Introduction:
A. We are in a new sermon series that we started last week that I am calling “Serving Like Jesus.”
1. Last week, we explored the fact that God wants us to be conformed into the likeness of Jesus, and because Jesus was a servant, that is a primary way that we must be like Him.
B. Today I want us to make a case for selflessness in a selfie world.
1. This whole “selfie” thing is crazy.
2. Selfishness and self-centeredness is nothing new, but technology and social media has given us a whole new way to be self-absorbed.
3. Let’s look at some samples of interesting selfie pictures.
C. So, let me ask a personal question: Are you a selfish or a selfless person?
1. You may not want to answer that question, but it is important that we come to grips with the answer.
2. For many of us, an honest answer would be: “Some of both.”
3. Hopefully, none of us would say that we are completely selfish, but few, if any of us can say that we are completely selfless.
4. Let me give us a word of caution: this is one of those character traits that is hard to evaluate in ourselves – this is often a blind spot for us. It is hard to see ourselves clearly and accurately.
5. Someone said, “Selfishness is the great unknown sin. No selfish person ever thought himself to be selfish.”
6. You or I may be terribly selfish and we may not even be aware of it.
7. Many times we need someone else to help us see the truth about ourselves.
8. Allow me to get very personal for a moment.
a. With regard to this matter, my mother was very helpful to me early in my life.
b. She was able to help me see how selfish I had become, and she committed herself to helping me change.
c. One day after I acted very selfishly, I vividly remember my mother saying: “Over my dead body will I allow you to grow up to be that selfish.”
d. Early in our married life, Diana helped me see some of my selfish tendencies that still needed to be brought under control.
e. So, with the help of these two precious people, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, I am thankful to be able to say that I am much better in this area of my life than I would have been.
f. That’s not to say that I am selfless, but that is my goal, and I am closer to it than I used to be.
D. Even the famous preacher and author, Charles Swindoll, has battled the selfish tendency in his own life.
1. He tells a story about a time when he and his son, Curt, took a few days off together and shot the rapids at the Rogue River in Oregon.
2. They went with several of the men from their church (there were about 15 in the group).
3. While they were receiving instructions from the guide, Charles began to take a closer look at the canoes. Some were old and worn, but a few were new.
4. Charles wanted to get one of the new ones for he and his son.
5. So, he whispered in the ear of his son, “Curt, start moving to the left.” “Why?” his son asked. “Just do what I say, son. The two canoes on the end are new. Let’s get’em.”
6. Swindoll’s son cooperated and they got the new ones.
7. Swindoll said that he handled it so smoothly that nobody noticed it.
8. And then as they were breaking up into groups, he made sure he and his son ended up with old pro as their guide, rather than a couple of rookies.
9. Later, what Swindoll had done hit him hard. He was selfish, plain and simple. And to make matters worse, he was teaching his son to be selfish too!
D. I don’t think I have to explain to you why this is such an important subject.
1. Selfishness is a very destructive characteristic.
2. It not only destroys our relationships with others, it destroys our relationship with God.
3. So, here’s my main point today: Without a selfless spirit, we cannot become like Christ, or be effective in Christ.
4. We cannot be a servant of Jesus and serve like Jesus unless we develop a selfless attitude.
I. THE EXPECTATION
A. For starters, we must realize that a selfless spirit is what God expects us to develop.
1. Scripture includes many commands about getting a grip on selfishness.
B. Jesus made this expectation very clear when He informed us that a basic of requirement of discipleship is self-denial.
1. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Mt 16:24-25)
2. In that statement of Jesus, we learn that we cannot be His disciples without denying ourselves.
3. The only way to save our life is to give it up.
C. The NT writers made it clear that Christians must learn to treat each other unselfishly.
1. Rom. 15:2, “Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.”
2. 1 Cor. 10:24, “Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.”
3. 1 Cor. 13:5, Love is … “not self-seeking.”
4. Phil. 2:3-4, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
5. James 3:14-16, “But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”
D. So, from those verses, it is clear that God expects us to become selfless, rather than selfish.
1. We start on the path of discipleship through self-denial, and we continue on that path with an attitude of selflessness.
