New Year, Less Me - Part 1 - The Problem of Selfishness

[Music] all right well good morning to everyone and welcome to the well here at sts a it's great to see so many friends and family members here today hope you got a chance to enjoy some hot cocoa from the hot cocoa bar we appreciate the people who put that together great to see so many people with nametags greeting one another talking cereal like what better place to be on a Sunday morning than right here we are starting a new series today for a new year and it's called new year less me and I know what you're thinking if you're kind of new to our family you're saying father Anthony you kind of missed the whole New Year's thing okay like that's kind of long gone by now like what kind of church starts a series about a new year the last Sunday of January like people been talking about that for weeks but by now it's pretty much old news right now our resolutions a whole new year thing that's kind of long gone well I believe that's actually the perfect time to start a series on the new year because now that the initial excitement and motivation of I'm gonna lose the way drama to exercise or I'm gonna whatever whatever resolutions that was that we made now that that's kind of died down now I believe is the time to focus on what we want this coming here and now's the time to make some serious decisions about the direction of our life now that all the initial hype has kind of come and gone and we can take a hard look at where we at where we want to go in this coming year those who know me know I love setting goals I Love New Year like plans not too much resolution but I call I love to talk about goals I love to live by intentionality I like to live on purpose because I believe you heard me say this before that everyone ends up somewhere but not everyone ends up somewhere on purpose but everyone is going to end up somewhere so I'd rather kind of take charge away that's gonna be so you know what you're going to get to the end of hopefully God willing you're gonna get to the end of this year but just a matter of where it is that you're gonna be you're gonna be somewhere so I'd rather be more intentional and be proactive and say this is what I'd like to go you're going to your relationship your marriage you're dating your fiance whatever it may be you're going to be somewhere 12 months from now it's just a matter of whether or not you are intentional about where that is but you're going to be somewhere so you might as well be intentional about where your children are where or your personal spiritual life your career etc etc so one of the things that we did as a family this year we did something new we usually like I said I like to set goals like to encourage the kids are at the age now where they can set goals we do this thing as like a family we kind of set aside time set our goals where we want to go in the new year but this year want to spice it up a little bit so this year we started off by tip we took some time to identify but what is our win as far as our identity so we went through and said okay me I have lots of different hats that I wear lots of different roles what is my win in each of these roles like for example I'll share one of my roles is as a father what would be a win for me as a dad okay so one of things I came up with is I want to be an approachable father my kids are entering the teenage years I want to make sure that they feel like they can come talk to me about anything I won't go fly off the handle at least not in front of them okay when they come to me so I want to be an approachable dad if I get to the end of this year and I consider myself approachable that's a win war don't want to be as a husband can't want to be an emotionally invested husband so my wife feels like she has a place that she can talk about emotions and all that other stuff okay that it's not ruining it so we went through this okay we run through this exercise and I said where do I want to be as like you know as a boss okay because you know I'm a boss I said I want to be a great boss you know like I want I want the people who who consider me a boss say that's the best so this is like our identity and then what we did I was step one we went in the next step and said what's one habit what's one habit that we can do to get a step closer remember we did that habit series at the end of last year so I'm trying to apply this so for example if I want to be an approachable dad what's one thing I can do not a million things what's one thing and then we all kind of did this together like you know my son he wants to a certain academic what's one thing you can do to get there my daughter wants something with athletic what's one thing you can do to get their wife whatever it is what's one thing you can do and we identified these habits now here's the real secret sauce of the mess of family what we did is we created a habit tracker okay because area if you don't track it is not real in my opinion okay create a habit tracker and we posted it up on the fridge so each person in the family there's their name and theirs the two habits that they said will make them a better person than this coming here then everyday you get an ex if you did it and it's blank if you didn't do it okay so we can hold each other accountable and like encourage one another okay so we can see you know each person did they do it this day or not so their sense of accountability now some of you are like oh what a nice family what just just so we're clear okay in most families this would be a nice encouraging friendly kind of situation not in the mess of household okay we play for blood when we do things in our household so what started off his way to encourage each other became a way to sabotage one another okay and that's kind of where we're at right now like I kind of say like my wife one of her goals was that she would you know every day during lunch time do like a Bible study though it kind of her goal and then me and my daughter