Authentically Christian

Introduction

I want to start this morning with my biggest problem. You’ve been waiting on this sermon for a long time. Should we just form a row starting here? We might not get out by noon for everybody to line up and come talk to Tony about what his biggest problem is. This could go on all day. Actually, you know what I mean, right? This is a problem that is common to all of us. It’s my problem. It’s your problem. It is what the spiritual battlefield is all about. I can’t make a sermon any more personal than this. Don’t look around at your neighbor. You look at you. Also, I could not decide on one title for the lesson. I sent a title to Scott and Martha, and a title that you can use when you post it to the website because it’s the shortest of the three.

But it’s from this verse in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 3. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind. Let each of you regard one another as more important than himself. If there is a verse that I might like to ignore and remove from the New Testament and not observe it might be this one. There are several, actually, in Philippians 2. And, like do all things without murmuring or grumbling and disputing. That’s another verse 12. This is a very challenging text to me. This is a wonderful text. I want you to know the context of this statement. I’ve preached about it several times. It is the example of Jesus. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ, that talks about his sacrifice.

I’m not going to go into all the context this morning. Add Philippians 2 to Mark 2 this week. Remember, that’s our next chapter in our daily Bible reading this week. So add Philippians 2 to Mark 2 so you can see everything that goes around this statement. But we’re going to be focusing on just that first part as it affects how we interrelate with others. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. Not a lot of verses today. We’re just going to get this one. And if we start practicing this consistently, our lives are going to change for the better. We will be authentically Christian. That’s one of the titles.

Don’t you like it when I do something different? Three titles today. I like it when I do something different. Title number two. I couldn’t decide because they’re all very important. Authentically Christian. Title number two. Who do you care the most about? That’s an important question. I want you to think about yourself now. What’s going on up here in the old noggin? Who do you care the most about? And I guess I like this next title the least, but it’s really what the sermon is all about. And that is a healthy view of self. Boy, we need that. And that’s the part where it says, but with humility of mind. Let each of you regard one another as more important than yourself. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time.

1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 6. So those are the three titles. Be thinking about those as we go along. And I want to start with this question this morning. Every time you see this screen, it’ll be a new thought or a new point. But this is still the introduction. What if what I want to do, and we’re confronted with that all the time. Our brain is saying, I want to do, I want to do. What if what I want to do and choose to do displays little to no regard for others. But instead, it greatly endangers them and really says, I don’t care. Because we live in a world where this is the anthem of so many. And it can find its way into the hearts of people who sit in pews like this.

It’s all about me. They may not literally wear the button, but they might as well.

That’s what this lesson’s about. We’re going to avoid this. Hopefully, by teaching, by putting into practice some things we talk about today. Now I’ve got to tell you what happened on our way home from the airport about three and a half weeks ago. It was late Thursday night later, about an hour later than I thought it was going to be. We had the late flight coming in from Tampa. We were with all kinds of Florida college. I think we were with like seven kids coming home to the Houston area from Florida College. It was sort of cool. One was our nephew. And so we’re all on the plane together, and we get in late. I’m visiting with Don Hooton, who’s there picking up his daughter. Don preaches in the woodlands.

It’s pretty cool. And so then we go get our vehicle, Sherry’s car, park and ride, and we start driving home. And of course, there’s a lot less traffic. One of the reasons why I’m flying so late. A lot less traffic to get back from hobby at 10.30 at night. So we’re motoring our way home and about to get home. We’re excited to be home, of course. Good to spend time with the family. Always good to get home. And so it’s late Thursday night, and we pull on to 249. Well, I had, well, let me let me just hold off on that. Okay, we pull on to 249. And we move over, as I like to do as quickly as possible, into about the second lane from the far left lane, because everybody’s trying to exit 1960.

So I move over as I get on 249 into the second lane. There’s one empty lane to my left. And we’re just motoring along. There’s a few cars on the road, always is in Houston. And all of a sudden, whoosh! Our car shakes. Sherry and I, our hearts leapt. I mean, it we were oh, we were we both caught our breath. This guy, I hadn’t seen him in either of my mirrors. This guy comes out of nowhere. I guess he had his lights on. I hadn’t seen him. He comes flying down. I had to tell Thad this story. Thad’s already heard it because you know how fast he likes to drive. And this guy has come flying to my left and shook our vehicle. I said, What if I tried to change lanes?

