Sermon

"Common Sins and Struggles" by Joey Morgan - Part 11

Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗
  1. Well, good morning, everyone.

  2. So we're going to continue in our common sins and struggles class in this quarter.

  3. We've got a couple weeks left, and this, what we're going to study, might go into next week.

  4. It might be all that we end up finishing.

  5. We'll have to see how it goes.

  6. So maybe I haven't got you yet with whatever your most common sin or struggle is, but I

  7. might get you today.

  8. Maybe I've got something that you've all struggled with even this last week, and it's not trying

  9. to get your grass cut, because that's what I've been struggling with, is trying to get

  10. my grass cut.

  11. Well, the last couple of weeks, we've looked at the common struggle of the love of money

  12. and how the Bible tells us that it's the root of all sorts of evil, and I feel like today

  13. we're going to look at what is the root, if not all, or at least most of all, sins

  14. and struggles, and that's selfishness.

  15. Because in this study so far, we've looked at laziness.

  16. What's that?

  17. It's someone choosing to do only what I want to do and only when I want to do it.

  18. Notice the words in that.

  19. When I want to do it and only what I want to do.

  20. Well, we've looked at anger.

  21. Someone doesn't do something that I want them to do, it makes me angry.

  22. Something is done not the way that I like it, it makes me angry.

  23. It's just something that comes from me because I don't like the way something is.

  24. Well, we've looked at pride.

  25. My way is the best way.

  26. My way is the right way.

  27. You're going to see my and I in everything that we've covered so far.

  28. We looked at swearing and gossip.

  29. It's about sharing information that I know, whether it hurts somebody or not, I don't

  30. care because I know it and I want to share it and I want what I know to be out there.

  31. Being overly critical, you know, my opinions are what's best.

  32. I know what's right.

  33. The love of money.

  34. I want it to take care of my needs.

  35. I want it to take care and be my security.

  36. So lots of I and my and all those.

  37. But those are just the ones that we've talked about even within this study, kind of the

  38. common things.

  39. But we could mention, you know, murder.

  40. We didn't cover murder.

  41. But what is murder?

  42. It's the killing of someone, but why does somebody do it?

  43. Well, I don't want this person to be in this world anymore because it affected me in whatever

  44. way.

  45. I mean, somebody does that because it's what they want to do.

  46. Adultery.

  47. I want either somebody else's spouse or it doesn't matter to me how much I hurt my spouse

  48. because I want what I want when I want it, whatever it is.

  49. Stealing.

  50. I want something and don't care if it costs someone else something.

  51. Most sins and struggles that we deal with, if not all of them, are going to come back

  52. to selfishness.

  53. It's I want what I want and it doesn't matter to me how it affects someone else.

  54. It doesn't matter what it costs someone else.

  55. I want what I want.

  56. So selfishness is the root of nearly everything that is a sin and it's hard for me to think

  57. of something in all honesty.

  58. I don't know if anyone can think of something where it's really not.

  59. Selfishness is also one of those things that can hide in plain sight like others that we've

  60. talked about.

  61. Most of us aren't going to go around and just say, you know what, I'm selfish.

  62. That's just how I am.

  63. Now some people I have actually heard them say that, they do know that about themselves,

  64. but most of us aren't going to go around and say I'm lazy.

  65. Most of us aren't going to walk around and say I'm prideful.

  66. Most of us also aren't going to walk around and say I'm selfish because we've got a view

  67. of what laziness is, we've got a view of what prideful is, we've got a view of what

  68. selfishness is and we'll make it fit what we're, that's not us.

  69. But selfishness often disguises itself as we've talked about in others as different

  70. things.

  71. What are some ways that selfishness might appear or that the world might say this is

  72. okay and it's not being selfish, but what are some ways that that might happen?

  73. Somebody might say that person's not selfish, they've just got a lot of ambition.

  74. Is it wrong to have ambition?

  75. No.

  76. But sometimes whenever we have goals that we want to meet in life and we decide I'm

  77. going to do whatever it takes, that sounds good.

  78. And to a degree that's okay, it depends on what your end goal is and what your purpose

  79. is with that.

  80. But if you're like I've got goals, nobody's going to stand in my way, it doesn't matter

  81. what it costs someone else, I'm getting to my goal.

