“For the Love of Christ Constraineth Us”
Melissa Bresnahan
Midland SDA Church
May 9, 2015
Introduction: Good morning church and happy Sabbath! It is truly an honor to be here before you today. As many of you already know, I am a teacher, not a preacher. Still, I am reminded of the verses in Luke 22 in which Jesus is talking His disciples because of a disagreement they were having amongst themselves. In this conversation with His disciples, He says to Simon Peter, (Read Luke 22:31-32). Peter was not a preacher either, but was a mere fisherman before He met Jesus. By the end of his life, he had witnessed to thousands of people for his faith and late died a martyr’s death, as alluded to in John 21:18. I trust in God’s word that He is praying for me that my faith fail not and I recognize the calling that God has put on my life, that when I am converted, I am to strengthen my brethren.
Let us pray:
Dear Heavenly Father,
We come before You LORD and thank You that You are a patient God who suffers long with us. Though we do not deserve it, we can trust and know that we have an Advocate in Heaven, Jesus Christ the righteous, who pleads most eloquently on our behalf. Thank You LORD that even when we are so reluctant to pray, Jesus prays for us that our faith may not fail and that Satan may not get the upper hand. I pray that this message on this Sabbath day that you have prepared will strengthen the souls of those here. O LORD, as you have called me to strengthen my brethren, give me strength and courage and joy. O LORD, speak Your words through me that the message You have so strongly impressed upon my heart and that has had such a profound impact on my soul may do the same and more so for all listening.
LORD I pray that You would forgive me for resisting the promptings of Your Holy Spirit and that You would, LORD, work not because of me, but in spite of me. LORD, I am merely an earthen vessel, and I pray LORD that my fallibility would not eclipse the light of Your great love for each person here. Rather, LORD, I pray that You would fill me with Your Holy Spirit and Your love that all who are here may not see and hear me, but see Jesus and hear His words speaking to their souls. LORD, I come before YOU and choose to trust You when You say, “I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.” (Exodus 4:12). May this message that has changed me change all those who are sitting here today, I pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Message:
Turn with me in your Bibles to Romans 7. Perhaps some of you are aware that Romans 7 is where Paul seems to be at his weakest. I like to call this, Paul’s lamentation. Here we have Paul lamenting in utter shame at his sinfulness. Now, I am going to be starting at verse 12 in Romans chapter 7, just so we get a little context. In Romans 7 verse 12, he writes (Read verse 12), which hardly seems like a lamentation, but then he begins to compare that to himself, saying in verse 14, (read 14). He goes on to say, (read verse 15). Basically, Paul here is telling us that all those things he knows are bad and which he even hates to do, he still somehow continues to do these, while those things that he knows are good and that he even enjoys to do, he finds himself not doing. Continuing into verse 17, he says (read verses 17-24 with emotion). Can anyone here emphasize with Paul? How many of us can relate to that? How many of us can feel this war within ourselves of wanting to be holy, just, and good, but finding that there is something else in us that seems to prevent it? How many of us, like Paul here, have felt as a captive, as a prisoner to our bad habits?
I will confess to you that I have had this experience MANY times. I commit some sin (that particular sin) and feel awful about it, I confess my sin and tell the LORD that I am NEVER going to sin THAT SIN anymore. The next day, I commit the same sin AGAIN. That night, I come to the LORD in tears and weeping, saying, “LORD, I hate this sin. I don’t want to ever do it again. I hate it and WILL NEVER do it again. And the next day, sometimes even less than an hour after I get up, I commit the same sins again. Can anyone relate to my experience or am I the only struggling sinner?
Perhaps its watching the wrong kinds of TV shows, or listening to the wrong kind of music that leads our thoughts away from God. Perhaps its procrastination or habitual lying. Perhaps its overeating; perhaps its overworking. Perhaps its anger or impatience or even hatred towards another. Perhaps it is gossiping or complaining. Perhaps it is a sin so bad, that it cannot not even be mentioned here. Whatever it is, it’s all transgression against God’s law and its almost as if the devil is laughing at us.
I want you guys to picture something for me. I want you to imagine the strongest arm wrestler in the world. Not that I imagine that have international arm wrestling tournaments, but if they did, picture what the strongest arm wrestler would look like. Imagine a guy with big muscles that can bench over 1,000 pounds, and deadlift that much too. Now imagine that this same guy, competes in an international arm wrestling tournament and loses his first round. He might think to himself, “Well, maybe I’m just nervous, or maybe I wasn’t warmed up enough”, or simply, “I’ll get them next time.” Now imagine that in the next round he loses. How do you think he’s going to feel? The strongest arm wrestler in the world, losing two rounds in a row. How do you think he would feel if he lost ten rounds in a row? How do you think he would feel if he lost 100 rounds in a row? I will tell you, no matter how strong and how confident, he is going to be discouraged; and the more he loses, the more discouraged he will get.
