Selflessness

27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.

31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Humility and Selflessness

Humility 2.0 Sermon

Following the King and His Heart means we need to press into this topic

Selflessness is a trait of humility

Humility is the umbrella while selflessness is one of the steal pegs that hold it up

Humble: not proud or haughty : not arrogant

Selfless: having no concern for self

The greatest heroes of cinamatic history all end up paying the ultimate price because they have no concern for themself and they see that their death will lead to others benefitting:

www.ranker.com just ranks things…

“The Best Fictional Characters Who Sacrificed Themselves”

Jesus

Obi-Wan Kenobi

The enemies are usually very self-centered or narcissistic:

Opposite: Selfishness

Jerry Bridges: Respectable Sins

“Selfishness is a difficult sin to expose because it so easy to see in someone else but so difficult to recognize in ourselves.”

Blunt people are blunt about their selfishness, pleasing people are delicate and refined with selfishness.

Selfishness as Inconsiderate:

Example: Toilet paper hoarding

Pandemic has highlighted what we are interested in:

Philippians 2:4: “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Bubonic plague: 30-40 percent of Europe died! “Best of the priests died and the worst of them lived.”

Selfishness with Money

Jerry Bridges: Give less than 2 percent to charitable and religious causes...

Christianity Today: Secrets of a Giving Church

National Association of Evangelicals- (Christian Reformed Church): average, 3.7 percent of their income.

National Council of Churches- giving 2.6 percent

CRCNA= 6.1%

Challenge: Are you giving to non-profits dealing with the poor right now?

Holly Springs Food Cupboard: Number of families are going way up right now. Demand is higher than ever…

Cost of business is going up!

each week: 42 weekly average, 47 up

deliveries

transportation issues

Meat Prices are up

package everything for drive thru

Track out bags 600% more: every two weeks and working.

fall: what’s going to happen

Follow Suit: Selflessness Like Jesus

Luke: Sermon on the Plain- less famous than Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount

Jesus brings his disciples down from the mountain and teaches the multitude. This is for everyone!

Three Groups: Apostles, “a large crowd of his disciples”, and “a great number of people.”

vv.27-30: Love your enemies

27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.

The one who strikes you on the cheek (lit. jaw, punch, not a slap- TNTC)

The one who takes away your cloak

Give to beggars (lend= lit. ‘lend on interest’- TNTC)

The one who takes your goods

vs. 31: Golden Rule

31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

vv.32-34: Why Practice Golden Rule?

32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.

“IF you love those who love you...” Not a sign of selflessness!

“IF you do good to those who do good to you....” NOT a sign of selfishness

“IF you lend to those who will repay...” NOT a sign of selfishness

vv.35-36: Review of the Passage:

Love enemies, do good, lend, expecting nothing in return

Reward will be great: Reward= Affection of the Father and not the attention of Others

Sons and Daughters of God act this way

For God “is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” (vv.35-36)

Follow Suit:

Like Father, like Son, like sons...

The commands Jesus give in these verses are among the most difficult to put into practice.

I wanted to think of an example of selflessness, you know, someone we can really relate to, but these types of people are truly hard to come by:

They’re what movies are made of:

Obe-Wan Kenobi

7 Pounds: Will Smith’s character who gives the ultimate sacrifice and in order to hand select people who will benefit as organ recipients...

Blindside Giving: Wealthy white family adopts a black high schooler who ends up playing in the NFL

But one example I want to focus on comes not from a movie, but a book. A kids book, actually.

I read it for the first time a few years ago to Mark. The first time I read it I had no idea what I was getting myself into...

The man comes across as really, really selfish. He just takes and takes and takes

But he does ONE thing right… One redeeming thing in the story:

He remembered, that, when he had nothing left, he went back to the tree...

You know, the same is true of God’s grace!

The Tree Jesus hung on defines selflessness… Jesus giving and giving and giving and we, even as the sin over, and over and over again, as our selfishness keeps us as the center of our lives and attention, the Christian knows where to go when we have nothing left....

And so the challenge of course, is to be like this tree, and to run to the cross, and to be like Jesus.

To give, when it hurts, to those who need help. To give at time radically. To give without payback. To give graciously and compassionately. Mercifully.

This ‘boy’ he took of advantage of grace.

Don’t take advantage of the grace found at the cross.

Rather, let it transform you to grow in grace, to follow suit, all the way to the point where you to would be willing to turn the other cheek, give a coat, or give a life.