Self Or Christ? - Who Is On The Throne Of Your Life?

God Centered Theology

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I want to preach a message to you this morning entitled, Sell for Christ, Who is on the Throne? As you can see there in the middle, it says the throne of your life.

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As the bottom left is a cross, and sort of to the middle and to the right there, it says your face here.

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Everybody makes New Year's resolutions. Well, I say everybody. I don't know that we necessarily write them down or make them in our house.

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We have goals every year, but the tradition is you make them and some things you want to try to succeed at or change about yourself over the next year.

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And some research was done in 2014 that said the percentage of Americans who make

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New Year's resolutions is 45%. So we're at, what, 330 million people thereabouts.

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So roughly half of everyone in America makes at least one resolution. You know, that's not too surprising, but the surprising statistic may be that the percentage of Americans who are successful in keeping them is 8%.

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Now, having worked at Food Lion so many years, I can attest to the losing weight part because every year

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January was known as Lean Cuisine Month. Every, especially if you worked in Frozen, every single end cap, every single display was healthy food, losing weight to some degree, something along those lines.

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So I think it kind of fits with the second portion of what I want to share with you. The same research found that the top 10

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New Year's resolutions in order are as follows. Number one, lose weight and get fit.

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Number two, get organized. They should talk to CD because he knows how to be organized so that if they need help with getting organization,

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I can point you to someone or you can come talk to Gina. She's very organized as well. I know because I live with her and I see it every day.

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In fact, you are gonna murder me later. She is insane about taking out the trash and keeping things clean.

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So lately I've been leaving empty water bottles in certain places around the house. I have so much trouble.

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Just to see if she would find them and then put them in the trash. So yesterday I found something was missing.

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I was like, you threw that away, didn't you? She said, I just want things to be clean. Oh, I'm so much trouble.

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Moving on. Number three, learn something new. Number four, eat healthier.

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Number five, get out of debt and save money. Number six, spend more time with family.

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Number seven, travel to new places. Number eight, be less stressed. Good luck with that one.

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Number nine, volunteer more. Number 10, fall in love. I don't,

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I guess if you have this one, you've determined that 2018 is gonna be the year you find somebody and fall in love.

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Okay, that's interesting. Well, all these are good goals, no doubt.

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And if some of these fit into your criteria, I'm certainly not laughing at them. They're certainly great goals to have.

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I just, I think I'm still chuckling about what I'm gonna get in trouble for later.

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Yeah, she's giving me the look now. It's a, you know, my whole afternoon is done now. But if these are one of your goals, these are all commendable, the only thing

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I would offer is that there is one consistent overriding problem with all 10 of them.

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No God. There's no God there. Now, you know, a Christian can certainly take one of these 10 and, you know, do it from a

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Christian perspective with God at the forefront, so on and so forth. I'm not saying that can't be accomplished, but this research that was done was secular research, and the people giving this, these answers, we don't know what their background is, whether they honor

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Christ or not. And I just, I see a consistent theme in that there's not a lot of, in my opinion, what

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I'm saying is that at least one of these 10 should have been what I'm gonna preach about today.

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As Christians, we should have God at the forefront of everything we do, and any of these 10 that we may engage in, while they may be included, would not be the number one priority.

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So it sort of begs the question this morning, in light of all these statistics and in light of all the things that we commonly do at this time of year, what is the best

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New Year's resolution a Christian can make? What is the best

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New Year's resolution a Christian can make? Before we answer that, let me ask you a few other questions.

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Who is on the throne of your life? Is it self, or is it

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Christ? Who should be on the throne of your life?

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Is it self, self, or Christ? Well, the answer to these questions is found in the same verse.

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If you wanna turn your Bibles with me to the book of Galatians chapter two. Book of Galatians chapter two, we're gonna look at verse 20 for the answer to this question and then we're gonna go to the book of John for an example of the answer to this question of who should be on the throne of our life.

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Galatians two, verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ and is no longer

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I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which

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I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

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On the cross, we, those of us who are saved, those of us who have placed our faith and trust in Jesus Christ for eternal life, we were crucified with Christ even though he was the only one that was actually crucified that day.

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Well, there were two thieves with him, but the point remains. This means that when he died, we died.

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He died the death that was meant for us because of our own sin because after all, he had no sin.

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He died for sins that he never committed. Jesus Christ was not only sinless, but he was actually incapable of sinning because he was and is the eternal

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God existing in human flesh or adding human flesh to his deity.

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So it wasn't so much that he paid the price for sins he never committed, but he paid the price for sins he wasn't even capable of committing.

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And if it wasn't for Christ, we would all die in our sins, choosing our sins, and we would receive the just punishment for our sin.

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Therefore, as the verse articulates for us this morning, any life that we now live is not ours.

