Are You Self-Righteous?

Is it possible to be self-righteous and not even know it? Are you self-righteous? How many times have you ever been asked that question? For some of you this will be the very first time. Self-righteousness is usually a very bad attribute to have but just like everything else, there are some exceptions.

According to Wikipedia, self-righteousness (also called sanctimoniousness, and holier-than-thou attitudes) is a feeling or display of (usually smug) moral superiority derived from a sense that one's beliefs, actions, or affiliations are of greater virtue than those of the average person. The term "self-righteous" is often considered derogatory particularly because self-righteous individuals are often thought to exhibit hypocrisy due to the belief that humans are imperfect and can therefore never be infallible. 

 

So far you are probably thinking, “I sure hope I'm not a self-righteous person, because those folks don't sound like a good group to hangout with.” Well you would be absolutely correct about that! No one likes a hypocrite and will try to avoid them anyway they can. We all know at least one person we would consider to be this way and most likely we are not calling them up to see if they want to hang out with us.

Moses reminded the Israelites of their rebellion in Deut. 9:4-6 when he said, “Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. Here we see that self-righteous can be described as objectionable. 

 

In Job 9:20 self-righteousness is described as self-condemned. Thou I were righteous, my own mouth would condemn me; thou I were blameless, it would prove me perverse. We see that self-righteousness is condemning because it cannot make pure. There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness. It is condemning because it cannot save. Jesus said, For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Now this is some serious business! Lastly we can see in Rom. 10:3 that self-righteousness rejects God's righteousness. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. So self-righteousness is condemning because it is objectionable, self-condemned, cannot save and rejects God's righteousness. Do we need to say more? Are you self-righteous?

Let's continue. God's word continues to describe self-righteousness as unprofitable. I will declare your righteousness and your works, for they will not profit you. Isa. 57:12 It is also as filthy rags. But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Isa. 64:6 Most self-righteous people do not realize these things about themselves. Remember the Pharisee in Luke 18:11, 12? He prayed thanking God that he was not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers or even like a tax collector. He reminded God in his prayer that he fasted twice a week and gave tithes of all he possessed. This type of self-righteousness would be described as boastful. 

 

We should all come to the same conclusion as Paul in Phil. 3:4-9. He saw that no matter how he saw himself and what he had accomplish in the name of God, it was very much insufficient. He counted everything but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Jesus Christ his Lord, not having his own righteousness, but instead that which is through faith in Christ. Are you still feeling self-righteous? Let's hope not!

Area-Wide Sing

 Area-Wide Sing

 

COME ONE - COME ALL

Just a heads up to let all of you know about the area-wide sing on January 26th at 7 pm hosted by the Ridge Avenue church of Christ in Tifton, Georgia.  Join us in singing praise to God and His Son Jesus Christ.  You will be so glad you made this a part of your weekend activities.  The address is 1625 North Ridge Avenue Tifton, GA 31794.  Phone: (229) 382-2737

Are You A Dreamer?

Do you dream? I'm not talking about while you are asleep, but rather dreams that you would consider plans or visions for the future. If we are not dreamers, then all is lost! The prophet Haggai has this to say about our visions. “Consider your ways! You have sown much and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earn wages to put into a bag with holes.” Haggai 1:5b-6 Basically the prophet is saying, even though many times we get what we want, we are never satisfied. Are you feeling that way today? If so, what is it going to take to fill you up?

Walt Disney was a remarkable man of vision. This is what we have been talking about in the last few lessons together – Vision! He never gave up. Early in his career a newspaper fired him because they thought he had “no good ideas”. Go figure! That just made Mr. Disney try harder. When he first started out he couldn't sell cartoons to anyone. Some hinted that he had no talent, but Walt Disney had a dream, therefore he set out to conquer his foes. He found a minister who paid him a small amount to draw advertising pictures for his church. Disney had no place to stay, so that church family let him sleep in the mouse-infested garage. One of those mice which Disney nicknamed, you guessed it, Mickey, became famous – as the world now knows. The early days were tough, but that remarkable, creative visionary refused to give up. Like Mr. Disney, we Christians need to dream big and trust in God for the impossible.

