Are We There Yet? How we can experience success in God’s will.
Have you ever thought “Will we ever get there?”
Do you feel successful? Or do you feel like a failure?
Paul is a prisoner for Christ. He had some tough days. The book of Acts with Paul getting to Rome as God had told him.
How did I get here? Am I a success?
How did that happen? I grew up in this little town, Rosamond: The gateway to progress! Who I am and any measure of success in my life can be directly attributed to this church and people who cared about me, taught me, prayed for me. The fact that I made it through high school, college, and ministry is not because of me but God’s grace that came through the love of God’s people in His church. I love God, love the church, love His Word, and ministry because people invested in my life.
Some great youth leaders who DON’T GET PAID have also made a difference, as well as amazing teenagers like you.
The average local church is overlooked at irrelevant, backwards…but God is working in the local church.
How can we experience success?
I. We set sail…Growing up Spiritually (verse 11)
• Everyone needs to grow up spiritually
• Youth Ministry: You cannot be a teenager forever…
• You need the church as much as the church needs you…
II. Right Relationships…We found some brothers (& sisters) (14)
• The wrong friends will ruin your life – unequally yoked (2 Cor)
• You will never out grow the need for the people of God!
• If you want to succeed in life, find some believers who love God…
III. Be Thankful: Have a great attitude …and Paul thanked God (15)
• If we are going to succeed in life, we need to have a thankful attitude.
• Do you spend more time complaining or being thankful?
• Look around you…there is a lot to be thankful for!
IV. Take Courage (v. 15) Discipline and Determination
• We need discipline, rules, guidelines…
• When it gets hard, we just take away the rules…
• “That part of the Bible doesn’t work for me…”
• Parents giving up…There is a generation that curses their father, and does not bless their mother. Prov. 30:11
V. Find our identity in Christ…he stayed by himself… (16)
• Stop letting the world culture define who you are and what success is.
• What do you want to be known for?
• When no one else worships…I will
• When no one else prays…I will
There is no limit with God…so we came to Rome 14
We will get to where God wants us to be when we are willing to set sail, let go, move on, grow up
Paul got to Rome, but did he succeed? V. 24, 28 Some believed, some didn’t…
What is Success?
Take Responsibility: Proclaiming and teaching (30-31)
Success is taking responsibility for living in God’s will and the message we have been given.
• We will never understand who we are until we identify with a ministry of serving instead of expecting everyone to do it for us.
• Blessing Follows Ministry: Why don’t we do it more?
• Paul’s success was not based on their response, but his responsibility.
Are we crying for this generation…
• Take responsiblity for the people sitting next to you.
Take responsibility for those who are not sitting next to you - the empty seats
• Children’s Ministry: Take responsiblity for those younger than you. Do we really care? They are watching you…
• We cannot "just show up." We must take responsiblity for this church, this group, this minsitry.
Jonah’s plant…he cared more about the plant than the people of Nineveh. Some people want to live in shade while the world burns…people are more important than plants…(ministry)
• It might get hot! Make tough decisions…
• You either go to another group or you become a leader or just drop out…
• It is easier to not grow up because you just depend on everyone else
Sometimes we wait on God, sometimes he waits on us
Don’t just sit there! Four lepers: Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why do we sit here until we die?”
What is success? Happiness? Money, Sex, Straight A’s, Championships, Beauty, Dating, Marriage…? A lot of people with money, sex, have failed in life.
Success is:
To be loved…by God, by people
To love, God, to love people
To make a difference to influence one person…
Where you live does not determine success, but how you live.
• The point of life is not a point…
• God is the goal of life(God is everywhere)
• GOD’S IS SUCCESS…GOD’S WILL IS SUCCESS!
"I will follow You…" Really?
• We do whatever we want to do…”Get out of Rosamond!”
• We say we will do anything for God, as long as it is somewhere we want to be.
• Who’s "Got Next?" Who will be the next spiritual leader? Who will be the next Troy Thompson, Wanda Quinton, Art Pratti, Margie Mullins?
• Don’t leave the church…take responsibility…own the church.
Don’t tell God you will live for Him if you won’t live for him anywhere under any conditions.
• What if God’s will is to live in the middle of nowhere?
• What if God’s will is in a hard, dirty, smelly place?
• What if God’s will is right here, right now for you?
• When is the last time you cried…not for yourself, but for someone’s soul?
What if success was leading and discipling one person to Christ?
• Sadly, many Christians never do that… (2% invite to church)
• Have you ever experienced that kind of success?
• To love, lead, and disciple ONE OTHER PERSON! That is success!
• Paul lived with a Roman soldier!
“Jesus did not say - "he that believeth in Me shall realize the blessing of the fullness of God," but - "he that believeth in Me out of him shall escape everything he receives." Our Lord’s teaching is always anti-self-realization. Spiritually, we cannot measure our life by success, but only by what God pours through us, and we cannot measure that at all…. It is time now to break the life, to cease craving for satisfaction, and to spill the thing out. Our Lord is asking who of us will do it for Him?” Oswald Chambers
Where am I going? Will I ever get there? YES! If you are willing…
I am not an accident – you are not an accident. You have a specific purpose and passion.
Grace: I think I am exactly where I am supposed to be and it took a lot of things for me to get here…but I made mistakes, bad decisions…but God loves us anyway!
…It might seem hard, it might seem dark, dazed and confused, you thought things would be different…but you will make it! There is no shortcut…no quick fix.
What have we learned? Acts – God sent Jesus to save the world…Jesus went back to heaven and left the Church on earth. We are the Church – you are the church! The church is the glory of God…we are the temple of the Holy Spirit – we are God’s presence in the World. It is time to take responsibility. The book of Acts ends with success. Our lives will be successful if we take responsibility for being who God created us to be and doing His will.
Many people have loved and invested into your life...the question is, what will you do with that investment? Will we squander their investment?
We have detours, delays, disappointments, but if we are willing…
If we are in God’s will, we are successful…you are not a failure.
Start over…Let go of pain, mistakes, sin…Start here, start now..
You are the only you in the world! God is not finished…
"There is hope for me yet, God won’t forget all the plans He’s made for me." (Brandon Heath)
You Matter! You make a difference!
You are not just a face in the crowd!
If you were not here, this wouldn’t matter!
Let go of your comfort, but don’t let go of God! He will not let go of you!
Eye has not seen, ear has not heard what God has in store for those who love Him!
