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For was the mind of Christ sinless? I see. He, the great example, is in pattern for me.
Where he leads I'll follow, follow all the way.
Where he leads I'll follow, follow Jesus everyday.
Sweet is the tender love Jesus has shown, sweeter far than any love that mortals have known.
Kind to the erring one, faithful is he. He, the great example, is in pattern for me.
Where he leads I'll follow, follow all the way.
Where he leads I'll follow, follow Jesus everyday.
List to his loving words, come unto me. Weary, heavy laden, there is sweet rest for thee.
Trust in his promises, faithful and sure. Lean upon the Savior and thy soul is secure.
Where he leads I'll follow, follow all the way.
Where he leads I'll follow, follow Jesus everyday.
Welcome back everybody. It's great to see everybody's recovered for the most part.
Those fist bumps, we need to definitely stick with that for a while.
Anyway, our verse of the week is preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
2 Timothy chapter 4 verse number 2, great scripture there.
And our service times are Sunday morning at 10.30 a.m., Sunday evening 3.30 p.m.
And our Thursday Bible study is 6.30 p.m., we'll be in 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
Tonight we'll be in Genesis chapter 39.
And let's see, our so many times are listed below.
If you're planning on going so many, please let Brother Brandon know.
And so we have the blue team and the red team.
Brother Brandon, are you, do you have those apartments?
Remember the ones that we were doing a couple weeks ago?
Have you been working on those or?
I did, I'm doing lots of them.
Okay, so we'll do, we'll still hit that same area?
Yeah, we can hit the same area.
Is there enough left?
Yeah, there should be enough.
Okay.
All right, so we'll do that.
And then let's see, our praise report.
We've had 21 salvations so far for January.
We had a good week last week.
Three salvations on Thursday.
Not sure what Sunday morning last,
was there any salvations on last Sunday?
Does anybody know?
There was one, okay.
And then we had, let's see, one yesterday.
So good job at soul winning.
And for January, that's pretty decent numbers there.
Let's see, our attendance has been low.
But that's kind of what happens when everybody's sick in the whole church.
So anyway, our upcoming events is on the right-hand side page there.
And we're about to the last day.
We've got one more day to get the New Testament challenge done.
And I haven't said what a prize is going to be yet.
So it's going to be something.
I just didn't want to, you know,
I mean, I want you to do it because you love God
and you want to read the Bible.
But obviously there will be some kind of prize at the end of it
if you've done the challenge.
So no cheating.
We're on the honor system.
So if you haven't done it, then just admit it.
Don't try to lie and get some kind of prize when you didn't do it.
All right?
I know people, you know, it's weird to say that.
But, you know, I'm sure it happens.
But anyway, so it was a great challenge.
It's hard.
That's why it's called a challenge.
So if it wasn't challenging to do the challenge,
then it wouldn't be called a challenge, would it?
All right, February 12th,
we have our married couple's sweetheart banquet.
That's going to be on Saturday the 12th.
And our guest speaker is going to be Pastor Jonathan Shelley.
He'll be preaching for us on Sunday also the 13th.
And then we have our Valentine's kids party at 12 o'clock at the Lambert's house,
February 14th, which is actually on Valentine's Day.
So that'll be Monday.
And then I'll be preaching at Verity Baptist Church the 20th on Sunday night.
And March 4th through 6th is our Spokane Church's third anniversary.
Pastor Jones will be preaching on Friday night.
We'll have a soul winning event on Saturday.
And then I'll be preaching both services there on Sunday morning and Sunday evening.
Church camp has been officially moved
and it's set in stone the first through the fourth.
So if you need vacation time at your work or whatever,
it's Wednesday through Saturday.
So Wednesday we can get there.
They don't really care what time we get there
as long as it's not too early obviously,
but we leave at noon on Saturday.
And that's at Union Road Baptist Camp.
So it's all ready to go.
We're going to have to do some sign ups.
Obviously it's a ways off.
I just wanted to put it in there so everybody has a chance to make plans accordingly.
So anyway, then we have the Red Hot Preaching Conference.
It's going to be in July the 14th through the 17th.
So make plans for that if you're planning on attending there.
And then I'd get your hotels early.
If you wait until the last minute then all the people book.
When that happens it just drives prices up.
And so by the time you get close to the date,
then you're paying a fortune to try to stay there.
So if you already know the dates and you already know you're going to go for sure,
you can always cancel your hotel later on if you get a refundable room.
But it's best to just do it as soon as possible
so that way you have the room secured and it's at a reasonable price.
Giving statements.
Those are available upon request.
I've gotten three emails of people that actually want them.
So they're only done upon request.
So please, if you want one and you know you need one,
email the church right now or whenever you get a chance,
shirtfoundationbaptist.gmail.com and just say I need a statement.
Anybody that gave online, I sent statements to each and every person online.
Did you get yours?
Did you get yours, Ms. Sarah?
Okay. Who else did I send?
I sent them to everybody, yeah.
So you have those, but if you gave through cash or check,
then I'm going to go through those and then make a full statement afterwards.
So don't worry if you gave checks and you gave online or whatever.
It will all be counted in and you'll get the one you need.
But I'm not going to do it unless you ask.
So just ask me or just email me and let me know you need one, okay?
And then we're a family-integrated church.
You all know that.
Children and infants are welcome during the church services.
Please utilize the mother-baby rooms for your convenience
and reserve the back row for families with young children.
Rockers are for pregnant and nursing mothers only and elders.
No moms or dads in either opposite-gender baby rooms
and no unattended children in any area of the building.
So I just want to mention this really quickly.
So the table tennis area and stuff like that,
some people have paid and bought their own paddles for those.
Number one, you should keep those paddles away from small children if you can.
But at the same time, there's been small children
that have been just ripping and peeling the paddles up.
So that's why we want you to watch your children.
We don't want the place destroyed or other people's property destroyed.
I just wanted to mention that because I keep forgetting to talk about that.
And then at the end of the night or if you know you're not coming back for the service
and you have a bunch of stuff just laying in the pews, it's trash and stuff like that,
it takes 30 seconds to just clean up your area real quick.
There's a lot of people that dedicate their time
and come in and clean the church and stuff like that.
And if we can make that as minimal as possible for them,
it's not like they're getting paid for it.
Anything that's trash, any coffee cups or water or whatever you got,
just pick up your area at the end of the evening or the end of the afternoon
and put the stuff in the garbage.
That would be very much appreciated.
And the back coffee table, while I'm on one right now,
the back coffee table is not for children.
It's not for kids to just be back there chugging the Kramer
and stuff like that.
If there's food that people bring,
don't let your kids touch every single cupcake with their fingers.
So if you're watching them, they're not going to do stuff like that.
So my point is just watch your children.
We won't have to worry about that.
But kids like to get water, and that's fine.
But we're going to move the other cooler in there,
and there will be one area where the kids can get their water,
and then we don't want them at the coffee making coffee
and stuff like that.
So I'll put a sign in there if that helps,
but a lot of kids can't read if they're little enough anyway.
This thing is super sensitive, Rylan.
Anyway, so that's my chastisement for the morning.
