The Three Deadly Ps - Power, Popularity and Praise

I was going to simply link to this one in a previous post but I couldn't find this sermon online so I will cite just what the three deadly Ps are. We have all heard about the seven deadly sins and the seven Christian virtues. Well the three deadly Ps are: Power, Popularity and Praise. We should not seek after these things because a friend of the world is an enemy to God. If the world is evil and the world speaks highly of us, then we must also be evil. So let's break it down.

The quest for power is not good. People who covet power never want it to do good, they want it to control others. People who want to be popular and seek the praise of the world tend to have low self-esteem and a poor self-image. They are externally defined.

Someone who is internally defined doesn't care what the world thinks of them, they only care about what they think of themselves. They care about doing what's right and about living by thier own code of conduct. People who are externally defined need others to tell them they have worth and tend to do what other people tell them to do.

Looking to our role model, Isaiah said " He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Tom MacDonald said if Jesus came today, he would be cancelled.