okay kind of looked at and she was kind of head of the rest of us on the check mark so I all of a sudden I decide to just give my wife a call around lunchtime tell her I love her okay express whatever emotions I can think of in the moment and oh there goes the lunch break now that one of her goals I thought we'd play for blood another one her goals was to get up early in the morning and pray early in the morning like when when everyone is asleep and then somehow I really know how it happened but somehow the heat started to kick on a little bit later than it used to be okay I don't really know why that is it's a little bit chillier in the morning hours not really sure how that happened but somehow you know it which is a lot less motivating to get out of bed I don't really know how that happened to me you can't ask me what it is you come to meza house so you playing ping pong you play Monopoly you're setting goals we play for blood okay where we are from here we don't do it nice and friendly because the point is to me okay all joking aside I believe in goals I believe and being intentional let me tell you what I don't believe in I don't believe in resolutions I don't believe in this is the year that I'm gonna start and then you write whatever it is that you wrote last year but you didn't make it last year like I saw this funny picture online which i think is a great way of approaching New Year's resolutions like like if we're honest this is how this is how our resolutions right like this is what it is you can just cross off the year but another year and then just just cut it okay yeah yeah number five is a funny one four and five oh really okay take it for his isn't mine this isn't mine but you could look at this and this is just like copy and paste right like this is the way the way it always is it's I'm gonna start this or I'm gonna stop this then it's the same thing here after here and I'm gonna start exercising and then it's cold and then a I'm gonna you know get there reading my Bible and then all of a sudden there's a new episode of of you know The Bachelor that came out I gotta watch who Pete picked or whatever it may be or you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna get that promotion this year or I'm gonna finish that project or I'm gonna I'm dreaming big I'm gonna sell the dog this year like whatever it may be that you're dreaming up okay whatever it is that would I can't be a whim in your eyes I think there's an inherent problem with the way we set resolutions I think there's an inherent problem with the way we approach goal-setting and I think that problem because we don't realize that problem you can do this every year for the rest of your life and get nowhere until you recognize the problem and I think the problem is this very simply the problem with our resolutions the reason they don't work because they're self-centered the majority of our resolutions if we're honest they're selfish now again I'm all about goals I'm all about improve yourself I'm all about take steps to make yourself better make your fame I'm all about that but there's something wrong when the center of life is me and when God like God wasn't created to serve me you know that right that's like 101 God wasn't created to serve me I was created to serve Him but if you look at our resolutions or goals or whatever doesn't you call it one could look at them and think that God is the servant and we are the master that we're the ones who reign and we have our objectives and our purposes and God becomes a tool forgive the expression to accomplish my means even just look at our prayers bless me give me protect me heal me God becomes all sudden he's no more king of kings and Lord of lords no more Almighty he's just some kind of heavenly concierge service upon your beck and call to give you whatever it is that you self-centered ly think is what you need in his coming year and I say this life doesn't work when I'm at the center life doesn't work when I'm at the center life only works when he's at the center Colossians chapter 1 verse 15 says he being Christ is the image of the invisible God he is the firstborn over all creation and by saying he means not you by him all things were created that are in heaven and on earth visible and invisible all things were created through him and for him one of the oldest sciences studies of mankind is astronomy and the astronomers here study astronomy okay in here like the Stars okay good astronomy is the study of the heavens the Sun the Moon the Stars the skies the heavens above but you know as much as this has always been something that's piqued the interest of humanity to look above and to wonder and to gaze and to hypothesize but for centuries astronomy was less science and more mythology it was less a science that was something verifiable and provable and predictable and it was more just like a mythology about the gods and about how the gods because everything was kind of haphazard and everything was kind of like the whims of the gods and everyone every time they tried to hypothesize this is how the universe works the calculation wouldn't add up it didn't make sense basically they came to the conclusion that that's where the gods lived and the gods had their own way of doing things and we were just under the under the whims of the God the gods and then a guy named Copernicus came around in the 16th century and you know a Copernicus said Copernicus was the first guy really the first guy to make it popular the people had said it but he came up with this idea that was not popular at the time and that was this that the earth is not the center of the universe and he came up with okay you see up there on the screen a heliocentric wears a geocentric model of the solar system before him they thought the earth was the center everything revolved around us and you can understand why because you look up at the stars okay and here you are you're not moving and the stars moved the Sun moves every the moon is moving