In this message from God's Word, we're going to examine two verses that are very familiar to most who have known Christ for any length of time and have read the Bible. You'll remember from this morning's message in 2 Corinthians, we began to examine the things that motivated the Apostle Paul and Timothy those things which truly moved them and every other Christian to serve God. In that message dealing with 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 11 through 13, we came to see that Paul and Timothy were powerfully moved to serve the Savior by their healthy and spiritual fear of the Lord. Paul related that motive to the Corinthians so that it would serve as a pattern for them to follow. It has served as a pattern for all believers to follow from that day down to this. Paul and Timothy had no trouble with the concept of worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ on one hand and having a horror of disappointing him or disobeying him and thus being subject to his chastening on the other hand. any challenges to contemporary Christians understanding how someone can love and fear an individual simultaneously makes for not only a poor Christian, but also someone who is ill-suited to be a mother or a father. It is sad indeed when a Christian has not the wisdom or understanding of the Christian faith or the knowledge of the one he claims to be his Lord to both love him and fear him. Perhaps this problem in Christendom has become more prevalent because so much wisdom has been lost to feminism. to the breakup of the traditional family unit. And because so many moms and dads are profoundly ignorant of parenting skills that they do not recognize and therefore do not properly train their children so they will grow up both loving mommy and daddy and fearing mommy and daddy's displeasure. Both are healthy. Both are appropriate. Paul and Timothy had no problem with such a nuanced attitude toward their Lord because their motivation was balanced. It is so likely that they learned to honor and fear and to love their parents in the homes they were raised in. As believers, They were then, without conflict or contradiction, they were able to grasp the notion of both fearing God and loving God. Were they motivated by the terror of the Lord? Oh my, yes they were. We saw words to that effect this morning. But that wasn't their only motivation, was it? they were also motivated by the love of Christ. They wanted their readers to come to the same understanding of spiritually balanced motives that they possessed. Therefore, while it is certainly possible for any Christian to discover the balanced terror of the Lord and the love of Christ from their studies of God's word, How much easier are those balanced motives understood and appreciated and embraced when a person is raised by parents who instill both love and fear in their children as they raise them. As I told you this morning, I loved my mom and boy was I scared of crossing her. Oh my goodness. Sadly, The era in which we live sees so many parents who have no grasp of this nuanced relationship. They should both appreciate and cultivate with their children to raise solid and well-adjusted adults. But those same parents are typically also resistant to wise counsel, resistant to scriptural instruction, and resistant to the wonderful example set for them by successful Christian parents in the churches they would do well to attend, but don't attend or don't attend faithfully, and if they do attend regularly, pay little attention to what's going on. Why should parents faithfully attend church services? Well, there are four reasons. This might be a whole sermon in itself. First, they've been directed to do so, Hebrews 10, verse 25. Second, they place themselves and their children under the means of grace. by so doing. Third, they learn to be better moms and dads by exposure to other parents and also to the grandparents in their church. And finally, they situate their children where their youngsters will learn how to behave by emulating other children. starting in the nursery, and then in Sunday school class, and then in the auditorium. I love having, at our church, there comes a point in time in our church when I get the kids, I get them, they're mine, on Sunday nights, they're mine. And I get them away from their helicopter moms, who are always sitting behind them and hovering over them. Every time the kid does something, And I just tell the moms, would you leave them to me? Leave them to me. I don't want your son hiding behind you by sitting next to you. I don't want your daughter hiding behind you by sitting next to you. I want them right there where I can look them in the eye. And it's just me and them. And if I can preach well enough, pray well enough, hard enough, long enough, soon that youngster, that boy or that girl, they lose themselves in the sermon. And as far as they're concerned, it's only me and the preacher and the auditorium. And I got them. I got them. And so they learn from that. They develop a relationship with the preacher and I deal with them. I remember one time, and I'm chasing a rabbit now, you understand. I remember one time there was a boy sitting here and I'd known this boy since he was born. I had a great relationship with him. I'm usually the guy that teaches the little kids how to shake hands. Know the other hand, know the other hand, know the other hand. And this boy would look at me and then he was doing