Selfishness

INTRODUCTION

Good morning…it is great to be back.  For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Ryan Hanson.  I grew up here at Kentwood Community Church.  I was on staff for a couple years at the Wyoming Campus Students Coordinator.  I gave that position up to go help plant a new church through Central Wesleyan.  This church, called The Local Church, launched on Easter of this year and I have had the privilege of serving as their spiritual formation director.  Whereas it has been a great ride helping to plant a church, it is great to be back here where my Christian walk started. I heard a pastor once say, “We are all born selfish and that to help us learn to become unselfish, God gives us the gift of marriage.  When that doesn’t work he gives us children.” I always thoughts that this was a clever turn of phrase, but never gave it much weight, until I got married.  I had considered myself a pretty unselfish person; serving in church, donating money to various causes, trying to be a generally nice person.  God gave me my first lesson in being unselfish when I got married in 2010.  My wife and I had both lived along in our own houses for a while before we got married and got very comfortable without way of doing things.  It took a while, but my wife and I had started to figure out how to live together…then we had our daughter, Eliana. It was December 12, 2013 when we welcomed Eliana into the world.  My wife and I chose her name because when we were in Israel we learned how important names were.  We wanted our daughter’s name to mean something.  Eliana means God has provided; Riley means courageous; and Hanson is our last name.  Our daughter’s name means “God has provided a courageous Hanson.”  She has lived up to that name so far.  She is fearless.  She walked at 10 months.  She climbs on everything.  She even refuses to wear a floaty while swimming.  In gymnastics, she refuses help, doing everything herself.  She literally will put her hand in your face and very confidently say, “No, I will do it myself!!!”  I think this is great, but with all the courage comes the need for a lot of parental oversight to make sure she doesn’t hurt herself, which has led to my second lesson in how to be unselfish. As I have worked through my lessons in becoming unselfish, God has used three stories.  I was told that this service is projector free so I bought props.  The three stories I want to share can be represented by a hammer, a picture, and a bar of chocolate.  As I tell you these three stories and it is my prayer, that God speaks something to you as He has spoken to me.

STORY 1 - 2 Samuel 7:1-17 / 1 Chronicles 22 / 1 Chronicles 29

Our first story can be found in the Old Testament and is represented by a hammer.  If you will pull out your Bible, tablet, or cell phone please turn with me to 2 Samuel 7. It is here we enter into the story of David shortly after he became King of Israel.  He had conquered Jerusalem, defeated the Philistines, and had begun his rule.  We pick it up in 2 Samuel 7 where David is sitting in his palace asking himself a question based on some uneasiness he feels about his new situation, 2 Samuel 7:2 states: 2 Samuel 7:2 Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent. David wants to build a temple for the Lord, which sounds like a great idea.  Unfortunately, God did not agree.  In 2 Samuel 7:12-13 God responds through the prophet Nathan: 2 Samuel 7:12-13 12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I don’t know about you, but I would be a little frustrated.  David wants to do a good thing, honor God by building a temple for Him, but God tells him that he is not the right person to do it.  God says that it is David’s son that will have that task.  What is David to do?  Honestly, I would probably move on.  God said no, what else would you do.  We find in 1 Chronicles 22 that David took a different path.  Please join me in verse 1 Chronicles 22:5: 1 Chronicles 22:5 5 David said, “My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the Lord should be of great magnificence and fame and splendor in the sight of all the nations. Therefore I will make preparations for it.” So David made extensive preparations before his death. Knowing that the task of building the temple was to go to his son, David did everything he could to help his Son be successful.  We find out in 1 Chronicles 29 that David personally set aside a large portion of his wealth toward construction of the temple and organized the collecting of further materials from the rest of Israel.   David made sure that Solomon had everything he needed to be successful in this task that he was given. This draws me back to the first lesson God showed me on my path toward unselfishness.  God asked me this. What am I doing right now to setup my children for success now and in their future? My daughter is currently 3-years old.  Just as David was told early in his life that his children would have a great task, I want to make sure that I setup my daughter up for future success.  Am I actively looking forward to the tasks that my daughter will be called to and equipping her now to tackle them?  Am I setting aside some of my wealth so that she will be able to go to college?  Am I behaving as a helicopter parent, saving her from every challenging situation, or enduring the personal pain of watching her learn the hard lessons herself? The question applies to us all. What are you doing right now to setup the people in your family for success now and in their future?

