Selfishness

God for today, thank you for divine inspiration Lord, and thank you for this brother who is willing to share and I just pray Lord that we would have open ears and open hearts and Lord that our cups we turn up so to speak and I pray for brother Jeremy this morning that you would lose his tongue that he would just share his heart to us from you and God that we could live better lives for you more holy lives Lord and that we would just take off the shackles that shackle us from time to time maybe someone's here that's sitting in chains this morning and I just pray Lord that your spirit would move amongst us that you would hold the powers of darkness at bay Lord while your spirit is moving amongst us we commit our ways to you Lord in Jesus name we pray. Amen, God bless you. Good morning it's nice to be here with you I will say I don't think I've ever felt unprepared before as today it was it was a difficult week my helpmate left thankfully she came back but she went over the hills and over to Idaho and so you can imagine a father with four boys and then of course business was very very busy lots of demands and things going on throughout the week and and then yesterday was I had some goals for the day that's a bad thing to do sometimes you make goals and then you those goals become idols and so I had you know I had some ideas of what I wanted to get done in the day and and they weren't going quite like I wanted and so I had some moments of flesh for sure and just the way I spoke and and so by the evening I didn't feel ready to preach sermon when Glenn asked me in the beginning of the week do you want to preach sermon I'm thinking this is not this is not the week but somehow I thought maybe by the end of week I'd feel better but so I had so many ideas going through my mind what I could preach on just thoughts that have been bothering me and maybe areas the Lord's been working in my life and I was vacillating between the two and couldn't even come up with what I wanted to preach last night finally went to bed woke up at like 4 still was like I'm not in the right mood to preach today normally by 4 in the morning I'm ready but I mean ready to start I'm excited to prepare a sermon but this day was like I'm not ready about 5 Stephanie comes out and I'm just like I don't want to preach today and so I had this back pocket you know I have a audio sermon I could play all doesn't go well and that's what I thought I was probably gonna do but thank the Lord for good help me she came out and encouraged me and yeah just talk things over and she likes asked lots of questions and get me going and so I started getting excited about preaching again so but what I decided to preach today I want the Lord has been working on in my life though I can't say it always has the greatest fruit but but what he started a couple of weeks ago I heard a sermon a man I'm gonna quote a little bit the one I was in my back pocket I thought I'd play that but now what I thought I do is just quote from the sermon some and then I'll give my thoughts about the subject but you know if you were to ask most people what did Jesus come to die for what would you say most people would say just give me an answer somebody for our sin that's right and that's a biblical reason in second 1st Corinthians chapter 15 it says that Jesus died for our sins according to the scripture but if I gave you this bill and on the front of this bill we see it's $100 but if I turn if I gave you this and you turn it around and it was blank would you think it was worth much no it's it's only worth it if it's on both sides right this bill is only gonna be worth anything when you walk in the store and you hand it to him and they flip it around this is not $100 bill it's blank on the back well let's read the other side why Jesus died and that's in 2nd Corinthians the second book that Paul wrote to the Corinthians we'll look at chapter 5 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and we're gonna look in verse 15 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 15 and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again so as we said on the front side Jesus died for our sins but on the back side Jesus died to give life and those that live should no longer live for themselves it says but should live for God I want to talk today about selfishness listen to this verse in another translation he died for everyone so that those who receive his life will no longer live for themselves instead they will live for Christ who died and was raised for them a couple weeks ago I heard the sermon the title of the sermon was how a funeral motivated a father to conquer his greatest flaw how a funeral motivated a father to conquer his greatest flaw he had been asking God to show him what he needed to work on the most in this next coming year in his quiet times he would ask God what is it in my life he never imagined it would come through a death of a father in the fellowship circles he is in he had gone to the funeral and at the funeral he was not expecting to hear what he heard he was there to show honor as we would all but he wasn't there to have his life changed profoundly and deeply as God changed him through it at that time at that funeral God revealed to him the greatest flaw he had ever had in his life now this man he teaches on in fact we actually listen to one of his sermons right here in our purity meetings about and fornication and sexual sin and he he taught about how how he teaches a course on how he gained moral freedom from that and you would think after hearing that that had to be your greatest struggle in life but he said no God showed him how that this flaw grew out of this deeper flaw another time he taught on on anger and you think isn't that one of your greatest character flaws but no he said God showed him how that this character flaw of anger grew out of this deeper one another