Clearly Changed - 5

CLEARLY CHANGED – 5

Putting Off Selfishness

HBCSL Sermon Notes

8.26.12

Mark 14:26-72

(Our hands directly follow where our hearts are…)

The issue of selfishness is really an issue of allegiance.  Ask ourselves this question – where does our heart’s allegiance really lie?  Is it with Christ, or at the end of the day with ourselves?

Allegiance – this is where we are going to stand, no matter what.  Where we set our allegiance defines who we are.

Are we going to follow Christ, make Him first place, or are we going to live on the throne of our hearts?

In Mark 14, we see Peter asked the question of where is his allegiance, and we are going to see Peter fail miserably. 

Background to this passage – night of Jesus betrayal, just before He would go to the cross. Peter had been with Jesus for the last three years, seeing His power and miracles.  Jesus is celebrating Passover with His disciples.  He tells them He is about to die, for the forgiveness of sins.

Mark 14:26-31

Jesus, who is God, and who has a track record of telling the truth 100% of the time, tells His disciples they are going to fall away when He is taken away.

Peter’s response : “Even though they all fall away, I will not.”

The first step to failing Jesus is –

1)Selfish pride

Pride is lifting ourselves up before everyone else

Peter was so arrogantly confident, he didn’t even believe Jesus who said Peter would deny Him, and he threw his friends “under the bus.”  He was overflowing with pride and obsessed with his own strength.

Peter was calling Jesus out on being wrong…

vv. 32-42

Jesus grabs His closest support system, Peter, James, and John, He is really hurting, and in essence tells them He needs them to pray for Him. 

The disciples fall asleep…

The second step to failing Jesus is –

2)Self-assured laziness

When Jesus comes back from praying to the Father the first time, He tells His disciples to pray for themselves, that they won’t fall into temptation.

Peter had just been told by Jesus that he was going to fall away.  Our thoughts are that he should be praying for strength, asking that that won’t happen. 

How is our prayer life?  Is it just at meals or for a few minutes as we are falling asleep at night?  Do we take prayer seriously?  Do we live a life style of prayer?

Are we praying over every aspect of our day, that the Lord will give us wisdom and strength and power to live for Him?

We can approach the God of the universe!

How often are we on our knees, pleading with God to save those who we know in our lives who are unbelievers?

Eternity is for everyone.  Everyone will spend eternity somewhere.  Do we feel the weight of that?  We cannot love people without sharing the love of Jesus Christ.

vv. 43-50

Judas comes, with a crowd of people, kisses Jesus.  The crowd lays hands on Jesus to seize Him, and Peter draws his sword and cuts off the ear of the servant of the high priest.

This was a bad decision on Peter’s part, because Jesus wasn’t asking him to do this.  Jesus had been telling His disciples that He needed to die, that He would be arrested, that He would be taken to the cross, so He could pay for the sins of mankind.

All Peter could think about was that he didn’t want that to happen.  He makes a rash decision.

Peter was not in tune with what Jesus had been telling Him…

The third step to failing Jesus is –

3)Self-obsessed choices

Peter wasn’t in tune with the Holy Spirit and with what Christ wanted, or His plan…

Peter was making decisions based on what he felt like was best at the time.

How are we doing with that?  In the amount of decisions we make each day, how often do we think of what Jesus would have for us?  Of how we can be used to love and serve others?  Compared to what do I want?  How can I be appreciated?  How can I be loved?

Self-obsessed choices are what lead us into sin.  Our culture applauds this.  “Just follow your heart.”  Living by our feelings…not submitting our hearts to Christ.

Jeremiah 17:9 – “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…”

Our hearts lie to us all the time.

We need to submit ourselves to the Word of God.

vv. 66-72

The night does not end well for Peter.  Before the rooster crows twice, he denies Jesus three times. 

The fourth step to failing Jesus is –

4)Self-devastating hypocrisy

Hypocrisy devastates in two ways -

·      Our testimony

o   When our lives don’t match up to what we say we believe as followers of Jesus, our testimony is destroyed.

o   When we are hypocrites we are saying Jesus has no power in our lives, to change us.

·      Our security

o   How we feel, whether we believe or not that God loves us (not our eternal security)

Christ has no desire to be second place in our lives.  Christ is not interested in second place.

Hosea 6:6-7 – “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.  But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with Me.”

God desires our steadfast love and He wants us to know Him.

Colossians 1:15-18 – “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.  And He is the head of the body, the church.  He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.”

Preeminent – above all, first place

We don’t get to decide whether on not this is true in our hearts. 

This is a question of allegiance.   Who will live on the throne of our heart?

Peter’s allegiance was tested, and it failed.

How do we pick up the pieces when our lives look like Peter’s?

The story does not end this night.  While Peter was being faithless, Christ was being faithful.  While Peter was denying Jesus, Jesus was heading for the cross, to pay for Peter’s faithlessness and selfishness, and ours too. 

Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit, our Power, to live righteously before God, to love with Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Our only hope:  Jesus

In Jesus there is hope, victory, and always grace, but Jesus demands first place in our hearts, above all others, other things, and our own lives.  (Take up your cross, and follow Me.)

Peter was not defined by his failure, because Jesus paid for it on the cross.  Peter was restored and went on to pastor the first church.  He loved Jesus fully and enjoyed Him with everything in his being, because of what Jesus did on the cross.  That is what defines us.

To put off selfishness, we need to put on humility.

Philippians 2:5-11

Humility practically is Christ having first place in all things!

If Christ has first place in our hearts, others will plainly see that it is Jesus Who specifically has our heart.

Fleshing this out at work (and in our neighborhoods) – its not just being honest, working hard, and giving our best at work, because unbelievers can be honest, work hard, and give their best at work.  Are we offering ourselves to those around us at work, to pray for those who are struggling?  Are we talking about our love for Jesus and how He is changing our hearts?  Are we sharing our faith?

If Christ is first place, we will live to serve Christ, and others will know this.  It’s more than just being a good person.  It’s being a follower and passionate lover of Jesus. 

Christ will not settle for anything less than first place, because He is God.  He is worthy, and He is holy, and He is above everything.