What's in It for Me?

Selfishness is by definition incompatible with God’s rewards for believers. Self-interest is something we all understand because since physical birth, as infants, we learned how to get what we want. Can some understand when someone who asks, “Why should I be a Christian? What is in it for me?” It is in our self-interest to ask it and to examine the answer. Christ's answer would be salvation but man's interpretation of Christ's answer "salvation + earthly pleasures".

Hungry? Cry repeatly and make lots of noise and someone will feed me.

Wanting attention? Cry and make lots of noise !!!! Someone will respond.

Growing up living with parents (adults), we have learned to manipulate to get what we WANT.

We take credit for almost everything we achieve, even our salvation. That is why the Apostle Paul wrote, “Your salvation is nothing you have achieved by your good works. It is a gift of God. You receive it by faith. That way no one can boast of his own accomplishments.”

The "mythical" good Christian tries to act like a mature believer but is really a child at heart because his/her life revolves around "what is good for me." When that happens, a Christian fails to accept responsibility of Christ's Commandments for the maturity of others in the church. They are disrupting and ripping and tearing the unity of the church. People are so used to seeing everyone serving their own interests that no other kind of spiritual conduct is expected. "And anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whosoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:38-39). Many people are forgetting the REAL purpose of the CHURCH.

The biblical promise of reward motivates believers to place others before themselves in order for all to enjoy the heavenly reward (1 Cor. 9:19-23).

It is an incentive to serve others; the opposite of selfishness (1 Thess. 2:19; 2 Tim. 4:8; 1 Peter 5:2-4).

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

"Lord, make me a crisis man. Let me not be a mile-post on a single road, but make me a fork that men must turn one way or another in facing Christ in me." prayer by Jim Elliot

"Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"If you read history you will find out that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next." C.S. Lewis

"The real joy of our walk with Christ comes when we begin to press against the edge of our comfort zone." Bill Nix

"If you had permission to do what you really want to do, what would you do? Don’t ask how, that will cut your desire off at the knees. How is never the right question; how is a faithless question. It means "unless I can see my way clearly I won’t believe it, won’t venture forth." John Elderidge

"Work as if everything depended on you and pray as if everything depended on God." DL Moody

"Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody; 40 years learning he was nobody; and 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody." DL Moody

"This book (the Bible) will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book." D.L. Moody

"Refusal to take risks makes for a life of mediocrity at best." Michael LeBoeuf