time he taught on finances in his struggle with greed but once again this flaw grew out of this deeper flaw he knew that he had this flaw and he would try to work on it but God at this funeral showed him God's perspective this was the day that God had gave him that unexpected motivation there was a time during the funeral that one of the sons stood up and it wasn't planned it wasn't prepared wasn't even expected but he stood up and he spoke something and these words were burned into his heart and and as I heard the sermon they they ring through my heart too he said that one of the this boy he stood up he said the one thing we will always remember about our dad was that he was the most unselfish person we have ever known dad always made sure we had the best we were the first he always took the worst as I thought about that I thought as I heard the sermon I thought about the same thing would my children say that about me and I don't think they would as he was sitting in this funeral his mind went back to the night before when he had just gone to come to this funeral to get a hotel room and he rented you know these two rooms side-by-side with a pass-through door in the middle and he put his daughter over in one bed and there was only a couch left so he put his son in the couch and he and his wife got the other room in that queen bed and as they were getting ready for bed his daughter came in said she just didn't didn't know why but she didn't feel comfortable in that other room so she said can I sleep with you guys I think she was even older he said that's impossible no one is going to sleep comfortably I won't sleep comfortably so he went in and prayed with her and as he got done praying his son spoke up and said dad the couch I'm sleeping on is just full of Springs I'm not gonna sleep comfortably if you'd let her come sleep in your bed I could sleep in the bed said no absolutely not this was the plan we paid for the room it wouldn't be good stewards so go back to sleep so lights were out and his wife made an appeal in the dark he said no this is ridiculous we have to get some sleep at his wife said I think this is one of those emotions versus logic moments and he said yep and logic wins so it's a good night dear laid there didn't sleep well thinking about his daughter in a bed she didn't want to be a son on a couch that he didn't want to be and his wife who was strangely quiet but he himself was nice and comfortable as his mind drifted back to the funeral he couldn't help but think about that moment just last night his family would never be able to say that about him when he went home to heaven so he told the Lord I want my family to be able to say that about me and they can't what an honor that that man was bestowed upon his you know as the proverb says your children will rise up and call you blessed what an honor for them to say that about their father he was the most unselfish person they had ever met you know they knew a lot of people he was the most unselfish person they had ever met in all their lives God said to him in that moment as he told the Lord this he said you've been asking me what you need to work on in your life and this is what I want you to do what I want you to work on and your goal is to become the most unselfish person your family has ever seen and know when he walked away from that funeral God began one of the most challenging processes in his life and it was also one of the most rewarding he began to ask God what should he what what should he do and the first scripture the Lord gave him and I want to look at this scripture let's turn to Philippians chapter 2 the first scripture the Lord gave him was in Philippians verse 1 if there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfill you my joy that you be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind let nothing be done through strife or vainglory now this is sometimes this is one of those places that it's hard sometimes we could pass right over and not understand but this word here strife has the idea we'll talk about it a little bit more later but it has the idea of selfishness and the Lord was saying to him Jim I don't want you to have anything in your family that is done through selfishness or empty pride but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves said I want you in your family as you work with your children to esteem them better and yourself to humble yourself and esteem them better look not every man on his own things but also on the things of your family don't just look on your needs and your wants but look on the things of your family let this mind be in you which was also in Christ who being in the form of God he said you know you're in the form of dad it's not robbery to say you're a dad you're in the form of dad but let this mind be in you that was in Christ it's not robbery to be in the equal position of dad with all authority and all privileges but instead he says he made himself of no reputation and took on him the form of a servant said I want you to take on yourself the form of a servant to your family and serve your children and serve your wife and being found in a fashion of as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross he said this is the attitude that was in Christ that is the attitude I want in you I want you to be unselfish and then it goes on and says wherefore God highly exalted him and give him a name which is above every name you know and the Lord's promises are that as we humble ourselves he exalts I mean look at this picture of this dad who stood in this funeral or he's dead now but his children stood in the funeral and they said we've never known a man that is more unselfish than dad so God told him to study through the scriptures and he said I want you to study through the scriptures and find unselfish examples and he didn't even make it out of the first chapter of Matthew in fact let's