SELF-DECEPTION

Pastor Hope Flask

January 19, 2025

Main Scripture: 1 Samuel 15:10-23

Additional Scriptures: Jeremiah 17:9, Romans 1:18-20, Luke 18:9-14, Deuteronomy 7:7-8, Hebrews 4:12-16

POINTS:

• All nations attack other nations to enrich themselves.

• God told Saul to enact justice on the Amalekites without enriching himself.

• “The darkest hours of history have always been born of the efforts of one people to dehumanize another.” Lisa Wingate

• Self-Deception: the ability to know something at one level and keep ourselves from knowing it at another because we don’t want to know it.

• Self-deception is not the worst thing we do; it is the reason we do the worst things.

• The Bible tells us that we know the truth, but we hold down the truth with unrighteousness because the truth threatens us.

• Signs of Self-Deception: Excuses, Blaming Others, Religiosity, and Self-pity masquerading as repentance

• The underlying cause of self-deception is pride.

• How are you trying to make yourself big in your own eyes?

• The cure for self-deception: we must be reminded of our need for grace.

• God loves us because He loves us.

• We need to be in places that confront our self-deception with God’s love.