What Motivates Us to Evangelize
Evangelism: Sharing Christ to a Lost World • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
VERYWELLMIND.COM defines motivation as:
The term motivation describes why a person does something. It is the driving force behind human actions. Motivation is the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors.
The article goes on to state that there are two types of motivation for the individual:
Extrinsic motivation arises from outside of the individual and often involves external rewards such as trophies, money, social recognition, or praise. Intrinsic motivation is internal and arises from within the individual, such as doing a complicated crossword puzzle purely for the gratification of solving a problem.
What are some types of motivation do you need to do things in your life?
What motivates you the most?
What motivates you to come to church? to evangelize? to share your faith?
Opening Passage: 2 Corinthians 5:10-11
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive compensation for his deeds done through the body, in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad. 11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade people, but we are well known to God; and I hope that we are also well known in your consciences.
Outline
10 Motivations to Evangelize a Lost and Dying World for Chirst
An eternal perspective (2 Cor. 4:16-5:8)
16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer person is decaying, yet our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 1 For we know that if our earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For indeed, in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, 3 since in fact after putting it on, we will not be found naked. 4 For indeed, we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a pledge. 6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—7 for we walk by faith, not by sight—8 but we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
As Paul is writing to the Corinthians church he reminds them of a home to come. He reminds them that what we face in this life is of no comparison to what awaits for us in glory. He writes, For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison (v.17). He continues and reminds the Corinthians believers that they are to have a forward and upward view. They are to look beyond the now (forward) and look toward the home to come (upward). He states that what is is temporal but what is to come is eternal. He then writes in his epistle, Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us a the Spirit as a pledge (v.5). What is this very thing, it is the being dressed in the eternal clothing (salvation) of God (v.4). We were created from the very beginning to have a relationship with God. Yet, due to our fallen nature, we do not see this. He has called us to go and tell others about this truth. God has created us to have a personal relationship with Him in eternal glory. With the view of eternity and heaven or hell in mind, we ought to be compelled to tell others about Good News of Jesus Christ.
A deep desire to please God (2 Cor. 5:9)
9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.
As a child aims to please their parent, we are to aim to please God. We cannot please God without being an evangelist in some way, shape, fashion, or form. We have been commanded to go and tell others about Jesus. Willful obedience to the command of God pleases God.
We know we will be judged (2 Cor. 5:10-11a)
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive compensation for his deeds done through the body, in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad. 11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade people, but we are well known to God; and I hope that we are also well known in your consciences.
Paul had two motives to being an evangelist and sharing the Gospel of Christ. The first is discussed here, the Judgment Seat of Christ. All will be judged. As he wrote in his epistle to the church at Rome, So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God (Romans 14:12 NASB). Within 2 Corinthians he writes, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. He then continues to write, Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade people. May we be as the Puritan pastor, Richard Baxter, who contacted an illness in his thirties that almost took his life. Because of that illness and near death experience, his motto for his personal ministry became, I will preach to sinners as a dying man to dying men (Beougher, 117).
We Understand God’s Holiness (1 Pt 1:15-16)
15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written: “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
We declare the same truth that our Lord declared, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (Luke 13:3 NASB). As Peter would later declare to those at the Temple Beautiful, Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19 NASB).
Love and concern for others (2 Cor. 5:12-13)
12 We are not commending ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. 13 For if we have lost our minds, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you.
We share the Gospel because have a concern for others and truly love them. How evil do we need to be to know the love and truth of Christ and then hold to ourselves and not share it. May we have the same heart of Christ, who when looking at Jerusalem, cried over them for were as sheep who had no shepherd.
The love of Christ (2 Cor. 5:14)
14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;
The Lordship of the resurrected Christ (2 Cor. 5:15)
15 and He died for all, so that those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose on their behalf.
Hope of a life that can be changed (2 Cor. 5:16-17)
16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one by the flesh; even though we have known Christ by the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
God’s amazing plan to let us be involved (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their wrongdoings against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
This should be the purpose of our life…To glorify God. We glorify God the most by being what He has called us to be, evangelist. As Corey ten Boom responded when asked about the purpose of her life, she responded with a poem, When I enter that beautiful city, and the saints all around me appear, What a joy when someone will tell me, “It was you who invited me here” (Beougher, 122.)
The wonder of it all: Christ’s sacrificial death (2 Cor. 5:21)
21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Conclusion
What more does God have to do to motivate us to be On Mission for Him?