some a little bit of controversy on our youtube channel not much just a little bit and um some of the people love the stuff they're learning and some of the people not so much oh yes sir yes i'm live on youtube yes i'm talking to youtube right now okay i'm talking to you folks so youtube hello good morning youtube folks welcome to our bible study and we got folks here in studio and we have folks on zoom and we have people everywhere okay so So welcome to the Bible study this morning, the Bible success secrets Bible study. And today I'm going to talk to you about God's success formula because I've had people say, God doesn't care about success. So let's look at, let's look and see whether or not God cares about success because it doesn't really matter what I think.
It doesn't really matter what you think. It doesn't really matter what Zach thinks or Laura or Larry or any of us. It only matters what God has to say. I mean, God is the ultimate determiner of everything that is.
In fact, he determined everything by his word. And he decreed by his word what shall be and what is and what is not and what shall not be. So that's where you have to start.
We're only as significant to the equation as we are yielded to his word. And so the further we depart from his word, the less significant we become to the equation. What equation?
The equation of life, right? So our purpose for being here is to... bring honor and glory to God.
Our purpose for being here is to yield to him and to serve other people. So that's what we're going to talk about today. And because people say, in fact, the, the, what's it called? Thumbnail. The thumbnail.
What's up, Paul? The thumbnail for this, for this YouTube video is God doesn't care about success. And, and I wanted to say, or does he, right?
But I just said God doesn't care about success because that's what some people say. So I'm not saying that God doesn't care about success. It's really interesting to me that people will comment on the thumbnail of a video on YouTube without ever watching the video. And you can always tell.
And some of them argue with me and make the very point I made in the video that they didn't watch. So, in Joshua chapter 1, This is after Moses died. His successor was Joshua. And Moses is giving Joshua some instructions before leading the children of Israel into, I said, into the promised land. And this is a verse that is a universal principle throughout scripture that we're going to look at today.
And so it says in Joshua. chapter 1 and I'm on chapter 4 no wonder I'm not finding it okay Joshua chapter 1 and it says in verse 6 it says be strong and of a good courage this is actually God talking to Joshua be strong of a good courage for unto this people shall thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to the law which Moses my servant commanded thee Turn not from it to the right hand, nor to the left, that thou mayest prosper with us wherever thou goest. That's really an interesting verse. He says, don't turn to the left, don't turn to the right, so that you will prosper wherever you go. Now, interestingly enough, when I'm talking about the Bible, I like to use Bible terms.
When I'm talking about the Bible, I don't like to use man-made terms. I've been accused of being a prosperity gospel preacher, but I don't find the words prosperity and gospel connected to each other in Scripture, but I do find both of them to be scriptural words. Prosperity is a Bible word. Gospel is a Bible word.
If by prosperity gospel, a person means that I'm one of those people. preachers who tells people, well, if you give me money, God's going to bless you. That is not my deal.
I'm not in that deal. I'm not a part of that program. I'm not going to tell you to give me money and then God's going to bless you.
I'm going to tell you if you give me money, God might bless you. And then again, maybe not, right? So that's the best I got for you as far as whether or not you giving me money is going to bless you. But I will tell you, I will tell you unapologetically I will tell you, like with no fear, no trepidation, I will not apologize for it.
I am going to tell you right now that the Bible speaks a lot about success. It speaks a lot about prosperity. And I'm not afraid of prosperity because it's a word that God uses. So if the word prosperity bothers you, then you're probably not as tuned into the Bible as you might think you are, okay?
Okay, so God doesn't care about success. So let's read verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous.
There's that word prosperous, prosperusing in. And then thou shalt have good success. Now, if God doesn't care about success, why is he telling Joshua, when he enters into the promised land, how to have success?
I mean, that's a good place to start, right? God doesn't care about success. Well, if God doesn't care about success, why is he telling us exactly the formula, his success formula, in Scripture?
Why is he giving us his success formula? If he doesn't care about success. I submit to you, he's giving us his success formula because he does care about our success. And if I'm going to talk about success, I would be remiss to talk about success without first defining what I mean when I say the word success. Because if I say success, and you think I mean one thing, but I'm actually meaning something else, then all I've done is a miscommunication.
I learned this one from my daughter just last week. She said the biggest mistake people make in communication is thinking that it happened. Right?
And so I want to make sure that I'm using a word, especially a word that people haven't heard before or where we've all heard before, but we don't all have the same definition because we all have the same vocabulary, but we don't necessarily have the same dictionary. I want to make sure that I bring us together under the definition of the word that's being used. And for those of you who are watching on YouTube, you're wondering what that bell is.
