Good News for Selfish People! — Paul Lloyd

Amen, Lord, it's a privilege to be in Your service, in Your army, in Your Kingdom. You're the best ruler, the best king, the only one who's worthy to serve, Lord. Everything else is counterfeit, everything else is lesser.

God, we want to hear the word of the King this morning. We want to hear those marching orders. Jesus, we want You to speak to everyone here. And Lord, I just yield to You, my self. I ask You to use me as a vessel.

Lord, I pray that You would take my scattered thoughts and bring them into a place under the control of Your Spirit, that we would see You truly today, God. We want to see You, Lord. Nobody came here to see me today, but we've all come to see You.

And may You shine, may You captivate us, may You dazzle us with Your person, with Your amazing being. Oh, God, open our eyes to see You today. Deliver us from low seeing, low views of You, God. Open the eyes of our understanding, I pray, that we might truly see God and have Your way and accomplish Your purposes, I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Do I look excited? I'm excited to be here today. Do you know why? I've got some good news. Do you like telling good news? It's fun to tell good news. And I'm excited about these things I would like to share with you because I believe they're life-changing.

And they've changed my life. The title of the message today is called, Good News for Selfish People. If there's anybody here who's not selfish, you can get up at this time and leave. I don't think anybody's getting up.

The Selfish Mind and the Joy of Serving Others

We're all selfish, aren't we? Don't we all face that? In fact, I think self is probably our worst enemy. Worse than Satan. It feels that way in my life. You know, I can't blame the devil near as much as I can just blame myself.

Of course, he's tempting, he's working through self. But this is good news for selfish people. You know, I've noticed something about my children. You know when they're the happiest? It's when they're not thinking about themselves.

When they're serving, when they're in a mode to help out and serve and bless others, they're so happy. And conversely, when they're in a mode of, I'm not happy about something. I didn't get my way. I wanted more.

You got more than I did. I don't like the way that things feel right now. When they're focused on self, that's when they're the most miserable. You know, and as a father, when I see them in that mode, you just kind of feel sorry for them, don't you?

Because it's a hard way to be. Self is a hard taskmaster. And when he's in control, things don't go well. And so when I look at my children and I see them in that, I'll often talk to them about that. You know, as parents, we need to help them to see that.

Oftentimes, to show them, you know, do you see that you're not happy right now? Why do you think it is that you're not happy? What are you sad about? What is it that makes you feel so bad? And to try to steer them to see that, you know, and I'll even remind them sometimes and say things like, you know, I miss that person that I saw earlier this morning or yesterday serving the Lord and, you know, serving the family.

And I miss that person. Do you? You were so happy. You were so free. The Book of Romans says it this way. It says, the carnal mind is death, but the spiritual mind is life and peace. The selfish, carnal mind is death.

The spiritual mind is life and peace. I was getting ready for this message yesterday and I was thinking I really wanted to share a message or I felt the Lord wanted me to share a message about the ten virgins.

You know, the five were foolish, five were wise. And I was going down that road. I really feel like, I feel impressive. We're living in days of, I don't know, the last days or days of tribulations are coming and so forth and that's when Jesus spoke those words.

And I have a burden that we be, have oil in our lamps. And so I was preparing that way and thinking that way and I just, at one point, I just felt, I don't know, I just didn't feel like it was coming together.

So I prayed. I said, God, I need you to give me the word, you know, guide me. And he brought my focus to this subject of the good news for selfish people. How to deal with self. How God's method of dealing with self.

The Gospel as Good News for Sinners and for the Self-Life

You know, the gospel is, the word gospel means good news, right? We've heard a lot this morning already about the good news that Jesus died for our sins. He paid the penalty. All the things that you and I did, if we would add them up in this room today, if we could somehow see all the filth, the dirt, the garbage, it would be an awful pile, wouldn't it?

If we could look at that mess, a stinking, awful pile of sin and self. Praise the Lord, Jesus paid for all of that. And when we get born again, that's the first thing, I think that's the first revelation we have, is the good news means I don't have to go to hell for all I did.

