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Dear Lord, Father in Heaven, we thank you so much for this day and for our church and allowing us to gather here today. We pray that you would please fill Pastor Anderson with your spirit and help him to preach boldly. Give us all ears to hear and understand the message today, Lord, and in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. The title of my sermon this morning is The Dangers of Having a Big Ego. The dangers of a big ego. If you look up ego in the dictionary, there are a few different definitions, but here's the definition that we're talking about. It is conceit, self-importance, excessive and objectionable reference to oneself in conversation or writing, boastfulness, selfishness, self-centeredness. And the perfect Bible verse to combat this right out of the gate would be Romans chapter 12 verse 3. You don't have to turn there, but the Bible says, for I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God had dealt to every man, the measure of faith. So the opposite of having a big ego is what the Bible is telling us here. Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think because people with a big ego, it's all about them. They have to be the best. They think that they're better than other people. But the Bible says in Philippians 2, 3, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. So there are a lot of dangers of having a big ego. One of these is that this could be connected with a desire to be popular, to basically be number one for everyone to realize how great you are. You have this big ego. You want to make sure that other people feel the same way about you. And this can often lead to sin because we live in a sinful society. So in order to be popular in today's sinful society, you end up doing a lot of sinful things to be the best, the coolest, the most macho, whatever. Because think about some of the things that the world considers cool or macho or great are actually wicked, sinful things. The Bible says that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. So what the world considers great is a lot different than what God considers great. And you know, one of the things that popped into my mind was drinking. And there's a Bible verse that says in Isaiah 5 22, woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink. And so this attitude of wanting to be cool and wanting to be the best part of this is that, you know, hey, I can out drink other people or whatever stupid mentality people have. And then even with fornication, the same thing, you know, the idea of being a big time fornicator somehow makes someone cool or macho or manly, or maybe it is good for their ego because then they feel like, yeah, I'm so desirable or I'm so cool or whatever. You know, of course, the Bible teaches the exact opposite. The Bible teaches that it is honorable to actually abstain from fornication. The Bible says that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel, referring to his physical body in sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles, which know not God. And so it's honorable. It's more righteous. It's greater in God's book to actually remain pure, to abstain from fornication, to wait until you're married, to engage in that relationship. So those are some things that pop in your mind right away. But I have three primary points today about the dangers of a big ego. And if you would turn to 1 Samuel chapter 18, the first point, number one, is that having a big ego will make you miserable and ultimately destroy you. Having a big ego is going to make you miserable. And let me tell you why. Because you're never actually going to be the best, right? Because people with a big ego, they always have to be the best at everything. They always have to win everything. And guess what? There are eight billion people in this world. Chances are you're not the coolest. You're not the best. You're not the strongest. You're not the best looking. You're not the most spiritual. I mean, statistically, it's virtually impossible that any of those people happen to be in this room this morning. It's just not happening. And so this big ego, where that's your big desire to always be number one, is going to lead you ultimately to a miserable life because you're not going to be number one realistically. And by the way, even if you do get to be number one, you're going to realize how vain and empty that is to be number one, whatever that means, because it's pretty lonely at the top. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 18 verse 6, and it came to pass as they came when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tablets, with joy, and with instruments of music. And the women answered one another as they played and said, Saul had slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. Now David works for Saul, David is one of Saul's key warriors that has just performed this great feat now of defeating Goliath. And wow, this should be something that everybody in the nation could get excited about, defeating the Philistines, Israel in all of its heyday and glory. But no, Saul lets his ego get in the way when he hears certain people praising David above Saul. This is probably a stupid song to be singing in the first place, they shouldn't have been comparing David and Saul because those kind of comparisons can just sow strife between friends and cause problems. But whatever, people sometimes don't think and they say foolish things like this, it is kind of a foolish thing that they're saying, but Saul ends up letting his ego get the better of him and this is the beginning of the end for Saul as far as just really going downhill fast in his spiritual life. It says in verse 8, Saul was very wroth when he hears this comparison between him and David. Saul was very wroth and the saying displeased him and he said, they've ascribed unto David ten thousands and to me they've ascribed but thousands. And what can he have more but the kingdom? Now look, any righteous person should just be happy to be ascribed thousands. That's already an exaggeration because guess what, Saul didn't kill thousands of people. They're praising him, they're even exaggerating about him, but because he has this big ego he has to be number one and so he doesn't want to play second fiddle to David even if it's just for that particular moment or that particular battle. He always has to be number one and that ego is what destroys his life. Look at verse 9, Saul eyed David from that day and forward and it came to pass on the morrow that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul and he prophesied in the midst of the house and David played with his hands as at other times and there was a javelin in Saul's hand and Saul cast the javelin for he said, I'll smite David even to the wall with it and David avoided out of his presence twice. Look at verse 12, Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him and was departed from Saul and you notice the type of emotions that now characterize Saul's life. He's acting like a lunatic, he's raving, he's got this evil spirit and it says that he is living in fear, he's afraid of David, he's constantly eyeing David. So he's scared, he's upset, he's angry, he's lashing out. This is not the life that any of us want to lead but this is where the big ego will ultimately take you because there's always going to be that person who comes along and one ups you. And you're like, well not me because I am the best or whatever. But here's the thing, eventually you're not going to be in your prime anymore and then somebody else will come along and beat you eventually. You will never be at the top forever and in fact, chances are you're probably never even going to realistically reach the top because very few people do. And so if that's your measure of success, if that's your measure of happiness in life, being better than everyone else, well you're going to be a miserable person, it's an ungodly attitude and you're the one who's going to end up self-destructing, not the other people that you're competing with. So number one, having a big ego will make you miserable and ultimately destroy you. But number two, having a big ego will bring you into constant conflict and strife with other people. So not only are you going to be miserable, but you're also going to be constantly having conflict and strife with other people and here's why. Because the person with the big ego has to be right all the time. They have to win every single time. They fight every battle, they die on every hill, they have to right every wrong because nobody does that to me. Nobody can get away with saying that to me or whatever, right? Look, somebody says something to you, walk away. You don't have to right every wrong, you don't have to fight every battle, that's just pride and ego that makes you feel like you have to respond to every insult and you can't let anybody ever get the better of you a single time. Now look, some people that are bristling at this preaching right now are probably the ones who need it the most. If you're like, well I don't know about this. Well I do know about it and I'm talking to you. Now go to Matthew chapter five if you would. Matthew chapter number five, while you're turning there I'll read for you a couple of other verses. Let's see what the Bible says. I mean, look, the Bible is a fountain of wisdom. This is the source and so if I disagree with the Bible, the Bible's right. Let's go to the source. What does the Bible say? Proverbs 17, 14 says the beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water. Therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with. Walk away. Don't let something escalate. Just let it go. First Corinthians six verse six, but brother goeth to law with brother and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you because you go to law one with another and watch these next few statements. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? I'll tell you why. Paul is asking the question. I'll answer you, Paul, because of their ego. That's why, because they always have to be right. They always have to be win to be winning and they can never let anyone ever get the better of them at any time. That's why they can't just take wrong. That's why they can't just suffer themselves to be defrauded. What did Christ teach? Look at Matthew chapter five verse 25 agree with thine adversary quickly. Is he saying argue every point, fight every battle, die on every hill, don't let anything go? No. He says, agree with that adversary quickly. Why is that word in the way with him? Lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge and the judge delivered the officer and they'll be cast in the prison. So he's saying, look, just don't get involved in fights that keep escalating because ultimately you could end up getting burned. Ultimately I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou is paid the uttermost farthing. Agree with thine adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him. Right? You're right. What does that mean? Agree with him. It means you don't have to fight every battle. It's okay to just drop it. It's okay to just let it go. It's okay to just let someone else win sometimes when it comes to an argument. Now look, I'm not talking about letting people win in sports because that's called cheating. Okay. If you play sports and you let the other person win, that's called cheating. That's not what I'm talking about. And by the way, this sermon is not called have no ego. Is that the title of the sermon? Don't have an ego. Have zero ego. Is that the title? No. The title is the dangers of a big ego. You know, all of us should have a certain healthy amount of self respect, a healthy amount of competitiveness, right? We should want to achieve more, do better, be the best that we can be. So we don't want to just walk around just these blobs with no ego, but we also don't want to have a big ego, right? We want to have a little bit of ambition, some drive. We want to compete. We want to do our best. We want to have self respect and dignity and value in ourselves, but we need to find most value in Christ and our position as Christians and healthy things like that. But obviously a normal, natural bit of ego is part of being a human being and is normal. I'm talking about the overinflated ego is what I'm talking about. Okay? Look, we all like to win. We all are going to fight some battles. We're all going to avenge some things sometimes, but at the end of the day though, most of the time it just makes a lot more sense to just let things go and not to avenge ourselves and take things into our own hands or feel like we have to fight every battle. You know, if somebody wants to pick a fight with me, a lot of times I'm just not going to take the bait, but the person with the big ego, they always have to take the bait every single time because they can stand no insult to ever come their way unavenged. Look down a little further in the same chapter, Matthew 5 38. So verse 25 said, agree with that adversary quickly. Don't let things escalate. Verse 38, you've heard that it had been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you that you resist not evil. Now before I explain this passage, let me just do away with a misconception that people have. A lot of people misunderstand Matthew chapter five and this is what they think Matthew chapter five is saying, well, the Old Testament said this, but I'm totally changing that to something else and this is where you get this stupid attitude that people have about Old Testament God being wrathful and vengeful and New Testament God just being all sweetness and light. Nothing could be further from the truth because we have all kinds of grace and mercy and love of God in