  82. Well the world might say that's ambition, but sometimes that ambition, if you're honest

  83. with yourself, might have a little bit of selfishness tied into it.

  84. Self-protection, it's about my well-being even at the cost of someone else, it might

  85. show up as convenience, it's about my comfort and ease, doesn't matter what kind of burden

  86. it might place on somebody else, as long as I'm comfortable, as long as it's easy for

  87. me, it doesn't matter to me what happens to someone else, and again it can even show

  88. itself in pride.

  89. Here's the main phrase, I'm just doing what makes me happy.

  90. You've probably heard that over and over, it's a big saying that goes on in the world

  91. today is you should be happy and you should do what makes you happy, and you can go up

  92. to some of those things that we've talked about in the struggles and sins, there's that

  93. word me again.

  94. I'm going to do what makes me happy.

  95. So the Bible's very clear that selfishness is a danger because of that fact.

  96. You know, selfishness and the mindset that you are the very center of the universe puts

  97. somebody in a position where you're not, because none of us are the center of the universe.

  98. You know, it's not about us.

  99. At the center of selfishness is the mindset, what do I want, what benefits me, how does

  100. this affect my comfort, how does this affect my happiness, how does this affect my life,

  101. and again, over and over, my and I.

  102. And when selfishness controls us, it's going to damage the things around us.

  103. So if somebody is a selfish person or if we have selfishness within our lives and maybe

  104. you've noticed it in your life, and maybe you were selfish at a time more so than what

  105. you are now, or maybe you're right in the thick of it right now, what are some things

  106. around us that can be affected by our selfishness relationships?

  107. That was my number one on the list.

  108. You know, not a lot of people like to be in a relationship with a selfish person when

  109. it's all about them.

  110. That's not really a relationship.

  111. That's a one sided thing.

  112. What else?

  113. Influence is affected.

  114. What else we have?

  115. Children end up being affected by it.

  116. Marriages will weaken if it's a selfish marriage.

  117. Friendships are going to break.

  118. We're sitting here in church this morning with the church.

  119. You think churches have ever divided over selfishness?

  120. You think there's ever been issues because of selfishness?

  121. But it doesn't just affect those around us.

  122. Us being selfish isn't just bad for the person who has to deal with us as the selfish person

  123. and always have to be giving and giving because we're selfish.

  124. It also affects us.

  125. It becomes a problem for us as well.

  126. One of the biggest problems that's going to happen if we are a selfish person is that

  127. our spiritual growth is going to stop.

  128. You're no longer looking to become more like what God wants you to be.

  129. Why is that if you're a selfish person?

  130. That's who he wants us to be more like, right?

  131. Yeah.

  132. Yeah.

  133. Well, if I'm someone who feels like I'm the center of the universe, what does that mean

  134. I really feel about myself?

  135. I mean, who is the center of the universe?

  136. Yeah.

  137. Christ.

  138. God.

  139. So, that means I'm really putting myself in the position of I think everything's here

  140. for me.

  141. Well, then I'm not going to grow very much in my spiritual walk if I'm not going to listen

  142. to anybody else, which would also include who is at the center of the universe.

  143. That's God.

  144. My spiritual growth is going to stop because I don't see any need to because everything's

  145. really here for me anyways.

  146. Your way is already best.

  147. Your ideas are all that matters.

  148. You aren't looking to God for what's actually best for you.

  149. And that's a very dangerous mindset to have.

  150. Again, selfishness doesn't disaffect those around you in a bad way because you're selfish.

  151. It's not good for you either.

  152. So we're going to look at within this study, what is selfishness?

  153. Why is it dangerous?

  154. Examples of selfishness in scripture, how selfishness destroys relationships.

  155. And then also if this is a struggle that we're dealing with, how is it that we're going to

  156. overcome this?

  157. So let's go ahead and turn to Philippians chapter two and define biblically what is

  158. selfishness.

  159. Because again, if we had to throw a dictionary one on it, we're probably just going to say

  160. someone who is all about themselves, someone who chooses what's in their best interest,

  161. all those kinds of things that go along with that.

  162. But over in Philippians chapter two, we're going to read verses one through four where

  163. Paul says,

  164. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship

  165. of the spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like minded, having

  166. the same love being of one accord of one mind.

  167. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let

  168. each esteem others better than himself.

