This week we're going to be talking about success.
And that's a big thing.
If you have lived in America, you probably have noticed
we're in one of the most successful nations of all time.
Just militarily,
we won the American Revolution.
World Wars back to back undefeated.
And now you're talking about just the Olympics.
Go to the Olympics, and you watch the Summer Olympics.
Who's on the top of the list for medal count?
The Americans.
Now I think that affects us, not only as a culture,
but it also affects us as an individual.
What would you say is successful to you?
Would it be money?
Would it be respect?
Would it be a good career?
Would it be being a good parent?
Now you take all of these things and you say,
"I don't have all of these examples of what it means to be
"a success in this world."
I think you do.
And I think every one of us has our own criteria
of what success is.
And if I would just let you write it down
and go in the corner and say,
"What would be success to you?"
I think you could do it.
Assuming no one else would see it.
You could write down, this is what success means.
Now take that list.
Would you say, based on that list,
Jesus was a success in this world?
As far as power,
he fought against the politicians of his day and they killed him.
As far as money, he didn't even own a house.
He didn't have a place to lay his head.
As far as friends
and popularity, he was popular for a while.
He even had a sermon where, literally, everybody left
except his twelve disciples.
From a worldly perspective, Jesus was not successful.
But I think if we just step back and say,
"Was Jesus successful?"
We'd say, "Absolutely, he was,"
based on his purpose.
This is what it says in Philippians,
So my question to you is this:
"What is success in your life?"
I don't think it's trying to get results.
God doesn't give us results that you should have this much money
or this kind of house or this kind of thing in your life.
God wants us to live according to the purpose he has given us.
And God has given you a purpose
and obviously God has given Christ a purpose.
Which was,
in his omniscience, God saw a world that needed saving.
A world that included you.
And God says, "I'm going to go do it.
"I'm going to go all the way to the cross.
"And I'm going to succeed
"at saving the world."
That includes you.
Let's pray.
Dear Jesus, you are so successful.
Living in this world is so hard.
And we have so many things that we compare ourselves to.
We want success on so many different levels.
Help us find our true purpose.
Which is living for you.
And let the results take care of themselves.
Help us live for the way that you designed us.
You know that we know that you have a plan set out for us.
Help us live in that plan and be someone
who can live in people's life
to share the ultimate message of the greatest success of all time.
You came to this world to take sins away.
We ask this in your name.
Amen.
We're talking about success this week and there's a hot new term,
I think, for 2018.
It's not new, obviously, because it's 2019.
But the term is this:
"Lawn Mower Parents".
The idea, or the premise, is this:
That parents so want their kids to avoid obstacles,
challenges and failure that they mow down
any obstacle or challenge or failure in their way.
Now, I see this happen.
I get to teach Latin about once a week
at the local school.
And you're thinking, "Yeah. It's a dead language."
I get it.
So, I teach Latin once a week,
but I go by a cart
where parents drop off the things they forget for their students.
And they leave it there for them to deliver for the rest of the day.
I have a nickname for that cart.
And the staff actually
put the name
on the cart one day. And it said,
"The Cart of Irresponsibility."
And we all thought it was kind of funny.
And I couldn't believe they actually put it on the cart.
Because,
as you can imagine,
parents complained.
So, I'm thinking, "Okay,
"I can't do that to my kids.
"I have to make them responsible.
"I have to have them accomplish things and go through difficulties."
However, I feel this as a parent.
New Year's Eve, just last year,
I sat down with my kids.
And we talked through, like the greatest things of the year.
We talked about highs.
We talked about lows.
How did it make them feel?
And, ironically, or not ironically
because we're parents that love our kids,
the lows for both Amy and I included
when my kids struggled.
It is hard, as a parent that loves someone,
to see them struggle. And to see them fail.
And to see them work through things.
That was one of my top three low points for my,
for my life because it happened to my kids.
It was a top three low point for by wife's life
because of what happened to my kids.
So what do we get
and where do we go with all this stuff?
A couple things.
Failure is absolutely inevitable.
And you look at the life of Job.
He says our life is full of trouble.
And you look at what Jesus says as he sends out his disciples.
