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Sharing the Faith #2
Do you Really Want to be Saved? How to Become Unselfish
A sermon by Pr. Larry Kirkpatrick, January 24, 2004, Mentone Seventh-day Adventist Church
What is our goal, church? To become less selfish, or to become unselfish? This is a hard topic. May God help us to address it realistically, and without compromise. We want to become like our Lord and Savior, Jesus. And we all know that that means becoming unselfish people, agape enfleshed.
The core of the message today will be to consider several suggested practices that can change our behavior and our way of doing things. If we want to be changed, we have to let God speak to us, we have to let Him help us.
Romans 15:3 says of Jesus that He “pleased not Himself.” that is, He behaved unselfishly. This is the pattern we are to follow. Here is another most memorable passage from inspiration: “Character is power. The silent witness of a true, unselfish, godly life carries an almost irresistible influence. By revealing in our own life the character of Christ we co-operate with Him in the work of saving souls. It is only by revealing in our life His character that we can co-operate with Him.” (Christ's Object Lessons, p. 340). That's what you want to be. That's what I want to be. IF we wish to, in our sharing the truth about God with others, carry “an almost irresistable influence,” we need to have a change of character. We need to be windows into another world. In our own life, we want to reveal the character of Christ, in all of its unselfish glory that we can! So see if, in the ideas that follow, He is speaking to you.
Give to Those Who Cannot Reciprocate
Let's give thought to our first item. First, from the life of Jesus, John 11:43: “Lazarus, come forth!” Jesus gave life to Lazarus, a resurrection. Needless to say, Lazarus could not reciprocate. Jesus gave something He had, something that He could give. What can we do? We can Watch for persons to whom you can give (appropriate recipients) who cannot reciprocate. There are many people out there who have little. Here is Jesus' direct counsel from Luke 14:12-14: “Then said He also to him that bade Him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.”
Now this may sound as if it is saying only to call the poor to your dinners, but look again. Jesus warns here to beware of centering all your social interaction on those who can recompense you in kind. That' at the bottom of verse 12. Then He says call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Not perhaps because these members of society were more worthy or less worthy than others, but because these were poor people, those tending to be unable to sustain themselves above poverty. We are blessed when we give to those who cannot pay us back, and our pay-back so to speak comes on the resurrection day, or for our generation, the day of translation, when we are changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye when Jesus comes
When we give to others who cannot give back, we are removing the unspoken, maybe the unthought-of incentives that may exist when we give to others who can give something back to us. When you entertain those who have specialized skills, my fellow church member who can do plumbing, or painting, or give good financial advice, or has this or has that specialized knowledge, it is entirely possible that our motives are good, but it is also possible that deep down we are hoping to get some free advice or some free bit of help. Now by saying this I don't mean for us to become so introspective and unsure of ourselves that we begin naval-gazing and second and third and fourth-guessing ourselves and we become nervous of sharing our hospitality and fellowship with anyone. That would be a mistake. Jesus often shared the hospitality of others at social occasions. So we want to be sound with this.
Actually, we should extend this basic principle—giving to those who cannot pay us back—beyond the idea of a meal. It can apply to material goods, helping someone who is far down on their finances to get a car. That is practical, useful, very helpful. But beware of co-signing, making yourself surity for them. But see what you can do that will help others. Maybe it is food delivered to someone who has no income. Maybe it is help for a young student who is scratching the bottom of his or her resources to get a college education. There are, doubtless, many ways we can fulfill this principle. We just haven't sat down and thought about it very far.
Nor should we be thinking strictly of monetary things. What do you have, what specialized knowledge or skill do you have, that you can give to others? You likely have something! Maybe you have something that others need. Maybe you know how to read. You have kids in the community who need to learn how to read and need some help. There are programs where you can go to the library and work with kids and although silver and gold have you none, you can give your reading skill to underprivileged children. As I say, there are 3000 ways to do this, we just haven't thought enough about it.
One more thing on this, give to those who are worthy. What does that mean? Here are a few texts, in case you think we are all wet on this, like 1 Timothy 5:3: “Honour widows that are widows indeed.” Look at more of this chapter. It lays down principles for the relief of widows. Then there is Galatians 6:10: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” This is not in opposition to the basic principle of giving to those who cannot reciprocate; it just points out, start your look for such within your congregation, within your church family.