I don’t know how fast he was going. It had to be well over a hundred, if not 120. Cool part of the story. Just as we were about to get on 249, I noticed that I was behind a constable. And he was still over in sort of the right lane. I guess he was that planning on exiting. And right after that happened, we’re trying to catch our breath. The next thing I noticed, brake lights in front of me. That guy is slowing down, and the red lights from the constable are on. A couple of miles down the road.

The guy was pulled over. That didn’t go that fast. The guy is pulled over. I told Sherry, I want to roll down my window and go, yeah! Yeah. Because of how he had scared me. You think about that, driving that fast. What if I had changed lanes? We actually, Sherry knows a story about somebody getting hit by somebody going really fast, and the results of that was the death of a person. Do people give any thought to this? Of what this could mean in the life of someone else. What about drinking and driving? Do you think people intend that night to kill the person as they have impaired their judgment? You know, their judgment is impaired. When they started the night, they may have would have thought, I won’t do this.

But because of the fact that they’re drinking and their judgment is impaired, something horrible happens. It wasn’t their intention. It’s not, I’m going to go out and kill somebody. I’m going to go out and remove a family member from someone who loves them very much, who is innocent and just going from here to there. I’m going to go kill that person. No. But it’s all about them, you see. That’s what’s going on in our culture. And so I want to ask this question as I conclude the introduction. Where is the appropriate balance between a healthy God-honoring self-esteem or view of self. Where is the balance between that and what we read in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 3? An inordinate view of self, an inordinate devotion to self, an excessive devotion to self that is destructive and harmful to my life and the life of others.

1. What You Should Love About Yourself

That’s what this lesson’s about. Now, point number one. Let me talk to you for a second about what you should love about yourself. Galatians 5 and verse 14. I don’t have the verse written out, Galatians 5 and verse 14. Passages like this in the Bible have always captured, maybe not always, but recently captured my fascination. In a context where Paul is talking about how we ought to exercise our freedom and through love serve one another, he says, For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, you shall love, and maybe that’s the one word, but certainly as a declaration of what the law is all about. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, you shall love your neighbor.

Okay, I got that, but it’s the as yourself part that fascinates me. So obviously, there’s something about yourself that he’s appealing to here when he says, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. What about this? Okay, this is practical for marriage. Everybody that’s married, if you’re not married, pay attention to, you’re gonna be maybe one day. Husbands, love your wives what? As you love yourselves. Just as you care for your own body and nourish and cherish it. Love your spouse. That’s the point of Ephesians 5 28 and 29. Great verse about how to make marriage work. And what I want to say about these texts, as I say, now remember, Jesus, Galatians 5 14, Jesus says this many times in his ministry, at least it’s quoted in Matthew and Mark and Luke.

The greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. From the book of Leviticus 19. So this is off quoted. In fact, in James chapter 2, it is called the royal law. In a context where he’s talking about how you treat the person who comes into your assembly, whether he’s poor or rich, you know, he gets the same regard because he’s a person made in the image of God. Love your neighbor as yourself, and faith without works is dead. That’s that whole James 2 context, where that’s called the same law, is called the royal law. None of these texts are encouraging. The Whitney Houston classic song, The Greatest Love of All. The Greatest Love of All is Self.

Unless she didn’t mean what I think she meant when she said that. Well, yes, the greatest love of all, a proper love for God, and a love for self, but love your neighbor as yourself. But what does that mean? Love your neighbor as yourself. So whatever affection we have for ourselves, the Bible is saying we’ve got to keep that in the proper place. Right? Whatever view you have of yourself. Well, here’s what I should love about me as I understand the Bible story. What I should love about me is that I am God’s product. And again, that’s not about me. That’s about him. He’s the creator who endowed me with a soul. What I should love about me is that I am God’s product made in his image, designed to glorify him and to help others to do the same.

I love my God-given soul and want to be with my God forever. And we made this point in Bible class, and I want to make it again as we talk about this part of the lesson, what you should love about you. And that is that you are in charge of you.

