Day 1
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
We have seen for true success we need to be stewards. A steward can only be able to do his job if he accepts to be a slave of his master so that he will work for the master. He does everything for the master’s good without worrying about himself. It is the work of the master to worry about him, but for him, he lives to honour the master.
We have also seen that stewardship is living your life to do good to all but, for the good of the master. It is accepting that you don’t own anything, that everything, you possess yourself and whatever you hold is actually owned by God. And we were able to differentiate between ownership and possession. That there are things God has put under your possession but you should never start illegally transferring them to your ownership. You must always be conscious whatever it is you have, belongs to God.
We gave the example of parenting and we said that in parenting, you need to understand that the children are in your possession at least physically for twenty years, but they are not your children. They are God’s children and so it means that as you deal with them you must be aware you are answerable to God to what you do to or for them. You know like when they are babies they can’t talk for themselves but you cannot claim to be a good steward if you ignore them.
Now, we are not in a couples’ conference, but when I go to attend a couples’ conference I keep reminding them that you pray very hard that God will give you a child, especially in Africa. In fact as a parent you count nine months and you expect a child in Africa. But unfortunately, we have one leg in African traditions, another leg in modern world. So, you find a lady who prayed desperately for a child, but who is a bank manager. As soon as she gives birth, she leaves the baby. First of all, she doesn’t go on leave until one day or two days, sometimes she is called out of the bank to go to hospital. Then after the baby comes out, she doesn’t want to stay long. She says, things are going wrong in the branch. I want to go back. Some of them don’t even breastfeed. It is going to interfere with their careers.
Day 2
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God
Now, I ask, why did you ask God for a baby when you had no intention of affecting your career for the sake of the baby? You cannot get a baby and run your life like you never got a baby. The stewardship of a child calls for your professional life to get affected. And we can spend time on that. Stewardship means you are managing those children on behalf of God.
We have also seen implication stewardship to the prosperity gospel. We are llokng at this itesm to confirm as true stewarad lives intrue success
Remember stewardship as a source of contentment. 1 Timothy 6:6 says,
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain,
This is ESV. Yes, there is great gain in godliness with contentment for we brought nothing into this world and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
Like we saw stewardship revolves around that verse. Now we are learning if you truly are a steward, you will live a life of contentment. That the opposite of that, the word of God is saying if you don’t have godliness, irrespective of the amount of possession you will have you will never gain contentment. And I know that to be for a fact as I have friends who are stinking rich and you are dealing with them and you realize the kind of dissatisfaction they are in.
So, I do know for a fact that the opposite is true. That without godliness you can never be contented. Haven’t you noticed, and it appears in my book The Secret of Contentment, that when families are poor, they seem to be in love more. As soon as they pass a certain level of income there is trouble. In fact, they say the longevity of marriage is directly proportional, to prosperity. You remember mathematical statements; they say that the longevity of marriage is directly proportional to the amount of wealth you have. I am not suggesting you don’t pray for wealth, but I am just warning you in advance. That the richer you become, the harder it will be for your marriage to last. That’s a researched fact. But, the word of God is clear, enjoy the wife of your youth.
Yet it is getting worse when it is the wife who is bringing more money as we saw earlier. The chance of your marriage success is a little worse. A friend of mine the other day lost his job. they are both professionals. You know, the first month he was not getting a job. He is qualified but the economy in Kenya was going through a difficult time. They are both born again, going to church, serious Christians. But after one month the wife said, please sort yourself out. He said, what do you mean? Even you, you can help me to look for a job. I have not refused any job. I have just warned you, sort yourself out… the wife insisted
By the second month the housegirl was given instructions not to give him food. He comes home, he goes to the fridge, he discovers there is nothing, because food must be cooked when the lady comes home. And she serves everyone, the children and herself, the husband gets nothing. He asks, what is happening? Her reply: food does not grow on trees. Start working. He is in prayer, he is fasting, he is asking God for intervention, but as if it was a joke he came one day and found the house without people. They had moved, since it was a rented house, she moved the family without telling him. So, he came home after looking for a job only to find there was nowhere to sleep. And he has no idea where his family has been taken.
But, since to be fair to her she had warned him, he realized now he had better look for brothers who are willing to house him.
