"Do You Want to Know What Love Is?"
Notes
Transcript
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I remember growing up that my parents tried to get our family into part-time ranching, but in reality, the whole thing turned into an odd assortment of animals that the family shared responsibilities in caring for. Most of them had interesting names and I’ve got tons of stories involving most of the animals. We had Porky the pot-bellied pig who we picked up as a cute piglet and turned into a 350 pound monstrosity because we didn’t know you shouldn’t free-feed them. We had Billy the goat who loved to ram anyone the minute they turned their back on him. If you’re familiar ostriches, which are those very tall birds you probably have seen at a zoo, we had their shorter cousins, emus and rheas. Our first pair of emus were named Elvis and Priscilla, mainly because my mom was a huge Elvis Presley fan, and I suppose in some small way, because my parents hoped the two would share a hunka hunka, burnin’ love for each other because it was my parents’ hope to get into raising the birds for profit.
Speaking of childhood memories, when my dad would tinker in his shop, he always had a radio playing some sort of rock music on it. I remember so many songs that I thought had to be like classic rock…you know, the old stuff, because my dad was listening to it. As I was thinking about love and memories, I remember one song that would blare often on his radio was “I Want to Know What Love Is” by a band named Foreigner. When I looked up the lyrics to it this week to refresh my memory of the song, I discovered two things… The first is that Foreigner released that song in the same year I was born, which lead to my second discovery… my childhood definition of “old” was a bit shortsighted.
But where Foreigner’s desperation was to know what love is…I wonder, do you know what it is? In our context, “it” is living the Christian life—following Jesus, serving Jesus, and sharing Jesus with others. I hope by the end of this message you can answer that by saying, “I know exactly what love is.”
If I could condense this message into a sentence it would be this: Why do you do what you do for the Lord?
Instead of focusing on WHAT you do for God, I want you to think about WHY you do it. WHY did you get up and come to church this morning? WHY did you give an offering to the Lord? WHY did you sing songs of praise? WHY are many of you teaching children, youth, or adults? In other words, what motivates you to serve God? Do you do it out of a sense of obligation, or out of a sense of love?
In this passage of scripture we see what motivated Paul to serve the Lord.
So, what are your true motives for what you do for the Lord? You might as well be honest with yourself, because I can’t see your motives, and you can’t see mine. You see me standing up here with a Bible before me, but you can’t truly know WHY I’m doing it. Only the Lord and I know what my true motives are. As we talk about wrong motives and right motives, if you discover that your motives are not the best, then you can simply change your motives—you can ask God to purify your motives.
As we talk about this, I just want to answer three questions:
Question #1: What is life’s greatest goal?
What’s the greatest goal in your life? Do you even have a life goal? Any targets you’re shooting for? Or are you like the fellow who shot bullet holes in the side of his barn and then drew bulls eyes around each hole—and called them his targets? If I handed you a card and a pen and said, “Write down in one sentence your purpose for living,” what would you write? A few years ago I wrote out a purpose statement for my life: My purpose is to share Jesus with as much of the world as I can.
What was Paul’s goal in life? We don’t have to wonder, because he stated it in 2 Corinthians 5:9 “9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.” I believe the best answer to this question is simply:
Answer #1: To please the Lord
What about you? Do you exist to simply go to school and graduate, work, retire, and then live in a nursing home until you die? I challenge you to consider making your goal in life to please God. You please God by worshiping him, serving him, obeying him, and sharing his word.
But remember, this text is all about WHY—it’s about motives. To God, why you do something for him is more important than what you do for him. It’s important that we remove any impure motives that we may have. The Bible says,
1 Thessalonians 2:3 (ESV)
For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive,
1 Thessalonians 2:4 (ESV)
but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.
Let me ask you… Are you a people-pleaser or a God-pleaser? You can’t be both. But I’ve discovered that as long as you please God, it doesn’t matter whom you displease in this life. But if you displease God, it doesn’t matter whom you please in this life. When Jesus was baptized the Father said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” We should make it our goal to please God as well.
Question #2. What are the wrong motives for trying to please God?