Welfare, especially spiritually, and your salvation is ultimately going to depend upon you. Day of judgment, Sherry could say. But God, I might have made it had I not been stuck with him. Maybe some truth to that. I probably, I maybe didn’t contribute like I should have, but that’s not going to fly. Not going to fly. She has responsibilities to serve God and do what is right regardless of what I do. And so do I. That’s what I mean. We’re not going to be lost as a pair. We’re not going to be saved as a pair. We’re going to be saved as individuals who fulfilled our responsibilities in marriage and in every other way. You are in charge of you. And I want to say this as I say that.

No one knows your needs like you do. Not even your spouse, who is the closest to you in the world or ought to be, not even your spouse, who knows you better than anyone else. Even though you’ve tried to express them, and you should do that and try to understand what the other is saying. No one knows your needs like you do. Who knows the thoughts of a man, say the spirit of the man that is within him? So I have to convey those. If I have needs, if I need to convey those. She’s not a mind reader, I’m not a mind reader. Good communication, we talk about that all the time. Nobody knows your needs like you do, except for God. No one knows your pain and struggles like you do.

Not even your mate. Who should be trying to empathize with you and help you through your struggle. No one knows your pain. You know when you’re sick, you say, oh, it hurts, it hurts. Oh, it hurts. Where does it hurt? Well, it hurts here. How bad does it hurt? Well, it hurts bad. And they can tell by how you respond to the pain. Okay, this hurts worse than a hangnail. Okay, they can tell that you’re really in pain. They’re really suffering here. And so when that happens, kids, it’s time to empathize. That’s when you say, Oh, honey, what can I do to help you? And that’s what we’re talking about this morning. And so you really go into action because this isn’t a headache that’s going to go away in 30 minutes.

They’re in some pain here. But as much as they try to empathize, listen, nobody does that better than God. Because he knows your pain and struggles like nobody else. So I said what? You’re in charge of you. Nobody cares for you like you do. That’s what these passages are saying. Just like you have the ultimate care of yourself as your focus and responsibility. That’s what these passages have been saying. Galatians 5.14, Ephesians 5.28 and 29. Just like you have the ultimate care of yourself. That’s why you get up and you brush your teeth and you and you make sure you’re clean and you comb your hair and you and you eat breakfast, you try to eat square meals. I mean, your focus is on yourself. And it should be that way spiritually too.

I want me to go to heaven. You should want you to go to heaven. So just as you have the ultimate care of, and the ultimate care is spiritual, the ultimate care of yourself as your focus and responsibility. Now, once you have that, don’t neglect yourself. And we’re going to get to that at the end. Don’t neglect yourself. Not saying that. That’s not what Philippians 2 and verse 3 is saying. Certainly don’t neglect yourself spiritually, but not even emotionally necessarily. Hold on. But just as you have this, and man, this is innate. You’re born with this. You know, when that baby comes out, what’s that? This, hopefully, this week. Today. Going to start crying. Take care of me, please. I’ve got a problem. I’ve been introduced into this harsh and brutal world.

It’s cold out here. It was 98 sixth in the womb. Wrap me up in a blanket right now. Give me a bottle. Change my diaper. I’m hungry. I don’t feel good. My tummy hurts. What the baby? It starts at the very beginning. The baby’s concerned about the baby. It hasn’t learned about caring for others. It can’t care for others. It’s a baby. See what I mean? I’m off the chain today. So you have this natural concern for yourself. And God doesn’t want that to go away. He’s telling adults this. You care about others as you care about yourself. So as you get to be a big boy and a big girl and an adult, you start saying, you know, just like I care. This is growth, by the way.

This is spiritual maturity. When you start looking, you say, okay, I’m going to try to tend to some other people. And help them with their focus and responsibility. You know, people have helped me all the way along in my spiritual life. People trying to help me to take care of me. Now it’s my job to take care of me, but they’re trying to help me to take care of me, and that’s what we’re all about here. Alright? Particularly the one that’s closest to you in the world. It’s my job to take care of her. And it’s her job to take care of me. Because that’s what you sign on to when you get married. And that comes first. Brethren are important and significant, but that comes first.

