126 Sermon Illustrations on Success

Thinking God’s way does not come easily to us because it is often contrary to the world’s perspective. The world says, “Fight for your rights-don’t let anyone push you around.” But Jesus teaches that it is the merciful, the meek, and the peacemakers who are successful in God’s kingdom. (Matthew 5:5-9) The world holds material prosperity and personal comfort as measures of success. Scripture says we are successful when we become more like Jesus and follow God’s plan.

As we learned yesterday, success starts with our thinking. Picture your mind as a mini-computer with the role of “command central.” It regulates your attitudes and actions, directing how to respond in different situations and indicating whether you should persist or give up-the mind identifies what is important based on the values and priorities stored in it.

Our responsibility as Christ-followers is to feed our minds with a steady diet of God’s Word. Only scriptural truth can counter the continuous stream of ungodly data that enters our thinking. Another responsibility is to screen what we allow to enter our minds. The Bible gives us the standard by which to evaluate the acceptability of ideas and attitudes we encounter. (Philippians 4:8)

By choosing to meditate on Scripture, applying it to our lives, and following God’s standard for our thinking, we will live in a way that pleases the Father. We will become the people He planned us to be and accomplish His purposes for us. Now that is real success!

Marlo Thomas, after accepting the Emmy's Bob Hope Humanitarian Award on behalf of her late father, Danny Thomas:

“My father said there are two kinds of people in the world: givers and takers. The takers may eat better, but the givers sleep better.”

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Source: Guideposts, Copyright (c) February 2005, http://www.guideposts.org

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Formula for Happiness and Success – It is set forth in the message of Psalm 1.

What Not to Do:

– Don’t follow the counsel of ungodly people

– Don’t hang around in sinful company

– Don’t get cynical and scornful

What to Do:

– Delight in reading the His Word – the Bible

– Meditate and ponder on it night and day

You Will Be Like:

– A great tree growing in a well watered place

– Which bears fruit every year

– Whose leaves will not wither

– Whatever you do will prosper

Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor stands in the path of sinners,

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree

Planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so,

But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

It has just gotten harder to keep up with the Joneses. A byword for those who are always ahead of us, “the Joneses” are those we strive to keep up with in life -- and they have just set yet another standard. Joneses spread from the United States to Australia came together in Cardiff, Wales recently to beat the world record for the largest gathering of people with the same family name. At the center of the assembly was an evening of entertainment Jones-style, featuring pop star Grace Jones of Jamaica, and opera singers Dame Gwyneth Jones and Gwyn Hughes Jones of Wales. In all, 1224 Joneses came together, confusing hotel guest lists and dramatically increasing the likelihood of running into a Jones on the street. (Jones is already one of the most common surnames in Wales.) Hence, the Joneses now hold not only our competitive neighborly attention, but the Guinness World Record to go along with it.

The familiar maxim “keeping up with the Joneses” depicts the competitive, though often subtle, nature of materialism, advancement, or accomplishment. We keep tabs on the status and stature of our neighbors; we keep a careful eye on those we deem in front of us in some way. At times this is our literal neighbor; other times it is an ever-changing, ghostly image of excellence, happiness, or success.

But contrary to what the phrase suggests, keeping up with the Joneses is not about keeping up with a particular person or family. It is not about the Joneses at all. It is about keeping up with the idol in front of us. Bypassing one Jones, we will find another ahead. It is a pursuit without a real goal, for it is a pursuit with another end always in sight. In this race, even the Joneses themselves cannot rest in their status or trust in their records. The Guinness Book of World Records will always have another edition on its way to print.

If we could step back from our current pursuit would we see its absurdity? Would we admit the fleeting nature of success and fame and treasure? Would we divulge the weariness that arises within the incessant human desire to keep up with the elusive Joneses? Perhaps it is true, as a wise man once said, that many of our curious ways are a meaningless chasing after the wind.

But this man also said there is one pursuit worthy of our days:

Remember your Creator

in the days of your youth,

before the days of trouble come

and the years approach when you will say,

“I find no pleasure in them”...