I don't have to bear the penalty. Somebody bore it for me. But the good news for selfish people goes a little bit deeper than that. See, all that pile of garbage came out of self, didn't it? Right? Came out of the lust of the flesh.

And self, living for self. And praise God that it's forgiven. But what about after I'm saved? What is your view of the Christian life? Are you like me? My view of the Christian life after I got saved was, praise God my sins are forgiven.

Now I'm going to do my best to live for God. And I'm not going to do those things anymore. Well, there's a problem with that. And the problem is called self. Something's got to happen to self. And you have probably discovered, like me, that my best intentions just don't cut it.

My best efforts don't make it. I still did the things I used to do. Like Paul said, the things I would, I don't do. And the things I don't want to do, I end up doing. Who is going to deliver me from the body of this death?

I want to talk to you about the good news for that today. I want to talk to you about the good news for that today. See, it's one thing to, I think Zach Coonan said it years ago when he was here, it's one thing to mop up the mess.

You know, he said that they have people who are insane. One of the tests of whether they're sane now, they put them in a room with the tap running and it's running over the sink. And they give them a mop to clean up the floor.

And they can tell whether they're thinking right if they turn off the tap. If they don't turn the tap off and they just keep mopping up the floor, they know that there's a few things missing still, right?

Because you can keep mopping up the floor forever. The tap is going to keep running, the water keeps going, and you're never going to end that thing, right? But someone whose mind is there, they say, okay, wait a minute.

This water is coming over the sink, down on the floor, I'm mopping it up. If I don't stop that thing there, I'm never going to stop mopping. So, if he turns the tap off, they say, okay, he's coming out of it.

I don't know how true that is that they actually do that, but it makes sense to me. So, many people live their Christian life with a mop. And maybe they don't even realize that there's a tap that can be turned off.

And so it's the continual mopping up of the mess. Oh, I did it again. There it goes again. I didn't want to do it, but I did it. And it seems like the Christian life is just mopping up the mess. And that's not very good news.

The good news is you can turn off the tap. How are we going to do that? That's what I want to share today. I want to share God's help here. Isn't sin the thing that discourages us in the Christian life?

Right? Isn't that the thing that gets us down when we fail? God wants us to learn how to get the tap turned off. I'm not saying we'll be perfect. Sinless perfection. But it's a growing process of Jesus Christ being more and more in control of our life.

And less and less of the mop up. What would it be like if all of God's servants were joyful? Victorious? Wouldn't that be a wonderful advertisement for Him? I'm afraid sometimes I'm not a real good advertisement for my Father.

Somebody might look at me at certain moments and say, wow, that's the way His God treats Him. I'm not sure. Well, I don't want to be that way. If you ever go to Washington, D .C., there's a museum there you really should go to.

We just happened to stumble on it. We wanted to go to the White House, but we couldn't get in. You've got to plan that well in advance. So we went to this White House museum a few blocks away. That was a museum about the workers at the White House.

And it had this history of all these people who worked at the White House. Cooks. Carpenters. Painters. HVAC people. You name it, go down the list. Cleaners. And they lifted up the fact that these are like regular people, but they had the opportunity to work in the White House.

In one sense, in a way, the President sort of come and go. But these people stay there for like 20, 30, 40 years. Here comes the new President. Well, okay. That's great. We've been here for 20 years already.

There's a certain sense of camaraderie among these people, and there's a sense of the honor of their job. I do carpentry work and so forth. After looking at that museum, we went to the back entrance there.

They have like a gate and things you have to go through. I saw a pickup truck going through there. It looked like a carpenter with his pickup truck. I just imagined myself in that pickup. I thought, that would be pretty wonderful to go to work in the White House every day.

Where do you work? I work in the White House. Really? They do it all the time. They're painting the White House always. It doesn't stop. It's just a continual thing. They're continually restoring this, that, and the other thing.

I'm sure those people really feel honored that they get to serve at the White House. Don't you think so? I guarantee you. They're probably pretty proud of it. Isn't that the way we should feel about serving the Lord?

Right? It's a get-to. Like I said, one of the things that robs us of that get-to is when we fail, when we sin, when self has the ascendancy and Christ does not. And so we're not excited about the Christian life.

