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Amen. 2 Timothy 3, beginning in verse 1, the Bible reads, This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves. And the title of my sermon tonight is Lovers of Their Own Selves. Lovers of Their Own Selves. Now this is a big list of really wicked people and really wicked trends that will happen in the end times, in the last days. And the first thing that he says is that men will be lovers of their own selves. And I think a lot of these other attributes that he lists, being covetous, boaster, proud, blasphemer, are really attributes of a person who is a lover of their own self. Now I think that what he means here by lovers of their own selves is that they only care about themselves. They don't care about other people. They don't love other people. They're very selfish, narcissistic, obsessed with themselves, constantly taking pictures of themselves, constantly fixated on everything regarding themselves and not other people. They don't care about other people. They care about no one but themselves. Some people even have no empathy for other people. They see the suffering of other people and it doesn't bother them at all because they only care about themselves. So I think a lover of one's own self is someone who cares about no one except themselves. And we see that a lot today as we approach the last days. But one example of this that really jumped out at me this week of people being lovers of their own selves or just having no regard for other people was this ice cream licking thing that was on the internet this week. Who knows what I'm talking about, this thing that was going on on the internet? Okay. Apparently this girl, this skanky girl went into a grocery store and just took an ice cream off the shelf, opened it up and just licked the ice cream, put the lid on and put it back. And this was viral all over the internet. And then it caused all kinds of people to start doing a copycat thing where other people are going in and licking the ice creams and putting the lid back on. Another guy was shown to spit in some Arizona iced tea and then put the lid back on, put it back on the shelf and people were licking all kinds of other food items and everything. I mean it's just so disgusting and gross and it just shows someone who cares about no one except themselves to do something like that and to just have no regard for the fact that that could make somebody sick, it's disgusting, it's gross but people are lovers of their own selves. And it's not just that but there are a lot of other similar things that are out there. And I'll get into some of those. But I was racking my brain for scriptures regarding this incident. And some of these people are being arrested by the way as they should be. And I don't know what punishment they're being given. I guess they're probably going to be sent to jail or something like that. I don't believe in jail. I think that they should receive 40 blows with a stick is what they should receive. But anyway, let me give you some scriptures that came into my mind because I should always go to the Word of God for the answers on these things. How about this one? Proverbs 10 verse 23. You don't have to turn there. It is as sport to a fool to do mischief. But a man of understanding hath wisdom. It is as sport to a fool to do mischief. And this is what we see, people doing harmful things, hurting other people and is literally like a sport unto them. It's like a game to them. The ice cream challenge. Making it sound like it's a sport or a game or something to be done for a competition or something. Proverbs chapter 4 verse 14 says, enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it. Pass by it. Turn from it and pass away. For they sleep not except they've done mischief and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall. Listen to this. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. Violence has to do with hurting other people, right? Violating other people. This is like their bread and butter. This is their food and drink to do wickedness and hurt people and harm people. Proverbs 6 16, these six things does the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, you know, just dreaming up wicked and evil things to do, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies and he that soweth discord among brethren. Proverbs 13 16, every prudent man dealeth with knowledge but a fool layeth open his folly. Not only do they do stupid things but then they film it and put it for the entire world to see on YouTube. And I'm not just talking about this ice cream licking thing or this other tampering with food. You know, there are people doing things like this all the time now, people who have no regard for other people. You know, just a personal illustration, I frequently ride my bicycle back and forth from here to my house and I got to church one time and my bike tire was just covered in little thumbtacks, little pushpins. And I know that Catherine's bike also had the exact same pushpin in her tire. This was a few months back. And I looked and there was a place in the sidewalk where someone had just laid out just a ton of these little gold pushpins face up like this in the road just to destroy people's bike tires. I mean, there's