That's just people coming in the front door, and it's okay because we invited them. And so understand, I'm going to define the word success, okay? And the word success, as best I can understand it, is to do the thing you were created for.
The best definition of success I can find is... You discover God's purpose for your life, you develop yourself for that purpose, and then you deploy yourself in that purpose. So the first thing I've got to do is I've got to discover why did God make me in the first place?
Because if I don't know why he made me, I might be successful and not even know it. If I do know why he made me, and I don't know, if I do know why he made me, but I don't know how to fulfill the thing he made me for, then I can't be successful. And so I understand, like, I'm not even remotely confused about it.
I understand that God made, not only did he make me for success, not only did he make you for success, not only did he make all the people watching on YouTube, all the people watching on Zoom, not only did he make all the people in the world for success, everything God ever created, he created it to succeed. And if you don't believe that, just go read Genesis chapter 1. God made the sun to shine and it shines. He made the birds to fly and they fly. He made fish to swim and they swim.
He made the wind to blow and it blows. He made trees to grow and they grow. Everything, and by the way, when he made things to do something, when the things did what he said they should do, he said it was very good.
So not only is success God's plan, but it's his good plan. Now, it says, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. No, and God said, let there be light, and God saw the light, and God said that it was good.
So God said, then God saw, then God said again, it was good. So when God decrees a thing, and the thing that God decrees happens, then that thing is good. Behold, it was successful.
See, successful is not me accomplishing my will. Success is me accomplishing his will because I was made for him. You were made for him.
We were all made for him. So we were all made. And a lot of people don't like that.
You know why you don't like that? Because you want it to be about you. Like if you don't like that, you don't like it because you want it to be about you.
See, I'm not confused. I know it's not about me. Like, in fact, not only do I know it's not about me, I'm glad it's not about me. Because if it were about me, then the whole thing would fall apart eventually anyway.
So already understand this. You are not bringing glory to God by being a miserable failure. And when I say a miserable failure, I'm talking about somebody who does not discover the purpose for their life, develop themselves for that purpose, and deploy themselves in that purpose.
And I'll say it over and over again. The purpose of life is to discover the will of God and to do it. Period.
Say, but yeah, that sounds like it might be boring. You know why you think that might be boring? Because Satan, the god of this world, has blinded the eyes of your mind to think that somehow or another, if you do something other than the purpose for which you were created, somehow or another, that's a good deal. Right?
I've got a car with a sunroof, right? It's got a panoramic sunroof, right? It's an expensive car. So it's a Mercedes GLC 43. Now. Does it being an expensive car make it successful?
No. Because if I take that car and I park it in my front yard and I fill it up with dirt and I plant a palm tree right smack dab in the middle of it, it'll still be an expensive car. And it'll have a big old palm tree growing right out of the middle of it. But guess what it won't be? It won't be a success.
Why? It will not be being used for the thing for which it was created. Nothing that's used for something other than the thing it was created can possibly be successful.
How could we possibly think, like, if a pen doesn't write, how could it be successful? It can't. And if you were created, if you were created for a purpose, then you have to be, the only way you can possibly be successful is for you to fulfill that purpose.
And for those of you who are here in studio, if you're wondering what that noise is, my brother who rents an office space here, he's having a training in there for his salespeople. So they're having a lot of fun, apparently. Not as nearly as much fun as we're having out here.
Oh, they're playing cash flow. Got it. Okay, see, that even explains it even more.
So God said, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. So God is not confused about what he desires for our lives. He gave us multiple success formulas in Scripture. And he gave us success patterns, and he gave us success principles, and he gave us success promises, and he gave us success precepts.
And if we will follow them, we will be successful. And I am happy to be a successful man. I'm not successful because I have a lot of money.
I mean, I may have a lot of money because I'm successful, right? But everybody that is successful is not going to have a lot of money. You're only going to have a lot of money if you're successful, if that's God's purpose for your life.
Right? It's so fascinating. The whole thing is really simple.
You want to understand the whole equation? If you will make your life about pleasing God and serving other people, you will be successful. And here's the interesting thing that happens.
When you serve other people at a really, really high level, oftentimes that brings you a lot of money. It doesn't always bring you a lot of money, but oftentimes it brings a lot of money. And I'm okay with that too. And if it didn't bring me a lot of money, I'd be okay with that too. Do you understand?
Like, if you can't be happy without the money, you won't be happy with the money. Am I talking too fast? If you can't be happy without a Mercedes, you won't be happy with a Mercedes. If you can't be happy without a gold watch, you can't be happy with a gold watch.
