What is your motive for serving God?
Pastor Greg Tabor
Ridgeway Assembly of God
3/20/05, a.m. service
Introduction: the Illustration of Jehu
a. Jehu’s Commission from God
· A prophet was sent to pronounce God’s death sentence on Ahab in 1 Kings 20:42 because of his disobedience in not killing Ben-Hadad king of Aram.
· Elijah the Tishbite later prophesied the type of doom Ahab would face in 1 Kings 21:19 after Ahab had murdered Naboth and seized his property (vineyard). While this came true when dogs licked the king’s blood while it was being washed from his chariot at a pool where prostitutes bathed (1 Kings 22:38), will see more of its fulfillment in a few minutes.
· Elijah prophesies that Ahab’s descendants would be cutoff and his wife would killed (1 Kings 21:22-24).
· Because of Ahab’s subsequent humbling of himself before God, God took notice and chose to bring about these disasters during the reign of his son Joram instead of in Ahab’s lifetime (1 Kings 21:27-29).
· Jehu, a commander in the Israelite army, was anointed king and commissioned to exterminate Ahab’s descendants (2 Kings 9:6-10) and thus fulfill these prophecies against the house of Ahab.
b. Jehu’s “Zeal for the Lord”
· Jehu kills Joram, King of Israel and Ahab’s son (2 Kings 9:24-26). Joram’s body was thrown on Naboth’s plot of ground, thus further fulfilling the prophecy of Elijah in 1 Kings 21:19.
· Jehu kills Ahaziah, King of Judah, one of Ahab’s grandsons. (2 Kings 9:27; 2 Chronicles 22:7 explains how Ahaziah’s visit to Joram was used by God to bring about his downfall.) He also kills some of King Ahaziah’s relatives who were coming to visit (2 Kings 10:12-14).
· Jehu has Jezebel thrown out of a window. She is then trampled and eaten by dogs. (2 Kings 9:32-37)
· He incites the officials of Samaria who were rearing 70 sons of Ahab to kill all the royal princes. Their heads were piled at the entrance of the city gate to Jezreel (2 Kings 10:6-9).
· Jehu killed any one remotely related or associated with Ahab in Jezreel (2 Kings 10:11) and all his family in Samaria (2 Kings 10:17).
· His final achievement was his killing of all the Baal priests and destroying the Baal temple to the point it became used as a latrine (2 Kings 10:25-28).
· For all of this he was rewarded by God with the longest dynasty in the history of Israel (2 Kings 10:30).
c. Jehu’s Motives Exposed and Judged
· Hosea, prophesying during the reign of Jeroboam II, the 3rd in Jehu’s line of rulers, exposes something interesting (Hosea 1:4). God was going to punish the house of Jehu for a massacre He sanctioned and rewarded Jehu for (2 Kings 10:30). How can this be, Jehu seemed like an obedient servant of the Lord?
· Read 2 Kings 10:29 & 31. He did not destroy the idol worship instituted by Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:26-30). Don’t you find that strange being that he exterminated Baal worship? What happened to that zeal for the Lord he talked about in 2 Kings 10:16? The zeal that should have led him to ridding the kingdom of every sort of idol worship. I believe it never was purely there to begin with. In a sermon entitled “The Honour of the world” a French Catholic preacher asked “Why did he not destroy them [Jeroboam’s calf idols] as well as the Baal and his temple?” He then answers by stating, “Because that would have injured his own prospects, interfered with his own plans” (Clyde E. Fant, Jr., and William M. Pinson, Jr. 20 Centuries of Great Preaching: Volume 2. Waco, Texas: Word Books. 1971. p. 299. Brackets mine).
· Thus I conclude that Jehu’s agenda didn’t really include God. “But Jehu, by cleaving, against the will of God, to Jeroboam’s sin, which served his own political ends, showed that, in the slaughter of his master, he acted not, as he pretended, out of zeal for the will of God, but served his own will and his own ambition only.” (Barnes’ Notes on the Old Testament. Electronic Edition STEP Files Copyright © 1999, Findex.Com. All rights reserved.). Getting rid of Baal served his interests, but getting rid of the calves cut in on his political gains.
