Successful christian living

SUCCESSFUL CHRISTIAN LIVING
By Pastor Glenn Pease
1. SAVED FOR SUCCESS Based on Matt. 14:22-33
2. THE SUCCESSFUL FAILURE Based on Matt. 16:13-26
3. HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL NOBODY Based on John 6:1-13
4. GROWTH IS SUCCESS Based on I Cor. 3:1-9
5. THE BATTLE FOR SUCCESS Based on I Cor. 3:1-15
6. THE MOTIVATION TO SUCCEED Based on I Cor. 3:1-15
7. FRUIT IS SUCCESS Based on II Peter 1:8
8. A GOOD START IS NOT ENOUGH Based on Gen. 3:1f
9. PREREQUISITES FOR PURPOSEFUL LIVING Based on Prov. 2:1-3
10. TAKING LAUGHTER SERIOUSLY Based on Eccles. 2:1-11
11. FUN IS FUNDAMENTAL ZECH. 8:1-19
12. PRACTICING THE PRESENCE Based on Acts 17:22-31
13. STEPS TO CHRISTIAN MATURITY Based on I Peter 2:1-10
14. FELLOWSHIP IS FUNDAMENTAL Based on I John 1:3
15. TRUTH IN ACTION Based on I John 1:6
16. WALKING IN THE LIGHT Based on I John 1:7
1. SAVED FOR SUCCESS Based on Matt. 14:22-33
Most of us probably have some money in a saving account where it
is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Cooperation, or FDIC for
short. This brilliant idea which saved the banks after the depression,
and saves all savers a lot of anxiety is a gift God gave to the American
people through a Christian banker in Philadelphia. His name was
Leon H. Sullivan. When black Monday hit on March 4, 1933, and
closed the banks, he went to prayer and labored long over a plan to
reopen the banks. He thanked God for the idea which led to the banks
being able to open. It was the FDIC idea.

He came to Christ as a boy of nine, and by twenty five he was the
youngest bank cashier in the U.S. Banking was his life. But like all
successful Christians he had a struggle with pride. He began to crave
more power, prominence, and possessions. He began to have social
parties in his large house with champagne. He stopped going to
church, for his new goal kept him too busy for the God who had saved
him. He got so greedy that he went into partnership with a
non-Christian. His wife warned him, but he would not listen, for there
was a fortune to be made. The entire real estate deal collapsed,
however, and he lost everything. He was one hundred and fifty
thousand in debt, and had no reputation and no friends. He was
sinking fast, but unlike Peter who cried out immediately, "Lord save
me," he held on for twelve days in pride.
After twelve days of living on corn flakes he finally cried out to
God in brokenness, "Lord save me!" It took years, but he was saved
and restored and became a successful investment broker who helped
Christian colleges and other Christian causes raise millions. By his
fall and failure he learned to be successful as a Christian in the world
of business. Successful Christians often have to fail so they can be
saved for success as Christians. Their success becomes an idol and
leads them away from God, and only by means of failure can they be
brought back to God to succeed for him. Christians only need to be
saved once for eternity by putting their faith in Christ, but they need
to be saved many times in time, as they begin to sink because of their
lack of faith.
Peter was a saved man as a hand picked disciple of Christ. If he
would have drowned in the storm, he would have been welcomed into
heaven. He was a saved man, yet, we see him here crying out, "Lord
save me." It was not the sinners prayer. He was not crying out to be
forgiven and reconciled with God. That was not his problem. He was
already saved that way, and you never need to be saved that way

again. When Jesus is trusted as Savior you are saved for eternity.
But here is Peter still calling out, "Lord save me." A saved man can
still use some saving when he is sinking.
Balzac, the Sir Walter Scott of France, wrote a famous short story
called Jesus Christ in Flanders. A ferry-boat is carrying a mixed
crowd of passengers when a furious gale strikes and throws everyone
into a panic. A stranger with a glow on his face is calm and serene as
if he knew he would not die. As the boat begins to sink the stranger
speaks, "Those who have faith shall be saved! Let them follow me."
He then stepped out upon the waves and walked on the water. A
young mother took her child up in her arms and followed him. A
soldier and two cousins also followed and walked upon the sea, and
they came safely to the shore. The stranger vanishes, but they
recognize he is Christ. Balzac's story is obviously an adaptation of
our text. But it is a focus on the fact that even saved people; people
who already have faith in Jesus, still need to be saved from storms,
and all kinds of threats to life and health.
Jesus could say, "How do I save thee, let me count the ways." And
they would mount up to a high number. The point is, this prayer of
Peter as he began to sink is a prayer that needs praying often because
even saved people need perpetual saving in this storm tossed world.
Let's look at just some of the ways we need saving as suggested by
Peter's experience. First of all we all need to be saved-
I. FROM LITTLE FAITH.
Whenever a Christian begins to sink, you can trace the trouble
back to little faith. The negative realities of life begin to overwhelm
you. You take your eyes off Jesus and look to the wind and waves, and
fear takes over and reduces the power of your faith. You can't get far
walking on water, or even on land for that matter, when your faith

gauge is pointing to empty.
Peter had enough faith to get him into the middle of a miracle, but
then it began to run out. There are few things more embarrassing
than half a miracle. To walk on water for a few feet and then drown is
not all that impressive as a whole. Peter needed to be saved from his
half a miracle due to his little faith. To sink in the middle of a miracle,
and make this his terminal trip was not what Peter had in mind. We
all need to be saved from the half way projects we get ourselves into.
We make a commitment to go all out for Jesus, and then after awhile
we lose our enthusiasm and our faith falters. We find ourselves half
way through a commitment beginning to sink.
I see it in Christian marriages all the time. People make a
commitment to be loving and loyal through sunshine and shadow; for
better or for worse, but like Peter, they get out into the sea of
matrimony and discover it is more frightening than they realized from
the boat. Their resolve begins to weaken, and they begin to sink.
They need to cry out, "Lord save me." Christians need to be saved
and restored to their marriage vows.
Christians say, "I'm going to read my Bible through this year,"
and they take the leap. But after they get through Genesis and
struggle through Exodus they come to Leviticus, and their faith
wavers. I wonder how many have sunk in their resolve in Leviticus?
They had no idea how hard some parts of the Bible are. They need to
be saved from this little faith that lets them sink in the midst of their
new adventure for Christ. Christians also resolve to witness, and then
they come up against a skeptic who is clever, and they begin to sink
back from their commitment. We could go on and on dealing with
areas of life where Christians need to be saved because their little
faith lets them down before they complete their commitment.

The good news is that Jesus will hear the prayer for salvation even
when our faith is so weak we are sinking. Peter's prayer, "Lord save
me!" is the shortest prayer in the New Testament, but it was just as
effective as a 20 minute prayer, for Jesus reached out and saved him
from drowning. A 3 word prayer, and all 3 words of only one syllable.
Thank God he does not evaluate prayer by its length, but rather by its
earnestness. Peter never prayed a more earnest prayer than this. His
faith was little in his own ability to stay on top of the water, but his
faith in Jesus was still strong, and he cried out for Jesus to save him.
There was no time for praise, adoration, or intercession. This was
a purely self-centered prayer, yet it was answered instantly, for Jesus
chose to save Peter from a watery grave. He saw, even in Peter's
failure, the seeds of success. Peter's prayer was a confession of his
own inadequacy, and of his awareness of Christ's all sufficiency. Lord
you can save me, and so do so, for I cannot save myself.
Spurgeon points out that little faith tends to get Christians in
trouble because it is always seeking for signs and wonders. He feels
that Peter may have leaped out of the boat in the first place because of
his little faith that he needed to bolster up by this awesome act of
walking on water. Some people need to do the remarkable thing to
keep their faith from collapsing. This moves them to attempt great
things, but they do it in their own power, and they end up collapsing
anyway. But even there failure can be good if it leads them to stop
trusting in themselves, and to trust in Jesus only. Peter did it here and
was saved from his little faith in himself by his adequate faith in Jesus.
John Hodges was the number one Pontiac dealer in the world. He
was a member of the First Baptist Church of Indianapolis. But he let
his success go to his head and began to throw parties with booze and
gambling. He began to cut back on church life, for it was interfering
with his business life. Besides, you can't serve 2 masters, and his

business became his god. He bought 5 used car lots and poured a lot
of money into advertising. He got caught in a squeeze and lost half a
million in 2 years. He started to drink and life began to fall apart. He
had many Christian friends praying for him, and he was finally
persuaded to go to a Graham crusade. There he saw that he was
sinking because of his own pride and little faith. He repented and
cried out, "Lord save me!"
He got his life style back in order and went on, as Peter did, to be
a fisher of men. He used his business connections to witness to men
about his Savior. He was another Christian who needed to be saved.
He needed to be saved from little faith, from worldliness, from pride,
from failure, and from self. This is the battle of the Christian life and
what the whole New Testament is all about. It is about saving saved
people from sinking so they can help save a lost world. Christians
need a lot of saving before they can help save the world. A sinking
Christian is not a very useful tool. But a sinking Christian saved from
sinking, as Peter was, is often the best tool, for he has by that
experience learned to forsake his self-confidence, and put his
confidence in Christ as an all sufficient Savior.
We sometimes have to fail and be saved in order to really know
who Jesus is as our Savior. Nancy Spiegelberg wrote,
Lord
I crawled
across the barrenness
to you
with my empty cup
uncertain
in asking any small drop of refreshment.
If only I had known you better
I'd have come

running
with a bucket.
This whole incident was designed by Christ to teach his disciples that
if they really knew who Jesus was, they could not only be saved from
little faith, but also-
II. FROM ALL FORMS OF DISCOURAGEMENT.
The whole context is one of discouragement. They were buffeted by
the wind and the waves, and could not get to shore. It was in the
middle of the night and they were tired and anxious for their lives. It
was a discouraging situation, and they were a down bunch of guys.
Then to add to the tension Jesus comes walking on the lake and they
are terrified. "It's a ghost," they cried, and they were fearful that this
was a sign they would not make it. A demon of death is what their
fearful minds saw, even though in reality it was their Savior from
death.
What a major difference there can be between objective faith and
ones own subjective fears. They interpreted the scene as evil omen
when in reality it was their only hope. How wrong can Christians be
in reading the events of their day and experience? Here is a clue.
Christians need to be saved constantly from the spirit of
discouragement they bring on themselves by their false fears and
misreading of events. Their fears had them in the grip of some evil
spirit, and they were terrified. Christians often need to be saved from
their subjective fears that put their emotional system into a turmoil.
There was a spirit of pessimism reigning over the lives of the Apostles
in this setting. They were safe, but they felt like they were sunk.
From the point of view of Jesus there was nothing to be
discouraged about at all. From his perspective it was as pleasant as a

