It’s In Your Own Best Interest
9/2/2007 Proverbs 1:8-19 John 10:1-18
Could you help me out for a moment. Let’s say one day a family member by the name of Charles shows up at your house with no money, no food, no clothing, no nothing except a sad story about being down and out. It’s cold, wet and snowing. Charles is shivering there on your doors step.
You have compassion on Charles, and you say come on in. You invite Charles to come sit near the heat to dry off. How do you respond when the Charles says, “I’ll come over near the heat and take off this wet sweater if you will fix me some hot chocolate.” You’re surprised, but you fix the hot chocolate, and Charles takes off the wet sweater.
You ask well are you hungry. Charles says, “yes I’m about starved.” You say “I have some left over spaghetti, would you like me to warm it up.” Charles says, “Tell you what, I’ll eat something if you fix me some grits, sausage and scrambled eggs. Make sure though it’s beef sausage, because I don’t eat any pork.” You grit your teeth, and go in and make Charles some grits, sausage and scrambled eggs. You bring it to him , and the Charles says, “it looks like you forgot to put cheese on the eggs. If you put a little cheese on the eggs, I’ll help you wash the dishes afterwards if I’m not too tired.”
You can tell that Charles has not had a bath in while and so you mention the bathroom is the door upstairs to the left and the soap is already in the shower. Charles then says,” I’ll take a shower if you agree to put my clothes in the washer while I’m in the bathroom.”
How many of you are ready to show Charles another door that leads to the same place he came into your house from. What Charles failed to see, was that it was in his or own best interest to do the things you requested and accept whatever you offered. Instead he only focus on what he wanted regardless of the cost.
We can see right through Charles and pity him, and not realize how much of Charles is in us when it comes to our relationship with God. Charles was treating you, as though he was doing you a favor by letting you take care of some genuine needs he had in his life. So many of us treat God, as though we are doing God a favor by letting God have a role in our lives. We are doing God a favor by coming to church or by singing.
We do not recognize that it is in our own best interest to live according to God’s word. We tell God, God if you do this for me (make me grits, sausage and scrambled eggs with cheese) then I will do your will for my life over here. I’ll go to church, put in a little money, and volunteer once in awhile.
How many of you know that getting your way, and having your best interest at heart can be two totally different things that are worlds apart. Most of the people in prison, got their way, but they didn’t get their best interest. Most teens that drop out of school get their way, but don’t get what’s in their best interest.
Many times in argument, you may get you way, but not get what’s in your best interest. By best interest, I mean what is going to be the most helpful thing to you in the long run. Getting your way at a particular moment may be great at the moment, but it can be devastating over time.
All of us has a heart, that is capable of being cruel, deceptive, manipulative, greedy, selfish and a whole host of other things. These things do not look out for our own best interests, and they cloud our judgment in even understanding what is in our best interest. Have you said something like, “I don’t care what happens, I’m going to….do what. We do things because we think they are going to make us happy. They are going to make us feel good. They are going to make us truly enjoy life. They are going to just make us have a good time. We are searching for that good life.
Others know we are searching for it ,and so they tell us here is what you need for the good life. They offer us the same four or five things over and over again, but it comes in different packages. We are offered pleasure, possessions, power, and praise. Pleasure comes in the form of food, sex, drugs, and hobbies. Posssesions come in the form of clothes, cars, houses, jewelry, and objects. Power comes in the form of money and positions. Praise comes in the form of popularity, fame, beauty and being number one. That’s all we are offered.
You have to choose which of these things are going to give you life. Now the thing with this, is that your choice is not completely a neutral one. You have someone egging you on to go after these things. Yes you have others around you saying come on and join us and be like us. Yes you have your own pride inside telling you, you deserve to have this. But you have an even more sinister partner to push you after these things, and his name is Satan.
The bible never tries to prove that God exists. It simply states that God is. God is not dependent on whether we believe in God or not. God knows that if we wait 90 or more years, we will know for a certain there is a God, there is a heaven, and there is a hell. In the same way as the existence of God, the bible never tries to prove the devil exists. It simply speaks of him and what his plan is. Whether or not we believe in Satan is not relevant to his existence.
Jesus comes flat out and tells us that he is real, and he has a design, a package, a plan for your life. More than anything, he wants to give you your own way. Many people follow Satan, because he wants what they want for themselves. He just looks further down the road than we do.
Many of us think we can be happy if we could just get our own way. Getting our own way never leads us closer to God, because we always have a heart that’s pulling to please itself. We say we want to get closer to the Lord, but in reality we fight it tooth and nail by refusing to surrender what we want, to what’s in our best interest.
