Success 1988

There's no doubt in my mind that we have in here an assembly of people and a high percentage of people who are very serious about following Jesus, desire to do that, and desire to fit into his will, and yearn to really function as members one of another, yet it's often true that we get discouraged and we get sometimes beaten down, we get weary, tired, think we're getting, beginning to get burned out. And when we get like this, we often rationalize our failure, you know, I mean I think we need to keep trying things and failing at them, but to know that in the end, there's going to be victory. We often hear people say, God doesn't require that we're to be successful.

He only requires that we be faithful. And that's true, and it's comforting, as long as we don't sit around and feel pious about being faithful failures. Because Jesus promises that if we trust him, we're going to have success.

We're not going to fail. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, he who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. On this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of death shall not prevail against it.

They won't hold out against it because it's going to succeed. There's nothing wrong with yearning for a little success in our personal lives, and in our life as a body. As long as we understand what success really is, and don't get a warped conception of what success is by the standards of Babylon around us.

In Babylon, you're a success if you have lots of people around you, lots of money in your pocket, and TV cameras aimed at you from every corner. In the kingdom of God, success is far more wonderful than that. In the kingdom of God, every follower of Jesus, every follower of Jesus is a phenomenal success.

Not after we die, not after the kingdom comes in its fullness, but now. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You are the salt of the earth.

You are the light of the world. Jesus says that to us. If you follow me, he says, you're not only going to feel good inside, you're not only going to have peace in your soul, but you're going to get somewhere.

You're going to be effective. You're going to accomplish something. You're going to look back on your life and be amazed to see that when the fires of judgment have burned up and destroyed all the most marvelous things that the human mind has created, and the human hands have built, and the smoke is cleared, and the ashes have cooled, there will be a trail of fruit that you have produced still standing.

Moreover, you can know, even before the fires fall, that the life you're living now, in the kingdom, what you're doing, the prayers you're praying, all this adds up to more success than all the Wall Street tycoons and Hollywood geniuses and generals and politicians wrapped together. You are part of a kingdom which will last forever. You're building a house on the rock that will never fall.

Reading from Luke chapter five, and I'm going to stay in this passage the whole time, beginning at verse one, when the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had ceased speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

Simon answered, Master, we toil all night and took nothing. Peter was a fisherman, and so for Peter success was a simple matter. If you catch a lot of fish, you're a success.

If the nets keep coming up empty, you're a failure. Now it wasn't that Peter didn't know his business, he knew his business. Nor was it that Peter was lazy, he worked hard, yet for all that he knew and all the effort and work he put into it, no fish.

Every single one of us knows what that's like. We think hard, we work hard, and yet we still keep coming up with zero. Master, we toil all night, it took nothing, and for many of us that night has gone on for years.

We toil and we strive and we worry and we weep, and when it comes to producing something that's of lasting value, the net seems to keep coming up empty. And we look at our lives and we say, what have I accomplished? What have I brought into this troubled world that's of any value? What have I messed up and bungled? And for all the mess and all the sin in my life, in the past, I haven't even had any fun. Simon answered, Master, we toil all night, it took nothing, but at your word, I'll let down the nets.

When they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish, and as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. There it is, success, and success that has nothing to do with how smart Peter is, how hard Peter works, how much he worries.

It's success because Jesus is in the boat, and he tells Peter, go out there and try it one more time. A word from Jesus. Peter responds to that word, even though he's shaking his head with doubt as he does it.

And bam, success, as a sheer gift from God. Now the lesson in this for us is that the same Lord who is in that boat is in this boat today. And if we will do what he tells us to do today, take seriously his word to us, and take some step of action in response to that word, we will have success.

What kind of success? But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the catch of fish which they had taken. And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

And Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid. Henceforth, you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

A night of failure, followed by a lifetime of fruitful, joyful, effective service in the kingdom of God. Success is not something we bring to God. Here, Lord, I'm a success, so let me into the kingdom.

Look, Lord, we're a success, so give us a blessing. No, success is something God gives to us. We present our bodies as a living sacrifice.

We keep giving ourselves to him, and pretty soon we begin to taste what success really is. Success comes to us as a gift from God, and it comes in three ways. First of all, success is finding the kingdom.

It's the gift of finding the kingdom, and that's really what happened to Peter. After a long night of failure. See, in the night of failure for Peter, it wasn't just that night they were out there on the lake.