Sunday walk in the park. These men needed to be saved from all their
fears and doubts that made them blind to the power and presence of
Christ in their midst. They were just like God's people in the Old
Testament. God could do wonders and miracles to protect them,
deliver them, and provide for them. But the next time they faced a
crisis they were full of fear and doubt, and begging to go back to
Egypt. No number of miracles could ever get them beyond their little
faith and discouraged spirit of pessimism.
The disciples had already seen Jesus still the storm, and do
wondrous miracles in nature. He had just fed the 5000 hours before
this storm, and yet, all that is gone from their head, and they are
overwhelmed by their present crisis. What we need to see is that these
men were finally saved from this spirit of pessimism, and this is just
one of the key lessons on the way to that final victory. They eventually
became men who could say with the unknown poet,
I will not doubt, though all my ships at sea
Come drifting home with broken masts and sails;
I shall believe the hand that never fails
From seeming evil worketh good for me,
And though I weep because these sails are tattered,
Still will I cry, while my best hopes are shattered,
I trust in Thee.
But they were not there yet. They were in a terrible mess, but they
were saved, and Jesus turned this catastrophe into a major success.
The key word in this story is a big word in the ministry of Jesus. The
word in the Greek is tharseo, and it is translated, "Be of good cheer,
or take courage." This is a special word in the vocabulary of Jesus.
He is the only person in the New Testament to use the word. On one
occasion it is used to encourage blind men to come to him. Jesus used
this word often to encourage those who were discouraged. They were

in what seemed to be hopeless situations when Jesus would come and
say, "Be of good cheer."
His most universal use of the word is in John 16:33, "In this world
you will have trouble. But take heart, or cheer up, I have overcome
the world." The one thing that every person needs to be saved from at
some point in life is discouragement. The contrary winds get to all of
us at times, and we are ready to sink. Jesus says this is just when you
need to hear his favorite word and be encouraged to be of good cheer.
He is saying that he is already overcome, and so trust in me. This is
where Peter comes through a hero, even though he was sinking.
Because of his little faith he was going under, but the fact is, he never
cease to trust in Christ for he shouted out, "Lord save me!" And
Jesus did save him. The whole scene ends in victory and worship.
This was not their final education. They got discouraged again,
and their faith failed again, and they needed to be saved again from
their human weaknesses. But their salvation here did raise them to a
new level, and by it they were able to avoid a lot of falls they might
have otherwise had. Every lesson they learned was a necessary step to
get to the point of the victorious Christian life. Every victory
prevented some future failure.
Someone said that high heels were invented by a woman who was
kissed on the forehead. She wanted to avoid that mistake in the
future, and so invented high heels. True or not, it illustrates the point.
Failure can lead to success, for it motivates us to do what avoids the
same failure in the future. The disciples were a pathetic lot in this
whole scene. It was a comedy of errors. The men Christ picked to
change the world are seen here as nervous wrecks. They were of
anxiety and fears, and their leader was sinking in the middle of a
miracle. It is not likely the angelic choir was inspired to fill heaven
with a new song of rejoicing.

Nevertheless, the end result of all this failure was success, because
in the final analysis they looked to Jesus and were saved, and every
time they were saved they needed less and less saving. Each step of
failure was a step up the stairs of success. Dr. John, president of
Stetson University, tells of the farmer who only lost a few hogs during
a severe cholera epidemic. The county agent asked him if he had
learned anything about the disease. He said, "Wal, I've noticed that
them as gets it and lingers a spell have a better chance of livin then
them that dies right off." Peter failed a lot, but he never went down
for the count. He never gave up and sank. He always lingered awhile
and looked to Jesus. The result was that Peter was saved every time.
Judas, on the other hand, when he failed, gave up and died right off,
and went and hanged himself.
If we are going to have a successful year in spite of our weaknesses
and failures, we are going to have to pray Peter's prayer often-"Lord
save me from myself, my subjective fears and discouragements, from
my little faith. Save me daily from all the things that rob me of my
vision of your love and presence. Every year a Christian should aim
to be more saved than the year before. That means to be more secure,
more sanctified, more willing to believe the Word of God. Peter said
in Paul's writings there are some things hard to be understood, but
sometimes the problem with Paul is that he is too easy to be
understood. He makes the requirement of optimism so plain and clear
that we are embarrassed by it.
It may sound crazy, but I am convinced that sometimes we need to
be saved from success. Success is a test that many Christians have
failed to pass. They get successful and, like Israel of old, they neglect
the Lord and conform to the world, and lose their way. Many of the
scandals of Christianity are the result of success that Christians could
not handle. It is also the reality of life that success leads to a decaying
of relationships. Bette Middler put it so honestly when she said, "The

worse part of having success is to try finding someone who is happy
for you."
We go through life asking, what is the will of God, and Paul says
what is the mystery? We know what God's will is. In I Thess. 5:16-18
Paul writes, "Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all
circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
Whenever you are not joyful, or not praying, or not thankful, you are
out of God's will, and need to be saved from that state of disobedience.
"Lord save me," is about as relevant a prayer as you find in the Bible,
for as saved people we need, just as Peter needed, a whole lot of saving
to be a success. We need to examine our lives in the light of this truth,
and when we see we are sinking in some area of life, look to Jesus and
pray the saved sinners prayer, "Lord save me." We need to be
constantly saved from our failures, and saved for success.
2. THE SUCCESSFUL FAILURE Based on Matt.
16:13-26
Apollo 13 was one of the biggest flops in the history of our space
program, and yet it was also one of the most celebrated. Can a
catastrophic failure also be a colossal success? Just ask the three
astronauts of that ill fated flight. It was 1970, and they were on their
way to the moon when an explosion changed their plans radically. For
the next 6 days it took all the ingenuity of these three men, and a vast
ground crew, just to keep them alive. Everything went wrong, and
they could have died a number of different ways. They could have
frozen to death, but they learned that in zero gravity air does not
move, and so if they stayed very still their body would heat up the air
around them, and form a sort of cocoon of warm air. Had they

panicked and moved about they would have frozen.
They could have died of poisoning, or been lost in space, or blown
up. It took 24 hours a day of thinking and improvising just to stay
alive. All over the world people were praying, and they were able to
get back to earth in the lunar module, which was never even designed
for anything but taking them down to the surface of the moon. It was
like crossing the ocean on the Queen Mary, and half way over
deciding to make the rest of the journey in a canoe. They did not get
to the moon, nor did they do any of things they were suppose to do.
None of the goals were achieved. All they did was to get through
dozens of hopeless situations, and survive to tell about it.
Commander James A. Lovell said of this amazing flop of a flight,
"We could've been assured a catastrophe. But the dedication and
knowledge of the ground and the flight crew were such that we were
able to make it a successful failure." President Nixon awarded them
the Medal of Freedom for their successful failure. Peter is the great
example in the New Testament of successful failure. He made the
most blunders of anyone, and yet he survived, and like a cat tossed in
the air, he landed on his feet, and became a loved hero.
In our text we see the flight plan of Peter blow up in his face. He
thinks he is in control of the situation, and has such a grasp of the way
life should go that he has the audacity to take Jesus aside to set Him
straight. Talk about aggressive leadership. Here is a disciple telling
the Master the score. Peter has put his foot in his mouth before, but
never up to the knee. He has become a megalomaniac, that is one who
has grandiose delusions. He has just confessed that Jesus is the Son of
the living God, and that he is the Messiah, yet he begins to rebuke the
Messiah because he does not like what he is saying. Jesus is telling it
like it is, and the truth is not pleasant. He will suffer, be rejected, and
killed. That is not an acceptable program to Peter, and so he takes

Jesus aside to reprogram the plan of God.
There is only one other person in history who had that kind of
pride, and that was Lucifer. No wonder Jesus said to Peter, "Out of
my sight, Satan!" Peter had become a tool of the devil in trying to
reprogram the plan of God. Can a Christian fall so low they can
become an agent of Satan? Yes they can, and it is not just by falling
low, but also, as we see here, by rising too high. Peter was exalted, not
just to the moon, but to the very gates of heaven. Jesus gave him the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and He had the power to bind or loose
on earth, and that would lead to binding or loosing in heaven. Peter's
promotion went to his head, and he began to think that he now had the
authority to even alter the course of the Messiah, and set policy on the
plan of salvation.
Peter was a mere fisherman, but Jesus chose him to be a spiritual
astronaut, and he sent him soaring to the heights of leadership and
power in the kingdom of God. And what does he do? He blows the
mission to pieces by abuse of power. How many other leaders do you
know who were called Satan by the Lord? There were no others.
Peter was the greatest failure in his abusive power. And yet we see
that he not only survives, but he does so quite successfully. He is able
to stay on top as the leader of the 12. He does everything wrong, and
still comes out a winner. He is the most successful failure in the New
Testament. Consider this record of his failure:
1. He lost faith while on the water, and began to sink.
2. He rebuked his own Messiah, and received the strongest rebuke of
anyone.
3. He refused to have his feet washed, and had to be forced to
cooperate.
4. He cut off the ear of Malchus in Gethsemane and needed to be
rebuked.

