Sermon Resources on Selflessness

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Studying the Selfish-Selfless Spectrum

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Researchers at the University of Kentucky and University of Central Florida who explored the neurobiology of the selfish-selfless spectrum found that most of us are neither extremely selfish (which re...

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Author

Bob Goff

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Selfless love is always costly. Fear can’t afford it, pride doesn’t understand it, but friends never forget it.

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Author

C. S. Lewis

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Scripture

Colossians 3:12, 1 Corinthians 13:4-5, John 3:30, Ephesians 4:2, 1 Peter 5:5, Galatians 5:13

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.

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Wherever Help is Needed

Author

B. B. Warfield

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Scripture

John 15:13, Romans 12:1, Matthew 10:39, 1 John 3:16, Ephesians 5:25

While written well over a century ago, this excerpt (from the great Princeton theologian) B.B. Warfield’s sermon “imitating the Incarnation continues to inspire the kind of life Christ calls us to: ...

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Author

C. S. Lewis

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Scripture

Matthew 16:24-26, Colossians 3:1-3, Romans 8:12-13, Romans 6:18-19, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 3:5, 2 Timothy 2:3-4, 1 Peter 4:1-2, Luke 9:23, Mark 8:34-38, Luke 14:26-28

Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end...

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The Selfish/Selfless Dog

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Ruth 1:16-17, Proverbs 17:17, Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 5:44-48, Psalm 23:1-3

The story is told (as in, it’s made up!) of a small dog that had been struck by a car and lay wounded by the side of the road. A doctor driving by noticed the dog was still alive, stopped his car, pic...

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Our Biggest Regrets

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 13:8-9, 1 Kings 3:26-27, Psalm 51:10-12, Jonah 4:1-2, Luke 15:28-31, Philippians 2:3-4

I once asked a psychologist who had been in practice for over forty years what is the most common regret his clients felt. Without hesitation, he said, “Selfishness.” Why was I not the spouse or paren...

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Taking (A Huge) One for the Team

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Scripture

Exodus 17:10–13, Leviticus 19:18, Luke 10:25–37, Matthew 25:34–40 , Philippians 2:3–4, Psalm 103:8–13

On a beautiful April afternoon in 2008, two college softball teams faced off in a decisive playoff game beneath the Cascade Mountains. The Western Oregon Wolves battled Central Washington University, ...

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Look Up, See Possibilities

Author

Bruce D. Strom and Eugene Cho

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Scripture

Hebrews 12:2, Psalm 19:1, 2 Corinthians 4:18, Psalm 123:1, Isaiah 40:26

Maybe this sounds silly, but go outside and look up. You cannot see yourself. All you see is a vast expanse of possibilities. Look down. You will see yourself and little else. This is true in life. Lo...

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Keep Looking Up

Author

Bruce D. Strom and Eugene Cho

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 3:1-2 , Matthew 6:19-21, Proverbs 3:5-6, Philippians 3:13-14, Psalm 123:1

The apostle Paul said, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on thin...

liturgy

Blessed Lord, who puts down the mighty

Author

Frank Colquhoun

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 1:46-55

Blessed Lord, who puts down the mighty from their seat and exalts those who have been humbled: Save us, we implore you, from pride and arrogance, from self-seeking and false ambition. Give us a humble...

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The Philanthropist's Tomb

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 25:34-40, Luke 10:25-37, Isaiah 58:6-7, Proverbs 11:25, James 1:27, Acts 9:36-42, Hebrews 6:10, Matthew 5:16

John Howard (1726-1790) was a British philanthropist and reformer who, based on his Christian convictions, dedicated his life to the improvement of hospital conditions and prison reform. On his tomb...

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I’d Save Two Brothers, Not One

Author

Richard Lui

Keywords

According to legend, one night in the 1950s while drinking at a pub in the West End of London, [Biologist and neo-Darwinist J. B. S. Haldane ] was presented with a philosophical question: How far woul...