Remember him -- before the silver cord is severed,

or the golden bowl is broken;

before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,

or the wheel broken at the well,

and the dust returns to the ground it came from,

and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

(Ecclesiastes 12:1-7).

There are many fleeting things in this world, including the grumblings of our own appetites, including the Joneses. But He who made the Joneses withstands the test of time.

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Copyright © 2006 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

Steve Salerno is a reporter with wide experience. As a freelance feature writer, Salerno has written for magazines including HARPER'S, ESQUIRE, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, and many others. He has contributed articles to the LOS ANGELES TIMES and THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Many of his articles have focused upon “money stories,” that deal with financial scandals and controversies in the business world. Now, he is ready to report on the biggest scandal he has ever encountered -- America's self-help movement.

Salerno writes: “In twenty-four years as a business writer and an investigative journalist, I have covered all kinds of 'money stories.’ I have written about boondoggles on bankers' row and sleight of hand at Seventh Avenue fashion houses. I've written about the gyrations of the stock market as well as the myriad forces that surround, yet never quite explain, investing itself. I've written about money as it relates to sales, money as it relates to sports, money as it relates to music, money as it relates to love. It's safe to say that if it involves money, combined with some form of human aspiration, I've probably written about it.”

Nevertheless, Salerno's experience in reporting still left him amazed when he confronted an industry whose story “represents the ULTIMATE marriage of money and aspiration.” That story is the rise and dominance of what he calls the “Self-Help and Actualization Movement” -- identified in his book by the acronym SHAM.

America's SHAM empire includes an army of therapists, authors, motivational speakers and “corporate coaches,” all ready to offer help, encouragement, motivation, correction, and assurance -- for a price.

Salerno knows big money when he sees it. The SHAM industry is big business. Self-help books are never far from the best-seller list, and the products, conferences, and services of self-help gurus come at considerable cost. The top speakers earn more than ten million dollars per year, and the self-help sector of the economy is growing by leaps and bounds.

There's a good reason for that, Salerno explains. Self-help business is repeat business. The self-help industry would go out of business if its books and products actually SOLVED the problems -- real or perceived -- that led customers to buy the products in the first place.

Of course, comedians are quick to jump on the oxymoron that lies at the very heart of the industry. If people could genuinely help themselves, they wouldn't need the self-help movement. As comedian George Carlin has quipped: “If you're reading it in a book, folks, it ain't SELF-help. It's HELP.”

No matter what it is called, the self-help movement is big business and a growth industry. Last year, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY reported, “Self-help books are a Teflon category for many booksellers. No matter the economy or current events, the demand is constant.”

The repeat business is often no accident. Salerno served for some time as editor of the books program associated with the magazine, MEN'S HEALTH. Part of the giant Rodale publishing empire, MEN'S HEALTH offered a book service directed towards male customers. The company conducted surveys in order to identify “the customers' worst fears and chronic problems,” which then became fodder for future books and products. The secret behind the program's success was, Salerno reports, the fact that many customers could be enticed to buy yet more books on self-help within eighteen months.

Depending on how one defines the category, publishers release thousands of new self-help books each year. Some of these books make their way to the very top of the best-seller list -- and stay there for months or years. But the market for self-help books and products is not limited to mainstream bookstores. Salerno reports that such products are staples of the more than 5000 New Age bookstores now found in the United States. In reality, much of the energy behind the New Age phenomenon has now been refocused into SHAM with New Age consultants and coaches now ready to talk about profits and marketshare rather than meditation and channeling.

Salerno acknowledges that the self-help tradition has a long pedigree in the United States. After all, Benjamin Franklin wrote what may be identified as America's first self-help book, POOR RICHARD'S ALMANACK. But the real rise of the self-help industry, at least in publishing, can be traced to 1937 with the publication of Dale Carnegie's HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE and Napoleon Hill's THINK AND GROW RICH. Thirty years later, Thomas A. Harris redefined the industry with his best-seller, I'M OK-YOU'RE OK, which revolutionized the genre.

Once again, a book's title was the reverse of its content. As Salerno understands, Harris “explicitly posited that the average person is damaged early in childhood and walks around thereafter in a paranoid, self-pitying state.” His book supposedly offered a way out of that state of victimization.

