06/02/2008

Defeating Selfishness (continued)

Right so we have been talking about the 2 greatest forces in life LOVE v. SELFISHNESS. I wanna go through a few scriptures re emphasise a few points i have already touched on. Before Satan can be succesful in ur life, he's got to get u to focus in on ur self. U see if u can conquer urself u can conquer ur life. But unitll u conquer that selfish part of urself u will never reign as conquerers in life.

It says in Matthew 22:34-40
Mat 22:34 and the Pharisees, having heard that he did silence the Sadducees, were gathered together unto him;
Mat 22:35 and one of them, a lawyer, did question, tempting him, and saying,
Mat 22:36 `Teacher, which is the great command in the Law?'
Mat 22:37 And Jesus said to him, `Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thine understanding--
Mat 22:38 this is a first and great command;
Mat 22:39 and the second is like to it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;
Mat 22:40 on these--the two commands--all the law and the prophets do hang.'


One of the things we have to recognise is God is giving us a commandment to walk in Love and not a suggestion to walk in love. This is not a suggestion its a commandment like Thou shalt not kill or thou shalt not commit adultery. This is a commandment to walk in the Agape Love of God. Now thats the first thing the second i want to recognise is that EVERYTHING else hangs on this Law of Love. Like we refer to the 10 commandments as the Law of moses, we refer to this Love as the Law of Jesus. And everything in the kingdom of hangs on this Law. It is the fulfillment for everything. That if u walk in the Love of God, towards God and one another it will be good enough to meet the requirements of everything else. But we have to understand that ur faith wont work if ur loves not workin right ur prayer wont work if ur loves not workin right, ur deliverance wont work unless ur loves not workin right. Ur prosperity wont work, nothing works untill the loves workin right. See in my first year of being a christian. I really struggled with my Faith and everything else all that has been mentioned. And it all came down to my Love not being right. Once i had started to correct myself it started to work. So it seemed to me that i needed to focus in on getting my Love workin rite. I needed to get my Love life together.

Now we talked about the two greatest forces in life Love v. Selfishness. When u talk about love, u have to define what Agape Love is, because thats what he is talkin about in the Bible. There is an Agape God kinda love n then there is a human emotional type of love. When the Bible is talkin about Love it is referring to that Agape type of Love. What is Agape type of Love?? Agape Love is the Love that comes from God. It is unconditional Love, it is un-qualifying Love, it is limitless Love, its Love thats not based on what u think, its Love thats not based on ur emotions, its Love thats not based on ur feelings, Agape Love is one sided, meaning it dnt need anythin from the other-side in order for it to accomplish what its supposed to accomplish. Agape Love, dnt need to be loved or treated right in order to Love, Agape Love loves regardless of how its being treated, Agape Love puts up with anything, Agape Love is the Love of God that will Love regardless! and thats the kinda Love Gods talkin about. (Tall order eh!!!)

Thats the kinda love that was poured in our heart in Romans 5:5
Rom 5:5 and the hope doth not make ashamed, because the love of God hath been poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit that hath been given to us.

When the Holy Ghost turned up it put the Love of God in our heart. So we have the potential on the inside of us, to Love as He has commanded us too Love. Because of the Agape Love thats been poured in our hearts, we have the potential to love our enemies.

On the other hand u have this other type of Love, this is the love we most often see in our world today. It is this human emotional type of Love. Human emotional type of Love is basically selfish! Human emotional type of love is not really concerned about anybody but itself. And when its being pleased, then it can love. human emotional love only loves what is lovely, human emotional love is conditional, it has limits, u do have to qualify, it has to be loved and treated right in order to love. So human emotional love is always based on how its being treated. its based on whats coming its way. human emotional love is concerned about self!! Human emotional Love will not be able to love u if u aint treating u right. SO basically thats the kind of Love that always end up in divorce, family seperates, friendships end etc. And Agape Love is the type of Love that will never end up with divorce etc. Now human emotional love is based in selfishness while agape love is based of course in the Love of God.

Lets give again the definition for selfishness just so we can see. Selfishness is seeking ones own advantage, ones own pleasure, and ones own well-being with out regards for others. Thats what selfishness is, its "What about me!". verses the Agape love of God will be in seeking the advantage pleasure and well being of another person with-out regards of self. Like for example, A mother not even regarding how tired she is, what she goes through, ya de ya de ya de........ But she is more interested in her kids. She will feed them and not have anything to eat. Thats real Agape Love of God.

Now i wanna show some scripture applying to these two areas Love n Selfishness so we can look at how we deal with one-another

Joh 13:34 `A new commandment I give to you, that ye love one another; according as I did love you, that ye also love one another;
Joh 13:35 in this shall all know that ye are my disciples, if ye may have love one to another.'


SO our identity is the Love of God, we identify with the Love of God then we are real Christians and deciples because were walking in that Love.

