Sermon – “How Do We Measure Success?”

And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. 23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone. 24 But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. 27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. 28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. 29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. 31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, Who walks in His ways.

You know the praise and worship songs to so many times they just speak to our hearts so much calm and behold him. You know Jesus said Behold I stand at the door knock and if any man hear my voice and come and open and I will come in and dine with him you know he wants us to come and behold him. Behold who he is how magnificent he is behold His love. Behold his mercy a man a man. Let us pray this morning. Father we thank you and praise you for your presence here today we thank you for your love for each one of us Father we know that your love is so great if you would have allowed your son to come and die if would have only been for one man’s sin. We thank you for that we thank you. That one drop of Jesus’ blood would have been sufficient for all of our sins. We just thank you for your love your compassion your kindness and father got I just prayed your spirit will be upon us today. God open our hearts to receive what you have force and let it be for your glory and your praise in his name we pray and then. And we would like to welcome those that may be watching online this morning and welcome you into our home and may God be with you and bless you this morning. My message out titled How do we measure success. Whether it be in our faith in our relationship with the Lord or in the world but how do we tend to measure success. So I’ve got a little bit to share before I get to the scripture this morning. Con a little different than what I normally do before James Garfield was president of United States. He was a principal he was a principal of Hiram College in Ohio and while he was serving as a principal there a father came and asked him if the course of study could be simplified. So this son might be able to go through on a shorter route Certainly replied Garfield but it all depends on what do you want to make of your boy when God wants to make an oak tree takes a hundred. Years when he wants to make a squashy requires only a two months. He says we’re producing too many squashes and not enough oak trees. You know think about this for a second. Here’s a father wanting to rush his child through college child kid should go much out of there at that age young adult through college. You know you might think that that’s something you’re going to hear today’s age in which we live because we’re in the instant gratification age we’re in the we want to now we don’t want to wait. We don’t want to work our way through life and through things we want everything now we want the best of everything we want what our parents work for forty years in the first two years of our lives but think about it. He was the twentieth president of the United States in eight hundred eighty one and this happened before he became president. So this happened many many many years ago and it’s rushing through. Let’s let him succeed without going through the trials that many others go through the idea of success is ingrained into our children at an earlier and early an earlier age all the time children are encouraged to think about what they want to major in in college while they’re in middle school. What are you going to major in college and lady. You should know by now. You should know what you want to be I mean that’s there and seriously I looked this up in middle school they’re encouraging kids to know what they want to do with the rest of their lives. If you will they want to know where they’re going to maybe not where they’re going but what they’re going to do in college you need to know so you can succeed and be the best to whatever you want to do. Now believe me I’m not knocking college when I’m talking about this I believe the. Wish to get the best education we can possibly get college is a wonderful thing. It’s important to get a great education. And I believed you can never learn too much and you’re never too old to learn. Think of a trip I made with Karen’s own mom. Harold we were going to Florida one time and he was tell me about and he’s seventy five or six years old at this time and tell me about taking a class on H. H. a B. C. to learn how to do heating and air conditioning. He said You’re never too old to learn. Well he’s ninety now I’m not sure if he’s taken an aggressive ways almost ninety I should say. But you know you are never too old to learn. But the thing I want to seriously think about today is this Is it wrong. We set certain standards or goals as our measurement for success. That we think that we have to reach a certain level to be successful. You know some people will tend to have their lives all mapped out how many years they plan to go to college with their goal of landing a job that’s going to pay me a hundred or two hundred thousand dollars a year. They have this goal set that well I’m going to be married by the time I’m thirty. I’m going to have three kids about Tom I’m thirty six. I’m going to plan on early retirement I’m going to retire by the time on fifty you know they said people said all these goals and today. Are we wrong in thinking what we have to reach this goal by a certain time in order to be successful. You know we are a sports crazy society in America and we know that. Most of them think well they’re not a successful team. Unless they win the World Series. You know we’re in a full swing of baseball season. So everyone’s going to say well. Whichever team wins the World Series. They’re the successful team and all the rest are just losers. You know those that win the Super Bowl. That’s a