Are You Really Putting Jesus First?

In this episode, Kevin reflects on the importance of putting Jesus first in our lives. He discusses the challenges Christians face in prioritizing their faith over worldly concerns, including family and personal desires.  The conversation serves as a reminder to examine our lives and ensure that Christ remains at the center of our decisions and actions.

Transcript

Kevin Toomer (00:06.03)
What's up everyone? know it's been a while since I've an episode and this is just some thoughts that I've been having. You sometimes when I'm just reading scripture or doing whatever God had given me some thoughts. It's just some things I see and I don't know if this is a full episode or not. It's just really, I just want to just come off the cuff really. I have some scriptures but the whole thought of this particular episode or what I want to share is the idea of do we really put Jesus first? And I know as Christians we like to think we do.

And this is not an indictment of people who really do. But the Bible does say that all of us are sinners and all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So none of us put Jesus first in everything, in every area. We're all still very much works in progress. But I think what's happening a lot of times as I walk with Christ increases and as time increases and the world is becoming more more involved in the church and the church is becoming so much more.

Seeker sensitive. We're always trying to think about how we can get more people in the building instead of getting more Christ in the people who are in the building and I think that's a problem and I think what happens is because of this Jesus no longer becomes a priority He becomes a supplement that Jesus is just something I add to my life Versus Jesus being my entire life because what happens is we lose sight of the fact that when you come to Christ

I'm going to say a word we don't like to think about. We're slaves now. Slaves to Christ. Now slave has a bad connotation, but in the context of being a Christian, slave means this person, Jesus, bought us. So our lives, our gifts, our talents, our labor, all is under his control. And we are pretty much under the guise of whatever he wants us to do. But it's a good thing because he wants the best for us after all he created us. So he wants the best for us. But the problem becomes we don't act like he's the Lord.

We like to call him savior, but the lower part we got a problem with. And we really don't live our lives as if he's in control. We live our lives as if we're the control until we need him to be in control. Then I pick him up. Okay, Lord, hand him this for me. As we used to say, hand him my lightweight. Then now that that's done, okay, now hand me the wheel again. Now I can drive. I only need you to drive the car when I get in rough terrain.

Kevin Toomer (02:30.742)
When I get lost, when the winds and the waves and the seas are blowing and visibility is low, okay, okay, Lord, now you drive. But when the skies are clear, we don't want him to drive. We still want to drive. So what I have today is just a few scriptures I want to share and some thoughts on. And I just want to have you ask that proverbial question. Is he really a priority for you? Is he really, is he really a priority for you?

Are we really putting Jesus first or was it just a cliche that we tell ourselves what our actions don't really convey that we put Jesus first? So I'm going to share a couple of scriptures and I'm all of these scriptures you've heard before, but maybe it's just a case for you and I, even if you've heard the scriptures before, it could be a reminder to say, wait a minute, maybe I've been complacent and maybe I've gotten comfortable with the Lord that somehow I've

marginalized his role and he's no longer priority that and there may be people who all this time thought you had him first and you realize, wait a minute, I haven't been put in the purse. So it can either be a reminder or wake up call whatever it can, whatever case or whatever is needed. I pray that God uses this episode to get you and I back in alignment to where he is a priority and not just an accessory. So the first scripture I have, again, all of these are,

pretty much well known if you've been a Christian for any amount of time. Luke chapter 14, verses 25 and 26. And this is what it says, a large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, if you want to be my disciple, you must by comparison hate everyone else, your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even your own life. Otherwise you cannot be my disciple.

Now that's a version I read particularly the new living translation because they gave a little bit more clarity because sometimes people read that script. say, hate your mother, hate your father. It gets a little whatever, but that scripture we read shows the clarity in comparison. Jesus is not saying you should hate your parents or hate your children or hate your spouse. He's saying your love for your children, your parents and your spouse should come second to your love for Christ. Now that right there should probably convince some people.

