This morning, I want to begin by telling you a story about an emperor and an ant. And, no, this is not one of Aesop’s little-known fables, and it’s not a Mother Goose nursery rhyme or fairy tale.
This is an actual event. It took place in the fourteenth century in southwest Asia. Emperor Tamerlane’s army had been routed by a powerful enemy in a battle. And Emperor Tamerlane himself was hiding in a manger—in an animal feed trough—in fear of his life as enemy troops scoured the countryside.
And as the Emperor laid there in this feed trough—in this manger—he became fascinated by an ant that was sharing this hiding place with him. And the ant was busy trying to move a kernel of corn up and over a perpendicular wall. And Tamerlane became fascinated with this. And he counted over and over and over again as this ant made the attempt to move this kernel of corn (which was considerably larger than itself) up this perpendicular wall. And time and time and time again the ant failed and fell back. Sixty-nine (69) times this ant made that attempt, and finally on the seventieth (70th) attempt, the ant was successful—it pushed the kernel of corn over the top of the wall. Inspired, and with renewed vigor and spirit, Tamerlane jumped from his hiding place with a shout, and he said, “I will climb to the end as well!,” and he regrouped his forces and defeated the enemy.
Well, Emperors need to be inspired to succeed, but then so do ordinary folks like you and I. We all need to have goals, examples and ideals to emulate—things that will pep us up and spur us on to help us to perform at our very best. This is certainly true in our day-to-day activities—in our work-a-day lives, so to speak.
Take our jobs, for example. On the job, we need to be inspired and motivated from time to time, don’t we? Employers of all types recognize the value to be derived by having employees who are thoroughly and fully motivated, who are inspired to perform at their very peak of their performance. Without some periodic motivation, incentive , inspiration and so on, most of us would probably agree that we tend to get bogged down in our work. We get in kind of a rut. Maybe we become complacent about the work or task that we’re performing. It gets to be mundane and routine and mechanical. We can get to the point where we even become sort of lifeless in the performance of our duties and responsibilities. And this condition ultimately affects the quality and the quantity of the work that we’re doing—the work that we are producing. Let me ask…Have you ever felt like this on the job? I’m sure that every one of us probably have at one time or another.
Moreover, have you ever encountered someone like this as you have looked for service of some kind in an establishment? I would have to say that quite often I think I encounter someone like this; you know, a lifeless person behind the counter, and maybe that person needs to be motivated and given some incentive.
What about the sports scene? You know, if there was ever a group of people that required motivation—inspiration—it’s a team, a team that is involved in—engaged in—a team sport of some kind.
Have you ever been watching a game, and a team has just played sort of at a mediocre level during a part of the game? And maybe something happens during the course of that game which turns the momentum around, because whatever happened has inspired and motivated the players. Or maybe when they come out of the locker room at half-time, they play like a different team, perhaps because of something that the coach has said to them in that locker room that was motivational or inspirational.
I don’t know how many of you watched the Lobo game last night on ESPN2, the National Sports Network. I thought the Lobos played fairly well during the first half, but they came out during the second half and even played better. And one of those commentators made this comment—he said, “I don’t know what Coach Fran said to them in the locker room, but whatever it is, it sure is working!” And so again, an example of being inspired and motivated in order to perform better.
Well, if there’s a need for inspiration and motivation in our jobs and in our day-to-day lives, and if sports teams need to be motivated and inspired, how much greater is that need for us, as Christians, in our spiritual lives?
The Christian who has no vitality , no motivation, no heart, no desire of loving service to serve in the kingdom, to worship God, and so on, is not a pretty sight. It’s not a good picture. It’s not something that we should have. That person just sort of goes from worship service to worship service, and from Bible class to Bible class, and from activity to activity, just kind of dragging their body along…and maybe dragging a few other bodies with them! Worship is a drag, Bible class is boring and Christian service is nothing but a drudgery.
Well, this being the case then, what can we do, or what can be done to keep ourselves motivated and inspired in our work and worship to the Lord? I believe there are several things which will work to serve to properly fulfill our needed tasks and meet the responsibilities of life that we have as Christians. And this morning, I’d like to share at least three things with you along that particular line.
The first thing that I would like to suggest that we need to do is to forget the past. Philippians, chapter 3, verses 13 and 14. Paul says there, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
You know, by the time Paul had penned these words, he had come a long way from that first encounter with the Lord that he had had on the road to Damascus. And in that time, Paul had accomplished many, many, many great things. Paul, probably second only to our Lord in his ability, his mastery of teaching, wrote most of our New Testament—more than any other writer—and established churches all over the known world at that time. What great works he did in the kingdom!
But on the other hand, before Paul’s encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus, he had done much to hinder the cause of Christ. How easy it would have been for Paul to have brooded and worried over the mistakes that he had made—his persecuting of the church, his relentless pursuit and capturing and imprisoning of Christians, his consent and even his presence at the death of Stephen, and perhaps others. Yes, Paul could have fret and brooded and worried so much that he would have been unable to carry on the work of preaching the Gospel.
Paul recognized, though, that one can get caught up in a quagmire of self-pity, of doubt, of guilt, of shame, of hurt, and perhaps even vainglory. The objective that Paul set for himself was to forget, and to press on—and so should we. We need to forget and put behind us all the depressing memories, all the false standards, all of the mean-spirited and low ambitions and ideals of our former life of sin.
