A POWERFUL SECRET TO SUCCESS

I don't write a great deal about success. I fear our hearts read something glitzy rather than substantial. But I need to show you something about success from the word of God. The characteristic most connected with genuine success in the Bible is humility.

Jesus repeatedly told us we would be exalted if we humble ourselves. James said we would be exalted if we humbled ourselves in the sight of the Lord. Peter told us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.

Let me give you three examples of successful humility or humble success. I know of a number of spiritual leaders in history that have exemplified this principle. But none of them shone as brightly in the twentieth century as Billy Graham.

I think you will agree that Billy has been successful in the eyes of God and in the eyes of men. Called to the White House in crucial times by presidents from Harry Truman to George Bush. He preached in sweeping movements of God on five continents. On June 3, 1973 Billy ended a five-day crusade in  Seoul Korea, by preaching to over a million people. No other preacher in history has ever preached to a crowd like that.

And yet people who met and knew Billy Graham were always stunned most by his humility. It is amazing that those who have followed in Billy's wake have thought promotion and strategy were the way to greatness.  

I would like to go far back into Biblical history for our second example. Numbers 12:3 says Moses was more humble than anyone on the face of the earth. And I think it is safe to say that God exalted him. Those words were spoken while Moses was facing jealous opposition during the great trial that God brought upon the Children of Israel to humble them. In Deuteronomy 8:2 the Lord said, "Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in in the desert these forty years, to humble you." What has God done in your life to humble you? Don't chafe under His mighty hand. God's humbling is the key to great blessing.

The third example of humble success towers over all the others. Can you honestly call yourself a disciple of Jesus Christ if your heart does not hunger for humility. He who shared His Father's eternal glory humbled Himself for you. His whole ministry was an expression of ultimate humility.

As a follower of Christ, are you seeking the power of humility? As a child of God, are you praying for the Holy Spirit to produce supernatural humility in you? This is a crucial key to being used by the hand of God.

Now I do need to caution you about thinking of humility as a means of self promotion. Such Pharisaical efforts may impress people, but not God. Our humility needs to be an expression of grateful devotion to God. We cannot be truly humble in order to get what we want from God. True humility wants to see Jesus honored because of the wonderful grace He has lavished upon us.

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SPIRIT

One of the most wonderful truths of the Christian life is the fellowship of the Spirit. Paul puts it forth so vividly in his salutation in the final verse of 2 Corinthians.

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

In the discussion on friendship love in his book The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis talked about three close friends, Jack, Charles and Ronald, who met together every week. They were so close until Charles died. And Jack said, he thought he might be closer to Ronald now that he was not sharing him with Charles. But it did not work that way. Instead he discovered that he no longer had as much of Ronald because he did not have characteristics in Ronald’s personality that were brought out by Charles. He would never again join in Ronald’s reaction to a typically “Charles joke.”

Most of us have experienced that to some extent in the church. I worked together with Jim Gantenbein for 22 years. We got along wonderfully even though we have radically different personalities. In fact a great part of the joy of our friendship came from our differences. Again and again I delighted as the Spirit of God worked in Jim so differently than He works in me. But more than that. I drew closer to God through my friendship with Jim. Our bond in Jesus Christ grows as He binds us together with other believers.

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IN ALL THE SCRIPTURES

Do you know what meditation is? Most of you have meditated on scripture from time to time. But have you ever meditated on the person of Christ. We sing, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus.” I recommend doing just that as a spiritual discipline. You might remember a favorite event recorded in the Gospels and spend time thinking about Jesus in that situation. You might also meditate on some things Jesus said or did that are hard to understand or disturbing.

But let me introduce you to a different kind of meditating on Jesus. Come with me to a seminal event in the life of Jesus. In Luke 24 we read that after His resurrection Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus opened the Scriptures to them. And later they said  their hearts burned within them as He taught. In the Bible the word “heart” refers to the center of your being. Their lives were set ablaze as Jesus taught. But notice how He taught them. Verse 27 says,

“Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the scriptures.”

Let those words soak in a minute. “In all the scriptures.”

Now go with me to John 5:39. Jesus said,

“You pour over the scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about me.”

Do you see what I'm getting at in these two scriptures. The Bible teaches that every Scripture points to Jesus. So can you meditate on Jesus in scripture, in the New and Old Testaments. All meditating on scripture should be meditating on Jesus.

Let me give you an easy one.  John the Baptist said Jesus is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” So, what light does that shine on the Old Testament sacrifices? Here's another. When the people were about to die of thirst in the wilderness Moses struck the rock and water came out. 1st Corinthians 10:4 says that rock was Christ. Jesus is The Rock that was struck so we would not die in the wilderness.