Do we have a vision for our church family? Do we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is able to to the impossible? Jesus had a talk with the rich man and told His disciples that it was “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Matt. 19:24 The disciples then asked Jesus, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matt. 19:26 Amen! 

 

Our God is the same God, therefore, we are in good hands, hands that will not let us down if our intents and desires are genuine and according to His will. We want our away members back because we know the destiny of their souls if they remain unfaithful. We also want to see new faces in our congregation because we also know of their fate if they remain in the world and outside of Christ. Both are good reasons, therefore we must wait on God and allow Him to work through our small number of able bodies to see this come to fruition. If we continue to plant and water, He will definitely give the increase! 1 Cor. 3:6

We are blessed to be called Christian and to know our eternal home is in heaven with our Lord Jesus and our heavenly Father. But we must have a plan for His church and we must all be willing to do our part to make it grow and prosper in our community. People's souls depend on our faithfulness to the call of the great commission. Are we doing our part? We know God is doing His. We need to have a vision and see it through the best we can.

Adding to or Taking from - Does It Matter?

Everyone likes a good book. For those of you who are avid readers, what would happen if one day you pick up your favorite book to read it again and the chapters were different. The book had been shortened or lengthened and the author's name had been changed. Would this matter to you? Would it change the content of the book to maybe make it read completely different? Any change to the book would alter its meaning and could change the whole outcome of any story.

God has written a book called the Bible. Over the years man has re-written it and called it a paraphrase. Is a paraphrase the same thing as the original text? Webster defines a paraphrase as a free translation or explanation. What about a translation? To translate means to render from one language into another: interpret. Don't you like this terminology is a lot better than paraphrase? This means that the many scholars that translated the Old and New Testaments took it from the Hebrew and Greek and put It into English so we could read it ourselves. Does this mean that some of the original meaning could be lost? There is a chance that this could happen but if God knew this translating was being accomplished so that more of the world could hear the gospel don't you think He would have put a stop to it if it was being translated incorrectly? Just a thought!

Over the years, man has put some very unusual twists on different portions of God's word. For example, some say that all a person has to do to be saved is believe or have faith or just confess Jesus. We know that all these are true but none of them alone has saving power. Would you say that man has added to or taken away from the word simply by misinterpreting It? 

 

We need to know what God's word plainly states about adding to or taking away from His inspired word. Here are a few scriptures that will aid in this matter: Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Prov. 30:6; Jer. 26:2; Rev. 22:18, 19 and Gal. 1:8, 9. If you have ever wondered about these scriptures, hopefully you won't any longer with a little study on your part and the Holy Spirit being your guide to truth. Have a blessed Lord's day & always remember that God is in control!

A Work in Progress

Surely you have heard of the song, “He's Still Working on Me.” It is usually sung with the younger children in the church family, but it applies to every Christian, or it should.

CHORUS:

He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me.

1. There really ought to be a sign upon the heart,
Don't judge her yet, there's an unfinished part.
But I'll be perfect just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master's loving hands.

CHORUS:

2. In the mirror of His Word reflections that I see
Make me wonder why He never gave up on me.
He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray
Remember He's the Potter, I'm the clay.

CHORUS:

As God's children we want to acquire a greater knowledge of Him and His word. This is accomplished by reading and studying His inspired word on a regularly basis. We need to realize that God is willing to work with us as long as we allow Him to do so. He will not force anything on us that we do not want but He will always strive to give us what we need as we search the scriptures daily with a ready mind (Acts 17:11). How awesome is that? 