And let's see, all the other stuff,
you can see the giving that's been given so far for the month
and all that good stuff.
And I think we sang, did we sing Happy Birthday to everybody?
Boys? Anybody? I think we did.
All right, well that's all we got for announcements.
I can't think of anything else.
Let's sing another song and we'll receive the offering, okay?
Next song will be song number 332, channels only.
Song number 332, channels only.
Song 332, let's sing it out on the first.
How I praise thee, precious Savior,
That thy love laid hold of me,
Thou hast saved and cleansed and filled me,
That I might thy channel be,
Channels only, blessed Master,
But with all thy wondrous power,
Flowing through us, thou canst use us,
Every day and every hour,
Empty that thou shouldst fill me,
A clean vessel in thy hand,
With no power but as thou givest,
Graciously with each command,
Channels only, blessed Master,
But with all thy wondrous power,
Flowing through us, thou canst use us,
Every day and every hour,
Witnessing thy power to save me,
Setting free from self and sin,
Thou who bought us to possess me,
In thy fullness, Lord, come in,
Channels only, blessed Master,
But with all thy wondrous power,
Flowing through us, thou canst use us,
Every day and every hour,
Jesus filled now with thy spirit,
Hearts that full surrender know,
That the streams of living water,
From our inner man may flow,
Channels only, blessed Master,
But with all thy wondrous power,
Flowing through us, thou canst use us,
Every day and every hour.
Amen. Good scene.
LaShawn Harrington, could you bless the offering for us?
Lord, thank you so much for this day, Lord.
Thank you so much so we can come back to your house and listen to your word of praise, Lord.
I pray that you would have died, Bill Thompson, Lord, your spirit, Lord,
that you would preach full to the common people.
I pray that you would bless this offering, Lord.
Bless both the gift and the giver, in Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen.
Turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Timothy 3.
2 Timothy 3, if you don't have a Bible, raise your hand.
One of the ushers will bring you one.
2 Timothy 3.
2 Timothy 3, the Bible reads,
This know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection,
truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce despisers of those that are good.
Traitors, hidey, high-minded, lovers of pleasures, more than lovers of God,
having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such turn away.
For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive, silly women laden with sins,
led away with diverse lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Now, as Jannas and Jambres, withstood nothing,
so do these also resist the truth.
Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith, but they shall proceed no further,
for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.
But thou has fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering,
charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch,
at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,
but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and is seen assured of,
knowing of whom thou hast learned them,
knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Brother Bill, will you pray for us?
I always thank you, again, for your word, and just pray that you do.
Amen, alright, the title of the sermon this morning is Narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and you're probably like,
well, what does that have to do with anything that's in Christianity?
Well, if you were following along with the Bible reading, you can see that,
and maybe you don't know what narcissism is or narcissistic personality disorder,
hopefully by the end of the sermon you'll understand what it is,
but basically the Bible describes people that would be, you know,
a lot of this is concerning reprobates or just, you know,
but when you see a list in the Bible, just because, you know,
it might be saying that this is what reprobates do like in Romans chapter one,
you know, we still commit some of the sins that are on those lists, right?
And so basically I want to preach about this because in our world today,
there's a lot of narcissism going on, and if you're like, what is narcissism?
Well, I'll get into that here in just a minute.
The word's not found in the Bible, but let's look at verse number one in our text.
It says, this know also that in the last days perilous time shall come.
We're living in the last days today, and perilous basically means dangerous, okay?
So for Christians, it can be a dangerous time,
and look at what it says, and it is for everybody actually in the world.
It's a dangerous time.
I mean, just look at what's going on in the world right now.
Look at verse number two.
It says, for men shall be lovers of their own selves.
Now this is where, you know, that's what the term narcissism actually is.
That's what it actually means.
It's someone that loves themselves.
Obviously, you know, we're going to love ourselves to a certain degree,
but like a narcissist is basically someone that's in love with themselves.
Like they look in the mirror and they're like, hey, how's it going?
You know what I mean?
So this lover of themselves, that's what narcissism is,
and obviously, you know, the secular world calls it narcissism
because it's a personality disorder.
It's a character flaw and a personality disorder.
It's a mental illness according to the world, and I would say this.
Everybody has narcissistic capabilities in their lives.
Everybody thinks about themselves.
Everybody cares about themselves and things like that,
and we have maybe some tendencies.
I'm going to show you a checklist of, you know, kind of like how they have the
the reprobate checklist or whatever, the psychopath checklist, the psychopathy.
There's a narcissistic checklist where people are diagnosed as narcissists by this list.
Now, you know, maybe not every narcissist does everything on that list,
but, you know, if they hit five out of the nine, they're basically, you know, that's what they are.
They have that personality disorder.
So there's a difference between narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder,
and I'll explain that.
But here in 2 Timothy 3, the Bible says that perilous times shall come
and men shall be lovers of their own selves,
and that's what we see in the world today.
I mean, just think about, you know, this is Generation Selfie.
You know, I'm not down on you if you post on social media.
I post on social media too and things like that,
but there's like literally people that have like glamour shot after glamour shot of themselves
doing like crazy, you know, duck lip poses and, you know, the fish,
the fish, what is the fish gap one?
Are there like teeth or what? I don't know.
It's just weird, man.
And people just get over, they get weird about it.
They get weird with loving their own selves so much,
and I mean that's just one example.
What about TikTok? I kind of fired off on TikTok on Thursday night,
but people want to get famous.
People want to be known.
And so, you know, TikTok is one of those things where people can just like,
you know, make these dumb videos or whatever.
And obviously, somebody kind of told me that, you know, TikTok does have, you know, learning stuff
and, you know, it's not just people dancing and making a fool of themselves,
but that's what most people are on there to watch, okay?
Let's just be honest, you're not necessarily getting your great theology from there,
you know, or your, you know, how-to videos or, you know,
I mean I'm sure that stuff's on there, but TikTok was started for people that want to lip sync and dance
and get famous, okay?
So, lovers of themselves, how can that be dangerous?
Well, if someone loves themselves more than everybody else,
more than they love God, more than they love other people and their fellow man,
it's dangerous. It's dangerous to society because you could be on your way to being this weird narcissist.
Now, obviously, if you're saved, I don't believe you're going to be a person that has narcissistic personality disorder, I think.
Those people would be slid into the reprobate category, okay?
But a narcissist doesn't necessarily, they're not necessarily someone that has the disorder.
All the bad and wicked things that come along with that, they probably just have some tendencies toward that.
So, but look what else it says in that list in verse 2, it says,
Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.
And we live in a time where people love themselves, people are massively covetous.
It's been that way for thousands of years, but the Bible's specifically talking about in the end times.
So, to me, that just seems like it's going to ramp up, right?
Things are not getting better, they're getting worse.
And these amillennialists that'll say, well, yeah, we're supposed to usher in the kingdom of God,
and then once everybody gets saved or once there's this big Christ-like influence and the world is going to get better,
they don't literally hold to the fact that all the end times stuff, they believe it's,
a lot of those amillennialists believe it's symbolism and things like that.
But anyway, that's not what I'm preaching about.
