Download Journey Out of Selfishness

Second Timothy 3:1-5
1. But know this: difficult times will come in
the last days.
2. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of
money, boastful, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, ungrateful,
unholy,
3. unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers,
without self-control, brutal, without love
for what is good,
4. traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of
pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5. holding to the form of religion but denying
its power. Avoid these people!
Why More Selfishness
in the Last Days?
1.
Technology providing more
convenience
Advertising creating consumer
culture
The entertainment media portraying
and redefining “normal” living
The prevailing worldview
reprogramming people’s conscience
2.
3.
4.
•
People live in light of what they really
believe
Robert B. Reich
The American Prospect
The great conflict of the 21st century will not
be between the West and terrorism. Terrorism
is a tactic, not a belief. The true battle will be
between modern civilization and antimodernists; between those who believe in the
primacy of the individual and those who believe
that human beings owe their allegiance and
identity to a higher authority; between those
who give priority to life in this world and those
who believe that human life is mere
preparation for an existence beyond life;
between those who believe in science, reason,
and logic and those who believe that truth is
revealed through Scripture and religious
dogma. Terrorism will disrupt and destroy lives.
But terrorism itself is not the greatest danger
we face.
Issue Date: 07.01.04 Quoted in National Review
Portrait of a
Selfish Generation
Vs. 2 “For people will
be… lovers of self”
• Amplified: “people will be lovers
of self and [utterly] selfcentered”
• The Message: “people are going
to be self-absorbed”
Vs. 2 “For people will be
lovers of self”
I had a little tea party
this afternoon at three.
'Twas very small, three guests in
all,
just I, myself and me.
Myself ate up the sandwiches,
and I drank up the tea.
'Twas also I who ate the pie,
and passed the cake to me.
Vs. 2 “For people will
be… lovers of money”
• Message: “money-hungry”
• It is selfish when we think the
only purpose of money is to
acquire things for ourselves.
Vs. 2 “For people will
be…boastful, proud”
• Boastful (pride expressing itself in
words)
– Empty pretender
– Message: “Self-promoting”
• Proud (pride expressing itself in
attitude)
– Haughty, disdainful of others
– Message: “Stuck up”
• This is selfish because it is motivated
by making one’s self appear important
and minimizing the importance of
others.
Vs. 2 “For people will
be… blasphemers”
• ESV: “abusive”
• A related word refers to those
who blaspheme God, but this
word refers to scoffing at and
heaping scorn on other people.
• This is the selfish because it is
attacking the value of other
persons.
Vs. 2 “For people will be…
disobedient to parents”
• Message: “contemptuous of
parents”
• This is selfish because it is
refusing to acknowledge the
parents who gave us life, as if we
owe no one our respect.
Vs. 2 “For people will be…
ungrateful”
• Literally, “Without grace”
• This person is selfish by
pretending to be self-sufficient,
refusing to acknowledge the help
received from others along the
way.
Vs. 2 “For people will be…
unholy”
• NLT: “They will consider nothing
sacred”
• Without the common decency
that even unbelievers have
• This is selfish in that the highest
authority these people recognize
is their own desires.
Vs. 3 “…unloving”
• Unloving
– Literally: “Without natural family
affection”
– ESV: “Heartless”
• These people are selfish in they are
perfectly willing to meet their own
needs at the expense of those they
should be caring for.
Vs. 3 “irreconcilable,
slanderers”
• Irreconcilable
– unbending, unforgiving,
unappeasable
• This person is selfish in flatly
insisting on his own way without
regard to others.
• Slanderers
– NASB: “malicious gossips”
– Related to a word for the devil and
the one from which we get diabolical
• This person is selfish in his
willingness to destroy another
person’s reputation to accomplish
his own goals.
Vs. 3 “without self-control,
brutal”
• Without self-control
– Amplified: “loose in morals and
conduct”
• Brutal
– Without the slightest sensitivity nor
sympathy
• Both too soft and too hard at the
same time: too soft on themselves
(self-indulgent), and too hard on
others.
• Selfish in that the only pleasure he
cares about is his own and the only
pain he can feel is his own.
Vs. 3 “without love for
what is good”
• NAS: “Haters of good”
• “There can come a time in a man's
life when the company of good
people and the presence of good
things is simply an embarrassment.”
—William Barclay
• Selfish in that they resent the
presence of anything that shows
them up; they would rather good
did not exist than to be made to
look bad or feel guilty.
Vs. 4 “traitors”
• Numerous translations:
“treacherous”
• Willing to betray their friends
• Selfish in that they will stop at
nothing to get what they want
Vs. 4 “reckless”
• Headstrong, rash, driven by passion
• Selfish in his unwillingness to
consider the consequences for
himself or for others.
Vs. 4 “conceited”
• Amplified: “inflated with selfconceit”
• Message: “bloated windbags”
• This person is selfish in that he
never bothers to consider the value
or contributions of others in his life.
Vs. 4 “lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God”
• Amplified: “[They will be] lovers of
sensual pleasures and vain
amusements more than and rather
than lovers of God”
• Message: “addicted to lust, and
allergic to God”
The Journey Out
of Selfishness
Luke 9:23
23.Then He said to them all, “If
anyone wants to come with Me, he
must deny himself, take up his
cross daily, and follow Me.
Directional Shift
23.Then He said to them all, “If
anyone wants to come with Me, he
must deny himself, take up his
cross daily, and follow Me.
Rejecting the life based on selfinterest & self-fulfillment.
Amplified: “disown himself, forget,
lose sight of himself and his own
interests”
Drastic
23.Then He said to them all, “If
anyone wants to come with Me, he
must deny himself, take up his
cross daily, and follow Me.
Decisive
23.Then He said to them all, “If
anyone wants to come with Me, he
must deny himself, take up his
cross daily, and follow Me.
Daily
23.Then He said to them all, “If
anyone wants to come with Me, he
must deny himself, take up his
cross daily, and follow Me.