SPEAKER_01
0:20 Alright, day five, Philippians 2, 17, and following. 0:23 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 0:29 Likewise, you all also should be glad and rejoice with me. 0:33 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you, for I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. 0:44 Verse 21, for they all seek their own interest, not those of Jesus Christ. 0:50 That's what we're going to drill down. 0:52 For they all seek their own interest, not those of Jesus Christ. 0:57 Let me just put this on the bottom shelf. 0:59 It's not about you. 1:01 I know you think it's all about you, but it's not about you. 1:05 Now, God is for you. 1:06 All right? 1:07 God is for you. 1:08 Anybody that dies for you is for you. 1:10 And he has demonstrated his love for you in this that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for you. 1:15 But it's not all about you. 1:16 So let me ask you this question: Do you primarily seek your own interest? 1:21 Now the reality is this as we we live in a world right now consumed with our self. 1:27 And one of the things that science is even teaching us, don't you love it when the sciences finally catch up with the Bible? 1:34 It's teaching us that self-reflection and self-interest leads to self-loathing. 1:40 That if all you ever do is wake up every day and think about what you feel, about what you feel, then all you're going to do is be wrapped around the axle of yourself, and all you have is yourself, and nothing has let you down more in your life than your own self. 1:53 The reality is if you can get your mind around this, that you are not the point, that you are not the star of the show, that you are but a bit player in God's grand narrative, then it will help you to not seek your own interest, but all but to seek the interest of Jesus Christ. 2:12 Listen, I'm a leader in our community and more specifically at our church. 2:17 And when I begin to shift my mind as a leader to think about the people that I get to serve alongside, who technically work for me, that's not the kind of language I use, but I just want to be clear. 2:28 When I could could genuinely in my heart say, I am more concerned with how you are doing than what you were doing for me. 2:36 When I begin to see myself, the reason that I exist as a shepherd is to take care of the sheep. 2:43 The sheep do not exist so that I get to be a shepherd. 2:46 Everything began to shift in my life. 2:50 I began to be less interested in my own interest and more interested in the interest of Christ. 2:56 So if your primary interest is all about yourself, you have lost the plot. 3:02 You don't understand the redemptive narrative of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 3:07 And Jesus has at the very beginning of his teaching ministry in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, Blessed are the meek. 3:15 That's the moment of salvation. 3:16 Blessed are you when you turn the reins of your life over to a different master. 3:22 Because too many times what you're thinking about is you and what the master can do for you. 3:27 That you are a son in the kingdom of God, which means you are not the king. 3:32 You don't get to make the orders, you don't get to tell God what he is going to do. 3:37 Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah says, after he experiences the presence and the glory of God in the throne room, Isaiah's response is this, here am I, send me. 3:52 That is surrender. 3:54 There's too many church folks. 3:56 And instead of saying, here I am, send me, what we say is, God, here I am, bless me. 4:02 Give me, listen to me. 4:05 The book of Hebrews says, fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfector of our faith. 4:10 Often we want Jesus to fix his eyes on us because we want to be the author of our own life. 4:16 Just you can learn this two ways. 4:19 You can learn from my wisdom right now and save you a hell of a pain, and I mean that literally, because hell will come thrashing down on you when your interest is all about you. 4:30 Or you can learn it from your own experience, man. 4:33 You can just chase all of your wants and dreams and put you at the middle, and you can try to teach treat Jesus like he is some kind of lackey or some kind of busboy to go get you what you won't want, and it will not go well for you. 4:47 So Paul says, for they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 4:52 The opposite of this would be this man. 4:55 Seek not your own interests, but seek the interests of Jesus Christ. 4:59 You want to know what his interests are? 5:01 You should read the scriptures. 5:03 He will be plainly clear. 5:05 And when you do that, when you surrender your life, when you bend your knee to the King, when you say, Not here I am, bless me, but here I am, send me. 5:13 I am about my Father's business. 5:15 That is where you will find joy and freedom and purpose worth living for that is so far beyond yourself. 5:24 It is a freedom and a joy and a gladness that God made you for. 5:29 May it be so among us.