what moves us to faithfulness?

Psa 33:18  Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,

At least two things are involved in *experiencing God's working in our lives -- having his caring attention/eye on us, thereby moving/motivating us to faithfulness i.e. to obedience. 

fear of the Lord AND hope in his steadfast love                                                             

      

Fear- The utmost regard for God's absolute rule (sovereignty), majesty, power, and holiness. Recognizing these things about God is the beginning of wisdom i.e. where wise living starts.                                                              
Hope- The anticipation of being in God's presence and experiencing the fullness of who he is in all his infinite love **according to or in proportion to our faithfulness to him in this life.

"... who hope in his steadfast love..." Why do we hope in God's steadfast love? Don't we have and experience his love now? We do but only by faith, from afar if you will, not yet fully seeing Him as He is i.e. not through direct first-hand experience but "through a glass darkly..." 

Though God's disposition is one of perfect love towards us now and can not be added to or taken away from -- it's based on the perfect work of Christ, not our imperfect feeble attempts at perfect faithfulness -- we will not experience the fullness of his love until we see him face to face in eternity. 

It is this hope, the hope of complete transformation and glorification, and the promise of the fullest ***experience of his love -- which will increase throughout eternity -- this hope moves us to diligently pursue to him.

"Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." I John 3:2-3

"For the one who ****sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." Gal 6:8-9. Give up what? Hope of eternal bliss/life. 

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*We must distinguish between having God's love and participating/experiencing it. Having it is based on Christ's efforts alone, not ours. We can never do enough to secure God's love for us. Experiencing and more fully participating in his love, however, is contingent on faithful obedience i.e.  "the just shall live by faith..."  For a further discussion on this click here. 

** "according to..." also carries with it a respect/fear for God i.e. God does things a certain way (according to design) and if we do not live accordingly we experience the repercussions of living contrary to that design.

***The essence of our reward is greater union with God and therefore greater participation and firsthand experience of his perfect love in proportion to our faithfulness i.e. faithful obedience. 

By "in proportion..." we mean our experience and participation in God and His love throughout eternity are in proportion to our trust/faithful obedience to him now, in this life. Our faithfulness doesn't save us but it does increase our capacity to enjoy God. God is the reward of that faithfulness. Participation in God's love throughout eternity is the reward for our faithfulness now, in this life.

****Sewing and reaping is evidence of design and a Designer.

Are we in the Spirit or not?

If you are a child of God, you possess the Spirit of God. His Spirit is a spirit of perfect love who now fully indwells you. This is further evidence and confirmation we are totally accepted and perfectly loved in Christ. The reality that the infinitely loving Creator and Sustainer of all things indwells us is an incomprehensible wonder. 

This isn't because of anything we have done. This is possible only because of Christ. 

Because of Christ's efforts, not ours, we are counted by God as a pure vessel (legally and objectively), perfectly worthy of His residence in His eyes - i.e. by his standards - not ours. If we were in any way impure before Him, He would not and could not indwell us. God simply ¹cannot indwell an unclean vessel. His indwelling is proof that we are pure and perfectly acceptable in His eyes. And because we are perfect, He indwells us. 

 

This is why Christ said he must go so that the Spirit would come. Without Christ going to the cross to address our impurity and make us a clean vessel legally for Him to indwell, the Spirit would not and could not come to indwell us. Because of Christ taking care of our uncleanness, the Spirit is ours and Christ is ours, and we are Christ's. We now fully possess the love of God, and His infinite care is forever set upon us. This can't be taken away, altered, or added to by us because it isn't based on anything we do, but on the work of God through Christ. 

Rom 8:9  You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 

According to the above verse, being "in the Spirit" is synonymous with being a believer. To "...not belong to him..." - or being in the flesh in this passage is the state of a nonbeliever. 

To say it another way, a true Christian cannot be "in the Spirit" on one occasion and "in the flesh" on another. This passage isn't describing a back-and-forth condition of a believer but the state of being in Christ or not being in Christ i.e. being or not being a believer, which is the same as being in the Spirit or not in the Spirit. 

According to this passage, if you do not have the Spirit, you do "not belong to him" and if you belong to him you have the Spirit, no matter how obedient or ²disobedient you are. This has nothing to do with our faithfulness. It is solely based on the faithful and completed work of Christ. 

If you are a believer and have accepted God's provision of righteousness through Christ, then his Spirit indwells you, period...full stop! You are now "in the Spirit" as well as the Spirit is in you. This is the same as saying you are fully accepted and loved by God; you are now under His perfect care and provision, i.e. God's love is in you and fully set upon you. He is fully available to you. The Spirit will not indwell you now or in the future to any greater degree than he did the first day you came to Christ. 

