“Lovey Dovey” – John 15:9-17

Well, happy Valentine’s Day to you!  I hope you and your valentine have a great day together.  I asked Brian this morning what he got Belinda for Valentines and he said he got her a bag and a belt and I thought that was so nice.  I said, “I hope she likes them.”  He said he hoped so, too, and he hoped the vacuum cleaner worked better now as well.

Lois told me she took a nap the other day and when she woke up, she told Morris, "I just dreamt that you gave me a diamond necklace for Valentine's Day.  What do you think it means?"
"You’ll find out tonight", he said.
That evening, Morris came home with a small package and gave it to her. Delighted, she opened it. She found a book entitled "The Meaning of Dreams".

I heard Janet telling Ruby the other day that the first 5 years of marriage are the hardest.  Ruby asked her how long she and David had been married.  She said, “5 years.”

In all seriousness, today is my dear parents’ 58^th wedding anniversary!  Congratulations to them!  Pop told me the other day that he and Mama were sitting at the table drinking coffee and Mom said, “I love you so much.  I don’t know how I could ever live without you.”

Pop said, “Are you talking to me or the coffee?”

She said, “I’m talking to you, my hand-picked, dark-roasted loved one!”

It’s so easy to say the words, “I love you.”  Te amo! (Spanish)  Je t'aime! (French) or Chicken fried steak! (Redneck)

However you say it, it does not prove that you actually do, does it ?  How do you prove that you love somebody ?  You prove it by what you do and for how long you do it.  Saying it is a vitally important part of the communication process but words without actions are meaningless.  You can talk until your lips fall off about how much you love someone but if you never do anything to prove it then you prove that you don’t.

I went to a restaurant the other day and there was a young couple sitting in a booth not far from me.  You’ve seen this couple before, right ?  Smoochie, smoochie, muah, muah, lovey dovey, hands all over each other.  Just stop it.  Nobody wants to see all that.  I’m trying to eat over here and they’re grossing me out.  They were far enough away that I couldn’t hear what they were saying but I could read their lips easy enough.  I love you !  Probably known each other for a week.  There’s no proof in the words.  There is no power in the words.

Just for today, I want us to look at a beautiful passage of scripture in the gospel of John that talks about love.  It talks about how love is proven and what it looks like.  In 2016 we hear the words and we see what the world calls love.  Let’s see what Jesus says about it 2000+ years ago in John 15 :9-17.  In most of the Bibles in the pew it is on page 764.

Jesus says John 15 :9-17,  “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

Do you remember in math class when the teacher told you to show your work?  She wanted to know if you truly knew the answer or if you were just faking it and guessing.  Later on in higher math they actually called it, “showing your proofs”.  I was never good at math…or love, come to think of it…but thankfully Jesus is good at both and so in verse 9 when Jesus told His disciples that He loved them we know it to be true because we know He proved it.

Jesus loves us and He proved it.  We prove that we love Him – not just with words – but with our obedience and we prove our obedience by bearing fruit.  That’s what this passage is saying.  Let’s look at it closer.

Do you know that there is great power in the words, ‘Jesus loves you’?  There is power in just those words because it has been proven.  Jesus loves you so much that He took your sins and died on the cross so you wouldn’t have to die (John 3:16).  He loves you so much that He sent the Holy Spirit to live in your life to give you direction and wisdom when you gave your life to Him (John 14:26).  He loves you so much that He has gone back to Heaven to prepare a place for you to stay with Him in Heaven forever (John 14:2).  Ephesians 1:4 says that God loved you before He created the universe.  He said it and He proved it before you were born, He has proven it while you live and He will continue to prove it for eternity.

Men, there are going to be times when your wife comes home and she is upset about how her day went.  The car wouldn’t start.  She had a bad hair day.  The boss fired her.  She ‘accidently’ killed her boss with a stapler.  You know how it is.  What she needs right then is for you to just say, ‘I love you’.  Now, if you have not proven you love her then don’t say that but if your love has been proven over time then all she needs to hear is ‘I love you’…and maybe ‘I know where to hide the body’ or something like that. 