the Old Testament and then the gnarliest most vindictive book in the entire Bible is the book of Revelation squarely found in the New Testament, right? Deep into the New Testament. It's the last book. And so this is a totally wrong dichotomy and this type of attitude that says, oh, you know, we're talking Old Testament God. Anybody who talks that way just shows they don't know the Bible. They don't read the Bible because God kills way more people in the New Testament than the Old Testament. I mean, God is just wiping out more people just by the numbers cause you say, well, he wiped out the whole world before the flood. Yeah. But the thing about that is though that there are probably less people on the world than there are going to be in the end times when he kills one third of the population. You know, that's probably gonna be like 10, there's probably gonna be at least like 10 billion people on the planet or something and then he's gonna wipe out a third of that. I really doubt there were 3 billion people before the flood, not even close. Okay. So what I'm saying is, you know, just based on the kill count, New Testament God kills more people. But guess what? It's the same God. There is no Old Testament God versus New Testament God. It's just God. There's only one. But the ignorant people of this world, they take a passage like Matthew five and they twist it. They misunderstand it. It goes right over their head and they get these ideas about Old versus New Testament God. Jesus Christ says in this chapter, just to make sure nobody misunderstands him, he says earlier in verse 18, think not that I'm come to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, the same should be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same should be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So what's the Bible saying? Hey, I'm not tearing down the law. He says that in the preface so that you don't misunderstand. Then he gets into examples, and I'll just kind of paraphrase these for sake of time. He gets into examples like, well you've heard don't kill, but I'm saying don't even be angry with your brother without a cause. Don't even hate your brother in your heart. You've heard don't commit adultery. I'm saying don't even look upon a woman to lust after her because you committed adultery with her in your heart. You've heard that if you put away your wife, make sure you give her a writing of divorcement. I'm saying if you put away your wife for any cause except fornication, you're causing her to commit adultery. You know, you've heard, you know, thou shall not forswear thyself, but shall perform unto the Lord thy notes. But I say unto you, swear not at all. So he's not negating any of the teachings of the Old Testament. What he's doing is just adding to them, augmenting them, taking them to another level. Really just applying them, okay, and actually taking them to a higher level of righteousness and spirituality than maybe people who were just reading them and just only following the letter of the law. He's going at the spirit of the law and taking you to a higher level. So you know, those first four examples that I gave you are pretty easy to understand. Well guess what? The last two aren't, it's not like Jesus just completely changes the game for the last two examples because when he, the last two examples, one of them is, uh, you've heard that it has been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. Here's the thing about that. That's not in the Bible. The old, he's not saying you read that in the Bible. He didn't say it was in the Old Testament. Now a lot of his examples are coming from the Old Testament, but that one in particular isn't because the Old Testament clearly in the book of Leviticus teaches you to love your enemies and elsewhere. So the teaching of loving your enemies is already there in the Old Testament. That is not a saying that is being attributed to the Bible, but rather throughout other cultures. That is the look. If you read Greek philosophy, if you read Greek mythology, they believe that the ultimate virtue is to be a blessing to your friends and a curse to your enemies to love your friends and to hate your enemies. If you read the works of Plato, you'll find that in the Republic, you find that in symposium, you'll find that idea in a lot of Greek literature. So it was a prevalent worldview at the time that the Bible is being written. And even now, I guarantee you that there are plenty of people who have this worldview of loving your friends and hating your enemies. There's nothing new under the sun. Well, guess what? Just because you've heard that it had been said, that doesn't make it a Bible verse. And then he says, love your enemies again. Jesus is not contradicting or negating the teaching of the Bible. When he says love your enemies, he's actually reinforcing what Leviticus already taught, what the book of Proverbs already taught. He's just reinforcing it just like he's reinforcing the concept of not committing adultery when he tells you not to be coveting your neighbor's wife. Again, already a teaching in the Old Testament. The Bible already talks about the strange woman lust not after her beauty in thy heart. It's not necessarily a brand new teaching. It's more just illuminating things that are already there in the Old Testament. So now that we understand all that and we have the context of the chapter, now when we come to this where it says, you have heard that it has been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you that you resist not evil. We don't want to misunderstand this either. When the Bible says resist not evil, that doesn't mean, hey, let's just roll over and let evil men take over the world. Let's just sit back and let everyone around us be harmed and just never resist evil. Is that what the Bible is saying? No. You see, eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is part of the criminal justice code in the Old Testament. But a lot of people would point to that and say, well, this is Jesus doing away with eye for an eye. Nope. Okay, go back and read verse 18 again 1000 times, then slap yourself and read it 1000 more times. Okay. Matthew 5 18 says, I am not come to destroy the law of the prophets. Do not interpret this sermon as a contradiction of God's law. That's what he's saying. Don't get the wrong idea. So look, eye for an eye, tooth for tooth is still a thing in 2023 just like it was a thing when Christ did this sermon, just like it was a thing when the book of Exodus was written. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth is still, you know, Martin Luther King Jr. comes along and says, well, eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. No it doesn't. It certainly doesn't because one person puts out someone else's eye and then they get their eye put out. Two people are blind, Martin Luther King. Okay. As long as you don't go poking anyone's eyes out, you don't get your eye poked out. Any questions? Eye for an eye leads the whole world blind. But the stupidity of this is like, well, the executioner who's putting out their eye or whatever. Just slap yourself 5,000 times. Okay. Anyway, you've heard that it's been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth, but I say to you that you resist not evil. And here's the key word. There's one key word in this next part that I want you to focus on. I say to you that you resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee, whosoever shall smite thee, everybody see that word? Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also. This doesn't say, hey, when other people around you are getting slapped in the face and punched and kicked and assaulted, just let it happen. Let people die. Let everyone be hurt and killed around you. Let people be assaulted. Let people be mocked. Let people be insulted. Let people be ripped off. Let people be robbed. Let people be violated. Is that what the Bible says or is it saying let yourself be defrauded? Do you see the difference? There's a big difference between let yourself be defrauded versus let the world be defrauded. Let everyone else. I hope you can see the difference between those two things. Okay. Because here's what the Bible is saying. Yes, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is the justice that is taught in the Word of God. And so when it comes to the criminal justice system, obviously thieves have to be punished. I mean, if you were to take this the way a lot of these misguided Bible teachers take this, you'd basically have to just have anarchy because how could you punish any crime? I mean, anytime I got pulled over by the cops for anything, I could just say, dude, where have you been for the last 2000 years? We're in the New Testament now. We're not under law. What do you mean I'm breaking the law? I'm not under law. I'm under grace, right? I mean, and basically people could just go killing and raping and pillaging and it's just like, well, resist not evil. Isn't that a silly interpretation? Here's the correct interpretation. When someone slaps you across the face, you turn the other cheek. Why? Because you're not required to seek justice in every situation. Should we seek justice for other people? Sure. Should we seek justice for society? I mean, if we want to live in a peaceful society, we need to have a criminal justice system punishing evildoers. If thieves aren't punished, if murderers aren't punished, the society is going to go to hell in a handbasket, right? We've got to have justice as a part of our world, as a part of our society, right? And if we see another kid getting picked on and getting beaten up or abused and we jump in and defend that kid, that's a virtue. I mean, would you say that that would be a bad thing to do or an un-Christian thing to do? If I see somebody getting beat up and I jump in and defend that person and rescue them, is that bad? That'd be heroic. That'd be good. And the Bible talks about how we should not ignore injustices that are happening to other people. We shouldn't say, behold, we knew it not and just allow people to be killed or destroyed. What the Bible is saying is that many times it's a higher level of spirituality. It's a more godly reaction when someone does you wrong to just let it go and not always demand retribution. I mean, here's the thing. What if someone actually attacked me and assaulted me and actually put out my literal eye? Just to use an extreme example, right? Somebody came at me, attacked me and assaulted me and put out my literal eye. And then what if I just decided, you know what? I forgive you, you know, and so I'm not even going to press charges. I'm just going to let this go. Okay. Now, let's say I did that. Would that be wrong of me to do that? Or would Christ commend me for doing that? Christ would commend that attitude. Okay. But what if someone else assaulted a third party and put out their eye and then the judge is just like, well, you know, the Bible says we shouldn't resist evil. So I'm just, you know, case dismissed with prejudice. Would you say that that's a good judge or a righteous judge? Would you call him a hero? Would you call him the bigger person, the more righteous, more Christian? You'd say he's an unjust judge. He's wicked. He's not carrying out the sentence that the law demands. But you see, the difference is that what God is saying is that sometimes when people wrong us, sometimes it can be the higher level of being spiritual to forgive even people who don't deserve forgiveness, to let things go, to let them win, even if they're the ones that are wrong. You know, the Bible continues to say, and I know this is some hard teaching, but it's from the Bible. You know, everybody loves hard preaching around here, amen? I say unto you that you resist not evil, verse 39, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. You know, somebody slaps you across the cheek and you say, all right, now go ahead and hit the other one now. I'm not going to hit you back. Go ahead. You want to slap me? Slap me again. I'm not going to fight back. This is like David when Saul is hunting him and coming after him and David has multiple opportunities to kill Saul and he would have been justified in the eyes of everyone around him since Saul's trying to kill him and he just says, no, I'm not going to touch the Lord's anointed. And he practices this, okay, by turning the other cheek. Finny man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat. Do you have to fight every battle and keep appealing it and keep fighting and keep battling and keep suing? No, it just says, let him have thy cloak also. You know, and you know what I've often said when wicked people have ripped me off over the years and taken things from here, I've often just said, you know what? They can have it and they can take it to hell with them. Take my money and take it to hell with you. What does it matter at the end? I'm not going to spend my life fighting against reprobates or evil people who harm me. And by the way, most of the people that harm us though aren't even reprobate. So I wouldn't even say take it to hell with you. I would just say, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Father forgive them. They know not what they do. And I would bless those that curse me. This is what the Bible says. And so if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give him that asketh thee and from him that would borrow thee turn out that way. 100% all of these instructions in verses 39 through 42 require you not to have a big ego because anyone with a big ego is not going to be able to turn the other cheek. They're not going to be able to go the second mile. They're not going to be able to just give the cloak also in the lawsuit. It's ego. And you have to ask yourself sometimes when