How Does God Measure Success?
Originally Preached 1/28/01
Main Street Mission Church
How Does God Measure Success?
How does God measure success? That's a question we should ask ourselves, if, we want to please God. As Christians we should desire to please God.
If we look at how man measures success we will wind up looking at numbers. In one form or another people always use numbers to measure how well or poorly we are doing. Personal success is ultimately measured by how much money you have. We sometimes disguise this by talking about how many rooms your house has or how many bathrooms or how much square feet. Sometimes we talk about how many cars we have or even how many children we have. We might even brag on how many pounds we lost or what size clothing we can fit into. It's all about numbers.
God truly is not concerned with numbers. To illustrate, let's look at Noah.
We find in chapter 6 of Genesis that the earth has become so wicked that God just can't take anymore. The Bible says in verses 5 - 8... 5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 ¶ And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
8 ¶ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
In all the earth only Noah found grace with God. Why?
Noah was the son of Lamech, a religious man.
He was the grandson of Methuselah, probably a religious man.
He was the great-grandson of Enoch, most assuredly a religious man.
Enoch in Genesis 5:24, was taken to be with the Lord without experiencing death. It says that he walked with God.
It is very, very important to raise our children in Godly homes. Raise them in church. Raise them to love and serve God. Then God can use them for His glory.
People during Noah's time had turned away from God. They were not serving Him. They didn't even know Him.
Genesis 6: 1 ¶ And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 ¶ And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
In verse 2 "the sons of God" are the descendants of Seth. You will remember that Seth is the third son of Adam and Eve mentioned in the Bible. Seth raised his children to know and serve God.
The "daughters of men" in the same verse, are descendants of Cain. Of course we remember Cain as the man who killed his brother Abel, also sons of Adam and Eve. Cain was cursed by God and left his family to go off on his own. Many people have asked, where did these other people that he went to live with come from. The answer is that all of the children of Adam did not choose to serve God.
God gave all of us free will. The ability to choose whether or not we will love and serve Him. Some of Adam's children chose God, some did not. Those that did, stayed mostly together. Those that did not, went out and started new towns and villages. As time went on and the population grew, these two groups began to intermarry. This always causes problems. That's why God warns us not to have close relationships with unbelievers. Especially marriage.
In verse three we find that God gives mankind 120 years of His convicting spirit to repent. After that He is going to destroy all life on the earth.
Thank God that Noah found grace in His sight.
Now let's see what God wants Noah to do.
Genesis 6:11 ¶ The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 ¶ And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
Things were bad. Very bad. It reminds me of the day we live in today. Jesus said that one of the signs of His return would be when the world is like it was in the days of Noah. Well, I'm watching for Him anytime.
God then tells Noah how to build the ark. Now this thing is big. Really big. The King James Bible gives the measurements in cubits. A cubit is either 18 inches or 21 inches. Best they can tell, a cubit is the distance from your elbow to the end of your middle finger. That could be different from person to person, so, we're going to use 21 inches.
At 21 inches the ark was 87 feet wide by 52 feet tall by 525 feet long. That gives the ark about 2,000,000 (two million) cubic feet of cargo space. There were three decks with about 45,000 square feet of floor space each. Which gave it about 135,000 square feet total floor space.
Some of those people who don't believe the Bible is true claim that the ark was not big enough to carry all the animals God wanted saved. They believe that this helps to prove that the Bible isn't true.
The truth is that the ark was about the size of an oil tanker and had the carrying capacity of about 523 railroad cars, which can carry 125,000 sheep. The ark had enough capacity!
The surface area was 2.35 million square feet. That makes 4.7 million square feet, inside and out. Why is that important? Remember in verse 14 God told Noah to cover the ark inside and out with pitch. Now that's a lot of painting.
This is what Noah had to build, by hand, with only his three sons to help him.
All the while the world is making fun of him.
He's trying to preach to people about what God is going to do if they don't repent.
And he's got to take care of his family!
Not to mention the fact that Noah was 500 years old when he started the ark. I complain of aches and pains now, I can't imagine what it would be like to be 500.
God asked a lot of Noah -
Sacrifice - he sacrificed of his time and labor
100 years of physical labor to build the ark
Social status - he was ridiculed by the world for 100 years
Noah preached for 100 years - and only reached 7 other people
How does God measure success?
Wealth? Noah probably spent everything he had, all the wealth he had accumulated for 500 years, building the ark.
Works? Noah worked for 100 years.
Numbers? Noah only reached 8 people.
Genesis 6:22 tells us how God measures success - ¶ Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
OBEDIENCE!
God measures our success by our obedience.
Are we doing His will?
If you're not sure that you're doing God's will - here are some ways to find His will in your life. These are probably not going to be new to you, but, they are true nonetheless.
1 - Pray - the Bible says if you lack wisdom (which includes wisdom of God's will) ask for it! (James 1:5)
2 - Meditate on God's word - study the bible - it has most of God's will for our lives in it's words. (2 Timothy 2:15)
3 - Seek the advice and fellowship of Godly, spiritual people. (Proverbs 19:20 , Colossians 3:15)
We need to take our eyes off the way the world measures success and look to how God measures success in His kingdom. That is how we will be judged when we stand before Him.