go look at it Matthew chapter 1 and it's a little shocking the first thing he saw in Matthew chapter 1 it was speaking of Joseph and we know the story of Mary and how she was not married to Joseph and everybody thought they assumed wrong they thought that Mary had committed fornication that Jesus was the son of what was the son of people that were in fornication and now he gets married to her and the baby had not been born yet and then right verse 25 the last verse of chapter 1 it says and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son and called his name Jesus and so Joseph here took a selfless act I mean what young man who gets married would postpone something like that and consummate the marriage I mean he put it off and he said I'm going to wait and he did an act of selflessness and so I want to talk a little bit about selfishness it's you think about it it's probably the root of many sins think about fornication we think about our purity meetings we come here we talk about all the things that were tempted towards pornography lost fantasies where does that stem from it stems from selfishness you know if we really thought about it I'm a lusting after somebody else's wife what I want some of the lust after my wife no I wouldn't but somehow we overlook this and you know this is a deeper character flaw gluttony you know think about gluttony it's the desire to eat and to eat well and eat more and not stop it stems from selfishness you know I remember reading in the early church they would say we're gonna fast today not because they wanted to be more spiritual necessarily but because they thought hey we could miss this meal all three meals and we could give that to the poor to eat think about that as we think about the poor as we think about others gluttony can be taken care of anger what does that stem from selfishness stop and think about when you get angry what are you angry about probably something to do with your rights right this person has taken advantage of you this person has made it inconvenient for you you had plans this is what you plan and you become angry what is that is that centered on God and God's will for your life no it's centered on self so many of the sins that we fall into and the flesh that we follow is stemming from selfishness and you know what the scary thing is about selfishness is that it can be hidden it can be cloaked we can all sit here on Sunday morning and we all raced off to meeting and you know we came here and saying as the youth and then we came here and had our meeting and you know somehow we can just justify that on the way here we were selfish in some way maybe think of that story of the Good Samaritan two of the people in the story were the spiritual ones the priest and the Levite they were both ones that worked in the temple right and they're walking along and they see this guy that needs help and they go around the edge they're probably on their way to church meeting right not amazing to think that you can be on your way to church meeting and being selfish and yet the unspiritual Samaritan who you know he probably didn't have much of a spiritual walk with God he's not the Jews perspective he was the one that had pity he was the one that cared that's a scary thought we think about it turn to Luke chapter 6 if you would in this passage Jesus is talking about a beam and a and a little moat or a splinter like Luke 6 42 he says let's just read 41 and why behold us thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye but perceiveth not the beam that is in thine own eye.

Isn't that an amazing thought did you catch that it said perceiveth not you have a beam in your eye and you don't even see it but yet somehow you see the speck in the other guy's eye that is incredible like that shows you how deceived we can be we can have a beam in our eye and even walk into the meeting and maybe everybody else sees the beam we're banging the doors as we come through hitting people in the head right and we don't even see it I mean broad daylight we don't see it but I mean somehow we have the perception to see at night like the darkest time of night we can see laser-eye focus the speck that's in our brother's eye in this this speck this idea is the word chap it comes from chap I mean it's just like a little piece of dust that got into your eye you know chap like they're doing the wheat and a little piece gets in and somehow we can see that but we don't see the beam he says why do you not perceive you can see the beam in your brother's eye but you don't see the beam in your eye you can see the speck sorry and then he goes on either how canst thou say to their brother brother let me pull out the speck that's in your eye when thyse thou thyself behold this not the beam that's in your own eye thou hypocrite cast out the beam so we need to think about this we need to we need to do some soul-searching where we see other people's problem but we don't see our problem you know when Isaiah was in the presence of God he was in the presence of God what did he what did he say did he say woe is them what do you say so woe is me that's how you know when you're in the presence of God that's how you know you met with the Lord when you come here on Sunday do you go home with a okay there it is right there you know or do you go home with more selfishness see when we're in the presence of God the Lord brings light and he brings it and shows it to us but what's scary is that our our selfishness can hide in plain sight we can be deceived and not realize it's right there and you know I don't know what it is about religion and why it happens but we see it over and over in the New Testament that religion has a way of cloaking it right we justify well I'm on my way to meeting and we sing and we do this and we do that but but it has a way of hiding how we're being selfish and so I remember when I was in Belize and some of these