Selfish Pride
Notes
Transcript
No one can do it any better than I can.
If you want it done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.
How often do we think there is no one who can do something better than we can? I think this goes into our sinful nature to have selfish pride. I did a search on “sayings about selfishness”, and I want you to hear what I found.
Now, hang on.
You can’t be faulted for being selfish if you’re going to get better because of it. Jerry Lewis
A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor’s. Richard Whately (English philosopher)
Being selfish isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes it just means that you know you have to focus on yourself to get to where you want to be. livelifehappy.com
Selfish people only think of themselves. They don’t care about the pain they cause others and they certainly don’t care about the damage they do.
Selfish people try to keep or get things but they lose people. Hannah Garrison
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. Oscar Wilde
Selfish people often mistake selfishness for strength. It takes no talent, no intelligence, no self-control and no effort to sacrifice other people for your own ego.
Remember this: Selfish people don’t care about you, unless you are doing something for them. lovewideopen.com
Being selfish to me means that you have to look out for yourself and don’t have to sacrifice. Herbie Mann (musician)
Selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, because there is no hope of a cure. Jane Austen
So, some thoughts on these statements - those who were selfish praise selfishness and count it as a badge of honor. But, instead of getting what they want, they usually wind up lonely, and by themselves, never understanding why they’re alone.
Oh my. Are there are times where we can allow our own pride, our own arrogance, our own desires come before God’s plan for our lives? Ouch. There are times where we grow comfortable in our faith, and adopt the attitude “I’ve got it from here” towards God. Then, all the sudden we hit a brick wall where we “don’t got it”, and we want to cry out to God.
15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
So we might no longer live for ourselves. Paul is clear here that the ultimate source of sin is selfishness. It is self- focused, self-absorbed, self-defensive, and elevated sense of self-importance. Selfishness is the definition of sin.
It isn’t something that we suffer with alone, though. If we think back to Mark 9:30–36 Jesus has just healed a boy with an unclean spirit. The disciples are there, they see his divine power. They see the demon cast out. Yet, as soon as they leave and travel through Galilee, while he is teaching of his death and resurrection, there are disciples who are more concerned about their own status and position - who was the greatest. Interestingly, when Jesus turns to them and asks what they were discussing, they grow silent.
34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.
The truth is, no one is any better than anyone else. James points out in the last few verses of chapter 4 what it means when we boast of things we have no control over. Again, we allow ourselves to think more highly of our own knowledge that the source of our knowledge. It happens when we argue with ourselves over who is greatest.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—
James speaks here of self-sufficiency - selfishness. Otherwise known as, making plans without God.
There is nothing wrong with making plans. We should plan and prepare for the future. In fact, we should never fail to take the time to plan. Scripture is very clear about this: we are not to be slothful in business or in any endeavor (Ro. 12:11). Believers are to plan and think about their ventures and behavior before they act. In fact, there is usually not enough planning; therefore, so much that we do comes short and turns out to have been wrong decisions. Planning before we act is not what this Scripture is talking about; it is warning us not to plan without God.
Yet, despite the warning of Scripture—and Scripture gives warning after warning—most of us plan our lives without God. They plan as if their own wills and desires control the destiny of life.
But what happens when we make plans without God? Do we get the job we desire? Are we as successful as we could be? Do we have an awarding career? Or, do we settle for the best WE cand do?
Why do we not acknowledge God as he lays plans and walks through his plans? Because of self-sufficiency. Most people just feel little need for God. They feel that their destiny lies in their hands; that they control their future. They feel that their future and the future of all others lie in their own abilities.
The point is this: Most of us feel self-sufficient, perfectly capable of handling our own life and work. Therefore, we live and work with little meaningful trust being placed in God.
The problem is, we will only be as good as we can be. We can never be our best without Him.
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
Selfishness is failure to recognize the uncertainty of life. There are two reasons why tomorrow is uncertain.
1. Our minds and nature are limited. We just cannot know the future. No matter what we may plan or think, we do not know what will happen tomorrow; we are completely in the dark. Think for a moment: What will happen tomorrow?
We do not know about tomorrow. In fact, we do not know what will happen one hour from now. The point is this: we forget and ignore our nature—who we are, how limited we really are, how uncertain life with all its happenings and events really is. There is a tendency within man to ignore the fact of his frailty and weakness. In all the pride and arrogance of his soul, he wants to be in control of his own life and destiny, to be completely self-sufficient. He wants to have no need whatsoever for God. But this is utter foolishness, for man cannot know what will happen tomorrow. His very nature is limited, so limited that he cannot know much about what is happening now and very little about what happened in the past. He does not and cannot know about tomorrow.
