Read Romans 15:1-4
Let me encourage you to think for a moment about how you budget your income be it monthly, fortnightly or weekly. Some people are, of course, very methodical and plan how every cent will be spent. Others use broader brush strokes while others still go with the flow and use what they need when they need it. Regardless of our methodology in budgeting, there are always items that have to be paid for. Bills, for example, have to be paid. Rates have to be accounted for. Education has to be accounted for. Then there’s the weekly tithe that has to come out as well.
But even more so, we all, regardless of our method of budgeting, put ourselves into the list. We all like to spend something on ourselves. Some may not indulge as much as others. But by our very nature we are self-centred and self pleasing. We don’t buy the cheapest things for ourselves. We don’t deny ourselves constantly. We rarely forgo what we want for the sake of others. Whether we like it or not, there’s a self centred streak somewhere in all of us.
Romans 15:1-4 challenges that self centred streak within each of us. We are told outright that those who are stronger in the faith are to bear with the weaker ones and we are NOT to please ourselves. We are to seek to please our neighbour and to build her up, even dare I say, at the expense of ourselves!
The motivating example given to us is Christ Himself. He did not seek to please Himself in any way, shape or form. He left the glory of heaven, not for His sake but for ours. He entered our world, again, for our blessing and not for Himself. He lived a perfectly obedient life, even when that obedience caused pain and suffering. He willingly suffered the pain, the humiliation and the torture of crucifixion, including the false trial, the beatings, scourging and mocking that went with it. He willingly died upon that cross for us. In none of this did Christ ever seek to please Himself.
Not only does this give us endurance and hope as Romans 15:4 declares but it also gives us a beautiful example to emulate in our lives. Our natural desire is to put ourselves at the top of the list and to please ourselves. At the very least we seek to look after ourselves. The Holy Spirit encourages us and urges us to live for God and to seek to please and to build up others, even if it costs us. No where in Scripture do we read that we serve only up to the point where serving costs us, taxes us or pushes us beyond our limits. No where do we read that serving is only for those times that we want to serve or are happy to serve. If Christ took that path, each of us would be hell bound not heaven bound. Let me challenge each one of us to spend a whole day (24 hours) where we seek to please others (God first, people second) and do not seek to please ourselves at all. Are you up for the challenge?
Prayer:
Use today’s Bible reading and notes to pray along the following lines.
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
¨ Pray that the marriages in your congregation would be other centred and loving and that these marriages would greatly shine forth the love that Christ has for His church and vice versa.
¨ Pray that the singles in your congregation would be leading other centred lives that powerfully communicate the love of Christ to a lost and dying world. Ask the Lord to fill them and bless them immensely in their other centeredness.
An other centred life, denying oneself and taking up one’s cross to follow Jesus, is a life of worship.
Seeking to put down the cross and to have a break is simply not worship!
1. Share an example of other centeredness that you have benefited from. Share what happened and how it made you feel etc.
2. List and read together other verses that speak of the need to deny yourself and to live for or serve others.
Intro: It’s easy to share with those whom we love and care for but sometimes we have to share and look after those we don’t necessarily love.
That’s a hard call that God makes upon our lives.
Discuss a time when you had to put other’s needs above your own. Share your struggles and your feelings at that time.
Read Philippians 2:3-4.
Who are we to consider better than ourselves?
Does this include everyone or just people we love?
Can you think of people in your city/town that could use your love and support?
Pray together that God would allow you to be loving others.
Intro: It’s easy to share with those whom we love and care for but sometimes we have to share and look after those we don’t necessarily love.
That’s a hard call that God makes upon our lives.
Discuss a time when you had to put other’s needs above your own. Share your struggles and your feelings at that time.
Read Philippians 2:3-4.
Who are we to consider better than ourselves?
Does this include everyone or just people we love?
Can you think of people in your city/town that could use your love and support?
Pray together that God would allow you to be loving others.
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