We shouldn't beat ourselves up because we are not growing spiritually at our pace. It could be that God is not ready to reveal to us some truths or aspects of His word because we can't digest them yet. We must be patient and wait on the Lord! We must also be careful not to bind on others what we think should be, because it might be contrary to the word of God for them and we are doing it out of ignorance. Of course our motives are pure, but so was Paul's in the persecution of Christians. We have to put trust in our fellow man as well and pray for each other on a regular basis.  Are you praying and putting trust in your fellow man?

Carelessness

Benjamin Franklin was wrote, “For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy; and for want of care about a horseshoe nail.” This truly was a small matter from the start, but had severe consequences. Are you about to lose or have you already lost the nail in your possession?

Come, let's take a look at a few examples of what can happen if we are careless with our nail. In Isaiah 47:1 & 8-11 we see that Babylon was destroyed because they were careless in taking care of God's people. God had given them to the Babylonians, but they were very careless with God's goods and they suffered for it. Remember that you are God's! Are you being careful with what is His or careless with your nail?

In the days of Ezekiel the prophet, God chose to destroy Egypt because they too were careless with their nail. They had mistreated God's people and He had had enough. “On that day messengers shall go forth from Me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great anguish shall come upon them, as on the day of Egypt; for indeed it is coming!” (Ezek. 30:8)

Once again we read of God's judgment upon a people because of their carelessness. God is very serious about taking care of what is His. In this example we see the inhabitants of the coast lands of Magog and Magog itself will be destroyed because of their actions against Israel (Ezek. 39:6). Are you taking care of you own nail?

In Zephaniah we read of the judgment against north Assyria, which included the city of Nineveh. They declared, “I am it, and there is none besides me.” (Zeph. 2:15) They nor you can declare, I am it and get away with it. God is a jealous God and will not tolerate carelessness with your obedience to Him. Do you feel your nail coming out?

In Isaiah 32:9 we see where the women of Jerusalem had become complacent. Their complacency had allowed them to become very careless. So careless that their livelihoods would be taken away. Do you have a job today? Do you want one tomorrow? Are you gambling that you do not need God in your life and that you can do everything by yourself. Have you become very careless with the nail God has placed in your hand?

Let's look at one last example found in Acts 18:12-17. You can become careless with your nail when you choose to sit by and do absolutely nothing as did Gallio in the case of Paul. Is God calling you to action and you are choosing to sit by idle thinking He does not notice? Remember that God is omnipresent. He sees and knows all. You cannot go unnoticed and He will find you out.

There is yet another nail that needs to be mentioned here. Not just one nail, but three. Jesus Christ was not careless when it came to His nails. He bore each one and He did it for YOU! We are asked to take care of one nail. To make sure it stays obedient and faithful to one God and one Savior. How are you doing with your nail?

Are You Believable?

Are you an individual that others can believe in? Belief is a very strong connection and not one to be taken lightly. It involves trust, confidence and action. It is a trait that is learned and practiced to keep it in check. All of us put our trust in someone or something, therefore it is important that you know you can be believed in order to be heard. Communication is imperative for belief.

Effective communication is essential in business and in everyday life. The most powerful communicators reach not just our minds, but our hearts. They win our trust. Are you this type of person? If so, GREAT! If not, you can be. Anything worth having is going to take some effort on your part. Are you willing to put forth the effort and energy it will take to be believed? There are not many feelings to be experienced in this lifetime over that of being able to win the trust of others.

A starting point is going to be belief in yourself. If you do not believe in yourself, then how will others believe in you? Hundreds of thousands of people fail to live the life they have always wished to live. They fail to realize their ambitions and give up on their big dreams as soon as they encounter the first obstacle. One of the strongest causes for this attitude is that they do not believe in themselves. Believing in yourself is all about being sure that you are going to do whatever you want even if others are against you. Usually, when you decide to take a big challenge or to do something that people failed to do you will find that everyone is putting you down or saying that you will not be able to do it. Been there and done that too, right?

