The Church Meeting in Jesus’ Name
602 Oak Knoll Dr.
San Antonio, TX 78228
Epistle
January 2019
2019 Event Calendar
FEBRUARY 1 – 10
- Revival Meeting with Evangelist David Spurgeon
APRIL 13
- Women’s Meeting
JUNE 10 – 14
- Vacation Bible School
JUNE 21 – JULY 5
- Poland Evangelism Trip – any age welcome, contact Brian Thibault (210-638-8806) for cost and details if you desire to accompany the group.
JULY 14 – 21
- Mission Conference
OCTOBER 11 – 12
- Men’s Meeting
DECEMBER 1
- Thanksgiving Meeting
Success
8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Joshua 1
I can imagine this passage being used by prosperity-peddling televangelists, who prove their doctrine to their followers by parading in luxury purchased by their donations, which are given in the hope that the “investment” will cause God to “bless” them also. Hopefully, nobody reading this has any sympathy for such bald nonsense. Prosperity preachers and their followers are, by definition, covetous, one of the deadliest sins (1 Tim. 6:10), and a sin which believers are expressly told to dissociate from, and have no company with (1 Cor. 5:11). And no passage in the Bible can be fairly used to imply that financial gain is the divinely promised result of faith.
But God says something significant to Joshua here, and it implies as well to us, that observing his word is a prescription for a prosperous and successful life. But don’t let the words confuse you. Modern Americans have co-opted the words prosperity and success to mean financial gain.
The squalid cash interpretation put on the word success is our national disease. William James, 1906
It should go without saying (but it doesn’t, so I’ll say it) that true success is not measured in dollars.
36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Mark 8
15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Luke 12
According to Christ, material abundance is a poor criterion to evaluate a successful life. God has obviously set down guidelines for life that aim at its best possible outcome for us, all things considered. And sure, that outcome doesn’t automatically exclude health and wealth.
Prov. 10:27 The fear of the LORD prolongeth days:
Prov. 13:22 A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children:
Prov. 15:6 In the house of the righteous is much treasure:
But the scriptures much more often parallel a righteous life-style with a much greater success than wealth.
Prov. 10:6 Blessings are upon the head of the just:
Prov. 10:9 He that walketh uprightly walketh surely:
Prov. 10:16 The labour of the righteous tendeth to life:
Prov. 10:28 The hope of the righteous shall be gladness:
Prov. 11:5 The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way:
Prov. 11:19 As righteousness tendeth to life:
Prov. 12:2 A good man obtaineth favour of the LORD:
Prov. 12:7 The house of the righteous shall stand.
Prov. 12:13 The just shall come out of trouble.
Prov. 13:9 The light of the righteous rejoiceth:
Prov. 14:11 The tabernacle of the upright shall flourish.
Prov. 15:8 The prayer of the upright is his delight.
Prov. 20:7 The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.
Prov. 21:15 It is joy to the just to do judgment:
Prov. 21:21 He that followeth after righteousness findeth honour.
Prov. 29:6 the righteous doth sing and rejoice.
Prosperity and success didn’t originally, and don’t really, mean wealth or profit. In fact, the word “success” in our text means only “outcome,” a result, whether good or bad. That’s why the verse promises “good” success, because “ill” success was also a thing in the language of their day. But both of these words properly mean the accomplishment of a purpose. Joshua’s task was the conquest of the promised land, victory over its inhabitants, settling of the tribes, and eventual rest from war. The promise is that the project would be prosperous and successful if the people of Israel would believe, and even obsess about God’s word. To the natural mind this is anything but obvious. But these words are direct words of God, spoken to Joshua. In case you missed it, the recipe for success is focusing on God!
Of course, success in life must be judged by life’s purpose. If mankind’s purpose were only to accumulate stuff then the American gloating mind-set of winning that game would be narrowly accurate, but such success is gobsmackingly meaningless, just like most American lives. The same goes for other brain-dead definitions like fame and power. Even from our humble perspective, evaluation of success in life should be comprehensive, covering all aspects of life, not just one, or three, narrow criteria. And surely it must take into account the objective of life itself, and that objectively considered, not just from our inbred thinking, but from the wider perspective. God’s perspective. Consider the obvious.