There’s not a high school student here who does not know it is in his or her best interest to have a college degree ten years from now, so why are you goofing off in school and mouthing off at your teachers. There’s not a spouse here who does not know it is in the best interest of their marriage, to humble themselves and swallow their pride, to get their relationship back on track, so why are we pretending its fine with us to just leave things like they are? What is it that makes it so hard for us to simply admit, we were wrong without having to make some kind of a justification for it. For heavens sake, it’s in our own best interest to admit, I blew it, will you please forgive me.
If we will not take this road of humility, then we take the road that’s been laid out by Satan with his plan for our lives. Jesus says, “now before you go down that road, I want you to know what Satan or the devil’s motive is. He says look, the enemy comes only to steal, kill and destroy. The only thing the devil wants to do with you in your search for a really good time in life, is to cause you to loose what you have, mess up what could have been yours, and destroy you when it comes to having eternal life.
Do you realize the means of how many of our soldiers are dying in IRAQ? They are not engaged in arm to arm combat, or rifles shooting at each other. They are dying by driving down roads that look safe, but unknown to them, bombs have been planted by the roadside just waiting for them to get close enough before they detonate and explode leaving a trail of death.
Many of us are on roads that seem to be clear. Others have told us, to not got that way, but we do not see any problem with what we’re doing. Satan is just waiting for us to get to the right spot of getting our own way, getting we wanted, not acting in our best interest, and then he will set off that bomb and we do not know what the consequences are going to be.
But Jesus comes with something different. But before you can appreciate anything about Jesus, you have to recognize the truth about yourself from God’s perspective. God says that you and I are not basically good people. God’s word tells us that we have a heart that is bent toward evil on getting its own way. We have all fallen way short of what God requires and that we are all guilty of rebelling against God. The punishment for our behavior is death and hell. No one is good enough to escape those two things. God is going to judge every one of us and hold us accountable for the choices we make in life.
Until we see our situation as hopeless before God on the judgment day, we will keep acting just like Charles in the opening of the message. Thinking that somehow we are doing God a favor by coming in out of the snow and eating what has been provided. We are doing God a favor by trying to be good a little bit. We never do God a favor, because we are always in debt to God because of what God has done for us.
Jesus having told us that Satan came with one purpose in mind, now shifts the focus to tell us what His motives are. Jesus say, “he came to steal, and kill and destroy; I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full” or as the King James translation puts it, “have it more abundantly.”
When Jesus says I have come that they might have life, this word life means more than just going to heaven. It is a mistake to think that Jesus came to die for our sins so that we can simplygo to heaven. Jesus came to die for us, so that we can begin to change our lives. We are equipped for the ministry of Jesus Christ, to make a difference in the lives of others.
Life is not found in those four p’s of pleasure, possessions, power and praise. Now all of these things can make us feel good for a moment, but they don’t really give us life. We keep having to have the latest in order to be happy and fulfilled so we’re never happy because we can never always have the latest or enough of what we have.
The life Jesus is talking about is giving us a real purpose for living from day to day, knowing that what we do really does ultimately matter. Life is being sure that I am in a right relationship to God, and whether I live or die, God and I are at peace and in harmony with each other. It is in our own best interest to be in a right relationship with God because we benefit all the way around. Now Jesus has come with this offer of life, but most of us will not take it, because it comes in the form of death to what we really want to do. There is a natural instinct within us, to do whatever we can to survive physically. We don’t jump off cliffs, walk in front of trains, or wait for pit bulls charging at us to see what they want. We do what we can to survive.
This same survival instinct is at work in our rejection of Jesus. To truly follow Jesus, means to literally die to my own desires and wishes. It is in the death, that we find the power to be resurrected to a new life. Too often we are trying to have the power, without going through the death.
We would not celebrate Easter if Jesus had simply gone to bed the night before and woke up the next day saying I’m the resurrection. It was the fact that he was dead that made getting up on Easter morning all the more powerful.
It is in your own best interest to die according to God’s plan for your life. Nothing keeps us from dying like pride does. Pride shows up so many times as the backside of a fairness issue. “Hey you can’t talk to me like that.” “You can’t do that to me.” “I don’t have to take this.” “Who do you think you are.” “I don’t need you.” “This is not fair, and I’m not going to do it.” If you want to be in a group where everything is fair, you can’t be in the church.
Our leader has told us that things are not going to be fair. We are to forgive those who misuse us, pray for those who abuse us, and love those whom we would call our enemies. We take a lot of stuff not because we’re good and holy, but because we want to become what God wants us to be, because it is in our own best interest.