But God has his ways. Remember we are saying, even bad things happen for good. He finally found an international job, not even now a local one, and he started working out of the country and he was earning several times the previous salary. Now, after, of course now they are not communicating, the wife had cut off the communication but on hearing about his new condition, she wanted him back
Day 3
But godliness with contentment is great gain
When you don’t have godliness rest assured money will not bring you contentment. And marriages especially have real problems with these new things. And by the way it is not just women. Let’s not try to defame women. Men are the same. You realize your wife is not bringing much, then another woman is better endowed and you join her.
Godliness with contentment is a great gain. And stewardship helps you to have godliness with contentment because you learn to accept what the master has given you. And so, this verse is saying if you have food and clothing, that should satisfy you, isn’t it? Because without food you can’t, you won’t die quickly, you are eating. You may have no money in your bank account but you are getting food, and at least you are not walking naked. That is enough. Above that, whatever God gives you is called bonus. He has already provided. So, I am saying stewardship is a source of contentment.
This has really helped me to know my value as God has opened doors for me in every area. That at one moment I can be preaching in Mathare. Mathare is a slum, and there you can’t speak in English. I speak in Swahili. My Swahili is not very good, but I preach. And you hear somebody saying, you know we wanted to invite you but we thought you don’t go to such places. No. I have something God wants me to give away, and I can say it in English and I can say it in Swahili. I don’t have a class. I don’t belong to a class, I belong to Christ. I can be at peace with people in Mathare Valley in the slum. Some other time I was giving a series of talks in a church in Mathare on marriage. I would speak in the morning service then we remain behind with the couples. And I was talking to them about marriage and telling them it is wrong to be in a marriage without confirming it.
When your value is based on what you have, rest assured when you meet somebody richer than you, you will be intimidated, you will feel unhappy. By the way you are treating these poor people prepares you for frustration because there is always somebody richer than you. I hope you can see then, when you are a steward you distance yourself from your possession.
Day 4
“Because he knew no contentment in his belly, he will not let anything in which he delights escape him
If you want to be a successful Christian what do you require according to the Bible.I did my KPE in 1967, so I was a form one in 1968. And I still remember myself as a small boy in 1968 in high school. Form fours looked very big. They used to speak English through the nose. I wanted to grow in him until I become like form fours that looked very mature and grown.
So, success was a subject that bothered me that time. And I am looking that and checking what in my Christian walk has helped me, in the last about sixty years.
In that period of time, what has been critical in my life as a Christian? The embarrassing thing is that I have failed many times. In that sixty years or so I have failed many times. And again, I can tell you the things that caused me to fail. Because the idea is the Lord could use my failures to help me to succeed,
Our subject is :what are the critical success factors for the spiritual walk, if you want to grow. The most important success factor is receiving the Lord as your personal saviour. I look at my life and I wonder if I did not get saved, who would I be? God has opened so many opportunities that would never have entered my head if Jesus never got my life.
After retiring I was invited to speak in a conference in Los Angeles in California, and as I sat there talking to people from wherever I don’t know, I felt, waaah, that meeting the Lord way back in 1966s in school was very critical. The only reason I am here is because I got saved that time.
Thus, I can tell you who wants to be a success, there is nothing more important to you than getting saved. You know if you are saved, even if you don’t pass exams, and I am not suggesting you don’t pass, God can still take you and make you a success somehow since he recognizes your hardwork and not just the grade .
But unfortunately, if you are not saved and you get an A and you go to university and you do engineering and you finish, I can still guarantee you a great possibility of failure in your life. Sometime I bumped into somebody who was with me at Alliance in high school. And we were talking. You know we had not met for many years. So I asked, so how are you doing? We were by then in our sixties. I asked him, how are you doing? What happened to your children and your wife?
He said, I don’t want to talk about that subject. I asked him, why? You know when we were in our twenties after we left university, I married a girl whom I liked. But by the time in our thirties, she didn’t like me, and it was so difficult I didn’t know what to do. So can you imagine, John, she finally dumped me.
I decided I will now marry someone whom I really think can stay with me. so, I married someone who was after me. So, I thought this time if she is after me the marriage will last. But in our forties, she had given me such hell I had to stop the relationship. But thank God the other day in my fifties I finally met somebody I can marry. My child is now in nursery.