In reality, victimization has become a major theme of the entire industry. Salerno suggests that the SHAM industry is divided into two camps. The first is EMPOWERMENT and the second is VICTIMIZATION. He explains: “Victimization and Empowerment represent the yin and yang of the self-help movement. It is likely that this schism will always exist, no matter which guru or message becomes the flavor of the day.”

The focus on victimization allows Americans to blame other persons -- or impersonal forces -- for their problems. Salerno sees Alcoholics Anonymous [AA] as the “template” for the victimization worldview. Human problems are translated into the vocabulary and categories of victimization so that persons can speak of overcoming what has been done to them, what has happened to them, or those who have afflicted them.

The truth is that virtually everyone can find someone to blame. In her spoof of the self-help movement, I'M DYSFUNCTIONAL, YOU'RE DYSFUNCTIONAL, skeptic Wendy Kaminer asserted that the victimizers are usually close at hand: “Grandfather was an alcoholic, mother is a compulsive rescuer, Uncle Murray weighs 270 pounds. Father is a sex addict, your sister is anorexic,” -- and the beat goes on.

There is simply no way to get around the fact that the self-help movement is more focused on the SELF than on help. Americans are evidently quite ready to focus on themselves as an ongoing project and to buy, read, and accept arguments that place blame far outside our own responsibility.

Problems are redefined in terms of therapeutic categories. Individuals are described as DYSFUNCTIONAL, and those who deny this diagnosis are charged with being in DENIAL.

Salerno identifies “five overlapping messages” of the Recovery movement -- one of the central streams in the self-help river. These messages include: 1. You're damaged goods. 2. Good is bad. 3. It's all about YOU. 4. All suffering is created equal. And 5. It's not your fault. Together, these five messages explain everything from the nation's current focus on addiction and a general proclivity to self-centeredness, to the moral evasions of President Bill Clinton and the executives caught in recent business scandals.

Beyond this, Salerno detects a significant cultural damage. Children are raised in an increasingly therapeutic culture in which, as children, they are taught to take responsibility for their actions, but as they become adults are told to blame someone or something else. Salerno also suggests that the impact of SHAM is leading to something like the feminization of society. He accurately notes that most of the central categories of the self-help movement are essentially feminine. Perceptively, he notes that many of these categories are now being sold to men under the category of “corporate coaching.” As management theorist Warren Bennis has observed, men will accept this therapeutic advice so long as it is packaged as “coaching.”

Steve Salerno is hardly the first to criticize the self-help movement, nor will he be the last. Nevertheless, his unique perspective as an investigative journalist offers a perspective that other authors may miss. Salerno suggests that the self-help movement is making America helpless. Christians will understand that the problem is far worse than that. Indeed, the self-help movement represents a false gospel that offers an unreal hope of redemption. The very category of “self-help” represents a repudiation of the Christian message -- that God in Christ has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves. But then, the entire biblical worldview of sin is missing from the self-help worldview. The greatest threat of the self-help movement is that it will leave Americans not merely helpless, but hopelessly lost.

________

This article was originally published on August 24, 2005.

A recent study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology has concluded that men who are nice (or “agreeable” as the study describes them) make as much as $7,000 less a year than those who are more ruthless. According to the study, “disagreeable” men are those who “aggressively advocate for their position during conflicts.”

In contrast, “agreeable” men are those who are known as “trustworthy, straightforward, compliant, altruistic, modest, and tender-minded.”

In a Wired magazine entitled, “Do Nice Guys Finish Last?” Jonah Lehrer writes, “When it comes to success, we assume that making it to the top requires ethical compromises ... the point is that those who win at the game of life don’t obey the same rules as everyone else.”

Now, while I doubt most successful people engage in ethical compromises, you can probably point to some, shall we say, who don’t “play nicely with others.”

Take Apple icon Steve Jobs, who passed away earlier last year from pancreatic cancer. Lauded by Time magazine as “technology’s great reinventor,” Jobs and his creativity have impacted nearly all of us — from Pixar to the iPhone. He ended life with $8.3 billion in the bank. But as his biographer Walter Isaacson said in an interview with NPR, Jobs was “a tough customer, very demanding ... he divided everybody into heroes and dunces ... he could be brutal.”

