Motives Matter

Let's have a prayer.

Dear Father, we are baptized into a kingdom of kindness,

and no one who cherishes an attitude of unkindness will

be in that kingdom. And Lord, you know the only

way to get there is the cross. We come to

the cross today in Jesus' name.

Amen.

In Philippians four two, Paul appealed to Euodea and sentititue

to agree in the Lord. Now, these two precious women

of God had lost their way because of a bad

attitude between the two of them. They no doubt we're

arguing over something and fighting for their side of.

A cause now long forgotten.

No one remembers it what it was, but we have

a record that Paul addressed it. It's easy to do

this kind of thing when you feel like someone else

has hurt your feelings, or when you feel like you

are the victim of circumstances out of your control or

the attacks of others that you don't deserve. New Paul

appeal to these two precious women to humble up and

remember that they are Christians in need of love, not

just in need of love, in need of giving.

Love to others. Philippians four two here's what he said.

I implore Euodea and I implore sent Tishie to be

of the same mind in the Lord. Their vice standard

will read like this, I entreat Eodea and I entreat

sent Tissie to agree in the Lord. Now Paul is

forthrightly here asserting his letter to the Philippians that attitudes matter,

our motives, our attitudes matter. It's not just what you

do for the Lord that matters, it's how you do

it that makes a difference.

Even more.

Why because in our walk with Christ, attitudes and motives matter.

People sometimes exert themselves in life to get their way

so they can feel important. Others simply cave in and

let the strong run over them. There are some people

who seek high offices in the church to serve to

gain recognition. There are some people who seek high offices

because they just want to get higher. It feeds their

need to feel important, to ascend. Others serve to make

up for past sins, feeling that maybe they're being a pastor,

an elder, or a deacon will make up for the

mistakes they made in their early youth. Some people come

to church so they can get as much out of

the church as possible. And then there are those who

come to church because they're broken. They come to church

because they need Jesus. They come to church for salvation,

for fellowship, and for sharing. So a lot of different

reasons for come to church. Friend, Jesus came to this

world to serve, to love, to give his life as

a ransom for the many. Christ didn't do it to

impress God from a powerful, prideful stance, nor did he

do it to impress the Jewish people, the church, or

the world. Christ came to save us because his humble

heart of love was wholly bent on loving us back

to God and bringing us back to God into a

relationship that will make us live forever. He was motivated

by love smallness. He was not the important person in play.

God and others were for our sake and not his own.

Jesus came to die for God's glory and not his own.

Jesus became nothing so we might taste the greatness of

God's mercy. As Christians, we must pattern our life after

the attitude of Jesus Christ, or we aren't Christians. I

mean in first John John makes it very clear we

either walk like Christ or we don't, And if we

don't walk like Christ, forget claiming the name of Christian.

So you see, God is more concerned.

He's more concerned with what's inside than how we look.

We must walk in His steps to walk with God

at all Philippians two one and two. So if there

is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any

participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my

joy by being of the same mind, having the same love,

being in full accord and of one mind. The mind

of Christ is the encouraging mind that picks the sinner

up and forgives him and qualifies him by grace to

be a saint. That's how Jesus works, that outright restores

the fallen and the lost, that looks for the weak

and the broken, not to exclude them, but to include them.

The heart of Christ is a heart of love that

puts God on others first and self last, for the

glory of God and the needs of people. The Holy

Spirit mediates the mind of Christ into our lives, so

that if we are in Christ Jesus, we become selfless

beings motivated by Christian affection and true sympathy for people.

Much in need of God's grace. Why because we are

much in need of God's grace. And when you meet

people like this, and I love meeting Christians like this

who truly love God, who put God on others first,

and their agendas are not important, their status is not important.

They come to make a difference for others. And when

you are someone like that yourself, when you meet you

have Christian unity that is sweet as honey. Why because

you share the same mind, the same love, the same Savior,

in the shared mind and heart of Christ through the

Holy Spirit. Jesus said, Well, two or three are gathered

together in my name, meaning my character, my law. There

I am in the midst of them. In the church,

attitudes and motives matter. Why because we follow a teacher

and a leader, Jesus who modeled the perfect pattern of

heart and mind for our lives. First three, Paul says this,

do nothing from selfishness or conceit. You see that we're nothing.

Don't ever do anything just to impress people with how

good you look, or because you want what you think

you deserve. He says, do nothing for those reasons, do

nothing from selfishness or conceit. But in humility. Here's the key.

Count others what better than yourselves. Let each of you

look not to his own interests, but also to the

interests of others. Boy, that's a tough verse to simulate

into our lives. Paul has given us good advice for us.