everything is moving so they have this idea that everything moved around then and as much as they thought everything moved around them nothing made sense they would hypothesize oh this is gonna happen but it didn't happen the calculations didn't add up and then Copernicus came around said actually you know what maybe we're not the center maybe we're just a small piece of a much bigger hole and he came up with his idea that the Sun is the center and then you know what happened when the Sun was the center but all of a sudden the calculations made sense then all of a sudden you could see your eyes and predict and you could you could make sense of this chaos and in the cosmos as we kick off this new series I'm gonna challenge you I meant challenging I'm ask you some hard questions today i'ma challenge you that if you're the center of your life is off your life is never gonna work and I'm gonna challenge you - tell some hard questions is your life self-centered or God said you need to answer to me you don't need that you don't even make up an answer just to just make yourself feel we need to be honest because if the center of your existence is you I'm telling you it will not work it's not going to work it's not going to make sense nothing's gonna make sense as long as you think that you are the son and then God is simply revolving around you do you I'm sorry does God serve your purpose did you serve his and then I said at the bottom there who's the Sun and whose the earth let's be honest who revolves around who I'm telling you this issue is central to your ability to be successful in this coming year and for the rest of your life because as long as you think you're in the center and everything revolves around you I'm telling you life simply isn't going make sense for example let me show you how you ask yourself these questions you have career ambitions that's good you want to admit that's great I'm all for that you want to get promote like that's great you want to start a business I'm all for it good for you but what I'm asking you you don't answer anybody except me except you not me you say to me you answer yourself what's your motivation why do you want that career advancement is it truly for the glory of God and to advance his purpose or is it to stick it to Tom and accounting listen to your show show your brother okay you had next Thanksgiving that you are better than him where's it's just something as materialistic as I want new toys and new gadgets and I want it I want to justify my my bad spending habits my selfish spending habits you ask yourself what's the real reason ask yourself what's the real reason that you won't say sorry what's the real reason you won't apologize be honest is it for the glory and honor of God or the glory and honor of me Breyers ask yourself what percentage of your prayers are me focused bless me heal me protect me what percentage are focused on me versus God how can I be a blessing to you how could I be a blessing to this world how can I glorify you versus how you can glorify me be honest when Jesus taught us to pray tell his disciples to pray gave him the model prayer of the Lord's Prayer the our Father pray and if you look at that prayer you tell me is this a me centric or a god centered prayer the prayer begins very simply our Father who art in heaven that focused on me focused on God our Father your the Sun on the earth I'm revolving around you our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name dining your name hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done just as in the earth that is in heaven by the time we get to give us this day our daily bread the mindset has been adjusted I only want my daily bread not because I want my daily bread I only wanted to bring your kingdom on this earth as it is in heaven it's not about my day the prayer didn't start father in heaven give me my daily bread I need my daily bread bread bread bread bread bread no no no no hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done and if you know what in order to accomplish that I will I need my daily bread and I only needed to accomplish the I will but I don't really care about me it's all about you to forgive me my sins anything I've done against you or anyone else in the family of God and help me to be an extension of your forgiveness to everyone else on this planet keep me away from all that evil stuff lead me away from this stuff it's gonna pull me away from you and make me self-centered because 9 is the kingdom 9 is the power 9 is the glory amen this sound like your prayers what percentage of your life is revolving around you with God as your servant versus you as his our theme verse for this series is gonna be mark chapter 10 verse 45 and compare this again to your New Year's resolutions compare this to your list of goals for the coming year and see see the similarities Jesus said mark 10:45 even the Son of man did not come to be served but to serve and He gave His life as a ransom for many does that sound like your new year's goals if not now's the time to revise them in case you're wondering where this idea of self-centered why humanity is so self-centered by its nature why by our nature we always look at ourselves and pull towards ourselves well you got to go all the way back to the very beginning you want to find out the root of any problem on this plane you go back to the beginning and go back to the Garden of Eden you go to Adam and Eve in the fall of mankind what you'll see in that story okay of all of mankind I'm gonna say some stuff right now that I didn't really want to speak about the reason I don't wanna speak about it I'm gonna say some stuff and it's gonna make me sound smart you know one of my goals in life is never sound smart what are my goals in life I don't like to hurt my image by saying smart things okay they might ruin my reputations I'll say some stuff he sounds philosophical and theoretical you would say Oh father anything very smart but after explaining to