No, all she needs to hear is the proven words ‘I love you’ and she will know that those words mean it is going to be okay.  She will know that you are there for her and that you will do everything in your power to make it right.  That is exactly what we all need and what we all have in the person of Jesus Christ when we have a relationship with Him.

We will see in a minute that Jesus calls us friends in this passage.  This amazing gift comes to us because of His wonderful grace toward us: “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). We don’t have to earn His love; we simply accept it.

It may be difficult to believe Jesus loves you because of other people who have let you down in the past. However, Jesus is unlike any other person; He is God in human form (John 1:14). He was involved in creating us, He sustains our every breath, and He offers us new life now and eternal life in heaven with Him.

Another reason it may be difficult to accept the truth that Jesus loves you is that something you have done in the past troubles you. Jesus already knows your past and still offers you eternal life and forgiveness. A wonderful example of His love can be found in His last hours on the cross. One of the men crucified next to Him was being put to death for his crimes. Turning to Jesus, he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, saying, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42–43). Despite this criminal’s sins, Jesus accepted his simple and sincere act of faith and promised him eternity in heaven—even though Jesus knew the man had no time to live his life differently.  (gotquestions.org)

Jesus proved His love for us, He is proving it and he will continue to prove it.  Somebody tell me what that means to you and for you.

So, we know that Jesus loves us and that love is life-changing, or it should be.  If Jesus has proven His love for us then the question is, how do we prove our love for Him?  Jesus answers that question in verse 10.  Look at that again.  ^10 “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”  So, again, Jesus is our model.  He was obedient to the Father and we should be obedient to Him.  We should do what He says to do.

When I became a pastor evidently people thought I was supposed to know something because almost immediately I started getting asked some of the craziest questions; questions about unicorns and dinosaurs. What is Satan’s last name?  Does God really love Puerto Ricans?  What kind of question is that?  People ask all the time about deep, deep theological issues about the end times or about how the Bible was written and they go off on one version being better than another and I want to say, “Hey, let’s concentrate on being obedient to what we know first and then move on to the dispensation of Arminianism in light of the millennial Pentecostalism.”  How about that?

We should ask questions about deep things.  It is good to want to know everything there is to know but not to the neglect of obedience of what we already know and when we do that, we not only prove that we love the Lord but Jesus says in verse 11 that it will bring us joy.  ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

I love to take my dogs for a walk.  We do it every day.  As I have told you, one of my neighbors doesn’t appreciate my dogs walking through the neighborhood without leashes so as soon as we get out of the neighborhood and into the acres of no-mans-land just a block or two away, I take their leashes off and let them roam. They do really well most of the time but sometimes they wander off too far and I have to call them to come back to me.

Most of the time they do pretty good about that.  They find their way back pretty quick and all is well and we have a great long walk and see all kinds of things…as long as they are obedient and come when I call them.  But sometimes they find something to smell of that they just don’t want to leave and I’m calling and calling and calling and I can’t stand that.  I get mad and I’m ready to go home.  When they are obedient to me and come when I call them it shows that they love and respect me and in turn we go way out into the fields and find armadillos and deer and all kinds of critters.  The dogs love that and so do I.  It brings us all great joy.

Now, I have talked to some of you in the past and I have given a few of you some homework to do when I think it will benefit you like it did me.  My favorite homework question to give is this:  How do we find joy?  Well, I’m giving you the answer to your homework right here.  Do you want joy?  Do you want to be able to smile in the darkest times of your life when the world is falling down around you and everybody else is freaking out?  Obedience is the secret.

Knowing whether Santa Clause will be in Heaven or how the hypostatic union affects the law of identity does not bring joy.  It brings me a headache.  But being obedient to what you know Jesus tells you to do…brings joy!  Jesus loves us and He proved it.  We prove our love for Him by being obedient and we get joy as a by-product of that obedience.

Lastly, we prove our obedience by bearing fruit.  Look at verse 16.  ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.

