Compelled

1. Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-15. What does it mean that the love of Christ compels us? And how have you experienced Christ's love compelling you in your own life?
2. What areas in your own walk of faith do you feel like you may be going through the motions? How can you address this and reignite your passion?
3. What role does the Holy Spirit play in our understanding and applying God's love?
4. How can personally experiencing God's love transform our motivations and actions?
5. What are some characteristics of God's love and how can we cooperate with that love in our lives?

Prayer + Practice:

Meditate on 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 this week and pray that the Holy Spirit give you fresh eyes and an open heart to respond to the compelling love of Christ in your life. Reflect on where he's shown his love to you and how he wants you to show that love to others.

Good morning, Hillside. Every time I speak, my wife buys me a new shirt. So if you see Pete, have him ask me more so I can have more clothes.

This morning I want to speak about something that's pretty important to me as the Lord has been speaking to me over these weeks. I see in this walk of faith that I'm in, and you are also in if you come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In this walk of faith. At times I feel like I'm going through the motions. I'm just doing things.

I know the things that God has us to do. I know that he is the one who wants us to share the gospel. He wants us to disciple other people. But what happens? Sometimes we start doing things because we're supposed to.

It becomes like a duty. And it feels to me sometimes that there's no life in it because there's no energy, nothing moving me in the direction that I'm supposed to be moving in because I'm just doing it because I'm supposed to. It's like just saying statements. Sometimes saying the gospel in such a way that there's no life behind it. You know, even as a paramedic, for 33 years, I was a paramedic.

And the things that happen in that job, if you are not empathetic towards the patient and you're just going. Going through the motions, starting iv's and doing all this stuff, there's something more that I noticed in the patients that I treated when I was empathetic. They've sensed the love. They sensed my care for them in such a way. Even sometimes I'd say, listen when they're nervous, because maybe this is the first episode that they're having a heart attack, whatever it might be.

I said, you know what? I'm going to treat you like you're my mom or daddy. It does something because there's life in it. It wasn't that I was putting on a show, but I really cared for the people that I treated. I don't want to follow a script anymore.

Sometimes in my life, I go through these seasons where I'm just doing that.

No life. It bores me.

But God has something he wants to speak to us today. About a month ago, Pete asked me to speak, and I said I would. And about a week after that, as I was starting to pray about what I was going to share, I was laying in bed one night. Lynetta had already fallen asleep. And as I was laying there, I began to remember my sins.

I remembered even sins that I committed before I came to know Christ and the sins that I committed after coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was so overwhelming to me that I became emotional about these sins.

I was overwhelmed. The weight of these sins was so heavy.

I saw the damage that my sin does to the church and to the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, that I mar the testimony by doing the things that I've done.

But you see, God was doing something, and I didn't know what it was going to be like.

I already asked for these forgiveness of these sins, and it kind of was baffling me. I couldn't fathom why. I was thinking of my sins, knowing that they were forgiven. It went on for about an hour. I felt terrible.

And as I began to pray, the Lord spoke to my heart, and he reminded me of the greatness of his love and his forgiveness. It was like a fresh revelation for me, that God has refreshed me in such a way that I couldn't believe that he would forgive me for the stupid things that I've done. And God just gives me that fresh revelation. I begin to see how good and how lovely he was. And you know what?

That thing, that very instance that happened to me, what happened was that I began to experience afresh and anew of what Christ had did for me. You know what it was, though? The fruit of that was all I wanted to do to serve the Lord in that instance. All my heart was to say, lord, because of your great love with which you love me, I just want to serve you. I want to love you like you've been loved by other saints.

And I want to share the gospel in such a way that there's life in it, that very thing.

Which brings me to what I want to share about today. We're going to read some scriptures today. It's not going to be a long message today, but because we're going to have communion. But I want to listen to this. See this first message here?

It's in two corinthians. In the fifth chapter, the 14th and 15th verse. It says, for the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died, and he died for all, that those who lived should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again. And I'll explain what some of this means. This word compels is translated in other translations in the Bible as this whole thing of being constrained by his love or controlled by his love.

Here's the definition of compel. Listen to this. Pressed in on every side, it's like a ship being forced down a narrow channel that it can only go that way, or it's like cattle being put into a chute in order to be branded or medicated. Only one way. This is what compelling is.

