Beyond Self

Reid Tait

Midland SDA Church

July 28, 2012

Scripture  Matthew 25:35, 36

INTRODUCTION:  Philippians-Paul-I should have called this the sermon the Midland Family does not need for they are already known for helping others.  Last week I was frustrated trying to find people to do the various platform responsibilities, I called Cade Leuenberger—no answer—called Mwemba, Mwemba, Jr. going to be out of town, John Bartolo no answer, called dependable Dick Schell—Yes than Larry Truax—yes ---Now I am praising God—but no story—can’t think of a story—Help Lord—the phone rings and Jr. is on the phone saying he will be willing to help I thought to myself—would he be willing to tell a story—He would be good if he will do it—So I asked and Jr said he would be glad to—at that moment—I exploded—Thank you—Thank you--thank you.  If he were there I would have hugged him and thanked Hope and Mwemba Mwemba for raising such a great son.  God wasn’t done with me yet.  I received a phone call from Cade saying he would be willing to help and call him again next time.  Each person was an answer to prayer—Thank you heavenly Father for each of them.  Gerri Kotz told me Thursday she was praying for me as I prepared for today message.  Thanks Gerri and the rest of the church family that have been praying for me.  Let’s Pray.

Has the church family thanked those volunteers who spend their time practicing to sing or play, Greg landscaping,  pouring concrete, Sabbath School teacher and leaders,  Dick our head deacon looks over our church like a mother hen.—thanks Dick!  Ardith, Lois

Eve fell to Satan, then Adam and it has been downhill ever since.  After the fall of Adam, it has been God’s purpose that His people should be a praise in the earth and the glory of His name.  Another way of saying this is Seventh-day Adventist Christians should bring praises to God from non-believers because we are here to help this world to be a better place to live and we praise God for His infinite love and sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ.

The plain for our salvation was not conceived after sin, but before.  From the beginning God and Christ knew that Satan would tempt us and we would fail.  God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He saw its existence in the future and made a way out for us.  He loved us that much.  Lets say it together—“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have ever lasting life.”  John 3:16  “  Because of the great love Jesus became flesh and blood.  In taking our nature, Jesus has chosen to bind Himself to you and me by a tie that is never to be broken,  Never to be broken—never. 

This was a voluntary act and beyond self act.  Jesus might have remained at the Father’s side, keep the glory of heaven and retained the homage of the angels, but He did not.   Truly, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him.”  Isa 53:5

Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves.  He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share.  He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His.  We cannot find a better example of a volunteer who went way beyond self

As we volunteer, we meet people with common interest, fellow Christians of many faiths doing the will of God as they understand it.  Invite them to your homes.  Brothers and Sisters , Our homes still serves as a catalyst to make the gospel real to people.  It is through relationships that we learn to apply the principles of the gospel to real life.  Relationships, when they are healthy and intentional, will also help us see in a concrete way how to live the Christian life effectively and with joy.  As people associate with us and see that we are better people because of Jesus—that we are better fathers or mothers, better husbands or wives, better sons or daughters—they are more likely to be attracted to Christianity than just by hearing doctrine or theology. Joseph Kidder in his book titled The Bid Four Secrets to a Thriving Church Family, p. 130 “Our members need to be inspired to share their faith naturally in whatever their context, whether it is the home, the market place, or the neighborhood.  The most effective form of evangelism is the natural one, the one that takes place in the context of relationships.  Andrew brought Peter to Christ.  We bring our loved ones to Him.  When this happens, the new believers have the added advantage of having their own personal pastor-friend to minister to their spiritual needs.  Watched children at the Plymouth pool.

Getting together is important and it is natural for most people.  Turn to Hebrews 10:24, 25.  What is Paul telling us?  We need to get together and exhort –encourage one another especially as we see the events open up that have been fore told in scripture.  The Bible encourages us to get together—many of us need to work at it—this will become more important as we spend more time in the electronic media age where verbal communication  is becoming less and less and cryptic communication more and more.

Getting together is a Blessing and ordained by God.  We make friendships that last a life time.  God made us to be social people.  The Bible is full of stories of people helping people—Christ again our best example helped people everywhere He went.  There are also some personal benefits by going beyond self.

Article by Eillen Rockefell Growald and Allan Luks titled Beyond Self written in March 1988 issue of American Health which quotes several studies.  They recommend that we exercise regularly, eat a well-balanced diet and do something nice for someone. OK! Exercise and eating we know, but what about doing something nice for someone.

AA learned long ago that helping someone else beat the bottle make it easier to beat your own addiction.  Helping other people brings real physical benefits as well as psychological ones, according to epidemiologist James House and his colleagues at the University of Michigan in their 2,700 people study in Tecumseh, MI, for more than a decade, to see how their social relationships affected their health.  The researchers found that doing regular volunteer work, more than any other activity, dramatically increased live expectancy.  Men who did no volunteer work were two and a half times as likely to die during the study as men who volunteered at least once a week.  The health benefits of volunteerism were less clear for women—perhaps because most women already spend a lot of time looking after other people.

One key benefit of volunteering is that it’s a way of connecting with people.  Other data from Tecumseh show that those of us with many social contacts tend to live longer than more isolated individuals.  In fact, even pleasant, relaxing activities may be bad for your health if they make you more isolated.  In the Tecumseh study, people who spent a lot of time reading, listening to the radio or watching television had a higher than average mortality rate.

Several studies have shown that people need other people for their health’s sake.  In one of the largest surveys, epidemiologists Lisa Berkman of Yale and H. Leonard Syme of University of California, Berkeley, studied nearly 5,000 residents of Alameda County, CA.  Over nine years, they found that those who were unmarried, had few friends or relatives and shunned community organization were more than twice as likely to die during that time than people who had these social relationships.  This was true regardless of race, income, level of activity and other lifestyle factors.

Hostility or Angry heart definitely multiplies your risk of death.  The concept of an “angry heart: was first developed by Charles Spielberger, a psychologist at the University of South Florida.  Read Matthew 5:23, 24  Researchers had already shown that people with a hard-driving, hurried, competitive style—called Type-A personalities—had a higher than average heart disease risk.  But when Dr Spielberger went back and analyzed the data, he found many aspects of Type-A personality to be harmless.  Only a few factors really hurt the heart:  the varied forms of anger, irritability and aggressive competiveness.

A study by Duke University psychiatrist Redford Williams found that the more hostile the person, the more blocked his coronary arteries were.  The University of Maryland’s James Lynch finds that people who do not listen well to others—but just wait for a chance to answer back—tend to have higher blood pressure.   Hypertension, he says, “is a communication problem.”

Dean Ornish, an internist at the University of California, San Francisco, medical school, suggests that hostile heart patients get into a vicious cycle.  Their hostility cuts them off from other people, which makes them more self-involved and hostile, which further isolate them from other people.  To break the cycle, Dr. Ornish encourages patients to do things for other.  For instance, he had two patients who disliked one another do each other’s laundry.  Such selfless acts, Ornish says, help reduce his patients’ cholesterol levels and chest pains.

Turn to Matthew 25:31-46

When we give of ourselves we gain—we feel good, life is more satisfying and we live longer—God made us that way.  Matthew 10:42

Read Matthew 16:24-25

This week because of volunteers—vacation Bible School took place, M-20 looks better through the efforts of our youth and young adult group, Gerri and Hannah Kohtz helping at the animal shelter, Dick Schell at the nature center Seventh-day Adventist Community Services helped people in the community to mention a few.  The Midland Church cannot function without volunteers and soles will not be won to Him without you and me.  To make things even better we have better health and longer lives.  Praise be to God.  We are living beyond self.