A Mo Better Motivation

Introduction

As one who has been given the ministry of preaching my job is to teach you not only the teachings of Christ but to display His Life as well. I must display it in order that others may see it manifested. And all of us who are disciples of Jesus the Christ must live the life of Christ in order for others to be attracted to and transformed by it.

We are going into this church’s 70th year. We must continue to build upon that which has come before in order to walk in the new and “Mo Better” way. Everything should continually progress into something that surpasses what has already been. The question is, how can we do that? What is it that will motivate us to live better and to give better? Give more of ourselves? Give more of our abilities? Give more of our wealth? For when we give these things over to God’s use, for His purposes, He has already anointed us to be used in His service. And that...is where our blessing is. In being used by God is where our true joy is found.

What motivates us to serve better? To live better ? To give better? To engage in what is better? The New Testament give us three plain and persuasive motivations for our living and our giving, these serve as the foundation upon which all the other "Mo better" life characteristics rest.

Mo Better Life is Motivated By God’s Unconditional Love

God's unconditional love is a foundational expression of the gospel of Christ. Personally I find that God's absolutely relentless love for me to be so gripping that I cannot help but be drawn to him by it. Nobody has ever loved me like that before and nobody ever will. Jesus expresses it like this in John 3:16, "for God so loved the world, that He gave..." So, how should we respond to this perfect unconditional love? Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:7-8, “7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.”

We cannot freely receive God's love without freely giving it back. How can I not love someone back who has loved me that much? How can I not give back to someone who has given me that much?

The reason many believers are not significant livers and givers is because they've never been significant receivers. Have you ever fully accepted God's extraordinary flow of unconditional love that pours over you? I can tell you this. Until you fully receive God's unconditional love, you will never be passionately MOTIVATED to love Him back! Until we freely receive, we will never freely live and give. "He who truly loves, gives all, yet sacrifices nothing." If you feel like you are making a sacrifice when you give to Him, you simply need to fall more deeply in love with God.

Now I'm talking about giving of your time, your talent, and your treasure. Amy Carmichael said that, "One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving." It is sad how many of us give without loving. Many of us give out of duty, we've been manipulated to give, threatened with damnation and pressured to give. But the is the old way of giving. There is a Mo better way. The Mo better way is for love to become the driving force for our living and our giving. Let me tell you once you find your self hopelessly engulfed in God's unconditional love you will really have no other choice but to be more motivated givers! Living for the Lord and giving for the purpose of His ministry to mankind!

Mo Better Life is Motivated By God’s Amazing Grace

The other side of God's unconditional love is Christs' Amazing Grace. They are two sides of the same coin. God's love leads to Christ's grace. Paul talks about this in Romans 5:8 when he says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Do you remember when Jesus with the Simon the Pharisee's house to dine at a woman who was a known sinner came in and fell before Him with the tears washed His feet, then dried them with her hair and then anointed His feet with expensive perfume. Although Simon was shocked and appalled that Jesus would even let a woman like that touch him. But Jesus knowing Simon's thoughts, confronted him, he said, "I have something to say to you Simon.' 'Say on teacher.' 'A moneylender had two debtors one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they were unable to repay he graciously forgave them both. So, which of them will love him more?' Simon answered him, 'I suppose the one whom he forgave more.' And He said to him, 'You have judged correctly.' For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.'" (Luke 7:40-47)

Understand this, our motivation to live for Christ and to give is directly tied to the degree of forgiveness (GRACE) we believe we have received. That is Jesus' is very point assignment. The more grace we receive, the more we are motivated to give and live. If, however we see ourselves as generally good people were just in need of some spiritual fine tuning in a few areas of our lives and we are looking to Jesus to finish and polish up our goodness, we will find ourselves with very little motivation to truly live for Christ and give of ourselves to Christ and our fellow human beings. We simply do not see ourselves as we really are----as John said in Revelation 3:7 "wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." In other words tore up from the floor up. For these type of "good" people, how they live and how they give in sub looking much more like Simon the Pharisee than the sinful woman. Unless we come to fully appreciate our desperate condition and the extraordinary extent of the courageous act of rescue that Jesus undertook to break us free from our eternal condemnation, we will miss one of the key driving motivations for why we live for and give to God--- and that is an outward expression of unspeakable gratitude for his abundant grace "which he lavished on us" (Ephesians 1:8).

Once you come to understand the absolute immensity of Jesus' amazing Grace, you will come to realize that anything you give in response to i---no matter what the size is inadequate. Even if you give Him all you possess!

His love has no limit. His grace has no measure. His power no boundary known unto men. For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, he giveth and giveth and giveth again." How do you respond to this extravagant outpouring of unconditional love and amazing grace?

Mo Better Life is Motivated By the Holy Spirit’s Guiding

Receiving God's unconditional love and Jesus' amazing Grace frees us from the bondage of law keeping and its condemnation! Paul confirms this in Galatians 5:1, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery (the law)." In Romans 8:2 he states, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free . From the law of sin and of death." Hallelujah, we are once and for all finally free from the bondage and the judgment of the law!

Now that we are no longer subject to the law, how can we know how we should live? Paul tells us in Galatians 5:18,..." You are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. The Spirit of God is now living inside of us,... Guiding us, teaching us and empowering us. He serves as a kind of internal, spiritual "GPS" system to lead us and how we are to live and how we are to give. The Holy Spirit also serves as is our internal motivator, pushing and pulling us, prodding us, and urging us such in our living and giving. With his influence we will now be able to live and give with both clarity and confidence because we are being guided by Him in when, where, and how we are living and giving. Now that's real freedom! The Holy Spirit and I teaming up to do something meaningful in the world!

This is the new covenant Mo better of living and giving! Paul contrasts this with the old way in 2 Corinthians 9:7. He charges us, "Each one must do just as he has proposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion..." Notice, Paul says Mo better giving is determined by careful, thoughtful, personal consideration--- which is internally determined by you and the Holy Spirit. He also cautions us not to get dragged back into the old way of doing these things because they are slavery! Don't get dragged back into the old way of living and giving---"grudgingly or under compulsion"--- which is externally forced upon you by others. Live and in the freedom of the Spirit of God. This may mean that sometimes you give far and away above a tithe or 10 percent!

Understand this, God wants our giving to Him and for Him to be a free will act of love guided and encouraged by the Holy Ghost and gladly(say Gladly) given by us.