Sometimes people do the right thing but with the wrong motive. Did you hear about the two women talking? One of them was showing off her engagement ring and talking about her upcoming marriage. Her friend asked her, “Do you really love him?” The engaged girl said, “Oh, I worship the very ground his daddy discovered oil on!” Since we’re talking about motives, let me share with you some weak motives for trying to please God. I’ll mention three, but there are many more.
Answer #2a. Fear of punishment
Some people still envision God as a wicked taskmaster who is just waiting to crack the whip when we get out of line. I remember learning that some people referred to a preacher I’ve heard of as a “yeller.” When he preaches he sounds mad—because he is. He is the kind of preacher who starts loud, and gets louder! I don’t remember much about the content of his messages other than his favorite phrase was, “God is gonna’ getcha’ for that!” He would point his bony finger right into the camera and spit and shout, “God is gonna’ getcha’ for that!” I was never quite sure what it was that God was gonna’ get me for, but it sure scared me enough to make me want to walk on the straight and narrow—at least for a few hours.
Fear of punishment may be a good deterrent to decrease crime, but it is a poor motivation for trying to please God. People who act out of fear of punishment usually don’t think they ever please God, so they just have to keep trying harder and harder. What a miserable way to live!
Answer #2b. Guilt over past failures
Many Christians are on one long guilt-trip where they’re determined to work hard to pay God back for all their sins and mistakes. It’s not a pleasure trip, for sure. You’ve heard about “paying it forward...” Well, Christians stuck on their guilt over past failures are working overtime to try to “pay it back.” The line from the old hymn that says, “Oh to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be,” may drive you toward the wrong motivation for serving God. God’s grace is a free gift with no strings attached—and you can’t pay God back. During this season, if you’re “exchanging gifts” with someone, it’s really not a gift—it’s a trade! A true gift is one you give with no desire or expectation for anything in return.
Legalism is the wrong belief that you can make God love you more by working harder for him. That’s why some Christians work so hard they finally burn out. It may be time for you to end your guilt-trip and move from Legalism Lane onto Grace Avenue. It’s the greatest move you’ll ever make!
Answer #2c. Desire for personal recognition
We’re all born with a desire to be recognized and rewarded. As children, when we perform, we say, “look at me! See what I’m doing!” From the time we learn to ride a bike, we want our parents to watch us. That’s why we yell, “Look, ma, no hands!” When we’re on stage, or on the athletic field, we’re aware our parents and others are there watching us. We grow up loving the spotlight.
The desire for personal recognition is really a sign of spiritual immaturity. Jesus chided the Pharisees because they loved to blow a trumpet when they gave their money, “Hey everybody look at me!” They loved to pray loud, public prayers to be seen of men, “Hey, everybody look at me.” But Jesus said the best prayer is when we shut ourselves up in a closet and pray to God. The best good deeds are when we give and our right hand doesn’t even know what our left hand is doing. In other words, a mark of spiritual maturity is when we are constantly turning the spotlight away from us and what we do, and we turn the spotlight on God and what he is doing.
Those are three wrong motives for trying to please God, which brings us then to:
Question #3. What are the right motives for wanting to please God?
When Yvette and I were making preparations to build our last home, I remember that in our first visit with the builder, he rolled out a large sheet a paper on a work table. It was blank and he said to us, “Ok. Tell me about the home you want.” That may sound enticing, but it’s overwhelming to actually draw out a project from nothing. And that first visit was a sign of things to come…countless options of colors for everything. So many different material types to choose from. We eventually had to ask the builder to help us by categorizing some of those things into categories like good, better, and best quality. We would know that something in the good category would be fine for us but we knew something in the better column might be more durable, for example, and also cost a little more. Something in the best category would be the pull out the stops, top of the line for whatever this category was, and would of course cost the most.
When it comes to the right motives for serving and obeying God, I think there is a good motive, a better motive, and the best motive.
Answer #3a. A good motive: The reward of being with Christ
For the Apostle Paul, being in Christ’s presence wasn’t just a future destination, it was a present motivation. In 2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”
One reason we should be serving, worshiping, giving, obeying, and witnessing to others is because one day we will stand before the judgement seat to receive our reward. This won’t be like a courtroom, this will be like a public platform where awards and recognitions were handed out. Part of our reward will be the crowns we receive—like the garland crowns given to those who competed in the Greek Olympics. But we won’t wear these crowns for long because we’ll fall at the feet of Jesus and cast our crowns before him. I don’t know about you, but I want to have a dump-trunk full of crowns to honor the Lord. But the greatest reward won’t be the crowns, it will be hearing Jesus simply say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” The reward of being with Christ is a good motivation to want to please God.
