Series: My Personal Testimony, Part Three
A sermon by Pastor Dale Wolcott
Presented February 12, 2000
(New King James Bible used unless otherwise noted.)
Parked in indoor luxury, in our garage out on Eight Mile Rd., is a rather beat up old vehicle that some people call a "Jeep." It’s actually a 1988 Isuzu Trooper, and it is enjoying a well-deserved retirement after giving nearly ten years and over 200,000 miles of very faithful service on the highways, back roads, dirt roads and non-roads of two different Indian Reservations out west.
When our dear old Trooper is clean you can still tell what color it was when it was new: a reddish-bronze earth-tone. We fell in love with it when we first saw it (which was when it was nearly new, in 1990), because the paint job was almost a perfect match for the red
sandstone cliffs and dunes that mark the landscape of Monument Valley, Utah, where we lived for over seven years.
Now if you stop by our place sometime and take a good look at that old Trooper, you’ll notice, on the hood right in front of the driver’s seat, some odd-shaped indentations in the sheet metal. Whenever I see those little ripples, it reminds me of a story; a story that reinforces for me the third and most important of your pastor’s three Core Convictions which I began sharing with you back before Christmas.
This morning, it’s finally time to conclude this little series: let’s review those three core convictions:
#1 God is smarter than I am. That’s the foundation of my faith.
#2 Jesus is stronger than the devil. That’s the reason for my hope.
#3 Love works better than selfishness.
In our Scripture reading from 1 Corinthians 13, Paul spoke of three permanent realities: "Now abide faith [God is smarter than I am; it makes more sense to put my confidence in Him than in myself], hope [Jesus is stronger than the devil, things are going to get better in this old world, Jesus is the winner and I’m on His side so I’m an optimist!], love, these three;" and "the greatest of these is love."
It was a balmy late-February afternoon in Monument Valley. My Trooper was parked in a dirt driveway in front of a small mobile home about 13 miles across the desert floor from our home in Rock Door Canyon. I was seated in the living room of the trailer, visiting with a young couple who had fallen in and out of love far too often over the previous eight years or so.
Carl & Sharla (not their real names) shared a love for their three small children, but they had never been married, and now Sharla had decided that she was not going to take Carl back any more. I was there as an advocate of married love. I had been trying to model love; Carl had been staying in our home for the past couple of weeks, ever since Sharla told him to move out. And now I was trying to lovingly mediate a tragic lack of love for a fractured family that had never really known the meaning of Jesus’ love.
As we visited, it became clear that Sharla’s verdict was final, at least for now: she simply didn’t want Carl around. Of course I agreed he shouldn’t be staying there, because they weren’t married. But even apart from that, given the history of abuse, alcoholism and animosity, I really couldn’t blame Sharla for her feelings. At the very least, Carl needed to give her some space. So I had prayer with them, and with Sharla’s mother who was also present. Then I stood up & said, "Well, Carl, I guess it’s time to go." (I had brought Carl there, in my Trooper.)
So Carl and I get up to leave. As we step out onto the weathered sheet of plywood that serves as a front porch, Sharla clicks the lock in the door behind us. When Carl hears that click, he turns around and tries the door. It doesn’t open. Quicker than I can tell it, he puts his boot through the picture window next to the front door, and bursts through the window, back into the living room.
Sharla screams and heads toward the back door. I jump through the window behind Carl and run behind them through the house and out the back door. The next half hour was without any question the most frightening thirty minutes of my life. I repeatedly stood between a half-crazed man and his terrified ex-girlfriend. I could see blood soaking into Sharla’s shirt collar from a wound on her neck which he had apparently inflicted in his initial attack.
After the first few minutes, the rear cab window of her mom’s pickup was smashed because Sharla tried unsuccessfully to drive away and Carl jumped into the bed and broke the glass behind her head; I jumped in behind him and tried to restrain him while she jumped out of the cab. We were far out in the country, with no near neighbors and no telephones.