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For we have been bought with a price, the price being the shed blood of Christ on the cross of Calvary.

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The ransom has been paid and we now belong to Christ. We have gone from being slaves to sin to slaves of Christ.

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Now that terminology is not readily used nowadays. In fact, you will be called all kinds of names for daring to use the terminology slave, but the

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Bible very clearly presents this picture, very clearly teaches this, and whether we wanna use the word or not, whether we want to acknowledge it or not, we are all born into this world slaves of sin.

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Our nature and our will is such that we have the free will to choose, but we only have the free will to choose that which is consistent with our nature.

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And we have a sin nature. So we are born slaves to sin.

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Now, when we are saved, when we are regenerated, when we are brought from spiritual death to spiritual life, we are made a new creature.

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We are given a new nature, a new will, new desires. We now have the power through the

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Holy Spirit of God. It is the Holy Spirit's power working in and through us to now choose righteousness over sin.

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We now desire the things of God and not the things of our old nature. But this life that we now live is because Jesus Christ is our savior.

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Jesus Christ is our master. Jesus Christ is our Lord. He is the only one in the entire universe that has the rightful claim to the throne of your life.

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The only one. We have no claim to that throne because as I've already stated, without Jesus Christ, we would simply live, die in our sins, and spend eternity separated from God.

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So thanks be to God through salvation, through his son, Jesus Christ, we have new life, but that means that our life is no longer ours.

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And we should rightfully consider the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians when he says, I die daily.

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My friends, even though we are now slaves to Christ, I would make the argument, and I have made the argument before from this very pulpit, that the only true freedom in this life is to be a slave of Christ, slave of righteousness.

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The freedom of eternal life, the freedom from the bondage to sin is found in being a slave to Christ, a slave to righteousness.

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And this is because he is the one, as Galatians 2 .20 so rightfully points out, that loved us, that gave himself for us on the cross, so he rightfully should be on the throne of our lives.

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Well, if this is so, and the Bible clearly teaches it, and I would trust that all of you would join me in saying that you rightfully understand this to be true, why do so many

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Christians live like they are on the throne? Why do so many Christians live and operate as if we are the rightful ones that should be living on the throne, not only from the standpoint that we should be on the throne, but then we live daily assuming that we are on the throne?

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Why is this? I think the issue lies in the fact that so many

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Christians put Christ on the throne for their eternal life, but not for their current life.

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Many Christians put Christ on the throne for their eternal life and have no problem with that, but not for their current life.

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The problem is is that this is just simply not what the Bible teaches. God cannot be compartmentalized to maximize our comfort levels.

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I'm okay with Him being my get out of jail free card, which the Bible doesn't teach that's what salvation is, although freedom from the eternity in hell is part of the salvation experience and part of the salvation process, and it's part of the whole point and why

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Jesus came to begin with. But He came because He is King, He is Lord, He is

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Master. He is on the throne right now. He's seated at the right hand of the

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Father. God is on the throne. We can't change that. It is only a matter of whether or not we will recognize it, submit to it, and live in light of the fact that God is on the throne.

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A good friend of mine back home and a fellow ordained preacher of the gospel friend of mine,

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Brother Jim Krieger, once said in one of his sermons that people, and one thing

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I love about Jim is he just has a real good way of putting things where he contrasts one thing with the other and it just really makes you think.

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But he said, people want the salvation of God without having to submit to the

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God of salvation. People want the salvation of God and everything that comes with it without having to submit to the

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God of salvation. So what they essentially want is, as I've already pointed out, they want that get out of jail free card and don't want what comes with what true saving faith is.

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A true saving faith that crucifies self and lives for Christ and Christ alone.

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I've discussed and pointed this out many times and despite what some that I interact with would claim, this is not a works -based salvation model.

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It is simply recognizing what the Bible teaches about what a truly regenerate, truly

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Christ born again person looks like. A truly regenerate, truly saved, truly raised from spiritual death to spiritual life person will produce certain fruits in their life.

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They will demonstrate a change in their life. They say, well Andy, how do you judge that?

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How do you determine that? Well, I do it very simply and I do it the same way when

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I interact with everyone every single time. If someone comes to me and says, they're down their salvation or don't really truly understand or they wanna know, say,

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I just wanna know that I'm saved. How can I know that? I say, very simple.

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Get up tomorrow morning, start with prayer. Tell your Lord and Savior how much you love him, how much you appreciate what he did for you and say,

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Lord, I would want you so badly to reveal to me what your will is for me, not for tomorrow, not for two weeks from now, just for today and then allow your

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Holy Spirit to give me the power to go out and live that today. My friends, if you do that, you're saved.