It went on for him for years. This man was looking for the kingdom. He went to the synagogue every Saturday, went up to the temple at Jerusalem every Passover.

He shut down his business and went down to hear John the Baptist because he was hungry for the kingdom of God. His brother Andrew says, come, we found him. Come meet this guy, Jesus.

They go and meet Jesus, but on this day, Jesus comes to Peter and asks Peter to fit into his program. Peter, lend me your book. Peter does, and when the day is over, when this thing is over, Peter finds himself beholding a sign of the kingdom, standing at the very door of the kingdom, and that door is Jesus.

Don't be afraid. From now on, you're going to be catching men, and that's what Peter had been looking for all his life. The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up.

He finds it as a gift. It's shown to him, and then in his joy, he goes and sells everything he has to get that field, to get the treasure, to get the gift. You know, it's a gift, but it's worth it to get rid of everything else just to have this.

Now the same Jesus who was in that boat is among us now, and he wants to do the same for us. He's the door of the kingdom for us, and he says to us, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and beaten down and worn out and I will bring your night of failure to an end. I will give you rest, and that's what success really is.

There are those among us, perhaps, who have never yet put their life, thrown it down at the feet of Jesus, and said, here it is, take it. No doubt there are those among us who at one time walked under that yoke and then kind of drifted away and need to come back and say, here it is, I'm back, take it, my life is yours. And every single one of us knows that we have to keep coming back, keep turning, keep giving it back to him, keep surrendering it, putting it at his feet, selling everything we have to have him over and over and over again.

All the time, God help us to see those hands of the Lord stretched out to us today in welcome, saying to us, come to me, draw near to me, come on back to me, and I will give you rest, and you will have success. Secondly, success is the gift of entering the kingdom by becoming truly part of the body of Christ. First we find the kingdom, then we enter the kingdom.

And as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so that they began to sing. We see them working the nets together, rejoicing together, tasting together the glory of the kingdom of God, learning how to function together, work together. Peter did not lower the net by himself.

He didn't bring the load in by himself. They did this thing together, and that's how it always has to be. Not alone, always together.

When you have believers who come out of their private compartments in their little, you know, solo fishing boats and enter into unity with each other around Jesus, there you have a spirit of power. And in that spirit of power, they do amazing things. They succeed at whatever they do.

They bind and it's bound. They loosen and it's loosed. They ask and it's done.

They cry out, Jesus, and he's there. And we're learning to do that here. We're learning.

Praise God, we're learning. And as we come out of our little private compartments and our little solo fishing boats and dare to join ourselves to each other and run the risk of getting your feelings hurt or being overlooked or being somehow in some way jarred or worn or neglected or irritated or let down or whatever, but as we keep doing this and join ourselves to him, power comes upon us. From on high and the gates of death tremble and those old bars of iron rattle and shake because they know they must yield to us.

We will have success. We will break through those gates and we will free the captives, which brings us to the third thing. Success is the gift of being able to welcome living souls into the kingdom.

First we find the kingdom, then we enter the kingdom by coming into the body, truly into the body. Then we have the joy of welcoming living souls into the kingdom. Don't be afraid.

From now on, you're going to be catching men. And it's going to be just as easy as it was when you lowered the net. You lower the net, you welcome them.

You open the door. You give them a blessing. You give them hope.

And I draw them into your net. And we're not just talking about altar calls, new church members, bigger crowds that may all be included, but what we're really talking about is the ultimate purpose, what we're really after. We're not just after getting people worked up.

We are after of bringing men and women and young people to the place where they are radically committed followers of Jesus. That's the goal. And that's the proof.

And that's what we're going to see. Radically committed followers of Jesus who turn from their old way into His way, into the way of the cross, into the way of glory, the way of the spirit, the way of God. Success in the kingdom of God is never an achievement.

It's a gift. So we are all given a fair shake here. Anybody can have the gift.

It's the gift, first of all, of finding the kingdom in Jesus. It's the gift of entering the kingdom by joining into the body, somewhere, somehow. And it's the gift of welcoming living souls into the kingdom and seeing them come and stay and change forever.

The night of failure is over, says the Lord. Come, He says, throw your life at my feet, and you will have success. You will see the kingdom, you will enter the kingdom, you will have the joy of seeing others come into the kingdom, and you will see this with your own eyes and you will touch it with your own hands.

Give your life to me and let me take charge. Let's just wait upon Him now in silence and let Him speak through our hearts and whatever it is we desire to do, respond to Him as He leads us.