Under the pressure of criticism some people start to doubt their own abilities and eventually give up. The few people who manage to believe in themselves and who continue moving along the path they've chosen are the ones who succeed. Surely you know of others that you have believed in and trusted and now see their successes in life. What made you believe and trust in them? It is apparent that they had the ability to convince you that what they were going to do would happen. In other words, they had the confidence in their abilities to see their objective through and at the same time take you with them because of your belief in them as well. You can be just as convincing in your actions as them, if this is what you want. 

 

You need to stop thinking that other people's opinions are so important and start building self-confidence in your own judgment. No one ever succeeds without being rejected. If people think that you are wrong or that your efforts will yield no results then just go against them by either convincing them with your point of view right away or by waiting until they believe in you by force when they see your success. How many times has this happened in your life with those you didn't believe? How many times after seeing their success you had wished you believed them? Too many times to count, right? Happens to all of us! The importance is learning from those experiences.

Belief in God is where ultimate belief begins. If you truly believe you can do all things through Christ (Phil. 4:13), then you will be a success and you find that others will start believing in you as well. Living a Christian life is as true as one can get on this earth in order to have others put their trust and dependence in you. People need to see your faith and they need to see your works too (James 2:17). You don't want to be dead in your efforts before you ever begin.

Did you know that even Jesus had a hard time getting others to believe in Him? His own family didn't believe and this could be your situation today. This morning we will see what Jesus did to make them believe so we can follow His example for our lives. It is important that others believe us if we are going to be effective servants in His earthly kingdom.

Prospecting

When you hear the term prospecting, what first comes to mind? Is it gold, silver or diamonds? If you are a sports enthusiast, it could be baseball, basketball or football, in which recruiters would be prospecting for new players. Either way the term is usually associated with mining of some sorts in most cases.

What does it actually take to prospect for one of these valuable minerals? Let's take gold for instance. First you need to know a little about it. There are two kinds of gold prospecting. Difficult to find is hard rock gold. The flakes are so small they have to be crushed and leached out of the hard rock. The big companies do this kind of mining. The kind of gold most small prospectors search for is called placer gold. There are four ways the gold is distributed in nature. The first is called residual. That is where the vein of gold has weathered out of a cropping and remains "in place" hence the name "placer gold". The second is eluvial. The gold has traveled a short distance from weathering out of the matrix but is not yet in the streams or other water sources. The third distribution is alluvial. The gold has traveled and come to rest in streams and rivers. Usually, being a heavy metal, the gold lies on or near the bedrock. The fourth kind of placer gold is beach placers. Small gold particles from the river make it all the way to the ocean. Wave action produces black sand layers containing fine gold. 

 

Because it's easier most individual prospectors start out looking for flakes and nuggets of free placer gold. It's exciting to find gold and the term "gold fever" is quite accurate once you find your own gold. Some health benefits are getting out in the outdoors, getting some good exercise, plus the value of whatever you might find, gold or not. By the way, here are some very helpful tools that will aid in your prospecting: gold pan, shovel, bucket & maybe a metal detector. If you look in the right places and use the right tools, then you should have success. Having an experienced prospector alongside won't hurt either! 
 

The kind of prospecting we want to talk about here is the prospecting for souls. If a soul has value to you then you should know that the same soul has value to God. Do you have a way to reach these souls? If so, how do you know it will work? Here's how! “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11) If soul winning is a priority in your life, then God will see fit that you will have success. It's a matter of “want to.”

There are thousands of souls needing to be harvested by the Lord, but we have to first plant the seed and do some watering. Just think what would happen to your yard in the Summer time if it never had a drop of water. That's right, it would burn up. A soul that has not obeyed the gospel will have the same result. And to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thes. 1:7, 8) Surely you do not want to be held responsible for someone burning in hell when you had the opportunity to share the gospel with them. Now, today, is the day to make up your mind that you will do your part to help bring at least one person to a saving knowing of Jesus Christ this year by sharing the gospel message with them. To know what the gospel is, in case you have forgotten, just go to 1 Cor. 15 and read verses 1-4. This is the gospel you need to share.  How exciting is this news? Let's get busy starting yesterday!