Bobby Schuller - The #1 Thing That Ruins a Perfectly Successful Life
Today is a great day to become a Christian. You know, there's some days it's not the best day, just kidding, but today feels particularly good. I read a book recently by a guy named Felix Dennis. You might recognize the name. He's a wealthy guy, I think is close to worth about a billion dollars. He's earned hundreds of millions of dollars publishing magazines like "PC World" and others.
One of them is a magazine that, you know, I'm, you know, "Maxim," okay? It's "Maxim," and there's other magazines that he's done that you wouldn't have in a church bookstore, but the guy's done very well in life, and he wrote this book. He's since passed, but in the book he talks about principles that can help you be more successful in business, in work, in leadership, how to accrue wealth, and some of the stuff I agreed with, some of the stuff I didn't.
It was a really good book, really entertaining, but at the end there was an epilogue, and it touched my heart. And he said, "Can I ask you a question, though? Do you really want to be rich? Let me give you an example from my personal life," he wrote. He said, "'If you were to ask me, Dennis, you've got your houses and your French wine and the women and all the adventures and the boats and everything, are you happy?' I would say to you, 'No, I'm not happy.'" And in fact, he writes, "Most of all of my rich friends, I've never met someone who is really wealthy who I felt was really happy".
You know what I thought to myself when I read that? I thought first that's so sad, but the second thing I thought was I know some rich people. You probably do too. I've met lots of people who are worth a lot of money who are happy. I know them personally, they're my friends, and if I were to ask them are you happy, they would say yes, and they seem happy. And you know what the difference is? It seems so obvious. My friends are Christians. It seems so oh, bah, oh, but there's a reason. You can have everything in the world, all there is to have, but if you lose your soul, you gain nothing. You can have all that there is together, the wealth of a thousand dragons, and yet if you don't have Christ, you'll never be happy.
I think that there are some people who don't know the Lord that can be happy, but I think that if you're so voraciously seeking after success and wealth, but you never found the Lord, you will never truly be able to look in the mirror and say I found what I was looking for. You don't have to wait. You don't have to get money to find what you're looking for you. You've found it, it's right here. It's the Lord. Won't you to give your life to him and commit your life to him? Won't you build your life on the rock and not on the sand? Won't you set before you a course that leads to life and not to death? Won't you dedicate your life to something bigger, bigger than you ever could have imagined?
Dedicate your life to knowing the Lord. You don't have to do much, you know. You could simply be where you are and say as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. If you make a decision today to follow Christ, you won't just go to Heaven when you die, you'll begin the process of inviting heaven into you, 'cause Heaven is wherever God is, wherever his power is, and wherever his life is. There was a great presentation that was made on the day that the church began. St. Peter got up, and he gave this amazing speech, and there were three types of people in the group.
The first type of person were the mockers. Yeah, there's a lot of people that will mock. And we say they shouldn't mock, that's not good. We should tell them to stop doing that, but of course, they should. If they're mockers, they're supposed to mock, that's right. There was another group of people, and they were the perplexed ones, the confused ones. And we say, well, why are they confused? It seems pretty simple, believe on the name of the Lord, and you'll be saved. But of course, they're perplexed, there the perplexed ones. We don't have to fix them, that's how it is. But there was a third group, there were 3,000 of them, and they were believers. And what did they do? They believed, they believed on the name of the Lord, and they were saved.
Believe on the name of the Lord, and you will be saved. Turn your back on the Lord, and you will not. Today is the day that everything can change, but you must make a choice. If you make a choice today to believe, even if just 1% of you believes and 99% of you doubts, give that 1% to the Lord, you'll never be the same. If you make a decision today to build your house on the rock, to follow the Lord, I want you to text the word HOPE to the number on the screen. I'm not gonna ask you for money, I'm not gonna do any of those things. I just want to pray for you. So text me, if you would. One of the best, smartest things that was ever said is that there were two types of people. The first person was someone who heard the message of the word of God. They heard it, they believed it, and they did it. That person was like a person who built their house on a rock.
There was a second type of person. That was someone who heard the word, maybe believed it, but didn't do it. That person was the person who built their house, sometimes we say the sand, but a better translation is they built their house on a wadi. Now most of us, unless you drove here from Palm Springs, and most of us are not desert people. But if you live in the desert, like if you live there all the time in the wild, you would know in Jesus's day the most dangerous part of the desert is a wadi, a wadi. A wadi is a large river bed that seems to never have water in it. That's because nine weeks out of ten, it doesn't.