After about ten minutes of scuffling and chasing, Sharla and her mom ran down the driveway to where the Trooper was parked, scrambled into the front seat, slammed the doors and pushed all the door locks.
I spent the next 20 minutes or so simultaneously praying and trying to talk Carl down from his rage. Amazingly, he never tried to break the glass on the Trooper. The closest we came to that was when he climbed up onto the hood, and I got up there with him and physically held him back from getting too close to the windshield. He could have overpowered me, but he seemed to think better of it, and we clambered back down to the ground.
When it was finally all over, Sharla had several stitches in her neck wound, Carl had a long jail term, I had a swollen thumb and a slightly bruised foot, and the Trooper had those dents in the hood.
Does it pay to try to help people? Does loving others really work better than looking out for number one? Is caring about other people’s happiness actually the best way to find happiness for yourself?
It doesn’t always appear to be so in this world, and the hood of my Trooper proves it.
But I’ve concluded that I never want to stop reaching out in love to people who need love. The core of the core of the core of the message of this Book is that love works better than selfishness.
As Ellen White puts it so beautifully in the very first chapter of The Desire of Ages, "The law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and heaven" [p. 20]. To love is to live, and to live is to give. Let me give you a Bible reason why I’m so sure of that.
Open to Daniel chapter 4. Daniel 4 is unlike any other chapter in the Bible. It is the personal testimony of the converted heathen king of Babylon; do you remember his name? Yes, Nebuchadnezzar. Please note verse 1: "Nebuchadnezzar the king, To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you" -- this was the king who had marched out to war season after season after season at the head of what may well have been the most fearsome engine of destruction known to the ancient world; the Babylonian army, and now he says, "Peace be multiplied to you"!
Verses 2 & 3: "I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me. How great are His signs, And how mighty His wonders!" and, he might have added, how powerfully compelling His love. "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation."
"I thought love was for losers," Nebuchadnezzar says, "but the Most High God has demonstrated to me that love works better than selfishness." It is love that brings true, lasting success. Nebuchadnezzar goes on to tell the story of how his proud heart was humbled, how his selfish self was turned inside out by the magnetic, persistent love of his Creator. Do you remember the story?
In chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar was convinced, "Wow, God knows the future, He knows what I dreamed, God is smarter than I am." In chapter 3 Nebuchadnezzar was convicted. He saw Jesus coming down to the fiery furnace with those three brave young men, going through the flames with them, and He admitted, "God is stronger than the devil." Now in chapter 4 we discover that it takes more than information to change a heart. In chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar is finally converted; not by argument, not by show of strength, but by the melting love of a God who won’t quit caring for this proud, stubborn, hard-headed heathen king.
At this point in Nebuchadnezzar’s life, at the beginning of chapter 4, in spite of all his knowledge about God, Nebuchadnezzar is still living a life that is centered around whom? Centered on Nebuchadnezzar, living a self-centered life.
Chapter 4 tells about a second dream that Nebuchadnezzar dreams, and in verses 10-17 he tells this dream to his friend Daniel. In my dream, he said, I saw this huge tree. Note the description starting in verse11, "The tree grew and became strong; its height reached to the heavens, and it could be seen to the ends of all the earth. Its leaves were lovely, its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, the birds of the heavens dwelt in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it."
Then the tree is cut down, and then he hears a voice from heaven speaking of the tree as if it were a person. Continuing with verses 15 and 16: "Nevertheless leave the stump and roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let him graze with the beasts on the grass of the earth. Let his heart be changed from that of a man, let him be given the heart of a beast, and let seven times pass over him."
Starting in verse 19, Daniel interprets the dream. I don’t think Nebuchadnezzar was surprised when he heard Daniel tell him, "My friend, the tree is you. You are headed for some tough times. You still have some lessons to learn." But the heart of Daniel’s prophetic message to Nebuchadnezzar comes down here in verse 27. Daniel speaks for God, and says, God really doesn’t want this to happen to you. It’s a warning about where your life is headed, but it’s not inevitable. Nebuchadnezzar, you can do something to change this scenario.