no way it was an accident because they're all just laid out as like a minefield. And so I went and I gathered and picked them all up and threw them in the trash. But what kind of a person would do something like that? Just this senseless act. Or to get even more extreme, what about these that go on an overpass and just throw rocks down at the cars below and they can literally kill people. People have literally died or gone to the hospital because of some prank or some idiot harming people, caring only about themselves, being a fool, laying open their folly, just trying to make a video for YouTube or whatever they're doing. Or what about the people who get on the freeway driving the wrong direction for kicks, right? This is stupidity, foolishness, people who only love themselves. They don't even stop and think about the other people that they might harm. They're only thinking about themselves. The Bible says in Proverbs 15, 14, the heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge, but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness. And when I think of this mouth of fools feeding on foolishness, I just picture somebody with their mouth open just drooling, watching stupid stuff on TV, watching stupid stuff on the internet, stupid stuff on YouTube, just watching all just comedy and pranks and stupidity and clowning, spending no time doing what? Seeking knowledge. What does the Bible say? It says the heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge. Have you ever noticed that there are some people who understand the Bible and some people who don't? Some people understand life and some people who don't? Some people understand English and some people who don't? I'll tell you why. Because the one who understands is the guy who's seeking knowledge. See he takes a book off the shelf and reads it. He studies his Bible. He goes to church. He listens to preaching. He's on a quest for learning and knowledge and instruction and the wisdom that comes from God. But then there's the mouth of fools that feeds on foolishness, stupidity, just imbecilic, dumb things and they could just spend hours and hours down that rabbit hole on YouTube watching clowning, dumb comedy, pranks, whatever without a serious thought in their head, without seeking understanding. How about this one? Proverbs 15, 21, folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom. Folly is what? Being stupid, being foolish. Folly equals joy to him that is destitute of wisdom. But a man of understanding walketh up rightly. How about this one? I'm just going through all the verses that I found that I was reminded of just thinking of this ice cream challenge and other like things. How about this one? Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. For this is the law and the prophets. You don't want somebody doing that to your food, contaminating your food, spitting in your food. And you know I've heard of this all the way back to when I was a kid, people at the fast food place spitting in your food. But at least those people were actually targeting someone that they hated. And you know what? It's still wicked. It's still perverse. It's still ungodly and dirty. But how about just doing that to random strangers for no reason? That's a whole nother level of just bizarre. But back to 2 Timothy chapter 3, I just want to bring that out as an example of people who only care about themselves, they're lovers of their own selves. What are some of the attributes of these people who only love themselves? Well, he goes on to elaborate in this verse. He says in 2 Timothy 3, too, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous. Right? So because they only love themselves, their life is wrapped up in getting possessions. Covetous has to do with being greedy, desiring what you don't have, the love of money, always wanting to have more, never being content with what you have. The opposite of contentment is covetousness. They'll be covetous, boasters. What are boasters? People who tell you how great they are, they brag about their achievements, and they're always telling you about what they own and how nice their things are and how good they are at this and how good they are at that, proud, obviously, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Now flip back if you went to Psalm 10. Psalm 10 has a bunch of these attributes kind of grouped together. Psalm 10, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, and look, these are trends in the end times. So these are things that we're going to see more and more. We're seeing them in 2019. We're going to see them more in 2020. We're going to see them even more as the day approaches. But in Psalm 10, verse 3, the Bible says, For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. So right here, we see the list from 2 Timothy 3 laid out. We've got the boasting, we've got the covetousness, we've got the pride, and we've got the lack of seeking after God. And it's the same thing in 2 Timothy 3, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents. Now, this is something that we also see on the rise today. People not having any respect for their parents. We need to understand that the Bible talks about this a lot. It's in the 10 Commandments, for crying out loud. Honor thy father and mother. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. You show me a child who is disobedient to their parents, and I'll show you a prideful child. I'll show you a child who loves themself. Because the one who disobeys their parents is prideful and thinks, my parents don't know. Their rules don't make sense. I know what's best for me. It's my life. I'm going to do what I want to do. I don't care what they want me to do. And your parents have sacrificed and done everything for you, but that ties in with the next thing. After disobedience to parents, what does it say? Unthankful. Unthankful. They're not thankful to their mom, who gave birth to them, and literally risked her life to give birth to them, and went through unspeakable pain and suffering to give birth to them. They don't have any appreciation for dad, who worked late and worked long hours. He worked nights. He worked weekends. He wasn't out goofing off and playing and licking ice creams in the grocery store. He was actually out working his fingers to the bone and doing something with his life so that he could actually provide for a family, so that he could actually pay for you to be diapered and fed and clothed. And your parents have taken care of you. They've wiped your bottom when you were a baby. They've dressed you. They've doctored you. They've taken care of you. And you're so unthankful and ungodly that you just disobey your parents and not obey the rules that they have set, which 99% of the time are for your benefit. They're trying to keep you from ruining your life. They're trying to keep you from destroying yourself and becoming one of these psychopathic fools who throws boulders off of an overpass into the freeway. Why? Because they love you. They care about you, lovers of their own selves, covetous. I want that. Give me that. Shut up, you little brat. Having food at Raymond, be there with content, you sniveling little brat, because you didn't get the right toy that you wanted or you didn't get to wear the name brands. You know what? Growing up, I wore the pro wings and the Arizona jeans and all the off-brand. And you know what? It taught me to be humble. And to this day, I don't give a rip about all the brand names and having to wear all the fancy things. You know what? I'm going to walk humble on this earth. One day, Christ is going to clothe me in white raiment, and that's when I'm going to be styling. And until then, I don't care, okay? When Jesus walked on this earth, he walked in a humble garb. When he comes back, he's going to be clothed in a robe. And we're going to be wearing a kingly robe right there with him. You know, there's never one time that Jesus Christ wore a robe, except when they put it on him to make fun of him. When they put a purple robe and beat him up. But you know what? Jesus Christ walked on this earth in humble clothing, and we ought not be covetous, boasting little conspicuous consumers, wanting to wear all the fancy clothes, and treating life like a fashion show. Hey, everybody, look at me, everybody. Look how much money I have, or look how much style I have. Look how cool I am. You need to walk humbly before God. And so we see here that those that are disobedient to parents is because they're unthankful. And you know what? God and being unholy, unholy people. These are trends in the last days. Verse 3 says, without natural affection. What is natural affection? Natural affection is a mother loving her child. Natural affection is a father loving his children. Natural affection is a child loving their parents. Natural affection is a man loving his wife. Natural affection is a wife loving her husband. Natural affection is loving our family, loving our friends, loving our church, loving the brethren. Why are they without natural affection? Because the only person that they truly love is themselves. They're without natural affection, truce breakers. Now what does this mean to be a truce breaker? I think tied in with this is what we see at the beginning of verse 4, traitors. What are traitors or truce breakers? A traitor is someone who betrays you. A truce breaker is someone who makes a deal with you and breaks that deal. They break that agreement. This is also shown in Romans chapter 1, which by the way, Romans chapter 1 is a very similar passage. This passage is also dealing with reprobates, as you'll see a few verses down. And so the same list in Romans 1 is the same thing that we see in 2 Timothy 3. There are a lot of crossover categories here, but we see that as covenant breakers, right? So we see the covenant breakers, the truce breakers. These are people who make a deal with you. They make an agreement with you and then they break that agreement. They break that deal. They say they're going to do something and then they don't do it. You know, this could be anything from a contractor ripping you off to just anybody who makes a commitment to something, says they're going to do something and then breaks that agreement. Just recently, I was dealing with a company this week that was a truce breaker company. This company kept hounding me a while back that really wanted to build an app for our church. Now there's already the Faithful Word app, but this was going to be a different kind of app to play sermon videos and do a lot