  169. Let each of you look not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others.

  170. So four verses, what all does Paul say in these verses concerning selfishness?

  171. What all are in just these four verses that Paul says concerning selfishness?

  172. He says don't have, what's it say?

  173. Selfish ambition.

  174. In verse three, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.

  175. So he says, don't have anything to do with that.

  176. Anything you do, don't let it be done with selfish ambition.

  177. There's that word ambition that I mentioned at the beginning.

  178. He says instead of that, or what's that also mean?

  179. The opposite of that, so don't let anything be done in selfish ambition, instead, what's

  180. the reverse of that?

  181. What's the opposite of that, what's he say?

  182. Esteem others better than themselves or yourselves, which means that's the definition of selfish

  183. ambition or selfishness is esteeming others or esteeming yourself better than others,

  184. if it's the opposite.

  185. Don't let anything be done in selfish ambition, instead, esteem others better than yourself.

  186. That means that selfish ambition is esteeming yourself better than others.

  187. Now did Paul say, don't think about your needs at all, that we're supposed to just go through

  188. life and 100% never even think about ourselves?

  189. No, notice that Paul does not say it is wrong to care about your needs, look what he said

  190. in verse 4.

  191. He says, let each of you look out not only for your own interest, I mean we have to look

  192. out for our own interest, we can't just walk around not thinking about things, but he says

  193. don't only think about your own interest.

  194. And I think that's where that might hit all of us.

  195. We often think about others maybe at times, but we also maybe spend a little bit more

  196. time thinking about ourselves and our own interest, and the problem is when self becomes

  197. the absolute priority over everyone else, that's the problem, that's selfishness.

  198. Selfishness says my way matters most.

  199. Selfishness says my feelings matter most.

  200. Selfishness says my preferences are what matter most.

  201. You can also have this mindset inwardly and outwardly.

  202. We can be selfish.

  203. There are people you know or you maybe will admit to this about yourself that your actions

  204. show this kind of mindset.

  205. You may come to find out you're selfish because someone may even tell you in that instance

  206. because they see it.

  207. You're always going about making sure you're first and they see you doing the things outwardly

  208. that just doesn't seem like you might care about other people, it's all about you, you,

  209. you.

  210. But you can also just be a person who thinks this way, makes your decisions this way, still

  211. even appear kind to others, maybe outwardly you may seem like that you're not a selfish

  212. person but if inside in your thoughts you're always still thinking my way is best, my way

  213. is the only one that matters, my feelings are the ones that matter the most, my preferences

  214. matter the most, that's hard for us to recognize it because no one's ever going to tell us

  215. that because it's an inward struggle that we might be having.

  216. We have to realize that ourselves.

  217. So we might be so selfish that outwardly it appears to people and we might actually get

  218. called out on it but it's also an inward struggle that we have to be honest with ourselves

  219. and just say do I always think about myself all the time or do I even spend any amount

  220. of time thinking about other people.

  221. It's that outward look at others and you having that mindset that's going to gear you away

  222. from selfishness because the more you are outwardly looking and thinking about other

  223. people and all those things, that's the opposite of it and that's what's going to gear you

  224. away from it.

  225. So maybe again you're not sure if that's you, maybe you're not sure if this is a struggle

  226. that you're dealing with, what are some of the warning signs that you can look for or

  227. what are some ways that selfishness might show up in a person that maybe somebody might

  228. not immediately recognize?

  229. What are some ways that you would say if a person's doing this, they might have a little

  230. bit of a selfishness problem?

  231. Because again you might not think you have a selfishness problem but then you might do

  232. some of these things and then it's a switch that goes off and you say maybe I do need

  233. to think about what I'm thinking about.

  234. Maybe I do need to take a little bit deeper look into myself because that's what you have

  235. to do with all these things that we've talked about.

  236. Most of these aren't an easy thing for us to see in ourselves.

  237. It's very easy to see in other people often times but not in ourselves.

  238. What about someone who has to always, these are the kind of things I'm looking for, so

  239. if you have some, what if you always have to win arguments?

  240. What's that say?

  241. I'm always right, right?

  242. Everybody else is wrong, my way is best.

  243. So if you're a person who you just always got to win the argument, that's you saying

  244. that my way and what I think about this is the right way and you need to listen to that.