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Author

Charlie Runnels

Keywords

It is good to plant trees that you will never sit under…

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The Definition of a Level 5 Leader (Jim Collins’ Definition of Top Executive Leaders)

Author

Jim Collins

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Scripture

Mark 10:43-45, Philippians 2:3-8, 1 Peter 5:2-3, James 3:13

It came down to one essential definition. The central dimension for Level 5 is a leader who is ambitious first and foremost for the cause, for the company, for the work, not for himself or herself; an...

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You are who you Surround Yourself with

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 15:33-34, Proverbs 27:17, 1 Corinthians 5:11, Proverbs 13:20, 1 Corinthians 15:33, Psalm 1:1-2, Hebrews 10:24-25

Context matters. According to the Terman Study, which followed one thousand study participants from childhood until their death, the people we surround ourselves with are who we become. We see those a...

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Out of the Center

Author

Michael Frost

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 26:3, 2 Corinthians 5:17, John 15:5, Colossians 3:3-4, Luke 9:23, Philippians 2:3-5, Romans 12:1-2

The word eccentric comes from a combination of the Greek terms ex (out of) and kentron (center). When combined, ekkentros means “out of center.” The term gained currency in the late Middle Ages, when ...

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Beauty Will Save the World

Author

Brian Zahnd

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 21:22-27, Psalm 27:4, Psalm 8:, Psalm 96:6, Isaiah 33:17, Hebrews 10:24-25

I found what I was looking for and purchased a paperback copy of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. The Idiot was published in 1868 and was Dostoevsky’s attempt to create a perfect soul in the character of Princ...

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Author

Eugene Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:5-8, Isaiah 53:2-3, Luke 22:27, Mark 10:45, John 13:14-15

St. Paul tells us that Jesus Christ, the revelation of God become human, “set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It wa...

liturgy

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or

Author

Austin D. Hill

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:null, John 13:14-15, Galatians 6:2, 1 Peter 5:6, James 4:10, Matthew 23:12

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others. In your ...

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Author

Michael Frost

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In a world of greed and consumerism, the church ought to be a community of generosity and selflessness. In a host empire that is committed to marginalizing the poor, resisting the place of women, caus...

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Sacrificial Giving—Stories for Epiphany

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 2:null, Leviticus 12:null

The Strain of Time Time marches forward for all of us, doesn’t it? There are 365 days in the Gregorian calendar. There are 365 days in the Liturgical calendar. While the respective beginnings and en...

scripture guide

Scripture Guide, Hebrews 5:1-10

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 5:1-10, Psalm 2:null, Psalm 110:null, Psalm 2:6-7, Psalm 110:4, Ephesians 4:null

What, then, does the author intend to communicate in verses 1-4? He proclaims that an authoritative and authentic high priest must both identify with and be distinct from those to whom he ministers. ...

lectionary

21st Sunday after Pentecost

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 5:1-10, Psalm 2:6-7, Psalm 110:4

Preaching Commentary What, then, does the author intend to communicate in verses 1-4? He proclaims that an authoritative and authentic high priest must both identify with and be distinct from those...

lectionary

Epiphany of the Lord

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 2:1-12

Preaching Commentary Confusion about Epiphany The celebration of the Epiphany of our Lord can be at once both wholly familiar or somewhat confusing, especially for those who grew up in less liturgi...

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Entering the Darkroom

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:10, Psalm 139:12, Romans 5:3-4, Isaiah 45:3, Ephesians 2:10

While we are now surrounded by a never-ending number of pixels with our smartphones, there once was a time where the process of developing photographs took something much more significant than pointin...

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Author

John Owen

Keywords

Selfishness

Selfishness is the making a man's self his own centre, the beginning and end of all he doeth.

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Living One-Thousand Lives in Christ

Author

Samuel Craig

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Christ was led by His love for others into the world, to forget Himself in the needs of others, to sacrifice self once for all upon the altar of sympathy. Self-sacrifice brought Christ into the world....

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Author

Napoleon Hill

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Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.

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Author

George MacDonald

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Selfishness

One thing is clear to me, that no indulgence of passion destroys the spiritual nature so much as respectable selfishness.

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