In Search of Success

You have no doubt noticed that we live in a society that worships success, and yet it has a difficult time defining it and an even more difficult time measuring it. One of the problems in ministry today is that many a missionary, many a Sunday school teacher, many a pastor feels like he or she is a failure.

I receive phone calls and letters from Christian workers who are ready to quit. And not just full-time Christian workers, what we call the lay people, the folks who really are the backbone of the church, and they write and say, "Brother Wiersbe, I've been teaching my Sunday school class for x number of years, and I feel like I'm a failure." They aren't looking for sympathy, nor are they looking for me to bolster their ego in some way; they just hurt.

Now, in some cases, nobody's encouraging them. Be an encouragement. Be an encourager in your church. Anybody can go around tearing things down. My grandchildren can do that. It takes maturity to build things up.

I stop in the bookstores regularly, I look at the books that are there, I want to see what the world is reading, and I see one volume after another with the word "success" in the title. How to Dress for Success. John the Baptist should have read that one. The chapter tells you what kind of attaché case to buy, how to tie your tie, how to use the right kind of aftershave lotion. And I suppose these things are important, I don't know.

And then there are books on how to talk for success, which makes a lot more sense, because we do a lot more talking than we do carrying attaché cases. Learning computerese for success. And the word "success" just keeps showing up.

In fact, whenever my wife and I are flying somewhere and if I'm through with the book I'm reading, or I'm not tired enough to sleep, I'll pull out the flight magazine. They're all pretty much alike, but there's always a section in there on on video cassettes or audio cassettes on success.

Now, if God were to write a book on success, it would not be long. In fact, our Lord has summarized his whole philosophy of success in one parable. That parable is found in Matthew 25:14. And this book has only four chapters in it.

Matthew 25:14. Our Lord is speaking and he says, "For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them, and to one he gave five talents."

Allow me to pause at this point and say the word "talent" here is not the same as the word "ability." Because it goes on to say, "to another two, to another one, to each according to his own ability." So the talent... We use the word "talent" to describe an ability; our Lord does not.

Now a talent was a piece of money. A talent was worth today, the money market keeps fluctuating, today would be worth about $300,000. In their currency, at their value in that day, a laborer would work for 20 years to make that much money. Now, I don't know what your salary is. Fella said, "They've cut my salary so much I endorse my check with Mercurochrome," you know? I don't know what your salary is, but multiply it by 20, and that's what the talent was worth as far as your buying power is concerned.

"And immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents." I don't know how he did this. He may have bought a franchise into Colonel Sanders. I don't know. But he took that money, and put it to work, and made five more.

"And likewise, he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his Lord's money." It's what people did in those days. You might buy a piece of property, and start digging around, and find a treasure in it.

"After a long time, the Lord of those servants came, and settled accounts with them. So he who had received five talents came, and brought five other talents, saying, 'Lord, you delivered to me five talents. Look, I have gained five more talents beside them.' His Lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.'

He also who had received two talents came and said, 'Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Look, I have gained two more talents beside them.' His Lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.'

Then he who had received the one talent came, and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed, and I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.' But his Lord answered and said to him, 'You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed?'"

There should be a question mark there. "Oh, this is what you think of me? If so, you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming, I would have received back my own with interest. Therefore, take the talent from him, and give it to him who has 10 talents.

For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Now, before we look at the four chapters in our Lord's book of success, I want to deal with Matthew 25:30. Some years ago when I was pastoring at the Moody Church, it was my privilege to minister occasionally to Dr. Robert Ketcham. He was then old and infirm. I would visit him in the hospital. And he was just a delightful man. He meant so much to me in my ministry. He was a great encouragement to me.

One day the phone rang and the secretary said, "It's Dr. Ketcham." And so I answered the phone. I said, "Hello, Doc."

"Warren," he said, "I want to talk to you about a verse. Open your Bible." So I got my Bible. He says, "Matthew 25." So I opened to Matthew 25. "Verse 30." Verse 30. "What is the outer darkness?"

I should tell him? I mean, one of the greatest preachers America ever produced. Well, I knew he didn't want my opinion, quite frankly. I said, "Doc, what do you think it is?" We preachers do that. We learned it from the rabbis. Fellow said to his rabbi, says, "Rabbi, why is it whenever I ask you a question, you always respond with a question?" He says, So why shouldn't I?

I said, "Doc, what do you think it is?"

He said, "I'll tell you what I think, Warren." I listened, cuz I learned a lot from him. He said, "I don't think our Lord's talking about hell. This was one of his servants." He said, "I'll tell you this. If I get up to the judgment seat of Christ and find—" I could I could hear the tears. He was a very tenderhearted man. Many people didn't know that. Oh, he was so tenderhearted. He said, "If I get to the judgment seat of Christ and discover I've wasted my life and there's no reward, that will be hell to me."

You know, I think he hit the nail on the head. My Lord is not saying that if I don't get to work and do something for him, I may go to hell. That would be salvation by works. I think what he's saying here is this: when you stop to consider the glories of heaven and the blessed rewards that we can have, to waste our opportunity would be like going to hell.

Having settled that matter now, let's go back to the beginning of the parable and take chapter one. Chapter one in God's book of success is entitled "What Is Success?" Always start with a definition.

Now, here are three workers. One has a lot of ability, and so the master gave to him five pieces of money that were very valuable. The second man had average ability, so he received two. The third man was not quite up to average, but he had some ability. He received one.

Now, you notice in Matthew 25:15 that the talents are not the abilities. We've already discussed that. Then, what are the talents? The talents are the opportunities to use the abilities. Here's a man with a lot of ability. How do we know he has a lot of ability? Because the master can tell.

In fact, when my Lord looks at us... He made us. He built our genetic structure. When I read Psalm 139, that marvelous description of the miracle of pregnancy and the baby growing in the mother's womb, that miracle... You see, abortion is the killing of a miracle. And it says that God had my days written in his book. It says that God put me together.

When I was a little kid it used to bother me. Why was I born without athletic ability? Both of my brothers had athletic ability. I don't. I played left drawback in the football team. Why was I born without mechanical ability? I had a hard time with Tinker Toys. Didn't have a ghost of a chance with an Erector Set. Why, Lord? And then later on I found out God made you the way he knows you're supposed to be. And that genetic structure comes from heaven.

And I'm sure when my genes got together and got acquainted, they were quite shocked, you know. They went to the gene that was in charge, the designer gene, and they said, "Tell us about this guy Wiersbe. You're in charge. Is Is he an outdoorsman?"

"No, no."

"Is he mechanical?"

"Oh, no, no."

"Is he athletic?"

"No way."

"Artistic?"

"Absolutely not."

"Well, there's not much left."

"That's him."

Used to bother me. Doesn't bother me anymore. Because you know what? God's not going to compare me or judge me by somebody else.

What is success? Oh, success is faithfulness to use our God-given opportunities, to use our God-given abilities, to accomplish what God wants us to do. He'll never ask me, "How many operas did you write?" He didn't give me that ability. "How many great runners did you develop?" He didn't give me that ability.

He knows what he gave me, and he knows the opportunities he gave me, and success means I have used, you have used our God-given opportunities to use our God-given abilities to accomplish what he wants us to do.

Now, that means life is pretty serious. Life is serious. Life is enjoyable. Sometimes life is a burden, but life is serious. It's short. You say, "Well, I'm young. I've got a long—" You don't know how long you're going to live. I have conducted funerals for 12-year-olds, for 16-year-olds. You don't know how long you're going to live. We don't know when our Lord's going to come back.

He was gone a long time, it says in Matthew 25:19, but he came back. And when he comes back, all he's going to find out is, were you faithful? "I gave you opportunities, and I gave you abilities. Now, did you put these two together faithfully to accomplish what I wanted you to do?"