But you see, compelling, it is not the operative word.

The word that we have to see is that this compelling is not in ourselves. We cannot compel ourselves. We could try to say, I'm going to do this or I'm going to do that. But if that compelling does nothing come from the Lord, it's going to be in vain because you're trying to muster up something that's not there.

You see, this compelling or this operative word is the love of Christ compels you. That is the very thing that pushes you in this walk that we are walking in.

It's from him. So that you don't boast, I this because I did it. I shared the gospel today, or I did this, or I did that. But God is wanting to see that we need to be poor in spirit. See, poor in spirit means you're in desperate need of Christ to speak into your life and fill you with his spirit.

See, this love of Christ compelled Paul in such a way that it motivated him. It even pushed him. It pushed Paul to do what he wanted to do because he saw the revelation of this love, this great love with Christ. Paul and these other men who served the Lord, because of this revealing, they laid down their lives for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of his kingdom. There is no way that if they did not receive this revelation, they would not do what God would have them to do.

But because of this great love, and they seen this, they were able to lay down their lives for the sake of his kingdom. Jesus, when he spoke in such a way, is because he was in love with his creation. He was the one who created men and women and all children and everyone on this planet. And he loved them so much that when he shared about the kingdom, it changed, changed people.

There was life in their ministry and in ours. If we allow this to come in, it touches us in such a way that it changes you and me. It's no longer a duty or a task. It is just the fruit of sensing who he is that causes us to spread this truth and this good news no longer dry and no longer without life. I shared something of this before, and my wife reminded me of it because I was seeing this in my own life.

But I want to have true passion for what I'm doing. I want the life of Christ to come out of me to change other people. I'm dependent upon that spirit of God to do that very thing.

You know, just like the story in the Old Testament of Jacob. And when he was working for his future brother in law, he toiled and worked for Rachel solely out of his love for her. I he wasn't doing it for the money. He was doing it because he loved Rachel so much that nothing else stood in his way. He wanted it because he loved her.

Same with us. When you love Christ because of what he's done for you, what ends up happening is that you begin to do the very thing Christ would have you to do, that you're doing it out of love and passion, and people recognize it. You'll see more people come to know who Christ really is and his sacrificial death on the cross, more than when we walk just by doing it out of rote.

We owe it to him to serve him for what he has done for us. Listen to what Charles Spurgeon said. He's known as the prince of preachers. The love of Christ compels us is to say that the love of Christ has power. It has force that can bind us and influence us.

The love of Christ has pressed Paul and energies into one force, turned into one way to go in one way for him, till he and his fellow workers become mighty in doing good and powerful. See, it's God's love that just funnels us in, pushes us in a direction that lives change. See, it says in verse 15 of this same scripture, it says that we no longer live for ourselves. We live for him.

We live for him because he has loved us in such a way that he laid down his life for us.

I want to look at some aspects of this love. Now, we know some of these scriptures that we're going to use. We've used them hundreds of times.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever would believe in him would not perish, but have eternal life. We know about this scripture. We see it at football stadiums. We see it all over the place. But you see that word love there?

That is Akapeo, where we get agape love. It's that sacrificial love of the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father. You see? Do you know in Romans, in the book of Romans, the gospel, it says, it's the gospel of God. We can't forget him.

We don't just look to Christ. But it was the gospel of God that he loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son. So this Agapeo, this sacrificial love, is what he shows for the world. But look at this next scripture.

A little help in the back. And behold, a voice from the heavens said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. You see that word? Beloved or beloved agape? It's different in the Greek than just loved.

This love here that he's speaking of here is that you are dearly loved. Well loved. Esteemed favorite. Worthy of love. Well, absolutely.

The treasure of God. That is beloved. But what does that have to do with me? And you? You see, when you come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, what ends up happening?

You are invited in to the beloved. You see, the people of the world are loved. And he forgave them of their sins. But when you come to faith, you become in the inner circle of the love of God. The same love with which he loved his son.

He now loves you. And you, and you, and you. All of us. If you come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are well loved.

It's overwhelming to me at times that Christ would love me.

It's not semantics. Love, then be loved. There's something different.

Everyone is loved. But only the children of God are specially loved.

Listen to this. Read this.

