| Location | Subjects | Takeaways | Sermon Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emmaus Orthodox Presbyterian Church |
| https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/114251839101625 |
💡Big Idea
- God commands us to examine ourselves, and that is a good thing.
Takeaways and Next Steps
📖Bible Passage
Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know about your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
Points
- Observation: Our culture has the word selfie: a picture of one’s self
- There is also selfitis: a large urge to take a selfie
- People take about 78 Billion selfies every year, about 238 million a day
- The point: We live in a generation that is obsessed with self.
- Self-exposure is highly valued and yet self-examination is neglected in our culture.
- self-examination: to test and judge yourself
- Ask yourself:
- Where are you before God?
- How do you stand before God?
- This is an exam that is different from any other exam you’ve taken. This is a spiritual exam.
- Ask yourself:
- What are the questions that Paul asks in this verse?
- Are you in the faith?
- Is Jesus Christ in you?
- One thing that is unique about this exam is that the examiner is yourself1
- There is also a result, a grade. There are only 2 grades. You either:
- pass or you
- fail
- Why should you take this exam? Who would volunteer to take any exam? Most of us would love to avoid any exam.
-
- But God commands us to take this exam. It is not optional.
- This is a general command for every Christian.
- This command is repeated in several other places in the Bible. Not just here:
- Ps 139.1 Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me.
- Ps 139:23-24 Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. [[Ps-139#v24|]]
- Lam 3.40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
- 1 Cor 11.28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.
- Gal 6.4 But let each man examine his own work, and then he will have reason to boast in himself, and not in someone else.
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- The subject of this exam is most important.
- Every exam has a subject, and some subjects are more important than others, but there is no subject more important than this subject: the state of your soul.
- ⭐: “An unexamined life is not a good life to live.”
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- Consider the danger of not taking this exam.
- What if you have failed this exam and do not know it?
- Do not be self-deceived.
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- This exam is also an encouragement.
- It is a way of traveling into the light and gaining clarity.
- If you, in fact pass this test, then you will realize “wow, it is not as bad as I thought”
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- It reveals areas for us to work on and improve.
- In self-examination we discover areas where we need to work on, improve
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Application
- What are the questions we should ask in this exam?
- there’s a lot of confusion in this area. People do not know what they are looking for and why.
- But God gives us direction, 2 simple questions for us to ask ourselves. These are simple, short, straight-forward questions:
-
- Are you in the faith?
- Notice he does not ask is the faith in you. He asks are you in the faith.
- ❓: What does it mean to be “in the faith”?
- Case study: When Noah built the ark, and the rain came, who was saved? Only those who were in the ark. All else were lost. In the same way, to be in the faith means to be in Christ, saved by Him and Him only. Unless we are in the faith, seeking refuge from Jesus Christ, we too will perish.
- So examine your self to see if you are trusting and relying on Christ alone to save you.
- Do you reject the Good News of Christ? Do you reject Him as your Savior? Are you trying to save yourself? Justify yourself?
- Have I shifted? Am I “looking over the fence”? Or am I happy, content, satisfied with all that Christ has provided in the truth? (i.e. Am I in the faith?)
- If you find yourself shifting, come to your ministers and fellow church members and say please, help me come back to Christ.
- As you see the world shifting, and the church shifting, examine yourself to see whether you too are shifting?
- Case study: When Noah built the ark, and the rain came, who was saved? Only those who were in the ark. All else were lost. In the same way, to be in the faith means to be in Christ, saved by Him and Him only. Unless we are in the faith, seeking refuge from Jesus Christ, we too will perish.
-
- Is Jesus Christ in you?
- There are only two states to be in. In the faith or out of the faith. This is objective.
- But this second question is more subjective.2
- ❓: How do I know if Christ is in me?
- Trust: Ask yourself Do I trust Christ alone for my salvation?
- This is the essential and most important mark of Christ being in you.
- Look away from anything else and look to Christ. Look away from your hopes, dreams, desires, resources relationships and all else.
- This is how to answer when someone asks “Are you a Christian”: “I trust in Christ alone”.
- He has given me a perfect righteousness and has given me my key to glory. 100% Christ and nothing else. The whole weight of my soul rests upon Him.
- Observe: This is a strange way to go through an exam.
- Talk: Do you talk with Christ?
- If you are in a conversation, you talk with them, not to or at them, but with them.
- Christ speaks to us through His Word. When you read the Bible, it is all about Jesus Christ speaking to you, by His spirit, through His word.
- Do you pursue knowledge of Christ?
- This conversation with Him begins with listening. You can’t just talk to Him, you must respond to Him. How can you respond, if you aren’t even listening to what He is saying.
- This conversation with Him is a part of every part of your life. Not just prayer, or scripture reading. You can should and must talk to Him even in ordinary every day tasks.
- Thank Him as you complete each journey in the car, as you tuck your kids into bed etc.
- Tender: There is a tenderness.
- You are tender about offending Him. You are careful not to displease Him.
- Intimacy. Your relationship with Him is unique.
- There are things that you say to Him that you would not ordinarily say to others.
- There are things you won’t say to Him, that you would say to others.
- Take: Take your sins to Him. confess
- Do not wait.
- Confess right away. Do not delay.
- Do not wait.
- Trust: Ask yourself Do I trust Christ alone for my salvation?
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- When should we examine ourselves?
- God’s people have found different times to regularly examine ourselves:
- Every day.
- Every week. On the Lord’s day we spend extra time to examine ourselves.
- During The Lord’s Supper.
- This is a special time that we ought to spend extra time examining ourselves.
- Avoid two extremes:
- Not examining ourselves often enough.
- Examining ourselves too much.
- The devil will deceive us “You are not examining yourself enough.” This is because he wants to discourage you and shackle you with false accusations.
- Schedule time for self-examination. Set aside time for this.
- Be rested.
- Be organized. Be purposeful.
- Be prayerful. Ask for the Lord’s help.
- Be biblical.
- Sometimes it’s useful to simply read a chapter of the Word and ask yourself Am I in the faith?
- End with the Gospel, with Christ. That is the goal.
- When you fail it should drive you not to despair, but to Christ.
- It is better to fail now, then to fail on the day of judgment.
- Even when you succeed, it should drive you not to pride, but to Christ.
- Wherever we are, we should be driven to Christ, to humility, to gratitude in Him.
- When you fail it should drive you not to despair, but to Christ.
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Further Study
- Try to make a regular habit of self-examination. Take time to apply some of these suggestions into your regular life.
- A note on discouragement: Be careful not to bite off more than you can chew and don’t be discouraged when you inevitably neglect the practice of regular self-examination. Remember that some time of genuine self-examination is better than no time.