Transcript Sunday Sermon

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10:30 AM
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Ephesians 5:19
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing and making
melody in your heart to the Lord
Learning to
Love
Ourselves
The Need to Love Yourself
If you do not love yourself:
You cannot love your neighbor – James 2:8
You cannot love your spouse – Ephesian 5:28
You cannot seek wisdom – Proverbs 19:8
Successful Christians must love themselves
The Need to Love Yourself
Why we don’t “love” ourselves:
We set standards we cannot meet
Worldly pursuits
Physical characteristics that change
Impossible spiritual standards
The Need to Love Yourself
Why we don’t “love” ourselves:
We set standards we cannot meet
We pursue empty means to satisfy
Chasing “happiness”
Pursuing vanity
The Need to Love Yourself
Our dilemma:
We do not understand what “love” means
We do not know how to “love”
What is Love?
Love is NOT:
An emotion
An intense liking
An acceptance
What is Love?
Therefore, loving ourselves is not:
“Feeling” good about ourselves
Liking everything about ourselves
Accepting ourselves
What is Love?
In the Bible love is:
Sacrifice
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should
not perish, but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
What is Love?
In the Bible love is:
Sacrifice
Obedience
"If you keep My commandments, you will abide
in My love, just as I have kept My Father's
commandments and abide in His love.”
John 15:10
What is Love?
In the Bible love is:
Sacrifice
Obedience
Action
But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in
need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of
God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or
in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:17-18
What is Love?
Treating
others
well,
it
turns
out,
is
the
fastest
path
In the Bible love is:
to a healthy self-esteem. If you dislike yourself, stop
Sacrifice
focusing on your negative qualities. We all have
Obedience
negative
qualities. There's nothing special about
your negativity,
Action I promise you. Focus instead on
caring for others. Because the more you care about
others, I guarantee the more in turn you'll be able to
care about yourself.
– Dr Alex Lickerman, Psychology Today
What is Love?
We love ourselves NOT by pursuing our happiness,
but by seeking the best in God and in others
This makes us the best we can be of ourselves
Loving yourself = being the best you can be
Learning to Love Yourself
Step 1: By learning to serve others
he who loves his wife loves himself.
Ephesians 5:28b
By this we know that we love the children
of God, when we love God and keep His
commandments.
1 John 5:2
Learning to Love Yourself
Step 2: By learning to forgive
"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you
do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will
your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Matthew 6:14-15
Learning to Love Yourself
Step 3: By learning to change
Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the
new self, which in the likeness of God has been created
in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Ephesians 4:23-24
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the
will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and
perfect.
Romans 12:2
Learning to Love Yourself
Step 4: By learning to move forward
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold
of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies
behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I
press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward
call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many
as are perfect, have this attitude;
Philippians 3:13-15a
Loving Yourself
You must love yourself to effectively serve God
Loving yourself is NOT a feeling or self gratification
To love yourself you must lose yourself in God
Whether you love yourself is your choice alone
What is the best you can achieve?
Mark 8:36
"For what does it profit a man to gain
the whole world, and forfeit his soul?”
How you can preserve your soul:
To Hear and Believe in Him…………… Mark 16:16
Confess Jesus as Lord…………….…..John 20:28
Repent of our sins…………………..….Luke 24:47
Be baptized in water………………..Matthew 28:19
Remain faithful until His return……Matthew 24:13