of other different things that the other Faithful Word app didn't do. So we created an official FWBC Tempe app using this company and the company was hounding me and they were offering me all these things. So I talked to the lady from the company and I said, look, let me explain something to you. Do you know who I am? No. No, I told her, I said, look, I said, are you going to kick me off this app because of my preaching? Because here's what I preach. Here's what's out there. These are the sermons. I've been kicked off of all these platforms. I don't want to invest my time and money into something just to get kicked off. And she said, well, she said, you know, she's going to talk to her bosses and everything. And she came back and said, well, here's the deal. She said, we can't control what the Apple store does, but we won't kick you off. You know, we're not going to stop you from, you know, uploading your sermons and we're okay with your sermons being uploaded. But you know, we can't control what the Apple store does, but if the Apple store kicks you off, you'll still be on Android or whatever, and you'll still be on people's iPhones that have already downloaded it or what have you. So I'm like, okay, fine. You know? So that was like five months ago and, and we've been uploading sermons to this app. We spent a bunch of time uploading a bunch of videos and I know a lot of people were on there watching the videos, but we didn't even upload any of the sermons rebuking the bundles of sticks, if you know what I mean. Okay. We weren't, we didn't even upload the stuff rebuking the sodomites and the queers. Like we didn't even put up any of that preaching, right? I mean, what did we put up? We're putting up like just Bible studies and just putting up the more benign preaching because we didn't want to get thrown off the Apple store on that particular platform. So we were just uploading cause frankly, you know, 99% of my preachings, not about homos. So we were just uploading a whole bunch of Bible prophecy stuff. We're uploading a whole bunch of benign stuff and then they just canceled it. They just said, Oh, you, you violated our terms of service. No, you violated the terms of service because you made an agreement with me and said, we're not going to kick you off. We're okay with your preaching, but we don't know what the Apple store is going to do. We upload a bunch of benign preaching and then some fag loving idiot. It whoops. Did I say the F word? Because some fag loving idiot at their company deletes our stuff. Why? Because they're a Christian company. That's why. So there's some water. I mean, look, this is a Christian company and they can't handle Bible preaching. Why? Because they're a bunch of fag loving idiots. That's why. And you know what they are? Truce breakers, covenant breakers, you know, and look, I can't even count how many times in my life I've agreed to do something and then situations changed and I'm just like, I have to do that because that was the commitment that I made. I said I was going to be there. You know, nowadays it's just, you get invited to one birthday party and you RSVP yes, and then you get invited to a better birthday party and you just go to the better birthday party. Right? Wrong. Why? Because you're supposed to do what you say you're going to do. You know, when you make an agreement with somebody, you know, and I can't even count how many times I've paid for a service and not gotten what I paid for because of just people being covenant breakers, truce breakers, not following through with what they say they're going to do. It says without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent. What does that mean? People who can't contain themselves. They can't contain their urges, fierce despisers of those that are good. So they love themselves, but they despise those that are good. They despise Bible preaching. They despise godly mothers and homeschoolers. They despise hardworking men and women. They despise the salt of the earth, backbone of this country, people who actually do good things and actually work and build things and produce things. They hate anybody who's normal. They hate anybody who's Christian. They hate anybody who's righteous. They hate the Baptist. Why? Because they despise those that are good. The Bible says traitors, of course, people who will betray you, stab you in the back, heady, heady has to do with being prideful and high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Why? Because they love themselves. So they love pleasure. They love to gratify self more than they love God. They have a form of godliness, according to verse five, but they deny the power thereof from such turn away. So we see that there are people who fit this bill. They are lovers of their own selves, but yet they attend church. So why do they attend church if they only love themselves? Because they're only going to go to a church that gratifies themselves. So you say, why would a lover of their own selves attend church? Because they attend a church that will gratify them. They attend church that entertains them, that makes them feel good, that pats them on the back, that tells them that they're wonderful, that gives them a spiritual little boost for their spiritual battery, but they don't