Success God’s Way | Ears to Hear #20

True success as a Christian is not measured by hustle, productivity, or worldly achievement. God values balance, rhythm, and abiding in Him above constant busyness. Hustle culture may look impressive, but it often leads to burnout, anxiety, and misplaced identity. Jesus modeled a better way.

Title Song: Nothing but the Blood of Jesus by Free As a Bird

Sponsors: Be the first

Find me @:

Email: rjmcrae.biz@gmail.com

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@reedmcrae

Tiktok Ears to Hear: https://tiktok.com/@ears.to.hear.pod

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reedmcrae 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

In today's world, success is measured by productivity, hustle culture, wealth, accolades, and the temporal things that we tend to buy. But what did Jesus teach us about success? I want to discuss today, and hopefully you'll have a better understanding on what success has looked like. In today's world, success is measured by grinding harder, hustling, productivity, achieving more, having more, making more, doing more, posting more. But is that really what Jesus taught? I want to examine today what success looks like as a Christian and why it's important that we don't let the world tell us what success is and that we model our lives after Jesus's. And in doing so, success isn't really the goal, but rather peace and joy. That would be what success is for Christians. However, it's easy to be susceptible to what the world tells us we need to have in order to reach a certain level of success. I'll start off by sharing that I am very susceptible to this. I am somebody who is ambitious, have big dreams and lofty goals. I want to make a lot of money. Is any of that wrong? Objectively, no. But the line for that to become wrong is very thin. That's a very narrow edge point, a razor's edge of falling into danger as a Christian, especially, because Jesus never once promoted anything of hustle culture nature. He lived a balanced, rhythmic life. And despite the chaos that he went through and was put through, he managed to draw peace out of every instance in his life, and not only internally realize that, but pass that on to everybody he interacted with if they would just but listen. That's all they had to do. So the question for you is wherever you're at in life, there's a chance that there is where you're at with career, relationships, any other measure of a portion of your life, and there is where you would like to be. The never-ending rat race of trying to achieve more and do more. Maybe you have plans and goals to start a business. Maybe you have plans and dreams of being married and having kids by a certain time. Maybe you want X amount in your savings account by this time next year. All of those worthwhile pursuits. And I do think Jesus would encourage you to do those so far as you always seek the kingdom of God first. And doing those things will hopefully just be amplifications of the Christ-like virtues you are possessing and will learn to possess, and that that will magnify your ability to influence those around you. But rare is it that a rich man enters into the kingdom of heaven. We know this. Rich, I don't think, just pertains to money, but rich in fame and success of the world can lead to our downfall and our demise. And so if you have pursuits or goals or dreams or visions, the point is, is that how you define your success when you go to bed at night? Was your day was your day a failure or a success based on how much money you made that day, how many deals you closed, what progress you made towards whatever goal it is, or is your success based on did I serve someone today? Did I repent of a sin that I committed or a mistake that I made that offended somebody or hurt somebody? Jesus would say that's success. The latter is success. And I think it's important that we don't become frantic, faithful creatures. It's easy to get so hung up on trying to measure our worthiness, which is kind of ironic because Christ isn't doing like a some total tally of the virtues and vices we have, of the good deeds and sins we commit, and canceling those out and carrying the one over and square rooting. Like, there isn't a formula that determines your measure of worth to God. Your worth to God is priceless forever. It's inevitable that your worth will stay priceless. As a son or daughter of God, you are everything to him. So the more you do, the less you do, the better you do, the worse you do, he loves you all the same. There's instances in the scriptures where God can bless those temporally for keeping his commandments. Right in Malachi, when Christ makes the promise attached to paying tithes, bring all your tithes into the storehouse and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord, that I will not open the windows of heaven, that there will not be room enough for you to receive these blessings. Essentially, God saying, You give me a portion of your income, of your net, and I will show you. I will pour out blessings from heaven upon you. You won't even know what to do with it. Can be temporal, can be spiritual. God can do both, God can do what he wants for you in the right time and season. When I just think about this concept, it's easy to, again, as somebody who falls uh into these thought processes, you'll hear a clip or a podcast section or watch a documentary about somebody who is just bulldozing their way down a path of obsession, borderline insanity towards achieving a certain goal. Now, it's it seems cool. It seems like wow, the price this person is willing to pay, the sacrifices they are willing to make to achieve a level of success that nobody else has achieved before, we romanticize that. We think it as an admirable trait that only few of the world's greatest could ever accomplish, and we sort of want to do that in some aspect of our lives. I do. I'll hear that stuff and I go, man. You know, I'll watch these like edits of UFC fighters who