The Letter I Series

Title : THE LETTER i

Intro:

This mornings message is entitled…………

I don’t know about you I could be the most self indulged person at times even as a kid

( give me no its mine mommy) I was selfish and still I am at times.

I Remember one of my friends and I got this brilliant idea………………….on how to earn money and to expand our finances………… We were thinking about ourselves and wanted that rush feeling. What we did was selfish, that year the baseball team could not buy uniforms I found out years later. Because of my selfishness, it cost others something.

How many of you think I was a selfish, a self-centered jerk?

Sure, I totally was. I was only thinking about me.

Here is the last question, how many of you can relate – just like me, you have been selfish at some point in your life?

So If you raised your hand, this morning’s letter of the day is i.

You see, for all of us, we have a choice, my life can revolve around I, in the theory that I am the center of the universe or my life can revolve around God and putting other people’s needs ahead of my own.

Let’s be honest, it is a lot easier to be self-centered than others-centered. It’s easy to buy into my father in-law saying he who hesitates is lost , its all about you and you being the first one in line, the first to talk, the first one you think about when a circumstance happens – how will I benefit from this?

One reason that this comes so naturally is because the world around us is very I focused.

So much so, when they hear that someone does something that is for others they think your from some other planet that you are strange, and have some sort of problem.

You’re doing what you are spending your spring break serving other people it’s your spring break and you even have to pay for it out of your own pocket or your parents pocket I guess what’s the difference ,that’s weird why would you do that? And what You gave your iPod away and took a homeless guy out on a date to McDonalds and he didn’t leave a tip your crazy!

Like I said earlier, it is a lot easier to be i-centered and focus on one person, especially when that person is me than to be other’s centered. Here is the problem Being I centered comes with some side-effects or I problems. Let me share just a couple of them with you.

There are 2 i-problems

1. I is not in the word love. It is almost impossible to have a true meaningful relationship with a person who only thinks about themselves.

Think about it………..

The Bible puts it this way:

In James 4:1-2

Vs 1- What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?

Vs 2- You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.

The cause of relational conflicts is simple: someone is not getting their way.

As long as I put I first, it is only a matter of time before I meet someone else who wants to be first and the result according to the bible is “fights and quarrels.”

Let’s Test this theory think back to your last fight with your parents or friend:

What was your fight about and why “What did you want?” if we really looked at it and had you come up here to share what it probably came down to is you were mad because you didn’t get your way?”

There will always a first in something. At a door, only one person can go through the door first. At lunch, only one person can order first. When determining who will talk and who will listen, guys if you are talking to a girl you will be the one listening, but seriously only one person can talk first. When there is a disagreement, only one person is going to get their way.

Either I go first or I allow you to. If I go first and make you wait, there is the potential for conflict.

But if I let you go first, there is potential for relationship. That relationship in God’s eyes is more important than you being first.

Selfishness is the enemy of relationships. I is not in love. Ultimately I destroys families, friendships, teams, rock bands, student ministries and holds us back from what God wants to do in our lives.