you're fighting battles, because obviously God has called us to fight the good fight and there are a lot of good righteous battles for us to fight in our lives. And we as men are involved in a lot of righteous battles in the course of our lives. But you know, you always have to ask yourself, am I fighting for righteousness? Am I fighting for the Lord or am I just fighting right now because of my ego? And that's a good self check to do to make sure that you're not being motivated by pride and ego. And by the way, some people actually think that it's like sin or wrong to let things go. This kind of blows my mind. Like I've often thought like, uh, I've often heard people tell me like, well, the Bible commands us, you know, that if somebody sins against us, we have to go to them and then we have to bring two or three witnesses and we have no, no, no, because you can always just let it go. That's a virtue. You don't have to just right every wrong. And by the way, if you're going to sit there and pull out Matthew 18 for every little thing, then we basically just be like Matthew 18 and people like every day at our church. You know, you have 400 people in the church and we just Matthew 18 people, one person Matthew 18 is like one person per year and there's like multiple Matthew 18 situations happening every day. No, that's supposed to be reserved for serious things, big things, not your dumb little drama or your little arguments that you get in. And you know, it isn't interesting how it's kind of the same people who've come to me like 10 times wanting to Matthew 18, everybody and their brother. And then other people I never hear from on this. And then it's just like, we got this. It's like, no, ah, let it go. Let things go. Now look, I thought about this a lot. This, this, uh, if any man will smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. I thought about this a lot because you know, as a pastor, the Bible says I'm to be not a brawler and not a striker, right? So that's why, you know, I'm going to learn jujitsu because then I can hurt people without striking them. Just kidding. But hey, I'm not even, I'm not learning jujitsu either. It's not my thing. But anyway, here's the thing. You know, I thought about this a lot because I've actually had people get pretty mad at me over the years. I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. I've had people get mad. I've been slapped in the face by a grown man more times than I can count. I've had dudes just slap me across the face a bunch of times. Like I'll, you know, part of it's cause sometimes we go soul winning in some weird areas, but you know, I've been soul winning. I've had people just, I've had people shove me, you know, I mean a lot of times like, like, and you know, we've all been there, right? Any guy who lives in America has probably had somebody just shove you really hard or slap you across the face with an open hand or whatever. I mean, it's just, it's just something that happens, but you know, I hope this isn't one of those things where it's just me, but I'm pretty sure other people are out there. Who's had a guy get angry and just shove you cause he was so mad at you? Who's had a guy slap you across the face with his palm because he was mad at you? Okay, now I'm in a smaller group, but okay. I mean, I've probably like, like I would say just soul winning, preaching, church. I would say if you combine being shoved and being slapped in my 17 year ministry, we're talking over 10 times if you add them together. Okay. But here's the thing. I've never hit anyone back ever. I've never been slapped or now in my ministry, obviously when I was a teenager, you know, I got in some fights. That's another story that will not be told at another time. But the point is, yeah, when I was a teenager I got in fights, but I've never been in a fight in like 25 years, even though I've had people slap me and shove me. Now if I had an attitude that says, well, if somebody slaps me, it's on, then I would have been in a lot of fistfights by now. If I would have had an attitude that says, oh, somebody lays their hands on me and shoves me, it's on, I would have been in a bunch of fights by now. Is that what the Lord wants me to do as a pastor? Absolutely not. I made the decision that if somebody actually balls their fist and actually like socks me in the face with a closed fist, that at that point, that's more of a self-defense thing at that point. Because if somebody does that to me, I don't know what they're going to do next. You know, that's a serious thought. But you know what I've noticed is that somebody who really wants to hurt you, guess what they don't do? They don't slap you across the face with their palm. Think about it. If I really wanted to injure someone, would I just go ... I mean, when was the last time you watched like a mixed martial arts fight or like a no-holds-barred fight and they're just like ... You know, they get them on the ground, they're just like ... It doesn't happen, right? They get them on the ground, it's the ground and pound. Okay? And you don't see, you don't see a bunch of, here Fidel, you want to help me come demonstrate this? You don't see like a UFC fight where it's like, all right, ready? We're going to have a UFC fight right now. It's just like ... That's not the way it goes down, does it? Why? Because anybody who kind of just shoves you and slaps you, what are they trying to do? Hurt your pride. They're trying to humiliate you. They're trying to hurt your pride. They're not trying to actually injure you, okay? They're hurting your pride. Now, if somebody actually balls their fist and really rears back and lets you have ... They might actually be trying to hurt you at that point, okay? And so at that point, yeah, I would defend myself. But guess what? In 25 years, I've never had to do that and I'm probably going to go to the grave without ever having to do that, without ever actually getting socked in the face in a serious way by some dude just really just coming after me with everything. You know, at that point, yeah, I'm going to defend myself. But let's face it, folks, that's super rare that that ever happens, but people shoving you happens a lot more commonly. People slapping you happens a lot more commonly. What's Jesus saying? Hey, if somebody slaps you across the face, let it go. Somebody shoves you, let it go, okay? And I believe this is part of being a pastor when he says no strike or no brawler is that you have to have this attitude because people are going to sometimes smite you. I mean, think about Jeremiah. Jeremiah's preaching and he was in like this yoke thing and he had like a sermon illustration and this guy walks up and breaks his yoke. Jeremiah didn't just pick up one of the pieces and be like, all right, you just assaulted me. It's on and just start beating the guy. He just, Jeremiah just walked away and Jeremiah didn't even