Shifting gears

The issue now becomes do we believe the Spirit is fully ours in this way i.e. never-ending, complete, without interruption, no matter what we do or experience. We don't always feel/experience his love in this way, do we? Why? Unbelief is the essence of sin and at the heart of all disobedience. By our unbelief, we grieve and quench the Spirit. Some think this means God's love stops in some way. On God's side, it never stops. But our sense of His presence may be suppressed by our rebellious unbelief and times of temporarily wandering away from Him - though He never wanders from us.

We as His children however can pull away from God in distrust, not receiving/ believing in His love that is fixed upon us. This leads to our unfaithfulness.

But this is only on our side of the relationship. When we do not trust Him, we no longer pursue Him diligently and therefore lose a sense of his love and presence. It's not that his love stopped and is no longer there and available or no longer fixed upon us, but that we are no longer in alignment with it, believing, receiving, participating in, and experiencing it. To say it another way, we may have all of God by His Spirit, but this doesn't mean He has all of us; all our focus and trust ³which drives all our obedience-faithfulness.

The key to experiencing God's love and presence is believing it is ours as described above and acting accordingly. As one 1887 hymn says, "trust and obey for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus but the trust and obey."

In truth, disobedience is the fruit of unbelief. If we truly believed in the full extent and manner of God's love we would be so enthralled by it we would gladly do all he asks us to do; it would not be a burden. 

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.1 John 5:3 (ESV)

For additional posts on having his love vs fully experiencing it click here. 

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¹For God to indwell an impure vessel, He would have to go against Himself. God cannot go along with unbelief because it is rooted in distrust. It's not like we are refusing to believe something in general but something particular about Him, i.e. that God is not who he claims to be. In essence, we are saying God is a liar. God cannot approve of this or support it. For Him to not address this would be to go against Himself. To go against Himself would be to go against all things, for all things depend on Him being who claims to be and is.

It isn't whether we fully possess the love of God, but does the love of God fully possess us. And how does it possess us? By our believing that in Christ it is set upon us no matter what we do, feel or experience and then acting accordingly i.e. acting by faith for God's honor because we know (believe) we are totally loved and perfectly under his care and therefore now desire to honor Him. 

²If you are willingly and flagrantly disobedient, you may wish to search your heart to make sure you are His. We all sin but to knowingly, willfully, repeatedly sin might be evidence you don't know Him (and certainly don't trust Him and His love well, at a minimum) and a reason to examine your faith as to whether you are a true believer and have ever truly received God's love. 

³So does God's love, by his Spirit, drive our obedience or our faith? Yes...both! God's love moves us to obedience but without faith that His love is fully and perfectly ours, we will never participate in it or act upon it.

finite or sinful

Is there a difference between being finite and being sinful - i.e. limited vs rebellious? If so, what is it?

Because we are finite - we are not all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful or everywhere present - and because we depend on things outside of us to exist - air, food, water, shelter, even ¹love - we are limited (unlike God - who needs no one or no thing - we are not self-sufficient), therefore we must trust. We must look to and depend on other persons and things apart from us to sustain us; to keep us going. Take away any of the things mentioned above, and we die. We can do many things because we are like God but we can't do everything i.e. we are not God. We must have certain things to continue living. 

Being finite, dependent, or limited has nothing to do with sin - unbelief - rebellion, and everything to do with whom we are as dependent creatures or beings. It is who we are and how we are designed. This difference is sometimes called the creator-creature distinction. It is the denial of our dependence that is our problem. Rebellion to our dependence on God is at the heart of the sin question which we will shortly look at more closely.

If someone incurs loss or is inadvertently harmed due to our limitations, have we done something wrong? We have heard stories of children being injured, abducted, or having their lives taken because something occurred outside of a parent's control. When this happens, like an audio file set on a loop, the parent replays the circumstances that lead up to such an event ... "²what did I do wrong... what could I have done differently ... how could I let this happen ... I am a terrible parent ... I hate myself ... etc?" It is in these situations we are forced to face our limitations directly and most intensely. The reality is the parent could have done everything within their power and still not have prevented a tragic outcome. 

Yet we rarely admit our limitations. When such a tragedy occurs what do we do? Do we seek almighty God, the genuine source of life, wisdom, and love - on which we are dependent for all things - or do we blame ourselves or even blame him?

