We Don’t Need Good Advice—We Need the Good News

In a world overflowing with self-help gurus, motivational quotes, and endless podcasts offering “life hacks” and strategies, it’s easy to mistake good advice for what our souls actually need. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing inherently wrong with good advice. It can help you make better decisions, set boundaries, and even be more productive. But good advice can’t raise the dead. And that’s the problem.

We’re not just people in need of improvement; we’re sinners in need of a Savior, believers in need of sanctification. The Bible doesn’t describe us as struggling students in need of better guidance. It describes us as spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1, LSB). What dead people need isn’t advice—they need resurrection. They need the Good News.

The Good News—the gospel—is not a list of steps to be a better person. It’s the declaration that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived the perfect life we couldn’t live, died the death we deserved, and rose again, defeating sin, death, and the grave. That’s not advice. That’s news. And not just any news - it’s life-altering, eternity-shaping, chain-breaking news.

The world says, “Here’s what you need to do.”
Jesus says, “It is finished.” (John 19:30, LSB)

Advice tells you how to climb up the mountain to get to God.
The gospel tells you that God came down the mountain to rescue you.

Advice might make you feel better about yourself for a little while.
The gospel makes you a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17, LSB).

Church, we’ve got to stop offering people “good vibes and better living” when what they need is a death-to-life transformation. The problem with humanity is not that we’re uninformed, but that we’re unregenerate. People don’t need a pat on the back and a little encouragement to try harder. They need to be born again. They need Jesus.

Paul didn’t travel across the known world to give TED Talks. He didn’t risk beatings, shipwrecks, and imprisonment to share life tips. He came preaching Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2, LSB). Because that’s what saves, that’s what transforms. That’s what turns the world upside down.

So let’s be clear: the church is not a life-coaching seminar. It’s a rescue station. Our message is not “Be better.” It’s “Be born again.”
The world’s advice says, “You can fix this.”
The gospel says, “You can’t—but Jesus already has.”

If we, as pastors, leaders, and believers, reduce our preaching to good advice, we are robbing the cross of its power. Advice can help behavior. Only the gospel can redeem the heart.

So stop chasing tips and tricks. Turn your ears and hearts to the truth that saves because we don’t need good advice. We need the Good News.

And His name is Jesus.

In Love,
Pastor Jody