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That isn't what gets you saved but that's a demonstration that you've been saved because someone that's spiritually lost, that is unregenerate, doesn't care what

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God has to say to them. They have no care or desire or even a will to wanna live out the will of God for their life.

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They love their sin, they want their sin, they wanna have it their way. They have no care or thought of what

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God may want for them. Only a regenerate person could consider the things of God because we have the

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Holy Spirit indwelling us. So if you feel like you've backslidden, if you feel like you've gotten off track, if Satan is trying to tempt you to think that maybe that cross wasn't real or maybe you weren't really saved, my friends, put that out of your mind, settle yourself, humble yourself, pray and talk to your

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Savior and say, Lord, testify to my spirit. Help me know, help me feel and just understand the power of your

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Holy Spirit and help me go out and live for you. Only a saved person has the capacity to do that and that is the difference.

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But people want the salvation of God without having to submit to the God of salvation.

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I would make the argument that someone that simply lives like salvation is a get out of jail free card, there's a high degree of likelihood that they are very ignorant of the ways of God as a

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Christian or they might possibly not be one to begin with. So many people look at, and I hate to use the term religion because I don't believe that what we do is religion, it's just simply life and it's what

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God has revealed about himself and religion carries a lot of baggage with it. But so many people look at religion, quote unquote, as something to get something out of it.

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Sell for Christ on the throne. If you're doing it to get something out of it, you're coming at it from the wrong direction.

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We die to self daily, we put others needs above our own. We serve Christ, we do what he would have us to do.

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It's not about what we want. We can't produce eternal life, we can't produce righteousness.

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The one that did is the only one that has the rightful claim to tell us what to do and to begin with.

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That is why he has the rightful claim to the throne. Well, this is the answer to this question.

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So you know who should be on the throne, who is on the throne? Is it self or Christ? That's the answer.

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Let's look at an example this morning from scripture. Turn your Bibles to the third chapter of the book of John.

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The third chapter of the book of John and we're gonna park here for the rest of the message this morning. I wanna look at an example.

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What to me is one of the best examples of what this looks like. And as we wrap up in a few minutes,

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I'm gonna answer that question. What is the best New Year's resolution a Christian can make?

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John the Baptist had a specific message and a specific mission.

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He knew what he had to do. Whether or not God's will was clear for his life was not in question.

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He knew exactly what he was supposed to do. He knew exactly who he was supposed to be and he did it.

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It is to preach and baptize and make way for the Messiah serving in the capacity as Jesus Christ's forerunner.

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The one who came before him to pave the way. He was able to accomplish this because John the

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Baptist had a singular focus. He wasn't distracted. He didn't go this way, that way, this way, that way.

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Singular focus on the will of God, on his Lord, on his master.

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Not my will but thine oh Lord and he lived it out. John the Baptist is a perfect example of someone who not only understood that God is and should be on the throne but someone that lived like God is on and should be on the throne.

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And this is vitally important my friends because of all the sins we face, all of them.

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You can list a thousand of them, of all of them. The temptation to elevate self at the expense of everything and everyone else is the hardest temptation to overcome by far.

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And you can call it pride, you can call it lack of being humble. It manifests itself in different ways but this idea of self above Christ, self above all else is the hardest temptation to overcome.

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Many well -intentioned Christians turn their backs on their fellow brothers and sisters in a heartbeat to protect self.

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You see it all over the place in so many churches. You see it on Facebook, you see it in social media, you see it in real life, you see it in back channels, you see it on phone calls, you see it in gossip, you see it in so many different ways but it happens so often.

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This also happens and fortunately I don't have this issue so I can say it very confidently knowing that we don't have this problem here but I have seen it in my lifetime but many

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Christians turn their back on pastors the very second they do something they don't like.

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I've had to come in support of some in my life before when this has happened to them but they turn their back on them, they turn their back on each other so quickly when we have been done wrong.

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But what this does is it just simply reveals their true selfish motives to begin with.

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You ever had a friend or someone that hung around you or someone that got into your circle and you just couldn't put your finger on it but you knew something was off?

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Like I just don't feel like this person really likes me but they act like they do and then something happens, the truth comes out and you find out why they were really hanging around you.

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It hurts, doesn't it? My friends, our Savior knows what that's like. Judas ring a bell?

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This is the thing that just fascinates me about scripture. Here's Jesus Christ, the eternal

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God of the universe. He knows everything, he can do all things. He created the universe himself. He knows

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Judas is gonna betray him and he lets him do it anyway. If I were

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God, it is probably a good thing I'm not, I would have wiped him off the face of the planet before he ever opened his mouth.

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How powerful of God do we serve to know you're gonna be betrayed and let that sinful human who wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for you go and betray you anyway?

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Talk about a biblical truth explosion. Now look, we're all friends here.