So, in one sense, he says you're going to go to a town
and people aren't going to listen. What should you do?
What is he doing? He's preparing them for
failure.
Failure is inevitable
even if you are a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Number two:
Failure often leads to good things.
There's someone, who's really smart, who said something like this,
"Failure is on the same road as success.
"It's just a little bit earlier."
And I think that's totally true.
You can look at the greatest basketball players.
How many shots they miss.
You can look at how much trouble and how much
Abraham Lincoln failed at elections.
And, for crying out loud,
Clorox bleach took 409 tries
to get the right cleaner.
So I mean, it takes effort to get something of substance.
So, how do we help out as people that love our kids?
We can't mow down all of the obstacles.
Instead, I think we just help them fight through failures
and make sure that they don't become a failure.
And when you give in to all the failures,
you're a failure. And that's not our job.
Our job is to encourage
and correct and push
and strive so that they can succeed
at the things they're trying to do.
And, finally, I think that failure is good, actually,
instead of success all the time
because it puts our world in perspective.
We don't live in heaven.
And we're going to face trouble all the time.
Inevitably, we're going to fail.
And we're going to be frustrated.
Sometimes that leads to a better place.
And I think it also puts perspective in what kind of God we have.
Jesus came to this earth and did he ever fail once?
Not once.
Even going to the cross
to take your sins away.
To pay for all of our sinful failures.
And to build us up so that we can live for him in so many ways.
And we can come around and support the people that we love
to help them so that they can
battle past
failures and strive in this world.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father,
we know failure is inevitable.
We just don't like it.
We want to succeed at all the things we do.
We want all things to go well.
We want all smooth things.
For our own lives.
But we also want this for the lives of the people we care about.
Help us step back and recognize the importance
of struggle and the importance of
fighting through things.
So that they can grow as human beings
and they can grow as people.
And we can be people who come alongside them,
not the ones who pick them up and carry them.
Because, ultimately,
you're the only one who can carry us.
Let's us rest in your arms
knowing that you are always there for us.
We ask this is your name.
Amen.
We're talking about success.
And, a lot of time we talk about the struggle of not succeeding.
But, what happens if you do?
And that's what we're going to talk about today.
So, success is difficult, I think, because different cultures,
different families, different nations have ideas of what success really is.
My definition would be simply this.
Aligning my plan with God's plan
and living my life with purpose.
Not just for results.
So when you say something like that,
the assumption is, well, Christians must never succeed.
Well that's not true at all.
I know countless Christian athletes.
I know countless Christian CEOs.
And owners of companies.
And I know people who are Christian, who are
really, really wealthy.
So, what does that mean?
When I hear that people are successful and God has blessed them,
in my heart there's part of me that says,
"Man, I wish I was at the top of my field.
"And I wish I could buy or do those things."
But most of me thinks,
"That's got to be really, really hard."
Because when you talk about
what our identity is naturally,
most of the time,
it's what we're good at.
And if God has blessed you with the ability to work,
God has blessed you with the ability of sports,
God has blessed you as an actor or actress,
that becomes your identity.
A smarter pastor than I am said it something like this.
He said, "When your work or your success
becomes your identity instead of Christ,
that means your success goes to your head
and your failures go to your heart."
And I can't imagine how hard it would be
to struggle and not think
"I'm pretty awesome.
"I'm pretty amazing."
And the very blessings that God has given you
disconnect you from the God who's given them to you.
It's for this reason when we look in Deuteronomy, chapter 8.
This is God's warning to the people as they enter the Promised Land.
This is a little bit longer, so stick with me.
So, what's my prayer to you?
You might just be in the most successful time in your life.
With relationships, at work, in school.
But,
hold on to Christ.
And don't forget the Lord, because no matter how God
takes you and how far God takes you,
he'll always be there with you.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, some of us are struggling and some of us are
in a point of success.
Help us in our success to always look to you.
The one who has given us these blessings.
And help us to live with purpose with these blessings
so that we can be a person that people look up to.
As one who has taken blessings and not let them go to our head.
Or not let the failures go to our heart.
Instead, we know our identity.
