Bible Studies

A STUDY OF SUCCESS

by GLENN PEASE
12/21/21
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 INTRODUCTION:

We all have an equal chance to be more successful than we now are. To a large degree success is a matter of choice. Someone said, "God gave us two ends; one to sit on and one to think with. Success depends on which one we use the most. Heads we win, tails we lose."

Success and failure is a part of every intelligent life in the universe. Do you think that is a true or false statement? The reason we learn more from failure than from success is because we fail more than we succeed.

If it can be established that God the Father and Jesus the Son experienced failure, then it will be established that the statement is true. Peter states in II Pet. 3:9 that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentence. Do all come to repentence? Is God's will always done on earth as it is in heaven? If so, then why pray for it? Is it as inevitable as the sunrise and the sunset. Does anyone pray for the sun to rise? If God's will can be defied, delayed, and disobeyed, then God experiences the frustration of failure, that is, the non-accomplishment of goals he wants to reach.

Do things go wrong for God so that He regrets descisions He has made? We read in I Sam. 15:11 God saying, "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instuctions." And we read again in verse 35, "And the Lord was grieved that He had made Saul king over Israel." Saul was His choice for the first king of His people Israel. Saul turned out to be a failure who did not do God's will, and he had to be rejected and replaced. Does God know what its like to put a man in office and then have him turn out to be a mistake? Have you ever voted for a leader and lived to regret it?

If God can feel bad and grieve, and repent of choices He has made, this means God experiences reality in ways very simular to what we experience. The New Testament stresses that Jesus, as God incarnet, experienced life as we do. Heb. 2:14-18 says this: "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil--and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's decendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a mericful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."

We read in Heb. 4:14-16, "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may recieve mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Did Jesus experience failure? Did His disciples always please and obey Him? Did He weep over Jerusalem saying, "I would, but you would not?" The experience of failure would appear to be universal and inevitable. Nobody, not even God, can get their will done one hundred percent, or achieve all they desire.

What is success? The dictionary defines success as the attaining of a desired goal. If my goal is to bowl one hundred and fifty, then I can measure my success quite easily, for when I hit one hundred I know I am two thirds of the way there. When I reach one hundred and fifty I am successful, for that was my goal and I got there. Success is simply arriving at a desired goal. We do it everyday. My goal is to eat breakfast, read the paper, and be at my desk by 8:00 A.M. I do it most every day, and so I succeed almost every day as I begin the day.

But my goal is also to discover profound insights into the word of God, and develop a unique and interesting way to communicate them to others. I do not achieve this each day, and so I live with perpetual failure as well as perpetual success. I am achieving goals every day, and falling short of goals every day. The point is, success, by its very nature, is goal oriented, and so is failure. They are opposites, but exactly alike in that they both depend on goals for their existence. You cannot fail or succeed without a goal. You can always know instantly if you fail or succeed when you shoot a basketball at a hoop. The goal is clear and either goes in or does not. But remove that goal, and shoot the ball into the air, and you can neither fail nor succeed, for these terms do not exist without a goal. A ball thrown into the air cannot be either right or wrong, if there is no goal.

Some goal is essential to determine all success or failure. If my goal is to read a book, I succeed when I read it, and I fail if I don't read it. If my goal is to buy a new car, I succeed when I buy it, and I fail when I don't. If my goal is to make a million dollars, and I only make 500,000 I fail, but if my goal is to make 100,000 and I do, I succeed. The man with 500,000 feels like a failure, and the man with 100,000 feels like a success because success is relative to one's goals. A man who saves only ten thousand in his whole life, but who expected to save only 5,000, is a happy successful man. The man who saves 50,000, but who expected to save 100,000 is a miserable and depressed failure. It is not the quanity that makes a man feel successful, but how close did he come to his goals. You determine how successful you are by the goals you set for yourself. Success is not in how other people think about you, but in what you think about yourself.

