Necessary Motivations – part 2

Introduction

Before each of the men get up here and expound on my thoughts, I want to remind you this morning of the statement that’s made in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 14 and 15, where Paul says the love of Christ controls us, and the result of that force in our lives. It is that force that will motivate us to do all in the name of the Lord, as we have just sung that. Is that force of work in your life? Why should we be so motivated? And we talked this morning about the things that motivate people, and motivations are things that meet needs as we perceive them or accomplish goals that we have for ourselves. And we talked about six things that are motivating people. This is not an exhaustive list.

There may be some other things. But pleasure, wealth, wellness, relationships, image, status, all of those things motivate people to do what they do. But there is also the thing called deadlines that motivate the pressure of meeting a deadline. And what we notice in the end, very briefly, is that heavenly rewards all relate to those kinds of deadlines. When you talk about ultimate pleasure, ultimate wealth, ultimate wellness, ultimate relationships, the ultimate image and status, those who overcome will be given a new name that no one knows except he who receives it. I love that statement in the book of Revelation. We will sustain a unique relationship and a unique identity with our God. And so we talked about necessary motivations, the things that we need compelling us and forcing us to respond appropriately to our awesome God.

And we began by talking about God, our creator, and how that reason alone should be the impetus for a right response to God. Before our brother gets up here and gives his thoughts about God the Creator as a motivating force in our lives, there was something in my notes, and I told Mike I was going to do this. I know he’s been teaching zeal for God from Philip Schumacher’s work in this auditorium class this quarter. I’ve not been sitting in on this class. I don’t know everything that’s been said, but I had a thought a couple of weeks ago about where zeal for God comes from. You know, is it a switch that you have to find and turn on? I want to have more fire and zeal for God, and you flip this switch, or you get just the right thought, you get in just the right frame of mind, and boom, I’m on fire for God.

Or you had fire for God and you’ve lost it. How do you rediscover it? How do you maintain it? How do you get out of a languishing spiritual walk? How do you find enthusiasm for God? And I don’t know why the thought came to me, and I hope this doesn’t interfere with what Daniel’s about to say, but it probably won’t. This thought came to me that I wanted to share. Zeal for God. And the most effective evangelism, which results from our zeal, actually is a natural flow that emanates from fellowship with God.

Adoring Him, living His good and perfect and pleasing will.

1. God Our Creator Is a Motivating Force

Okay. No, he didn’t step on anything I’m going to say. He gave me three minutes, so I’m going to move fast. We’re going to be singing number 74 as soon as I conclude my thoughts. So if you’re following in the book, go ahead and turn there. If you’re not following in the book, get your Bible out. Let’s turn to Romans chapter 1. I think that Tony gave me this topic because of a Wednesday night that I did where I talked about the deification and personification of God. And when we think about God, our Creator is a motivating force. God has all power. And so if we want motivation, let’s go to the one who’s got the power to keep us motivated. I’m going to read briefly from Genesis chapter 1.

A verse that most of us could quote In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Read verse 3 as well. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. No matter what you believe about creation science or evolution, no matter what, you have to believe that something came from nothing. If you take and you create a vacuum, so you have a space and you suck everything out of it, and there’s nothing there. It will stay that way forever and ever and ever. Nothing inside there will appear. Because there’s nothing there. Well, in the beginning, God created.

From a vacuum of nothing, God created everything we see.

God had the power to speak something out of nothing. He had the power to speak life out of non life. So God has his power. How does it affect us? Let’s look at Romans chapter 1. We’re going to read verses 18 through 20. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteous men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them. Because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and his divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world. God’s eternal power and divine nature are clearly perceived. If you’ve never seen a sunrise or a sunset that doesn’t move you need to get outside more.

And you need to watch the horizon. If you’ve never been to the mountains and said, Wow, God did this. There is no way this happened without God. He might have used a glacier to make that mountain, but God made that. No doubt in my mind. That’s his eternal power. His divine nature. In Genesis 1 27, we’re told that God made man in his image. While we don’t have a divine nature, we do have an eternal soul that is made in God’s image. We’re going on. We’re made in God’s image. What does God want for us by making us in his image? Flip over to 2 Peter chapter 3. We’ll conclude here. 2 Peter chapter 3. Let’s begin in verse 8. Do not overlook this one fact, beloved.

With the Lord, one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. Stop right there. That’s God’s eternal nature. Time doesn’t mean anything to God. It does to us. Let’s continue on, verse 9. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. With God’s eternal power and his divine nature, what does he want for you? What does he want for everyone? Your motivating fact should be that God wants you in heaven with him. Pretty simple. He wants all men everywhere to come to repentance. That’s everyone in this building. That’s everyone outside this building. That’s what God desires for you and for your life.