say anything. He literally just walks away and then God tells him, hey, go back and tell them X, Y and Z. But folks, as a man of God, you can't be a short tempered guy. You can't be quick to rap. You can't just be a brawler or a striker and, and, and just out there hitting people, okay? And like I said, in my entire ministry, I've never hit anyone. I'm probably going to go to the grave without ever hitting anyone, okay? Because this is my policy. But here's the thing, you say, well, pastor Anderson, the reason that you didn't fight back is because you're just a wimp. That's why it's because you knew that if you fought back, you'd get your butt kicked. That's why you didn't fight back. But see, here's the thing. That doesn't work on me. That doesn't work. I'm not in junior high anymore. So if you, if you said that logic to me, I'll just be like, okay, whatever, because I don't have anything to prove to you. I don't have to prove that I'm a man. I don't have to prove that I'm the biggest, the baddest, the toughest. Look, some people probably could have kicked my butt over the years and some people I could have kicked their butts, but it really doesn't matter, does it? And you say, well, 100% of them could have kicked your butt. If you want to think that, then go ahead and think that. That's fine with me. And maybe it's even true. I don't know. I don't care because my identity is not based on this inflated ego about how I'm just some kind of a Hollywood action hero or something that just is just out soul winning, just beating the crap out of people or something. It's like a soul, we're going to make a soul winning video game where your pastor Anderson, people are coming up to you and you're just beating everybody up, just hate Preacher Fighter 2 Turbo Edition or something. Folks, get rid of the ego, right? Get rid of the pride. You know, it's not a Christian attribute, so I got to hurry up for sake of time. I got a little off on that tangent there. But number one, having a big ego is going to make you miserable because if it's all about you being number one, guess what? You're probably not number one. There's dudes out there that are better looking than you, better at the job, have more money, smarter. So what? You don't have to be the best all the time and always winning. And by the way, the desire to always be winning often leaves people cheating too. That's where the doping and the cheating comes in. So get rid of the big ego because it'll make you miserable and ultimately destroy you. Number two, having a big ego will bring you into constant conflict and strife with others because you always have to win. You've got to fight every battle, right every wrong. And we just saw Christ debunk that wrong-headed attitude, okay? But number three, a big ego can even cause a church or ministry to do evil in the sight of God. Go if you were to 3 John, this is where we started the sermon. And this is such a powerful point in 3 John. And again, this is important to me because I'm a pastor. And by the way, this sermon this morning is like 99% directed at men because men are usually the ones who struggle with having a big ego, okay? Obviously women could probably apply a lot of this too because women also especially could apply point number two because they sometimes have trouble letting things go. You're not going to believe this, but sometimes women have trouble letting things go. And so you can still glean wisdom in that sense. So I'm going to be using male pronouns throughout the sermon because of the fact that I'm kind of mainly gearing the sermon toward dudes and their big egos. But I hope you women are kind of like adjusting this in your mind and applying it to the feminine, you know, little cat fights or whatever as well. But look what the Bible says in 3 John, verse nine, it says, I wrote unto the church but Diotrephes who loveth to have the preeminence among them receiveth us not. Now what does that mean that he loves to have the preeminence? He loves to be number one. He wants to be the big name, the big shot. And this guy, Diotrephes, loves to have the preeminence and therefore he won't receive the Apostle John. Why does he not want to receive the Apostle John? Because the Apostle John's going to put him in the shade, that's why. Because he wants to have the preeminence so he doesn't want to have a guest preacher that's going to out-preach him. Because I have a feeling that people are probably going to come in record numbers to hear John preach more than just Pastor Diotrephes. You know what I mean? So people are coming to hear Pastor Diotrephes and then the Apostle John shows up, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the one who leaned on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper. Yeah, then like it's going to be a packed house. Well Diotrephes doesn't like that because he loves to have the preeminence among them. He wants to be number one. And let me tell you something, ego like this has no place in ministry. It has no place in Christianity. And so what does Diotrephes' big ego lead him to do? Look at verse 10, wherefore if I come I'll remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words. So what does Diotrephes do? He has to talk smack about John in order to try to tear down John and his people's minds so that he can have the preeminence. He doesn't want to compete with John. Well here's the answer, don't compete with John then. You know, I'd be happy to play second fiddle to the Apostle John any day of the week. In fact, I'd be happy to play second fiddle to any of my pastor friends any day of the week, you know, being the opening act and they're the headline speaker. Amen. So what? Who cares? Hey, he's prating against us with malicious words. He's trying to tear down John because of his ego and wanting to be preeminent. And not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren and forbideth them that would and casteth them out of the church. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Let me ask you something. What is the evil we're talking about in verse 11 according to the context here? I mean, the evil is what Diotrephes is doing. Because that's the context, because then he rolls into talking about Demetrius, okay? The context is that what Diotrephes is doing is evil, that Diotrephes is a wicked person because he wants the preeminence, because he's prating against John and his companions with malicious words, because he's casting people out of the church, not for a biblical reason, but simply because they will not give him preeminence. I have seen this exact scenario play out many, many times. Many times. You'll hear pastors get up and say things like, you know, I'm your pastor. Don't listen to that preacher on the internet, I'm your pastor. Now here's the thing, there are no internet preachers unless they actually are just like preaching into a camera and aren't a real pastor, don't have a real church. How are they an internet, because I've been called an internet pastor. I'm actually not here right now. If you walk up right now, if you walk up right now, and you know, we had to choreograph that with Fidel pretty hard, because if he pushed too hard, his hands were just going to go right through me, because I am actually just a bunch of ones and zeros, I am a hologram right now. Okay. And in fact, all of the other hundreds of people around you this morning are all holograms. None of us are real. Okay. What does that even mean? Some internet pastor is an internet pastor. I would agree that someone's an internet pastor if they had no actual physical congregation. Then maybe that would make sense. How am I an internet pastor is what I'd like to know. But here's what they're saying. They're saying like, you need to listen to me. Don't listen to some internet pastor, listen to me. Let me just say right now, please go listen to other pastors on the internet, please, because throughout the week, download sermons from Pastor Roger Jimenez, download sermons from Pastor Bruce Mejia, download sermons from Pastor Jared Pazarski, download the sermons from David Burzins, download the sermons from Jonathan Shelley, download all of them, right? Download those sermons. Why? Because I want you to learn the Bible and grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I'm for you downloading other sermons. Even if you say, well, that's just because that's your circle of friends. Hey, download sermons from the old IFB. Download sermons from Curtis Hudson. If you want to download the preachers of the past and listen to Jack Hiles and Curtis Hudson and Lee Robertson, go for it. You want to listen to sermons from the old IFB right now, old IFB pastors across America. Amen. Hey, I'm constantly listening to sermons from old IFB pastors clicking like, hey, this is good stuff. Amen. Listen to other preachers. Listen to pastors. And you know what? If you walk away saying, you know, I love Pastor Anderson, but I like this other pastor a little better. This other pastor is my favorite. You know what I say to that? Great. Great. Because I'm not trying to be your one and only. What is that? You know what I mean? Like we're not married. Now I need to be your favorite pastor, okay? Let's just settle that. But here's the thing, though. For everyone else in the room, including my children and everyone else in our church, it's okay to have a favorite pastor that's not me. And you know, there's stuff that I disagree with, say, you know, for example, Pastor Aaron Thompson or Pastor Jimenez or something like that, there are things that I could disagree with them on. And you say, well, I think they're right and you're wrong. I'll just be like, great. You know why? Because if I pastored a church where every single person believed exactly like Pastor Jimenez, I could do a lot worse than that. Right? I mean, if I pastor a church where everybody is just in lockstep with Pastor Jason Robinson, sounds great. When do I start? You know what I mean? It sounds awesome. I have no issue. Why? Because it's not about me. It's not about my ego. It's not about I'm the best. I'm the greatest. You know, that's not what it's about. Okay. But I'm telling you, there are a lot of pastors out there where for them, that is what it's about. And they're like diatrophes. And you hear these pastors get up and say, oh, you know, you're listening to some pastor on the Internet and he's your pastor and I want to be pastor. Let Pastor whoever be your pastor, as far as you listen to him or something, you like his preaching, you enjoy listening. And look, I remember when I was in the pew and I was going to Regency Baptist Church in Sacramento, California, you know, I would go to church three times a week and hear Pastor Nichols preach and I would go home and I would listen to sermons that I downloaded off the Internet back in those days as well. And guess what? It made me love Pastor Nichols more. It made me enjoy Pastor Nichols preaching more. It made me get more out of church, not less. I didn't sit there and say like, oh, well, you know, he's not as good as these big name guys that I'm downloading. You know, and here's the thing, obviously sometimes the big name guys are going to be more dynamic or better preaching, but it never made me, it didn't take away from my experience of going to church and hearing Pastor Nichols it. In fact, I feel like it enhanced it and it made me a better church member and it made me love Pastor Nichols more because it's not like my love was this quantity that's getting divided now and I'm only giving half of my love. It's like, yeah, okay, marriage, yeah, let's not dilute that sucker, but when it comes to preachers, good stinking night. You know, don't be polygamous, but be like polypreacherous. You know, it's okay to listen to some other preachers, you weirdo. Don't sit there and act like, and I've literally, and you know what, you may think that that's a weird illustration, but I had a pastor literally tell me that like if someone leaves his church that he feels like they've like committed adultery, they've, I'm like, what? They cheated on, it's like, dude, get some help, like stop, get some help. You don't want to be a diatrophys. We don't want pastors that are like diatrophys, we don't want churches to be like diatrophys. There's absolutely nothing wrong with you coming to church here and listening to my preaching and also listening to someone else's preaching and, and, and here. Now obviously we should be careful who we're listening to and we shouldn't be listening to heretics and false teachers, but you know, doctrinally sound preaching, the more the better. Here's the way I look at it. The more other people's preaching you listen to, that's just less work that I have to do. It's like other people doing my job for me, right? They can let them straighten you out and then I don't have to, I don't have to deal with you being a bozo cause they already straightened you out. I like it, but you know, people with a big ego, they don't like it. Look at John chapter three. I got to hurry, but John chapter three is a great example of this and it's funny because I don't know if this really clicked with me until this morning when I was reading this, but sometimes I say that and then somebody pulls out some sermon from 15 years ago. But I'm pretty sure that this was new to me today. John chapter three verse 25, this cracks me up. Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. Now don't miss this. So John's disciples and the Jews are getting in an argument. There's this question and when it says question here, it means more like a kind of like a disputation or a, there's this kind of argument about purifying between John's disciples and the Jews. And they come on to John and you expect the next words to have something to do with purifying, don't you? So John's disciples and the Jews, they're having a discussion about purifying. They're having an argument about purifying. So we'd expect something in the context to now talk about purifying, but instead they come to John and said to him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to him thou barest witness, behold the same baptizeth and all men come to him. So it's like they're arguing about purifying and it's like, hey, guess what? That other preacher friend of yours is actually getting more of a crowd than you are. What does that have to do with purifying? Why, what, what? It's because they're, what are they trying to do? They're losing the argument. So then they're trying to pit John and Jesus against each other or something. You see what I'm saying? Like they're, they're trying to actually just do an insult or a personal dig or maybe try to tear down John's confidence. They're trying to hit John right there, smack in the ego, right? And just strike him at his ego as a, because why? Because the Jews are wicked at this time. These are, because look, these are not the Jews that are following Jesus, these are not the Jews that are falling down the Baptist, these are the Jews that are following the Pharisees and the Sadducees. So they're, they're, they're ungodly and so they use this ungodly tactic of appealing to John's ego. Do you see that? Does John take the bait? Verse 27, John answered and said, a man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I'm not the Christ, but that I'm sent before him. The one who hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. And you know what? That should be all of our attitude about all types of things regarding ministry, soul winning, missions, church. There's no place for ego. It should be an attitude that says, oh, this other church is growing faster than faithful forward. Great. Amen. This other pastor is, is going viral on social media and you know, well then great. As long as the message is getting out, that's all that matters. All that matters is whether the truth is being preached, whether people are being saved. It doesn't matter who is at the tip of the spear, who's in the limelight, who it's meaningless. You know, I would be 100% glad for any preacher to surpass my preaching in every possible way. Surpass my knowledge, surpass my preaching, surpass my soul winning, surpass whatever I've ever achieved. I would want them all to do twice as much. And if that puts me in the shade, well so much the better. I can just sit back in the shade and drink my lemonade and just enjoy watching the work of God go to a whole nother level. Amen. Don't let, don't let anyone, uh, bait you with ego. Now obviously I'm using the illustration cause I'm a pastor, so that's what I think about cause I'm a pastor. So I think about me in relationship to my pastor friends. But you know what? I guarantee you the same thing could apply to your life. People could come to you and try to provoke you or try to get your ego involved and try to drive a wedge between you and someone else like Saul and David. Don't let ego get the better of you. And when it comes to Christianity, by the way, there's zero place for ego. And that means that if people leave our church and go to another Bible believing church, we wish them well. We bless them. We're, we're happy for them. And it's, look, if 10 people leave our church and go to a like minded church, that's, we've lost zero. We didn't lose anybody cause they're still in the kingdom of God serving God. Right? Look, if I could push a button and our church would have 10 less people and one of our pastor friends churches would have 30 more people. I'd push that button. I'd just be like, well yeah, because that just, that just, the math works. Keep pushing it. Let other people increase. You know, I'm telling you, number one, you're going to be a lot happier if you get your ego under control and get it down to a reasonable size. You want to have it as a kernel, but you don't want to have this huge ego. You're going to be happier. Number one, number two, you're gonna have less conflict in your life, less stress of fighting people in your life. And number three, you can be an asset to the kingdom of God that does only good for the kingdom of God, not someone who's harming the kingdom of God. You know, because hey, diatrophes became evil in the sight of God through that attitude. And you say, well, that's just cause diatrophes wasn't even saved or something. First of all, I wouldn't say that that's necessarily the case, number one, but I'm not going to go into that for sake of time. But number two, we have Philippians chapter one where it talks about people preaching the correct gospel of Christ for envy and strife, for contention. So you do have people out there preaching the true word of God, the true gospel of Christ for the wrong reasons, for ego. And Paul says, well, hey, at least Christ is preached and I there and do rejoice. So they must be preaching the truth because he's glad that it's being preached. But at the same time, those people are hurting themselves and they're hurting the cause of Christ. They, they help the cause of Christ on one hand and then they turn around and hurt it on the other hand. And look, my friend, have you ever heard of someone being thrown out of their church? Because they listened to Pastor Anderson. Have you ever, do you know anyone like that? Do you call this number? No, I'm just kidding. You know, do you, has you or someone that you love been thrown out of an old IFB church for listening to Pastor Anderson? You may be entitled to compensation, you know, but the point is that, yeah, I hear about it all the time. I constantly am having people tell me that they walk in and they get interrogated and grilled and they're told, well, if you listen to Pastor Anderson, you're not welcome here. Right? I mean, it's, it's kind of, you can see like diocese casting people out of the church for listening to someone else and saying, no, it's got, it's gotta be me. You know, I gotta be your one and only baby. You're weird. And so they should probably just go to church somewhere else anyway. So get that ego under control. My friend, you're going to be happier and you're not going to feel like you always have to prove something to everybody because that could lead you into sins like drinking, fornication, fistfights, covetousness, envy, even murder. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much Lord for the teachings in your word. Help us Lord to turn the other cheek. Help us to follow these teachings that you gave and to agree with our adversary quickly Lord. Help us not to feel like we have to win every battle or be the best at everything, Lord. Help us to be willing to be the second man or the third man or, or to just a humbly serve you in whatever capacity. And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.