Jesus never made those kinds of pride statements indicating something was unfair.. He said, “No one takes my life from me, I voluntarily lay it down.” Jesus was nailed to the cross, not because he had to be, but he chose to do it so that he could have life.
Then he turns us and says, Matthew 10:38-39 (NIV) 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What does he mean, when he says to us to take our own cross and follow him? He’s saying look, this is not an easy path to travel, but it does lead to life.
The Romans put Jesus on the cross with the sole purpose of killing him. We have a cross, whose sole purpose is for us to kill that part of us that wants to do what it wants to do, even though it’s not in our best interest to do it. So by killing it, we are acting in our own best interest. Our goal is not to win for the moment, but to win for the long run, because I know, one day I will give an account on how I handled this situation, and I want to be pleasing to my God who loves me.
It does not do much good to come forward and ask for prayer if we do not intend to start pulling out our crosses and nailing ourselves on it. Some of us are praying for better behavior, while refusing to kill the part that encourages the opposite behavior.
You have got to be willing to die before you can live life in the way God wants you to have it. The two most important things we can in this life are to first love the Lord with all our hearts, and second is to love our neighbors as ourselves. When we get to the end of our lives, those are the things that count.
Do you notice at a funeral, what we notice that’s missing. We notice his son was not there. We notice there were no co-workers there. We notice his wife did not come? We notice no one from the church came. Nobody says, I wonder why his Mercedes benz was not there. Nobody looks for the diamonds and silver you had and why they did not make the funeral. Nobody looks for the awards and trophies you have to show up. It is people and relationships that matter. It’s not in your best interest to spend your life on the 4 p’s.
We are going to spend some time in the next few weeks on building relationships for family life. What do we need to do to get along with each other and have life. If we do not have life ourselves, how can we get excited about telling others about it.
Jesus never puts the blame on others for our attitudes and actions. Attitudes and actions are always a choice on our part. Whether you will accept Jesus and his offer for life depends totally on you. Jesus said, “I Stand at the door and knock, if anyone invites me in, I will come in and sit down at the table to dine.” In other words to discuss matters with us. It is in our own best interest, to open the door and let Him in. No one can invite him in for you. God really does have a better life for you than what you’re been living. The only thing is, you’ve got to die to get it. But don’t worry, dying is in your own best interest. Are you willing to die today?
Sermon Outline-Pastor Rick
It’s In Your Own Best Interest
9/2/2007 Proverbs 1:8-19 John 10:1-18
A. Boy Thanks For The Help
1. Charles Come By For Help
2. Heat, Food, Shower
3. Shortsighted Vision
4. My Best Interest/What I Want
B. Confusing Best Interest/Wants
1. Teens, Spouses, Arguments
2. Truth About Our Hearts
3. I Don’t Care What Happens…
C. The 4 P’s To A Good Time
1. Pleasure
2. Possessions
3. Power
4. Praise
D. How Do I Prove God Is
1. A 90 Year Process
2. The Existence Of Satan
3. Jesus Reveals Satan’s Plan
E. If I Could Just Get My own Way
1. Student-- Degree
2. Marriage—Humility
3. Satan’s Road Map
4. Deaths In IRAQ
5. Waiting For The Moment
F. Jesus Has An Alternative
1. Accepting The Truth About You
2. We’re Not Doing God Any Favors
3. Come To Offer Abundant Life
4. Not Just Going To Heaven
5. Looking For A Change
6. Life Is More Than Heaven
7. The 4 P’s Won’t Cut It
G. Knowing That You Are In A Right..
1. Life Comes Looking Like Death
2. The Natural Desire To Survive
3. No Easter Without Death
4. No Power Without Dying
H. One Of Our Greatest Enemies
1. Pride—You Can’t Do That
2. That’s Not Fair
3. The Church Is Not The Place To
Be Fair
4. Some Unfair Expectations
5. Voluntarily Choosing
Matthew 10:38-39 (NIV)
38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
6. This Is Not Easy
I. The Purpose Of The Cross Is Death
1. Kill To Act In Best Interest
2. Winning For The Long Run
3. Prayers In Vain If No Death
J. The Two Great Commandments
1. To Love The Lord
2. To Love Your Neighbor As …
3. Key To Life-Relationships
4. Family Life Relationships
K. Jesus –Actions & Attitudes
1. Whose Knocking At The Door
2. The Invitation Is There
3. It’s Okay To Act In Your Best
Interest.
