Salvation From Self-Promotion

Salvation From Self-Promotion

Matthew 23:1-12 NIV

The Problem:  Self-exalting   

Matthew 23:5-7 NIV Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others. 

The Prescription:   and   service to both God and neighbor    

Matthew 23:2-4 NIV The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 

Matthew 23:8-10 NIV But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 

The Promise: the humble with be exalted   

Matthew 23:11 NIV The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. 

1 Peter 5:6 NIV Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 

The Pattern: the humility of   

Philippians 2: 5-8 NIV In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made himself  in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 

The Power: all who are in Christ are   exalted with him 

Ephesians 2:5-8 NIV But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 

Things to note as you listen: 

I never knew:

I was reminded: 

I still want to know:  

Something I should change:  

A biblical truth I could share:  

A key verse: 

My prayer response (repentance/thanks/praise):