  245. What about someone who refuses to apologize?

  246. That means they think they've done nothing wrong because again it's my way and how I

  247. did that is the way that it was supposed to be done.

  248. Demands attention, being unwilling to serve, being a servant, it's pretty hard for a selfish

  249. person to be a servant because a selfish person expects to be served and not to serve.

  250. Always talking about ourselves, that's the opposite of kind of humility what Chuck just

  251. mentioned.

  252. Selfishness, controlling behavior, unwillingness to compromise, all sorts of things that we

  253. should look for in ourselves and say where's this coming from?

  254. Why am I this way?

  255. Those are some maybe outside things or physical things or worldly things that you might see

  256. in a person and the way that they deal in their relationships but it can also affect

  257. spiritual things.

  258. What are some things that would happen in our spiritual walk that will, selfishness

  259. will keep us from doing?

  260. Anybody have any thoughts on that?

  261. Yeah.

  262. And become more of a servant and to do the things that God would want us to do but then

  263. there's also the motivation side of being a servant.

  264. A selfish person could still maybe do some serving within our group and again make them

  265. maybe feel like I'm, maybe I'm not as, I can't be selfish because look at all the things

  266. that I'm doing but what's the motivation behind why they're doing the things they're doing

  267. because you can have selfish motivations for the reasons why for you to continue to do

  268. things in a way that maybe benefits you in some form or fashion and we're going to talk

  269. about some of those examples but maybe someone wants attention for their good works and want

  270. praise for their serving, gets angry when they're not recognized for those things, becomes

  271. upset, maybe when things aren't done in the way that they wish that they were done within

  272. the congregation, those things can affect us or selfishness can affect us in that way

  273. as well so it's dangerous because it can even affect us and keep us from doing good work

  274. so selfishness again is just always putting self obviously above anything else and how

  275. it can show up in our lives but where does it come from?

  276. Where does selfishness come from?

  277. Go over to James chapter 3, we're going to look at verses 13 through 18 and see what's

    James 3 chapter mention

  278. the root of selfishness, where does it come from?

  279. And selfishness says I deserve, I should come first, I should get my way and James

  280. over in chapter 3 beginning at verse 13 says, who is wise and understanding among you?

  281. Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom but if

  282. you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.

  283. This wisdom does not descend from above but is earthly, sensual and demonic.

  284. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there but the wisdom

  285. that is from above is first pure and then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full

  286. of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy.

  287. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

  288. So verse 14 tells us that envy and self-seeking, thinking everything is about us, it's not

  289. how we're supposed to be.

  290. It's not how God created us to live and he says that way of thinking is from what?

  291. From a worldly or fleshly view of things.

  292. And then in verse 16 he tells us when those things are present, confusion and every evil

  293. thing is there.

  294. And then verse 17 and 18 he tells us how God created us to be.

  295. When we apply the wisdom that's from where?

  296. From above, from God, look at the list and tell me if these aren't the opposite of selfishness.

  297. He says peaceable, how's peaceable the opposite of selfishness?

  298. Takes two people to make peace, doesn't it?

  299. Takes two people to have peace with one another, that means there's not one person that's just

  300. like, my way, doesn't matter to me what you think, doesn't matter to me what your thoughts

  301. are on this, you need to agree with what I say, that's what selfishness does, a peaceable

  302. person is those who make peace and it takes two people to make peace with one another.

  303. Willing to yield, you think a selfish person is going to yield?

  304. Not likely, probably not.

  305. Full of mercy, what's mercy?

  306. It's showing forgiveness or compassion to those who maybe have affected you.

  307. That's not typical of a selfish person.

  308. And then also be without partiality.

  309. That means not showing partiality between you and someone else.

  310. Does a selfish person do that?

  311. Not typically because again it's, I'm better than you, my way is better, everything's about

  312. me.

  313. That means you're showing partiality to who?

  314. Yourself.

  315. I'm partial to myself.

  316. So you can't be without partiality and be selfish because you're always partial to yourself.

  317. Selfishness does not come from the desires that God has given us, is what James is saying,

  318. but it comes from when we give in to the desire of the world and the things that are in it.

  319. James then continues in chapter four about what envy and self-seeking causes in verses

  320. one and two.

