A Crash of Selfishness

 

“The DNA of sin is selfishness. Sin inserts me into the middle of my universe; the one place reserved for God and God alone. Sin reduces my field of concern down to my wants, my needs, and my feelings. Sin really does make it all about me.”  Paul Tripp

 
  It’s a scene so shocking that you may want to Google it to see it for yourself. As this year’s bicyclists in the Tour de France started off, a self-absorbed fan attempting to pose for the TV cameras caused a horrible crash that plunged the first stage of the Tour de France into chaos.
  The disastrous crash was caused by a woman standing on the roadside of the Tour’s opening stage. To make sure that she was on TV, she stepped in front of the racing pack holding a cardboard sign, displaying a message for the cameras. With one foot on the road and her cardboard sign encouraging riders to “Go!” hanging out onto the course, the spectator’s head was turned in the opposite direction of the cyclists when disaster struck.
  Her sign was in the direct path of the first cyclist, German rider, Tony Martin, who was cycling near the head of the pack. He fell, which led to the subsequent crash of dozens of riders behind him. Cyclists then began to fall en masse as the crash left bikes and bodies tangled in the road. The crash held the race up for several minutes. Multiple bikes were damaged as a result of the crash but the injury toll to riders wasn’t immediately clear.
  Later a bloodied Tony Martin returned to the race but Jasha Sutterlin of Germany reportedly withdrew because of the crash. All because one spectator wanted her 15 seconds of fame – the high price of selfishness.
  Behind nearly every marital fight is selfishness. Why do children squabble? Selfishness. At the root of every church split, you’ll find selfishness. The cancer that steals our joy is selfishness. Yet, selfishness is encouraged and applauded in a selfie world. It hides behind phrases like, “I need me time” or “I’ve got to take care of myself.”
  Our sin-contaminated world applauds self-idolization. We pose for selfies, edit our images, and self-promote the best parts of our lives. We post selfies to get “likes” and admiration, while the time we spend thinking of ourselves grows like an out-of-control noxious weed. Our selfies scream, “Look at me! Look at what I’m doing! Look at what I have!”
  Our sin nature feeds our selfish passions. We improve our looks. We do more document-worthy stuff. We acquire more things to “snap” and “share.” While we may not be famous on Instagram, most of us think of ourselves far too much. Scrolling through or actively posting to social media adds to such overthinking. The less we guard ourselves in a selfie world, the more we turn the lens of our hearts inward. It’s our story that matters – our needs, wants, and desires. Yet, the selfish person struggles with insecurity and is often overwhelmed with doubt. Selfishness starves our souls, contaminates our lives with unhappiness and even anger, when “I” don’t have my needs met.
  Apart from the power of the Gospel, it’s difficult to be selfless. Even when we’re caring for others, there’s a voice inside whispering, “I hope others are watching to see how much I care.” It’s only when we know the sacrificial Savior that we can truly have victory over being self-absorbed.
  How can we have victory over selfishness? The answer is love. The greatest commandments are the foundation for all Christian ethics and for the Christian life: “And Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets’” (Matt. 22:37-40).
  As we devote ourselves to loving God and loving our neighbors, we turn our attention away from inside of ourselves. This call to love is fundamental, demanding, and only possible for those who have been born again by the Spirit of God because God is love. Love requires selflessness. Though it seems counterintuitive, it’s only as we love God and others that we have joy, peace and contentment. Those are never found in self-love. How do we demonstrate the distinctiveness of Christian love?
  Love values the other person. Each person we meet is Imago Dei, thus we don’t confuse love with the counterfeits of lust, sentimentality, or self-gratification. While love includes wonderful, warm feelings, it’s much more than a feeling. Love is a decision. We choose to love. God loved us not because we had something to offer Him, but rather because He had something to offer us. “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God chose to love us so that He could demonstrate His mercy to us in the person of His Son.
  Love is vulnerable to the other. Love opens up its life to another person. It breaks down barriers and exposes the heart. Selfless love is the most costly investment you will ever make.
  C. S. Lewis, in The Four Loves, describes the vulnerable nature of love, “To love is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries. Avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken. Instead, it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”
  Love is costly. It takes risks and goes out on a limb. Love makes a statement and leaves a legacy. It does the unexpected, surprising, and stirring. It performs acts that steal the heart and leaves an impression on the soul. Often these acts are never forgotten.
  A little girl named Liz was suffering from a rare life-threatening disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old brother, who had somehow survived the same disease but had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother and asked the little boy if he’d be willing to give his blood to his sister. He hesitated for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, “Yes, I’ll do it if it will save her.”
  As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then, his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, “Will I start to die right away?” The little boy had misunderstood the doctor. He thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her. That’s love. Love is selfless and sacrificial. As someone insightfully wrote: “Nothing is more a contradiction than to profess to be a Christian and live for oneself.”

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. 

Why trust when you can worry!?!

“God has great things in store for His people; they ought to have large expectations.”   Charles Spurgeon

  If you’re like most people, you probably worry about your weight.  That might not be at the top of your list, but according to a recent survey, that’s the #1 concern for most people. Here are the Top Ten Worries (counting down from #10 to #1) according to this survey: #10 Diet. #9 Job security. #8 Rent/mortgage payment. #7 Credit card debt. #6 Low energy level. #5 Overdrafts and loans. #4 Overall fitness. #3 Lack of savings/financial future. #2 Growing old. #1 Being overweight.