· God had told Jeroboam he would give him a dynasty like David’s if he would obey Him. He did not reward Jehu’s obedience with this same promise (2 Kings 10:30). Perhaps the limited dynasty was not only a reward, but somewhat of a holding back of total blessing to Jehu’s line because of Jehu’s impure motives. Perhaps it was a foretelling of the fact his sons would cleave to the same sins of their father and therefore the line justly exterminated.
· A sure sign of God’s immediate judgment on Jehu was His reducing of the size of Israel (2 Kings 10:32).
· While Jehu might have “rested with his fathers” as V.35 NIV says, meaning his physical death, I can assure you that is not descriptive of what has been taking place for thousands of years in hell with his soul. I read one place where it was stated that the only recompense he received in this life or the next was that his descendants would sit on the throne to the fourth generation.
· The main point of my using Jehu as an illustration is to bring out the thought of one’s motives behind one’s service to God.
The Motives Behind our Service to God
What is the definition of “motive”?
My old Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary in my office defines motive this way:
“That within the individual, rather than without, which incites him to action; any idea, need, emotion, or organic state that prompts to an action.” (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary. Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam CO., Publishers. 1961.)
I believe a motive basically reveals why we do what we do. In Jehu’s case we see a man driven by political ambition. There are other Biblical examples of serving God for less reasons than purely out of devotion to Him.
Examples of Serving out of Impure Motives
a. Serving God out of selfish ambition
· Paul gave examples of preachers in Philippians 1:14-18 who were taking advantage of Paul’s being in prison by trying to make a name for themselves, thus feeling they would make Paul jealous.
· “Many a solo is sung to show off; many a sermon is preached as an exhibition of talent; many a church is founded as a slap to some other church. Even missionary activity may become competitive, and soul-winning may degenerate into a sort of brush-salesman project to satisfy the flesh.” – A. W. TOZER (DRAPER’S book of QUOTATIONS FOR THE CHRISTIAN WORLD. Edythe Drape. TYNDALE HOUSE PUBLISHERS, INC. WHEATON, ILLINOIS.)
b. Serving God out of Greed
· Paul wrote about false teachers in 1 Timothy 6:3-10 who saw financial opportunity in the Gospel. Undoubtedly we have observed that in record numbers in our day and time.
c. Serving God without love for others
· “1If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. 3If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.” 1 Cor 13:1-3 NLT
· Our service to God is hollow without love for others and reveals a service with impure motives.
· “It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it.” – A. W. TOZER (DRAPER’S book of QUOTATIONS FOR THE CHRISTIAN WORLD. Edythe Drape. TYNDALE HOUSE PUBLISHERS, INC. WHEATON, ILLINOIS.)
The Example of Paul and his service from pure motives
· In 1 Thessalonians 2:1-6 Paul makes the case that he’s not covering up impure motives. He wasn’t wearing a mask. He was true blue. And his Gospel was true blue. They weren’t covering up greed.
God knows your motives
a. God is examining your motives
“People may be pure in their own eyes, but the LORD examines their motives.” Proverbs 16:2 NLT
b. God will reveal your motives
12For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are. 13Nothing in all creation can hide from him. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done. – Hebrews 4:12-13 NLT
“He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.” 1 Cor 4:5b NIV
Conclusion
· Jehu only served God as long as it served his own self-interests.
· People in our day and time serve God with impure motives as well.
· Some people treat God like a get-out-jail-free card that they discard after He gets them out of their problems.
· Some people treat God like a glorified slot machine running after material prosperity in a way very much like the world. They forget what James said: “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:3 NIV). These folks serve God for only what they can get out of Him. Like a customer at Burger King they want it their way, and they aren’t too proud to ask God to supersize it!
· Some people climb the ladder of church success much like folks climb the corporate ladder. They don’t truly care who they step over. They wear their religion like a cloak over their desire for folks to see them as spiritual. They may speak in tongues and be used in great gifts of the Spirit, but their lack of love for others reveals a heart with impure motives.
· Why are you serving God? Are you serving God out of interest in His plan for you, or are you serving Him to the extent that what He does benefits your plan for your life?
· The title Rev., Deacon, Sunday School Teacher, Member, etc. won’t mean a hill of beans in the end, but whether you truly had zeal for the Lord or it was just a cloak of sorts over who you really are will. Therefore, check your motives this morning.
