P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

Success Secrets from Jesus

CONNIE: What are you chasing? What’s the one thing you most want to achieve in life? And how will you know when you’ve gotten it? Join us today as we look at Success Secrets—from JesusCONNIE: Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for more than 70 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko. Connie, your opening question today is an important one. I guess we’re all pursuing something in life—whether it’s wealth, fame, security, the perfect relationship . . . whatever it might be, it’s the thing that gets us out of bed each day.

CONNIE: The question is—what is it that makes you feel successful—makes you feel like your life is worthwhile, that you’re accomplishing something that makes life meaningful.

LONNIE: Someone recently shared with me a story from a business magazine about a manager who was concerned that one of his workers wasn’t getting enough done each day. The man’s job was to paint fire hydrants. One day he reported that he had painted only one hydrant in a whole day’s work. The manager asked a motivational expert what to do about it.
CONNIE: What advice did he get?

LONNIE: He was told to give the worker a 3 x 5 card at the end of the day and have him write the number of hydrants painted on it, and no matter what the number was, to say “That’s fantastic. See you tomorrow,” then to post that card on a bulletin board where the man could see it.

CONNIE: Did it help?

LONNIE: Amazingly, the number on the card started going up each day. Soon it was up to 14, and then the man started taking paint home with him each night so he could start painting early the next morning.

CONNIE: In other words, the man became his own motivator. He suddenly had a goal to work toward instead of just a job to do, and that changed everything.

LONNIE: Exactly. Goals and objectives are an essential part of any successful life. That’s why it’s so important to choose our goals carefully, and that’s what I’m going to be looking at in my message a bit later—what Jesus taught about setting goals.

CONNIE: But before we hear that, I think you have someone you’d like to introduce us to . . .

LONNIE: That’s right, a young lady I interviewed recently, who I believe is going to accomplish great things in life, because she knows how to pursue the goals she sets. And she’s just recently had a bit of change of direction.

CONNIE: She has an amazing story of how God has led in her life.

LONNIE: In our studio today we have Katrina Lebinski. Welcome to the Voice of Prophecy. Now you are one piece of dynamite, packed small, beautiful, African-American but you were kind of born as damaged goods weren’t you Katrina?

KATRINA: You could say so.

LONNIE: Tell us about it.

KATRINA: When I was born, I weighed one pound nine ounces and if you can imagine, kind of like a pound of butter with arms and legs.

LONNIE: And you also had some other infirmities didn’t you?

KATRINA: I had cerebral palsy. I wasn’t supposed to walk or ride a bike or do anything with physical activity. I had bleeding on the brain. I was on the heart monitor, had heart problems and I was supposed to be mentally retarded.

LONNIE: The most unlikely candidate to ever think of being a gymnastic Olympic star.

KATRINA: Right.

LONNIE: And in fact, you’re dear young mother, at that age of seventeen.

KATRINA: She was seventeen and wanted to keep me but she knew that with all the medical problems that I had that she wasn’t going to be able to take care of me so she released me for adoption and I was placed into foster care. My foster mother was a licensed practical nurse and she knew that with stroke the more exercising, the less crippling so for several hours a day she would exercise me.

LONNIE: And she wasn’t really too much into a lot of the advice as you grew up like she can’t learn like other students.

KATRINA: No, she was very encouraging and I believe the Lord led her in many ways to just ignore what people were saying and to look to Christ.

LONNIE: And you began to develop and you began to particularly take an interest in Olympic gymnastics.

KATRINA: Right.

LONNIE: So what happened?

KATRINA: I first started in gymnastics for fun. I developed to love the sport more and more and I started competing at the Olympic level. I competed on uneven bars, vault, balance beam and floor.

LONNIE: And you were good at it.

KATRINA: I think I was pretty good.

LONNIE: You won lots of awards and began to place and how high did you go in that pursuit?

KATRINA: I competed on the state levels and regionals.

LONNIE: So names like Olga Corbett and Shannon Miller and Dominique Daws, they were your heroes at that point. You wanted to be one of them.

KATRINA: Yes.

LONNIE: Americans are crazy about Olympic skating and hockey but particularly gymnastics. We’re proud of our kids and you could have been one of those but something happened in your life. Perhaps you discovered you can’t serve God and another master too. What happened?