Verse 27 reads, "Therefore, O king, let my advice be acceptable to you; break off your sins by being righteous, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity."
God says: Nebuchadnezzar, to live is to love. The law of self-renouncing love is the law of life in earth and heaven; and even in this kingdom of Babylon. The only way you are going to survive is if you can learn how to be like the Most High; to show mercy to the poor. (Don't forget, in Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon, everybody was poor compared to the king.) And Nebuchadnezzar strokes his royal beard and says, "Thank you very much, Daniel, I’ll give this some thought." And life goes on for another 12 months. Nebuchadnezzar does not change his life. To all appearances, God’s warning has fallen on deaf ears.
A year later, (verse 30) we find him strolling around the palace grounds congratulating himself on how well things are going: "Is not this great Babylon that I have built?" But selfishness is a form of insanity. Ultimately, selfishness doesn’t work. Nebuchadnezzar starts hearing voices, and the voices seem to say: "Nebuchadnezzar, you have been acting like an animal all your life. Living for yourself. Living by the law of the jungle; survival of the fittest." And this powerful man becomes so utterly depressed that he goes into a psychosis and believes he IS an animal. So to the dismay of all his counselors and courtiers and deputies, and family, this man at the pinnacle of global power rips off his robes and starts acting like a creature of the field.
What has gone wrong? What’s happened to the king? Only Daniel understands that those voices in the king’s head were indeed a decree from heaven (verse 17). But to everybody else, it simply looks like the king is off his rocker. So they put him in a fenced pasture. The Bible says his hair got as long as eagle feathers, and his fingernails and toenails eventually looked like bird claws. There has been more than one great military man in history whose life story has had this kind of a sad ending. But the reason this story is in the Bible is that this isn’t the end of the story.
To get an idea of how amazing the rest of this story is, I want you to think about Babylon for a minute. Think about what you know about politics and about ancient history (or even modern history). There is always someone lurking in the shadows who would like to be the next ruler. So what would you expect would happen when this power vacuum develops in the capitol of the empire? Somebody is going to take the throne, right? And if Nebuchadnezzar ever does get well, there will be someone else who has taken a firm grip on the machinery of power, and there will be no place at the top for a has-been from seven years past!
But this story turns out different. Look back at the first part of verse 15, "Nevertheless leave the stump and roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze..." God said to Nebuchadnezzar: "I love you. I want you to learn to love others the way I love you. I want you to show mercy to the poor. So, when you become poor, I’m going to show mercy to you. I am going to hold your kingdom for you, and I’m going to give it back to you, if you can learn to love the way I love."
And a few years ago some archaeologists working in the ruins of ancient Babylon deciphered a clay tablet inscription from the archives of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. It’s partly broken, so some of the wording is missing, but it seems to describe a period of time when the king was incapacitated, and others had to run the day-to-day affairs of the kingdom for a while. And the Bible tells the very same story. Now note verse 34, "And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever."
The way we bless and honor our God of love is by learning to love others as He has loved us. And when Nebuchadnezzar learned to love, things started working for him again. In Ellen White’s telling of this story, let me share with you a couple of sentences on the last page of the chapter. "The tyrannical, overbearing ruler [had become] a wise and compassionate king...who...earnestly sought the happiness of his subjects...." He had learned how to show mercy to the poor! "Nebuchadnezzar had learned at last the lesson which all rulers need to learn (which all people need to learn!); that true greatness consists in true goodness." (Prophets and Kings, p. 521, paragraph 2.) Love works better than selfishness.
Before I tell you the rest of my story I want to share with you something that came across my desk just a few weeks ago that underlines this greatest of all Bible truths about love, it’s called "The State of our Unions 1999; the Social Health of Marriage in America" -- interesting reading for Valentine’s Day. It’s published annually by a major secular university, Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey. It points out that marriage is in trouble. Fewer marriages are happy, fewer marriages are permanent. When you read this document you are reading the proof that Jesus’ last-day prophecy is coming true: "Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold." (Matthew 24:12) Here on page 12 it talks about people’s beliefs about marriage in America today: "The [earlier] ideal of marriage as a permanent contractual union...is...giving way to a new reality of marriage as a ‘terminal sexual contract’ designed for the gratification of the individual parties.... People tend to be puzzled or put off by the idea that marriage has purposes or benefits that extend beyond fulfilling individual adult needs for intimacy and satisfaction."
