How To Be Successful

How many readers here want to be successful in their life?

How many readers here don’t want to be successful in their life and would say, “Pastor David, leave me alone I just want to live under a bridge and be a failure”?

Yes, of course, everyone wants to be successful in life. Right!?

In most people’s minds success is very appealing, they can imagine:

Holiday travel to luxury destinations like Dubai

How about buying a beautiful new house with a big-screen theatre, luxury vehicles, walk-in dressing rooms with beautiful clothes and expensive watches, updating the new iPhone every six months - And then showing off their success by partying with all their friends

Most people don’t think they have achieved success yet, but they believe they can achieve it by trusting their ambition and looking forward to the future

Their ambition ‘drives’ them to:

Work hard and make more money

Marry the ‘right’ person (with money)

Buy lotto tickets every week - NZ Lotto slogan "Lotto, what would you do?"

When people come to the later part of their lives, they assess their success by what they have achieved and as a result of their self-assessment they are either

* Very proud of their success

or

* Very depressed about their lack of success

Unfortunately, this ambitious drive for success can also find its way into Church life – it is often expressed through the ‘Vision’ of the Church using terms like ‘growing in excellence’, ‘going to the next level’, ‘Dream big, talk big, and turn your faith loose’

For the Christian, success is not attained by trusting our ambition and looking forward to the future

For the Christian, success is attained by trusting the Lord and looking back to the past

When I say “Looking back to the past” - I mean, looking back to the Word of God

Psalm 119: 89 ‘Your eternal Word’

Illustration: Solomon

King David’s advice to his son Solomon

1 Kings 2: 3 ‘Observe the requirements of the Lord your God, and follow all His ways. Keep the decrees, commands, regulations, and laws written in the Law of Moses (looking back to the eternal Word of God) so that you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go’

1 Kings 3: 3 ‘Solomon loved the Lord (trusting the Lord)’

1 Chronicles 29: 23 ‘So Solomon took the throne of the Lord in place of his father, David, and he succeeded in everything’

Graphic: Solomon on the throne

Solomon became famous in all the earth

1 Kings 4: 34 ‘And kings from every nation sent their ambassadors to listen to the wisdom of Solomon’.

1 Kings 10: 23 ‘So, King Solomon became richer and wiser than any other king on earth’.

But later in his life, Solomon’s unbelieving wives turned his heart away from the Lord and His eternal Word

1 Kings 11: 4 ‘In Solomon’s old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God, as his father, David, had been’.

1 Kings 11: 10 ‘He (the Lord) had warned Solomon specifically about worshiping other gods, but Solomon did not listen to the Lord’s command’.

And finally, Solomon abandoned the Lord

1 Kings 11: 33 ‘Solomon has abandoned Me’

And because of Solomon’s sin the Lord punished all of Israel

1 Kings 11: 39 ‘“Because of Solomon’s sin I will punish the descendants of David—though not forever.’”

Of course, the whole world has witnessed God’s punishment upon Israel from the time of Solomon all the way through to recent times

Here’s an extract from my new Book ‘Don’t Forget God’

‘At the end of Solomon’s reign Israel descended into 3, 000 years of unspeakable tragedy.

Solomon’s Kingdom was torn apart by civil war into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The people of God went into idolatry and worshipped idols made of wood and stone. The people were conquered in war by other nations and all their accumulated wealth was taken. Solomon’s Temple was destroyed, and Judah was taken into exile between 587 B.C - 537 B.C. Later a small remnant of Israel returned to the Promised Land. The 2nd Temple and later Herod's Temple were destroyed. Israel rejected their Messiah Jesus Christ when He came to save them. They were scattered throughout the World and ceased to exist as a nation and finally they were hunted down like animals and slaughtered in their millions in what we call the Holocaust. Only in 1948 was Israel restored as a Nation’.

Solomon forgot about what it took to be successful - he abandoned God and His eternal Word

FINALLY:

For the Christian, success is attained by trusting the Lord and looking back to the past

Do you remember the narrative in Matthew 4 when Jesus was tempted by the Devil to take for Himself all this World has to offer?

Do you remember that Jesus rejected the Devil’s offer and replied him by looking back to Deuteronomy 8: 3 and quoting the verse, Matthew 4: 4 “The Scriptures say, ‘It is not just bread that keeps people alive. Their lives depend on what God says.’” ERV

Do you love the Lord and are you depending on God’s eternal Word to live?

Illustration: I was in town this week/doing a few chores

I Accidentally met an ex-member of our Church

I stopped and we sat down for a while and talked together

He had a small New Testament in his bag

I commented “Oh, You have a Bible”!?

He swore and said, “Sometimes I look at it if I need some advice”

What a terrible attitude - he only read a text in the Bible to find something that benefitted him

This meeting and conversation reminded me of, Psalm 90:17 ‘And may the Lord our God show us His approval and make our efforts successful’

For me, yes, I want to be successful in Life, but I’m not trusting in my own ambition to achieve great things in the future

I love the Lord and I depend upon His Word – I want the Lord’s approval and I want Him to make my efforts successful