KATRINA: Well, I thought about quitting gymnastics but I never really did it and one day I came home and I was sitting in my room and I heard, “This is not where I am.” I kind of put it off for a while.

LONNIE: This is the voice that said, “This is not where I am.” And you thought that must have been God saying something to you.

KATRINA: I knew in fact that it was God telling me.

LONNIE: So what happened?

KATRINA: Well, then I started to pray and I asked Christ where He wanted me to be and I had thought about music but I knew that I couldn’t go into music because I had stage fright very badly. I would get up in front of an audience to sing or talk and tears would stream down my face. I hated being in front of people so freshman year of high school I started taking Intro to Theater classes and I had to get up in front because I had to get a grade and then I thought maybe if I can talk then maybe I can sing. So I prayed and said, “Lord, if you want me to use music for you, help me to develop this talent.” I took voice lessons sophomore year of high school and I went to my voice coach and told her that I wanted to be a singer and she said, “Okay, well, have you started singing in front of churches or anything?” And I said, “No, I don’t want anyone to hear me!” So I got some music together and I called up a local church and asked if I could sing and they told me that I could and I went there and the whole audience cringed as I got up to sing because they all thought I was going to cry but God helped me through it.

LONNIE: You know Katrina, you’re only nineteen. Our audience I wish could see you; a beautiful young Afro-American and I met you when you were sixteen. You were singing and you were overseas singing. In fact, haven’t you put out your first CD?

KATRINA: My first CD, yeah.

LONNIE: And been on television.

KATRINA: I was asked to, I’ve been on 3 ABN to sing and gave my testimony.

LONNIE: Three Angels Broadcasting Network and you’ve gotten to do

KATRINA: I’ve gotten to do evangelistic meetings and sing for different youth rallies.

LONNIE: Now, you were told that you had a learning disability. In fact the psychiatrist, psychologists were not too encouraged about that but then you discovered that you bloom with encouragement and God had a plan for you didn’t he?

KATRINA: Right, well one of my favorite bible verses is Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Jesus Christ which strengthens me.”

LONNIE: You made a huge decision to turn away from Olympics and follow Jesus Christ. You’re now taking college. You just finished your freshman year and what are some of your goals in life? What are some of the pluses for having turned to Jesus Christ as opposed to following a career in the Olympics gymnastics?

KATRINA: Well, Christ is our most ultimate coach. He is the ruler of the whole universe and has everything under control and I’d say that if you just give all that you have to Christ He’ll work through you. You may say that you can’t sing or that you can’t do gymnastics, I don’t really have that much talent but Christ sees our potential far beyond what we can even imagine.

LONNIE: Do you have any regrets from having turned that direction?

KATRINA: No.

LONNIE: What are some of the things you’re looking forward to doing?

KATRINA: I am looking forward to going to Rwanda, working on evangelistic meetings there and possibly building a church and also I would like to record another CD.

LONNIE: Katrina Lebinski, thank you for being with us on the Voice of Prophecy. Here is a walking miracle.

KATRINA: Thank you for having me.

CONNIE: What a fascinating, vibrant young lady. She’s already overcome tremendous odds in her life. It’s going to be interesting to watch her and see how her life develops as she lets the Lord lead.

LONNIE: I was really impressed with her sincerity—she could have continued to pursue Olympic gold—but she sensed that the Lord was leading her to a change of priorities. And if she pursues that with the same enthusiasm—well, watch out world!

CONNIE: It’s good to have that sense of the Lord’s leading in our lives. A theme that the King’s Heralds pick up in this song, “Father Lead Me Day by Day.”

CONNIE: Have you ever wished you could just know for sure exactly what God wants you to do, but you just couldn’t decide for sure what was the right thing?

LONNIE: Connie, I think every believer has probably experienced that. Many times we hear of people “putting out the fleece”—trying to get God to give them a direct answer as happened in the biblical story of Gideon.

CONNIE: That’s a neat story—Gideon wanted to know whether to lead his people into battle, so he put a fleece of wool out on the ground overnight and told the Lord that if the next morning the fleece was wet while the ground was dry, then he would know that God was speaking to him.

LONNIE: And of course that’s the way he found it in the morning.

