#40 The Joy of Achieving (31/08/02)

By Dr. Robert A. Schuller

The purpose of this message series "Fill Your Life with Joy" is to show you how to enjoy life, not endure it. That is why we begin every Sunday service by saying, "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice." This is how we put joy back into our lives.

This message is titled "The Joy of Achievement." Every person reading these words receive my salute because you have experienced the joy of achievement. It happened when you took your first step. If there was a photograph of you as a baby taking your first step, you would see it showed you smiling, with that look on your face that said, "I did it! I did it! I did it!"

I don't suppose anything puts more joy in daily life than when you can honestly, enthusiastically and ebulliently say, "I did it!" It celebrates achievement.

Remember when you graduated from the 8th grade? You did it then. When you graduated from high school? You did it then too. And if you graduated from college, university or trade school? You did it then too. Maybe you graduated with a professional degree? You really did it!

I was at a hotel in Dallas, Texas, a couple of weeks ago talking to two of my colleagues. We were there on business and a woman who looked in her 40s approached out group.

She said, "Pardon me for interrupting, but I recognize you, Dr. Schuller. I never thought I'd meet you. I have been listening to you since I was a teenager. You have motivated me to become an achiever in life. I still watch the Hour of Power every week and we get it here in Dallas at six in the morning."

"How have I helped you?" I said to the woman.

"I became what I wanted to be," she said, "a medical doctor. You inspired me and I became a psychiatrist. But now I?m full time in family medicine. Thank you."

I could see the joy of achievement on her face. That's what this ministry is all about. We call it good theology because in theology you are supposed to live a life that glorifies God. That means you produce, are creative, and contribute to Him.

The core of life is challenges, contests and competitions. First you have to win the game by doing what you are best at. Life goes on and pretty soon, before you know it, you are old. Then you see that life hasn't changed much. It is still the same contests and competitions, and the same challenges, maybe now more to do with the bones and muscles.

But the person who has learned to accept contests, competitions and challenges is living life at its core and stands a good chance of saying, "I did it!"

We had our board meeting a few weeks ago. Our members come from all over the country. Some of these people give us time that is invaluable. For example, there's Walter Anderson, the editor of Parade Magazine. He's a powerful member of our board, he's articulate, analytical and perceptive. He's in tune with what is going on in the world today and he will be a fabulous shaper of this ministry in the next ten or twenty years. I predict that.

There's J.B. Fuqua, a powerful corporate CEO of six companies traded in the New York Stock Exchange. He's living in a league where I don't live. But he still comes here and gives us tremendous help.

You may say to yourself, "Wait a minute, I'm not living in that league." But the truth is that what we are talking about here is not about what league you are in. It's about what kind of a life you are living. That's quite a difference.

If you live the life that God wants you to live, that is all that is expected of you. The apostle Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works."

When Pope John Paul was elected Pope (only a few weeks before death took him), people came to see him, to kneel in front of him and kiss his ring. This is a very appropriate thing for Catholics to do with the Pope.

There were all kinds of people in the crowds, from royalty to world leaders and other dignitaries. And among the royalty and the dignitaries was this little peasant woman who seemed out of place in that crowd.

When her turn came to come in front of Pope John Paul, she knelt and kissed his ring. Then she did something that seemed shocking to those nearby. She lifted her hand with her wedding ring and offered it to the Pope saying, "Now you kiss this ring, because if it hadn't been for this ring, you wouldn't be wearing your ring." She was his mother.

I salute the achievers. The mothers and the fathers who haven?t achieved super financial wealth, but boy, did they turn out some super kids! I salute you, the producers of the joy of achievement.

Joy is what you feel when you win an award, when you earn a degree or celebrate an important anniversary. What makes The Joy of Achievement so powerful? It is the following things:

1.It gives you ego fulfillment at its best.

Hear me loud and clear. There are religious leaders who say if you are ego driven that?s a sin. Not all of it is necessarily a sin. That is like saying that if you live as a human being, you are in a path to sin.

Ego fulfillment at its safest and best is most sublime. We all need to know that we have value. I need to know it and so do you. A lot of people feel they don't measure up, they are the people who say, "I'm just a little person and I don't have big money to give to charities."

That is why we have a statue here at the Crystal Cathedral of the poor widow dropping her two mites in the temple as Jesus and the Apostles watch. To my knowledge, I don't think this story of the Bible has ever before been done in a statue in the history of Christianity.

Jesus told the Apostles when he saw the widow giving her two mites, "See her, she?s giving more than anybody else. Others give from abundance, she gives all she has." This beautiful bronze statue salutes the single, largest collection of financial supporters this ministry has ever had. They are all the people who make small donations from their hearts and not the depth of their pockets.

Ego fulfillment at its safest will drive you to be what God wants you to be. Your ego will be satisfied as you fulfill your divine destiny and your ego trip is divine. That's life, you need the fulfillment and you and God together make it happen.