things were just coming to me and learning I got to the place and it was a great place to be and I gotta confess that I I just keep struggling with staying in this place I think we need to talk about it more we need to be more accountable with each other but the place of peace it says let the peace of God rule your hearts I remember I remember we'd be on our way to go to a meeting and we didn't have peace and I just say we're not going until we have peace now I'll tell you I'm a little more afraid of you all than I was of the Belizeans so here I'm more quick to be like get in the car we'll deal with this after meeting but see what that is that's just it's it's putting the praise of men it's putting what our reputation is before what really matters right sorry this is this my my college or my schooling is with my children still you know when I get older and they all move out then probably with somebody else but right now it's so I'm not picking on any names but this is and it's me you know I have to I have to grow in this I have to it's revealing nastiness in me and it turns their hearts against me if I act in a selfish way and so I remember I'd be chillin you know we'll just you know we might be two hours late oh well you know show up to the meeting they're just starting potluck right like but hey we came in peace and it was a great place to be it was a great place to be I loved I remember when I came up to visit I we were driving down the road in the motor home and I could sense I could feel this something I don't remember what it was but we made a wrong turn I could feel that things that no I'm not gonna let it come in I'm we're just we're going on on a peaceful schedule and it was great it was great staying in peace let that peace of God rule your life and you know what's silly is we can let silly plans take over like yesterday you know we had that nasty windstorm sticks fell everywhere this was a couple weeks back and you know Titus you know he had told me my neighbor he told me you know Jeremy we need to make sure to get these sticks picked up they get embedded in the road and you know and and I didn't like it either but you know I've been busy with work my wife left me and so I've been wanting to get out and pick up these sticks it's true but I've been busy it's been hard and so here comes Friday night and I even texted Timothy I said be prepared tomorrow we're picking up sticks you know I'm putting the warning signs out I mean you guys have seen my house there are a lot of trees and a lot of sticks fall and so I get out there I'm ready to go Oh tough Friday night Titus calls and I'm like you know Titus it's lunch it's dinner time I'm thinking I if I take this call and you know I need to be with my family so I didn't take the call but I already felt that pressure come on pleasing of man you know Titus and the sticks they need to be picked up I know this is silly but it's true it's silly now but it wasn't yesterday so we finally get out there and you know you know how it is with families we'll just put it at that you know everybody has their own plans and and some you know are often a room here and you know I come out and help and you know what are you doing and get over here and pick up the stick and everybody wants to drive the equipment versus pick up the stick you know what I mean that kind of thing and so I was feeling my levels going like this and like this and like this over sticks you know silly but anyway and and so I spoke hard I didn't yell but I spoke direct and harsh and I made assumptions like I might have one of my boys come out and they get on the mower and I'm over here with this mower already and I'm thinking why are you getting in the mower we're working here come pick up sticks and he thought I didn't have the mower so in his he was doing good intentions but I assumed bad intentions on him so I was frustrated why yeah and then I spoke harsh I'd apologize and you know it's it's in the end it's selfishness you know and then and then something didn't go the way I wanted and I started you know these thoughts come in these thought processes come in you know why why did this happen why did this person do this to me and then I harbored it for a while and gave it some food and sheltered it gave it a bottle and you know just kept going and it kept growing and then by the time though then some other things anyway long story short is by the time it's time to preach I'm not ready to preach a sermon like what are you talking about oh fine you're gonna have to find another guy um so selfishness has a way of just coming in and the back door if we're not careful if we're not watching our thoughts if we're not if we don't have certain things in place as the scripture tells us it can take advantage of us it can take over us it can it can cause us to do things and we see that I mean I think maybe in the area of lust we get this picture pretty clearly you know if I sit and meditate on this thought you know it's gonna create this and I'm gonna be pretty soon looking at pornography so I'm as soon as the thought comes yeah but maybe it's a little harder sometimes when it's somebody that took advantage of us but it's the same thing right it's the same thing if I'm gonna selfishly lust after somebody well when I start thinking evil thoughts about somebody harboring these things assuming their motives were bad even if they were bad taking it in to self I mean maybe the person really did have a motive to hurt you but you're taking it in against self guess what instead of I have some verses to talk about here we end up we end up reacting we end up acting with anger we end up reacting with frustration so back to this verse it says in Philippians if you could turn back there chapter what was it to it said here in verse hang on a second I need to go back a page let nothing be done through strife or vainglory verse 3 let nothing be done