Supporting One Another

Did you know competitiveness is a sin? We have been trained by the culture to believe competitiveness with others is not only acceptable but even preferred.

In God's family we are not told to compete with one another but to support one another. If there is competition then it is to make someone above another while diminishing the other.

Competitiveness creates idols in the minds of those who are enamored with them. Idolatry is a sin too.

No one is better or more special than anyone else, everyone had to confess their rottenness to God before He changed them into a new creation. All sense of superiority was removed the day we realized how lost and unworthy we were of God's grace. When we realize this we are joyful and happy to be a member of God's family, we have no need to be above anyone else.

Once competitiveness is fostered in one area of life it then slops into every other area. To compete is to hope to be superior. God calls us to humble ourselves and without this humility, there can be no spiritual or emotional growth that loves to be of help to others.

Through worship of ball teams and other forms of competitive sports we were indoctrinated to believe competitiveness toward others was a badge of honor. What it created was a mentality that caused the culture to desire adulation and praise from others. It is like an addiction, raising dopamine in our minds, a feeling of euphoria over the possibility of being seen as great and special in the minds of others.

Then the culture began demanding that everyone get a trophy so everyone felt good about themselves, this was creating a fantasy that everyone has equal abilities. If everyone would just do their work the best they can they would not need a trophy, they would be pleased that God saw it and would be content with that.

This is the same competition the devil had with God when he was thrown out of heaven. It is not possible to possess humility while at the same time attempting to put someone else lower to make ourselves higher.

Whatever mentality we have toward one another will be how we think about God.

James 4:6–10

"But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you."

Philippians 2:3–8

"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

Matthew 23:2–12

“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

When we compete with others to be noticed above others we are exalting ourselves, even worshiping ourselves. The world hates this message because it means diminishing ourselves to live for Christ.

The world has made competitiveness a badge of honor when it should be a shame.

Rather than competing with others through boasting we might want to compete with ourselves to follow Christ more fully, to hear from Him more often, to take everything to Him to be led and controlled by the Holy Spirit. This is the joy of the born-again believer, that Christ lives in us and sees our hearts as no one else could see it.

We can fool others with smooth talk and some good deeds but we can never fool God.

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Adrian Rogers: How to Live in the Last Days

Religiosity Does Not Save Anyone

2 Corinthians 6:16
"16 Or what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,"

“I will dwell among them and walk among them;
And I will be their God, and they shall be My people."

Believers are not those who just attend churches to have a religion they can rely on to make them feel good about themselves.

 
Believers are those who have confessed their sinfulness and desire to be changed by Christ. They hate the false ways and the sinful attractions. They love the things of God and want to learn to walk in them more and more as they grow in holiness.
If there is no desire to grow in holiness then there has been no born-again experience. Anyone trying to appear good on the outside without a change in the WAY they think was never born again.

 
John 13:8
"Never shall You wash my feet!" Peter told Him. Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me."

The washing of feet is symbolic of Christ cleansing those who have trusted in Him. Unless He cleanses us there can be no cleansing.

 
1 Corinthians 1:30
"It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption."

Do not think for one minute we can save ourselves or change our hearts. We can only temporarily change our ways on the outside but we cannot change our own hearts, Christ must do that.

 
Matthew 23:27-28
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.
28 So you too, outwardly appear righteous to people, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

Next time we see a Christian raging at us over our assertion that they have violated Scripture, remember what God said about the religious leaders. This applies to anyone who claims to be religious but has never been born again.

Springs Without Water

2 Peter 2:17-22

"17 These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.

18 For, while speaking out arrogant words of no value they entice by fleshly desires, by indecent behavior, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error,

19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what anyone is overcome, by this he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

21 For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.

22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”

No one backslides, one cannot fall backward they simply reveal their heart that was always present. They were pretending to be something on the outside that was never on the inside.

Lazy Careless Christians will not be able to Stand

2 Thessalonians 3:14

"If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take note of that person and do not associate with him, so that will be put to shame."

The church has been seriously diluted with false doctrine. When it is not a false doctrine it will be a distraction of many things, politics, pleasure, desire for fun and many things that work against the Spirit of God.

We are living in the last days of apostasy in which it will be very difficult to connect with others who love the Lord with all their heart because there are so few.

2 Thessalonians 3:1-4

Request for Prayer

3 Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it was also with you;

2 and that we will be rescued from troublesome and evil people; for not all have the faith.

3 But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

4 We have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you are doing, and will do, what we command."

The devil wants the worship of believers, he doesn't care if you mess up your relationship with Christ, he cares that you ignore God and refuse to listen to the Holy Spirit. A false religion of self is far more desirable to the devil than total open hatred toward God. He wants us to appear spiritual while denying Christ through our lifestyle.

