"Christian Enemy #1" with Doug Batchelor

the elders have a call session where we get together thursday night and most of us have a little notification reminds us thursday night 8 30 the elders in the church we have a prayer by phone time together and uh during the prayer time elder mike rich was asking he said so who is christian enemy number one so you're gonna have to come and see when we think about christian enemy number one i already saw people online when i announced what the sermon topic was it was that's the devil no not really you know you probably heard the expression public enemy number one you know who the first public enemy number one was emperor nero that's right 68 a.d he was declared by the senate to be hostas publicus you don't ever want that title and he ultimately was committed suicide with the help of a servant and then we had you know the roaring 20s and 30s where eventually the fbi was formed and but at first chicago started to declare people public enemy and you had a number of people were public enemy number one you had john dillinger and pretty boy floyd and baby face nelson and bonnie and clyde machine gun kelly al capone was a public enemy number one there's dillinger up there and more recently one that you've probably heard in the news did you know that joaquin el chapo guzman was public enemy number one now we think about these things for them to be declared the number one public enemy would mean that they're bringing a lot of misery into society a lot of violence a lot of drugs a lot of broken families and deaths and and you know dillinger was robbing banks and murdering people capone all the organized crime in chicago and so when i say christian enemy number one you might automatically think that it was the devil i'll just tell you that this christian enemy number one has caused more war divorce drug abuse persecution pain and death than any other individual and you might be wondering what if it's not the devil is it alcohol pornography covet vaccine the pope who is christian enemy number one all right now is the moment for the great reveal do you have a mirror on you you remember when nathan the prophet told this stirring story to david about this terrible man who took his neighbor's prize sheep the family pet killed it and fed it to some guests david was so outraged and he said that man is going to pay fourfold and he's going to die and and nathan said you're the man you remember when jesus sat around the table during the last supper he said this night one of you is going to betray me and one by one they went around the table they said lord is it i lord is it i lord is it i finally judah said lord is it i and jesus said thou has said so public enemy number one christian enemy number one i should say is you you are your biggest enemy when i get up in the morning and i look at the mirror i look at my biggest problem in being a christian and you probably agree with me that it would be my biggest problem but you might want to point to your neighbor right now and say you are your biggest problem you might not want to do that too but that's the truth it's self selfishness is the number one enemy for the christian so in the presentation this morning we're going to be talking about the four things we're going to talk about the condition the cause the crisis and the cure first let's take a moment and talk about the condition the condition of selfishness which is bringing so much misery into our world i heard about two kids that were riding on one of those rocker horses that's got the springs and little brother and his little sister is there bouncing around and and finally the brother said if one of us would get off there'd be more room for me one of us would get off more room for moi isaiah 53 6 what is the problem the condition is all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to you know the rest of that his own way all doing our own thing it's like judges chapter 21 25 where it said in those days there was no king in israel but everyone did what was right in his own eyes selfishness is just kind of chronic it's so hard for me to go 10 minutes without thinking about myself and when you really think about it yourself is the reason behind most of the decisions that you make it's not all bad i'll get to that in a minute what is selfishness selfishness is excessively or exclusively concerned with oneself seeking one's own advantage pleasure or well-being without regard for others it's not a sin necessarily to think about yourself but whenever you do something selfish or if you sin you know you cannot always say the devil made me do it sometimes when we sin it's just because we want to the devil might exploit your natural selfishness but we are all naturally since the fall motivated by love for self james says in james 1 verse 13 and 14 let no one say when he is tempted i'm tempted of god for god cannot be tempted to evil nor does he himself tempt anyone but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires we've got our own built-in desires and we're drawn away by these and enticed can't always blame the devil now it is not a sin to love yourself you're just not supposed to be loving yourself supremely what's the great command love the lord love your neighbor as yourself do you notice it never really commands you to love yourself it assumes you already do the things that are commanded in the bible are things we naturally have a problem with the bible says you shall not lie why because we lie we've got a problem with that you're not to steal you're not to covet and so forth it's because it's commanding us not to do the things we're naturally prone to there's not an eleventh commandment that says love yourself more because that sort of comes naturally now there are quite a few verses that say you shall love your neighbor as yourself matthew 22 29 galatians 5 14 for all the law is fulfilled in one word even this you shall love your neighbor as yourself quoting from leviticus 19 18 and then james 2 8 for if you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture you shall love your neighbor as yourself you do well i have no problem with the second part of that the loving myself the hard part is loving my neighbor as i love myself am i alone anyone else out there struggle the whole gospel is summed up jesus said in matthew 7 12 therefore whatever you want men to do to you do also to them for this is the law and the prophets a couple of kids were sitting in the bible class and the teacher said if someone strikes you on one cheek jesus said you need to turn to them the other a boy hearing that got a great idea and he pulled on the braid of the girl in front of him he says now you've got to let me pull the other one and we kind of turn it around in fact you would not be alive if you did not have a little bit of normal love for yourself you'd never eat you'd never rest you want to take care of yourself you'd walk right out into buzzing traffic you wouldn't survive very long unless you didn't have a certain naturally wired propensity to preserve your life to care for yourself even people that struggle with low self-esteem are sometimes really struggling with worry too much about themselves they don't think they're worth much because they're thinking a lot about what others think of them see what i'm saying and so i realized that i'm not diagnosing anybody here and there's some serious conditions but uh i have met a lot of people that they're constantly struggling and depressed and when you talk to them their depression springs from a preoccupation with themselves a lot of people who are really liberated are the ones who take up their cross daily and they're not they're not worried about what everybody thinks about them because they're dead you can't hurt the feelings of a corpse when you're crucified with christ it doesn't bother you so let's talk a little bit about the cause why do we have this problem some of you have heard of the word narcissism and it comes from greek mythology about a character narciss who was a hunter and supposed to be extremely good looking and one day going through the woods he saw this crystal clear pool of water and he leaned over and he looked in the pool to get a drink and he saw his reflection and he was so enchanted with his own reflection he fell in love with his own reflection and he could not pull himself away from the pond and he ultimately starved to death because of love with himself and that's where we get the word narcissism i've also heard that daffodils have a scientific name of the narcissus flower well that's just greek mythology but the bible says that it really did begin with the being that was so in love with himself isaiah 14 talks about the devil lucifer not happy with his glorified station he was a beautiful angel brilliant smart and he decided to put the equation backwards see the equation is love the lord with all your heart love your neighbor as yourself someone said the secret to happiness is joy jesus others you j-o-y jesus first others you we usually flip it around and it's always us first someone said that the word sin i is in the middle of sin it's always about i the word pride p-r-i-d-e i is in the middle of pride and selfishness is at the heart of so many of our problems i do marriage counseling every now and then and in almost every case it's the the the dispute the friction boils down to selfishness in almost every case probably every case i'm just leaving an opening in case i'm wrong but every case i could think of it was selfishness on the part of one or both usually both one usually more than another in my opinion and that just brings about all kinds of problems so the devil he wasn't happy with this station he wanted god's place for you have said in your heart it was a heart problem i will ascend into heaven i will exalt my throne above the stars of god i will sit on the mount of the congregation on the farther sides of the north i will ascend above the heights of the clouds i will be like the most high he wanted to be god you know what the first commandment is you shall not have any other gods whenever you're selfish you're breaking the first commandment i'm not saying if you're hungry and you feed yourself you've broken the first commandment but when you start behaving selfishly you're really putting self-worship ahead of god worship and virtually any kind of idolatry springs from selfishness matter of fact breaking all of the commandments usually is connected with selfishness love is the fulfilling of the law they're opposites of each other the motive behind everything the devil does is selfishness he is completely preoccupied with self-love and pride jesus is the ultimate diametric antithesis of the devil the devil is completely controlled by the motive of self jesus was completely controlled by what does the bible say god is love all of us are struggling between those two driving motives in our hearts the new heart why are we willing to walk in god's ways because the holy spirit has shed the love of god abroad in our hearts because of love for god and love for others because god loves us we start loving others because he loves them and we love what he loves and that's how you flip that equation upside down instead of always putting our so you know you can do some very holy things for selfish reasons you can give money to the church so that you can make a big impression you can give money that's selfish