[2] You know for most of life’s endeavors to be truly successful you have to have a certain measure of follow through. You just do. If you want to throw a football, roll a bowling ball or swing a golf club well you have to follow through. If you want your goals for your kids to be realized you have to follow through in your parenting. If you want your business to grow you have to follow through with your business management. It won’t happen by itself.
And when you don’t follow through, when you give up on your dreams, when you give up on your responsibilities, when you give up on your commitments, all you’re left with is regret. I’m so glad that some of the greatest people who ever lived followed through with their dreams regardless of the discouragement that came their way.
- Michael Jordan, cut from high school basketball team
- Thomas Edison, told he was stupid in grade school
- Walt Disney, fired from a newspaper for not being creative enough
- Beatles, turned down for a record deal
- Lucille Ball, kicked out of acting school
- Abraham Lincoln, fiancé’ died, businesses failed, lost eight elections
For us to be truly successful in life we have to follow through with our dreams,
with our responsibilities and with our commitments. Especially when it comes to what the Lord calls us to do. We must follow through in being the church in this world. [3]
[Read I Corinthians 15:58.]
We must follow through on what God wants us to do with our lives. Last week I challenged us all to take our faith to the next level. If you made a fresh commitment to do just that then let me ask you – Are you following through in that commitment? Are you following through with the thirty minutes a day with God challenge?
Have you ever noticed how many times when you make a commitment for the Lord all kinds of things come into your life to keep you from following through on that commitment? Satan doesn’t want you to keep your promises to God. Satan doesn’t want you to follow through. He wants you to fail. Let’s not give him the pleasure. Let’s please the Lord instead and follow through with whatever He’s called us to do in our lives.
This morning we’re going to look at three things that can help us follow through with our dreams, our responsibilities and our commitments. [4]
First we need to know what God wants us to do. Secondly we need to surround ourselves with people who will help us. And third we need to rely on the power of God to enable us to follow through. Know what God wants us to do, surround ourselves with people who will help us, rely on the power of God to enable us to follow through. These things will help us follow through with what God’s called us to do with our lives.
And we see these three things evidenced by the way the apostles followed through with what the Lord called them to do even amidst all the pressures to stop. [5] Go with me to Acts chapter seventeen where we see Paul, Silas and Timothy continuing to spread the good news of Jesus Christ from town to town no matter the pressure they received to stop. God had called them to preach the gospel to as many people as possible and nothing was going to keep them from following through on that calling.
The last time we were in the book of Acts we were in chapter sixteen where it tells of how the apostles were in the city of Philippi doing ministry and how they were imprisoned for doing just that. God worked some incredible miracles, lots of people were saved, Paul and Silas were let out of prison, but then decided to move on to the next city.
The next place they find themselves doing ministry was in Thessalonica. Let’s see how things turn out there.
[Read Acts 17:1-4.]
So for the first three weeks that they were there Paul went to the Jewish synagogue to reach out to the Jews. And many of them came to understand and believe that Jesus was the Savior that they had been waiting for. But they were there in Thessalonica for several months after this because it says that many Greeks and leading women also came to believe which would have taken some time. Also in Philippians 4:15-16 Paul references how the church in Philippi sent him two financial gifts to support them in Thessalonica as well as the fact that Paul worked while there as indicated in I Thessalonians 3:7-10.
So the apostles were there reaching people and establishing a church for several months and things were going well. But then the ego-centric Jews got wind of what was going on and decided to put an end to it.
[Read Acts 17:5-9.]
So the jealous Jews set out to destroy their ministry and found out where the apostles were staying. They drag this Jason and other believers out into the city and start whipping up the crowd into an angry frenzy with exaggerated charges. They couldn’t find Paul, Silas and Timothy so they attacked the first people they found. In verse nine it says they received “a pledge” from Jason and the others which means they extorted money from them. The deal was that they had to pay the authorities a bond promising that the apostles would quit turning their town upside down, (which means they had to stop evangelizing). If they didn’t quit then Jason and the others wouldn’t get their money back.
The situation was so serious that Paul decided it was time for them to move on. But they had accomplished their goal there in Thessalonica and a new church had been planted. So now they’re off to Berea. Let’s see how things go there.
[Read Acts 17:10-12.]
