Fearless Friday with Matthew Ruffin: June 9, 2023

hello everybody and welcome back to Fearless Friday sorry it's been to two weeks wait for the net for the last one we just had a bunch of stuff come up Darren's been to a softball game over at Midway high school and um I've been busy with with the work side of um work side of things so but I'm happy to be back here and I'm so happy that you guys decided to tune in to see what the Lord had to say today now um I've actually been thinking about um this message for the past two weeks because this is just something that I felt like that I really really needed to talk about because it's something that a lot of people deal with I mean the majority of the lessons that I the majority of the words that I speak on fear this Friday are things that people are experiencing with and I just want to remind you guys that that's why I'm trying to do what I'm doing is so to help people that are going through this to hopefully find a way to overcome it from what from the word of God for what the Bible says about it now before I before we get into today's lesson I wanted to take this opportunity to pray real quick for me as I give out this lesson and for everybody here that's watching so buy our heads and let's pray real quick their gracious heavenly father I thank you for this beautiful day that you've given us today God for today is called the present day because it always has been always will be and always is a gift from you our heavenly father now Lord please watch over me as I give this lesson today help me to speak it in the way that you want it to be spoken Lord and most of all the people that are here watching today God help them to benefit from this in any way that you see fit and I thank you for all that you do for me on all that you do for them and I can thank you for all that you have done and most importantly what you are going to do for we know that you've got amazing plans for us God and in Jesus precious holy name we pray amen now today I wanted to talk about a little something that we that uh that a lot of people and especially around the youth area deal with and um I'm just going to go ahead and say it it's a little something that we like to call selfishness now everybody everybody knows what that is it's just selfishness is the is when I the way that I like to describe it is it's a way that you put yourself in front of everything else or you wish to take something and keep it to your own benefit and eliminating everybody else's now as you can probably guess that's not really an okay thing as a as a person who's trying to live a life through Jesus Christ because when we take everything for ourselves away from everybody else and um that that takes a toll on everybody and everybody that wishes to wishes to gain what we have if that makes any sense but also think about if you're trying to take God all to yourself yeah imagine that for a second if you're trying to take the word of God and you're trying to live a life through Jesus Christ and try to give it all to yourself but not try to allow to give it to other people so that they may benefit benefit from it that's a very very serious thing and um but today I I found a few things a few stories in the Bible that actually talk about a few people that have actually that have actually been this sort of way and uh the stories the stories behind them so the first first one which I S which um the majority of the people um watching this know about it happens in uh in Genesis of with the story of Cain now um this is Kane's story is an example of someone who had no concern for another person all right here's what hit and here's what this says now Kane reject Kane rejected um I mean God rejected Cain's sacrifice when he and his son a and his brother Abel went to give sacrifices to God now um Cain being jealous of his brother and having no regard for anyone but himself murdered Abel now when God now when God F afterwards asked him where Abel was Cain responds with the question am I My Brother's Keeper from Genesis 4 9. now about this all of us all of us need to realize we are our brother's keepers we are to look out for the interests of others and to esteem others better than ourselves now and we also need to love one another and but uh unfortunately Kane's story didn't play out that way because Kane's selfishness caused him to hate his brother and to kill him that's one example the next one that I'd like to talk about is the story of David now David's story is an example of a selfish attitude which caused him to seek fulfillment in his own pleasures with no regard to the cost of getting those pleasures his selfish pursuit of pleasure caused him to sin with Bathsheba I believe that's that's how you pronounce his name his selfishness Led Led to Lies and Murder in second Samuel 11. God didn't didn't allow his sin to go unpunished he sent the prophets the prophet Nathan to expose the sin of David and to announce God's judgment upon him and like David far too many people today are selfishly pursuing pleasure with no regard for either for either consequences or the impact of their actions upon others so now another example is up here in Ahab now ahab's story is is about one person whose selfishness led him to be concerned about about other things before he was concerned about other people now King apab hold on sorry King Ahab coveted nabos Vineyard and Pa and pouted when he could not get it and this happened in First Kings 21. his Wicked wife Jezebel kills naboth and then gave his Vineyard to her husband as a gift now he was ecstatic because of this he gave no thoughts to he gave no thoughts to naboth or his family he had what he wanted sent out too many people place undue emphasis on things of this world and too little on people meaning that people take too much pleasure pleasure in things like items that they want whether it be a new car um a uh a new console that they may play on a Lego set anything like anything like that anything that you can think of that somebody may want but think but people are a whole lot more important than things and this is what we all have to understand see now because Jesus said one cannot serve God and things from uh and it says that in Matthew chapter 6 verse 24. see now we just we just talked about like three different things that selfishness um selfishness causes in our lives one it oh it makes us put us in front of others having no concern for other people and two it's Lo it allows us to be concerned about items or or other things rather than other people and selfishness also makes us want to do everything that we can to get what we want but not focus on the consequences of getting what we want but um so I wanted to take this last opportunity to bring a to bring a scripture to you guys to uh so that like goes with each one of those stories now just so you guys I just need you guys to know that selfishness is a leads to a sinful life just just to be plain and short because selfishness separates us from the true word of God because we want what we want when we're selfish and we are not and we have zero concern for other people or the consequences of trying to get what we want but uh Philippians 2 chapter 3 I mean Philippians 2 3 says these words it says do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain consent but in humility consider others better than yourselves see now we have to consider other people better than ourselves or we need to consider over people other people and um have be mindful of their needs and wishes rather than ourselves see guys to live a life through Jesus Christ we need to be willing to share to share what we gain especially any any word of encouragement any word from the Bible anything that God places with our hearts and not keep it to ourselves we need we need to live a life throughout and without any selfish action but to give it to other people and consider them and consider them over ourselves if that makes any sense because God didn't send his son to just die for one person because Jesus was not selfish he died so that we could all be saved he died so that we could all go to heaven he died so that we could all be we could all repent from our sins and live a life through him not just for one person so I encourage you today if you ever receive something especially especially the word of God I encourage you to lend it to somebody else consider them above yourself because they may be the ones that need it they may be the ones that need that word so now as you go about your weekend and throughout next week remember this message and I pray that it benefits somebody who watched so let's close out in prayer real quick and I'll be out on and I'll let you guys go on your way so you can enjoy your weekend now dear gracious heavenly father I thank you for this time that I've had here on Fearless Friday I thank you for allowing me to come on here and preach this lesson to the people that are watching this today and Lord God I most importantly will hope that this benefited someone that was watching this stay gone I pray that it that this lesson gets out to even more people who haven't been able to watch it so that they may be able to hear it and that they may be able to benefit from it because this word is yours God this word is all yours and I thank you for that today God now as we go about our weekend help lead God and protect us and all the things that we do and in Jesus precious Holy Name pray amen God bless you guys I was so happy to be back on here but God bless you guys have an amazing weekend