This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions and more audio recordings. So join me now as I do our scripture reading for this morning and then I'll pray for the rest of our service. It's taken from the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 5 verses 14 through 17 should be on the back of your bulletin insert as well as on the screen behind me. Hopefully at least some of you can see around me. This is God's word. For Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who lived should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view that we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, I just thank you even as a key has testified that he is now a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come. I thank you for that work that you do in the lives of those that you call the faith and who put our faith and trust in you. Pray for our services morning that you would just speak through Scott as he brings your word. I pray that you would just illumine the dark places in the hearts, allow us to set aside the distractions that we have brought with us and just be willing to hear from you and just be willing to respond to whatever you prompt us. How you prompt us to respond through your Holy Spirit and I thank you that when you call us to respond it's not in our own strength but it's simply upon in relying upon you and the power of your spirit. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. I just reminder for the rest of the summer as we've been doing the 3rd through 5th graders get to remain here in the service which they are very excited about Dave. You should have pointed out. Yes. I just reminder 3rd through 5th graders and sorry only 3rd through 5th graders if you follow along with that sermon insert and make sure you fill in the little blanks there and come talk to Mrs. Puckett after the service there and she's going to ask you what's one thing you learned. If you can answer that she's got a little candy treat for all those that are following and tracking with that so just a reminder of that. There's still bulletins in the back kids if you didn't grab one on the way in with that. Well the message here this morning I've entitled save from self hell not self help. Self hell. Now I thought I was a little creative and I came up with that thinking that I made up that term I did not unfortunately. Actually it's a whole category it's a category that's a term that can refer to the myriad of self help books that you can read and end up that actually end up making you feel worse than you did before you read them. So maybe some of you have read. You might read a self help book like that that you got done with you're like oh my gosh there was no help there. I feel like I need more than ever. Well people have have a term for that now they call themselves hell books. I'm going to give you some of the popular titles of some of the best self hell books. Here is one think and grow rich. So if some of you aren't rich you've just been lacking one little thing and you can fix that here in just a second. Here is another title the four hour body and uncommon guide your rapid fat loss incredible sex and becoming superhuman. Four hours. I like this one Twitter your way to better life. It's like how's that working for you right? Here's another title Cinderella was a liar the real reason you can't find or keep a prince. Ladies that's bound to make you feel better after reading that one. And I think my favorite of the ones I saw there was how to rule the world a handbook for the aspiring dictator. There might be too many of those floating around the world these days. But I want to propose to you that even though the title self hell has already been captured by some it's actually a definition that goes back to the beginning of time. It goes back to the very beginning when God created the world. We didn't call it self hell back then but that's exactly what it is as we're going to learn as we continue to unpack a little bit here this morning with that. Some disturbing trends about this self hell. Here's some studies about young adults. The young adults time magazine a few years ago called them the me. Actually they said the front page was the me me me generation. This millennial generation coming out. But according to 2011 USA Today article there was a research study of college students that showed that they were given the choice between receiving praise, engaging in sex, drinking alcohol, getting a paycheck, eating their favorite fruit or seeing their best friends. The number one clear winner at all of those was receiving praise. This was what they desired most. Study of children same year 2011 a paper by a team psychologist at UCLA analyzed the values of characters and popular television shows for the past four decades. From 1967 to 1997 this is with children the number one value was community feeling or being part of a group. What came in second place was benevolence or being kind to others and helping them. Those were the top two values among children from 1967 to 1997 in association with television shows they watch. Well from 1997 to 2007 just like the past decade the number one value has shift to fame or becoming famous. The value of community feeling or being part of a group which was number one 30 years prior to that it's dropped down to 11th. The value of benevolence or being kind to others has dropped from number two to number 13. You'd have to be kind of blind wouldn't you to say that there's not a scary dangerous trend happening among our children among our young adults. Unless