Motivate Me!

Motivate Me!

My wife and I often joke about a “sermon” we once heard Joel Osteen preaching.  Over and over again, he used this statement: “today is YOUR day!”  We wondered exactly what that meant, especially in light of what the word of God teaches.  To tell someone, “it is your day” could mean a number of things.  Perhaps the best explanation is that it is an encouragement for one to go out and accomplish one’s goals, and have the confidence that those goals will be accomplished.  By whose will?  One’s own will?  By the will of God?  Well, whatever the message actually means, it certainly gets a person going!  Today is MY day and I’m going to go out there and get things done!

Across the land, the pulpits are full of motivational speakers.  Many of the more popular evangelist, “pastors”, and teachers and really just motivational speakers who sprinkle a few Bible verses into their talks from time to time.  It is common to hear mantras such as “Today is your day”, “Good things are coming your way”, “Your blessing is right around the corner”, getting listeners excited and emotional about accomplishing goals, by having little or no teachings from scripture.

There is nothing wrong with listening to a motivational speaker.  We all need different forms of motivation from time to time.  The problem is when those who proclaim to be ministers of God’s word neglect God’s word in their teaching, and confuse edification through knowledge with emotional stirrings.  Hosea 4:6 says, “My

people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” and when the word of God is absent from the pulpits, it leads to the destruction of those who follow the vain motivational talk of men as though it were spiritually beneficial.

God told Moses to come up to the mountain, “that I may give you law and commandments, that you might teach them” (Exodus 24:12).  Consider Moses leading the people of God through wilderness.  What was his message to the people as a minister of God’s word?  How would you compare his words to the people to what we hear in many churches today?  Over and over again, we read words such as these, “You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him” (Deuteronomy 13:4).  Frequently, Moses reminds the people of their responsibility, reminds them they must be obedient, reminds them of what is written in the Law, reminds them of the consequences of rejecting the Law and blessings for keeping the Law.

But, the problem may not just be with those who act as ministers of the word but are really just motivational speakers.  Sometimes, that’s all people want!  Motivate me!  Don’t bore me to death with commandments and restrictions on my life.  Studying the Bible is not going to make me want to do better in my career, to make more friends, or accomplish my goals!  Many motivational speakers in churches choose to present those kinds of lessons because they know that’s what people want!  What did Paul instruct Timothy?

“Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and teaching.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth.” (II Timothy 4:2-4)

Does that not sum up what we see taking place in the world around us?  People “will not endure sound doctrine.”  They don’t want to hear it.  Its too boring.  It doesn’t “do anything” for them.  So, “according to their own desires”, that is, based on their worldly desires, worldly ambitions, and because “they have itching ears”, they pass on hearing Bible based teaching and go out and find teachers that please them.  And in all this, men turn their ears further and further away from truth.  Men have ears itching to hear something to get them out of a professional, social, or some other rut, and a motivational speaker (or any teacher of false doctrine) comes along and scratches that itch!

Is the Bible a self-help book?  Was the word of God given to us primarily to help us accomplish our worldly goals?  Of course not.  It certainly leads us to the best possible life in this material world, but the purpose of scripture is to teach us there is MORE than this material world.  Indeed, the purpose of the scripture is to teach us we can have more than we ever imagined, but in a deeper knowledge of Christ.

Jesus said, “I come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.”  You want to moved in the deepest possible way, right down to the core of your spirit?  You want to truly live an abundant life?  Learn to serve the living God by increasing your knowledge in His word.

Jeremy Koontz