5. He went to sleep when Jesus asked him to watch with Him.
6. He denied his Lord 3 times.
7. He refused to believe the eye witness testimony of the women who
saw Jesus after the resurrection.
8. He fell back into prejudice against the Gentiles even after
Pentecost.
9. He needed to be rebuked by the Apostle Paul for his inconsistency.
These are just his major mistakes and blunders. He had a number
of minor ones as well. You cannot come up with a list like this even for
the scoundrels in the New Testament. Yet, this walking comedy of
errors is not made to wear a dunces hat and sit in the corner. He is
made the leader of the group. Tragen was one of the greatest of the
Caesars, and the senate raised a towering column to record his
victories, but today in Rome you will no longer see the Emperor on
top of that column raised to his honor. You will see instead a statue of
a man with two large keys in his hands-the man called Peter. Peter
fumbled and failed his way to the top, and by so doing, he reveals by
his successful failure just how fallible man can be, and still be used of
God. Consider, for example, that Peter was-
I. AN EXTREMIST.
Keep in mind, Peter was no intellectual scholar like Paul. He was a
man moved by feeling rather than reason, and feelings can be changed
a lot faster than the mind. It takes time to think through an issue, and
weigh the values, and change one's convictions. But it only takes
seconds to go from hot to cold in ones emotions. Peter was always
going from one extreme to the other.
1. On the stormy sea he shouts "bid me come to you Lord on the
water," and a few moments later he is crying out "Lord, save me!"
2. When Jesus came to wash his feet he cries out, "You will never

wash my feet." For an emotional guy like Peter, never is not very long,
for he is soon at the other extreme saying, "Not my feet only, but my
hands and my head." Jesus had to slow him down and explain that the
feet alone are sufficient. Peter is not one to be straddling the fence. He
is totally on one side or the other. He is never middle of the road, but
usually in the ditch on one side or the other. Ask Peter where he
stands, and he says 100% on this side, and while he is saying it, he may
be moving to the other side where he will stand with equal conviction.
This sounds like a terrible weakness for a leader, but it is a weakness
that can be helpful when going through radical transition. The world
of Judaism was being turned upside down, and the pagan world would
be next, and Jesus needed a leader who was not locked into legalism,
but who was open to change, and who could lead others to accept
radical change.
It was a troublesome aspect of his personality that he was such an
extremist, and so inconsistent. Yet it was a necessary ingredient for
what Peter had to lead the church through. He was even inconsistent
in his inconsistency. On one occasion after shifting from being closed
to Gentiles to being open to them, he reverted back again to the old
way, and needed to be rebuked again. Peter must have felt as
frustrated at times as a chameleon crawling across a plaid shirt. He
was not sure what color to be, but he still comes out smelling like a
rose, because his first loyalty was to the Rose Of Sharon, his Lord and
Master.
An impulsive personality like Peter's is bound to get you into
trouble, for you take every feeling of the moment too seriously. You
are moved by some conviction, and you follow your emotions as if it
were the essence of the ages, and in fact, it is only temporary. Peter
feels it so strongly that he will never forsake his Lord that he
proclaims, "I will never be offended because of Thee. All others may
be offended, but you can always count on one, and that is me." Then

the next thing we know, Peter is denying with oaths and curses, "I
never knew the man."
Peter is one of these guys who is always so enthused about
something. It is the answer the world has been looking for. It is the
greatest discovery of our day, the discovery of the decade; the
milestone of the millennium; the highlight of history. Then the next
time you see him, he has forgotten and forsaken the whole thing. These
types are on the mountain top, or down in the valley, and to one
extreme or the other. Peter was always the first in everything. He did
not stop to think things through. While the others were doing that, he
was already first on the water, or first with the sword out, or first with
the words of wisdom, or of folly. As an impulsive man of emotion, he
was faster on the draw than the thinkers. This led to his shooting
himself in the foot frequently, but as J. Oswald Sanders points out,
"He was an extremist, attempting the impossible and often achieving
it."
Peter failed more, but he also succeeded more, because he was
always doing something. It may have been wise or stupid, but the more
he did, the more likely he was to do what was wise. He illustrates the
fact that life is a matter of percentages. If you try a lot you may fail a
lot, but you will also have more success. The man who calls on 100
customers may fail to sell 75 of them, but the 25 he sells to is far
greater than that of the man who only calls on 50, and only has 10
successes. Babe Ruth struck out more than anybody, but he was also
the home run champ of his day. The point is, failure and success are
opposites, but they are linked together. There is a direct connection,
for the rate of failure is often the key to the rate of success.
It can be said of some, he made no mistakes, but then it is likely
that he made nothing else either, for mistakes are the stepping stones
to achievement. Successful people are those who have made plenty of

mistakes, but they have learned from them. The biggest mistake of all
is to so fear making mistakes that you never try. Prov. 14:4 says,
"Where there are no oxen the manager is empty, but from the
strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest." If you want a nice
clean barn, that can be easily done by just not having any animals.
But the goal of the farmer is not a clean barn, but a barn full of
harvest, and to get that you need to struggle with dirt, manure, and
one mess after another. The road to a full barn may mean stepping in
a lot of manure, and the road to success in any area, may be a road
where you step into one mess after another. If you are not willing to
make mistakes and messes, you will never get to the harvest.
The cost of success is the willingness to endure failure. Most of the
successful people make a lot of mistakes as they climb, and could be
called successful failures. A dairy farm with no cows looks clean and
smells nice, but it is a flop compared to the messy, stinky farm of the
man who has cows, and who is producing milk everyday. The
successful life is not the mistake free life, or the mess free life, but the
life where even the messes and mistakes are incorporated into a plan
to reach goals. It may seem wonderful to have a factory where there
is no waste, but it will be of no value. Better is the messy factory
where there is a product being produced.
The elder brother made no foolish mistakes, as did the young
Prodigal, but was he a better man for it? He stayed home and did all
the right things, and ended up a self-righteous brat. The Prodigal
blew it, and was a fool, but he learned from his folly, and came home
to live a life of humble gratitude for love and forgiveness. Which
brother would you most prefer for a friend, neighbor, or relative?
Give me the mistake filled life where there has been victory, rather
than the proud life of one who has no messed up past, but who is about
as much fun as a boil. The mistake ridden life leads to humility, and a
breaking down of that pride that makes one a judgmental legalist.

Jesus loved the publicans and sinners, because they were more open to
grace and forgiveness. The Pharisees were too proud. They did not
need grace and forgiveness. The man who makes no mistakes does not
need a Savior. You can't help the man who never fails, for he does not
need help. It is the fallen who know their need of the helping hand.
The Pharisees were failing successes, but far superior was the
Publican who knew he messed up, and prayed for God to be merciful
to him as a sinner. He was a successful failure, like Peter. And Peter
was not only an extremist, but he was also-
II. AN EXAMPLE.
Peter, with all his weaknesses, was still an example of a type of
leader Jesus is looking for. It is not all the blunders he wants, but He
wants a man of action who gets things done. James and John were the
other two extremists in the group. They were ready to call fire down
from heaven because of the lack of hospitality on the part of the
Samaritans. They were rebuked for their lack of a loving spirit, but
the fact is, these two hot heads along with Peter, the lead hot head,
became the inner circle of Jesus. It could be interpreted that he kept
these three closest to Him because they were the three who needed
constant watching. There may be some truth to this, but the evidence
supports the idea that these three were more aggressive leaders, and
Jesus was training them for special tasks. They were hazards, to be
sure, but Jesus, by choosing them, makes them examples of what the
kingdom of God needs.
People who would rather make a mistake than do nothing for
Christ is what He is looking for. He wants people who may fail, but
who are always ready to act rather than be just passive spectators.
We don't want to take it lightly that Peter is an example of just how
far a believer can go astray. Peter was a channel of God's truth, but
he was also capable of being a channel of Satan's lies. The whole point

of the temptation of Jesus was to get Jesus to take a path that avoided
the cross. Use your supernatural power so you don't have to live on a
mere human level. By miracle you can make stones into bread, and
by miracle you leap off the temple, and have the crowds eating out of
your hand. Just bow to me, and take a short cut to rule the kingdoms
of the world. Why go the hard way, when the easy way is open?
When Jesus heard Peter rebuking Him, and rejecting the way of
the cross, he was hearing Satan again. G. Campbell Morgan has Jesus
responding, "Peter, I know that voice, I know that philosophy. I have
heard that suggestion, not once or twice, but through the years.."
Peter was a mouth piece for Satan. He was trying to get Jesus to
bypass the cross. Peter was being used as a tool of Satan. He was
saying, if you eliminate sacrifice from your plan, there will be a better
way. Jesus had to rebuke him, and make it clear, there is no easy or
better way. The cross is the only way.
It is important that we see an example like Peter, for it reveals a
Christian can be totally off base, and convinced that a satanic view of
reality is the best. A Christian can be a stumbling block and a
hindrance to the kingdom of God. This example is a powerful tool of
education if we use it. Christians often assume that if one is a great
Christian leader they have to be right in all their convictions. A
Christian leader could never promote what is contrary to the mind of
God, they think. Wrong! No Christian is above doing what Peter did,
and the more power a Christian gets, the more likely he will do what
Peter did. His example is for our warning. All Christians, and their
views, need to be examined along side the mind of Christ. Nobody is
Lord but Jesus, and He alone is the supreme authority, and everyone
needs to be evaluated in the light of His example.
The world is full of damaged disciples who have given their loyalty
to a fallible leader rather than to their Lord. Christian leaders fall,