2. Your Needs and Wants Versus Approved Authenticity

Not always an easy balance to strike. What this is saying is not that I’m responsible for her, and not that she’s responsible for me, but I must give great effort. Not just for her, but for you. For other people as much as I can. Great effort in that regard. So that’s what you should love about you. Now let’s talk about this. Let’s not get inordinate here. Let’s talk about your needs and your wants versus approved authenticity. Now, what is approved authenticity? If you don’t know what that word means, it means being genuine and real. Authentic. It means God saying, that’s the real you and I approve of you. That’s what I’m talking about. That’s what we want, right? Doesn’t do any good if everybody else thinks I’m authentic, if God doesn’t, if he thinks my Christianity is a sham.

Alright? So approved authenticity versus what our needs and wants are. Now, this is where it’s starting to get personal. Philippians 2 3 gets personal right here. Because we struggle to distinguish between needs and wants.

This may be a bad illustration, but we’re like Bill Murray. And what about Bob? As he hunts down his psychologist, Richard Dreyfus while he’s on vacation. Poor Richard. I mean, he is destroyed by the end of this movie. He is trying to get away from his work, and his work follows him, and it’s Bill Murray. What about Bob? And so he hunts down his therapist, Dr. Leo Marvin, and when he finally gets to him, and is a long process of finding out where he is, and he gets to him, he says, check it out. I’m in really bad shape. Come on, please, give me, give me, give me. I need, I need, I need, give me, give me, please. We’re like Bob a lot.

I need a new house. I need a new car. I need a new TV. I need a new job. I even need a haircut. But are any of those things absolutely essential? I mean, think about it. If I have food and covering, therewith to be content. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 8. But we but we I need those things. And it’s not wrong to acquire those things per se. But we must constantly be on guard in regard to our perspective here. And by confusing our needs and wants, our by confusing our needs and wants, our needs. I mean, our wants, rather, instead of our needs, our wants become the end all and be all of everything. I want it. Therefore, I should have it. Whether it’s fornication, adultery, lying, gossip, smoke, smoking marijuana, drinking, or I want to run around immodestly.

That’s the short list. I want it, but what I’ve convinced myself of is I need it. I need it. Therefore, it’s okay. Sherry has started drinking, I don’t know why. Anything that says vinegar on the label, no, sir. I don’t want it. But she thinks it’s good. And so she’s been drinking, particularly the one on the left. That’s her favorite, apple cider vinegar. Don’t really care about that so much as what they do with these caps. Now, I could have taken a picture of this. It says live on it, drinking vinegar, drinking vinegar. But what’s cool, it’s like a fortune cookie. On the inside, and I should have thrown it in the center here, but there were so many of them I would have had to go in and out, fade everything.

I didn’t do it. But we’re getting to that in a minute. Some of them are pretty benign. In fact, they’re consistent with what the Bible is telling us, and that’s why they’re good. When they say things that are Bible concepts and Bible principles. You are you unique? Let me look out there. Yeah, you’re all pretty unique. Boy, there’s some unique ones in this group. We’re all unique. Live, laugh, love. Well, that’s a good prescription. High five dwellness. Particularly spiritual wellness, we might throw in. Don’t forget to smile. Everybody throw your smile on. Happiness is contagious. Love is always the answer, properly defined, I might add. So those are some good ones. Well, then there’s some that I might say are a little more marginal. It’s all good.

That’s a tough one when you’re hurting really bad. Now you might say, well, it’s all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose, Romans 8, verse 28. No, I’m not sure that’s exactly what that means. Sometimes you hurt. And I tell you, when you’re hurting and when you’ve lost a loved one like the Bakers and the Lairds have.

Well, as a product, again of God’s creation, certainly. Love your body. But if that means expose it to the world because you’re so in love with it, not so good. And we have people that do that in our culture. Cheers to wellness. Well, that’s sort of like the other one, high five to wellness, but I don’t like the cheers part of it. If we’re going to drink about it, I’m opposed to it. Okay, minor issues there. But then there was this one, and I happen to have this one with me. I let her save the others. But not this one. Speak your truth. Who’s the standard of truth? It’s not me. What if my truth doesn’t match God’s truth? And then there’s this buzzword, and I got it in the cap.