something. And as I'm preaching, I'm looking at him. as I'm preaching. And then he would look at me and he would do it again. And finally I said, boy, you watch me while I'm preaching. I'm the most important thing going on here this evening. There was a woman who stood up. Well, I never, this is ridiculous. I'm not going to put up with this. And she stomped out. But over there, there was a guy with a three foot long ponytail. and his diamond stud in for church that night. First time he'd ever been to church in many, many years. And he had his two sons. Each of them had about two foot long ponytails. And when I did that to that boy, that guy told me later, he's our head usher now. He told me, this is where we're going to church. This is where we're going to church. And another one of our ushers, I did the same thing a couple of years later, but I don't do it with kids that I don't know very, very well and have a great relationship with their parents. And I know that their parents want me to do that so that they can develop relationships with adults other than just their mom and dad. Well, back to the motivation to serve God, especially the motivation of love for God and for Christ. Ask yourself if you are motivated by the love of Christ to serve the true and living God. You may think you are so motivated, but there is an important consideration before you can properly conclude that you are so motivated. You are not motivated by the love of Christ to serve the true and living God unless you actually do serve the true and living God, apart from your feelings about the matter. Well, I think I would, I think I could, I think I should, but I don't. Well, then it's not the love of Christ that motivates you because you don't have it. If you had the love of Christ, you would. Not should, not could, you would. And through the course of this message, my prayer is that you will not only be able to hear me well enough to understand what I'm saying, I so regret this. You don't know how sorry I feel for you right now. Oh, this is a catastrophe. Well, God knows. God knows. But I hope in addition to that, you will discover yourself. for yourself, whether or not you are motivated to serve Christ by the love of Christ. Remembering that the terror of the Lord produced a certain kind of behavior in the life of a Christian, let us also note that the love of Christ produces what the love of Christ produces in that same believer's life. Turn, if you would, to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. verses 14 through 17. And once there, I invite you to stand and read along with me. And I'm so glad that Pastor Kuhlman is my friend, because he's going to come and read the passage for me, good and loud, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 14 through 17. And I'm going to watch him read that passage with delight. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14, For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then we are all dead. And that he died for all, that they which follow him should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore, henceforth, know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Thank you. Please be seated. Isn't it wonderful what a young preacher can do? and the size of his Bible font is like six. It's microscopic. I could never read that. I'm sure that you recognize both the 14th and the 17th verses as being quite familiar to many Christians. What I trust God will enable us to accomplish at this time is a right understanding of how both of these truths, as well as the verses they bracket in our text, should affect and influence the Christian's life, your life, as they affected Paul and Timothy's life. The theme of the passage is obviously the love of Christ. But what does the love of Christ do? What does it accomplish? It's not just a thing. It does something. What does the love of Christ accomplish? What is the practical result in the Christian's life of the love of Christ? There are two things the love of Christ accomplished in the lives of Paul and Timothy, many more than that, but there's two that I want to focus on tonight, and the other Christians in Paul's ministry team. First, the love of Christ affects the Christian's behavior. Paul begins in verse 14, for the love of Christ constraineth us. Us, of course, referring to Paul's ministry team. This is not all Christians, because you and I know people who profess to be Christians, and it's very clear from their lifestyle, the love of Christ constrains them to do nothing. Okay, the us here is Paul, Timothy, and their ministry team. And hopefully the readers of this letter recognize that the word constraineth means to hold together, to bind together. Let us ponder this notion of being held together in the ministry by the incredible love of Christ referred to here. It's quite obvious that Paul does not specifically detail in what ways they were constrained by the love of Christ or kept from unraveling by the love of Christ, but we can agree on what Paul is referring to. First, let us agree about what Paul is not referring to. Remembering that Paul and Timothy, or what Paul and Timothy endured for the cause of Christ, it should not be at all that difficult to appreciate what the lost person would do, what the person who did not experience the effects of the love of Christ would do if he went through what those two servants of God went through. Would it be stretching things to maintain that