I need this say that this is not always so easy. You need the Holy Spirit to enlighten His word as you meditate. But it is important to know that scripture is not about you. It is about Jesus. What about the story of David and Goliath? Well, if you read that as if it were about you, you would try very hard to be courageous. And you would fail most of the time because you would be trusting yourself rather than God. Instead, can you see Jesus as your hero giving you courage? When you meditate long enough on any Scripture the Holy Spirit Will begin to show you Jesus. Your heart will begin to burn in you as well. And your life will be changed.

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AM I POSTMODERN?

I am postmodern in a way. But I suppose I need to begin this blog by addressing those of you who immediately think of the philosophical category of postmodernism from that point of view I'm certainly not a postmodernist. A genuine postmodernist might think of me as a reactionary traditionalist. I certainly believe in absolute truth, and that separates me from that philosophical category. However, there is a sense in which I do tend in that direction. Stated simply, I have some distrust for the thinking that what is new is always best. Some years ago I told the London taxi driver things looked more modern than when I was there in the 1970s. He took it as a huge compliment. I did not necessarily mean it so.

In fact, I am uncomfortable with those who always love the next new thing. I have receive some writing advice from a successful writer who tends to call certain techniques out of date. I want to know if they are poor communication, or if they will offend readers. But he does not seem to be able to think in those terms.

I once wrote our denomination’s publishing house about something that bothered me in a student Sunday School lesson. I quoted The Keil and Delitzsch Commentary that said the position presented in the Sunday School book was held only by those who did not believe the Bible. The author wrote me back quite graciously saying I had forced him to go to the library. But his answer was that he found commentaries written before 1900 tended to agree with me and newer commentaries agreed with him. He did not think he needed to give their reasons or what they knew that the older commentators did not. He simply thought the new trumped the old.

Some of you may immediately think of technology. You like your newer car and your new phone. But I suspect most of you do not like them better because they are new. You like your car because it is not worn out like a 1954 Cadillac. And you like your phone because it will do so more things than even last year’s model. You like new technology because it is better, not because it is new.

But what about morals or values? Are they better because they are newer? New values may be better, because we have learned more. They may be better because we have seen results of older thinking. But as often as not, our thinking has changed because we have forgotten what another generation understood.

I have the same attitude toward holding to traditional thinking. Whether an idea is old or new has no bearing upon whether it is true or false.

I fear my own position leans toward pragmatism. I want what will accomplish what is needed. But I know what I want to accomplish may be short sighted. In the long run what is right will be best. What is true will be continually contemporary. We need to draw our values from God Himself. He is the same in every generation. We must seek what is Biblical, righteous, helpful, and good.

THE PURPOSE OF CHRISTMAS

Even though Christmas day is past, it is a good thing to think about the meaning of the birth of Christ, just as Mary pondered all those things in her heart. (Luke 2:19)

This may surprise you, but the purpose of Christmas is missions. Jesus was the apostle, or missionary, sent to us by God. Hebrews 3:1 reads,

"Therefore, holy brothers and companions in the heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession."

But this verse assumes that if you ponder His mission, you must recognize that we are also united in this heavenly calling. All who come to Him are called.

Most of us hold dearly to the promise of Romans 8:28.

"We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God:"

And you know I did not quote the entire verse here. The verse concludes,

"those who are called according to His purpose."

That's you. You too are called. This does not necessarily mean you are called to stand in the pulpit and preach. It may not mean that God is sending you to Bangladesh. But God has a specific purpose for your life. And your calling is crucial to the Kingdom of God.

Listen for His calling. And pray that He will be glorified as you do whatever God has called you to do. Pray that God will touch the lives of people who live and work around you, that they might receive Jesus who was sent to them at Christmas.

PURPOSE 2

PURPOSE  2

It seems strange to me that so many people are trying to live without thinking about the purpose of their lives. Of course that casts them onto the mercy of their glands. Last week I pointed out several things like comfort and pleasure that are illegitimate purposes for life. This week I will surprise you with two more possible purposes that are often less than God's plan for us.

Success is not necessarily God's purpose for your life. I should say short term success or success as we see it may not be God's will for you. Of course, a major problem with success is trying to win the wrong race. But in fact immediate or short-sighted success in the right area may not be the right goal either.

