Summary:

Real love is born out of selflessness. We are to love God and others like we love ourselves. God's love was demonstrated when He laid His life down

for us. When you know God loves you and have confidence in His love,
your self-esteem will grow and you will more readily put selfishness
aside.

1. You have to "will" to follow God; and that requires you to deny yourself (Luke 9:23-25).
   1. Deny means to put aside negative feelings, desires or emotions that are contrary to the Word of God.
      1. You must resist anything that opposes God and His Word.
   2. God is interested in you denying yourself and keeping His commandments as a demonstration of your love for Him.
   3. Selfish desires that go against God's Word are your biggest enemy in life.
   4. If you work to preserve your life, you will lose it (Luke 9:24).
      1. If you lose your life for God, you will gain a rewarding life through Him.
      2. When a man preserves his selfish desires, he gains the world at the price of losing his soul.
         1. It means nothing to gain the world but lose your soul (Luke 9:25).
         2. The grass is never greener on the other side.
            
            
2. We know God loves us because He laid His life down for us (1 John 3:16).
   1. God wants us to lay our life (self) down for others.
      1. God says in His Word to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39).
      2. Love yourself according to the Word of God.
         1. Think soberly of yourself.
         2. Sober thinking is thinking in line with the Word. We ought to think about ourselves according to the Word of God (Romans 12:3).
         3. By nature, we love ourselves (Philippians 2:21).
            1. We take care of our bodies, eat food, make sure we are clothed and protected (Ephesians 5: 28, 29).
            2. The same way you take care of yourself is the same way you should love others.
            3. If we can love our neighbor or our mates as we love ourselves, we will be better people.
   2. The source of real love is in God, the Father.
      1. Our job is to love God and other people.
         
         
3. Many people don't like themselves.
   1. The issue is not whether you naturally love yourself; it's whether or not you like yourself.
   2. People have low self-esteem because:
      1. They don't know, experientially, that God loves them.
         1. God's nature is unconditional love.
      2. They have no confidence or trust to lay their lives down for God.
      3. As a result of having no confidence in God's love, they rebel against His Word (Deuteronomy 1:26, 27).
      4. Their actions of rebellion make them dislike themselves even more. They think they have messed up already, so they might as well continue to sin
         because God doesn't love them.
         
         
4. The only unforgivable sin is rejecting the blood of Jesus.
   1. People don't go to Hell because of sin; they go to Hell because they reject Jesus.
   2. Sin, through the blood of Jesus, can be washed away.
   3. When you rebel, you allow the "self" life to live instead of God's life.
   4. When you are living selfishly, you do not like who you are, what you do and what you say.
   5. Receive the truth that God loves you.

• Luke 9:23-25
• 1 John 3:16
• Matthew 22:39
• Romans 12:3
• Philippians 2:21
• Ephesians 5:28, 29
• Deuteronomy 1:26, 27