12/12/14 SPOILED BRATS

12/12/14 SPOILED BRATS

We have all seen spoiled children, either in our own families, in our neighbors, in our communities or in the media. Not all spoiled children were spoiled by their parents. Sometimes it was other family members, or peers, or admirers. Sometimes it was a case of self spoiling. They loved themselves so much that they pampered themselves, aggrandized themselves, excused themselves. It is bad enough for a young person to be spoiled, it is catastrophic for an adult to be spoiled. When a person is the biggest, most important person in his own life they torpedo their relationships. They may not realize that they are missing out, because, after all, it is all about themselves, rather than the people around them or close to them.

This is also true in the religious realm, including the realm of Christian influence. These people choose their own pleasures, circumstances, responsibilities, relationships, or they pout and live in the state of angst when they do not get their way. They are not Christians, but, since they are the beginning and ending of all reality to themselves, they may think they are Christians.

These people are very difficult to reach with the gospel, because they justify themselves or they see no problem with themselves that need to be justified. They do not need or accept leadership or admonition, because they are their own final authority.

These people can live a lifetime of hurting the people who love them, without feeling the guilt of their own pride, selfishness, crudeness, aloofness. They destroy major parts of people's lives because of their self centeredness. They inject suffering and loss into the lives of their parents, siblings, spouses, children, fellow church people. They do not control their tongue or their anger or their jealousy or their arrogance. They tread across the beauty and joy that God has provided for others, and never go back to rebuild what they have destroyed. They burn a path to the sea, leaving others in emotional and relational and spiritual ruin.

God Will Judge Them With Eternal Punishment.
Romans 2:8-9
(8) But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
(9) Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;

God Offers Them A Better Reality.
Mark 8:34-37
(34) And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
(35) For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
(36) For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
(37) Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

God Calls Them To Christ-likeness.
Ephesians 4:29-32
(29) Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
(30) And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
(31) Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
(32) And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Philippians 2:1-5
(1) If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
(2) Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
(3) Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
(4) Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
(5) Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

1 Corinthians 10:32-33
(32) Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:
(33) Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

Love Is The Antidote To Selfishness.
Romans 12:9-10
(9) Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
(10) Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
(4) Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
(5) Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
(6) Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
(7) Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.