successful team. We have this goal. You know every team begins to see. And with one goal in mind and that’s winning the World Series or the Superbowl or the Stanley Cup or whatever their trophy may be they set this goal. Unless they reach that goal. They think of themselves maybe as losers. The guy that when it’s finished the second place in the race. Guess what. He’s the first loser. But that’s the mindset of the today and are we wrong in setting that mindset or having that mindset and setting those goals. So now get to the Scripture and you might be one hundred as a reader as how is that going along with what I’m talking about but I hope to make it understandable. And today I’m going to be reading from the King James version for a change. Matthew Chapter fourteen versus twenty two through thirty one and straight way Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him on to the other side while he said sent the multitude away and when he had sent the multitude away he went up into a mountain apart to pray and when the evening was come he was there alone but the ship was now in the midst of the sea tossed with ways for the wind was contrary and in the fourth watch of the night. Jesus went on to them walking on the sea and when a disciple saw him walking on the sea they were troubled saying it is a spear. They cried out for fear but straightway Jesus spake unto them saying Be of good cheer. It is Be not afraid. And Peter answered and said Lord if it be that out bid me to come on to the on the water and he said come and when Peter came down out of the ship. He walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous he was afraid and beginning to sink he cried saying Lord save me and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him. Faith where for doubt they got his blessings to the hear it in a reading of His Word and here’s why I shared all this success stuff before the scripture. If we are not careful we will tend to allow the same method or measure that we use for success in the world. To become the same way we measure success in our faith and in our relationship with God. Will think that we have to attain some certain goal. You know if we pray in a church with well by seven years in I want to be have three hundred people in our congregation or if we go on a mission trip what we think what we have to witness to thousands of people and have so many can versions you know we set the same goals in our relationship or in our faith walk success in one’s relationship with the Lord cannot be measured in the same manner that we measure success in the world. YOU HEAR ME Church we can use the same method in verse twenty two. It said in straight way Jesus constrained his disciples to get into the ship the Greek meaning of the word constrain means to compel or to necessitate he compelled them to get into the ship Oswald Chambers’ says that we are apt to imagine that if Jesus Christ constrains or compels us to do something and we obey Him that He will lead us to great success. Think about that we have this mindset the Lord has called me to do something we’re going to have this great success. The end goal mindset is so ingrained to a in in to us that even with God We tend to think that if it is God’s will for us to do this that he is going to do it this way or that way we have this mindset that God’s going to do things the way we think he’s going to do. Them. You know if God calls me to preach what man he’s going to give me a huge flaw. You know we’ve all heard the televangelist. Was con of touch and on. At this morning downstairs. I’m like whoa not going don’t go there you know. We’ve heard those televangelist get up there on the front I’m telling you you called him today and you just so you’re saying that in this ministry and God is going to bless you God is going to bless you. Beyond Measure. So this seated A in God’s going to heal you. We’ve heard that we’ve all heard that but you know there are some scripture to even back that Luke six thirty eight says given it will be given to you good measure pressed down shaken together and running over will be put into your bosom with the same major that you use that will be measured back to you. So there are scripture to encourage so generously that we may reap generously. But we can do it with the wrong motive can’t wait. If we so generously because we said God is going to make me so rich because I’m going to be generous. We’ve got our our hearts all wrong didn’t. Our hearts all wrong. But if we so generously because we know that God has blessed us and we want to bless others. Not because of what we’re going to get because we want to be a blessing to others. We want to be Christ to others then God may bless us he may bless our bank account or a may not but are you willing to so generously even if he does not. Bless your bank account if we slow just think of we’re going to get rich. We’re missing the main point. Our goal should not be some hype of prosperity that we hope to that we intend to reach when god. Calls us we tend to have an idea that God is leading us to some particular end some the Zire goal but he is not what we call the process of what God calls us to do is the end they got to see what we see is a process God sees as the end. I’m not sure if you’re going to you understand the purpose is that we step into the boat you get that art out maybe help make it simpler Jesus straight away called the disciples to get into the boat and go to the other sides of what was the first step to step into the boat. That’s the process. That’s what God’s purpose is that we have enough faith to say Yes Lord here I go I will follow you. I will go where you call me I will goo where you lead me his purpose is that we depend upon him. That we trust in him that we depend upon his power. Now today. Not some time in the future when we reach that goal that we may have set in our minds. But if we can say calm a number plex in