But it says, you know, unthankful.
And today, people are unthankful. I mean, people go out of their way to do stuff for someone, they don't even say thank you?
I mean, that's not right.
It says without natural affection, truce breakers.
So these people are, you know, and I'm not saying narcissists are always truce breakers,
but, you know, I'm just reading to you the characteristics it's talking about in the end times here.
It says false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good.
Now, what does incontinent mean? It means lacking self-restraint or they're uncontrolled.
And then fierce would be having a display of an intense or ferocious aggressiveness.
And we see that kind of stuff all over today.
Traders, verse number four, heady, high-minded.
And so high-minded is someone just thinks that they're better than everybody else.
And some of these can fit into this narcissistic disorder category or narcissism,
where they just, you know, they're high-minded, they think that they're better than other people.
Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.
From such, turn away.
So I would say that if someone has narcissistic personality disorder,
and it's like, you know, you can't necessarily diagnose every single person,
like, hey, I think you're a narcissist.
But that goes on a lot, too.
Like, there's a lot of people that are accusing people of having the disorder
and become internet, you know, they become these people that are, like,
diagnosing everybody from the internet, what they are and stuff.
And they think everybody's a narcissist and everybody's a gaslighter.
And that's not necessarily true either.
And, you know, obviously, but from the word of God, we can discern what people are.
So, yeah, obviously they have this checklist that you can go off of, this clinical checklist.
But, you know, the Bible will tell us, you know, these different, like,
truth breakers, false accusers, all this other stuff, traders, you know,
that can be put into a category for you so you can kind of get the whole picture of someone.
I think we should test everything by the word of God, test the spirits, whether they're of God.
And we can test. So, you know, narcissism is just a, it's a very popular subject right now.
And that's kind of why I wanted to preach on it and kind of just maybe get a balance of,
you know, what it actually means and who to avoid and things like that,
how to help not get us into these pitfalls.
Well, we're actually acting narcissistic ourselves.
Because, like I said, you know, the Bible has all these lists,
but I'm sure some of us have done things that are on this list right here, right?
Does that make you a narcissistic reprobate? No, it doesn't.
It just means we're all sinful, okay?
But the Bible's just saying this is the type of things that people are going to be like in these end times.
So it says, let's see, let's go down to verse 6.
It says, for this sort of day which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins,
led away with diverse lust, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
That would be a reprobate person, right?
Now, as Jans and Jamborees withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth.
Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith.
That means they're rejected. They can't, they can't, they might try to learn all this stuff,
but they're rejected by God.
And so they're never going to be able to come to the knowledge of what the truth is.
Because they're reprobate. And it says, but they shall proceed no further,
for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was.
So just like Jans and Jamborees when they withstood Moses,
and they did these seeming miracles before them,
there came a point where they couldn't do the, they couldn't keep up with what Moses was doing.
And so, just like they, and we, you know, the Bible doesn't even say their names in the Old Testament.
This is where we get the names of the sorcerers and magicians that were working for Pharaoh at that time.
And the Bible says they're reprobates, doesn't it?
And so all false prophets are reprobates.
And I've said this before, and I'll say it again,
that if, unless it's like done in ignorance and unbelief like Paul,
he wasn't a reprobate. He just, he was zealous after the traditions of his fathers,
and he was doing it in ignorance and in unbelief.
It's different than someone who's a Jehovah's Witness for 30 years
going and preaching a false gospel to every door, you know, for 30 years.
That's someone that can't be helped.
That's someone that's on the reprobate checklist there.
But anyway, so not all narcissists are reprobates,
but the ones that have extreme narcissistic personality disorders I believe are, okay?
So there is a difference in what I'm preaching today.
I just want to make sure that if you have like one of these things on this checklist,
just don't say, well, am I a reprobate? You know?
If you check all of them, you might be, okay?
So don't raise your hand, okay?
But actually do raise your hand so I can just say get out, no.
But anyway, so narcissist is from Greek mythology.
It was the name of some Greek mythological person.
And basically it's a man, he's a man that saw his own reflection and fell in love with himself.
And so when I say literally looking in the mirror and you're like,
hey, you think you're the bee's knees, you think you're the best thing that ever,
you know, the greatest thing since sliced bread and all this other stuff.
You love yourself so much that everybody else doesn't mean anything to you.
And that's basically what a narcissist is.
It's someone who loves themselves, they're into themselves more than they should be, right?
And what it says for the personality disorder, it says when you have the actual personality disorder,
it says a personality disorder characterized by an exaggerated sense of self-importance,
a need for admiration and a lack of empathy for other people.
So you don't care about what other people are going through as long as you are risen to the top,
as long as everybody realizes that you're the greatest thing that there ever was
and they have this exaggerated sense of self-importance.
I'm sure you've run into people like this.
They think that they're more important than everybody else.
They're better than everybody else.
They need to be admired so much and they try to build up their own self to where they're above everybody else.
They don't make mistakes. Everybody else is making the mistakes.
And they don't want to own up to anything that they do themselves.
You ever met somebody like that? It's never their fault.
Oh, well, I didn't do anything wrong.
You know, usually when people fight, both people are doing something wrong.
Obviously people like this will pick fights with people and then maybe you didn't do anything wrong.
But how we respond when we're in battles with other people, even with our own brethren,
we need to respond in the Christian way.
And so being a narcissist or having this type of personality disorder, it's a scary thing.
But now narcissism, hopefully you're getting the difference here.
Narcissism is excessive interest in or admiration of oneself
and one's physical appearance.
So you could just be like one of those people that you just have to look great all the time.
And that's all you care about is how you look physically.
You spend lots of time looking in the mirror at yourself.
You spend lots of time.
You know, look, I'm not saying don't be in shape. Be in shape.
But there's people that are like getting in shape and they're taking their shirt off
and posting pictures of their guns.
To me, that's narcissistic. It is.
And so we've got to be careful not to be like that
and not to admire ourselves more than everybody else and think we're better than everybody else.
Because isn't that what the hyper-spiritual people do?
They think that their sins are not as bad as yours.
Hey, I know I sin, but yours are way worse than mine.
That's kind of what narcissists do. That's how they act.
So narcissistic personality disorder though, or NPD, or narcissism is a personality disorder
characterized by a sense of grandiosity, the need for attention and admiration,
superficial interpersonal relationships, and a lack of empathy.
So they might have relationships with people, but they're superficial.
They mean nothing. They don't really care about that person.
And they have a sense of grandiosity.
That means that they think that they're better than everybody else.
The need for attention and admiration, they crave it. They have to have it.
And superficial interpersonal relationships and a lack of empathy.
That means you don't care for the plight of other people.
Somebody can be having a terrible time.
It's like, I don't really care because I got my own problems.
They're like, hey, how you doing?
As soon as they start to tell you, well, hey, don't worry about it. I got my own problems.
You don't care. You're just asking questions, but you don't really care.
That's superficial, isn't it?
And it often accompanies other psychiatric disorders that can be difficult to treat.
And a lot of people say that someone that suffers from narcissistic disorder, personality disorder,
they can't be fixed.