Let me give you a complicated illustration. Those of you who are directly involved in ministry, whether professionally or as a committed lay person can easily be confused about this. We rightly seek to reach as many people as possible. That is success. But let me call your attention to Jesus in John chapter 6. Our Lord ran off thousands of people who believed in Him, by telling them they would have to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Can you imagine anyone in the church growth movement condoning that kind of preaching? I can hear some of those whose doctrine is soundest saying something like this to Jesus. "Okay, if you have to say that, express it in more acceptable terms." And frankly I'm not sure they would not be right some of the time.

But here we have our Lord, preparing to send His followers to reach the ends of the earth giving us an example of running people away by what He said and how He said it. All I can say is that Jesus showed us that pleasing God was more important than growing the church. So it is more important for us to be in tune with God than it is for us to work at what we assume God wants us to do.

Now of all these things I am helping you to think about, this final conviction of mine will surprise you most. Striving for righteousness is not the ultimate purpose of your life. If I had thousands of readers I would possibly be running most of you away like Jesus did in John 6. But I ask those of you who will listen, at least to show how wrong I am, to consider some things.

You can strive for righteousness in ungodly ways. The Pharisees did it with great zeal. You can try to be righteousness in human strength. If you do that you will sometimes become discouraged and give up altogether. At other times you will succeed enough in your own eyes that you will fall into the trap of the devil who fell from heaven because of his arrogance.

You may also strive to be righteous so God will owe you. You may say, "Since I have done all this, God will have to accept me." Or you might resent God, saying, "What's the use? I went to church; I was sincere; I did my best, but this bad thing still happened to me."

You are putting your faith in your righteousness. And your righteousness will send you to hell. You need to repent of your righteousness, and seek the righteousness that Jesus bought for you on the cross.  

So of course I am not quite saying the ultimate purpose of life is not being right with God. Certainly His will is true. But you can seek righteousness with the pride and self-centeredness of a Pharisee.

All true righteousness comes from Jesus who justifies the ungodly. From Him we receive a righteousness we could never achieve. In fellowship with Him we come to desire and delight in righteousness, but we are not righteous to be saved or so God will give us a good life. We hunger to do what is right because we know it pleases God who saved us even though our best efforts were foolish and filthy.

Jesus cried out for the highest purpose for us in John 12:28. "Father, glorify Your Name!" Are you crying out for God to work supernaturally in your life to bring glory to His name?

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PURPOSE 1

One of the greatest tragedies that is sweeping the modern world is confusion and therefore corruption of purpose. In how many areas of life have we confused our purpose and so lost all hope of fulfillment?

IS COMFORT YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE?

In John 12:27,28 Jesus said,

"Now is my heart troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name!"

Purpose was crucial to Jesus. But do you realize what our Lord said here? His purpose was for His heart to be troubled. It was necessary for Him to come into the hour of trouble to redeem us. What is your purpose? Is it to avoid trouble or heartache?

Your God given, soul satisfying, purpose is not comfort. Jesus said He would send us another Comforter. But the Holy Spirit is to be with us in trials. If your purpose is comfort, finding it will bring boredom rather than satisfaction.

WHAT ABOUT PLEASURE?

The purpose of your life on this earth is not pleasure either. God created pleasure. It can be very good as a side dish. But it makes a terrible main course.

The drug epidemic and the sexual revolution that are deadly parasites on our homes, our economy, and all the foundations of society are products of the unquestioned belief that pleasure is the highest human value.

I am aware that many of my readers would already agree with what I am saying. Although I am very pleased if some of you who disagree are reading this. But even those of us who basically oppose such behavior find ourselves tempted, even addicted to internet pornography or some other pleasure oriented problem, because we have been able to indulge in it secretly. I pray for God's deliverance which will certainly require uncovering the rattle snake's nest. Many churches have men's groups where it is safe to confess such things. Pastors may have to find or organize a ministers' group to deal with whatever you need to confess.

But many of us who are free from the most debilitating of these sins are living our lives as if pleasure were more important than anything else. We need to challenge that thinking with scripture, prayer and seeking a higher purpose from God.

IS YOUR PURPOSE SECURITY?

Have you ever been thrilled by stories of risk or sacrifice? They are the bread and butter of TV drama. Would you watch an adventure show in which the leading character never had any higher good for which he was willing to risk or sacrifice? Would you watch the show twice if the hero ran away from every danger in cowardice or cynicism? You would not because somewhere deep in your consciousness you know safety and security are not the purpose of life. I love the statement from Jim Elliott's college journal. "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Jesus concluded with the highest purpose of our lives. “Father, glorify Your name!

I intend to write again next week on this subject. I suspect you will be surprised if not shocked at two things that I say should not be your purpose in life.