Let’s sing about his power. Number seventy-four. I sing the mighty power of God.

2. Grace and Savior

Grace and Savior motivates me to have my behavior that I do have. It gets me going whenever I think about God’s grace and our Savior Jesus Christ. The grace of God through the blood of Jesus Christ is one of the greatest blessings God has given us that should motivate each one of us here in this audience today.

And he goes on in the Fesians the second chapter and verse eight. He says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of the works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And continue on in verse 13, the apostle Paul writes, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were afar off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Let’s pay attention to one of the verses in here, and that’s verse 10. That we will we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. One of the things that keeps motivating me is the good works here at the Decan Prairie Church.

I’m a good example of it a couple of weeks ago when my dad passed, and the good works that was going on here from the people here in this congregation. And it motivates me, knowing that we have good brethren here that have the good behavior and a good motivation to continue to do God’s work to be his workmen in this life and continue on. We do have God’s grace through the blood of Jesus Christ. That we will one day, when we pass in this life, or judgment day comes, that we will have his grace if we live our life accordingly to what the scriptures say. That motivates me. And it should motivate you. Let’s go to God in prayer.

And as Jesus our Savior and through his blood, we have the hope of eternal salvation. But the days we live on this earth, Father, we always remember Him. He hung on that cross for me. For you, for all for all people in this world. He bear the sins of all. We do have many, Father. Through your grace, we have that hope of heaven. And every day that we live, Father, we always remember your love for us. That you sent your only begotten Son as He did die on the cross for us. And when we do pass from this life, Father, our judgment day comes. That your grace will put us into heaven. We live our life accordingly. We thank you, Father, for those blessings. Thank you, Father, for so many other blessings in this life.

Please continue to be with us as we study your word that we will learn more about our Savior and your grace. Do the blessing in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, we pray.

Using your song books and want to turn to number 810. Singing that song in just a moment. Or more specifically in about three minutes.

All right, a more serious topic.

3. Work for Something That Does Have Lasting Value

There’s another one every week. More often than that. Whether it’s it’s a hurricane causing floods in Houston, or it’s wildfires in California, or it’s a tsunami in Indonesia, anywhere in the world where there are news reports about things like this. There are two different kinds of news stories that you see coming out of those standards. There’s fact-based reporting. So you hear stories about the with the Kuhaware. What happened? Where was it? How big was it? How many people affected? Where do tsunamis come from anyway? Fact-based reporting, things like that. You also have reporting that is human interest reporting. They’re looking for stories of how these things affect the people who are in the region involved. And it’s not uncommon to see cameras focused on some poor guy over here who’s got his head in his hands, and he’s looking at the burned out shell of a shop that he owned, and he says to the camera, that’s everything I have.

I put my whole life into that place. You see those stories all the time, and they give us a sense of the of the human tragedy associated with these events because you feel for the guy. He spent his whole life for something that he couldn’t keep.

And at that time, the earth and all the works that are in it will be burned up in the verse right after the last one that Daniel read in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 10. Is that event going to leave us with anything? Even if our lives don’t extend to that time, we all face the reality that everything that we do here on this earth will one day be lost to us. Solomon described it as a vanity in Ecclesiastes chapters 2 and 4 that he could put his whole life into anything he chose, and at the end of his life, it wasn’t going to mean anything. Well, Aaron, that sounds pretty fatalistic and not very motivational to me. Fair enough. Alright, so let’s let’s think a little bit deeper.

Because the message of the gospel is that we can work for something that does have lasting value. Something that will supersede the events that we talked about. The end of our lives, even the end of the world itself. The Hebrew writer spoke of receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, even if everything else is only temporary. Jesus spoke of treasure that was beyond the reach of moth or rust or thieves. Wouldn’t we be working for something like that? Because nothing else is going to last. Everything else is eventually going to be undone. I want you to recall a passage from a recent sermon, very recent sermon, Isaiah chapter 55. First couple of verses. Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come, buy, and eat.

Yes, come by wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread? And your wages for what does not satisfy. Now, Tony in his sermon emphasize that the first verse.

Everything that we do swaps a little portion of our life or whatever activity it is. That’s kind of a sobering thing to think about. Why do we spend it for things that do not last and will not satisfy?

Back to verses 9 through 11. Paul says, Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Now the terror of the Lord is not something that we like to think about.

But it is one of the implications of the judgment. We serve a God who is the author of eternal salvation. He is also a consuming fire. And at the judgment, both of those aspects of his character will be evident. When we see the earth burned up, as Peter talked about it, we will look at it.