you can give money to the church so you can ease a guilty conscience that's selfish i've heard a lot of pastors quote from malachi chapter 3 verse 8 talking about prove me now he'll open the windows of heaven he'll pour you out a blessing i've done it i've quoted that and we're playing on the selfishness of the members what will i get i'll get a blessing okay i'll give you not love for god or love for their fellow man they're wanting their barns to flow over right and so we can do jesus he attacked the root of this in the beginning of his preaching he said to the hypocrites he said you pray to be seen of men you can pray selfish prayers trying to impress the people who are listening you're not even thinking about god listening you're worried about the people who might be listening talking about public prayers not private ones jesus they pray to be seen of men they fast i want everyone to think i'm pious and religious and self-denying and we jesus said they would disfigure their faces and then go and someone say what's wrong oh don't worry about me i'm just fasting how long has it been breakfast haven't had anything for breakfast and they try to impress people with their their holiness he says you pray to be seen you fast to be seen you give to be seen they go to the church get ready to make an offering they say can we get the trumpeters over here blow the trumpet look at this everybody and they drop their big offering in the box and jesus said they didn't give anything the only reward they get is not from heaven it's the glory of men but that widow over there that put in her last two mites that doesn't want anyone to notice she has given more than all of them because she did it out of love for god so see so many things we do on the outside religiously satan said i will be like the most high but you know selfishness is the road to self-destruction what will be the end of the devil self-destruct what happened to judas hung himself and king saul fell on his sword and a hitherfell counselor of david he hung himself people that were living for selfishness they tend to self-destruct the ones who have eternal life are the ones who put god first steps to christ page 17 a great quote here man was originally endowed with noble powers and a well-balanced mind he was perfect in his being and in harmony with god his thoughts were pure his aims holy but through disobedience his powers were perverted and here it is friends selfishness took the place of love bingo underscore that selfishness took the place of love adam and eve when created their hearts were filled for love for god love for each other and then after sin god said what did you do he said it's that woman you made says the woman it's the snake you made and also they start to blame each other and from that day to this day every baby born is naturally selfish i remember theodore roosevelt's daughter said you know her dad was a bright man a good man he's one of my favorite presidents but he had an enormous ego she said he wants to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral he always wanted to be the center of attention was always about him he had an enormous ego james 3 verse 16 for wherever envy and self-seeking exist confusion and everything is there self seeking is the foundation for every evil i dare you to try sometime and make a little mental note of how many times you make a decision based on what's in it for me you ever heard of with him with him with him is just an acronym for what's in it for me when people sit down to write a contract they're both thinking with them a lot of people when they start dating they're thinking with them that's right they're wondering they're not saying i think i just want to shower this person with love they're thinking well what do i get out of this oh yeah they're good luck and they seem smart they'll make me laugh and they cook or whatever you know and it's always about what's in it for me and so much of our thinking is with them thinking we it's it's chronic children because of adam and eve sin are born selfish one of our kids when they were little their sibling was fighting over a toy and they came in and they said daniel's being shellfish and shellfish are unclean this school teacher in milwaukee took her class on a tour of a dairy and this class of you know second graders they went on this 45-minute tour the dairy and they saw you know the cows and they saw the milking machines and they saw the stainless steel pasteurization equipment and and after this tour the one who took him on the tour asked the kids said do you have any questions and one little girl raised her hand she said did you notice i'm wearing my new snow suit after the whole tour the only thing she could think of was are you noticing me and sometimes children never grow up we learn how to hide it because it's considered very uh socially um undesirable first corinthians three verse one through three and i brethren could not speak to you as spiritual people but as to carnal as the babes in christ for where there are envy and strife and division among you are not you being carnal and behaving like mere men you know so often the strife that you might even see in a church it's falling out of selfishness and uh well i'll tell you you can really test the church's sanctification during nominating committee i'm glad we postponed another few months because of covid there are some good things about covent right pandemic because even christians if we feel like we're not being recognized or we're losing the position that we had we can start acting like children a mother was preparing pancakes for her children kevin was seven and ryan was five and they started to argue with each other about who's going to