Motivation
Notes
Transcript
Intro: What is it that drives you to live and act the way you do? What is it that inspires and stimulates your thoughts to set goals and to achieve them? What is the sense of purpose that gets you out of bed every morning and inspires you throughout the day? Whatever it is, that’s called “Motivation”. Everybody has something that motivates them in life.
It could be a job you really enjoy. It has been said “that if you do what you love you won’t work a day in your life!”
Material possessions might motivate one to put in extra hours to buy something new like a boat, camper, vacation home, etc…
Maybe retirement has become your motivation in life. It stirs you to think that soon you will get to sleep late and do whatever you want.
Sports may motivate you. I read about the gambling problem of Fan Duel & Draft Kings of how people get motivated by winning a few dollars that they can’t quit even when they are losing everything they have.
Whatever it is that motivates you, drives you and stimulates you is who you are and what you will end up being. So as we are looking at the Believer’s Behavior in light of the Lord’s return, what should motivate the christian?
Text; 2 Cor. 5:9-11
9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
10 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.
11 Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.
Prayer
1. Well Pleasing to the Lord; 9
1. Well Pleasing to the Lord; 9
The number 1 motivation of the believer is so simple to see, that is “To be well pleasing to the Lord”
Well pleasing- accepted by Him; for God to be pleased with me
We are accepted by God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
But what Paul is saying here is, “is it your aim in life to be well pleasing to God?”
Is it your motivation to be a soul winner? Look at the context
14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;
15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
It doesn’t matter how much you give, how faithful your attendance is, if you can sing, teach or preach. If you don’t have a desire or drive to bring souls to Christ, then you are not “well pleasing” to Him.
2. Judgment Seat of Christ; 10
2. Judgment Seat of Christ; 10
We should be motivated to be well pleasing to Him because we will “all” appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
This is not the Great White Throne judgment found in [Rev. 20:11-15]. That judgment is for the unsaved not found in the Book of Life.
Paul is talking about the “Bema Seat” judgment of believers.
A bema seat was a raised platform in the middle of the Olympic field where runners would come and receive their reward, or else they would be disgraced and receive nothing.
24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
A wreath of garland will eventually fade, but not the rewards of Christ
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.
14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
On the day that each believer stands before Christ at the judgment seat for the works we have done while we have lived on this earth, some will receive rewards while others will have regret. How will fair on that day?
3. Terror of the Lord; 11
3. Terror of the Lord; 11
Paul now says that we persuade men to come to faith in Christ, “knowing the terror of the Lord”!
Terror [pho-bos] phobia; fear, reverence, in awe
There are two sides to God that compliment each other; His love and wrath.
God is love but God is also wrath. They are equal attributes of God.
Heaven is eternal and so is hell
Heaven is eternal joy whereas hell is eternal torment
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
God proves His love for us by giving His Son as a substitute for our sin.
God in the same manner lays His wrath upon His Son to spare sinners from it.
Because of Calvary, a choice must be made by all men if they want to escape God’s wrath!
43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—
44 where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’
22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.
23 And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Does the terror of the Lord motivate us to get up every day with the drive and desire to snatch a soul from hell? If not, it should!
Close;
Suppose you were a world class physician. And you discovered that there was a disease that had infiltrated the human race. And every man, woman, boy and girl had been affected and infected by it. In fact, after a blood test that you take on yourself you’ve discovered that you too have been infected by this tragic terminal illness.
You put all of your scholarship to work and you come up with a vaccine that you think might work. You inject the vaccine into yourself and you wait and low and behold the virus disappears in you. You are now totally and completely healed.
Wouldn’t you think at that point that you would have an obligation to let everybody else know that you have a cure? Would it be wrong for you simply to inject the vaccine or the antibody into yourself, become well when everybody around you is terminal? What would you think about a person who did that, who said I have a cure that can fix every man, every woman, every boy, every girl, but now that I’m all well, I really don’t have to worry about everyone else? That person would be the lowest of the low. Wouldn’t they? That person would be despicable. Who would only be concerned about themselves?
There is, brothers and sisters, a disease that has infected the whole human race. It’s called SIN and it is terminal. However there is a cure. The cure is “the blood of Jesus Christ”. Most in this room, if not all have injected the vaccine. And have received the Savior and have been forgiven by the blood and cured!
But if we fail to make it our aim to share the cure for sin with others, and offer the vaccine for their terminal disease, then our Motivation is misplaced and “You We Not Well Pleasing To Him!”
Evans, A. T. (1997). Sharing Christ. In Tony Evans Sermon Archive (2 Co 5:9–21). Tony Evans.
