenes that people don't see. Just so you know, church, listen, I've counseled more married couples this year in this pandemic whose marriages have been strained and challenged more this year than I have in the last five years combined. Privately, you don't know about meeting people under the cover of darkness with their spouse because they're hurting. And there's a lot of you who thought about calling me and you never did. A lot of people going through a lot of trial and difficulty. But what you did as a Christian is you said, you know, I don't have any other choice but to trust him, to look to him. I'm gonna put Christ first. And if I put him first, ultimately it doesn't matter what happens to me. As long as Christ gets the glory and the gospel is preached, I'll leave it, I'll give it all to him and let him take care of it all. So the answer to dealing with problems, Christ first. Y'all, I'm not just preaching something that's there in the scripture to give you something intellectually and theologically that sounds good. I'm telling you, this is real, and you flesh it out in your life every day. And I try to live this way every day. Some days I succeed and some days I don't. Christ first. Let me ask you this as I close. Have you uh have you ever have you had a moment yet since this COVID thing happened where maybe you were humiliated in public? Maybe because you weren't wearing a mask. Have you ever had that moment yet? I had it this week. It finally happened. I knew it was coming. And I went to an establishment to get a cup of coffee. You can, I'm not gonna mention, but you can guess. And as I walked in, I was 10 feet, 12 feet away at one point from the nearest person. And I'm looking at my phone, just waiting, because the line, the car, the line was like terrible. And I don't know why, because I've told myself, don't go there, the coffee's too expensive and it doesn't taste good anyway. And I used to go there because I like to be in that atmosphere in the coffee shop. If there's noise, I can study. If there's no noise, like in my office, I can't study because I see a squirrel and I'm at the window looking, and I lose track of what I'm doing. So that was a good place for me, but I guess so it's a habit. So I went and I'm looking at my phone. I'm oh I hear this just awful sound. And I'm I'm oblivious. And I look up, the person behind the camera. You speaking to me? Yeah, you must wear a mask. No, ma'am. I don't have a mask on me. I do own a mask, but I don't have one. You must leave a mediating. It's like a bomb was gonna go off or something. You can come through the drive-thru, but you must leave a minute. I've been in here before, man. No, you must leave immediately. And I said, All right. Uh I said, uh, and I didn't say this in Sunday school class, but I said, do you do know that uh carbon dioxide will kill you? You you know that, right? I'm sorry, sir, but that's our policy. And I said, your coffee's not that good. I said it. Penny told me I needed to repent. And I probably need to. I wasn't ugly, but that was kind of a stinging deal. I said, I won't be back. I go to the other coffee shop that's in the place where that one used to be in Tioga. I'm not gonna mention the name of that business either. I pulled in, I looked in, there was a bunch of people on the inside, all sitting at tables, drinking coffee, having normal life fellowship. Nobody wearing a mask. I went, my kind of place. I walk in, I stand in front of the register, still a little bit off. A man who's an old buddy of mine who's a big Gator fan, and he calls me LSU. He doesn't even know my name. He just called, Hey LSU! I can't believe y'all did that. I said, I can't either. He goes, Hey, we were going on. And she goes, sir, same question. She goes, Do you have a mask? I'm like, it's like they went to a book. It says, you must ask customers, do you have a mask? I said, Yes, I have a mask. I don't have one with me. She goes, Um, you must wear a mask to order. I went, nobody wearing a mask in here. She goes, you have to wear a mask to order. Once you order, you can take the mask off. I just, I was so dumbfounded. I looked at her and I went, I'm gonna ask you this question. Do you want to sell me a cup of coffee or not? May I take your order, please? And so I got my cup of coffee. I left. I felt humiliated though at the first place. Everybody was looking at me like I had Ebola and everybody was gonna die because I was standing there without a mask. Like I was this plague. Hmm. It upset me. I called Penny and said, I'm gonna put this on Facebook. She goes, you will not. I said, and I'm gonna put, she goes, you're gonna have all these people argue. I said, no, no. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put on there, this is my Facebook, this is my opinion. If you don't agree, I don't want to hear from you. She goes, do not put it. Would you listen to me for once? I listened and I didn't put it. Huh?

unknown 32:03

Just things before you left.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

I um so I turned my truck around, I came home. I was like, I'm just gonna come home. So yeah, problems happen to all of us, and I think we're gonna continue to live in a world where things like that are gonna happen. And and I don't look down upon other people who view it differently than me. But I'm not so scared of what can happen that I'm unwilling to live. And that's what the Bible says. To live is Christ, to die is gain. God didn't create us to stay in the house. I understand. If you're sick, stay. We've been created to engage, we've been created for fellowship. We've been created, and I say it like this: if God wanted us to wear a mask on our face, he would have put a filter on our face. Oh, he did. It's called nose hairs, by the way. Not a doctor, but I'm aware of that. So the answer to our problems is always Christ first. Always put him first. And even in the situation that I was in, I realized, okay, he's first. How can I be used of God to bring glory to God? And for me, it's not to be ugly and not to be snarky. Just be kind. And go live your life, right? That's how we deal with problems. Let's pray. And let's stand as we pray. Father, we thank you. We thank you for your presence, and we thank you for the love that you have for us, and we thank you that we have the answer in Christ for our lives. We don't know what 2021 is going to bring. Be foolish of us to even think. I mean, Christmas morning, a bomb went off in Nashville. I mean, Lord, we don't know. We have no idea what these days will bring us, but we do know the one who has the answers to whatever problems we may face. So help us have the right mindset and the right focus as we proceed. That we live for Jesus. And when problems do come, we recognize that these are opportunities. For through our suffering or through our circumstance, Christ can get the glory. And it'll all be worth it. And that's what it means to be a living sacrifice. So thank you, Father. Now, folks, as our team leads us, if God spoke into your heart, you do what he says. You need to put your arm around somebody and pray for them. You need to come and pray that God will give you strength. Whatever it might be, let God have his way in your heart and life. Amen. Leaders.