get the first pancake the mother thought this is a good teachable moment and so she said well if jesus was here he would say let my brother have the first pancake at that point ryan turned to kevin said kevin you get to be jesus using a religious garb he that falls in love with himself ben franklin said will have no rivals someone else at the smallest package in the world is someone wrapped up in himself why do you think facebook is so popular you post and you say i wonder how many likes i'll get people become and you know social media has really made it's created an avenue for people to without any shame just completely let out all of their selfishness it's just like here's what i'm doing here's what i'm thinking here's where i'm going here's a picture of me and another and another in another and here's what i'm i'm gonna do and i want you to watch me do this and do that and sing this and say that and here's a picture i drew and it's just like wow and billions of people spend hours not just looking at other people's selfishness but then posting their own and it's all about me now i know i i use facebook too i posted the sermon last night and then i wanted to see how many likes i got see who would notice so we've got this condition and it's because of the fall that we're all born with this nature children bless their little hearts and i know the kids can do the most lovable adorable things but those of you who are parents know that sometimes you wonder if they're possessed because they can be very selfish a baby cries in church because they're having a plumbing problem they're bored they don't like the sermon they're uncomfortable and and you say can you please you know be quiet you're disrupting all these people and the kid goes oh i'm sorry i didn't realize i apologize will you forgive me i could care less all they're thinking about is what i got this need i want some attention last time i screamed it worked i'm gonna scream again and like i said sometimes we never completely outgrow that so there's a crisis selfishness is at the root of all sin that's why we need to talk about christian enemy number one it's always easy to say it's the devil out there and it's his fault he made he made me do it but no i think we need to realize it's something on our inside and deal with that second timothy this is a verse we're going to spend just a moment on second timothy 3 verse 1 if you have your bibles i hope you do but know this in the last days i wonder how far off they are in the last days perilous times will come and then he begins to itemize the problems for men will be lovers of themselves lovers of money boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy unloving unforgiving slanders without self-control brutal despisers of good traitors headstrong haughty lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god having a form of godliness doing all those things having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof keep in mind timothy is not writing to the saying this is what the world is going to be like out there he's writing to the church the church the world has always been selfish the world has always had this record and litany of sins paul is saying the last days it's going to be in the church selfishness in the church unleashed now notice the first thing men will be lovers of themselves i'd like to suggest that he starts out by saying here is the sewer pipe selfishness everything else i'm going to mention flows from lovers of themselves now like i said it's not a sin to love yourself in a healthy sense so as you love your neighbors so forth but it's talking about selfishness being preoccupied with her own self comfort william gladstone that uh british prime minister he said selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race paul says in romans 2 8 but those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness on them is going to fall indignation and wrath this is a real crisis friends you know why because if you've got all this selfishness in the last days in the church how's the church going to do our work how does the world know that we are jesus disciples by our love what's the opposite of selfishness love and the opposite of love selfishness there's those two motives isaiah 56 verse 11 it can happen even with ministry yes they are greedy dogs which never have enough they are shepherds who cannot understand they look at their own way every man for his own gain from his own territory ezekiel puts it this way chapter 34 verse 8 for my flock became food for every beast of the field because there was no shepherd didn't neither did my shepherds search for my flock but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed my flock so if you've got selfishness in the clergy they say that if there's a mist in the pulpit there's a fog in the pew if you've got problems in leadership it's going to magnify itself as it goes down that can happen in government too no look at the history of israel every time the king went south spiritually he took the kingdom with him when the king turned to idolatry the people turned to idolatry that's true in the church if you have pastors that are selfish you're going to have they're going to be preaching messages that appeal to everyone's selfishness and you end up with a very selfish congregation and a selfish church all you've got to do is flip through the channels these days friends and you hear pastors saying if you'll give your seed gift of faith god is going to open for you the windows of heaven you'll get that new pickup truck and you're going to get that new house you're going to get that promotion and you're going to get this and you're going to be better and you're going to go on and