Paul and his colleagues were probably preserved from nervous breakdowns by the love of Christ? Preserved from discouragements that led them to them giving up and dropping out? How about preserved from frustrations that would lead a lost person or an unspiritual saved person to sometimes wild spending sprees, periods of childish irresponsibility, episodes of testimony destroying behavior? I think we can all agree that the love of Christ on the negative side of the ledger, while never sparing Paul and his men any of the pains, heartaches, and disappointments we have all experienced, and more besides, those things did keep Paul, the love of Christ did keep Paul and company from completely unraveling like so many do. who are not constrained by the love of Christ. Positively, let us agree what Paul is referring to. The love of Christ not only kept Paul and Timothy and the others from doing things that were bad or wrong or harmful, but they were also constrained to continue doing and being those things which were positive and beneficial and productive in their Christian life. But for the love of Christ, Paul and the others would not have continued serving God. They would not have continued bringing souls to Christ when he despaired even of life. Remember 2 Corinthians 1, verse 8, there was a time when the apostle Paul wished he were dead. But did he stop? No. Why? The love of Christ. When others, when they wish they were dead, they kill themselves. Or when they wish they were dead, they stay at home, and they mope, and they moan, and they feel sorry for themselves, and their productivity approaches zero. But for the love of Christ, he and Silas would have simply sat in their jail cell and moaned in the Philippian jail instead of faithfully representing Christ and bringing the Philippian jailer to Christ, Acts chapter 16 verses 30 through 34. That was the love of Christ that produced that. In short, in so many ways so obvious to his readers that he feels no need to illustrate or cite examples, Paul and company were constrained, were literally held together and kept from unraveling by the love of Christ. Obviously, the love of Christ had a powerful impact on their behavior. So that gives rise to a question. Does the love of Christ have a powerful impact on your conduct? I trust that the love of Christ is shown to dynamically influence your conduct as it should. Does the love of Christ affect your conduct with respect to evangelism? with respect to witnessing, with respect to giving to missions, with respect to praying, that's a question that you ought to consider. As you reflect on these matters, keep in mind that Paul does not refer to himself in isolation in this regard. He's not a loner here. but reveals this dynamic of the love of Christ to be at work in his life, along with others' lives, is something we Americans frequently do not appreciate. We are the Lone Ranger culture. We are the Marlboro Man culture. We are the isolated individuals of the world. No other culture on the planet has ever been like we are. Isolated individuals. who are considerably disconnected from family, from clan, from tribe, from ethnic group in ways that does not exist anywhere else in the world. Dunne, the poet Dunne, once said, no man is an island. Well, he should have come to the United States. Because in the United States, most of us consider ourselves to be islands. So this is a, we understand, this is a group thing, beloved. The love of Christ works so much more with groups than with isolated individuals because we encourage and exhort and bless each other. And this is so much more the case in other cultures than it is among Western Christians. And we need to realize this because of our cultural commitment to individuality is, with regard to the Christian life, a tremendous handicap. It is a tremendous handicap. Then we see that the love of Christ affects the Christian's belief. I urge you to pay very careful attention to the fact that Paul refers to his and Timothy's beliefs and not their observations. The reason for this is because what we're about to see came not to Paul by observation, but by revelation. He was able to judge the things he writes, not as a result of normal thought processes, but as God communicated truth to him by revelation. Notice how God's truth determined what Paul and Timothy believed about Christians. In the last half of verse 14, we see Paul's belief concerning the believer's past. Because we thus judge, and this was judgment given to him by God, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. Have you ever given thought to what Paul writes here? It's amazing. He told the Corinthians that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, because that is exactly where one died for all, Everyone died with him. I say this because although the final word is the word dead, which is a noun in English, the Greek word is the aorist verb of having died. Having died. Thus, literally, it is that if one died for all, then all died. That is Paul's declaration. That is the Apostle Paul's inspired conclusion. So how is this to be understood? Paul informs each Christian reader that your personal history as a sinful person in the sight of God ended the moment Jesus Christ offered himself a ransom for your sin. So far as God is concerned then, the person you were when you were conceived a sinner in your mother's womb died when Jesus Christ died for you on Calvary's cross. Now does that seem hard to believe? Consider some other passages penned by Paul to see if they agree with what we understand is meant here. I read to you Galatians chapter 2 verse 20. Paul wrote, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. How about Romans chapter 6, verses 6 through 11? Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, Reckon you, this is an accounting term, mark it down, bookkeeper, this is the way it is. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Put that in your pipe and smoke it sometime. And I'm joking, I'm not suggesting that you smoke a pipe. Romans, I'm a southerner, we have southern colloquialisms. Romans chapter seven, verses one through four. Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Verse 4, Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. That's profound. Here's what Paul believed about his past and about the personal past history of every Christian, something that more than one of you here probably needs to realize. You don't have a past as far as God is concerned. From the moment you trusted Christ, you started from scratch. That is your past. Thus the baggage from your past that you lug around like a backpack and use as justification for feeling sorry for yourself and I can't do that and I could never do that and this, no. That's completely unnecessary according to the Bible. Therefore, excuse me, just let it go. Amen? Just let it go. But it's not just the believer's past that Paul had from God's revelation of truth to him. It's the believer's present as well. back in our text, verse 15, and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore, henceforth, know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. All things are passed away. The plan is outlined in verse 15. And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. So here's the plan. When Jesus Christ died, Christian, you died to sin. Of course, this only applies to those who've trusted Christ as their Savior. But for believers, the retroactive benefit is that when Jesus Christ died, you died to sin. but it doesn't end there. You were given the gift of eternal life when you were saved. And the reason you were given life in Christ at the time of your death to sin was so you could live your new life, not for yourself as you did in the past, but from now forward for Christ. It reads, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, which is utter selfishness, excuse me for interrupting, but unto him which died for them and rose again. That's the plan for your present life, Christian. And it's a plan that was actually lived out by the grace of God in the life of the Apostle Paul. The practice is shown in verse 16. Wherefore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. The term flesh is used by Paul to refer to all that is natural in a person. It's your natural desires, your natural longings, as well as your individual personality and emotional makeup. Well, I'm sorry that I lose my temper. That's just the way the people in my clan are. That's too bad if you got saved. Amen? That's just baggage. Leave it. Walk away from it. It includes the sum total of everything you are as a result of the information that you have gathered through your five senses. It is you unaffected and uninfluenced by God or the things of God. Notice what Paul declares with reference to the flesh then. He no longer looked at others through the eyes of the flesh. He made no evaluation of others based on their social standing. Based on their income. based on their education, based on their race, or based on their culture. The only thing about other people that Paul thought had any importance at all was a person's spiritual condition. That's all that matters. Is he saved or is he lost? Does she act like she's saved or does she act like she's lost? And what about Christ? Same thing. He no longer evaluated Christ with respect to the things of the flesh, did he? Was Christ a great author? No. Was he highly educated? No. Was he a successful entrepreneur? No. Was he highly thought of by his own people in his own country? No. Evaluating Christ through the eyes of flesh will result in every lost person staying lost. However, when you look at Christ through the eyes of faith, when you examine Him in light of things that are truly important, eternal values, you will see that He is the altogether lovely Son of God, the Savior of sinful men's souls. In the present then, God's plan is for you to live for Christ, not for yourself. Well, you know, I have a job and I got to work on Sundays. What should I do? Quit. Get another J-O-B. It's really pretty simple. I used to be a satellite design engineer, Hughes Aircraft Company. And when they hired me, the understanding was that I, as a salaried member of the technical staff, I'm going to work anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances that the program needs me. And then I came to Christ and I went to my boss and said, Hey Dean, I'm not going to be working Sundays anymore. What do you mean you're not working on Sundays? You're a salaried employee. You have to work whenever it's necessary. I said, well, that was before. He said, before what? I said, before I became a Christian. He said, hold it. You agreed. I said, that was another guy. I'm a new guy. He said, do you think it's right that somebody should have to have to work for you on Sunday morning so you can go to church? I said, I'll work for them Saturday night so they can get drunk. They