It doesn't feel good. It feels like, why don't I have victory? I thought it was supposed to be so wonderful. And I'd like to share this message today to hopefully make us more excited about serving Jesus.

Make us more victorious in our life. And I believe that there's some keys here that can do that. Let's turn to Matthew 16. This is a really familiar story. Jesus wanted to know what people said about Him.

Who do people say that I am? And 14, they said, some say you're John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah, so one of the prophets. And then He said to them, but who do you say I am? And Peter makes this wonderful confession.

He said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. That was an amazing revelation. Jesus said in the next verse that you're blessed, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but My Father which is in Heaven showed you that's who I am.

And He went on to say, and I say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock will I build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And I'll give unto you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.

Peter was feeling great at this time, wasn't he? Wow. That was a great commendation of Him and of His faith. But then we all know the story right after this. It says, from that time forth began Jesus to show to His disciples how that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day.

And Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him saying, Be it far from you, Lord. This shall not be unto you. He said, Lord, kind of in putting my own words over my dead body, it's not going to happen. They won't do it.

I won't let them do it. And I believe Peter right here is a picture of flesh. Okay? He's operating in the flesh. He's operating according to human understanding. This is my friend Jesus. He's the Messiah.

I'm not going to let them touch Him. There's no way. He didn't understand the mystery of the Gospel at this time. Jesus was trying to tell him that. He said, I'm going to go here to Jerusalem. I'm going to suffer.

They're going to kill me. And I'll be raised again. But Peter didn't get it. And he began to rebuke Him. No way. Jesus turned and said to him, Get behind Me, Satan. You are an offense unto Me. For you do not savor the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Peter thought he was defending God. He thought he was doing the right thing. I'm going to protect you, Jesus. I'm going to keep you from these awful people doing these bad things to you. Jesus said, Get behind Me, Satan.

You don't understand, Peter. They're going to do that stuff to Me. It's the very means of your salvation and the means of saving the world. And what I want to draw an analogy here today with this is this is the way it is in our own life.

See, God brings us to these places of death where self is going to die. And what do we say? Far be it from Me, Lord. No way. I'm not going to let it happen. I'm not going to die. He brings us to places of death through circumstances.

Maybe it's a job. Maybe it's work. You've got a boss who's got problems and he's making your life difficult. God brought you there. Do you believe it? Do you believe it or not? Is our life under His control?

Is everything that comes into our life something that God has allowed? Does God want to use everything in our life to accomplish His purposes? You're not too strong on it. You're not too sure about that.

He can use some things, but no, He's not going to use that thing in the back of my mind that I'm thinking of right now. God wants to use everything in our life. There's no accidents. But we don't think it's God.

We're like Peter and we want to get protected. Lord, don't let it happen. Don't let this bad thing happen to me. It doesn't feel good, God. I need to get out of here. I look back at my own life, you know.

I prayed a prayer 16 years ago. I'd been a Christian for almost 15 years. And I was sick and tired of living a carnal, defeated life. Because that's what it was. Half the time I wasn't sure if I was saved or not.

And the other half wasn't much better. And I just realized there's got to be something better than this. And so I prayed at a youth Bible school. I said, God, do whatever You need to do in my life. I want to be filled with Jesus Christ.

I want to be a servant. I want to have victory. I'm tired of living this way. And I really meant it. Two weeks later, I got sick. I totally forgot about my prayer by that time as far as relating it to sickness or anything.

I got sick. Some of you were here then. You know that I was really sick. I was kind of chronic fatigue type of thing. I couldn't function very well. I only worked five or six hours a day. I was just always tired.

And I didn't see how God could be in that. That was not what I ordered. That was not what I wanted. I remember just praying over and over, God, heal me. Show me what I need to do. I'll be a vegetarian.

I'll be a this or a that. I'll change this. So I did. We did all these things. Four children. Some of the older ones remember that. And I did it to try to get better. But it didn't seem like a lot worked.

And I really didn't think God was in this at all. It felt to me like death. And literally, I thought maybe I would die. You know, looking back now, I say God answered my prayer. He gave me what I asked for.

