Grace Emmanuel Church
Pastor Sam Chess
"What shall I give you?" part 1 ----
Listen
I had an experience Friday unlike anything I ever quite experienced.
I got a call from a guy whom I've known for a number of years in a
business relationship. (We'll call him Fred) He is in business in
this area and he very successful at what he does. He said "I need to
see you, this time, as a pastor. Knowing he was not a "see a pastor"
type of guy I was curious… as he fit 30 minutes for me in his
fast-paced schedule.
When we sat down he pulled out a yellow pad and slid it across the
table…on it were numbered questions… questions like: ( I paraphrase)
1) What is this life really all about?
2) Is what I'm experiencing all there is to this
existence?
3) If life is about being successful and getting ahead
why am I so unfulfilled?
4) Is there an answer to this huge hole I feel on the
inside?
I was amazed as I read each new question…I've never had someone,
outside a church setting, come to me with such open, direct, hungry
questions.
After I finished reading the list he then said: Now I want to ask you
a question…
Have you found fulfillment in life? Does your life have
meaning?
I told him I had and it did! … but I assured him that if I depended
on my life fulfillment coming from getting up each morning.. leaving
early for work, striving all day to please un-pleasable customers,
coming home… falling into bed, only to repeat the process the next
day… Even if my bank account filled up, I would still be left with a
meaningless existence… He looked at me with his eyes big and said,
"That's me"
I said: what you are expressing to me is an insatiable
inner hunger that you just can't find anything to satisfy…. He
said, that's right… that's exactly what it is! He added; I
tried God… I grew up in the Roman Catholic Church and I tried to
do things that were right but I wasn't very good at it…
I told him what was lacking in him was a personal relationship with
God….the God who loved him so much that instead of punishing him for
his sins had come to this earth and died for his sin penalty… what
was lacking was not for him to know about God but for him to truly
KNOW God in a personal way…
Perhaps, some in this room, are sitting right where this man is.
You know about God but you would be hard pressed to say
that you know God personally.
I described to "Fred" my inner fulfillment… that comes from not
believing that this life is an end in itself… this life… is about me
getting to know God in a deep and personal way and sharing that
secret with others…. But "Real life" isn't even going to start until
we get past this 80-90 year trial period and get on the other side
where we will directly in the presence of the God we developed a
relationship with here on earth. (providing we did that…)
How about I, just, pass “Fred's” question on to you, today..
1) Have you found fulfillment in life?
2) Does your life have meaning?
_____________________________________________
Let me focus in on this…
3) What are you expecting from this life?
If you're young…or not so young…and you think that becoming good at
something and becoming successful and even accumulating money and
possessions is going to do it for you… you, really, need to re-hear
“Fred's” cry-out to me just two days ago…
4) If you could “rub the brass lamp” and get three things
that you think would bring you the greatest amount of life
fulfillment what would you ask for?
Let me ask it another way…
5) When you get past this life and you are standing in
that great receiving line at the "pearly gates where St. Peter
is standing" (we know that's true because that's how all those
heaven jokes start out..) when you are standing in that
great “receiving line” which things then will weigh heaviest on the
"life meaning" scale?… the "life fulfillment" graph?
I literally can’t give you a one-size-fits-all answer. There are
many things in this life… the development of which, are very
important… and everything inter-tangles with everything else. I
really can’t say…
Here are the ten top things you should focus on to make
your life the most fulfilled. I CAN describe to you what
foundation you have to build under those ten things if you
ever hope to find fulfillment.
You…and you alone have to figure out:
1) Which things in my life really are important?
2) How do those things compare to how I occupy my time?
3) What are my daily, weekly priorities?
4) What should my priorities be?
I spent two days this last week visiting my grandmother in a nursing
home… I visited some others who were 25 years younger then her… and
found other stroke victims, in there, who were barely my own age…
It suddenly occurred to me, that I was no longer just a
big kid… but that I could be just one generation away from having
my own 10 x 10 room somewhere.
It starkly brings to the front of one’s mind:
1) Which things in my life really are important?
2) Is my focus purely temporal…or is it eternal?
I was drawn back to a Scripture that I remember having a huge impact
on me when I was in my early twenties… I had a little home study, in
a house down in Rocky Point, and in that room God got through several
key guiding Scriptures at a crucial forming time in my young adult
life, that I have never forgotten.
