Walk by Faith With the Love of Christ

We continue in our series, Walk by Faith and Not by Sight, and talking about using our seventh sense, which is faith. It led me to think about how Paul is really driven. I mean, it's hard to read Paul's letters and the book of Acts and not see how driven he is, that he's got to go places, that he's got to do things, that he has to take the gospel to see people, to share with people.

Now, I found this interesting thing by Dr. Adebashian Lawal Aladeemiji, easier to pronounce than your names. He, looking at Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, used this to write an article on the random habits of highly driven people. He said a lot of these things could ring true.

People driven don't focus on external events, as in, they appear oblivious to certain things going on around them that don't really matter to what is driving them and what their hope is and what they have. It reminds me, when I read this, of Albert Einstein, who somebody would say to him, okay, what's this person's phone number? And he goes, I don't know, that's why I have a phone book. I don't memorize numbers.

And that focus pushes them through everything, and so the stuff going on around them, which he talks about in this article, if you listen to the media and you listen to social media, all those things, they want you to be concerned about a bunch of things that may or may not really impact what you are driven for. Another one, it's driven people focus more on process. Driven people focus on the process more.

Their head is down, it's step by step by step by step. Not necessarily a goal, but the work itself and working through each step helps someone who's driven, rather than just a goal out there. Here's an interesting one.

Driven people don't worry. Well, everybody has some anxiety, the author admits, but it says they are curious about everything that they, about everything that they have no time to worry about limitations. Driven people, when they run into a roadblock or when they make a mistake or when they fall short, they are just thinking about how they learn from that, how they grow, how they move forward.

Not worried about what is going to happen, but just keep their mind focused on what's next. Another one he had was driven people never stop. Now that kind of fits the meaning of the definition we think of driven, that they never stop, they just keep going.

They always have something. The last one is driven people have massive fun. Now I don't know if I can tell if Paul had massive fun, unless you know he had fun when he'd go to a group and he'd preach all night long.

Maybe that's massive fun, but it reminds me of when I worked for KPMG downtown and they would always say, or what we say around here is, work hard, play hard. Like you work really hard and then you have fun and that your focus is on work and you push through and you push through and push through knowing that you can have fun later. Knowing that you're you're gonna have time to do something fun.

So the question I have for you as we end today's sermon is what is your driver? What drives you? What pushes you through life? What makes you not want to stop? What makes you want to keep going in your life? What is that thing that you just are drawn towards that you keep going and going and going? Now I make it sound like the Energizer Bunny, but we all probably have, and it might vary in our lives, that certain times we're really focused and driven on getting through school, or a certain project we might have, or something big that has come up. You have to have a lot. Have you ever bought something called a fixer-upper? When I was between second and third grade, we bought something called a fixer-upper, and all of a sudden I realized the whole family was part of the workforce.

It didn't matter if you were only nine years old. The whole family was involved in that, and that became our fun every night after dinner was to go down to the basement and keep working on the basement over and over. We all are driven.

Paul was driven so much. I mean, when you read his letters, he talks about the hardships he has. When you read the book of Acts, you see the hardships.

You see the way people put him down, and he talks about how he's even been beaten. Beaten within an inch of his life. Stoned within an inch of his life, but yet he keeps going.

He's driven by something. Second Corinthians 5, 11 through 15, continues in the chapter we're looking at on walking by faith, not by sight. Will you stand as you are able? Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others, but what we are is known to God, and I hope it is also known to your conscience.

We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast with outward appearance, and not, excuse me, and not about what is in the heart. 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, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who might live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. The word of God, inspired by God, for the people of God, thanks be to God.

Amen. You may be seated. In these verses, Paul covers a lot of ground.

He is starting this off by, note the first word in verse 11 is, therefore, meaning he's taken all that stuff he said before, and now here's what I'm gonna do with it. Therefore, if you just go back to verse 10, he says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive his due, excuse me, for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.

Now, there's a lot in that one verse. Therefore, meaning there's gonna day where we're gonna have to stand before God, and God is gonna say, well, I asked you to do this, Paul. I know nobody else had ever taken the gospel to the Gentiles, but you were supposed to do this.

Why aren't you doing it? Therefore, because of the fear of the Lord, the reverence of standing before God, not only on Judgment Day, but for our whole lives standing before God, he says, we persuade others. Now, for some people, it's more easy. There are fewer obstacles to persuasion than with others.

Now, imagine, Paul, if you walk through his history of being an evangelist for Jesus. Now, everybody knows about Saul. Who would like to know about Saul? Saul was a mean dude.

Oh, he was zealous. He was driven, but he was driven to destroy the church. He was driven as a Pharisee to stop the movement of Jesus in the world, and he did everything in his power within the law to have Christians arrested.

A lot of people think he might even have killed some. We know he held the coats for people who were stoning Stephen. He was driven.

