Paul Aurandt in his book, Destiny tells of the life of Bartholomew Roberts, one of the great sea captains commanded 3 ships The Fortune, The Good Fortune and the Royal Fortune. Back in his day the ships musicians were on call to provide music anytime of the day or night. But his musicians got Sunday off as a day of rest and religious observance. On his ships, temperance was strictly enforced, and gambling was forbidden. Any sailor who smuggled a woman on board was hanged. He was

one of the most disciplined sea captains ever, and he ran a truly, tight ship. His

discipline was very effective, and made him the best of what he was. Unfortunately,

what he was, was a pirate. He captured an average of 100 ships a year for one four

year period of his career. He was the most feared man on the sea. All of his religion,

morality, discipline, efficiency, and effectiveness, were for the sake of an evil end.

He was very successful in using good things for evil goals. That is why success is not

an absolute measure of value for the Christian. It is possible to be very successful,

and yet be evil, and displeasing to God. This being the case, we have the paradoxical

reality of a successful failure. That is what Captain Roberts was. Herod and Pilate

fall into this same category. This forces us to seek for a Biblical definition of success.

Roberts was religious, good to his own men, moral, and a hard worker. He had so

many good points. He was just like the Pharisees that Jesus is holding up in this

chapter as successful failures. They were very religious, and did all kinds of right

and good things, and they were very good at it. They had a large following of people

who admired them. They were the people who had fame. Yet Jesus said, with all of

these values that made them a success, by one definition, did not make them

successful by his definition. By his definition they were failures, and not to be

followed by Christians.

The first thing we have to get straight in order to be successful according to Jesus is,

I. THE DEFINITION OF SUCCESS.

This is where the Christian gets confused, and is often torn between his culture and his Christianity. In our culture the definition of success always revolves around the

trinity of possessions, power, and prestige. There are no poor, weak, and unknown

successful people by our cultural definition of success. The successful man, someone

said, is the one who can make more money than his wife can spend. The successful

woman is one who can find such a man. The problem with the worldly definition is

not that those things are not good. It is just that they are not adequate. They are

like Captain Roberts and his good things. They fall short of the glory of God.

We need to get a new definition of success in our minds so we can distinguish

between the worldly and the Christian understanding. This passage in Matt. 6

makes it clear that for Jesus success is, very simply, pleasing God. It is not in

pleasing man, and getting his approval, but pleasing God, and getting God's

approval. This is the essence of Christian success. You can do a lot of good things

for reasons other than pleasing God. You can give, pray, and fast, as did the

Pharisees, to get fame and man's approval. You can be very successful in achieving

goals, and becoming famous for your religious values, but if in the process you forget

that pleasing God is the number one priority, you become a successful failure. Or, in

other words, a failure in spite of your success. To fail to please God makes all other

achievements ultimately worthless.

If God is not pleased with your religious activity because it is all done to please men,

and win their approval, then all of your religious life is a form of idolatry. If

pleasing God is not the goal of your activity, then pleasing someone else is, and that

someone else, which may be self, the crowd, or whoever, is in the place of God, and

that is idolatry. Success according to Jesus is not measured by the pleasure of the

crowd. You cannot take a vote, and if thousands of people say I am pleased with

you, then you must be a success. Jesus said this was the definition of the Pharisees.

Popularity was a key concept of success in their minds. That is why they made a big

production out of their religious practices. They sounded the trumpet in the

synagogues and the streets to call attention to their giving, and to get the praises of

men. They could have used W. S. Gilbert's poem as their theme song.

If you wish in the world to advance

Your merits, you're bound to enhance.

You must stir it and stump it,

And blow your own trumpet,

Or, trust me, you haven't a chance.

It is true, if your definition of success is pleasing men, and getting their praise, you

have to blow your own trumpet, and they did. But if your definition of success is

that which pleases God, you do not need a trumpet at all. You can please God by

doing what is good and right, and do it quietly without fanfare, and do it just

because He wants you to. Jesus had done no mighty works, and had gained no large

following by the time he was baptized, but when he was baptized, God spoke from

heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased." Jesus was

successful even before He had any public ministry, because He pleased His Father in

heaven.

Dr. Charles Malik once said, "Success is neither fame nor wealth nor power.

Success is seeking and knowing and loving and obeying God." This is the Biblical

definition of success. If success is what the world says it is, then most human beings

can never achieve success. But Jesus' definition of success is good news to all men,

for there is no person

who has ever lived who cannot achieve the ultimate success of pleasing God. God is

pleased by faith. In fact, as the book of Hebrews says, without faith it is impossible

to please Him. This means you can have fame and fortune, but if you do not have

faith, you are not a success, but a failure, for these things without faith do not please

God. But with faith it is impossible not to please God, and faith is possible for all

men.

There are many fringe benefits that we can enjoy as a plus when we please God. But when these things are aimed at as the end and goal of life, they become minuses, and in God's eyes signs of failure. This leads us to the second thing we need to focus on, and that is

II. THE DANGER OF SUCCESS.

Nothing succeeds like success is the cliché, but equally true, though seldom said is,

nothing fails like success. The Pharisees were failures just because of their success.