through strife I want to read this word strife and what it means it means electioneering you know what we just saw to all the politics you know all the nasty things that are said all the things that one up each other the idea of like even gambling you know his demise is my game that's what this idea strife it's it's the idea of one upping and we might look at that and it's easy to if we're not careful it's a beam in us and we don't see it right so we have to be really honest here it's a desire to put oneself forward before the New Testament is written Aristotle used it to denote a self-seeking pursuit of political office by unfair means as it was used in the New Testament it meant personal gratification and self fulfillment at any cost it has no room for others it is that ultimate self elevation rampart rampant in the world today which is the antithesis of what the humble selfless giving loving and obedient child of God is called to be it usually conveys the idea of building oneself up by tearing someone else down like in gambling the word accurately describes someone who strives to advance himself by using flattery deceit false accusation contentiousness and any other tactic now if you're not careful you'll you'll say oh I'm not those things because that's the extreme but I want you to analyze your life is there things in your life that even may be the start of this maybe it's not the full but do you find yourself feeling that urge when somebody's telling a joke or a riddle or something to want to take over the punchline do you ever finish people story for them as they're telling their story like but why are we doing that we're doing that because we want the glory we want that we want the the gratification that comes from that mm-hmm you ever feel the need somebody tells a story oh I did this this and this and you feel the need to tell them a little bit better version of it I did this and you're like well I want to tell you my story of that because it's better it's higher it's better and what does it do in the end it's bringing back to sell that's this idea this is strife this is it's inside of you without even realizing that you're trying to one-up the person I have a guy I won't say any names but I'm a guy I work with sometimes and it is the most annoying thing I will say a sentence and he as I'm going through he will complete by the way it's nobody in this room because I work with some of these people in this room but he will complete the sentence and I'll okay and then I'll go on to the next sentence and say something and he will jump and say this is the word for me huh can you just let me say it of course that's selfishness but for me to even think that but still it's that concept that concept that I need to one-up you I need to finish your sentence I'm gonna finish a story maybe somebody tells me maybe a mom they're like I didn't get much sleep last night oh well I didn't get much you know you go in a higher version of your story of how much sleep you didn't get um someone suffers you want to tell them how much you suffered more maybe you're even correcting people as as they're speaking you're correcting them in front of everybody these are all things that if we're not careful they're designed without us seeing it that's being that we don't even see is designed to bring the light back on you it's selfishness so let nothing be done through strife it says or selfishness some translations translate this word and vainglory vainglory is empty glory the Greek word is actually made up of two words empty vain glory praise now Jesus says and I think Paul wrote it he said let no no flesh will glory in his presence when we're in God's presence no flesh is going to glory so when you're trying to bring glory upon yourself in any way first of all you're not in God's presence second of all it's vain let nothing be done through selfishness or vain glory I like how the new living translates this it says and don't try to impress others that kind of puts it right down to the shoe leather how much of us are about what our words we say the things we do is trying to impress others do you feel the need to give your opinion you know I'm not saying giving your opinion is wrong I follow this myself too but sometimes I can see my motive is or vainglory do you find yourself making a statement then looking around to see what the reaction was these are indications that we are our selfish heart is at work God knows our motivations that's what it matters in the end it says in the end he will reveal that the motivations of our heart and even up to this point we're not even supposed to judge I don't really know what's in each of your heart why you're doing what you're doing but God knows he knows what motivates us he knows what what we're trying to do and if you're like me we go back and forth right sometimes we have really good motivations and another times that's that disgusting flesh but God promises that he will bring light to the hidden things of darkness and he will make manifest the counsels of our heart let's um turn to 2nd Timothy now chapter 3 it says here that in the last days there will be perilous times there will be wicked times there will be dangerous times and I would also say that dangerous in the spiritual way for men shall be lovers of their own selves we don't even need to go on that's the root of it right there notice it's at the very beginning lovers of themselves and if we're not careful we're being pulled into it we are surrounded by the last day society of lovers of self I mean just think about social media Facebook Twitter all of those Instagram what is it about in the end I've said this before like I baked a pink Twinkie cookie you know we put it up and everybody see my you know what is it about though in the end so much of it is about self we are surrounded I mean I told my wife this morning we maybe need to take a fast from Amazon