not just you put the burden on them who's been their parents who's been the generation that's been modeling for them. I think we all share in this disturbing trend of what many of call narcissism. Narcissism definition having an excessive sense of self importance and extreme preoccupation with oneself and a lack of empathy for others. As you might know Narcissism comes from the Greek mythology character which you see pictured here in Narcissists who love beauty and but so beautiful. There was only one thing that could capture it ultimately in fact Nemesis the villain in that story tricked him into staring at his own reflection even remember as the Greek mythology goes. And he was so consumed with his own reflection his own beauty that he ends up never ever leaving the water in his reflection in his cop there forever. And he never realizes that he's looking at himself think the most disturbing thing is that we don't realize in narcissism that we're narcissistic. And therein lies its trap therein lies its danger. The self absorption has a way of making you think you're not self absorbed fortunately Jesus saves from self hell. And third or fifth graders in particular that's the key point for this morning you might want to jot that down. Jesus saves from self hell. And he's the only one that can. And this passage from the Palsapal unpackages is that the first point the first thing I want you to take away and realize here this morning is that you've been saved from the hell of self. You've been saved from the hell of self. You know you ask a typical typical child who's grown up going to sunny school growing up to church in their life. What did Jesus die to save us from? They will more than likely he or she more like a given the answer that either died to save us from sin or he died to save us from hell. Which both answers are correct and both answers are true. In fact John 16 the the verse that so many of us was the first one we memorized maybe the most well memorized verse of all of them says this for God so love the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him so not perish but have eternal life. So those that don't believe in Jesus will perish in hell according to the scriptures. So it is very true that following Jesus does save us from sin and from hell. Very true but what if hell is not so much about a place that's more about self and I'm not proposing that's not a place don't misunderstand me. But what if the description of hell could be best classified by complete world consumed by self? What if hell is a world where self is unrestrained? What if hell is a world where everyone is only always and completely in it for themselves? What if hell is a world where the fuel of self-centeredness never runs dry? What if hell is a world where people only care about what you have to offer and can give them? What if hell is a world where you actually indulge every lust and feed every fleshly desire for every moment of the day unrestrained?
What if hell is really a world where you get everything you think you want? I don't know about you but I feel like I'm living on hell. I feel like I'm living often in hell. Is this not what these kinds of things that we see on TV and the movies and the newspapers interacting going on? Sounds, looks, all too much like hell right now here on earth. Here's an important question I want you to ask yourself right now. What if I told you that God sent His only Son Jesus Christ into the world to save one and only one kind of person? Let me say that again because I want you to engage and step into this question. What if I told you today that God sent His only Son Jesus Christ into the world to save one and only one kind of person? This is the only person that could possibly be saved by Jesus Christ. And it is this, a person who lives centrally and primarily for themselves. Question, would you feel more relieved by that thought or would you feel more worried by that thought? Do you feel more relieved going, oh thank God because that is me, self-centered. Everything is primarily for me, even the religious things I do is really ultimately for me. In some way shape or form some perverted way, everything I do, even when I do nice things, benevolent things, gracious things, it's really so I feel better at night or can sleep with myself or can tell somebody, yeah, look what I did. Or do you feel more worried? Honestly. I thought my main thing, I thought my main thing was don't go to church enough. I thought my main problem that I need to be safe from is that I have had some bad thoughts time or two of my life. I thought my main problem was that sometimes I am kind of in my own world and can be a little greedy maybe. Or sometimes I have done some bad things or really called some kids some bad names when I was growing up. You can kind of think of your list, but what if nobody like that was ever safe. But only people who are centrally and primarily focused on themselves. In 1982, the war on the Faupin Islands between England and Argentina, the Royal Navy's 3500 ton destroyer, the HMS Shefffield, was sunk, did you know this by a single missile fired from an Argentine fighter jet. News reports that a later check revealed that the Shefffield's defense systems did not pick up the incoming missile. And the ship's computer correctly identified it as a French maid. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing this correct. Exocet missile. But the computer was programmed to ignore exocets as friendly. The Shefffield was sunk by a missile. It saw coming and could have evaded. But the computer thought it was a friendly missile. Let me tell you what sinks the ship of every soul that's ever walked the planet Earth except for one. Has been the central sin of centrally and primarily focusing on yourself. That's it. And I'm on a really solid ground to complain that to you this morning. Verse 14 through 15 in the passage we read. The Apostle Paul, who knows all about self-central self-primarily living, says, for Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves. But for him who died for them and was raised again. That and that only is why God had sent his son here to Earth is to intercept people who are living centrally and primarily for themselves and worst of all who don't think they are. Or who don't think there's anything wrong with it if they are. Tim Keller points out in one of his books saying that all previous generations have contributed the problems in mankind due to a too high sense of self-esteem, except for our current, the most recent generations, which now contributed to a too low self-esteem. You know, if that person in jail had just grown up with better self-esteem about themselves, they would have made different decisions. We're living in the first generations. They've actually come to that conclusion that the problem is really low self-esteem. How absurd is that? Do you really think if Adolf Hitler had had a little more nurture? As a child, I thought a little bit better about who he was. He would have totally different decisions. Or you think it's more likely that it was all about him from an early age. And it was somehow unrestrained whatsoever. Nobody ever stood in his life and stopped him. Even as close as the visor never stood in and said, oh, I think we're going a bit too far here. You're kind of making this thing like your God or something. Do you really think he had a low self-esteem problem? Or high self-esteem problem? The enemy is vast at work today to convince us more and more that our problem is we need to think better of ourselves. And I think it's quite the opposite. The more you think you don't have a preoccupation with yourself, the more likely it is that you are blinded to its reality. Let me say that again. The more you think you don't have a preoccupation with yourself, the more likely it is that you are blinded to its reality. This is why the narcissist's character myth is so relatable to us. Why it's so study today? Now, the world is picking up on this. They're noticing they're taking side of this. Why those studies I cited to you earlier. People are saying, look, there's a trend going on here. And it's beginning to disturb people. People they don't even believe in God are going, not sure this is a good thing. But you know, it began in the garden with Satan a long time ago. I saw a church sign one time that said this. It said, for bitter fruits, create many jams. I thought you understood that. And I'm going to even know it best of all. Genesis 3.6 says this, When a woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was there with her and he ate it. Exhibit A. There it begins. At least for humans. What was he thinking about? At that point, Eve and Adam were thinking nothing about what God had said. They were thinking nothing about what was in it for them at the moment. They were thinking about nothing like, hey, we've got the freedom of everything here. Everything here in the entire planet. Except there's one tree. What's going on, God? Well, actually, they weren't thinking about God, right? They're thinking, man, I've only been able to have this tree. This fruit thus begins the world of self-centeredness. And so the first man fell and you realize thousands of years later, Satan tries it again with a man named Jesus Christ. Matthew 4, 8 through 10 says this, After he attempted Jesus several times in the desert, Here's the last temptation. The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. Adam and Eve were tempted with a tree and fruit of one tree. Jesus, all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. And Satan said, all this, I will give you, he said, If you will bow down and worship me. And Jesus said to him, away from me saying, For just written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. And everything changed at that point. Because we're the first Adam had failed miserably and entered into the world of self-centeredness. The second Adam, who's tempted even greater ways, turns away from it to worship the one true living God, his father in heaven who had sent him. And the story of salvation continued at that point, belonging for a cross, for an empty tomb, for an ascension back to heaven, and one day return. So is it true? Is it true that your main problem, my main problem, is a central and primary view of self that runs at all? Is that really true? Well, psychology today, the publication, the non-Christian publication, secular publication, listed six signs in one of their articles about how you could know whether you struggle with narcissism. So let me invite you to come in to the test. Okay? Sign number one. Let's get real practical here. Unilateral listening. Here's a little description they gave. Narcissistic listening focuses on how to dismiss, negate, ignore, minimize, denigrate, or otherwise render irrelevant. Irrelevant other people's concerns. Think about that for a second. Kind of grade yourself on that. Let's get real honest, what would your best friend or spouse say, or children, or parents? Yeah, that takes a deeper level of honesty, doesn't. What somebody who knows you best say. But they say that's a