Self-Deception

Sermon Notes

You have an INFINITE capacity for self-deception.

 [Matthew 23:29-30] "What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed, and you decorate the monuments of the godly people your ancestors destroyed. [30] Then you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would never have joined them in killing the prophets.'

 When we deceive ourselves we are DOOMED to repeat the PAST.

 [Matthew 12:14] Then the Pharisees called a meeting to plot how to kill Jesus.

If we don't learn from the past we repeat the past MISTAKES over and over.

[Revelation 3:17] You say, 'I am rich. I have everything I want. I don't need a thing!' And you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

 We can't change the cycle of self-deception without God's INTERVENTION.

 [1 John 1:8-10 NIV] If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. [9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. [10] If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

 Self-deception is rooted in PRIDE.

 [James 1:22 NIV] Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

 Knowledge without OBEDIENCE is self-deception.

 [Psalm 139:23-24] Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. [24] Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.