They might be able to go into counseling and help with some of the things that they have wrong with them,
but ultimately, they're not going to get fixed.
So that's why I would say they kind of border in that reprobate category
because what is one of the signs of the end times?
That people will be lovers of their own selves, right?
So I'm going to go through some of these lists real quick.
It might not be real quick, but I'm going to go through them anyway.
So I'm going to go through the list, the checklist, and then I'm going to kind of sum it up.
So number one, grandiosity. It's an exaggerated sense of self-importance.
Feeling superior to others that one deserves, and that one deserves special treatment.
Feelings are often accompanied by fantasies of unlimited success, brilliance, power, beauty, or love.
Unlimited power!
They're just consumed by being grand and better than everybody else.
Excessive need for admiration must be the center of attention.
This is the type of person that they come in and they just talk over everybody else.
Nothing anybody else says means much to them.
And then they often monopolize conversations.
It's a one-sided conversation where you're just going, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.
You ever talk to somebody on the phone and that's all they do is talk about themselves or what they're doing and all that?
Conversations should be two-sided, right?
So this is the kind of things that they do.
And then patients feel slighted, mistreated, depleted, and enraged when ignored.
So if they're doing something to get attention and people don't give it to them, then they get mad.
And then they ramp up their attacks.
So, superficial and exploitive relationships.
Relationships are based on surface attributes and not the unique qualities of others.
People are only valued only to the extent that they are viewed as beneficial.
So they only are friends with you because they want something out of you.
They want to get something from you.
Lack of empathy.
Severely limited or totally lacking ability to care about the emotional needs or experiences of others.
Even loved ones.
So even people that they care about and love, supposedly, people that they should care about and love, they have zero empathy for them.
Zero ability to care.
Identity disturbance.
A sense of self is highly superficial, extremely rigid, and often fragile.
Self stability depends on maintaining the view that one is exceptional.
So like if people, you know, if something about them is like kind of, you know, pointed out that they are not good in this area,
or people kind of just pull the mask off and realize that they're bad, and that comes into play, they get, they can't handle that kind of stuff.
They need to be looked at as this perfect specimen, this person that does everything right and is better than everybody else.
Grandiose sense of self is easily threatened.
Patients retreat from or deny realities that challenge grandiosity.
So they'll just avoid any kind of thing, making it seem like, and they'll even deny reality, these types of people.
Difficulty with attachment and dependency.
Relies on feedback from the environment.
Relationships only exist to shore up positive self-image.
Interactions are superficial. Intimacy is avoided.
Hugs, you know, whatever, kiss, it's just avoided.
Chronic feelings of emptiness and boredom.
When attention and praise are not available, patients feel empty, bored, depressed, or restless.
So they always have to be, you know, bringing forth their image of perfectness, and people always, they need people to, they need people to show, to say how great they are.
They just can't sit there and not be the center of attention, basically.
Vulnerability to life transitions.
Difficulty maintaining reality-based personal and professional goals over time.
Compromises required by school, job, and relationships may feel unbearable.
Young adults may have a failure to launch.
Narcissistic personality disorder is also a significant risk factor for suicide and suicidal attempts.
So, how is narcissism diagnosed? How do they do it?
Well, like I told you, there's a checklist that it's diagnosed by professionals with.
Narcissistic personality disorder, narcissism, is diagnosed using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria.
A person must meet five of the nine of the following traits for a diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder.
So, I'm just going to read these off again because I didn't really number them, but number one, a grandiose sense of self-importance.
And grandiose just basically means this, it means excessively grand or ambitious.
These people are ambitious and always pushing their agenda, always pushing their image,
always pushing their perfectness upon other people, and it's excessive.
It's like it's just sickening to watch it.
And when you can see people doing stuff like this, and you've caught that, they hate being called a narcissist.
If they really are a narcissist, they can't handle that. It really freaks, it gets them really mad.
But basically, they're just lovers of their own selves. They love themselves so much,
they want everybody to just shower them with, oh, you're so great, you're the best.
And that's all that they really live for, is to promote their fake sense of importance.
Number two on the checklist, preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.
So they have a preoccupation with it, with fantasies of unlimited power.
They're always thinking, how can I get more power? How can I be more brilliant? How can I be more beautiful?
And so, a lover of power, so they're a lover of power and prestige. They want power.
They want to rule over people, and they want the prestige with other people.
Number three, belief 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.
So I guess in the case of a pastor, they have to feel like the other pastors that they hang with are just as special as they are.
Their high status, their highfalutin ways are just, they have to be with someone that they would consider on the same level as them.
And that could be just with anybody, but that's how they operate. You have to be one of somebody like them in order to be hung out with or whatever.
They think they're better than other people is basically what it is.
And then number four, requires excessive admiration, high-minded.
Number five, has a sense of entitlement. They think that everything belongs to them and that they should get all the advantages and all that stuff.
Number six, is interpersonally exploitive. Takes advantage of others to achieve their own ends.
So again, their relationships are only based upon what they can get out of someone and how it can make them look better.
Number seven, lacks empathy. Number eight, envies others or believes others are envious of him or her.
So, envy is also a wicked sin and to think, they envy others, they see what they got and they want it to be theirs.
To the point where they're willing to be malicious in order to get that.
Or they believe that other people envy them.
Oh, you're just envious of me. You're just upset because I got this, this and that.
So, James chapter four, verse one. Let's turn over there and let's look at some scripture real quick.
James chapter four, verse number one. I know there's a lot of reading. I apologize for that.
But if you're writing down the checklist, those are things that you can look for in people to see,
well, hey, is this person like some kind of weird narcissist or something?
You know, what am I dealing with here? Because ultimately the real thing is we don't want to hang around people like that.
And we want to realize when we're the ones being taken advantage of by people like this,
because it can mess with you. It can mess with your life.
You know, because if they're willing to do anything and they lack empathy, then you've got to worry about being around people like this.
Right? James four, verse one says,
From whence come wars and fightings among you, come they not hence even of your lust, that war in your members?
You lust and have not, you kill and desire to have, you cannot obtain, you fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not.
So James is saying like, hey, why do people fight because of their lusts?
Why do people that are narcissists fight with other people?
Because they want something and they're willing to fight and go to war with you over what they want to get.
Number nine in the checklist shows arrogant, haughty behaviors and attitudes.
Arrogant, haughty behaviors and attitudes. That means they show pride.
You know, they're arrogant and they have these attitudes that they're superior to other people.
And in the case of a preacher, they're going to act like they don't ever have any problems but everybody else does.
Nobody else. You know, a preacher should get up, obviously you shouldn't just get up and share every sin you've ever committed.
You know, just like, you know, I wouldn't expect us in here to just say how bad we were all the time.
People don't need to know that stuff.
And you know what? People do hold judgment over you over things that you might have done in your past even though they might not admit that.
So I would say, you know, obviously don't go around telling everybody your most horrific story.
Especially when you first meet someone.
It's like, hey, by the way, did you know I did this, this, this and this?
And they're just like, okay, you know.
People can't handle, sometimes people can't handle that and especially new Christians.
But sometimes you get these narcissists that think they're so much better than everybody else.