say he really not that smart is something that anybody can get what happened in the Garden of Eden at the fall of mankind was man lost his identity as a person began to see himself as an individual ooh philosophy look at me I'm smart give me a minute I'll prove to you not that smart man lost his identity as a person began to see himself as an individual the word person comes from a Greek word the Greek word is bro so pone say it after me say pro so poem pro so pawn is a word that means a translated person but if you go deeper into its meaning it means looking towards or facing in other words the implication of the word is something outwardly oriented or better upwardly oriented looking to something else the example that I can think of would be like the moon the moon is only has an identity when it is facing the Sun if the moon is over here and the Sun is there this part of the moon has an identity that part has no identity because it is not facing the Sun now when the Moon moves okay in front of the Sun it has an identity has a meeting as a purpose without the Sun it is nothing that's kind of what pro so pond or person means it means something that is outwardly oriented or facing something else this makes sense we as human beings we are created in the image of God without the image of God we are nothing we were only created not to reflect any goodness of ourselves but only reflect the goodness that shines upon us from our Creator in heaven our identity is as a person connected to God and then sin happened and when sin happened there was a separation between God and man and man immediately began hiding from God Genesis 3:10 after man had sinned says I heard your voice in the garden is Adam speaking and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself what word is repeated four times in that one verse I that's in what happened the word individual okay comes from the Latin again this one's very easy to words in and then but an is just the prefix dividuals in let's start dividuals means divided okay in means what if you add into any word in front of it or add it words into any word it just means the opposite of so something is complete but if I put in incomplete means not complete right so if something is is in dividuals means in divided means not divided so what that means individual means a person who is not connected to anyone he is whole he is self-sufficient he take care of his life on his own and that's what you see with Adam right here i I I heard your voice I was afraid I was naked I hid myself the difference between the two words person individual the word person has an upward orientation an outward orientation looking up to God my identity is what I reflect in God the word individual means inward orientation I look at myself I'm complete in and of myself and my identity is me myself and I and what I can accomplish we were not created to be individuals we were created to be persons and every problem on the planet every problem comes from this you find me any problem in society you find me any problem in your home you find me any problem in your spiritual life and I will tell you the root of it comes back to an inward self focused orientation why didn't Cain kill his brother Abel because it was individual it was self centered it was it was self focused it was how dare he disrespect me and make me look bad I'm gonna kill him why did Jacob lie and deceive so many people including his own father because it was all about business what I want this is my plan and I can't trust God to provide for it I gotta get what's mine on my own Jonah funniest story in the entire Bible thought he could run away from God on a boat thought he could outrun God on a boat Jonah what happened to you who became all about me and it became all about I'm be okay by myself I don't need him I'm gonna go away from him run away from I'm gonna be okay Jonah you're nothing without him you're not an individual you're not self-sufficient do not complete on your own your only value but only identity isn't a reflection of the goodness of God and it's not just people in the Bible right why is it I'm so easily offended when someone criticizes me why is it why is it again Tom from accounting says one word and I'm boiling for weeks why is I'm so easily offended but you disrespect me how dare you speak about me and me and me and me who's me who's me who's me son why isn't our kids drivers bunkers when they disobey us our kids do silly little things and we fly off the handle as if there is if they robbed a bank why because about me I respect me and obey me or maybe me feeling bad about the way I was treated at work so me is taken out on them it's about me why is it we lie so easily at the drop of a hat from no purpose whatsoever I can't tell you the number of people who have told me in confession I say lies and I don't know why I say them I just say them and I'll tell you the answer because I do the same thing it's because of me it's a self-centered nature that is inside each one of us James 3:16 says it this way for we're envy and self seeking exists confusion and every evil thing are there you name a problem in this world you name an evil in your life or in the universe and I will point to the fact that self seeking is probably at the root of it we learned this okay I went too many years ago many many years ago a whole century ago the last century I graduated from college I went to University of Virginia anyone here went to University of Virginia any graduates the University Virginia okay a few okay there anyone one of the most famous professors at University of Virginia was a economics professor named dr. Kenneth L Zynga anybody okay couple of people don't he's very famous you can look him up he has his own Wikipedia page so he's got to be the real deal like okay so it's not just my opinion I remember that class okay econ 201 and I remember it very very clearly one thing that we learned in there okay there's something called game theory don't worry about