Our spiritual life is no different. If we keep losing the battle again sin day in and day out, no matter how brave, or knowledge, or strong we are, we will always become discouraged. I have come to the LORD in tears saying, “LORD, what am I doing wrong? Why can I not see victory in this area of my life? Sometimes, I have been so discouraged as to ask the LORD, “LORD, have I even truly repented or am I only fooling myself with my tears.” I wasn’t until I came across this verses that it really got me thinking. (read 2 Corinthians 5:14-15). Now I want to hone in on the first portion of verse 14, “for the love of Christ constraineth us.” What does it mean to constrain? What do you think of when you hear that word? To constrain means to prevent, to severely restrict. Think of a boa conSTRICTor.
Not that I have ever been held in the clutches of a boa constrictor, but they sure know how to keep you in place if they want. They wrap themselves around you as tight as they can, and even when you breathe out and your lungs deflate, they tighten their grip on you before you can even take in your next breath. You can’t even breath let alone move. Not that this is the most pleasant picture, but it gives us a greater depth of what it means to constrain, and we are told here in 2 Corinthians 5:14 that it is THE LOVE OF CHRIST that constrains us, that constricts us like a boa constrictor.
When I actually read and considered this verse, my first reaction was, “Wow, LORD, CLEARLY I don’t know Your love well enough, or else it would be constraining me, preventing me, constricting me like a boa constrictor, from committing sin. This is what I want to get at this morning.
Turn in your Bibles to John 14:15, John 14:15. Jesus tells us in John 14:15, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” In our song of adoration, we sang about the love we have for Jesus. The words read, O How I Love Jesus, O How I Love Jesus, O How I Love Jesus, because …. (wait for responses?)… because He first loved me. Jesus even alludes to this idea in John 15:9-10 when He says, (Read John 15:9-10). Going back to John 14:15, He says, “If you love Me, then keep My commandments.
Brothers and sisters, there are many of us here, and myself included, that have at times tried to keep God’s commandments without loving God first. We have other reasons for trying to keep His commandments, whether it’s because we know it’s the RIGHT thing to do, or because it’s what OTHER people do, or because it’s what others TELL us to do, or maybe it’s even because we just want to go to heaven and we know this is what we need to do to get there. But, can these reasons really keep up from sinning? When the time of trouble comes, will the motivation of, “My mom says I should,” be enough to stay us? When we can no longer buy or sell, when friends abandon us, and all the world wonders after the beast, will doing only what is POPULAR keep us in God’s law or will we be one of the many to openly reject it?
Let’s turn to 1 John 5:3, that’s 1 John 5:3. In 1 John 5:3, John is giving us a VERY important definition that we would do well to remember. He says here in 1 John 5:3, (read 1 John 5:3). Brothers and sisters, how many of you have ever found the commandments to be GREVIOUS? I would I would dare say that there are MANY of us in the church that HATE God’s commandments even more than non-Christians do. Why? Because we are trying to do God’s will and HIS job in OUR OWN strength and OUR OWN might. Brothers and sisters, praise God for that promise in John 14:15, “If you love me, THEN YOU WILL keep My commandments.” Amen. Love is the root and commandment keeping is the fruit.
Now let’s look again at 1 John 5:3 (read 1 John 5:3). Here God gives us a definition for the love of God. Now, my students already know that aside from studying the Bible, math is my favorite subject and I am indeed a math person, so I am going to lay it out for you this way. I will encourage all of you to write this down if you have a pen or pencil nearby. In 1 John 5:3 is reads (read 1 John 5:3). If A= the love of God and B=keeping His commandments, which are NOT GREVIOUS, then this verse is saying A=B, that the love of God equals keeping His commandments, NOT GREVIOUSLY. Now, let’s turn to 1 John 2:3. In 1 John 2:3, it reads, (read 1 John 2:3). Okay, so let’s set this verse up the same way. We already labeled keeping His commandments as B and A as the love of God. So let’s now label “knowing Him” as C. Looking again at 1 John 2:3, it says, (read 1 John 2:3). So this verse is telling us that C=B.
Now, brothers and sisters, let’s do some math here. I hope you wrote down your formulas. Recall from middle school or high school or EVEN college math classes where your teacher talked about the transitive property, which say that if A=B and B=C, then….(wait for answer)… A=C. Looking back at our formulas that we got from our two Bible verses, we can conclude that A=C, that is to say that, to know God is to love Him and this is seen in keeping His commandments (NOT GREVIOUSLY).