Remember for us his classmates it is our grandchildren that are in nursery. Are you getting my point? When you don’t know the Lord, my sister, can I assure you, your success may end up being your failure. Are you getting my point? I do not know anything more important than getting to know the Lord, because He can give you success even out of failure. Whether you pass or you don’t pass, walk with God to your success. and I am not suggesting you fail because I passed my primary, passed my form four, passed my A level, and I finally got my degree. I also have my masters. So, I am not suggesting that you fail. I am only saying, even if you fail God can still make you a success. There is nothing more important to you God in you. If somebody was to steal anything from you, let him never steal your relationship with God because if they steal money God can give you more, they steal your clothes God can clothe you again. But if they steal your relationship with Jesus you are done.
Day 5
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses
That’s why you need to be very careful how you live this life. That’s why it is so important to ask yourself, what are the critical success factors for the spiritual walk.
Number one, once saved …you must be so interested in Christianity that you will fight with your last strength not to backslide. You want to be stable in your fear of God. If that desire ceases, where you don’t feel you need God desperately, chances that you will succeed are very slim. The devil has wonderful attractions. The only thing that can make you withstand the devil’s lies is your commitment to walk with the Lord desperately.
Sometimes you don’t even feel like to eat but you know it is important. Are there not days when you do not feel hungry and you eat because it time. But at times even if hungry the way the food is cooked you lose appetite. You look at that food and you wonder, surely could they not find something else to cook it? But then you are very hungry. So, you still eat.
When you take your relationship with God like that, that whether you feel you are enjoying it, not enjoying it, you want to walk with the Lord, you are unlikely to backslide. You need that desperation to walk with God, and that desperation never to leave the Lord. If, you know what, you will find some people to be in fellowship with.
But some Christians are only available when convenient. That’s why they are not in church sometimes. They came to the Sunday service last week and the concluded it was not interesting, so this Sunday they found sleep was more interesting. If you are in that category who come to the Sunday service, who come to the Christian Union to be entertained, you are a candidate for backsliding.
When you are a Christian, you come to a bad meeting, or a boring meeting, or an interesting meeting you still attend. You do not go to the meeting because it is entertaining, you go because the Bible says where two or three are gathered there, I am in their midst. So, you are the one person you are sure, however boring the preacher is you will still be there. This because for you, you want to be where God … where two or three are gathered. You are desperate to walk with the Lord.
However, I am not encouraging preachers to be boring. I hope Iam not boring. No, I am not saying preachers should be boring, but you don’t come in order to be entertained. You don’t go to Christian Unions to be Entertained. That’s one of the most important principle.
I am finding a lot of young people do not go to places worship because it is not entertaining. You know if that of a person when you want to get married then you discover all boys are boring, Christian boys are boring…. So, you decide I am going to be dating people who are Christians. You then choose to be on your way to hell. I want to join those going there.
If you are the level where you want to be with a boyfriend who is entertaining whatever their faith, they will soon entertain you in a bush. It is very important to understand you need to come to where your walk with the Lord is so desperate, you are willing to walk with a boring brother rather than walk with a non-Christian however endowed.
Go to church because even if it is boring, you can give life to it, for the good of all and to the glory of God. You can give them a testimony and wake them up. You know there are brothers who are already having a non-Christian girlfriend somewhere because it is interesting. She is lively. You know, she is not intimidating. She doesn’t always share the word of God but instead sharing nice things.
So that’s why you are going you are spending time with a non-Christian? It means your life is centered on entertainment. If that’s what attracts you, non-Christians know how to attract you, isn’t it? Yeah. The times you are there, they are not intimidated. You go for a date and they start removing their shirt because it is a little hot, and you wonder what to do. Now, one thing follows the other until you find yourself doing hell things. Now, it is very important to ask yourself, what do I really want with life?
Day 6
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
So, we have seen that the first … critical success factor for success as defined by the bible is a commitment to walk with the Lord whether interesting or not interesting times. Why? Your faith is critical is not just what happens in between, it is also what happens at the end. You must have made up your mind I will not go to hell. I want to live with the Lord forever. If that’s your desire, then these other things in between, they can be interesting, not interesting, but you know where you are going and you are happy to go there. You take the narrow path, when the majority are going in the wide one.
That’s what has helped me. I am sharing my testimony as I address this issue. That what has helped me is, taking the narrow way not because it is … interesting but it is the only way to where I want to go.If I have to be honest sometimes it is not interesting but the fact that I know I want where I want to be at the end, I am willing to go through difficulties now so that I can win at the end.