Here’s the problem: It’s one thing to assert that those who make the most money will do whatever it takes to succeed, even if it means running over a few people in the process. But it’s another thing entirely to equate financial gain with true success.

A colleague of mine just heard of a man named Brendan who left his career in the construction industry, liquidated his retirement savings, and moved his family to South Africa to work at an orphanage for HIV/AIDS orphans. Brendan says he remembers the days when he would lay his head on the pillow at night, knowing that he had worked hard to make money for himself and his family. Now he goes to sleep knowing that more than 120 children are loved, healthy, and safe.

I’d say that is a good bit closer to true success.

Now I’m not saying that making good money is a bad thing. Nor am I suggesting that everyone move to Africa. And I am definitely not saying that being truly successful requires being weak or timid. (Nobody, especially my grandmother, would accuse me of being either.) And in fact, many of those who committed their lives to redemptive causes were extremely determined and passionate individuals.

William Wilberforce, for instance, who fought to abolish the British slave trade, was everything but diffident. The difference is that he was fighting for the good of others, not his own agenda.

The point is this: Money is a faulty measuring stick for assessing a good life. Rather, a good life — as I describe in my book by the same title — is one lived by those who follow what Christ says, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

And if being “trustworthy, straightforward, and tender-minded,” which Wired magazine and some psychologists seem to say turns you into a loser, the world then, it seems to me, needs more losers.

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Copyright (c) 2012 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #29498]

The fear of failure a common one. In 1978 two psychologists at Georgia State University gave it a name: the “Impostor Phenomenon.” Those who suffer from this phenomenon believe that they don’t really deserve their successes; they’re phonies who have somehow “gotten away with it.” And because they dread being exposed as fakes, they fear any potential failure that might bring an imaginary house of cards tumbling down around them.

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Joan C. Harvey with Cynthia Katz. IF I’M SO SUCCESSFUL, WHY DO I FEEL LIKE A FAKE? (New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 1985), pp. 4, 15.

Where did the phrase “Jump On The Bandwagon” come from?

Literally, a bandwagon is a wagon that carries the band in a parade, circus or other entertainment. The phrase ‘jump on the bandwagon’ was first used in American Politics in 1848 as a result of Dan Rice, President Lincoln’s Court Jester. Campaigning for Zachary Taylor, Dan Rice, a professional circus clown, used his bandwagon for Taylor’s appearances, gaining attention by way of the music. As Taylor’s campaign became more successful, more politicians strove for a seat on the bandwagon, hoping to be associated with the success. Later, during the time of William Jennings Bryan’s 1900 presidential campaign, bandwagons had become a standard fixture of campaigns, and ‘jump on the bandwagon’ was used as a derogatory term, implying that people were associating themselves with the success without considering what they associated themselves with.

How do you spell success? Much of the world spells it M-O-N-E-Y, or F-A-M-E or P-O-W-E-R. And that includes many Christians. Somehow, we have absorbed the idea from the world that if we don’t have money, fame or power, we are not successful.

If you are participating in the world’s rat race to accumulate money, fame or power as the gateway to success, may I encourage you to switch from the Forbes’ lists to another list of successful people? In doing so, you will learn how God spells success: F-A-I-T-H-F-U-L-N-E-S-S.

Hebrews 11 contains a list of people who were earthly, as well as eternal, successes in God’s sight. And not one of them is recognized for wealth, fame or power.

Abel offered a righteous sacrifice. Enoch pleased God. Noah obeyed God. Abraham trusted God. Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph kept alive the promise of God. Moses overcame his fears to obey God. Joshua conquered by trusting God’s Word. Rahab put herself in danger to serve God. Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets conquered, administered justice and turned weakness to power for the sake of God. Many others were persecuted and lost their lives in the process of being faithful to God, these “of whom the world was not worthy” (verse 38).

How did they obtain such a good testimony? It was not through success based on money, fame or power. It was success by being faithful: “having obtained a good testimony through faith” (verse 39). If I had to choose between being on the cover of Time magazine and being listed in Hebrews 11, guess which I would choose? Which would you?