and take wrong turns in their teaching and theology, and their
followers are hurt, and often end up falling away. This does not
happen to Christians who know Peter's example, and know the best
can fall and become obstacles. Where loyalty is to Christ alone, there
is little danger for any leader to lead you astray. It is not on Peter the
solid rock I stand, but on Christ. Peter's example is to protect
Christians from standing on the wrong rock. Peter is a rock all right,
but he is only as stable as his loyalty to Christ is stable. When he gets
off base, he is quick sand, and so you do not build on Peter, but on
Christ.
Peter is an example of how a Christian can be like the devil himself.
It is folly to let Christian failure make you angry at God. Christians
do this all the time. They will say that a Christian did them harm, and
then do the ultimate folly, which is to let a Christians failure cause you
to forsake the solid rock of Christ. Peter is also an example of just
how far a Christian can blow it, and still be a loved leader. This was a
terrible wall that came between Jesus and Peter. You can't call
someone the very devil, and not feel estranged.
Nor can you have such a label put on you, and not feel the strain in the
relationship.
Peter says in his letter that the devil goes about like a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour. And you know Peter felt like he had
just lost an arm and a leg through the lion's jaws in this setting.
Nobody had ever been called Satan by Jesus, and so Peter has the
record for being the worst follower of Jesus. He is an anti-disciple; a
satanic cross-prevention advocate; the bottom of the pile. Yet, he is
restored to fellowship, and to the leadership of the twelve. He is,
beyond a doubt, the most successful failure in the New Testament.
The most successful black leader in our time was Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. What many people do not know is that he was a

successful failure. When he graduated from Boston University School
of Theology, he went to the First Baptist Church of Chattanoga,Tenn.
To candidate, and he failed to impress them. They turned him down.
Little did he know, at the time, that it was the most successful failure
of his career. He went instead to the Dexter Ave. Baptist Church of
Montgomery, Alabama where he was accepted. A few months later
Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus, and started the
revolution that made Dr. King the leading black man of that day.
Because he was in the right place at the right time, due to his failure, it
changed the history of our nation.
I do not doubt that Dr. King was a failure in other areas of his life,
but the fact is Jesus used Dr. King to change history. Peter and Dr.
King, and many others like them, were not used because they were
perfect, but because they would rather fail in trying to follow Christ,
than to succeed in anything else. We can't be reminded too often that
it is better to try and fail than to never try at all. There is a good
chance that you will fail in trying to do the will of Jesus in taking the
Gospel to all people. But if you try to do that which is clearly His will,
even your failure will be successful failure.
3. HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL NOBODY Based on
John 6:1-13
Years ago a very famous organist was giving a recital on a new
organ. The wind was pumped by a small boy behind a screen. The
boy pumped his heart out at this recital, and he was glad for the
intermission half way through the program. Out in the vestry of the
church the boy looked up at the great organist and said, "Aren't we
wonderful?" Chilled with pride the iceberg responded, "Who's we?"

Saddened, the lad returned to his pump for the climax of the recital.
The organist pressed the keys for the opening cord, but only silence
came from the majestic pipes. The signal must have failed the
organist thought, and so he repeated it and then pressed again for the
thunder to come. No thunder came. There was only a small voice
from behind the screen saying, "Now who's we?"
We make a great blunder in life if we fail to recognize the
importance of obscure, behind the scenes people. Ida Tarbell, in the
biography of many famous persons, was asked on her 80th birthday to
name the greatest people she had ever met, and she replied, "Those
nobody knows anything about." Some of the greatest and famous
people in the history book of God are obscure nobodies in the history
books of men. Sometimes it happens that obscurity is a blessing
because it leaves a person free to give their life in service rather than
in display. The poet put it-
I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us-don't tell! They'd banish us you know.
How dreary to be somebody! How public like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day to an admiring bog.
Author unknown
This can be a false sense of humility, and an excuse for not doing
your best. If we are going to be famous before God, even though
obscure and unknown before men, we have to learn some basic truths
about what our responsibility is, and what God can do through us. We
can learn these truths very simply by looking at the obscure little lad
whose 5 loaves and 2 fish were the resource used for one of the
greatest of all miracles. We know very little about him, but that little
can make a big difference in our lives. All we know is that he had
some loaves and fish, but two important truths stand out, which
become principles for life. First-

I. WHAT HE HAD WAS MADE AVAILABLE-HE GAVE IT.
The question is not, how much do you have, but is what you have
available? You don't have to have great wealth and ability to be
famous with God, and useful to man. The widow had only a mite, but
in giving it she made all she had available for God's use, and this made
her great in the eyes of Christ. We know very little about one of the
most famous persons in the Bible-the Good Samaritan. We don't even
know his name. We don't know what he had in the way of material
possessions. All we know is that what he had was available. He had
time, compassion, and some degree of wealth, and God used him.
Others pass by who may have had more, but having is not the secret of
blessedness, but giving is.
A lad with 5 loaves and 2 fish is not endowed with great resources.
"What are these among so many?" We often feel that our talents and
abilities are so few that it is futile to offer them in God's service. The
problems and needs are so vast that the magnitude of them
overwhelms us. We look at our gifts and say, "What are these among
so many?" We forget this basic truth that it is not just our ability that
counts, but our availability. God does not ask for what you do not
have. He only asks that you give what you have. Jesus did not expect
the lad to feed the five thousand. All He needed was for the boy to
give what he had. It is up to us to do our best, and up to Christ to do
the rest.
Be unselfish with whatever you do have, and you will be a famous
giver in the eyes of God, and in the eyes of those who benefit from
your making what you have available. Marion Simms in Your Life
told the story of a girl who wanted to give her older sister a birthday
gift, but she had no money in her bank. But that did not stump her,
for the really unselfish person always has something to give. When
her sister opened her package she found an envelope tied with a

ribbon. Inside were three colored slips of paper with a gift printed on
each. Good for two dish washings. Good for two bed makings. Good
for two kitchen scrubbings. These were among her most welcome
birthday surprises. Like the little lad, this little lass didn't have much,
but what she had she made available, and she gave it. People are not
equal in what they have, but they can be equal in making what they
have available, and this is the key to being great in the eyes of God.
Next we want to see that-
II. WHAT HE HAD WAS MADE ADEQUATE-CHRIST USED IT.
If we make what we have available, Christ will make it adequate.
God has built the process of magnifying the small and insignificant
into the adequate right into His creation. Give a seed to God's earth
that could not even feed a bird, and it will be multiplied and made
adequate for feeding a flock of birds. A grain of wheat given to the
earth, and its fruit in turn given to the earth, and constantly
reinvested could eventually produce bread to feed 5 thousand, and
even 5 million. God can take our small investment, and our weak and
inadequate gifts and use them to be a blessing to many.
Longfellow said, "Give what you have to someone. It may be
better than you dare to think." Certainly this lad had no idea what
Jesus could do with his little lunch, and we have no idea what He may
do with what little we have if we make it available to Him. Whatever
you are, and whatever you have, Christ can make it adequate for
blessing the world. We need to believe this, and not cling to our gifts
and abilities and selfishness. We need to make them available for the
glory of God and the good of man, as did this obscure little lad who
became famous in God's history book.
A pilot of an American airline DC-6 was flying 21,000 feet over the
Colorado Rockies when his plane threw a propeller which crashed

through the fuselage and ripped the engine from the wing. With half
the controls gone he brought it into Denver for an emergency landing.
A reporter at the scene asked him what He did. He said, "In a
situation like that you just move over a little bit and let God take
over." None of us have enough to journey through this life and be a
success for God. All of us have at least one engine missing if not more.
We need to learn this lesson to move over a bit and let God take over.
The lad made what he had available, and Jesus made it adequate. We
need to do the same if we want to have the only fame that really
matters.
Jesus adds His infinite resources to our inadequate resources to
make the adequate, but He demands that we yield, and make our little
available. He does not ask of anyone what is impossible. He asks only
for what you can give if you will. There were a lot of famous people in
the world of that day when Jesus fed the multitude. Possibly some of
them were even in the crowd. They may have been household names
in their community, but it was this obscure and unknown lad who had
the resource that Jesus needed. Everyone of us has some resource
that Christ needs to accomplish certain goals, and only as we make
them available can the task be done.
Others may do a greater work,
But you have your part to do;
And no one in all God's heritage
Can do it so well as you.
I wonder how many of us ever realize that Jesus needs what we have.
Billy Graham will not reach those that God wants you to reach. All
the books, radio, and TV in the world will not do what God wants to
do through you.
Jonah was a poor specimen of a prophet. He was narrow,

prejudice, and rebellious, but God needed him, and he used him, and
made him adequate for the task He wanted to get done. God does not
use all rebels in spite of themselves, however. He usually demands
their cooperation, and demands that they make themselves available.
The poet said, "And Gideon was nothing, Was nothing in the fray, But
just a suit of working clothes The Spirit wore that day." He was a
successful nobody because he made himself available to the God who
can make anybody adequate to fulfill His purpose.
All of us feel inadequate, and rightly so, for the fact is, we are
inadequate. Jesus said that without Him we could do nothing.
Without Christ we are nobodies accomplishing nothing. But with
Christ we can all be somebody's who are able to do all things through
Christ who strengthens us. Just as 5 loaves and 2 fish can be enough
for 5000 lunches if they are yielded to Christ, so our inadequate lives
can be enough to accomplish God's will if they are yielded to Him.
The constant challenge of the Christian is to surrender his inadequate
little so that Christ can make it an adequate much.
Walter Wilson was converted in 1896 and became a lover of
Scripture, and a diligent distributor of tracts. Much effort, however,
produced little result. There was no apparent success following his
zealous labors. He was troubled by it, but others told him not to look
for results, but just sow the seed. No farmer could be persuaded that
he is being successful if he just sowed seed and never saw a crop.
Wilson remained troubled by his ineffectiveness.
In 1914 he went to hear Dr. James A. Gray, who later became
president of Moody Bible Institute. He preached on Rom. 12:1, and
he challenged Christians to present their bodies a living sacrifice as a
place for the Holy Spirit to dwell on earth. Wilson yielded what he
had to God, and this is what he wrote: "There, in the quiet of that late
hour, I said to the Holy Spirit, My Lord, I have mistreated you all my

