Bible Preaching or Motivational Speaking?
In response to an article I wrote some time ago (openly condemning and exposing fraud that is commonly found in the modem day missions movement) one lady wrote, "If you want to make a difference, why wouldn't you try to teach, uplift and edify?" Clearly this lady's sentiments are the commonly held view by most "Christians" on how sin and error should be addressed. What this lady wrote me is what most people attending church today want when it comes to dealing with their sin, moral problems and other errors being permeated through the Church. "Edify us. Uplift us. Teach us." This attitude permeates all of Christendom. That is an attitude that says, "No matter what, don't come down hard on me; don't command me; don't expose me; handle me easily at all costs and under all conditions".
Sadly, in the Laodicean age, it's the people's church, so the people get what they want. As a result, we are watching a dramatic change in the pulpits of our land. No longer do we really understand what Bible preaching is. In fact, the average pulpit of our land is filled with what we might accurately describe as motivational speaking rather than Bible preaching. It would seem that the average believer today is looking for nothing more than glorified counseling sessions. Sadly, our messages don't take on the air of the prophets of old. They seem more like a therapy session. Friends, if the Bible is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness so that we might be thoroughly furnished to all good works, why is the Bible being handled with kid gloves, and meted out in spoonfuls? Have we given in to the people? Are we becoming motivational speakers instead of Bible Preachers? Is this a fulfillment of Amos 8:11 where we read, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.
The dry-hide teachers of our day love to label old fashioned, sin hating, sin stomping, hell-fire and brimstone preaching as shallow. These "intellectuals" love to associate this type of preaching with emotionalism and thereby condemn it. Let me say to this group, I'm tired of the Swindol, MacArthur, and Stanley productions. For the most part it is motivational speaking, not Bible preaching. I believe a congregation shouldn't have to be experts in deductive reasoning to know what the application of the "sermon" was.
Sadly, this motivational speaking is producing a worldly, powerless, Saviourless brand of Christianity that is being walked on all across our once great land. We accept the sodomite lifestyle, divorce is as high in the church as out of it, teen pregnancy rates are the same in the church as in the world, and the music being called "Christian" in many cases is just the world's with some shallow words added to soothe our consciences while our flesh is being satisfied. And what is the response to all of this? "Bro. Mays, if you want to make a difference, why wouldn't you try to teach, uplift and edify." God help us! Give us some men of God with a backbone. Lord, help us to begin exposing sin again. Deliver us from the fear of man. Lord, give us unction to preach again! Read Ezekiel 3:20. We are failing to warn the righteous.
Pastor Steven E. Mays - Trumpet Editor