“and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
II Corinthians 5:15 NKJV

The reality is, the biggest problem you face in your life is starring you in the mirror everyday. Selfishness is the core problem with our human nature and it is the very definition of what sin is. Therefore, our tendency is to want to live for ourselves, our desires, our own definitions of right and wrong, our own independent rugged individualism, separate from the will, ways and reign of God, which are all love. We deceive ourselves into thinking our way is better, while in truth we are slipping down the path to self-destruction. And this breaks the heart of God because He created us to flourish as human beings by living in the rhythm of love to God, one another and everything in the environment around us. To the extent that we don’t live in God’s ways of love and live in selfishness, we breakdown as human beings spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, relationally; and the whole world is suffering as a result. However, the astonishing Good News about Jesus and Him crucified comes along and covers us with a tidal wave of grace! And once we receive this by faith, our hearts open up to receive the powerful indwelling of the Holy Spirit as we start following Jesus. And Here lies the power of following the resurrected Christ. You start to live a resurrected life through the Spirit! You have literally gone from the way of death, which is self-centeredness, to the way of life, which is love or other-centeredness! In other words, the love of Christ is the compelling Why for our lives because…

IT RESHAPES OUR LIVES FROM SELF-CENTEREDNESS TO HIS WAY OF OTHER-CENTEREDNESS.

It’s kind of like a powerful scene from the movie “The Count of Monte Cristo”, starring Jim Caviezel. Jim Caviezel plays the role of Dantes, who has just washed up on the shore opposite the prison he just escaped from and begins to run down the beach in celebration. His celebration of new found freedom is interrupted as he realizes that a band of smugglers and thieves had been watching him just a short distance away. Their leader ends up cornering Dantes into the choice to fight to the death one of his men he was going to have killed because he stole some of their gold. If Dantes wins and kills this man, whose name is Jacopo, then he gets to live and take Jacopo’s place as one of their men. Dantes swiftly wins the fight and just as he looks like he’s about to kill Jacopo with a knife, he whispers to Jacopo, telling him that if he wants to live he needs to lay still. Dantes then requests that the leader allow Jacopo to live and if he does, he will join his men. The leader grants his request and Jacopo’s life is spared. Jacopo, who’s now dumbfounded at the grace he’s just received from a man he didn’t even know, makes a life-long vow to Dantes’. He pulls Dantes close and says, “I am your man for life.” From that day forward he followed, served and lived according to the ways of Dantes. The two of them become very close friends and he benefited from all of Dantes’ prosperity. My friends, this is how the compelling love of Christ reshapes our lives into His way of other-centeredness!

This way of other-centeredness is what Jesus taught all of Scripture was about in Matthew 20:36-40. This is what it means to love God with your all, and your neighbor as yourself. This has been the intent of all the teachings or doctrines of Scripture, which is what we see in the teachings of Jesus. This is the way of life Jesus was living out before His disciples in order to reproduce it in them. This is what it means to become spiritually mature as a fruit-bearing follower of Jesus. And what we’ll discover in the next 4 sermons in this series, is that Jesus had a very intentional 4-step pathway He led disciples on so they could live out His way of other-centeredness and disciple others into it as well. This is how He was and is ushering in His reign of love; the Kingdom of Heaven come to earth!

My question to you is: When you look at your life right now, are you honestly becoming a more other-centered person, like Jesus, or not? Are His ways, His priorities increasingly becoming your own? If yes, great! Keep going! Keep growing! If not, then now is the time to turn towards Him, not away from Him, and enter the rhythms of His way of love. And please don’t confuse this with some legalistic perfectionism, where your trying to do this on your own. That’s just selfishness cloaking itself in a garb of religiosity! Rather this is a journey of growing in grace by daily seeking and relying on the Holy Spirit. The blood of Jesus covers you with an abundance of grace, though you stumble along the way. And because His love compels you, your heart is postured towards Him in trust, so you confess, turn to Him, and lean in to following Him by the power of the Spirit until you come to maturity.

The love of Christ is the compelling why for our lives, because His death was our death and it reshapes our lives from self-centeredness to His way of other-centeredness.