just uh there's Connor McGregor, who's one of my favorite fighters, he in his prime was very much obsessed and insane. And he there's a famous clip of him in training where he talks about I've lost my mind to this, and he relates it to being like Van Gogh and how this is an art form, and he's truly lost in what he's doing, and you can just tell, like his energy at the time and his prime. I mean, he he was pinnacle uh fitness and athleticism and skill and talent and just sheer will and discipline that he needed to become a world champion. Could he have done it any other way? Not so sure. Not sure, and that's what makes it enticing. It's like, well, this is the price I have to pay. What did it cost him? Well, he went down a path, turned to alcohol, turned to drugs, uh, had some run-ins with publicity and issues and uh citizens that I think he like fight at bars and blah blah blah. Anyway, he's fighting again this summer, so he's you know, nobody strays too far from the grace of God. The point isn't about Conor McGregor, the point is about this obsession on becoming successful being the most important aspect of your life that second to that, if not third or fourth, becomes the importance of following God and seeking first the kingdom of heaven. That lowers on the totem pole as we become obsessive and we fall victim to hustle culture, or even in the pursuit of productivity to accomplish more, to be a better person, we can still lower on the ring of importance following Jesus Christ's footsteps. The straight and narrow way, there's a bug or something. Uh, the straight and narrow path is just that. It's narrow, few there be that find it, but boy, is it straight. It's simple and it's clear, and it involves balance. I really do think I've gone through phases in my life of okay, it's important to be a balanced person, and then sometimes sometimes I'm like, no, I just need to go all in. And you know, I've read the Burn the Boats book, and that's a familiar theme for those interested in self-improvement is to burn the boats and leave no other option but your success and cut off all ties to anything that could distract you. It it's it's very enticing, flowery language to those who don't have enough security in Christ to realize that true joy and peace in this life, and in that case, a version of success. In fact, the most important success, which would be to end up in heaven with God, comes directly from that source, which is Jesus. And I I feel like this is me calling myself out just for falling victim to like there's something better than just the still calm peace of living the gospel and incrementally becoming more like Jesus Christ every day. What more do we want than that? Well, because of the world, it's tempting to think that we want a lot more, that we want notoriety or fame or a certain dollar amount in our bank account to feel something. And we don't like hearing those cheesy quips about oh, money won't make you happy. Like, we don't want to hear that as people who maybe don't have that level of money, and we go it's easy for you to say. And then you become one of those persons that that makes a lot of money and you feel that way, like, yeah, money didn't change anything. So then what is it? What is it? How is it our pride? We're just too prideful, and we like really can't just take the lesson from somebody else. Can we really not just listen to the thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people who've done this before and have told us these virtues that you know what at the end of the day, like following God's commandments is the most important thing, more than anything. Loving your family, spending time with your family is what you'll regret not doing more of when you die, not working more hours late at night. We feel like we have to experience that for ourselves, but what if you could just take those and really learn? I was listening to a podcast, uh, Modern Wisdom with Chris Williamson. It's one of the few I listened to, and he had on a former Navy SEAL, and they were talking about how when he Chris interviews people, he really tries to get down to like what the darkness is in them that drives these people to their level of success. You think of like a Navy SEAL and you think of okay, wow, they must have some loose screws or some insanely traumatic childhood upbringing or past that has led them to be crazy enough and disciplined enough to put themselves through that and become an absolute monster and warrior. This guy, it was so refreshing, was just saying how they're all pretty ordinary guys. They like really are. They all are extremely ordinary who have a very extraordinary set of skills that they've learned over the years. But at the end of the day, they all have the same problems you and I have, they all go home to tough situations, and he really hit on this point of like he was somebody where it was against his nature to ever give up. And in doing so, it kept him in a relationship. I want to say it was like over a decade, that ended up hurting himself, the other party, and his children more than if he would have realized that it's okay to give up on certain things. And he kept preaching that. He much, like now in his life, he admires anybody who is willing to like dip out of something early, to bow out of a pursuit early and maybe not finish it, if it means that they're going to not sacrifice so much of themselves that they'll never get back. If the pursuit of something is going to end up hurting you more just because you're too stubborn and the principle of never giving up is so important to you, he he's just saying we got it all backwards, and and I I agree, I I would say there's a lot of things that we probably do give up on too easy, truthfully. But success doesn't always look like never giving up on something. If if you were to talk to any entrepreneur, they've probably had to give up on a myriad of pursuits they've they've encountered or or started, and as they've encountered difficulties, they've had