The Road to Success…
MT 6:24-34
Intro: Any good father wants to provide a good, secure future for his children.
In fact, I know the reason many of you came to the United States was to provide a good future for your children.
And for that reason, we push our children to succeed. I believe in hard work and success. I believe that we must push our children toward success. However, we must be careful as we guide our children, to guide them in the right kind of success. And we must be careful as we seek success ourselves that we seek the right kind of success.
Jesus tells us very clearly how we can find material provision and success.
I. Seek first the kingdom of God.
A. All material provision comes from God.
DT 10:14 To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.
James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
The economy changes. Success is fleeting. But when we get success through God, it’s from one who “does not change like shifting shadows.â€
Just as the birds’ and the flowers’ provision comes from God, so the best of things for us come from God.
Example: A Christian psychologist says in his book that when people focus on trying to find happiness, they never find it. But when they focus on their relationship with Christ, they find happiness. The same is true of material success, as long as we "run after it as the pagans" we’ll never find it. But when we give up chasing it and pursue God instead, we will material blessing too.
B. We must therefore attain success through God’s prescribed method.
1. God’s method of seeking success is to not seek it at all.
2. We must seek God—not things… and he will give us the things!
PR 3:5,6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
a. God is very much interested in our trust for him. If everything he told us to do made sense, then we wouldn’t have to trust him.
b. We can “reason†or “think†together about what would make us or our children successful… but God says that we should not lean on our own understanding. Even when it contradicts our logic, we must trust that his ways are right.
c. In all your ways—the reason so many people don’t find the Christian walk working for them like it should, is they try to go about it half-heartedly. God’s ways work! But only when we follow them completely.
d. We spend so much time in life wondering where to go and what to do… b/c life throws curveballs at us. But God promises that if we trust in him and follow his ways that he will make the way in front of us straight:
No confusing twists and turns…
Making a road straight also meant removing obstacles in the roadway to make it travelable.
C. We cannot hold back from God, in order to attain success.
1. Church is important. If you’re too busy for the House of God, you’ll never find success.
Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
2. We must be willing to give ourselves and our children for the work of God! Because that’s the kingdom first!
Ex. 22:29b, “"You must give me the firstborn of your sons.â€
A. God had promised Abraham success… including land, fame, and descendents. Then he required Abraham to give him his son.
GE 22:2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."
B. God had already promised these things to Abraham, without condition, and yet he said that it was because he did not withhold his son that he would give him the promises.
GE 22:15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."
God knows that our children are our most valuable possessions, that is why he asks us to be willing to give him our children. Because he wants everything.
C. Of course, we don’t have sacrifice our children, but God not requires us to give a living sacrifice.
RO 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.
What is more important to you for your children? That they find their place in the Kingdom of God and accomplish something for God? Or that they get a master’s degree and a good job?
II. And his righteousness.
A. There is a lot of talk about prosperity in Pentecostal churches. I’m not here to promise you that being a Christian will make you rich. But where the Bible does talk about material blessings, it’s not about “name it and claim it†or anything else, it’s about RIGHTEOUSNESS.
B. When we are living right, we enter into a new kind of life, where our every action is directed by the Lord, who desires nothing but good for us.
Psalm 37:23-25 NLT, “The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand. Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor seen their children begging for bread.â€
C. It’s not that we’re signing a contract with God to become millionaires when we start living right. In fact, if we’re still thinking about the things, then we’re trying to serve 2 masters, which is impossible. But we begin to dwell in a new area of blessing.
PS 84:10-12 Better is one day in your court, than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. 12 O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.
III. Jesus isn’t tell us not to work toward achievement.
A. The Bible condemns laziness.
PR 6:6-8 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, 8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.
B. It’s a matter of priorities. We must put the Kingdom and righteousness first. The love and hate that Jesus talks about with money is not emotional hate. It’s hate that says that something that is less important gives way to something more important.