They hear you say something that you've done, you're being honest about your past and they hold that over your head.
Because that's just how they are.
You know, and they're going to hold it over your head and then they'll bring it up upon you at a later date when they have a convenient time to do though.
That thing.
So love of self is ungodly, isn't it?
It's an ungodly trait.
And it's dangerous to your mental health.
It's dangerous to your mental health.
And you know, it's obviously to be this type of narcissist that has the disorder.
That person I believe is reprobate, like I said.
But number nine is shows arrogant, haughty behaviors and attitudes.
So obviously haughty is prideful.
So let's look at some more scriptures.
Let's look at Philippians chapter two, verse number one.
Philippians chapter two, verse number one.
The Bible says in Philippians two, verse number one, it says,
If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bows and mercies,
fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
So we're not supposed to think, not be high-minded, we're supposed to be like-minded.
So a high-minded person is someone that obviously thinks that they're better than everybody else.
But a like-minded person, you're on the same level with everybody else.
You're equal to everybody else.
It says having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
That's not having a mind of your own all the time and just everything that I can get, everything that I deserve,
everything that I've got coming to me.
And it says, so it says, Fulfill ye my joy, be like-minded.
So look at verse number three, it says,
Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
So, you know, the narcissist, the one that's a lover of their own selves, they look down on other people.
They envy other people, don't they?
And they think other people are worse than they are.
But what's the Bible say that we should be like as a Christian?
It says that we should have lowliness of mind.
Not high-minded, but let each esteem other better than themselves.
You know, if we have that attitude, we're not going to be so narcissistic, are we?
If we have the attitude that, hey, I don't want to envy other people.
I want to help other people.
I want to use my talents and abilities to help other people and to look at other people as more highly esteemed than ourselves.
And you know, it says in verse two,
Fulfill ye my joy.
Well, think about this, the acronym, Joy, Jesus, Others, You.
That's kind of how you should look at things.
Jesus is number one, right?
And then in this verse it says,
Esteem others better than themselves.
Hey, you're looking on the things of others.
How can I help my neighbor?
How can I help my brother?
How can I help my sister in Christ?
How can I help my fellow man?
Not how can I help myself?
Not how can I get the glory?
Not how can I fight with people so that I can get the glory over somebody else?
It says in verse four,
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Not just yourself.
You're not that important.
Don't make yourself more important than other people because you're not.
So skip down to verse number 21.
It says,
For all seek their own, not the things which are of Jesus Christ.
That's the reality that we see in this world that all seek their own.
They want to seek the things about them and maybe their own families or whatever and everybody else.
It doesn't matter.
It's not the right way to look at it.
Not the things which are of Jesus Christ.
We should be looking on the things of Jesus Christ, the things of others and then ourselves.
Obviously you don't totally neglect yourself.
You need to eat.
You need spiritual meat.
You need the Bible.
You need your prayer time.
You need your soul anytime.
You need your time in church.
You need your family time.
There's nothing wrong with any of that stuff.
Nothing wrong with nourishing yourself and being good.
But you shouldn't be self-centered because it's not all about you.
And that's basically the opposite of what a narcissist is.
That's what we should strive to be like.
Not an egomaniac that thinks that they've arrived and everybody else needs to bow before me.
No other pastor is as good as me.
No other Christian is as good as me.
These are the types of people.
These narcissistic people are the types of people in Christianity that are the hyper-spiritual, holier-than-thou types.
And nobody likes a holier-than-thou.
It's annoying.
And if you're a holier-than-thou, if you have that trait.
And I'm preaching this, I want to help people that maybe struggle in some of these areas.
Because if you see you're going off the rails in this type of direction as a narcissistic type of person, a lover of your own self.
Hey, steer the ship right.
Get it fixed.
Because you don't want to be a holier-than-thou.
Let's look at Isaiah chapter 65 verse 5.
And let me turn to this verse last week.
It's a great verse.
Because it says, it kind of shows the attitude of a holier-than-thou.
Actually the term holier-than-thou comes from this passage.
And it also shows what God thinks of people that are like this.
So people will say, well, people just say I'm holier-than-thou because I have standards or whatever.
It's like, hey, we all have standards.
It's like, you know, people will preach this about people in our types of churches that all we care about is soul winning and that covers all of our sins that we do.
But other than that, we just go off and sin as much as we want and we don't care about that.
Is that what we preach at our church?
Do we preach to not repent of our sins?
Obviously we don't preach repent of your sins and be saved.
But we don't preach, hey, you know, don't worry about getting your life right because you're going soul winning.
Is that what we preach?
Have I ever said that in this pulpit ever one time?
You know, it's ridiculous. It's a false accusation.
It's a straw man that people set up to make themselves look great.
And to make themselves look like, hey, well their church is easy, believism, all they care about is believing easy and going soul winning.
And then after that, it doesn't really matter.
Don't worry about cleaning up your lives.
Just be a total scumbag because it's easy, cheap grace.
Nobody believes that.
I get so tired of, you know, these holy, they are holier than thou type people.
They look down their nose at other people.
Did you hear the Christian cuss word that they said?
Because someone says bastard in the middle of a sermon.
Look, the word bastard is in the Bible.
Now I'm not just going to go around going, hey you bastard, you know.
But bastard isn't a bad word.
It means illegitimate child, that's what it means.
But people are just, you can't use that unless you're using it in the exact context.
You know, don't say hell.
You know, you can see the effect in society when people think that hell is a bad word
because preachers all across the country are saying, you know, they're using separated from God.
Instead of hell.
Because that's what the word says.
That's what the Bible says they're going to hell.
The lake of fire.
Does it say separation from God?
But this is what happens when you kind of numb up, you know, blunt the words
and try to not offend people and say ass.
Ass means a donkey, right?
So, you know, people are like, oh you said ass.
Stand out away from me because I'm holier than thou.
Shut up, man.
That is ridiculous.
It's one thing if you're using F bombs or, you know, just really just being vulgar
and then using Bible words.
There's nothing wrong with that.
So Isaiah chapter 65 verse 5 says,
Which say, these are these types of people,
Which say, stand by thyself, come not near me, for I am holier than thou.
This is the type of person that, this is the ultra spiritual, hyper, I'm better than you type of person.
Hyper spiritual, holier than thou.
That's what the scripture says right there, holier than thou.
That's what they act like.
Don't come near me.
You're not as good as me.
I'm better than you.
I don't stand like you sin.
I'm going to stand over here.
Isn't that what the Pharisee said when he prayed within himself?
And then the other guy was like, wouldn't even look up to heaven?
And he said, God be merciful to me a sinner.
You see the difference there?
These hyper spiritual holier than thou's are the Pharisees.
They want to accuse me of being a Pharisee, but they're actually the ones that are the Pharisees.
Stand out over here.
I'm holier than thou.
What's God say about that?
He says, these are smoke in my nose.
A fire that burneth all the day.
And you can use the camping.
You know, just think about when you're camping and the smoke is always constantly blowing in your face.
And no matter where you stand, it just follows you.
It's irritating, isn't it?
You know, sometimes like, you know, if a fire is burning and that smoke goes in your nose,
it's irritating and it says, a fire that burneth all the day.