2. Our lives at most are only as a vapor that appears for a brief time and then vanishes away. Once we are born into this world, the only thing we can know for sure is that we will die; sooner or later we will die.
Life is just like a vapor: it appears and can be seen, but it is not solid or substantial or permanent. It is shifted and buffeted about and disappears ever so soon—all because of its nature and the changes in its environment. So it is with life: it appears and then it is gone, vanished away. The end of life will come to everyone of us, and nothing can stop it. It may come today or tomorrow, but it is coming.
We seldom know when death comes and how it will come. But come it will, and when it comes, we are snatched out into eternity never to return to this life. We are gone forever. Life is uncertain, totally uncertain. It is not even certain for today, much less for tomorrow. Therefore, refusing to face up to this fact is utter foolishness.
Job reminds us in Job 14:10
10 But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he?
All we have done, all we have planned, all we have prepared, all we put our desires into - in the end, does it matter if we do not have Jesus?
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
Selfishness is failure to acknowledge God. A person should consult God in their plans and life, but most, by far most, do not. Most people go about living life like they want; they seldom consider God. But this is not the way life is to be lived. A person is to acknowledge God and confess his dependency upon God. Note that we are said to be dependent upon God for two things.
1. Man is dependent upon God for life: he should say, “If the Lord will, I shall live.” This means that whether he lives or not and how he lives is in the hands of God. Therefore, we should depend upon God for life; we should pray and discuss our life with God, from the most minute to the most grandiose thing.
Everything concerning life itself—whether we live or die and how well we live—should be discussed with God. He and He alone is in charge of life and how long we are upon this earth. He loves us and wants to look after and care for us. But we must trust and depend upon Him, fellowship and commune with Him day by day and moment by moment or else He cannot help us. Just think! We can have the love and presence, provision and protection of God. Our lives can be in the p 288 perfect will of God. We can live and walk upon earth praying and proclaiming to the world: “If He wills, I shall live—my life and its future and destiny is in the hands and provision and protection of God, totally and completely in His keeping.”
2. Mankind is dependent upon God for all that we do: we should say, “If the Lord wills, I shall do this or that.” This means that we are not able to do what we plan unless God wills it—not a single thing. A thousand things can happen to prevent us from carrying out our plans, even within the next hour, much less tomorrow. Therefore, a person should trust God, pray, and talk over EVERYTHING with God …
No matter what way a person turns, the person should acknowledge God in all his ways. He should be walking and praying all day long, acknowledging God in all his ways: praying for God’s will as he does this and that.
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Selfishness is boasting, bragging, and arrogance. That is someone who boasts about something they think they have, but does not really have it. They live in an unreal world. Any person who goes through life without God is just like this. They live and plan, thinking that they control their life and the future. This type life is one big boast of self-sufficiency, and it is wrong, totally wrong. A thousand things can happen to change our plans—can radically change our lives and work, or to snatch our life right out of this world.
Most people boast of their work, what they have done, their ability and possessions. But note a fact seldom thought about: most boasting is not done by word of mouth. It is done by the way we live. We boast by flaunting our abilities and successes through our possessions and activities such as expensive houses, clothes and cars, exclusive clubs, friendships, and recreation.
We have an urge, a tendency to boast and to be seen and recognized as better and more successful than others. And note what Scripture says: we rejoice in our boastings—that we are more successful in our work than some others. But such boastings—such pride and arrogance—are evil. Why? Because a man’s ability and life are due to God and rest in the hands of God. And in addition to this: the future—tomorrow and even one hour from now—is in the hands of God. It may be a heart attack—it may be a thief—it may be an accident—it is all in the hands of God. What a person needs to do is trust God and commit all his ways into the hands of God, acknowledging Him in all things and at every turn of every day.
17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Selfishness is sin. This is a striking definition of sin: to know that we should do something and to refuse to do it is sin. As simply stated as possible: when we know to do good and refuse to do it, it is sin.
A person is to walk in fellowship and communion with God day by day and moment by moment, acknowledging Him in all his ways. He is to commit his life—all his ways—unto the Lord. Refusing to do so is sin, and the wages of sin is death—spiritual and eternal death.
CLOSING
CLOSING
Selfishness leads to destruction. Living “our” best life leads to destruction. Relying on our own knowledge brings failure. James is very clear, we are to rely on God for everything. You see, relying on ourselves IS sin. We are told in Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
It is not by our own doing that we can be forgiven of sin, but it was by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. It is simply believing in that, and submitting ourselves to Him that we can have the comfort and peace of knowing we have been forgiven and are saved.
Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Hebrews-James, The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible (Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 1996), 289.