What does it mean to bear fruit?  My concordance says it is the visible expression of invisible power.  (Repeat)  I have a special treat for you today; actually a treat for your eyes.  I want to show you this beautiful branch from an apple tree.  (It’s actually a bare stick I found on the ground.)  Do you see the beautiful red apples all over it?  Aren’t the white petals of the flowers so pretty with their delicate yellow insides?  You see it, right?  Sure you do; and you’re calling the mental ward right now to see if they have room for me, aren’t you?

No, you don’t see all of those things because there is no fruit, no bloom, no beauty whatsoever with this stick.  This stick can say it is part of an apple tree but we don’t believe that, do we?  It could say that it is part of an orange tree or a banana tree or a muffin tree.  It can talk about blooms and fruit all day long but there is no proof of any of that.  It is a bare branch that has been separated from some kind of tree for a long time.  It is dead.  It is useless.  It is headed for the burn pile.

Jesus said He loves us and He proves it.  We prove we love Him by our obedience to Him and the proof of our obedience is when we bear fruit.  There are libraries full of books that are able to explain bearing fruit better than I can but let me give you 5 quick ways that our lives will bear fruit when we are obedient.

#1  Our character will reflect the Fruit of the Spirit that Paul talks about in Galatians 5.  They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control.  Those are characteristics that will show up in our lives as proof of our obedience.

#2  Right character will result in right conduct.  It drives me crazy when I hear people say, “Well, we all sin every day.”  Really?  Every day you choose to do something that nailed Jesus to the cross?  Every day you choose to displease the Savior and disobey the Creator?  Obedience is proven by holiness.

#3  Those who come to Christ through our witness are fruit.  When was the last time you witnessed to somebody?  When was the last time you actually broke out your Bible and led someone through what the Word says about how to be a Christian?  Jesus commanded us in Matthew 28:19 to go and make disciples.  Are you doing that?

#4  We also bear fruit when we worship and this includes at church and away from church.  Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.”

#5  We bear fruit when we give money.  “Oh, there he goes preaching on money again!”  Let me say this again.  This church doesn’t need your money.  God doesn’t need your money.  Matthew 6:21 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Paul told the Philippians, “Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more fruit be credited to your account.” KJV - Charles Ryrie, So Great Salvation, Victor Books, 1989.

Verse 16 says that you didn’t choose Jesus.  He chose you!  As a believer, God chose you.  That ought to make you feel special and you are but it’s only by His grace and His mercy that He chose you.  It is only by His grace and His mercy that we have life and breath.  Everybody take a deep breath.  Feel that?  Do you see your chest fill up with air and your shoulders rise?  That is, by God’s grace, a visible expression of invisible power that enables you to continue bearing fruit.

When that stops then you can stop bearing fruit.  Until then, because Jesus has proven His love for us, we prove our love for Him by being obedient to what He tells us in His Word and by His Spirit and we prove that obedience by bearing fruit.

How about you?  Are you fruity?  Are you bearing fruit?  If not, there is something wrong with your relationship with the Vine.  It has either been fractured by sin or it doesn’t exist but you can fix that today.  Ask God for forgiveness today and repent – turn away from – that sin.  If you never have then today is the day of salvation and the day you truly believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Life and that nobody gets to the Father but through Him. (John 14:6)

“How to be the person Satan wants you to be” – Jealous – 1 Sam. 18

Here is a scenario for you:  your boss assigns you and your co-workers a job to do.  Your job is to build widgets and you are one of the best widget-makers there is.  Your widget-making skills are well-known and have been for some time.  Then the boss hires a new person and he, too, starts making widgets and he, too, is really good.  Now, at the end of the week the boss compares everybody’s numbers and the new guy made 2 more widgets than you did.  Not only that but there’s another guy that hardly made any widgets and he is really upset.  How do you react?

