God Centered
by Kevin Allen
October 12, 2025 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Isaiah 46:9-10, Colossians 1:15-19, Colossians 2:8-10, Exodus 8:22, Numbers 2, Psalms 119:10-16, Romans 12:1, Matthew 7:24-27, 1 Timothy 6:6-10, 1 Timothy 6:17-19, Philippians 3:7-10

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kevin-allen--god-centered
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Honestly, my mind is in a thousand different places right now. I was praying over there and felt really confident as I left the office with my message that I was moving in the direction God wanted. And then in this last worship song, I felt the Lord stirring something inside of me. So to those who are running the media today in the scriptures, I will give apology in advance. I don't know really where we're going to go. I'm just going to open up the word of God here and we're going to dive in and see. And if you have been a part of this church for any length of time at all, you know that is not like me. But I also know that I need to be obedient when the spirit moves. Amen. I want to be obedient. So I am going to talk about and I feel that my subject matter is the same. I do feel like maybe the Lord's changed the scripture to we need to be God- centered people. Well, that fell flat in an apostolic church in the south. We need to be God centered people. Amen. Amen. Isaiah 46 and Colossians 1 and 2 is where I'm going to start tonight. Today I'm going to read Isaiah 46 verse number nine. I'm going to pray one more time. Jesus. Lord, I desire to be sensitive to what you want to do today. This is your church. These are your people. God, I pray you would anoint this vessel of clay today. Help me to deliver your word in Jesus name. Isaiah 46:9, remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done. Saying, "My counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure." Who else but God could say that? No one. That is a God only statement. Declaring the end from the beginning and that I will do my pleasure. Colossians 1, Paul writing in verse number 15, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. And all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have preeminence. For it pleased the father that in him should all the fullness dwell. Going to chapter 2, verse number eight. Beware lest any man spoil you through vain philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him. Everybody say complete. Complete. Which is the head of all principalities and powers. In 1543, Nicholas Capernicus published his treaties, the revolution of celestial spheres. And I believe there's a picture that's showing up behind me. Good-look fellow, wasn't he? Before Capernicus, everyone thought the world was flat. and he thought that the world simply was there and everything else rotated around the earth. But it was through his discovery and it was through his hard work and dedication that he came up with this to what we know is truth that the sun is the center of the universe and everything revolves around it. But even after he was able to prove his theory, there were many that were in charge of the day, who wouldn't even look into his telescope to look for themselves to see what was actually true, what was there because they were so skewed by their view and what they had been taught in life, and it was flawed at its very core. Even the pope had a hard time adjusting his beliefs as well. I bring this up because the Bible is full of examples in truth that talk about center dynamics. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was located in the midst of the garden. We read that in Genesis. In Exodus 8, we read where God is in the middle of the earth according to verse number 22. The tabernacle was at the center of the camp of Israel's in numbers chapter 2. We also read in our Bibles where it is required of you and I to have the word of God to be central inside of us. The psalmist said in Psalms 119 verse number 10, "With my whole heart have I sought thee. Oh, let me not wonder from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, oh Lord, teach me thy statutes. With my lips I have declared all the judgments of thy mouth. I will have rejoiced in the way of the testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate in thy precepts and will have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy wordise God. So let may I ask you a question this morning as I start my message today. What does it mean to place God in the center of your life? What does it mean? If we say that we are those who follow after him, that God is important to us and that we should have him in the center of everything we do. What does that mean to have God at the center? What does it look like to have a God- centered life? What what what does it impact in our in our lives? Did have you ever thought about it? Have you ever Have you ever tried to process what it really means to have a God centered life? I remember long ago when I was growing up or our house that was on 110 Horn Springs Road, the house that I spent most of my formative years growing up in, we had an Ashley stove in the in the living room. Now, what was great about that is about this time of year when it started getting cooler, especially when it got into the cold winter months, that my dad would start a fire in that Ashley stove and he would get it going real good and we would all just kind of spend time there in that living room setting because it was the warmest room in the house and we liked being there just just hanging out and being close to that because it provided that that heat that was there. Anybody have a memory of growing