RISK AND REWARD

Have you or your family played any of the varieties of the classic board game called RISK®? Since 1959, RISK has been enticing players to succeed at dominating the world through military strategy. The risk-reward ratio is not in your favor, but the most calculating and strategic of players can rule the world (or Europe, or Middle Earth, or the oceans, or the moon -- depending on which version you play).

May I suggest a risk-reward strategy that is 100 percent guaranteed to make you successful in the eyes of God? Living your life according to the precepts of God is a no-risk route to success in this life and the next. And four key passages of Scripture explain why. I encourage you to read and meditate on each as you contemplate how God defines success.

• Joshua 1:6-9. Meditating on God’s Word day and night, being careful to do everything written in it, will bring prosperity and success. Strength and courage will characterize you as you walk through this world.

• Psalm 1. Delighting in “the law of the Lord,” meditating on it day and night, will cause you to be fruitful and prosperous. You will avoid the counsel of the ungodly, the path of the sinful and the seat of the scornful.

• Matthew 5:3-12. These “be-attitudes,” as they have been called, characterize the man or woman who is blessed and happy in this life. Humility, mourning, being meek, hungering for righteousness, showing mercy, purity, making peace, suffering for Jesus -- these are what bring blessing (success) in God’s sight.

• Philippians 3:7-14. Leaving behind the world’s fame and power, Paul found success in pressing forward toward making Jesus Christ his all in all -- and was exalted as a result.

I encourage you to consider these no-risk strategies for success in God’s sight. And should God bless you with wealth, fame or power, use them for His glory. As an example, former top runway model Kathy Ireland has traded in her Sports Illustrated swimsuits for her own line of modest clothing as head of her own multi-million dollar company. She teaches Sunday school, has written a book about her spiritual growth, plans a Bible study section for the company website and asks her employees to honor the Lord with their speech. [see also HolwickID #36011]

Whether your wealth and fame spread around the block or around the world, stay successful in God’s sight by making Him the focus of it all.

Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic won 43 straight matches over a period of six months before losing to Roger Federer in the French Open in June.

This amazing series of wins, against the best players in the world, rocked the sport of tennis. But it was the loss, and a string of bitter defeats last year during a self-described personal “crisis,” that set the stage for Djokovic’s greatest triumph to date: his first Wimbledon championship. He beat defending champion Rafael Nadal July 3 in convincing style on the sport’s biggest stage.

“[L]osing that really epic semifinal against Federer -- a great match -- I managed to recover and to come back ... and to win Wimbledon for the first time in my life,” Djokovic told reporters.

Winning is great, but losing helps you get better -- if you learn from your mistakes. Any good athlete or coach will tell you the same. Compete with bigger, faster, better players, they advise. Pay the price of losing repeatedly in order to gain the skills to win.

Wise parents and teachers instill the same approach to life in children. “Helicopter parents” who anxiously hover, terrified their kids will stub their toes or not get into the school play, are only ensuring greater failure down the road. If you don’t fail once in a while, you don’t grow. And you fear taking on something really challenging.

Churches, ministry organizations and mission teams often make the same mistake. They stick to the script, the proven program, the best practice. But some brave soul has to discover for the first time what works, usually by repeated failures.

Pastor/author Rick Warren reminds leaders at his church “that they have my permission to make at least one mistake a week,” he wrote in a 2004 Baptist Press column. “I don’t want [them] to fall into sloppy habits, but I do want them to feel free to fail because that means they’ll also feel free to take risks! My point is that if you’re not making mistakes, then you’re probably not trying anything new. And if you’re not trying anything new, then you’re not learning, and if you’re not learning, then you and your ministry will quickly be out of date, perhaps even irrelevant. The secret to being innovative is not being afraid to fail.”

It’s also the secret of faith, Warren added. The unprofitable servant in the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-29) was also the unfaithful one. He took no risks with the money his master gave him. Peter, on the other hand, recklessly stepped out of the boat to walk toward Jesus on the stormy sea (Matthew 14:22-31). He began to fail, to sink. His faith was small. But it was greater than that of the other terrified disciples huddling in the boat.