This one is found in 1 Kings 3:
Solomon has just become king of Israel. Throughout his
father David's reign, war has rocked the nation over and over
again….without end. King David had named his son "Peaceful
One". I'm imagining as Solomon reaches maturity and approaches the
day he will become king, He is probably starting to grasp how
insanely difficult it's going be to keep his nation and all the
nations around it…at peace. (they never have been in his
lifetime)
Wouldn't you know…just as David is about to pass on the crown,
Adonijah, Solomon's older brother tries to upset the applecart…. a
little coup.. Solomon plays the kind, forgiving brother only to have
Adonijah turn around, join with Dad's chief general Joab, and of all
things Abiathar the high priest and try another coup.
Right in the middle of this mess… Solomon makes a trip to the ancient
tabernacle and offers 1000 burnt offerings all at once.
1 Kings 3:4-14 The most important of these places of
worship was at Gibeon, so the king went there and sacrificed 1,000
burnt offerings.
What do you think is going on in his head? Don't you think, right
about that time, he is doing the mother of all self evaluations?
What is really important? What in the world should my
priorities be?
We remember Solomon as the wise, wealthy king who ruled over a
peaceful Israel, but at this point he's just a young, insecure,
desperate, and perhaps even scared, big kid.
It wouldn't have been a particularly pleasant place to
be… with 625 gallons of blood running all over the ground and
the smell of 4000 lbs. of meat, burning all at once. What
happens to him at the end of that day, though, is unprecedented:
1 Kings 3:5 That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a
dream, and God said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to
you!”
Isn't that something'? Right in the midst of a desperate life
situation…God shows up and instead of commanding Solomon to do this
or that… God asks Solomon what Solomon wants God to do for him!
" You just sacrificed 1000 animals, Solomon, you must
have something on your mind….. "May I help you?"
Let's just imagine, for a moment, that right in the middle of your
desperate life situation God appears and says to you. What do you
really, really want from me?
What would you say?
We've all heard variations of the "three wishes jokes"
(from the frog or the genie) Wish one granted, wish two
granted, wish three stupidly cancels wish one and two.
Is it possible that some of the things we might most want
today, might believe that our lives can't go on without
today…might not be what we most need at all?
The Bible usually presents historical stories in a very factual
way…often not mentioning the hours or days of emotional turmoil…. I
don't think Solomon answered God quickly. We don't know how much time
elapsed between verse 5 and verse 6. We're not told if Solomon
wrestled with what he was going to ask God for or if he wrote down
comparison lists…
After hearing the stories of his dad's intense struggle
to rise from shepherd boy to king…After watching dad spend a lifetime
fighting the most bloody battles … watching his dad carve
a kingdom out of a bunch of rebellious misfits… then to watching
his dad fall into temptation and sin…(adultery and murder)
I imagine he struggled long and hard to figure out the one thing he
most needed from God. When he finally answered we are still awed by
how wise his answer was… apparently so was God:
1 Kings 3:6 Solomon replied, “You showed faithful love to
your servant my father, David, because he was honest and true and
faithful to you. And you have continued your faithful
love to him today by giving him a son to sit on his throne.
7 “Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of
my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t
know his way around. 8 And here I am in the midst of your own
chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be
counted! 9 Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your
people well and know the difference between right and wrong…”
10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for
wisdom. 11 So God replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom
in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a
long life or wealth or the death of your
enemies—12 I will give you what you asked for! I will
give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else
has had or ever will have! 13 And I will also give you what you
did not ask for—riches and fame! No other king in all the world
will be compared to you for the rest of your life! 14 And if
you follow me and obey my decrees and my commands as your father,
David, did, I will give you a long life.” (NLT)
I'm not going to read into this more than is here. I'm not going to
promise you fame or riches or earthly ruler-ship, based on this
verse. What I am pointing out is that Solomon had the opportunity to
get it right…and he did. Other kings who followed him did not.
He was really answering the same questions we all are faced with:
1) Which things in my life really are important?
2) What should my priorities be?
3) Am I focused on what is purely temporal…or on the
eternal?
Might I point out to you… that Solomon focused on the eternal and God
took care of the temporal… Does that sound, at all, familiar to you
from anywhere else in Scripture?
Luke 12:22-34 Then, turning to his disciples, Jesus
said, “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday
life—whether you have enough food to eat or enough clothes to
wear. 23 For life is more than food, and your body more than
clothing… 25 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
26 And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like
that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?...30 These
things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over the
world, but your Father already knows your needs. 31 Seek the
Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything
you need. 32 “So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives
your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom. (NLT)
Matthew 6:33But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
(NIV)
God has nothing more on his heart than your best interests… He
really, really wants what is eternally best for you… but he wants you
to want what is eternally best for you as well!
1 Timothy 4:8 “Physical training is good, but training
for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and
in the life to come.” (NLT)