In other words, today more than ever before, people are getting married for selfish reasons: "I want to be happy, I need somebody that cares about me." Etc. etc. And the more we seek and hunger and lust after our own personal happiness and satisfaction, the less happiness and satisfaction we find. The core, core, core truth of God’s Word is that it is in giving that we receive; it is in choosing to love others that we find love ourselves; it is in self-sacrifice that we find self-fulfillment.
As far as I know, Carl & Sharla still haven’t learned that truth, and my heart still aches for them. In 1997, after we had spent several years on the Navajo Reservation, the Dakota Conference asked us to coordinate Native American ministries in their territory, and especially to sort of restart a little mission operated by the Church on the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation. When we got there we found that one of our two little churches hadn’t held services for almost the past year. There was one very elderly white couple in that church, and just one other family, a Native American family. As I got acquainted with that family, I found out that the wife was a Navajo (married to a Sioux), and she was the sister of Sharla. (Remember, Sharla is not her real name.)
We started holding Sabbath services, and Sharla’s sister’s husband became the head elder, and several of their relatives started coming to church, and seeing that little group grow into a real Native American-owned-and-operated congregation was one of our biggest joys during the time we were at Pine Ridge.
One day I was talking to Sharla’s sister and her husband, who are now the backbone of that little church. They spoke kind words about how Nancy and I had made such a difference in their lives. (It wasn’t us, it was Jesus, but Jesus used us and it was fun!) In the past, they had not been very active in church, hadn’t had much personal devotional life, hadn’t had family worship, and now things were so different in their family; even their marriage was better than before. I said, "Why were you willing to listen to me when I came here and talked about the love of Jesus? Why were you so open to us when we came to Pine Ridge?"
The husband said something to the effect that, "Before you ever came here, we knew we could trust you, because we heard about what happened with Sharla & Carl." In fact, his actual words were, "We knew you were a strong person." He was speaking from the proud tradition of a clan of Lakota Sioux warriors. But he wasn’t talking about the strength of a warrior. He was talking about the strength of love.
And it wasn’t my love, because I was born selfish, and I’m still a terribly selfish person, apart from Jesus. But Jesus has been teaching me to believe in the strength of love. I’m still learning how to do it, but I believe in it with all my heart. Love works better than selfishness!
Let’s conclude with a Valentine Scripture: 1 John 4:19. Does someone have it in the New International Version? It reads: "We love because He first loved us." In the book, Desire of Ages, p. 22 it tells us, "Only by love is love awakened." And Jesus is the Source of my love.
Our hymn of response is Hymn #193, "Savior, teach me day by day love’s sweet lesson to obey, sweeter lesson cannot be, loving him who first loved me."
While we sing this song, I want to invite you to come forward for a special prayer, if you so desire. We could call this a Valentine’s prayer, I suppose. Is there someone in your life that you would like to love better than you have been? Maybe the Lord has spoken to you this morning about something in your life that you would like Him to change. If you want to be especially included in the prayer, just come down and join me at the front while we sing.
Savior, teach me day by day, Love’s sweet lesson to obey,
Sweeter lesson cannot be, Loving Him who first loved me.
With a child’s glad heart of love, At Thy bidding may I move,
Prompt to serve and follow Thee, Loving Him who first loved me.
Teach me I am not my own, I am Thine, and Thine alone;
Thine to keep, to rule, to save From all sin that would enslave.
Love in loving finds employ, In obedience all her joy;
Ever new that joy will be, Loving Him who first loved me.
Teach me thus Thy steps to trace, Strong to follow in Thy grace.
Learning how to love from Thee, Loving Him who first loved me.