Let’s have the Bible confirm itself. Don’t take my math skills and my word, for God promises in Jeremiah 17:5, “CURSED by the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm.” Let us not so course ourselves as to trust in someone who is, like us all, erring and sinful. Rather, let’s obtain the blessing we came for by trusting God at His word, for He promises in Jeremiah 17:7 that, “BLESSED is the man that trust in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. Let’s turn to John 14:21-23 a BEAUTIFUL verse, John 14:21-23. You probably are beginning to notice by now that we have been reading a majority of verses penned by John. Then again, this is the same John that wrote the words we sung earlier, “Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the sons of God. Needless to say, he spends a lot of time on the concept and idea of the love of God. Looking at John 14:21-23, it reads, (Read John 14:21-23).
Think about it. When Adam, KNEW Eve as the Bible tells it, what did he do? They had an experience of intimate love together. They had the kind of relationship that husbands and wives have with one another. God wants to have intimate love with us too, after all, Isaiah 54:5 tells us, “Thy Maker is thine husband. It’s loving God, not ONLY as a wonderful concept, but it is giving God your whole heart, soul, and mind that you might experience His love more fully and thus, in turn, love Him more deeply.
Our motivation to do what is right as God commands can only come from seeing God and EXPERIENCING His great love for us personally. Brother and sisters, if we are motivated by any other factor, it will NOT be lasting. Whether it is one day, one week, one month, one year, or even on decade, eventually we will drop our “commandment keeping.” It is often in times of great distress that we will finally let go, because we deem that to keep the commandments of God is just not worth the suffering. ALL because we have not EXPERIENCED the love of God for ourselves, so as to constrain us. Think about Jesus, the great torture and humiliation He went through day in and day out. Despised and rejected by the very ones He was trying to save, lonely and filled with sorrow. So familiar with pain that He could almost call it a friend. Had it not been for the love of God the Father, Jesus would have caved in a long time ago.
Now, I want us to get a better idea of God’s love and how each of us can experience God’s love for ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I want to be like Jesus.
Let’s turn in our Bibles to Ezekiel 36:26-27, that’s Ezekiel 36:26-27 (read verses). So Jesus promises to give us a new heart; to give us a heart transplant. Now, for the doctors, nurses, and medically versed brethren in the house of the LORD, I want you to think, what do you do AFTER you get a heart transplant? You take immunosuppressants; that is to say, you take pills that suppress the immune system EVERYDAY. Why, that doesn’t seem like a good thing? You take those immunosuppressants every day because otherwise your body will attack the new organ, and if allowed to, will destroy the new organ, fearing it to be an enemy. Brothers and sisters, the Bible does not tell us that God is going to give us a new BODY, but he does promise a new HEART. What do you suppose our NATURAL REACTION to this new heart will? …..Attack it! Destroy it! Now you remember we said in Romans 7 how Paul was lamenting over this war, this CONTROVERSY going on inside himself. He said, my MIND wanted to do one thing, but I found my members, or my flesh, or my “SELF” doing another. Brothers and sisters, SELF will do anything it can to attack the life of Christ in us just as surely as our own body will attack a new organ.
Let me give you another analogy. Turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians 3 verse 11. Here is Ephesians 3, Paul writes that God the Father sent Jesus here to earth in order that the church might know the wisdom of God…(read verses 11-16, pause here to talk about inner man). Think about Paul’s lament in Romans 7 in which he stated that in his MIND, he delighted in God’s law, but it was his FLESH, his SELF that warred against it. Going on, it reads (reads verse 17-19). How many of you have ever planted a garden before? Have any of you ever noticed how much time and effort and care is needed to take care of your plants and crops? Now how about the WEEDS? It just amazes me that we spend so much tender loving care on these plants and the weeds, whom we are often vigorously trying to kill, come up without us doing ANYTHING; not even planting their seeds! It is no different with us. We took note before that love is the root, which we can see again here in verse 17, and that commandment keeping is the fruit, and faith, if we were to hope one chapter over to Ephesians 4:7, is shown as the seed. Jesus tells us our faith is like a mustard seed and Romans 12:3 tells us that God has given to each one of us a measure of faith. But, if we do not take care of the plant God has put in us, weeds will come up and take over the garden of our hearts.
So what are these immunosuppressants that we need to take as Christians? What are the habits we need to do to take care of the weeds in our garden?
1. CHOSE to serve the LORD
a. Every day, every hour, every minute
b. Read SC p. 70.0à read Colossians 2:6à then read “By faith you became”
c. Literally say to God, “LORD, take away my heart and give me the heart of Jesus. Take away my mind and give me the mind of Jesus, for you say let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus. LORD, take away my pride and give me the humility of Jesus. Take away my love for that which is evil and give me a love for that which is good. LORD, take away my intemperance and give me the temperance of Jesus.
d. Pray this in the morning, even before your thoughts have the chance to talk to you of it. I have been so thoroughly blessed by the great exchange Jesus makes. We don’t have to WANT to do it, but we just have to ASK and BELIEVE it will happen.
