Buried somewhere in the center of a stack of moving boxes are three thick books: our family photo albums, the antiquated ones. Everyone knows flipping the pages of a photo album is out. Now CD’s and DVD’s are in. The pictures never fade, the slideshow runs without the old family slide projector and the entire collection can be duplicated in just a few minutes.
In the pages of our photo albums is a picture of my sister and I, which I’ll never forget.
Both of us are dressed in our pajamas, sitting on a living room chair cheek to cheek with big smiles on our faces, hugging each other. To any stranger, there’s nothing interesting about the picture. It’s just two kids being affectionate toward each other. But there are some clues in the picture that reveal a more detailed and sinister scenario…
My sister Shelly and I are three years apart in age. She’s my big sister. Now, when you’re a twelve year old and your sister is 15, there’s a huge generation gap there, and that gap adds up to sibling rivalry. Very rarely would we ever show affection like the affection, which the picture portrays.
So the Christmas tree in the background of that affectionate and revealing picture offers the big clue.
I can remember parts of that evening with brilliant detail. It was Christmas Eve. Shelly and I had been fighting over some silly thing, and mom was tired of hearing it so she bribed us. She said, “I’ll let you each open one gift tonight IF… IF you’ll hug each other and say you love each other.”
So the picture is more than a moment of affection: it’s a moment of pure ulterior motive in progress. Two kids, suffering a few seconds of affection so we could open a present on Christmas Eve.
An affectionate hug between siblings is a good thing. None of us would argue that point. But the motive should be one of deeper substance than it was. We weren’t hugging because we had forgiven each other for the argument and wanted to say ‘I love you.’ We were hugging for the prize. Even though the action of hugging was good and right, the motive was all wrong. Today, when I see the picture, I get a chuckle because I see two kids with ulterior motives.
ULTERIOR MOTIVE is a huge issue in the world today.
Few people are motivated to kind acts by the love and sincerity of their heart. Most of the time, we humans are asking the question, “What’s in it for me?”
Just watch 60 minutes of television on Thursday nights and you’ll see the men and women of the hit show “Survivor”, who will stop at nothing to deceive each other for the sake of money. With a wink of the eye and a handshake, they strike deals set in stone, then they break their fragile promises once the opportunity affords them a gain. They lie and cheat, backstab and deceive for the sake of the prize. Then they say, “It’s just a game.” to sluff off the guilt. But lying and decieving are not just a game.
They are the stuff of real life… They are the ingredients of ulterior motive.
Television and movie producers alike all admit that television reflects its society. The values of a society are reflected in the things we produce and the things we produce spring up from what we have deep inside us. If we have hatred or bitterness inside, then the overflow of our heart will produce the fruits of hatred and bitterness. If we are full of spite, then we will live spiteful lives.
I: Ulterior Motives – build walls between believers
There was a pastor whose church was located right next to a local grocery store.
The grocery store venders would park in the back of the property to unload their trucks.
Well, sometimes when there were several venders delivering at the same time, the loadings docks would get too congested and some of the venders would park in the church parking lot to wait their turn.
That really got on the pastor’s nerves. He made it his pet peeve, so he talked to the store owner and demanded they tell the vendors not to park in the church lot any more.
So the owner agreed and gave notice for this to stop, yet the vendors continued on a regular basis.
The pastor would go over and tell the venders a piece of his mind.
Honestly though, the church used the grocery store’s parking lot every Sunday and on Wednesday evenings because their parking area was too small and the store’s lot was very convenient.
Over time, the pastor got more and more upset and decided he was going to do something about it, so he built a beautiful concrete block wall along the property line to stop the venders from parking there.
Well, the wall worked. As soon as the wall went up, the vendors stopped parking in the church lot.
The problem with the wall came one evening when the pastor’s wife backed their brand new Lincoln Continental Town Car out of the church on a dark, rainy night, and she ran right into that 10 foot high, brick wall.
That wall came crumbling down on the pastor’s brand new car and did thousands of dollars worth of damage. See, the benefit of the parking lot was mutual, but the pastor let the venders become a thorn in his flesh.
There was nothing legally wrong with building the wall. He had every right to do so… But the motive behind the building of the wall was spite, and that spite ended up being a very weak foundation for a ten-foot brick wall.
Don’t let your spite build up walls between yourself and your neighbor. Every one of us benefits from the other. Not one of us can truly say you don’t benefit from any one of the others present here in this place today. Don’t let your flesh-motivated desires build walls between you and your neighbors. It works its way into every area of your life and eventually, you will pay the greater price.