Let me add another wrinkle here.  You happen to know that the new guy actually made 3 more widgets than you did, not 2 like the boss said.  Evidently the boss miscounted.  Now, how do you react?  Let’s think about your options.  You could go home and not think about any of them again.  You could go comfort the co-worker who is depressed about making so little.  You could congratulate the new guy on making 2 more than you.  You could tell the boss his mistake and make the new guy look even better.  Or you could even tear up several of the new guy’s widgets to make yourself look better.  Or maybe you do a combination of those.

The problem with asking about how you would react is that there just might be a difference between what you would do and what you should do, right?  Sitting here in church your answer is that you would comfort the one and encourage the other and be a stand-up guy and be honest with your boss and you would do everything right and you would do it humbly and generously and everybody would love you and write songs about how great you are.

For many years Sir Walter Scott was the leading literary figure in the British Empire. No one could write as well as he. Then the works of Lord Byron began to appear, and their greatness was immediately evident. Soon an anonymous critic praised his poems in a London Paper. He declared that in the presence of these brilliant works of poetic genius, Scott could no longer be considered the leading poet of England. It was later discovered that the unnamed reviewer had been none other than Sir Walter Scott himself! Dr. Gary Collins in Homemade, July, 1985

Would you do something like that if you worked at the widget factory?  Would you do something like that in the job you have?  Would you do something like that in your family or in your church or your neighborhood?  The question is would you be the person God wants you to be and enjoy seeing somebody else prosper; would you even make yourself a little lower so that they could be higher?  Would you, could you do what you could do to enable them to do better, be better even if it cost you something?

Or…and I know this isn’t you but it might be somebody in your row…or would you be jealous of their success and try to sabotage them to make you look better?  Now, that’s the person Satan wants you to be.  Satan can really get some stuff done if he has somebody like that to work with.  Just like he did with King Saul.

We’re going to read about King Saul’s jealousy in 1 Samuel 18:1-9.  This passage is the passage right after one of my all-time favorite passages in the whole Bible – the story of David and Goliath that is found in the previous chapter and it is important that you know the story of David and Goliath so that you understand a little bit about why Saul is so jealous. 

We have seen in the last two weeks that because of how Saul reacted out of worry and because of his selfishness that God has told him through the prophet Samuel that Saul will not be able to be king anymore like he could have been had he been obedient and that is a harsh penalty to pay for Saul’s disobedience but sin is always going to bring harsh punishment.  There are consequences of disobedience, right?

But for now Saul is still the official king even though, unbeknownst to him, Samuel has already anointed David to be king.  But for now, David is still a nobody out on the hillside tending his sheep like a good boy; and a boy he was, probably a young teenager.

Everything changed, though, when Israel went out to fight the Philistines one more time because the Philistines were led by the giant warrior Goliath.  He was over 9 feet tall and built like a tank and armed to the teeth and protected by bronze armor all over his body except for a little section right around his eyes so he could see.  And we see in chapter 17, verse 49 that was right where David aimed his slingshot and sent a rock over 100 mph right into his forehead and killed the big guy.

As you can imagine, David is the big hero and he never tended sheep again after that.  In fact, Saul invited him to be a part of his kingdom.  Our story today takes up right there after Saul watches David kill Goliath.  So, let’s turn to 1 Samuel 18 and let’s read verses 1-9.

After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. ² From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. ³ And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. ⁴ Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt. ⁵ Whatever mission Saul sent him on, David was so successful that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the troops, and Saul’s officers as well.  ⁶ When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. ⁷ As they danced, they sang:

“Saul has slain his thousands,
    and David his tens of thousands.”

⁸ Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” ⁹ And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.

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“The worst part of success is trying to find someone who is happy for you.” ― Bette Midler 

In this story we see one person who was happy for another’s success and another person who was not.  I would like for us to see what both of them look like and how they apply to us and I want to start with the one who was jealous and then end on a good note so let’s look at verses 7-9 first and then we will go back and see how it’s supposed to be done in the first few verses.

So, here’s the scene:  Saul is leading his army through town and evidently word about David’s exploit had gone ahead of them and as the women of the town danced and sang with great joy, they made up a song to sing in their happiness. “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.”  Pretty catchy tune they came up with there, huh?