Answer #3b. A better motive: The fear of the Lord
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:11 “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.”
Like Paul, I’m continually trying to persuade people to turn from their sins and place their faith in Jesus Christ. Why do I do it? One reason is because I know what it is to fear the Lord. Reading the Bible is like real estate. What are the three most important factors that determine the value of real estate? Location, location, location. The same is true for understanding the Bible— location, location, location, which is context. WHERE is this verse about fearing the Lord found? Immediately after the verse about appearing before Jesus at the judgement seat! When you understand the judgement seat, you’ll want to persuade men and women to come to Christ.
You need to know what it is to fear the Lord because the Bible says in Psalm 111:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Not only that, Proverbs 1:7 says ”The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” So if you want both wisdom and knowledge, you must start with fearing the Lord.
“Fearing the Lord” is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the Bible. Does anybody here fear snakes? That’s NOT what it means to fear God. Does anybody here fear spiders? That’s NOT what it is to fear God. It’s not some phobia like speaking in public or fear of heights. To fear the Lord doesn’t mean that you cringe in terror before him.
The best definition I’ve found for fearing the Lord comes from Brennan Manning. If there was ever a definition I suggest you memorize, this is it.
Quote: “The biblical meaning of the ‘Fear of the Lord’ is silent wonder, radical amazement and affectionate awe at the goodness of God.” --Brennan Manning
Memorize those three adjectives and three nouns: “silent wonder”; “radical amazement”; “affectionate awe.” THAT’S what it means to fear the Lord.
The reason Paul was a fanatic, traveling all over the known world preaching Jesus Christ, persuading people to trust Him was because of his absolute awe and respect for God. If you’re into acrostics, here’s one that might help you remember what it means to fear the Lord. Let the four letters FEAR represent: our Father has Earned Awe and Respect.
When you fear the Lord it doesn’t cause you to turn and run from him like you would a snake, it causes you to fall on your face before him in respect and awe. If you casually talk about “the good lord” or the “man upstairs,” you don’t know what it is to fear the Lord. If you claim to have your ticket punched to heaven, but you never give, you never serve, you never share your faith, you truly don’t know what it is to fear the Lord.
When Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord and heard the angels calling back and forth, “Holy, holy, holy,” he fell on his face and said, “Woe is me, I’m as good as dead.” But then God said, “Who can I send to deliver my message?” Isaiah was like a first grader who knows the answer to the teacher’s question, he was frantically waving his hand saying, “Send me! Send me!”
That’s why we persuade men, women, boys and girls to turn to Jesus, because we know what it is to fear the Lord. That’s a powerful motivation to please God, but as good as it is, I think there is a better motivation.
Answer #3c. The best motive: The love of Christ
Paul was so energetic about sharing Christ that people often thought he had lost his mind. In Acts 26:24 Festus said, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.” We read in 2 Corinthians 5:13–14“For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us...” The word translated “controls” means to “seize” or “hold together.” It’s the word sunecho, from which our word “echo” is derived. Everywhere Paul turned he was confronted with this echoing thought which continually reverberated in his heart and mind: “the love of Christ, the love of Christ, the love of Christ.”
You may wonder, “Is this referring to Christ’s love for me, or my love for Christ?” Yes. It’s both. The Bible says 1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.” Why do we serve the Lord so diligently and faithfully? It’s not to earn salvation, but because we love the One who first loved us. I greatly enjoy a little poem that says, “I cannot work my soul to save; that work my Lord has done; but I will work like any slave; for the love of God’s dear Son!”
So, do you want to know what love is? It’s everything! Love should be the primary motive for wanting to please God. In John 14:23 “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” It’s important to understand what Jesus didn’t say in this verse. He didn’t say, “If you keep my commandments, you’ll love me.” Obedience doesn’t produce love; it’s the other way around. Love always produces obedience.