what it means a case you know what is but those who know game theory is basically a way to try to predict people's behavior kind of like a behavioral science okay but more in the economic realm so try to predict when this people will behave this way I find that stuff fascinating always started intriguing like how people make decisions and how the world works that way one of the things that we learned in econ 201 you remember this one if some of you would remember it is the prisoner's dilemma you guys remember the prisoner's dilemma okay some of you've heard of this before the prisoner's dilemma is basically a matrix all right which basically says this you have two thieves who committed a crime we'll call them prisoner a and prisoner B and they committed a crime and they are say but they weren't caught but the police are suspicious so they're suspects in this crime when they really did it and they've been brought in for questioning they're immediately separated and kept apart from one another so the police are now going to question prisoner a and they're gonna question prisoner B and the way it works each of them has two options they can stay silent and say nothing or they can confess and say yes we did this and particularly name himself and name the other person those are the two options the prisoner a would by himself and he can either stay silent or confess prisoner B can stay silent or confess and they are told this will be the outcome of your decision and these are the four options if prisoner a stays silent and prisoner B stay silent they will each go to jail for one year they can't prove that they did anything wrong but they'll catch him on some kind of loophole or something like that they'll each go to prison for a year if they both confess and prisoner he says yeah he did it and young B says yeah he did it they both go for the maximum five years in prison now where it gets tricky is if a says nothing and says I don't know anything about anything and B says he did it B gets off scot-free and a goes to prison for ten years see how it works that's the upper right corner so a is silent I don't know what you're talking about and B says yeah he did it he goes to jail for ten years B goes to jail for zero years see how that works and then the inverse okay if a confesses and B is silent does everyone understand the matrix so what is you look at this and logic says the best possible outcome here is the one one but that's what makes the most sense but do you know what more than overwhelmingly more than the majority overwhelmingly you know which one is chosen which will be the final outcome almost every time almost every time why now I know if someone said that's good because there is the word confess but this is not an it confess in their spiritual sense this is more better where might be snitch okay right be snitch and ride out your friend and you say wait a minute I'm telling you every single time what's going to happen is five five every single time why you say if these guys could just get together go for the one one man like just just just do what's best for it for each other and then you'll each go out in one year that's the best overall but economics games theory then it'll always be five five you know why because no matter let's take it from aids perspective no matter what B does in his session a will always be better off snitching if B stay silent and a snitches he walks away scot-free if a stay silent he gets a year what's better zero or one and vice versa if B stays B confesses a will always be better regardless of what B does a will always be better in that category because either he's going for zero or five and be the same things true does everyone see how it works what this theory says is that people will always act in their own self-interest no matter what the other prisoner does I'm in a better shape if I snitch on him cuz I can't risk him stitching on me and if he doesn't stitch on me but you know what I go out scot-free now this isn't to say that people cannot act selflessly cuz of course you can act however you want you can make whatever decision you want but the point here is that by our nature we are self focused we are self centered and I got news for you all of life both within and without encourages self centeredness how's that for an uplifting date at the will welcome to friends and family day just been told that you're a miserable person you're gonna be selfish for the rest of your life realize this there's only part 1 in this series alright so we're gonna go we're gonna we're not gonna stay here but the goal of today was really to identify the problem because if you don't identify the problem you can never solve the problem and if you think the problem is you know what like I'm all for like I said the outer changes those are great I need to be nicer to my wife you know I need to pray in the morning I need to not lose my temper I need to control my anxiety those are great but what I'm saying is the problem may be deeper than that the problem may be the deep inside the center of your life is wrong and if the center of your life is you it's never gonna make any sense and just so you know when I say the center of your life I know what some of you were thinking the good people in the room are thinking yeah those other people those non-church people they don't have God at the center like I do I'm in church thank God the central here I'll tell you something here Church people this applies to church people and knotch you can be a church person and not of God the center of your life you can be a good boy or a good girl a god may not be at the center of your life so don't look at that I'm gonna show you a parable or and we're looking at one of the most famous parables in in the New Testament parable of the prodigal son or the loss son basically sits in prepare book it's about a man with two sons and one son was good and one son was bad but you know what both were selfish and both were self focused because in