The Father of Success
The Father of Success THE FATHER OF SUCCESS
F. B. Shepherd
“The father of success is work. The mother of success is ambition. The oldest son is common sense. Some of the other boys are Perseverance, Honesty, Thoroughness, Foresight, Enthusiasm, and Cooperation. The oldest daughter is Character. Some of her sisters are Cheerfulness, Loyalty, Courtesy, Caution, Economy, Sincerity, and Harmony. The baby is Opportunity.
“Get acquainted with the ‘old man’ and you will be able to get along pretty well with the rest of the family.”
Work is the identification of our lives with the life of God. Said Edison: “Success is attained by 2% inspiration and 98% perspiration.” Of genius he is reported to have said: “Genius is 2%, dogged persistence and hard work make up the other 98%.”
Why did you decide to become a pulpiteer? I won’t say “preacher” because all of God’s people are expected and obligated to be preachers. Nor will I say “minister” since all of God’s children are obligated to serve. They emulate the Christ only when they do serve. The standard of greatness in the kingdom of Christ 's placed upon the basis of service.
I hope you have not “chosen the profession.” I hope you have not “decided to enter the ministry.” I hope the work to which you think you have committed yourself is not just an “ideal”; or that you are indulging yourself in what you think will be a “thrill.” I sincerely urge that you change your course immediately if this one upon which you have embarked is just for “convenience” or as a “makeshift” in a pinch. I hope you have not “entered the ministry” or “become a ministerial student” because there appears to be easy money in it. That is for the professional. I hope you have a better reason than that “Mother wants me to” or “Father was a minister, you know.” There is but one real reason for any man becoming a pulpiteer. That one is, “just simply because he cannot help it.”
Genuine gospel preaching is divine truth, through human agency, unto eternal life. Christianity is a message: “We have found the Christ,” “Come and see!”, “Behold the man!” A gospel preacher is a herald of passion, and one cannot be a herald of a passion he does not feel. The greatest work in the world is the work of pulpiteering. No greater potentiality is there than that of the human soul. There is no higher, no finer, no more fascinating substance to work with than human emotions, decisions, ambitions and aspirations. No greater or more to be coveted opportunity comes to angel or man. No wider range for the exercise of our best than this work. Gospel preaching is the imperative, pressing, vital need of the world. It is then the supreme task of the child of God.
There are three kinds of pulpiteers. These are:
the “one you cannot listen to,”
the “one you can listen to”;
and the “one you cannot help listening to.”
The only kind that is of any value to God or man is the last one.
There are some qualifications that are imperative would one be really a success in the eyes of God. In the eyes of man it makes no difference.
First we must “know the message.”
To this end the apostle Paul has some divinely inspired recom-mendations. “Give diligence” or “Study,” “Give heed to reading” (2 Timothy 2:15; 1 Timothy 4:13). And, while I am on this part of the theme I would say emphatically: “Don’t study without prayer” nor “pray without studying.” Plan your work and work your plan. Have a “study” and time to study and maintain both in a work shop and work there. Be boss in a one man office.
Never forget that you are not working for the church; you are working for the Lord. We are not even working with a church in the strictest sense. We should rather be working in the church and working with the Lord. Not “our” work or “their” work, but “his” work. Read the language of our Lord in John 4:34; John 6:38; John 9:4. This last quotation especially is the real secret of the success of the life of Christ on earth. It expresses the keynote of his personal ministry. Re-member that success in the Christian life is not in at-taining efficiency, but in being faithful. Faithful unto death. The second obligation of the true pulpiteer is to preach the message.
“Evangelistic Christianity” this is sometimes called. Don’t be too concerned about whether the people see you or hear you. Be tremendously concerned whether they see the Christ and hear God. Don’t “orate.” Paul seemingly never did but there never was a more suc-cessful preacher of the unsearchable riches of God’s grace (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). Of one great speaker it is said that when he closed his discourse the hearers would exclaim, “That was a wonderful oration.” However, when another was through it is said the hearers would shout: “Let us go against the enemy.” Be always going somewhere. Make your sermon fit the text or institute divorce proceedings. Kill it. The sermon, I mean. There are many fine texts. There are many fine sermons. But sometimes the sermon does not say what the text says. Or the text sometimes, does not say what the sermon says it says. We would do well to be honest, even in religion.
Avoid preacher “airs” and “preacher voice” or “preacher pose.” Learn the difference between poise and pose. There is a difference. It is in the “I.” Be humble and not professional. And don’t feign the humility. No one who is worth fooling will be fooled by any such hypocrisy, and pretense. Apropos of this I append the following “Don’ts for Preachers.” I have accumulated these here and there thiough the years. “Don’t study without prayer.”
“Don’t pray without studying.”
God giveth wisdom to those who ask in faith, but knowledge you have to get for yourself.
“Don’t try to make bricks without straw.”
“Don’t miss an opportunity to speak in the honor of God.”
More preachers are made than are born.
And those born have to be nurtured and cradled.
“Don’t feed people with unbaked dough.”