Christian life. I have treated you like a servant. When I wanted you I
called for you; when I was about to engage in some work I beckoned
you to come and help me perform my task. I have kept you in the
place of a servant. I have sought to use you only as a willing servant to
help me in my self-appointed and chosen work. I shall do so no more.
Just now I give you this body of mine; from my head to my feet, I give
it to you. I give you my hands, my limbs, my eyes and lips, my brain;
all that I am within and without I hand over to you for you to live in it
the life that you please."
Walter Wilson became a great example of one who made himself
available. Jesus took His inadequate and ineffective life and began to
feed the multitude. One day two young ladies came to his office to sell
advertising, and before they left he had led them a commitment to
Christ. From then on soul-winning was a common everyday part of
his life. He walked into a book store, and as he purchased a book he
shared his love for Christ with the dealer. He asked if he would like to
know Christ as Savior? The man said he had searched for years to
know God, and he was anxious to know how to find Him. Wilson led
him to receive Christ. He went on to be used of God as a beloved
physician, preacher, and author in Kansas City. He was made
adequate because he made himself available to be used by Christ.
We are the bread Jesus wants to multiply to feed the hungry world.
If we are yielded like a loaf in His hands, He can expand us and make
us adequate to meet the needs of those who are starving for the bread
of life. The work of the kingdom is being done by many thousands
who will never be known outside of a very small circle. Nevertheless,
they are successful nobody's because they have made what they have
available, and Christ has made it adequate for touching those lives in
their circle.
The key to being a successful nobody is to recognize that you are

really somebody. It is one of life's greatest tragedies when people
think they are worthless. It is a false view of man's worth in general
that leads even Christians to put themselves down. The disciples of
Jesus needed to learn this lesson. They had their value system of who
was important, and who was not. The only problem is that it did not
fit the value system of Jesus, and so they had to junk it. They said that
kids were a pain and a nuisance, and they hindered the more
important things of life getting done. Jesus rebuked them, and He
said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not,
for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Jesus was saying that they are
not only the future of Israel, but they are the future of forever, and
they are of eternal and infinite value. They were a bunch of little
nobody's, but Jesus said you would be better off never to have been
born than to cause one of these little nobody's to stumble and miss the
kingdom.
Jesus had to teach them that the Samaritans were not worthless
scum, and that the Gentiles were not dogs of no value. One of the
greatest battles of all time is that of trying to get into the heads of
God's people that there are no nobody's. Everybody is somebody to
God and because of it C.S. Lewis wrote-It is a serious thing to live in a
society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest
and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature
which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship."
Everyone you think of as a mere nobody can be one of everlasting
splendor in Christ.
The biblical record is loaded with nobody's who are only known in
this world because they made their little available to God. In I Kings
17 we read that Elijah came to a widow who had a hand full of meal
and a little oil, and she was about to make her last meal for her and
her son, and then die. She shared her little with Elijah, and God
blessed her, and the grain and oil never ran out, but kept multiplying

to meet her needs. She made what she had available, and God made it
adequate. The New Testament owner of the colt that Jesus used for
Palm Sunday is another example. It was not much of a sacrifice to let
someone use your colt for a few hours, but because he did make it
available Jesus used his colt for fulfilling the Old Testament prophecy
about the Messiah. It was a small favor that Jesus used for a major
fulfillment of prophecy.
Jesus wants to do major things with our puny powers, tiny tools,
and trivial treasures. That way He gets the glory for doing what only
God can do, but we get the joy of being partners by doing what we can
do. Without God we can't do it, but without us He won't do it. There
must be a willing partner who will make his little available before God
will make it adequate.
God can even use the negatives in your life for blessings to others.
A great example is found in the diary of Anne Taylor. She was a
Quaker servant girl who was raped on her way from England to
America. She tells of how she ran to Henrietta Best and collapsed in
her arms in the fold of the ship. She breathed in horror that she had
been raped. "Hush," said Henrietta, "it happened to me too." She
shared how decades before she had been raped by soldiers in France.
Anne wrote in her diary, "Those words saved my life and my reason.
What resurrected me was her love and her understanding, which,
clearly, were the fruit of her own suffering; she could identify with me
without pious pretense. When she consoled me and took me in her
arms, I experienced the presence of God."
Henrietta gave her what she had, and though it was not much, it
was adequate to meet the need. It was enough so that Anne could gain
the victory over her own suffering, and go on to live for Christ and
serve others. Henrietta was a nobody in the world, but she was God's
gift to Anne, and who knows but God how many other suffering

children of God needed her love and comfort? Everybody is
somebody when they are a channel of God's love.
Most of the trouble of the world is caused by people trying to
become important, and most of the blessings of the world are caused
by people trying to be useful. Jesus was tempted to become important
by jumping off the temple, but He chose to be useful. All of His
miracles were done to help people solve a problem or meet a need.
Our goal in life is to be like Him and seek to be useful in being a
blessing to others. This is the road to success in God's book. We may
not have much to work with, just as the little lad did not, but if we
make what we have available, Jesus can make it adequate, and we can
become successful nobodies. You have no idea what Jesus might do
with your resources if you yield them to Him. That little boy would
have laughed at you had you told him that God would do great things
with his lunch that day. We need to learn that little is much when we
make it available to Christ.
Mary Millis was a poor housemaid in an English nobleman's home.
The son was being allowed to grow up with no knowledge of the Bible,
and so Mary taught the boy to read the Bible and to put his trust in
Jesus. That boy grew up to become Lord Shaftesbury. He changed the
course of England's history by fighting for laws that protected
children from working 12 hour days in coal mines. He helped establish
schools all over England. He brought about prison reform, and
changed the attitude of a nation in many ways. He became somebody
in the world because of a nobody who was somebody yielded to God,
and who yielded what little she had to her Lord, and it was enough.
Another Mary was a tiny Chinese slave girl named Mary Liu. She
was just a worthless nobody to her mistress who threw her away on a
dung heap to die. Her feet were nearly burned away, and her hands
were hopelessly crippled. A missionary heard her pathetic cries and

rescued her. She was taken to a hospital where they amputated her
feet and fingers. Wooden feet were made, and she was given a lot of
love. What could such a person give in return? This poor little nobody
with such a damaged body became the editor of two Christian
magazines called The Messenger and The Star. She made what she
had available and Jesus made it adequate to feed far more than five
thousand with the bread of life.
If you ever feel like a nobody with very little to offer for the
kingdom of God, do not despair. You are just what Jesus is looking for
to demonstrate again, as He has all through history, that He loves to
make much of little. He did it with the lad and his lunch, and He will
do it with any of us who give what we have for Him to use. This is the
key to becoming a successful nobody, which means one who is
somebody in the eyes of God.
4. GROWTH IS SUCCESS Based on I Cor. 3:1-9
Conrad Hilton, president of the world's leading hotel organization,
has all his life prayed for God's guidance to help him grow. Mr.
Hilton is a professing Christian who, like many other successful
Christians in the world of business, feels that we should never be
content with what is small, but keep our sights set on what is big. He
started in Cisco, Texas with a small $40,000 dollar hotel, but even then
he had his eye on the Waldorf-Astoria, the most famous hotel in the
world at that time, and in 1949 he got it. He did not then give up the
desire to grow, however, but began the long complicated process of
acquiring the Statler Hotels. In 1954 the largest real-estate
transaction ever made up till then in the United States took place
when he bought the Statler chain for the $11,000,000.

