Today's Sermon:

Keeping Secrets from Yourself

I. The Principle- Vs. 1

“I believe that in all men’s lives at certain points…one of the most dominant elements is the desire to be inside the local Ring and the terror of being left outside….and you will be drawn in, if you are drawn in, not by a desire for gain or ease, but simply because at that moment, when the cup was so near your lips, you cannot bear to be thrust back again into the cold outer world. It would be so terrible to see the other man’s face- that genial, confidential, delightfully sophisticated face- turn suddenly cold and contemptuous, to know that you have been tried for the Inner Ring and rejected.” -C.S. Lewis, Weight of Glory

II. The First Application

A. Realm: Acts of.....

- Vs 2

“He 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, and self-sacrifice will lead us into the midst of others. Where others suffer, we will comfort. Where others struggle, we will help. Where others fail, we will lift up. Where others succeed, we will rejoice. Following Christ means not indifference to others, but absorption into their lives. It means forgetfulness of self in others. It means entering into others hopes and fears, longings and despairs; It means we should not live one life, but a thousand lives,binding ourselves to a thousand souls by the filaments of so loving sympathy that their lives become ours.”B.B. Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ, 574

B. Danger:

- Vs. 2

C. Manner:

Vs. 3-4a

D. Result:

Vs. 4b

“Everyone’s capacity shall be filled with happiness, but yet the capacity may be different. Every vessel may be full, and yet some may hold more than others….He that is full of happiness, he has a perfection of happiness: his capacity being full, he is satisfied, and craves no more. But yet another man’s perfection of happiness may exceed his.”Jonathan Edwards, “Degrees of Glory”