  321. He says, where do the wars and fights come from among you?

  322. Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that warn your members?

  323. You lust and you do not have, you murder and covet and cannot obtain.

  324. You fight and you war.

  325. Where does James say conflict comes from?

  326. Right there in the middle of verse one.

  327. He says, where does the fights and the wars come from among you?

  328. Where do these conflicts come from?

  329. Do they not come from, what's he say?

  330. Your desires.

  331. Your desires for pleasure that warn your members.

  332. What's that?

  333. What's your desires?

  334. It's what you want, right?

  335. So you could read that, where do wars and fights come from among you?

  336. Do they not come from when you want what you want for your pleasures, for your desires,

  337. the things that warn your members?

  338. Again, does it not come from selfishness is essentially what he's saying.

  339. Do you have something, brother?

  340. Yeah.

  341. Yeah.

  342. Yeah.

  343. Yeah.

  344. Yeah.

  345. Yeah.

  346. Without it being pure in the sense of even our motives and all the things that go around

  347. and the actual purity of the action and all the things that go along with that, the rest

  348. of it kind of goes off to the side.

  349. But conflict comes from selfishness.

  350. Why do you think selfishness causes so many conflicts?

  351. So think about the times in which maybe you've had a conflict with people or maybe you've

  352. known of groups of people who've had conflicts with one another.

  353. Why is selfishness at the kind of root of most conflicts?

  354. Why do you think that is?

  355. Or what are some things that causes conflict between people that you would say selfishness

  356. is usually in that?

  357. Clashing of desires.

  358. People oftentimes want control, don't they?

  359. Selfishness is a lot of times in that.

  360. Pride gets involved between two people and then it's, well, I have my pride and I want

  361. to have it go my way.

  362. People stop listening to one another.

  363. People demand their own way.

  364. People become easily offended.

  365. If you think about nearly every conflict, whether it's marriages, whether it's friendships,

  366. whether it's problems within churches, whether it's work disputes at your own work or conflicts

  367. on the world stage, I mean, just wars in general, just the wars that go on between countries,

  368. wars that go on between people within countries, usually at the root, both sides are heavily

  369. focused on themselves.

  370. They've got their side of the story, someone else has theirs, and it causes whatever that

  371. conflict is.

  372. It's unwillingness to look inwardly at your own self and figure out maybe that you have

  373. some issues and that you have to do something wrong because a selfish person is never going

  374. to probably look at themselves in that way because, again, you just feel like everyone's

  375. here for you.

  376. Imagine in a real world example, there's two people in a marriage and the husband says,

  377. she doesn't appreciate me enough.

  378. Maybe the husband feels his wife does not appreciate him enough.

  379. And then the wife says, well, he doesn't pay enough attention to me.

  380. Now appreciation and attention matter.

  381. They do.

  382. But if both spouses become consumed with what they are not getting and they only think about

  383. what they are not getting and how they are affected in their relationship and they don't

  384. think about anything else, only how they are being affected, only how they are being neglected,

  385. the marriage becomes a competition between the two of who's going to win this war.

  386. Who's the one who is most at fault?

  387. And if selfishness is ever involved in that, you're never going to, they're never going

  388. to be peaceable, unwilling to yield, all the things that we just covered that James said

  389. up above that.

  390. Because a partnership with two people who are peaceable, willing to yield, full of mercy,

  391. without partiality and without hypocrisy are going to have more success if both people

  392. in that relationship are having those two problems than two people who are selfish.

  393. It's just never going to probably work out.

  394. And you can change the example of those two married people to two coworkers.

  395. You can change that example to two brethren.

  396. You can change it to two leaders on the world stage.

  397. And it's going to be exactly the same.

  398. If selfishness gets involved, that's where James says, that's where the wars and the

  399. conflicts come from among you.

  400. It's because you're only thinking about your desires and yourself and all those things.

  401. Or they, to a degree, yes, and then they also think we should compromise sometimes on some

  402. of our things, but they don't think they should ever compromise on their things as well.

  403. But selfishness is going to keep score, is essentially what I'm saying, and there has

  404. to be a winner.

  405. And if you're a selfish person, guess who you feel like has to always be the winner?

  406. It's going to be you.

  407. Selfishness is going to lead you to conflict, is what James is telling us.

  408. He said when you put your desires only first above anything else, he said that's where

  409. the wars and fights are going to come from among you.

