The Curved-In Self

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. It's not that we just believe lies, but we kind of, well, we do, I do, live them out in different ways. Live my life. We've talked about how what is a lie is that it's basically unreal. It is something that we run up against time and again, the reality, truth, and our lives have to conform to truth. It's like if I believe I can fly on my own, I'm going to face that reality called gravity. And God has created this whole world, this entire universe, all of things, to be aligned with his will and his purposes and his goodness. And when I'm living aligned with that, my life goes, well, a little better at least. Yes, I do face difficulties and struggles and all of those things. But when I actually oppose that, it's kind of like I'm going against the grain of God's universe. I'm going to get a lot of splinters. OK, you know how that is. So today we are in Live No Lies again, and today we are looking at how that lies spoken by the devil impact us and how they get inside of us, that they actually take advantage of the reality of who we are after Adam and Eve have rebelled against God. Well, the term that was used by Augustine of Hippo and then picked up by Martin Luther and other reformers is a Latin term called incurvatus in se, that we are curved in on ourselves. Have you ever felt that way? You know, I can't quite get outside of thinking just about what's to my advantage. Well, how is what's in it for me? Have you ever said that? At least thought that. So that Latin word incurvatus say this is the way Martin Luther described it. He said scripture describes man as so curved in upon himself that he uses not only physical but even spiritual goods for his own purposes. And in all things seeks only himself. And so the lies that come to me are half truths often. And the way they get in is the fact that there's already kind of a beachhead inside of me called the curved in self. And I want to believe him. I want to believe him because I really want to believe them. Human beings are not rational creatures. As St. Augustine said, we are rationalizing creatures. We are desiring creatures who have desires. And then we want and we use our rationality to justify exactly what we want to do. OK, so today we're going to be looking at two different parables by Jesus. When he taught about the curved in self, he wouldn't use that term specifically. And he and Jesus is a actually Middle Eastern Jewish rabbi teacher. He teaches very concretely with stories, with illustrations and with points of view that are very practical. We Westerners kind of following Aristotle and Plato, we think philosophically and principles and all these broad concepts. And he's very practical. But I think you will see it runs through both of these parables, this whole idea of a curved in self. And these two parables happen to also be teaching on money and possessions. And you might go like, ooh, OK, we got one of those sermons now. You know, I hate going to church when they always talk about money. Well, if you've been here at Thrive any length of time, you know, we hardly ever talk about money. And even today, we're not really talking about money. We're talking about how God has given and who God is and how he provides and how wrapped up in ourselves we get. And therefore how money takes control in that way. So a few of the lies that we're going to. And by the way, of all the things probably in this world that there are more lies about that we believe it's money. OK, for instance, we say I am what I possess. That is an actual lie. You don't it's not like look at all the stuff I've got. It makes my life what it is. No, it doesn't. Or my possessions are just for me. That's also a lie. Or how about this? I deserve everything I have worked for. Now, that one might hit a little close to home because you probably said that. And I have to. Ouch. But that's a lie. Everything I've got is a gift from God. Everything, even the breath I'm taking now, we sang that song, you know, the breath that we have, everything is from God. My life is on loan from God. I don't even own myself. OK, rather, I think the truth is this. I am who or what possesses me. And we are looking at that truth today in these parables. You will see what was possessing these two individuals that he talks about, these two rich individuals. But how another character in the second parable was possessed or held on to by God. And that makes all the difference. So today we're going to be looking at these three points of our message. The lie of the curved in self, the truth about riches and living into the truth. So we turn, first of all, with the lie of the curved in self to a situation when Jesus tells a parable. He doesn't always just do kind of a general abstract thing. In fact, this time he tells the story. He tells it to a specific situation that I have a feelin...