Are You Living For Self or Living For God?

Sermon Series – Overcoming the Ten Major Threats to God’s People

(Deception, Fear, Hopelessness, Restlessness, Lack of Compassion, Rage, Wickedness, Idolatry, Perversion, Selfishness)

  1. But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
  2. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 
  3. Without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good.
  4. Treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
  5. Having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. 

2 Timothy 3:1-5What’s Wrong with Self Love?Exploring this topic of selfishness requires that we have a proper understanding of what is healthy self-love and what is harmful self-love. To think of yourself in a positive way is not only recommended, but also essential. God made you and by virtue of creation, you are valued, loved, resourceful, and blessed. The fact that we are taught to love others as we love ourselves demonstrates that we must possess a healthy level of ‘self-love’ whereby we can exhibit caring and compassion for others. That is healthy.
When love become narcissistic and egotistical towards others, that is when self-love has become cancerous. As far back as the first century, there were people displaying those harmful characteristics of extreme love for themselves. They were boastful, abusive, proud, without natural love, brutal, without self-control, and they loved their pleasures more than they loved God. Paul warned that this would become more prevalent as the end times approached. Whether it was the end times or otherwise there was one recommendation for dealing with it: believers were told to have nothing to do with such people. Another issue that must be addressed is whether the believer can somehow drift into that forbidden territory of loving themselves too much. It would certainly be a great benefit to determine what unhealthy self-love looks like and then examine our own heart to see whether the deadly symptoms are showing up in our lives. 
Let’s start off by examining what our Lord Jesus had to say about self-love and the way it impacts one’s relationship with God. Matthew 16:24, if anyone will come after Me, let them deny self and take up the cross and follow Me. Now, was Jesus suggesting that we hate self? Not exactly, but in another passage Jesus did say that if you love anything more than Him, you are not worthy of Him. The context of Matthew 16 is based on the fact that we cannot find our lives or self for that matter, without first denying self and finding God. The way that a person develops healthy self-love is to love God first and above everything else. To give up your life is to find new life and abundant life in God and God alone. That is healthy self-love that honors God. So, if you love yourself in the right way, you will follow Christ and recognize Him as your source of happiness, peace, fulfillment, confidence and everything else that the world is trying to find through its sordid version of self-love. 

What’s the Problem with Selfishness?How does a person judge their own heart? That is basically what must be done if they are to uncover selfishness. Most people would probably think that they don’t have an issue with it, but that is a common response when mere humans try to do an examination into the inner motives of the heart. Paul gives several factors that expose the self-centered lifestyle. Due to the troubles of the end times, People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, and unholy. To put it bluntly, everyone will be out to serve their own interests. There is a direct reference to younger people who will not only dishonor parents but will also be disobedient. These will be children who defy parental rule and will be so abusive as to dare their elders to do anything about their rebellion. All of this will stem from the self-centered way of living. 
Paul goes further to say that as a result of the struggles of the end times, some will be without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good. The rule of law will mean nothing to these vicious and greedy souls who will defy everything just to get their way. You see it happening in our world today. Many people have no regard for right and even less regards for the needs of others. They live by the rule of gold rather than the golden rule. These brute beasts, as the Bible calls them, despise everything that is good except what is good for them. Making money is at the top of their agenda and if that means stepping on people to get rich, so be it. Greed will drive them, lust for more will motivate them, but in the end, God will stop them and bring their wicked plans to an end. 
Will these self-centered people have any dignity or godliness about them? Paul answers that question by stating that they will have a form of godliness but deny its power. On the surface they will look very pious and devout, but inwardly their focus is on their own gain. What will be their motive? They will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. I have often quoted this verse as “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. That is not accurate. These self-focused people are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. The level of selfishness is so strong that they are anti-God, anti-Christ, and anti-Holy Spirit. They choose to worship themselves instead of God. The warning is to have nothing to do with such people.