go to the church that rebukes them. They don't go to the church that actually teaches them the truth about the Bible, or teaches them deep doctrines about Christ, or teaches them to self-sacrifice and love other people. No, they're lovers of their own selves. They're the ones who say to the prophets, prophesy unto us smooth things. They're the ones who have itching ears, and they heap to themselves, teachers, they heap to themselves those that will tell them fables and tell them things that aren't true, and they'll turn away their ears from the truth. They can't endure sound doctrine. The Bible says they have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof from such turn away. This is like people who go to church, but then they actually don't even believe that Jesus even rose from the dead. They don't even believe in the creation account of the Bible. They think it all came from the Big Bang and evolution. And you're thinking to yourself, why do you even go to church? You're like an atheist. You believe in the Big Bang, you believe in evolution, you don't believe in the virgin birth of Christ, you don't believe in the resurrection of Christ, then why in the world are you even claiming the name of Christ? Why would you even be a theologian, or a preacher, or even go to church if you don't believe in any of this? If you're going to deny the power thereof, why do you even have this form of godliness? Why? Well, because they are of this sort, which creep into houses. And lead captive, silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Janus and Jamborees withstood what Moses, and we've been learning about them on Wednesday nights, 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. And boy, the internet's really helping with that, isn't it? Making manifest the folly of the false prophets, the lovers of their own selves, the wicked, putting it on display for everyone. Now go to Ephesians chapter four. Now what's the point of this sermon? Is this sermon just to get up and just rant and get some things off my chest about people licking ice cream that they didn't purchase? Partially. That's part of what the sermon's about. But you know what? Part of the sermon is about, look, we could stand here all day and just rebuke the wickedness of this world and rebuke the reprobate and those that are literally psychopath. They have no conscience. But what the Bible is telling us with this list, it's not just to warn us. Part of it is just to warn us. Look, these people are out there, they're bad, it's perilous, it's dangerous. Avoid these people as it's said in Proverbs and the scriptures we looked earlier. Don't go the way of these people, avoid them, don't pass by them, get as far away from these type of people as you can. But in Ephesians chapter four, the Bible is telling us don't be like unto them. Don't be like these people. He says in verse 17 of chapter four of Ephesians, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you henceforth, henceforth means from here on out, walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. Now let me ask this, could verse 18 describe any saved person? No way. I mean, how could a saved person have their understanding darkened and be alienated from the life of God through ignorance and the blindness? This is talking about people that are not saved. It's talking about people that are reprobated even. But what he says here is don't walk as other Gentiles walk. So he's saying, look, there are these people out there and they are alienated from God, they have their understanding darkened, their hearts are blinded. And look what it says in verse 19, just in case you don't get it. He says, who being past feeling have given themselves over into lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. What does it mean to be past feeling? It means these people don't have a conscience. They don't even feel bad. The Bible said in Ezekiel, you know, were they ashamed when they had committed these abominations? No. They were not ashamed, neither could they blush. No shame, no guilt, no remorse, no conscience. They don't care who they hurt. They don't care what the results of their actions are. They are past feeling. They're gotten to a point where they have no feelings anymore for other people, for right and wrong, just no feeling, past feeling. So what is God saying here? Don't walk as they walk. These people that are past feeling, alienated, blinded, darkened, don't walk as they walk. He said they have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. That means that these people, they just can't get enough of the uncleanness, right? So they work all uncleanness with greediness. It means they're just greedy to do more sin, more wickedness. Like it said in Proverbs, this is meat and drink unto them. This is their food. This is their drink. They can't even rest unless they cause someone to fall, the Bible said. Their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall. They sleep not except they've done mischief. Verse 20, but you have not so learned Christ. If so be that you've heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And this is where sometimes people get a little bit mixed up on this passage in 2 Timothy 3 or in the Romans 1 passage because Romans chapter 1 and 2 