Because, like, happiness, joy, joyfulness is an inside job. But so is success, right? So, I want you to notice what it says. Joshua 1.8, I'm going to give you God's success for you. Here we go.
He says, this book of the law. Now, this book, when he talked about this book, the book he was actually talking about, he was talking about Torah. So, and you say, how many of you never even heard the word Torah before? Anybody never heard the word Torah before?
Okay, one person. Okay, so the Torah, the Torah is the first five books in the Bible. We know they were talking about Torah because that's all they had, right? They had the first five books in the Bible. And see, the Bible is...
a book with promises and principles, but they're all throughout. They're not just in one place. They're all throughout scripture. And God repeats these promises, principles, patterns, practices, and precepts and prayers, prophecies over and over again. He said, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth.
What book of the law? The Torah. Now, all the only scriptures they had when this was written was Torah.
Now we have, we have the Torah, we have the prophets. We have the poetry books, and we have the New Testament. We have the entire canon, right?
But they had the Torah. So the word of God, what is the Torah? The Torah is the word of God. The Torah is the word of God. So he said this book of the law.
So when it says this book, it's not talking about the Encyclopedia Britannica. When it says this book, it's not talking about Webster's Dictionary. When it says this book, it's not even talking about my book, Trash Man to Cash Man. It's not talking about that book.
It's not talking about Boss Moves. It's not talking about the Book of Mormon. It's not talking about the writings of any human author. It's talking about this book. It's talking about Torah.
These are principles. And I'm not picking on the Book of Mormon. That was just the only one religious book that I could. It's not talking about the Koran.
It's not talking about any of that. What's it talking about? It's talking about this book of law. It's talking about the Word of God.
Now, you know, there are those who would disagree that the Bible is not the only Word of God. Okay, well, when you teach on your platform, then you teach what you teach. Okay? But in here, it's the Bible. Okay?
And that's how we do it. Now, here's what's interesting. Here's what he said first.
He said, this book of law shall not depart out of thy mouth. Talk about Scripture. Hmm, talk about it.
You know what's really interesting? This is part of the formula for success. And it's really interesting that he says talk about Scripture.
Because one of the reasons that's interesting is because for those of you who've seen me teach on the four levels of value and the lowest level of value from Genesis chapter one is implementation. The next level is unification. The next level is communication.
The highest level is imagination. Right. So communication is not the highest level of value.
Imagination is. In other words, the ability to communicate our mouth does not provide the highest maximum level of value. Our mind does.
But the interesting thing about our mind and our mouth and the connection between the two, we can speak without thinking. Like, we can talk, we can use words without thinking. But it's really, really hard to think without using words, right?
So even though imagination is the highest level of value, you have to have words in order to have something to think about. Are y'all tracking? And so it says, So, you've got to talk about the word of God. Now, in order for you to talk about the word of God, in order for you to talk about scripture, you have to know something that scripture says.
Otherwise, you don't have anything to talk about. And like, I know there are a lot of gurus that have written a lot of books and they're all fine. And some of them are really, really good, but none of them are scripture.
And if some guru says something, the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to go back and I'm going to compare what the guru said to what God said. And if what the guru said doesn't match what God said, I'm going to do what God said. I'm going to skip what the guru said.
That's how I do it. I mean, you're a full-grown adult. Do it your way, right?
But my recommendation would be, like, for the last 40-some-odd years of my life, I've been testing this scripture thing and doing what it says, and it's amazing how it turns out exactly like God said it would. Who knew? Well, I guess God did, right?
So we have to talk about the word of God. In order for us to talk about the word of God, that means we need to be reading it. It also means we need to be remembering it. We need to be memorizing scripture. Like if you don't have scripture in your mind, like if it's not in your mind, you have to pick up a Bible, you have to pick up an iPad or a phone or something and read it on an app, then it's not in your mind.
It's not readily available for you to talk about. And so fortunately for me, when I was a teenager, I had the privilege of starting to memorize scripture as a teenager. And it was so... I'm sorry.
serendipity, serendestiny. It was such a serendestiny thing, right, which is the kind of serendipitous destiny, right, that when I came to Christ as a teenager and I started reading the Bible, the youth group of the church I was a part of, they went to these youth activities called quiz competitions. And we had a quiz team. And the quiz team had a responsibility to memorize a chapter of the Bible per week.
And so, right, and you say, whoa. But I didn't know it was a woe because I had never been a part of a quiz team. I had just recently started reading the Bible.