it's going to be your year of victory and you're just going to get grander and better and gooder and you ever heard of this stuff it's all what they call prosperity preaching and so you've got it's not just in north america it's all over the world where christians are being exploited by spiritual leaders for selfish reasons and they're preaching a selfish gospel and they end up with just chronic selfishness and then what comes out of that lovers of themselves lovers of money proud blasphemers disobedient to parents so forth you know what the only thing that's going to change hearts is love you notice in the verse that we read it tells us that we are to deny ourselves jesus said unless if you want to be my disciple you must deny yourself that means denying your selfishness take up your cross and follow me that's the only way we're going to make it friends isaiah 3 i'm sorry isaiah 30 verse 10 who say to the seers do not see and to the prophets do not prophesy to as right things speak to us smooth things prophesy deceits that's what the church is looking for the last days give me a preacher who's going to tell me what i want to hear do not tell me to repent of my sins and certainly don't get specific about sin that's considered very tasteless second timothy 4 3 for the time will come where they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their desires because they have itching ears they will keep up for themselves teachers they say i got itching ears i want teachers they're going to tell me what i want to hear and so you end up with a selfish congregation a thousand christians were asked in a survey why does my church exist 89 said the church's purpose was to take care of my and my family spiritual needs it's all about me 11 said the purpose of the church was to win the world for christ so why does the church exist is it all about me if we come to church i hope that you are blessed i hope you're edified i hope you're inspired i hope you're encouraged i hope you're taught and instructed i hope you're transformed for the better through coming through belonging you know you're not a church member one day a week we're hoping that you're involved in ministry all week long amen but that's not the reason we exist christ has called us into the church to be his body and what did his body do he came into the world as a servant christ said i am your lord and master i came into the world to serve if you follow me i'm calling you to serve he wants us to do the work of god to share the gospel he wants us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked not just feed them with food but feed them with the bread of life and not just clothe them physically but the right robe of righteousness of jesus and not just give the thirsty drink but give them the living water we're to be doing all of those things so we come to learn how to serve how to give those that come to church and say all right i guess i better put in my time so i can call myself a christian i can go to heaven and they they come to church and i didn't get anything out of the sermon who are they thinking about really we're supposed to be coming saying lord i am here to serve you we hope you get something out of the sermon but you know if i've gone to church in other countries where i did not even speak the language but i was visiting in another country i went to church to worship god i didn't understand a word that was said sometimes i got up and sang a song i recognized the tune i'd sing it in my language but i wasn't there because i expected to get a lot out of the sermon i was there because i wanted to come and to worship god and you know what the fallout was i met some really sweet people later that did speak english and we you know end up having a nice lunch with somebody but if we'd all come to say i'm going to worship god and i hope i learn how to better serve god but we need more christians that are have the mentality of we're here to serve because there is there's a crisis john powell said i doubt that there has ever been one recorded case of deep and lasting fulfillment reported by a person whose basic mindset and only question was what am i getting out of this you'll find no fulfillment in that way a selfish heart loves for what it can get a christ-like heart loves for what it can give and then part of the crisis is selfish ambition look what it did to the church even in jesus day mark 10 37 the disciples said to him grant lord that we may sit one on your right hand and one on your left hand in your glory who were james and john thinking about they said well you know there's going to be a pecking order in this new kingdom and we better you know we better think fast if you snooze you lose we better be the first ones to go to jesus and say who's going to sit on your right hand and who's going to sit on your left hand you've probably seen events where they open the doors and everyone rushes for the front seats that's what was happening philippians 2 verse 3 and 4 let nothing be done through how much let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself let each of you look out not only for his own interest but for the interests of others now i'm not saying this to be hard on you i'm saying this because i'm actually an expert in selfishness you know when i first came to the church and i realized there are certain standards and i'd have to quit drinking and smoking and cursing i thought you know that's good those things are bad and you know i praise god was able to give that stuff up and then as i got baptized the lord said all right doug we're glad you made some progress on these obvious outward addictions he said now i want to look on the inside by the way doug selfishness is also