5 ~ The Smooth Stone of Motivation
Dr. Morriss discussed fear as a motivation, and then:
The greatest level of motivation for boldness is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. The love of Christ ought to constrain us. The love of the Lord should motivate and move us out in sharing the story of Jesus Christ. God is love; and when you have God in your heart, you want to share that with the lost world. I know there are a lot of people who think they know what love is. I think the best definition I have ever read is this one: “Love is the burning, yearning desire for, and delight in, the highest good of another.” (SB, 105)
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Too many people think of God as just a good natured old grandfather poking around in their lives trying to keep them from having fun. That is not right. God is love; and because God is love, he is interested in you with a burning, yearning desire for and delight in your highest good. Therefore, he has his “thou shalt nots” because he is interested in your highest good. There is not a loving parent who would allow a three-year-old child to play with a razor blade. Why? Because the parent loves the child and hates that which would destroy the child. (SB, 105)
Motivated Because of What He Has Done in the Past:
The love of Christ constraineth us. It constrains me to share the story of Jesus when I consider what he has done for me in the past. . . . He has justified me–justification through Jesus. It may be an oversimplification of a theological term, but I like it–just as if I had not sinned. (SB, 106)
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Dr. Morriss relates how he, without a valid driver’s license, ran a red light in his car and responded to the policeman who stopped him:
Oh, you talk about a lecture. He began to lecture me and said, “I tell you, I ought to haul you into court and let the judge throw the book at you.” I said to him, “Friend, anything you do to me I deserve.”
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You know what confession of sin is? It is agreeing with God about your guilt. And I began to agree with that policeman. You know, the more I agreed with that fellow, the softer his voice became. Finally, he said, “I should haul you in, but I’m going to let you go. But just remember there are more deaths in Fort Worth, Texas, because of careless drivers than any other one thing. Don’t you forget it.” I have not forgotten it. That has been thirty years ago, and I am still getting mileage out of it. I drove away that morning just as if I had not broken the law. It would have been a better illustration if I had been taken to the courtroom, had pleaded guilty, and then had someone stand up and say “I know he’s guilty, but I’m willing to pay his fine.”
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That is exactly what Jesus did. “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). They always have been. They always will be. I deserve death, but he came without sin. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21) He paid the price of my redemption and gave me a new standing–just as if I had not sinned. I love him for what he has done for me in the past. I am justified through Jesus. (SB, 106-9)
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Motivated Because of What He Is Doing Now:
The love of Christ constrains me because of what he is doing for me in the present.
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You ought to be a better Christian today than you were a year ago. You ought to be more like Christ today than you were a year ago. Let me illustrate what sanctification is. Here is a man drowning. You rescue the man from the lake. You get the man out of the lake, and that is deliverance. That equals salvation. You get the lake out of the man, and that is sanctification. It took the Lord one night to get the children of Israel out of Egypt. It took him forty years to get Egypt out of the children of Israel. That is sanctification. He is doing this now in the lives of the redeemed. Because of what he is doing now, the love of Christ constrains me. (SB, 109-11)
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Motivated Because of What He Will Do in the Future:
The love of Christ constrains me because of what he is going to do in the future.
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I grew up in a day when we had a huge card we put in the living room window with numbers on it–25, 75, 100, 150. When I saw that card with 150 on top, I knew what was going to happen at our house. “The ice man cometh,” and it meant good old homemade ice cream. My brother had the task of turning the freezer. My job was to sit on the gunny sack on top of the ice cream freezer. And it just seemed that my brother never would finish his task. I would watch for that muscle on his arm to begin to flex. When I saw his muscle flexing, I knew the ice cream was about to freeze. But, you know, my dad had a peculiar idea about homemade ice cream. He would not let us eat it at once. He would say, “No, son. We’ve got to pack it.” Imagine that. Two hungry boys and packing ice cream. He meant by packing ice cream that he would let it settle for two hours before we could eat it. There was a compensation for this waiting period. Excuse the east Texas vernacular, but he used to let me lick the dasher. My, that was good! I remember he would lift up the top and take out the dasher. I would get a plate and put it under that dasher. That ice cream on the dasher was delicious. Oh, it was good ice cream! But, it was not nearly as good as about two hours later when Dad would call us. He would lift the top off the ice cream freezer and reveal that luscious homemade ice cream in all its golden goodness.
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And no matter how good it tasted when I was licking the dasher, it was only a foretaste of better things to come. It was an earnest of the bowl of ice cream that was yet to be enjoyed.
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Oh, sometimes here on earth we rejoice in the Lord and praise his name for what he is doing for us. That is just a sampling of what it is going to be like when the final day of our salvation comes. That is what Paul meant when he said, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to with, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:22-23).
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God loves you with an everlasting love. He loved you enough to die for you that you might be justified. He loves you enough to live for you that you might be sanctified. He loves you enough to promise you that you will be glorified.
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Such love demands our best. And because he loves us with such a great love, it is the greatest sin to ignore it. No wonder Paul said, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us” (2 Cor. 5:11-14). (SB, 115-17)