So I'm just thinking, oh, okay, this is what Christians do. I didn't know this was some extraordinary thing. I just saw these other kids doing it, and they were having fun playing this game against other youth groups.
And I'm like, so after it was over, I went to the youth director. I said, can I be on the quiz team? He said, sure.
Like, I don't even have to fill out an application or anything? Yeah, no, you can be on the quiz team. Okay, what do you have to do? You have to memorize a chapter of the Bible a week. I was like, okay, how do you do that?
Right? And it was just like a normal conversation, like, what's 2 plus 2? And he said, well, what you do is you just write it down a bunch of times, read it out loud a bunch of times, and by next Saturday you'll have it down.
And I just believed him. I didn't know any better. So that week it was Romans chapter 13, right?
Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, for no power but of God, and the powers that be are ordained of God, and whosoever therefore resists the power resists the ordinance of God. Anyway, so it was only 13 verses. So that was kind of, that was serendipity, right?
I only had 13 verses I needed to memorize that week. And then, so I wrote it down a bunch of times. I would read it out loud a bunch of times.
And then when we came back the next week, I was so excited about being a part of this quiz team. The guy who was the moderator read one word, and I jumped up, because that's what you do. They'd read a couple words, and you jump up and finish.
I jumped up. even though there were more than one verse in that chapter that started with that word, and I completed the verse, and we got a point, and I was hooked on Bible memorization. It wasn't even a good reason, right? It was to play like a game. I started memorizing Bible verses.
And then I started going to a Christian school, and we had to memorize a chapter, a passage of Scripture every month. And then I found out about Jack Van Impey, and he had memorized the entire New Testament and Psalms and Proverbs. And so at one time, that was my goal.
My brother Mike and I, we had determined we were going to memorize the entire New Testament and Psalms and Proverbs. We didn't even get close. But we did memorize hundreds of verses in the process, right?
And what we would do is we would memorize verses categorically. I'm telling you, it's not so you can think I'm some wonderful dude. Like, my motivation wasn't even the right motivation, but it worked out. The end result was I had the Scripture in my mind, right? And so we would memorize them categorically.
Like, we'd memorize a bunch of verses on prayer. We'd memorize a bunch of verses on what the Bible says about the Bible. We'd memorize a bunch of verses on holiness. We'd memorize a bunch of verses on whatever. And so I learned how to memorize Bible verses categorically, and what would happen to my, like, surprise is that I'd be reading in a verse, I'd be reading a verse in the Bible, and it would remind me of something I had already memorized.
And I started to realize from that experience that the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible, right? And it's really interesting how some people say, well, I don't believe the Bible because it contradicts itself. No, the Bible doesn't contradict itself.
It just contradicts your misunderstanding and your misinterpretation. It doesn't contradict itself, right? Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it contradicts itself.
I mean, you would think, like, the first two laws of thermodynamics seem to contradict each other, right? Everything is energy. Energy is neither created nor destroyed.
It just changes form. What's the second law of thermodynamics? Entropy. Anything left to itself tends to move more and more towards disorder, right? But instead of them contradicting each other, they actually complement each other.
Anyway, I digressed. So we memorize these scriptures, which brings me to the next point of God's success form. This is a success form that never fails, right?
So the first part is talk about scripture. The second point is, but thou shalt meditate there in day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written there, and think about scripture. That is the second part of God's success for me.
So if I'm talking about Scripture and I'm thinking about Scripture, then I'm getting closer and closer to success. Why? What is success? Success is discovering God's purpose for God, God's purpose for my life, developing myself for that purpose.
See, here's the interesting thing. It is my job to discover it. And by the way, I can only discover God's purpose for my life if I am yielded to it before I know what it is. Did I say that too fast? I can only discover God's purpose for my life if I am yielded to it before I know what it is.
You say, Myron, what does that mean? How can you be yielded to something before you know what it is? By yielding to God's purpose for my life before I know what it is, I'm acknowledging that God is God and I'm just me, right?
Like, he must increase, I must decrease. It ain't about me. And so, if it ain't about me, then if I end up being called to the assignment that Job was called to, God... forbid that I should be called to that assignment, right?
Job lost, he was one of the wealthiest men on earth. He lost all of his money in one day. He lost all 10 of his children in one day. His wife told him to curse God and die. Like, that would cause somebody to be a little shaky in their faith, perhaps, if they didn't realize that it's all about God anyway.
And that's why Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. Are y'all tracking? Like, I... I need to be yielded to God's purpose for my life, even if God's purpose for my life brings me pain. Why? It ain't about me.
