Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
October 13, 2002 A.M.
God's Formula For Spiritual Success
Reading - Numbers 20.1-13
Our lesson this morning is on success... Spiritual success.
We all want to be spiritually successful... Don't we?
We all want to move on from marginal Christianity to becoming all that God asks us to be.
There is a lot of talk... There is a major focus today on success. People, including us, are interested in success. We all want to be successful. The self-help book shelves and magazine racks are filled with success oriented materials.
What is it that makes an individual successful?
- Some contend that it is the result of education.
- Some say that success is the result of choosing the right career.
- Still others claim it is tied to technological literacy.
- Others maintain that success has to with networking... Making the proper contacts with family, friends, business associates, etc.
- Image consultants of Dallas maintain that success is the result of appearance... proper dress.
Well, we are all interested, but we didn't come here this morning to learn how to get ahead in the business world. We want to know how to be successful... Spiritually. How can we be God's people and person in a changing hostile world?
Moses is our example... I mean... He does qualify... Doesn't he?
- He wrote five books of the Old Testament.
- He led an exodus of two-and-a-half million people for forty years.
- He forged a new nation in the Sinai wilderness.
- Received the Ten Commandments.
- He lived to be 120... and Scripture tells us that when he died, his eyes were not dim nor his strength weakened. I think we would all agree that Moses was a very successful individual... RIGHT?
What is Biblical success?... How can we be spiritually successful? The lesson has six points... Spiritual success is ours if we can:
1. Overcome an adverse environment...
2. Overcome our failures...
3. Overcome criticism...
4. Overcome pride...
5. Persevere...
6. Strive to do all that God commands of us.
Access a worship outline and let's see what we can learn from our text.
FIRST.. SUCCESS IS OVERCOMING THE ADVERSITY OF OUR ENVIRONMENT.
Living in a desert... In a wilderness... Is never easy. Verse one of our text tells us that Moses returned to Kadesh and the wilderness of Zin. Moses had lived in the Sinai Peninsula for 80 years... 40 tending his father-in-law's sheep... And 40 years leading the Israelite nation. The Peninsula is a hostile, arid, ugly, foreboding place, only inhabited by Bedouin shepherds.
Can you imagine leading two-and-a-half million people through such a place with...
- No water...
- No food...
- No protection... No security...
- No shelter... Other than that which was provided by the hand of God. Moses was a success because he overcame the adversity of his environment.
Truth is... Sometimes we are all called to live in a desert... In a spiritual wilderness.
Church... The world... Our world is hostile to Christianity. I don't have to tell you that do I? You know that already. Scripture tells us that Satan is the God of this world, and he has made it a wilderness... Right? This world is a wilderness of sin, and we must overcome this world to be spiritually successful.
Listen to 1 John 5.3-5... This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
There is another environment we must learn to overcome.
Our souls are trapped in this physical body which, when not controlled, leads us into sin. Listen to these verses from the pen of Paul... For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
Then in Romans 7.14-18 Paul says... Because of our carnal nature there is a constant battle going on inside us, and to be spiritually successful... Our spiritual self must overcome our sinful self. You see... Our will must overcome and take control of our want to... Our desires. Paul Faulkner says we must grab our want to by our will and become the person we know that we ought to be.
That's why Paul says... I must buffet my body, and bring it into subjection daily; lest after I have preached to others, that I myself should be disqualified for the prize. James writes... Sin is a result of our giving in to our own evil desires... Giving in to our own lust of the flesh.
You see church... Spiritual success is a deliberate choice on our part to say...
- NO to sin...
- NO to the things of this world...
- NO to our own sinful... fleshly desires, by focusing our attention... not on the things of this world, but on things above... On Spiritual things.
SECONDLY... SPIRITUAL SUCCESS IS OVERCOMING THE ADVERSITY OF FAILURE.
As students of the Old Testament, we know that Kadesh-Barneia was a place of failure for Moses and Israel. It was here that the collective decision was made that the God, who delivered them out of Egypt by destroying Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, was not powerful enough to lead them into the Promise Land of Canaan.