Kevin Toomer (04:55.416)
Because let's be honest, a lot of us, we put our kids first. We put our marriage first. We put our family relationships first. And of course, God wants us to honor those relationships. But if you're saying that what you live for is for those relationships at the expense of the relationship that you have with Christ. Because guess what? When you and I leave this planet, and we have to stand before the Lord, no one else is going to stand in your place for

Your kids are not going to stand in your place with you. Your spouse is not going to stand in place with you. Your family is not going to stand in place with you. You're going to have to answer for what you did. Now imagine, and this is going to be a recurring theme, imagine standing for the Lord and he asks you why you did not prioritize him, why you didn't do those things he called you to do, and your response is going to be, well, I had to do this for my mom, or I had to do this for my sister, or I had to do this for my wife.

or had to do this for my children. You're going to tell the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, who you claim was first, that you put him second. And I think we lose sight of that. Now, it's not a case, thankfully, where I believe God is going to often make us choose. It's a case he's going to see if you and I were of our own volition choose. Now, it's not a case where you're going to be neglecting your family, but there may be instances.

where you have to choose between God and that family member, God and your spouse, God and your children. And you and I are going to have to make that difficult choice because ultimately again, we're responsible for what we do, the situations we're in, the choices we've made. And this is the key too. If we really have faith in God, why don't we trust that if God told you

to choose him instead of those children, instead of your spouse, instead of your family, that just as God wants you to choose him, he can take care of them. It's not as if if you chose God over your family, your family is going to be without. As if you're the only person that's taking care of your family. God is taking care of your family. God is taking care of your children. God is taking care of your parents. And let's be real. Ultimately,

Kevin Toomer (07:20.386)
God lets us have family relationships and marital relationships, but none of those relationships belong to us. They're all God's children. They're all God's creation. So we're telling God, I'm choosing the relationship with the creation versus the relationship with the creator. So now hopefully you gotta start thinking about this thing. And God at times may say, I want to see who you're gonna choose.

And we look at scriptures, it's not one I have here. Look at the story in Genesis, very famous story of Abraham with his son Isaac. God says, your son that you love, the son I promise you that you're going to have, you were his son, have him, take him and sacrifice him. Now what did Abraham have to do? He had to choose God over his son, God's relationship with him, over his relationship with his son. So do you have the same kind of faith that Abraham said,

I know that God's going to take care of Isaac even if I have to sacrifice him. Do you have that same level of faith? That if you have to say I'm choosing God over my sister or my brother, God's going to take care of that. I'm choosing God over my parents, God's going to take care of that. If I'm choosing God over my spouse, my children, whatever it is, God's going to manage either relationship. Because we got to realize, relationships we have with people, we don't own those relationships.

we're stewards in those relationships. Ultimately, God is the one who owns it. So I want to say, again, hopefully this is something maybe you didn't think about, or maybe you just need to be reminded that if God is truly first, no one else should put you in a position where you should have to choose. Because if these people, these relationships really love you and really love God, they wouldn't expect you to choose them.

That's something you got to keep in mind as well. That's one scripture. Again, this is not going to be very long. Just something that kind of came off the cuff. So that's the first scripture. Second scripture, again, another one you've heard before, Matthew 16, verse 24, one of those very famous scriptures. And it says, then Jesus said to his disciples, if any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross and follow me. Again, one of those scriptures we've heard a bunch of times, take up your cross.

Kevin Toomer (09:47.246)
follow me but I like this version of New Living Translation it says give up your own weight see sometimes we don't think that we put our desires before God and sometimes we do we put our perspectives before God we put our opinions before God we put our cravings before God and it's a two-fold thing not only are we putting our cravings before God we're putting the cross behind us instead of God let me say it again

Not only are we putting our cravings before God, we're neglecting to pick up our cross like God. He says, take up your cross and follow me. Didn't Jesus pick up his cross? So guess what you have to do? You have to pick up your cross. Now think about what that means. What is a cross? A cross is an instrument of death. So what we're saying is picking up our cross is not just picking up struggle.

is saying you have already decided to die. You have already said, my life as I knew it prior to Christ is now dead. But what happens is this, as Christians we sometimes compromise. Well, I'm all in for Jesus except for in this area. I'm all in for Jesus but when it comes to relationships, I'm still going to choose. When it comes to my job, I'm still going to take control.

All of us have areas in our lives where we have yet to see control over to God. All of us do. But he says here, anyone that wants to be his disciples, as Christians, we're disciples, we must give up our own way. The scripture says that we should not trust in our own understanding, but lean on his understanding. Let him guide our path. Could it be a lot of times we're lost as Christians because we're trying to do it our way and we haven't let him lead the way? Because

He's not a priority. He's not also leading our way. If you have trusted someone in their priority, you're trusting in their providence, you're trusting in their wisdom, you're trusting their understanding, you're not making decisions. I said earlier, just a few minutes ago, if we're slaves, he is in control. In the Bible, when someone was a slave, it wasn't a case like we're talking about the American slave trade where someone was kidnapped.

Kevin Toomer (12:16.982)
in force into labor. A slave in the Bible context meant I am willingly signing over my life to the person who owns me. Meaning I have of my own volition, not by force, my own volition, my gifts, my talents, my skills are now for your discretion. So when Paul, when his letters, he will start off by saying Paul a bond servant, i.e. a slave of Christ. Do you realize in the Bible

Doctors were slaves. Teachers were slaves. These are not just unlearned people. People who had exquisite knowledge and wisdom. These were slaves. Because they said, I'm signing over, seeding over my everything to you. So he says, if you're going to be his disciple, give up your own way, which we should want to do anyway. Because I don't know about you, I fail all the time when I do it my way.

I can think of many times I was like, Lord, I should have listened to you. Why did I think I knew what I was doing? Why did I think I knew the way? And you know what, man, I should have, you it's almost like putting together. I am not handy by industry. Don't call Kevin to put anything together. I might be able to fix a sandwich. That might be it. And I might mess that up. I put too much cheese or something. Don't ask me to fix nothing or ask me to assemble anything. Right. But in this context,

Imagine having to put together a table and there's parts and pieces and screws everywhere and you got no instructions. And you say, I don't need no instructions. I can figure it out. I'm just going to put the table together. And not only do you not have the instructions, you don't have a model to look at to envision what it should look like. That's what we do when we do it our

We have the puzzle, the pieces of our lives assembled everywhere. We don't know what screw goes into which, which, which hole and what, what, what hammer to use, what saw to use, what screwdriver to use. But we thinking, I could put this tape together, no instructions in your mind. And then after a while we sit around and ain't nothing put together. You know what? I really wish I could have had some instructions. I really wish I called somebody who knew something about putting tables.

Kevin Toomer (14:45.506)
That's what we do. And when we don't put him first, not only are our lives in shambles, but we don't represent him well because we have not chosen to die. We've chosen to keep our own way. You can't, let me say it this way, you can't even follow Christ effectively unless you die first. You can't. Why you can't? Because as long as you're still living for Kevin,

You're blinded to what he wants you to do because you're still thinking, you know what the way is. But when you die to yourself, when you pick up that cross and what people see someone in this context, when someone saw someone carrying a cross, they already knew that person's gone. It was not, well, they got this cross and they might still make it. Well, they got this cross and you know, the court of appeals is still working and you know what? It's still in flux and they know.

Once you were carrying that cross, you were already considered dead. And how many of us say we're Christians and we don't even have a cross? Or if we have a cross, we put it down. We put it down because we want to do it our way and our way seems easier to traverse if there's no cross on our shoulder. So what happens is if Jesus is first.

You and I have to make in our mind if we're truly disciples, we have to let him disciple us and pick up our cross, decide to die to my way and choose to follow him and go his way. Now the caveat is this. When you made that decision, you decided to do this all the way. There is no turning around. You can't put the cross down and this is the problem. Once you decide to die, dying is not pleasant. The cross is a torture device.

He's telling them consider the cost. And too many Christians haven't done that. They look at Christianity and they look at the French benefits. Okay, you know what? get a free get out of hell free card. I got hell fire insurance. But they don't realize in order to get that insurance you got to walk the path. That narrow road that the scripture says. The road to life is narrow and few find it. That's what Jesus said. Paul said and asked we must endure

Kevin Toomer (17:07.658)
many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. So if you say you belong to Christ, if you say he's a priority, you got to be willing to pay the price that comes for him being a priority. And too often we either don't tell people the cost or we get complacent or we get uncomfortable when we realize what the full cost is. But if he is first, we're not deterred by the cost. We're encouraged

by what happens at the end of the course. What you end up getting at the end of the course is worthy of the cost. So that's the second scripture I have. The next one here is the same scripture, I broke it up in a little bit. So I got another script again, a very famous one you've heard before. Luke chapter nine, verses 59 and 60. And this is what it says. It says, he said, this is Jesus, he said to another person, come follow me. The man agreed, but he said, Lord,

Let me return home and bury my father, but Jesus told him let the spiritually dead bury their own dead Your duty is to go and preach about the kingdom of God now see that's one of those scriptures that on the surface It seems kind of like God. I'm not asking you to do something hard. I'm not asking you to do something that's sinful I'm doing something that's respectful. I want to bury my father. I want to bury my loved one

And look at Jesus's promise that the spiritually did bury their own dead. You, your duty is to go and preach about the kingdom of God. Now, Jesus is clearly not saying you should just totally disrespect your duties to your parents and not this or not give your final respects to someone who's passed when your family, he's not saying that he's setting a precedent that says in comparison, that should be the priority. Now I'm going go here. I'm going go there when it comes to this too.

