I want to talk this morning about being a successful Christian
Many people would define being a successful Christian as being a Christian that makes it to heaven.
Do you know what the definition of success is in our dictionary?
“Desirable Outcome” or “one that succeeds”
I want you to think about “success” for a moment – not so much in a “Christian” way but how you would define “success”
Go to a high school graduation – think back to your high school graduation and you are going to find a Who’s who of idealistic kids who have vision of grandeur for their lives.
Go to a 20 year reunion and the majority of people are lying about their lives trying to impress those they graduated with.
In reality very few people live life to the extent of their dreamed success.
I don’t remember the statistic but something like 60-70% of people hates their job
If you asked those graduates on their graduation, “what are you going to do if you get a job and you hate it?”
The majority would probably tell, “I’d quit and go find another one!”
But that’s not reality – in reality most people settle for what comes along.
And because our natural tendency is to settle for what comes along when it comes to our Christian lives we do the exact same thing!
I stated a minute a go to think about the word “success” and how we would define it.
If we were to give a motivational speech on “success” and you were preparing your speech and looking for examples to use to motivate people I doubt you are going to pick someone living paycheck to paycheck.
You are going to get facts on Bill Gates, Sam Walton, Dave Thomas, the Rockefeller’s…
People who have achieved something beyond the normal because that is success.
Hebrews 12:1 talks about how there is a great cloud of witnesses watching us – standing with us – but I wonder how many of those who have gone on to be with the Lord barely got by because they were only focused on their reward in heaven.
Ps 23:5-6
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies [no enemies in heaven]; you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over [living in overflow].
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life… (NKJ)
There is something here on earth – now – that we have been given that causes us to be successful - here!
And then when our time on earth is over we have eternity with our Lord in heaven to look forward to…
But there are too many Christian walking around saying how God is so good – how God takes care of them – how God watches over them
Yet they’re pumping multitudes of medicines into their body
They are living paycheck to paycheck
They are fearful of events going on around them
That is not successful Christian living –
The scriptures found in:
Heb 4:16
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. (KJV)
2 Cor 9:8
8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (KJV)
Eph 3:20
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, (NKJ)
These scriptures mean something and we have a right as Heb 4:16 said to come boldly to the throne of grace –
We should expect to be “successful” as a Christian!
But have to realize there is responsibility on our parts.
The very first thing is obviously fear – people are fearful to trust the God they say is watching over them
It’s amazing how we believe what is in the newspaper, but don’t believe what is in the Bible
We believe what is told us on TV but we don’t believe what God has said
We believe the doctor can do what he says he will do, but we don’t be God will do what He said He will do.
People do not trust God because of fear – because they cannot see with the natural what God is saying.
It doesn’t matter what you are talking about in terms of being successful – whether as a Christian or as a business person or just in life in general
If you operate in fear you will never experience success
You have got to get rid of fear if you are going to operate in faith –
But let me move this out of the supernatural power of God for just a moment and look at some natural circumstances:
• Bury a man in the snows of Valley Forge and you have George Washington
• Raise a man in utter poverty and you have Abraham Lincoln
• Strike him down with infantile paralysis and he becomes an Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Burn him so severely that the doctors say he will never walk again and you have a Glen Cunningham who set the world’s 1 mile record in 1934
• Have him or her born black in a society filled with racial discrimination and you have a Booker T. Washington, Marian Anderson, George Washington Carver, or a Martin Luther King Jr.
• Call him a slow learner and retarded and write him off as uneducatable and you have an Albert Einstein
Why? Why are some successful in horrible situations while others can’t pull themselves from mild difficulty?
There was a study conducted of 300 highly successful people – people like FDR, Helen Keller, Winston Churchill, Albert Switzer, Mahout Gandhi, and Albert Einstein that reveals that ¼ had handicaps such as blindness, deafness, and crippled limbs
¾ had either been born in poverty, came from broken homes or at least came from exceedingly tense or disturbed situations
Why did these people overcome their problems while thousands are overcome by theirs?
