Sermon Tone Analysis

What do you want to accomplish with your life?

            -All have Dreams~/ideas~/goals

            -Kids-huge dreams for the future…hero-firefighters, doctors, rock stars...etc.

-Older-dreams change, ideas mature, but never lose the desire to do well…be successful and prosperous

 

What are those dreams?

What will make you a success?

What needs to happen for you to say, “I am successful.

I’ve done it.

I have all that I need.”?

There are a couple of different paths to take in pursuing a successful life.

I have a video to show you that compares the lives of two couples who have chosen different paths.

Let’s watch this and notice the differences…

 

What do you notice about the different choices those couples made…what did they do differently to find success in life?

Let’s dig into this a bit more….let

me tell you what I see when I look at the lives of people around me…and even into my own life…

 

There’s something within us that drives us to keep trying harder, and doing more to achieve our goals and gain success…feel as though we have enough in life to live comfortably.

To feel like we have a big enough piece of the pie that we can be happy.

We look at the lives of people who’ve made it big and ask how they got there and how we can do the same….they’re

wealthy, well-known and well-respected-people like them.

They’ve done it.

How can we get some of that?

 

            Bill Gates…one of the richest people in the world.

How?

Michael Jordan-sports legend-transcends basketball

            Mel Gibson; Jim Carrey-well known, well-loved worldwide

 

Don’t even have to reach as high as guys like that to find successful people…

 

Whatever you do in life you find people like this…experts in your field.

The popular kids in school….the

sports heroes.

People love them; they are doing well…How can we get what they have?

Church planting…guys who started in a living room and a handful of people and within a year had over a 1,000 people coming…then 3,000…then 10,000….these

are the guy considered to be the experts and everyone wants to know how they did it and how we can do it, too.

We want to be successful!

That’s my goal for you, too…I want you to fell successful in life.

To be able to look back when you are older and say, “I did it…I accomplished what was really important to me.”

We need to consider how we pursue those dreams, though.

When you really look into the lives of those people we consider to be successes, there are a couple of things you discover.

First…they are never done.

Still driven to pursue more.

We see them as a success, but they feel as though they haven’t made it yet.

Billionaires die feeling as though they didn’t accomplish their dreams.

Never found what really looking for…always seeking something more.

Second…all too often, the parts of their lives that we don’t see in public are a mess.

What’s the state of their family?

What kinds of relationships do they have?

Sometimes the most “successful” people are the most emotionally troubled people.

Are they really successful then?

Is that the kind of life you want…always pursuing more, never feeling like you’ve had enough?

Also consider what we do to ourselves in our pursuit of success…greater levels of stress, more and more busy.

We keep taking on more work because there is more to be done if we are ever going to make it.

This can be true whatever it is you do I life…CEO, student, manual laborer, homemaker.

Keep pushing until…something happens.

Can’t take the stress anymore.

Physically cannot keep up with the workload anymore…then the guilt of failure drives us even harder.

Sometimes end up in the hospital..taken out because pushed too far.

Sometimes end up in the bar…trying to forget the stress.

Sometimes you end up just giving up…doing your best to get through each day and just try to be happy.

Is that what you really want?

This happens enough that I am convinced that trying harder, doing more…doing better…is ultimately not the road to success…

           

SO how do we get there?

Is there any hope of having a successful life…of ever feeling content with our lives?

Well, I said earlier that I want you to be successful...and let me tell you that God does want you to be happy with your lives….to

have success at what you do…and to be prosperous…the bible has a lot to say about this…but God tells us to take a different path.

Take a look at Joshua 1:7-8 with me…

 

Verse 7: “Be strong and very courageous.

Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you may go.”

Verse 8 says it again, “Do not let this book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.

Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

-Background: Moses exodus from Egypt…rebellion, distrust…previous generation dies, now ready to enter into land God wants to give them

            -Wants them to be successful.

Promises to make Israelites into a great nation IF they will follow him; trust him

            He know them, knows what lies ahead and knows what it will take for them to be great; be successful.

..meditate on God’s laws day and night…be careful to DO everything written in it…Get to KNOW God…turn to Him DAILY, hourly…throughout the day.

Last week Mike Armbrust brought up the point that God knows us better than we know ourselves…He knows what we need and wants to provide it for us…He also knows that we can’t do it all on our own…He needs us to turn to him, and he needs to work in our lives to change us into the people he wants us to be….

It’s too easy for us to keep trying to do things our own way and exerting all our strength and will until we run out of steam…

 

Quote: George Macdonald (Scottish poet, minister of early 1900s)

 

“But we who would be born again indeed,

Must wake our souls unnumbered times a day

And urge ourselves to life with holy greed”

 

 

Born again indeed…to experience the life God wants for us….

..must wake our souls unnumbered times a day…takes constant exposure to God and his word...and the life He wants us to live…

 

This is what God knew it would take for the Israelites as they entered the land he promised them.

As you read on through this part of the OT, you’ll read some amazing stories of God giving the Isrealites great success when they followed and trusted him.

He gave them a great kingdom, protection from their enemies, even wealth & prosperity whenever the remained faithful to God.

 

God didn’t just make this promise to the Israelites thousands of years ago.

He promises this to us today.

Take a look a Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:33..

 

  …background…don’t worry, etc.

  Verse 33 “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well..”

 

If you desire to be successful in life….Seek God FIRST…then the rest will be given to you…God will help you, and he will gradually transform your life…

 

*Willie…testimony; lots of things you can do…people report that listening to Christian music help their days go well; but nothing better than God’s word & time alone with God*

 

*You direct my steps*;* urge people to seek God*

 

We want you to be successful in life…without chasing after things in a way that will burn you out in the end….it

really does take Seeking God first in all things…

 

…I was raised in a Catholic church and knew about God early on, but when I started reading the Bible for myself in college, I discovered things I had never heard before; and even today as I continue to read the Bible, I may read the same stories I’ve read before, but I continue to be exposed to new levels of understanding , and I am convinced that this really is the path to TRUE success in life….SEEK GOD FIRST.

We want to help you establish habits in your life to make time with God a priority.

I know what life is like… We’re all struggling to find balance among all the things we need to do…we’ve got work tasks…our homes need to be cleaned and maintained…kid’s need to be involved in activities…you need vacation time…time with friends…we need time for physical activity…our bodies are out of shape, our work schedules are impossible, and our relationships all need improvement…it’s hard to fit another thing in…I know, I’m right there with you…

 

…but if you truly want to see success, and want to have God transform your life...help you deal with all those things and more, He needs to be the top priority.

Today we are introducing a tool to help you with this.

This is something we want everyone in this church to make use of…describe Life Journal...