Because I don't understand why a loving God would let all this trouble in the world. Because it ain't about you. And it ain't about the world. And it ain't about the people you think are so deserving.
It's all about him. Yeah, I don't like that. Okay, deal with it for as long as you can. Right?
Deal with it until you're ultimately confronted by it. Because that's the reality. The reality is God is not.
an elected official. He is a sovereign king. And the Bible is not a book about religion.
The Bible is a book about government. It's a book about a king, a kingdom, a royal family, and the culturalization of a foreign land called earth. And it's about God expanding his heavenly kingdom to this place called earth through these beings called humans as we are yielded to him.
So think about the word of God. In order for us to think about the word of God, we have to actually have it in our head. It's so fascinating.
Like, I have some good ideas every now and then, I think, until I find out that they weren't that good, right? Anybody ever do that? You think, I got this great idea, it's going to be awesome.
And then you go do it, it's like, it didn't turn out like I expected, right? But all of God's ideas are great. Why?
Because he can see the end from the beginning. He doesn't have to wonder how it's going to turn out. He knows how it's going to turn out when he gets started. And so, I have to talk about the Word of God. I have to think about the Word of God.
Here's the one most people have a hard time with. A lot of church-going folk have a hard time with this, a lot of non-church-going folk. Yeah, I would become a believer in Christ and start reading the Bible and stuff, but I don't understand it. May I submit to you that the parts of the Bible you have a hard time with are not the parts you don't understand, but the parts you do understand. Can I get a witness?
People act like the parts they don't understand are the problem. No, the part you do understand is the part you're wrestling with. Right? Because you and your spouse got in an argument last night and y'all still ain't talking to each other, right? And the scripture says, let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
See, that's the part you have a hard time with. A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger, right? And you spend a lot of time yelling at other folk and they spend a lot of time yelling at you and you're arguing with your siblings and arguing with your spouse and arguing with your children. And the scripture says clearly, a soft answer turneth away wrath.
It's not the parts of the Bible we don't understand that we have a hard time with. It's the part we do understand. Like, hey, how about this one?
You don't even treat other people good. You know why you don't treat other people good? Because you think it's about you.
It ain't about Now, I don't mean it's not that much about you. It ain't about you at all. It ain't about me at all.
It's about God. And see, here's what a lot of Christians do. They go through life deceiving themselves into believing that they love God while they're hating on everybody around them.
And may I ask you a question that God asked? Here's what it says in scripture. How can you say you love God whom you have not seen if you hate your brother whom you have seen? That's a pretty good question. How are you going to be hating on a human?
Hey, in fact, Jesus said, the problem you have with your religion, here's the problem you got in your religion. I was hungry and you didn't feed me. I was thirsty and you didn't give me anything to drink. I was naked and you didn't clothe me. I was sick and you didn't visit me.
And I was in prison and you didn't, I was sick and you didn't minister to me. And I was in prison and you didn't visit me. You know what they said? When did we see you hungry and didn't feed you? When did we see you thirsty and didn't give you anything to drink?
See. When do we see you naked, didn't clothe you, sick and not minister unto you? Tell me when we saw you in prison, we didn't come visit you.
And here's what he said. As much as you've done it unto the least of these. Who are the least of these?
People who don't have anything to offer you. It's easy to treat people good when you know you can get something from them, ain't it? Oh, snap.
I'm talking, but what about the folk who can't do a thing for you? How are you treating them? Are you treating them with respect? Because how you treat them, Jesus said, is how you treat him. It's so interesting how much, like, I get some angry comments from people who are, quote, Bible believers on my YouTube channel.
And that's fine. You're welcome to do you. But the reality is, the scripture doesn't say they will know we are Christians by our anger.
They shall know we are Christians by our self-righteousness. That's not what it says. They will know we are Christians by our love. Hey, you know what?
Love is something that's expressed. It's something that's emoted, not just something that's felt. And I believe the biggest problem a lot of believers have, a lot of believers have, is they have a hard time treating people good, right? But here's what Jesus said.
How you treat antibody else is how you treat me. And especially how you treat folk. who have nothing to offer you?
Are you kind to the people who have nothing to offer you? Do you take time to speak to the disabled child in a wheelchair at the table next to you at a restaurant? That's real talk, my people, right? Do you actually, have you ever given a homeless person a meal without making them feel less than?
I'm just asking a question. Like, Or do you feel like, do you feel like you need to show everybody how much better than them you are? I submit to you, how you treat anybody is how you treat God.
You're not willing to be good to people. You ain't good. You don't love people.
