“It’s All About Me”

1. Read: 2 Timothy 3:1-5

2. About the Text:

1) Have you ever seen the movie, “The Emperor’s New Groove?”

a. This is a movie about the selfish desires of a spoiled monarch.

b. He has anything and everything that he wants.

c. Life is all about him – His perfect world begins and ends with “me.”

2) Paul’s prophesy in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 is about just such people.

a. Paul is prophesying about the latter times.

b. These are sinful times.

c. Notice the focus on selfishness in this list.

d. Pride is the ultimate culprit to produce such attitudes.

e. This lesson is about pride!

3) How do things get to be “All about me?”

a. It doesn’t happen overnight.

b. We develop selfish attitudes as we progress through life.

c. I want to paint a picture of how a life becomes “All about me!”

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. Selfish Preservation is the notion that I (or my group) am (are) the only one(s) I can depend upon for my survival.

1) Everyone else becomes an enemy under such an assumption.

2) God is completely out of the picture.

3) There is no faith in selfish preservation.

2. Jesus reminded us that God provides for us, not us.

1) Matthew 4:4

2) “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3).

3) Matthew 6:33 is all about depending upon God for our daily provisions.

4) This takes self out of the drivers’ seat.

5) The rich fool – Luke 12:16-21.

3. Consider Jesus warning in Matthew 16:25: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

1) Jesus is reminding us that self is not the sustainer of life.

2) Our provisions come from God, not self.

3) We soon confuse this fact and think that self provides for self.

4) This produces worry, anxiety, defensiveness, and stress.

4. Pride begins with selfish preservation.

1. Selfish desires grow out of efforts of self-preservation.

1) We have basic desires: food, clothing, shelter, and sex.

2) These lead to more complex desires: money, employment, transportation, education, entertainment, acceptance, and many others.

3) One may pursue such things all in an effort to satisfy self – “It’s all about me!”

4) “But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury” (Romans 2:8).

5) Consider Paul’s statement in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

6) Our actions are not to be motivated by the desire to serve self.

2. The desire for control.

1) We will want others to participate in our selfish ambitions.

2) This leads to the desire to control those around us so that they will serve our desires.

3) The disciples had a problem with this: Matthew 20:25-28.

3. Selfish desires generate selfish values.

1. These are self-justifications and rationalizations for doing the selfish things that we do.

1) Over time, these selfish values become habits, customs, and traditions.

2) We end up accepting these things as truth because of their long-standing practice.

3) Some examples of selfish values may be . . .

a. “We have always done it this way.”

b. “I was born this way.”

c. “This is how my parents taught me to do it.”

d. “This is how we do things here.”

2. The Pharisees had mastered the art of crafting selfish values.

1) They asked Jesus why his disciples transgressed the traditions of the elders.

2) Jesus told them, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’” (Matthew 15:8-9).

3. Selfish Values generate Selfish Identities.

1. We end up identifying with our selfish preservation techniques, desires, and values.

1) We tell ourselves, “This is who I am!”

2) We become highly offended with those who disagree with us and our system.

3) This creates anger; anger creates stress and unrest.

4) Envy of others seemingly peaceful lives adds to our anger.

5) Self-hatred causes us to ask, “Why am I in so much pain?”

6) The truth is, the central figure of your life is now YOU! “It’s all about me!” Pride rules!

7) Paul wrote, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).

2. Only Jesus can remove our false identity that our pride created.

1) We must put to death our pride-created identity – “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Romans 6:6).

2) We must identify with Him (Galatians 3:27).

3) He will create a new person within us – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor.5:17).

4) He replaces our false identity with Himself (Galatians 2:20).

5) Jesus cannot create more pride within us because He emptied himself of self – Phil.2:5ff.

1. How does it become, “All About Me?”

1) Selfish Preservation

2) Selfish Desires

3) Selfish Values

4) Selfish Identities

2. Invitation