We All Got One – Is Yours Too Big? Series

WE ALL GOT ONE – IS YOURS TOO BIG?

Romans 12:3

Romans 12:3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

INTRODUCTION: What part of you is interested in you? Answer: Your Ego! Now out egos are important. We need to have some ego in order to have a measure of concern regarding our success, our appearance, and our feelings of self. Yet, as a result of sin in the world, our egos need a control mechanism, something to keep them in check. According to Scripture the “ego control mechanism” is the Word of God – the Bible.

Uncontrolled egos have a way of slipping out in our speech. This morning, I would like to look at 3 “slips of the tongue” regarding our ego.

I BOASTING – The popular social sport!

THE DANGER WITH BOASTING IS THAT IT CAN NEGATE THE VERY PURPOSE OF REDEMPTION – To Give Glory To God

A In Reality Boasting Inflates Nothing

Philip. 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

1 Vain conceit – means “empty glory”

2 Our Reality Apart From Christ

a We are no good

Romans 7:18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

Isaiah 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

b We can do nothing

John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

B Boasting is Little More Than A Duck Flying Upside Down – He “quacks up”

James 4:13-16 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that." 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.

1 The word brag means “a wandering quack”

2 We do not possess the ultimate control of our circumstances

3 To assume that control reduces God from the administrator of our lives to little more than a sidekick.

C Boasting Undermines God’s Glory – Exercising care in what we take credit for

1 We are to point to God

1 Cor. 6:19-20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

2 Taking God’s glory brings SEVERE consequences

Psalm 106:33 for they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and rash words came from Moses’ lips.

Exodus 17:5-7 The LORD answered Moses, "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"

Numbers 20:2-11 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3They quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! 4Why did you bring the LORD’S community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? 5Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!" 6Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. 7The LORD said to Moses, 8"Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink."