Guidelines
For Success
2
Timothy 1:7-7; Philippians 3:13-14; 2 Timothy 2:22
Making it through twelve years of high school or 4 years of college or 4 years
in the military or 20 years of marriage or 27 years at the same church involves
facing some very real challenges—academic, social, spiritual, relational and so
on. Life itself is a continuous encounter with challenges. Does the Bible offer any help to those who
want to live a successful Christian life?
I’d like to offer three scriptural GUIDELINES that can help you achieve success
in living your Christian life—These GUIDELINES can help you cross life’s finish
line with God’s approval.
I. Face Your Fears (II Timothy 1:7)
“For God
has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.”
The Bible is full
of “fear-nots,” but this statement was written to a
young man just beginning his ministry in a tough place. Timothy was a young
pastor at
As believers the Holy Spirit of God dwells in us and provides all we need to
eliminate our fears.
Quotation:
Max Lucado says, “Fear doesn’t want you to make the
journey to the mountain. If fear can rattle you enough, fear will persuade you
to take your eyes off the peaks and settle for a dull existence in the
flatlands.”
·
Having to live away from family can be fearful at times.
·
Going
for a job interview can produce anxiety.
·
Moving
to a new community, attending a new church and school, and trying to make new
friends can be very intimidating.
·
Getting
a pink slip and facing the future without gainful employment can definitely
keep you up at night.
But God
has not given us a “spirit of fear.”
All too
often we seek to change our circumstances instead of allowing God to change
us. We pray that an overbearing boss
will get fired or promoted to another city.
We do not stop to think that God may be using our circumstances to
produce Christlikeness in us—to change us. Instead of manipulating the environment,
perhaps we should pray “Thy will be done” and cooperate with God in His work of
making us like Jesus.
It is not
God’s will that we spend our life running from unpleasant circumstances, but that
we live courageously. God can and will use you where you are, but you must be
willing to face your fears.
·
You
must have the courage to face the fear
of being stereotyped as you follow Jesus on a secular college campus.
·
You
must be willing to face your fear of
ridicule as you say “Yes” to a godly lifestyle.
·
You
must be willing to face your fear of
being rejected and ostracized when you say “No” to the drugs you are sure
to have offered to you.
·
You
must have the courage to stay in a marriage that has hit a dead-end and is
offering you nothing but the fear of
life with unfulfilled expectations.
·
When
fear mounts an attack against your future and says your God given dreams will
be lost, you must refuse to take matters into your own hands and trust God!
Finding Nemo: The Risk of Faith
Set in
His
apprehension made him overprotective toward Nemo,
hovering over him incessantly. His worst fear was realized when Nemo was trapped by a deep-sea diver and taken to
In his travels
Marlin met a lonely fish named Dory, and his fears isolated him from her. He
was so afraid of making a bad choice he dismissed her advice, and
second-guessed her opinions. Dory was more trusting and willing to try, even at
the risk of failing. She had faith. Marlin had none.
The two found
themselves trapped in the belly of a great whale. Marlin, in frustrated fury,
pounded against the slimy walls until he fell – limp,
worn, and dejected.
Dory cooed with
motherly tenderness, "Are you okay? There, there, it's all right; it'll be
okay."
"No, no,
it won't," was Marlin's reply. "I promised [Nemo]
I'd never let anything happen to him." If he could only have been more
vigilant, more cautious, and somehow taken even fewer risks. If only–”
Dory responded, "Huh, that's a funny thing to
promise."
Suddenly a
rumbling sound startled them. The whale began to tilt back, and the water began
to recede. They hung on as Marlin cried out, "He's eating us!"
But Dory didn't
think so. Convinced she could communicate with the whale, she thought he should
be trusted. As she loosened her grip, she compelled Marlin to do the same.
"He [the whale] says it's time to let go. Everything is gonna be all right."
"How do
you know? How do you know something bad isn't gonna
happen?" Marlin asked.
"I don't" was her reply.
And after a
moment's hesitation, they both surrendered their grasp.