He saw where I was at. I want to walk in victory. I want to have Jesus be my life. He said, alright, son, I've got some good medicine for you. Here it is. He showed me I can't do anything. I couldn't heal myself.

And I couldn't change myself. I was stuck. And so one of the things that happened through that was I finally had to reach a place where I just said, okay, God, you know what? I'm yours. You can do with me as you see fit.

Change me. He used other circumstances in the midst of that. I felt like people didn't understand me. You know, when people are sick like that, a lot of times people don't understand. Especially people who never got sick.

They're like, what's the matter with you? You know, come on. You look fine. You look healthy. You know, it's all in your head. And I felt misunderstood. Of course, Satan was heaping condemnation on me too, but I didn't feel understood.

And I began to realize, God began to show me the way I was. You know what? The way you feel, people are thinking about you, guess what? That's the way you've been thinking about other people. And it began to do something in my heart to make me sorry.

And to make me feel like, and make me pray, God, change me. Take out that criticism. Take out that judging of other people. All I want is mercy. God, all I want is mercy. And I don't know, if I hadn't gotten sick, I don't know how I would have learned that.

I don't wish sickness on anybody. And sickness isn't the only way God can do that. But one thing I learned through that, I hope I learned it, I'm sure I'll have more tests in my life, is that God knew what He was doing.

He was answering my prayer. He was saying, if you want Jesus in your life, self has got to go. The two don't mix together. Jesus can't live through you if self is in control. Let me just say something about self.

When I say self, the self life, I'm not talking about your personality. I'm not talking about the certain things you like to do or the food you like. Those are part of self. But what I'm talking about is sinful self.

Self will, in other words, my way instead of God's way. That's really what I'm talking about. You're not going to change those other things. God made you in certain ways, and that's good. So we're not talking about an annihilation of self where you just become this unrecognizable thing that you're not allowed to like.

It's like the sister shared. Sometimes we think that if there's something I really like, then God's going to take it away from me. Well, sometimes He does do that. But you know what? A lot of times, the things He puts in us that we like, He doesn't want us to get rid of.

He gave those likes to us, and it's okay. In the right place, in moderation, and so forth. But we're so afraid that God is going to take away, is going to give us, we're going to ask Him for a fish, and He's going to give us a snake.

Maybe I'll say it that way. Right? Has anybody ever felt that way or done that? See, Peter looked at this situation here of Jesus going to die, and to Peter it looked all bad. If they kill Jesus, He's not going to be with us anymore.

He's the Messiah. We can't let this happen. But in reality, that needed to happen so Jesus could be with them all the time and be with us. Right? Look at what He says here. Now, I want to tell you some of the definitions of these terms in this next saying.

He tells Peter, Get behind Me, Satan. And then He said to His disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it.

For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his own soul? You know, I looked up these couple words in here. I like to do that when I'm studying especially.

I thought, okay, what does it mean when He says deny? He says, If any man comes after Me, let him deny himself. I looked this up in the Greek thing. It says, listen to this, To deny utterly. To disown.

If anybody comes after Me, he needs to disown himself. That hit me. To affirm one has no acquaintance or connection with someone. If you want to follow Jesus, you need to affirm that you have no connection or no acquaintance with self.

And again, I'm talking about sinful self. Self will. My way. That old person who did all that self stuff. Jesus says, if you want to be My disciple, you've got to renounce him. Disown him. Say, he is no longer in My family.

He's no longer Me. He's no longer part of Me. That's what Jesus said you have to do if you're going to follow Him. You have to deny utterly. It's a different word than is used in some places where Peter denied Jesus.

That type of thing. This is a different word. This word is a strong word that says you've got to deny utterly. Repudiate. Renounce. That self that was in control of your life. That self that led you to go your own way.

Do your own thing. Sin. And I say to you today that that self is your greatest enemy and My greatest enemy. You believe that? That's our greatest enemy. And I need this message today. I'm not just talking to you.

I'm not speaking down to you. I'm talking to Myself. I need a reminder continually this is the Christian life. If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself. Let him renounce, disown, affirm that he has no acquaintance or connection with Him.

I wonder how many of us did that this morning. Can we do that? Is that possible? Do you believe that's possible? I want you to think about your biggest struggle in self. I know that all of us have struggles, issues.