False Cultural Christianity

So many things are wrong in this culture of modern Christianity that some of us are considered fanatics for calling it out so often.

But then again, it is what happened to Noah and Jeremiah and Isaiah, Elijah and Elisha, they did it and were disdained and disrespected too.

If we are going to be men and women of God in these last days we will receive hate mail, and we will be gossiped about, lied to and disrespected continually by those around us, even those who say they are Christians.

As we navigate through this end times world of total depravity we will find ourselves alone a lot hated by most people. They will think there is something wrong with us because so many people have contempt for us.

There is a saying; "you are known by how many friends you have." This is exactly the opposite of what God says in His Word.

Proverbs 18:24 "A man of too many friends comes to ruin, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

Another way of saying this is "Those with too many friends have none." I don't remember who says it but the principle is that anyone who has lots of friends is probably standing for nothing. It is only through compromise and self-exaltation that a person becomes popular.

Hallmark Movies and their False Messages

I was harkening back to the days of the Hallmark holiday movies that we so looked forward to back in the day before we were Christians.

I recalled the teaching message in these movies that people were cranky and mean because they didn't love themselves. Then I realized God said exactly the opposite of what was in these movies.

We become more loving and kind when we love others better than ourselves.

Matthew 22:36-40

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

38 This is the great and foremost commandment.

39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”

John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

Modern psychology scholars have changed this commandment to focus on trying to love yourself when God's commandment teaches that we already love ourselves more than we should, that if we love others as much as we love ourselves we would always be kind and respectful to them. But because we love ourselves more than anyone else in our culture many are often rude and unkind to one another and think it is alright.

The more we love ourselves the less we love others. We are born loving ourselves too much.

As Dave Hunt once said in one of his books: "if a boy looks in the mirror and says he hates himself we would say he has low self-esteem. The opposite is actually true, the boy believes he deserves better than what God gave him so he becomes angry, he has high self-esteem.

God's children are not called to love themselves, they are called to have confidence in Christ but not in self.

If we are going to be Christ like we must be willing to lay down our lives for one another.

1 John 3:16 " 16 By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."

Our culture has been trained and indoctrinated for four generations to think of themselves as special and superior, resulting in entitlement thinking, anger when this is not extended to them. This mentality of selfishness is out of control now. Even good deeds are done to elevate self, expecting to be praised ad-nauseum for all that we do is the desire in most people, we know this because they look for praise and boast about themselves.

Authentically and selflessly serving others raises our level of love and kindness to others, it brings joy and creates bonding and closeness. So many people are lonely today because they seek self and lack trustworthy companionship that makes others feel safe and loved.

Love and respect have diminished because of the lack of selfless love.

These "feel good" Hallmark movies play soft happy music that manipulates the emotions to think that all the false docrtine in them is good because the senses are guided by the emotional high.

Notice we will cry and have emotions even when we know the doctrine in the movie is the opposite of what God says. Our emotions are so easily manipulated by soft words and music that we set aside what is right to enjoy the feelings even though the message is antithetical to Christ.

This is also the reason so many Christians cannot see the holidays for what they are, largely pagan, even desiring to make them about Christ because of their feelings. Correct doctrine doesn't matter to most Christians, only the feelings all the manipulation brings.

Just recently I watched a Hallmark movie that I had seen before only this time I was looking at it with Spiritual eyes. The show was about an angel being sent to earth to help a woman grow her self-esteem. She was angry she wasn't getting what she wanted so the angel began working to show her how to love herself to get what she wanted.

Never at any time did this young woman consult with God or admit she was self-absorbed. The entire show was based on making everyone happy and getting what they wanted. Anger about selfish desires was never exposed as the sin that it is, nor was there anyone who attempted to counsel the young woman to stop focusing on herself and begin focusing on God.

We have a culture now that thinks this is a wonderful message. This culture will not accept correction, it is seen as a personal attack.

When was the last time you corrected someone to help with an understanding and heard them respond with gratefulness to hear it?

Mostly our corrections are treated with contempt and the punishment for daring to share comes and remains forever. Those who have become angry at our correction will hold onto with all of their strength believing they are right.

We are living in those last days Christ warned us about. We do not have to be walking in sadness over it, however, the challenge is to remain faithful to God as we navigate through this world alone without support and love.

We can avoid becoming like the world around us by seeking Christ through prayer and Bible reading. If at all possible we can be with other believers who want truth above all else, even willing to be alone to remain faithful to Christ.

Hallelujah!