Remember, you give money to a drunk, and what does he do? Goes and buys more drink. He damages himself. You can enable people to damage themselves. That is not God's way. Your Christian charity/love should be manifest in releasing people from bondage—not tightening the chains. Give to people who can be responsible with what you give, who cannot reciprocate you. Then you are on track. But we can't spend all of our time here, Let's keep moving.
Put Your Soul in the Way of Help: Attend the Meetings of the Church
You need more than you have spiritually. God designed that the church should provide you with more. So Be present where prayer and study are taking place. Be in attendance at the meetings of the church. Now we don't mean this rigidly. There will be occasions when you can't come for this or that reason. Life is a busy thing, and sometimes we will just not be able to make it. But it is also true that God gives opportunities, and we let many of these slip away, never to be recovered. Here is an example from the life of Jesus in Luke 10:38-42:
Now it came to pass, as they went, that He entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to Him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Martha wanted more help in the kitchen. Mary was taking an opportunity to learn from Jesus. Let me tell you, if Jesus is sitting in my living room, the dishes can wait! In Steps to Christ, p. 98, Ellen White says this: “There is necessity for diligence in prayer; let nothing hinder you. Make every effort to keep open the communion between Jesus and your own soul. Seek every opportunity to go where prayer is wont to be made. Those who are really seeking for communion with God will be seen in the prayer meeting, faithful to do their duty and earnest and anxious to reap all the benefits they can gain. They will improve every opportunity of placing themselves where they can receive the rays of light from heaven.” Seek how many opportunities? “every opportunity.”
Here is one more quote, this time from Publishing Work, p. 118: “All the workers in the publishing house who profess the name of Christ should be workers in the church. It is essential to their own spiritual life that they improve every means of grace... By their baptismal vow they stand pledged to do all in their power to build up the church of Christ. Show them that love and loyalty to their Redeemer, loyalty to the standard of true manhood and womanhood, loyalty to the institution with which they are connected, demands this.... When the meetings of the church are neglected or duties connected with its work are left undone, let the cause be ascertained. By kind, tactful effort endeavor to arouse the careless and to revive a waning interest.“
It is essential for our spiritual life that we take advantage of every means of growing in the faith. Now brothers and sisters, if the meetings I hold ever become boring, tell me so! We have been studying in the book of Revelation in our prayer meetings. We just moved into Revelation chapter 18. If this church was a nuclear power plant, we would be studying at the reactor core! We are not reading some sorry book written by some misguided person who doesn't understand the Sabbath or the most basic things. We are trying to study the inspired things, the Bible and so forth. There are many churches where they are studying some pale, human book for their prayer meetings that has nothing at all to do with present truth. There are thousands of Adventists who would give their eyeteeth to have a church where in prayer meeting they did that, but they can't be here because of distance. Now if somehow our meetings get sleepy, tell us, help us wake up, but if you can make it, come to our meetings and studies. Your presence, your interaction the meeting, will make them a blessing.
Here are a few more: “In all the deportment of one who possesses true love, the grace of God will be shown. Modesty, simplicity, sincerity, morality, and religion will characterize every step toward an alliance in marriage. Those who are thus controlled will not be absorbed in each other's society, at a loss of interest in the prayer meeting and the religious service. Their fervor for the truth will not die on account of the neglect of the opportunities and privileges that God has graciously given to them.” (Adventist Home, p. 50). Another: “Any amusement in which you can engage asking the blessing of God upon it in faith will not be dangerous. But any amusement which disqualifies you for secret prayer, for devotion at the altar of prayer, or for taking part in the prayer meeting is not safe, but dangerous.” (Adventist Home, p. 513). “They [students] should not be so pressed with studies as to neglect the culture of the manners; and above all, they should let nothing interfere with their seasons of prayer, which bring them in connection with Jesus Christ, the best teacher the world has ever known. In no case should they deprive themselves of religious privileges. Many students have made their studies the first great object, and have neglected prayer, and absented themselves from the Sabbath-school and the prayer-meeting; and from neglect of religious duties they have returned to their homes backslidden from God.” (Counsels to Editors, p. 28).
More: “Those who are really representatives of Christ are working for the good of others. They delight in advancing the cause of God both at home and abroad. They are seen and heard, and their influence is felt, at the prayer meeting.” (Review and Herald, Sept. 6, 188).