They were in to goal setting, and they said, we want to achieve the goal of being

praised by the people for our piety. We want the honor and respect of the masses.

They knew where they wanted to go, and they had a strategy for getting there. By

all standards, except one, they were successful. The one exception was God's

standard. By His standard they failed miserably. But if you ignore this minority

opinion of Jesus, and take a vote among the people, the majority would tell you they

were successful. They got just what they wanted, and what can be more successful than

goal oriented men who achieved their goal?

But this is the problem. They got what they wanted, and that can be a curse. That is

why success is so dangerous. It is because it works. You get what you want, and you

are a success. Now you cease to ask is this good or wise, and is it what God wants for

me? Your very success cuts you off from seeking the essence of success, which is

pleasing God. You are pleased and that is all that matters. Your success has led you

to failure. We need to see that the reason Jesus urges us not to practice our piety

publicly is not because it will have no effect, but just the opposite. It can have a

powerful effect. It may lead to your becoming popular, and then you may become

motivated to please men rather than God. If you never become a success before

men, then you will be motivated to do what is spiritual in order to please God, and

not man. That is why Jesus stresses privacy in such matters as giving, praying, and

fasting.

Nothing is more dangerous than getting a reputation for being spiritual, for it can

lead you to be doing the right thing for the wrong reason. So Jesus says, don't do

these things in public, for you might just succeed, and our goal is not to succeed, but

to please God. The paradox of life is that so many things are dangerous just because

they succeed. Selfishness is a good example. It works very effectively, and many go

far in achieving their goals by being selfish. If selfishness always failed people would

not cling to it so persistently. Its danger is precisely because it works, and can lead

to all kinds of success. But because it is not pleasing to God, it is success which, in the

final analysis, is failure.

Jesus says that in the judgment there will be those who say, did we not cast out

demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name, and Jesus will say

depart from me for I never knew you. These are examples of successful failures.

They were religious, and even used the name of Christ, and yet, it was all for self glory,

and not for the kingdom of God. This can never please God, and so it is final failure.

In our culture we love to take people from the pit to the pinnacle, and this is very

dangerous. Any person who becomes a Christian and is a celebrity will be magnified

by the media. This popularity and so called success can lead to pride and a sudden fall.

Another paradox we see is that God often uses success as a means of judgment. He

does not send bolts of lightening upon the sinner, but simply lets them succeed in

their schemes. The Pharisees succeeded, and got the praise of men, and Jesus said

that was their reward. They lost God's reward as a result, but the got what they were after, and that was their judgment. People are not only judged at the end of

history, for judgment is going on all through history. The child who succeeds in

cheating will feel it is worth while to cheat, for it works. Therefore, they will go on

doing more cheating, and may experience even greater success. The more success

they achieve, the greater likelihood they will continue until they undermined their

entire moral sensitivity. The more the sinner succeeds in his sin, the more he ends

up with the sinners reward, and that is ultimate failure.

I have always been thankful that I failed at smoking. I have known so many

Christians who have had to fight enormous battles with this habit. I had the good

fortune of failure. I must have been in the first grade when my uncle and I had

stolen some cigarettes, and we went out behind the church and smoked them. Some

saw the smoke and reported it to my grandmother and mother. When I got home I

got a good spanking, and the whole thing was a painful flop of an experience. Had it

been successful, I may have had to endure much unnecessary torture in trying to

break a bad habit. Getting what you want can be a curse, but on the other hand,

failing can be a blessing. I wanted to succeed in smoking, but thank God for my

failure. The danger of success forces us to go back to the Biblical definition of

success, and evaluate all of life in its light.

The Bible is full of examples of men who were successful by the worlds definition,

but who were failures by the Bible definition.

1. The rich young ruler. He was wealthy and had what the world dreams of

achieving. He was also quit successful in his religious observance, for he kept all of

the commandments from his youth. But Jesus made it clear that success, even in -

religion, does not please God when it is all for self glory. This rich successful man

would not submit to the Lordship of Christ. This would have pleased God and made

the man a true success.

2. Take the farmer who had such success in his fields that his barns could not hole

the bumper crop. He had to build bigger barns. All earthly definitions would put

this man in the category of the successful. Yet God said, "Thou fool, this night thy

soul is required of thee." He did not please God, and was a failure.

3. There is the story of the rich man and Lazarus. By earthly standards the rich

man was a success, for he had it all. Lazarus, on the other hand, would be

considered a failure, for he was desperately poor. But because Lazarus pleased God

he became a ultimate success by ending up in heaven, and the rich man became an

ultimate failure by ending up in hell. This parable of Jesus totally reverses the value we

evaluate all of life, and all human activity: Is it pleasing to God? Not, does it

work? Not, does the majority support it? Not, does it lead to riches and fame? There are dozens of wrong questions, but only one right one, Does it please God?