However, let us never forget that on top of all these earthly sufferings, we have a bigger problem; our souls. God holds every human accountable for the way they have lived in this life. The secret motives of hearts, the sins committed behind closed doors, the way we have treated those depending on us, jealousy, pride, anger, theft, lies and a whole lot of immorality – All that will be examined by the Almighty and judged accordingly. It’s fair then to say that this bigger problem we have is that we need to get right with God.
No matter how many problems you have on earth it doesn’t change the fact that you will leave this earth in the form of death–which will come to you at an unexpected time. What will count at that time is not how much you have been motivated by speakers, but how is the state of your soul before a holy God?
This entire thing means that motivational speaking only goes as far – we need something strong enough to deal with the problems of our souls; it’s called preaching.
Unlike motivational speech, preaching is to take the Bible and to teach its message with power and directness – It is to herald and to proclaim Scripture! A preacher is not a school lecturer outlining his boring lesson about philosophy nor is he a weatherman presuming upon the coming rain with his sleepy voice. Rather, a preacher must speak loud enough to be heard, true enough to be believed, and passionate enough to be compelling. He is a combination of light and heat; I mean he has wisdom to give knowledge and passion to stir the heart.
Preaching goes further than motivation because it corrects the wrong, it rebukes the sinning, and it encourages the faithful. It is only the preacher’s voice that has a God-given ability to convict rebels, to save sinners, to disciple new converts, and to mature leaders. To sit under preaching is to sit under sound doctrine of Scripture that will change your heart and produce a life of good fruits. Therefore, preaching does affect how we deal with our physical problems such as sickness and poverty; it has power to give inner strength and endurance, enabling believers to stand in faith and even to die for the sake of the Gospel.
If anything we need preaching more than motivation, in fact, we do not need motivation if preaching can accomplish all of God’s purposes in our lives. But wait! Where are the preachers? Where are the men of God who have been called to proclaim, men who know the Scriptures to teach them with precision and power? Men who, like Jeremiah have the Word of the Lord burning like fire shut up in their bones hence they cannot be silent (Jer 20:9). Where are the faithful stewards who are disciplined to study the hidden treasures of Christ in the Word to benefit their listeners unto godliness? Where are the leaders who are not ashamed of using the Bible to deal with controversial issues of our day? Where are the wise brains that are not afraid of answering difficult questions from Scripture? We need such doctors of souls; who are able to give the eternal solution to our problems that will even go on with us to the other side of the grave.
We live in times when true preaching has declined because the Church is swelling up with more motivational speakers and smooth tongues. Even some of our trusted Church leaders who used to be sound Bible expositors have now relapsed to the world of positive talkers who only care about pumping egos so that we can jump and shout – for a while. After all the noise of positive confessions, we all go back home to face the reality of the same problems.
I mourn the day when the Church lost confidence in the power of the preached Word and replaced it with an inferior place-holder. What does the world say when it sees the Church doing this because there are motivational speakers in the world, even psychologists who are well-trained to deal with mental problems? God has not called the Church to imitate the methods of the world, but to offer the world something unique and different, something that goes deep to the heart and soul; the preacher-man’s voice.
And let's face it, it is very easy to be a motivational speaker. All you have to do is to pick out some positive verse in the book of Psalms and fly with it to the crowd. On the other hand, preaching demands a lot of hard work in the way of study, understanding, interpretation and application. Just as it is hard to mine gold so it is to get the riches of Christ in the Word. This is where we have a problem because most of our good ministers today no longer want to do the hard work of studying like a servant who is diligent to rightly divide the Word of truth (2 Tim 2:15).
My beloved African brothers and sisters; let us re-discover the value and power of the preaching of the written word of God. May the Lord help us!
2 Timothy 4:1-4 – I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
Sinothi Ncube
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