And our homes in the church.

If we remove this self component, there's going to be

real love moving through the ranks of the church in

our lives.

He says, do nothing from selfishness or conceit.

As Christians, we are called to live for others, to

put others first, to give instead of take, to surrender,

the need to surrender, the need to be important for

the needs of others. When God calls a man or

woman and too fellowship with him, he bids that man

and woman come and die to self.

The only great Christian.

In the plan of God is a broken and contrite

Christian who kneels at a cross, knowing that he or

she is a sinner with a humble heart that lives

for the good of others, because they have been to

the cross and they are forgiven saints. When Jesus struggled

in the garden of a Simone with his father God

in prayer, and Christ struggled in prayer. He struggled with

God to see if God would let him escape the

cross and go.

Home to his bosom.

He was torn from the bosom of his father to

become a baby in Bethlehem, according to Sister White, and

Jesus wanted to go right back there so that he

would be able to experience the and he's in the

bosom of the Father now. Jesus loved us, but he

didn't want to go to the cross to die.

He didn't want it. He wanted to take the sin.

He didn't want to take the sins of the world,

my yucky stuff in yours on himself. He hated the

idea because it meant losing God and life, but it

was God's will for him, and he surrendered his human

survival instinct that was fighting inside his human nature. He

surrendered it in love to his Father and out of

love for us. He surrendered to God for the good

of the whole human race to be forgiven and saved.

He put others before himself as he accepted that he

would experience extinction to save us in the universe. Christ prayed, sincerely,

is not of fear of.

Father, not my will, But Thy will be done.

He prayed the evidence in the Bible as he prayed

in the very place where the Garden of Eden had been,

where Adam had expressed and exerted his will.

There Jesus prayed.

It was not easy to pray for him, for him

to pray, it was not easy for him to pray

this kind of prayer.

It was hard, and it's hard for.

Us to pray like that too. Jesus laid down his

life for our lives. I mean, don't ever let someone

convince you that Jesus didn't need to die for our sins.

There are well meaning people who think they have a

better understanding of the Gospel than Paul or Luther or

Calvin had its nonsense. Jesus died for our sins as

of first importance. The Bible says in First Corinthians fifteen,

that is the heart of the Apostolic Gospel. Someone had

to die for our sins. Jesus died for me. He

was buried, He was raised for our justification, to take

our sins away so that.

We are not guilty. And that is what baptism means.

So don't let anyone some smart theologian type tell you

that you know shedding blood for you is a pagan thing.

It isn't It was God given. Jesus shed his blood

for us. The one man died for the many by choice.

Sometimes God's will for our lives means taking a life

course where we are not important at all in the

eyes of others, so that we can make a difference

in the eyes of God. Martine Treptele was a young

and humble soldier who was killed in France in World

War One.

He was a private in the Army.

He was a barber in Cherokee, Iowa, when he joined

the army in nineteen seventeen.

To help save the world.

Private Treptile went to war in Europe and he died

there fighting for his country, for freedom and to establish

a peaceful world order. He went to France. He was

with the famed Rainbow Division. He died in battle, and

he would be lost a time were it not for

a pledge he made to himself for the good of others.

After his death, his personal pledge was found in his diary.

He revealed the attitude and of an amazing man who

lived to serve his country and others without any thought

for himself. Private Treptile wrote this pledge, America.

Must win this war.

Therefore I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice,

I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost,

as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on

me alone. That is the kind of pledge Jesus made

with God the Father when he came to this earth,

but on a far grander scale, with higher risks. My Father, God,

I must win this war. Therefore I will work, I

will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will

fight cheerfully and do my utmost. And I will die

for you and others, because the whole struggle depends on

my attitude and my faith in you, and my life

of service and love. I will prevail because I love you.

In the Book of Hebrews, Jesus made this pledge when

he was born in Bethlehem's manger, torn from the bosom

of the Father to become a baby Hebrews ten seven.

He says, lo, I have come to do thy willow God,

as it is written of me. In the role of

the Book, Christ made a pledge when he suddenly disappeared

as Michael the Archangel when he was no longer God

and angel form, and the universe would never see him

again that way. They lost him in that capacity, and

he materialized as a human zeygot and then it grew

into an embryo, a human baby embryo, until he was

a baby crying in Bethlehem's manger. Lo, I have come

to do that willow God, as it has written of me.