He was so motivated. Whenever Paul would grab a hold of something, he would go with all that he had, with everything within him, and he became the greatest threat to Christianity in the first century in his time. And all of a sudden, Jesus came down on the road to Damascus and said, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Why do you kick against the goads? Meaning, why are you trying to stop something that God has started and you don't have the power to? And he said, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

Meaning, Jesus was saying, if you persecute the church, you are persecuting me. And Paul eventually converted. He was baptized.

He had lost his sight. He got his sight back, and then he was on fire for Jesus. Now there's one problem to be on fire for Jesus when you were trying to be the wildfire that put out the Holy Spirit.

He would go to preach, and they would go, that's Saul! And he goes, no, I'm Paul. Don't worry about it. And people wouldn't buy it.

He would go to share the gospel, and they were going, I can't even think about what you're saying because you're right here. Aren't you here to arrest us, to persecute us, to stop the church? And Saul was saying, oh, that's the old me. Don't worry about it.

And he faced that difficulty. Then part of his calling was to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Now the Gentiles, and it wasn't because they didn't shower, but they were considered unclean.

They were considered unclean toward the law of Moses. They were considered unclean and apart and couldn't be associated with. In fact, some of the rules for associating with Gentiles were at the same as some of the rules for not touching a dead body.

That if you were in the home of a Gentile, you would be unclean. That you were in the presence of a Gentile, it would be the same as being in the presence of a demon. And yet Paul was supposed to take the gospel there.

So everywhere he would go, people would follow up who he called Judaizers, saying, hey, if you're gonna accept Jesus, you have to accept the whole law. You have to do all these ceremonial things. You have to do all these things that Jews have done since the beginning of time.

And Paul would come in, convert people. They would receive Jesus. They would see the power of the Holy Spirit.

They would see healing. They would see prophecy fulfilled. And along come this other group of people that says, well, that was a cute story Paul told you.

Now, get circumcised. Here's the whole law of Moses, if you really want to be a follower of Jesus. And it would just come into conflict with what Paul was doing every time.

As Paul is writing this second letter to the Corinth, we see Paul addressing certain things, where people came along. And Paul is using very clear words. Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.

We persuade others. Sometimes it's tough to persuade long-term when somebody else is coming along and telling them to do something else. He says, but we were, what we are is known to God.

And I hope it is also known also to your conscience what we are. Somebody else is coming along, and they're not only saying, well, that's just a little bit of the gospel. Here, do the full gospel.

Follow every jot and tittle of the law, and you can really love Jesus. They were also saying, Paul is out of his mind. Paul was saying, you know, walk by faith and not by sight.

And they would come in and say, whoa, how can we change anything that we traditionally did with the ceremonial laws? How can we do anything different? And Paul is saying it all hinges on Jesus, and they were saying that's crazy. He would also go out and share the gospel with the Gentiles, which is starting to really provoke and poke at the Roman government. And they would come in, and they would say, why would anybody do this? See, Paul must be a little bit off.

Who would take those kind of risks? It's just not necessary. And Paul was writing him back after he heard from people who had, within the church, who had talked to other people who were persuading away from what Paul had persuaded them for, and the whole group of Christians that he was with. But he says, and I hope it is also known to your conscience.

Paul is saying, yeah, they can say whatever they want about me, but I know who I am. I know whose I am. I know who I belong to, no matter what anybody else has said.

And then he says, we are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not what is in the heart. Boast about outward appearance. What if they see you eating the certain kinds of foods that are unclean or consuming or doing all these things on the exterior? You know, are you really taking, learning about the gospel from someone who isn't a rabbi with the robes and their scrolls and everything? Or are you looking at outward appearance? And Paul is hinting towards here what God said about David is, I want to went after my own heart.

And Jesus picked up on that too, saying, you judge by outward appearances. Stop judging incorrectly. Paul is saying, what's on your hearts? You know that when we met, you were connected to God.

You know that what they're saying about us is not true. And he says, so that you can boast about us. When they come along and they say, Paul is out of his mind, you can say, Paul shared Jesus with us.

And Jesus changed everything. You boast about that. Now it's a, it's a tough transition thinking of, are we boasting as followers of Jesus or are we being arrogant? Yeah, you're not as good as me.

The feeling sometimes people get from Christians, or is it a feeling of knowing that Jesus died for even you? Is it a feeling of knowing that somebody cares about you? You know the old phrase, nobody's gonna care about what you have to say until they know you care about them. Paul is saying this and it reminds me of this last month we've been working in the the leadership class. I'm apparently learning a lot from the leadership class that I'm teaching, but I'm trying to, this subject has been on how to find a job, how to apply for a job, knowing what your skills are, and how to share that.