If we are the ones looking at the end of the earth and saying the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved, as Jeremiah says, if that’s us, then we have nothing to look forward to except for flames and darkness and an eternity of regret.

Let’s make it our aim, as Paul said, to be well pleasing to him.

Almost persuasive.

4. A Motivation to Have Joy and Peace

If you’d like to be turning in your Bibles to First Peter chapter four, like to read the first few verses from there. First Peter chapter four. We’ll start in verse twelve here in a moment. This morning, Tony quoted some familiar verses in Philippians chapter 4 regarding peace and joy. Verse 4, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice in verse 7, and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Joy and peace are something that a lot of people today really would really like to have and don’t have and search desperately for it. But what the Philippian writer here says, verse 4, but Paul says is you know, rejoice in the Lord always. Always sometimes that can be difficult.

Or how do we know peace? The peace of God that surpasses all understanding when there’s turmoil in our lives. The kind of upheaval that Aaron just spoke of. Well, Peter speaks to that. Let’s start looking at verse 12. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you. Peter doesn’t make any bones about it. That’s it’s don’t be surprised when it happens, especially don’t be surprised when it happens to you as a follower of Christ. Verse 13, but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation. So Peter monishes admonishes us to rejoice in these things.

One, that you share the sufferings of Christ, which might seem a strange thing, but think of that as the honor to suffer as Christ had, if we can have our mind in that frame. And two, when his glory is revealed, think forward to that time. Think forward to how we can rejoice with exaltation at his revealing, not with terror, because we’re not prepared. Not almost, but lost, as we just sang. So whatever we suffer through right now in this life will be worth it. And then looking past the trials that we’re undergoing right now and looking forward to what awaits us can help us endure the pain. And that’s exactly what Jesus did. The Hebrew writer tells us that Hebrews 12, verse 2, that tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfection of our faith, before the joy set before him toward the cross.

So Jesus Himself got through what he had to go through because he looked forward to the joy that awaited him. So we can learn from that. Verse 14: if you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and God rests on you. There’s another thing we can rejoice in if we suffer for his name. Verse 15 points out something. Well, we can suffer because of our own mistakes, because of our own choices. Verse 15, make sure none of you suffers as a murderer or thief or evildoer or a troublesome meddler. We can do those things and suffer because of our poor decisions and be ashamed, and we have the right to be ashamed. But verse 16 says, if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed.

Let’s skip down to verse 19. Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right. When we’re undergoing our trials, we have to trust that God will do the right thing. We have to trust that he’s in control, that he hasn’t forgotten us. Again, that’s something that Jesus did. If we just turn back a couple of chapters, Peter speaks to that. And 1 Peter 2, verse 23 speaks of Christ as our perfect example that while being reviled, did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him that judges righteousness. He trusted God that God would make it right in the end. He had simple trusting faith.

And having that is what can give us peace. Peace that Paul speaks of in Philippians. So when we conform our behavior to a standard, that’s a motivation to have that, a motivation to have joy and peace. If we can conform our lives to that, then we can have the joy of not having our joy or our peace be dictated by life circumstances. As it is for so many people.

5. Gifts According to the Grace Given to Us

Steve spoke a little earlier about grace of God, and we normally think about the grace of God in the context of our salvation and our response to God’s grace is to obey the gospel. But I’d like to look at something in Romans chapter 12, where Paul also talks about grace in a different context. He’s been talking about verse 3 for the next several verses about our relationship as members of the body of Christ. But then he begins in verse 6, and he says the following Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

How many times do we think about our ability to contribute to be a manifestation of God’s grace in our lives? Or to think that our ability to exhort one another is the manifestation of God’s grace in our lives.

We may have these things, but if we don’t use them, they’re of no value.

Things that we can use, whether it’s teaching, exhorting, leading, being merciful. Sometimes I think we can we consider ourselves to be ill-equipped to serve each other, to serve our brothers and sisters. Paul tells us there are many manifestations of God’s grace, and we’ve all got something to use to build one another up. We all have a way to make our brotherhood stronger. As he will go on to say in verse 9, let love be genuine. And then in verse 10, let love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. We have many ways to serve each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, and we all have been given an ability.

Let’s recognize that God in His mercy has given us a grace, perhaps more than one, in which we can use to serve each other. To conclude, I’ll read one passage out of 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 10. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of the buried or manifold grace of God. You join me in prayer. Holy Father, we pray that you will strengthen us as we are members of this body, as we each contribute our talent, a grace that you have manifested to us in some way, whether it be our prosperity, whether it be our ability to exhort, to say a good word of encouragement to another, to visit the sick, to demonstrate our love for you with our zeal and the worship and our service.