You don't love God. Period. I didn't say that. It was in my Bible when I got up this morning.
I didn't say that. I ain't that bold. I just read it. It was already in there. Okay, so what's the third?
Hey, talk about Scripture. Think about Scripture. This is the part where we digress.
Take action on Scripture. Take action on what you've been talking about and what you've been thinking about. So interesting. I was thinking about this this morning.
The miseducational, misdirectional system, aka government indoctrination camps, child prison, schools, whatever you want to call it. No, I shouldn't say that, but I should actually, because that's really how I... Anyway, we learn a lot of things from that institution that are not true.
One of the things we learn that is not helpful at all is we think that when we heard something, that means we know it. Big problem. We took a test and we passed, so we think we know something, right? And then the biggest mistake of all may be thinking that knowing, thinking that the purpose of learning is knowing. The purpose of learning isn't knowing.
The purpose of learning is mastery. What is mastery? Mastery is the ability to execute effortlessly without the use of conscious resources.
The reason we are supposed to learn is so we can do the thing. It just becomes part of us. Right?
And so because we go to the miseducational, misdirectional system, and then we go to church and we hear the preacher preach, we think because the preacher preached a sermon on love, that means, and we said amen, that means we love people. Am I keeping it real? Right? We think because we go to church and the preacher preached a sermon on joy, that means we have joy. He preached a sermon on faith and I said amen, so that means I have faith.
No, that ain't nothing. That ain't... Say, you're using poor grammar. Okay, that isn't anything. I don't want you to miss it because my grammar was all jacked sideways, right?
That ain't nothing. You're like... so what? Do you understand there is no success until you take the action? Here's what it says.
This book of the law shall not depart out of the mouth, but talking about it does not bring success. Talking about it alone is not enough. Thou shalt meditate there on day and night, thinking about it over and over and over and over and over and over again, thinking about turning it over in your mind.
Okay. But that's not enough either. Why?
He said the reason you're supposed to talk about the Scriptures and the reason you're supposed to think about the Scriptures is so that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein. That you may observe to do according to all that is written therein. Well, I'm going to do the first 16, but I'm not going to do the last 36. No, no, no, no.
All that is written therein. The purpose of the Scripture is so that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein. So if you're not... Having a desire, and you're not seeking to do according to all that is written therein.
All you're doing is you're doing what it tells us in James, in James chapter 1. What does it say in James chapter 1? It says, Wherefore lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. What does it say after that?
If any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man. If any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, now I got to read it. Now I got to read it because I lost it. not a doer he's likened to a man beholding his natural face in his in a glass he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and forgeteth straight way what manner of man he was but it said something in james about not um i'm gonna find it so here's what it says it says in verse be you doers of the word not here is only deceiving your own selves be you doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
And that's exactly what we have. We have a whole world full of people who've heard the word, they've heard the scripture, and they think that changed them because they heard it, but they didn't do anything about it. Until you do something about it, you have to activate the word.
You do. I do. I've got to activate the word.
I've got to live it out. The scripture says about Christ, we're supposed to be like Christ, right? Isn't that what it says? But here's what it says about Christ. It says about Christ, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God.
And the same was in the beginning with God. And all things were made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made. And in him was the light, and the light was the life of men. And the light shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
Down in verse 14, it says, It says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. How can I be more like Christ? By letting his word become my flesh. Until I do it, until I live it, until I practice it, I'm deceiving myself. Yeah, I heard what the preacher said.
I heard what the singer said. I know all the words to the songs, and I know the words to the hymns, but until I start doing it, I am deceiving myself. And here's what's fascinating. When we're deceiving ourselves, we think we're deceiving other people, but other people can see right through it. You ain't fooling nobody but yourself.
You're not fooling anybody but yourself, okay? And I just want to make sure I ain't shaking folk out, right? So here's what we got to do.
We must practice the Word of God. Here's what it says. If we will talk about the Word of God, and we will think about the Word of God, and we'll take action on the Word of God, here's what it says.
This is not me saying, this is what it says in the Bible. Then you will make your way prosperous. Dear God, will you make my way prosperous?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Here's what God says. You cannot do my part. I will not do your part.
You do your part. I've already done my part. And see, people are asking God to do something he commanded them to do. I'm going to give you his answer just in big, bold letters so you don't forget it. No!
No, I'm not going to do for you what I told you to do for you. Here's what he said. If you'll think about the word of God and you'll talk about the word, if you'll talk about the word of God, think about the word of God, take action on the word of God.