God says, people that act like this are like smoke in my nose.
So, what does that tell you?
The holier than thou type, God is irritated with that person.
It pisses him off.
Oh, pisses.
Pisses in the Bible too, by the way.
Anyway, so those are the type of people that we don't want to be.
But yet there's people all over, well, you know, you don't believe in repentance.
When did I say that?
You know, if you want to define repentance correctly, I believe in repentance.
But we're accused of saying, we just hate repentance so much that we won't even tell people in our churches to repent of their sins after they're saved.
Really, is that what we say?
I mean, is that what I say?
Is that what I preach?
Is that what any of my friends preach?
Absolutely not, it's a lie.
Another straw man set up to make that person look good while putting other people down.
That is a true holier than thou.
So, let's look at some other scriptures.
Look at Psalm chapter 17 verse 1.
Now, these narcissistic type of people, they're fake with a lot of their things, aren't they?
I'm praying for you.
I prayed for your baby.
You know, stuff like that.
Psalm chapter 17 verse 1, David says this,
Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.
Our prayer should never be fake.
Our prayer should be real.
A narcissistic person is the type of person that's saying,
Yeah, I'll pray for you, and then they don't do it.
It's some fake prayer.
Or, you know, what about the people that stand up in church and want to just,
I'm sure you've been in a church, our church isn't like this,
where someone prays like a five or ten minute prayer,
when the pastor asks them to close in prayer.
He always asks the one that's the most eloquent speaker to do it,
and then they go back to Genesis and tell us the history of the patriarchs,
and the judges, and the Lord of the judges,
you know, they did right by you, and then the kings,
and they just go through the whole Bible and say all this eloquent stuff
to make themselves, what, look good.
But when they're doing that, it's fake.
I'm not saying don't have, you know,
I don't think public prayer is wrong,
but I think excessive long prayers is something that Jesus told us.
He said that's what the Pharisees do.
They make long prayers
so other people can see and listen to their prayers and think,
oh, they're so spiritual.
That's what a Pharisee does.
Look at 2 Peter 2, verse 3.
2 Peter 2, verse 3.
2 Peter 2, verse 3 says,
And through covetousness shall they with feigned words
make merchandise of you,
whose judgment now of a long time lingereth
and their damnation slumberoth not.
So these people, these false prophets that it's talking about
in this chapter here, in 2 Peter 2, verse 3,
it says, through covetousness shall they with feigned words,
fake words.
And so there's these false prophet type reprobate Christians,
you know, Christians supposedly,
they make fake words just to make money off you.
That's what a false prophet does.
That's one of their M.O.s is to get money
or to get clout,
and then ultimately they work for the devil
so they're trying to get people thrown into hell
where they're going to go someday.
That's why they work for the devil,
so they can do his bidding.
So, I mentioned this before,
but one thing narcissists hate is to look bad in front of others.
If their reputation is tarnished at all in the public eye
or tarnished at all with their friendships,
they get really super angry.
The last thing they want to do is look bad in front of other people,
because that shatters their perfect image.
Remember, they fall in love with their own selves.
They look in the mirror and they see
the best person they love is looking right back at me.
And so, if they look bad in front of other people,
their physical appearance,
or anything about their reputation looks bad,
it doesn't look perfect,
they are going to war over that.
They can't handle stuff like that.
It enrages them.
And they almost always refuse to take responsibility for their own actions
or take blame or even admit that they're wrong.
These type of people are people you should avoid.
If they don't want to take any responsibility,
oh, I did nothing wrong, you're lying.
You do stuff wrong.
You just don't want other people to see what you do wrong.
You don't want to talk about what you do wrong.
You want to preach about or talk about
what other people do wrong all the time
and put yourself on a pedestal.
That's what narcissists do.
They love pitting people against each other, too.
They love it.
With this superficial friends group that they have,
then they want to pit one of their friends against the other ones
and then they sit back and watch the fireworks go off.
And they do it in such a way that you can't really tell that they did it,
or you can't really pin on that person that they did it,
but they get enjoyment out of that.
And then they come out on top,
whoever fights to the death, so to speak,
you come out unscathed as the top hero or whatever.
They love to talk bad about everyone,
but have deniability that they ever said it
or that they said it in a bad way
or I didn't quite mean it like that.
That's another thing to watch out for.
They talk bad about everyone,
but have deniability that they ever said what they did.
The things that they say are vague enough
to where they can deny that they meant that or said that
or it was an attack against you or an attack against someone else.
That's the type of things that they like to do.
So again, why am I preaching about this?
Well, again, we live in a world where narcissism abounds.
We live in a time where narcissism and self-love are running rampant.
We need to realize we may not have a narcissistic personality disorder,
but we might have some narcissistic tendencies.
And I'm sure everyone in this room has,
maybe something seemed familiar on that list.
So again, you have to have five out of the nine.
So if you hit five out of nine, you need help.
But I don't think I can help you.
So self-preservation is part of all of us.
You're hungry, you eat.
You're thirsty, you drink.
You don't hate yourself.
But we also, self-promotion,
self-promotion is part of our world that we live in.
It is.
Just think about job interviews.
You know what I hate about job interviews?
Is that you have to basically sell yourself,
brag about yourself, brag about your skills.
Why are you better than this other candidate?
I mean, job interviews are almost set up to make you a narcissist.
I hate doing job interviews.
It's like, why are you better than the other candidates?
Because I'm just better than everybody, that's why.
I hate doing them because I hate promoting myself like that.
But it's like you have to do that to get the job.
Because then they'll say, well, that person wasn't very confident.
It's like, well, maybe I just didn't want to say I was better than everybody else.
Maybe I don't want to lie about my skills.
Because a lot of people in job interviews will lie about everything,
and then they get in there and they know nothing about the job.
You know, like, oh, I know how to do all this, this, and that,
and then, you know, people can wing things for so long,
but once, you know, if someone's a professional
and someone tries to pretend that they're a professional
coming into that person's, you know, whatever they're doing,
they can spot that pretty easy.
People can talk themselves up and say how hard of workers they are
and how great of workers they are,
and they never call in sick, they never take a day off or whatever,
but your boss knows once you get there that it's not true.
They know exactly what to look for,
and they see the lies that are coming forth.
And so, you know, don't, if you don't want to be narcissistic in a job interview,
don't lie about your skills or don't try to get a job that's over your skill set.
You know, I mean, it doesn't usually work out very well,
because once they find out that you're a phony,
then it's all downhill from there, right?
So turn to Psalm chapter 75, verse 6.
Psalm chapter 75, verse number 6.
But, you know, like I said, self-preservation is part of our lives,
it's part of who we are, it's part of the world that we live in,
but we should be different than the world.
That's the number one factor that we've got to think about in this specific topic,
is that, hey, even though the world wants us to be narcissistic,
even though there's a lot of avenues to help us to be narcissistic,
that we're supposed to be Christians, we're supposed to be different,
we're not supposed to be like that,
and so we need to avoid being lovers of our own selves
to the point where we're in that category.
Look at verse number 75, I mean verse number 6, good night.
For promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west,
nor from the south, but God is the judge,
he putteth down one and setteth up another.
God is the one that's going to promote you in your life,
and I'm not saying, you know, that you never should interview for a job
because God's just going to give you the promotion or something,
but, you know, just be careful about how you interview.
You know, when people say, well, what's your leadership style?
I always tell them it's servant leadership style.
And I'm sure that people that work in a very liberal environment
know exactly what I mean by that,
but I still say it anyway,
because if they don't want me,
if they think that I'm just going to be the one sitting in the truck
and playing video games while everybody else is working,
that's not what I believe.
I think that you should be out working with your crew,
if you're like a working crew leader or something like that,
you should be out working with your crew,
not sitting in a lawn chair with an umbrella overhead
and a glass of lemonade playing on Facebook or something.
You should be out there working and showing other people how to do things.
Obviously, you have time where you have to do your paperwork,
or if you're a boss, there's things at times
when you have to separate yourself from a work crew to get paperwork done,
because that's a lot of what being a boss is all about.
But don't lie, you know, and say,
I'm a servant, I believe in servant leadership,
and then you're the opposite of that when you go to work.
So servant leadership is, you show other people by your work ethic
and by your mannerisms what you want them to be.
You ask them to be that way, you be that way.
Don't be a hypocrite.
Ephesians chapter 5 verse 29.
And see, God will promote people even within the church.
You don't have to promote yourself.
You know, God said, separate unto me Saul and Barnabas for the work.
Right? Why did he do that?
Because he saw what they were doing.
They didn't go to the pastor of the church and say,
look, we believe that we're the best here,
we're the best preachers, we give the best gospel presentation,
send us out, we want to do our own missionary trip.
No, God promoted Saul and Barnabas to the work.
God did.
God promotes people in the church based upon what they do.
And then when you are at that level where, you know,
God says, hey, this person's been faithful,
this person's been hardworking, I'm going to promote that person.
That's how it gets done.
It's not by yourself.
God's the one that puts one down and sets up another.
Ephesians 5, 29.
Now in context of Ephesians 5,
it's talking about Christ in the church
and it's also talking on the secondary application for marriage.
You know, it's showing the picture of marriage,
but how Christ and the church are pictured by marriage.
So it says,
For no man yet hated his own flesh,
but nourisheth and cherisheth it,
even as the Lord the Church.
So look, the Bible's saying people love their own flesh,
people cherish their own flesh,
and they want to take care of it,
so just like you take care of yourself,
that's how you should take care of your wife.
And so there's nothing wrong with taking care of yourself.
But not to the point where you care about yourself
more than you care about your spouse.
You care about yourself more than you care about anybody else.
That's the opposite of what the Bible teaches, right?
So have the right kind of self-love.
Love your soul.
If you're not saved, hey, you should love yourself enough,
you know, you don't want to go to hell,
so that you get saved.
And feed your soul.
Take care of your soul.
Nourish with your soul and cherish with it.
How do you do that?
By reading the Bible.
By prayer.
By soul eating and by church attendance.
Because you need to be perfected by the Word of God
when you're at church.
You know, make sure you're saved.
Make sure you're spiritually fed.
That's the right kind of self-love.
Because if you don't do that for yourself,
but you're always ministering to other people,
then you're neglecting what you need.
You know, you shouldn't just neglect yourself
to the point where you don't,
you know, I just want to give everybody else everything,
but you don't want to help yourself.
You have to help yourself.
You have to love yourself to a certain extent, right?
So, love your body.
God's temple.
Love your mind.
Feed it knowledge.
You know, but don't feed, you know,
don't love your temple so much
that, you know, you're posing
these bodybuilding pictures all over online.
I mean, it's strange for a dude to do that.
It's strange for a woman to do the duck face.
Just stop it.
It looks stupid.
You know, the first person that did it, they look dumb too.
I can't even do the fish gap one,
but like, is there a, I'm sure there's
other ones that,
you know, but for men and women
to promote their looks
all the time on social media,
it's narcissistic.
So, now,
there's nothing wrong with keeping
your body in subjection.
There's nothing wrong with, you know,
working on your body or whatever.
But, you know, don't, everything's
got to have balance. You can't just be unbalanced.
If you spend more time exercising
and worrying about what you're eating, what kind of medicines
you're taking than you are about the word of God
and about going to church and the things of God,
you're out of balance.
I mean, to be a
sculpted Adonis
takes time, doesn't it?
Takes a lot of effort.
But, are you putting more effort
into your body and your health
than you are to the word of God?
Than you are to soul wanting? Than you are to
church atta- you know what I'm saying? You can't be
out of balance with that kind of stuff.
So,
love your family.
Raise them and love them. Raise your children.
Love your children. Don't just worry about
only yourself, your career,
you know, your hobbies.
You got children to worry about.
So, don't be narcissistic
when it comes to your family. Your family is
important also. Love your life.
Try to preserve it.
You know, you shouldn't just be walking
off a cliff and doing all these kind of crazy-
You know, you think about that show
Jackass or whatever, if you've ever seen
it before. They don't really love
themselves. They do-
Well, it's funny because it's narcissistic
and, you know,
they're hurting themselves at the same time, so it's kind of a
weird conundrum there.
But, I mean, they'll do
all kinds of stupid stuff.
Being launched up in the air into a port-a-potty
and then, ugh, gross.
You know, or just, you know, they
hurt themselves, but what are they doing? They're trying
to get a laugh. They're trying to, you know, get
people to like them and do the things that they're doing.
You got all these TikTok challenges
and things like that. Kids, stay away
from that garbage. You kick my door
and you're going to get shot. Okay?
Just that simple. You got people going around
kicking people's doors and filming it on
video.
You might just catch a bullet if you do that at my house.
It's a danger- That's a dangerous
game. Do that at Sean
Harrington's house.
I think all of his
kids are trained, too.
You're facing
an army.
But just, you know, we got to keep things
in balance. So, you know, God
is the greater than sign.
Right? Everything else,
lesser than.
God is greater than. Everything else,
lesser than. Your neighbor.
What is your
neighbor? Equal
to yourself.
Equal to yourself.
So,
and actually the Bible says,
esteem them better.
But I mean, you
should have the same love for your neighbor
that you have for yourself.
And if you don't, then
that's something you need to work on.
This is in Matthew chapter 22 verse 36.
The Bible actually teaches this very clearly.
Matthew chapter 22 verse 36, the Bible says,
Master, which is the
great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, with all
thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first
and great commandment.
So, are there
commandments that are greater than others?
Yes, there are. What's the greatest commandment?
To love God with everything you got.
And then it says,
in the second is like unto it,
thou shalt love thyself as thyself.
No, that's not what it says.
Cause thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Isn't that equal to?
Right?
As thyself.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
That's equal to, isn't it?
On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets.
So, the Bible
does not teach love yourself
more than everybody else.
It says love God more than
everybody else and love your neighbor
as yourself.
So, narcissism
has no place in the local New Testament
church. And obviously,
again, it's a term
that's used in the world, but it's
used a lot. And people
like I said are self-diagnosing people
from videos they watch on YouTube.
