SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON - JANUARY 31ST

How to Be Successful

Background Passage:
   Mark 10:32-52
Lesson Passage:
   Mark 10:32-45

LESSON PASSAGE OUTLINE
1. Follow the Right Model (Mark 10:32-34)
2. Forget About Honors (Mark 10:35-41)
3. Focus on Others (Mark 10:42-45)

BIBLICAL TRUTH - Commentary by Darryl Wood, Pastor of Vincent First Baptist Church in Vincent, Alabama.

To be a success as Jesus defined it means devoting ourselves to serving others, not to seeking high positions or great power.

 Angelle walked into the house and dropped her briefcase in a chair.
She sat down and put her head in her hands. “What’s wrong?” her husband questioned. “I’m a failure!” she sobbed. “The promotion I’ve waited on for six months went to someone else. I’ll never get that kind of opportunity again.”

 At that point Angelle’s gauge of her self-worth rested completely in her position at her workplace. Angelle equated advancement in the company with success in life. When it failed to materialize, she became engulfed in despair. This discounted her positive influence on family, friends, and ministry through her church. For the moment, Angelle forgot that God sees success from a different perspective.

 How do you define success? In what ways have you been fulfilled as you sought success by your own definition?

 Most adults, Christians and non-Christians alike, strive for success.
Many different definitions of success exist. Some people relate success to what they own, the positions they hold in the workplace or civic organizations, how much control they have over people or circumstances, or the type of neighborhood in which they live.

Ultimately that kind of success offers no lasting contentment. For this reason, many people flit from one effort to the next in search of what they will not find from those efforts.

 God, however, desires humans to be fulfilled in their lives. This lesson addresses the definition of success offered by Jesus. As people follow the example of Jesus in humble service to others, genuine success follows.