Sermon Central
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It's Not About Us
Contributed by Paul Bowen on Dec 10, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: Sorry to burst your bubble, but it simply isn’t about us. Everything He has done is about and for His glory. We were created for Him and He has intended for us an ultimate and divine destiny. That ought to make you shout!
It’s Not About Us
(Ultimate Divine Destiny)
Over the past several weeks I have been pondering and meditating on two concepts. Meditating-like a cow chewing its cud, I’ve had one concept in each cheek as I’ve chewed. But the juices and flavors have run together and the concepts have merged into a singular concept that as a whole is indeed more glorious a revelation than the two separately. Maybe if I hadn’t been so dense, I would have realized that the Holy Spirit was trying to tell me this from the beginning.
Have you ever told a child something to do without their full, undivided attention, only to have to gain their full attention and tell them again to their response: “Why didn’t you say that before?” Well, God has to do the same with his children. Amen. or ~Oh, me~
We have been trained in our culture that the world revolves around us. Everything is out there for our beckoning, our pleasure, our desire, our satisfaction, our comfort, and our whims. Even the church has bought into this hedonistic philosophy by telling believers that everything Christ did, he did just for you. I would like to take exception with this theology and challenge it with scripture. If we are to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds,” (Rom 12:2) then why is the Church conforming to the world’s view of everything?
Galatians 2:20 (NIV)
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
This verse has often been used as justification because it does say that He “loved me and gave himself for me.” So, we assume that it is all about us. After all, didn’t “God so love the world that he gave…” (John 3:16)?
So in our narcissistic little minds, we think it is all about us and the church has let us for centuries.
Narcissism, according to mentalhealth.com, is actually a psychological disorder.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
4. requires excessive admiration
5. has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
6. is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
7. lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
8. is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
Narcissism is named after Narcissus, and both derive from the Greek word narke "numb" from which we also get the word narcotic. Thus for the Greeks Narcissus stood for callousness and insensitivity, as he was emotionally numb to the entreaties of those who fell in love with his beauty. (wikipedia.org)
Narcissus fell in love with his reflection in the pool of water and tried to seduce the beautiful boy, not realizing it was himself he was looking at.
Consequently, he grieved himself to death there at the pool by the unrequited love of his reflection.
Just as the Greek myth of Narcissus, if we live our life focused on us, we too will die, our destiny unfulfilled.
But, please note another part of that scripture:
Galatians 2:20 (NIV)
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
Do you see it? Did you catch those seven all important words? “I no longer live, but Christ lives.”
That ought to make you shout.
It is not about us!
Not you, not me, not our church, not our families, not our priorities, not out success, not our failures, it is simply not about us. It is all about Him.
John 15:16 (NIV)
16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-- fruit that will last…
Yes, God chooses to use us, and bless us, and forgive us, and save us, and heal us, and deliver us, but it is not for or about us. Just as in the time of Pharaoh, God does everything to bring Himself glory.