When it comes to these kinds of things, I think that Jesus said this precedent, like I said, we can use a lot of excuses for why we put Jesus second, but none of them.

Kevin Toomer (19:19.498)
None of them fly. Let me go there. Can you imagine standing before the Lord and you tell him, well, the reason why I didn't go and preach the kingdom and serve you was because I had a family obligation.

Kevin Toomer (19:40.362)
I would have done it, but I had an obligation with this organization I belong to and the hours and things that I had to do to commit to this organization to do certain things. So because of my commitment to this organization, I couldn't do it. Lord, I committed to my job, my career. I went to school and I worked really hard and I studied in such my career. My job was such that

I didn't have time to tell people about Jesus. I didn't have time to read my Bible. I didn't have time to pray because I was involved with family functions. I was involved with this organization. I was involved with my job and my career. So Lord, you understand, right? Because, you know, I got to work and you understand, you said, you scripture's right. You said it's not good for me to be alone. So, you know, I had to take care of the wife and the family.

And you know, I had to have fellowship with men and women in this organization because you that's how you rub elbows and you know, the church is not the church is not the building, the church is the people. So I was still having church. You see what we do? We try to marginalize and gloss over everything we do and make it an excuse to tell God that I put you behind something or something. And the problem is

We don't think God's going to hold us accountable. This story here just said it. This person was not asking for something that was unreasonable. But Jesus' response was, that's not a reason. Don't people, guess why? Because look at it this way. Not trying to be insensitive, but he's saying, these spiritual dead people, that person's gone. You going there is not going to change anything. You need to go and be about my business.

Those spiritually dead people, you being there is not going to change their fate. But right now, I have business for you to do. There's someone who needs to hear you preach the gospel, whose lives can still be rescued and redeemed. So by you focusing on people who are spiritually dead, you're neglecting my desire to have you reach people who could still be spiritually saved. You see what he's saying?

Kevin Toomer (22:03.97)
He's saying there are going to be instances where you got to choose. And he is always able to make sure when we choose him, we never choose wrong. Again, using this example, who's to say that if you went ahead and went what he said and go and preach to kingdom and then go to that funeral? You don't know who else he might send to that funeral. You don't have to be there. There may be someone else whose job by him

is to go to that funeral and represent Christ. But if he told you to go and do his will, did you do that and not say to yourself, well, I got to take care of my family. I got to do this. Not saying you can't, what's the trade off? Are you telling God to his face, I've chosen this over you? Because you don't think so. Because what happens is this, we take God's grace for granted. Because God is so wonderfully patient.

We think it's patience. We take it for tolerance. Because we do things and we don't face the immediate repercussions from God. We don't think it's a sin because God ain't slapped my wrist yet. Or we think it ain't a sin because God ain't striking me down. Or I didn't feel convicted when I did it. So obviously, God is okay with it. You see how we try to justify? Imagine telling God that you told him

that I didn't do what you wanted me to do because I had to work. The same God who gave you that job, who gave you the strength to do that job, you told him what you gave me took precedent over you. And I think what happens family, I'm going say this and I move on to the last part of scripture. When I look at things that people even do for their jobs, some jobs we do, and I'm not going to go into specificity,

Some jobs we do, we know God don't want us to do them. But we want to do them because either they fit into what our flesh wants or they're lucrative financially. So we try to justify, well, it's a job. And you know what? What I do in my job is separate from what I do for Christ. Everything we do in this life, God counts it. There's no part of our lives where we do something and God say, OK, well, that don't count.

Kevin Toomer (24:27.598)
I'm going to go ahead. You know what? You can go ahead and do that. Whatever it is. I'm not going to look. I didn't see it. So that doesn't count in the record. You know how I give another example. You ever see sometimes in courtrooms, which I always think is interesting, right? Somebody will say something on the witness stand or whatever. And the judge will say like, well, you know what? Strike that from the record. You know what? Jury disregard what the plaintiff said. You can't disregard it. You heard it.

It's not like okay, let me go to my brain and erase it You heard what the attorney or the plaintiff or the defendant said the judge tells you well You know what strike you from the record the person who's take the stenographer may be able to erase it But you can't erase what you heard you heard it and sometimes lawyers do that on purpose to try to sneak stuff in to get you thinking So just as just because you heard it you can't forget it when God whatever we do God does not segment our lives based on

This is your stuff you do for your career. This is stuff you do for me and those two trains never meet. No. When you do certain things in your career, God sees them and he holds you just accountable for what you do when you're not at work. The problem is this, if you're doing something he doesn't want you to do at your job, it doesn't matter. You shouldn't do it at all, whether it's work or whatever. And you and I can't say or try to act as if that we got a past because it was just work.

