This is one of the best sermons I have ever heard on this subject. I will not say where it was or who preached it,except that it was not here.



1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.



II Corinthians 6:17: Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

18: And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.



Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.



Romans 5:8: But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.



Psalms 62:9: Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.



II Corinthians 3:5: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;



I Corithians 15:10: But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.



Romans 12:3: For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.



Romans 14:17: For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

18: For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.



Matthew 22:37: Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38: This is the first and great commandment.

39: And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.



We need to appreciate the person that God made us to be, In our mind we are either acceptable or unacceptable. We need to come to peace where we are comfortable in our shoes. He has chosen to make us. What is our idea of normal? We are holding to an imaginary standard of normal. I haven't been to one congregations yet that is normal by that standard. Can you accept that you are abnormal? Inferiority complex is fear that you are inferior. Humility is not constantly downing yourself. It is accepting yourself the way God made you. Proper self worth comes from our faith in God. He has put you here. You are God's work. He loves you absolutely, unconditionally. We must give up thinking that God's love depends on performance. He doesn't care if you are the class clown or the town drunk. God is not looking for our mistakes ready to pounce on us. He loves His creation,. He put the package together, he knows your temperment. Only when we accept his love is when we will love Him.

If we are going to correct this self esteem problem, we need to humble ourselves and accept ourselves the way we are. We need to learn to like the way we are. We feel like it might be pride to like the way we are. There are people that struggle a life time because they feel the don't have a gift. We need to deny ourselves of self pity,Offendedness, criticalness, and all their cousins. They are detrimental to our self esteem. Doing things for others is a wonderful tonic. Think I am going to life for others reguardless of the cost. Be honest of our abilities and disabilities. Don't deny your abilities. Accept that you can and do it. Be honest with what you can't do, be willing to do what I can. We shouldn't expect perfection of ourselves. Inferiority keeps us from facing up to it and recognizing that we can do something about it.

There is a place to look others in the eye and feel good about it. You may feel Dad and Mom did not really love me. You need to pray to accpt that God loves you and really cares about you. He listens. He looks us in the eye. He speaks heart to heart to us.

The life of the party is there because of his insecurities, the guy in the corner is there because he's insecure. The securest place is when we realize we are secure in God.




I am sorry I cannot write any faster so this is all I got of it

Love and prayers, Locklady

Thanks LockLady, for getting as much as you did. A couple highlights for me:

"The securest place is when we realize we are secure in God." Is this not what faith is ? We cannot or do not have faith in Christ, if we do not feel secure. At least, this is what faith is supposed to be; to bring us to peace with ourselves as well as peace with God. Of course, sin separates us from God, however, to refrain from sin, does not bring us into fellowship with God. It is Christ that spans the gap between us and God. Kind of a paradox.

"Romans 14:17: For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. 18: For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men" What does the scripture mean when it says "... we are approved of men..." I suppose it is an injunction for us to be accepting of others as it says in the first several verses of Romans 14..., one not to judge and the other not to despise. We may not all be cut from the same mold or have the exact same understanding, but all have access to God through Christ within our own culture. Of course i am not referring to the culture of sin. Sin is not acceptable in the body of Christ... however it is not eradicated.

"Romans 12:3: For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Apparently we do not all have the same measure of faith; does this make some better then others ? No, all believers are the same in God's eyes. At the cross, all are on the same base... all unworthy of ourselves and we approach God at the same place in the line... except, the prostitutes and sinners apparently go ahead of us who think we have made it. ???

When I first started to read this post I thought the message might be all scripture , with no preaching. I read about a pastor, (I think it was Spurgeon) who for one Sunday sermon just read the whole book of Philippians. He paused and made strategic emphasis, and apparently preached one of his best sermons ever. I confess I do not spend enough time in the Bible; it is the Word of Life for us.

That was very good,LL..thanks for sharing.