Evidently Saul didn’t think it was too catchy.  He didn’t like it one bit.  What do you think Saul could have done or should have done instead of getting angry?

I was thinking as I read this about what he should have done instead of getting mad.  You know, he could have just laughed about it because it was pretty ridiculous.  Saul probably had killed thousands but David…David killed one guy.  One very big, very important guy but still only one and if Saul had made it into a joke and laughed and danced with them and sang along, nobody would have thought anything about it and Saul and David would have had a good chuckle about it for years to come.  But the very thought of David getting more glory than him infuriated Saul and you can almost see the wheels turning in his head about how he was going to deal with this kid.

Ben Franklin said, “Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.”  How right he was in regard to King Saul.  If you know the story of Saul you know that his jealousy of David developed into a burning hatred that ate him up for years to come and it started because some silly women sang a silly song.

I have to think that it didn’t help that Saul’s own son, Jonathan, thought so highly of David that he gave him almost everything he was wearing at the time but we will talk about that later.  Jealousy is a characteristic that, just like worry and selfishness that we have seen lately, also ruins relationships and just like worry and selfishness, jealousy is a fear that is based on poor self-esteem.

The root of all three characteristics is the misguided thinking that you have to do something; you have to provide; you have to prove yourself; you have to be worthy and in the end you know that you are not able to be any of those things and it eats you up.  Then Satan just sits back and watches you implode and he hardly has to do anything.  That’s why he enjoys it so much and wants you to worry; he wants you to be selfish and he wants you to be jealous.  You’re doing his work for him.

Not only does it eat you up but it ruins relationships with other people and it will mess up your relationship with God.  That’s three strikes and Satan is the big winner.  But people who have a right relationship with God and a right knowledge of not only who they are but also of Who God is don’t have to worry; they don’t have to be selfish or jealous because they know that they are not worthy and they cannot provide or prove themselves and they rely on God to do that through them to His glory.  That is how we should keep from being jealous and that is step one in being the person God wants you to be instead of the person Satan wants you to be.

Now, let’s look at step two in being who God wants us to be.  Let’s look at some practical ways that we can, not just not be jealous, but actually be who we are supposed to be and how we can make disciples by making God attractive to other people.  Look at verses 1 and 3 again.  It says that Jonathan loved David as he loved himself.  What was in this relationship for Jonathan?  What was in it for him if David did well or even became king?

If David becomes king then Jonathan is out of a job because it was sure to be passed down to him as Saul’s heir.  But look at what Jonathan does for David.  He gave David his robe, his princely robe.  This made David look like a prince.  He gave David his tunic or his outer clothes to go under the robe.  This showed his friendship.  Then he gave him his sword, his bow and his belt.  Now David looks the part of a warrior.  He looks like a princely warrior and Jonathan…is standing there basically in his underwear looking foolish.

Jonathan made the choice, not only to not be jealous, but to actually promote David; to lift him up; to make him look good at his own expense, not wanting people to see Jonathan but wanting people to see and admire David.  When you can do that, you can truly say that you love somebody.  Not only that but you can truly say that you love the Lord because Jonathan wanted God’s will to be done even if it meant losing his job; even if it meant looking temporarily foolish. 

Jonathan wasn’t worried, selfish or jealous because he knew God’s will was going to be done and he just wanted to be a part of it.  Saul wanted everybody to look at him because he was insecure.  Jonathan wanted everybody to look at God’s man David because Jonathan was secure in who he was and in Who God was.  I have an idea that when Jonathan heard those ladies singing about David killing tens of thousands he joined right in singing in his underwear making David look good.

Now, if you turn over to the New Testament Gospel of John and turn to chapter 3 you will see an interesting scene.  Verses 22-26 say, “After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. ²³ Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. ²⁴ (This was before John was put in prison.) ²⁵ An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. ²⁶ They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

Think of it this way:  John has been making widgets and he has been making great widgets for a long time but some people come to him and say, “Hey, John, that Jesus guy over there is making more and better widgets than you are.  What are you going to do?”