Put Truth into Your Mind
Let's look at another thing we can do: Read and think on the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy writings, and live your day-to-day life with reference to Jesus' acts and the unselfish plan of government He taught. What was the situation with Jesus? “The child Jesus did not receive instruction in the synagogue schools. His mother was His first human teacher. From her lips and from the scrolls of the prophets, He learned of heavenly things. The very words which He Himself had spoken to Moses for Israel He was now taught at His mother's knee. As He advanced from childhood to youth, He did not seek the schools of the rabbis. He needed not the education to be obtained from such sources; for God was His instructor.” (Desire of Ages, p. 70). “The Scriptures of the Old Testament were His constant study... Jesus seemed to know the Scriptures from beginning to end, and He presented them in their true import.” Desire of Ages p. 84). We cannot say enough about how important it is to wallpaper the mind with truth. And the earlier, the better. “Since He [Jesus] gained knowledge as we may do, His intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures shows how diligently His early years were given to the study of God's word.”
What do we learn about Jesus? “He gained knowledge as we may do.” He seemed to know the Scriptures from beginning to end. His life interprets the Old Testament. If everyone lived like he did, they would exactly portray the plan of God as manifested in the Old Testament. Jesus was the Word, the walking Word, the enfleshed principles of Heaven. What are we supposed to be? Insofar as our lives can reflect God's ways, we are to be the walking Word too. Jesus was and is God and we are not. He is the express image (Hebrews 1:3), we are to be the image (Genesis 1:26, 27). Nevertheless, we cannot be all of what God would have us be, unless we let His principles fill our minds.
If we do that, then the second half of the statement becomes possible. Then we may live our day-to-day life with reference to Jesus' acts and the unselfish plan of government He taught. We can be walking representatives of the eternal plan for behavior.
They are still building many houses near where we live. Frequently you see those “human billboards” standing on the corner, constantly moving their billboard signs back and forth that point you to the new housing tract they are paid to advertise for. Did you notice though, that in all of those new housing developments you have to wear a radio or CD or MP3 player? I know it's true, because everyone one of those human billboards is dressed that way!
Now you know I am kidding. These young people who are paid to be human billboards are bored out of their skulls and they are playing whatever music they like while they are on duty. Probably, the kind of music that many of them are listening to, does not have as its primary purpose the making of unselfish people. They are part-time human billboards. The rest of the time they do other things. Friends, the selfish plan of behavior has little to recommend it. We want to be human billboards for Jesus, for His truth, for the eternity that is coming, not for a few hours standing on a corner wiggling a sign, but forever.
Maybe some of those human billboards wearing those earbuds are listening to Bible tapes. Maybe some of them are dreaming of the world we are this morning speaking of, and looking to, make into reality in our lives. If we fill our minds with the Bible, if we fill them with the inspired writings, we will become more like Jesus. We want to become completely unselfish. That will take a head and a heart that the Holy Spirit can dwell in. Are you preparing Him a place?
Create a Home Atmosphere
Here's another: Do what you can in your home to create an environment where God's kingdom is manifest, and do so with reference to personally developing unselfishness as a core quality in yourself. You need to organize your family, for devotional time together. We want to have worship together every day. We want to bring in the Sabbath every week. We want to have a positive spiritual atmosphere in the home.
How shall we start each day? Maybe like Ellen White did (although possibly not always up as early as she sometimes was!) “This morning my prayer to the Lord is for His rich grace. I never choose to begin a day without receiving special evidence that the Lord Jesus is my Helper, and that I have the rich grace that it is my privilege to receive. In my morning devotions I have regarded it my privilege to close my petition with the prayer that Christ taught to His disciples. There is so much that I really must have to meet the needs of my own case, that I sometimes fear that I shall ask amiss, but when in sincerity I offer the model prayer that Christ gave to His disciples, I cannot but feel that in these few words all my needs are comprehended. This I offer after I have presented my special private prayer. If with heart and mind and soul I repeat the Lord's prayer, then I can go forth in peace to my work, knowing that I have not asked amiss.” (Manuscript Releases, vol. 8, p. 295).
We should have, first, our personal private devotions each day, experience in our prayer closet. This need not be a long time, but we should first of all in our day reestablish our connection with God. Remember, how often do we need to be converted? Every day. Were you converted this morning again?
After this we should strive to have family devotional time. I say strive because, I know there is a battle with this, and it is not always won. Part of that battle revolves around different schedules of different family members. This is a struggle we have faced in our home. We are moving so fast, and we may have conflicting schedules, and it may be difficult to get a few minutes together where we can have our daily, or preferably morning and evening, devotions. So strive to have them.