Nearly every business and management book published in the last 25 years probably has a chapter titled “Freedom to fail” or something similar. It sounded great -- until the U.S. economy failed spectacularly in 2008 because of foolish risks taken in Washington and on Wall Street. Now investors fear spending their money on new ventures. Businesses hesitate to hire new workers. The economy will never truly recover, however, until people in a position to change things risk failure and show some faith in the future.

“At this point, freedom to fail probably ranks right around freedom to remove your own appendix,” observed business writer Megan McArdle in a recent article for TIME magazine (“In Defense of Failure”).

“That’s a pity, because failure is one of the most economically important tools we have,” McArdle wrote. “The goal shouldn’t be to eliminate failure; it should be to build a system resilient enough to withstand it. ... The real secret of our success is that we learn from the past, and then we forget it. Unfortunately, we’re dangerously close to forgetting the most important lessons of our own history: how to fail gracefully and how to get back on our feet with equal grace.”

Too many organizations, however, insist on punishing failure.

“I once taught a workshop in a large organization and included an activity where I asked the delegates to think of the ‘second right answer’ to a problem,” says Mark McGuinness, who coaches organizational creativity. “They looked like rabbits caught in the headlights. When I asked them what was wrong, they told me they were always expected to come up with the right answer and were severely punished for making mistakes. No prizes for guessing how creative they were. And yet -- when they relaxed a little -- they showed me they were perfectly capable of thinking creatively. It was the fear of punishment that stopped them from using this ability at work.

“People and companies that succeed through innovation take a very different approach to failure. They accept it, or even encourage it, because they know that failure holds the key to success. ... Encourage people to try new things and learn from their inevitable mistakes. Reward them for being open and honest about mistakes and failures -- so that these are not swept under the carpet, causing even more problems. If you’re going to punish anything, punish failure to learn. If you don’t, the market will.”

Are you listening, ministry leaders? Disciple makers model how to follow the Lord, just as Christ did with the Twelve. He sent them out two by two, let them learn the hard way (see Peter and the boat) and patiently taught them day by day. I’ve lost count of the number of Christian leaders I’ve seen sabotage their own ministries by refusing to allow their followers to grow through failure.

If you want hundreds of examples of victory coming through failure, defeat, loss and despair, read the Bible.

John Wooden (1910-2010) is considered one of the greatest athletic coaches of all time. He was a member of the Basketball Hall Of Fame as both a player (inducted in 1961) and as a coach (inducted in 1973) and was the first person ever enshrined in both categories. His ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period while at UCLA are unmatched by any other college basketball coach and he also had a NCAA-record 88-game winning streak.

Though famed for his successes on the court, Wooden has been more touted for his approach to the game of life and the impact he has made on the lives of those who caught wind of his exhortations – both on and off the court.

“He was not only the greatest coach in the history of any sport, but he was an exceptional individual that transcended the sporting world, and his enduring legacy as a role model is one we should all strive to emulate,” commented UCLA Director of Athletics Dan Guerrero.

John Wooden lived by a Seven Point Creed, given to him by his father Joshua upon his graduation from grammar school:

• Be true to yourself.

• Make each day your masterpiece.

• Help others.

• Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.

• Make friendship a fine art.

• Build a shelter against a rainy day.

• Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

Wooden was a devout Christian and his beliefs were more important to him than basketball. “I have always tried to make it clear that basketball is not the ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live. There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior.” Wooden’s faith strongly influenced his life. He read the Bible daily and attended the First Christian Church. He said that he hopes his faith is apparent to others: “If I were ever prosecuted for my religion, I truly hope there would be enough evidence to convict me.”

Robert Schuller was one of the most innovative preachers in America. His denomination gave him $500 to start a church. He visited 3,000 homes in the area and asked people what they wanted in a church. Since it was Southern California, they wanted something relevant and convenient. So he made a deal with a drive-in theater, and people sat in their cars while he preached from the roof of the concession stand.