But like in Israel, if you go into the desert, and it rains in the mountains far away, all of that rain gathers into the passes of the mountains and clumps together, and it starts to wash what's called a flash flood. And if you've ever seen a flash flood, it doesn't look like a river that gets higher and higher, it looks like a blob, actually. It looks like if the front of a river was made out of jello. And it moves at about 10 to 12 feet high, and it's full of sticks and stones and tree branches and all manner of things that it gathers on its way, and when it hits, it hits like a truck. And so he says anyone who builds... doesn't do what I say, doesn't build their house on my word is building their house on a wadi.
It's coming friends, it's coming, so be ready today. Tough times never last, tough people do. Therefore, work today when tough times are not here to become a tough person. Build your house. What's the house? What's the house? Who's the house? The house is you. Build your house, become a student of the word. Every time you apply a small discipline, you put one more brick on a rock, and you prepare yourself for what's to come. You know, many of the fairytales that we learn when we're kids oftentimes were teachers and church folk trying to communicate biblical principles or ideas in the form of like a storytail? A fairytale story, okay. For children. I think that three little pigs is an attempt to do build your house on the rock. You guys know three little pigs, don't you?
Now, you know the Disney version. I'm going to tell you the hardcore, medieval version, the real one, the original. Goes like this, three little pigs build three little houses, and the first pig builds his house out of? Straw. You can imagine what that's like, right? If you're from the South or you've worked, you can picture haystacks, right, bales of hay? Just imagine you've got a whole thing of...bales of hay, just go bup-bup-bup-bup, bup-bup-bup-bup-bup, bup-bup-bup, you throw something over and you got your... How long would that take? Maybe 30 minutes, maybe an hour, and then you're done and you're whistling Dixie.
The next pig, he builds his house out of sticks. Maybe that takes a little longer, but if you've ever done any, like you know, bushwhacking or living out in the forest, you know, you can build a teepee or a lean-to with sticks, and it doesn't take long, and put some branches over that, it will keep the rain out of your eyes. That's pretty easy too? How long will that take? Maybe two hours, a little longer, little better still not great. But building a house of brick, that's the third little pig, the winner of the story. Actually everybody's a winner because of him, except the wolf. We'll see that in just a minute. Yeah, he builds a house of bricks, but building a house bricks means you gotta dig a foundation, you gotta make it level, you gotta pick a good spot.
Bricks are expensive, bricks take time. A brick house is not gonna take a few hours, it's gonna take a few weeks, maybe a few months. And so we know the story, the first pig is there, and the wolf comes, and he says, who remembers? Little pig, little pig, let me in. Not by the, I'm losing my dignity every second. We're gonna move on. So the wolf, which represents evil or Satan, blows on the house, and the pig runs from the straw house to what? The stick house right? Now there's two pigs in the stick house, and the wolf comes, says little pig little pig. Blows that house down, those two pigs run into the? Brick house. And wolf gets there, says little pig little pig, let me in. That third pig says pound sand, buddy. Do your best. I am ready for you and all that you have in store for me. Bring your best, bring your, give me your best shot.
And of course, like Satan, like evil, this wolf pounds on the door, does all he can to trick, maneuver, get into this house. He's hungry, and there are three delicious pigs in there, and he's gonna eat them, right? And so finally (and this is the nature of evil) the wolf instead of blowing down the house, who remembers? Climbs down the chimney. And in the Disney version, he burns his bottom and runs away howling. In the real story, the good one, the wolf climbs down because of his voracious, insatiabilities, inability to lose, he climbs down, and what he finds at the bottom of the chimney is a boiling pot of water, and when he falls in the water, that very clever pig puts the lid on top and cooks the wolf, and they eat him. Tell me that's not better. I'd love to see Walt make a version of that, wouldn't you? That'd be cool.
Here's a lesson that we learn, here's a lot of lessons we learn from that, the wolf is always coming. Build your house, the wolf is always coming. Build your house so that when he comes, you can say tough times never last, tough people do. Second lesson we learn from that, if you've built your house correctly, it's not gonna scare away evil, it's going to destroy it? Isn't that feel good, to know that because I'm ready I'm not just gonna survive, I'm going to devour the enemy? That feels good to me. I'm going to heal some bodies, I'm going to fix some things, I'm going to set some things right, I'm going to bring the power of God's healing presence and provision to anyone that needs it.
Notice that he didn't just save his own life, he saved the lives of those who were not prepared. He becomes the leader. What else do we learn from this story? He also brings home the bacon. Heck yeah, God's provision is also a part of God's wisdom and way. That's the truth, my friend. Build your house today. Build it one brick at a time, devote your life to it. It's the most important thing you can do in life. The most important thing in life is not your money, although finances are important. It's not your relationships, although that's super-important, the most important thing in life is who you become.