characteristic that describes you. Sign number two. Again, these are their tests. I didn't come up with this. Final number two is it's all about me. Listen to the description. I know more. I know better. I am more interesting. When we talk, it's mostly about me. In conversations, I take up most of the airtime. Almost all of my chatter is about what I have done and what I'm thinking about. Would that be true of you? Sign number three. The rules don't apply to me. I can have affairs. I can cut into line where others are waiting. I can cheat on my taxes. I can ignore the rules and get in the way of my doing what, anything that gets in the way of me doing what I want to do. Rules or for the other people to follow. Sign number four. Your concerns are really criticisms of me and I hate being criticized. Narcissists paradoxically manifest both an inflated eye of their own importance and quickness to feel deflated by negative feedback. In addition, because they think everything is about them, they hear others' attempts to talk about personal feelings as veil criticisms of themselves. That was a little painful for me, if I'm honest. But I thought I was doing pretty good so far. Sign number five. When things go wrong between us, it's always your fault. Whatever the source of the sensitivity to criticism and difficulty, admitting mistakes, the upshot is a tendency to blame others when anything is going wrong. Blaining and fault-finding in others feels safer to Narcissists than looking to discover, learning, grow from their own part, and the difficulties. And the last sign, sign number six. If I'm angry, it's your fault. I'm not responsible either for my anger. If I'm mad, it's because I'm frustrated by what you are doing. My anger is your fault. I'm only mad because you dot, dot, dot, don't blame. So how are we doing? Alright, let me make you a little bit uncomfortable here, okay? Show off hands. How many, how many did really good on that test? Raise your hand. How many did really good? How many did really bad? How many, how many did good in that, they're not thinking they're not thinking they're Narcissistic? Then I asked, how many did bad? Did good distinction? How many did bad? So I was only clear about that. How many thought thought they did good? That they're really not really Narcissistic? How many thought they did bad? That they really, they got some problems there? How many are kind of in the middle? Middle people, yeah. Middle feels so, with this, middle feels really nice, okay? Doesn't it? Well, let me take the test again one more time. Because really, that test, you know, that's, I would expect. You know, people that don't have a conviction in the living God as the God of the universe who created everything to send a son of dying across. That was a very normal, very predictable, very good test about horizontal relationships. So let me, let me give you the test that really matters. The test is at the foundation underneath that. And it's about vertical relationships. It's about your relationship with God. Nothing in this test had anything to do directly with God. God's never mentioned. He's never mentioned the entire article, by the way. So let's review the test. And let's think about solely in your relationship with God. Unilateral listening. Listening focuses on how to dismiss, negate, ignore, minimize, integrate or otherwise render irrelevant God's concerns in your life. You ever done this? You ever take a look at something in scripture, or heard a version in scripture and go, you know, I think that was just for that culture there. You know, I think that was kind of the God of then, not the God of now, or something. Sign number two, it's all about me. I know more, I know better, I'm more interesting. When we talk, when God and I talk, it's mostly about me. In conversations, I take at most of the airtime, almost all my chatter is about what I've done, what I'm thinking about, what I need, what my request is, what God can do for me, although the highest thing we can do is praise and worship the living God for who He is. Sign number three, the rules don't apply to me. I can have affairs cut in the line where others are waiting, shoot at my taxes, ignore rules, and anything that gets in the way of doing what I want to do, rules are for other people to follow. God's commands are conditional and relevant to the situation, and seem a little extreme, and after all, God really is just a matter of kind of love. Isn't it all about love? Sign number four. Your concerns are really criticisms of me, and I hate being criticized. Our success paradoxically manifests both and inflated idea of their own importance and quickness to feel deflated by negative feedback. Now, I just don't like going to church sometimes. It just seems like it's kind of a downer. You know, it sounds like I read the Bible, I just kind of feel down about myself, and you know, I really don't feel that uplifted perhaps. Sign number five. When things go wrong between us, it's always your fault. God, why me? Why would you let that happen? God, I've been doing everything you asked me to do, and all of a sudden you let that happen. What's up with that? Sign number six. If I'm angry it's your fault. I'm not responsible either for my anger. If I'm mad it's because I'm frustrated with what you are doing. God, what are you doing? You're not doing very much. I answer my prayers right now. It's not the way I want. Do you understand that that is the ultimate test of the human heart in relation to the God that created Him? And we don't even think about it on those terms, do