It says you will make your way prosperous. He didn't say he'll make our way prosperous. He said you'll do that. And you know why you'll do it?
Because God's word tells us how everything works. I've had people ask me, coaching clients ask me, for those of you who don't know this, I am a business coach. So I teach business owners how to grow their businesses. really fast and really big.
And people ask me, Myron, you have a sense of certainty unlike anybody that I've ever seen. And I've had many people ask me this. Like, do you teach that?
Where does that come from? Oh, I said, well, it comes from the fact that I know what's going to happen. They said, what does that mean?
I said, I got this book, and it's full of if-then-go-to statements. If you would do this, then you can go to that. And I've been studying it and testing those if-then-go-to statements for over 40 years.
And they have never proven to fail me yet. So I know what's going to happen because God said, if I do this, this is what's going to happen. And I'm like, sign me up. So I don't have to, like, most people are driving the vehicle of their life down the highway of their assignment with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake because they're worried about how it might turn out. I can be full speed ahead without reservation.
Why? I already know what's going to happen. And when I say I know what's going to happen, that doesn't mean I know every circumstance that will happen. Because I don't. But I know whatever circumstance happens, I can say with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who when they were speaking to Nebuchadnezzar, who said, I'm going to give you another chance to bow down and worship my idol, but if you don't do it, I'm going to throw you the same hour into the burning fiery furnace.
They said, we are not careful to answer you in this matter, O king. I'm not afraid. I don't have any anxiety about answering you in this matter. They said, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us.
And he will. But watch this part now. But if not, we still ain't bound down.
See, and until you serve a God who you understand is willing and able and still might not, then you don't understand the God you serve. Am I talking too fast? Like, I know what it's like to pray for things and the answer is yes.
Guess what else I know? I know how to pray for things and the answer is no. And I'm telling you. If you prayed not to lose your job and you lost your job and you got mad at God, the reason you got mad at God is because you think it's about you.
If a loved one got sick and you prayed for that loved one to get better and they didn't get better and you got mad at God, the reason you got mad at God is because you think it's about you. I'm keeping it real, huh? And see, what we got to understand, let God be God and be yielded to him.
And whatever he wants to do with my life, because the potter hath power over the clay, to make one vessel unto honor and another vessel unto dishonor. That's what the scripture says. See, it's not my job to worry about what kind of vessel he's making me.
If today he wants me to be a vessel unto honor and tomorrow he wants me to be a vessel unto dishonor, it's all about him anyway. And the more I understand that it's all about him and it's all about y'all, for me it's all about y'all, right? It's all about people.
It's about my wife. It's about my children. It's about my granddaughter. It's about my clients. It's about my friends.
It's about my brothers. It ain't. Hey, God said, then you'll make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Hmm, isn't it interesting that it says good success? Now, interesting thing about that word success.
I'm going to go there too, because, you know, I like to go places that make people think, even if it makes them think I'm a false prophet and the Antichrist. I'm sorry, I can't resist. I shouldn't, I shouldn't.
Okay, interesting thing about, see, and the reason I can laugh about that when somebody calls me a false prophet or the Antichrist, because they ain't about me. Hey, do you. Like, I'm a vessel, y'all.
I'm going to do my best. I'm going to do my best to be a clean vessel and an available vessel. But I'm going to stay a vessel, right?
My job is not to. Make people think something about me? I need people to think I'm awesome. I don't need people to think anything. You can think I'm awesome, you can think I'm whatever you want.
That's between you and God. The word success is the Greek word, and it means, this is so interesting, it's so interesting that I'm going to make a couple of analogies and I'm going to be done. It's so interesting to me that the word, and when it says you'll have good success, it means to make or act intelligently, to consider or to be an expert, to instruct, to prosper, to deal prudently, to give skillfully or to have skill, to give, to have good success, to teach, to have, to make understanding, wisdom, behave, self, consider, make wise, guide wittingly. Why did I mention all those?
Because it's so fascinating that we walk around and we, and like, we, like, Do you understand when you come to an erroneous conclusion and you build an isolated doctrine in scripture, what that's going to cause you to do? It's going to cause you to bump your head on truth, like eventually, and then you got to deal with it. So you might as well deal with it out of the gate.
Right? It's so fascinating. Let me ask y'all a question. Does God want us to be wise or foolish?
Which one? Wise, right? Y'all can say it. Which one?
Wise. Okay. Does God want us to be diligent or lazy?
Does he want us to be drunken or sober? Okay. So I ask those questions for a reason. So how can we possibly conclude if God wants to be wise, not foolish, diligent, not lazy, sober, not drunken? Like, have self-control and not be a glutton.