This is what it says here in colossians. For he rescued us from the domain of darkness. And transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son. It's something that God does to you. It's like as if when he took Moses and placed him in the cleft of the rock, that he would see God's back.

He's taken you from this dominion of darkness, from the devil himself, who had you in his grip. And he took you and placed you in the beloved.

Unbelievable.

John says to his disciples in John 14, he says, this is a day that will come. That you will know that I am in the father, and you in me. And I in you.

You and I are beloved.

You see how this changes things? How we act and live this life?

Here's another aspect of this love. It is a divine love. It comes from God. It's immutable. Immutable means it does not change.

Ever. Ever. For those who come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it never changes.

Do you know that as we walk this walk, his love doesn't get better because you begin to share the gospel? You begin to do this, or you begin to serve in the church. His love never changes. It's not a merit of. It's something that he's given you from the very beginning.

Do you know when you came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the fullness. The fullness of God's love was there. It does not change. The only thing that changes is our revelation of seeing the fullness of it. It's still there.

It's the fullness of God's love. It's not a portion when you get saved, then it grows as you grow. No.

Here is the truth we need to hold on to. You see, the Lord is so deep and unfathomable that we try to figure it out in our own brains, trying to figure out the depth of this love, his unfathomable riches that is in the beloved, and we can't do it. The only way that me and you get to know the depth of Christ is by the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to cry out to him and say, lord, reveal yourself to me. Let me know you.

Let me know the height, the breadth, the length and the depth. And to know the love of Christ that passes understanding. That's why it says it passes understanding, because you can't do it. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to change us, to do the very thing he has us to do. So we become dependent upon him.

Remember I said we need to be poor in spirit. Realize that we can't do it on our own. We cry out to him.

We can't boast about that. It's all of him. You know what? Aw, Pink says? That's a weird name.

But he says this. The best of men are men. At best, we're still men and women. We're just men. Here is God here, and we are here.

It takes him. It takes God to explain and to reveal his godliness. It's not us. It's him.

I know that even at my best, I'm just a man dependent on God.

Do you depend on the Holy Spirit to give life and light to you?

Here's something else about love. You know when I was growing up and you start dating and all those things and that saying, oh, just to come out, love is blind.

That is not true when it comes to God.

Listen here in Luke's gospel, I'll tell the story. I won't even read it from the screen, but listen to what it says. A Pharisee comes up to the Lord here, and he invites Jesus to come to have dinner at his place. Well, while he's there, they're reclining at the table. I want to get the setting right.

You're not sitting on chairs like we're sitting here, they're reclining. Take their sandals off. And they're kind of leaning on the table, feet behind them. And they're reclining at the table. And a woman comes in to the Pharisees house.

Because she heard that Jesus was there. Most theologians and commentaries think this is Mary Magdalene. And Mary Magdalene had seven demons taken from her by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and forgave her of her sins. But when she heard that Jesus was there, she came in behind him and began to weep. And she began to wet the feet of Christ with her tears.

And she began to wipe his feet with her hair. And she said she never stopped kissing his feet. And she began to break open this alabaster vial. And began to pour this oilless perfume on his feet.

If I was at that dinner, I would think it would be weird to see her doing this stuff. Kissing someone's feet and wetting it. Unbelievable. But it was so important for us to see. She saw the magnitude, the gravity, the enormity of God's love that what happened to her, she was set free.

Set free forever. And she couldn't do anything more. And she wanted to do these very things because she loved Christ. She wanted to pour her life out. She didn't care about being embarrassed, didn't care about anything.

There are sins in our lives, brothers and sisters, and those who don't know you. There are sins in our lives that Christ wants to remove and take away the guilt in your life. That you would be that one who just lays down your life for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of his kingdom. DOn't think that there are sins that you've committed that God cannot forgive. If you look in the book of Jeremiah in the 32nd chapter, you know what happens?

God is going to bring the children of Israel into Babylon. Because his sin was so terrible that even people were sacrificing their children and putting them in fire to the God of Molech. And he's going to bring them in there. But you know what he says at the end when he talks about all his judgments? He says, but one day I'll bring you back, and I will take care of you.

And I'll give you a land that you can live in. And it will be you, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. What love is like that? There is none as powerful as that. And we are all recipients of that.