Does John get in a worrisome, selfish, jealous panic and start screaming for everybody to look at the widgets he has made?  No, he doesn’t because all of his widgets point people to Jesus so when Jesus actually comes along, John says, “Look!  The Lamb of God!” (1:29) Don’t look at me.  Look at Him!  Everything John did pointed people to Jesus.

For a while God had called him to preach and teach and baptize and be focused upon for the sake of the Kingdom but when it came down to it, John’s focus was on Jesus and making Him look good even if it cost John his job or even his life, and it did not long after that.

This life is short and this world will tell you that you have to look out for number one.  You have to go for the gusto and get all you can while you can and while you’re out there running try not to have a heart attack brought on by worry, selfishness and jealousy.

I want to close with another of those passages that just makes you say, “Aah.”  First you have to know what Psalm 46:10 says.  It says, “Be still and know that I am God.”  Those words “Be still” actually mean to let your hands hang down.  Relax.  Quit trying.  Chill out.  Now, with your hands hanging down listen to what Matthew 6:25-33 says.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Be still and know that I am God and that I am all-powerful and all-loving and that I will take care of you better than you could ever take care of yourself.  As a child of the one true King, what do you have to worry about?  Why be selfish?  Why be jealous?  Put others first for the sake of the Kingdom and let your hands hang down.

“How to be the person Satan wants you to be” – Selfish – 1 Samuel 15

*Purpose Driven Life* Chapter 1, page 1.  “It’s not about you.”

You’re dismissed.  Thank you for coming.  But come back tonight at 6pm because I will have an hour’s worth of questions for you based just on that one sentence. 

Seriously, I remember when this book first came out several years ago I heard a woman say that somebody had given her a book for Christmas.  She couldn’t remember the name of it but she wasn’t going to read it because the first sentence of the book was, “It’s not about you.”  She said, “But it is about me.  It’s all about me so I quit reading after the first sentence!”

That’s a shame because this is a wonderful book and it will be life-changing if you read it but you have to be able to accept as truth the very first sentence.  If you can’t you might as well put it down and just accept the fact that you are going to live a difficult life filled with disappointment.  D.L. Moody said, “God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves.”

Now, don’t raise your hands but how many of you know somebody that is full of themselves?  How many of you know somebody that is self-centered?  How many of you know somebody that is selfish?  How many of you would describe yourself as full of yourself, self-centered or selfish?  Probably none of us here would describe ourselves that way.  Very few people in the world would describe themselves that way and yet selfishness is a huge and growing problem in our world, in our community and maybe even in our churches.

The questions that raises are how do I convince someone they are selfish and how do I get them to change?  Well, those are difficult questions.  I guess you could just come right out and tell them.  There’s that option.  Good luck with that.  But perhaps a better question would be, am I selfish?  If so, what can I do to change?  If we, as disciples, are going to attract people to Jesus then it is going to be pretty hard to do if we call them names especially when we might be described the same way.

Romans 15:4 says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”  Scripture gives us hope as it teaches us about selfishness and it is easy to find examples of selfishness all through the Bible.  Examples are not hard to find.  In fact, selfishness is at the root of all sin.

We saw last week that worry is a sin and it also leads to other sins.  So, too, is selfishness.  It is a sin that leads to other sins and is easy to find in scripture.  The challenge is to see ourselves in scripture; to see ourselves as selfish and then to root that selfishness out so that we can be the people that God wants us to be.  You know how hard it is to be around somebody that is selfish or self-centered.  They make it really hard to be friends with them.  But do you know who likes a selfish person?  Satan.  If you want to be the kind of person Satan wants you to be then selfishness is a great place to start.

