Open your Bible please to Romans chapter 12 and verse 3 Romans 12 and verse 3 Paul says For through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Well, Father, we appeal to you tonight to help us to understand what Paul is writing here, that we might have a proper perspective of oneself, a biblical perspective of oneself, knowing that everything that we are and everything we have is grounded and comes from the grace of God. Only when we see ourselves through the eyes of grace do we really understand who we are. Help us to grab that tonight, to hold on to it tonight, to have a true view, a biblical view as we go through this week of self and may it help us to accomplish what you want us to accomplish this week. Help us to minister to others through humility and humbleness. In Christ and we pray, amen. Well, because of the influence of what is popularly called the positive mental attitude movement, our society has become indoctrinated with this idea that if you're going to be happy, if you're going to have success in life, if you're going to make something out of your life, then you must have a good self-image. You must have a positive self-image. And the persistent barrage of that theology has invaded Christendom and so now there's a lot of teaching, there are a lot of books out there, self-help books and whatnot, written to Christians about how they can have a good self-image. I think the first thing that's important for us to know is that this terminology and this idea is not going to be found in your Bible. I'm not saying that there aren't terms that we use today that aren't found in your Bible. There are terms we use today that aren't found in your Bible, no doubt about that. But this idea and this principle of having a good self-image is simply not in the Word of God. That ought to be a red flag. The self-esteem movement, the self-concept, the positive self-image movement, all of that really, that terminology comes from psychology. They're not really biblical principles. I think one of the reasons that this idea has caught on and it cuts across all spectrums, including the Christian spectrum, is because it appeals to our egos. It appeals to our pride. We have a sin nature that loves to be told how good it is. We have a sin nature that loves to hear how wonderful we are and how great we are and what our potential can be and on and on and on today. And when we hear, I don't know about you, but I've said under motivational type teaching and preaching, I've said under that, I'm going to tell you what, when I've said under that kind of preaching and teaching, it gets my adrenaline going. I'll be honest with you, it's a little bit addictive. When I hear this kind of preaching and teaching, I'm kind of drawn to it. And I feel like a lot of people are. I think we have a culture that's kind of addicted to hearing how wonderful we are and how great we are. And I think there's an I don't know, maybe an unplanned consequence. I don't know if that's the phrase I want to use or not of this movement. I don't think it started out to accomplish what it's accomplished today. I think it's evolved. And so you say, what do you mean? I mean, today we hear that if you have a good self-concept, a good self-image, it's going to solve all your problems. That's what we're being told today. The psychologists convince us that the reason people are living in poverty today is because they have a poor self-image. If they had a better self-image, then they would accomplish more, and they would do more, and we would eliminate poverty. But we have a poor self-image. People tell us that the reason people are struggling with drugs and alcohol today... Do you know why people take drugs and alcohol today? because they have a poor self-image. At least that's what our culture is telling us. The reason that people are bitter and angry and harsh today is because they have a low self-image. The reason students are struggling in school today is because they have a low self-image. The reason we have the crime rates that we have today is because men and women have a low self-image. image and low self-esteem. The idea is that if we could just raise everybody's self-esteem, we could actually solve almost all of our social, economic, and personal problems. If we could just get there. Norman Vincent Peale was one of the pioneers that really bought into this idea. There were a lot of others before him who really got the ball rolling in evangelical circles anyhow. One of his disciples, you may know, is Robert Schuller. Some of you may remember Robert Schuller. He was a pastor at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. And he taught, he actually taught that we could solve our personal problems through a theology of self-esteem and belief in the power of possibility thinking. Now, he had this program every Sunday morning called The Hour of Power. I don't know if any of you remember that or not, but I remember that, and I watched a few episodes of The Hour of Power, and it was pretty impressive. I've got to admit, when you looked at that glass cathedral that he preached in and you saw all the people out there, it was pretty impressive, and his false doctrine actually influenced millions and millions of people, and his emphasis on the glory of man helped fan the flames of the self-esteem movement. Well, guess what, folks? The tide is beginning to turn, and with any and all false teaching, there's some fallout, okay? Here's what they're discovering with all this self-esteem stuff that started back in the 70s and 80s. Kids haven't changed. They're still taking drugs. Kids haven't changed, they're still involving in immoral lifestyles. They're finding out that kids are still, you know, bullying each other. They're finding out that the crime rate that all this stuff was supposed to solve has at best remained the same, if not gone up, and they're finding out that people are still arrogant, they're still prideful, and most of all, they're entitled today. Nothing has changed except that people have a very high view of themselves when they're engaging in sin. That's where we are. And clinical studies, I'm talking non-Christian. I'm talking secular clinical studies are now showing that this movement has backfired. It's backfired. People today, they have decided, are overly self-consumed. They can't handle criticism. They can't handle failure. They don't know how to practically function in today's