"It is God at work in you giving you the will and the power to achieve His purpose" (Philippians 2:13).

2.Honest humility.

That is when you know you are part of something great, but you didn't do it all by yourself. It reminds me of one of my favorite lines, "If you see a frog on a pole, you know somebody helped him get there."

Our ministry's Senior Controller, Jeff Shaw, asked me recently if I remembered the chapter "Trumpets Will Be Played" from my book If It's Going to Be It's Up to Me. I really didn't remember the chapter, but I looked at it again.

If It's Going to Be It's Up to Me is the book that talks about achievement and success. In the last chapter I write words to the effect that say "When you come to the end of the line, whenever that will be, you will have achieved and you will be well rewarded. It will have been quite a pilgrimage, quite a voyage. The Trumpets Will Be Played for you."

For us, 45 years in this church is quite a trip. 30 years on television is quite a trip. You get to the end of the line and you celebrate the anniversary and what do you see? Your friends waiting for the ship to come in. They are there with flowers and they have brought the trumpet players who blow their trumpets as you step down the gangway. Then the banner unfurls saying, "Welcome Home!"

The first thing you do is say, "Stop, stop, stop." And you point to the trumpeters and say, "You are playing for the wrong guy. Play for them, those people. They are the reason why it?s been a good trip for me. They prayed for me, they supported me and they encouraged me."

The power of joy gives you safe and sublime ego fulfillment, and that leads to the world's most authentic humility.

When we just had ten acres of land here before, the Crystal Cathedral had even been built, we had a parking lot for 700 cars. One day I was driving through the parking lot with my son Bob who was about 4 at the time. He was sitting between my legs and he said, "Daddy, let me drive."

Without waiting for my answer, he reached his little hands up and grabbed the top of the steering wheel and he almost stood up as he was trying to see in front of him. He was steering the car, but he didn't see that down at the bottom of the wheel, my hands were controlling the movements.

My son steered the car into the parking space, with me controlling the wheel out of his sight. When we parked the car, he looked up at me and said, "I did it, dad!" And I said, "Yes, you did it Bobby, but I had my hands at the bottom of the wheel."

"Oh, you did? But I did it with you," he answered, and I said, "That's right, Bobby, you did."

Ego fulfillment is the joy you feel when you have achieved something. Humility keeps you in the proper emotional balance to make you a totally integrated person.

3.Humility produces gratitude.

Now you are caught up emotionally into how to say thank you. I don't know of a church in history that has ever gone to the limits that we go to, to make sure we say "thank you" to everyone who has made this ministry possible.

The new Hospitality Center we are building in the next couple of years will be a monument to thanksgiving. The odds are your name is going to be found in that building.

Joy power that generates ego fulfillment, humility and gratitude is healthy. Gratitude produces the highest level of emotional living. Generosity is the word that describes joy at its highest.

If you have ego fulfillment, you don?t need more and more and more. When you have ego fulfillment, you suddenly realize that you have enough. The compulsion to acquire more and more is overcome by humility and gratitude. That is when you are into the "who can I give this to?" mode. And who wouldn't like that?

Generosity is an unstoppable emotional expression that comes from gratitude, humility and ego fulfillment. What does this mean to you? First, recognize your achievements and give yourself a pat on the back. You can't do that without lifting the eye and saying, "Thank you, God. You really love me." Wow!

Then encourage someone who has a dream. Encourage someone to become an achiever. I read this line the other day, "The man who says it cannot be done, should not interrupt the woman who is doing it."

Next, embrace the formula for achievement. Keep setting goals, no matter how old or how young you are. Keep setting goals, no matter how rich or poor you are. When you have no goals, you are dead. Maybe your goal is just to get out of bed and walk again.

Embrace the formula for achievement, I have preached it in 31 books but I can sum it up in three words here: Conceive+Believe=Achieve.

You can do it because to achieve is simple! Set a goal to fulfill the divine destiny in your life. I don't know what that is and I have no idea. That is between you and the Lord.

Finally, make sure your hearts of heart is in the control of Jesus Christ. Then you?ll know that you are created, called and commissioned, and you are being challenged by God to dream the dream that will fulfill your divine destiny.

If you conceive, you believe and you will achieve. In my closing of this message, I'd like to say that success without Christ can lead to hell.

A man I knew had formed a great corporation. He also wrote a biography telling people how to do it. Later he watched his sons fight him on corporate boards. He went through five wives and achieved all the power that comes with corporate leadership.

Recently, at the age of 83 he committed suicide by driving his car into a pole. Success without Christ can lead to hell. Success with Christ can help you make heaven on earth for yourself and others.

Do you know Jesus Christ? Have you accepted Jesus Christ? Are you willing to share control and power with Him? If so, you have learned this lesson well and you will have an experience called the joy of achieving.