The Impact of Christ's Love (Part 3)
Notes
Transcript
Motivation is a concept that effects each of us differently. Some of us require motivation to accomplish relatively simple tasks, while others just naturally get after everything before them on any given day. Some need external motivation, whether through something they read or listen to, while others seem to have an unstoppable internal self-motivation. And obviously there are those who fall at various points on the spectrum in between the extremes I have mentioned in both cases.
I am a person who needs a lot of external motivation with certain tasks and responsibilities, but I need virtually no external motivation with other tasks and responsibilities. For me at least, the difference corresponds with how enjoyable the task is. Preparing a Bible study or a sermon or the Facebook Live devotions, doesn’t require any external motivation for me because I love studying and preparing to communicate Scripture. Doing handyman projects around the house is another issue altogether. I can eventually get into what I am doing, but I can easily find a dozen or more things that I would rather be doing, so I have to find ways to motivate myself to get them done.
In the passage I started working through a few weeks ago, the Apostle Paul gives two compelling motivations in his life that greatly impacted his dedication to the ministry of following Christ and spreading the Gospel. We briefly looked at the first one three weeks ago, the fear of the Lord. The second one is what inspired the title to this series of sermons, the love of Christ.
Turn with me in your Bible to the Book of 2nd Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 5:11-16
Let’s pray.
After two sermons with the title of “The Impact of Christ’s Love”, and then a week off last week where Brother Dave filled in, we will finally spend some time looking into this amazing truth about the depth and magnitude of Christ’s love for us and how it should impact every moment of our lives, if we are truly born again.
2 Corinthians 5:14a
The Greek word that is translated “controls” by the NASB, is translated in several other ways in the various English translations. It is also translated as compels, constrains, urges, overwhelms, seizes, and lays hold of, among others – this verb is not translated the same way in any of the twelve instances it is used in the New Testament. Kistemaker writes in his commentary, “The significance of this Greek verb is that Paul and all believers are completely dominated by the love of Christ, so that they live for Him.” And as I studied this out on my own, I like and agree with this idea of complete and total domination once we grasp the “breadth and length and height and depth” of Christ’s love for us, as Paul relates in Ephesians 3:18.
In Galatians 2:20, Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
This all-encompassing infinite love that Christ has for all who trust in Him by faith, once fully realized, goes far beyond the kind of motivation that fuels our personal ambitions and earthly goals. I can temporarily get charged up about goals and ambitions for my personal life, I can get excited and find some present fulfillment in pursuing these earthly goals and ambitions, but no matter how noble these goals and ambitions are, they are temporary and fleeting and ultimately unfulfilling. We tend to fill our minds with, if only this were different or if only that were different, then I’d be happy and satisfied.
But such thoughts are an illusion and a mirage. Only that which is done and accomplished from the love of Christ dominating your life, will satisfy and fulfill. If this conquering and saturating love is your unwavering motivation, then any and everything that you set your heart to do will be in step with His will and His compelling, constraining, controlling, overwhelming imprint on your life.
In part, this is why we must engage in a lifelong pursuit of studying and growing in our understanding of God, of who He is, or His attributes and characteristics, of Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished for us, of the Holy Spirit and what He does for us, so that we can continue to abound in the magnitude of this incredible measure of love that should be the dominating force in our lives.
This unending and massively misunderstood love that God has soaked us in, can and will impact every facet of our lives, our relationships, our jobs, our churches, and our motivations, goals, and ambitions, if we would only get over ourselves, stop attempting to control everything, crush the pride that currently dominates us, and surrender to this amazing, stupendous, magnanimous, infinite, unrestrained, incomparable, unrequited, and unconditional love.
When you allow yourself to stop and take even a moment to consider the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love for you, and I mean you, it will radically change you and transform you. The chains that are binding you right now, the chains of legalism, the chains of selfish pride, the chains of a controlling nature, the chains of arrogance, the chains of your past, the chains of your selfish ambitions, the chains of your fleshly desires, and every other chain that currently binds you will fall at your feet as the love of Christ washes over your sinful soul and hardened heart and troubled mind.
Jesus loves you! He loves you as you are. He loves you despite your past. He loves you in your rebellion against Him. He loves you in all of your brokenness. He loves you with all of your self-perceived flaws. He loves you through each and every one of your sins. He loves you when you mess everything up. He loves you in the storms that you create. He loves you when you haven’t talked to Him in ages. He loves you when you haven’t read your Bible for as long as you can remember. He loves you in the deepest darkest moments. He loves you when you don’t love yourself. He loves you when you feel completely alone. He loves you when shame overwhelms your mind. He loves you when your mind is filled with ungodly thoughts.
And there is absolutely nothing that you have done or could possibly do that will diminish His love for you one bit. Because His love does not depend on your performance. His love is not predicated on your merit, your good deeds, your adherence to laws and mandates and traditions, your church attendance, your offerings, your level of service in the church, your attitude, your obedience, or anything else that either you have set up in your mind or someone else has pounded into your mind.