Marlin stepped
into dangerous uncertainty and embraced the hazards of faith. It was a wise
choice. The whale sprayed them out in
Content: Rated G
Elapsed Time: From
the beginning of the credits this scene starts at
Citation: Finding Nemo (2003), by Pixar,
written and directed by Andrew Stanton, produced by Graham Walters
Is Anyone Else Up
There
George fell over the edge of a steep cliff, but on his
way down he managed to catch a small tree that was growing out of the cliff
wall. Although safe for the moment his
grip was failing and no help was in sight, so he began to pray, “Dear God,
please help me!” Suddenly a voice spoke
from out of nowhere and said, “George, this is God. Turn loose of the tree.” George gave thought to the command and then
said, “Is anyone else up there?”
If we’re going to go on in life, then there will be times
when we must let go and trust God.
TRANS: Not only must we face our
fears, we must also forget our failures.
II. Forget Your
Failures (Philippians
Exposition: Philippians 3:12 [Paul is in
prison, chained to a Roman guard, under what was probably poor conditions when
he wrote...] Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected [made like
Christ in every way]—but I strive to lay hold of that
for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.
Explanation: Paul implies two things in these verses.
1. He refuses to allow past failures to determine his
future.
2. He refuses to allow past failures to determine his
destination.
The
secret? I can assure you, that the matter is not one of
“if” you will fail but “when.” It’s part
of the process.
A heat seeking missile, in seeking out its target, fails many times. Ultimately it succeeds. Why?
It uses its failures to make corrections that enable it to find its
target.
After 13 months and more than 700 failures,
There
will be times when you will fail, but failing does not make you a failure. The
only people who never do anything wrong are the ones who never do anything…but
the person who is successful at doing nothing is a successful failure.
Our greatest fear should not be
of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter.
We must
learn from our failures and use them to make corrections that will enable us to
get on target.
Like Paul, we must put ours failures
behind us, placed our faith in God and press forward.
TRANS: To reach the finish line
successfully we must not only face our
fears and forget our failures,
but we must follow faith.
III. Follow Faith
(2Timothy
Exposition: 2Timothy
Youthful desires encompass more than illicit
sexual activity. It involves the
temptations of a young pastor to pride, to conceit, to dogmatism, and to
contentiousness. While the young may be
more vulnerable to these temptations, none of us are exempt.
How?
How do we put distance between our hearts and unhealthy desires that
will destroy us?
Some of us have been doing our best to will
ourselves away from unhealthy desires. We’re like mice armed with matchstick swords
fighting lions, and we wonder why we’re not victorious. Then what should we do to win the victory
over harmful desires?
Just
off the coast of
The
villain swam happily in his newly conquered territory and ate a few tuna, but
the sponsors of the study soon discovered him. The sponsors found that the tuna
had adapted to the situation. A spokesman for the South Australian Research
Development Institute said, "When the shark swims to the surface, the tuna
swim to the bottom of the net, and vice versa."
What
is the lesson of the tuna and the shark? When the enemy comes our way, we need
to swim the opposite direction. When temptation is at the
surface, dive for the bottom. When temptation is at the bottom, swim to
the top.
Citation: Reuters; submitted by Leslie Bauer,
It’s
impossible to head west and east at the same time. To go east, one must turn their back on
west. To go west, one must turn their
back on east. Likewise, the best way to
avoid unhealthy desires is to live in pursuit of God ordained objectives. The moment we turn to passionately pursue
righteousness, faith, love and peace, in that same moment we are fleeing
youthful desires.
CONCLUSION
If you want to cross the finish line successfully and with
God’s approval, then you must
·
face
your fears,
·
forget
your failures and
·
follow your faith.
Perhaps God is calling you to turn loose of the thing that
you’ve been holding on to and to trust Him.
Could it be that you’ll never be able to move forward in
life until you let go of the past?
Maybe you continuously fail to overcome harmful lusts
because you’re using the wrong approach.
Maybe your victory over youthful lusts is to be found in pursuing
righteousness, faith, love and peace.
© 2004