The greatest treasure in life is not what you get, it's who you become. This is my sermon, this, right here. This is what I've been preaching on, and I'm gonna preach on it next week and the week after that and the week after that. The biblical, old fashioned-word for it is discipleship. But it is, in fresh language what we are talking about is who we become by devoting our life to the books, the disciplines, the company, the thoughts, the attitude, the skills and the philosophies that make you who you were born to be, maybe not who you feel like you are today, but who you're born to be.
And so maybe you say to me, Bobby, let me tell you. On paper I'm a winner. You might say on paper I've got it all. I've got a great job, I've got my dream job, I've got an amazing company, I've got a full bank account, I've got great friends, a healthy family, my body's healthy, my house is great, whatever, I've got it all. Bobby, I'm making progress in life, I've got it all. You would say to me on paper I'm a winner, but it feels like I'm losing. Without raising your hand, does anybody feel that way sometimes? On paper I'm a winner, on paper I'm ahead, on paper I'm achieving what I want to achieve, but somehow it feels like I'm losing.
Let me suggest that you may have fallen into the number-one trap that can ruin and spoil a perfectly successful life. The number-one thing that ruins a perfectly successful life is... here's the old fashioned word: envy. Envy. But nobody likes to admit they're envious or jealous, nobody does, even though all of us have it. A better word is comparison. That is when we compare ourselves to someone that has something we want. They have the clothes we wanna wear, they have the car we want to drive, they have the house you want to live in, they have the husband or wife we want to be married to, they have the friends you want to have, they go to the places you want to go to, they have the degrees, the awards, the achievements we want to achieve, that's envy.
Unless you're looking down, it's vainglory, but in most cases this is something that we all struggle with. But we don't have to call it envy today because that's... that doesn't... that... We need a spoonful of sugar, don't we, to help the medicine go down? So we're gonna call it comparison. When we compare our lives to others, it spoils the victory. Matthew chapter 10... or 20, rather, was read today. I just want to preempt this with a commandment. The Ten Commandments, think about how important that document is for civilization. The Ten Commandments are all about what you don't do or do, don't do this, don't do that, go do this, and don't do that, and don't do this, and don't do that until you get to the very last one, and it says don't think this. What? Don't think this way.
This kind of a thought is the only, according to the Ten Commandments, the only one on the list that's a thought sin, and that is do not covet. The Lord gives us this command 'cause he loves us, and he wants us to enjoy our lives when we're in his kingdom. Do not covet, do not envy, and so we have in Matthew chapter 20 that Hannah read, interesting story. Jesus tells a parable it says a land owner of the vineyard wakes up one day and, he says, oh my goodness, we've got a ton of work to do today. I need some extra help. So he goes down to the marketplace, and he finds some day laborers. And there they are, and they say we'd love to come work for you. And he said I'd love to hire you.
How about one denarius? Denarius is considered a day's wages, today we're just gonna say $200, that's about a day's wages today. I'll pay you $200 at 6 a.m. come work for me, and they say far out, that's great, yes, we got some work, we'll come with you. See's the work is falling behind, 9 a.m. finds some more guys. How about $200? And they say absolutely. Noon comes, goes to the marketplace, finds some more workers. He says how about $200? Three o'clock, how about $200? Five o'clock, day's almost over, only has an hour left to work. He says to them how about? Wait, have I been saying, five or two? Yeah. Five o'clock. Goes how about $200? They say amazing, we'll do it. The day is done, the work is completed.
They're all shaking hands, they're all having a couple glasses of water, washing up, gettin' ready for dinner, and the foremen goes to hand out the money that was agreed upon, $200 to the guys at 5 p.m. And now the guys that were working earlier are going, oh, they're getting $200 for one hours of work, am I going to get 200 an hour? And the guy at noon gets $200. That's what he agreed on. He goes, hey, hold on now. And the guy at, of course, sunrise goes, oh, the guy at noon got $200, and he only worked half a day. I might be getting $400. And they come to the guy at sunrise, and he gets $200.
And then the Bible says, this word occurs a lot in scriptures. It almost always occurs before violence. It's the spirit of Cain that came before he killed his brother Abel. It says they began to grumble. Grumble. They're not saying it out loud, but they're saying it kinda to each other, and their heart is turning hard. And they said, well, we thought, you know, he worked an hour, I worked all day. I should get a little more. I got a little tip jar here. Tipping isn't just a city in China. I saw that once at a restaurant, I thought it was clever, tipping. Tip-ping, alright. And famously Jesus says at the end, are you envious because I'm generous? Are you envious because I'm generous?