Think about it. Jesus said it's possible to disown, to affirm that you have no acquaintance or connection with that thing, that part of you. To forget oneself, to lose sight of oneself and one's own interest.

See, that is the true Christian life. That's where the joy of the Lord is flowing out of our life is when we're not thinking about ourself. When we're serving others like I told you about my children.

When you're serving someone else, that's Jesus living through you. When you're focused about how bad the situation is or what I wish I had, now you're in the self mode. Let's go on here. Jesus said to His disciples you have to deny yourself.

Take up your cross. That's death right there. And follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. Jesus said if you're going to save your life, you're going to lose it. If you're going to be one of these people that just, you're going to hang on to your own way.

I'm going to keep my will. I'm not going to do what Jesus said. I'm not going to yield to the Holy Spirit. I'm not going to follow the Word of God. I'll do it where it pleases myself. I'll do it where it doesn't hurt so bad.

If you're going to be one of those kind of people, Jesus says you're going to lose your life. He will keep his life. He's just going to say it's got to be my way, Lord. Yes, I'm glad you're willing to forgive sins.

I'm glad you're my God, but I've got to do it my way. That's not what Jesus said here. He said whosoever will save his life shall lose it. And whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall save it. So I thought I want to look up what it means to lose your life.

I looked up that word. Very interesting. It says to lose your life, it means to destroy fully, to put entirely out of the way, to render useless, to declare that one must be put to death. That's what Jesus said.

Whoever will destroy it fully, put it entirely out of the way, render it useless, declare that it must be put to death. He's going to keep his life. He's going to find it. He's going to save it. But the person who insists that I can't do that, Lord.

That's too hard. That hurts too bad. This isn't what I wanted. You're going to lose out. See, the Christian life is about dying and being reborn. The Christian life, Hudson Taylor put it this way, it's about an exchange.

It's supposed to be an exchange. I get to change in. I get to exchange this old rotten self, this old miserable being that's caused me so much trouble, and I get to exchange that for Jesus living in me.

That's really what the Christian life is. Isn't that good news? Maybe some of you are new Christians and you haven't experienced yet how bad the flesh and self is. But someday you will. I'm sure there's other people here today who may be wrestling and struggling with how does this Christian life work and why do I feel defeated and why can't I get victory?

I want to tell you the good news today. That is the Gospel. You get to change that in for Jesus. But you've got to do it. Some of you were at the wedding the other week. I shared a little incident there.

I had a daughter. I didn't feel good about in my own self about my daughter leaving my home. I really love my daughter. It didn't feel good. It's like, wow, I'm going to lose out. I had these bad feelings and I'm going to have a message tomorrow so I need to get ready.

I'm struggling with all these bad feelings inside. And I also knew it was right and I was excited about it. But you know what I mean. There's that mixture of emotion. And so I went down. I was talking to the Lord about it.

I sort of told Him how I felt. This is how I feel, God. You just tell God how you feel. Don't think you've got to make a great face for Him. Talk to Him. Give it all to Him just like it is. He can handle it.

He's really strong. He's not going to shake Him. He's not going to make Him feel bad. So go ahead and tell Him. And you know what, I heard this little boy say to me, you know, isn't that kind of selfish?

Aren't you being selfish? Well, it just hit me, like, boom, right in. It was like, well, of course. The reason I'm feeling this way is I'm being selfish. I'm going to miss out on that blessing that I used to have every day.

And now, you know, I'm going to have it not so often. And you know what I could do? Because I know what the Gospel is, I could say, Jesus, take that away from me and give me Your attitude right now. And guess what He did?

I came up to the family, I said, I got the victory. I didn't know I had defeat before that. But I came up and I said, I got the victory. I am excited. It's going to be a great day. And I'm going to shoot forth my arrow.

And that's what I'm talking about. We don't have to carry the baggage. We don't have to let self dictate how we feel, what we do. When we're in those moments, when we have those feelings, when we're tempted with that sin, that's the moment to cry out to Jesus right then.

Say, Lord, there's too much of self. What can You take over now? And that is the Christian life. It's not a waiting for God to just change me someday. You know, I know there's victory someday. I know that there's grace.