STORY 2 – Acts 16:1-5 / 2 Timothy 3:10-17

Our second story can be found in the New Testament and is represented by a pitcher.  It is here that we meet Paul.  Paul was not married, had no children, and traveled a lot for the call Christ gave him on the Damascus road.  I typically think of Paul as a lone wolf super Christian traveling the world, planting churches, writing letters, essentially spreading the gospel to the entire world.  A few years ago I committed to myself to read the Bible through in one year.  I did my math wrong so I ended up finishing in September, but none the less, God showed me something during that period of time.  I had typically studied the Bible topically, reading only isolated sections of the Bible, and lacking a general overview of the greater narrative.  What I found was that Paul was not this lone wolf, but had many relationships that kept him going.  Barnabas vouched for Paul to the Apostles in Jerusalem, validating his ministry.  Barnabas then traveled with Paul, mentoring him for a period.  Paul also traveled extensively with the gospel writers Mark and Luke.  What struck me in reading the New Testament straight through was that Paul poured into dozens of people along the way.  Paul was intentionally looking for people who he could pour into and train to help further the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  First among them, in my mind, was Timothy.  We meet Timothy in Acts 16:1-5, please join me in reading: Acts 16:1-5 16 Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. 2 The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. In the midst of his travels, Paul meets Timothy, sees something in him, and true to Jesus’ example, calls him to join him along his journey.  Paul poured out his life or modeled the life he wanted Timothy to emulate.  Paul taught Timothy specific skills he would need later in his ministry.  Paul was preparing Timothy to lead, and eventually Timothy would become the pastor of the Church in Ephesus, one of the largest / most influential cities in the Roman world.  Paul sums up his mentoring work with Timothy in a final charge he writes in 2 Timothy 3:10-17, please join me in reading: 2 Timothy 3:10-17 - A Final Charge to Timothy 10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Through the story of Paul and Timothy, God taught me my second lesson in becoming less selfish.  God asked me: What am I doing to pass along my experience to others who are in my sphere of influence? How am I helping people outside of my family to grow in their relationship with Jesus and live out the Christian life?  Being in youth ministry since 2000, many years as a volunteer, I had the honor of mentoring many young people.  One person always comes to mind first.  Andrew was a middle schooler when I met him.  His dad was a welder in the IRAQ war, liked being overseas and never came back home.  His mom worked a lot to support the three kids, and his two siblings struggled with sexual identity issues, so Andrew had a pretty rough start.  At the time I was a youth volunteer with my group of eight middle schoolers.  Andrew was one of them.  He initially would miss a lot, which I found out was due to a lack of ride.  I started driving him to church on Wednesday nights for youth group, which grew to Sunday and Wednesday nights, which then grew to us going to both Sunday services, serving together as co-leaders in a first grade room because he wanted to live out his faith in a more real way. Andrew was my Timothy.  Do you have a Timothy in your life? What are you doing to pass along your experience to others who are in your sphere of influence?

STORY 3 – Milton Hershey

Our third story is represented by a chocolate bar and comes from a family vacation I went on with my family this summer.  On the way to a family wedding in NYC, we stopped for a day in Hershey, PA.  During the trip, we took a trolley ride where we were introduced to Milton Hershey.  God used his story to teach me my third lesson in unselfishness. Milton Hershey was born in 1857.  He apprenticed with a candy maker as a teenager and wanted to make candy for a living.  He started two candy companies that failed, but did not give up.  He learned the value of fresh milk from a confectioner in Denver and finally found success in making caramels with fresh milk.  He grew the company to 1,400 people and shipped internationally.  At a candy convention he was fascinated by German chocolate.  He sold his caramel company and started making chocolate with fresh milk, which became the Hershey Company. The great thing about Milton Hershey was not his determination, his refusal to give up despite failure, or his meteoric success, but what he did with that success.  Milton Hershey cared for people.  He was married, but had no children.  He built Hershey, PA into what he considered to be a model town so his employees could have a better life.  He built housing, schools, churches, parks, a trolley system, sports stadiums, and many other things. He was quoted saying, “What good is money unless you use it for the benefit of the community and of humanity in general?” Milton Hershey 1923 Milton Hershey’s crowning achievement was the Milton Hershey School.  It is a live in school for 2,000 orphaned kids.  It costs them nothing, they live on campus full time, and every need is provided for them including money for college.  Milton Hershey donated his 60 million dollar fortune in 1945 to a trust which is now worth over $13 billion dollars that keeps the school running. I was floored by this tour.  I had no idea that the guy behind Hershey chocolates was the person he was and did the things he did.  Makes me feel less guilty for eating so much of it J.  But God used this tour to ask me a third question.  He asked, What am I doing now to make the world a better place after I am gone? Am I leaving a legacy that honors God?  Am I reaching beyond my family and close friends to help people in real need I would never meet without a fair bit of intentionality on my part?  Before we had Eliana, my wife and I fostered an 8 year old boy for a year.  The foster agency paid us for taking care of him, which seemed weird.  Not needing, or wanting money to care for a child, we decided to donate it.  We used the money to build three schools through Samaritan’s Purse (The Christmas Catalog) in third world countries.  This is one step my wife and I are taking to help make the world a better place. What are you doing now to make the world a better place after you are gone?