2. In our interactions with others we should be concerned about their needs, and seek their good.
3. We must realize that when selfishness, and selfish ambition are present, so is all kinds of evil.
a. Nathanael Emmons said, “Selfishness is the root and source of all natural and moral evils.”
b. Richard Cecil wrote, “The very heart and root of sin is an independent spirit - we erect the idol self, and not only wish others to worship, but worship it ourselves.”
c. An ancient writer put it this way, “Whoever will labor to get rid of self, to deny himself according to the instructions of Christ, strikes at once at the root of every evil, and finds the germ of every good.”
d. Anonymous source, ‘“Me’ is always at the bottom of all sin. One little word M-E. It may spell drink, lust, pride, covetousness, self-will, but it is some form of ‘me.’”
4. A person can be a miser or a savage and be selfish, but not a Christian, and not a servant.
5. Selfishness is a sin, and it leads to all kinds of sin, and that’s why God commands us to rid it from our lives.
6. I need to make two important clarifications before we go any farther.
a. First, having a good self-esteem is not the same thing as being selfish.
1. God wants us to know that we are loved and valued by Him and therefore, having a
healthy self-esteem means that we love and value ourselves highly because God does.
b. Second, a poor self-image is not to be equated with humility or the mark of servanthood.
1. Proper humility says that although I am highly loved and valued, I am not more
important or better than others, because God values and loves us all equally.
7. So, if we want to be like Jesus and serve like Jesus, then we have to rein in selfishness and replace it with a selfless spirit – that’s what God commands and expects.
II. THE EXHIBITION
A. But what does selfless living and selfless service look like?
1. We have a number of wonderful examples of selflessness in the Bible.
B. The most obvious is the example of Jesus himself.
1. The passage that we read earlier from Romans 15, continued with the example of Jesus. It reads, “Each one of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself, but, as it is written: ‘The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.’”(Ro 15:2-3)
2. Also the passage we read in Philippians 2 about not having selfish ambition, and looking to the interests of others, continues like this: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:5-8)
3. There is not a better example of selflessness than Jesus.
a. He not only died a brutal death full of suffering, but he left a place of glory to do it.
b. Not only that, he had no sin of his own, but carried the terrible weight and horror of our sin on the cross.
c. He was punished in our place - that is selflessness; that is putting the interests of others before your own!
d. We are called to walk in his steps…mighty big steps to follow, wouldn’t you say?!
C. If any of us find it difficult to aspire to the example of Jesus, after all he was God in the flesh, then let me give you a couple other examples.
1. John the Baptizer is a great example of selflessness.
a. God set him apart before his birth to play an important role in the coming of Jesus.
b. John began preaching and proclaiming the coming of the Messiah, and he told people that they needed to prepare for the Messiah through repentance.
c. Once Jesus began his ministry and John had pointed the people to Jesus, it was time for him to fade into the background.
d. After being an overtly public spectacle, kind of a celebrity, John needed to disappear into the background.
e. Some of John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan - the one you testified about - well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.” (Jn. 3:26)
f. John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven…He must become greater, I must become less.” (Jn. 3:27, 30)
g. What a selfless attitude! Could you have made that transition?
2. The apostle Paul is another good example of selflessness.
a. When Jesus called Paul to become his follower and ambassador, Paul left all he had attained up to that moment, and gave himself completely to Jesus.
b. What was ahead for him was all kinds of toil, danger and suffering, but Paul endured it willingly and graciously.
c. Listen to how Paul described his self-denial: “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.” (Phil. 3:7-8)
d. Galatians 2:20, “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.”
e. Vance Havner wrote, “In our day of self-exaltation, the Bible teaches self-execution. Not that we execute ourselves, but that we submit to the death of self by the hand of God. Paul witnessed his own execution, but there came forth a new Paul: ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’”
3. Have you ever thought about dead men: they have no fears, no needs, and no rights.
a. Paul was a dead man whose only life was in Christ. He lived selflessly.
b. We are called by God to do the same, we are called to follow the examples of Jesus, John, Paul and so many others.