We need also to forget the malice or hostility or bitterness that we have harbored within ourselves. We also must forget and leave behind the anger, the frustration, the pain of past disappointments and rejections and hurts of all types. Things in this life happen which cause pain and anguish. People will disappoint us; people will hurt us; people will perhaps even reject us. It happened to Paul. It happened to our Lord. And it will happen to us. But unless we put these things behind us and forget them, we will not be able to serve the Lord with the fervor and enthusiasm that we should. And it is possible that we can become so consumed in remembering that we won’t serve at all. In a nutshell, Paul is telling us not to live in the past.
But this living in the past may also include languishing in past successes and accomplishments. That’s the vainglory that I referred to earlier. Living off of past laurels gets in the way of our Christian vitality perhaps as much as dwelling upon past failures and hurts. A noted editor once wrote that “the true secret to editing is to know what to put in the waste basket.” I think that’s a good thought when we think about it. And regard to our lives, it’s applicable. In large measure, the true success of life is to know “what to put in the wastebasket.” In other words, we need to know what to forget and leave behind us.
I believe that the best way to forget past mistakes, past hurts, and yes, even past successes in the sense that we do not let them cause us to stagnate today, is to continue to press on. Note that Paul said, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on…” So not living in the past and straining toward what is ahead will encourage and inspire us.
Secondly, we should be motivated to fulfill tasks and meet responsibilities in the kingdom by remembering that the work we are called to do on this earth is the work of our Father in heaven. Once again, from our secular lives, we know that there is work that we do because it is our vocation—it is our ambition. We are educated and trained to do this work. It’s our duty, and our responsibility. And when we are called on to apply our skills, we can find that doing this work that we are motivated to do, and that we are trained and educated to do, can be fulfilling—can be satisfying and can be rewarding. It’s as if in our work, we are fulfilling a purpose and taking care of a need.
Well, as Christians, our purpose in this life is to serve God—to labor in His spiritual vineyard. And for our example in this area of life, we can look to Jesus Himself. He began early in His awareness of His need to work in the kingdom. Luke, the second chapter, verse 49—after Jesus had been left behind in Jerusalem and He was found at the temple, His response to His parents was, “Don’t you know that I need to be about My Father’s work?” And in John, the fourth chapter, verse 34, Jesus said, “My food is to do the Will of Him Who sent Me and to finish His work.” And in John 17, as Jesus prayed that emotional and fervent prayer in the garden before He was betrayed, He said in the presence of God, speaking to God, He said, “I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You gave me to do.”
Yes, Jesus knew His calling; Jesus knew His spiritual vocation. He was here on this earth for no other purpose than to serve His Father, and bring glory to His Father. And I submit to you that as God’s children, as Christ’s brothers and sisters, and as heirs to our Father’s estate, that that is our purpose as well. We’re not here on this earth to work for a company, or to go to school, or to raise a family, or certainly not for our own pleasure. These things are all incidental functions. What we’re here to do is to serve God and bring Him glory. Paul writes in Ephesians 2, verse 10, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” And again, Paul writing in Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” What a high calling we’ve been given, brethren! What an honorable and distinguished avocation we have chosen as Christians. So let’s be inspired and motivated in realizing that as we work and serve God in this life, we are fulfilling our purpose and our destiny.
Third and finally, as we work and serve God in the kingdom, we should be pushed ahead, or compelled, by the love of Christ. One more time we consider the secular for the sake of comparison here. We are oftentimes motivated to do things because of a love, because of a desire, and often because of the pleasure—the sheer enjoyment—that we receive from it. Perhaps it’s a hobby that we enjoy and are good at. It may be some sort of cause or campaigning that we are caught up in and which we believe in. It may even be our jobs—our secular work. And we are driven by our passion to accomplish this thing, or we’re compelled by an inspirational leader who motivates and inspires us—a mentor. Maybe it’s a candidate that we’re working for. Maybe it’s a coach. Maybe it’s even a boss who spurs us on, who compels us to do this thing.
Well, in our spiritual lives, it is Christ who compels us. 2 Corinthians 5,verses 14 and 15, Paul writes, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him Who died for them and was raised again.” Yes, it’s the love of Christ which compels us to do the work and service in the kingdom that we need to do. We’re not forced. We don’t serve out of fear or some slavish compulsion like some might suggest. We work and serve in the kingdom because we are compelled by Christ’s love and His sacrificial death for us.
You see, brethren, I believe that when we come to the full realization of the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ made for us, and we understand the true meaning and significance of that sacrifice, then we will be prompted to greater service, not out of slavish complying with rules, but rather we will give greater service out of a willing, loving heart.
What more inspiration could we ask for? What more motivation can there possibly be? What greater encouragement can we ask for than that which is found in the love and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?
Well, in conclusion, just like Emperor Tamerlane, we as God’s children will triumph in the end if we, first of all, don’t live in the past—if we forget those things which are behind us, if we strain toward that which lies ahead. We will triumph in the end also if we remember what our purpose—what our function—as Christians—as children of God—is in this life, and that purpose is to work, to serve in the kingdom, to bring honor and glory to the heavenly Father. And we’ll triumph again also if we allow Christ’s love to compel us to that work and service in the kingdom.
Although we may be often depressed, or though we may be often discouraged, and many times dejected more than elated, we will never be deserted by our Father in heaven. I’d like to conclude with a reading from Romans, chapter 8, beginning with verse 35, and reading to the end of the chapter:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered,’. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Let’s all be spurred on, be motivated, be inspired because of these things that we’ve considered today so that we remember our purpose, and so that our work and service in the kingdom will be a joy and a pleasure to do.