like Amazon is think about the society of Amazon get it in two days and you know think about like yeah anyway I won't go on my Amazon I mean it's scary America a society of lovers of self we're surrounded by it it it it's gonna infiltrate if we're not very careful Jude 1 6 well this isn't the first Oh 16 sorry 116 he's talking about when the Lord comes back Enoch prophesied the Lord's gonna come back with 10,000 of the Saints and what is he gonna do he's gonna execute judgment on these people notice this their murmurs complainers walking after their own you know you can just put desires right there lusts their mouth speaks great swelling words and what they have men's person in admiration because of advantage they're they're moved by by impressing others you know and not to pick on brother Roger but you know what good is it if brother Roger calls me sorry brother now you get it this time what a good is it if he calls me on the cell phone and it's you know my children are in chaos and they're fighting with each other and I'm frustrated them and rudder up Roger Hertz is calling children be quiet you know pull the hello brother Roger yes yes let's talk about some spiritual things you know I should just ignore the call right I should deal with what is and deal this right these are things that are not that right there what I was wanting if I did that that was wanting Rogers his approval having men's persons it says here how does it say it now I can't remember exactly Jude 116 having men's persons in admiration because of advantage listen to this I'll read it in another translation there will be grumblers complainers walking after their own lusts they boast about themselves showing favoritism to gain advantage I shouldn't even do this in my job when white peg calls me if and I don't like missing white pegs calls but if I am NOT at peace and I have to just somehow say something harsh to get peace so I can make the call I should just not take the call right like we need to be careful about what matters to God what matters to God is selflessness what matters to God is walking in peace let the peace of God rule your hearts but if we're not careful we can get caught up into this world of impressing others and pressing coming up with our own deadlines okay so let's talk a little bit about what we can do I think the first thing we can do when a selfish thought comes is identify it we have to see the beam we have to ask God for I saw we have to ask God for light to see the beam in our eyes so I would encourage all of us ask God where's there a beam in my eye of selfishness like he said Lord what do you want me to work on this year and the Lord brought him to this funeral and he was listening with his heart he wasn't just doing his time he was listening with his heart please listen with your heart when you come here and he said and the Lord said through this young man our dad was the most selfless man and it ventured him into a one-year thing you know when he first started this he never mentioned it to his family he went it was a great story how he would go and he had these grapefruits and he his wife bought these grapefruits from this organic co-op and they were like these little shrivel nasty little things and so he had his special grapefruits right so he would go to the store and get a special grapefruits and you know his own I was just laughing as I heard the story and he had his special group votes over there and and there's the old organic grapefruits and breakfast time came and he came out he saw his wife was making breakfast and he's like grapefruits I love grapefruits and so he cut open the grapefruit and or she cut open the grapefruit and put him out at the table and he's all excited and he walked by and he noticed that his place was the old co-op grapefruit and at his son's place was the new juicy ripe good grapefruit and he walked by that a little bit now this is after he heard this went to this funeral and he had told the Lord I want to work on this and the Lord was giving him all these occasions to ways to okay here's a moment right now right now and so he's sitting there he's like honey don't you think it wouldn't matter if you know we just swap the grapefruit and the Lord said Jim that would be selfish and he's like and then his wife's like oh I don't think they'd mind and he's like you know I don't think you know these young guys they don't care about stuff like that you know it's just you know how yourself your flesh will do this if you're honest your flesh will give you so many excuses to be selfish I can give you a couple of mine but so so he he's getting ready and he reaches out to swap the grapefruit and the Lord's like Jim I wouldn't do this I forget what he said but like you can do this but you are not gonna be you're not gonna have peace through this and so hey Lord so he went to it went to a spot where this old organic little piece of grapefruit but he said that grapefruit was so sweet it was so delicious it was so good I don't know what changed but the Lord helped him in that so and after I heard the sermon there were several times that the Lord's been working with me since a week ago that I've been Jeremy this is a time you could be selfless and and you know it's like I said you can always have some great excuses I you know I've had cancer and so I got off sugar I said I'm not gonna have sugar and and so every once in a while they used to not be so often but every once in a while some really nice treat will come along like sugar-free ice cream maybe or sugar-free cookie somebody made and I'm really excited now you know because I haven't had sugar I don't eat sugar but hey this is a special little thing and so I I kind of get I'm kind of like him in the grapefruit you know I go in and I see my little sugar-free ice cream sitting there although such a nice thing my wife got me what a sweet thing and my children come along