Timothy chapter 3 are describing these horrible reprobates, right? They're describing reprobates. And it says, look, this is all the stuff that the reprobates do. These are all the attributes of the reprobates and then here he says, hey, don't be like them. Don't be like those kind of people. Don't do those things too. Now a lot of people will misunderstand this and I don't know if they're misunderstanding it or if they're just purposely interpreting it wrong. But sometimes here's what they'll say, oh, yeah, well, you disobeyed your parents. So I guess that makes you a reprobate too. Who's ever heard that argument before? That's ridiculous. That's not what the Bible, the Bible's not saying, hey, if you disobey your parents, you're a reprobate. You know what the Bible's saying is that reprobates are filled with disobedience for their parents. So this is not a two way street. Reprobates do all of these bad things. Doing one of these bad things does not make you a reprobate, but doing one of these bad things makes you like a reprobate in that action. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? So I've caught myself before when I was going to do something sinful and I thought to myself, you know what, this is exactly what wicked people would do right now. I don't want to be like those wicked people. This is a way that we should think when we're tempted to sin. Let's say you're tempted to watch something or listen to something or look at something and then you think to yourself, hey, isn't this the same thing that all the reprobates would love to watch? Isn't this all the same junk that they would? And you know when you're tempted to disobey your parents, maybe you should stop and think, you know, do I want to disobey my parents right now so I can be like a reprobate? And look, obviously it doesn't make you reprobate. Look once you're saved, you're a Christian, you're saved, you're born again, nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. But God doesn't want us to live like the world. He doesn't want us to live like the reprobates. And look, TV, the media, Hollywood, it's controlled by reprobates. So you don't want to pattern your lives after these people. You don't want to emulate these people. Somebody said, and I don't know if this is true, but it looked like possibly some singer, and again, you know, you'll have to fact check me on this, Ariana Grande, I guess, is that a singer or an actress or what is that? Okay, well, apparently she went to some donut shop and licked a bunch of donuts or something. So I don't know, some people were saying, hey, that's where people got the idea to lick the ice cream or whatever. I don't know. But it wouldn't really surprise me if somebody's trying to emulate some wicked star of music or Hollywood or whatever she is. I don't know who that is, but whatever it is, I'm sure she, is she a godly person? Did she ever do something worse than licking a donut in a donut shop? Probably. I don't know. Being, you know, when you're emulating these people, when that's your hero, that's the kind of stupid stuff you're going to end up learning from these people. And far worse things, because they're not getting married and raising a family and going to work every day and making an honest living. They're blaspheming God in their music, they're proud, they're covetous, they're boastful, they're blasphemous, they're disobedient to their parents, and then they teach you to be disobedient to your parents. They teach you to be a fornicator or a drunk or to take drugs or whatever because it's glorified by very wicked people. You know, I'm sure a lot of these rap artists are reprobates. I mean, some of these rap lyrics are so blasphemous, so evil, even blaspheming the name of Christ or just talking about perverted things, super wicked. It's almost like a contest to see how wicked they could even be. Okay, but are these reprobates going to be your role model? Is that who's going to be teaching your children? Is that who you're going to be listening to and filling your mind with that kind of stuff? Because you can end up being like them. You'll never be a reprobate if you're saved, thank God. You'll never go all the way down that path, but you know what you will do, though? You can be disobedient to your parents, you can become a covetous person. It's possible to be a saved Christian and become prideful, to become a braggart, to become someone who only cares about themselves. If we were not prone to being selfish as Christians, if it were not something that we could fall into, then God wouldn't have to keep warning us about these things and telling us, hey, look, don't be like them. Be not ye therefore like unto them. He said here, you've not so learned Christ. Put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And if you would flip over to Philippians chapter 2, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Philippians chapter 2. Lovers of their own selves is the title of the sermon. Lovers of their own selves, people who only care about themselves. Now we use some extreme examples tonight. We're talking about some people that are literally psychopaths, their past feeling, they've been totally given over, they've given themselves over, God gave them over, they're indulging in all