(October 25, 2009)

Everybody out there wants to tell you about the secret to success. There are two secrets to success that should be very important to the people of Zion Church. And they are certainly from The Bible.

The first secret is so rare that people ever follow this. True success is only achieved through sacrifice. There is no success without sacrifice. When you talk about sacrifice, you have to be able to let go of what you have now in order to achieve something greater in the future. For example, high school football teams have to be willing to give up part of the summer break in order to prepare to win a state championship in November. Lee Iacocca gave up his salary at Chrysler in the 1980s in order to help turn the company around; he did, and the company had an amazin turnaround. At some point in your spiritual life, you have be willing to give up something, let go and trust in God for the future. In order to sacrifice, you have to have that act of letting go. Some need to let go of that tithe. Some need to let go of time at their job. Some need to let go of those emotions of impossibility.

Sometimes, satan has a grip on something in our lives. However, sometimes we have a grip on something ourselves that takes control of our lives.
Be ready for persecution. If you aren't ready to receive some kind of persecution, then you can't expect to be successful in God's eyes.
You must be living for something larger than yourself. You have to be willing to let go of that security. If it's not for something greater than where you're at, you won't let go of it.
You have to have a mission or purpose for sacrificing in order to achieve greater. What is your mission?
You have to understand delayed gratification. The Bible teaches this over and over and over and over! John Maxwell's dad taught him that you can pay now and play later or you can play now and pay later, but at some point, you will pay. Understand that the sweetness of victory is bigger for those that have sacrificed and that victory is at the end, not at the beginning.
You need to accept sacrifice with a positive attitude. Don't let everyone know you are sacrificing, or you aren't sacrificing for others...you are doing it for yourself.
Big things require big sacrifices. If you have a big vision, expect to sacrifice a lot. You can't expect to reap the reward on a big vision if you haven't given up a bunch of yourself. Are we ready to make the sacrifice for a big vision?
A church, a business, an individual stops growing when the price gets too high. When people begin to say I'm just not willing to pay the price, then you will see decline.

The second secret is true success is found by serving. True leadership is about you serving them. True success is defined not by how many people serve us, but how many people are served by us. Greatness is not found in wealth. Greatness is not found in beauty. Greatness is not found in titles. But, if you are asked who have made the most difference in our lives, it's the people who have taught us, the people who have led us, and the people who pulled the most out of us. Those that have served us are the ones that we remember.

When you were born, you alone were crying while everyone around was happy. When you die, are you going to alone be happy while those around you are crying? There are those who live for titles and those who live for testimonies.

- Jon Bruney
(credit to Homiletics magazine & The 21 Laws of Irrefutable Leadership by John Maxwell)