Boy, does that take the pressure off of serving the Lord! He's not going to He's not going to measure me by my great predecessors at the Moody Church. When I was at the Moody Church, I felt like a midget standing on the shoulders of giants. He's not going to say, "Did you do what Ironside did? Did you do what Philpott did?" No way.

He's going to say, "Did you do what you were supposed to do with what I gave you and the opportunities I set before you?" Which means I'd better find out what my abilities are, and I'd better keep my eyes open for the opportunities.

Now, that takes care of chapter one. What is success? It's knowing what my abilities are, seeing the opportunities, putting the two together with the Lord's help, and accomplishing what he wants me to accomplish.

Now, we turn the page to chapter two of our book on success, which is entitled "What Are the Principles of Success?" Now, the Lord doesn't just tell us to go out and be successful. He tells us how. And the answer to this question is found in Matthew 25:21-23. It's so familiar. "Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord."

Now, in this verse, our Lord gives to us three basic principles for true success. Not just reputation, not just popularity. A lot of people have reputation who aren't successful. A lot of people are popular who aren't successful as far as God is concerned.

Three principles. Principle number one: you start by being a servant, then you become a ruler. "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been, You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things." Let's stop right there. You start with being a servant. Now, this is the Bible pattern. Just take the people in the Bible that God used in a wonderful way, and you find they started off as servants.

God had ordained that Joseph should be a ruler, but he wasn't ready for it. He wasn't ready for it. His father pampered him, and he wasn't ready to be a ruler. So, he ended up a prisoner, falsely accused and thrown in prison. In prison, he learned how to be a servant. He worked for Potiphar, then he went into prison. He worked in the prison. When God saw that Joseph knew how to be a servant, it didn't take God very long to put him on the throne, make him a ruler.

David, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, they all started by being servants. Moses had his degrees from the university in Egypt. Stephen tells us he was learned in all, a-l-l, all the wisdom of Egypt, all of it. The man was smart, and so he decided he would start straightening out the Egyptian-Israeli problem. And he made a mess out of it.

God said, "You know what your problem is? You can't rule yet. You haven't learned how to serve. You've been living in the palace too long." Out he goes for 40 years of postgraduate work as a shepherd. That's a hard way to get a sheepskin. But he did it. And when Moses learned how to be a servant, God made him a ruler, said, "Okay, now you can take care of the people of Israel."

Joshua got his start carrying Moses' baggage. He was Moses' servant. He became Moses' successor. Samuel started opening and closing the door and taking care of the little jobs around the tabernacle; then he became a prophet. David, nobody paid any attention to David except God. God knew that David had killed a lion and killed a bear, and God knew that David was a man after God's own heart. And God said, "David, I've seen you as a good servant. You know how to take care of sheep. Now I'm going to give you a nation."

Now this is God's pattern. First, service, then leadership. That doesn't mean everybody gets to be a big leader with your name on magazine covers and things like that. No, it just means that God starts us off as servants before He moves us up to a place of leadership, because servants know how to obey. Nobody has the right to give orders who hasn't learned how to take orders.

I will not go into detail on this, but I want to drop it into your mind. One of our problems in the church today is that too many so-called leaders didn't start this way. They got where they are by their charisma or by some public relations firm's promotion. There's always a publisher looking for somebody, always a seminar director looking for somebody. And here's somebody who's not ready yet, and he's pushed to the top, but he can't stay there because he hasn't been prepared. We start by being servants, and then God says, "I can trust you as a ruler."

Secondly, we start with few things, then God gives us many things. Notice that? "Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things." That's the Bible pattern. Joseph learned how to take care of Potiphar's house. One day God gave him the whole nation of Egypt. Moses learned how to take care of some sheep. God gave him a whole nation of sheep, and they were stubborn.