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We all know what we would do. That self, that anger wells up and I'm gonna show them,

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I'm gonna set them straight, I'm gonna put them in, we all, I mean look, some of us are better at handling those things than others but I think generally speaking, we all struggle with that.

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I think that's fair to say. But John the Baptist, no, he didn't do that.

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How do I know that? Look with me if you will, verse 25. Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John's disciples with a

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Jew about purification. Now notice what it says in verse 26. And they came to John and said to him,

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Rabbi or teacher, he who is with you beyond the Jordan, and he's referencing Jesus Christ at this point or his disciples are, to whom you have testified, behold he is baptizing and all are coming to him.

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Now, did John's disciples have God on the brain or did they have self on the brain?

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They had self on the brain. They saw Jesus as competition. They no doubt were very comfortable enjoying their lifestyle, enjoying whatever it was, whatever attracted them to John, whatever they enjoyed by being part of John's clan or part of one of his disciples, one of his followers.

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They enjoyed their status no doubt, they enjoyed whatever it is that came with that.

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And now they see this Jesus on the scene preaching and baptizing and doing all the things that John has been doing.

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But now everybody's leaving us and they're going and following that guy. That's not good for business.

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Any of you that have ever ran your own business or if you currently run your own business know that paycheck isn't gonna come by some employer, it comes by customers entering your store and buying something or purchasing a service from you.

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And if you see everybody leaving your business and going elsewhere, well at some point the money's gonna run out.

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Now there's certainly nothing wrong with that in the context of running your own business but when you compile that with the way disciples were approaching this situation, you see how that'd be problematic.

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They were strategizing. They go to their leader here and say, John, hello, do you not see what's happening right in front of you?

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Everybody's leaving. We're gonna be out of jobs soon. We're not gonna have anything else to do here. They were only thinking in terms of how it affected them.

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They had no concern for anyone but themselves. The good news is

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John weren't having it. Look at verses 27 and 28. John answered and said, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.

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You yourselves are my witnesses that I said I am not the

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Christ but I have been sent ahead of him. John reminds his disciples in this moment, fellas, this is exactly what

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I told you was supposed to happen. This is exactly what is supposed to happen.

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This is no surprise. This hasn't caught me off guard. This is the entirety of my mission.

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This is the entirety of my ministry. This is exactly what I've been put on this earth to do.

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There's no competition for the throne in John's mind. Jesus was not competition in John's mind, he's

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Lord. This world is so programmed by default to promote self that it leaves them in utter shock when someone dares to promote someone other than self.

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You wanna shock your friends? You wanna shock this community? The next time you're in a situation like this, promote someone other than yourself and let yourself, even if it means you take personal injury by word or deed, all in the effort to let someone else be elevated other than yourself, you will see jaws drop to the floor in utter shock.

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I imagine that John's disciples at this moment, their jaws were on the ground in utter shock at what was happening right before them because we are naturally programmed to elevate self.

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Who does that? Who does that in 2017, which is now going to be 2018 tomorrow?

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Who in their right mind, it's all, hey, look, I gotta get mine, right? I gotta get my money, get my status, get what is due to me.

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I don't care if anybody else fails. I don't care if everybody else fails. I'm gonna get mine.

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That's the mentality. That's how we operate. Not John. John, who does that?

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They'd have to be crazy, right? No. I'll tell you who does something like that.

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Somebody who knows who is supposed to be on the throne. Somebody who knows who is supposed to be on the throne.

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In John's mind, there was no question as to how to proceed. John had no reason to doubt what should be done because in John's mind, there was no room for self.

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There was only room for one person on the throne of his life and that is Jesus Christ.

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Let's finish up this morning by reading verses 29 and 30. John continues and he says, he who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.

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And watch this. So this joy of mine has been made full.

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John's joy in life is full and complete by serving self? No. By serving

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God. Crucifying self, elevating God, serving him.

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And then he finishes with what is one of the more well -known verses in all the

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Bible when John says, he must increase, but I must decrease. In John's mind, there was only one game plan.

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Christ must increase, John must decrease. In our lives,

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Christ must be increasing and we must be fading into the background. For as we've already noted in Galatians 2 .20,

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we have already died. We have been crucified with Christ. We live for Christ, he is on the throne, not us.

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Instead of promoting self, we must promote Jesus. And here's what

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I wanna leave you with this morning. If you've heard nothing else, let this stick into your mind and let this be your singular focus as you move into 2018.

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Whoever is on the throne of your life is who others will see when they view your life.

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It's God's honest truth. Whoever's on the throne of your life is exactly who others will see when they view your life.

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Will others see Christ in you or will they see self? So what is the best

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New Year's resolution a Christian can make? It is simply this, let