There must be somehow for victory. It's right now, today, right in this moment is the time that I can have the victory. That's the only time I can have it. And in that moment, when you call upon the Lord, whosoever shall call upon the Lord, what?

Shall be saved. Somebody said it, I think, earlier. Salvation, Gretel said it. Salvation isn't just the one-time initial thing. We've got to be saved all the time. I've got to be saved today. I've got to be saved tomorrow morning when I get ready to go to work, you know, from self, from the devil.

This is the good news. This is the Christian life. This is what God offers. It's not rocket science. And yet, it seems so hard to grasp it. You know why? Because we think we still have some strength. And so, God's agenda and program is to bring us down to zero.

Bring us down to the zero place where we don't feel like we have anything anymore. Then all of a sudden, that exchange looks pretty good. You mean you'll take my zero and you'll give me my hero, Jesus?

It's a deal. Peter wanted to keep Jesus from dying on the cross. If he would have succeeded, the Gospel would have failed. We do the same thing. We're just like Peter. Lord, this will not be so. I mean, when I got sick like that, I was rebuking the devil.

Satan, in Jesus' name, I rebuke you. Get out of my body. I'm a child of God. Jesus, by His stripes, I'm healed. But I did all these things to try to help. I wonder how God felt when He saw me doing all that stuff.

Not that we shouldn't rebuke Satan, but God was in it. And do you know I thank God for that? I thank Him. I look back and I say, Lord, I don't wish I ever threw that again. I don't wish that on anybody, but I thank You for what You did.

Don't kick against the prince. Don't kick against what God's doing in your life. The only moment of surrender that you have is now. And I know, I guarantee you, in this room with all these people here, there's stuff in our lives that needs to be surrendered today.

Give it to Him. Give it to Him. This thing that you don't like, this thing that's not working out the way you want it, can you accept that as God's provision for you right now in terms of He's allowed you to go through this.

He's brought you to this place. Surrender to God is one of the most difficult things to do in all the world. Because we're afraid if we surrender to God, what I get back might be worse than if I hang on to what I got.

We went to Maine last weekend and on the way, one of my children had a Bible. And we had all these water bottles, you know, with us to drink water. One of them spilled and the Bible got wet. And they were really struggling with that.

You know, my Bible is soggy. It's wet. Now it's going to be all crinkly when it dries out. They were very down. It was a difficult battle to have a good attitude about that. So I'm sitting up in the front seat driving and I'm thinking, you know, the thought just came to me.

I wonder what they would say if I said to them, you know, seeing your Bible all wrinkly and wet like that, it makes me feel like maybe it's time to get you a new one. You know, one of those good Thompson Chain ones like some of your older siblings have.

So I sent that. This little smile cracked out of the corners. What happened? They realized, I'm getting something better. Who needs that old Bible anyway? I'll take a new one any day. You know, this wasn't a bad thing that happened to me.

In fact, this might be the best thing that happened to that Bible, you know. Because Papa said he's going to get me a new one. And as I said that, you know, the Lord just spoke to my heart. How did you feel seeing your child struggle like that?

You know, I didn't feel good. I wanted to help them. I wanted to, I felt sorry for them because they're all wrapped up in this, this, this was one of those, you know, cheap Bibles that, you know, it's not really leather or whatever, but it's sort of, you know what I mean, they're not expensive Bibles.

And I'm thinking, why get so worked up about that? I always give my children one of these really nice ones. You know what, and this is the time it feels like to do that now. What changed was they realized they got something better instead of what the thing that they thought was going to ruin their life.

They got something better out of it. Isn't that what God does? And then he reminded me of my own life. When I got sick, there I was, you know, reliving it through my child. That's how I was. I don't like this.

This is bad. You know, it doesn't feel good. I'm just going to be miserable. And to realize that God was saying, Son, you have no idea what I'm doing. This is going to be the greatest thing in your life.

And I'm afraid that too often that's the way we treat God's work in us. We fight against it. We don't want it. You know, we want to die to self. Yes, Lord, I want to die to self, but no, Lord, I can't handle these situations.