up in a house like that around a stove? Yeah, you like the chassine. I just got back from a couple of days of camping and it was nice as the temperatures would fall and the sun would go down that we would have our campfire there and as the evening progressed the closer and closer we moved our chairs to that fire because there was something about that that was just kind of pulling you in that that heat and that warmth that was there and that we were able to have it in the middle of what we were trying to do. Your guiding principles of life should come from God. I'll say that again. Your guiding principles of life should come from God. Your ultimate meaning is embodied in what he lays out in his word for you and I to read. Your goals and purposes in life should focus on what God's desire is for you. Your true happiness in life is defined by God. Over the years of my life, there's been plenty of times that I've thought back on decisions I've made and they've been weighed down with sadness over how some things have progressed in my life. Especially when I when I look at decisions that I could have been better at or when I look at those who who I love, family and friend friends who have decided to turn and walk away from what God had for them. And I've watched their the progress of they distancing themselves from God. During my time of worship, as I would pray about this and ask God to help me, I came to understand that if I did not do my part in keeping God at the center of my life, and you've heard me teach this principle before, I would I would go back to my default setting, which is making me the center of my life. Have you discovered that that if you're not carefully and intentionally keeping God at the center of your life, it has a way of just allowing our own desires and our own our own wants seemingly pushes its way back to the middle of what's going on. As I've said before, when I realize what Paul was talking about in Romans 12, 12 verse number one, he said, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present yourselves a living sacrifice." You you've heard me say this over and over again that God showed me that revelation because I asked the question, "What does it mean to be a living sacrifice?" Well, you and I are still alive, right? Somebody may be sleeping right now. Wake them up. We're alive. Now, what I mean by that is that you and I wake up every day and I know I will speak from myself. My default setting is I'm back on the throne of my life. Every morning when I wake up, I'm there and I have to purpose with intent to step down off of the throne and I invite God to take his rightful place and I go get myself and I put myself on the altar again and I say to him, God, my life doesn't belong to me. It belongs to you. It's not mine to live for my own selfish pleasures or what I want. It doesn't mean that I can't have wants and I can't have things that that bring me joy in my life. But what I have found is when I only live for what makes me happy, that's a fool's errand because that happiness is constantly changing. Have you figured that out yet? But if I will live for what God desires for me, I find a different kind of joy and happiness in that life. It may not seem like that's possible at first, but I promise you, I've been way happier dedicating my life to God than I have in the times I've spent dedicating my life to myself. Amen. When I remember that God is at the center of my faith. When I return God to his rightful place, I feel a shift take place inside of me. All of a sudden, the things that have been bothering me and I find myself being worked up and anxious about don't seem to have near the impact they had at one time. And I I'm I know we're living in unprecedented times. I just was looking this past week as working on some other things that I got coming up. And in a few weeks, I was I was I was diving into some research I had done earlier this year. It is it is amazing to me the amount of anxiety and depression we're dealing with as a culture. How much pressure and stress? Anybody know what I'm talking about? Feel this stuff going on. I don't I I'm going be honest with you. I don't I don't remember this 15 or 20 years ago. I'm again I'm going to be 50 in a few months. I don't remember this. I don't remember feeling what I feel now all around me. It's not just one or two people, but it seems like the vast majority of people both outside the church and inside the church seem to be carrying all this weight and this pressure and anxiety that that that that it was we pressures and anxiety are part of life. but to the magnitude and to the levels that we're seeing today, especially in our young people. There's been a 200% increase in the last 15 years of anxiety in people that are under the age of 15. 200%. Something's going on in our world today. And I feel like that the Lord was giving me some insight this week as I was praying as we were spending some time away. Just I was reflecting on God and trying to make sure that I had my direction right for this service today. I felt like God was telling me that that there's a there's an intentional push from our enemy to keep him out of the center of our lives by any means possible. Now, you would think with all that we're dealing with in our world today, with everything that we find ourselves facing and all this pressure that's weighing down on us, that that our immediate response would be to run to God. What I have found in my 30 plus years of ministry now is that quite often times the only time we run to God is when we have exhausted all other means possible by ourselves. When everything has fallen completely flat flat, then