wrong and i started looking at how often i thought selfish proud thoughts and it was terrifying it's like it's like breathing it's like all the time and i thought lord how in the world can i stop being so selfish i was here yesterday doing some work on the church no one else was here i was worried that no one would know so i wanted to tell you today so i did some work and then on the way out of the parking lot i saw that that windy day had blown over the school you know we share a parking lot here with the school and it's blown over their basketball hoop and it was bent on the ground i thought i got my tools in the back so i fixed the basketball hoop and i looked around i thought it looks so much better it's fixed it's standing up straight and i thought but nobody saw me do it so i decided not to mention it because that would be a selfish thing to do oh but that went through my mind i thought how do i let someone know i did this they're going to see it's fixed and they're not going to know who it's like the story of the geese that were flying south for the winter and they had to say goodbye to the frog they said it's time for us to head south he's why are you going south beautiful weather where we're going it's going to be warm and sunny frog said you know i really don't like freezing over in my pond every winter he said anyway i can go with you guys and they said well we don't know how that's going to work out he said well what if i get a stick and each of you takes one piece of the stick in your mouth and when you take off you get a running start he said you take off i'll hang on with my mouth he said i got a strong mouth and i'll just wrap my tongue around it and i'll hang on and you can take me with you and they said well we're willing to give it a try so it worked they took off and there was a frog hanging from the stick that the two geese had in their beaks and as they're flying by a farmer looked up and he said will you look at that i have never seen anything like that before that is brilliant i wonder which one of them thought of that the frog could not resist he opened his mouth said i did we laugh because it's true jeremiah 45 5 and do you see great things for yourself do not seek them for behold i'll bring advan adversity on all flesh says the lord philippians 1 15 some indeed preach christ even from envy and strife and some do it from goodwill the former preached christ from selfish ambition and not sincerely had to ask myself sometimes i preach a sermon morton sometimes and i think i wonder how well i did and it's like john knox was standing at the door following one of his sermons and a lady came out and said pastor knox you're the best preacher in all of scotland he said i know ma'am the devil tells me that every week and i have to keep reminding myself doug it's not about exalting you it's about exalting me it's not about how well you did or how good you look it's how good i look and so often it's absolutely terrifying to think how the tentacles of selfishness intertwine all of our thinking and some of it is like normal like i said if you're hungry you can say well i'd like to feed myself that's okay you don't have to feel bad about thinking the normal self-preservation if you want to look good when you walk out the door i hope you do feel that way actually it's okay to want to be presentable and christians should you know take care of ourselves and we should brush our teeth and all that stuff that's not being selfish it's when you don't love others because you're preoccupied with yourself you know children if they don't get instant satisfaction they cry some of us still pout if we don't get what we want so what's secure i could i could go on for hours talking about selfishness because like i said it's the foundation christian enemy number one if you want to see your biggest enemy take a look every morning in the mirror and it's usually preoccupation with yourself if we can take our eyes off of ourselves and fix our eyes on jesus and think about the love that god has for others that's when we start to experience healing from this deadly disease of selfishness and it is deadly what is the cure first corinthians 10 24 let no one seek his own but each one the other's well-being well i would rather think more about me than you i find thinking about me more interesting i find thinking about me more satisfying but the lord is telling me no doug you can't live that kind of life and i have found that as i see how jesus values other people i actually get some benefit from loving others doesn't jesus say it's more blessed to give than receive see we all want happiness we think happiness comes from spelling you first then others than jesus he said no you'll never find happiness that way that is a perversion of my plan it must first be god than others then you don't you won't get left out in putting god first and others first you will find the highest satisfaction that's where you'll find the greatest benefit second corinthians 5 15 and he died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves but for him who died for them and rose again when we say jesus save me from my sins you know what you're really saying save me from my selfishness because all sin springs from selfishness isaiah 53 all we like sheep have gone astray we've turned everyone to his own way now i read that part already but here's the rest of it and the lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all all the suffering for the sins of the world that was laid upon jesus is because we went our own way so when we decide to follow him we cannot just be living for ourselves we're not following ourselves now we're following him and trusting him you know i'd like to invite you to