"Attribute Five - A Believer Integrates Motive"

Attribute Five – A Believer Integrates Motive

As we continue our path to discovering what it means to be a true Christian, we are discussing the attributes of a believer. And of course – we look at our model man, who is Jesus Christ. And as promised each time, I said we’d look at something that he told us to do, and something that he did as an establishment of an attribute.

The first one is actually from Matthew 5:20. The lead into the great Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “For I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes in Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus here in this great Sermon on the Mount – just accentuates the point that really, he is not looking for behavior modification, he is looking for the motives out of which those behaviors come. And he’s going to teach us through many chapters in Matthew that God is looking for something different than the scribes and Pharisees thought. He’s not just looking for actions; he’s looking for attitudes and our motives as well.

And then Philippians 2:5-7 reads, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” There we see Jesus’s motives and know that his motives were pure from the moment that he stepped on earth, to the moment that he was raised to life again.

Listen, a true believer integrates motives. He is aware that his motives are easily swayed by both internal/external and positive/negative forces that attempt to satisfy his desires. Therefore, he must be aware of the battle by directing his desire toward God. It is easy for a Christian to pretend, and to appear purely motivated while living with a selfish motive. This is where the authentic believer should give attention to his motive and align it with God’s desires so that his actions are only a response to God’s glory, and nothing more.

Listen, I think this is a really tough one to accomplish because I don’t know that we always have a pure motive. At times our hearts are so wayward and so overcome with sin that we constantly are directing our heart towards sin rather than directing our heart toward God. 

But because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have the power to redirect our heart toward God and purify our motives. (can I get an amen)

Listen, I can tell you at any point in the day, I know for sure that my motives are swayed back and forth between Godly desires and selfish desires, and I would assume that you’re the same way. It’s a process in life of constantly redirecting our motives toward God, to remaining connected to the vine. To find our nutrients in him, so that we can produce growth. But it all begins with the integration of the motive.

Today I want to look at a section of scripture from the Sermon on the Mount, about giving actually. It’s about giving tithes and offerings. And while I am sure you are going to see the money thing attached here, I want you to dig deeper than the money thing. I want you to dig deeper because I think Jesus Christ is digging deeper. So listen to Jesus’ words about giving and tithing and sharing with God from a pure motive. Jesus says this, Matthew 6:1-4.

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward u.

Now there are all kinds of really rich content in this text. But what I want us to see is what Jesus is trying to teach Christians… and that is pure motive is what God is really after in everything that we do. Not just in our giving, but then how we practice our religion before other people. He just happens to be using giving as a way to demonstrate or illustrate the true heart’s motive. Here are 5 ways to ensure that there is correct motive in your life. 

#1 – We must give attention to our motives. I love the way Jesus starts this text here. He says, “Beware.” The first word here, “beware,” could be translated as to give attention to, or to concentrate on. I really do believe that this is the first step towards cleansing our motives; to checking their purity. It begins with asking yourself a simple question, “Why am I about to do this thing?” Whatever it is, fill in the blank.

And I believe that we all miss opportunities to check our motivation, to check it at the door. Therefore, we have to give attention to it. We have to reflect on it. We have to give time to think about it. We can’t just go throughout our day with unchecked motives. We can’t become a true believer of God by just going through our day, through the motions, the actions, and the behaviors without actually giving attention to our motives. So that is what we need to do first. 

#2 – We must aim the act. Now while most of our actions are done in public, the aim is not publicity. Did you hear that? While we may do acts in public, the aim is not the publicity of the act. Really, when it comes to motives, the only audience is God and his glory. We do everything for his glory, and no other reason. At the very moment you’re aiming the act at its publicity – you must ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?” 

#3 – Watch the reward. Listen, you know there is no reward for right doing. I just want you to know that. There is only punishment for our wrongdoing. That is how we got into this situation in the first place. There is no reward for you doing anything right. Nothing. There is only punishment for your wrongdoing. 

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Therefore, there is no reward for right doing. The only reward we get is the punishment for wrongdoing.

Here’s another way to think about it. We can simply remove the reward for right doing, and the punishment for wrongdoing – and underneath there lies the truth of our motives. In the occasion that some form of earthly reward tempts us – we have to caution ourselves to not be lured in by it because we are a fully sinful people, right? Fully sinful people adopted by God. And it is his righteousness that he has graciously given us. We are only right and rewarded for right by God’s grace, not by anything we do.

Therefore, we can watch our rewards. At the moment we feel that sense of reward, that is the moment we are probably being swayed in our motives to shift from God’s glory, toward self-glory. And that is the moment that we are cautiously aimed at self, and therefore wrong in our motive.

Number 1 – give attention to your motives. Number 2 – aim the act. Number 3 – watch the reward.

#4 – Stop pretending. I think Jesus is blatantly obvious in this text. He tells us to stop pretending, to stop acting – to stop being hypocritical, putting on a show. You know who puts on a show? Actors put on a show. That’s what they do. But not the Christian believer. And you know why?

Listen, the Christian man should never pretend because at the deepest level he should be integrated and live with integrity. This requires integration, not only between what you say out of your mouth and what you do with your life – but between your motive and what you say and do. That is a deeper level of integration. A deeper level of integrity. Not just what you say and do. That’s one level of hypocrisy. But between what your motives are, and what you say and do. That is a whole other level of acting. Let’s call it pretending or being the inauthentic believer.

And anything less than that, and you’re simply putting on an act. And if you want the praise of men, well you’ll be rewarded by the praise of men – and nothing more. If you seek the praise of men, Jesus says – well then that is your reward. You have already received it, and you have deferred the eternal rewards.

# 5 is the killer one, by Jesus. Number 5 is this. Become so aware of God that you’re actually unaware of the act.
Jesus says here, “To not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” That’s kind of a weird illustration if you really think of it. At what point does your left hand not know what its right hand is doing? Well, it doesn’t know at the moment it becomes an unconscious behavior. When you do something so naturally and out of such purity of heart, that you become non-cognizant of the action – is the moment at which your left-hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

You ever have one of those moments when you’re driving down the freeway, and all of a sudden you forget about all the freeway time that you’ve just spent, and how far you have driven? You ever have one of those moments when you’re like so deep in thought, that you’re driving and you’re not even sure how exactly you got home?

That is the moment that you became non-cognizant of a behavior. And I believe that Jesus Christ here is teaching us that our motives become so synonymous with God’s motives, that we desire Him and nothing more. That we become almost unconscious of our actions. And the reason that we do it because we’re so seeking the glory of God.

Listen family, that is where I believe purity of our motive lives, and it is in that moment – the moment that we become so aware of God, that we are unaware of the act, and even ourselves. That we are purely and totally motivated to accomplish, for God’s purposes – and not our own.