these things just with greediness, they lust after violence, they drink wine of violence and eat the bread of wickedness. So we're talking about some really extreme things here. But we need to make sure as Christians that we do not become lovers of our own selves. We need to make sure that we are not selfish people always thinking about ourselves. We need to think about other people. And this is one of the most basic Christian virtues, isn't it? All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them. For this is the law and the prophets. I mean the Bible is saying there that you could literally sum up Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, you can sum up the law and the prophets by saying all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them. This is the law and the prophets. That's a message that is ingrained in every book of the Old Testament. It's all pointing you to that truth. Now it's pointing you to other truths as well, but it's pointing you to that major truth being unselfish and thinking about how your actions will affect other people. So husband, when was the last time you thought about how your wife feels? Wife, when was the last time you thought about how your husband feels? You know, parents, did you stop to think about how your kids feel? Children, have you thought about how your parents feel? Okay, church member, have you thought about how the pastor feels? Have you thought about how each other feel, right? Have you thought about what other people are going to? You know, somebody says something that you don't like or does something that you don't like, did you stop and think where they're coming from? Did you stop and think about their point of view? Maybe the trials and tribulations and struggles that they're having in their life. We need to be unselfish people, not like this narcissistic, selfie-loving world that is obsessed with self, loves themself, and despises those that are good and has no conscience, doesn't even care about how they hurt other people. They just go out and get their kicks at other people's expenses and don't even care, don't even think about it, doesn't even matter to them. We need to be unselfish people. We need to stop and think about how our actions affect other people. One of the things that really got me out soul winning in the early days was just thinking about other people. It wasn't enough for me. It's never been enough for me that I'm going to heaven. That's not enough. For some people, oh, so I'm going to heaven no matter what? You can usually tell this from people who don't understand the gospel. Isn't this what unsaved people say a lot? Have you ever been preaching the gospel to somebody who's not saved and you're sharing the gospel with somebody and explaining the gospel and then they're like, oh, so you mean to tell me I can just believe in Christ and then I can just go out and rape and pillage and murder and do whatever I want? Cool, sweet. You're just like, oh, I don't, what? You're thinking there must be something wrong with this person that I'm talking to. Typically, when people come up with that, this is what I like to ask them. I say, oh, okay, so you only do good things when you're being forced to. So you never do anything good just because you want to do the right thing. You only do what's good when you're being forced. I mean, what kind of a person are you? Right? I mean, think about that. We need to think about other people, care about other people, and so for me, it's never been enough that I'm going to heaven. Yeah, sure, no matter what I do, I'm going to heaven. Now, obviously, if I go out and commit sin, I'm going to get punished on this earth, and if I commit a big sin, I'm going to get a big punishment, because whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. So if I go out and do a bunch of sin, I'm going to reap the whirlwind. I'm going to get punished, but that's not the only reason to live the Christian life. It's not just fear of God's chastening, although that does play a role. It's also the fact that me going to heaven is not enough for me. I want other people to go to heaven. I mean, how can you just sit there and say, well, I'm going to heaven. Great. Well, what about everybody else, though? I mean, what about the rest of the city? What about your neighbors? What about our country? What about our state? What about the people at your work? What about the people at your school? I mean, do you care about anybody else? Don't you want other people to be saved, too, or do you only care about yourself? And you know, when you see a church that doesn't have any soul winning program, when you see people that never show up for any kind of soul winning, they never open their mouth to preach the gospel, they never participate, you have to ask yourself, you know, what's going on with these people? It makes you wonder, like, do they care about anybody except themselves? I mean, shouldn't we want to get the gospel to other people if we love and care about other people? Or are we becoming lovers of our own selves, where it's just all about us? You know, a lot of people think that as long as they go to church three times a week or read their Bible every day or pay their tithe or pray, you know, they just think that if they