we decide we want to get the word of God out and see what he has to say to us. I've seen people before and then and this is not me making fun or picking on them, but I'm giving you an example. I have literally seen people who have never seen them with a Bible before in their hand at all show up in my office when everything has fallen apart clutching the Bible. And to which I kindly told them, you know what would have been great is if you just started reading that a few years ago, but now we're in the midst of everything falling apart. and I'm afraid too often we do the same thing with this as we do when we got to try to find the spare tire in our car is when I can't figure it out by myself then I go here. Well, that's not what this is intended to do. This is meant to be a part of your everyday life. It's meant to be for you to take. As the psalmist says, your word have I hid in my heart. Your word have I placed inside of here so that I don't sin against you. so that I don't break what it is what you have for me. Do you have a hunger for the word of God? I know I'm being a little teachy today and I'm doing that on purpose, but I'm asking you some thoughtprovoking questions. Why do you wait till it all falls apart? This book that I hold in my hand, the word of God, I promise you, has the answer for everything you will face in your life. But it only works if you put it in. Are you keeping God at the center of your life? One of the greatest struggles in life stems from focusing on things that are not supposed to be at the center of your life. And the further you you move God out. And the more you move those things in, the more trouble we encounter in our life. Matthew chapter 7, forgive them. I didn't give them this verse of scripture, but it says this in chapter 7 verse number 24. Therefore, ever whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and it beat on the house, and it fell, and great was its fall. I love how Jesus puts these things out to me in such a plain way that we have access in our life to build our foundation on rock solid principles or you can choose to build them on fads of the day or whatever whim crosses your mind. But I promise you, I promise you, I promise you one day it's going to start raining. One day it's going to rain. And when it does, it makes all the difference on what you've built your life on. Are you going to build it on something that is sure? Now, here's the deal. And I've been doing this for long enough to now know I know that the question out there, well, well, Pastor Kevin, I don't know. I have a hard time processing those things. You know, some of that stuff that's in the word of God is kind of hard to hear. And you know what I have to say to you about that? It is. The word of God is sometimes hard to hear. The word of God sometimes is a bit offensive in how it approaches you. The word of God has this ability to go into the thoughts and intents that are inside of you and divide them up and show you some things that you need to work on. What I have discovered in my time is the moments where I feel like the word of God is a little bit difficult is usually the areas I need to work on in my life. That's what the word of God does. It reveals the thoughts and the intents are there. Sometimes those things lie dormant and we don't realize they're there. Sometimes they've been there for a long long time. We didn't we didn't really process that it was dangerous. But through reading or hearing the word of God taught or being preached. All of a sudden there's a moment where I'm like, "Woo, that's kind of tough right there. That's kind of hard. I don't know that I agree with that." Those are the moments you have to stop and not argue with the word of God, but ask God in those moments. Lord, is this something that I need to learn for myself? Lord, are you showing me something that maybe is hidden underneath the surface that's going to cause me trouble that I'm that I need to do something with that I need to process and make sure that I'm standing right because I want to make sure I'm built on a firm strong foundation that will stand and sometimes it requires uncomfortable homework. Amen. The fact is we often fail to keep God at the center of our lives because we haven't taken the time to fully appreciate all that he has for us. We like the moments when we sing a song like we just did before I took the pull pit of being in his presence and running into the throne room and helping him allowing him to meet us in our need and we feel that so overwhelming draw that is there and we get emotional and I love those moments with God and I'm thankful for every one of them but I'm also thankful for the times when I was either reading or studying myself not for a sermon not to come and preach in this pull pit, but I was reading for myself and God revealed to me a hard truth that I needed to work on myself. Or when there was a man or God or there was a woman of God who was teaching or preaching and as they begin to speak, God begin to convict me in here. I don't know about you, but I'm thankful for conviction because I'm not that good a person. Maybe you are. Maybe you live a good life. And maybe it's all sunshine and roses and everything works out perfectly for you. But that's not the life I live. I wake up every day with this old flesh fighting me. I wake up every day where there's some part of me that doesn't want to do what I what I know I'm supposed to be doing. And I have to fight that. I have to wrestle that man down to the ground and say, "I'm going to bring it back into what I know I'm supposed to do. I need to be obedient to what the word has to say." And then