We want to have angel presences in our homes. By the way, did you realize that it is as if two families are living in your home? Your human family, and with all the guardian and recording angels, a whole family (as it were) of angels too. So we want to have nothing between ourselves and our Savior, nothing to hinder the sweet, unspoken graces that enhance a Christian home, that indefinable sense of positive presence, the joyful twitch of angel wings just out of human sight.
Watch for Opportunities to Share Your Faith
Another item: Watch for opportunities regularly to share your faith with others. If you have received Jesus, then you have received the great commission. Jesus said, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:19, 20). We are all embarked on this mission, this living and giving of the third angel's message. And we are operating under a principle of use it or lose it, expand your usefulness to Jesus or contract it, let it shrink smaller.
The Holy Spirit is given in proportion as we share our faith in Christ with others. Think of it like a wallet or a purse that, the more frequently it is opened, the more money is in it (it seems to work the other way around from this though, I admit!). We have been granted treasure from Heaven. We must give to receive. We can't hold much, so we must give what we have, and the Holy Spirit will replenish us with yet more timely and thought-provoking and heart-provoking things to say for Jesus.
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness,&rduo; (Matthew 6:33) is not just talking about personal righteousness. God's kingdom expands also through the connections we have with others. Consider this from Christ's Object Lessons, p. 142: “Our prayers are not to be a selfish asking, merely for our own benefit. We are to ask that we may give. The principle of Christ's life must be the principle of our lives. "For their sakes," He said, speaking of His disciples, "I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified." John 17:19. The same devotion, the same self-sacrifice, the same subjection to the claims of the word of God, that were manifest in Christ, must be seen in His servants. Our mission to the world is not to serve or please ourselves; we are to glorify God by co-operating with Him to save sinners. We are to ask blessings from God that we may communicate to others. The capacity for receiving is preserved only by imparting. We cannot continue to receive heavenly treasure without communicating to those around us.”
Preserve your capacity by use, brothers and sisters.
Return Tithes and Give Offerings
Here is another: Return tithes and give at your local church in order that it and its mission may be supported. It is not my purpose to hit this one very hard today, but this topic—and you know this is true—would not be complete if we refused to address this. What did Jesus say? “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” (Matthew 23:23). Now this was a stirring rebuke of the Pharisees, but it wasn't over tithing! Jesus here said, “ye pay tithe...” And then He said, “these ye ought to have done.” His complaint was that they had left the weightier matters undone: fairness, mercy, and faith in God. That was condemnable.
How does a church like this stay open? Offerings pay for lights, heat, air conditioning, vacuum cleaners, and paint. Your tithes returned are used to fund the work of full-time ministers both here in America and overseas. This church, the Mentone Church, has a strong sense of its mission as a truly Seventh-day Adventist Church. We do hope you will take some ownership, consider this as being your church family, that you will work with us and have a part in the work we are trying to accomplish, and that you will support this church as it seeks, faithfully, to uphold the third angel's message. If there is any Seventh-day Advneitst Church worthy of your support by tithes and offerings, we are laboring to make this church be it. Please pray for us.
In giving you will receive a larger blessing. It is more blessed to give than to receive, because it is more blessed to become unselfish and to become selfish. I can honestly tell you that at the beginning of my Christian experience I was very unhappy about God's plan for tithes and offerings. I felt like God was trying to take something from me that was mine, and that I didn't have much of it for Him to take! But as I studied His Word, I cam to understand that this is part of His plan to help me become unselfish. And it is just the help I need.
Give Time to Others
Another help in becoming unselfish, is this: Determine what are the most valuable possessions you have, and give of them to others. For example, if time is your most valuable possession, then think and apply, How can I give some of my time to others in a way that will advance God's kingdom? How much time did Jesus give to us? I won't quote a text, but He gave 33 and half years. All of it. For us. How can you give your time to others?
- You can listen to others when they are hurting.
- You can take time to encourage the broken-hearted.
- You can Call someone who can use some hope, or email someone and let them know you are thinking of them.
- You can send a card or an old-fashioned letter.
- You can come to the church work-bee when we next have one and join us in clearing weeds
- You can come to church board meeting and church business meeting. When you do that, you are serving God, you are giving your time to Him through helping His church function.
- You can, when the church calls you, accept a year of service in a church officer position.
- You can say hello to a neighbor or strike up a small friendship with the salesclerk at the grocery store and become an encourager.
