What About? (Week 9)
What About Success? · Resources
Ephesians 2:8-10
Summary
Most of us never write down what success actually means, so the algorithm and the neighbors write it for us. Jeff Sullivan works through Ephesians 2:8-10 and asks you to define it yourself — starting from who you are in Christ and what he made you to do.
Sermon Outline
- 1
Reading: Ephesians 2:8-10 ▶ 0:00
By grace you have been saved through faith — and you are his workmanship, created for good works God prepared beforehand.
- 2
Twenty-Two Shots on the First Hole ▶ 1:53
Jeff is bad at golf, and it did not ruin his day, because he was not measuring by par. How you define success changes how the day feels.
- 3
How Successful People Define It ▶ 3:55
Dale Carnegie, Tony Robbins, Maya Angelou, Jon Bon Jovi and Booker T. Washington — five definitions, and what each one reveals about the person giving it.
- 4
How Would You Define It? ▶ 7:06
Almost nobody has written theirs down. Without one, you get pushed along by the algorithm, the neighbors, and the assumption that you always have to get promoted.
- 5
Ecclesiastes 2: A Striving After Wind ▶ 8:36
Solomon got everything he wanted — he was the king, he could choose anything — and called it vanity.
- 6
Two Days as a Champion ▶ 9:45
A.J. Brown won the Super Bowl after years in the league, and said the feeling lasted two days, to be exact.
- 7
Success Is Doing What You Were Designed to Do ▶ 12:18
The pivot: stop asking what you can acquire and start asking what you were made for.
- 8
The Chief End of Man ▶ 12:56
The Westminster Catechism's first question and answer, read as a definition of success: to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
- 9
What Makes a Good Car? ▶ 19:07
A Corvette is a good car until you have three kids. Good depends entirely on what the thing was bought to do — and so does a life.
- 10
Created for Good Works ▶ 21:00
Your gifts, your abilities, your education, your past and even your mistakes were put together for something God prepared beforehand.
- 11
Paul in Prison, Straining Forward ▶ 22:23
Philippians 3: not that I have already obtained this, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
- 12
Write Your Own Definition ▶ 24:15
Two guidelines and nothing more: you cannot be successful outside of Christ, and he redeemed you for something. Go find out what.
Key Points
- Your definition of success sets your emotions. Change the standard and the same round of golf goes from infuriating to fun.
- If you never define success for yourself, the algorithm and the people around you will define it for you, and you will chase things you never wanted.
- Solomon had every pleasure and every accomplishment available to a king and concluded it was a striving after wind.
- Getting the thing you strove for satisfies briefly — two days, in A. J. Brown's case — and then the question becomes what's next.
- You are a soul first, and the desire for God built into you cannot be satisfied by anything else.
- Ephesians 2:8-9 gives you your identity — adoption, grace, nothing you earned — and verse 10 gives you your assignment.
- God gifted you with specific abilities, experiences, education and even failures because he prepared specific work for you to walk in.
Quotable Moments
“How you define success changes how you feel about life, how you feel about yourself, what you think is going on.” ▶ 3:33
“Satisfying your flesh will never satisfy your spirit.” ▶ 15:03
“The ultimate purpose in life is to be restored in Christ.” ▶ 17:50
“And success will be realizing what God has put me here to do and doing that to his glory.” ▶ 22:04
Scripture
EPHESIANS 2:8-10 (ESV)
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
ECCLESIASTES 2:10-11 (ESV)
And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
MARK 8:36-37 (ESV)
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?
ECCLESIASTES 12:13 (ESV)
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
PHILIPPIANS 3:13-14 (ESV)
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Take It With You
- Actually write your definition of success down. Not Jeff's, not anyone else's — yours.
- Start it with your identity in Christ, because a definition built on what you can acquire runs out.
- Then ask the second question: what has God uniquely equipped me to do, and am I doing it?
Related Resources
The study guide above (summary, outline, key points, quotes, questions) was generated from the sermon transcript with AI and reviewed by our team. Spot something off? Let us know.
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Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.