Mat 25:43 a stranger I was, and ye did not receive me; naked, and ye put not around me; infirm, and in prison, and ye did not look after me.

Well obviously this person was in selfishness, because he wasnt really regarding the fact that he didnt have anythin to wear and he was sick and in prison. Selfishness will give u this type of attitude. This is what selfishness will produce.

1Jn 3:17 and whoever may have the goods of the world, and may view his brother having need, and may shut up his bowels from him--how doth the love of God remain in him?

Now notice he is concerned about us. If God has been good to u, and u see ur brother naked, u see him not having anything to eat, u see them without a roof over their head. And he says u shut up ur bowels of compassion for him. He says how can u say u have the Love of God inside of u!. The amplified says:

1Jn 3:17 But if anyone has this world's goods (resources for sustaining life) and sees his brother and fellow believer in need, yet closes his heart of compassion against him, how can the love of God live and remain in him?

You no Gods not requiring us to upgrade ur luxury items. Thats not what he is saying. I think in this world we dnt understand what real needs are. Real needs are not having the things necessery to sustain ur life. And when we see people that dont have the things necessary to sustain life and Gods been Good to US!!! He says how can we even say we have the Love of God in us and we shut up our bowels of compassion. I had to deal with this and i see it in the church. I saw alot of folks passing by folks who are in that very situation. Some-one said they got to be saved. NOT necessarily, i saw somebody who got put out of their house, where they had kids on the side of the road. And my friend who i was with couldnt jus pass by that and God being good to him. SO we pulled over n he talked to the guy n talked to their family n found out what it would take to put em up in a hotel and what was goin on with their stuff n so-on. N he wasnt saved, then my friend gave him the money for the hotel n for food. I was like Wow!!! now thats real LOVE!! And he said to the guy. This is Jesus money that im giving. So then he would know its from God. U know God will let u know what corner u need to stop at, he will let u know who u need to minister too. But u need to be atleast be sensitive to that. And not just ride by in YOUR car going to YOUR house getting ready to eat YOUR food! How can u say the Love of God is in u! And as church folks we do alot of that!!! Haha u didnt feel that in the city of ur soul did ya!!! =P
If the world is too find any compassion anywhere they ought to find it in the CHURCH!!

1Co 10:24 let no one seek his own--but each another's.

the amplified says:

1Co 10:24 Let no one then seek his own good and advantage and profit, but [rather] each one of the other [let him seek the welfare of his neighbor].

WHy are we continuing too see this in the scripture?? Well he says take the attention off urself and put it on somebody else. Why does this keep coming up? Obviously God who's the most purposeful being around. Has a purpose of trying to get ur attention off u and get ur attention on somebody else. What is he after?? You know Gods Agape, U know God is Love. So its not gonna be something that is outside of Love. i cant remember where the scripture is but its says Dnt be afraid to walk in Love. Because God asks this question. When ur walking in Love who can harm u!!!. And He says if ur gonna live long n have a good life then ur tongue isnt speakin rubbish. If ur 100 and u dnt have azny sickness in ur body and u dnt have any things goin on. He said because u got a well tongue. We gotta watch how we use our tongue. Coz if ur tongue is sick then life gonna be sick.

Php 2:4 each not to your own look ye, but each also to the things of others.

the amplified says

Php 2:4 Let each of you esteem and look upon and be concerned for not [merely] his own interests, but also each for the interests of others.

SO he doesnt have a problem with us taking care of some of our own interests, as long as u realise that there are other people who have interests aswell. but also in addition to our interests, look out for the interests of others. This is what God is telling us to do!! ANd he got a reason for it. He got a purpose for it. He got a reason and purpose for us walking free and walking away and being delivered from selfishness that we were all born into. Ive come to realise that we were BORN into selfishness.

RIght im gonna post this Now there still more to come but need to do a bit of studying i hit a little blank spot. well not Blank but need some understanding :P

2 comments:

sansmile said...

Looking forward to next bit!! Christ used 2 words when talking of love in the greek
agape
agapē
ag-ah'-pay
From G25; love, that is, affection or benevolence; specifically (plural) a love feast: - (feast of) charity ([-ably]), dear, love.

and
φιλέω
phileō
fil-eh'-o
From G5384; to be a friend to (fond of [an individual or an object]), that is, have affection for (denoting personal attachment, as a matter of sentiment or feeling; while G25 is wider, embracing especially the judgment and the deliberate assent of the will as a matter of principle, duty and propriety: the two thus stand related very much as G2309 and G1014, or as G2372 and G3563 respectively; the former being chiefly of the heart and the latter of the head); specifically to kiss (as a mark of tenderness): - kiss, love.

We have phileo love for friends and family etc with HIM in us He can draws us to agape love. loving them that hate us..
Sandie

Anonymous said...

Another great blog danio, like mum said lookin forward to next bit, its so great when u have agape love , as you love EVERYONE !!! x