And then move this into the church to those who are learning the principles of the Word of God and still why these believers so often overcome instead of overcomers.
From this study, the answer was found in their attitude – they refused to hold onto the common excuses for failure – they turned their stumbling blocks into stepping stones
They realized they could not determine every circumstance in life, but they could determine their choice of attitude toward their circumstance
And this is where people (Christians) fail to experience the overcoming power of God in their lives because they will not deal with how they approach their lives as Christians.
They may be successful in “not sinning” but still live day-by-day in poor health, limited financial resources, and fear of what might happen tomorrow.
Let’s turn to Psalm 112 and read about the person who has established themselves on the principles of God:
Ps 112:1-10
1 Praise the LORD! Blessed [empowered to prosper] is the man who fears the LORD, who delights greatly in His commandments. [what would this mean?]
2 His descendants will be mighty on earth; the generation of the upright will be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches will be in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.
4 Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness; he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
5 A good man deals graciously and lends; he will guide his affairs with discretion.
6 Surely he will never be shaken; the righteous will be in everlasting remembrance.
7 He will not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.
8 His heart is established; he will not be afraid, until he sees his desire upon his enemies.
9 He has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn will be exalted with honor.
10 The wicked will see it and be grieved; he will gnash his teeth and melt away; the desire of the wicked shall perish. (NKJ)
What does this passage promise to us?
1. Blessed or empowered
2. Children are blessed or empowered
3. Will have wealth and riches
4. Light in darkness
5. He is a lender and not a borrower
6. He is never shaken
7. He is not afraid of bad news
8. He has excess to give to the poor and those in need
9. He is exalted with honor
This is not an “in heaven” passage of scripture - this is talking about your life here on earth when you have set yourself on the Word of God.
Bring this over into the N.T.
2 Tim 1:7
7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of [or has given us the spirit of] power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (KJV)
’sound mind’ translated from the Greek literally means a “disciplined mind”
It is a mind “restricted” or “closely controlled” to the Word of God
o Why restricted or disciplined? Because things are going to come that try to get you to react to the circumstance instead of believe the Word of God.
o You will have the opportunity to allow your mind to get off what God has said.
Let me just say again what I have been saying so often – your decisions are forming your life
If you think it doesn’t matter you are making a decision based on false information and you are opening a door to the enemy
There are so many Christians wanting their loved ones to be saved and are frustrated or discouraged and can’t figure out why their prayer is not being answered
But stop and ask yourself what do they see in you?
Christians who are flaky about going to church and those loved ones look at you and are thinking you don’t go church why should I?
Or they listen to you speak you fear, doubt and unbelief and think – I got more hope than you.
Your life matters – the decisions that you make matter
Christians need to realize how important it is for us to conform to God’s divine standard – it will make us successful and others will see that success and want it.
You are not going to accidentally fall into conformity to God’s standard
You are going to have to discipline your mind
You are going to have to get your heart established on the things of God – God will require things of you that your flesh does not want to do.
And you are going to have to start practicing Christianity in your life
The disciplined person understands the law of God and doesn’t do anything outside the bounds of that standard.
The Apostle Paul talks about self-discipline in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, turn there if you have your Bible with you.
In this passage of scripture Paul uses a metaphor to illustrate his point:
1 Cor 9:24-27
24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.
27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. (NKJ)
Everyone who runs in a race does so for one purpose – to win the prize! That is why they are in the race...
According to the Word of God believers have been called to run a race…
Gal 5:7 says, “You ran well…” (NKJ)
Phil 2:16 tells us:
16 holding fast the word of life, so that … I have not run in vain or labored in vain. (NKJ)
Heb 12:1
1 …let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (KJV)
Believers are in a race and we are to run to win…
To experience success
What is necessary to accomplish that goal?
Paul tells us in verse 25, “Every man that striveth for the mastery [competes in athletics] is temperate in all things.”
In other words, if a person wants to experience victory [success] he has to be self-disciplined – it will demand you to require things of yourself that you do not naturally want to do.