some days I don't like that. Is it okay if I say that as the pastor of the church? Some days I don't like it. I don't like it. There there's a desire in me that wants to go contrary to the word of God, but I know it's not about my feelings. It's not how I feel because my feelings have failed me time and time again. But what has never failed me is this word. This word has never one time left me alone or failed me. It has stood the test of time. It has been true. And when I do the right thing, I see the good consequences that come in life. But when I live to my own desires, I've seen how detrimental it is and the heartache and the pain and some things that I have dealt with and suffered because I chose my own interest over the what God had for me. Here's the here's the reality. In my early ministry years, there were some things here that I wrestled with. And when Bishop and I were talking about me transitioning, the very beginning conversations that we had about potentially me taking over pastoring this church, right after that first conversation, and Chastity will attest to this, I spent that following year deep diving back into this because here's a true statement about Kevin Allen. I love this church and the history of this church too much to have accepted the pastor. If I could not continue on and the doctrinal principles that had been taught since 1957 and if I could not bring myself into alignment and agreement with it, I would not have accepted it. So, I had to wrestle with some stuff. There were some things that that I was raised in this church. I've been here since I was 5 years old, but there were some things that that that that I didn't fully have my mind around completely enough. There was there was a few questions that I had. It's okay. You can have some questions as long as you're working towards getting answers and not just living with questions. So, I did I got down in this book and I wrestled around with some things. Even Bishop and I, we had some good conversations and in and some spirited debates where he challenged me in good ways to dig and he pointed me to some deeper resources where I could settle some things in my life so that when I came out the other side of that year and I hope you take us the right way, it was bigger than just me standing in this pullpit and preaching to you guys about these things. But I had I had these at that time these two little girls who were looking at me and I knew one day that they were going to ask me questions about this life that we live and these lifestyle convictions that we that we hold true in our household of daddy why do we do these things and I wanted to be able to rightly divide the word with them and say let me show you honey while we do it. This is why this is what the word of God has to say. And this is why we live this way. And this is why we put some fences up in our life. And there's some borders we don't cross over. And maybe it doesn't make sense according to the world's standards, honey. But we're not doing this according to the world's standards. We're doing this according to God's standard. And that's where I want to live. I want to live by God's standards in our life. So there's just some things we're not going to be a part of. And because of that, it helped me get to a better place in my life where I could settle some things. And I feel like so many people even inside this church are still living with some things that are just unsettled in your life. And I'm going to tell you right now, there's nothing worse than an unsettled foundation. That's not what you want to build a life on. There's some things that should never be in flux. And when you're building a house, the last thing you want is for the foundation to be movable. Nobody wants that house. You want to make sure it's shored up and steady and firmed and it's committed that it's there. Early in my life, my dad, my grandfather, they had a house moving company and we when I say that wasn't mobile trailers. And I say that sometimes people think like the these things did not have a hitch on the front of them. These were whole houses and we would knock out part of the foundation. We put beams in them, lift them up and we move these big massive buildings. But part of that work, we would also go to some older homes that their house was un was not level anymore and they had you ever been in a house and you walk across of it and as you're walking across the floor, this is what you do. Yeah. Not physically with your knees, but the floor went down and you came back up. So we would go in underneath those houses to the pillars and we would see where there would be gaps where they wouldn't be touching. So we would raise it up and try to make everything level out because what had happened is over time things had settled and because nobody didn't go back in and shore it back up it cause things to lean and crack and be out of whack. That sounds like Dr. Seuss. What I'm afraid of. This is the part I've really prayed about today. Please understand pastor's heart because I'm afraid there's a lot of folks whose foundations have settled and there's some things that are cracked and it doesn't bother them and they don't see that over time it doesn't go away. It keeps cracking further and further and it keeps sinking lower and lower and eventually what's going to happen is it will cave in under the right amount of pressure because life is great about bringing pressure. Have you noticed that? It's great. That's why there are sometimes as pastor you got to go back in and you got to have messages where it's Sunday, right? I'm supposed to be hooping and hollering and bouncing off the