“Don’t tell all you know in one sermon.”
Someone has aptly said, “A sermon does not have to be eternal in order to be immortal.”
“Don’t put the hay too high in the racks.”
Be plain; most people bring a very shallow jug in which to take the sermon home.
“Don’t offer people sentimental confections or intellectual shavings.”
“Don’t mistake philosophy for Christianity; cant for piety; noise for profundity; nor crowds for success.”
“Don’t be so broad that you can float nothing but in-tellectual chips on your shallow stream.”
“Don’t scold.”
“Don’t mistake length for profundity nor brevity for wit.”
“Don’t wear the cap and bells.”
“Don’t lash the back of the sinner instead of the sin.”
“Don’t offer other people manna which you haven’t tasted yourself.”
“Don’t imagine your sermons to be a revelation of anything you are the first to discover.
Better see their texts always have ‘Thus saith the Lord’ written across them.”
“Don’t let your heart have but one string.”
“Don’t question the Book, apologize for it, explain it.” The Book is always right.
Make your theory fit it or kill it. The theory, I mean.
“Don’t shout.” Few of us are deaf and noise usually denotes absence of thought.
Remember noise is what you make going through a graveyard. It is. the lightning that kills ;
the thunder only makes one uncomfortable.
“Don’t apologize.” If you haven’t made preparation you should be ashamed and we will soon
find you out. If you have made preparation you lie in offering excuses.
Live the message and let your Christianity be practical. Really, there is no other kind of Christianity that is genuine. All else is of the devil. The Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul gives some wonderful advice right along this line in the letters to Timothy and Titus. For instance: “Suffer hardship,” “Flee youthful lusts,” “Let no man despise your youth.” Read 1 Timothy 4:6-7; 1 Timothy 4:12-13; 1 Timothy 4:15-16; 1 Timothy 5:1; 1 Timothy 5:3; 1 Timothy 5:19-22; 1 Timothy 6:11-21; 2 Timothy 1:13; 2 Timothy 2:2-4; 2 Timothy 2:14-16; 2 Timothy 2:22-23; 2 Timothy 4:1-13; Titus 1:10-14; Titus 2:1-10; Titus 2:15; Titus 3:1-2; Titus 3:8-11.
Avoid all entangling alliances such as “Ministerial Alliances,” “Service Clubs.” Never, no never, com-promise truth or your conscience regardless of place or person.
Know your own weaknesses. Susceptibility to flat-tery, love of money, desire for higher education or academic degrees, for their own sake. As a means to an end, fine, as an end merely, never! Stay away from everything you cannot stand up under. Sometimes it is best to be ignorant of some things.
Stay out of debt. My brother, it can be done re-gardless of the failure of the brethren to shoulder their responsibility on your behalf. Remember, Paul did. He worked with his hands to support himself and also to support his fellow workers even though the churches should at least have taken care of his support, but did not (2 Corinthians 11:8; Acts 20:34).
Renounce all self-seeking. Don’t selfishly covet places of great responsibility and chafe and fret because you are not “appreciated.” Too many preachers possess some admirable traits of character, native ability, and acquired knowledge; but with overwhelming vanity and selfish ambition, are continually scheming and scrambling for high position. A man who is not content to be a doorkeeper in the house of God, or a servant of all, is utterly unfit for the chief place in the service of the congregation. The standard the Lord has set is, “the only way to go up is to go down” (Php_2:5-11). “Minister” equals “servant.” Paul repeatedly called himself a “bondservant.” And it will not hurt to remember there is always a danger of receiving your reward here and so having none coming to you hereafter (Matthew 6:2).
It is Worse for A Preacher
We often hear these days when a preacher is criti-cized for some conduct that is not Christlike: “Oh, well, it is no worse for a preacher than for anyone else.” I deny that very emphatically. Corny jokes, excess of any kind, tobacco using, especially cigarette or cigar smoking, is much worse when the preacher does it because of the greater influence he has on those weaker in faith (that is, if such things are in the eating of meat class) (James 3:1).
Avoid flirtations. Remember, you are supposed to be seeking souls, not compromising with matrimony. Then there is the temptation to which some preachers are heir and some indulge, of spending too much time in the kitchen of the house where he is being entertained while he holds the meeting. That church im vited you to preach during the meeting, not assist in the housekeeping of one of the sisters.
You are responsible to the church for what you do off the platform, between Lord’s days. What you do in your spare time is their business. If the church is supporting you for your full time you are responsible to the brethren for how you spend it. No right thinking group of elders would want the preacher to punch a clock. But no honest preacher will spend one-fourth jf his waking hours shuffling cards, playing dominoes, hopping majrbles, playing checkers, tossing hoTse- shoes, or following hound dogs. The preacher should be the busiest man in town. Busy about the right things. If a preacher lacks fundamental integrity his life is a ghastly lie. Never eat the bread of idleness. Guard carefully against the love of ease. Remember, he that is faithful in a little will be faithful in much, and he who is unfaithful in a little will be unfaithful in much.