In order to understand what is meant by ‘success’ in Christian terms, however, we need to have a Biblical definition of success, an understanding of who can succeed and some idea of how to be successful, for the world’s understanding of success is very different to God’s.

What is success?

Jesus is our ultimate example of success, for we know that He received God’s approval. (Matt 3:17) However, in the eyes of the world, Jesus does not seem successful: He lived for only 33 years and died an ignominious death, which does not feature in any ‘How to succeed’ manuals we may read! The key to understanding success is found in John 17:4. Success for the Christian is defined as bringing glory to God. We can’t simply look at outward actions, but must look at the motivation of the heart. 1 Cor 3:10-13 examines some of the motives for our actions, defining those which are not spiritual as ‘wood, hay and stubble’ and those which are pure as ‘silver and gold.’ The fire of God will burn up everything which is not pure, so we need to be sure that all our actions are motivated by a desire to glorify God. Luke 12:16-20 reminds us that success as defined by the world (wealth, prosperity, a life of ease) is not considered success by God (who called the man a fool.)

Who can succeed?

The good news is that everyone in God can succeed! The only qualification we need for success is a personal knowledge of God. Success comes as we depend on God in childlike faith and delight in His word. Col 2:6 reminds us that we have to continue in Christ as we started out: by faith, depending on God’s grace and help. 1 John 5:4 reminds us that everyone born of God overcomes the world, so we can be confident that we will succeed if we are rooted in God. Josh 1:8 reminds us also of the importance of meditating daily on God’s word, allowing it to feed and nurture us so that we are firmly planted in God. (Ps 1:1-3)

Success also comes to those who are determined not to quit. Abraham Lincoln is a good example of someone who overcame adversity and was not defeated by failure. Despite personal heartache, business failure and rejection, he persevered to become the president of the United States at the age of 52. Perseverance is needed if we are to succeed.

How can we be successful?

We become successful by:

• prayerfully seeking God for His specific plan in our lives
• having a vision for what God wants us to do
• committing ourselves 100% to that vision (which will always involve moving out in faith beyond our comfort zone!)
• asking God to set us free from anything that holds us back. (see Heb 12:1) Sin is the obvious thing that entangles us and holds us back, but the weights that can hinder us are not always necessarily sinful. Regrets, past rejections, shame, fear and lack of confidence can all hold us back.
• committing ourselves to the principle of servanthood, for true greatness comes as we serve God. Matt 20:20-21 reminds us that the way up in God is to start at the bottom! Matt 20:26 reminds us that if we want to be great, we have to become the servant of all, a principle Jesus embodied. (Phil 2:5-9) Every part of the body is required for us to succeed, so we need to seek God for how we can serve Him in our local church and community. Jesus was a success in heaven, on earth and under the earth, because He came to serve and not to be served.If we are to thrive and not merely survive and be faithfully productive and fruitful in 2015, we must learn the spirit of servanthood.

Guest speaker Yan Hadley spoke last night on the theme ‘Saved For Success.’ It is wonderful to know that God offers salvation to all, but we are also saved for a purpose. Is 61:1-6 looks at some of the ways in which God saves us for success, offering healing for our brokenness, revelation for our blindness and freedom for our bondage.

God’s purposes are that we:

1. Stand firm

Isaiah 61:3 says we shall be ‘oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord.‘ Oak trees can stand firm for centuries through storms and wild weather:

We often feel unsteady and unstable, but God wants to make us oaks of righteousness, standing firm in Him. We need to turn from compromise or sin in order to be sturdy in God.

2. Are stirred into action

Motivation is so important in life. God wants us to be passionate and excited about living for Him. Is 61:4 reminds us that there are purposes in God for us to achieve: rebuilding, restoring and renewing all that has been destroyed. The enemy seeks to erode all that is good. We live in a society where our Christian heritage is under daily attack, marriage no longer being honoured (and compromise even coming into the church if we are not careful); children’s innocence being attacked and persecution for our Christian faith on the increase. God wants us to be stirred into action to proclaim His truths. It starts with being stirred to pray, repenting of sin and pleading with God to move in our nation. (2 Chron 7:14)

3. Shine as trophies of His grace

Matt 5:16 reminds us that Jesus wants us to shine for Him. We can only do this as the glory of God fills our lives and we live each day with a sense of His presence. Is 61:6 says that others will call us priests of the Lord and ministers of our God. The church is here for healing and to be a prophetic voice. We are ambassadors for God. (2 Cor 5:19-21) Often we feel a failure in this regard, but Paul reminds us that our failures are not barriers to God, for Jesus can forgive, set us free and help us to live for Him. (see Rom 7:19, 24)

Dave spoke from Luke 12:16-20 this morning at Cherry Tree Court. So often, we feel our lives are routine and familiar, but we need to be aware that God can step into any day and change it completely. For Noah, the first day of the flood must have started like any other: working on his boat project which had occupied him for so long, but then the rains started and nothing was the same again. For Moses, it was just another day looking after the sheep… until he encountered God in the burning bush. For David, it was just another day minding the sheep when he was summoned home to meet the prophet Samuel… and told he would become Israel’s king. For Mary, it was just another day until her encounter with the angel. Each person’s life was transformed by their encounter with God.

The day is coming when Jesus will return to earth, and everything will apparently look like just another day until the trumpet of the Lord sounds… The parable Dave read reminds us that days can change really quickly. The rich man seemed to have it all together and anticipated a life of luxury and rest, but was called a fool by God because he had failed to take God into account at all and died that same day.