society. And the solution is just prescribe another pill. You know, that's the solution. It hasn't solved anything. And today, Christianity is actually seen as just another way of thinking. The idea is that all of us, if we could just change the way that we're thinking, we could change culture, we could change society, and we could solve our problems. Folks, that is not the problem. But Christianity has bought into this so much and so far that they see Christianity as just another thought pattern religion. But once you start presenting this idea to people the truth that they have a heart problem, that they are separated from God and the problem is that they're born sinners, they're actually born sinners, that Jesus Christ is the only one who can change hearts, that's when you get in trouble. So what is the Christian biblical view? Notice what Paul says here. As a child of God, how should we view ourselves? Let's go back to our text verse in Romans chapter 12 and verse 3. Paul said, for through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, First, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think. Second, but to think so as to have sound judgment. And then he says, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. So he says, hey, look, think of yourself, how? So as to have sound judgment. What is he talking about? He's talking about yourself, how you see yourself. The word think, comes from a Greek word, pronio, prono, pronio, pronio. And the word pronio means to think, to form, to hold an opinion, or to judge. And then he says you're to have sound judgment or sober judgment in the King James Version there, which is to be of a sound mind. It means to be in one's right mind, to be reasonable, to keep one's head. So you know what that means in today's language? Don't go off the deep end when you're thinking about yourself. That's what it means. Don't go off the deep end when you're thinking about yourself. Don't jump on the bandwagon. Don't go crazy with thinking about yourself. But notice how he prefaced that. He said, don't think more highly of himself than he ought to think. The reason Paul put that in there in the beginning was because this is the natural inclination that we have to think this way. We don't need to be encouraged, folks. We don't need to be encouraged in this way. It's already in us. And Paul is saying, wait a minute, you don't need to be encouraged to think more highly of yourself. It's already there. So then he goes on and says, but I do want you to think so as to have sound judgment. And so it's like there's a conflict here. He says, don't think this way, but do think this way. So obviously, Paul is concerned about getting us to think about ourselves in the right way, in a biblical, in a scriptural way. You say, how is that? The biblical view of self is based on the work of God in Jesus Christ. That's how you are to see yourself. You are to see yourself only in the context of the work of God in Jesus Christ. As a Christian, we should never, ever, see ourselves outside of Jesus Christ. Anytime a child of God talks about self, he needs to talk about self only in the light of who he is in Jesus Christ. You as a child of God must never think of self independently. You must never think of yourself autonomously. You only consider yourself in the light of the work of God that he has accomplished for you in Jesus Christ. So what is the primary What is the primary feature of the work of God in Jesus Christ? What is the primary feature of the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ? What is the primary feature of the work of God in Jesus Christ? What is the heart of the gospel? What is the heart of God's work in you? You know the answer, okay? You know the answer. You may not think that you know the answer right now because I formulated this question in such an odd way, but let me tell you what it is in one word. Grace. Grace, grace, grace. God's grace has everything to do with defining who you are and how you see yourself. You say, are you sure? How does that work? What is the definition of grace? What is the definition of grace? We generally say the definition of grace is God's unmerited favor, right? We generally say that God's grace is His undeserved kindness, His undeserved goodness extended to us in the form of salvation. You're familiar, of course, with Ephesians chapter 2. where Paul wrote, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. That verse is an incredible concept of who you are. That verse defines how you need to see yourself. Why? Because that verse tells you how God sees you. That verse describes how God sees you. That is the biblical view that you need to have of yourself. That you were lost. That you have no power and had no power to save yourself. You have nothing to offer God. You were spiritually broke. You were spiritually poor. So much to the extent that God is the one who had to save you because you had nothing to offer Him. God had to go to work on your behalf. Paul Fother describes it like this. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's in Romans chapter 5 and verses 6, 7, and 8. That's God's view. That's kind of God's while we were still helpless Christ died for the ungodly he Has demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us You see what what motivated him to do that John 3 16, right For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life and God loved you. Listen to me, folks. I don't have an explanation for why God loves you. I don't. I know that God loving you is another act of God's grace. That's all I can tell you about why God loves you. There's nothing in you to somehow or another compel God to say, I love you. God, by His grace, chose to love you. Period. God created you in His image, that's true. But He still chose to love you, and that is an act of His grace. So, here's what that leads to. Here's the next thing that I think is important for us to understand. When God saved you, by his grace, through Jesus Christ, he saved you for his purposes, for his design, and for the accomplishment of his will and his reasons. Your fulfillment in life is going to be determined by God's purposes for your life. It's going to be determined by God's reason for you being alive. God's purpose then and God's reason for you being alive is basically this, that you give him glory, that you give him praise, and that you worship him and that you honor him. God's