Let me illustrate that. When I was about 19, I had picked Yvette up from her home to take her to church one Sunday morning here in Devine. I turned off 132 onto Transportation and we were really looking forward to church. I got to about where Valdez restaurant was and one of Devine’s finest lit me up. I was speeding. The officer asked me where I was going in such a hurry and I thought I had the best “get out of a ticket” reason in history. I told him, “Sir, I’m headed to church.” Now this is a story about justice, not grace or mercy. I was guilty and the officer did his job and wrote me a speeding ticket. But now, when I drive down Transportation twenty years later, I am careful to watch my speed. But I’ve got to tell you...there’s not much love in my obedience. Obeying that speed limit hasn’t made me love the police officer who gave me the ticket! Nor do I even love the speed limit law itself—if it was up to me I’d increase the limit there. So WHY do I obey the law? Not out of love, but simply because getting somewhere 60 seconds earlier just isn’t worth the cost of a ticket to me. Obedience doesn’t produce love, but Jesus said that love produces obedience.
Are you one of those miserable, legalistic believers who maintains a long list of rules and regulations, ticking them off meticulously out of a sense of duty or moral obligation? And then you wonder why you faith is so dead and lifeless—there’s no love driving it.
Let’s go back to the best analogy Jesus gave to describe our relationship with God. He is our Father and we are his children. All of us who are parents know our children obey us for many different reasons. My girls obey me sometimes because I know they want something—and that was okay. They obey me sometimes because I have threatened to use some leather reinforcement if they didn’t obey—that forced obedience wasn’t very pleasant for them or me. Sometimes they obey me without question because they simply respected my position as their father—and that is okay, too. But, as every parent knows, there is simply no better feeling than when our kids do the right thing simply because they love us.
There is a huge difference between obligation and love. Duty may write a letter, but love tucks in a joke, or a picture, or a gift card. Duty may keep a clean house, but love keeps a happy home. Duty gets offended if a gift isn’t acknowledged, but love laughs at the sheer joy of giving the gift. Duty can pour a glass of milk, but love will add a little chocolate. Duty makes you do something well, but love makes you do something beautiful. Duty does the right thing, but love does the thing right.
It’s the love of Christ that compels families to sell all their possessions and plant their lives in a part of the world where people don’t know Jesus Christ. Some people would call that crazy, but love makes you do crazy things. It’s the love of Christ that compelled the Amish community to forgive the man who entered their school and shot their children. Some people call that crazy, but love makes you do crazy things.
During this Christmas season, people do a lot of nice things—they act a little crazy in a good way. You may have delivered Thanksgiving meals for homebound and senior saints–why did you do that? You may have taken an angel or two from the Angel Tree–why? You may be trying to provide Christmas for a needy family. You may make an extravagant offering to our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. That’s great, but check your motives. Why are you doing it? Is it primarily because you love Jesus? If there’s another motive, you have the power to readjust your motive. Right now, why don’t you say, “Jesus, this good deed is simply because I love You. I don’t want any credit, any recognition, or even any reward. I just do this because I love You!”
There isn’t a price love isn’t willing to pay. One of the greatest examples of unselfish love was demonstrated by Princess Alice of Hesse. In announcing her death in 1878, British Prime Minister William Gladstone reported to Parliament the touching story of how Princess Alice died. The children of the Princess were seriously ill with diphtheria, a highly contagious disease. The doctors warned the Princess not to get too close to her children because she would endanger her own life. One day her young daughter, Alix, was struggling for breath. Princess Alice took the child in her arms to comfort her. Gasping for air, and unaware of the danger, little Alix begged her mother, “Kiss me, mother, please kiss me.” Without thinking about her own safety, Princess Alice tenderly kissed her daughter. As a result, Princess Alice contracted diphtheria and died a few days later. When Gladstone shared this story, the members of the House of Commons stood in silent honor of that kind of sacrifice. Alix, later known as Alexandra Feodorovna survived and later married the last Russian Czar, Nicholas II. Real love forgets self, and real love never considers the cost.
What a picture of the depth of God’s love for us! God loves us so much that he sent his only Son into this world to become one of us. And Jesus tenderly kissed us in our sin-sick condition and took our sin and sickness upon himself at the cross. He died so we can live. As
2 Corinthians 5:15 (ESV)
and [Jesus] died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
Check your motives, and then may the love of Christ compel you to do crazy things for the glory of God!