sheet rocks and swinging off these light post up here to get us going. Hurrah. But sometimes God just gets down into me and says, "Hey, I need you to do a little foundational check." So that I come to you and say with my heart out and being as transparent as I can to tell you that, hey, we need to go back and make sure the foundations are right. I'm starting to see some things creep into the church. And this happens, right? There's cycles of preaching because here here's the reality. Like you can only have one one I'm an undersheperd. I'm not this shepherd. They only have one shepherd, but I'm the unders sheeperd of this flock. And the undersheperd can only come in and shear the sheep so often. Otherwise, they get cuts and nicks and then have you ever seen a sheared sheep when the wind blows. Yeah. Because the wool's good, but sometimes, you know, you got you got to go in there and shear it off because if you don't, it's detrimental, too. So, we believe in holiness. We believe in being separated unto God. We believe it's important. But what happens is I can go I can go a couple years without coming up here doing some shearing and all of a sudden I see some stuff creeping in. And I'm seeing some things creep in and it's bothering me because it's foundations that I'm watching sag. I'm seeing it. There's some cracks that are showing up and from my vantage point, I'm looking out here saying, "Hey guys, I'm telling you, if you don't do something about that, like winter's coming. Winter's coming. It It's always coming. The rains are going to come." And you got to be built on something strong. And if you if you let it stay cracked too long, and if you don't keep God at the center of your of your life in every aspect, you may think, "Well, I don't know that I don't know that if I have to do all that stuff, you know, I don't I don't see it that That's I always one of my favorite things that people say is, "Well, that's just not my conviction." Well, I mean, I didn't know the word of God was optional for convictions. Yeah. It's not my conviction. Well, guess what? It's not mine either. But he thought it important enough to put it in the book. That's right. You don't get mad, get mad at him. There's some stuff I'm watching go on, ladies and gentlemen, that's coming in. And I'm telling you what is happening. It is slowly moving God outside the center of your life. I'm not saying you're bad people, but here's the reality, okay? And I hope you understand my heart when I say this, but there's going to be a lot of good people in hell. There's going to be a lot of people that had good intentions, that had pure intentions that won't make it to heaven. Straight is the way and narrow is the gate. Those are redlettered words. Why would Jesus say straight and narrow if there's some six billion people that claim out for all this or that or 7 billion people in the world and the 2.5 billion are claiming to be Christian? That don't seem like a narrow straight gate. I'm for all of them. He wants everybody there, ladies and gentlemen. He want He wants every one of us to go to heaven. He's not trying to have exclusivity, but he is still a holy God and he requires holiness. Without us, you shall not see him. So, whatever holy is, you better figure it out because if you don't have it, and what I see is there's a whole lot of people that are very comfortable being part-time Christians. And ladies and gentlemen, we don't have a part-time savior. That's right. I know. I know, Pastor Kevin. And it would go over better if you wouldn't do things like this on Sunday. I know. But I don't answer to you. I'm actually held to a higher standard than you. Which means one day I got I got to stand before him and say I do my best to tell them that if you can't be distinctively different from everybody else that they run into there's a problem there. God's people have always been distinctively different when you looked at them. Always. Ladies and gentlemen, there should be a separation in your life. If God is truly at the center of all that you have at all, not parts like we, it's convenient how we like to move him to different areas. Like we want God to be in the center of our finances until it comes time to pay tithes and then we're like, I don't know, God 10%'s high. or you want to keep him in the middle of your relationship until you don't like her very much. And then when it says in Ephesians, husbands, love your wives, like why did why did why did Paul have to tell us to love our wives? Well, he had to tell you because you knucklehead, there'd be a time when you wouldn't want to love her. Now, my wife's way over there right now, so I feel really good saying this, but there's been a time or two when I didn't necessarily love her in that moment. If I'm being honest, she frustrated the snot out of me. So, I had a hard time as shield. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church, willing to sacrifice his life. He had to tell us because if he didn't, we wouldn't. So, I'm commanded to love her. Now, it says, "Wives submit to your husbands." Modern modern word would be respect. Now, why does it have to tell ladies that you respect them? Because we do boneheaded things. We do. Every man in here ought to say, "Amen." We do boneheaded things. And there's going to be times, I'm glad I got amen on you. There's going to be times in the middle of me doing boneheaded that you don't want to respect me. At least once or twice that's happened in 26 few in 26 years of marriage. Yeah. But God said, "Look, you can't base this off of your feelings. Wow. Because it breaks down if it's all about how you feel. And that's where our culture has taken our world. And while we struggle so much is keeping God with keeping God at the center is because sometimes we don't feel like keeping it at the center. Sometimes I want to be in the center. Or sometimes I want I want my kids to be in the center. Oo, that's a touchy one right there, ain't it? In this North American culture, we've made our world all about our kids. I love my I love my girls. I love they are they have they have their daddy's heart and they know it and they get away with a lot. But they can't be at the center of my life. That's a place that only belongs to God. But our world says like you only got them for a short amount of time. So give them this and do that and have these experiences and it goes in there and before you know it families competing with God. That's right. Well, how can that be wrong? because God, you gave me my family and I'm to love them and they're to be they're my first mission field. That's a true statement. Your family is your first mission field. I didn't know that mission field required you to be at Disneyland. Now, before you throw something at me, to me off like we take trips and we go we go places and we will miss a Sunday or two to do those things. But what are you teaching your kids? Is it to where church and gathering and God are always optional if our schedule has another plan? You know, Lot's family was the product of what Lot taught them. And for those of you who don't know, it didn't turn out good for Lot. When God showed up and tried to evict Lot and his family out of utter destruction, his kids didn't even believe him. So moms and dads, it matters what you're teaching at home. It matters what you're making the center of your life. It matters are. And here, can I just say it this way? You you should not be reinforcing what is be what pastor's teaching at your home. No, pastor should be reinforcing what you're teaching at your house. when they come to the house of God and they hear preaching and teaching, this should not be like, "Oh, wow. I've never heard that before." It should be like, "Man, that's what mama always says. That's what dad's always telling me. Pastor saying the exact same things they always say at home." Like, I'm here to back you up. So, what are you teaching? What are you showing? What are you making the center? Relationships, family, personal welfare, job, all these things can have a way of creeping in. But relationship works best when you have God at the center of your life. Achin's family is another one, an example. Achin's family paid a high price because of his disobedience. His disobedience. So, so moms and dads, I'm putting this down where you are. And those of you who are starting out your family walk with God, those who you're starting out your life with him, let me tell you, like it sounds very easy what I'm saying today to keep God at the center, but I promise you it is a daily work. a daily work on your part. I was I was looking through and I stumbled across this little list of nine things that someone somewhere I had pulled this into in some of my notes for things and I didn't source it so I don't know where the sources but I think it's still a very good thing to read. It says as the question was asked if you had the opportunity to do it all over again what would you do differently? The man was quoted as saying, "If I could do it all over again, this is what I do. I would love my wife more in front of my children." I would laugh with my children more. I would laugh at our mistakes and our joys. I would listen more even to the smallest child. I would be more honest about my own weakness and never pretend perfection. I would pray differently for my family. Instead of focusing on them, I would focus on me that I could be better for them. do more things together. I would encourage them more. I would pay more attention to the little things like deeds and words of thoughtfulness. And finally, if I had to do it all over again, I would share God more intimately with my family in the ordinary every day of life. I would use these moments to direct them towards God. See the wonderful thing about God is that he proi he provides an opportunity every day for you to connect with him. He gives an opportunity every day for you to point to something when those of us who have family and say this is because of God. This is what God has an opportunity for you to connect the dots in front of them to make the priority for them to live it out for not just to be something that that we are Sunday and Wednesday Christians but that we are everyday followers of Jesus Christ. When something good happens in your life, do for those of you who have kids, do you do you point and say, "Hey honey, God is so good. Look what God did for us. Look what God did." Is it is it common place for him to be brought up in your conversations at home? Is it? If not, change. Make it a part of what goes on. Make it a priority on to keep him. How else will he be center if he's not center? How else does that happen? You have to purpose in your heart. There's so many are chasing so many things that are out there. And I understand it. It's easy to get caught up in the rat race of this life. Some people are seeking after education. Some are seeking after vocation. Some are seeking after after titles and status and in part, you know, none of those things are necessarily bad in themselves. You know, I don't I don't talk bad about go get an education, get a job, and work hard. Do your best at everything you do. We got Bible that says when you do those things, do it as unto him. That's what the book tells you. But don't let that become the center. Don't let those things become the center of your life. Those are opportunities for you to connect every everything back to him. 1 Timothy 6 and6 says, "Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. Those which desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lust which drown men in destruction and predition. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from their faith in their greediness and have pierce themselves through with many sorrows. Paul also talking to Timothy, young Timothy, his protege, says this in 1 Timothy 6:17, "Command those who are rich in its present age, not to be haughty, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." God. Now, when you look at this these two passages of scripture I just read to you there that godliness with contentment I' I've shared this story before but I feel like sharing it again in my transparency today. There was a time in my life I'm a very goal oriented person. That's I like to I like to make list and check things off. I've said that many times before. I know that there are kindred spirits in the room who like to have list and check things off. I know there are people in this room who are like me that I will have already done things, but when I make that list, I'll put those things on there so that I can check them off. Yeah, it makes me feel good. I'm like, I already did that. Did that. Did that. As a young man, Chassity and I, we got married. We didn't realize how poor we were. That's a handy piece of information to have. We had nothing. We had a good mom and dad on both sides that helped us out and get a little start in there, but we just we just we did we didn't we just didn't have a lot. We weren't She was still in college full-time. I had the only reason we waited until we got married when we did, I was 23, she was 19, is because when we got engaged, I said, "We have to wait until I graduated because one of us has to have a real job." So we did. And we just put our head down and work. That's all that's all we knew to do. We knew how to work hard and we worked real hard and God blessed we were always committed in our finances as far as paying our tithes and giving offerings and God was always blessing what we did there, what little we had. We never went without. We were never hungry. Sometimes we had to wait on things long time on things, but we were never hungry. But before I came on full-time with the church, the promotions and advancements in my career were pretty fast, very rapid that happened for no longer than I was doing what I was doing. And before long, we were making really good money. And I had made a list when I was in college about things that I wanted to do like salary that I wanted to make and places I wanted to do and just little life goals that were there. I know you guys probably have life goals. Well, what happened is very quickly in my life, my goals were met. So, guess what I did? I made a new list because that's what you do, right? That's the American way. You can't just be content with that. And as I was making the new list and my personal Bible reading, I ran across that verse of scripture and God convicted me. Godliness with contentment is great gain. You know, brother Terry Shock was here last Sunday and he in part of a session that he did on Saturday with some ministers, he asked the question when he said, "How much is enough? How much is enough for me?" I'll tell you what happened when I realized this and I felt like God was convicting me because he had been so good. Well, how I'm going to put it this way and you guys are going to laugh at this. Now when I say this number I'm going to say I need to reference that this was 99 and 2000 I thought when I got I graduated from college in May of 99 and this is what I thought man if I can get a job making 50k a year my life is set I don't know I'm on easy street the rest of my $50,000. You know, $50,000 is still quite a bit of money, but in my mind, I'm like, if I can make 50K, like I'm good. We're going to be rolling in the deep vacations and like this. Well, very quickly, and I said I got advancements when my last year of working secular work before I came on staff here at the church. I made I made six figures myself, but not counting chassis salary. So, I had blown away the 50K. We were we were we were double deep. Little did I know that God has a sense of humor and offered me a position at the church because that went away quick. Now, why' I say that? I had to pray that God helped me find contentment because I felt like I was doing pretty good with the godliness part. Sister Sister Brian, I was doing okay with that. But the contentment part, I got a big fat F because there was no contentment in me. Whenever I accomplished something, I went right to the next thing and right to the next thing. So, I struggled with that until I could figure out how to pray. Now, you want to talk about a dangerous prayer is when I had to pray to God. God, help me find contentment. Now, I'm still a driven person. If you don't believe me, ask my wife. I drive her nuts. I'm a I'm a driven person. But my drive has changed. Now, here's the crazy thing is I changed the priority in my life because I realized that it was causing me to keep him out of the center of my life. My drive and ambition had pushed him out of the way because I was making it about me. So, instead of him being in the center of what was going on, I was making my goals the center. Now, again, the American way says, "Go get all you can, right? Make all you can." The American way is he who dies with the most toys wins. Yeah. And here's the truth behind that. He who dies with the most toys is dead. But because