SUCCESS!

Nehemiah 4:6

“So we rebuilt the wall until the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had the will to keep working.” CSB

“For the people worked with all their all their heart.” NIV

Allow me to join in with the rest of you and offer my congratulations to all of the honorees today. You are being acknowledge because of your accomplishments and achievements within this organization. No doubt, your contributions have mad a significant impact upon the work and witness of ........ so much so until your leadership and your fellow workers agreed that you should be included in the who’s who of willing workers. It is a privilege to be counted worthy of honor, and to that end, I also, congratulate you.

One thing that I believe we can all agree on is that we all want to experience a level of success. Everyone in some way shape of form desires to be successful in some way, shape or form. We do so because it is natural for us to want to accomplish something. We all want to known for doing things well. Be it working, singing, dressing, cooking, preaching, greeting, and the list goes on and one, no matter the task, we want to be successful.

My question to you this afternoon is this, “What does success look like?” Is success a finished process, or a completed project? Is it reaching a financial status or attaining academic achievement? Is it driving around in a luxury car, or is it escaping the hood for a house or condo in the suburbs? Is it landing a big church or becoming president of the auxiliary?

I want to suggest to you that success is not the accomplishment, not the achievement, not the status reached or the goal obtained. Instead, I want to suggest that success is a mind-set. It’s an attitude, a pre-disposition, its a posture and an inner belief in the possibility of a completed outcome. I’ve believe this to be so based on Nehemiah’s stewardship report found in the sixth verse of the fourth chapter of his writing, when he gives a report on the wall. Here he says, “So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof; for the people had a mind to work.” KJV

In this statement alone, Nehemiah gives us the secret to success. You see success does not begin at the completion of a process, success seeds the process because success is discovered in the thought process of the people involved. Nehemiah stated, we were able to accomplish the completion of the wall because of the mindset of the people.

Another version gives light to his statement…NIV says, the people worked with all their heart, which presents another angle for us to consider, and that is this, in order to be successful, your heart has to be invested in something. Often times the words heart and mind are used interchangeably. Scripture says, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” In our world, we think with our minds and not our hearts, but in the biblical since, what is truly in our heart consumes our thinking. That is why biblically speaking, the heart is the source of our thinking.

In other words, if you are going to get something accomplished, it can’t just be on your mind, it has to be in your heart. There are a whole lot of people who may have ideas on their minds, but if the idea, if the vision, if the task is not embedded in the crevices of their hearts, then most likely it will be a fleeting though at best.

However, success only happens when people have it in their hearts to keep on working until the task is completed.

Well when it comes to being successful according to what we learn from Nehemiah’s journey, what tidbits and insights can we gather as celebrate those who have deemed worthy of honor this afternoon. I believe the bible still speaks and with a little openness to the unction of the Holy Spirit, we can all leave her better equipped to be successful as we respond to the call God places upon our lives.

Three things for our consideration....

First, Faith

Secondly, Focus

Thirdly, flexibility

Fourthly, fortitude