and they open the freezer there's no regular ice cream hey we can have sugar-free ice cream and I'm like ah that's your free and we can talk later about this okay about the benefits of sugar-free or not but the concept here just get the concept and I'm thinking you guys can have sugar all day long whenever you feel like it you know this is this is special and don't touch it and and then they say hey we're not biased we can have sugar or sugar-free it doesn't matter and I'm like yeah this is this is a moment of selfishness right it's true I've told you my squash story in Belize where I needed to get squash and and I need it I'm talking about zucchini because it was healthy right I was eating only vegetables and I wanted to be to the market by this time because the squash gets sold out and I'm trying to get my family in the van we've got to get to the squash market and and I'm mad I'm frustrated and and then the Lord reveals to me this is all over squash like I mean it's true I mean we get we get selfish about needful things sometimes like zucchini I know you okay fine you don't like zucchini but just think in your life what is it that you this is your special thing your chair maybe get out of the chair right okay so that's your thing okay so what can we do in our life to see these things because I gave you guys the illustration last time about cattails and how I learned my lesson it's last year like I didn't take advantage I didn't go out and kill the first couple of cattails that came up I thought they you know wasn't a cattail and it took over the entire pond and I was out through the whole summer like dredging through displaying glyphosate all over the place I mean it was great I was cutting every cattail and dabbing glyphosate on to the um I'm not saying that word right right how do you say I am saying right okay anyway I cut it off and dabbed the glyphosate right on there and it was just kill cattails all summer and I just kept thinking I wish I would have taken this out when it was this big you know so now I am on the lookout any cattails that come up it's gonna be death for them and so it's the same thing with our thoughts the first step is we need to identify it we need to humble ourselves we need to engage and say what in my life where am I selfish and if we're not careful if we're not honest it's gonna pass us right by and we won't see the beam Jesus said why behold us to moat and you don't even see the beam in your own eye so you need to ask the Lord to give you light you need to see the beam of selfishness in your life I see mine over zucchini and sticks and lots more things okay so then we need to the scriptures say the second stage step is to engage our faith so I'm just gonna write step one we'll just put identify and then I'm gonna put the next one as engage our faith or act you might say but acting through faith God's only gonna work with you if you do it through faith so what I've been doing lately and and it helps and I and I'd love to hear your thoughts but I go through verses that help me on these things for example the Bible says in everything it thinks so when I look over and I see somebody disobeying and that thought comes in like how dare they right that right there is a cattail and you guys need to translate this into your minds right because that you have your own battles you don't have a child disobeying okay so I have to engage faith at that moment I see it now the Lord says you see that thought yes Lord I see the thought I need to engage faith it's not okay it says let the peace of God rule your hearts am I losing my peace yes I am it says do all things without complaining that might the King James is murmuring but it's complaining do all things without is this complaining yes Lord it's complaining um it says rejoice are you rejoicing no I'm not rejoicing okay it says I already said the peace of God okay so we must realize this this is an enemy this is a cattail this is a very bad thing so we must take it captive the Bible says take your thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ how do you take your thoughts captive somebody I should have asked earlier to be thinking about this I know this is on the spot but anybody how do you take your thoughts captive give me a short two-sentence testimony how do you do it okay you realize it's bad you realize it's from the devil you realize it's gonna take you to bad places how do you take you that captive what's your what does the Lord taught you what a verse okay good pray okay good anybody else sing okay good those are good ways Jesus did that he quoted a written confess okay that's good humble humbling ourselves God I see this anybody else okay so we see this we confess that we can pray we can we can sing that's what I have a hard time doing I get frustrated and then I a lot of times maybe even like okay I'm not gonna think about that anymore but I didn't do anything with it like anything constructed like I whoever said pray so what my wife has been an inspiration to me this what I've been trying to stroke trying to do is that when I feel that frustration I say Lord I give that to you you know he says how does it say cast all your cares upon him Lord I give you this frustration yeah it's frustrating what's happening right now but then I say prayer and Lord please make that person who's frustrating me right now into a godly person I maybe you guys could do great at this but I haven't been doing great at this and so that's the third thing I'm trying to do is engage faith and then so rejoice give thanks you know let the peace of God and pray for the person pray for yourself give it to God ask him to do something with it it says be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made into God so in everything we've got to root out selfishness now I know it's probably gonna be something we're gonna deal with to the day we die selfishness is kind of