The next year he set out a plan to grow to several thousand members and a staff of 10 to 12. In 1980 he built a church designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson. It had 10,000 panes of glass and a Jumbotron. He called it the Crystal Cathedral. In today’s dollars, it cost $60 million. Their Christmas and Easter pageants had professional musicians, live donkeys and costumed angels who flew.

He televised his church services to millions. Most of his attendance was viewers who came to visit - but just one Sunday. Even as his viewership grew older and attendance and giving started to decline, he added a $250 million Family Life Center, a $5.5 million prayer spire and a $40 million welcome center.

Many of his family members were on the church staff. In 2004 he picked his son to succeed him, but he never really gave him power. Within six years Schuller fired his son, declared bankruptcy on all that debt, and sued his own church. A short time later his church was all but gone and Schuller himself was dead. Today the Crystal Cathedral is a Catholic church.

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Adapted from the book “Next: Pastoral Succession that Works," by William Vanderblowemen and Warren Bird (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2014), pp. 98-104.

The Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) famously said, “No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.” And since Shaw himself refused to take God’s Word at face value, he rejected Christianity. He was simply too “smart” to follow Christ.

Multitudes of people over the centuries have assumed their perspective on the Bible and Christianity is correct, even though they refuse to bow in repentance and faith to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Saul of Tarsus was a highly intelligent anti-Christian zealot until he was converted on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians. During those years when Saul was too “smart” to follow Christ, his eyes were blind to the truth, and his “zeal was not based on knowledge.” (Romans 10:2) How does a lost soul like that go on to write 13 or 14 New Testament epistles?

Albert Einstein said, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” Well, if that is true, then Paul was one of the most intelligent people of all time. Few people have ever experienced a bigger change than when the terrorist Saul became the Apostle Paul.

Saul met the Creator who invented human intelligence and everything else at the beginning of time (see Colossians 1:15-17). Ironically, many people with a high IQ feel that Jesus is beneath them. They actually seem embarrassed or offended at the mere mention of Christ’s name, unless, of course, God’s name is being used as profanity. Jesus told His disciples this would happen: “They hated me without reason” (John 15:25).

Intelligent people who resist Christ need to stop believing everything they think. Millions of highly intelligent people have gone to their graves only to learn the truth about Jesus when it was too late to do anything about it.

The Holy Spirit has clearly revealed in Scripture that no one gets a do-over after reaching their final destination. “People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

I would like to ask you a personal question. Are you too “smart” to understand why the sinless Savior endured crucifixion on a Roman cross 2000 years ago? Crucifixion is one of the most painful methods of capital punishment the world has ever known. And yet Jesus allowed himself to be crucified in order to pay for your sins and mine.

One day, you and I will stand before Christ in His courtroom (see 2 Cor. 5:10). This goes for every king and every pauper who has ever lived, including Frederick the Great (1740-1786), who said, “Religion is the idol of the mob; it adores everything it does not understand.”

Like Bernard Shaw, Frederick was convinced that his perspective was the correct one. But his views stood in direct opposition to the King of kings. You see, it was Jesus Himself who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). And so, it was Frederick who clearly didn’t understand the true nature of religion.

While man naturally celebrates “the wisdom of the world,” (1 Cor. 1:21) “the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:25). Paul wrote, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). The world exalts human intelligence, but “God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21).

Perhaps you are starting to understand why Jesus told His disciples, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). The only children who are too “smart” to trust the Lord are those who have been taught by their parents to ignore Jesus. But apart from false indoctrination, children enthusiastically sing to the Lord when they learn about the love of Jesus.

Sadly, some parents don’t want their children to ever “repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15) about Jesus the Messiah. Just as many Palestinian parents teach their young children to hate Jews, a significant number of Jewish parents and atheist gentiles instruct their children to avoid Jesus like the plague.

Billionaire Bill Gates said, “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” But it also makes people think they understand the ultimate meaning of success, and what it means to be smart. I agree with Gates that many people who have achieved worldly success start to think they can’t lose. That is, until they take their final breath.

So, how does God define success and failure? Jesus said, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36). Whether you accept Christ as your Savior or reject Him, this profound question from the lips of the Messiah will reverberate within your heart throughout eternity.

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Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska.