Mixed Motives

Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the Student of Flight podcast. Listen, we're going to get into so many transferable truths throughout the content of these episodes that I believe God is going to use to help you apply, because he's going to reveal what's already been there the entire time. Enjoy. What's up everybody, so this is Tim Pratt Jr. of course, and this is not a new season. I just wanted to drop this bonus content with you today. I had the opportunity on September 20th to teach and preach on this. Uh, thankfully, you know, of course my wife, my father and mother-in-law were in fellowship with us that day as they were on their sabbatical, and I was able to stand in the absence of my, my father, you know, which is my pastor, my mom, and like I said, in their absence, and bring forth the word. And so I just want to really jump straight into it. Uh, like I said, this is just simply obedience bonus content. You might really have to spend some time with this one, go back and forth. But I'ma really stay scripture sound in this one, and I just want you to really listen. And you know, you go search these things out and allow God to do the work on you. So nevertheless, let's jump into it. This one is called Mixed Motives. Mixed Motives. Bonus content, Mixed Motives. And the foundational passage of scripture that I'll be reading out of— of course, you know, we have some supporting ones with this is 1 Corinthians 4:3-5. In 1 Corinthians 4:3-5, and I'll be reading from the ESV, it reads as, but with me it is very— it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself, for I am not aware of anything against myself. But I am thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purpose of the heart. Then each one will receive his condemnation from God. Jumping right into it, Paul it's writing in verse 3. You know, just this whole passage of scripture has so much substance, but for the sake of this episode, you know, you can go, like I say, go back and read this yourself. Paul is basically speaking to our motives, and what he's saying basically is that there are motives that we are not even aware of. There are things within us, deep, deeply within us, that we not— we're not even aware of. And with that, we're not even qualified to properly judge ourselves, much less others. You know, for example, when you think about when we're left to our own devices, just us, we're operating totally out of our desires, whether it be pride, hurt, anger, lust, revenge, entitlement, whether we're seeking power or whatever. If we are left to our own devices instead of the Spirit of God in us being a catalyst, it is our flesh that will lead us. Or basically, in other words, it is our flesh that will influence the actions that we take. And that's why I say it's a humbling experience when we can see ourselves and others that we thought that were evil, or we have labeled as just musters or whatever— monsters, like straight up. Like, we just, we call them all these type of things But when we look at them and we can also see ourselves in them, it's like, wow, this is extremely humbling because I once was that. Now that doesn't mean that you shouldn't still declare, teach, and preach the gospel, because yes, we have been saved, we've been made righteous by his blood, by what Christ did for us. But at the same time, it is just a humbling experience on why we have to be so careful to prejudge. Because I can look back over my life and people probably looked and was like, man, when is that boy gonna get it? Dang, he tripping, man. He ain't gonna— like, you know, just so much. And it's like, now, you know, it's just time and time and time. It's God's timing. But what happens is, man, we are blinded. And a lot of times we're blinded because it's our own self-righteousness that keeps us from seeing people. Seeing people the way God wants us to see them. Like, I truly believe that we can be so in tune with God that even if a person is dealing with things, you know, our discerning, our prayer life, you know, most of the time we're praying, we're gossiping about people we should be praying for, you know, we're labeling and speaking to what they're dealing with versus speaking to what they need to become. How God did, how God demonstrated every time with Moses, Gideon, Even Paul, if you go over to the New Testament, Peter, like James, like, this is the God that we serve. And like I say, you know, it's not black and white, but that's why we need the Holy Spirit to help us navigate that. You can't do it from pure intellect. You can't do it from just pure manipulation and tactics. We need God, and that's what helps keep our motives pure. The only way that we can have true pure motives is that we have to have the heart of God, and that's by accepting our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So if we're left to our own devices, no matter how good of a person that you think you may be— it's all inclusive— we may think we are, no matter how good of a person we think we are, right, we are capable of doing anything, anything. And that's what Paul is saying in Corinthians. We can even go to Proverbs 16:2. All a person's ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord. My dad like to say, it's basically, in other words, you can fool me but you can't fool who lives in me. So when it comes to the Spirit of the Lord, the only way that we can truly do things with the motives, the pure motives, is that we have to be modeling our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In other words, we have to have a heart transplant. And so as we kind of go back to what Paul was saying in Corinthians in verse 3, he's saying that my motives, my motives deep down inside, although I don't even feel like I'm doing anything, I don't feel like I have bad motives, God still holds me to a higher standard. So our words or anyone else's, they really don't even matter at the end of the day. I like one of the examples I use, I think, in opening was that it had been times in my life that I have done something and done like a good thing, just totally truly trying to obey the scriptures, and, uh, go out and I do this thing And then, you know, I don't want to be— I don't want to be seen. I want to be behind the scenes. I'm just truly doing it like the work of God. But also I've done that same action where I've wanted to be known. I wanted people to see it. Same action, different motives. So really, at the end of the day, our words and our actions don't even really matter. I'm not saying let this excuse you from basically doing things poorly or whatever, so I ain't got to do it anyway, because that's not what I'm saying. What I am saying though is that if our words and actions don't line up with the word of God and how God truly wants us living internally, if our words and actions don't line up with our motives, it's mute. It doesn't matter. It's pointless. And that's what Paul is basically saying. That's why when certain things happen in our life, we try to blame the situation. Oh well, if it wasn't for this, or if it wasn't for that. But when you really think about it, when you really think about it, the situation, whatever it may be, whatever yours may be, it only provides the context to carry out what was in our heart. Like I said, going back to the example we use, when we're left to our own devices and something happens, if we are truly not allowing the Spirit of God to be a catalyst for our actions, for how we should respond to things in the flesh, no matter how good of a person we think we are, we are capable of doing any and everything. That's just the truth. This is straight up. So we have to be very careful, very careful that we don't come to a verdict about ourselves if it don't support the way God sees us. Because, you know, we know what day when Samuel was going to find David, you know, he came up on the house and, you know, Jesse's sons and stuff like that. And basically paraphrasing, God instantly— when— because even Samuel was almost fooled, but if it weren't for God the prophet, he was almost fooled. And that's when God basically told him, you know, I look at the inner man, we look at the outer man. I'm paraphrasing, of course. It's all about the inner man. We have to know that we are truly doing things by the Spirit of God, so our verdicts don't even matter. They are insufficient if it doesn't line up with the way God sees us, is basically what I'm trying to say. That's, that's just the truth. And like I say, you know, I, I don't mean to sound redundant, but Paul was saying he didn't see anything in his life or ministry that was contrary to the Lord, but it still wasn't up to him because only God is the true judge. Now don't take this out of context because people say only God can judge me. Yes, he's the only rightly true judge, but at the same time, by the Spirit of God, if you say that you are a believer and we both are allowing the word of God to be our final authority, and you come to me and you see some things and you call those things out and you do it according to scripture in love and things like that, that does not give me the right to say only God can judge me. That's not scripture. That's not what he's— Paul is saying in this. Because you have a right, you have a right biblically as a believer and a brother in the faith, sister in the faith, or whatever you want to call— you have a right to come to me in some areas those are some areas, man, need to be liberated to God. Those are some areas that you need to come, you need to fully surrender. I see some motives there, man, some mixed motives or something like that, you know, whatever the Lord is showing you. And trust me, if God showed you, he's already dealing with me on it, straight up. Like, so we have to really rightly divide that. That's not you judging, that's you being obedient and moving by the Spirit of the Lord. And then now it's called— that's that conviction that should lead to liberation, not condemnation, but it should lead to liberation. So we have to be very careful not to prejudge people. Don't, don't prejudge. Just keep living out the scriptures, keep living them out, because in due time, as Paul said in Corinthians, in due time God will reveal the true motives behind people's actions. Matter of fact, Jesus, he said it himself. We can go to the scriptures. Let's, let's go to, let's go, uh, Matthew 7. Yeah, Matthew 7:22-23. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, Did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. I'm reading from the ESV, you know, some iniquity and things like that depending on which translation, workers of iniquity. But this is the principle of it. Matter of fact, let's— hold on, before I get to the principle of it, let's go back to Matthew 6:1. Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. What Jesus is saying is that anything that originates from our sinful flesh is not pleasing to God. Why? Because we cannot please God in the flesh. We cannot. That's why this is not about our emotions. It's not about me teaching or preaching or praying for your emotions, because our spirit is about— it is about our spirit, it's about our soul. Our soul hangs in the balance. This is not about an emotional response. Now, I'm not saying that emotions don't— shouldn't matter. I do believe God is a God of emotion. So yes, when I reflect back and I think of things and stuff like that, it's nothing wrong with being emotional, but they shouldn't supersede God. They shouldn't supersede the move of God. He— God is not moved by our emotion. We worship him in spirit and in truth. It didn't say emotions and truth, said in spirit and in truth. So we cannot please him in our flesh. That's how we have to rightly divide the scriptures. So don't take it personal, it's like, well, I just— I'm just gonna come to church and be emotional. No, that's not what I'm saying at all. But it is a bad thing when you think just because you go to church and your spirit is jacked up, your soul is jacked up and you're just emotional, but the intent, the motives, is just basically impure. That's what you had— is, are my motives pure or impure? Do I have impure motives? Because there's certain things that I just truly believe when you have pure motives, you don't have to worry about. You cannot please God with impure motives. That's what Jesus is saying. And so when we go back to Matthew 7:22-23, when he was basically saying, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, What that passage of scripture was showing us is that they were theologically correct about knowing Jesus. Lord, Lord. They were theologically correct about knowing him, of him, but never knew him. So they knew of him, but they didn't know him. Big difference. The mayor of Little Rock, the governor, whoever I know of them, but I don't know them. I don't have a relationship. So right now I can go do things in their name, but I don't have the intimate relationship. I'm not spending time with them. I'm not truly being obedient to them. I'm just doing things in their name to look good. And we see it, that that's what they said in the scripture. They did great things in his name, and Jesus didn't dispute it. He didn't dispute it at all. But yet in verse 23, and then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness, or iniquity, whatever you want to use depending on the translation that you're reading. He didn't dispute it at all. All he says is, away from me, you evildoers. What he was saying, in other words, their motives weren't right. They had impure motives. They did all the right things, they said all the right words, they had all the right actions, but their motives weren't right. And we can't gain leverage on God. It has to be all for him. So listen, in closing with this, with this episode, he knows why we do what we do, and the desire— and he desires to reward those of— like, reward us whose heart are right toward him. It's that simple. We can keep our motives pure by continually— we can keep them pure by continually surrendering every part of our hearts to the control of the Holy Spirit. That is the only way that we can keep our motives pure. We cannot keep them pure in our own might. We can't keep them pure in our flesh. We cannot please God in our flesh. We have to have a continuous dependency on surrendering every part of our heart to the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 2:4 reads, our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone, he alone, not he and us, not this. He alone examines the motives of our heart. Therefore, God is— this is not the first one. So in other words, what that is saying is that God is interested in our motives more than any other thing, whether it be our words, actions, or whatever. He is interested in our motives. So as of right now, after hearing this, what do you truly believe? Are your motives pure? We just, we just said the only way they can be pure. So are your motives pure or are they impure? And if they're impure, all you had to do is just repent. Hey, if you're a believer and right now you fell into some things where they impure, all you have to do is just repent. Repent. Turn from that. Ask God, renew that relationship, restore it, and start fully surrendering and moving on and forgetting those things behind you. Don't, don't allow the enemy to be accusing another brother and keep you there. Just repent, let it go, surrender, and say, Lord, I'm here, I'm sorry, help transform my heart, help me stay in this where I maintain this relationship with you, because it's the only way I can truly know that my motives are pure and pleasing to you. If you're an unbeliever and you don't believe none of this stuff and you're just like, okay, I'm a good person, I'm a good moral person, I do a lot of good things— all of that is true. And, and you know, if it's true and you can do that, but according to scripture, God is still saying that your mother is not pure because he— you don't have a relationship with him. You haven't accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior. And like I said, we can go to the book of Romans, but in its most simplest, purest form is that all you have to do is say, Lord, I truly believe in my heart that you died for my sins, and that the Spirit of the Lord, that same God, raised— when Jesus basically gave up his— chose to give up his life for me to pay the penalty that I couldn't pay. And that the same Spirit raised my Lord and Savior from the dead, that I'd be able to walk in that and walk into the victorious life that he has basically laid out for me by the power of that same Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that wants to come and dwell in you right now. Right now, that transformation can take place just right now, just like as of right now, as you do that. And It's instant but gradual. So when it happens, it's on you to make sure that you get in the scriptures, that you get connected to a body of Christ, you join a biblical-based church, a biblical-based ministry where you just don't see them talking about it but truly living it. The fruit, living the scriptures, not falling for the antics and all of that type of stuff because they're loud or just teaching good or whatever sound. Anybody can teach real good. Anybody can teach sound doctrine. Anybody can be hype. Anybody can get loud and scream. It doesn't matter. It's not about styles and stuff, but I'm talking about truly living it. The leadership and everything is truly living the scriptures, and you know that it is love, grace, and truth. And so you want to be connected to that. You want to be connected to a local body, and wherever they may be That's between you and God. And so nevertheless, man, I just really want to drop this. I just kind of wanted to, you know, condense it. Didn't want to preach the message or anything over again, but it was on my heart to share this with you. And like I said, if you know anybody, man, anybody, if they want to talk, you know, my closing, whatever, just— I said in the closing, but the outro of the podcast, but www.timothyprattjr.com hit me up on Instagram at Tim Pratt Jr., just JR at the end. Facebook, Tim Pratt Jr., or whatever. But like I said, the website has links to everything. If you just want to simply talk or whatever, if it's confidential, if I don't know it, trust me, I'll point you into someone that I believe by the spirit of God that can help you get breakthrough. Because man, we really have to make sure that we have pure motives and we are truly doing the work of God, and we cannot do it alone. We cannot do it alone. It never got— it never was intended to be like that. So if you've been hurt by church before, you've been hurt by the local church and ministry, I want to apologize. I want to apologize. But at the same time, man, don't regulate God's love to those type of circumstances, to the past or whatever. Don't, don't, don't relegate his love to that. Don't hold it to because someone wasn't truly living by the Spirit of God. And I don't know what that looks like for you, but don't stay away. Don't stay away. And so just take some time with this one, man. This is just strictly coming from the heart. If our counter was moving fast, I totally apologize. I don't really want to edit. I don't want to clean up anything. I just wanted to flow and just be obedient and get this content out. So I hope you enjoyed it, man. Share this with people, you know. Like I say, reach out to me if you need to talk or whatever. Because, man, I really— I truly want us to make it and live out this thing, man. Live out this thing that God intended us to live. So nevertheless, be blessed. Always praying. Stay tuned. Season 4, uh, an intro will be coming soon, and we're gonna dive into just some more rich, you know, hopefully all content, of course, to glorify God, but hopefully some transformation, impactful content. Be blessed. Hey, what's up? I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this Student Life Podcast today. If this content has impacted you in any kind of way, please take some time to share it on your social media feeds. And also, if you want to connect with me or just learn more about me, go over to www.timothypratt.org. Once again, thanks.