I was flipping through the channels the other day when I came across a guy giving a motivational speech. I stopped and listened to him for a few moments as he told his audience how they could feel better about themselves, live a fuller life and become all they were meant to be. His ultimate goal was to motivate people and make them feel better about themselves.
While this may, in many ways, be an admirable goal it is not the goal that pastors have in mind when they preach. We are called to proclaim the gospel message of the kingdom of God from the pulpit. While it is a hope filled message it is also a message that calls for repentance, it is a message that idnentifies and challenges the sin in our lives, it is a message that exposes us in all our weakness before calling us to come to the cross and surrender our lives to God in Christ who died for us.
It is good news for all but it is not motivational news. It is a calling to another way of living but it comes through surrender to the Holy Spirit and not self-motivation. It is an uncomfortable, disquieting message that brings ultimate comfort. It is not a call to doing certain things but rather to live in relationship with a certain person, the triune God. It is not a call to a better life, it is a call to the only life truly worth living.
Yes, sermons can and indeed often should be motivational, but at it's heart the sermon is not about motivating people to action it is about proclaiming what God has done.