to pivot and maybe give up on that dream and just go a different route. That's not sexy, that's not cool, that doesn't sound fun, but the truth is every single successful person's story is filled with failure and failure and failure and giving up and giving up and recommitting and giving up and recommitting. Is that not repentance? Is that not the entire point of the gospel? Is that you will have to give up over and over and over and over again and try again over and over and over again? And that repeated process of ultimately never giving up on God is the most important. But there's certain pursuits in life that just realizing the completion of this pursuit doesn't increase my worth in any way. I think it's important to note that. And so a couple points I wanted to hit on. Again, Jesus, if if Jesus were to define success, not sure that he would even touch on that, but he he never like rushed what he was doing. He he prioritized like rest and praying and and having isolated solitude, but also being with people. He prioritized being with his father in heaven, and he he had balance amidst the chaos that he went through. Um there's the instance of the story of Mary and Martha, and I won't go into the whole story, but Martha was like in this hustle trying to get things done while Mary was just sitting at Jesus' feet, and Martha felt very overwhelmed. And and Jesus essentially just said, like, Mary has chosen the better thing here. In this moment, while Martha's intentions were pure and good to get things ready and to try and control every aspect, Mary just like being still and being present and just soaking up time with the savior in that moment was the more productive thing, the better thing. And I don't even like that I said the word productive there, because that it's not measured in productivity. Um and other biblical like allegories for modeling success in in God would be, I've said it a couple times, but seeking first the kingdom of God in Matthew 6. Producing fruit that is sweet and that lasts. When when talking about the prophets, Christ says, uh, by their fruits ye shall know them. You you will know them. Is the fruit sweet and does it last? Are the efforts you're putting into your daily life providing fruits for those around you that are sweet and that last? And you want to share that with others? I think it's important that a life marked by peace as well. Um, and and Christ says, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. This is kind of corny, but just I wrote like he doesn't say, Well done, thou disciplined and over-the-top servant who's outworked everybody around you. I think the picture of a person in your life, take take the woman in your life who maybe has some pursuits she's done on the side, started a little side business, she raises her kids, she doesn't look for the uh approval of the world, and she has raised a beautiful family with her husband, and just goes about day to day and she communes with the Lord every day, and as she repeats that pattern and raises good kids and goes through struggles, and her life comes to a close, that's peak success, that's peak living with the gospel view on to the world. Did she accomplish as much as some renowned author or actress? No, but that's irrelevant because she maintained this peace and had a beautiful family, and that's why I think a lot of parents live through their kids because they want their kids to achieve certain things that maybe they didn't, and that's just fine, but ultimately at the end of the day, are your kids good people? Are they good, God-fearing people? And kids will have their own choices regardless, but that's most important. And so I just think overall it's important that as we go through our day-to-day lives, we we don't we don't let this like affect us. I'm not saying, and I'm not gonna leave this episode and stop chasing greatness. In fact, like if you know me, you know I I would love to ignite in everybody I meet whatever their dream is for them to go after and chase it. If they want to start this hobby, if they want to start a business, if they want to start a YouTube channel, if they want to be the best X, Y, or Z. I don't care what that is. But if for whatever reason or another or excuses they're making, if I can like just give them a little like kick in the butt and just like let's get kickstarted here, that makes me happy. I think seeking for greatness in a thing that you do or are skilled at, or more importantly, you care about and are passionate about is a very worthwhile use of the talents God has given you. I've probably said it before, but Denzel Washington said in a commencement address True desire in the heart for anything good is God's proof to you sent beforehand to indicate that it's yours already. Boom, top top three quote ever. Ever. For me. I 100% think that. However, if you get caught up in the pursuit for that good thing, that it derails your pursuit or time spent with the Lord and getting to know him and living his gospel, it is no longer a good thing. Something good, too much of it, can be detrimental to your life, and we know that with so many examples. You can drink too much and get water poisoning and die. Stupid example, but it's true. That's the goal today. So stop chasing the the world's version of success and start your pursuit of balance in Christ. Pursue the simple, blissful peace that Christ can offer because when we yoke ourselves to Him. Our burdens become light. And our burdens can be self-inflicted by taking on the definition of success the world gives us and placing that on our shoulders, thinking, that's what I have to do to be worth something. You don't have to do anything to be worth everything. You already are. Pursue greatness, but pursue it in God and stay balanced. And that that will lead you to be on your deathbed, it's a little extreme, and feel like you know what? That was a successful life, and God would probably agree. As always, thanks for listening. Appreciate it. And chat next week.