Personal Integrity
Because of the nature of mass media, some of the wealthiest, most famous, and most celebrated lives in our generation are people with no character. Many celebrated women are “sex symbols,” and they achieve their notoriety by offering their bodies to the highest bidder. Many famous actors live depraved, drug-soaked lives, careening out of control, ending in loneliness, emptiness, desperation and bitterness. Too many take their own lives. Can this possibly be considered success? How can fame compare to personal integrity? Any sweat-soaked, weary trucker finishing his run, or unassuming receptionist, enduring the obnoxious with patience, both attempting to follow God’s word, and carry someone else’s load, just because Jesus did, and fading away in life, unnoticed by the wider world, unknown and unsung, but genuine in life, is obviously the true success, not just by God’s standard, but by any coherent standard.
Family
Many a man has pursued what the Bible calls “strange women” (women who don’t belong to him), and a little wealth, a little fame, a flashy appearance, gets him what he wants. He’s a charmer. He’s all the rage, a “darling” of the media. But is that success? Compare him to any common man and woman, establishing a family according to God’s design, and rearing children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and all the while building a mutual romance, a soul-blending, life-long conversation, sprinkled with kindness and contentment. In such cases it is obvious which is the real success, and what is real prosperity.
Ministry
So now consider the spiritual. With little effort we effectively distinguished the false from the true success in other areas of life. But churches and other ministries are often evaluated by numbers, by budget, by lavish buildings, by national fame, even by market share. But if real success is measured only by the accomplishment of God’s declared intentions, it becomes apparent that many celebrated ministries are not successes at all. Is a church with 50,000 members a successful church? Well, hello, that’s not enough information! Spiritual success must be judged by God’s purposes in the world, and in our lives, and in our churches. What is God’s objective? If we just list a few, perhaps the most obvious, focusing on God’s word, true success can’t help but shine forth.
- The honest presentation of the gospel to those who haven’t heard.
A pastor who does not give a clear and honest report about the doctrines of the gospel, is no success, no matter how many thousands follow him. And if the massiveness of his congregation is directly related to his downplaying the hard doctrines, it is an indicator of the opposite, a failure, a loser, a total dud. Why would any God-fearing minister envy such a mess?
- The genuine salvation of souls.
So many modern American churches follow the “attraction model,” or the “competition model,” or the “business model,” rather than the New Testament “evangelism model.” If church leaders aim most of their efforts at attracting people to their church, or offering services other churches may not offer, as their plan of growth, or evaluate the methods of their increase by any marker other than genuine conversion of sinners by the miracle of Holy Spirit induced repentance and transformation of life, their success is deceitful. The argument is that some people do get saved this way, and that may be true, and that does count toward success, but all the effort to attract believers away from other churches, and the envy caused between pastors, and the confusing mixture of real and false growth, make for a shallow and deceitful triumph. Just wait for the smoke to blow away.
- The maturing of functioning New Testament churches.
Disregarding the kind of church “service” found in the Acts and numerous directives in the Epistles, many churches create a clergy mentality, and offer a popular and entertaining show for audiences that spectate one or two hours a week, (somewhat less in summer and football season). Most churches have no concept of “exhorting one another” with psalms and doctrines in an open meeting, nor the worship experience of the weekly breaking of bread, nor the personal investment into ministries by the designated offering.
Also in scripture exhaustive attention is given by the apostles to the temptations believers will face in life, including careful instruction and encouragement for us to overcome. No evaluation of success is accurate if standing in the evil day is not one of the criteria. Many pastors and congregations in China melted into the communist “three self” churches, while millions of others died or were imprisoned without compromise. State controlled legal congregations “survived,” and some even “thrived,” but when illegal house churches were counted a generation later, success could finally be defined more realistically. In our churches that suffer little persecution, we at least ought to know that personality conflicts, petty complaints, lukewarmness and church hopping is nothing less than abysmal failure. How can our attendance and budget make up for ignorance, immaturity and consistent dysfunction?
- God’s satisfaction and glory through all of it.
No spiritual work is successful if we offend God in the doing of it. No other criteria compare to the simple pleasing of God. And there is no way to achieve that kind of spiritual success without focusing on God’s word, and not because God is nitpicky about our methods and goals (which he might be), but because success is defined by his word. It certainly isn’t about wealth, nor numbers, nor notoriety, nor earthly relevance. It isn’t even about personal victory. Success is all and only about pleasing God. And it should be obvious that pleasing God doesn’t make a person popular, or influential, or even happy. But it is good success according to the only standard that matters. And it is the only success worth going for.