Success in life and eternity
Living successfully means living as a Servant
Living successfully means living by the Spirit
Living successfully requires knowing God’s Word
Living successfully means being Like Jesus
Slide 1
Success!
If you asked someone if they wanted to be successful, I am sure the answer would be yes.
But what really is success?
Slide
The definition of success is
the accomplishment of an aim or purpose;
the attainment of popularity or profit.
Under that definition I would argue that you can be successful by definition, without finding real success.
For instance, if your purpose is to make a lot of money, which I think many people equate with success, you can achieve that and be “successful” at it, but while you have accomplished that, I would argue that many do not feel successful.
Listen to what Ted Turner, the founder of CNN and TBN, and who is one of the wealthiest men in the world with a net worth of about $2.2 Billion, said about success in an interview with Barbara Walters.
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“Well, I think it’s kind of an empty bag, to tell you the truth. To a large degree it is. But you have to get there to really know that. I mean, money doesn’t buy happiness and neither does honor or position and awards or trophies.”
Purposeful Prosperity by w. Bradford Swift, Session 2, pg. 2 accessed on 2/26/2015 at http://www.lifeonpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/PurposefulProsperityProg.pdf
Our society leads us down the path of an empty success. Unfortunately for many, it is only when you get there that you realize it is a dead end, and not really the success you hoped for.
Transition
Well, if it is not found in those things, where can we find this elusive thing called success?
And how can we live a life of Success?
Slide
Today we are jumping back into our series called Acts – The church unleashed and I want to take a look at a person today whom, you may not think of when you think of the word success, but I think the problem is not so much in this person not being successful, but in how success is defined in our minds.
That is the thing we need to begin with.
Success is elusive because we believe it to be one thing but have to change our definition when we attain that thing and discover that that is not what we desire.
However, if we define success correctly, then, I believe, we can not only be successful right now, but throughout time and eternity as well.
So what is the definition of success that leads to success in life and eternity?
Success is found in fulfilling your purpose.
When we have defined success correctly, it allows all of us to experience our own success. Because while each of our ultimate purposes are the same – to Glorify God – we do that differently because God has created us differently and given us different gifts to use.
Once we have defined success correctly, we can begin to pursue real success that lasts for life and eternity as we live our life for the glory of God.
So let’s see what successful living looks like so that our success doesn’t end in life but extends to eternity.
Turn with me to Acts 6:8
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and we are going to look at the life of Stephen a man who achieved true success. Now I would really ask you to open your Bibles and turn there, because we are going to read a lengthy section of Scripture and it will be helpful to follow along.
Let’s take a look at Stephen’s life and see if we can
see what successful living looks like in real life and
learn how we can live successfully in life and for eternity.
Now before we jump into Acts 6, remember from 2 weeks ago that we saw that as the church was growing the delegated some of the serving responsibilities to other men, one of those being Stephen.
Now it continues in Acts 6:8
Acts 6:8-8:1
6:8 Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. 9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)-Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen, 10 but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.
11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, "We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God."
12 So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. 13 They produced false witnesses, who testified, "This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. 14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us."
15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
7 Then the high priest asked him, "Are these charges true?"
2 To this he replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 3 'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you.'
4 "So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. 5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. 6 God spoke to him in this way: 'Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 7 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,' God said, 'and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.' 8 Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
9 "Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt; so he made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.
11 "Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our fathers could not find food. 12 When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit. 13 On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family. 14 After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. 15 Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died. 16 Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.
17 "As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased. 18 Then another king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt. 19 He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.
20 "At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father's house. 21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
23 "When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. 26 The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, 'Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?'
27 "But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, 'Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' 29 When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.
30 "After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord's voice: 32 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
33 "Then the Lord said to him, 'Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.'
35 "This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, 'Who made you ruler and judge?' He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert.
37 "This is that Moses who told the Israelites, 'God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.' 38 He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.
39 "But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt — we don't know what has happened to him!' 41 That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honor of what their hands had made. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:
"'Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the desert, O house of Israel? 43 You have lifted up the shrine of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile' beyond Babylon.
44 "Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45 Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, 46 who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built the house for him.
48 "However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says:
49 "'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? 50 Has not my hand made all these things?'
51 "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53 you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it."
54 When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.
8:1 And Saul was there, giving approval to his death.
Pray
Ok, now some of you may be thinking – isn’t this sermon about success? How is dying at the beginning of your ministry success?
How can you define that as Success?
I can define that as success because Stephen glorified the Lord in his life and in his death. In fact he was able to see the Glory of God while He was still alive and I don’t doubt he heard the words that define success for eternity –
Slide
Hearing from our Lord, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' (Matthew 25:21)
Success in glorifying the Lord in this life, in his death, and into eternity!
That is Real success!
Transition
Now I want to take a look at some aspects of Stephen’s life that can help us to learn to live successfully.
One of the things I see here is that
Living Successfully means living as a Servant
Slide
We see that Stephen was in the position that He was, because he was willing to serve.
We saw 2 weeks ago that the Apostles appointed 7 men to serve the people in distributing food to the widows in need and Stephen was one of those men.
He was willing to serve people.
I want to tell you right now that unless you are willing to be a servant of the Lord and of people, doing what is a help to others and glorifies God, then you will never experience real success that lasts.
That is because it all starts with serving.