Conrad Hilton never stopped growing, and that was one of the key
factors in his success. This has been true for successful people in all
areas of life. Longfellow in his declining years was asked how he
could be so energetic and write with such power. He pointed to an old
apple tree and replied, "That apple tree is very old, but I never saw
prettier blossoms on it than it now bares. The tree grows a little new
wood each year, and I suppose it is out of that new wood that those
blossoms come. Like the apple tree I try to grow a little new wood
each year." A tree that stops growing is a dying tree, and a life that
stops growing is a failing life, for the facts of life, and the teaching of
God's Word is, that growth is success. All that is living must grow or
die. This is as true in the realm of the spirit as it is in the natural
realm. Paul makes this point clear-
I. GROWTH IS ESSENTIAL.
Paul is not scolding the Corinthian Christians because they are
immature babes in Christ. That would be as foolish as scolding a baby
for not being a man. It is not only legitimate, it is absolutely essential
that churches have immature babes. There is no way to grow the
kingdom except by winning new converts who begin as babes. Paul is
not angry because they are immature, but because of their lack of
growth. No one can complain that a baby is a baby, but it is a
problem when an adult is a baby. When a child does not grow it is a
serious matter. Lack of growth is the real issue here, and it is their
failure to grow that is making them fail in the Christian life.
There can be no success without growth. The tragedy of many
Christian lives is that they come to a point where they stop growing.
Elizabeth O'Connor, in her book Our Many Selves, feels that this is
the essence of sin. She writes, "The meaning of sin is usually not that
we try to make ourselves the center of everything. That may happen,
but it is a monstrous perversion. We are usually more subtle. We

make our present state of selfhood the meaning of existence and thus
refuse the deeper meaning which lies within and beyond this present."
In other words, if you stop pressing on toward the goal for which God
made you, you are failing. Failure is often success that stops growing.
That was the case with the Corinthians. Glen Dresback put it in
poetry-
But no defeat is quite so imminent
To common ways as the defeat success
Turns into when it puts aside the dreams
That made it be and somehow, grows content
With what it is, forever giving less
Until it is not, and no longer seems.
If growth is success, then lack of growth is failure. This means the
question is, not where are you, but where are you going? The new
Christian who is immature but growing is a successful Christian. The
mature Christian who is standing still is failing, for growth is success.
The analogies that Paul uses in this text are analogies that deal with
growth. In verse 9 Paul says you are God's field and God's building.
A field that does not grow anything is a flop, and so is a building that
never gets off the foundation. There must be growth and
advancement, or there is no success.
The Biblical perspective is similar to that of Ben Sweetland the
contemporary success writer. He stresses that success is not a
destination but a journey. You are not just successful when you arrive
at your goal, but you are successful the minute you start, and all along
the way as you move toward it. Paul makes it clear in this context that
even the unsuccessful Christian will make it to heaven, but he will lose
rewards because of his poor journey. It is not just getting to heaven
but how you live along the way that determines if you are a success or
failure in the Christian life. If growth is the key, then it follows that

success is a journey, and not just a destination. It is not enough to be
going to be with Christ, but we must be growing to be like Christ now.
It is not just where we get, but what we become that is important.
In secular life many strive only for a goal, and when they arrive and
are rich, or famous, they have a temporary pleasure, and then in no
time at all they are bored and dissatisfied. They failed to realize
that true success is not just in getting but in becoming. The same
mistake was being made by the Corinthians. They wanted to get this
gift and that gift, and they wanted their particular man to dominate,
but in all their getting they were not growing, or becoming mature in
Christ. The result was, all of their success was really failure, for they
were not growing. The best gifts without growth only add to the
tragedy.
Spiros Zodhiates, the contemporary Greek commentator, says of
the Greek word Paul uses in verse 1 to refer to them as men of the
flesh, "The state of being sarkikos is one of resistance to the elements
that cause growth." A carnal Christian is one who refuses to grow.
The spiritual Christian is one who refuses to stop growing.
After president Coolidge issued his famous quote "I do not choose
to run" statement, he was besieged by reporters seeking a more
detailed account. One of them, more persistent than the rest, followed
him to the door of his library and asked, "Exactly why don't you want
to be president again?" Coolidge looked him squarely in the eye and
answered, "Because, there's no chance for advancement." He may
have been joking, but the fact is, there are points in secular life beyond
which we cannot advance, but in the spiritual life there is no such
point. Growth is always a possibility for every believer at all times.
Life must grow or die. All agree that eternal life is both
quantitative and qualitative. It lasts forever, but it is also a quality of

life that begins now and grows forever. The degree of that growth in
this life determines much as to the reward we receive in the life to
come. My own conviction is that eternal life means eternal qualitative
growth. Heaven will not be a place of stagnant sameness, but a place
where the adventure of advancement goes on forever with the finite
ever moving closer to the qualities of the infinite. That journey does
not begin in eternity, but begins right now.
Paul, as a concerned spiritual parent, knows that if he can not
motivate these Christians to grow up, they will miss out on God's best
for both time and eternity. We might question
if it is legitimate to try and motivate people by appealing to rewards
or judgment, but the fact is, the Bible does it, and Paul is doing it here.
It is also a fact that many, if not most, successful people have had
parents who constantly motivated them to grow and keep moving
ahead. Lyndon Johnson was a compulsive worker due to the
motivation of his father. As a boy he would be awakened in the
morning by his father saying, "Get up, Lyndon, get up! Everybody
else in town has a head start on you already." John F. Kennedy had a
father who did the same for him. His sister Eunice wrote, "Even when
we were six and seven years old, daddy always entered us in public
swimming races...the thing he kept telling us was that coming in
second was just no good. The important thing was to win."
It is obvious that you can go to excess in this area of motivation and
do great harm. Richard Nixon was also strongly motivated to win and
succeed, and he did it, but his drive carried him beyond what was
legitimate. This was equally true of many others who never got
caught. There is a dangerous extreme in every virtue. Even growth
can be excessive. Cancer is excessive growths. The abuse of any idea
or truth, however, is not to derail us from its pursuit. Paul is not
worried about these Corinthians growing so fast they become clumsy
spiritual giants. He is fearful that they will remain stunted babes.

In the book Cradles Of Eminence, there are 400 famous men and
women studied, and all but two of them were motivated at an early
age to develop a love for reading and learning. It is a simple law of
life. If you do not feed, you do not grow. If you do feed on great food,
you become a greater person. Paul is working on this very principle.
He wants to motive these Christians to feed on the solid food of
Christian truth. You become what you eat, and if you can get people
to study the Word of God in depth, and really get into the meat of it
early in life, you will have a great Christian life growing. A growing
successful Christian is one who has as much motivation to feed his
spirit as he does to feed his body. If we were as eager to find gems of
truth in the Word of God as we are to find delightful tastes for our
tongues, we would be growing Christians. We need to heed Paul's
rebuke, where none of us are without sin in this area. Secondly-
II. GROWTH IS CONDITIONAL.
It doesn't just happen, for it had not happened to the Corinthians.
The first condition is that one be aware of his need for growth. Paul
makes it clear to the Corinthians that they were responsible for their
lack of growth. And that only they could choose to change an get
growing. The problem was not lack of food or resources, but their
lack of preparation and development. They obviously were unaware
of how little they had grown. They thought they were giants when they
were pigmies. They thought they could judge who was the greatest
leader, and what were the best gifts. They thought they had surpassed
just about everybody, when in reality they had not gotten beyond the
nursery. They were like the little boy who at the end of his
kindergarten year said, "Good-by teacher. I sure do like you. I wish
you knew enough to teach me in the first grade." He thought he was
passing up the teacher. The Corinthians felt the same about their
teacher Paul. His first task was to awaken them to the fact that they
were not advanced students at all. They were still working on the

alphabet.
All of us need to realize how little we really know if we are going to
be motivated to grow. The illusion of maturity is our biggest
hindrance to growth. We feel no need to grow if we think we know
enough. We need to humbly admit that we are not giants. We may
not be as immature as the Corinthians, but we are far short of the goal
that Paul lays down in Eph. 4:13, where he says we are headed for,
"...Mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ." When we admit we have not yet arrived, then we are ready
for growth. Archbishop William Temple once said, "The sin of the
world exists not because a few people are spectacularly sinful, but
because most of us are as good as we are and no better." If the world
is going to be a better place, then all of us have got to get better, and
that means we must grow.
One of the fascinating aspects of the Incarnation is that our Lord
entered into the experience of growth. It was prophesied in Isa. 11:1,
"There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch
shall grow out of his roots." Luke 2:52 says, "An Jesus increased in
wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man." The Greek
word for increased is prokopto, which means to strike forward. The
Christmas message is "Unto you a child is born." Jesus did not come
as a full grown Savior. He had to grow and strike forward. He had to
develop physically, mentally, spiritually and socially. Jesus has
already gone through the process of growth, and He has fulfilled the
conditions of growth. Jesus entered into time and used time wisely to
grow. It takes time to grow, and Paul was angry at the Corinthians
because they had time and did not use it. We must recognize that only
we can so use our time that it leads to growth. No one can force us to
grow. We must choose to grow. We must cultivate our taste. I takes
time to fall in love with all God wants us to love.

People often expect good things to be delightful from the start.
Christians are often bored with sermons and Bible study, and quite
often it is because they are just plain boring. On the other hand, it is
also often due to the fact they have not developed and grown in their
love for what is good for them. They have not cultivated their taste
for spiritual food. This growth does not just happen. It takes time and
effort and the will to develop it. Those who never take the time and
put forth the effort will remain babes and likely will do little of lasting
value in the Kingdom of God. I takes time to grow, but if you take the
time you will gain eternal reward. Susan Coolidge wrote,
How does the soul grow? Not all in a minute;
Now it may lose ground, and now it may win it,
Now it resolves, and again the will faileth;
Now it rejoiceth, and now it bewaileth;
Now its hopes fructify, then they are blighted;
Now it walks sullenly, now gropes benighted,
Fed by discouragement, taught by disaster,
So it goes forward, now slower, now faster.
Till all the pain is past, and failure made whole,
It is full grown, and the Lord rules the soul.
Jesus had to go through this process himself. He had to overcome
obstacles in his family, in society, and even with his own disciples.
Jesus was growing right up to the point of Gethsemane where he
prayed, "not my will but thine be done." He learned obedience by the
things which he suffered. He was then a perfect specimen of manhood
and ready to be offered as the Lamb without spot for the sin of the
world. If we want to count and not just be counted, we too must use
our time to grow and strike forward. The strike forward idea is
important. It is not where you are but your direction that matters.
Christians are in all different degrees of maturity, but they are
successful wherever they are if they are moving forward. A child with

2 years of practice on the piano is not to be compared with one of the
famed masters, yet the child is a successful piano player if there is
steady improvement. The parents and teacher are pleased with such
success. It is not just he destination but the journey that matters.
Growth is success and that is why both Peter and Paul are
constantly urging Christians to grow. In II Pet. 3:18 we read, "Grow
in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
In I Pet. 2:2 we read, "Desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye
may grow thereby." Paul writes in I Thess. 4:10, "We beseech you
that ye increase more and more." and in Col. 1:10, "Increasing in the
knowledge of God." and in I Thess. 3:12, "The Lord make you to
increase in love." and in Eph. 4:18, "That ye may grow up into Him in
all things." and in Phil. 1:9, "I pray that your love may abound more
and more." You see in everywhere in the New Testament that growth
is essential and conditional. Everyone can grow but only those who will
to grow, will grow.
J.C. Ryle in his classic book on Holiness wrote, " Many admire
growth in grace in others, and wish that they themselves were like
them. But they seem to suppose that those who grow are what they are
by some special gift or grant from God, and that as this gift is not
bestowed on themselves they must be content to sit still. This is a
grievous delusion and one against which I desire to testify with all my
might. I wish it to be distinctly understood that growth in grace is
bound up with the use of means within the reach of all believers."
Let me then be always growing,
Never, never standing still,
Listening, learning, better knowing
Thee, and Thy most blessed will;
That the Master's I may trace,
Day by day, my growth in grace.