And that's a prayer I ought to pray. When I look in the mirror, I say, Lord, am I envious because you are generous to the people around me? If you're generous to them, I know things will come my way. For that guy that seemed like you got the raw end of the deal, think about how that day changed just because of his thinking. It started as a windfall, an amazing thing, and it ended with grumbling. Whomp, whomp, windfall to whomp, whomp, and literally nothing changed except something in here and here. That guy has two ways of viewing that scenario.
The first is the way he did, the guy only worked an hour, got 200 bucks. I worked all day, got 200 bucks, but here's a second better way to think and to live your life. He could've thought, well, hey, look at that. I didn't have to spend all day worrying about how I was gonna get my meal tonight. In fact, I was picked, not last, I was picked first. We all remember what that's like in PE when we're kids and you're picked last. Not all of us know that, but I certainly do. And we all know what it's like to be picked first for anything, it feels great. And he could've said, why made an impact today, and I didn't spend my day being lazy and wasting away, and I improved my craft. And how about this one? I got to spend the whole day with the boss and got to know him, and by Job, I think he might hire me tomorrow.
See, that's a great attitude that leads to a better life, not envy. Envy destroys every victory. Comparison always spoils your victory, always. It spoils it. Yeah, you still have it, but it's spoiled. What's the solution? The solution is to focus on you. We do have to compare our lives to something, but here's something you compare your life to. You compare your life to who you used to be. Maybe you say to me, well, I'm not better than I... now than I was five years ago. Well, we serve a god who likes new beginnings. And here's my advice to you, write down who you want to become and work on becoming that person.
I'll tell you a couple stories. There's a guy named Simon Sinek who's like a business leader, not a Christian that I know of, and he was at a gathering of some of the world's most successful business people. There was a room of about 250 people, and when he began his speech, he asked them all to raise their hand if they had reached, those who had reached their financial goals raise your hand, and he said every hand went up in the room. Wouldn't it be great if you could raise your hand and say I reached my financial goal. Okay, and then he says if you feel successful, bring your hand, or keep your hand up.
And he said every hand went down. The 250 most powerful, wealthiest people in the world, and the hand goes down, why? And even he was baffled. He said I wasn't quite sure, I think they need to find something more meaningful, dah-dah-dah-dah. And I was like, friend, it's because they're focusing more on the outside than on the inside. They're focusing more on what they attain than who they become. And by the way, everyone needs Jesus. You're just not gonna be truly happy until you're at peace with God. You gotta be at peace with God. You've gotta develop within you the life of Christ, which is real life.
Life-changing moment for me when I was a young man, I was invited through a friend of the family to attend an evening Easter party at the house of a billionaire. I'd never met him before. He was at the time worth $8 billion, and we went to this estate. There were hundreds of people there, and it was a warm spring evening here in California. And it was acres and acres of land. Imagine servants in tuxedos with silver platters and all sorts of drinks and entertainers. There were people dressed up, this is true, in like bunny outfits, and there were eggs, and lots of people were drunk, it was nighttime, and it was something I was completely not used to. It was like being in "The Great Gatsby," and I actually at times felt uncomfortable and found myself wandering up the hill towards the big house on top of the hill just to see the house.
And I walked in, and there was this man sitting on the couch all by himself holding a glass of whiskey, staring into space. That's an interesting image, isn't it? You're the host, but you're not a part of the party. And I walked over to him, and I said, Mr. so-and-so, I just want to say thank you so much for inviting me to this party. I've never seen anything like this. I've never been to a house like this. And he said, well, it's my privilege, have a seat.
I sat down, and we talked about this and that, and then I finally asked the question I'd been dying to ask to myself, what's it like? What's it like having $8 billion? You can do anything you want, go anything, you've accomplished so much, you're a titan, and you know what he said to me? He said, "You know, Bobby, I didn't really make it financially in life". He said, "I feel like someone who made the NBA but sat on the bench". I'll never forget those words. He said, "I'll never be like, you know, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Sam Walton. I'll always be a benchwarmer". And he was serious.
There is no level of success or victory or accomplishment that comparison will not spoil and destroy. And plus you need Jesus. You just need the Lord. And there was this thing where Dave Ramsey talks about how 89% of multimillionaires didn't inherit anything, so nine out of ten multi-millionaires in America, and Dave Ramsey's this financial guru. He's trying to encourage people to have financial wisdom and make good investments and make a plan, but there was this comment section, and the comment section, the top one, this is the best part of YouTube, isn't it?