check off a certain checklist, that that makes them a great Christian. And you know what? Those are good things to do. But you know what makes you a great Christian is loving other people and not being selfish. That's what actually makes you a great Christian is when you actually care about other people and you're not a lover of your own self. Because you know, there are a lot of rotten people who go to church three times a week, rotten people even who would show up for soul winning for the wrong reasons and go through the motions out soul winning without a real love for people. I mean, look, the Bible says there are people who have even given their body to be burned and they don't have any charity. They give all their money, but they don't have any charity in their heart. They don't have love. You know, we need to make sure that we love other people and are not lovers of our own selves. We need to be lovers of good men, the Bible says. Lovers of good women, lovers of the brotherhood, loving the lost, right? Lovers of our children, lovers of our spouses, lovers of the brotherhood. We need to love people and not love ourselves, okay? This is how to be a great Christian, caring about other people. This is the right motive to get out soul winning is because you want other people to go to heaven. It's not enough that just you're going because you care about other people. You want to get them there too. I mean that alone is a great reason to go soul winning. Now I can think of four paramount reasons to serve God as a Christian. Going to heaven's not one of them because I'm going to heaven no matter what. Nothing can change that. But I can think of four great reasons to want to serve God. I mean number one, we can earn rewards. That's a great reason to serve God, right? Avoiding chastening. That's a great reason to serve God, right? How about just loving Christ? You know, if we love Christ, we want to do what he wants. We care about him. And fourthly, we want to get people saved. We want other people to go to heaven. So there are all kinds of reasons to serve God. But you know, even without all these reasons, even just that one alone of just, I want other people to go to heaven too, that should be enough to get our butts out there doing something for the Lord. Just that one alone. I mean there's three other good reasons to do it as well in all areas of service for the Christian life. But even just that one alone should keep you from going to the bar and getting drunk, should keep you from going out and committing adultery or getting into gambling or getting into drugs or getting into whatever the sin, that alone right there of, hey, I've got a job to do. I need to be a witness for the Lord. That alone should be enough to get us walking right and living the Christian life. Or are we lovers of our own selves? Disobeying your own self doesn't make you a reprobate, but it means that your life is getting more and more similar to the life of the reprobates around us. Disobeying your parents, covening, boasting, being proud, you know, none of those things makes you a reprobate, but the reprobates are filled with all those things and they're teaching us to do those things through the media, through the school system. They're teaching us to follow their way of life, right? So church is showing us a certain way of life. You know, we come to church, the word of God is opened, and a certain way of life is being put forth to the children here, to the adults here, saying, hey, look, this is the way. Walk ye in it. Right? Isn't that what you're getting at church? You're getting instructions here saying, look, this is the instruction in righteousness. This is what God wants us to do. This is what's going to get you blessed by God. This is what God demands of us, expects from us. This is what we're supposed to be doing. There's a competing view out there, isn't there? School is giving a competing view. TV is giving a competing view. Our society, our American culture has a different view. We need to get on the Lord's side. We need to do it God's way, lest we end up acting like a bunch of heathen, because we see what the heathen do. We see the mischief that their hearts are privy to. We see the ungodliness abounding in the last days. That should be a wake-up call that we should be different. We need to be holy as he is holy. We need to be peculiar, set apart, and sanctified, and not become lovers of our own selves. Let's bow our heads and have a word ... Actually, before we do, hold on. One more verse. Philippians chapter two, I had you turn there. Philippians two, verse three. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you for these warnings. Help us not to be like these rotten people, Lord. We see these rotten people of this world, and it's easy to condemn their wickedness and their rotten actions, but, Lord, help us not to act like them. Help us to be different. Help us to be holy for the sake of Christ, but also for the sake of the lost. How can we be a witness for Christ if we love ourselves? Help us to be like you. Help us to have the mind in us that was in Christ Jesus, who made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of a servant. Help us to be the same way, Lord, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.