How Do I Get out of Self?By now, each of us should be asking ourselves this question. How selfish am I and how do I measure that? For certain, the descriptions that the Apostle Paul has given are the extremes and should be a warning to us. But the truth of the matter is that we are all selfish for the mere fact that we were born that way. Here is the good news in this message and that is, we have Someone Who is working in us to make us a new creation. The Holy Spirit is given to ever believer and His power to transform will not only free us from selfishness but will make us into the perfect image of Jesus Christ. 
First, the Holy Spirit frees every believer who follows Him, out of the dominion of sin and into the Kingdom of God’s Dear Son. The desires and motivations that once drove us to do the things of the world have been dethroned. Every child of God now has access to God’s Amazing Grace that now fills the heart. Thankfully, through the Holy Spirit, our life is now under new management if you would word it that way. See John 14:26. The old managers of selfish desire, lust, and greed have all been fired. Now God is ruling.
Second, the Holy Spirit leads every believer down a different path than the one the world had for us. While the path of the world may have been loaded with pleasures, it was a painful path that would have ended in total destruction. God changed that when He sent the Spirit of Truth to guide you to new things that are worth living for. It literally feels good to the child of God to do the right thing. You have a sense of purpose that was missing when you were living for self. Now the purpose for living is to please God and serve in a way that honors His Name. John 16:13, The Spirit of Truth … will guide you into all truth … and will show you things to come. When anyone has heard the Spirit speak to their heart, they will know the difference between the voice of self and the Voice of God. 
The third incredible thing is the Holy Spirit’s power of conviction. When a believer begins to head in the direction of self-centered living, the Spirit of God will send such a prompting in the heart that will warn of danger. Isn’t that amazing! God loves you so much that rather than allow you to do as you please, He speaks to your heart and prompts you to turn to Him. In the Old Testament, God would send prophets to warn the children of Israel that they were going in the wrong direction. Now God’s Spirit lives on the inside and will convict every believer of sin. Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as the Comforter and He abides or lives within us forever. Whenever we are tempted to do something that is not God’s will, the Holy Spirit will remind us of God’s righteousness, and then lead us in that direction. What happens if we choose to disobey? Then, as a Loving God, the Holy Spirit will chastise us according to Grace. You will know it, you will feel it, and if you truly love God, you will let Him bring you back to your place.
The fourth thing that the Holy Spirit will do to keep us from the path of self-centered living is to help us discern or understand the challenges we face. Our dilemma is that we don’t always know what is good for us versus what is self-centered living. There are three scales that the Holy Spirit will use that I have noticed in my own life. The first scale is what I call the common good scale. This simply says, the Holy Spirit will guide your thinking to question whether you are providing for yourself or will others have the benefit of sharing in the blessings. A couple of years ago, I was on my way to the bank during the Christmas season. The wind was blowing and as I parked my vehicle I noticed a green piece of paper that blew over into a bush. I immediately went over to the bush while thinking to myself, “it’s not a burning bush, but God is blessing me with some money for this Christmas – Thank you Lord.” Sure enough, it was a one hundred dollar bill. Before I picked it up, instantly the Holy Spirit spoke to me. “That money belongs to a senior citizen.” Now the decision was confronting me. Should I ignore what the Holy Spirit was telling me and go with self or should I listen and obey. Instantly the scale of common good was before me. I knew this was God and I knew what I had to do. I went into the bank and reported the lost money. At the same time as I was reporting the lost money, an eighty year old lady walked into the bank and reported she had lost a hundred dollars. That was one time I praised God for helping me to be obedient. I didn’t get the money, but I got a blessing in knowing that I had helped someone else. As a matter of fact, the elderly lady said the lost money was actually for her disabled elderly friend and she did not have any way of replacing it. Catering to self will never bring you such blessing of doing right.
There is a second scale that the Holy Spirit will use to determine if you are being led by self or led by God. This is the Golden Rule scale. It is based on the teachings of Jesus, do unto others as you would have them to do unto you. There are three drivers that lead to self-centered living and many don’t realize it. The first is the drive to always be right. If one is not careful, right can become so subjective that people will actually resort to wrong merely to prove a point. On January 6, 2021, a vicious mob of American citizens stormed their own Capital Building in Washington D.C. to stop the Constitutional process of affirming the President of the United States. Did they have the right motive? The point is, even with the right motive, they destroyed their own property, injured and took a life, just to prove they were right. If any of them would have stopped and asked, is this the right way to settle this dispute it would have clearly come back to the Golden Rule. How would I want to be treated in this situation? Self-centered living leads to poor decision making. Heed Paul’s warning. Such people are without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good … Treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God … Having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
Those who fail to use the scales to weigh their motives will also justify self in order to get revenge. What drives self-centered living is the fact that some want to get revenge on those who have wronged them. I simply have one thing to say to that. Vengeance does not belong to man – it belongs to God alone. Vengeance is mine, I will repay says the Lord. Romans 12:9. Those who seek revenge are the epitome of selfishness. Such people are without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good. Those determined to live for self, end up empty, abandoned, and hopelessly alone.
There is a third scale that the Holy Spirit will use to convince us of whether we are living for self versus living for God. This is the scale of God’s Glory. The Bible declares emphatically that everything we do, every act we commit to, every motivation of our life should be for the Glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31. The question that confronts us by using this scale is to determine who will get the honor. I often think about some of these award ceremonies where many will stand on a stage and receive recognition for their talent or skill. While some have used the platform to honor God, many have simply gotten on stage to show themselves to the world. Is that all there is to life? One moment in the spotlight to be recognized by others, is that it? On this scale of God’s Glory, there is obviously only one thing that will register correctly and that is God’s Glory. Many have tried to place self on the scale under the guise of the need to be noticed but it ended with a “failed reading.” God and God alone gets all the glory, but that does not exclude true believers from being unnoticed. 
Let me take you to an award ceremony unlike any other. In Revelation 5, Almighty God was seated on His Throne with a book and the question was asked, “who is worthy to take the book and to open the seals?”. They searched Heaven and found no one. They searched the earth and found no one. They searched the sea and found no one. Time could not give them an answer. History stood speechless. Great kings bowed their heads. Angels shrugged their shoulders. And John wept. Why was he weeping? He wept because there were names in that Book because this was the Book of Life. Then one of the elders said, “Look, there is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, there is the Root of David, He has prevailed – He will take the Book and open the seals.” Jesus was worthy because He was the Lamb that was slain. He signed each name in the Book with His Own Blood. That is why all Glory, Honor, and Praise belongs to God Almighty. The only place for self is to answer for your-self when the Lord calls your Name. Will you be there? The only way that you will get there is through Jesus. So get self out of the way and be faithful to Christ. Amen!