we? How many are doing well by that test? No problems. It's all about God. How many are doing middle on that test? How many are doing pretty bad on that test? I'm sorry. These are uncomfortable questions. Important questions though. Because if you don't understand that you need to be saved from the hell of self, then it's right now that good news. It's right now that they give a deal to know that you're saved for the heaven of Him. But the point this morning Jesus saves from self hell. But He saves for point number two from the heaven of Him. As much as we need to be saved from the hell of self, we're saved for something, we're saved for the heaven of Him. Those in Christ who have been saved from the hell of self, they have been saved for heaven. If heaven, what if heaven is not so much about a place? What if heaven is more about Him? What if heaven is a world where self has found a home in Him? What if heaven is a world where everyone is only always and completely in it for God and their neighbor? What if heaven is a world where the fuel of God's sinterness never runs dry? What if heaven is a world where you realize everything you ever truly long for in earth was always and regularly offered in God's presence each moment. And He was with you each moment for eternity. What if heaven is a world where you walk and talk with God face to face as you do with your best friend? That is heaven, by the way. Think of it so much less than a place and so much more as it is what it is a person. It is a place. It is real. Don't misunderstand me. But what it's really about is Him. That's why I was so troubled by that book, that movie, the five people you meet in heaven, the best selling book I think, that Jesus didn't make the cut. God doesn't make the cut. He wasn't one of the five. But let me tell you, heaven's all about Him. There are two ways we continue to live for self hell. Let me explain the two as we'll unpackage what the alternative is to living for him in heaven. Self hell can take a non-religious approach. I'm not sure we thought about this. Let me help you here. In this approach, we pretend that self-sitterness is natural and good. Okay, this is the unreligious person living on our planet is trying to know how to manage this. And we think self-sitterness is natural and good to a certain degree. Okay, since it is good for us to ultimately, since self-good is ultimately good for us, and what it does for us, we allow moral boundaries. We embrace civic duties. We treat others the way we want to be treated, so that they will treat us that way. It's kind of a little gain here, right? All right, I'm going to scratch your back. You better scratch mine. In the moment you do it a little bit less than I did mine, we've got problems. But that's kind of the mindset. An atheist, an agnostic, a person who's not having a religious world view or a deistic world view would say something to that. The only problem is that it starts with self, and the only other problem is that it ends with self. But of course, there is an alternative, and this is where we need to be especially paying attention because we're in a church this morning. It's the self hell that takes a religious approach. In this approach, we pretend that our happiness is God's greatest priority. Let me say that again. We pretend that our happiness is God's greatest priority. All right, there are lots of books and TV shows that talk about this on the religious channels and in the Christian bookstores right now on the shelves. I wish they weren't, but they are. I wish they weren't on the TV, but they are. Since God wants to nurture us since that's a presupposition, since God's really his greatest priority is my happiness, we will follow the religious teachings that will make us feel better about ourselves and if he's our guilt. That's helpful. It feels good. Secondly, we will seek the blessings of God and our willing to exchange our religious performance to ensure God's blessing. How many times have you heard? God will bless your obedience. Of course, what we mean by that is something that's very self centered on us. If you give your tired, God's going to bless you with more money than you could possibly imagine. Just give it to him and all that kind of stuff. Don't give me wrong. God does bless you. But when you have it in your mindset and you're going to look a certain way that has you at the center of your little world, then that's the last thing a loving God would do to the people he loves. And listen how we take the golden rule. We treat others the way we want to be treated so that God will treat us the way we want to be treated. That's the religious way to take the golden rule. We treat others the way we want to be treated so that really God will treat us the way we want to be treated. The problem starts with self. And the ultimate problem is it ends with self. So you can be non-religious and you can be religious. And both are in need to be saved for the heaven of Him. That's why Jesus has such a strong word to the religious leaders of his day, because they needed it. Johann Wolfgang Languth, the German poet and dramatist, says this, none are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. You see, when Jesus saves us from self hell, it is to offer a new way. The follower of Jesus has abandoned their claim of center of life. The center of life now becomes for Jesus, the king of kings and the Lord of lords. We become a new creation. That's what verse 17 in the passage says. Paul says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has gone. What's the