There are some who want success and recognition right now. There are no shortcuts and there are no ways to true success that do not include serving and not just serving, but serving with a servants heart.
Stephen was a servant, willing to serve and minister to people even if that meant waiting on tables.
“What can I do to help?” - That is the attitude that will guide you and put you in places and situations where you can use your gifts in even greater ways for God’s glory, but you must be willing to and actually serve others.
Transition
Well, while success is going to start with serving,
Living Successfully means living by the Spirit
Slide
Acts 6:8-10
6:8 Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. 9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)-Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen, 10 but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.
Stephen was living and speaking and serving in the power of the Holy Spirit.
If we are going to live successfully in life and in eternity, we must be living by the Spirit, trusting Him and relying on His power.
More than just a believer
Now this is more than just being a believer in Christ, but it certainly starts there.
You can’t live by and be controlled by the Spirit unless you have the Spirit.
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In Romans 8, Paul speaking to believers says, “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” (Romans 8:9-10)
You receive the Spirit when you receive Christ as Savior.
Think about if you have trusted Christ and received Him as your Savior.
So you need to receive Christ and have the Spirit and then you need to Keep in step with the Spirit.
Galatians 5:25 says,
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“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
If we are going to live successfully then we need to receive Christ and keep in step with the Spirit of God and His leading.
Transition
One way the Spirit helps us keep in step with Him is by illuminating God’s word to us so we know what we are to do.
We see in several places that this is one of the roles of the Holy Spirit to teach us and enlighten us to His word.
Jesus tells us in
John 14:26
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
We have those teachings and reminders in the Bible, the word of God, that He takes and uses to teach us and enlighten us.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that there are things that have not been understood, and would not have been understood except that “God has revealed it to us by his Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:10)
But the Spirit just doesn’t tell us. He uses God’s word.
That means we need to know God’s word.
So
Living Successfully requires knowing God’s Word
Slide
It is imperative that we continue to study the word so that the Holy Spirit can illuminate it to us and we can know it.
But it is also imperative to study God’s word so we know God better and how He has worked in the past and how He wants us to live now.
Stephen knew the word and history
Stephen, when questioned about what someone said that he said, began to give a detailed recounting of God’s work through Israel.
How do you think he knew all of what he was saying?
Because He was a man of the word.
He had read and studied and knew what God had done and what God had promised and when those promises were being fulfilled, he was ready for it.
We need to be like Stephen to live successfully bringing glory to God because when we are not in the word,
We forget God’s faithfulness,
We believe Satan’s lies
We forget God’s precepts and direction.
We hinder the Holy Spirit’s work in our life
by not having His word being illuminated for us.
We need to be people of the word.
We need to
read it,
study it,
know it,
believe it,
meditate on it, and
read it again,
so we
know the things God has done, and
know the things that God wants us to do
so that we can be obedient to it and live successfully.
True Joy is only found in living the way God intends for us and that is found in His word.
Psalm 19:8
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The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart.
God’s precepts, God’s commands are right and when we follow them it gives joy to our hearts.
John 15:10-11
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10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
If you want to experience complete joy, a joy that is eternal, a joy that comes with living successfully according to the Lord, then trust in the Lord and follow His ways.
And to do that, you need to know His ways which are found in His Word.
Objection
Well, Scott, following God may bring you joy, but the things that bring me joy are the things God doesn’t want me to do.
Getting Drunk
Partying
Carousing with people of the opposite sex
That is what makes me happy.
Does it really?
I think you are being deceived.
I am not saying that there is not an element of fun right in the moment.
But it is short lived and leaves an emptiness that shows your need for something else.
Be filled with the Spirit and walk in His ways so that you can experience that true joy.
Romans 14:17-18
Slide
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.
When we are living righteously, we are pleasing to God and fulfilling our purpose and that is when we find and feel success.
Ultimately, we see that
Living successfully means being Like Jesus
Slide
Listen to these final verses and see if they sound familiar, like you have heard someone else say these things.
Acts 7:54-60
54 When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Slide
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Stephen sought to glorify the Lord in life and in death.
He was being conformed into the likeness of Christ Jesus.
Stephen recognized that there is no success in life other than striving to live, and if necessary, die like Christ.
Now, to be like Christ, we all don’t have to die like Christ.
But Stephen’s example shows us how we can bring glory to God in any circumstance.
Keep our eyes on Christ.
Respond as Jesus would.
Be holy as He is holy
There are going to be times when life is just plain hard.
Jesus experienced that
In the Garden he prayed for this cup to pass from him, but not his will but the Father’s be done.
Stephen experienced it
The Apostles experienced it.
Many of you have experienced difficult times
We will experience times in the future that are hard.
In those times,
Glorify the Lord and live successfully
By living as a servant
By living by the Spirit
By knowing and studying God’s word
And being transformed into Christ’s likeness
Facing difficulties does not mean that your life is not successful.
Facing difficulties helps you to live a life of success by giving you opportunity to be like Jesus.
Success does NOT equal easy
Success equals glorifying God by growing in Christ and being more like Christ.
It is then that we will not only live successfully in this life, but we will have lived so that we can experience success in life, in death and in eternity, when we can hear the words of Christ spoken to us
Slide
“Well done good and faithful servant.”
That is a life lived successfully both for now and for eternity.
Let’s pray.