David learned how to take care of the little jobs his father gave him, shepherd, carrying care packages to his brothers in the service. God one day made him king. Timothy, Timothy got his start just helping Paul, just do all the odd jobs that have to be done. He became Paul's successor in Ephesus. We start with a few things, then God says, "All right, I can trust you with many things."

Now, in the world, and the world's wrong, the big determines the small. They say, "Well, if we can trust him with a million dollars, we can trust him with $10." That's not always true. I say this not disrespectfully, nor am I referring to anything religious or political, but John Kennedy was a good one for borrowing money from his friends and never paying it back.

He'd say to Pierre Salinger, "I need $20," he'd never see it again. And yet, he was worth millions of dollars. Now, I don't say that critically. I say it illustratively. Others have done the same thing. Samuel Johnson used to say to Boswell, "I would like to have four shillings, not to be repaid."

Now, the Bible pattern is not, "Oh, if you can trust him with a million dollars, you can trust him with 10." It's just the opposite. If you can't trust him with 10, you can't trust him with anything. The person who steals a few postage stamps from the office would steal the whole payroll if he could get away with it. He would. "He who is faithful in that which is least," said our Lord, "is also faithful in that which is the most, the greatest."

For years, I have kept under the glass on my desk, I don't have it now because it's written in my mind, a saying by a fellow named Marsden. I don't even know who Marsden was. I found the saying in the middle of a page in The Sword of the Lord years ago, cut it out, put it under my desk. It says this, quote: "Make every occasion a great occasion, for you never can tell when somebody may be measuring you for a bigger place." I like that.

You say, "Well, that's just a little funeral service." No, no, make every occasion... "Yeah, just a small service, it's just a few people." No, make every occasion a great occasion, for you never can tell when God, not just somebody, God may be measuring you for a bigger place.

Which leads us to the third principle. We go from servants to rulers. We go from a few things to many things. We go from toil to joy. "Enter into the joy of the Lord." These men took their talents, except the third one, and they put it to work, and they, maybe they bought things and sold it. They had to work. They didn't just sit around and say, "Well, the money's working for me." No, no. And as a result of their toil they entered into joy: "Enter into the joy of the Lord."

Now my Lord was a worker. You start with work, and then you have joy. The Lord was a worker; he was a carpenter, and in his teaching and preaching and healing he worked. Paul was a worker. In fact, when God called people in the Bible, he called people who were busy. Gideon was threshing wheat when the angel showed up and say, "Hey, you're the next general."

Moses was caring for sheep when God spoke to him. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were mending their nets and cleaning their nets, getting ready to go back out. They'd been fishing all night and caught nothing. If I'd fished all night and caught nothing, I would not be mending my net. I'd be selling my net.

Now, this is the age of fun. This is the most important thing in people's lives: fun. Gotta have fun. You know, algebra can be fun. It wasn't when I took it. Fun with music. Hey, that's work.

A couple of years ago we were to at a Christian Booksellers convention. I was speaking at the morning service, and the special music was from Christopher Parkening, the guitarist, the Christian guitarist. Oh, my. Oh. Have you ever heard Christopher Parkening play? Oh, my, oh my, oh my. I just sat there. You couldn't You couldn't see his finger. It was just incredible. How did he get that way? He prayed about it? I'm sure he prayed, but he worked. And he worked hard.

The longer I preach, the harder it gets. The more I write, the harder it gets. The more I try to minister over the radio, the more difficult it becomes. But at the same time, there is a deeper and deeper joy. You start with toil, and you end up with joy.

Now, before we move off of chapter 2, the three principles of success, notice, please, that the prodigal son had just the opposite set of principles. Remember the prodigal son? He started off by being a ruler. "Father, give me all the money that goes to my estate."

"Okay, son, here it is."

He took it. Off he went, and, boy, when he hit the far country, he was Mr. Big. Started off as a ruler. How'd he end up? A servant, taking care of pigs. He started off with many things. How'd he end up? With few things. He'd lost his ring, his shoes; his robe smelled and looked dirty.