  410. You lust and you don't have, you murder and you covet, and you can't obtain.

  411. You want what you want, you want who you want, you can't have it, you're not obtaining it,

  412. it's going to cause you to fight more if all you care about is your desires and that's it.

  413. So now let's talk about some biblical examples of selfishness.

  414. It comes in many examples, really, any place you see people choosing what they want over

  415. God or others, we could go through numerous accounts in the Bible and talk about selfishness

  416. and how it's in this story or this event and all these, because like I said, it's at the

  417. root, in my opinion, of nearly everything that we deal with in our lives.

  418. One example, the first one we've already looked at, if you want to turn to Genesis

  419. 4, I'm going to give you the Clifton notes version, but we've already looked at when

  420. we spoke about anger, we talked about Cain.

  421. If you remember in Genesis 4, Cain became angry because Abel's sacrifice was accepted

  422. and his was not.

  423. And in verse 4 and 5 of Genesis 4, we were told that the Lord respected Abel and his

  424. offering but he did not respect Cain and his offering and Cain was very angry and his

  425. countenance fell.

  426. And then God told Cain, I'm not sure why you're angry.

  427. It's on you.

  428. In verse 7, he said, if you do well, you'll be accepted like your brother.

  429. He's like, you're the one, I don't know who you're angry at and what you're angry about

  430. except for maybe you should be a little angry at yourself, is essentially what he says.

  431. That's kind of the opportunity for correction that God gave Cain there.

  432. He's like, you have the opportunity, you had the same opportunity as your brother and you

  433. still have the opportunity.

  434. If you do well, you're going to be accepted.

  435. But he just didn't accept his original sacrifice.

  436. So he gave him an opportunity for him to do the right thing, do what God asked.

  437. And when we talked about that, we talked about Cain concerning anger.

  438. We talked about jealousy.

  439. Some of you mentioned that he was probably jealous of Abel.

  440. And then we talked about murder.

  441. So some other things that we've talked about throughout this course of this study.

  442. But what else was involved prior to the murder?

  443. What else happened?

  444. You know, Cain had to make a decision to offer what was right or what he wanted to offer.

  445. And God told him in verse 7, if you do well, you'll be accepted.

  446. You've got the choice.

  447. You can offer what you were supposed to.

  448. You can offer what is right.

  449. Cain could have accepted that correction by God and decided to offer what was right at

  450. that time.

  451. He said, you know what, I need to offer what I'm supposed to.

  452. I need to offer my best.

  453. I need to offer whatever it is.

  454. He could have accepted the correction by God.

  455. Cain could have humbled himself.

  456. That's what it's going to take to do that, like what Chuck mentioned a minute ago.

  457. Cain could have improved his sacrifice and been accepted.

  458. But did he do any of that?

  459. Why did he not do any of that?

  460. I don't know why exactly, but I'd agree with you.

  461. I mean, it doesn't tell us exactly why he didn't do what he did, but apparently he didn't

  462. want to correct himself.

  463. He had the opportunity to.

  464. He had the opportunity to do what was right, and then he would be accepted.

  465. But he didn't do that.

  466. Remember I said at the beginning, a selfish mindset is dangerous because you will not

  467. listen to anyone else, and that includes God.

  468. You will not accept correction because what you want is what you want.

  469. It doesn't matter if someone corrects you on it.

  470. Cain refused correction, and selfishness often refuses correction because self-centered people

  471. hate to admit their fault, like what you mentioned.

  472. So that's one example.

  473. Turn over to Luke chapter 15, we'll probably finish with this one today and we'll pick

    Luke 15 chapter mention

  474. up on a couple more examples and then continue on next Sunday, but I think we'll probably

  475. finish up with this one.

  476. Luke chapter 15, of course, the story of the prodigal son you're all familiar with.

    Luke 15 chapter mention

  477. It's in Luke 15, 11 through 32.

  478. Not going to read the entire story.

  479. But over in Luke 15, beginning of verse 11, it says, then he said, a certain man had two

  480. sons.

  481. He said, and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods

  482. that falls to me.

  483. So he divided to them his livelihood, and not many days after, the younger son gathered

  484. all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal

  485. living.