The comment section, you can see which one goes to the top. And the top comment that everybody loved, that had thousands of thumbs up, and everybody thought was the greatest comment everywhere was something like, yeah, but you take your kids, for example, and they got a car, and they got their college paid for, and they got their weddings paid for, and they got all the special connections and jobs and this kind of a comment, and everybody's like yeah, that's right. And that might be true, but my first feeling was I feel so bad for these people, because this kind of philosophy will always keep them trapped where they are. They're gonna stay trapped if they love comments and ideas like that.
If you really look for it, you can find lots of successful people in every field who have had the worst beginning with no privilege at all that have accomplished so much. But we're not looking for that, we're looking for an excuse. It's not about money anyway, it's more that in life you have a choice to get resentful or get inspired. To get resentful or get inspired. And you will have another choice, to keep company with people that are resentful, or to keep company with people that are inspired.
Can I give you a bit of advice? Keep the company of people that are gonna encourage you to become more, to be more, to do more, to fulfill the dream that you were born to have, to become more like Christ, to be kinder to be more outgoing. These types of people will rub off on you. The company you keep will change your life. So start building your house. Build the house brick by brick, layer by layer, drawing by drawing. Can I ask you a question? Who do you want to become? Answer this question, and your life will change forever. Write it down if you have a chance.
Recently I was at a gathering, a 90th birthday for a gentleman named Elmer Towns. He was turning 90, he's the founder of the largest Christian university in America, Liberty University, and has written 235 books and done amazing things with his life. The interviewer, Dr. James Davis, asked him this question, if you had a life coaching bit of advice, what would you say? And he sat back and crossed his arms and really thought about it for a moment. And he said I've got it, it's one word: write.
Oh, that's an interesting response. If you have a dream, write it down. If you got a vision, write it down. If you've got a goal, write it down. If you have an idea for a fashion thing you wanna wear, write it down. If you got an idea for a book or a story, write it down. If you've got an amazing dad joke, write it down. You'll forget it, trust me. You don't wanna lose a good joke, choir. Write it down. And when you write it down, you have a clear vision of what you want to be. Who do you wanna be? If it takes you even a second to answer that question, "Who do you want to become?" it's not clear enough.
I want to encourage you if I ask you that question, "Who do you want to become?" and you can answer it without even thinking, your life will be on a better track. The way you know is you sit down with a pad of paper and you write it down. Know who you want to become and then know that there is a price to be paid to become that person. The price is this, it's the thoughts that I think. It's the disciplines every day that I practice. It's the books I read. It's the prayers I pray. And it is the company I keep. And these things form the philosophy, the attitude, and the skills that will determine my future.
Many of you, even as you hear me saying that, you feel exhausted. You're like get me out of here. This is, 'cause it's a price. There's a real cost to it. That effort is a real price. Can I say something here? The price is easy if the reward is clear. The price is easy if the reward is clear. If you know what stands at the end of that pathway, the price becomes easy. So keep the reward clear. Keep the promise clear. Keep the vision of who you want to become clear and work harder on yourself than anything else you work on? If you work harder on yourself than on being a parent, you'll become an amazing parent. You work harder on yourself than being a spouse, you'll be a great spouse. You work harder on yourself than you do on your job, you'll make a fortune.
If you work harder on yourself than you do on your art, your art will be inspired. If you work harder on yourself than you do on your school, your school work will be easier. It's all about who you become. The only thing you take to heaven is who you become. We acquire so much in life, we can do so much in life, we can see things and all of the stuff, we can accomplish a lot, but the only thing you take to heaven is who you become.
That's why the last day on Earth, if I know I'm gonna die, I wanna spend some of that day working on me, 'cause I know I'm taking that bit to heaven. To work on you, never stop, and you'll be grateful. You'll look back and you'll compare yourself today to where you were five years ago, and you'll say I'm becoming someone better, I'm becoming stronger, becoming tougher, I'm becoming more accomplished, I'm getting where I want to go, I'm doing what I want to do, I'm being with the people I want to be with, I'm feeling the way I want to feel because I didn't let someone else plan it for me, I planned it. And I did it according to God's word.
So, Lord, we give you our lives. We give you our art and our families and our pets. We give you everything we have, our dreams, our goals, our visions. We thank you. We thank you, Lord, and we ask in Jesus's name that you'd help us become the people we set out to be and give us a good vision of who we can become. We love you. It's in Jesus's name we pray. All God's people said amen.