He started off with joy. Oh, was he happy. "Get away from home, no more my father telling me what to do, no more that big brother telling me what to do, and I'm free." He started off with joy and ended up with toil, just the opposite.

Folks, those are the only two philosophies of life. There are no more. It's either what the Lord said, you start with being a servant, learn how to take orders before you give orders; you start with a few things, be faithful before you get many things; you start with work before you enter into joy. It's either that philosophy or the other one. Make your choice.

Chapter 3 of our little book of success: "What Are the Chief Obstacles to Success?" Why did the third man not succeed? Now, had the third man taken his one talent and gone out and put it to work, he could have come back and said, "Master, you gave me one talent. Here's one more," and he would have gotten the same reward. "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I'll make you ruler over many things. Enter into my joy." But he didn't do it. Did you notice that the Lord looks at the proportion? 5, 5; 2, 2; 1, 0.

Now why did this third man not succeed? This may sound like some of the psychological preaching of people we don't totally agree with, but it is in the Bible. His attitudes were wrong. His attitudes were wrong. Outlook determines outcome. You go to an examination convinced you're going to fail, you'll fail. But if you say to yourself, "Well, I've studied hard and I've prayed, and I've asked the Lord to help me, and I'm going to do my best. Even if I fail, I'm going to do my best," you'll be a lot happier about it.

To begin with, he had a wrong attitude toward himself. I can just see this man standing there with his one piece of money, and there's a fellow with five, and there's a fellow with two. He says, "Well, I'm not important. I mean, if I were important, he would have given me more."

Now, wait a minute now, fella, the question is not how much do you have. The question is, what are you going to do with it? He he looked at himself, and he said, "Well, I'm just not important. I just have one talent and they'll never miss that. I mean, I guess I just don't do anything."

I want you to know that our churches, and our mission agencies, and our other ministries are going where they're going because a lot of ordinary people who think they are ordinary and not important are keeping them going. Well, we thank God for the five-talent people, the people with a lot of ability. There aren't many of them, but there's some.

We thank God for the average people who are just faithful to do their job, but let's not forget there are a lot of folks that, for some one reason or another, God hasn't given them spectacular abilities. But neither has he given them spectacular opportunities. He'll never judge them by how many people they preach to, how many books they wrote, how many degrees they earned. That That's not the point.

Here is this man; he has one piece of money; he has the wrong attitude toward himself: "I am not important." Now, friend, you get that attitude in your heart, and you start to fail. You are important. Everybody is. You say, "Well, I'm retired now. I'm not on the board anymore. They've got new people on the board." You are important. I don't know what God wants you to do. I don't know what abilities God's given to you. But until the day we are incapacitated and cannot function, let's use what we have, no matter how much there is, to the good of others and the glory of God.

He had the wrong attitude toward himself. Some folks like to sit and have autopsies all the time. They're just bleeding to death. And the devil loves this. He's the accuser. And if he can get you to accuse himself, he can go talk to somebody else, and you can just do it on your own. Many people are operating a do-it-yourself failure kit.

Secondly, he had a wrong attitude toward life. He said, "I was afraid." Now, there are people here tonight who are afraid of life. They're just afraid of life. They're afraid of change. They're afraid of what may happen. Afraid to answer the phone. Afraid to open the mail. Afraid of the future. And yet, they'll stand up in church and sing, "Oh, God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come."

He had the wrong attitude toward life. He was afraid. You know, if he had had five talents, he would have hidden them. He was afraid. He was afraid to take some risks. I keep going back to the prodigal son. I don't know why, but the prodigal son and the elder brother are two opposite people. The prodigal son sacrificed security to find identity. The elder brother sacrificed identity to find security. He wouldn't take any risks. Wouldn't even ask his father to have a party.

