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What You'll Discover in this Episode:
A Warning About Self-Esteem
Today, we continue to talk about our identity in Christ. In this episode, we will describe the opposite of who we are in Christ and what the world would describe as "self-esteem philosophy".
Self-esteem (Also known as pride) will only build up the flesh (Paul states in his letter to the Romans that there was something “in the members” of his body that he calls “my flesh,” which produced difficulty in his Christian life and made him a prisoner of sin). The world, the flesh and the devil can tempt us because our hearts are deceptive and desperately wicked.
A warning: false, humanistic self-esteem philosophy has crept into the church. Many of the scriptures we mentioned in the last episode are used as a “springboard” to promote self-esteem. They start off with a scripture and start talking about self-esteem. It is prevalent. This situation where people are holding forth our new identity in Christ and doing a "bait-and-switch" by bringing self-esteem philosophy in through the backdoor
At a minimum, it is an oversight in the pulpits to neglect the doctrine of "Who We Are In Christ". Jesus intentionally, clearly closes the front door of the Kingdom of God in self-esteem Mark 8:34-35.
We must be careful because self-esteem (as described by most adherents) is the opposite of what Jesus would say in John 12:25.
If you follow Jesus, you must be willing to say “no” to self. Know that the independent self-life must be renounced. Say “no” to self and “yes” to Jesus. When we nail the independent self-life to the cross and we are crucified with Christ - the result is a resurrected walk with Jesus and newness of life!