Let’s look at 1 Samuel chapter 15 to see a person who was doing a great job of being the kind of person Satan wanted him to be.  In most of the Bibles in the pew it is on page 201.  Now, if you want to read scripture that is full of romance and love and gentleness and sweetness then maybe you ladies should read the book of Ruth or maybe Song of Solomon.  But if you’re like me and you like action and swords flashing and blood spurting and heads rolling then 1 Samuel is for you.  1 Samuel chapters 14 and 17 are two of my absolute favorites in the whole Bible but they are not for the squeamish.

Likewise, this chapter is very violent.  This was a violent time to live.  There were no rules of engagement.  There was no Geneva Convention that would protect captives and make sure they had care packages and proper hygiene.  Enemy combatants were either killed or made slaves and if they killed you, they would probably kill your wife and kids, your dog, your mama and then destroy your home and everything you had would be destroyed.  As we will see in this passage, sometimes this was exactly what God wanted.

1 Samuel 15 says, Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. ² This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. ³ Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” ⁴ So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim—two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand from Judah. ⁵ Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. ⁶ Then he said to the Kenites, “Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites. ⁷ Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt. ⁸ He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. ⁹ But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves^[b] and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed. ¹⁰ Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: ¹¹ “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night. ¹² Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.” ¹³ When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.” ¹⁴ But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?” ¹⁵ Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.” ¹⁶ “Enough!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” “Tell me,” Saul replied. ¹⁷ Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. ¹⁸ And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ ¹⁹ Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?” ²⁰ “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. ²¹ The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” ²² But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
    as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
    and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
²³ For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
    and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
    he has rejected you as king.” ²⁴ Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. ²⁵ Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord.” ²⁶ But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!” ²⁷ As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. ²⁸ Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you. ²⁹ He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.” ³⁰ Saul replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.” ³¹ So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord. ³² Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.” Agag came to him in chains.  And he thought, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” ³³ But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal. ³⁴ Then Samuel left for Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul. ³⁵ Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.

Now, it is because of passages like this that we meet together on Sunday nights as well as Sunday mornings.  There is just too much to get to; too much to talk about to fit it all in in the 3 hours that we have left.  What I want us to see today is simply how Saul was selfish, the consequences of his selfishness and how we can avoid being like him.

Now, are there any Amalekites with us today?  Just raise your hand.  No?  Does anybody know any Amalekites?  Have you ever heard of any Amalekites outside of the Bible?  No you have not because every last one of them was killed in this story and that is exactly what God wanted.  The Amalekites were so evil that God didn’t want any trace of them left.  He didn’t want anyone to ever reference them again.

When it comes to goats there are Alpine goats, Australian goats, Corsican goats, Danish, Nigerian, Philippine and hundreds of other breeds of goats but nobody can say they own an Amalekite breed of goat.  That’s how bad these people were.  God wanted them totally destroyed and all Saul had to do was be obedient.  God did all the work.  Saul’s army was completely victorious.  The only problem was they got selfish.

Most of the time it was perfectly acceptable for the conquering army to take all of the defeated country’s possessions as their own.  Winner take all.  But God was plain in His instructions to Saul about this.  He says in verse 3 that they are to totally destroy everything.  In verses 13-14 Samuel and Saul have what I think is a funny conversation.

Saul greets Samuel like nothing is wrong and he’s waiting on slap on the back for being such a great commander and Samuel says he can hardly hear him because of all the noise the sheep and cattle are making and unless these are military-spec attack sheep that you used to defeat the enemy, you are in trouble.  Not only that but Samuel actually had a hard time even finding Saul because evidently he was going on a world tour setting up monuments to himself.

G. Gordon Liddy once said, “I have found within myself all I need and all I ever shall need. I am a man of great faith, but my faith is in George Gordon Liddy. I have never failed me.”  Not long afterward he was convicted in the Watergate scandal of President Nixon and served 51 months in prison.

It’s rumored that Saul’s wife once said, "My husband and I have managed to be happy together for 20 years. I guess this is because we're both in love with the same man."  Maybe you know somebody like that.  I hope it’s not the person you see in the mirror every day because selfishness, like I said, is easy to find in others but difficult to spot in your own life.

