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By Pastor Glenn Pease
In the 35 years following the Civil War 3 success writers towered high above all others, and they became successful by writing about success.
All 3 were ordained men.
One of them was Russell Conwell who was the pastor of the Baptist Temple of Philadelphia.
He delivered his famous lecture over 6000 times, and raised several million dollars with which he built a large university.
The title of his lecture was Acres Of Diamonds, and this is the story behind it:
One day as he was jogging down the banks of the Tigress and Euphrates on a camel, led by an old Arab guide, he was told this story.
There once lived in ancient Persia a wealthy and contented farmer by the name of Ali Hafed.
One day an old priest visited him and told him about diamonds that had been discovered.
He told of the wealth and power that came with their possession.
That night the farmer could not sleep.
He was discontent with what he had.
The next day he sold his farm and went off in search of diamonds.
After wandering through Asia and most of Europe he had become a wretched man in rags and in despair.
He threw himself into a great wave and was drown.
The man who bought his farm was one day leading his camel through the garden, and the camel desired a drink.
As the camel nosed the water the owner noticed a flash of light from the sand in the brook.
He picked up a stone and took it home.
A few days later the old priest came to visit.
He recognized that stone as a diamond.
They rushed together to the brook, and thus was discovered the famous diamond mine of Golconda, the most magnificent of all history.
Ali Hafed had lived on acres of diamonds, and died a failure because he didn't recognize what he had, and was off looking for it all over the world.
Russell Conwell was impressed with this story, for he had seen a similar thing happen many times.
Numerous poor people sold their land to go off to improve their lot only to learn that their had been oil or gold on their land.
He had been a poor farmer, and had run away at 15 to make a better life for himself.
He went to Europe, but returned and fought in the Civil War.
It was while lying in a hospital tent dying from his wounds that he received Jesus as his Savior.
He entered the ministry and raised millions to build up a church and school to meet the needs of working class people.
His conviction, like that of most success writers, is that every person can be successful if they recognize and practice some basic principles.
Our purpose is to show that Scripture in general, and Paul in particular, support this idea that all of us can be successful.
We want to examine the basic principle that Paul stresses to the Corinthians that applies to all of us.
Let's consider-
THE ARENA WHERE THE BATTLE FOR SUCCESS IS WON.
Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within you, and Paul made this same point to the Romans when he said that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The Corinthian Christians were failing in the Christian life because they were like Ali Hafed.
They were looking for success somewhere out there in the world.
But success is not found in externals says Paul.
All their search for success in following men, and getting excited about gifts with the most external display, is taking them far afield.
Their acres of diamonds are not out there in the world, but they are within them.
In verse 16 Paul writes, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and God's spirit dwells in you?" Their greatest resource was right within them.
They were wasting their lives in the futile search for what was already theirs.
Paul tells them in vv.
21-23, "For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephus or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours; and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's.
In 4:8 Paul writes, "Already you are filled!
Already you have become rich."
Yet, with all of these resources they were failing.
Paul is constantly telling them where they are failing.
They were successes living as failures when they should have been failures living as successes.
If we recognize that the arena where we battle for success is within, we can learn to fail successfully.
History has some great examples of failures being the key to success.
The famous atheist Robert Ingersall was once traveling by train with a companion by the name of Lew Wallace.
As they traveled they saw one church steeple after another.
There were several in every town they passed through.
Ingersall said, "Lew, you are a learned man and a thinker.
Why don't you spend some time in research concerning Christianity's leader Jesus Christ, and then write a book proving once and for all that he was an impostor, and thus relieve these misguided people of their delusions."
His friend was captivated by the idea and agreed.
He started immediately to travel and consult ancient manuscripts and original sources for the period of history in which Jesus lived.
His goal was to write a book proving Jesus was an impostor.
He totally failed to achieve that goal, for he discovered that all the evidence supported the fact that Jesus was who He said He was-the Son of God and the Savior of men.
At the age of 50 he prayed to God for the first time saying, "O God, show yourself to me, forgive me my many sins, and help me to become a true disciple of Jesus Christ."
Lew Wallace failed to write his original book, but he went on to write what has become one of the greatest books of all time-Ben-Hur.
He found both success and salvation by failing to reach his goal because he found God's goal for him.
History is full of such experiences.
God seems to delight in bringing good out of evil, and success out of failure.
William Wilburforce was a hunchback who suffered from many cruel jests, but God used him to so fight for other underdogs.
He got a bill passed through the British Parliament that set a million slaves free.
Alexander Whyte was born out of wedlock.
He got the worst start in life, but he ended up as one of the greatest preachers in the history of Scotland.
His books are read around the world yet today.
The purpose for Paul writing to these immature babes is to help them become mature in Christ, and able to digest the solid food.
He wants them to reap the reward of the riches within them.
Paul is convinced that failures can become successes.
He knew this for he was one of the most successful failures in history.
One of the great themes of literature and the Bible is this theme of success out of failure.
The ugly duckling becomes the beautiful swan.
Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer is mocked for his unusual nose, but in the end he becomes a hero.
Cinderella the lowliest becomes the highest and noblest.
In the Bible it is Joseph the despised brother who becomes the hero and savior of his people.
The stone rejected by the builders becomes the chief cornerstone, and He who is despised and rejected of men becomes the one before whom every knee will bow.
This theme is so universal that it ought to teach us clearly not to write off any failure, for the facts of life show that failure is one of the key roads on the way to success.
It is almost impossible to succeed without failure.
The arena is within, and if you do not let failure defeat you there, you can always press on to success.
Paul spent a lot of time with the Corinthians.
It was about 18 months, and yet they are babes in Christ with all kinds of problems.
Paul did not throw up his hands in despair, and give up on them because he failed.
He wrote this letter, and God used the failure of both him and the Corinthians to give the whole world the blessing of this Epistle.
Had Paul given up and let externals discourage him, then he would have been a failure.
Twixt failure and success the points so fine
Men sometimes know not when they touch the line.
Just when the pearl was waiting one more plunge,
How many a struggler has thrown up the sponge.
Author unknown
Successful men always take that one more plunge, for they know the only real failure is in giving up.
Washington won the Revolutionary War by retreating.
He gave up so much territory, and he surrendered so many strategic positions, and lost so many battles, and yet he was not a failure because he never quit.
He pressed on through all his failures to a final success.
The battle out there in the external world did not defeat him because he never gave up within.
Our Lord battled within over the issues of success and failure.
He had much opposition from the leadership of Israel.
It would have been easier to succeed had he conformed to their will.
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