God is the first and greatest example of success in the Bible. He set out to create something good and He completed it. He had achieved His goal and rested on the seventh day. The universe began as a great success, and in spite of all the failure since, the end will also be a great success. God is determined to have a new heaven and new earth where all effects of sin will be no more. The final picture is one of total success and eternal victory, for salvation is a success and heaven is a success.

If reaching goals is what success is all about, then aimlessness is the worst enemy of success. Success is getting somewhere that is important to you. But if it is not important to God and His plan, it is only temporal success. The Pharisees were successful at getting public attention for their piety, but they were failures in the eyes of Christ. So true success is in reaching goals that are not only pleasing to you, but also pleasing to Christ. The order is to be goals that are pleasing first to Christ; second to self, and third to others. Such goals are true success in the eyes of God.

If the direction you choose to go is a key factor than persistence is also a major factor of success, for there will be constant pressure on you to change your course. We have to face reality, however. If a Christian is going a way he feels is right and God's will, but he or she is not able to do the job for lack of gifts or training, than to change course is not wrong. Many Christians go to the mission field and learn they are not fit vessels for that task. They can't adjust to the culture, learn the language, or stand the food, etc. And so they quit and come home. One said, "I climbed the ladder of success only to discover that my ladder was leaning against the wrong wall." It is not failure to admit a mistake and choose another wall.

It is often a process of failure by which people find their calling. Not to see this has led Christians to despair. Erwin Lutzer tells of a Christian in Chicago who as a young man all excited about becoming A Royal Mounted Policeman in Canada. He went for the training and was rejected because he did not conform to their life-style. He commited suicide because he felt he had failed. He did, of course, at that goal, but it was folly to think there was only one goal pleasing to God. Peter failed a lot, but he did not stop trying, but kept pressing on. He cried over his failure, but he did not stop.

The question is, what makes you feel successful? I feel successful when I have done a fairly quality job of whatever I do. It is not necessarily the best I could do, for if I had another day I could do better. But under the limitations of life I have done what I feel is acceptable for pleasing God and being of value to other people. John Maxwell says that the worlds definition of success says as long as I meet all my needs even if I do not help others, I am successful. The Christian, however, has to say that I must contribute to the welfare of others to be successful. The ultimate success is to be saved, and the ultimate failure is to be lost. The Christian is assured of being ultimately successful, but to be successful in time they must contribute to the blessings of others.

There are different levels of success. We are to love God and our neighbor as ourself. So success is to be measured by our compacity to love, and it is to grow until we can love even our enemies. If I love God but not my neighbor I am only partially successful. If I go on to love others, but am not able to forgive my enemies, I am not yet fully successful. The truly successful person is the one who obeys all of God's will. A garbage collector can do this and be a success. A rich excutive can fail and be a loser. The good news is everyone has an equal chance to be truly succesful. It is a matter of being born with a silver spoon in your mouth or having a high IQ, or any other circumstance. Success is a matter of choice. You either obey God or you do not. If you obey you are successful, and if you disobey you are a failure.

My definition of success is this: "Success is aiming for, actively persuing, and achieveing goals that are pleasing to God." This definition is based on these Scriptures:
1. Matt. 3:17, "And a voice from heaven said," this is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am
well pleased.
2. John 8:29, "The one who sent me is with me; He has not left me alone, for I always do
what pleases Him."
3. Rom. 8:8, "Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."
4. Col. 1:10, "And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord
and may please Him in every way...."
5. I Thess. 2:4, "We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts."
6. I Thess. 4:1, "Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God,
as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus
to do this more and more."
7. Heb. 11:5-6 says of Enoch, "For before he was taken, he was commended as one who
pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please
God....."