Christ tells us, "To whom much is given much is required." So wouldn't the opposite also be true; to whom little or nothing is given, little or nothing is required? God doesn't expect or require rocks to willfully look up to, depend on, and praise him, only humans. Why? Rocks aren't designed to, we are. Only we are like God.

Being sinful however means we choose - it is deliberate, not inadvertent - to use what we have to try and be independent of God. Therefore we use things only for our benefit, not others, be they God or our fellow human.

There is a difference between intent and ability.

We can intend good things but not be ³able to bring them about on our own. This is being finite. It is not wrong, it is who we are as finite creatures. We are not the Creator. 

When we have the ability or resources available to do something for the benefit of others, but choose not to, this is being rebellious and sinful. 

But to shame ourselves for not doing something we don't have the ability to do is also wrong.

Limited but capable

Though we are limited we are also capable of doing far more than we recognize. We cannot use our limitations as an excuse to not use what we do have for God's honor - i.e. use what He's given in a way that acknowledges and honors Him as the giver and others as worthy of our love-effort.

Personally limited with access to unlimited resources

If we are a child of God we also have His Spirit and unlimited access to Him, who is without limits and with unlimited resources. If we are about His business he will give us whatever we need to accomplish whatever He's given us to do. 

This is the part of the purpose of prayer and why we are invited to call on him. What we don't have within ourselves, we have access to in and through Him. The only thing that limits our participation in God and His unlimited resources is us - i.e. our not looking to, depending on, and trusting God in accordance to who we are (finite dependent creatures) -- and who He is (the unlimited, all-knowing, everywhere present, all-powerful and all-loving God) ... the I AM.  In a word we must have faith in the infinite unlimited God to do things beyond our limitations.

A prayer...

God, do for me what I cannot do for myself; do through me what I cannot do by myself. Help me to clearly see what I can do and give me the strength to faithfully carry it out for your glory. 
 
For a further discussion on the nature of our rebellion click here ________________________________________

¹Some might argue love is not a necessity for life. However, research indicates otherwise. For more click here. 

²A spiritually healthy and whole parent would likely be filled with grief over the loss or harm to their child i.e. their focus would be on the child and God, not themselves. 

³Certainly, sheer determination can result in greater outcomes than being passive but the greatest determination does not make us all-powerful. It doesn't even make us complete or sufficient for what we were designed for. 

Excellence without anxiousness

How do you bring your "A" game and not be overly weighed down at the same time i.e. not become anxious over whether you will represent/honor/glorify God well?

By knowing you cannot and will not do things excellently on ¹your own, no matter what you do or how hard you try. Bringing our "A" game starts with and depends on God not us i.e. our humble dependence on God and his infinite love for us; our abiding in his love. Only His love empowers us to excellence. Unless ¹God empowers us by his love we have nothing within us to fully display  our highest capacity and gifts. So in this sense, it's not on us to bring out our best as far as the power or drive needed to enable us. 

It is, however, up to us to trust and depend on God to empower us i.e. fully believing he loves us to the extent he does. Our challenge in honoring God well is greater dependence/humility (trust) not greater execution. Greater execution is the fruit of greater dependence. Honoring God starts with humility leading to excellence in execution. 

Great achievement is the fruit of great execution. Great execution is the fruit of great effort. Great effort is the fruit of great power. Great power is the fruit of dependence on great love and its source i.e. God

Great power is released in and through us by, in and through great humility/dependence on God who is the source of all power/life/love/Spirit.

For more on doing things with excellence click here.

For more on the necessity of great effort click here.

For more on how God's love empowers us click here. 

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¹It is not by sheer will power we live for God but by the power of God's Spirit. The following passage lays this out. 

Ephesians 3:14

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father... 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit (of infinite love) in your inner being. 17 so that Christ may dwell (be present and abide) in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly - i.e. answer the above prayer - than all that we ask or think (than you may realize, ask for, or even think possible), according to the power (of his infinite love, by his Spirit) at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

This is the essence of how we live our life for God ...according to the riches of his glory..." i.e. the riches of his glory empower us (gives us strength) to live for God. 

The adoration of the immense worth/glory of God is the essence of the life and love of God himself. This life and love starts within God and is grounded in who he is, as the triune God; who constantly gives and receives honor/love among the Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit. 

This same life and love is now fully ours in Christ. It is accessible and extended to us because of His efforts, not ours. It is by this life (and only this life) we are enabled/empowered to live for God.

...he may grant you to be strengthened with power

...through his Spirit

...in your inner being

What drives and empowers us to live for God comes from within us, by Gods love/Spirit through faith. But not by us i.e. not by our efforts.