Our identity is strictly with you.
Not in our success.
We ask this in your name.
Amen.
This week we're talking about success and what is one tip that I would give you
if you want to be successful?
Well, I was reading an article about businesses in the United States.
If you did not know this,
500,000 -
500,000 - half a million businesses
open every single month.
Of those within two years, and I don't know if it's like the adrenaline,
or people just keep going,
66 percent will still be open,
so 33 percent close.
And by the time you get to the five year point,
half of them, done.
So, I see this anecdotally, as I function.
Our church is downtown in Castle Rock, in Colorado.
And I was talking to a friend, there's a brewery that's there.
And the brewery closed after less than two years.
I said, "Okay. What's the deal?"
"I never went there." And he runs a very successful brewery.
He said, "Okay. There's three things.
"This is my insider baseball.
"Three things. Number 1, they're not very nice."
That's pretty ... that makes sense.
Number 2, they only made English style ales, I think it is.
Which is basically saying, "Our taste should be your taste.
"Deal with it" That doesn't help.
And three, after he gave them all this advice about decorating and how to do things
and what would make sense about design in the brewery,
he didn't do any of it.
I would say that's
not enough courage to listen to the truth.
This is how the Bible says it.
So, what do businesses have to do with us?
My guess
is that you're struggling with something.
And, I'm wondering if you have the courage to admit to someone you need help.
Maybe it's struggling to be a parent.
And maybe it's struggling at work.
And you're afraid and you don't have the courage to say,
"I need some help here."
Maybe it's struggling with alcohol or drugs.
And you don't have the courage to seek out some help.
Maybe it's struggling in your marriage
and you're not going to counselors or
reading books or working together to get closer.
And I'm sure we have all kinds of excuses why we're not doing it.
On a deeper level, let me ask you this:
This is really what our relationship is built on with God.
It's not about businesses, it's not about success.
But it's saying, "Do you have the courage to
"lay bare your whole life before God?"
And say, "This how I've lived.
"How does this line up with you?"
Because our greatest success
is not how we do in the world.
It's not even how we do as a parent.
Our greatest success is how we line up with Christ.
We confess the things we have done.
We hear God's forgiveness.
And then we're empowered to live differently.
And that's success.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we just ask you one thing.
Give us the courage to lay our life bare before you,
trust in your promises and live the way that you called us to live.
Amen.
We're talking about success this week
and all kinds of things that have been going great.
And you might be saying, "Listen.
"That is not my life."
And, the way that you can test this is
someone probably asked you recently.
"Hey, how's it going?"
And you might have said like, "Fine."
But in your mind you're thinking, "Meh.
I spilled coffee on myself this morning.
And the dog's been a pain.
And the kids aren't doing great in school.
I'm going through a divorce.
And my relationship's not going good.
All these things kind of add up.
So, my question is, how do you handle
when life isn't very successful?
I think there's stuff we can do, to be honest.
We could self-medicate, and we could get drunk.
We could eye-guzzle Netflix.
We could go buy some stuff because it makes me feel better.
We could talk down about other people
because that makes me feel better, too.
But, here's the issue.
All of these solutions for our problems
are just temporary.
Right? Eventually you sober up.
Eventually, you've got to pay the credit card bill for the stuff you bought.
Eventually, people find out what you said about them.
You know, all these things tumble.
What if we just shifted?
And instead of looking at our immediate circumstances
to determine if we're doing okay right now,
we step back and we look at how God looks at us.
And this is how it's described in Romans, chapter 8.
And I would actually elaborate there,
success or failure.
So, when God looks at you he says,
"I don't care if you've made mistakes."
He says, "I don't care if you're the most successful person in the world.
"Those things don't matter to me."
God does not have a measure.
God's only measure is that, through faith in Christ,
he sees you as his child.
Now, think about that.
When someone says, "How's it going?"
I'd say it's going pretty great.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we just
simply thank you that you have made
us a success through faith in Christ.
Not in this world's terms.
But in your terms.
One that says we are holy and we are blameless
and we'll stand before you.
We ask this in Jesus' name
who made us holy and blameless.
Amen.
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