the middle of the turmoil that is the end purpose of God or that is his end purpose for us. God is not working towards a particular finish but the process that is what God is working towards getting us a Mody Nuss to where we will trust him follow him in the midst of that storm when we see him walking on the waves with no shore in sight. No success. No goal but we are just absolutely certain that we’re going to be all right. Because we see him walking on the water when the disciples were compelled by the Lord to get in a boat to go to the other side you know they might have. Gotten into that boat started rowing and work on a way towards the other side that can. Wow the Lords called us to go over there. I wonder what great thing we’re going to do there. So I should share with you what happened right before they got into the boat shouldn’t they had just fed the five thousand. Now I have to back up a little further and tell you that Jesus had just found out that John the Baptist had been beheaded. So he actually they got into the boat and went to the other side seeking some solitude that he could go be alone and pray but the crowd saw him and followed. So whenever the crowd showed up he had compassion on them. He taught them. He healed them. He loved them and the disciples were part of all this when he blessed the bread he gave it to disciples and what did they do they broke it in a can’t multiply right. They had a hand in this mighty miracle. So they saw all this. So then after the crowd departed Finally Jesus gets his moment of solitude and he sends a disciples away. So there might they might be thinking OK now we’re going back to the other side where we began. I wonder what great thing we’re going to do there. Managed you know they’re coming and they were just on the mountaintop. They’re ready to go over to the other mountaintop do great things but what happened. The storm arose right. Life happen. You get that the storm arose when they got out on that sea. They’re planning great things and all the sudden there’s a great muddy storm on that see in that example of what life is like we said all these lofty goals in the Guess what happened. Happens. Life happens doesn’t it. Sometimes life gets in the way. But we set all these goals and well some sickness might come some other tragedy. Stuff happens. The storm the seas a rise and makes life difficult. While we’re looking at some and some and go God looking at how we respond in the storm. Whenever that sea is getting stirred or we still going to have faith. Are we still going to trust in him. Don’t think for a second that Jesus didn’t know that there was going to be a storm when to see when he told him disciples get into the but he knew it. He saw them toiling in rowing verse forty eight for the wind was contrary unto them that means it was against them but Jesus waited until the fourth watch of the night which would have been about three o’clock in the morning. The Jews normally divided the night into three four hour watches with the first beginning to six P.M. So Jesus finally came to the disciples they were only three or four miles out by this time so they had rowed for eight or nine hours eight or nine hours out there in that little boat in that storm. Jesus on the shore knowing that their illness but he let them struggle. Forth night through the night fourth watch of the night he found he goes to them treading the ways. So he put the swells under his feet. There is a word there for us. Jesus can tread the ways he can tread the ways of the storm. He can put them under his feet. So why should we be afraid. Why should we be afraid and concerned more in that turmoil because we know it’s under his feet. Whatever may come upon you. He can put under his feet. If you but give it to him trust in him. The one we call Lord is ruler over all that’s life. What we do with our lives. How we trust in him. You know we’ve heard that story about the dash you know it’s not when we are born in the end but it’s to dash what we do in between are we. Faithful are we. Obedient to the Lord. Do we trust him. So I am one twenty eight verse one says bless it is everyone who fears the Lord who walks in his ways found a little story about a young pilot that had recently gotten his license to fly and he was flying a private plane one day and was very cloudy day and he was not very experienced on Estimate landing. So when the control tower was to bring him in for a landing. He started thinking of the hills and the tires on the buildings in that area. He began to get panicky and a calm but stern voice to command came. You just obey instructions. We will take care of the up struction us can you hear the Lord saying that to us today. You just a bay my instructions says the Lord and I’ll take care of all the obstructions that come upon you will you let him be your guy in the control tower today. Will you obey Him simply obey the instructions of the Lord. Step into the boat or step out of the boat. Whichever he is calling you to do and trust in Him He will take care of everything else true success is allowing God to lead our lives. It is the process is where success is deemed that you have the success or have not succeeded the process want to turn to Romans five. They didn’t have this one because I added. Began with Verse three and not only that but we also glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation produces perseverance perseverance produces character and character produces hope not. Hope. Does not disappoint. Because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. There may be times we got allows us to go through tribulations or all these things but the see what kind of man or woman we are. I’ll go back to the beginning. Are we a little puny squash. Or we have giant oak tree in him. I pray that we trust in Him with all of our lives that we depend on him. That’s our call today. To lean upon him because he is strong.