Can you imagine standing before the Lord and telling him, I disobeyed you for a job. I disobeyed you for a paycheck. Mind you, every morning I pray thanking you for life, and strength, but I'm going to turn you off when it comes time for this money. So I'm going to do things and say things and live in a way that goes against your will for paycheck. Can you imagine trying to

substantiate or defend yourself because you decided this job, this career, this organization, this whatever it is, you placed it before God even though you knew God didn't approve of it. And you knew by doing this, you were putting God second. I think there's going to be a lot of people who claim to be Christians, who said they walk with the Lord, who said they went to church, who said they sang in a choir.

Kevin Toomer (26:53.44)
said they did all these things but the rest of their lives were such that they put Jesus second that he's not going to know Him. That scripture when it says away from me you workers of iniquity I never knew you. You and I prove we know Him because we prioritize Him. But if you put Him second and you act as if you're not willing to put Him first all those as if a form of your shame of Him

The Bible says he will be ashamed of you before his father. But that's one part of scripture. Now, the last part of the same scripture, I want to read it. And this is still Luke chapter nine, verses 61 to 62. Jesus says, another said, yes, Lord, I will follow you. But let me first say goodbye to my family. It's very far right here. 62. But Jesus told him, anyone who puts their hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God.

Now I just learned this in doing research for the show. I'm not an agrarian person. I'm a city guy. I don't know about farms and stuff. But what I've read, that when someone's plowing, that the key is to have whatever bull or donkey, the key is you got to make sure that you're plowing in a straight line. In order for the crops to grow effectively, the line must be straight. But what happens is this.

The mule or the donkey or whatever, you're forcing him to stay straight. But if you were able to turn, you invariably, your arms would turn to the left or to the right. And now that straight line starts to get crooked. Now, let's go there. You're trying to stay on the straight and narrow and to serve him. And when you're serving him, you're tearing up the soil, making room for a crop's tool for him.

i.e. people making disciples. But if you turn your head or look back, now guess what? Not only are you deviating from the path, you're not fruitful. You're not able to produce fruit now. You see how serious this thing is, family? That we have to make sure that we truly are putting him first. We already read through the scriptures. He gotta come first before your job. He gotta come first before your family. He gotta come first before your spouse.

Kevin Toomer (29:19.234)
That's the key that we miss and the enemy fools us. If we put him before our job, spouse and family, he's going to take care of our job, spouse and family. The reason why sometimes all those relationships will fall is because we put them before him. You and I should be praying that God cover me and lead me to lead my family effectively, to do this job effectively.

to be with my family, honor my parents effectively, but let me do it in a way that you approve of because after all, I belong to you. So we have to make sure again, I'm gonna wrap it up here, this is not gonna be a whole episode, but just something I wanted to keep in mind, that if we truly say that we are Christians, and the word Christian means someone who is a follower of Christ, we're disciples, a disciple is dedicated

fully bought into whatever the teacher wants. A disciple has given their lives over. When Jesus was these people, said, follow me. There were follow me in the Greek. It was akulotheo which means be my disciple. He was just saying, hey come behind me. He was saying be my disciple. So we're disciples. That means he's our teacher and a disciple in this context means basically he's know in karate. He's the master. He's the sensei so to speak.

whatever he wants we do it because we're saying as a disciple I want to be just like you and if you say you're a disciple of Christ and you want to be like Christ you got to do what Christ did and he emptied himself for the sake of the cross and you and I have to empty ourselves for the sake

So this is all want to talk about again. I know it's been a while since I've an episode and I just wanted to share this. It was just kind of pressing on my mind. And hopefully this is something that gave you a little bit of a, okay, either a reminder or maybe some conviction. Ask yourself, the Bible says we should be examining ourselves. Let's see if we're in the faith. Do some examination and see if there, and ask God, are there any ways in my life where I haven't been prioritizing you, where I haven't been putting you first?

Kevin Toomer (31:41.734)
ask him to reveal it and when he does ask him to give you the strength to make whatever corrections are needed to put him in this proper place which is first in your life. I hope this episode blessed you and I will be doing something soon. don't know when when however the spirit leads me but I thank you for watching and listening. pray it blessed you and as always make sure your life shines brightest for the Lord Jesus Christ beyond the benediction. Until next time, be blessed.