In the role of the book. Christ made a pledge

to honor the law of God with his whole life,

purpose and energy, with right motives and love. Behold the

Lamb of God. John said, who takes away the sin

of the world. But when we behold the Lamb, we

behold the lion, the lion Philippians two five. Have this

mind among yourselves, which was yours in Christ, Jesus, how

many of you want the mind of Christ? I need

the mind of Christ verse six, who, though he was

in the form of God, did not count equality with

God a thing to be grasped verse seven, but emptied

himself off taking the form. What's the word here the

form of a servant in Hebrews one seven, and says

he makes his servants flames of fire. In Isaiah fifty

two fourteen fifty three two. He's called the servant who

had become the human servant. He was a servant before

he was human. He was the mighty protector of the

Jewish nation, being born in the likeness of men. And

suddenly he disappeared in that capacity and was found to

be a baby, the protector and guardian of the armies

of heaven was a baby, and being found in human form,

he humbled himself. Now the phrase being found this he

had to self discover who he was. God did not

allow his divine knowledge to interfere with this development. He

discovered that he was God. He was found in human form.

He humbled himself and became a beating to death, even

death on the cross. And I think that happened at

the age of twelve when he visited the temple and

he realized those sacrifices were about him. He was the

one who would go to the cross. He was the

one that was God's gift in human race. Now he

knew why Joseph was in his father, and it wasn't

because his mother messed up. It was because God made

it so. Paul says that Jesus emptied himself. Jesus let

go of being God so God could come to us

in him to save us. Paul says God was in

Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Jesus took the form

of a servant when the devil has minions wanted.

To be masters of the universe.

Christ gave up his beauty as powers, his rightful role

as the commander of the universe, to become a human being,

to live among men and women who have no power

to call their way back to God. And then Jesus

made a decision to die for you and to die

for me, so we can live for God and others,

but change us to make us different. Jesus chose to

die forever if that is what it takes for us

to live forever.

And we know.

In the Book and all three of the Synoptic Gospels,

it says there was darkness over the Cross until the

ninth hour. The Greek word is scotos. It's not the

normal word used in the Greek New Testament for darkness. Scotia.

Scottas is the word used in the Greeks of tuagen

Old Testament that says there was a darkness over Egypt

that could be felt. It's the word for psychological darkness. Friends,

Hope did not present itself to Jesus on the darkness

of the cross, his coming forth a conqueror. He could

not see beyond the portals of the tomb. And when

he made the decision to die, he put your life

in front of his life, and he said, you live forever,

and I die forever. If that's the cost, I pay

it because I love you, and I love you, my

Father God, and we love the human race more than

we love ourselves. And out of the smallness of what

is God came the greatness of the revelation of God.

At the cross, God saw the atonement for our sins,

and he was satisfied. He looked at Jesus, his beloved son,

hanging on that cross. Human and divine merged in a

way we can never fully understand, and he didn't realize.

He accepted what had occurred as good enough. Justice and

mercy kissed. The law was revealed, the love of God revealed.

God could be just and forgive the sinner because Christ

had just died for the sins of the whole world.

At the cross, he saw the atonement for our sins,

and he was satisfied because he saw it in Jesus

that motives matter, and he saw the attitude of the

law that brought him to the cross. I like to

share this statement from Ellen White in the Review in

Herald of May seventh, eighteen ninety five. She writes this

profound paragraph. When the sinner, in view of all his transfer,

exercises faith in God and believes that he has pardoned

because Christ has died as his sacrifice, he will be

filled with gratitude to God and will have tender sympathy

towards those who, like himself, have sinned and are in

need of pardon. Pride will find no place in his

heart such faith as this will be a death blow

to a revengeful spirit. How is it possible for one

who finds forgiveness and who is daily dependent upon the

grace of God to turn away in coldness from those

who have been overtaken in a fault and to display

to the sinner and unforgiving spirit. Everyone who has real

faith in God will crush pride under his feet. A

view of the goodness and the mercy of God will

lead to repentance and will create a desire to possess

the same spirit. He who receives the spirit of God,

will have clear discernment to see the good there is

in the characters of others, and we'll love those who

need the tender pity and sympathy of forgiveness. The repenting

sinner sees in Christ a sin pardoning savior and contemplates

with hope and confidence the pardon ridden over against his sin.

He wants the same work to be done for his associates,

for true faith brings the soul into sympathy with God.

At the cross, we can all see clearly in the

darkness of the cross, the cry of the Cross we

can hear. We know at last that motives matter, and

there we see the smallness of God and love snuffing

out God so you and I can live. Let us

not forget that's how we live with each other. When

we snuff out ourselves and our own self importance, others

live and they come to God because motives matter.