the beginning of the story what you'll notice is the younger son was out of the house and the older one was in and at the end of the story the younger was Ian and the older one is out we're gonna look at a couple verses from it and I want you you can see very clearly what was the cause of leaving the house for the younger okay and then returning and then vice versa what was the cause the older one being on the outside of the house you're gonna see if self-centeredness let's start with a younger one the younger one said to his father Luke fifteen twelve give me the portion of goods that falls to me this is the language of self-centeredness give me give me money give me Fame give me promotion give me relationship give me give me give me maybe worldly maybe not worldly but it's a give me focused attitude or mindset the older brother you say he was the good boy good boy was no different he just says the same thing but in a kind of a looking backwards kind of a way Luke 15 29 lo these many years I've been serving I've been serving you I never transgressed your commandment at any time meaning I'm the good boy I go to church I read my Bible I do all the good stuff yet you never gave me you never gave me a young goat that I make me marry with my friends and sometimes we're honest this is us I go to church all these years god I served you faithfully but you never gave me the relationship that I've been asking for needing all these years you never gave it to me you never gave me that position that I need you never gave me respect you never gave me a happy home you never gave me peace in my mind in my heart you never gave me my questions to these sons booth the son and who's the earth who is here to serve who whose purpose do to serve father or father serve yours the inverse of this is a passage from revelation chapter 4 which I love not just the words we'll see in a second the words are beautiful but I want you to see that picture the book of Revelation is written in a very illustrative way so you can with your mind you can visualize it so I want you to visualize this picture and see the difference between these two boys the prodigal son story and this picture in Revelation chapter 4 verse 9 through 11 says whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne who lives for ever and ever so the first picture we see is there's a throne in the center and stuff is revolving around it and people are revolving around it that the center isn't the people and God isn't round it the center is God on the throne and the people around the throne all around the throne and look at the vent away it the images ok verse 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying you are worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created I love the picture Christ on the throne everyone else around is this the way your life is if I opened up your heart on the inside I'm not telling you the answer I don't know the answer but I'm saying you got to wrestle with it if I opened up your heart on the inside but I see Christ on the throne and you casting your crown and bowing and offering him honor and glory would I see the exact opposite what I see it that you me I sit on the throne God bow before me God serve me God this is what I want this is what I need twenty twenty the year of this get on this don't delay this who's on the throne and who is around the throne I know it sounds like a negative I know him sounds like I'm bringing the the thunder today but that's not my intention by any means my intention today is not to say you're bad my intention to say my intention today is to say we all got a problem on the inside and until we properly diagnose it we'll never solve it so let me give you the punchline for the rest of the series okay and then we're gonna break it down over the coming weeks in a much more practical way the punchline is this because selfishness is at the root of all of our problems selflessness is the solution in other words the solution is not to get rid of selfishness you cannot remove the negative what we're gonna do we're gonna fight with the positive I cannot remove the dark but I can light a lamp I cannot remove the disease but what I can do is medicate the disease and the same way the goal here is not to say I'm never gonna be a self-centered person I'm telling you human nature whether it's economics whether it's Garden of Eden whether its prodigal son human nature is self-centered we are always going to be think naturally think about ourselves all of life around this is pushing us to think about ourselves but what we are gonna do we're gonna be intentional we're gonna go against him and we're gonna put in the antidote to selfishness the antidote to self-centeredness is God centeredness the antidote to selfishness is selflessness and we're gonna do starting next week we're gonna talk about some practical ways that we can practice selflessness that we can practice coming to serve not coming to be served we trust that when we do that right on the positive front will see some effectiveness from our fight when I was young many years back when I was young I remember I had some kind of a rash or something appear on my arm remember what it was I was young at the time I had some kind of rash okay he was all over this it was like itchy so my mom went out and bought me this cream okay just whatever kind of generic cream it was to put on there and make the rash okay not itch as much so I put that thing on there okay and it felt better for a little bit but the rash kind of came back like it's just it's just until the thing wore away and it was just kind of you know putting a bandaid on it and then but it didn't really do anything then I remember we went to the doctor and the doctor said you know you have some kind of infection you know whatever you know viral infection bacterial and finally what kind of infection I was you know probably eight or nine years old the time you have an infection they say you got to take this medicine