Just be careful with that, alright?
Be careful with, you know,
you got these people on YouTube because they want
you to listen to them.
Okay?
Right?
You know, we're on YouTube.
We promote our church. We promote the
Word of God on YouTube. I'm not
promoting my personal life.
Am I?
It's about the church. It's about the
word of God.
So,
how does narcissism apply
to us who are not
on the same level as those
you know, how does it apply
to us when it's not
the disorder?
Well, it applies to us, you know,
through that checklist I would say
is a good place to start looking. Obviously,
the checklist in the Bible that I first read.
Not the
secular, you know, version
of it, but just because
you know, it's
deemed as a mental disorder
and all that stuff doesn't mean that they're wrong
with everything they're saying. But the Bible
already clearly laid out
in 2 Timothy chapter 3
all those things
that people are like in the end times.
Lovers of self was at the top of the list.
Wasn't it?
So,
are these things that you struggle with?
Is there things on this list that you've struggled with?
Well, I'm sure that there is.
I'm sure there's something that we all have struggled with
from time to time.
But, here's the thing, we can always improve.
You know, why do I preach
sermons like this? Well, I want to educate you
but at the same time, I want to help you in your life.
That's what the word of God is for.
It's to help us. If it's not helping your life,
then how's it helping? It's not.
So, we can always
get better. We can improve.
Are you looking at yourself too long in the mirror?
Are you thinking about yourself
a little too much?
Do you care about
things that others are doing?
Do you have empathy for other people
that are going through hard times in our church?
Or is it just about you?
Because, again, we can all get a little bit
selfish. It can be just
about our family sometimes.
Sometimes, you know,
you're watching all the prayer requests come in
and you can get numb
to it.
But think about those people, what they're
going through. Put yourself
in their shoes
and see how you'd feel if you were
going through the same situation.
That's empathy.
And then actually care about what that person
is going through. Because
ultimately, what are we doing here?
We're not serving ourselves, we're serving
others. Jesus,
others, you.
You should be at the bottom of that list.
It doesn't mean you don't care
about yourself. So I don't want to preach
some weird extremism like,
you know, you should never take care of yourself or anything like
that. That's not true. Because if you can't take care
of yourself, then how are you going to take care of other people?
That's why, you know,
those that are spiritual should
restore those people
but make sure that you're not
tempted
by the things that they're doing also, right?
So I'll have you turn to one
last scripture. 1 John
chapter 3 verse 16.
1 John 3 verse 16.
But, you know, are you trying to get people
to notice you that
shouldn't?
You know, when you're married,
you're supposed to be, your eyes
are supposed to be toward your spouse.
You and your spouse are, you know,
that's what should be on your mind, not other people's
spouses and what they,
you know, are they looking at me?
Why do you care if they're looking at you?
You shouldn't care about those things.
So, what about
being envious of others? Are you
envious of other people's lives or stationed in life?
You know,
do you find yourself thinking, well,
hey, if I had a wife like that person
does, then
my life would be a lot better. You shouldn't think like that.
Be thankful
for the things that you have.
Be content with the things that you have.
Don't look
on, you know, it's okay to look
on the things of others, but not in a way
that's sinful.
You look on the things of others to help them,
not to hurt them.
So, 1 John 3, verse 16 says,
this is the last scripture rule and we'll be done here.
Hereby perceive
we the love of God because, verse 16,
because he laid down his life
for us. Did Jesus think about himself
first or did he think about other people first?
He did. He came here
specifically
to save others.
He like sacrifices
life for others.
He lived the perfect life
for others. He resisted temptation
for others.
Didn't he?
It says, and we ought to lay down
our lives for the brethren.
But whoso hath this
world's good, and seeth
his brother have need, and shutteth up the
bowels of his compassion from him,
how dwelleth the love of God in him?
You know, if you're caring more about
yourself and you don't care about other people,
and you have compassion on them,
then how dwelleth the love of God in you?
It's not.
Verse 18, my little children
let us not love in word
neither in tongue,
so it's not what we say,
it's what? But in deed
and in truth.
So the things we do
and the fact that we do them
according to the truth.
Okay, so that's how
we should look at things, that's how
we should look at other people,
how we should help other people.
You know, we put ourselves
last. Didn't Jesus say
those that are first will be last
and last will be first?
The people that think that they're better
than other people, they're going to be
the last ones in.
Didn't the Jews think that they were the best?
They did, didn't they?
They thought they were better than the Gentiles.
And so he constantly said
that saying to them,
they're going to be the last ones.
And that angered them.
But it's true.
And some of them didn't even make it in.
So let's think about these things
and how we can
improve ourselves, because obviously
everybody can improve
in this area. Let's not be narcissistic
in the way we live our lives.
And obviously I'm not saying,
again, I'm not saying
don't be on social media.
But if you have 15,000 selfies of yourself
on Facebook, you might need
to just take down 1,499
of them.
Or 1,495 of them.
Or
if you care, if you're finding
yourself focused on
yourself so much
that you don't have time for God, and you
don't have time for others, then you're out
of balance and you need to refocus
your life and how you're doing things.
Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father,
we thank you, Lord, so much for the Scriptures.
Lord, I pray that you'd help us to not be
narcissistic, not to love
our own selves
so much that we forget about
you, Lord, and that we forget about other
people. I pray that you'd help us to be a church that cares
about you, Lord, and that, Lord, we remember
the reason why we're doing things here,
the reason why we're here, the reason
why we read our Bible, and why we
pray and go to church, Lord, and go soloing. And I pray
you'd help us to keep those things in
perspective, that it's all about
you and pleasing you and keeping
your commandments, Lord. I pray that you'd help us
to love our neighbors as ourself,
Lord, including the ones that are in this room
right now. Lord, we should love
our brethren, and we should make it
known. And, Lord, I pray that you'd just help us in
these areas, any place where we fall short.
Forgive us of our sins that we've committed
in these areas, Lord, and I pray that you'd
bless our church, that you'd bless us out so
many today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, our last song,
song number 397.
Little is much when God is in it.
Song number 397.
Little is much when God is in it.
Song 397, let's sing it out on the first.
In the harvest field,
now ripen,
there's a work
for all to do.
Hark, the voice
of God is calling
to the harvest,
calling you.
Little is much
when God is in it.
Labor not
for wealth or fame.
There's a crown
and you can win it
if you'll go
in Jesus' name.
Does the place
you're called to labor
seem so small
and little known?
It is great
if God is in it
and he'll not
forget his own.
Little is much
when God is in it.
Labor not
for wealth or fame.
There's a crown
and you can win it
if you'll go
in Jesus' name.
Are you laid
aside from service,
body worn
from toil and care?
You can still
be in the battle
in the sacred
place of prayer.
Little is much
when God is in it.
Labor not
for wealth or fame.
There's a crown
and you can win it
if you'll go
in Jesus' name.
When the conflict
here is ended
and our race
on earth is run,
he will say
to all the faithful
welcome home
my child well done.
Little is much
when God is in it.
Labor not
for wealth or fame.
There's a crown
and you can win it
if you'll go
in Jesus' name.
Amen.