  486. And again, you know the rest of the story, and if you don't, make sure you read it.

  487. And how would we relate this story to selfishness?

  488. What would you see as selfish within this story, just in the first few verses that we've

  489. read?

  490. How does this kind of seem selfish, or what do you see?

  491. Yeah, couldn't wait for his father's death, he wanted what he wanted and he wanted it

  492. now.

  493. That's the J.D. Wentworth statement.

  494. I want my money and I want it now.

  495. I think that was that guy's name, I don't know, I remember a commercial whenever I was

  496. a kid.

  497. It was the Cash something or other, I don't know.

  498. But the younger son demanded his inheritance early, which is essentially saying, I want

  499. what's currently yours, and even though it would be his later, I want what is yours and

  500. I want it on my timeline.

  501. Again, it's I and my, you're going to see I and my all the time if you're thinking about

  502. selfishness.

  503. I want from your livelihood, how many of you, if you just had to give over a good percentage

  504. of whatever it is that you have right now to someone else, is that going to place a

  505. burden on you at this moment while you're still living?

  506. Probably so.

  507. Most people can't just give away a lot of their stuff and just be like, oh, now I don't

  508. have any of that even though I'm still living.

  509. The stuff that I was using to live on, I don't have it anymore because I gave it.

  510. I mean, that's going to place a burden, you would think.

  511. But he wanted from his father's livelihood, maybe even if it burdened him a little bit,

  512. he didn't think about that because a selfish person is not going to think that way.

  513. He wanted his freedom without responsibility of living under his father.

  514. Good inheritance comes from the fruits of labor, from the blessings, from being a part

  515. of the efforts within that family and however it is that God blessed them.

  516. I would also assume that the younger brother leaving put an extra load on the father and

  517. of the older brother.

  518. Obviously the older brother felt that way.

  519. He didn't give anything, any kind of thought to that, didn't think about that one bit.

  520. He says, I want the blessings without the obedience.

  521. I want the payout without the work.

  522. I deserve it.

  523. I deserve it.

  524. Where does selfishness eventually lead him?

  525. Well, broken, alone, empty.

  526. The younger son's circumstances eventually brings him pretty low.

  527. It says, make me like one of your hired servants there in verse 19.

  528. Once he hits the low point and he decides, oh, I had it pretty good at my father's, I

  529. want to go back and he says, just make me like one of your hired servants.

  530. The younger son's circumstances changed his mindset from being, I deserve it, to humble

  531. himself like what Chuck mentioned and realize that he had sinned and made a mistake.

  532. He was in the wrong.

  533. And again, selfishness, what he mentioned a minute ago, it's not going to cause you

  534. to do that.

  535. He releases entitlement and said, I'm not entitled to anything, just make me a servant.

  536. So he went from being selfish to humble and not selfish anymore.

  537. Essentially his attitude was completely different when he returned than what it was when he

  538. left and our attitude can often be an indicator if we struggle with selfishness.

  539. Again, what kind of attitude do you see in the younger son that you may see in other

  540. selfish people?

  541. I have entitlement.

  542. I have, he felt, deserving materialism.

  543. He wasted his possessions on himself only, it didn't say that he took his inheritance

  544. and just went and did a lot of good things and was very giving to other people or anything

  545. like that.

  546. No, it says he wasted it all on himself.

  547. Laziness, he didn't want to play a role in his inheritance, he just wanted it now.

  548. Pleasure seeking, wasted his possessions on his own pleasures.

  549. And then again, at the beginning of it, there's a lack of gratitude.

  550. He comes to finally have that, but he didn't have it at the beginning.

  551. When he had the mindset and the attitude of selfishness, he lacked all those things.

  552. He ended up turning around, his mindset changed once he was brought a little lower, once he

  553. humbled himself, but we see those things in him that can also be seen in us.

  554. And how it affected him, yeah, for sure, yeah, his mindset was how everything affected

  555. him a little bit, was a little bit selfish in that as well.

  556. But we'll pick up with two more examples next week and then again talk about how do we fix

  557. this problem if this is something seen in us, what is it that we can do about it?

  558. And then also the better example of what's the opposite of selfishness of that of Jesus

  559. who we're supposed to be conforming ourself or transforming ourself to be more like him.

  560. So we'll talk about that.

  561. Appreciate your comments.