Unknown
5. THE BATTLE FOR SUCCESS Based on I Cor. 3:1-15
In the 35 years following the Civil War 3 success writers towered
high above all others, and they became successful by writing about
success. All 3 were ordained men. One of them was Russell Conwell
who was the pastor of the Baptist Temple of Philadelphia. He
delivered his famous lecture over 6000 times, and raised several
million dollars with which he built a large university. The title of his
lecture was Acres Of Diamonds, and this is the story behind it:
One day as he was jogging down the banks of the Tigress and
Euphrates on a camel, led by an old Arab guide, he was told this story.
There once lived in ancient Persia a wealthy and contented farmer by
the name of Ali Hafed. One day an old priest visited him and told him
about diamonds that had been discovered. He told of the wealth and
power that came with their possession. That night the farmer could
not sleep. He was discontent with what he had. The next day he sold
his farm and went off in search of diamonds. After wandering through
Asia and most of Europe he had become a wretched man in rags and
in despair. He threw himself into a great wave and was drown.
The man who bought his farm was one day leading his camel
through the garden, and the camel desired a drink. As the camel
nosed the water the owner noticed a flash of light from the sand in the
brook. He picked up a stone and took it home. A few days later the
old priest came to visit. He recognized that stone as a diamond. They

rushed together to the brook, and thus was discovered the famous
diamond mine of Golconda, the most magnificent of all history. Ali
Hafed had lived on acres of diamonds, and died a failure because he
didn't recognize what he had, and was off looking for it all over the
world.
Russell Conwell was impressed with this story, for he had seen a
similar thing happen many times. Numerous poor people sold their
land to go off to improve their lot only to learn that their had been oil
or gold on their land. He had been a poor farmer, and had run away
at 15 to make a better life for himself. He went to Europe, but
returned and fought in the Civil War. It was while lying in a hospital
tent dying from his wounds that he received Jesus as his Savior. He
entered the ministry and raised millions to build up a church and
school to meet the needs of working class people. His conviction, like
that of most success writers, is that every person can be successful if
they recognize and practice some basic principles. Our purpose is to
show that Scripture in general, and Paul in particular, support this
idea that all of us can be successful. We want to examine the basic
principle that Paul stresses to the Corinthians that applies to all of us.
Let's consider-
THE ARENA WHERE THE BATTLE FOR SUCCESS IS WON.
Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within you, and Paul made
this same point to the Romans when he said that the kingdom of God
is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy
Spirit. The Corinthian Christians were failing in the Christian life
because they were like Ali Hafed. They were looking for success
somewhere out there in the world. But success is not found in
externals says Paul. All their search for success in following men, and
getting excited about gifts with the most external display, is taking
them far afield. Their acres of diamonds are not out there in the

world, but they are within them.
In verse 16 Paul writes, "Do you not know that you are God's
temple and God's spirit dwells in you?" Their greatest resource was
right within them. They were wasting their lives in the futile search
for what was already theirs.
Paul tells them in vv. 21-23, "For all things are yours, whether Paul or
Apollos or Cephus or the world or life or death or the present or the
future, all are yours; and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's. In
4:8 Paul writes, "Already you are filled! Already you have become
rich." Yet, with all of these resources they were failing. Paul is
constantly telling them where they are failing. They were successes
living as failures when they should have been failures living as
successes. If we recognize that the arena where we battle for success
is within, we can learn to fail successfully.
History has some great examples of failures being the key to
success. The famous atheist Robert Ingersall was once traveling by
train with a companion by the name of Lew Wallace. As they traveled
they saw one church steeple after another. There were several in
every town they passed through. Ingersall said, "Lew, you are a
learned man and a thinker. Why don't you spend some time in
research concerning Christianity's leader Jesus Christ, and then write
a book proving once and for all that he was an impostor, and thus
relieve these misguided people of their delusions."
His friend was captivated by the idea and agreed. He started
immediately to travel and consult ancient manuscripts and original
sources for the period of history in which Jesus lived. His goal was to
write a book proving Jesus was an impostor. He totally failed to
achieve that goal, for he discovered that all the evidence supported the
fact that Jesus was who He said He was-the Son of God and the Savior
of men. At the age of 50 he prayed to God for the first time saying,

"O God, show yourself to me, forgive me my many sins, and help me
to become a true disciple of Jesus Christ." Lew Wallace failed to
write his original book, but he went on to write what has become one
of the greatest books of all time-Ben-Hur. He found both success and
salvation by failing to reach his goal because he found God's goal for
him.
History is full of such experiences. God seems to delight in
bringing good out of evil, and success out of failure. William
Wilburforce was a hunchback who suffered from many cruel jests, but
God used him to so fight for other underdogs. He got a bill passed
through the British Parliament that set a million slaves free.
Alexander Whyte was born out of wedlock. He got the worst start in
life, but he ended up as one of the greatest preachers in the history of
Scotland. His books are read around the world yet today.
The purpose for Paul writing to these immature babes is to help
them become mature in Christ, and able to digest the solid food. He
wants them to reap the reward of the riches within them. Paul is
convinced that failures can become successes. He knew this for he was
one of the most successful failures in history. One of the great themes
of literature and the Bible is this theme of success out of failure. The
ugly duckling becomes the beautiful swan. Rudolf the Red Nose
Reindeer is mocked for his unusual nose, but in the end he becomes a
hero. Cinderella the lowliest becomes the highest and noblest. In the
Bible it is Joseph the despised brother who becomes the hero and
savior of his people. The stone rejected by the builders becomes the
chief cornerstone, and He who is despised and rejected of men
becomes the one before whom every knee will bow.
This theme is so universal that it ought to teach us clearly not to
write off any failure, for the facts of life show that failure is one of the
key roads on the way to success. It is almost impossible to succeed

without failure. The arena is within, and if you do not let failure
defeat you there, you can always press on to success. Paul spent a lot
of time with the Corinthians. It was about 18 months, and yet they are
babes in Christ with all kinds of problems. Paul did not throw up his
hands in despair, and give up on them because he failed. He wrote this
letter, and God used the failure of both him and the Corinthians to
give the whole world the blessing of this Epistle. Had Paul given up
and let externals discourage him, then he would have been a failure.
Twixt failure and success the points so fine
Men sometimes know not when they touch the line.
Just when the pearl was waiting one more plunge,
How many a struggler has thrown up the sponge.
Author unknown
Successful men always take that one more plunge, for they know
the only real failure is in giving up. Washington won the
Revolutionary War by retreating. He gave up so much territory, and
he surrendered so many strategic positions, and lost so many battles,
and yet he was not a failure because he never quit. He pressed on
through all his failures to a final success. The battle out there in the
external world did not defeat him because he never gave up within.
Our Lord battled within over the issues of success and failure. He
had much opposition from the leadership of Israel. It would have been
easier to succeed had he conformed to their will. All would have been
easier had he yielded to the temptation to take Satan's shortcut to
power. The people also wanted to make him king. He had numerous
roads to success, but he resisted them all, and he took the road of
apparent failure to cross. He set his face like a flint to go to the cross
and do His Father's will. W. J. Dawson wrote,
He dwelt within the wilderness

Disdaining Mammon's lure;
He walked among the thorns of pain,
And yet his step was sure.
He saw the gilded chariots pass,
The conqueror's array;
They held to him a laurel crown,
And still he turned away.
Back to the wilderness he went
Without a thought of loss;
He hewed out of the wood two beams
And made Himself a cross.
If I would save them I must die!
This was the thing He said.
Perchance the hearts that hate me now
Will learn to love me dead.
He died upon the cross He made,
Without a lip to bless;
He rose into a million hearts,
And this was His success.
Jesus won His battle for success within. All of the externals were
negative, and it looked like total failure, but Jesus did not give up. He
said, "Not my will but thine be done." This decision was to will
success in the midst of failure. Paul wanted the Corinthians to do this
very thing. Stop struggling for your own will to be fulfilled, and stop
being like children always wanting your own way. That kind of
struggle for success leads to failure. On the other hand, learning from
your failure is a key to success. This applies to all of life. It is true
for our success in the world as well as in the Christian life.
Babe Ruth was the home run king of baseball before Hank Aaron
passed him, but the record shows that he failed to hit a home run far
more than he succeeded. He struck out as many times as he hit a

