Many are attempting to find success and fulfillment in life. We see the shattered wrecks of lives all around us – lives dashed on the dangerous reefs of mirage-like shorelines they almost but never quite reached. Yet this is nothing new, for even the biblical King Solomon set out in a similar vain quest. Explore the biblical principles that lead to lasting success – they may be more simple than you think!

<p>Many are attempting to find success and fulfillment in life. We see the shattered wrecks of lives all around us – lives dashed on the dangerous reefs of mirage-like shorelines they almost but never quite reached. Yet this is nothing new, for even the biblical King Solomon set out in a similar vain quest. Explore the biblical principles that lead to lasting success – they may be more simple than you think!</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Dalton SDA Church

Chester Clark

The Secret of Lasting Success

Julius Engel and Joseph Krupp were going to get rich.

They moved west in the late 1880s and they bought a mine in the gold country of South Dakota, the Black Hills.

Of course, mining, as you know, is a relatively dangerous career choice, right?

And in the late 1800s, it was probably even more precarious than it is today.

The facts were that within 5 years of arrival, most of the Black Hills gold seekers had left with less money than they came with.

Combine this statistical fact with the risk of death or injury from cave-ins, from black lung, from lost limbs, explosives, accidents, and you really had to have gold fever to go into the mining business.

But you could say that Julius and Joseph had gold fever.

They didn't last 1 year or 5 years, no, they continued for 3 entire decades drilling in their little parcel of land looking for gold.

The Big Thunder Gold Mine, they spent about 30 years digging and they had to show for it about 1 ounce of gold, worth $25 or so in those days.

Now, this was not their day job, obviously.

They were being supported as, they worked as explosive experts during the day, and they sort of took leftover, you know, supplies from their day job to their night work to be looking for gold on their property.

When they began the mining there at the Big Thunder Gold Mine, they were in their 30s.

In their 40s, they had found this little 1 ounce, and so they're encouraged, and they kept going for another decade.

And as they continued down this six-foot-high and a few feet wide path, 200 feet across their property, 10 years later, they still hadn't found any more gold, but they had heard the rumors of a gold vein on nearby property that seemed to be angling towards their property.

Year by year, decade after decade, they continued to dig, and no 1 would have faulted them if in their 40s or even in their 50s they had given up this attempt to find gold.

Most of the other gold seekers had already taken off long before this, but no, not Julius and Joseph.

10 years later, and now in their 60s, the cash-strapped old men continued digging, and finally they found the start of the vein that they'd been looking for.

After all these years, 30 years of digging, their life dreams had finally been realized.

By this time, they had dug off of their property.

And they had now, they were now digging in the land, underneath the land of a vacant lot that was unclaimed land next to theirs.

And they took their 8 ounces of gold they discovered in the beginning of what they believed was going to be a great vein.

They took their 8 ounces of gold, got $225, a fortune in the 18 or the early 1900s at this time, for their gold.

And they decided it warranted a celebration.

So they went down to the local saloon and they began to celebrate.

Now what happens when some juices begin to flow?

They're, they started blathering and before long they had discussed the fact of this amazing vein that they had discovered in unclaimed land.

The guys at the bar pooled their money and bought the land and Julius and Joseph had nothing for their 3 decades of work." Now, the long story short, sometimes life is just that way, isn't it?

Sometimes, sometimes we actually seem to be looking for something that's unattainable.

And so when we come to the end of our lives or the end of our pursuit and we come up empty, it's very, very discouraging.

Why is meaning or real success so elusive?

Why is it that so many find what they thought they were pursuing doesn't satisfy when they finally reach there, when they finally arrive at their destination.

You know, I think if we look at the world today, we could agree that many have found money and fame without finding happiness.

Many people have found various pursuits which they thought would bring them satisfaction, they thought would bring them happiness, they thought would bring them the satisfaction that they had always wanted.

Many have found their hands empty at the end of their journey.

Why is it that today so many come up empty handed?

We're going to look in our Bibles here this morning.

We're going to be looking in our Bibles at a number of passages.

But the first 1 we notice here on the screen, it says, beloved, I pray that you may, what?

Prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers.

The 1 thing we know, and we're gonna see in these following passages, is that God wants us to prosper and be in health.

John 10, verse 10, Jesus says, I have come that they might have life and that they may have it, what?

Now, I want you to take your Bibles and I want us to look at a couple verses here from Deuteronomy.

Usually when we think of the Old Testament we think of laws and rules and regulations, at least many Christians do.

Today we're going to notice that in the Old Testament also, God was very explicit in what He wanted for His people.

We'll begin in Deuteronomy chapter 5 and in verse 16.

Deuteronomy 5 verse 16, honor your father and your mother as the Lord thy God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged, that it may do what?

Go well with you or be well with you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

Verse 33, same chapter, Deuteronomy 533, you shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days in the land which you will possess.

You see, God wants the best for His people.

He says to His people that it may be well with you.

Now, some people might ask the question, well, then why do bad things happen?

It's something that we're going to partially answer by the end of today, but it's something that we're going to look at more in the future.

Notice with me Deuteronomy 6 and verse 3, continuing on.

Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest increase mightily, as the God of your fathers has promised you in the land that flows with milk and honey." Deuteronomy 6, verse 18, "...and that thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord sware unto your fathers." So over and over here, in just 2 chapters of Deuteronomy, we find God is expressing that He wants things to go well for His people.

He wants things to go well for the children of Israel.

And now, as we continue on, it's not just in the books of Moses, we continue on to Jeremiah chapter 7.

We find, we find Jeremiah giving a similar message from God.

Jeremiah chapter 7 verse 23 it says, "...but this thing commanded I them saying, obey my voice and I will be your God and you will be my people and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.

But Ephesians chapter 6, he speaks once again in similar language, that it may be well with thee that thou mayest live long on the earth.

God's plan for his people is that things would go well for them, that it would be well with them.

And yet we see that there are many people who fail to find that type of lasting success, enduring success.

They fail to find the type of blessings that God has in store for us.

Notice with me what it says in Deuteronomy chapter 5 and 32.

It says, Therefore, you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you.

You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess." The problem is that many people today, they read that part of that it may be well with you and they stop reading there.

They stop just content with the knowledge that God wants to bless them and they forget that that blessing is conditional.

It couched among all of these, that it may be well with you, are the conditions.

Almost every verse we read had a similar condition as this last verse here in Deuteronomy 5.

Notice with me, therefore you should be careful to do what?

Why does God ask us to do certain things?

He asks us to do certain things, friends, because He knows what the outcomes will be.

You see, some people think of God as sort of, some sort of a, maybe a little bit of a tyrant, you know, since He's all-powerful, He's just going to, He's just going to determine, let's see, what should I do if they disobey me?

The Secret of Lasting Success

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