Because this is the one I want to talk to you about. We’re talking about being authentically Christian. And this says, be fearlessly authentic. Well, now again, if you mean that in regard to don’t be duplicitous, don’t act, and that means deceitful, don’t act a certain way, but really on the inside, you’re something else. Proverbs 23 and verse 7, as a man thinks in his heart, so he is. He seems to be hospitable, but all the time he’s saying you’re costing me money by having to provide this meal. That’s the context. So if you mean by this, be fearlessly authentic, don’t be duplicitous, okay, I can go with that. However, this is what I’m concerned about. What if this, well, this is who I am, so you just need to accept me as I am.

What if your authentic you is not in line with the will of God? You can be authentic all the way to hell. Did you catch that? You can be authentic all the way to hell. Because what we’re saying is, well, this is who I am, then whatever who I am is becomes my God. You know, I have this desire, and so therefore I need to fulfill it. If you want to be, if you feel more like a girl than a guy, then you go transgender. That’s the authentic me. I watched 60 minutes. I started recording it because there’s some good stuff on it sometimes, but you want to kill people on the streets of Chicago. They’ve got a real problem on the streets of Chicago. It’s in the news all the time now.

You want to kill people on the streets of Chicago over your gang turf. If you want to be a gangster, if you want to kill people because of your gang turf, it doesn’t matter who it hurt. It doesn’t matter again who’s deprived of a beloved family member. It’s because that’s what you want to do. You want to be a killer. You want to get a gun off of check baggage, you want to shoot people in an airport. That’s the authentic you. Well, then by all means be authentic. You see, there’s no regard for others whatsoever. I want is God. It’s the new self-esteem. Be fearlessly authentic. What I want is God. But at what cost to other people? It’s just plain selfishness. And it’s not the gospel.

Be fearlessly authentic. Yes, if that is a consistent thing with what you really are. If that is consistent with how a Christian is supposed to think about, hey, and that’s right there in Titus 2, 11 through 14. The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness. Now you may have a penchant towards something ungodly, but you’ve got to deny that in this gospel. Deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live righteously and soberly. He goes on to say, in this present age, and be zealous. He says in verse 14 for God. And that, and he mentions self-control. You can’t just say, Well, this is who I am and let it go, regardless of who it hurts. You’ve got to restrain yourself.

And I’m sorry, folks. I’m going to have to quit preaching if I’ve got to take self-control out of the message. If that’s what people are demanding, then I guess I would have to preach to a church of a few people who are interested in hearing it. Because that’s the gospel. I can’t take that out. Yourself, your authentic you is going to want to do some things that the Bible doesn’t allow you to do, that Jesus righteousness doesn’t allow you to do, and you’re going to have to say no.

3. Selfishness Gone to Seed

This is authentically Christian. Now I have to say something here. Couple more points about selfishness gone to seed. You’ve heard this term. What happens when a pattern of selfish behavior turns into a personality disorder? Never heard this term until about 10 years ago. I’m guessing 10 years. Then people started using the term narcissist. And now it’s thrown around, referring to anyone who is predisposed to vanity or dominated by self absorption. But that’s not what this is. This is not just one predisposed to or dominated by being self-absorbed or selfishness. This actually waters down the term. This is a clinical term. This referred narcissism, see, we’ve watered down the term because anybody that’s selfish gets called a narcissist. You’re generally selfish, you’re a narcissist. Raw. You’re selfish.

This is technically a personality clinical disorder of self absorption. For a minute, I need to talk to you about everything you never wanted to know but need to know about narcissism. I read an article this week in the midst of my frenzy. That was epic. I’ll send it to you if you want. Tell me up. I’ll put you on a list, I’ll send it to you. It’s awesome. This is our world. Five sneaky things that narcissists do. Great article. Short, but great article. Enlightening, powerful. Now, again, I’m not a psychologist. So this is my disclaimer for this point of this lesson. I am not a psychologist. But this stuff is everywhere. Quick Google search yesterday. Psychology Today. Field guide to narcissism. How to spot a narcissist.

I bookmarked both of those. Read a time.com article. Because I searched. Who is more likely to be a narcissist, male or female? Just think about it. What do you think? Females are actually more prone to depression than males are. And you might have known that. But not narcissism. It has to do with the male psyche. But most psychologists attest that it’s a greater problem with males, low females, of course. This article said research has long suggested that if you’re looking for someone who’s preening, strutting, self-absorbed, arrogant, exhibitionistic, conceited, insensitive, and entitled, you’ll find more of them in the boys’ camp than you will with the girls. Somebody says, what if there’s a narcissist at Decker Prairie? Could this sermon help them? I’m here to tell you.