Numbers 13 contains the narrative of how the ten spies fearfully said... We are as grasshoppers in their sight.
- We feel like grasshoppers...
- We look like grasshoppers...
- And we gonna act like grasshoppers.
So... They wondered in the wilderness for 40 years... Until an entire generation was gone. Now... Moses is back to Kadesh... How are they going to deal with this past failure?
We have all been there... Right?
- Financial failures...
- Social failures...
- Family... Martial failures.
- Moral failures.
- Spiritual failures.
You see, success has nothing to do with how many times we fail... Or even the degree... Or the ugliness of our failures... But with how we deal with them.
Paul told Timothy... I am the chief of sinners... But then in Philippians he says... This is how I deal with my failures, forgetting what is past... forgetting my failures... I press on to the high calling that is in Christ Jesus.
Peter failed miserably in the courtyard of the high priest, denying he ever knew Jesus... But then in Acts two, he is found preaching... proclaiming Jesus in a powerful sermon.
- Spiritual success is overcoming our failures... Our moments of faithlessness.
- Spiritual success is forgetting our past sins... past mistakes... and pressing on.
Church... There is no use dragging around the sins, the failures, of yesterday when they can be forgiven in the Blood of Jesus.
SPIRITUAL SUCCESS IS OVERCOMING CRITICISM.
Look at verses two through five... The people wanted water and they were critical of Moses. Note verse five... It's all your fault... You are the one who prompted us to leave Egypt and brought us to this evil place of: No wheat... No fruit... No grapes... No pomegranates... And no water.
The King James says in verse three... That the people chode with Moses, meaning that...
- They quarreled with him...
- They resented him...
- They were bitter toward him.
You talk about a hard pill to swallow. He had been leading these people for almost 40 years. Their life... Their total care and existence... Had been tied to Moses... his faith... teaching... and leadership. Had they forgotten the crossing of the Red Sea... The manna every morning... The quail... And the previous water from a rock.
Now audience... What would most of us have done if we had been in Moses' shoes here?
Retaliated... Right?... Not Moses. Do you know what Moses and Aaron did?... Look at verse six. They took the problem to God... What a wise response to criticism.
Elders... Deacons... Bible Teachers... Are you listening?... Don't be overcome by criticism. Parents... Christian friends... Don't be overcome by the critical nature of others in the world or in the church... TAKE IT TO GOD.
Paul tells us in Romans twelve: Retaliation... Vengeance... Revenge... Belong to God... He will repay. Don't be overcome by evil... But (WHAT SHOULD WE DO?)... Overcome evil with good.
Here it is audience... Spiritual success is doing good to those who are critical of us... While giving place for God to deal with this thing called vengeance. Jesus is our example... The NIV has Peter saying that... When they insulted Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to God who judges justly. Genuine spiritual success is overcoming the adversity of criticism when it comes... AMEN??... AMEN!!
SPIRITUAL SUCCESS IS WRAPPED UP IN THIS THING CALLED PERSEVERANCE.
This idea is not found in our text... But in the context. Can you feature staying with a job for 40 years... And not seeing any real improvement... Not seeing any progress in those you're trying to help... lead... and teach?
Listen to me church... Spiritual success is not in succeeding... But in making the effort. Paul said... Spiritual success was...
- Fighting the fight...
- Running the race...
- Finishing the course,...
- Keeping the faith. For Paul, spiritual success was found in... Never giving up... In Keeping-On-Keeping-On
The Book of Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians... Telling them... Don't give up on Christianity... Don't go back to Judaism... Because Christ and Christianity are superior to Moses and the Law. The key verse in the book of Hebrews is found in chapter ten... verse 35... So do not throw away your confidence in God. You will be richly rewarded if you will persevere, so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.