"...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,..."

Christ's love frees and enables us to grasp the full extent of that love so we are full of God (his presence) and power.

"...may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

The strength to grasp the fullness of God's love comes from God. Without it we will not see him as the loving Father he is. 

20  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

Hypocrites in the church?

A complaint we often hear from those outside the church is why are there so many hypocrites in the church? The answer comes down to intent. 

Since ¹those of us within the church are given a clear standard of conduct we feel compelled to conform our behavior to this standard, if only in appearance because of peer pressure. However, if we are ¹not in Christ and not compelled by his love, this is the wrong reason to conform. We may be kind, thoughtful, and loving on the outside but in truth are "behaving ourselves" not to honor God but simply to fit into the prescribed and ²expected behavior of the church community.

When we do, we bring honor only to ourselves in the eyes of others. As Christ said, we have our reward i.e. the praise of men vs God. God, however, has absolutely nothing to do with this. This becomes apparent when real love requiring sacrifice is called for by someone who claims to be a believer and it's not there. This was the very same issue with the Pharisees. They did things to be seen of men not to honor God.

This is the core reason there are those within the church who are hypocrites. 

It is not necessarily unique to the church, however. All groups, associations, and memberships have hypocrites within their ranks. They are not there for the mission or vision of the organization but for their own purpose to impress others. It may have nothing to do with what an individual church teaches and everything to do with the individuals within the church. It actually may indicate that many churchgoers are not true believers at all or at least not looking to Christ as their primary source of love, identity, meaning, and purpose. 

For a discussion on "cultural Christians" vs true believers click here. 
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¹I distinguish between churchgoers and true followers of Christ not only because we can observe the difference in the values, attitudes, and actions, but also because Christ makes this distinction with the following three teachings.

...by their fruits -- the kind of fruit -- you will know them.

The parable of the wheat and weeds (tares)

Christ declaring he never knew some who had done many works "in his name."

²And when we do conform externally, we become proud and self-righteous, demanding others also conform while "looking down on them" when they don't. When in fact our conformity isn't true obedience from the heart but for show. Self-righteous folks, like anyone else, are still a mess on the inside, self-righteousness itself is an indication. 

Addressing fear II

Taking risks:

To address fear, you have to shift your identity -- who you are; your significance, importance, value -- and base it on God's glory -- our recognizing and displaying His infinite worth -- and His assessment - i.e. your true identity is based first on who God is and then on His assessment of you, not on the assessment of others or even, and sometimes especially, your own self-assessment. 

Who's assessment carries more weight, God or others -- including your own self-assessment? If God is for you, who can be against you?

If your assessment - by the greatest Being in the universe - is such that He made an infinite sacrifice to demonstrate how much He loves (values) you, what does that say of your true worth, vs the opinion of others or even your own? Whose opinion is more accurate and carries greater weight, yours or Gods?

We are designed to live for the honor and glory of God, ¹not to protect ourselves - physically or emotionally, i.e. our purpose is to uphold God's honor, not our own. In so doing, God says he will honor (exalt) us.

"For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” - Jesus, Luk 14:11

"Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted..." – Jesus, Mat 23:12  

In truth, God has already honored us by giving us everything needed to restore us fully to Himself i.e. he has given us his eternally loved Son. 

Our value is also further demonstrated in His empowering us to put on display His worth or value to others. The most important thing we can do is bring to others the most important "thing" - i.e. our greatest worth is demonstrated in bringing an awareness of God and His infinite worth to others. Why? Because there is no one or no thing more significant than God. No one else can give us and others what we need most. He is his own source of life, nothing else is. Everything depends on God. He alone is everlasting. He depends on nothing other than Himself. He is the only self-existent being, the "I AM." And he offers to us that very life that makes Him self-sufficient. 

If our conduct says to others God is most important to us, we, by this very conduct, are saying He is most important to them as well. How we live will either show He is or isn't most important and therefore most worthy (or not worthy when we don't display Him) of the trust and commitment of others, not just our own. 

Knowing that God honors and exalts us when we honor him is the ²hope we are called to. When we take hold of this, there is no longer room for fear. The focus is no longer on ourselves but on Him, where it rightly and truly belongs. 

For more on how our glory is in bringing God glory click here. 
________________________________________Footnotes:

¹I am not saying we don't use common sense and come in out of the rain when it's raining or avoid walking into traffic. I am saying if we are faced with the choice between doing something solely to protect ourselves or to honor God; we are to choose the latter. If we are not acting recklessly, God will protect us. Sometimes He even protects us when we are. 