A man can’t win a race if he is thirty pounds over weight – tremendous discipline is required to keep in shape.
Can you image someone making it to the Olympics and the night before the race a Big Mac, fries and a coke sounds really good.
It won’t matter how good it sounds he will tell his body no because of the race that is set before him.
The number of hours an athlete must train so he can win in competition is staggering.
An athlete who competes internationally frequently trains several hours a day for as long as five to ten years of their life.
These little girls that we all love to watch in gymnastics – many separated from their families so they train.
Not in school with their friends, but have personal tutors so they can train.
Their whole life is devoted for those few minutes of competition.
These athletes must push themselves to the point where they will no longer experience pain, to a point beyond a second wind.
They talk about a euphoria beyond pain that only athletes can experience.
That euphoria is like an incredible sense of freedom and energy, and it comes only beyond pain.
There is a power of the Spirit that so few have experienced because they will not hold themselves accountable – they do not require of themselves.
In verse 26 Paul continued, “I, therefore, so run, not as uncertainly.”
He made sure he stayed on course…
This is a key – so many don’t stay on course because they won’t hold themselves accountable
Our whole society is about not being accountable for what we do – did you see in the news the other day where Elton John said that the reason he is always throwing temper tantrums is because he is creative
What a great excuse to not hold yourself accountable.
But we all will one day give an account of our life and it is not going to be like our courts now where we can blame it on our parents, on our teachers, or because we one time drank milk that had a fly in it…
We must hold ourselves on course.
Paul uses this same example with Timothy where he deals with another aspect of being successful and again uses the metaphor of athletics.
In 2 Timothy 2:5, Paul tells Timothy that for an athlete to win the crown in a race, he must “strive lawfully”
In other words he must obey the rules of the game.
Just a week or so ago a runner was stripped of their gold metal and banned from the Olympics for life because of doping – he did not obey the rules of the game.
You cannot go out of bounds if you want to win, you must conform to the rules.
In verse 27 Paul adds, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (be disqualified because of sin).”
He didn’t want to go out of bounds and lose the chance for a spiritual victory and more than an athlete would want to do anything to disqualify them.
The Christian life is the hardest life that you are ever going to live but the rewards and the punishments of are such that we must make a decision to require of ourselves that which God has set before us.
And really this is a stand against being lazy
Prov 26:16
16 The lazy man is wiser in his own eyes Than seven men who can answer sensibly. (NKJ)
The wisdom of those who will not require of themselves is full of deception
It’s okay – It doesn’t matter – I don’t have to do that – It’s not necessary
But not only are you going to give an account of your life one day – but you are not going to experience success in this life being lazy when it comes to the things of God.
The Word of God has promised to the believer to the be the head and not the tail to be above only and not beneath, but we are also told
Prov 12:24
24 The hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy man will be put to forced labor. (NKJ)
These are spiritual laws that are at work in your life and you are living the results of them
Prov 13:4
4 The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich. (NKJ)
There are a lot of Christians out there that are experiencing their desires and they think God is holding back from them, but in reality it is because they are lazy and won’t require more out of themselves
Would you define your life as a hedge of thorns scraping through life meeting hardship at every turn or would you define your life as on God’s highway moving forward at 70 miles per hour?
Prov 15:19
19 The way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns, but the way of the upright is a highway. (NKJ)
Thanksgiving
We are going to celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday – this is the time of giving thanks
But if I gave you something – new suit – a car – whatever and you just gave thanks, “Thank you Pastor this mean so much to me.”
“Pastor you just can’t imagine how this makes me feel thank you so much”
But then you never wore it or used it – how thankful would you really be?
How thankful are we really that Jesus died on that cross to our sin and our sorrow, bore those stripes that we might be healed
How sincere are we when we give thanks, but it’s really inconvenient hold myself accountable to that or you know it’s really hard to believe so I’ll just complain instead?
God gave His only begotten Son so that we might successful and have a life that glorifies God