Well, so far so good! These Jews were more noble-minded than the ones in Thessalonica and they wanted to know just how Jesus matched up with Old Testament predictions of the coming Messiah. The ministry amongst the Jews and Greeks went well and another church was planted. But pressure to stop was coming.
[Read Acts 17:13-15.]
Unbelievable! Don’t these guys have anything better to do? I mean, its one thing to try and own your own town’s religious thought, but to travel 46 miles to harass Paul is taking hate to a whole new level.
So again, Paul has to run for his life to another town. Now, Paul wasn’t afraid of dying, he was afraid of not staying alive long enough to complete his mission of reaching the world! So he leaves Silas and Timothy in Berea to finish the work there and off he went to Athens. (We’ll look at his incredible ministry there next week.)
Now this theme of the apostles going into a new town, reaching lots of people, setting up a church there, and then getting persecuted out of town happens over and over again. And of course some times the persecution includes beatings, imprisonment and even death.
So with all this pressure to stop, how did these guys follow through with what God had called them to do? Why didn’t they just give up and go home to find a job where they wouldn’t be under such pressure?
Well because they Knew what God wanted them to do, they surrounded themselves with people who were helpful, and they relied on the power of God to enable them to follow through.
If you and I are going to follow through on what the Lord has called us to do, we need to employ these principles in our lives. [6] First, know what God wants you to do.
It’s been said that a person who is committed to nothing will accomplish just that – nothing. We need to understand and know what the Lord wants us to do in our lives. Look at how Paul understood what the Lord wanted him to do. (Of course this is one of the letters that Paul wrote back to the church he started there in Thessalonica.)
[Read I Thessalonians 2:1-4.]
Paul and the others knew that God wanted them to bring them the precious gospel no matter the opposition that awaited them. That was their calling. That was their gifting. That was their heart. They knew what God wanted them to do and they followed through no matter what the world and the devil threw at them.
God has things He wants us all to do as well. We need to be able to know just what the Lord wants us to do so that we can actually do His will in our lives.
Now in this sermon don’t have time to get into how to know exactly what the Lord wants us to do, but there are ways to find His will.
[Mention prayer, bible study, counselors.]
To be able to follow through on what the Lord wants, we have to know His will for our
lives and own it.
[7] Another thing that will help us follow through is to surround ourselves with people who will help us accomplish our goals. (Don’t surround yourself with people who will hold you back!)
Look at how Paul surrounded himself with useful people for this mission. Remember it was supposed to be him and Barnabas who went on this evangelistic trip but Barnabas wanted to take Mark with them. (The same Mark who had deserted them on a previous trip.) Paul disagreed and took Silas and Timothy instead.
[Read Acts 15:39-16:3a.]
And it seems that Paul made the right decision because Silas and Timothy have been right there by his side through even the worst of times and they never gave up. As a matter of fact, as they followed through together they were able to see God’s hand work through them all in incredible ways! You have to surround yourself with people who will help you, not hold you back, from accomplishing your goals.
[Read Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.]
Sometimes we have to make some wise and even tough decisions in life when it comes to who we spend the bulk of our time with. Are the people in your life helping you move forward or are they holding you back?
[TTU roommates story.]
Know what God wants you to do, surround yourself with people who will help, and finally, [8] rely on the power of God to enable you to follow thru.
In Philippians 4:13 Paul said, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” He knew that God would enable him to do what he was supposed to do. Look at how he expressed that back to the church he started in Thessalonica.
[Read I Thessalonians 1:5, 2:5-7, 13.]
Paul was saying that they didn’t come in there with a smooth sales pitch that could sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman wearing white gloves on a hot summer day. Paul was saying that they simply brought them the message of God and the power of God did the rest. They followed through on their mission relying on God’s power to do so.
Listen, our human strength is going to give out. Our motivational emotions are going to wear off. Pressure will come into our lives and try to knock us off course. Steadfastly rely on the power of Almighty God to follow through on what He’s called you to do.
[9] For us to follow through we need to Know what God wants us to do, surround ourselves with people who will help us, and rely on the power of God to enable us to follow through. Employ these principles into your life and watch how more consistently you’re able to follow through on your dreams, your responsibilities and your commitments. [10]