I have heard of times in Kenya that form 4 exams leak. Do you know that is very tempting? It is very tempting for a Christian. Here it is, the exam is Monday, the paper is available on a Sunday, every other student is reading the leak and preparing. But you say, no. I don’t want to see it. It will send me to hell; I would rather go to heaven with a D than to hell with an A. Is that going to be easy? But you know that’s what Christianity requires.
Christianity means you deliberately refuse to pass even when the teacher is telling you how to pass if that direction will take you to hell. It means your boyfriend tells you, if you do not start shaping up and be the type of a girl who makes me happy, I am dropping you like a hot potato. You tell him, drop me, the earlier the better. Because for you, it is not that you don’t want him, you love him, you really desire him, but between him and God there is no comparison. You just say, drop me!
For people who are committed to success There is such a commitment to Jesus that nothing else compares. You know Jesus puts it in very tough language. He says, if you do not love me more than your mother you will not enter the kingdom of God. In fact, I am putting it in good words. The way He puts it is, if you do not hate your father and your mother you are not my disciple. Have you read that one? He doesn’t actually mean you hate your mother? It means your love for your mother, compared to your love for God it looks like hatred. You love your husband, you love your boyfriend, you love your father, but as much as you love him or her, the love of God is so much higher, when they are compared, your love for your mother is like hatred. That’s what it means.
So, I am saying a passionate love for God that will make all other love look like hatred will give you biblical success.
That’s the first critical success factor for success in the spiritual walk. If you are going to be the type of a Christian who is a Christian when it is good, it is called good weather Christian, chances that sixty years from now like me, you will be talking about walking with the Lord as very difficult.
Day 7
For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Somebody called David Wilkerson said, the mark of a mature believer is a refusal to be tossed to and from with every wind of doctrine, Ephesians 4:14. You must refuse to be tossed to and from with every wind of doctrine. You need to be clear where you are going. People who are committed the way I am describing, David Wilkerson says, are people who will not be captivated by music. You are listening to good music in that church, but pastor is talking trash but because you enjoy the tunes you stay there?Are there people like that?
You argue about your best friend , I am not like him but I like his company. Now, if you don’t like what he does, how come you like his company?
Successful people are not captivated by personalities. They are not even captivated by miracles first of all. You argue am here because, so and so when he prays miracles happen although he has three wives. Now, you need to understand miracles don’t impress you, it is the fruit of the Spirit that impresses you.
So, you can’t follow someone because when they speak miracles happen. Because if their life is dirty then you know where the miracles are coming from. Where are they coming from? The devil. Are you aware the devil does miracles? You need to be so taken up by Christ that you cannot be captivated by miracles.
What captivates you? Hunger for the clear word of God. That’s what captivates you. Hunger to go to heaven, hunger to walk with God. Somebody else called John Newton said, when I was young, I was sure of many things. Now as an old man there are only two things of which, I am sure. Number one, that I am a miserable sinner. You see, the reason why you are committing yourself to God is because you are grateful to God because of the way He has forgiven you. If you do not see yourself as a sinner, are you going to need a saviour? No. You need that ability to honour, on a continuous basis, even after you have been saved for a long time. To always be conscious of how miserable you are and how much you need the Lord.
The other thing that John Newton says is sure about is that Christ is an all-sufficient saviour. That however sinful I have been because of crying to God am now ok I don’t require anything else, his salvation is all sufficient. John Newton finishes by saying, he is well taught who learns these two lessons. Number one, you can never deserve to go to heaven, for you are a miserable sinner. Number two, that when you come to Christ, He is able to save you from, not some sins, from every sin. That’s a very important thing.
So that commitment to walk such that even when the devil puts mud on you, you will rub it off and continue. Because in your walk with the Lord, the devil will do anything to stop you. Sometimes you will say something wrong, sometimes you will even fall into a sin, but you are so committed to going you will rise up, repent, and continue. You will not become like a pig to say, you know I have fallen. Let me enjoy the mud. No. You say, I have fallen, forgive me God, I want to go on.
And you need to ask yourself, at this first success factor how are you performing? Do you have that deep desire to walk with the Lord or are you a periphery Christian? Number two, prayer. Do you pray without ceasing? That is 1 Thessalonians 5:17. And it is a very short verse. Pray continuously or pray without ceasing. In other words, you have that desire to walk with the Lord fully.