Wednesday, October 29, 2008
So I've been thinking about my message yesterday and I feel like there is something I forgot to say.
Everything that people do has a motivation behind it. I will go eat lunch soon. Now maybe my motivation is that I'm hungry, or maybe it's because it's noon and that is lunch time. Maybe it's because I'm bored and I want something to do, or maybe because I'm depressed and eating makes me happy. Regardless, there is a motivation for what I do, it's the same way for everything we all do.
Motivation can also be sin. If we do the right thing but we do it for wrong reasons, it is sin. It's not just action that can be sin, but motive is important too. If we read our Bibles but we do it so that people will see us and think we are good people, that is sin. Our actions are great, but our motives are evil.
The reason this is important is because I want to come back to what I talked about on Tuesday. When people fall on the side of legalism, they tend to ignore motive when thinking about sin and focus more on action. They know what sin is because they see people doing bad thing and that is obviously sin so they call them out on it. You can find legalism a lot in Evangelical churches because we've focused so much on "doing" good things.
On the other hand, there are the License people who forego action and look at motive. "I'm motivated to love Jesus, so that's all that matters." It doesn't seem to matter to them that they don't give glory to God by making out with their girlfriend or gossiping about their friends. People who are on the side of license tend to think that if they feel good feelings in their heart, then they are ok. God didn't come to save us to "good feelings" but rather to a life of good deeds.
Ephesians 2:1-10
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
So what is important about this? We need to have a proper idea of sin so we can realize our relationship to God and realize our own identity. Like I said at the beginning, we are sinners. Sin is not just bad things we do, but it is our deeds, our words, our motives, and even what we choose not to do. When we are not good friends, we are sinful. When we withhold love from people, that is sin. It is not enough to simply say that our sin is not just bad actions or just bad motives. Rather, we are sinful because of all those things.
So as Christians, we need Jesus. We might be able to avoid bad actions or bad words. Christians have been really good at trying to avoid bad actions. But we also need to see our sin as bad motives and sin of ommission.
My final point of application. Grow closer to Jesus, live for Jesus, love Jesus, pursue Jesus... and most importantly, realize every day that Jesis is your ONLY hope. He is my only hope. We cannot hope in political leaders, in good pastors, in our own goodness, in our dumb luck, or in our awesome abilities.
We need to pursue Jesus with everything, in action, word, and motive.