These and many other texts make it clear that all real success has to do with pleasing God. Getting results is not necessarily success. Moses struck the rock and got water. The people thought he was a great success. But he disobeyed God by doing so, and was a failure, and the result was he was not allowed to lead his people into the promise land. If God is not pleased results mean nothing. John the Baptist was losing fame and then he losted his life, but his failure was total success, for he pleased God. God never demands of us what we are not capable of giving, and so all can be equally pleasing to God. There is not sure formula for material success, but there is such a formula for spiritual success, and that formula is obedience to God, for this is pleasing to God, and pleasing God is success.

Paul said, "This one thing I do," as he pressed on to become all that God wanted him to become. This is a key to success, the concentrated focus on the main thing. There are so many things to do in life and we face certain failure if we attempt to be an expert in all of them. You will feel like a chameleon on a plaid bedspread, and go crazy trying to adapt to all the colors. Owen Merdith said, "The man who seeks one thing in life, and but one, may hope to achieve it before life be done: But he who seeks all things, wherever he goes, only reaps from the hopes which around him he sows a harvest of baren regrets."

Napoleon Hill studied 500 successful men and came up with these four steps.
1. Set a goal-success is the progressive realization of a goal.
2. Be very specific-picture yourself at the goal.
3. Count the cost-put it first.
4. Apply self to the goal with dedication.

There is always a cost and if the goal is not worth the cost you are not a wise person by getting there. You can purchase a goal at too high a price. If you sacrifice your health to achieve a goal it may be a very poor bargain, unless it is clearly God's will. It is possible to give up your character, your conscience, your peace, your self-respect, and even your soul to achieve a goal, and such a costly goal cannot be considered success. Isaac Walton tells of a man who fits this false image of success. He writes, "I have a rich neighbor who is always so busy that he has no leisure to laugh; the whole business of his life is to get money, and more money; he is still drudging on, and says that Solomon says: -'The diligent hand maketh rich;' and it is true indeed; but he considers not that it is not in the power of riches to make a man happy." Worldly success is only true success if the goals are reached in a way that pleases God; otherwise it is folly.

When Jesus died He had only the clothes on His back, yet He was history's most successful man. Gandhi had at his death a pair of spectales, a pair of sandals, a few simple garments, a spining wheel and a book, and yet he was very successful. John the Baptist left no estate. From the point of view of possessions, these men were all failures. In our culture people need great abundance of possessions to be considered successful. Barbara Streisand in Life Magazine of Sept. 20, 1967 said, "Success to me is having ten honeydew melons and eating only the top half of each one."

It is a universal desire to be successful. Ogden Nash put in poetry.

I hardly suppose I know anybody who wouldn't rather be
a success than a failure,
Just as I suppose every piece of crabgrass in the garden
would much rather be an azalea,
And in celestial circles all the run-of-the-mill angels would
rather be arkangels or at least cherubim or seraphim,
And in the legal world all the little process servers hope
to grow up into great big bailiffim and sheriffim.

God commanded Moses to speak to Pharaoh many times knowing he would not listen to him. All of the signs and wonders failed to impress him. Yet all of this failure was complete success because it was God's will, and he was pleased that Moses obeyed Him. When failure is a part of the plan then failure is success. The cross, of course, is the ultimate example. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, and that He accomplished on the cross, making it the symbol of the world's greatest success. Jesus was not a success if you measure success by wealth, or by being a great artist, author or musician. Jesus was not a father, a husband, a sportsman, or a great warrior. Jesus was not a success in most of the ways we tend to define success. But Jesus had a goal to please His heavenly Father, and He achieved it, and that is the greatest success possible. But in order to achieve this goal He had to endure great failure.

Living with failure is a basic key to success. Kettering, the vice-president of General Motors and director of their research labortories for many years said, "All in research is 99.9 per cent failure and if you succeed once, you're in." He knew this from his own experience. He spent 14 long years trying to solve the problem of the spark knock in auto engines. He did thousands of experiments. It was failure after failure and then finally he discovered terta-ethyl lead and he was a great success. This story is repeated in the life of every great discoverer. If you cannot live with failure you will never reach success. The cliche, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," is a true philosophy of life.