reason that you're alive is that you glorify him and how are you gonna do that? You're gonna do that through serving others with your talents and gifts that God has given you. This is the process, this is the sequence. Our value is wrapped up in what God has done for us. through Jesus Christ and through salvation. Everything we are, everything we will be, everything that we have is due to the fact that God sent Jesus Christ down to this earth in the form of a man to die on the cross and take our place there and to suffer for us there so that we might have a living relationship with God, a living relationship with God. That's by His grace. We have nothing and we are nothing outside of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, folks. If you don't have Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, what you have is an eternal hell. That is all that is awaiting you. You have nothing outside of Jesus Christ. You have absolutely nothing. Everything that I have just told you and everything I've just shared with you this evening, it goes against the grain of everything that you hear in this world about self. Evolution by its very nature promotes the idea that the more developed you are, the more valuable you are. Evolution by its very nature says the higher IQ that you have, the smarter you are, the more valuable you are. Evolution promotes the idea that the more you accomplish with your life, the more that you can do with your life, then the more valuable you are. Evolution by its nature promotes the lie that people's self-worth is determined by what they're capable of and by what they're able to accomplish and how smart they are. And that idea has infiltrated Christianity. That mentality has come into Christendom so that now we have Christian motivational books and Christian motivational devotionals that tell us that we need to find our fulfillment in how much we can do for God, in everything that we can do for God. There's a huge difference in finding your fulfillment and your satisfaction and your contentment in life from what you can do for God as opposed as finding your satisfaction and fulfillment from God. From God. There's a big difference. There's a big difference between the two. Our fulfillment is not found from what we can do for God. It is simply from God. It is not anywhere to be found in what we can do. And I know, you know, I've heard a lot of great preaching. And I've sat under some great preachers. And I listen to the radio, and I hear preachers get on there, and they say, well, you know, you're supposed to be like Abraham. You're supposed to be like Isaac. You're supposed to be like Moses. You're supposed to be like Gideon. You're supposed to be like Daniel. You're supposed to be like David. You're supposed to be like Solomon. And so they go through this whole litany of men in the Bible that we know a lot about that we say accomplished. a lot who did great things for God. And so we're supposed to emulate these men who did great things for God, and we're supposed to do great things for God. Let me tell you something about every one of these men. Not a single one of them ever set out to do a great thing for God. Moses, he wanted to go the other way. Daniel, when he was thrown in the lion's den, he didn't set out to do great things for God. That's not what he wanted to do. And the idea that we're supposed to be these Abrahams and Moses and Gideons and all this kind of stuff, you know, it doesn't square with the Bible. I mean, if you're arrested someday and they put you in solitary confinement, and you're in solitary confinement, how are you going to do something great for God? If you become sick or you become ill and you're laying on your back and you can't get up and you can't move and you're kind of paralyzed there, you can't go anywhere, how are you going to do something great for God? What happens on Judgment Day? Our bodies and our lives can be disrupted by sickness and disease and limitations and physical and emotional and mental problems. Our identity, beloved, is anchored in the grace of God and who Jesus Christ is and what he has done for us. Let me give you one parting shot, one parting principle. Everything we have and everything we are comes from God. As it is said here, there is no reason for you to boast in anything. You and I have no... No reason, no foundation for boasting in anything. Everything that you have is a gift from God. Everything you have and everything that you are is a gift from God. And the world says, no, no, no. You need to glory in your talents. You need to glory in your abilities. You need to glory in your faculties. You need to glory in your specialness. You need to glory in your power and in your prowess or whatever the case may be. The Bible is that, no, all of this stuff is a It's a gift that's given to you by God. Whatever our limitations are, whatever our shortcomings are, whatever our powers are, whatever our abilities are, whatever our talents are, they're gifts from God. And that makes you incomparable to anybody else. You don't need to compare yourself. God made you, you. God designed you, God set you up, God gave you your circumstances, God gave you your situation, God gave you your family, God put you where you are all by his design. Here's what I want you to know. Number one, you're an instrument of God. You are an instrument of God. God. If God wants to do something with you, it's completely up to Him as to what He does with you. He can raise you up. He can use you if you're flat on your back. Doesn't matter to God. God is not limited like that. Your true effectiveness is going to be the result of God's work. Your true effectiveness is not going to be the result of your labor or your methodologies or your cleverness or your wisdom. I know a lot of Christians out there who, on Judgment Day, are going to have a lot of wood, hay, and stubble that's going to be burned up. And they looked extremely effective in this world, but they're going to lose everything because they were using morally principles. Number two, I want you to remember that what really counts with God is your faithfulness. What really counts with God is your faithfulness. If you'll be faithful to God where you are, with whatever opportunities that God gives you, whether they're great or whether they're small, it doesn't matter. You be faithful to God with your talents and with your abilities, no matter what they are, or