Killing "the God Of Me"

Killing "The god of Me”

Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:

Matthew 5:6-8

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse is:

Jude 1:24-25

“To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy; to the only God our Savior, be glory, majesty, power and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forever more. Amen!”

Today we will be reading from Philippians 2:1-11

The last time we were together we took a look at one of the great hymns of the Bible found in Philippians chapter two. When we did that we attempted to comprehend the vast magnitude of Jesus’ humility.

And we saw how Jesus being God Himself voluntarily set aside all of the privileges that come with being God as an act of humility and obedience to the Father.

Let’s continue to look at the greatest of all sacrifices that was ever made in Philippians 2:1-11

(prayer for help)

Philippians 2:5b-7a says

“Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant …”

Human language is so inadequate when it comes to trying to describe the vastness of this act of love by God for humanity.

The amazing thing is that the more you look into God’s holy Word, the more you will come to know God Himself. And the more you come to know God Himself the more you will be met head-on by the incomprehensible magnitude of this act of humility and obedience.

On the other hand, if you know little of God’s Word and if you have no real relationship with the Lord God through Jesus Christ His Son, then this verse will more than likely bring a response of “oh, yeah … that’s nice” and your life will be unchanged.

Christ Jesus did not just exist in the form of God as we would think of it. It is not as if He was just “similar to” or “kind of like God”, but He was and is truly God Himself in every aspect of the word. He IS the one and only true God.

Now, we all have a god. I am not talking about the One and Only God, although it SHOULD be the One and Only God of the Bible. But, with the vast majority of people living today their god is spelled with a little “g”.

When the Lord God created us it was with a need for Him and that need was fulfilled in an unbroken fellowship with God the Creator. But, what happened when sin entered into the world? God the Creator was replaced with “the god of me”.

This is the fallen state of humanity! We are born in sin and the sinful nature makes us self-centered and we, in essence, become our own god. We can deny that with all of our hearts but it is nevertheless true.

So, until we meet God the Creator who gave His One and Only Son for our salvation we will inevitably serve “the god of me”.

Try to imagine this … How many Jews were there when Nebuchad-nezzar set up the 90 foot tall, 9 foot wide idol on the plain of Dura and ordered everyone to bow and worship the idol when the music started? (Explain - Daniel 3:1-30)

There had to be more than three but Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were the only ones standing. We don’t know how many other Jews there were but we do know that when it comes to self-preservation “the god of me” can be very powerful.

And, it is in those times of testing when we find out who our god really is; is it “the god of me” or the God who died for me?

But, for professing Christians, the time of testing can be a tiny temptation compared to being put to death just because you refuse to deny Christ as Lord. Let me give you an example …

After ruling for less than one year, Edward VIII became the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne. He chose to abdicate after the British government, public, and the Church of England condemned his decision to marry the American divorcée Wallis Warfield Simpson (with whom he had been committing adultery even while she was still in her second marriage.) On the evening of December 11, 1936 he gave a radio address in which he explained, “I have found it impossible to carry on the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge the duties of king, as I would wish to do, without the help and support of the woman I love.” (History.com)