Probably not. That’s what’s sad about this disorder. They’re not going to think it applies to them. I would hope it could. And maybe I’m preaching this to try to prevent anyone from becoming a narcissist. I don’t know if it’ll work or not. I’m not a psychologist, but I but I’m going to try to get you not to be selfish, which is the disorder. It is being so self-absorbed that’s what your whole world is about all the time. Well, and listen.

Surely no one would fall in love with a narcissist and not know it. There are some articles on that by about a trillion. Because let me tell you what they do. It’s really, and this is what the five sneaky things about the narcissist taught me, which I thought was extraordinary. There’s three stages to this. First is idealization. And this is where they love bomb you. That’s what it’s called. That happens in courtship, by the way. All you can think about is them, and you send them all these cute little messages and notes about how wonderful they are, and you’re putting them on a pedestal. It happens naturally in courtship all the time. So a person’s unsuspecting. Because this kind of infatuation, you know, that’s the way it works.

You’re the greatest thing in the world. You’re better than eating. In fact, I may not eat because I’m so in love. You know, and so it starts with this idealization phase of love bombing where you get praised and flattered and put on a pedestal, but listen to this. You may be fooled into thinking that this means a narcissist is truly interested in you when in fact he’s subjugating you. And I added that, but he is subjugating you. He is making you dependent upon him for flattery and praise. He is putting you in a dependent position where you need him. The narcissist is always in need of a supply. That’s what I’m going to say he because it’s generally he. That’s what he is doing. Then what happens?

But then the sad truth unfolds. Shockingly and abruptly, you are thrust from the pedestal. The narcissist will suddenly start to blow hot and cold, criticizing you, covertly and overtly putting you down, comparing you to others, stonewalling you, emotionally withdrawing from you, and giving you the silent treatment when you fail to meet their extreme, and I might add impossible standards. You are there to feed his or her self-absorbed world, and you aren’t living up. And so now you were once on a pedestal, now you’re not really sure where you are. You wish you could go back to the other, but you’re not going to get there because ultimately what happens is you are discarded. And woe to you when you are discarded. Because when the narcissist no longer, this is the clinical guy, this is not the selfish guy.

When the clinical guy decides that you’re not supplying his need anymore, you’re done. And that doesn’t matter. That doesn’t matter whether you’re the spouse or someone else who is not feeding the supply. You get discarded too. That’s scary. The pedestal slowly disappears, probably to be revisited no more. And in this stage, the narcissist reveals his authentic self. And you get a glimpse of the abuser that he was all the way along. You bear witness to his or her cold, callous indifference as you are discarded. And this is as close, the article said, that you’ll ever get to seeing the narcissist’s true self. It is the genuine contempt, and this is the really amazing thing about this disorder. It’s really the genuine contempt that he felt for you all the way along.

4. Avoid Self-Absorption

It didn’t feel like contempt when it was in stage one, but that’s the basis of the disorder. Maybe contempt for himself, maybe something that happened in his childhood. He’s got issues here. So that’s the short of it, actually, the very short of it, on narcissism. Somebody said, Oh no. I was selfish a few times this week. Okay. So here’s let’s let’s let’s take you out of the realm of narcissists. Okay, we’re still dealing with selfishness. We’ll always deal with that. Let’s do this. Avoid self-absorption. There is a difference between self-care that is healthy self-care, and being absorbed with yourself. This is the nuts and bolts of this, and we’re almost done. Develop a habit, a pattern of serving others, expecting nothing in return. Jesus says in Luke chapter 6, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Jesus.

If you’re concerned about selfishness or somehow becoming a narcissism one day, take the focus off yourself and say, How can I lift up someone else? How can I make my spouse’s life better? How can I make my brother and sister’s life more comfortable, better? You see, I am in the business of taking up my cross and following after Jesus. Now I found this quote. Be careful. It’s almost like the caps. It’s not selfishness to love yourself. Take care of yourself. And then it’s this last phrase. Again, it depends on how you define that first part, loving yourself and taking care of yourself. No, don’t make yourself God. Okay, but then to make your happiness a priority. Now, there is a competition between your care of self and what you perceive your needs to be and your service to others.

And let me just tell you, there is a tension there. There’s a tension there.

I hate, and sure I can tell you this, I hate telling anybody no and disappointing. I don’t want, it drives me nuts. One of the things I hate the most in this world is being a disappointment to people. But sometimes it is necessary because of circumstances that only I know, I have to say no. And when somebody tells you no, don’t assume the worst. I know that from personal experience. Don’t assume sometimes you have to say no. Say yes whenever you can. More on that in just a second, as I come to the end of this, but I want to make a point about this. This is not what Jesus displayed. Philippians chapter 2. Was Jesus’ happiness the priority? Oh, I just can’t wait to die on the cross.

5. Authentically Serving God and Others

Please, let it come sooner. He said, Let this cup pass for me. His happiness was to not go to the cross. But he says, in this instance, the need of others outweighs what I want. That’s what we’re to try to mirror. And so, as we come to the end of this, authentically serving God and others, this. In your service to God, we talked about this in the Malachi class this morning. We always need to ask why. You know, service to others can be all about us. How so? Jesus talks about that in Matthew chapter 6. I want to be regarded as the great servant of God. Maybe everybody will bow down and worship me. More on that tonight. And maybe everybody will bow down and worship me and think that I’m just the most wonderful Christian ever.

And so my motive is, or the most wonderful preacher ever, or the most wonderful elder, the most wonderful Bible class teacher. You see, it’s really not about service, is it? It’s about trumpeting your good deeds before men, being seen as the righteous spiritual person. Jesus spent eight verses on that in the Sermon on the Mount. Why are you doing what you’re doing? Is it so other people? Oh, you’re a good Christian. Our praise comes to us from God. He is not unjust. Forget our work and labor of love. And it doesn’t matter if nobody pat you on the back, even if you might deserve it. It doesn’t matter. If you’re ignored and neglected, never publicly mentioned as anything, if people overlook when they shouldn’t overlook, it doesn’t matter.

God doesn’t overlook. He knows the authentic you. And so you serve in whatever way you can, and he sees that like the widow and her two mics. What about these competing desires that I talked about? Well, I think I need to say no. Sometimes I might have said no when I could have said yes. I acknowledge that. Sometimes I said yes when I really should have said no. It was, it made me a it made me not as good a person as I should have been. So I say this. Here’s how I think you get the balance. See what you can do. Don’t just get comfortable, because this could lead to neglect and laziness. Well, you know, I prefer my recliner in third gear most of the time.

And so you get lazy again, you get self-absorbed, and it’s always about you. And again, you’re feeding it. You’re feeding the selfishness. So I would just say this. Stretch yourself. Do some things that sometimes your mind is saying, I don’t want to do. Like go back and listen to him preach again at five when he’s gone 45 minutes this morning. And what about this? As we therefore have opportunity. Let us do good unto all men, especially those. Especially those of the household of faith. I want to focus on the as we therefore have opportunity. I cannot serve everyone like I would want. In fact, I’ve mentioned in our in our social media world, we know we know Christians everywhere. And there is no end. There is no end to brethren and people who could be served and cared for and supported.

People need, they’re dying for support all over the world. But as one person or as one family, there are limits to what we can do. Yes, stretch yourself, but realize don’t sacrifice well-being. And again, I don’t always know what that is. But don’t sacrifice your Christianity to meet the need of someone else. And here’s what I mean by that. If I become ugly and mean in my home because I’m overstressed, overworked, and don’t get enough downtime, then that’s not good service. So what you do is you have these competing desires. You stretch yourself where you can, but sometimes you’ve got to back off and relax. Rest up for the next occasion of service. I found this one. I like this. Selfishness destroys relationships. Humility develops relationships.

Conclusion

No one comes to God no matter what a church says, no matter what a church membership roster says. No one comes to God except authentically. Any kind of pretense he sees through that. And the Lord hates those who pretend obedience to him, and the time of their punishment will be forever. Psalm 811. So are you authentically Christian? Who do you care the most about? Is it you or is it him and others? Do you have a healthy view of yourself? You only come to God authentically. And you should come to God because Jesus has a name that is above every name. And at his name, every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

If you need to do that today by submitting to his will, being baptized into Christ, turning from your sins, or if you need the help and prayers of this congregation, come now as we stand and say.