²Desiring honor is not wrong. From whom do we seek and legitimately, it is our challenge. 

Blessed are the poor in spirit

"Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God."  

Jesus (Matt 5:3)

How many times have we heard that someone "made a decision for Christ" but afterward walked away unchanged?

Are we counting on some apparent decision as the primary reason God should let us into his Kingdom? Or should we look elsewhere? 

Is there a different indicator of true citizenship in the kingdom? 

Should we instead be focused on the disposition that without seeing our desperate need for Christ we have no hope of entrance? 

The former (making a decision) may be something we do in our head but the latter - poor in spirit - is a disposition (attitude) of our heart.

"Poor in spirit" is the first of a list of core teachings of Christ, commonly referred to as "the Beatitudes." 

Some argue the order is important. I agree. Context is always essential and needed for a proper understanding of any passage.

This first beatitude addresses having the kingdom... "theirs ¹is the ²kingdom..." This suggests this first beatitude is not just the starting point but the foundation on which the rest are built. This also indicates nothing else in this list happens unless we possess this foundational disposition first.

What is it to be "poor in spirit"? In a word, humble. It is recognizing all we have to offer God is our need, spiritual poverty, and moral bankruptcy. There is nothing we can do or goodness we can offer that will cause God to receive us into His kingdom. The only thing we can offer God is empty hands in need of Him. 

Recognizing and admitting we have empty hands spiritually and morally is the greatest evidence that we are already participating in the kingdom. But also the most difficult to admit.

If this is the foundation and starting point, we do well to pay closer attention. In fact, we must be careful we have this attitude before we can even consider the rest of Christ's teachings. We must have the kingdom before we can live it out as laid out by the rest of Christ's words.

We also do well to explain the gospel of the kingdom as Christ does, not as the evangelical church often does. What do I mean? Within the church, we usually hear ³faith is the key to entering the kingdom, with no mention of humility. Whereas Christ stresses ³humility but makes no mention of faith - at least not directly as he does humility. A different emphasis, wouldn't you agree? And not an insignificant one.

Though faith and humility are interconnected, we will not turn to Christ in faith without humility first.

According to Christ, without humility, we do not have the kingdom. Possessing the kingdom is the fruit of being poor in spirit. Being poor in spirit is evidence we possess it. The use of "for" indicates a direct connection between humility and possession. This suggests no one will have the kingdom without it. 

Is this only emphasized here? Do we see any indication of this elsewhere? 

In several other places, we are told that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble*.

"But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.' " James 4:6 

"...Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.' ” 1 Peter 5:5 

These and other verses suggest without humility, there is no grace or salvation. 

So the question isn't whether we believe certain facts about God or not. James tells us that devils believe and tremble (Jas 2:19), yet they are still rebels against God. There is a kind of belief that does not include humility.

Do you recognize your desperate condition before God and the only chance of his acceptance is if He provides the solution -- that you are spiritually bankrupt and can only come to God with empty hands morally? Without this recognition, there is no chance of entrance. 

If you do recognize this, Christ says you are blessed and a child of the kingdom. If you do not, you do well to search your heart.

Does humility save us? No, only Christ can. But humility is the greatest indicator of true saving faith. Without it, there is no salvation. 

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¹The only other beatitude that mentions possessing the kingdom is of those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Interestingly, a willingness to be persecuted for doing the right thing also requires humility.

Another verse outside this sermon mentioning possessing the kingdom is...

Matthew 19:14
But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

This verse tells us the kingdom of God also belongs to "such as these" i.e. those who are like little children. What is a quality children possess that adults often do not? Humility. Why? Because children naturally recognize their dependence on those who are more capable than them.

See also, Job 22:29, Isaiah 2:11-12, Isaiah 2:17, Matthew 23:12, Luke 1:52, Luke 14:11, Luke 18:14.

²What is the significance of the kingdom of God? It was Christ's central message and the very 1st thing He mentioned after his test in the wilderness which He also called us to at the outset of his ministry.

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17 ESV

³I'm not saying that faith and humility are mutually exclusive of each other. I'm saying there is no true faith without humility i.e. humility is the greatest evidence of genuine faith. Whereas you can acknowledge and agree with certain things being true but never actually benefit personally from those truths.

We can agree to certain things/truths in our heads but they will never take hold of our hearts without humility.

This was true of me for years and I think it is true of many within the church today.

For a discussion on the difference between grace-driven believers in Christ and cultural Christians click here.