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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for February 4, 2009
“Who Is Most Successful In Your Family?”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
Do you want to be successful?
Who doesn’t, right?
Donald Trump is successful. The Pittsburgh Steelers are successful. Barack Obama is successful.
Now let me ask you a question, and I want you to think for a second. In your family – just off the top of your head, the very first person that comes to mind – who is most successful?
So who came to mind? I’m going to guess that it was the person with the most money.
Or maybe you have a family member that is famous to some degree.
Or maybe it’s someone with a lot of education, or a business owner, or maybe even just someone with their own office.
But when I asked that question, “Who is most successful in your family?” someone came to mind, right?
But why that person? What criteria in your head made you think of them as most successful?
This is important because it will tell you something about your definition of success.
And I suspect that most of us, especially when making a quick decision, have a worldly definition of success.
So if we all want to be successful, and our most prominent definition of success is worldly, then we are prone to value worldly success; or what I will call “success in the eyes of men.”
However, as Christians, our priority should be success in the eyes of God. And let me tell you, they are not the same thing.
Take Jesus, for example. When He walked the earth, He enjoyed little success in the eyes of men. There was the magnificent Roman Empire, and then there was this little nothing Jew walking around little nothing Israel.
Jesus never went to Rome. He had no trophy wife. He did make a little splash around Jerusalem, but did not maximize the publicity. And just when the ball would get rolling He would do something to kick it off course.
How would you have liked to have been Jesus’ publicity agent? He didn’t write a book. He didn’t bounce from city to city on speaking engagements.
You know what? He just wasn’t interested in being successful in the eyes of men.
In John 4:34 Jesus told us what He considered successful, “…to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.”
We need to plug this into our heads. This needs to be our definition of success. Someone is successful to the degree that they do the will and the work of the Lord.
Take the Apostle Paul and Julius Caesar. Who was most successful? Well by this definition, Paul was. He was immersed in doing the will and the work of the Lord.
Now back to your family. Who is most successful? It should be the one who is most doing the will of the Lord.
Look at the kings in the Old Testament. On what basis were they judged to be successful or not? It was based on the degree to which they did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
See, success has nothing to do with your money or your fame, your power or your education. It’s not even your reputation or your standing in the church. No, our level of success is just like the kings of old. Are we doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord?
As you map out your goals for success, this must be at the top.
Are you planning the success of your children? Make sure this is at the top: doing the will and work of the Lord.
So much of what we call success is really just success in the eyes of men. But listen to Jesus’ words in Luke 16:15, “What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.”
First Corinthians 3 says, “…the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.”
So, if we want to be successful, we need to first of all define what that is.
And we need to do away any worldly notions of success because sometimes what men so highly value is actually detestable to God.
Yes, we want to be successful, and it needs to be according to God’s definition.
And that comes down to doing God’s will and God’s work.
We will be successful to the degree that we do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2009 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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