CONNIE: But did that make him sure?

LONNIE: I think he was still a little wobbly in the knees. So he prayed that the next night the reverse would be true: dry fleece, wet ground.

CONNIE: And that’s the way he found it in the morning.

LONNIE: And that finally gave him confidence to go ahead and do what God had called him to. But I think it’s interesting that he had to have two separate signs. He was no different than most people, I suppose. Sometimes we’d rather not be totally sure—we’d like to hedge a bit and say “Well, I’m just not sure that’s what the Lord wants me to do,” instead of marching straight ahead.

CONNIE: I hate having to make important decisions.

LONNIE: Most people do. But as Christians, we can have the confidence that when we keep our eyes focused on God’s will, He will guide us to the right decision. On our daily broadcast we did a series on this a while back, called “Your Most Radical Decision,” and we’ve put those messages into a book.

CONNIE: And we’d like to share that book with you. You can request a free copy by calling our toll-free number 1-800-872-0055, and asking for Your Most Radical Decision. And we’ll give that number, plus our mailing address again in a moment, but right now, let’s listen to Lonnie’s message for today, “Success Secrets From Jesus”

Success Secrets From Jesus

How would you define success? What would it take for you to be able to sit back and say, “You know what? I’ve finally arrived! I’ve achieved what was most important to me in life!” Would it be a certain amount of money in your 401k retirement account? Or maybe a certain level of fame or notoriety—being recognized when you walk down the street? Or maybe it’s achievement at work that you crave—a corner office on the top floor of the building. Or would you be satisfied with a key to the executive restroom? Would an invitation to a big Hollywood gala where you’d mingle with the stars make you feel like you’ve accomplished what you set out to do in life? Or would you prefer an invitation to the White House?

Success—genuine success—the kind that makes you feel satisfied with your life’s achievements—is pretty hard to define. No matter what you achieve, it seems like there’s always one more hurdle to jump. And that’s probably good. Life gets boring when there are no more challenges.

Now, I’ve titled my message today “Success Secrets From Jesus.” You might be thinking, Does Lonnie mean to imply that there’s something in the Bible—in the teachings of Jesus—that’s going to help me achieve whatever goals I’ve set for my life—even if they’re secular goals?

Well, I’d answer “Yes and No.”

Maybe you’ve seen the popular book Jesus: CEO in which author Laurie Beth Jones extracts principles for leadership from the Gospels. There are many good ideas in the book’s 86 chapters. Because there is much that we can learn from Jesus, and much that we can emulate in His life if we want to live successfully.

But today I’d like to focus on just four simple statements of Jesus. Four statements of principle that seem unrelated at first, but when taken together point to the most powerful rule to follow if you want to achieve true success.

The passage we’re looking at today is in Matthew 6, verses 16-24. It’s part of the Master’s Sermon on the Mount, which we’ve been looking at in recent weeks.

Here are the four statements—and I’ll abbreviate a bit here. Jesus goes on and elaborates on each of them, but we’ll start by just looking at the basic statements. I’m reading today from The Jerusalem Bible. “ ‘When you fast do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do: they pull long faces to let men know they are fasting. . . .

“ ‘Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moths and woodworms destroy them and thieves can break in and steal. . . .

“ ‘The lamp of the body is the eye. It follows that if your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light. . . .

“ ‘No one can be the slave of two masters.’ ”

Let’s look at each of these verses individually and then together. First of all, it’s interesting to me that Jesus doesn’t say “If you fast” but “When you fast.” His assumption was that Christians would from time to time devote themselves to fasting and praying. It was a widely practiced discipline in His day. The pharisees and others typically fasted two days per week—the second and fifth days—in commemoration of Moses’ fast on Mt. Sinai. Jesus Himself fasted for 40 days and nights prior to entering into His ministry. But while He was involved in spreading the gospel, he was criticized by the pharisees for feasting more than fasting.

Nonetheless, He anticipated that His followers would fast from time to time, and fasting is a good way to bring our mind to focus on spiritual things. Here at Voice of Prophecy we sometimes have days of fasting and prayer when we’re seeking special guidance or blessing from the Lord.

What was Jesus’ counsel about fasting: Do it as something between you and the Lord. Don’t go around moaning and groaning and looking famished, hoping for sympathy. Pretend you aren’t even fasting.