6. Meditate on Our Eternal Hope and Home

Father, help us not sell short the resources you have made available to us through your grace. Help us be responsive to that and help us be responsible to use it for the benefit and the good of all. Jesus may be praying. You’re never going to believe what I’m about to tell you next. Turn to the Revelation, second chapter first, and we’ll end up there when we finish. Scientists estimate that 107 billion people have lived and died on this planet in its history. 7 billion people are on this planet right now. 107 billion people have met their Maker. Isn’t that amazing? That’s a 15-1 to 1 ratio between the living and the dead. In heaven and hell, right now there’s another 15 earths worth of people out there.

But they can no longer make any more decisions to affect their outcome. They can no longer influence others to change their outcome. Their destiny is fixed and unchangeable.

Studies show that most people are not even saving enough for retirement. We can’t even think that far ahead. We are drawn away with the cares of life and only the problems that are directly in front of us. There’s too many deadlines. God thought our eternal hope was so important that he arranged for his only son to be executed after living a very short life of poverty filled with ridicule and torment. We need to meditate on our eternal hope and home. We need to think about the future because we’ll spend the rest of our time there. No matter how long you live, if you add all the years of your life to eternity, do you know what you get? Eternity. You can’t add anything to infinity because it’s already there.

Your life is negligible. Equation’s simple. Someone once said, it’s not that life’s too short, it’s just that you’re dead for so long. James 4 and 14 says the same thing. For what is your life? It’s even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. When we’re finally there in heaven, we will look back at our life on earth and the life of the earth and finally understand in the most complete way what life is all about, what the meaning of life was. It never ceases to amaze me when I see Christians that lose sight of their hope. They walk away from the hope that they have known all their lives. What they didn’t know was not having hope. They didn’t ever experience that, and so they went to discover that unknown to discover what it is like to not have hope.

Luke 9 in verse 62 says, Jesus said to him, No one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Hopefully those people come to themselves. I have to go offshore sometimes, and so we have many safety officers on board to make sure no one gets hurt. And a friend of mine was telling me a story of this one safety officer that walked in while he was working in the engine room, and he said, I see you’re not wearing your safety glasses. And my friend began to apologize and said, Well, you know, I’m sorry I was sweating in here and it was really hot, and I took them off to wipe my brow, and you know it’ll never happen again.

And the safety officer just looked him in the eye and shrugged and said, They’re your eyes. There’s some people in the church today that were more worried about what the elders might say about them, not showing up to church for services than they are about God thinks about them. It’s your soul, not mine. I’m here to help you, not serve you. Your destiny has nothing to do with me. Heaven will be a wonderful place to be. After each letter to the seven churches in Revelation, here’s what Jesus said concerning each of them. Chapter 2 and verse 7, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Verse 10, be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. Verse 11, he who overcomes shall not taste or not be hurt by the second death. Verse 17, To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it. Verse 26, and he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. Chapter 3 and verse 5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.

Verse 12 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and I will write on him my new name. Verse 21 to him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. Even after all the rebuke they received, Jesus is still trying to get them to focus on the goal to understand what it is all about. Never lose sight of the end game of this life. Talk about it continuously with your children.

Understand why you are here. We must always continue to think about our eternal hope because we cannot afford time. It is the most important thing we will ever think about. Let us pray.

Continue to focus on your will and do your will and to reach as many of the billions of people out there that we can. And one day be in heaven with you. Amen.

Those men, all six of them, said things that would not have come to my mind, that I could not have shared. And they did an extraordinary job. And the fact that Aaron kept it to six or seven minutes is extraordinary.

Conclusion

We’re only a few minutes beyond Aaron where I was hoping to be. Thank you for helping us all, brethren. I just want to conclude with a couple of thoughts. While great motivations all, those six things, be advised of this. There is someone who doesn’t want you to know and appreciate and to have those motivations at work in your heart and life. He will oppose you tenaciously. He will fight against those motivations being effective in our lives. And so there is your challenge. Be watchful. Keep those motivations near you and near your heart. Remember when I preached about David from Psalm 139, when I awake. His communion with God is what fueled him being the sweet singer of Israel, which fueled his love for God that caused him to want to build the house for God that God would not let him build.

The necessary motivation to fuel change and victory over sin comes, as we said, zeal does from walking closely with God. Work out your salvation, fear and trembling, but know this, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Let’s not be grumblers, but let’s be lights in the world. Whatever you do for the edification and good of others, and unto the glory of God. We compel you, we encourage you to live such a life for Him. And as Jay so well said, to live for where we will spend the most time.