- You can go door to door and pray with people, or invite them to a Bible study.
- You can go to your prayer closet out of human sight, and pray for others presently in need.
- You can and should make more time than you probably are, for your family. It is so easy to be busy. You blink and the years role past and all sooner than you expected, your children have become adults.
- You can visit the lonely man who lives down the street, or talk to that widow you met in the parking lot.
There are many ways to give your time. Jesus gave all of His time. He was unselfishness in the flesh.
Keep the Sabbath
Another thing that will help you become unselfish maybe is something you haven't thought of. You can keep the Sabbath. One seventh of your time is a lot of time. But I remind you, it is not your time. You are bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). Your time is only available to you because Jesus made salvation possible for you.
Furthermore, we agreed that Jesus was unselfishness enfleshed. But Jesus is also the law enfleshed, isn't He? And in God's law is one point that has regard to our time. Exodus 20:8-11 reads: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Jesus kept the Sabbath. He gave the Sabbath. In fact, He gave the Sabbath to an unselfish man, Adam, in an unselfish world. Before man fell, God gave them a day, a reminder that He had given all to us, unselfishly. He gave a principle to keep one seventh of the whole of our time devoted to our God. If we think about it, the Sabbath is like tithes and offerings in a way. It is something, a portion of our time, like a portion of our money, that apparently belongs to us, but which in fact belongs to God. So we return a small portion of the whole to Him to remind ourselves that it is all His. The Sabbath is meant to remind us of an unselfish world, and to remind us of an unselfish Lord, and to remind us of an unselfish future, and to help us become holy and unselfish in the here and now. The Sabbath is not just one more seemingly boring doctrine that others laugh about us observing. It is part of God's end-time plan to create totally unselfish people!
Observe the Laws of Health
Here is number nine: Observe the laws of health. If we eat too much, we are gratifying self. We are taking more than we need, we are indulging self. And how readily we do so. Jesus didn't. Matthew 4:1-4: “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
And then there is what we eat. You have noticed, I take it, that often that which seems the most delicious too us is that which we should not eat in quantity, or sometimes even eat at all. By skipping that extra helping, we are experiencing temperance, self-control, the opposite of self-indulgence, the opposite of selfishness. Isn't it interesting that, when you stop and think about it, the Seventh-day Adventist faith appears t be so designed by the Creator that if we live it, it will make us unselfish? But we have to follow through. We have to see to it that we let this reality happen in our lives.
Ask God to Change Your Desire
Now we finish with number ten, the simplest item of all: Let us keep praying for God to change our desire, so that we will want to become unselfish. Let's be straightforward with God. Jesus says, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” (Matthew 7:7). The human heart, from the time of Adam's choice to rebel against God, is really warped. We seek the opposite from what we were designed to seek. We need to ask God straight out, to change us. Lord, please help me. My attitude needs an adjustment, and it needs it every day. I want to have a different, an unselfish attitude, permanently, but it is day-by-day that I must choose Your way of living if I expect it to become my permanent way of living.
We don't have this desire to be unselfish in our hearts, really. We need to ask God to put it there. We need to be—what?—willing to be made willing. And so we should pray and in simple faith, ask Him. He will change us. He will work with us. He will work in us. All we must do is ask, and co-operate with Him. We are talking about how to become unselfish. He wants that for us more than we do, because He knows that it is more blessed to give than to receive. He wants that joy for us.
Conclusion
Today, we have gone over part two of this series. We realize that if we want to share our faith with power, then we have to be what we are saying, and if we are saying that we want to be saved, that we want to live forever, then we are also saying that our lives here and now are models of that way of living. So we realize that our words need to be backed up by our deeds. If we want to be persuasive for Jesus, then our lives must be persuasive for Jesus. And they won't be very persuasive as long as we are behaving like the old news, the old kingdom that we used to belong to, instead of the bright new kingdom we are on pilgrimage to.
What does your life preach about Jesus? May our Lord help us to become, not less selfish, but unselfish, so that we may share God's truths with power!
Next week: If the task allotted by God to some of us in time past was to develop the implications of Adventism to their full flower, to come to where we have a well-developed Òlast-generation theology,Ó and to live unselfishly as a witness to Jesus, then is it not our task now to develop those ultimate insights into the ultimate evangelistic approaches? Next week in part three of three, we address how we can use these ideas evangelistically in personal witnessing conversations. Let's pray.
