The Matter Of Motives

Illus: On a national television program they had a power lifting competition. These BIG FELLOWS would walk up to a bar of weights that would take six or seven men in this congregation to pick up.

One after the other they would walk up to the bar and powder their hands and would work at getting motivated (psyched) to pick the weight up over their heads.

They had a time period they had to get psyched up in, and if they did not do it in that time period they were disqualified.

This one big fellow walked up to a bar loaded with hundreds of pounds of weights and looked at it and started making all these weird noises. He walked away and came back and did the same thing two or three times. Finally time ran out on him and he was disqualified in the competition. He never could muster up the MOTIVATION TO DO THE JOB!

There are people that have never gotten the MOTIVATION to achieve things in life.

If we are going to ever get anywhere in life, we have to be motivated.

Illus: A door-to-door entrepreneur became rather bored with his job of selling Bibles, so he decided to become a boss, hiring three people to sell Bibles for him. He interviewed three people.

The first came in and said, "I want to sell Bibles for you." "OK, you're hired. Here's your kit; go sell!"

The second came in and said, "I want to sell Bibles for you." "OK, you're hired! Here's your kit; go sell!"

The third came in and said, "I- i - I wa - wa- wa-want t-t-t-t-to s-s-s-s-ell to sell, to sell, to sell Bi -Bibles f-f-f-fo-for y-y-y-y you you!"

"No," shouted the man, "this will never work! You can't sell Bibles for me!" The applicant replied, "I reallyllll, n-n-n-n-need th-th-th-this job!"

As there were no other applicants, the man said, "OK, I'll give you one shot at this, but I expect you to PRODUCE!"

At the end of the day, the first applicant comes back and reports, "I sold 8 Bibles today."

The second reports: "I sold 11 Bibles today.”

The third worker reports, "To-to-to-to t-t-today I so- I sold 28 Bi- bi- b- bibles!"

"Great," says the man. "However, I want you to sell a lot more Bibles than that, so get out there tomorrow and MAKE ME SOME MONEY!" At the end of the first day:

The first worker comes in and reports, "Today, I sold 32 Bibles."

The second worker reports, "I sold 44 Bibles today"

The third worker reports, "To-to-to t-today, I sold 79 Bi-bi-bles!"

"Fantastic," said the man, "Since you're doing so well, why don't you tell these other two salesman your sales technique. How are you selling so many Bibles?”

The third worker said, "I-i-I j-j-j-j-ju-ju-ju-just wa, walk up to them and ask if they want t-t-t-t-o-o- buy a Bi-ble – and I would be glad to READ it to them!"

He said every one so far has said, “No, I will buy it and read myself…ok?”

Every salesman has to be motivated to be successful!

Let me give you a definition of the word motivation: The sense of need that prompts an individual to act or begin movement.

Motivation is essential to getting things done for the Lord. Motivation makes us DO SOMETHING WITH OUR LIVES!

Illus: Ravi Zacharias, in his book, "Can man live without God?" tells the following story. A young somewhat cocky cowboy was riding his horse, when he spied a hunched over old farm hand on a mule. Deciding to have a little fun, the young cowboy drew his 6 shooter and told the old man to get down off his mule. He then asked the old man if he had ever danced. He began to empty his revolver at the old man’s feet with great laughter.

The old man slowly turned back to his mule and put his hand into his pack and drew a shotgun and aimed it at the now bullet-less young cowboy. He said, "Did you ever kiss a mule?" To which the young cowboy said with fright, "No but I have always wanted to!"

While the Lord does not put a gun to our heads, He does give us the scriptures for direction and motivation.

Everything we do, we do because something has motivated us.

Illus: I recently ran across a letter written by a father that wanted to apologize to a certain young man for not allowing him to marry his daughter:

“Dear Marty,

I have been unable to sleep since I broke off your engagement to my daughter. Will you please forgive and forget?”

“I was much too sensitive about your Mohawk haircut, tattoos and pierced nose. I now realize that motorcycles aren’t really that dangerous, and I really should not have reacted that way to the fact that you have never held a job.”