Success Factors

Success Factors

Success factors can be many things, including work ethic, motivation, and opportunity. Success can be found through many success factors, and can be seen in our lives through many different outlets. Read on to find out how to be successful in every arena!

Affluence

 Ephesians 4, verse 28; it says,"Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need." I love this verse, because, he says, don't steal anymore because stealing is wrong but that's not the end of the message, it's not just deny yourself from stealing. If at any point, denial becomes the point, we've missed the point.

 

If at any point in our faith journey denial becomes the point, we just completely missed the point. And for many of us, isn't it true? Your entire religious Christian experience, your entire perception of God has just been put down on the Goldfish, don't do that anymore! And what does he say in the next part of it? 

 

He says, who has been stealing must steal no longer, but instead, do something useful with his own hands that it may benefit the poor, that it may help people in need, that that's a bigger, more wonderful reality of what to do with your life. It's not just stop it, it's not just put down the Goldfish. It's begin to experience what God's intended for you, that essentially stealing or sin is adrenaline gone wrong. It's mis-aimed passion and desire, where we don't realize the beautiful thing that God's inviting us to to experience and our heart will merge with the wrong thing and ignore the better thing that God wants us to experience and have. 

 

Jesus said it this way, in Mathew chapter 13, and talking about the kingdom, the way that God's invited us to live, He says, "The kingdom of heaven, the way of God, the way and the life of God is like a preacher that makes everybody feel guilty." Just kidding. 

"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field." 

 Happiness

When a man found it, he hid it again and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought the field. Again, the kingdom of heaven, is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it, that when we taste and see that the Lord is good, any other kind of life pales in comparison to the invitation of God, to come and sit at the King's table, enjoy the feast, enjoy the things that God's inviting us to have. C.S. Lewis in his book, "The Weight of Glory" describes it this way, and it's a beautiful quote, one of my favorite quotes, he says, "When we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, 

 

it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak." But over and over again, you, me, we clutch Goldfish and our heart merges with something that is far less than what God's intended. Where is the thing, where is the place, in your life, where you're clutching Goldfish, where God's invited you into a better life, maybe it's in terms of concealment, you find yourself living a life of secrecy. We invite you to stop by the connection center and just begin to confess and begin to be open, and free, and live a different kind of life, a better kind of life. Maybe you find yourself, maybe you are not a Christian, and we invite you today, and it's not that you are a bad person, but you keep clutching all the wrong things in life. And it's time just to say, God, I want you to sit here, I want you to be on the throne of my heart. We invite you to stop by the connection center. 

 

Pray with somebody, maybe you find yourself rejecting God in terms of community, you find yourself saying, God, I would rather live in isolation. I invite you to join a life group, begin to experience the beautiful joy of being in community, relationships, you've been wired, you've been built as a communal person. 

 Success

What is the area of life? Where you need to begin to put down the Goldfish, to begin to experience the things that God wants you to experience. Let's pray together. God, I thank you for the invitation of the Gospel, "The Taste and See That the Lord is Good." God, I pray all across this building, areas where we hold on to things, we clutch the Goldfish, I pray we would release it, so You can put something new in our hands. 

 

A better life. I thank you God that You invite us to a life that's not always the easiest life, but it's a better life, and will we say yes to it. It's in Jesus's name we pray, Amen!