old self-centeredness and primarily living for self? And what is the new? The new is a God Christ-centeredness that comes. That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. So trust in that. Since God wants to set me free from self hell, listen to how it's different from the other ones. I will trust in His promises to me and about me to be the foundation of my hope. I will trust in His promises. He makes to me and about me to be the foundation of my hope. I will trust in His Spirit to transform me in His image. That was one of the questions that Aki answered from the heat of question number three. That you rely upon the Holy Spirit to do this work. Don't yourself. And listen to how the golden rule changes. We treat others the way God treats us because that gives God glory and because that is what we've always wanted. Why? Because that's what you were made for. That's a very different reason to treat others good. For the glory of God, that's what God will do something for you. Not so your neighbor will do something for you. But because you were created for that, it honors it glorifies God. You're made in His image and it is an image that reflects God. Because is that not what God did when He sent His Son? He did not take equality with God as something to be grasped but He put it aside according to Philippians too. He humbled Himself to the point of death definitely across. Jesus came not asking for glory. He came humbly as a servant to seek and save that which was lost and to make Himself a sacrifice on the cross for us. That's the story. That's the one who saved you. That's the one who loves you. Verse 14, for Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died and therefore all have died. That's why James 4 says this. God is opposed to the crowd. It gets grace to the humble. Why only the humble want grace? The crowd don't want it and they don't think they need it. Or not that much. Only the humble seek God. The crowd would refer God mind His own business or that God would make an appointment with them every Sunday mornings and invite God to give a little bit of input. Thank you God. I'll consider that and think about that. I'll see you next Sunday morning at 10 o'clock. The humble want grace. The humble seek God. Because I know that's the only place hope is found. Jesus' rescue mission is all about rescuing us from us, from our self-absorption, from our self-serving attitudes and actions, from our self-righteous convictions. And Jesus' rescues us for living for Him, living to honor and glorify Him, living in the righteousness that Jesus Christ gives us alone. Do you know the freedom in that? Do you know there is nothing that you brought to the table for God to choose to save you? And there's nothing you got to bring to the table for God to continue his relationship with you? We're going to find anybody else on this planet that will love you like that. I want to know your spouse's sweet, your girlfriend or boyfriend's sweet, and know your mom and dad are sweet. They're not that sweet. I promise you, only God unconditionally offers that kind of hope to you. Now I can get to a humble man that has a heart softened by that truth. It's a humble woman, it's a humble boy or girl, that hears that and says, yeah, let's be honest. That's, yeah, I'm self-centered, I'm self-absorbed, it's all about me, left to myself. Fortunately, Jesus saves from self hell. But only Jesus saves. He's more than willing today to save. That's great. Guys, we respond to your word this morning as we have heard the teaching of your Holy Spirit through your word. God, would you come, as you've done for me already this week, dude, my brothers and sisters here, to convict us, God of our need for you, God, to help us to run to the offer of salvation, to be set free from that self hell, to quit pretending that we're not God-narsacistic, that we're not living for ourselves, when that's the only other alternative that we're not living for you. There is no other choice and God, would you give us the humility and the trust and the faith to trust that you're what we need today? Maybe God, for those, is one who's sitting out here this morning, that knows that they have not surrendered their life to you and decided to follow you. Would you give them here, hear, see that faith, to do that here this morning? Assure, then, God, that your promises are real to them. Now, for the Christian that's here this morning, the follower of Christ, who's weary, who's fatigued, who's tired, who's struggling with the same struggles. Would you come and bring a fresh wind, a reminder here that you have set them free from the curse of sin and its power? And they can live according to a new nature because the oldest passed away and the new has come. So, God would you, by your grace, minister to us this morning, to help us to die more and more each day, God had our reliance upon our flesh, to reliance upon our self, and more and more God trust, reliance upon you. I don't know what the need is, I don't know what my situation is, but you do right now, would you help me? These men and women, these boys and girls that I heard today, God, turn to you, even this time as we come to your table, to surrender and to trust you, and to turn over God, whatever burden they have to you. In the come, God, in a fine, they really will find their life. As your word says, those that seek to find their life will lose it, and those that lose their life in Christ will find it. God, would you help us to find life in you this morning? By your spirit. Can we pray this in Jesus' name? Amen.