Death is an inevitable certainty in life, and we need to be prepared to meet our Maker. Rom 3:23 reminds us that all have sinned and there is therefore a chasm between us and God which can only be bridged by Christ. We need to acknowledge our need for salvation, believe Jesus is the way and commit to following Christ, for we need to be ready to meet Christ, either at our death or at His coming.

The tragic events of this week, when twelve people in Paris went to work as usual and never returned home, remind us of the fragility and brevity of life. This parable underlines that fact and shows us that if we want to be called wise by God, we are wise to live every day as if it were our last and evaluate our lives in terms of heavenly perspectives and eternal goals.

In the 1990s. John Major ran a Conservative political campaign with the motto ‘Back to Basics‘, emphasising the need to return to basic moral values. The campaign backfired when various Conservative ministers were caught out in a number of moral scandals, including adultery and corruption. As is often the case, our moral aspirations may be laudable, but we lack the power in and of ourselves to live the way God intends us to live…

January is traditionally a time for ‘New Year’s resolutions’, focussing on things we know we need to change and intend to do differently. So often, the resolutions fizzle out long before the month ends. Nonetheless, the need to go back to basics, to evaluate afresh what is truly important in our lives and to make adjustments accordingly, is very sound.

Basics are often scorned because we feel we have outgrown them. One of the things I loved about teaching languages was the fact that the basics are absolutely fundamental to all progress in language. I saw them as building blocks. Every single thing learnt in a language is not wasted, but becomes the launchpad to new discoveries. The bricks at the bottom – our first words and verbs – never become irrelevant or unneeded:

In the same way, there are basic Scriptural truths which we never outgrow. We are saved by grace through faith and we live by faith. (Eph 2:8-9, Gal 3:1) God loves us so much that He sent Jesus, His only Son, to die for us so that we don’t have to perish – and not just us, but the whole world! (John 3:16)  God is maker and ruler of everything. (Col 1:16-17) Every week at our church we celebrate Communion, the sacrament God has given the church to remind us of the basics of His love, grace, mercy and power.

For Christmas, I received the Chris Tomlin CD ‘Love Ran Red.’ As I’ve been listening to this over the past few weeks, I was struck by the very basic nature of some of these songs. Chris Tomlin has been writing songs for over twenty years and yet some of these songs sound so simple and basic. At first, I was a little irritated by that. But as I continued to listen, I realised that just because something contains simplicity does not make it simplistic, nor does it invalidate the truth that is contained therein. We all need to be reminded of basic truth. We all need to build our lives on basic, foundational truth: ‘ By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care.  For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ‘ (1 Cor 3:10-11)

One song I keep returning to because of its very foundational truth is ‘Jesus Loves Me’. Don’t let its simplicity or repetition deceive you. You need the truth it contains. You need to build your life on the simple truth that Jesus loves you and is for you. You need to know that there’s nowhere you can run where He will not find you. You need to know He holds your heart and has died for you. You need this truth more than any of your resolutions, because where your resolutions may fade and fail, His love lasts forever and is unfailing.

Following our family service on ‘Signposts & Directions’, I have had firsthand experience this week of the topic when I’ve had to direct the bus driver on the 226 route! Thrust unexpectedly into the role  on Monday morning when another driver was ill, he arrived at the first stop of the route looking utterly bewildered, unsure how to get the ticket machine working or where to go next and somewhat disorientated by the dark. It was a case of sitting at the front of the bus and patiently guiding him through the route: ‘carry straight on here,’ ‘take the next right’, ‘go straight on at the roundabout’ and so on.

It’s so much easier to find your way when you can see clearly: I met him again this morning in the daylight and he told me he has no trouble with the route in the daytime, but still feels unsure where he’s going when it’s dark. We so need God’s light to shine on our path to help us to see the way forward, for distances and buildings and shapes look completely different in the dark. As Tim Hughes sings in ‘The Way’, ‘You’re the light shining bright in the darkness.’  We need the light of the world to walk with us so that we are not walking in darkness. (John 8:12)

Jesus told us He is the way, the truth and the life. (John 14:6) One of my most eagerly awaited Christmas presents was a new book by Eugene Peterson called ‘The Jesus Way’, part of his series on ‘Spiritual Theology’. As he writes there, ‘the Jesus way wedded to the Jesus truth brings about the Jesus life.’ (P4) As we follow Jesus this year, He will lead us and direct us. Not only does it matter which direction we’re heading, the way that we do things matters as well, for ‘the ways Jesus goes about loving and saving the world are personal’ (P1) and never purely pragmatic, like the world’s ways. I’m not sure the bus driver would have found his way had it not been for the personal guidance of his passengers who were wholly familiar with the route and who could, therefore, guide him through the maze of roads and estates. (For those of you who’ve never taken the 226, this has to be the longest route from Thurnscoe to Barnsley imaginable, travelling through Goldthorpe, Bolton-on-Dearne, Manvers, Wath, Brampton and Wombwell, to name just a few of the places en route!) In the same way, we need the personal guidance of Jesus if we are to navigate life’s pitfalls, potholes, highs and lows.

Thanks to the children who have provided money to support our ‘Compassion’ child, Bedline. Tonight, we emptied some of the money boxes and had £25.73 in one and over £8 in another:

Support from all the congregation and especially the children has been fantastic, so a very big THANK YOU to all who have given so generously.