no matter how few they are. You be faithful to him. You be a faithful mom. You be a faithful dad. You be a faithful husband. You be a faithful wife. You be a faithful co-worker. You be a faithful friend. You be a faithful church member. You be faithful. You be faithful. Don't worry about anybody else. You just be faithful. Number three. All you have and all you are is a product of the grace of God. All you have and all you are is a product of the grace of God. You don't have any reason to boast in anything, folks. That idea of everything that we are and everything we have is foundational to our humility. You cannot get to humility without going through that gate. God's grace is like poison to our pride. It's like, it drives a dagger into our desire to live independently of God. It's God's grace that actually fires our dependence upon him The fact that we need him In number four You need a standard your standard is Jesus Christ You need a goal Your goal is Jesus Christ You know men in this world we use We measure greatness by how rich a man is. We say, well, he has so much money, he has millions of dollars or billions of dollars today. So he's the richest man on the face of the earth. We say, well, so and so, you know, they're the greatest actor or the greatest actress on the face of the earth because they've won, you know, so many Grammys or they have so many Emmys or whatever the case may be. We say, this quarterback, you know, he's the greatest quarterback that's ever lived because he's thrown so many yards and so many touchdowns and he's been in so many games, you know, and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We measure men by their degrees, on their walls, the schools they graduate from, the trophies in their trophy case, the ribbons or the golden medallions around their neck. Your standard is Jesus Christ. That's your only standard. You don't need to measure your life by any other person. You don't need to measure it by Moses. You don't need to measure it by Daniel in the lion's den. You don't need to measure it by the Apostle Paul. You just need to measure your life against Jesus Christ, because that is going to be the standard that God uses on Judgment Day. You be Christ-like. You be Christ-like. Well, I appreciate you being here tonight. I appreciate you being in God's house this evening. We do have a little business we need to take care of tonight. Richard? Yes, sir. I've heard something I'd like to get your response on. Well, I'll try. I may have to think about it a minute. The statement was that if you are born again in the child of God, you have everything within you that you need. First Peter. Yeah, that's what it says in First Peter. Well, it pretty much destroys it because what you have, everything you have is from God through Jesus Christ. That's it. It's nothing in you. We have nothing. Now it doesn't mean that God hasn't gifted us. He has. Certainly has given us talents and abilities. But even those are gifts just by His grace. Anything you have. Everything we have, we have through Jesus Christ. It really is. We don't have anything to boast about, brag about, get up on pedestal about, crow about. We just don't. But yeah, Peter talks about that, matter of fact. Everything we have for life and godliness, according to Peter, we have through Jesus Christ. Alright, anything else? Well, let's pray and then we'll take care of whatever little business we had before us tonight. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to be in your house tonight to worship you and to praise your holy name. We thank you for your grace. It reminds us, it reminds us of how much we need you. It's not that you need us. You don't need us. You're self-contained. You're God. You don't need anything. We, on the other hand, are terribly needy. We cannot exist in any way, shape, or form without your mercy and your grace giving us life moment by moment by moment by moment. We're so foolish to think that somehow we could exist for one nano of a second if it wasn't for your grace. How foolish is that? Now God, keep us humble. Lord, you know where we need to be broken. You know where we're arrogant. You know where our pride is. You know where we're stubborn. You know where we refuse to bow and bend before you. You know all of that. And Lord, those of us who know you actually want those things to be eradicated from our lives. We want to be malleable. We want to be like Jesus. We want to be the servant. We want to be usable to you. Lord, help us by your grace to get up tomorrow morning and realize how utterly, utterly dependent upon you we really are. And to go through the day with grace and humility being the cornerstones of all that we do. Help us, Lord. The flesh wants to bow up. The pride wants to come to the surface. but help us to realize we've been crucified in Christ, been crucified in Christ, and the old man is dead, and the new man in Christ is alive. Thank you for this day. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your mercy. Bless us with wisdom now as we undertake the business before us. In Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, let's begin with the reading of minutes. All right. Pretty short, pretty simple. No one older unfinished business. Well, we're still working on the roof. Okay, we're And that's partly my fault, because I talked to Brad Garnett, who I've been working with through Brown Boys Roofing, and he was going to come and do it. The company is not cooperating, so I'm going to come out and do it myself. I talked to him on a Wednesday. Wednesday week ago and actually kind of set it up for him to come out and take care of the siding on the roof area. And then I called him a little bit later and he said well actually his boss kind of confessed that he kind of let us down and they have on hand or found a man that would be willing to come and do the siding on the roof area and he sent me his contact information and I just haven't, I forgot to call him this week. The whole week went by and I didn't even call him, you know, never dawned on me. I've got on my list of things to do tomorrow so I will be contacting this guy tomorrow and see if we can't get this roofing situation done. So that's where we are. That's what happened. Alright. Any new business? I have none. I'll entertain whatever business from the floor that we need to take care of tonight. Any? Oh, I guess we do need that, don't we? Thank you, brother.