And there are many Christians who get into places of decision making who are scared to do anything. They're afraid of life. As a consequence, they do a good job of monitoring conformity and maintaining the status quo. "Like a mighty tortoise moves the church of God. Brethren, we are treading where we've always trod."

The third obstacle to success, next to a wrong attitude toward yourself and a wrong attitude toward life, is this man had a wrong attitude toward the Lord. "You're a hard man." Can you imagine anybody saying that to Jesus? "Oh, you're a hard man. If you If you had been loving and kind, you wouldn't have asked me to do this." Jonah had that attitude. "Boy, you're a hard man. I'm quitting." Off he went.

Some years ago, we had J. Oswald Sanders, who is a godly, godly man, at at Back to the Bible to minister to our staff, and he and I were going out to the Epplers for dinner one evening, and the Epplers are now over in the Philippines helping with Wycliffe, and he was saying to me, "Well, how's it going?" And I began to lay it on thick. I'd had a lot of meetings to run to, and this and that, and conferences, you know, and very impressive.

And after I had quit talking, he quietly said, "Well, we serve a wonderful Master, don't we?" I could have left the car without opening the door. I could have slipped right through the glove compartment. In a sweet way, he said to me, you know, quit complaining and quit bragging. You're working for a wonderful Master.

Has anybody here ever found Jesus to be a hard man? I don't think so. "You reap where you haven't sown, you gather where you haven't strawed." Well, he said, "If you believe that, you at least could have put the money in the bank." A hard man.

Now, if you get a wrong attitude toward yourself, "I'm not important," a wrong attitude toward life, "Don't take any risks," scared, wrong attitude toward the Lord, you'll fail.

Now, let's turn to chapter four. It's a brief one. "What Are the Rewards of Success?" Not necessarily money, not necessarily recognition, not necessarily authority and power. God has different ways of promoting His people. I think the greatest reward we have is the approval of the Lord. Oh, just to know that He's happy with what we've done. "Well done, good and faithful servant."

There is a second reward of faithful service that leads to success. You know what it is? An increased capacity to serve Him. "You've been faithful over a few things, I'm going to make you a ruler over many things." In the parable of the pounds, he says, "Fine, you're going to have 10 cities." Who wants to be mayor of 10 cities? Who wants to be mayor of one city?

The greatest blessing in this life, we won't get His commendation till the next life, the greatest blessing in this life when you're faithful to do what He wants you to do is an increased capacity to do more. You grow. You don't stay the same way.

If the fellow with the one talent had put forth effort and gotten one, he would have had two, and he would have said, "Hey, I can do it!" And then he would have gotten two more, and he'd had a four. He... "I can do it, I'm growing!" Why does God give us work to do? Because there's nobody else to do it? Lots of people to do it. If we don't want to do it, the angels will. He wants us to grow.

Which leads us to the third reward of success: because God gives us an increased capacity for work, He gives us more work to do. I used to think that when you got to a certain stage in ministry, there'd be less to do. Boy, have I changed my mind. There isn't less to do; there's more to do. But the same God who gives you the opportunities increases the spiritual enablement. And Paul wrote and said, "I, even I, Paul, can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me."

This is God's little book of success. And the best part of it is it works. And the compensations last forever.

And so, Father, we give thanks that You have entrusted to us Your goods. You have given us opportunities to match our abilities. And I pray, Lord, that we will not look for shortcuts to success. Help us not to covet easy lives, rather faithful lives. How terrible it would be to stand before You, oh Lord, and realize we've wasted our opportunities. In giving, in serving, in witnessing, in whatever You've wanted us to do.

Thank You that everybody here, no matter how old, no matter how incapacitated, no matter how ordinary we may think we are, there's a job for us to do, an important job. Thank You that You don't treat us according to one standard. You judge us according to what we are, what You've made us. What we are is Your gift to us; what we make of it is our gift to You. Help us to be faithful, for Jesus' sake. Amen.