If you come to faith in Christ, you see love is not blind. He sees everything that you have done, sees everything you're going to do. And he still loves you, and he still cares for you, and he still is the one who takes away all that guilt in your life.

There's something else about this compelling love here. When I said that, it means constrains, compels or controls what happens, makes you sober minded that you don't want to sin. You will be tempted. But God comes in, he says, don't do that. But it takes cooperation on our parts.

If you do not cooperate with God, he is showing you his love. He's showing you a way out. And if you do not cooperate, you're going to fall into it. But God, by his great love, is compelling you not to do it. Do we cooperate with him?

Over the years I've known now the Lord, this November will be 47 years. And in that time, when I've known the Lord, in the beginning, temptations would become and I would sin. Temptation would come and I would sin. But now, as I've grown in the Lord and seen more and more of his love, of this unfolding love of Christ, what ends up happening is now the temptations are still there. But my desire to follow through with them has waned only because I began to experience over all these years this great love with which he loved me.

It's like me in bed that night, overwhelmed. But I don't want to do any of those things anymore. I don't want to trample underfoot the blood of Christ for what he has done for me. I don't want to do that anymore. I just want to be pure.

Though I will sin at times, I know I will. But God is there to continue on. Listen to what it says about that woman. She was not forgiven because of her great love. Her great love was her evidence that she had been forgiven.

That's what made her love Christ.

In closing, I'm going to use this scripture. We're going to look at John 13 now before the feast of the Passover. Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he would depart of this world, go to his father, having loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to the end. And I've read this for years and years and years, and I was wrong at my interpretation.

But God began to reveal something in this scripture. It doesn't mean that he loved them to the end of his life. He said in the Greek, it says he loved them to the uttermost.

The fullest of his love was demonstrated because he is now. Remember how we went, how God has been funneling us even in the scriptures today that he's doing all this stuff to keep us going. So now he is there showing that he loved his disciples to the uttermost. And right after that, you know, what it talks about, which we know very well, is that he got up from the table, took off his outer garments, girded himself with a towel, filled the basin with water, and he began to wash the disciples feet.

We're on that track. We're moving in this direction, and God is going to reveal something here. And he comes to Peter, and Peter says, do you wash my feet too? And Jesus says, this is what the, this is the hook. What happens is he says, peter, you don't understand right now, but soon, and hereafter you will.

And Peter says, never, Lord, shall you wash my feet? Because Peter was saying, you are Jesus. You are the son of the living God. You shall never wash my feet because that's Peter being Peter. You know what Jesus says, pretty sobering.

If I don't wash you, you will have no part with me. And Peter, being Peter, says, then wash my whole body.

You see, this is what this was all pointing to from the time where he says he loved him to the uttermost. And he begins to explain how he's going to love him. He's going to serve you, and then he's going to go to the cross.

Amazing love. Amazing.

He was speaking of the cross all the time because he knew he came to this earth for that very, very thing, to die for me and you to take the punishment. The wrath of God came upon the Lord Jesus Christ for mine and your sins. And when he said those words, it is finished. That means there is not one sin left in this world. That he did not take the consequences of that punishment, as it were, the chastisement of his father on him.

In closing, I want to say this. Are you tired of going through the motions, just doing it as a duty? You know what Dave and Jill spoke about last week, about this matter of the right questions. When you come before the Lord and you pray and he'll put people in your midst. But because you begin to know more and more of this unfolding love of Christ, there's going to be this passion to share the gospel in such a way that's going to change lives.

We just need to beseech the Holy Spirit, and he will give you life. He will explain the great love with which he loves you and that person who you're sharing with.

The measure of my love towards others is in accordance of my apprehension of God's love for me first corinthians says this whatever you do, do it all in love.

Let's pray.

Lord, we just thank you for your word, Lord, and how you encourage us. Lord, we want to have that love that passes all understanding, recognize and realize in our own lives. We pray, Lord Jesus, that you would continue to unfold this love. Lord, I know it's going to take eternity because you are so, so big and so unbelievably unsearchable. But yet, by the power of your holy spirit, that you will do this, Lord.

And Lord, I know that you want us to experience this love more than we want to because you want us to know the fullness of who you are and what you've done. So, Lord, we just pray this in Christ's name. Amen.