III. THE EXECUTION
A. When I use the word execution here, I’m thinking of the verb, not the noun.
1. The verb execute means to perform completely, to carry into effect, to make effective.
2. So, I’m talking about the application of selflessness to our lives – how do we live selflessly?
3. Let’s explore what selflessness looks like in the heart, the home, and the church.
B. Selflessness in the Heart
1. This is where the real battle is won or lost.
2. Look at Col 3:1-3, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
3. Is your heart set on the things of God, or on earthly things? On selfish things?
4. Have your really died to yourself, and are you living for God?
5. Is God on the thrown of your heart, or are you still there? Is he the Lord, or are you?
C. Selflessness in the Home
1. This is the place where selflessness is often most difficult, and yet most important.
2. Franklin Bailey of Los Angeles is in charge of what he calls “the busiest repair shop in town,” and just around the corner is what he calls “the busiest wrecking business in town.”
3. What is he talking about? His repair shop is his marriage counseling service, the wrecking business is the divorce court.
4. Bailey says that the main problems facing the 10,000 people who have passed through his office, in order of frequency, are: Sex, money, children, and trouble with in-laws.
5. Bailey says that all of the problems he sees can be boiled down to one - selfishness.
6. Husbands, do you want to be the best husband? Then be selfless - serve your wife in love.
7. Wives, do you want to be the best wife? Then be selfless - serve your husband in love.
8. As husbands and wives both strive to selflessly serve the other, then their marriage will be blessed and the difficulties they face will be resolved more easily.
9. But when one partner turns to selfishness, it is misery for the other, and then the other usually also turns to selfishness.
10. When both partners turn to selfishness, it’s over. Sadly, then the marriage has no future.
D. Selflessness in the Church
1. What does selfless service look like in the church?
2. It looks like this:
a. When there is something that needs to be done, we have more people willing to do it than we need doing it.
b. When someone is in need, people step forward and say I’ll do whatever needs to be done, I don’t care how dirty, ugly, or costly the situation.
c. When a decision needs to be made about a non-biblical issue, everyone gives their input, but everyone says that they will go along with the group decision.
d. When money is needed for regular ministry expenses, or some special need, then everyone cheerfully and sacrificially gives.
3. Do you see how simply all of this falls into place when selfishness is replaced by selflessness?
a. When we are selfish, we are unwilling to give ourselves, our time and effort, and our money.
b. When we are selfless, then we are God’s – all we are belongs to Him and all we are is made available to God: our hearts, our minds, our time, our effort, and our resources.
Conclusion:
A. So, when you and I do some self-examination regarding the things we have looked at today, how do we measure up to the commands of God?
1. Are we on the path of selflessness, or the path of selfishness?
B. If we find that we are still stuck in selfishness, then we are likely feeling rather empty and frustrated.
1. A. G. Lawson said, “Usually he is most empty who is most full of himself.”
2. John Mason said, “They that deny themselves for Christ, shall enjoy themselves in Christ.”
3. Vance Havner put it simply and clearly: “We are always trying to ‘find ourselves’ when that is exactly what we need to lose.”
C. Look at this powerful reading:
If you are wise, you will forget yourself into greatness.
Forget your rights, but remember your responsibilities.
Forget your inconveniences, but remember your blessings.
Forget your own accomplishments, but remember your debts to others.
Forget your privileges, but remember your obligations.
Forget yourself into greatness.
D. That is the formula that Jesus followed and the one that He left for us to follow.
1. Last week we explored these words of Jesus, “Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:26-28).
2. I hope that all of us want to learn to serve like Jesus.
3. If we are going to become a servant like Jesus, then with God’s help we must begin to address our tendencies toward selfishness.
4. Selflessness replaces selfishness as we live for Christ and put others’ needs ahead of our own.
5. Being selfless in a selfie world isn’t easy, but God’s power makes it possible, and it is the path to blessing and greatness.
Resources:
Improving Your Serve, Charles Swindoll, Word, Inc., 1981, Chapter 2.
Faithful Followers Have a Selfless Spirit, Sermon by David Owens, 12.8.96
Selfishness or Servanthood – Who’s Winning in Your Home? Sermon by Sherm Nichols, SermonCentral.com
