Success In God Series

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)