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Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat
or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Our motives answer the question: why do I do what I do? They
also help us to assess what is important. It is not just important in life to
do the right things, but we should do them for the right reasons. Satan has a
lot of tools in his Arsenal that can help us find the wrong motives for our
actions. Tools like hatred, anger, greed, covetousness, lust, pride, selfish
ambition, and the list could go on and on. Criminal investigators, while trying
to solve cases, always look for the person or persons who have the means,
motive, and opportunity to commit the crime. Even our criminal justice system
understands the importance of motivation. (James 4:3),
Satan will try his very
best to convince us that the gospel is all about what it can do for us. He
would have us believe that whatever we do for God must benefit us, or it is not
worth it. Some come to worship service for a variety of reasons. Some will only
come if certain other people are there, or a particular preacher is preaching
that day. Some attend church because there is nothing else on their agenda that
day. When we show an outward appearance of serving God, and there is some other
reason that lingers inside us, we are deceiving ourselves because we certainly
are not deceiving God.
It's like the drug addict
who robs a convenience store. He's not mad at the store owner. He wants the
money. But it's not the money he wants. He wants the money because he can take
it and buy the drugs. Those drugs compel him. When we come under the influence
of any greater power, it will affect our motives. We will be persuaded to serve
the greater power. When it's God, it brings great benefit to our lives because
He is a God of love. However, when it is evil, we set a course toward
destruction.
Once, J.P. Morgan proved
that you could motivate anybody if you find their "hot button." His
sister could never get her son, who was away at college, to answer her letters.
Morgan had his sister write a letter to her son and say, "Enclosed, please
find $50," and purposely not enclose the money. She immediately received a
letter from her son saying, "The money you said was enclosed in your
letter wasn't."
Can you remember the last
time you washed a rental car? Probably not. People don't wash rental cars. The
motivation of ownership is missing. The same principle is true in churches.
Until we feel a degree of ownership, we are going to treat the church like we
treat a rented car,
Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also.
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