And I'm explaining it to them going, well if you interview with someone, you've got to be able to sell yourself. You got to be able to sell what your qualities are without sounding like you're bragging. And that's a skill in and of itself that is tough to acquire.

I remember in college when I was interviewing to be an ambassador for Kansas State, I had, I had all these accomplishments that were on paper, but when we went to interview, I just didn't want to say anything about myself. I felt weird talking about myself. And they told me afterwards, they said, have you ever interviewed before? They go, you got to sell yourself.

You got to be able to talk about yourself and let us know that you are confident in your skills and your abilities. And it's the same thing I was trying to teach the kids, kids to have that confidence. Now, a lot of times, we have the exact opposite.

The next verse says, Paul says, for if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in a right mind, it is for you. If we are beside ourselves, if we are doing something that looks crazy, you got to trust that we're doing that for God.

If we are in a right mind, we are being, trying to be very clear and very straightforward with you, because we're doing it for you, because we want you to understand. We don't want to sound like we got all the answers, but we want to make it clear to you. Do we want to make it clear to you? Paul's breaking down what we can tell in a heartbeat on what the difference is for someone who is even in the faith for themselves.

Have you ever seen anybody in the faith for themselves? Like they even want to, you know, they want to talk to you and talk to you, get you to accept Jesus, and they put the little notch in their belt, and they go, oh yeah, I've got 112 converts. What do you have? And Paul changes this to be very clear. When we do it for ourselves, our natural senses have corrupted us by sin and brokenness.

With the pain we carry, shame keeps us from sharing the gospel. With the pain we carry, shame keeps us from sharing the gospel. People tried to shame Paul at every point after his conversion from sharing the gospel.

Tried to say, you're not good enough. You were a hater of Christians, and now you think you can share Jesus with people. Or they say, you were a Pharisee of Pharisees, and now you think the gospel is for people who are not Jews? And Paul fought these roadblocks the whole way.

It would have been easy, so easy at that point, just to say, God, I can't do this. It's too hard, and just give up. But it was the opposite with Paul.

Remember, Paul is driven. Here is how he was driven. When we walk by our seventh sense, faith empowers us to share our beliefs with the love of Christ.

There's a big difference in telling someone, hey, you know, there's a better way to do it if you love them, or if you just want to make them feel condemned. We walk by faith in love. Paul says the most amazing thing, for the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died.

Now, Paul is saying the love of Christ controls us. It's an interesting thing, because the driven person, Paul's drive, and his zealosity for God, moved from his own growing, moving up the Pharisee corporate ladder, to love. He's telling them, now my drive is love.

I am driven by love. I love you too much not to share Jesus, even if it risks my life, even if it's difficult, even if it's embarrassing, even if I am afraid that people are going to say, who are you to share the gospel? You know, I know when you did this, and this, and this, and this. Who are you to tell me what to do? Now, in our call to worship, Dana shared from 1 John, where John said there is no fear in love, because perfect love drives out fear.

When love is our driver, instead of us being worried about what people think about us, or what they're going to do with us, love compels us. Now, the Greek word sunoho, suneho, suneho, according to Strong's Concordance, it means to hold together. That's a cool one when you're talking about, are you good enough? Well, the only thing holding me together is the love of God.

To hold together, to compress, to constrain, to urge. Paul's drive was now love, and nothing was going to stop that. No Gentile, no Roman soldier, no Jewish leader, no one who hated what he had, because it was the love that pushed him.

1 John 4, 19 says, we love because he first loved us. Now, if you remember from that, or from other contexts, Jesus said, the greatest love a man can have for his friends is what? To lay down his life for them. The greatest love one can have is to lay down his life for them.

That not even my own life is more important for me than for you to live eternally with God in Jesus Christ, and know the gospel, no matter how many flaws I have, no matter how imperfect I am, that I will share the gospel with you. For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. That all are dead in their sin.

We have concluded this. Everyone is dead in their sin. And he's basically saying, do you love them enough to share the gospel with them? We love you enough to share the gospel with you.

That is our drive. That is our motivation. And he died for all, for those who might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

What I wonder about when I read that, and I say, why didn't he just say Jesus? You know, live for Jesus. But he was connecting him who died for our sake. Him who loved us enough that he died for us.

So we should love God so much that God's love, that same love is in us, that we love people, even who are far from God. Even who seem corrupted, even who when we're around them, they make us feel like dirt. That we should love them so much to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When we learn to walk by our seventh sense, faith empowers us to share our beliefs. Why would we share Jesus with anyone today? Doesn't seem like the world wants to hear the name of Jesus any more than they did 2000 years ago. I pray that every one of us is not driven by our own desires, our own ambitions, but let God compel you with love in every place.

Almighty God, thank you so much for Jesus Christ. Thank you that you loved us so much that you died for us. Thank you for sharing your life with us.