I remember working in the produce department of a grocery store. Occasionally, I would run into customers who were permeated with the smell of garlic. They ate so much of it in their diet that the odor literally seeped its way through their pours. I imagine they never had to worry about mosquitoes…
or other humans for that matter…
In the same way, whatever we have in us finds it’s way out through our lives. Whatever we have an abundance of in the deep recesses of our hearts eventually seeps its way through every pour and every fiber of our lives. Whatever we allow to brew in the cauldron of our hearts is what comes bubbling up out of us, and that is the fruit, or the produce of our hearts.
If we are full of greed or envy, then the fruits of our life will be the produce of greed and envy.
If we are full of lust and perversion, then our lives will reek with lust and perversion.
If we are full of bitterness and hatred, then our lives will display that bitterness and hatred.
Luke 6:44-45a, “Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.”
Ulterior motive is a huge issue in the house God today because men and women of God are seeking after their own motives: the things that suit and please themselves rather than those that strengthen and edify the church and the heart of God: what they can accomplish for their own good (what’s in it for me) instead of what can be accomplished for the Kingdom of God unto salvation.
Friends, our whole duty here at Valley Community Church is to build each other up in the most Holy Faith. Church isn’t a place for couch potato Christians to be fattened up for the slaughter. This is a place of spiritual fitness. God’s house is 24 Hour Fitness for your soul! We come here to be trained in spiritual fitness so we can go out and run a serious race. As your spiritual trainer, when you come to church, I want you to expect to feel the burn. When you leave the church, I expect you to eat the right spiritual foods. Don’t fill up on late night television and all the other things that are spiritual junk food.
Spot each other! Be each other’s spiritual spotters.
Our motive here is to build each other up in spiritual fitness so we can lead others to a healthy spiritual life. And if your motives aren’t directed around those goals, then you’re walking down a slippery road to destruction, even though you may appear to be doing what seems right.
What’s the motive of your heart?
If your motive is to prove to some family member that you’re right with God, then you’re here for the wrong reasons. If your motive is to prove how great a spiritual teacher you are, you’re here for the wrong reasons. If your motive for coming to church is to pick up on Christian singles, you’re walking down a slippery slope to disaster.
Our motives must be centered around a relationship with Jesus Christ. Christ centered living. Healthy spiritual exercise. Faithful obedience and dutiful service in the house of God.
You know the Bible tells us about people with wrong motives?
The Bible tells us to look out for people with the wrong motives. They’re the people who split churches.
Jude 1:18-20, “"In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.”
People with ulterior motives are the wolves among the sheep. They are covered with the blood of the sheep and shepherds. Everywhere they go, they cause destruction. Stay away from these kinds.
Stay away from ulterior motives in your own heart!
There are plenty of men and women in the church who are busy following their natural instincts, but friends, we need to be led by the power of the Holy Spirit! I want it to be said of all of us here at Valley Community Church that we are men and women DRIVEN by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Driven to godly living. Driven to Holy Spirit empowerment. Driven to build and edify each other in the Most Holy Faith, in the Most Holy Place: the throne room of God, which we enter boldly with our petitions and requests and intercession because of the victory we have through the blood of The Lord Jesus Christ!
That’s the kind of people we need to be. We don’t have time for ulterior motives and all the damage they have the potential to cause in our church.
We need to be motivated by love, empowered by the Holy Spirit, encouraging, building each other up and praying for each other on all occasions. That’s what Jesus did.
II: Motivated By Love
If you want to see an example of the power of right motives, just take a look at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and tell me: what was His motivation?
ROLL CLIP FROM “Passion of the Christ.”
? What was Christ motivated by in all that suffering and temptation?
Christ was motivated by His love. He said, “"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."” Luke 22:42
Lord, let Your will be done. Not the will of my human nature, but the will of God, let that be done.
If Jesus had been motivated by anything but pure love for His people, He could have walked away from the crucifixion at any moment. His time in the Garden of Gethsemane was His time of opportunity to run. If He wanted to, that would have been the time to go.
Gethsemane was the time of decision for the Christ. He knew His betrayer Judas, would soon come to greet him with a kiss of betrayal. He could practically hear the footsteps of the soldiers and Pharisees who were making their way toward the Garden, even while He prayed with tears of blood.
At this very moment, a man with ulterior motives would have been making a run for his life. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for Jesus to justify saving Himself. After all, He didn’t do anything wrong. You and I are the sinners. Why should He take the fall for something you did?
Why should Jesus have to pay the price for our sins? That’s not fair!
_____
One of my old pastor friends purchased a gold Lexus from a well to do man in the church. The Lexus was in perfect used condition and the gentleman gave him a sweet deal on it because he was a pastor.
