Don't Look At Me
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
Jumbotron reactions! Once the realization comes, the freak-out begins!
With the advent of smart phones and social media, so came the rise of the selfie! In 2013, two young ladies took the field at the CWS in order to take selfies and post a video of themselves getting tackled on social media…their narcissism got the best of them.
Think about our original parents. Creation is in non-stop worship mode, and the serpent comes in and tempts them to maneuver for the spotlight…and they do it!
Again, picking up on last week’s theme, the way out of our narcissistic tendencies is through worship. There is a bleak and disappointing end to those who trade God’s glory for their own.
To seek your own glory is to seek against God’s glory.
He is not amused by our constant attention-seeking.
The earth is the Lord’s and all it contains, the fullness therein. All of creation is called to glory in its Creator.
Will we be the humble who delight in God’s name, or the haughty who delight in our own?
Let’s turn to a familiar passage: Isa.6:1-8. This experience makes Isaiah an ideal candidate to speak on God’s behalf to His people. He knew first hand that there was nothing higher than God, and who better to tell a world full of self-exalters that they are actually not the highest thing in the universe?
Consider the following words of warning from Isaiah:
Isa.2:11-12 “The pride of mankind will be humbled, and human loftiness will be brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted on that day. For a day belonging to the Lord of Armies is coming against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—it will be humbled—”
Isa.2:17 “The pride of mankind will be brought low, and human loftiness will be humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted on that day.”
Isa.13:19 “And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.”
Isa.16:14 “And now the Lord says, “In three years, as a hired worker counts years, Moab’s splendor will become an object of contempt, in spite of a very large population. And those who are left will be few and weak.””
Isa.23:9 “The Lord of Armies planned it, to desecrate all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the honored ones of the earth.” concerning Tyre and Sidon.
Isa.40:5 “And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Isa.42:8 “I am the Lord. That is my name, and I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.”
Isa.48:11 “I will act for my own sake, indeed, my own, for how can I be defiled? I will not give my glory to another.”
Is God petty for making these statements? Because, if you or I said that, it certainly would be!
In 2014, the New Year’s Eve fireworks show in Dubai cost nearly six million dollars. Could you imagine gazing that marvelous display, only to turn around and see a kid trying to sell you a ticket to watch him set off his lone roman candle? This is what God is hinting at to us through Isaiah.
More passages to consider, this time concerning the glory of Jesus:
John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Phil.2:5-11 “Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” When the dust settles on all of the history books of the ages, and all we’re left with is eternity with God, everyone will be found kneeling before Slain Lamb Who Lives.
Col.1:15-18 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.” The ESV says here “that in everything He might be preeminent.” It mean to be possess first place in all things all the time. It means to have a superior status in every domain.
The preeminence of Christ is an unseen (*or unrecognized) reality, but one day it will be undeniable to all. Sin, though, convinces us that our little kingdoms of one are the most pressing reality not only for us, but for everyone around us.
Let’s consider something true about this from a modern and historical standpoint as we reflect on one of the promises of Jesus.
Jn.10:10 “A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” So translations say “full.”
Now, David Naugle, in his book, Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness, makes this note: “Those who have studied the history of the idea of happiness in a Western context have observed how it migrated from its original home in religion and philosophy to the political sphere and, most recently, into the domain of individual experience. Classically, among the great western philosophers and theologians, happiness denoted the state of the genuine fulfillment of human nature that resulted from being properly related as a person to the truth of reality. Educating the soul to conform it to reality, rather than conforming reality to the dictates of the individual soul, was the secret to the happy life. But those days of defining happiness and the good life, and what it means to be truly human, are long gone.”
In summary, throughout history, the full life was found in rightly aligning self with reality. Now, it seeks to be bound up in individual experience.
Vassar notes, “The unwavering focus on self as an attempt to secure happiness is futile, because it is not properly related to reality.”
Let’s state it in economic terms: how much of your life savings, of your retirement nest egg, would you invest on a company you know will go bankrupt?
How often are we investing our life in transient things…things that do not last?