Now, there’s a principle here—one that we’re going to see come up in each of our success secrets. See if you can ferret out what it is as we turn to secret number 2: “ ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.’ ”

This year there’s been a lot of media attention given to the falling stock market and how people’s retirement plans have had to be changed. Something’s been eating away at the treasures laid up for the future, and there’s hardly a person who hasn’t been affected in some way—retirees in particular. The Wall Street Journal recently noted that the value of stock equities had declined 7.9 trillion dollars since their high point, and that this was hitting retirees particularly hard.

Well, if that has you concerned, may I share with you a favorite quotation from my good friend Del Delker, who right now is celebrating 55 years of gospel music ministry. She’s fond of quoting Billy Graham who said that when you work for the Lord, the pay may not be great, but the retirement plan is “out of this world!”

That’s what Jesus is pointing us to here. Don’t lay up your treasures on earth—there’s no telling what may devour them. Lay them up in heaven, where they’re carefully guarded by God Himself.

Now, are you beginning to see a theme in Jesus’ success secrets? Let’s look at the third one: “ ‘The lamp of the body is the eye. It follows that if your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be all darkness.’ ”

At first glance, this may not seem to be directly related to the first two, which focused on our relationship to God and heaven. But there’s something interesting in the original Greek version of this saying. When Jesus speaks of the eye as being sound, the word He uses means one, or single.

You’ve seen people with dodging eyes, haven’t you? They come into the room at a social gathering, and maybe they stop to talk to you, but all the while their eyes are dodging about the room, looking to see who else is there, wondering if there’s someone more interesting or more important they might be spending their time with.

Their eyes aren’t single. They aren’t focused on one thing at a time. And Jesus says that’s not healthy. This text, along with the ones around it, is really about what our focus is in life. If our focus is on the things around us—the people who are going to be impressed by our fasting, or the treasures we’re storing up on earth, then our focus can’t be on God and heaven.

And when you recognize that fact, then you can see that the fourth of Jesus’ success secrets, although it’s the shortest, is really a summing up of the other three: “ ‘No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn.’ ”

Do you see how this pulls all of these success principles of Jesus together? Principle 1: If your fasting (or praying, or alms-giving, or preaching, or singing, or whatever spiritual exercise you engage in) is done seeking the praise of people, your loyalty is divided. You’re not devoting yourself wholly to God. You are serving two masters, and one or the other of them will win out.

Now, Principle 2 is one of the most difficult for many Christians to know just how to apply. When Jesus says we shouldn’t lay up treasures on heaven, does that mean we shouldn’t have savings accounts? Does it mean that we should cash out our retirement plan? Somehow we have to strike a prudent balance here, because the Bible also encourages us to be wise stewards, planning for the future. But I think Jesus would have us go down on our knees pretty regularly and be open and honest with God about our plans for the future, and just how much faith we put in the things of the world and how much in His constant provision for us. How much is stored on earth, and how much we send ahead to heaven by divesting ourselves of it to help the poor, to support Christian ministries, and the like. It’s a matter of faith and loyalty that each of us must settle with the Lord Himself—it’s between us and God.

Jesus challenges us to see success as something different from what the world expects. It’s not the biggest house on the block. It’s not the shiniest car. It’s not the corner office, or the prestige that comes from being able to drop important names. True success in Jesus’ book is something more enduring than all of those things. It’s eternal success. It’s living for an eternal kingdom.

And do you know what? When you get that focus right. When God’s kingdom takes priority. Well, Jesus promises that the things of this world will come into order too. That will be our topic in two weeks when we look at the next section of Matthew 6.

Friend, how is it with you? Where’s your treasure? What’s your motivation for the spiritual things you do? Where’s your focus? Who is your true master?

We all need to ask ourselves these kinds of questions from time to time. And we all need to reorganize and recommit our priorities on a regular basis. After all, we’re living down here on earth, and sometimes heaven seems like it’s so far away. Things get out of perspective.

That’s the time when we need to come to the Lord and ask Him to restore our vision. To help us to look up. Not to dwell down in the valley, but on the mountain top with Him. Why not do that just now as we listen to this song, “Restore My Soul.”