You Or Jesus

When I was a little boy, I used to watch a TV show with Groucho Marx called You Bet Your Life. Maybe some of you have seen it. Well, in that quiz show, guests would begin by talking about themselves, and if they said the secret word, a stuffed duck would drop down on a rope with a money prize for them.

But as they began to talk about themselves, they would begin to brag about themselves, and the more they talked about what they had and what they'd done, they would puff up like a blowfish. You get a person to talk about their achievements, and you see soon enough that they are their favorite subject. Do you know anybody like that, friend? My wife used to have a friend who would ask, how are you? And when my wife would say, fine, the lady would interrupt and say, enough talk about you, let's talk about me.

Do you know people whose favorite subject is me? It's hard to be friends with someone like that, unless you're the president of their fan club. I used to have a preacher friend who always dominated the conversation by just wanting to talk about his ministry. He never, ever wanted to know anything about me or my ministry.

When you had lunch with this man, it was just an opportunity for him to go on and on about himself. I know, friend, you've never been guilty of such things, but have we ever asked ourselves the question, as I'm talking, as I'm living, as I'm going throughout my day, who is on the throne? Is it me or Jesus? Is self being paraded around and calling attention to himself, or is Jesus there on the throne of our lives, and all the attention is just on Jesus? J. C. Little Baxter used to say, how can a man, full of himself, preach to Christ who emptied himself? In God's word in Proverbs chapter six, beginning in verse 16, where God states, these six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven, or an abomination unto him. In the word of God, God lists those seven detestable things that God hates.

I'll read them backwards to you, friends. Gossip, slander, evil activity, evil imaginations, murder, lying, and the top slot is pride. Why is a proud look number one? Because it's a seed sin, it's a breeding sin, where other sins flow out.

When self has to have its way, and when self has to have first place, then the flesh is in control, and all other doors are now cracked open. It's been said that adultery can be traced back to pride. A man in his midlife has an affair with a younger woman.

Why? He already has a wife. Why does he need another one? Because he wants to feel young again. It's simple, pride.

We must begin our day with a daily quiet time, where we get serious with God through prayer and Bible study, and it is here, in our regular devotional time with God each day, where we turn everything in our life over to Jesus. Our worries, our concerns, our burdens, our desires, our goals, and our plans, our family matters, and our ministry concerns. Jesus sits on a throne in heaven at the right hand of the Father, and he earned that right by way of a bloody cross.

But is he truly Lord of our life? Is he Lord in our daily living? Does he maintain first place at all times, or do we try to dethrone him throughout the day? Is Christ truly reigning on the throne of our life right now, or is self reigning there? The ugly tyrant of self is a cruel dictator who demands complete control. He demands complete attention and recognition. Self is a tyrant who's never fully satisfied.

But this tyrant self must be dragged to Calvary and nailed to the cross. The crucified life is a subject no longer preached in our churches today. The cross in the life of a believer is seldom heard from our pulpits today.

There are Christian classics on these subjects we all should be familiar with, but I wonder how many have ever read the book by L.E. Maxwell entitled Born Crucified, or F.J. Hegel's book, Bone of My Bone, where he talks about how the Christian life is a participation in the cross and not an imitation. How many of us have read the books by J. Gregory Mantle called The Way of the Cross, whose main theme is a life of discipleship, or F.B. Meyer's wonderful book on the exchange life entitled The Christ Life for the Self Life? If you read these four books, friends, many of which you can get a free download on a PDF just on the internet, if you read them and ask God to apply them to your life, you'll be amazed at the change in your daily living. Often we lack consistency in our walk with God because self has to have its way.

If we fall into a hog wall of sin, you better believe it started with self being puffed up some way, somehow. And Amos 3.3 declares, can two walk together except they be agreed? Well, of course not. We cannot go our way and tell God to follow us.

He must lead. He must have first place, and we must take the next spot and follow him. We must get to the place in our life, friends, where we admit self is in the way.

We may ask, why is God not using me more? Well, maybe self stands in the way. The key to usefulness is found in one's desire to be invisible. For in true usefulness to God, Christ is always the one visible.

We must remember our life is not our own. We were bought with a price, and that price was Christ's blood. Our time is not our own.

Our body is not our own. Our money is not our own. Christ must be a complete master.

Well, who's in first place in your life, friend? You or Jesus? Jesus must have his rightful place at all times in our lives, and he is Lord. Let us pray.