they say you gotta take this medicine to clear the infection I remember I remember being very confused like I didn't get it a doc I got a problem on my hand you tell me put a pill in my stomach I don't know put the pill on the hand like I had a problem here how is a pill here gonna solve a rash here like come on doc like where'd you go to school what I didn't at the time that hopefully the doctors in the room get hopefully get okay it says you got to go to the root is the rapture is just the surface the ration is the thing on the outside but until you go inside and get the source of the infection they just treating the symptoms Jesus tells us the same thing your problem is maybe outer but the root of them is inner and that's why you got a first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish not the outside you got to start inside the goal again not just be nicer not just be kinder but take a look inside see who's sitting on the throne who's the center of your life who's serving who and if you look this is the life that Jesus showed us this is the life that Jesus came to model for us I like for he said I didn't come to my own will came to the will of my father who is in heaven and I gladly lay down my life nobody takes my life from me I don't he said it that way but that's why I would have said it nobody takes my life from me I lay down my life willingly nobody takes it from me because the Son of man didn't come to be served came to serve and it's all for their sakes I'm telling you if you're trying to change your outside behavior but you're not willing to look deeper you can do that all day and all I make all the resolutions you want all you're doing is rubbing cream on a rash that comes from an infection that's all you're doing come up with all the resolutions you want say all the prayers that you want to read all the Bible passage you want read all the books do everything that you want to do you're not willing to go to the center and say is my life self-centered or god centered rub all that cream all you want never asking it or going only gonna get worse you're gonna be confused and how come and this false advertising and get a bigger cream put more cream and kids like the organic cream or whatever maybe cream but in the end problem goes much deeper the good news in this series the good news and with the good news we're nice in here and talk about how bad we are week after we that was just kind of today to set them at the table force starting next week we're gonna do is we're gonna talk about how to live that selfless life we're gonna get real practical gonna talk about giving we're talking about serving we're talking about those little things being faith from those little things we're talking about how all those things together are means by which we can practice a christ-like selflessness a god-centered miss but God on that throne now what I'm really excited about in this series is the last week of the series make sure you don't miss it don't miss any of the parts of this series but make sure you don't miss the last we're gonna have a special special special presentation we're gonna talk about a special opportunity that's coming up here for us as a church to really do something big in our community right here I'll make you wait to the last week to talk about it but that's where to me our way of practicing this selflessness that we're gonna be talking about for this coming weeks because the only way the only way according to Jesus to get life right the only way to get it right the only way for the calculations to add up for everything to work the way it's supposed to work is I take this life and I give it away to the one who created it he said in Matthew 16 said if anyone desires to come after me let him deny himself not himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever desires to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it welcome to the new year goal of this year new year bless me new year more him all him and me just come as a servant we're not made to be self-sufficient we are not made to be like the Sun where the moon at best we are not made to be individuals who are self-sufficient and complete on our own we are made to reflect the goodness and the glory of the one who created us we revolve around him not him around us and if you can get this thing examined and you can address this situation I guarantee you our nose can happen to you at work and I was gonna happen your family but I guarantee you you get this self-centered godsend everything right you will look back on 20/20 and it will be a success because God is sitting at the throne and not you let's stand together for a prayer the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit one God amen Heavenly Father we thank you this reminder that you gave today Lord that we all really needed every now and then Lord we need to kick in the pants to remind us that we're not the center we're not the ones who the world revolves around it's not about my plans or my desires or my wishes but we're here to serve you you came to serve Lord not to be served and how dare we think that we're any better the Lord during this series we really pray that you'd help us all to examine our hearts to know the true state of our hearts no more fool ourselves can't fool you Lord and we can't really fool ourselves either help us know the true state of our hearts and come to a place Lord where you sit on that throne high and lifted up where you belong and we around you as your servants where we belong pray this in the mighty name of your son prayers of all your saints here says we pray thankfully our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil 1 in Christ Jesus our Lord for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever amen thank you everyone for joy

Channel: STSA Church

Views: 3,829

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Id: fvnJmbwSEcA

Length: 43min 54sec (2634 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 26 2020