  Yet, notice something about this list. First, these concerns primarily fall into two categories – health and finances. Second, these are universal human concerns. Finally, these are issues which will be with us as long as we live. You’re going to have to die in order to stop being concerned about your money and your health.

  Have you ever wondered how much time you spend worrying? It’s probably more than you think. That same survey asked people how much time they spend worrying and here’s what they discovered. Each week, we spend 14.31 hours worrying. That equals 744 hours of worry each year, which turns into 45,243 hours of worry over a lifetime, which equals 1885 days in a lifetime spent doing nothing but worrying. Ultimately, we spend 5.2 years of life enslaved by worry. Is it any wonder that we have trouble sleeping? Or, that we feel under so much pressure and often find it so hard to concentrate? For most of us, it’s not just one thing, it’s multiple concerns all wrapped up together. It’s our job, school, money, work, health, bills to pay, your husband, your wife, your ex, the in-laws, the kids…on and on it goes. Any one issue we could handle or even two, but when you get three or four together, your knees start to buckle.

  To worry is to “give way to anxiety or unease; allow one’s mind to dwell on difficulty or troubles.” The word comes from the Old English wyrgan, which means “to strangle or to seize by the throat.” That’s a helpful image, because we’ve all felt the pressure of worry choking us, squeezing the life out of us. Some folk who are consumed by worry will wonder if they’re possibly having a heart attack because of a tightness in their chest.

  Yet, God has called us to be the people of faith. Faith and worry are arch enemies. Worry is the enemy of a relationship with God. You can’t go to heaven without taking God at His Word, that the death of His Son, Jesus was sufficient to pay for all of your sins. If you want God’s blessing, His approval on your life…if our church wants His blessing, then we must trust Him. Hebrew 11:6 admonishes us that “without faith it is impossible to please Him.” What does it mean then to live by faith, to truly trust God? The consistent pattern of God’s Word is that….

  Trusting God means that we’re obedient. The life of faith isn’t complex. It begins with obeying the truth we already know. It means repenting of sin and doing what we know the Bible teaches is right. It means consistently reading the instruction manual, the Bible.

  And true faith always leads to decisive action. Noah believed God and built an Ark. Abraham left everyone and everything he knew because God told him to. The early church shared a message that cost them, not just their livelihood, but often their lives. So what are the areas of obedience that you’re neglecting? You won’t be free from worry until you first obey. God’s blessings are on those who obey.

  Wonderfully, those who trusted God left behind an inheritance of faith. Each of us is given just one life. We leave behind an abundance of memories for those who love us. So what will your family and friends, your children and grandchildren know about a life of faith by their memories of your life? How will you be remembered? Will you be remembered for your faith?

  Living by faith can be like driving in a fog. When driving though a heavy fog, you can’t see that far in front of you but you keep on driving anyway, believing that what you can’t see, you will see once you get there. When you move forward one hundred feet, you can see one hundred more feet than you could not see before. Thus, you keep going until you reach your destination, driving by faith.

  Trusting God means that we’re patient. Many believers in the Bible and even throughout Church History didn’t see the fruition of their faith in their lifetime. God promised Abraham that he’d be the father of a great nation. When he died, he only had Isaac…not exactly a great nation. But God kept His promise.

  Satan tempts us to live for the here and now, to focus and worry about today. We spend money and time seeking to ward off poor health and death. We save for retirement and build up our 401Ks…and there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you’re not a fool and living only for temporary healthy and wealth. When our focus is just on the possessions of the here and now, they distract us from the walk of faith. Living for this world is like preserving and storing up the leaves which are going to fall off the trees in a few weeks. If you’re a believer, this world is not your home. You’re just a leaf on a tree, here today…gone tomorrow. Wise people in faith live for the eternal Home built by God. But it means waiting, not as long as most of us think, yet it still means waiting in faith, trusting God.

  Sometimes we feel like our lives have been put on hold. Waiting is one of the godly life’s greatest disciplines. As we wait in faith for the fulfillment of God’s promises, we must remember that “waiting time is never wasted time.” God is working even while we wait. Sometimes He’s testing us and growing us spiritually. True faith is waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises in His timing, and He always keeps His promises.

  Trusting God means that we’re willing to sacrifice. True faith is always willing to sacrifice. Abraham demonstrated that willingness when he laid on the altar the most precious thing in his life, his son. What’s the most important thing in your life? God will never settle for being second place in your life. He’s only interested in being in first place in your life and won’t settle for anything less.

  Corrie Ten Boom said that she’d learned to hold the things of this world loosely in her hand, because she knew that if she grasped them tightly, the Lord would have to pry her fingers away and it would hurt. Is there anything you’re clinging to, trying to withhold from God? Is there anything that it’s going to hurt if God has to pry it out of your hands?

  Jesus must be Lord of all or He’s not Lord at all. You and I will never give up anything for God that God will not repay many, many times over. True faith means that we’re obedient, patient and willing to sacrifice. 

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