2. Pray without ceasing! Pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
a. Don’t just pray in the morning only, but CONTINUALLY throughout the day. When you are tempted to be angry, or even when you are feeling angry. Quickly say this prayer to God, “LORD, please take away my anger and give me the peace of Jesus.”
3. In addition to this, you must IMMERSE yourself in God’s words. Jesus tells us in John 5:39 that it is the Scriptures that tell about Jesus. We cannot love someone we don’t even know, and we can get to know Him better chiefly by reading His words and promises to us.
a. Memorize it
b. Write them down on note cards and put them up around your house where you will see them most. My students know that my room is COVERED in them. Now you may think, well, eventually I will not noticed them anymore. That is likely to be true; you probably won’t read each one every day, but God will send His Holy Spirit to prompt us to them at the time when we need it most. I am amazed that even when I have been, “not on speaking terms” with God, He will STILL speak to me by drawing my attention to His truths. It sounds simple (AND IT IS), but I cannot emphasize it enough. Immerse yourself in His word.
c. Particularly, we ought to focus on the closing scenes of Jesus’ life. In fact, we are not only told to spend an hour each day contemplating the life of Christ, and particularly the closing ones, but we are also counselled to MEMORIZE Isaiah 53. With an abiding sense of how much our own personal salvation has cost in the sacrifice of Jesus, we will not be so careless and strong-willed in continuing in sin, even our most cherished ones. With the events of Christ’s suffering in mind, our hearts bent on evil will be subdued and we will look upon others as the purchase of His precious blood. Rather than strife with one another, the death of Christ at Calvary will lead us to magnify each soul as God does.
d. Were we to read God’s word and aim to UNDERSTAND it, we would know that without Jesus, we can do nothing and that God is our strength that is made perfect in weakness.
4. Additionally, we must claim God’s promises. IT REALLY is that simple. ASK the LORD, and He will do it. EVEN IF you don’t FEEL like it, ASK, ASK, ASK, CLAIM, CLAIM, CLAIM, and He will fulfill, when we ask in faith.
5. Guard your devotional life
a. I don’t care if you are going to be late for work. Better a little late for work, then walk this world without Jesus by your side
6. Choose to TALK to yourself instead of LISTEN to yourself
a. We often allow AWFUL thoughts in come in a just listen to it as if we have no control. Although we cannot of ourselves chose to not think about something, we can ask God to take the thought out of our mind. We can choose to either change the topic or cagne the perspective
b. For example, if I am mad because I thought someone was mean to me, instead of listening to myself REHEARSING the problem over and over again, can you believe she did ______, instead say, you know, perhaps this person didn’t mean for it to sound that way. Perhaps they were just trying to help, etc.
Ask God what to do and He will help you, that you may be rooted and grounded in love.
I don’t know if any of you have ever walked on a trail in the woods, only to see some trees that have fallen down. I remember one of my favorite trails on Andrews campus, called Lemon Creek Trail. I loved to go there to talked to God and He talked to me in many ways amongst His creation. There were several trees that had fallen over, even big ones that otherwise looked healthy. Many times, upon examining the tree, you would see that the roots had rotted. Brothers and sisters, perhaps some of us are not unlike those trees. We may have initially been rooted and grounded in love, but now our roots have rotted, as our love for Him has faded.
Still, we need not to be discouraged, for (Read Job 14:7) “there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.” There is still hope for that cut down, fallen down tree, that it will sprout again, never to cease.
Brothers and sisters, I have been burdened as I see people that strive in vain to do the will of God. O have experienced this in my own life, of WANTING and LONGING to do the will of God, yet finding that I cannot in certain areas of my life. Brothers and sisters, I have been told of people who, for years and decades, have strived and strived to reach the approval of God in their OWN strength, and I am burdened by this thought. God has given so much in His Son Jesus that we might be able to come to Him and wear for ourselves the righteousness of Christ. His love WILL constrain us so much so that our obedience will be easy and burdens will be joys to us. It is true and it is what God wants for us all.
Let us pray:
Oh Dear Heavenly Father, what language can I borrow to thank You, our Dearest Friend? What words can I string together, to sing praise to Your Name, for You LORD have never let us go. LORD, I want to pray on behalf of us all for where we have resisted Your love for each one of us. O LORD, I pray for each person here, that they might see Your great love for them. LORD, I pray that they would truly leave this room changed and that what they have learned this Sabbath would not remain with them only, but that You would put a burden on their hearts to share, as You did with me. LORD, put people in their path that NEED to hear this truth and are not here today. LORD, may we truly and more fully each day, joy to call You ours. I pray all this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.