CONCLUSION / APPLICATION

So where does this hit you?  What is God telling you?  During which story did the Holy Spirit give you a little nudge?  Did God put a name, action, non-profit, or cause in your mind during one of the three questions. What are you doing right now to setup the people in your family for success now and in their future? What are you doing to pass along your experience to others who are in your sphere of influence? What are you doing now to make the world a better place after you are gone? Clair De Graaf wrote a book called the 10 Second Rule.  In it she challenges us to: “Just do the next thing you're reasonably certain Jesus wants you to do (and do it within the next ten seconds before you change your mind!)” What are you reasonably sure God wants you to do based on today’s talk? Let’s pray, God…thanks for today and the ability to meet in your name, discuss your word, and explore ways that we came grow closer to the people you designed us to be.  You know our thoughts, our motives, and our actions.  You know that we are naturally selfish people.  Please continue to teach me and everyone here how to break that chain.  Like your son Jesus we want to serve, not to be served (Matthew 20:28).  Speak to us.  Show us how we can serve those in our family, in our spheres of influence, and how we can leave a legacy for you.  Help us not just hear these words but act in a specific way this week.  We thank you and love you.  It is in the powerful name of your son Jesus that we pray, Amen. ONLINE REFERENCES http://pastors.com/paul-timothy/ https://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/bpc_proceedings/2007/Oney.pdf http://www.travissnode.com/2013/11/06/mentoring-new-testament-5-5-paul-timothy/ https://www.thehersheycompany.com/en_us/this-is-hershey/milton-hershey.html http://www.mhskids.org/ http://www.mhskids.org/about/school-history/

2 Samuel 7:12–13 NRSV

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

2 Samuel 7:12–13 NRSV

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

2 Samuel 7:2 NRSV

the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.”

2 Samuel 7:2 NRSV

the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.”

2 Samuel 7:2 NRSV

the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.”

1 Chronicles 29 NRSV

King David said to the whole assembly, “My son Solomon, whom alone God has chosen, is young and inexperienced, and the work is great; for the temple will not be for mortals but for the Lord God. So I have provided for the house of my God, so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood, besides great quantities of onyx and stones for setting, antimony, colored stones, all sorts of precious stones, and marble in abundance. Moreover, in addition to all that I have provided for the holy house, I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, and because of my devotion to the house of my God I give it to the house of my God: three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, for overlaying the walls of the house, and for all the work to be done by artisans, gold for the things of gold and silver for the things of silver. Who then will offer willingly, consecrating themselves today to the Lord?” Then the leaders of ancestral houses made their freewill offerings, as did also the leaders of the tribes, the commanders of the thousands and of the hundreds, and the officers over the king’s work. They gave for the service of the house of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron. Whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord, into the care of Jehiel the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced because these had given willingly, for with single mind they had offered freely to the Lord; King David also rejoiced greatly. Then David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly; David said: “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our ancestor Israel, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might; and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all. And now, our God, we give thanks to you and praise your glorious name. “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to make this freewill offering? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. For we are aliens and transients before you, as were all our ancestors; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. I know, my God, that you search the heart, and take pleasure in uprightness; in the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you. O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our ancestors, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you. Grant to my son Solomon that with single mind he may keep your commandments, your decrees, and your statutes, performing all of them, and that he may build the temple for which I have made provision.” Then David said to the whole assembly, “Bless the Lord your God.” And all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before the Lord and the king. On the next day they offered sacrifices and burnt offerings to the Lord, a thousand bulls, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs, with their libations, and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel; and they ate and drank before the Lord on that day with great joy. They made David’s son Solomon king a second time; they anointed him as the Lord’s prince, and Zadok as priest. Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord, succeeding his father David as king; he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him. All the leaders and the mighty warriors, and also all the sons of King David, pledged their allegiance to King Solomon. The Lord highly exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel. Thus David son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. The period that he reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. He died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor; and his son Solomon succeeded him. Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the records of the seer Samuel, and in the records of the prophet Nathan, and in the records of the seer Gad, with accounts of all his rule and his might and of the events that befell him and Israel and all the kingdoms of the earth.