like an onion many many layers and the Lord just keeps revealing it and revealing it and revealing it and hopefully the beans getting smaller and smaller and smaller I mean this is not an excuse to go to the end of our life and we're still saying yeah I really just like I was when I first got saved you're just a selfish you know okay we should be growing in this we should be the beam should be coming smaller but it's something that is the root of all these sins lusting anger all these things are from selfishness okay you know I was thinking about Jesus and he think about it last night of his prayer of his life and he's praying with his disciples and they he says would you stay up with me and pray and they go to sleep now I'm singing if I was that guy and I son let's stay up and let's pray tonight together let's pray to God that he would deliver our family from these bondages and he started falling asleep I don't I think I'd be frustrated what kind of Christian are you right and Jesus you know what he said he said sleep on take your rest I thought wow that came to me this morning as I was coming here Wow Jesus was the ultimate picture of selflessness you think Jesus had selfish thoughts he was in all points tempted like we were he didn't act on him but he would have he says he was put in every way that he could understand our thing so that means Jesus had to have a thought come to him that would say look how they just took advantage of you now what did he do he did this right he took it captive he gave it to his father he prayed for them but Jesus had the same temptations as us he had the same thoughts of selfishness as us he taught us to pray not once in the Lord's prayer does it say I or me or my that interesting it's our father hallowed be thy name not my name dining and then he goes on and he says give us this day give me food Lord to give my brother food forgive our sins forgive me my sins forgive my brother sins you see how he even taught us in his prayer to be selfless mm-hmm thank you for your attention and I just pray that the Lord will grow us in this area that we will learn to through this next year to root out this this unchristlike behavior and that we won't try to one-up each other that we will try to let each esteem other better than himself because that's what Christ did I bless you thank you brother Jeremy I think the key one of the key things that you talked about is this verse in 2nd Philippians 2 let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus so if we have the mind of Christ and our goal is to continue to be have the mind of Christ we will eventually be conquering the heart of selfishness and I think it's a sermon that you listen to I also heard the same one as you were talking I'm like this sounds so familiar and I remember and also I think Otto Koenig talks about his punchline was at a little different place but he talked about the chair and you know when I come home and my daughter's curled up in my nice big chair and with a book I'm like you know what I've worked hard all day out there beating the bushes and here my chair but you know no finally we have to give up our rights you know it's and you know what's it like Otto Koenig shared you know once the fun wore off it don't matter anymore so we just we're very human and we got lots of homework to do also okay open it up for someone to share anyone thank you brother Jeremy for sharing your heart you know sharing from the heart speaks to the heart okay so it's okay I'm glad you struggled coming to church this morning I'm sharing with this I'm just it just bless my heart because I know what it's like okay if that's of any value to you because I think we can all identify with you thank you for your honesty anyone I went down to Mexico you were asking for suggestions what do you do went down on a mission trip on to Mexico it was hot sticky in there I've never seen so many cockroaches in my life none of the houses that we helped had floors they were all dirt floors and all the houses chicken wire and stucco just really bad neighborhoods and we were in a worldly church none of the young ladies were allowed to wear pants they're all had to wear dresses to be able to minister to this same denomination but you know it's Mexico's a little higher standards I guess all the men had to wear long-sleeved shirts it was it was hot miserable not what we're used to when any of us were complaining about anything I didn't mention the water but if any of us were complaining the pastor would tell us drop and give me ten what he meant was humble yourself and give me ten things that you're thankful for and so we'd be grumbling and he would say that thank you we're here all our friends or thank you for a school bus with rubber tires that bugs can't crawl on and just get all the things that you have just to remind yourself we have to have a thankful spirit we can't be full of ourself which is really good good sir thank you someone else with the way our society and our political plan is going we're going to need we're going to need to have these comforts taken away from us and it's going to really test our own hearts to see where we really are and that's okay that's not a question of liking or disliking that part of it is bad so this is good I hesitate to let that happen to all of us thank you amen and a man tell me one time years ago business man he says you know he said if I was he drive the the biggest piece of junk the farm has I never have to fight for it I never forgot that so if he also takes what nobody else wants to drive I never have to fight for it you don't have to it'll always be there when he needs whatever and I thought you know what that's good give somebody else the someone else thank you okay George you have a song verse song or whatever you choose there Kayla would you want to dismiss some prayer thank you let's sing sing a song stand to sing this song Oh you