Saul was probably pretty popular with his troops because obviously he had not told them to destroy everything as God had told him.  He didn’t want to tell them that.  It might have made him look bad.  I bet it was even their idea that he should put up a monument to himself.  Who was he to argue, right? 

We think of selfishness as just not wanting to give what you have or not wanting to share but wanting to look good in front of others is also selfishness.  It is certainly not selflessness.  The characteristic of being selfless is one of the most important traits any Christian can have. It’s so significant that Jesus said it is the second most important of all God’s commandments: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31, Galatians 5:14).  http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-selflessness.html

You can break down the consequences of selfishness in all kinds of ways but ultimately what selfishness does is it ruins relationships.  We have been talking a lot lately about attracting people to God and to the church and the best way to do that is by being selfless and the best way to ruin any relationship is by being selfish.  You have heard it said that being selfless is not thinking less of yourself.  It is thinking of yourself less.  That’s true.

Last Wednesday night Brian Amerman was continuing our study through the parables of Jesus and we came to the parable of the Good Samaritan.  I love that one because it is such a great illustration of what selflessness is.  The Samaritan didn’t put himself down.  That wasn’t it at all.  He just helped someone he didn’t know, knowing he would never be paid back and didn’t tell anybody else about it.  I love that story.

On April 18, 2010, Guatemalan immigrant Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax came to the aid of a woman being threatened by a man wielding a knife. Tale-Yax struggled with the attacker, but was eventually stabbed and left to die on a Jamaica, Queens (NY) street. The woman and the attacker fled in different directions while he lay bleeding. Video surveillance filmed portions of the attack and its disgusting aftermath.

Cameras showed that one man photographed Tale-Yax with a cell phone. Eighteen others saw or walked right past him. All refused to render aid or contact authorities. The closest anyone came to helping was a man who shook the body vigorously, but walked away after seeing the pool of blood. Firefighters arrived fifteen minutes later, but by then it was too late.  Not a parable.

In this day and age we are rightfully afraid of trying to do something good and it coming back to bite us.  The world is upside down and crazy and that is a real possibility but honestly most of us will never be put in that kind of a position to have to find out.  But we will all be in the position of having our neighbor need our help in some way or another.

In Luke chapter 10 it says, “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” ²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” ²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

This is when Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan.  “Who is my neighbor?” is a great question.  It is the person next door to you that needs somebody to listen to them tell about their problems knowing nobody else will ever know you had talked to them.

Your neighbor is the family in the community who, even though they are where they are because of bad choices, still needs something to eat from our food pantry.

Your neighbor is the man in jail in Decatur who would be overcome with emotion and gratitude at receiving a card in the mail from you, a stranger.

Your neighbor is one of those 5 ladies that Unchained Prison Ministries saw come to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ last weekend because of your generous gift to that ministry that got them there.

Your neighbor is the person in the pew next to you who needs you to be at church every time you can so you can be there for them when they need a neighbor.

The consequence of Saul’s selfishness was that he lost the kingdom.  He could no longer be king because of his sin of selfishness and that sounds harsh.  That’s a big deal.  But sin is always a big deal.  Sin always has consequences.  Numbers 32:23 says, “you may be sure that your sin will find you out”.  And just like Saul’s sin of selfishness ruined his relationship with God, so too will it ruin your relationship with God.  “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).

If today, you feel like your world is upside down and all your problems would just go away if you had more of this or if somebody would just do this for you then maybe your problem is not that somebody else is being selfish.  Maybe you are the one that is being selfish and you need to give this or that and see if God doesn’t reward you. 

Maybe that reward is monetary but more likely that reward will be the peace and joy of knowing that your relationship with the Creator of the universe is what it is supposed to be and that your destiny is in the hands of the Omnipotent God Who is the very embodiment of love.

Or maybe your life seems out of control because you don’t have that relationship to begin with.  You can do that right now.  Believe that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no man comes to the Father but through Him.  (John 14:6) Repent – turn away -  from your sins and ask God to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you of everything that displeases Him. (1 John 1:9) Do that today.