The Apprentice - Part 3 & 4 Series

The Apprentice - part 3

May 2, 2004 AM

We are in a series entitled "The Apprentice."

And our study is "secrets of success from God’s persepctive."

The first secret was : "The buck stops here --"

No one controls your life but you --

If others are controlling your life, it is because you are allowing them to.

Where you are right now in your life is not someone else’s fault -- it’s your own.

We cannot play the blame game and change our future.

The buck stops here .... we are responsible for our own life

The second secret we learned was; Seek Wisdom

And we looked at 3 basic steps in acquiring wisdom;

1) Recognizing that God is God.

God is God -- and He’s not to be argued with, bargained with, or ignored.

He is the ultimate, final authority for all matters of the entire universe.

2) The second basic step we learned was we have to walk in relationship with God

(Psa 111:10 NKJV) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments .....

When you’re in relationship with God you’re playing by His rules

You’re walking according to His laws.

You cannot violate God’s principles and expect God’s wisdom in your choices.

3) The third step in finding wisdom is ask God for it

(James 1:5 NKJV) If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

This morning we look at secret #3:

3) We must be people of action

Here’s what I have discovered --

We, as believers, have grown quite fat.

The church today looks a lot like a huge blob that resembles a human form but has become grossly over weight.

And all you hear from it are gurgles and belches and a gruff voice that says "feed me, feed me"

If the right speaker isn’t speaking, or if we get the impression that we might not be ministered to -- we don’t bother to even go to church.

Heaven forbid we be there to minister to someone else.

This is kind of a pet peave of mine --

There are people who drive all over the country to hear special speakers,

But can’t volunteer for one service every 2 months in the nursery.

The number one reason people leave churches is "they’re not being fed"

Yet you ask them how many ministries they are involved in and they stutter and stammer through a dozen excuses as to why they can’t help out.

I say all of that to kick off our apprentice secret for today --

We must be people of action -

But what happens all to often is people hear a good message,

They shake your hand tell you how great you preached, or how wonderful the service was,

But they walk out the door and never put to use the truths of God’s Word they said they loved so much.

Let me share two scriptures with you;

I’m reading from the Message Bible because he puts it so plain;

Romans 2:13 (Msg) Merely hearing God’s law is a waste of your time if you don’t do what he commands. Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God.

Then in James chapter 1;

James 1:22 (Msg) Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!

Remember -- you are responsible for you own life,

You determine your own future -

And the way to create a better future is by making some changes today.

We create a new "us" today -- so that we will have a better "us" tomorrow.

We refuse to dwell, spend time, live in the pit of the past,

We are going to build a better tomorrow with todays actions.

We can either espouse flattery about the goodness of God’s word,

Or we can put God’s word to use -- and make a difference.

Success secret # 3 -- We must be people of action.

Most people have a very low tolerance of laziness in the natural realm.

We get bent out of shape real easy over people who just won’t work.

In fact we can actually preach some pretty good sermons on the sin of laziness.

I have known a few people that as my dad used to say "you had to drive a stick beside them to see if they moved".

There is nothing that gets people noticed and hired quicker than for them to appear energetic and full of life.

If you fall asleep during the interview -- don’t count on getting the job.