of that, what happened is I was able to bring God back into the center of my life. Now, here here's what's bananas, but it's the word of God. Because I put him first. He added a whole lot more things to my life than I ever asked for. Yeah, I'm a blessed man. Chassity and I, we live a blessed life. We live a life that we I it doesn't make sense. If I was to write our story down on paper, we talk about often. None of it makes sense outside of if you keep him at the center of your life. It's not an easy life. There's still hardships you face, but the things that drove me out of my mind worrying about, I don't worry about those things anymore. I still have some worries. I still have some concerns that are there, but they're different because I put him where he was supposed to be the whole time. So, I know this message has been different today. But I just felt strongly that I had to reenter us back to be mindful that God has to be the center of your life. So, I'm going to end today and I'm getting ready to end the musicians can come because I feel like there needs to be some reentering going on in the room today. I felt I felt in prayer that God was going to lead us to a moment where we where we're going to think through how we can reenter back to him. But let me ask you I'm going to ask you some questions. All right? And these questions are meant for you to reflect because I feel like me asking these questions are going to are going are going to be an indicator whether or not he truly is the center of your life or not. For question number one, how are you maintaining him being the center of your life? God, how how are you maintaining him being the center of your life? Number two, what is your number one worry right now? Would you think about that? I'm going slow on purpose because I feel like God's speaking right now. He's moving right now. What is your number one worry? What do you fear is going to happen to you tomorrow? What do you fear is going to happen to you tomorrow? When was the last time you fasted? Now remember, these are all in context of keeping him at the center of your life. When was the last time you fasted? What was the subject of your last prayer request? What was the subject of your last prayer request? Now, I'm going to get a little I'm going to get a little deeper with this. Okay? If everything has been taken away from you, where would you turn? If everything has been taken away from you, where would you turn? When was the last time you truly expressed love for a brother or sister not related to you? When was the last time you expressed love to a brother or sister not related to you? Last question. What has God revealed to you just now that's preventing him from fully being in the center of your life? Last passage of scripture, Philippians 3, and we're going to pray. Paul talking verse number seven. But what things were gained to me? Those I counted loss for Christ. Yet doubless I count all things but loss. for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Verse number 10, it's this verse gets me every time. that I may know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death that I may know him. I don't know who this was for today, but here's what I do know is God was speaking to someone's in this place today that it was not intentional. Please don't misunderstand me. It wasn't it wasn't like you said like I don't want God to be the center. It's just because we were not intentional at keeping him at the center that other things crept in unaware and have slowly pushed him over to a corner. And he's such a perfect gentleman. He will never force himself on us. But his desire has always been to be at the center of it all. So, as I give this altar call today, is there anybody that needs a reentering? Is there anybody that maybe needs to spend a little time asking God to continue to reveal the things that have crept into our lives and slowly pushed him to the side? Again, this is I'm not talking about big big flagrant obvious huge sins. It doesn't have to be that. Again, if it's just keeping him pushed away off just enough, we often end up making life about us instead of him. So, in my prayer time, as I pray, if you feel God pulling and tugging at you, I want you to know these altars are open. We'd love to pray with you. So, at this moment, I ask every eye closed, every head bowed, if you're comfortable. I want to pray right now. Jesus. Lord, I know it's been a different Sunday and I know this is a different style than I normally preach, but Lord, I could not get away from what you laid on my heart. Well, God, I have delivered what you gave to me. Now, I want to step out of the way, Lord, and I pray, God, that you would do the work, Lord, that only you can do. that you would help illuminate and reveal to us the places in our life where we have competing things with you. Not bad things, God, necessarily, but things that have kept you from being the center of our lives. Lord, I pray that we can not only see them, not only identify them, but Lord, ask for your help to move them back to their appropriate place so that you can sit on the throne of our life one more time. God, give us courage to take the next step, a boldness in our spirit to trust in you like never before. for us not to get lost in the spirit in the age of the day and be good people who had good intentions but missed out on so much because we didn't keep you in your proper place. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. This altar is open. I invite you to come. It's prayer time. I invite you to come down and let God do a work inside of you. A work that only God can do. Let's pray. Turns.