Embracing Selflessness: A Call to Christ-Centered Living
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
"Lord turn us upside down in America, we're self-exalting people, we're proud to the core of our being, a broken and contrite heart is rare, and we long for it because that's what pleases you, so come and continue the wonderful work that you have been doing in the last 30 or 40 minutes, continue it, may our worship continue over the word of God, help me to be faithful to it I ask in Jesus name, amen." [00:01:32]
"Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. So there's a danger. I think the reason Paul starts with pride and the mind's understanding of itself in relation to God and other people is not because that's the most important thing the mind does but that's the most dangerous thing the mind does. What you think about yourself cannot save you, but it can destroy you." [00:03:23]
"In American culture, the exalting of the self is not perilous, it's profitable, and especially among advertisers. So for example, about 200 yards from here, you go out, just look up as you drive out onto the freeway to the McDonald's billboard, me, myself, my salad. What is that? That's all it says. We know exactly what it is. That's who we want to be the center of things exalted." [00:04:20]
"The first task of the new mind of verse 2 is the obliteration of pride and the cultivation of humility. That's remarkable. I mean there's so many things he could have said about the mind, and he will have more to say but there is where he starts. What's new about the renewed mind is that pride is put to death and humility begins to grow." [00:06:39]
"Faith is the unique act of the soul that looks away from itself to Christ and treasures him as infinitely valuable, infinitely worthy, infinitely significant, infinitely worthy of esteem, and thus calls all attention to him. When faith stands in front of a mirror, the mirror becomes a window behind which it sees the beauty and glory of Christ and savors what it sees." [00:09:30]
"Your value consists in your valuing Christ, your esteem consists in your esteeming Christ above all things, your significance consists in your counting Christ more significant than anything in the universe. That was answer number one. Answer number two, Paul, why are you making faith and its God-given measure the means by which we define and assess ourselves so that we think soberly and rightly?" [00:11:02]
"Faith is a divine gift of God and therefore eliminates boasting. It's a gift. Let's read that. I want you to think I'm making that up. Romans 12:3, second half of the verse, think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Therefore, no Christian can boast over a non-Christian as though we have achieved anything by our wisdom, our virtue, or our strength." [00:11:50]
"God assigns faith in different proportions to his people because it produces humble interdependence with all of us serving and being served, which leads to a unity in diversity, which is more difficult and more beautiful and more God-glorifying than if everybody had exactly the same measure of faith." [00:15:08]
"Do we experience faith in different degrees between each other and in our own experience from time to time? I think experience is indisputable on this though experience is not our authority. Let's just start there anyway. You know good and well that your faith is sometimes bigger and sometimes smaller." [00:18:21]
"Faith should be bigger tomorrow than it was yesterday. That's the way God wants it to be, and he was so happy to celebrate that the Thessalonians are stronger, richer, deeper in faith today than they were a few weeks ago, and may it always be so for us as a church." [00:20:22]
"If God is sovereign and he can bring those who are dead in trespasses and sins to living faith, if God is sovereign and can bring Peter from the clutches of the devil after three denials back to useful faith, the sovereignty of God does not make the fight of faith pointless; it makes it possible." [00:23:37]
"The problem with that objection is that it assumes I bring about my own faith. But if God is sovereign, then he is the one who brings about faith in us, and that makes the fight of faith not pointless but possible. It is through God's sovereign grace that we are empowered to overcome our weaknesses and grow in faith." [00:24:56]
Ask a question about this sermon
"Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. So there's a danger. I think the reason Paul starts with pride and the mind's understanding of itself in relation to God and other people is not because that's the most important thing the mind does but that's the most dangerous thing the mind does. What you think about yourself cannot save you, but it can destroy you." [00:03:23]
"In American culture, the exalting of the self is not perilous, it's profitable, and especially among advertisers. So for example, about 200 yards from here, you go out, just look up as you drive out onto the freeway to the McDonald's billboard, me, myself, my salad. What is that? That's all it says. We know exactly what it is. That's who we want to be the center of things exalted." [00:04:20]
"The first task of the new mind of verse 2 is the obliteration of pride and the cultivation of humility. That's remarkable. I mean there's so many things he could have said about the mind, and he will have more to say but there is where he starts. What's new about the renewed mind is that pride is put to death and humility begins to grow." [00:06:39]
"Faith is the unique act of the soul that looks away from itself to Christ and treasures him as infinitely valuable, infinitely worthy, infinitely significant, infinitely worthy of esteem, and thus calls all attention to him. When faith stands in front of a mirror, the mirror becomes a window behind which it sees the beauty and glory of Christ and savors what it sees." [00:09:30]
"Your value consists in your valuing Christ, your esteem consists in your esteeming Christ above all things, your significance consists in your counting Christ more significant than anything in the universe. That was answer number one. Answer number two, Paul, why are you making faith and its God-given measure the means by which we define and assess ourselves so that we think soberly and rightly?" [00:11:02]
"Faith is a divine gift of God and therefore eliminates boasting. It's a gift. Let's read that. I want you to think I'm making that up. Romans 12:3, second half of the verse, think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Therefore, no Christian can boast over a non-Christian as though we have achieved anything by our wisdom, our virtue, or our strength." [00:11:50]
"God assigns faith in different proportions to his people because it produces humble interdependence with all of us serving and being served, which leads to a unity in diversity, which is more difficult and more beautiful and more God-glorifying than if everybody had exactly the same measure of faith." [00:15:08]
"Do we experience faith in different degrees between each other and in our own experience from time to time? I think experience is indisputable on this though experience is not our authority. Let's just start there anyway. You know good and well that your faith is sometimes bigger and sometimes smaller." [00:18:21]
"Faith should be bigger tomorrow than it was yesterday. That's the way God wants it to be, and he was so happy to celebrate that the Thessalonians are stronger, richer, deeper in faith today than they were a few weeks ago, and may it always be so for us as a church." [00:20:22]
"If God is sovereign and he can bring those who are dead in trespasses and sins to living faith, if God is sovereign and can bring Peter from the clutches of the devil after three denials back to useful faith, the sovereignty of God does not make the fight of faith pointless; it makes it possible." [00:23:37]
"The problem with that objection is that it assumes I bring about my own faith. But if God is sovereign, then he is the one who brings about faith in us, and that makes the fight of faith not pointless but possible. It is through God's sovereign grace that we are empowered to overcome our weaknesses and grow in faith." [00:24:56]
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from Jan 16, 2022. Do you have any questions about it?