try something today before the day is over pray for the holy spirit to guide you and reveal to you if there's an occasion where you're acting or thinking or behaving selfishly and say lord help me to do the unselfish thing you know what happens over time is it gets easier to say to be thinking it's always about me and it's something that being a christian notice what paul said i die daily what did he mean by that i die to myself every day when jesus said you will daily deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me every day you know what that means it's not a one-time event it's not like getting on a plane and the pilot's going to drop you then at your destination when you walk off the gangplank it's like you in a sailboat constantly making tiller adjustments because the wind is blowing you this way and the current is blowing you that way and you've got to constantly be watching the compass needle of god's word and say oh there i go selfish again got to bring it back selfish again bring it back and so i'm submitting to you that it begins with a conversion where you get a new heart because if you don't get the new heart you can't do it you get a new heart and it's a new heart whereas love for someone outside of yourself becomes supreme you see jesus dying on the cross for you and it touches your heart we love him why because he loved us first he first loved us why do we love others because he loved us if god so loves us shouldn't we love others these are scriptures i'm quoting your friends so it begins by seeing the love of god that means every day when it says take up your cross i'm crucified with christ what's being crucified yourself you're going to deny living for yourself you're going to have to consciously say i'm not going to make all my decisions about what is the best thing for me and you know i find i get opportunities about every 10 minutes in my thinking in decisions that are made to say yeah that may not be convenient for me but what does the lord want me to do i'd like to say this but maybe that's not what the lord wants me to say i like to do that and and sometimes i fail i often fail it's so easy to just not be conscious of it and think and behave selfishly you know there's a couple of uh individuals in the bible that illustrate this in in closing if you look in the gospel of john chapter 12 it talks about a dinner that jesus had six days before the passover jesus came to bethany where lazarus who had been dead who was raised from the dead and there they made him a supper and martha served but lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him then mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard and anointed the feet of jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil but one of his disciples judas iscariot simon's son who would betray him he began to murmur and said why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 daenerye and given to the poor sounds very religious isn't it this he said not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and he had the money box and he was jealous he was upset that this money if it gone to the money box he could have prolonged some of that for himself judas was lost because of selfishness he ended up hanging himself because of saul he betrayed christ for 30 pieces of silver selfishness he wanted to sit next to jesus because he wanted that position of high regard but it was all selfishness mary she tried to slip in unnoticed crawled in went down to his feet she gave made a sacrifice didn't want anything just wanted to bless jesus she anointed his head with the oil she anointed his feet with the oil and with her tears washed his feet kissed his feet there's only two recorded people in the bible that kissed jesus judas kissed them on the face and betrayed him mary kissed him on the feet and served him one was motivated by love one was motivated by selfishness judas hung himself before the cross christ revealed himself to mary first after the cross and everyone here is going to fall into one of those two there's no third option one of those two categories either your life is going to be a life of love for god and love for your neighbor it's going to be a life of living for yourself and it can happen in a church it can happen in christian homes we can go through the facade of going through the all the the religious motions and still be entirely motivated by selfishness it's only as we confess our helplessness and our selfishness to jesus say lord i don't want to have this selfish heart i take the stony heart out of my flesh i want the new heart i want to be a new creature i want to be motivated by love for you i want to live and serve and give and you know one reason christians don't witness we're afraid of what others might think of us we're afraid of rejection or embarrassment don't go on a mission trip because we're afraid of the risk the cost selfishness chokes evangelism and if we were more emptied of self we would be more bold for christ so i don't know about you friends but um i'm praying that the lord will work that miracle in my heart that's the gospel jesus died to save us from ourselves you and i we are christian enemy number one and i want that new heart i want that new birth i want to daily make those course corrections where i say lord i'm not going to make the selfish choice i want to make a loving choice and it becomes more natural that's how children outgrow their selfishness they've got to be taught and we must be taught

Channel: Doug Batchelor

Views: 103,005

Rating: 4.8901906 out of 5

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Id: 7qhOplK9z6s

Length: 48min 10sec (2890 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 27 2021