Text: 2 Corinthians 5:11-21
Topic: What motives our Christian witness

• Illustration: People came from all over the world to dig what became the biggest man-made hole in the world—because they hoped to mine some diamonds.
• Motivation is important for the church of Jesus Christ.

• Paul understood that while we were sinners, God demonstrated his love for us.
  • Illustration: Human beings are like volcanoes, with powerful pressures inside and out. Sin is like the lava inside the volcano.
  • Illustration: When Briscoe was young banker, he thought about God's ledgers in heaven that his life could never balance. But God has balanced them in Christ.
• It is this love of God that motivates, or hems in, the Apostle Paul, and it does so in three ways.

• In our culture, sentiment has replaced conviction.
  • Illustration: The desire to help whales trapped under the ice in Alaska was motivated by sentiment; the money could have been better spent helping starving Africans.
• Paul is motivated by the conviction that he has been crucified with Christ, nevertheless he lives.

• If Christ died for people, then we must look at them with his eyes.
• Paul had to have his eyes changed dramatically in this respect, from being a Christian persecutor to someone who builds up the church.
• The church is not exactly falling over itself to reach out to problem people.
• The love of Christ precludes us thinking about them as merely problems.

• Illustration: An ambassador's job is to represent her government.
• We are representatives of the age to come.
• Briscoe hopes to see more and more people motivated as was Paul.