I am not suggesting that we ignore any of the things that I have mentioned, I’m just desperately attempting to communicate to you that none of the above and much, much more changes or impacts Christ’s love for you. You can’t run away from His love, you can’t hide from His love, and you can’t sin your way out of His love.
If you are a born-again believer, I need you to say it with me now – “Jesus loves me no matter what!”
2 Corinthians 5:14b-15
How do we then reciprocate or return this love back to our Lord? We begin by understanding what Christ has done for us and how that impacts our lives, and then we stop living for ourselves and commit to living for Him.
This wonderful, magnificent, marvelous, remarkable, extraordinary, astounding, supreme, and awesome love of Christ for you and me, is the same love that kept Paul from living for himself and instead led him to willingly pour out his life for others.
I doubt that any of us can be brutally honest enough with ourselves to truly see just how selfishly we act in most every area and aspect of our lives. The sinful nature that still resides within us is insanely selfish and overtly controlling. We are deceived into believing that we are acting in ways that are best for the people in our lives that we love, but it is really all about manipulating them into living their lives the way that we want them to. Even if we truly believe that our motivations are to bring them into line with the Word of God, we are usually desiring such for how it impacts us and how it effects our ambitions and feelings and agendas and plans. Even when not as aware of it as we should be, we are more concerned with how our loved ones lives and actions could make others perceive us than we are about what is truly best for them.
And it is only in surrendering to and submitting to this crazy love of Christ, that we will have the equipping and capability to genuinely pour out our lives for the benefit of others instead of always seeking what is best for us. I first heard the following truth that I repeat so often, from my former pastor, Terry Brillhart – the opposite of love is selfishness. Genuine biblical love will always 100% of the time do what is best for the person or people that you love as opposed to what is best for you, if and when a choice must be made.
The love of Christ did what was best for us when He was born of a virgin, lived a human life in human flesh for 30 plus years instead of being in heaven with His Father, suffered and died a horrendous and torturous death, and rose again. None of that was what was best for Him, but it was entirely what was best for us even though none of us individually or all of us collectively did not deserve such an expression of selfless love.
So, every time we assert and demand our rights as the preeminent thing, and our feelings as the most important thing, at the expense of those that we claim to love, the love of Christ is most definitely not controlling us, or compelling us, or seizing us, or constraining us, or dominating us.
For those of us who are saved by grace alone through faith alone and in Christ alone, we died with Christ to sin and Satan, so that we might now live for Christ instead of living for ourselves. And living for Christ involves two primary things – to love God and love others, which will manifest in being His witnesses and making disciples. Nowhere in the Bible will you find anything even remotely akin to the world’s mandate of loving yourself first, of taking care of your own needs first, or of placing your own needs in front of others. That kind of philosophy is of the devil.
Love God and love others – that’s it. We don’t have to be told to love ourselves because our sinful and selfish nature takes care of that in abundance. And if you don’t believe that, just pay closer attention the next time that you don’t get your way – are you content when that happens or are you a spoiled child? It is only when we accept and apply the selfless love of Christ to our lives that we will view ourselves and thus view others as God and His Word calls us to.
And beloved, if we would even just keep at the forefront of our mind what Jesus Christ has done for us out of His love for us, we will have the wherewithal to access His love and then share His love and act in His love in every circumstance and situation we face.
2 Corinthians 5:16
Did you catch that? As we access, accept, and apply the love of Christ to our lives, we will no longer view people in the flesh, meaning that we will no longer allow our selfish hearts and thoughts to determine how we treat one another. We will begin to view people as Jesus views people. We will begin to love people the way Jesus loves people. We will begin to interact with people the way Jesus would interact with people.
That’s a tall order, right? I’m sure that most of you are thinking about certain people that you feel you could never view in such ways. And in your humanness, you’re correct. But when the love of Christ utterly dominates your life, even those people in your mind right now can be viewed through the lens of Christ’s love when you reach the point of fully accepting and applying Christ’s love in your own life.
I’ll develop the primary reason that this seeming impossibility is not only possible but completely doable next week, when we camp out on verse 17, which says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” But for now, just allow that it is at least possible for your thoughts and feelings towards those that you cannot currently even stomach, can drastically change as we begin to comprehend the magnitude of the love of Christ in our lives.
We are in such great need to see other as Christ sees them.
Let me see this world, dear Lord,
As though I were looking through Your eyes.
A world of men who don’t want You Lord,
But a world for which You died.
Let me kneel with You in the garden,
Blur my eyes with tears of agony;
For if once I could see this world the way You see,
I just know I’d serve You more faithfully.
Let me see this world, dear Lord,
Through Your eyes when men mock Your Holy Name.
When they beat You and spat upon You, Lord,
Let me love them as You loved them just the same.
Let me stand high above my petty problems,
And grieve for men, hell bound eternally;
For if once I could see this world the way You see,
I just know I’d serve You more faithfully.
For us to have the opportunity to scale such heights in our own lives, we must first have experienced this love. And to experience this love comes only through the forgiveness and salvation that only Jesus offers. The Bible clearly states that one must repent of their sins, confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord of their lives, and by faith believe that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. With this, you are eternally saved, eternally forgiven, and eternally loved with this incredible love.
Let’s pray.