How about the Book of Revelation?... It tells us that we overcome by perseverance... That we will receive the reward... The crown of life... If we will never give up the fight... The race... The faith. The children of Israel did get to the Promise Land... They did receive the reward... Because Moses never quit... Never gave up on them. Indeed!!... Spiritual success is found in perseverance.
SPIRITUAL SUCCESS DEMANDS WE LET GO OF OUR OWN PRIDE.
Next... We note a couple of areas where Moses failed. Moses was not perfect. His failures were two-fold in nature... One in thought... One in action.
His first failure was in PRIDE.
When I put this lesson together... I halted between making this point... pride...or self-righteousness. But then I thought, pride always comes before self-righteousness... Pride is what leads to our thinking we are better than others... RIGHT?
Now church... I want you to notice something... Self-righteousness never occurs in those who are marginal... Those on the fringe of the church... It always occurs within the committed... Why is that?... Because Satan already has the others... Why bother?
Something else here... Self-righteousness usually occurs when we are tired... When we are worn out from working in the Kingdom. Moses had led this motley, complaining, murmuring group for 40 years. For 40 years they never once demonstrated their appreciation for him and his sacrifices. Now... Here they are again...
- Complaining...
- Forgetting that God is with them...
- Protecting them...
- Feeding them daily...
- Providing everything they need. Yet they wonder... Where are we going to get water? So... Moses in his stress... Says... NOTE VERSE 10... Must WE provide you water.... MUST WE!!
Wrong pronoun... RIGHT? God tells Moses in verse 11... That one of his sins was not honoring God.
Church... Listen to me...
- Watch for Satan when you are stressed...
- When you are tired from working in the Kingdom...
- When you're tempted to think... Am I the only one to care... To work... To fret about the Lord's church? It is Satan's favorite time to get us with PRIDE... Resulting in self-righteousness.
Then finally this morning, SPIRITUAL SUCCESS IS FOUND IN TOTAL OBEDIENCE TO GOD.
God told Moses to speak to the rock and instead... He struck it. Out of the rock gushed abundant water for Israel. utwardly this incident looked like a blazing success... RIGHT? But inwardly, Moses knew it was a spiritual collapse... a spiritual failure.
It was 7:05, July 17, 1981, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, a popular late-afternoon tea dance had just started. Fifteen-hundred people stood on the skywalks watching. Suddenly there was a loud crack. The four-floor skywalk fell hitting the second. Then both fell to the floor below. 114 people lost their lives. 1300 others were injured, many seriously. What was outwardly blazing success in modern architecture, inwardly meant failure... death... injury for hundreds in a public collapse.
What can we learn from Moses?
- Spiritual success is not based upon what great things we've done in the past.
- Spiritual success is not based upon our obedience yesterday.
- Spiritual success is faithful obedience to the latest word we have from God.
- Spiritual success is doing what God is asking us to do today... Right Now!!
This is where many of us fail... Isn't it? We want to hear sermons preached on Faith... Repentance... Baptism... Church organization... Right church name over the door... etc. These things we've already accomplished... already done. We don't want to hear anything new... We don't want to be challenged to move onward and upward to spiritual success for and in the Lord. The Hebrews writer says... We must move on from these things... We must move on from the milk... To the meat of Christianity.
Spiritual success is obedience today!!... Today!!
God... What would you have me do today?... This morning?... Right now?.
We can't rest on our laurels... On our past successes. We must not be guilty of reading our own press clippings, saying,.. Aren't we great!! This text teaches us that up-to-the-minute faithful obedience to the word of God is the only ultimate measure of spiritual success. James says spiritual success is... Knowing to do right... And doing it.
Well... We are interested in success... RIGHT? And Moses tells us that when we become spiritually successful, that God sets us apart to be His people.
Question!!!... Is there something that we know we need to do this morning to become God's person and people?
- Perhaps you need to become a Christian by faith, repentance and New Testament baptism.
- Perhaps we need to make something right with God or with others.
- Maybe we need to place our membership with this spiritual family and go to work for Lord.
Be spiritually successful right now... As we stand and sing this invitation song together...
Will you come!!