home run. Great successes are frequently failing, but not letting
failure hinder their will to succeed. Edison failed in over 900
experiments before he succeeded in getting a light bulb to work.
Charles Kettering, vice president of General Motors, spent 14 years
on thousands of experiments trying to get the spark knock out of auto
engines. It was 14 years of failure after failure, and then came success
with teteraethyl lead. He said, "All in research is 99.9% failure and if
you succeed once, you're in." Great men of science have to learn to
live with failure as they press on to success.
No musician ever became a success without first living through
many failures. Before any peace of music is played perfect, it is
played poorly many times. Traveling the road of failure is the only
way to success in most areas of life. No child ever learns to walk
without falling, and no babe in Christ ever becomes mature in Christ
without failing. One of the values of this letter to the Corinthians is
that it shows clearly how Christians can fail in so many ways. This is
not to discourage us, but to encourage us to see that failure should not
hold us back from progress anymore than it does the scientific
researcher.
What this means for all of us wherever we are on the road to
Christlikeness, which is the ultimate Christian success, is that we must
will to win within. We dare not let externals and our own weakness
discourage us from pressing on. The first principle for success is to
recognize that the arena where we battle for success is within. This is
where the power of positive thinking does play a major role in the
Christian life. We need to have positive thinking about what God can
do through any yielded instrument. Paul said, "I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me." He thought right, and this gave
him the resource for success. He pressed on whatever the external
obstacles to be a winner.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns
As everyone of us sometime learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow.
You may succeed with another blow.
Author unknown
The Bible proclaims it, and history proves it. Enrico Caruso was
told by his music teacher that he could not sing. He persevered for a
dozen years, and finally got an opportunity. His voice cracked during
rehearsal, and he fled from the theater in tears. He filled in for a
tenor who became ill one night, and the audience hissed him. He
continued to study and practice, and finally ended at the top. Walt
Disney applied for a job as an artist at the Kansas City Star, and was
told that he had no talent. His first series of cartoons, "Oswald the
Rabbit" was a flop. He kept trying, and then came Mickey Mouse.
Zane Gray couldn't sell a story during the first 5 years as a writer.
George Gershwin wrote almost a 100 melodies before he sold his first
one for five dollars. On and on the record goes of those who had to
plod through failure on the way to success. But we must keep coming
back to the principle that enables one to do that, and that is an
awareness that the battle must be won within.
No doubt these Corinthians Christians wondered about their
weaknesses. How can we obey the high standards of Christ? Who can
really love their neighbor as themselves? Who can escape lustful

thoughts, and how can we always turn the other cheek? The ideal
Christian life seems to be beyond our reach, and so failure is
guaranteed. Most Christians are caught in this conflict at one time or
another, and the only answer that can lead them to success is the
recognition that the will to win within is the key. Catherine Marshall
in her book Beyond Ourselves deals with this issue. She writes,
"Our emotions are not the real us. The motivating force at the center
of our physical being is our will. The will is the governing power in us.
Before God we are responsible only for the set of that will..."
The issue is not how do you feel, but what do you will? You cannot
control your unruly emotions often. You cannot control lust, but what
is your will? Do you will to do the will of God, or do you will to insist
on your own self-centered desire? You may feel resentment you
cannot control, but do you will to forgive? Is it your will to win and be
successful in the Christian life, or do you will to have your own way,
even though it is not God's will? This is the arena where you fight and
determine if you will be a failure or success. Recognition of this is
what enables people to succeed when failure seems to be inevitable.
The Corinthian Christians were weak and feeble Christians, and their
lives were full of frustrating problems because they failed to take
advantage of the rich resources that were within. We cannot look
down our noses at these early saints, however, for the facts of life
make it clear that even mature Christians often suffer from inner
defeat and failure.
Dr. Frank Lauback, born in Benton, PA., and destined to become
one of the most famous Christians of the 20th century, is a good
illustration. At one point in his career he desperately wanted to
become the president of the Union Theological Seminary in the
Philippines. He was one of the 7 trustees who had to vote for the man
to fill the position. When the time came, 3 voted for him and 3 against
him. He did not know this and so he voted for his opponent, and by

that one vote lost the election. In a very real sense he voted himself
out of his own dream.
So great was his disappointment that he developed a bitterness that
poisoned his life. For 2 years he became a semi-invalid. He hobbled
around like a defeated man until he finally realized that he was being
foolish. He voted for his own failure, but he could also vote for his
own success if he would yield his life to God. He won that inner
victory, and began to cash in his acres of diamonds. Out of his pit he
rose to heights of Christian success beyond his wildest dream. No one
who has ever lived has helped more people learn how to read than
Frank Lauback. The Gospel has reached millions because of his
labor. Instead of a president of a school, he became a teacher of
nations. The arena where the battle had to be won was within. Had he
allowed failure to continue to dominate his inner life, he never would
have become a success. Success is not out there in the luck, breaks,
and good fortune. All that enters the picture only after one has won
the battle for success within.
The greatest success stories are not those of 4 boys who became
millionaires, but of those who are without hope and without God in the
world who find the Pearl of great price. Those who are in darkness
who find the riches of light in Christ are the greatest successes, and
this is a battle also that is won within. If you do not believe anyone can
be successful in this way, listen to this true story. In 1924 the judge in
a Midwest courtroom said to Starr Daily, "I'm about to sentence you
to a major prison term for the third time. I know you are sick. And I
know that more punishment is not the remedy. But your record
leaves me powerless."
At 16 Starr became the leader of a gang of safecrackers. He was
the best, but even the best get caught. His father hoped that after 14
years in prison he would be different, but he lived to see him sentenced

the 3rd time. Starr plodded and escape the 3rd time. When it was
discovered, he was put in the hole for 15 days. It was a dark and
damp hole where he was given a piece of bread and a cup of water at 6
in the morning. Twelve hours later he was given another piece of
bread and cup of water. After 15 days of this his feetwere black with
congealed blood. For weeks after he was left on the icy cold stone
floor in filth, and he was near death.
Only hate kept Starr alive, but then he got so weak that he came to
the end of his hate, and it was then that a positive thought entered his
mind. He thought, "All of my life I have been a dynamo of energy.
What might have happened if I had used that energy for something
good?" But now it was to late and he was dying. He slept into a state
where he dreamed he was in a garden, and Jesus came toward him.
This was the one he had been trying to avoid all his life. Jesus looked
into his eyes, and he felt love like he never felt it before. It extracted
all of the hate from his heart, and he had this thought:
"I am submerged in Reality, I'll never be the same again, now or
through eternity."
He dreamed that all whom he ever hated or injured past before
him, and he poured out his love to them. He was taken to the prison
hospital after that. He not only recovered, but was such a changed
man that he was released in 1930, which was 5 years ahead of time.
This man with a 6th grade education went on to write 6 books, and
lectured all over the nation. He pointed numerous prisoners to Christ.
He became a success for eternity, and then for time, and it all began
when his inner resistance was defeated, and he yielded his inner life to
Christ. That is where all lasting success begins. Whether you are a
wicked sinner, or a weakly saint, the battle for success must be won in
your heart. If you surrender to the Lordship of Christ, you can win
the battle for success within.

6. THE MOTIVATION TO SUCCEED Based on I Cor.
3:1-15
Successful people almost always attribute their success, in large
measure, to the influence and inspiration of some other person. Henry
Ford tells of how he was in a period of uncertainty about building his
gas engine. He was discouraged about it, and was letting the idea go
dead in him. It was at this point that he met Thomas Edison at a
convention in New York City. Edison got him to explain his idea, and
draw his plan on a menu card. When Ford finished, Edison banged his
fist on the table and said, "Young man, that's the thing; you have it!
Keep at it!" This word of encouragement from the world's greatest
inventive genius is just what Ford needed. He wrote, "That bang on
the table that night was worth world's to me." He went back from
that convention and built his engine. He had it in him to do it, but it
may never have gotten done without that encouragement from Edison.
Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke wisdom when he said, "Our chief
want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can." Paul was
striving to be that person to the Corinthian Christians. He was trying
to be that external stimulus that motivates people to be all they can be.
In part one of our study of success we stressed the basic truth that the
arena where the battle for success is fought is within. We must never
lose sight of this truth. Dr. Maxwell Maltz, the celebrated plastic
surgeon and psychologist, and author of Psycho-Cybernetics, wrote,
"Your mind is the battleground in which you win or lose....it is a
battleground in which you lose the war against negative feelings or in
which you win this essential battle and go on to face life with
success-type approaches."

Because this is a vital part of the story of successful living, Paul
emphasizes, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."
A vital part is not the whole, however. The heart is vital, but it is not
the whole of the body. The battle is within, but it is also a fact that a
successful battle within depends upon influences from without. It is
almost impossible to be successful alone. We need the positive
influences of others to bring out the best in us.
Victor Goertzel and his wife read over 5,000 volumes of biography
to produce their book Cradles Of Eminence. They examine the
childhood and home life of 400 of the most famous men and women of
the 20th century. They concluded that if you want to be successful you
have got to be influenced by the right people. In the majority of cases
these successful people were influenced by one or both parents who
had a strong drive toward intellectual or creative achievement. The
external influence of someone is what motivated them to will to win
within.
Joseph Brunten Jr., who was born and educated in Pittsburgh, tells
of the influence that motivated him to climb to Chief Scout Executive
of Boy Scouts of America. He was on a hike with a scout troop as a
boy, and they had gone a long way and were tired. When the scout
master said to rest they all flopped on the grass. Then the scout
master said, "Look about you. What do you see?" All in chorus they
shouted, "Grass!" He ordered each patrol to lash 4 sticks together in
a crude frame about a foot square, and place it on the ground. This
was to be their world for the next hour. The boys were puzzled, but
they began to observe. In minutes they realized there was more than
just grass. There was a world of great variety with different plants,
spiders, mites, earthworm mounds, and even a bit of fluff off a rabbit's
tail. There were rock particles, pebbles, and minerals.
Joseph never forgot that experience, and he writes, "In one hour I
received one of the most important lessons I have ever had in my life.

Successful christian living

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