work for me on Sunday morning so I can go to church. That's the deal. He said, well, I just don't think it's right. And I don't, I don't know about your future. I said, excuse me, Dean. I was looking for a job when I got here. I was looking for a job when I got here. So if you put that plan into practice, you will stop evaluating people. And by the way, pastor, you and I have not had a conversation about this. I have no idea about what your job situation is. Okay. I'm profoundly ignorant. If you put that plan into practice, you will stop evaluating people according to different standards, and you will begin to ask this one question, is he saved or is he lost? Does she act saved or does she act lost? Oh, by the way, do I act saved or do I act lost? The principle underlying both the plan and the practice mentioned in verses 15 and 16 is found in verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. This verse is what's called a classic first-class conditional sentence for those of you who are schoolteachers. Paul is strongly affirming some profound truths that are true if the first phrase or the condition is true. Are you in Christ? By the way, that's all that matters. That's all that matters. You are in Christ if you've trusted Christ as your personal Savior to the saving of your sinful soul. Does the phrase, any man, apply to you? Yes, and it's referring to women, of course, it's talking about any human being, any individual. and it applies if you have trusted Christ. So this is a blanket principle that applies to every member of the human race who knows Christ as Savior. You can be dead to sin because of your past, according to verse 14. And you can live for Christ instead of for yourself according to the plan of verse 15. And you can relate to everything and everyone differently according to the practice of verse 16. Why? Because of three interconnected truths. First, because you are in Christ and you are a new creature. God did not renovate you. The Spirit of God regenerated you. Neither did He reform you. The Spirit gave you faith to give you Christ. He started from scratch and made a new you. You have the same old body and the same behavior and personality patterns because of things that are stored in that part of your body called a brain. But in God's own time, you're going to heaven. and you'll get a new one of those as well. That said, understand this. When you trusted Christ, your wife got a new husband. When you were saved, your husband got a new wife. When you came to faith in Christ, your children got a new daddy and a new mommy. Second, because you're in Christ, all things are passed away. You think you need a smoke? You think you need a drink? You think you need a line? Do you think you need to do or think any of the things you did or thought when you were unsaved? Don't believe your five senses. They are not trustworthy with respect to spiritual issues. Do not listen to your body when it screams, I need to commit sin like I did in the old days. No, you don't. That's a lie. That's not true. If you have to choose between believing what your body screams at you and what God tells you about your so-called need to commit sin, believe God, do not believe your five senses, and do not believe the cries of your body. Third, because you are in Christ, all things are become new. Not all things can become new. That's the junk of the Schofield reference Bible, which you probably should ashcan as quickly as you can. Excuse me, I just feel like I had to say it. All things are become new. Not all things will become new. It reads all things are become new. All things have become new for the Christian. Now how many of you folks understand that what you believe determines how you behave? Verses 14 through 17 teach that very thing. What you believe determines how you behave. And if you behave wrongly, it's because you believe wrongly. All right? I'm not talking perfectionism. All right? I'm talking progressive sanctification, which is biblical. In the first part of verse 14 to review, Paul told us how he and Timothy behaved. They were held together by the love of Christ. Then, in the second part of verse 14 through 17, Paul told us what they believed. He and Timothy believed that when you're saved, you become dead to sin. When you're saved, God's plan is for you to live for Christ, not live for yourself. When you're saved, your whole way of looking at your fellow man and at Christ changes. They believe that all of this is because when you are saved, you really do become a brand new creation of God. Assuming you know Christ then, if you believe the things found in verses 14 through 17, if you really believe these things, then you also know how much Christ uses us more collectively than some people want to admit. I don't much believe in church. I like to worship God by myself out on the mountaintop. Fool, you need to get saved. You just need to get saved, okay? And Christ uses us collectively as a channel through which he expresses his love to others to offer them such a wonderful salvation as we enjoy, complete with its fresh start at living. Didn't you need a fresh start when you came to Christ? I certainly did. I needed to start all over because my life was toast when I came to Christ. Because Paul and Timothy realized how much Christ loves through us to those who are as yet unsaved. so that we can minister to them such a salvation that they returned Christ's love. They lived out what the Apostle John wrote in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 19 and 1 John chapter 5 verse 3 which read, because he first loved us. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. It's not grievous to go to church. It's not grievous to read the Bible. It's not grievous to pray. It's not grievous to give. It's the nature of God to give and God's children behave like God does in certain respects. He's a giving God. We become giving people. and people who think witnessing is grievous? It's not grievous. It's not grievous to those of us who know the Savior. Because Christ first loved them and showed it by so marvelously saving them, Paul and Timothy showed their love for Christ in return by living the life described in our text for this evening. In essence, Paul and Timothy so believed that Jesus Christ loved them that they loved Jesus in return and showed it by how they lived their life for him as a demonstration of love. What a powerful motivational force love, real love, can be in any believer's life. As it was in Paul and Timothy's lives, so should it be in our lives as well. However, However, love all by itself is not sufficient to motivate Christians to live a consistent life. Witness the proponents, if you will, of love and only love in these various Christian circles, and you'll see that this bears out. To live a consistent Christian life, your motives need to be balanced. Are your motives to serve the Savior balanced? We saw this morning that the terror of the Lord produced obedience in the lives of Paul and Timothy. And the terror of the Lord produces obedience in everyone's life for a while, for a while. But the terror of the Lord as a motive all by itself can only motivate so long. In the end, it produces Christians who talk about the fear of God, but who don't really serve God. How about love as a motivating factor in believers' lives? Have you taken stock of the various shades of Christianity that are found in Southern California, which espouse a love and only love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? How effective is love all by itself as a motive to serve God doesn't appear to be very powerful for very long, does it? The crowd that preaches love and only love for God and Christ is the same crowd that refuses to separate from sin and ungodliness. It's the same crowd that shows no concern for doctrinal purity. It's the same crowd that thinks it's perfectly acceptable to run with liberals and modernists as long as everybody says, praise God, hallelujah, and does this with their hands. If you take the truth of my previous message on the terror of the Lord by itself, you have an unbalanced motive to serve God. But if you take this evening's message all by itself, you still have an unbalanced motive to serve God, to serve Christ as he deserves to be served. to worship him in spirit and in truth, to properly honor and glorify him with a consistent Christian life. There must be a proper and balanced understanding that appreciates both the terror of the Lord and the love of Christ. They are complementary. They are not exclusive of each other. Without that balance, you'll tend to be either a legalist who always raves about fearing God, but who is not spiritual and whose life does not glorify God, or you'll be a libertine who always raves about the love of God, but who is not spiritual and whose life does not glorify God. Let's appreciate not only those attributes of God's character that we like, and those attributes of his character that we feel comfortable with, but those aspects of his nature also which our flesh balks at. If we take that balanced and scriptural approach, we'll be a great deal more like Paul, and Timothy, and in doing so will be a great deal more like Christ. And what were Paul and Timothy like precisely? Well, were they not fervent witnesses for Christ? Were they not church planting missionaries? Did they not live life to fulfill the great commission of the Lord Jesus Christ, establishing and urging others to help them establish churches? That's called missions. my friends, whether it is witnessing, inviting, participating in evangelism here at home, in our Jerusalem, in our Judea, in our Samaria, or praying for and given to missions, the motives are two, the fear of the Lord and the love of Christ. Are you a non-participant when it comes to outreach? I don't know. We haven't had the conversation. Are you an evangelism no-show? Do you not give to and pray for your missionaries? Then you are not properly motivated. Because if you were properly motivated, you would. And if you don't, it's because you're not properly motivated. Notice, I'm not telling you a tearful story to produce an emotional response. I'm not attempting to manipulate anybody. Neither am I exerting manipulative coercion in an attempt to persuade you what you do not want to do. I'm simply, I'm like Joe Friday. Just the facts, ma'am. Just the facts. Okay. I'm setting before you the truth of God's Word regarding the fear of the Lord and the love of Christ as scriptural components of a proper and balanced set of motives to serve God as a spiritual Christian. If you live right and do God's blessed will, you show your fear of the Lord and the love of Christ that constrains you. However, if you are a non-giving no-show, you display to both men and angels that you do not fear Lord on one hand, neither do you love Christ on the other hand. Case closed. Let's pray.