If those are the things that God desires for us, then why did he say, the drunkard and the glutton shall lie down together and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags? Does God want us to be drunken? No.
So, if poverty, like, if being poor was such a blessing, I'm just keeping it real, if being poor were such a blessing, Why would God say he's cursing laziness, drunkenness, and gluttony with poverty? Is that a good question? Like, if poverty is piety and wealth is wickedness, and the Bible, like, the Scripture says, wisdom will fill a man's house with all precious substance. Like, hey, I'm going to tell you something now, and you can believe it or not believe it, it doesn't matter, like, I'm not trying to prove anything to you.
I mean, financially, I'm doing very, very well, which might be a slight understatement. But I'm not happy because I'm doing well. I am happy because I get to serve as a king for the king. That makes me very happy.
And I get to serve people. It's so interesting, King Solomon, when he was the wisest, wealthiest king, when he was young, he was wise and wealthy. He got a little older, he got kind of stupid, right?
And then at his old age, he came back to God, right? It's really interesting. When the Queen of Sheba came to get advice, from King Solomon and paid him 120 talents of gold plus furs plus oil, all this other stuff.
120 talents of gold, if you measured it out in today's dollars, it would be about $253 million that one monarch paid him. And the scripture says that all the kings of the earth came and paid Solomon to hear his wisdom. And then they sent all their people to pay Solomon to hear his wisdom. So, I mean, wrap your mind around that.
If every nation on earth was coming to you, paying you hundreds of millions of dollars, you couldn't be anything but wealthy. Anyway, here's what it says though. When Solomon...
answered all of the Queen of Sheba's questions about running her country. Here's what she said. Because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore made he thee to be king.
He didn't make you king. He didn't make you to be king because he loved you forever. He made you to be king because he loved the people you serve forever.
And the blessing of God on your life is on your life because he loves the people you were sent to serve. So you better not make the mistake, I better not make the mistake of not loving the people he sent me to serve. Because if I do that, I fumbled on the five-yard line.
I don't even watch football, but I'm sure that was a really good football ref. Okay? So, like, I dropped the ball. I messed up royally. If I don't understand any blessing I have in my life, I have that blessing in my life because God blessed me because he loved the people he sent me to serve.
So I don't love the people he sent me to serve. Heavy, heavy hangs over my head. So hopefully, like I know, God doesn't care about success. It kind of seems like he does.
Hey, there's another verse, another parallel scripture. Psalm 1, here's what it says. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and his law that he meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters that bringeth forth his fruit in the season. His leaf also shall not wither.
Watch this now. Watch this now. Here's what it says. It's in the Bible.
I didn't put it in there. It's in there when I got it. Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Are you one of those prosperity gospel preachers? Well, the word gospel means good news. Prosperity is definitely better news than poverty. So if that's what you mean, yes. Prosperity is a Bible word.
Gospel is a Bible word. I'm not telling you to send me any money. Send your money to somebody else. Hey, how about this? Build a legacy for your children's children.
That'd be a unique thing for you to do with your money. All I'm saying, all I'm saying is, don't allow Satan to deceive you into thinking, well, I don't care about money. Why are you spending eight hours a day trying to get some and working overtime? Don't be talking out of both sides of your mouth. That's what we call that, you know, talking out of both sides of your mouth, right?
So let's tell the truth, shame the devil, but let's... Think about the Word of God. Let's talk about the Word of God. And most importantly, let's take action on the Word of God, because the more of the Word of God we take action on, the more of it we get to learn. Here's what it says, and I'm going to end up here.
If any man will do his will, he shall know the doctrine. What does that mean? That means doing the Word of God is what unlocks revelation.
And when you do the Word of God, it unlocks revelation. It answers questions that you've had for years. Do the part you know, and he will teach you the part you don't know. All right, my peeps, stay blessed by the best.
On YouTube, on YouTube, if you like this video, smash that subscribe button, smash that like button, the like button. and I say smash it, all you got to do is click it, right? Click the like button. Click the subscribe button. Leave a comment.
Even if you disagree, it's okay. But if you disagree, I'm going to ask you to do this. Disagree it respectfully. And don't use the comment thread to promote your doctrine that you disagree with me to the people that I came to serve. Okay?
That's all I ask. Be respectful. If you disagree with me, hey, if you disagree with me and you're right, I want to follow your way.
So, because it ain't about me. Right? At the end of the day, the story is still the same.
All right, my peeps. Stay blessed by the best. By the grace of God, we'll see y'all.