Within a few months of buying that car, he and his wife went to a family gathering, and after they had been there a while, they heard a commotion outside. So the went to take a look. What they found was that one of his relatives wasn’t looking when she backed out into his car.
The estimate was over $3,000 to repair the damage. At first, she pleaded with him not to go through her insurance company for payment. So he agreed not to involve them, to keep her monthly payments from rising. But the more time that went by, the more his relative tried to back out of her obligation to pay for it. First, she tried to convince him it was half his fault for being parked there, and as time went on, the situation grew more tense. So, rather than cause hard feelings between he and his family, he paid for the damages himself.
He had every right to demand payment from her, but he was motivated by love, and he paid the price to repair the damages himself. Likewise Jesus had every right to demand full payment from us for damages we’ve caused, but He was motivated by love, and he paid the price Himself to salvage a relationship He felt was more important than life itself. He took on death, spread out on a cross. He faced Judas and a crowd of soldiers and Pharisees. He stood before corrupt judges and religious leaders with ulterior motives. He carried your cross. He was pierced for your transgressions and He died for your sins.
Because He was motivated by love, the outcome changed for us. Love restored a broken, compromised relationship in which we were the violators, but Jesus was motivated by love, so He saw past all that and He paid the price Himself. That my friends is the power and motive of love that we should imitate in our lives: to lay down one’s own life for a friend: to change the outcome: to cover over the multitude of sins.
That’s why 1 Peter 4:8-11 says, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins…” Love covers over a multitude of sins. Love pays the price of someone else’s wrongs to salvage a compromised relationship. Love cancels out bitterness and hatred, and breaks down 10 foot brick walls. “…Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”
The motive of love is to deny yourself for the better of your brother.
It is to forget about self, so that someone else can be built up in The Most Holy faith, so that someone else can grow and heal and be nurtured in the Name of Jesus Christ.
? Who do we look to for our example of right motives? We look to Jesus, and we ask Him to examine our hearts. We ask Him to cleanse us of all our wrong motives, and we seek our motivation by the Power of the Holy Spirit through the bond of Christian love.
III: The Evidence of Right Motives
1st you’ll glorify God.
2nd you’ll change the outcome for your life and the lives of others.
Jesus’ life produced the fruit of a life motivated by love and it was salvation for all mankind.
The restoration of a relationship gone bad because of our infidelity.
Love motive changes the outcome!
The evidence of the right motives in our lives will produce the same fruits… Salvation and the restoration of relationships gone bad.
? What does the church look like when God’s people are motivated by love?
A church motivated by love has a passion to seek and save the lost.
A church motivated by love touches the felt needs of people.
A church motivated by love prays over the sick and they are healed.
A church motivated by love forgives the sinner, resists temptation and perseveres in that love.
That looks an awful lot like Jesus to me, which means: A church motivated by love looks like Jesus!
“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Cor 3:18
Love motivated living is the transformation power of Jesus Christ.
It allows Him to transform US!
? What are you being motivated by lately?
Are you motivated by the WIFM factor: “What’s In It For Me,” or by what you can do to build relationships, to repair, restore and reconcile?
It seems to me, as Christians, we’ve already received what’s in it for us anyways… That’s the reward of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Why then, are we still looking for what’s in it for us?
In Matt 10:8, Jesus commands His disciples, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”
The ministry Jesus called His disciples to is a ministry motivated by Love: a selfless ministry.
Healing the sick means we have to go out and be among sick people.
Cleansing those who have leprosy means having touch the untouchable.
Those who drive out demons battle with forces they don’t understand. They have to trust that the strength and power behind the Name of Jesus Christ is enough to drive out the worst of Satan’s demons.
? How many of you are excited about the idea of rinsing out festering wounds that smell like death?
None of those ministries sound very charming, do they? …Unless you’re the one who’s sick, or you’ve got skin riddled with leprosy… Then for someone to come touch you, who isn’t ashamed to rinse your festering wounds is life changing, refreshing and restoring to the soul. That’s the power of a man or woman of God motivated by love.
If we want to be disciples of Christ, used to the Glory of God, we all need to check our motives, church.
Every one of us needs to examine our own hearts and our own motives and get down to the reality of why we’re here… We’re here to build each other up in the Most Holy Faith, and most of the time, that means taking second place to our brothers and sisters in Christ: making someone else number one.
We need to ask God examine our hearts and transform our motives.
When a crime such as murder happens and the perp is brought to justice, people still want to know the motive: why did he do it?
One day, every motive will be uncovered and exposed. What will people say when your motives are exposed?
Stand and pray…
